Anyone here obsessed with writing Beatles-quality songs?

grimtraveller said:
Speaking of Beatle quality material, has anyone ever listened to the Rutles ? They were in a 'spoof of the Beatle story' movie called "All you need is cash" {it has cameos from George Harrison, Paul Simon, Ronnie Wood and Mick Jagger} in the late 70s. Anyway, the music from the movie was written by a guy called Neil Innes who was in the Bonzo dog doo dah band, contemporaries of the Beats {they're in Magical mystery tour}. They are very deliberate attempts to sound Beatlesque but in my opinion, they are stunningly brilliant and utterly hilarious if you dig the Beatles. They deliberately draw on many Beatle songs and they cover every stage of the Beats' career. For me, they stand on their own as great songs and would've done, even if I'd never heard the Beatles' stuff.

http://www.rutles.org/
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If I remember correctly, Neil Innes (who plays Ron Nasty, the Lennon part of the Rutles) ran all the songs past Lennon, who told him what would pass for parody and what was just a rip-off. Apparently Apple stepped in afterwards and ALL the royalties off The Rutles songs goes to Apple Corps.
On a happier note for Innes, he gets a royalty from the Oasis song 'Whatever' because it sounds like 'How Sweet To Be An Idiot'
[video=youtube;nZ9EWcaS7II&feature=related]video[/video]
[video=youtube;6tuPBrSl9Nw&feature=related]video[/video]
 
If that's true, it's ironic that Apple corps should be so small minded, given it's origins and intentions and also given that the line between parody and rip off {when one is clearly writing a parody} is as thin as an anorexic cat's whisker. The Rutles' songs are equal parts parody and rip off. That's why they're so good and sooooo funny. If they had been a serious band, it would have been a different matter. In saying that though, there's almost no difference between "Get back" and "Get up and go" - apparently, Lennon felt McCartney might get a little crotchety about that one. The lyrics of that one are out of this world in their humour, especially the last verse. Some of the highlights of theirs {among possibly 100 !} are the brass band' rendition of "John Brown's body lies moulding in the grave" at the start of 'Love life' (it's meant to parody the French national anthem at the start of "All you need is love") and the Indianesque "Nevertheless". My kids love the Rutles ! Especially the chorus of "Piggy in the middle". Crazy.
 
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NewAgeMuttLange said:
I just don't get Townshend and Daltry. I just don't get them..
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When the 'oo first exploded on the scene, just about nobody 'got' Roger Daltrey. Few hits prior to 1966 hit harder than the opening 10 seconds of "My generation". As well as that incendiary guitar, electrifying bass and insane drumming that seemed to be saying to the Kinks and the Nashville Teens "Oi you lot - here's some harder rock than what you lot've come up with", there was;
PIBBLE TRA-RA PURRUS DAAAAAUUUUWN !!
And that was from an Englishman, a Londoner, no less.
After that song, he became a bit more understandable ! :D

grimtraveller said:
I think the point Harrison was making in a Dylanesque way was that he was in Lennon and McCartney's shadow, even though he'd just had three songs on Revolver and also that he was finding real meaning in life beyond the Beatles as he'd just been to India so his songs were only "Northern songs" (a great play on words as it was the name of their publishing company).
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Two insightful quotes that I've come across that I remember about George Harrison as a composer; In "Revolution in the head", when discussing the recording of "I want to tell you" (incidentally, the first time they recorded a song without bass - it was added later), Ian MacDonald states
"If not the most talented then certainly the most thoughtful of the songwriting Beatles...."
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. And Hunter Davies in his biography of the Band states
"George was different from John and Paul in music making in that while they wrote songs, he wrote feelings.'Writing a song was like going to confession' so he wrote in his book. It was when the spirit moved him, for good or ill, that George felt compelled to compose, which was why it took him so long to get going and why he always held back, till he had something to say. With Paul, making music is as natural as getting up and walking, eating and sleeping".
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Right back to his first song, "Don't bother me" in 1963, I'd concur with both statements.
 
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Going back to the original post... I am so glad I'm not the only one :D

Since last year, I've been obsessed with the idea of one day being able to create music as good as the Beatles. More precisely is to be able to create a song that has as much feel/variety in melody as a Beatles song.

Just like many people have stated here, everything today sounds like everything else and I almost feel that very few people are actually striving to create something unique that sounds good.

I feel that most people that try something very unique end up with something pretty terrible... so the combination of uniqueness/good sounding is the key in my opinion.
 
Ricklh said:
I am! Though I've never written anything that was remotely as good as Lennon & McCartney (duh!), I find myself thinking about it much of the time. Just wondering if anyone else here dreams of writing a tune that would have impressed the Beatles themselves?
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i don't think it's healthy to be obesessed with anything.

'Steal' from everywhere, or if you prefer 'be influenced' by everything you listen to..then use it to create your own music.

Trying to write material like those people will end up in a poor man's copy.

Be yourself.
 
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