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The Beatles and the End of the Album
Philip Larkin’s poem “Annus Mirabilis” opens with this: “Sexual intercourse began / In 1963 / (which was rather late for me) / Between the end of the Chatterley ban / And the Beatles’ first LP.”
Like much of Larkin’s work, he’s speaking about his own sexual experience as a metonymy for culture as a whole, and like much of his work, he’s on to something. The British Invasion, the LP Era, the Golden Sixties, was the birth of sexual intercourse as commodity, marketed to anyone with a record player and TV set—the cameraman began shooting below Elvis’ waistline, so to speak. Anyone, youth especially, could now access the previously elusive sexual act through the exchange of goods in the capitalist marketplace. Sex and metaphor transformed into one another.
For the Beatles, this reification of sex as external object became the only signification for “happiness” in their songwriting. The word, of course, is “love,” but love is refigured as a product, bought and sold. “Baby’s good to me, you know, she’s happy as can be,” John Lennon sings in “I Feel Fine”, because “her baby buys her things… he buys her diamond rings.” Indeed, she said so. The metaphorized object of sex, the diamond ring—the commodity—becomes the reason for the relationship’s success. This metaphorization of the sexual object is taken ever further throughout the Beatles’ oeuvre, so much so that the metaphor itself comes to signify happiness. The “warm gun” in “Happiness Is a Warm Gun” is most certainly the image of Lennon’s libido—and its imagistic representation through language is happiness. Emotion, commodified to the point of total obscurity, is its metaphor. Even the seemingly antithetical “Can’t Buy Me Love”, a song that addresses this issue directly, gives the commodification its definition. “I don’t care too much for money,” Paul McCartney sings in the chorus, not because he doesn’t want to spend it, but rather “’cause money can’t buy me love.” Subsequently, he spends the song’s verses revealing that he is, in fact, spending all of his money on the lover in question. The very concept of commodity becomes exchangeable, commodified.
The de-structuring of love as commodity and, ultimately, language as commodity in the Beatles’ music is reflected back onto the band by the audience. We have come to own the Beatles. Even 40 years after their breakup, they are as much a part of American culture as they were performing on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. This year marks the re-release of all 13 of the Beatles’ UK albums, plus the two Past Masters collections containing the group’s non-album singles, in CD format, the first time since the ’80s that their work has been re-mastered. “Just in time for the death of the CD!” Pitchfork’s Ryan Dombal exclaimed back in April under the sub-heading, “Hey, remember CDs?” In its usual dismissive, over-generalized snarkiness, Pitchfork is “kidding,” but, admittedly, as usual for this paradoxically powerful tastemaking music site, there is truth to these claims all the same. The reissued catalog of the Beatles is the end of the cycle they helped create some 45 years ago: The age of the album has given way to something with a shorter attention span, and a far less visceral application. As the Beatles signify both pop music’s apogee and its most inevitable conclusion—are not “She Loves You” and “Revolution 9” the very definition of these two poles?—the reissue of the Beatles’ catalog becomes rabidly symbolic. It is the official end of the CD era. We have reached the end of the river. The horror, the horror.
Music has always tied itself closely to changes in technology and much of the public has, almost without fail, reacted with cold cynicism. The radio was the end of the 78rpm, the electric guitar was the end of tasteful songwriting, the music video was the end of radio, the CD was the end of the LP, the mp3 was the end of the CD, and so forth. Of course, all of these assumptions have proven at least somewhat correct over time, but the subtext for such changes has always been The Death of the Music Industry. Rock ‘n’ roll, most especially, has been branded sickly, an invalid incessantly marked for death. As music has become predominantly digitized, the Beatles, always at the foreground of technical and sonic innovation during their brief tenure as a band, have missed the boat—it was in 1987 that the Beatles were last updated to the music industry’s current technology. There can be no other end to the CD than these remastered albums. It is the final step—the missing piece—of this dying format. These are albums we all likely own and, even more likely, if we choose to consume them in their reissued format, albums many will steal from some anonymous torrent site on the internet. Ob-la-di ob-la-da.
So we remain no less interested in the Beatles, but the changing face of music has forced our alliance elsewhere. On the same day the Beatles box set will be released, The Beatles: Rock Band video game is scheduled to appear. Indeed, The Beatles: Rock Band video game is our most blatant example of this re-formatting of music. In a recent article in The New York Times, staff writer Seth Schiesel called the game “nothing less than a cultural watershed.” This is the same newspaper that, in the summer of 1967, printed a scathing review of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, in which critic Richard Goldstein called the album “fraudulent… a new sarcasm masquerading as cool.” If the real thing was fraudulent, how can the video game version be a watershed?
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25 Comments
“…. the electric guitar was the end of tasteful songwriting?????????” HUH? That’s a joke, right?
The death of the LP? Maybe, but oddly the CD and especially MP3s lend themselves to longer compositions should the artist/user wish for that. One of the problems with the LP was turning it over, and I believe The Beatles themselves (bar Lennon) welcomed the arrival of the CD so the album could be listened to in its entirety without a break. One of the cursed things with ripped MP3s is they split tracks that morph into each other, so if you do choose to listent to an album properly you end up with a blank gap. However, MP3s can be created that do not split at all. I have a few live concerts that are recorded this way. The LP/album is a dead/dying form that will be supplanted by downloads or streaming over the next few years. The albums that do exist will remain and it will be interesting to see if the new formats are utilised in exciting ways.
