Two program notes:
- I’m a bit tired of writing about Trump for the moment, so Cromwell, for this week, will be a Trump-free zone. Don’t worry; he’ll be back next week.
- This marks the inauguration of a new feature: Pop Music Monday. It will last until I exhaust it.
While the British Invasion took place over fifty years ago, it is still very arguable that The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and the The Who remain the most important and influential bands in rock history. How do they stack up against their classical equivalents?
1. The Beatles: If you don’t believe The Beatles were a miracle, consider this: George Harrison, a brilliant lead guitarist and songwriter who is in the Hall of Fame in his own right, was the third most important member of the band. How can you account for that? I can’t, and you can’t, either.
The Beatles were terrific musicians and excellent lyric writers. Their ability to combine a stunningly wide range of musical influences and modern technology, with the assistance of George Martin, was off the charts. To me, however, the most impressive thing about them is that they never wrote bad songs, and they made it look easy. Take any Beatles song you want, and you would probably be happy singing it in the shower.
Classical equivalent: Mozart
2. The Rolling Stones: The Stones created a sound grounded in American blues and stuck with it throughout the decades. Their formula consists of a rock solid rhythm section, two guitarists who manage to play off each other in a way that no other band has been able to emulate, and a lead singer with a dynamic presence and an exquisite sense of rhythm. A Stones song from the sixties and the nineties sound pretty much the same, and they’ll both be great.
Classical equivalent: Bach
3. The Who: Pete Townshend essentially invented the soaring, operatic form of rock and roll, and was clever enough to mesh it with contemporary youth culture. Without The Who, it is difficult to imagine Bruce Springsteen, U2, and Florence + The Machine.
Unlike The Beatles, Townshend wrote plenty of crappy songs. There are times when you can practically hear him straining to fit the lyrics in the music. At their best, however, Who songs have an unmatched emotional resonance that will live on for a very long time.
Classical equivalent: Beethoven