Friday, September 11, 2009

Beatles Week

Pitchfork's coverage of the Beatles reissues have more than made up for their pointless oughts retrospective. There this, from their review of Abbey Road:
The Beatles' run in the 1960s is good fodder for thought experiments. For example, Abbey Road came out in late September 1969. Though Let It Be was then still unreleased, the Beatles wouldn't record another album together. But they were still young men: George was 26 years old, Paul was 27, John was 28, and Ringo was 29. The Beatles' first album, Please Please Me, had come out almost exactly six and a half years earlier. So if Abbey Road had been released today, Please Please Me would date to March 2003. So think about that for a sec: Twelve studio albums and a couple of dozen singles, with a sound that went from earnest interpreters of Everly Brothers and Motown hits to mind-bending sonic explorers and with so many detours along the way-- all of it happened in that brief stretch of time. That's a weight to carry.

Which really puts things into perspective when you look at how much (or how little, depending on how you look at it) the bands of the oughts have accomplished in the same amount of time: Radiohead, Wilco, Arcade Fire, etc. all pale in comparison.

That being said, George is still my secret favorite: