On 09/12/2010 10:02 AM, Bryan wrote:

>> John Lennon contributed little to nothing (did the Beatles ever do a
>> USO tour), l
>
> Would the US Govt even have let a band that was associated with the
> anti-war movement do USO? That's a stupid argument.

The Beatles were particularly involved with the anti war movement. That
didn't really start up until after the Beatles had stopped touring. they
gave up on concerts in 1966 because they became unmanageable. I don't
know why anyone would expect a major British rock band to make an
appearance for US troops in a war zone. Look at the types of performers
they had appearing at Vietnam era USO shows. There were no performers of
the stature of the Beatles appearing.




>> The Beatles copied many of the great artists.http://www.theshirelles.com/story.html

As if rock music was the bastion of originality. Most rock music is
based on simple three chord progressions, just like country and blues.
Occasionally the switch to a simple four chord progression with a
relative minor, a variation of the old C Am F G, sometimes with the Am
and C switched, or the whole progression transposed to another key. The
case of My Sweet Lord and He's So Fine was a crock.


> To argue that because Lennon/McCartney, LIKE EVERYONE DOES, stood on
> the shoulders of giants does nothing to diminish their extraordinary
> songwriting.

They did write a lot of songs, both for themselves and for others. When
I took up guitar again it was thanks to the Beatles Complete song book.
It had close to a hundred good songs, all familiar and I was able to
improve my sight reading by goign through and learning all the songs in
the keys of C and Am, then adding those that were written in keys using
more and more sharps and flats.

However.... I am boycotting the Beatles because of Paul McCartney. He
and is idiot (now ex) wife made too many appearances about the seal hunt
and tried to organize a boycott of Canadian seafood products to protest
the seal hunt. She was ignorant and snotty and he was henpecked into it
but using his celebrity. I don't personally care about seals. They
compete with us for fish and they are nasty creatures. All they have
going for them is that the pups look so damned cute. If they were as
ugly as lobsters people would have little problem dropping them live
into boiling water.