Paul McCartney Live

 

I guess my writer’s block has cleared up briefly due recent circumstances being sufficient inspiration, e.g. seeing Paul McCartney live for the first time.

Lots of us are Beatles fans.  My recollection is that some time after moving to Paris in January 1979, and John Lennon’s death in December 1980, I got the Red Album (1962-66) and Blue Album (1967-70), though listening to them in reverse order.  Then my parents got me the US albums – on my own insistence – rather than me being sensible and simply going down to FNAC and getting the British versions sold in Europe.  We were in the Four Seasons (lawn & garden + toy store) section of the PX in SHAPE, Belgium, in December 1980 when we heard over the PA, by AFN Radio, that John Lennon had been shot in NYC.  That conclusively ended any chance of a Beatles reunion.

Having been born in 1969, clearly I was not in a position to see the band live from 1963-1966; in fact I was born during their Let It Be sessions in January 1969.  I started seeing concerts in Paris at age 15, in October 1984.  Of the four Beatles, Paul McCartney was the only one to tour consistently from their breakup in September 1969 to the present.  Over all that time I never managed to see him in concert – until now.  Thanks to my brother Matt for taking me with him to the show at Camden Yards in Baltimore, the home of the Baltimore Orioles.

McCartney’s current band, which has been together for over 20 years, consists of Rusty Anderson (guitars), Brian Ray (bass & guitar, depending on which McCartney happens to be playing on a song), Wix Wickens (keyboards), and Abe Laboriel, Jr. (drums).  They all did their jobs competently enough – as you would expect – and none came close to stealing the limelight from McCartney himself.  Ray bears a remarkable resemblance to GNR bassist Duff McKagan. 

The entire live show, from start to finish, was approximately 3 hours, from 8:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., including the encore.  40% of the set (15 of 37 songs), mostly in the first half of the show, was McCartney’s solo material.  I suppose we’re in awe of his talent, but it seems that without the benefit of John Lennon’s participation and feedback, his solo material falls well short of the quality of his material with the Beatles.  I never did collect his solo albums, as even the “greatest hits” (“Live and Let Die”, “Jet”, “Let Me Roll It”, “Band On the Run”, “Maybe I’m Amazed”, etc.), ostensibly his strongest solo material, didn’t impress me.   The same holds for John, George and Ringo.  Even All Things Must Pass, often lauded as the best solo album by any of them, fell flat for me.  I want to like all these songs, but I can’t.   From the audience reaction during the show – mass exodus to the bathrooms and concessions during the solo songs – I can tell I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.   And it certainly didn’t escape the attention of McCartney himself.  Basically he told the audience, “whatever, I’m going to play whatever I want.”  While he doesn’t hide the fact that he was in the Beatles – he’s certainly proud of it, and rightfully so – he does want us to know that this is a Paul McCartney concert.  That being the case, however, he knows as well as I do, that if his set was 100% solo material with a few Beatles songs played in the encore, he wouldn’t be filling up Camden Yards, he’d be lucky to sell out Royal Farms Arena a few blocks away.  Sorry, Paul. 

I recall in 1988 or so, Roger Waters was on Howard Stern’s show.  His own Radio Kaos tour struggled to fill small clubs, while his erstwhile comrades in Pink Floyd were filling stadiums playing Pink Floyd material.  Stern pointed this out, much to Waters’ annoyance; certainly Waters himself was well aware of this, even if he may have been too proud to admit it.  Nowadays Waters has no trouble playing stadiums – playing Pink Floyd material.   He wouldn’t do so if he insisted on a set of predominantly solo material.  As much as he downplays the roles Gilmour, Mason and Wright played in making Dark Side of the Moon or The Wall, his solo material comes nowhere close to that level – for that matter, neither does The Final Cut, the last Pink Floyd album the four of them recorded, which Gilmour describes as a de facto Roger Waters solo album.  Likewise, the Beatles were a case of “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”.  Removing Lennon from the equation was bound to impact the quality of the material, as much as McCartney’s pride might demand otherwise.  Of course, the same holds true for Lennon’s solo material.  Yoko Ono isn’t nearly as capable a co-composer as Paul McCartney, is she?  Somehow I doubt Yoko herself would make that claim.

