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Re: All You Need Is Love - 50 years ago today

Postby Geezee » 26 Jun 2017, 14:50

Davey the Fat Boy wrote:
No doubt that someone will be cynical about it. I think it may not only be my favorite Beatle song...it may just be the greatest moment pop culture ever produced.

Talk me down.


I like it, but i mean Nick Cave could write a better tune... ;)
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Re: All You Need Is Love - 50 years ago today

Postby Geezee » 26 Jun 2017, 15:05

In many ways, it is for the Beatles what the dove of peace is to Picasso. Entirely overshadowed artistically by their other achievements, but shows they could just about take on any challenge, including creating a universal message of love or peace, and pull it off in a way that probably nobody else could.
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Re: All You Need Is Love - 50 years ago today

Postby fange » 26 Jun 2017, 15:08

Davey the Fat Boy wrote:
fange wrote:
Davey the Fat Boy wrote:
That's interesting to me.

What do you think of?

It's much more of a complex picture than the 'love, love, love' feeling of this track. Something that captures their deeper explorations and energy, and their ambivalence as a group about the free love hippy crowd AND their stance against the established mores and violence of the '60s. Something like 'A Day In The Life', or the A/A of 'Penny Lane' & 'SFF'.


See...I don't think any of those aspects of The Beatles have the same weight without the "utopian vision" thing. The whole struggle with "don't you know you can count me out/in" just doesn't land for me if you don't have the idealistic dream behind it.

The utopian vision thing IS an essential part of their make-up, sure, but only ever a part, and 'AYNIL' for me leans on it a bit too strongly; it's good, but doesn't have as much of the other stuff within it that often thrills and surprises me to this day in their tunes i love most.
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Re: All You Need Is Love - 50 years ago today

Postby Modesty Forbids » 26 Jun 2017, 15:11

The most astonishing thing about this for me is that it took place on that date. I remember clearly watching the broadcast (in black and white) with some mates, but I know for a fact that on that date I was not in any position to be with any mates who had access to a TV (all will be revealed in Rayge's 10,000th post, also a golden jubilee, coming soon to Nextdoorland or possibly BM&D), plunging me into a deep rethink.
Obviously my memory isn't up to remembering accurately what I thought at the time, but I do seem to recall a sense of occasion about it, and a slight let-down that the song was not lyrically more challenging to The Man.
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Re: All You Need Is Love - 50 years ago today

Postby Tactful Cactus » 26 Jun 2017, 16:20

Ragye wrote:The most astonishing thing about this for me is that it took place on that date. I remember clearly watching the broadcast (in black and white) with some mates, but I know for a fact that on that date I was not in any position to be with any mates who had access to a TV (all will be revealed in Rayge's 10,000th post, also a golden jubilee, coming soon to Nextdoorland or possibly BM&D), plunging me into a deep rethink.
Obviously my memory isn't up to remembering accurately what I thought at the time, but I do seem to recall a sense of occasion about it, and a slight let-down that the song was not lyrically more challenging to The Man.



Thats cool, not often we have an eye witness on a Beatles thread! Maybe they repeated it a few times?

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Re: All You Need Is Love - 50 years ago today

Postby Charlie O. » 26 Jun 2017, 16:25

Tactful Cactus wrote:Violin!?

You can hear George's scrape-y violin at a few points in the final mix.

I don't have time to write much now, but I will say that while Davey might be overselling it a tad, I'm more with him than against him. I think it's a helluva thing, in every respect (including George's violin).
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Re: All You Need Is Love - 50 years ago today

Postby George P. Smackers » 26 Jun 2017, 16:30

I hate that song. For me, it's the distillation of everything I dislike about the Beatles. I despise the insipid, hippy idealism, the smug, sickening "it's easy," as if nobody ever thought of it before, the stupid old-timey horns, the childish melody etc.

It's not easy, and we don't need some self-infatuated hippy twerps to tell us it is.

A lot of Beatles songs have such qualities. That blending of cutesy music and childlike attempts at profundity. If only you could reduce the complexity of the world to "love love love," everything would be groovy. It's all so obvious, you squares! Lennon's horrible "Imagine" ("and no religion too") retails similar nonsense.

Platitudes in rock music can be all right. But smarmy, untrue platitudes--such as "all you need is love"--presented by self-styled pop culture sages...forget it.

So yeah, I guess I'd agree that it captures the essence of the Beatles in one song. But coming from me, that's not a compliment.
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Re: All You Need Is Love - 50 years ago today

Postby Tactful Cactus » 26 Jun 2017, 16:34

Charlie O. wrote:
Tactful Cactus wrote:Violin!?

You can hear George's scrape-y violin at a few points in the final mix.


Right you are, the backing track is on Y
1'18 :lol:


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Re: All You Need Is Love - 50 years ago today

Postby Sneelock » 26 Jun 2017, 17:54

Lennon's vocal is ace.
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Re: All You Need Is Love - 50 years ago today

Postby Bent Fabric » 26 Jun 2017, 19:18

In terms of "Beatles dust" (i.e. that wonderful thing they manage to get all over nearly everything they touched), it's got a considerable quantity.

