Marking Time

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For the day that’s in it…

I’ve never been much of a Beatles fan. Despite friends and family trying passionately to convince me that they were the best thing ever in music and always will be, I never really got it. I think for a lot of it you just had to be there. The fact that they came to fame at a time when the phenomena of mass media and mass culture were just kick starting also had something to do with it. Nothing like them had ever happened before and that made their impact even more powerful. Not to take away from their musical genius of course, they had many fine moments. But the world is full of equal and greater musical genius which has never caught the public imagination in the same way. Just as the fascination with George Best is about so much more than football, the fascination with the Beatles goes beyond music. It is an expression of the revolutionary changes that were happening in society at that time.

Anyway, despite my indifference to (and, admittedly, ignorance of) most of the Beatles catalogue I do have a lingering fascination with the individual members of the group and I do have my favourites. Funnily enough (the day that’s in it, and all) they are in order of longevity, the one who died first being my least favourite, and the one left living being my most..

So step up Ringo Starr, as my favourite Beatle, mainly for his exploits as the narrator of Thomas the Tank Engine but also for just being an all round nice guy who seems strangely unaffected by the insane fame that has surrounded him.

Second favourite would be George Harrison, mainly because he didn’t get the credit he deserved (due to George Martin shafting him) , lived in the shadow of Lennon and McCartney, and he wrote some nice stuff too. He was also involved in the production of films such as The Life of Brian, Time Bandits, and Withnail and I. Nothing wrong with that. George died of cancer in 2001.

Then we have John Lennon who had some moments of musical magic but became just too much of a whining, complaining, self-obsessed, spoilt rock star to like. He also unleashed Yoko Ono on the world. John was shot dead in 1980, 25 years ago today.

And finally, there’s Paul McCartney, arguably the true musical genius in the band, and without a doubt a uniquely gifted musical talent but one who has sadly gone down hill since he died.

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