Be that was it may, McCartney is astute enough to recognize that most of the audience were too young to see the Beatles play live.  He also knows that the Beatles’ strongest material, from Sgt. Pepper through Abbey Road, was never played live by the band itself – except that rooftop rehearsal in London on January 30, 1969.  So we got material from Sgt Pepper, The White Album, Abbey Road, Let It Be, and a few older songs thrown in like “In Spite of All The Danger”, “Love Me Do”, “Can’t Buy Me Love”, and his homage to cannabis, “Got To Get You Into My Life”, though compared to Black Sabbath’s “Sweet Leaf”, the connection to MJ is by no means apparent by the lyrics.   If he didn’t tell us it was about MJ I’d have no hope of guessing that on my own.  Imagine what the far more direct and in-your-face Lennon would have written if he had the same goal. 

Ringo himself is touring with his All-Star Band, so he can play his own Beatles songs himself.  John and George are no longer with us.  Naturally McCartney was going to play the Beatles songs he wrote and sang himself, but he gave us a few tributes.  For George it was “Something”, started off on ukulele, and fortunately continued on electric guitar.  For John it was “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite”, and then a “sing along” thanks to Peter Jackson, of “I’ve Got A Feeling”, using John’s isolated vocals from the rooftop concert.  So again, I appreciate that for all his pride in his own solo material, ultimately McCartney knows and accepts that we came here to hear the closest thing to a Beatles concert any of us are likely to experience.  And that was more than good enough.

And he played “Helter Skelter”.  And there was much rejoicing…

Setlist:  Can’t Buy Me Love; Junior’s Farm; Letting Go; Got to Get You Into My Life; Come On to Me; Let Me Roll it; Getting Better; Let ‘Em In; My Valentine; Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five; Maybe I’m Amazed; I’ve Just Seen A Face; In Spite of All the Danger; Love Me Do; Dance Tonight; Blackbird; Here Today; New; Lady Madonna; Fuh You; Jet; Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite; Something; Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da; You Never Give Me Your Money >> She Came In Through the Bathroom Window; Get Back; Band on the Run; Let it Be; Live and Let Die; Hey Jude;

Encore: I’ve Got A Feeling; Birthday; Helter Skelter; Golden Slumbers >> Carry That Weight >> The End.

Of these 37 songs, 15 were solo songs and 22 were Beatles songs.  I could probably name 15 John Lennon and George Harrison Beatles songs to replace them, and McCartney would be privileged to respond, “very well, make up your own playlist of the 37 Beatles songs you might want to hear in concert - and stay at home and listen to it.  This is a Paul McCartney concert, not a Beatles concert.”  Ok, fine.  So I’ll pick 15 Beatles/McCartney songs which could sub in for those solo songs:

The Long & Winding Road; Maxwell’s Silver Hammer; Back in the USSR; Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except for Me and My Monkey; She’s Leaving Home; Eleanor Rigby; I Saw Her Standing There; All My Loving; And I Love Her; Yesterday; The Night Before; Michelle; Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band; Rocky Raccoon; Paperback Writer

Mind you, these aren’t all of the McCartney songs, only my favorites.  But I would put any of them against “Live And Let Die” or any other solo song.  Moreover, many of these were in fact played by him in concert on earlier tours, meaning they filled in a setlist slot which would otherwise be a solo song.  Am I fussing too much?  Do I want to see the manager?  Nope.  I enjoyed the concert – and giving me “Helter Skelter” erased any inclination to complain to McCartney himself.    