It's exactly the sort of thing you'd never wish to hear another person cover (empirically, I will confirm this) - like a custom piece of clothing or furniture.

I'm absolutely mad for the way George and Paul hit the backing vocal pads in the introduction, the verses and the choruses - just these extremely "Beatles grade harmony parts". The raggedy elements (the violin, the sort of "chucka chucka rhythm guitar", the clammy solo as expertly spoofed by Ollie Halsall on the Rutles' "Love Life') are all "my kinda Beatles shit".

Of course, John's lead vocal - one of the things so many "post-Beatles" songwriters grab onto is that "make a song with as few notes in the melody as possible" (Julia, Walrus, Lucy, etc.). He hits that real nice here - and such a fine period for the timbre of his voice.

Even the last minute snare roll overdub (done just after the broadcast) is very "We're making a Beatles record here, let's give it that final almost imperceptible (but crucial) load bearing improvement".

I'm less obsessed with it than I might be with a number of other tracks, but through the prism of hindsight (all I've ever had with them), it has a certain inevitability to it that I really dig. Like - it was preordained that they would write, record and release that particular record at exactly the moment that they did (I say the same of "She Loves You", "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and several others). I'm glad it was the last Beatles title released during Epstein's lifetime.

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Re: All You Need Is Love - 50 years ago today

Postby Charlie O. » 26 Jun 2017, 19:23

Bent Fabric wrote:It's exactly the sort of thing you'd never wish to hear another person cover (empirically, I will confirm this)

I'll admit to enjoying Echo & The Bunnymen's gently piss-taking version (though I can also understand how someone less enamored of that band than I am would find it appalling).
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Re: All You Need Is Love - 50 years ago today

Postby Davey the Fat Boy » 27 Jun 2017, 00:15

George P. Smackers wrote:I hate that song. For me, it's the distillation of everything I dislike about the Beatles. I despise the insipid, hippy idealism, the smug, sickening "it's easy," as if nobody ever thought of it before, the stupid old-timey horns, the childish melody etc.

It's not easy, and we don't need some self-infatuated hippy twerps to tell us it is.

A lot of Beatles songs have such qualities. That blending of cutesy music and childlike attempts at profundity. If only you could reduce the complexity of the world to "love love love," everything would be groovy. It's all so obvious, you squares! Lennon's horrible "Imagine" ("and no religion too") retails similar nonsense.

Platitudes in rock music can be all right. But smarmy, untrue platitudes--such as "all you need is love"--presented by self-styled pop culture sages...forget it.

So yeah, I guess I'd agree that it captures the essence of the Beatles in one song. But coming from me, that's not a compliment.


A totally valid response that I'm glad that I don't share.
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Re: All You Need Is Love - 50 years ago today

Postby Marcel Post » 27 Jun 2017, 00:50

I neither like nor dislike this track, it's just sort of there. For me, 1967 is certainly the core year for the Beatles, what they are all about - there are a dozen or so tracks from that year and a few from either side that are crucial, but this isn't one of them. It's like the eye of the hurricane around which everything moves, but is in itself a void. The Beatles continually circle around the 'love' message but it's the stuff that's peripheral to that message that's more interesting. Or as someone upstream said, A Day In The Life, Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields is essentially where it's at.

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Re: All You Need Is Love - 50 years ago today

Postby Bent Fabric » 27 Jun 2017, 01:42

I will say, also, that whatever IS innocent or naive about this sort of thing ("Love Is All Around" by the Troggs puts a lump in my throat for this very reason) is a virtue in my eyes.

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Re: All You Need Is Love - 50 years ago today

Postby ... » 27 Jun 2017, 08:00

Davey the Fat Boy wrote:

Today marks the 50th anniversary of The Beatles worldwide broadcast of All You Need Is Love. In my mind, this was their apex as a cultural force. They had this opportunity to play to the whole world,and what did they do with it? They distilled their hopes for the world into one beautiful commercial for a better humanity.

No doubt that someone will be cynical about it. I think it may not only be my favorite Beatle song...it may just be the greatest moment pop culture ever produced.

Talk me down.


If you're going to hail something as the "greatest moment in pop culture" you might at least get the date of the anniversary right, D!

The One World broadcast of which AYNIL was a part actually went out on 25/6 (like this year, a Sunday) and not 26/6 (like this year, a Monday).

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Re: All You Need Is Love - 50 years ago today

Postby George P. Smackers » 27 Jun 2017, 08:08

Bent Fabric wrote:I will say, also, that whatever IS innocent or naive about this sort of thing ("Love Is All Around" by the Troggs puts a lump in my throat for this very reason) is a virtue in my eyes.

I won't belabor the point, especially after Davey's gracious and even-tempered response to my grousing about a song he loves. (I'm a refugee from another forum where I found the Beatles worship to be too much!)

But I like "Love is All Around" too, and that makes me think about the difference. With the Troggs, it's a charming expression of a personal feeling, directed at a particular person. I love "I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes." It's circumstances-based and a little manic. I.e. totally justified.

The Lennon song is him telling us, like a lecture. He knows, we don't. It's not personal--it's a general statement. I guess to like the song, you have to hear it as an encouraging, friendly lecture, but I can't.

