Think
The Beatles: The Permanence of the Classic
Our professor Jaume Aurell (known by everyone as "Santi")
is not only Full Professor of Medieval History and director of the Degree
at Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE). He is also passionate about
music. Specifically, the Beatles. In #BeBrave he has made
his admiration for the art of the "hairy four" who have already entered universal history as the "classic".
have already entered universal history as the "classics". And, like any sincere
sincere admiration, it leads us to ask ourselves why?
Julio Zeppelin(Flickr)
July has been an important month in the history of Liverpool's iconic group . On 6 July 1957, John and Paul met at a performance of the band The Quarrymen in St. Peter's Church. The Beatles are born. The 7th is Ringo Starr's birthday. And on the 2nd, group gave its first concert in Spain. This month also sees the release of their most famous films: Yellow Submarine, A Hard Day's Night and Help! And one of his most famous singles , All You Need is Love, was also released in July.
More than theorising, Professor Jaume Aurell expresses his admiration for the music of the "fab four", who have already entered the pantheon of classics of universal music and art. And, like any sincere admiration, this leads us to ask ourselves: why?
On 7 July Ringo Starr, the Beatles' quirky drummer, turns 80. The group split up in the mid-1970s, which is now half a century ago. These two anniversaries - the first joyful, the second more tragic - invite us to ask ourselves, once again, how it is possible that a group that ceased to exist so long ago is still winning the battle of the "number ones" in terms of audience share.
Their music captivated, at the time, three generations: the elders, who were looking to renew their musical repertoire and were stunned by the self-confidence and sublime compositions of the four long-haired men (John, Paul, Georges, Ringo); their young children, who found in their peers an icon and a model to follow in their demands of the 1960s; and their grandchildren (including the author of this report), who were still very young but in time greatly appreciated their musical creativity.
The most extraordinary thing, however, came decades later, because the following generations also came to appreciate his songs. In 2000, their compilation "1" was released and continued to take the market by storm: it was the best-selling CD of the decade, the best-selling group in 2001, and the fastest-selling album in history, selling more than 10 million copies in the first month.
The numbers don't lie: The Beatles are still in our lives. Their songs still appear regularly on the radio. There are American music channels that systematically have a Beatles song scheduled every hour. Documentaries about them are regularly shown on television. As I have seen in my sessions at the university, especially among the residents of the Colegios Mayores, there are always young people who "discover" them, and they are amazed that the same group could have composed songs of such a different register as Please Please Me, Yesterday, A Day in the Life, All You Need is Love, She is Leaving Home, Get Back, Hey Jude or Let it Be.
The question immediately arises: where does this permanence come from?
What is it that is really specific to this art, what "makes the difference"? In my opinion, the way of transmitting, in a universal language, the different registers of the most common feelings of humanity: love, friendship, loneliness, dialogue, the difficulty of inner balance.
The Beatles' lyrics express the need for closeness to maintain love ("as long as I // have you near me" - And I Love Her); the difficulty of direct language to express that love(She Loves You); the lasting experience of total self-giving(All my Loving) as opposed to the ephemerality of "one day" love (the girl in Day Tripper who is simply "one way ticket"); the impossibility of buying love ("I don't care too much for money" - Can't Buy me Love); they show the weight of report and of memories in people's lives(Yesterday, In my Life); the need for dialogue to solve problems because it is not worth fighting, taking into account the fleeting nature of life: "Life is very short and there's no time // for fussing and fighting"(We Can Work it Out); in Nowhere Man, they highlight the selfishness of the blind man who only sees what interests him: "He's as blind as he can be // just sees what he wants to see"; and in With a Little Help from my Friends they underline the value of friendship and the dead end that can be reached by closing in on oneself: "are you sad because you're on your own"; the Beatles contemplate the continuous newness of love despite the time that has passed ("When I think of love // at something new" - In my Life), and understand how little work tires when it is done for love, because, at the end of the tiring conference "you know I feel alright when I get home", "You know I feel alright"(A Hard day's Night). In general, for them, love is a universal language as an alternative to the language of violence(All You Need is Love). And among many other reflections on life, one can see how they are concerned with the need for continuous rectification of the course of life ("Then you can start to make it better") and not pretending to do it alone: "don't carry the world upon your shoulders"(Hey Jude). Or something as basic as the influence of weather conditions on people's state of mind, expressed through the monotonous cadence of falling water, identified in Rain with a succession of chained voices, or they sing of the joy of the arrival of the sun after a long summer(Here Comes the Sun).
Someone has defined the classical as that which is capable of transmitting
what needs to be conveyed without failing to convey it at all.
There is always the possibility of discovering a new nuance, a new reading, a new interpretation of the works of the classics. The classic is opposed to insubstantial repetition. The classics make their recipients identify with the values they convey.
Everyone who knows the Beatles' work associates it with the memorable moments of their music, the expressiveness of their instruments, the felicitous metaphors of their lyrics or some of their magnificent vocal performances. Some prefer the naive simplicity of the songs from their early period (with albums like Please Please Me or With the Beatles), others the balance of their middle phase(Rubber Soul or Revolver) and, finally, those who appreciate the restrained modernity of their latest creations(Let it Be or Abbey Road). But they are all able to identify a Beatle"sound" and "message", which is what shapes a quality and popularity that remains intact for the moment, more than 30 years after their dissolution. Perhaps the explanation for all this is that they manage to convey the most universal feelings through musical interpretations full of simplicity and effectiveness.
The best explanation for their success and permanence is that, within their limitations and greatness, they sought a solution to their problems through love, in an era like theirs, full of cultural contradictions and political tensions. They managed to express this, in a sublime way, in the last phrase of the last song of the last album they recorded together, sung in unison by the four of them: "And in the end // the love you take // is equal to the love you make" ("And in the end // the love you take // is equal to the love you make").
Although, after all, perhaps the Beatles' music is not so much to be theorised about as listened to with an attentive ear.
TRACKLIST
With a Little Help from my Friends
Records on Spotify (remastered):
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