In any case McCartney will turn 80 on June 18.  So far as I could tell, he looked spry.  He could move along, play the guitar, bass, mandolin, ukulele, keyboard and piano with no trouble.  He can also still sing.  He knew who and where he was (Baltimore) and had plenty of clever, cheeky comments to make, even a story about Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton (kids in the audience: “Jimmy who?”).   I dare say if he couldn’t perform, he wouldn’t still be touring, but we’re seeing borderline cases.  Phil Collins was having issues.  I saw the Moody Blues a few years ago, and they had a second drummer in addition to Graeme Edge on stage, who was clearly doing the heavy lifting.  Charlie Watts is gone, as is Bill Wyman, leaving Mick & Keith as the only original Stones left (though Ron Wood has been with the band since the mid-70s, far longer than Brian Jones and Mick Taylor combined).  Who knows, however, how much longer McCartney has before he needs to retire for good.  So it’s good we saw him while he’s still up and running.  Amen!

The Beatles

 

Another early blog topic.  The prior time I compared them to KISS, though the most pertinent comparison therein is the format of the band.  The main singer-songwriters are the bassist (Paul McCartney & Gene Simmons) and rhythm guitarist (John Lennon and Paul Stanley), followed by the lead guitarist (George Harrison and Ace Frehley), with the drummer at the bottom (Ringo Starr and Peter Criss).  That’s about it, and not worth an entire blog, whereas the Beatles by themselves certainly deserve one.

 Paul McCartney (bass/guitar/piano/drums & vocals).  Arguably the most handsome and versatile, “Macca” was far more congenial than Lennon.  “Yesterday” and “Let It Be” were Paul’s songs, but he also gave us “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road” and “Helter Skelter”, an amazingly heavy song for which the Stones have nothing remotely comparable.  He’s still alive (bizarre rumors to the contrary notwithstanding) and making music – I’d like to see him live if I get the chance.

 John Lennon (rhythm guitar & vocals).  Lennon was famous for being outspoken, he couldn’t be bothered with anything like tact or diplomacy.  Leave it to John to pose naked with Yoko Ono for “Two Virgins”.  He also openly criticized Elvis for his support for the Vietnam War when the two met up.  He and Yoko Ono moved to NYC in the mid 70s, living in the Dakota, an apartment building on Central Park West (Eighth Avenue as it shoots north from Columbus Circle along Central Park).  Visiting NYC in June 2009, I took a brief visit outside where Lennon was shot in December 1980.  RIP.

 George Harrison (lead guitar & vocals).   The most spiritual of the four, it was George who embraced Eastern mysticism and learned the sitar.  As a kid growing up, I couldn’t endure his more Indian-flavored songs like “Love You To” and “Within Without You”, but as an adult I can enjoy both, and I also enjoy his solo album Wonderwall.  He died of cancer in 2004. 

 Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey) (drums & vocals).   Down to earth and reliable, the shortest and least attractive, but despite this he could keep a positive attitude.  As noted above, solid enough at timekeeping that the band didn’t need a click track.   Ringo still appears in public now and then, touring occasionally. 

 Honorable Mentions:  Stuart Sutcliffe, Pete Best & George Martin.  SS was the original bass player, the band being a five piece with him and McCartney playing guitar.  The story was that he was a fellow art student and Lennon persuaded him to join, against his own preferences.   He decided to remain in Hamburg, McCartney switched to bass, and the Beatles became a four piece.  Then SS died shortly after the Beatles returned to England. 

 Pete Best was the prior drummer before Ringo Starr.  He wasn’t nearly as good a drummer as the rest of the band members were at their instruments, and Starr was known for being extremely reliable.  Starr had been the drummer for Rory Storme & the Hurricanes, the Beatles’ closest competitor in Liverpool.  Best himself declined to take up drums with the Hurricanes and never played for another band.  Summer 1962 was when Starr took over from Best.

 George Martin.  Often considered the fifth Beatle, their producer had no background with pop and rock bands before taking that role.  But he found them amazingly intelligent and innovative, pushing the envelope of what was possible in the studio.  In him they found a sympathetic and competent producer willing to grow along with them, helping them realize their ideas instead of simply insisting that “it can’t be done” or “(oh) you can’t do that”. 