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Re: All You Need Is Love - 50 years ago today

Postby Davey the Fat Boy » 27 Jun 2017, 08:19

fueryIre wrote:
Davey the Fat Boy wrote:

Today marks the 50th anniversary of The Beatles worldwide broadcast of All You Need Is Love. In my mind, this was their apex as a cultural force. They had this opportunity to play to the whole world,and what did they do with it? They distilled their hopes for the world into one beautiful commercial for a better humanity.

No doubt that someone will be cynical about it. I think it may not only be my favorite Beatle song...it may just be the greatest moment pop culture ever produced.

Talk me down.


If you're going to hail something as the "greatest moment in pop culture" you might at least get the date of the anniversary right, D!

The One World broadcast of which AYNIL was a part actually went out on 25/6 (like this year, a Sunday) and not 26/6 (like this year, a Monday).


It was Sunday when I posted it.
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Re: All You Need Is Love - 50 years ago today

Postby ... » 27 Jun 2017, 08:40

Davey the Fat Boy wrote:
fueryIre wrote:
Davey the Fat Boy wrote:

Today marks the 50th anniversary of The Beatles worldwide broadcast of All You Need Is Love. In my mind, this was their apex as a cultural force. They had this opportunity to play to the whole world,and what did they do with it? They distilled their hopes for the world into one beautiful commercial for a better humanity.

No doubt that someone will be cynical about it. I think it may not only be my favorite Beatle song...it may just be the greatest moment pop culture ever produced.

Talk me down.


If you're going to hail something as the "greatest moment in pop culture" you might at least get the date of the anniversary right, D!

The One World broadcast of which AYNIL was a part actually went out on 25/6 (like this year, a Sunday) and not 26/6 (like this year, a Monday).


It was Sunday when I posted it.


Odd, originally came up as "Yesterday, 05:50" when I opened my page this am. Is now coming up as


Re: All You Need Is Love - 50 years ago today
by Geezee » Yesterday, 14:50



Would seem to be a problem with PHP, I'd sue if I were you...

EDIT - Just checked again and is now coming up as "Yesterday, 05:28"
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Re: All You Need Is Love - 50 years ago today

Postby Geezee » 27 Jun 2017, 08:41

If we are going to talk about one moment, one song, or one statement that distills the essence of The Beatles, the problem for me with All You Need Is Love is that it is "just" Lennon. And I guess that's fine - I certainly prefer it to Across The Universe, which was used by NASA to beam into space a few years ago - but generally I prefer the songs where you can hear both of them, songs like We Can Work It Out and A Day in the Life. And I think, while it may be a boring answer, A Day in the Life is the Beatles' biggest statement, both artistically but also as a crashing finale to their creative peak. That said, it for sure does lack that instant appeal, the pop magic, the link to Hamburg and the Cavern, which arguably All You Need is Love does. So maybe Davey is right.
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Re: All You Need Is Love - 50 years ago today

Postby Davey the Fat Boy » 27 Jun 2017, 08:59

George P. Smackers wrote:
Bent Fabric wrote:I will say, also, that whatever IS innocent or naive about this sort of thing ("Love Is All Around" by the Troggs puts a lump in my throat for this very reason) is a virtue in my eyes.

I won't belabor the point, especially after Davey's gracious and even-tempered response to my grousing about a song he loves. (I'm a refugee from another forum where I found the Beatles worship to be too much!)

But I like "Love is All Around" too, and that makes me think about the difference. With the Troggs, it's a charming expression of a personal feeling, directed at a particular person. I love "I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes." It's circumstances-based and a little manic. I.e. totally justified.

The Lennon song is him telling us, like a lecture. He knows, we don't. It's not personal--it's a general statement. I guess to like the song, you have to hear it as an encouraging, friendly lecture, but I can't.


The Troggs song is really such a lovely thing, I can certainly see how it constrasts in that way for you. There are times in which something personal and wistful like that is just the right medicine.

What I'd counter with (not to try to win a debate, or convince you of anything - but perhaps to help illuminate what moves me so much) is the out and out joy AYNIL is delivered with. It's feels like it's just bursting with life and celebration. It's not a statement of personal contentment, but like the O'Jays...an invitation onto a love train.

Listening to it today, I thought back on all of the comments here making it out to be musically uninspired. But that mistakes simplicity for lack of imagination. How anyone could listen to the counter melody in the string arrangement and hear it as anything but glorious eludes me. Not to mention the lovely melodic rise on "love...love" (just before resolving with "love is all you need."

On a lyrical level...it reads more like an affirmation than a lecture to me. The simple abstraction of the verses challenging us to question the logic of the mundane, and maybe getting us to think about love itself differently. The key line to me is, "there's nowhere you can be that isn't where your meant to be" - a sentiment that goes so far as to encourage us not to bother with the oppression of meeting one's destiny (because if you think about it...you can't miss your destiny).

All of that packed in...plus the video (and as was mentioned before...the colors).

As for the Beatles-love that's caused you to feel claustrophobic. I can't speak to that. It's understandable. But baby...bath water..
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