Inside Pop- The Rock Revolution

[RollPlymouthRock]

Don't know if this has been posted before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSq1ca__cRA&feature=related

[Dunderhead]

Yeah I watched this the other week, pretty interesting stuff. Bernstein seems to really like Revolver. What's funny is I stumbled upon an interview with Paul McCartney from January 1967 where he said he "couldn't stand" classical music, that there wasn't a classical LP that he could listen to.

[RollPlymouthRock]

Yeah I watched this the other week, pretty interesting stuff. Bernstein seems to really like Revolver. What's funny is I stumbled upon an interview with Paul McCartney from January 1967 where he said he "couldn't stand" classical music, that there wasn't a classical LP that he could listen to.

I'm surprised about that because hasn't Paul McCartney made a classical album Liverpool Oratorio, Ecce Cor Meum?

[Dunderhead]

He said, when asked about the influences of Eleanor Rigby,
"I really don't like that kind of music. I can't stand it. It's influenced me, I don't like it, but I see how I can use it...It fitted. It was just lucky that it fitted. I think I like that kind of sound of things but I haven't got an LP like that that I like. I've got LP's like that but I never put them on."

That's always seemed like the difference between The Beatles and The Beach Boys. Paul was after a novelty factor, he just wanted to do a classical type thing to prove that he could do anything, so he went to George Martin and had him come up with something. But with Brian, you get a much fuller integration of ideas, he wasn't after a novelty, his music really breathed in Bach in subtle and interesting ways. Unfortunately it's harder for people to appreciate because it's not as immediately obvious as something like Rigby. 

[donald]

Some cello in several BW songs.......but as you say, not as obvious as ER

[guitarfool2002]

A few things to consider with McCartney at this time, circa Revolver into 1967 when this interview was quoted:

First, it was at this very same time that McCartney saw and heard a performance of the Brandenburg Concerto on television, and was intrigued by the "pocket trumpet" or "Bach trumpet" featured in the piece. He immediately went to George Martin for information, and Sir George knew the trumpeter featured in that performance. And that pocket trumpet went onto Paul's latest recording "Penny Lane" and became one of the signature sounds of the song.

Second, Paul had been living with Jane Asher's family who were very wealthy and very much into the serious arts. Paul heard and saw a lot of the more "highbrow" music and art (and literature) through the Ashers, and anyone who creates art is influenced by the things around him. So it's not surprising at all to hear traces of these styles appear in his own work. The real kicker was when Paul mentioned Stockhausen, and too many fans and the like took that to mean Paul was a fan of Stockhausen when he probably would not have put on a recording of Stockhausen's music by choice (I could be wrong).

I think Paul's bows to classical instruments and orchestrations went beyond being a novelty because his second family at the time was part of that world and Paul would have absorbed those sounds naturally, whether he played the records regularly on his own or not. It was still in his mind, and the Beatles had the ultimate scribe in George Martin who could translate their concepts into actual music.

Leonard Bernstein absorbed all kinds of music like a sponge by many accounts, and it was his open mind regarding popular music that actually found him on the outs with his "serious" colleagues. He would frequent New York jazz clubs to hear Ornette Coleman's new free jazz, which was very controversial at the time, and bassist Charlie Haden remembers Bernstein sitting very close to his bass to hear how he was playing a line over the implied harmonies. Much like Bernstein heard both new and borrowed ideas when he's sitting there commenting on pop records during Inside Pop, he was always listening and also trying to bridge the gap between classical and pop, which is what that whole show was about for him.

The amazing thing about Wilson and McCartney, both unschooled musicians, is how they were able to use complex and advanced musical ideas in their songwriting and make it seem effortless, like it was a natural thing for them to write a round into the end of a song.