 Hamburg.  One of Germany’s largest cities and an infamous port town with an equally famous red light district, the Reeperbahn.  As late as the late 60s, other British bands, most notably Black Sabbath, also did the Hamburg circuit.  The bands played multiple sets a night for bored sailors and prostitutes, so the experience was very much a musical boot camp for the bands who endured the scene – practically every band who did so came back to England much improved.  Note that the Stones, who were from London, did not do the Hamburg scene. 

Brian Epstein.  Their ill-fated manager.  He helped them out at the beginning, but as the band got more successful, his role became marginalized.  By 1967 he was scarcely there.  It's possible had he not died of a heroin overdose - the band learned of his death while visiting India - they may have steered away from Magical Mystery Tour, or their Apple company.  Sid Bernstein, the American promoter who brought them to the US in 1964, remarked that their entire agreement was oral, not written, and that no lawyers were involved:  an arrangement unthinkable in modern times.  

Ed Sullivan.  The first show was the most important, of course:  February 9, 1964.  For Americans, this was their first glimpse of the band who had already taken the UK by storm.  At this show they played "All My Loving", "Till There Was You", "She Loves" you, followed by "I Saw Her Standing There" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand".  But they played three more times:  February 16, 1964 ("She Loves You", "This Boy", "All My Loving", "I Saw Her Standing There", "From Me To You", and "I Want To Hold Your Hand"), February 23, 1964 ("Twist And Shout", Please Please Me", and "I Want To Hold Your Hand"), and a later show on September 12, 1965 ("I Feel Fine", "I'm Down", "Act Naturally", "Ticket To Ride", "Yesterday", and "Help").  It's interesting that the band, having been greatly promoted by Sullivan on the rise in 1964, repaid the favor with the 1965 show after they were already well established.

 US vs. UK/Europe.  Up until Revolver, there were separate US releases with different songs, and some songs which were singles only in one market wound up on regular albums in another.  The Beatles put out so many non-album singles that two full CDs worth of songs, Past Masters 1 & 2, exist.  Growing up in Paris, I did the idiotic thing of insisting on getting the US versions instead of simply buying the European ones in the local record store (FNAC).  When albums were released on CD, the UK versions were the ones they used, only releasing US version CDs years later.  By now I’m conditioned to the UK versions and no longer even pay attention to the US ones. 

 Albums.

Please, Please Me (March 1963).  The first, in 1963.  Half covers, the standout tracks being “Twist and Shout” and “Please Please Me”. 

 With The Beatles (November 1963).  Continuing the development, the ratio of originals to covers rising.  My favorites are “All My Loving” and “Please Mr. Postman”.

 A Hard Day’s Night (July 1964).  Ostensibly the soundtrack album for their first movie, with side two being more songs which were not in the movie – of comparable quality.  No covers at all. 

 For Sale (December 1964).   “Baby’s In Black” and “Rock’n’Roll Music” (Chuck Berry) are my favorites, but I’d count this as my least favorite album. 

 Help! (August 1965).   Ostensibly the soundtrack album for the second movie. The US version had instrumental pieces from the movie itself, with less tracks.  Here’s one area where the UK version was much better.  “The Night Before”, “Ticket To Ride”, and “Yesterday” are my favorites. 

 Rubber Soul (December 1965).  The songs are getting darker and more complex.  “You Won’t See Me”, “Nowhere Man”, “Girl”, and “in My Life” are my favorites.  

 Revolver (August 1966).  As noted, the last album where the US and UK versions are different.  It was also the last album for which they toured.  It’s capped off with one of my favorite songs, “Tomorrow Never Knows”.

 Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (May 1967).  The Beatles quit touring and put this together, blowing everyone’s minds.  The Stones’ response, Their Satanic Majesties’ Request, comes nowhere close.  Itself a response to the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, Brian Wilson couldn’t top this – and had a nervous breakdown.  His own tentative response, Smile, was only released decades later and still doesn’t come close.  Capped off with “A Day in the Life”, a masterpiece from start to finish.  Incidentally, Pink Floyd recorded their first album, Piper at the Gates of Dawn, with Syd Barrett, next door at Abbey Road Studios at the same time the Beatles were working on Sgt. Pepper.

