Quote:
Originally Posted by starrynight
What about She's Leaving Home?
I think some of this is simply the west coast sound and that I suppose developed into the whole sunshine pop style in the later 60s. The Beatles in comparison were like chameleons trying their hand at lots of styles, so that gives them less of a single identity. The Beach Boys somehow seemed to represent a more specific lifestyle.
Maybe it's because they are more of a harmony group as well, also there are family members so maybe that means their voices fit together more. And The Beatles sing alone more as individual songwriters.
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Yes, I think you are very right that what I'm liking in The Beach Boys' music is the sunshine pop style and the exquisite harmony, starrynight.
"She's Leaving Home" by the Beatles doesn't seem to be about a *real* person to me, and she is described in third person, so this song makes me feel like a voyeur on the life of a fictional woman leaving home, rather than inviting me *into* her life as if I were she.
I feel the Beatles' lyrics about people often involve exaggeration to create an artificial, over-the-top portrayal of characters who don't feel real to me, so I don't step into their shoes easily. (Think of the "Fool" or "Lucy" or a host of other characters they describe.)
The Beatles' lyrics are often like strange, modern art paintings, and I love that quality about them. The Beach Boys' songs are much more down-to-earth and their best songs in my view are like watching a beloved home video, showing a real moment frozen in time:
The Beach Boys - I'd Love Just Once To See You (Stereo) - YouTube
Quote:
Originally Posted by Neapolitan
I haven't heard that until you mentioned it. I know George was at least half Irish-Catholic but choose to practice Hinduism later and was considered a secret Krishner by a memeber of the Hare Krishners. John apparently struggled with and questioned things both religious and political, and I don't know if he ever considered himself affiliated with any denomination. When ever John says something it is hard to say what he meant at the time if it wasn't clear because he spoke how he felt at the time he might have a different perspective later. But he did like double meanings (and also double-entendres.) I don't have any quotes available on what John about "Girl" but I don't think it's that Christianity makes people suffer but that the idea in Christianity about longsuffering "pain will lead to pleasure..." also works into how men are tortured when they fall madly in love with women and it doesn't work out to their expectation. He might be writing about who he felt about religion at the time but those ideas in the lyrics. But he was also writing about men who really don't follow your "Just leave her and be done with it!" advice.
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All very possible. I'll see if I can find the source of the information about "Girl" being a criticism of Christianity.
Here it is:
Quote:
Girl by The Beatles Songfacts
This was one of John Lennon's favorite Beatles songs. He revealed in the January 1971 edition of Rolling Stone, that in this song he was, "in a way, trying to say something or other about Christianity" which he was "opposed to at the time." He explained: "I was just talking about Christianity in that - a thing like you have to be tortured to attain heaven. I'm only saying that I was talking about 'pain will lead to pleasure' in 'Girl' and that was sort of the Catholic Christian concept - be tortured and then it'll be alright, which seems to be a bit true but not in their concept of it. But I didn't believe in that, that you have to be tortured to attain anything, it just so happens that you were."
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