If you asked the premier rock critics, at the time I was young and impressionable and on the outside looking in at your America, they would tell you the greatest and most socially significant song from the greatest and most socially significant band would be Eleanor Rigby from The Beatles. And if you ask any contemporary critic which is the best remaster of that song, they will likely point to the one that I hold in my right hand. The Parlophone 2009 Beatles remaster.
And so I listened to track number two over my Resolv 65a studio monitors and I can tell you that it sounds great. Except it doesn't sound significant, and finally I can forgive that questioning and puzzled teenager that I was trying to reinterpret all of Western Civilization through the lyrics of Lennon and McCartney. It's just a great song is all.
The most difficult thing my kids generation will face is that answers will be here, there and everywhere. All for the querying, like manna. Except it will take a lifetime of reinterpretation until they realize they've been surfing on the perspectives of the producers. What could be more crippling than a satisfied curiosity?
It's tempting to be lazy. And I'm starting to understand that temptation - to use analogies and popular culture to explain and allude to deeper truths. So no matter how clever, I'll just listen to the rest of the albums I bought today and just enjoy them for what they are.
- Sgt Pepper
- Revolver
- Rubber Soul