 Magical Mystery Tour (November 1967).  Another soundtrack album, with the second side being singles, “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” (actually recorded before Sgt. Pepper) and more. 

 The Beatles (self-titled), better known as the White Album (November 1968).  A double studio album, and my own favorite thanks to “Helter Skelter” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”.  I could do without “Wild Honey Pie” and “Revolution #9”.  The latter is more a psychedelic mix of noises and sound effects with no discernable melody or rhythm.   When our school took a trip to the USSR (Kiev, Moscow and Leningrad) in March 1983, we sang along to these tunes in our hotel room in Kiev, including “Back in the USSR” and “Rocky Raccoon”.  Oddly, McCartney wrote the former song without having visited Russia – which only happened in 2003 [When Paul McCartney lived out his Russian dream - Russia Beyond (rbth.com)], and it was no longer the USSR by then.  It was awhile before I ever listened to side 4. 

 Yellow Submarine (January 1969 – right around the time of my birthday).  Third soundtrack album, the second side being exclusively instrumental background music done by George Martin.  “Only A Northern Song” and “Hey Bulldog” are still awesome songs.

 Let It Be (May 1970).  Recorded before Abbey Road but released after.  That puts us in the position of trying to decide in which order to put them; at first I ordered them by release, but later decided that Abbey Road should be last, for reasons noted below.  After all the studio tricks of the prior albums, the band decided to return to their roots with a bare bones album.  Then they put it on the shelf and recorded Abbey Road, and Phil Spector took over producing it in their absence to finally release it.  Let It Be Naked is a more recent version, ostensibly intended to bring it back to where it should be, also including “Don’t Let Me Down”.  

 Abbey Road (September 1969).  The last album recorded.  Side two runs most of the songs together to “The End”.  George gives us “Something”, and John gives us “Come Together”.  “I Want You/She’s So Heavy” is even DOOM, believe it or not.  The Beatles go out with a bang. 

 Past Masters 1 & 2.  As noted earlier, the band had so many singles which didn’t end up on albums, these two wound up collecting them all together.   “Hey Jude”, “Rain”, “Paperback Writer” and “Revolution” are here.

 Hollywood Bowl.  The band’s only live album, marred by such massive crowd noise of screaming girls that no one considered it more than a de facto bootleg.  I have the original vinyl (rough quality) and the more recent CD reissue, which pulls the band's contribution well above the crowd noise - and even listened to it the other day.  A good mix of songs.  I've heard complaints that due to the crowd noise the band couldn't hear themselves play, but their performance seemed fine to me.  Definitely worth enjoying, especially if you're familiar with bootlegs.

 ’62-66 (Red Album) & ’67-70 (Blue Album).  Two major compilations, these were my introduction to the band.

 Movies.  None of their movies really have any sort of plot and are more like extended music videos.  They vary in tolerability considerably.  “Let It Be” is probably my favorite. 

 A Hard Day’s Night.  Not much of a plot, more like a “follow the band as they make jokes and eventually perform in the studio”.  Also in black & white.  Charming, though, in its innocence.

 Help!   Ok, now things get somewhat surreal.  The silly plot - pursued worldwide for a ringo which Ringo (get it?) took by accident - makes this an elaborate music video for the songs involved and not a true story.  But at least it’s in color.

 Magical Mystery Tour.  At the height of the 1967 hippie period, the band got a tour bus together full of bizarre people and simply filmed it.  Not much happened and it’s more low budget than “Help!”   In that regard it’s difficult to endure except out of morbid curiosity.  The juxtaposition of supremely talented musicians putting this turd together itself is disturbing. 

The Beatles Animated Series.  A Saturday morning cartoon series in the late 60s, sadly not voiced by the band themselves.  It was on before I was born (my Saturday morning TV viewing was the mid-70s).  Season 1 (1965) was 26 episodes, Season 2 was 7, and Season 3 was 6.  The band initially didn't take it seriously but later grew fond of it.  I purchased the set on DVD and watched it once.  I dare say I should watch it again.  That and watch the films again...

