Just for a change of pace....
I started watching CBS's "50th anniversary" tribute to the Beatles -- marking a half century since their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show -- with some trepidation, but ended up enjoying it thoroughly. The music was front and centre, with talk kept to a reasonable level. Provided you PVR'd it -- at least 60 minutes of the bloated 150 minute running time was ads -- it was a lot of fun. Just a few thoughts...
* Ringo was an under-rated drummer. One of the show's gimmicks, well achieved, was to segue from a Beatles performance on the Sullivan show to a modern band doing the same song. Right at the start, "All My Loving" received that treatment, and Ringo's drumming from all those years ago knocked spots off the guy from Maroon 5 who was trying to recreate the sound.
* And speaking of Ringo, who'd have expected that his voice would have lasted so much better than Paul McCartney's? Poor old Macca no longer has the range to sing his own songs without obvious discomfort in the higher registers, whereas Ringo belted out his rather more limited repertoire without missing a note.
* George Harrison's songs, though much less numerous than John and Paul's, seem to have aged well, and were over-represented in the material covered by the guest artistes. "Something" and "While my Guitar Gently Weeps" were among the highlights of the show, both featuring a wasted but still rocking Joe Walsh.
* What percentage of Eurythmics earnings did Dave Stewart actually receive?? The duo "reunited" for the occasion. Annie Lennox belted out an impassioned version of "The Fool on the Hill". Stewart wandered on after the first verse, listlessly picking at a guitar while wearing an expression of profound ennui. He must have been awfully good in the mixing room, or somewhere.
* If there was a bum note anywhere, it was hit by Eric Idle, who came on wearing a beige raincoat, looking like a poster boy for edema, and delivered a startlingly unamusing monologue about the Rutles, which went down like a lead balloon. Was he ever actually funny? Actually, having seen Nuns on the Run, I don't need you to answer that.
One thing's for sure: it's hard to imagine any of today's popular music stars meriting similar treatment to Paul and Ringo in 2064.
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