INTRODUCTION The idea that Bob Dylan was a key influence on The Beatles is very well-known and accepted one. Dylan is often credited with opening The Beatles’ minds to wider horizons and encouraging them by example to write more personal, meaningful lyrics. Yet most writers have approached this subject in a rather superficial and generalised...
Category: Music
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THE BEATLES: Who Could Ask For More: Overview and Chapter Summary
WHO COULD ASK FOR MORE: RECLAIMING THE BEATLES …When asked by a journalist whether the group intended writing any anti-war songs, John – without a moment’s hesitation – replied tartly that ALL their songs were anti-war songs. These songs articulated both the immense fear that lay just beneath the surface of the supposedly...
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RICHARD THOMPSON Sweet Warrior
Richard Thompson can transport you to places in his songs like no-one else. Drawing his inspiration from folk songs, oral tales, tattered history books, half remembered stories, bizarre websites and advertising catalogues, Thompson is a master of time and space. Many of his best songs place you in a specific historical context, then move...
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BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Magic: A Review
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: MAGIC: A REVIEW BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: MAGIC Bruce Springsteen’s Magic is a journey into the darkness of the ‘American night’; a portrait of a country mired in confusion, its value-systems broken down, its soul in torment. As a writer, Springsteen is often misunderstood. This is partly because he often casts his narratives in...
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BOB DYLAN: Ain’t Talkin’
BOB DYLAN’S AIN’T TALKIN’ There’s no-one here, the gardener has gone… The hooded pilgrim advances along a thin, dusty dirt track. There is no moon. All along the skyline the fires rage. His hidden face contorts in shaded darkness. He burns inside. In front of him he seems to see the whole world, billions of...
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BOB DYLAN: Nettie Moore
Chris looks at Bob Dylan's inscrutable 'murder ballad' METTIE MOORE from MODERN TIMES
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THE BEATLES: Who Could Ask For More Extract Four : Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane (Part Two)
STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER AND PENNY LANE Strawberry Fields Forever begins with what sounds like a distorted, distant flute (actually a mellotron) playing an evocative, yearning intro which sets up the melancholic tone of the song. There is a single bass note, and then we hear John’s voice, doctored to sound rather high, emotionally detached, ethereal....