Yellow Submarine.  The movie itself.  Actually kind of trippy and irreverent, and in that respect it makes up for MMT.  

 Let It Be.  The band filmed themselves working on the album in the studio, warts and arguments and all, though the rooftop concert does make it worth watching for that alone. 

 The Compleat Beatles.  An excellent documentary, though only on VHS. 

Apple.  Less than a decade before Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak would form their computer company out of their garage in California, a less successful commercial endeavor sprouted from the Beatles.  In addition to their own record company, Apple would serve as financing for all sorts of projects without any concern as to their sense or profitability.  Naturally this wound up being a money pit.  What's remarkable is that, as brilliant and talented as the band members were as musicians, as businessmen they were utterly clueless.  Part of this was the prevailing counterculture mood, much which was stimulated by Sgt Pepper itself, but ultimately the band members took some time before they realized that they needed to pay attention to these details.  The most obvious explanation was that Brian had handled that so successfully - and honestly - during his tenure that it all went downhill when he died unexpectedly.  Black Sabbath had their own battles with corrupt management in the 70s, whereas Jimmy Page was astute enough, by the time he formed Led Zeppelin, to get Peter Grant, one of the more impressive band managers in rock history.  

 Most other bands at the time would put out singles, then combine them with filler songs of dramatically poorer quality on the albums themselves.  This certainly applies to both the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys.  You can get by with Hot Rocks for the former and Endless Summer + Pet Sounds for the latter.   With the Beatles, almost every song on an album is of equal quality – not filler.  And then Sgt. Pepper was the first album written as a complete album, not a collection of singles and extra songs.  The Beatles were unique in many ways – truly sui generis.

 Overrated?   I suspect those who feel this way were exposed to Beatles fans they couldn’t stand, who somehow felt that their own intelligence and good taste were irrebuttably confirmed by their support for the Beatles.  I don’t know – acknowledging the Beatles’ genius seems as “wise” as simply observing that water is wet, the Earth revolves around the Sun, etc. another fact so undeniably obvious that saying so deserves no special credit or recognition.  

Beatles vs. KISS

Yet again, a concert provides inspiration for a blog entry, in this case the Paul Stanley concert at the Ram’s Head Live in Baltimore last night. Paul Stanley is the rhythm guitarist/singer for KISS, and is touring for a solo album, using the house band of the "Supernova" TV show as his backup band. This particular comparison may evoke protests from Liverpool or Detroit/NYC, but I’ve long noticed that the two bands share some amazing similiarities.

 Both bands feature 4 guys from the lower rungs of society in large cities: the Beatles from Liverpool and KISS from New York City.

 They both have the same format: rhythm guitarist/singer/songwriter (John Lennon/Paul Stanley), bassist/singer/songwriter (Paul McCartney/Gene Simmons), lead guitarist (George Harrison/Ace Frehley), and drummer (Ringo Starr/Peter Criss). In each band the rhythm guitarist & bassist share the majority of the songwriting and talent (Lennon-McCartney & Simmons-Stanley), but the lead guitarist and drummer also sing and contribute musically, albeit far less than the other two. George Harrison and Ace Frehley both contributed about 25% of the material, and Ringo Starr and Peter Criss managed to sneak in about 10%. A major difference is that Harrison and Starr were talented and hardworking, and actually resented not having more input, whereas Frehley and Criss – if Simmons and Stanley are accurate – were content to do the minimum amount of work and mooch off the other two.

 The Beatles and KISS also started out with a gimmick: in the Beatles’ case it was the matching outfits, which they continued wearing through 1966 on stage. Combined with the haircuts and boots, this set them off from most other bands and established the precedent for the rest of the so-called British Invasion bands, including the Rolling Stones. In KISS’ case, it was the makeup and elaborate stage costumes, which they continued wearing until the 80s, after Ace Frehley and Peter Criss had left the band.

Among the core pair, there were also the "outspoken, I don't care who I piss off" John Lennon and Gene Simmons, and the "someone has to be polite and diplomatic" Pauls, Stanley and McCartney.  

