I guess, from where I'm standing, that "get away from me" is too banal a lyric to stand out from the crowd. Here's a Canadian band having a #1 hit with a song running down America, at one of the most divisive times in this world's history, and "get away from me" is what you get out of it? Not trying to run you down or anything, but considering how rock had matured by 1970, there were more sophisticated song lyrics even at the time. If you want to trace the evolution of rock lyrics, you'd really have to go back to the first rock era (post-Bill Haley, pre-Beatles) for a taste of when dumbed-down lyrics were common. And even then, people like Chuck Berry or the Brill Building songwriters were expanding the vocabulary.
I thought "Everything Is Beautiful" was annoying, sentimental crap when it was new and I was 14, and I can't say my opinion has much changed.
The overall "Let It Be" film score won an Oscar and a Grammy -- not any of the singles or individual tracks: Let It Be - Awards - IMDb
They did win their one and only Oscar for Best Music Original Song Score but that would encompass the whole album.
His MCA period was nearly all novelty. Pretty much the Weird Al of country music at the time. Some of it was quite funny, though, and still apolitical. Having lived in Pascagoula, I was always partial to Mississippi Squirrel Revival.
I don't even know what you mean by this. The song changes in the third verse from what had appeared to be a generic blues style relationship number to something political and allegorical. They caused a bit of controversy performing it at the Nixon Whitehouse.
The Long and Winding Road and Bridge Over Troubled Waters must have made listening to the radio in 1970 a barrel of laughs! Seriously, though, I agree. It is a poignant number and I'll take the Spectorized version over the nekkid one any day.
I always like Beatles songs performed by other better... and well, this is my favorite cover of this song, which everybody and his brother recorded (Paul must have made HUGE bank from just this song and Yesterday)
"The Long and Winding Road" was probably the last Beatles single I heard for the first time (I was born in 1973, so we're talking years after any of them were hits), which is a reflection of how relatively rarely it was played on oldies stations when I was a teenager. I remember being thrilled at finally hearing it after several months of only knowing the title. But what of the song itself? Then and now, I liked it but didn't think it sounded like a Beatles song. I also was aware Paul didn't like the orchestration, but - as with most of the Let it Be album - I prefer the Spectorized version overall. A nice afterthought to their reign, if not a very representative one.
I never gave it much thought but I see what you mean. It doesn't really fit the Beatles canon but that could be Phil Spector's doing rather than the song. As it stands, I liken it to a movie where the theme song or the end credits song sums up the story but doesn't sound like anything else used in the body of the film.
I guess you're not much of a Beatles fan. This is the very song that motivated Paul McCartney to dissolve the Beatles, as he vehemently disapproved of the choir and symphonic backing added by Phil Spector. BTW, I do like this song, as officially released. The band wrote the song as a political statement.
Not sure of the timing, but were the Hollies and "He Ain't Heavy" borrowing from The Long and Winding Road?
There were certainly quite a few songs mining the same sentiment in 1970. Bridge Over Troubled Waters The Long & Winding Road Everything Is Beautiful - maybe this one's a stretch since it's neither wistful nor poignant. He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother Reflections Of My Life Any others? It would appear the world craved a big hug after the turbulence of the 60s.
The Long and Winding Road is probably my least favorite Beatles tune that hit #1. I'll just leave it at that.
Well if the leader of the free world can't admit possible mistakes ........... Go ahead. You're welcome to the last word. I can feel your fingers twitching even now.
It's interesting that for all his complaints about what Spector did to the song, when McCartney himself re-recorded it in the 80s (for the Give My Regards to Broad Street soundtrack) he added strings as well as a cheesey saxophone, and the result is far worse than what Spector did. Here was his chance to present his supposed original intention for the song, and instead he turns it into smooth jazz muzak:
Yes, I had Broad Street (got it at the tail end of my teenage Beatles obsession phase) and thought it was all pretty tacky and sad, except the extended bit at the end of "Eleanor Rigby", which I still think is kinda cool...
Well, I was talking about "only" about #1 pop hits here (and said lyrics) -- which I very clearly stated in my original post, and which is the subject matter of the thread. Not every song that existed up to 1970. If you take every song that existed up to 1970, then yes I agree with you. But I was talking only about #1 pop hits. There's a lot more I could say here, but I can't take the time. You're going to have to trust that I know my rock history rather well (very well read AND well listened, historywise all the way back to the mid-'50s (and earlier in the case of R&B)). And that includes the history of "American Woman".
