fusillo

Great find the coverage of "starway to heaven", you know, no one knows it...

@Number nine: Sorry, but there’s a misunderstanding here. I didn’t say that the Beatles owe their success “only” to marketing strategies. And who said that everything they did was just to create trends: the haircut, for example, wasn’t even their idea; it was the idea of Stu Sutcliff's girlfriend, a great friend of John, who was the Beatles' guitarist during the tour in Munich, who passed away a few years later. The hair fashion developed independently of the Beatles, but it did develop. And it is ONE, and perhaps the least important, of the many components of their success. The first component is the music, who can deny that? I only said that their musical abilities were not superior to those of many others. And if others who were less successful had seen a phenomenon develop around them similar to that of the Beatles, they would probably have been more successful. @Stoopid: As for whether Nick Drake lacked the stuff, I don’t know: you don’t make three albums without doing anything. Nick was also an athlete (he ran the hundred meters) and had a competitive spirit. And during his university days and with his first album, he managed to perform concerts. I found two reproductions of posters advertising two concerts from 1970 where Nick performed with the Genesis. His problems (which were serious but not yet at a pathological level) worsened with the public's indifference... Who knows if the public had reacted better to his albums, and here we return to the previous discussion, today Nick Drake would be alive and well. But history isn’t made with “what ifs"... Hello to both of you.

@Stoopid: there are a ton of artists who have created many beautiful melodies: Elvis, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, to name a few. And then the creation of the Beatles myth shouldn't just be studied through sociology; you have to account for the excellent "entrepreneurial" skills of the staff (first and foremost Brian Epstein), the ability to create trends (just think about the haircut), the capacity to communicate through images (the films and album covers, like Sgt Pepper), and last but not least, the charm they had over the girls of the time (Mick Jagger used to say that at their concerts you couldn't hear the mistakes because there were too many screaming girls). Now take some of these elements and apply them to a Nick Drake: the guy would have (the conditional is necessary here) had more success, he probably wouldn't have burned out so quickly, and he would have produced many more extraordinary melodies. Bye.

@dante cruciani: I reiterate my doubts about the review. The intent may have been humorous, but the result is not at all. I hope next time you'll hold back. Oh, this is not a censorship, make that clear. :) As for the statements about the perfection of The Beatles' songs, it's true, their songs have beautiful melodies, but so do hundreds of other songs by a hundred other artists. The myth of The Beatles has developed due to a convergence of both musical and non-musical motivations. And I hope we lose the habit of making rankings and giving scores (Revolver 8, Sgt. Pepper 7... where are we, in school?). In the meantime, as someone who loves paradoxes, I’m giving my score to your review since I haven’t done so yet. No hard feelings. :-)

Beautiful review, Prague is a splendid city and pagine70 is a great site...

"Hang the blessed D.J. Because the music that they constantly play, it says nothing to me about my life..."

If you're referring to me, Roby, I think Hackett did very well to change the solo in "The Knife." I said something else. I said that on that album, the instrumental part of that song, with the new solo, has quite a few rough edges. :)

So Andrea, first of all, I’ll give you a piece of advice that I've already shared, it seems, in one of your other reviews of Genesis: there’s a video bootleg called "before the lamb" that features a concert from the "Selling England..." tour recorded by the BBC. That way, you can see Peter Gabriel in action... I have it on VHS but I believe it's also available on DVD. Now about the Genesis, who could really play well live; I have to tell you, I’ve heard various bootlegs from the early seventies and I assure you they hit some pretty awful notes... There are also some blemishes in this live performance, for example in the instrumental part of "The Knife" and in "Watcher of the Skies," where the ascending sequence of organ chords that connects the verses, I’ve only heard executed well by Tony Banks in the bootlegs from "The Lamb..." tour. If you visit a website called www.Genesismuseum.com (I don't remember if that's the exact wording but Google can help you), among other interesting things, you’ll find a lot of interviews where Peter and the guys talk about how they only started to play decently live after their first American tour, which was in 1974. Indeed, there’s no comparison between this live performance and "Seconds Out"... Cheers.

I know John Renbourn well, but I’m not familiar with this album. Nice review. I recommend all the albums by Pentangle, including the one that is sort of their "number 0", the album "Bert and John". Bye.

I quote Scaruffi: "Not by chance Sgt Pepper is a groundbreaking work... it is a concept of being able to compose a concept." What does that mean? Besides the fact that in my opinion we can't even speak of a concept but rather of a framework (the concert of the Sgt. Pepper band) within which songs that talk about different things unfold. But that's just my opinion... Furthermore, Scaruffi states that the Beatles encountered drugs and had their first "post-pubertal" experiences after Brian Epstein's death (1967). Perhaps Scaruffi doesn’t know (I haven't read the entire page either) that the Beatles did not come from the upper class, that they lived in a fairly tough city, and that at about 18 they left and went to Munich to perform. They returned empty-handed, and from there they began their true career. It seems to me that people like that were much more mature than the average of their peers... As for information on discography releases, it seems there are plenty of sources online to draw from. However, de gustibus:)