 Of course, there are major differences. The largest one is the talent and development. Anyone can tell the difference between Please Please Me and Abbey Road. There is far less perceptible difference between the debut KISS album and Dynasty or Unmasked. Even in the 80s with Bruce Kulick, the formula never changed that much – why mess with what works...with the obvious exception of taking off the makeup, of course. The Beatles started off trying to be commercially successful, but around Revolver and Sgt Pepper they decided to make art and music for its own sake, rather than sell millions of albums or tour around the world. It certainly didn’t hurt, though, that this material was actually light years better than the earlier work and actually became the vanguard for popular music throughout the late 60s. KISS was, from day one until today, primarily dedicated to making money for the band, whether through selling albums, touring, or merchandising, which Gene Simmons has never been shy about admitting. They have no pretenses about being artists, poets, or anything more than musicians and showmen who give the audience its money’s worth. Whereas the Beatles quit touring in 1966 to focus on making albums, much of which involved elaborate studio innovations unreproducable on stage, KISS prided themselves on being a live band, and indeed the album ALIVE! put them on the map when the three studio albums they had at that point had flopped commercially. Clearly the Beatles were versatile and competent musicians, but even drunk-miss-the-plane Ace Frehley runs rings around George Harrison.

 Yet compare Sgt Pepper – a ground-breaking album – with any of KISS’ work. We get the Spinal Tap moment in the 80s when KISS unveiled their concept album, Music From The Elder, to a stunned record company. Sure, they had Bob "Destroyer" Ezrin helping, but what did they expect – KISS: The Wall? The band, with Ezrin, were proud, "look at it! listen to it!" and the record company was, "What the f**k????" Maybe you should stick with what you know..."Love Gun", "Lick it Up", "Uhh! All Night". Sure enough, they got the point.

 Other bands commonly compared to the Beatles are the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys. The Stones, though, only have one singer, Mick Jagger, and are essentially a rock band, nothing more. Granted, they were in direct competition with the Beatles and even tried to emulate them to some extent, but never changed their basic nature over all these years. The Beach Boys are a closer relative. More of the band members sing, they had the matching outfits thing, but most importantly, with Pet Sounds and Brian Wilson they had a real song-writing focus and a very real competition with the Beatles. Sgt Pepper was a response to Pet Sounds, which itself was a response to Rubber Soul. Brian Wilson stopped touring to make albums, but his nervous breakdown after Pet Sounds made his artistic contribution much less than it should have been; who knows what might have happened if Smile materialized instead of Smiley Smile. The rest of the band had to step into his shoes, and their late 60s work bears the same resemblence (??) to the early 60s material as the Beatles’ does. All the same, nothing KISS did compares in quality or impact with Pet Sounds, though again, they never pretended or attempted to be "songwriters" or artists in the same sense as the Beatles or Beach Boys.

 Finally, an exhaustive comparison of the Beatles with other bands wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Pink Floyd. Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd recorded Piper at the Gates of Dawn at Abbey Road Studios...across the hall and at the same time the Beatles were recording Sgt Pepper. After a few heavy psychedelic albums, Waters took over and Floyd began making monumental albums, notably Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall (the latter produced by... Bob Ezrin!). But Pink Floyd, unlike the Beatles, never shied away from touring despite being heavily active in the studio: when recording, as much as they tried to innovate and push the envelope, they avoided doing anything they could not reproduce on stage. In fact, with their quadraphonic sound set up (with speakers set up in the back of the concert hall) Floyd have more in common with the Grateful Dead – sharing the distinction of being the house band at the London Underground acid parties as the Dead were for Ken Kesey’s California "Acid Tests" – factoring in the Beatles’ major contribution to 1967’s social and musical revolution... Sgt Pepper! So it all gets mixed up in one big mutually influencial stew, a psychedelic melting pot of electric Kool-Aid. One last nugget: Paul McCartney’s longtime girlfriend, Jane Asher, married Gerald Scarfe, the animator for Pink Floyd: The Wall.