Ironic, isn’t it, that the long languishing lp is one of the hippest things going these days. The mindlessness of wanting only to be entertained by a “show” or attitude, rather than yielding to music as food for our souls is the result of both merchandising and genetics. Some people buy into it, others are simply born that way.
Long live real music.
I think the remasters sound amazing. What’s to bad is that people choose to listen to poor quality mp3. I find them a step backwards for sound. Hopefully people will realize this. Flac is a far superior format, though not as compact as mp3. Maybe in the future with hard drives getting bigger and cheaper the Flac format or a better one will take precedence over the lossy formats.
The real death of the CD album can probably be blamed on the Itunes and other similar businesses. Why buy CD’s when you can pluck out 2 or 3 of the possible singles. The simple solution would have been to have some of the more major artists delay their releases to Itunes, etc., so as to give the physical CD release a chance to actually sell some copies. If this situation isnt rectified soon there won’t be any reason for artists to release full length albums. They will just release songs. It will become a world of singles only.
What would happen if the U2’s, Springsteens, Metallics, etc., held up the release of the albums for 30 days to the mp3/download world. I think, and I could be wrong, that more albums would be sold. Sorry for the long winded message.
“My love don’t bring me presents / She knows that I’m no peasant.” – John Lennon “I Feel Fine”
Obviously the author doesn’t have the Audiophile release of “Abbey Road.” This new CD doesn’t hold a candle to that vinyl version. Indeed, I have kept meticulous care of my Beatles vinyl and, replaying them recently, have ascertained to myself that the recently remastered CDs simply do not sound as good as the original vinyl. I would be very surprised if they don’t reissue yet another remastering in 15 or 20 years down the road, although that version of “Abbey Road” probably still won’t sound as good as the Audiophile, half-speed remastered vinyl release. And some pretentious critic will undoubtedly announce that this is the end of something-or-other, and critics the world over, half of whom don’t own one Beatles vinyl album, will chime-in that this is the best-sounding format yet. Sheesh.
The LP is not dying it’s availability and sound quality keep improving. Check out only one site if you don’t beleive me. Acousticsounds.com
WTF are you talking about???
Hey dadumdumdada: That would be a quote by Paul McCartney from “I Feel Fine”’s flip-side: “She’s A Woman”. If you are to quote the Beatles please do so correctly.
As for the article: The Album will be there for those who still want it. I’m sure some bands will continue to release albums, but really the choice is yours. If you want it, it’s there for you. Dig it.
CM
I guess the writer is clairvoyant. As a true student (and practitioner) of music, I never presume to know what a songwriter’s intentions are. Apparently this brilliant horse’s ass could precisely read the collective minds of Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison.
What pretentious bull-crap! This guy shouldn’t be writing anything until he gets his own psyche evaluated. Pure boorish dribble.
Critics must criticize. Observers must make observations. Otherwise what good are they? Judging by this article, what good ARE they anyway? Complet BS from top to bottom. Most likely written by someone who wasn’t there. To paraphrase Mr. Dylan, Something happened here but you don’t know what it is, do you?
I couldn’t even finish reading this guys article, and before I read any of the previous comments I had already concluded the same as tne above – this guy was never there, isn’t here now, and as the Eagles have sung: “… he’s [sic] already gone. Mr. Miller must be a frustrated “Paperback Writer!”
Holy Carp, this guy is BORRRRRING. Does he ever actually make some salient observation? He is so impressed with his own vocabulary that he forgot to make a point. Where was the editor when this dreck rolled in?
And this article represents the end of any possibility of intelligent discourse regarding pop music. I guess I’m not the only one who found this article to be an exercise in mental masturbation.
What a load of garbage. Electric guitar was the end of tasteful songwriting? Radio was the end of the 78? No dimwit, the lp was the end of the 78 because it could hold more content (timewise).
Any other profound pronouncements Nostradomus? I hate to say it, but you even give pseudo-intellectualism a bad name!
i recently listened to albums by max tundra and dido which, in keeping with the long standing tradition, saved the best song for last….
Comments are an unfortunate indication of the lack of intelligence – both literary and musical – of Crawdaddy’s readership. Bet you guys even had to use a dictionary.
How the hell do you know what songs were written on electric guitar versus acoustic, or piano, or on a bloody cocktail napkin w/ lipstick? Or are you saying no good songs were written since 1950 or whenever the electric guitar was invented? I’m fine with controversial opinions, but they do need to contain at least some logic…Otherwise you’re just another crazy loon (ala glenn beck)
Hey man, I’ll take all that dead vinyl off your hands and you don’t even have to pay me…
Seriously, vinyl sales are growing. So I guess it depends on your definition of death. Yeah, they don’t sell in huge numbers- but that may actually be a very good thing for rock and roll since we have our LPs back with less corporate interference.
Forgot about the death of the album, how about the death of CRITICISM? Based on this article it won’t be much of a loss…
Thanks to the editors for publishing Miller’s provocative article. It’s nice to read “smart” not “snark” for a change. Now. What can you do about the critical-thinking skills of some of your readers?
i smell formaldehyde.
He’s right. We’ve all come to own the Beatles as is reflected in some of these asinine comments. I enjoyed this guy’s take on the evolution of music and its delivery. If this is mental masturbation, please let me come.
I had to use a dictionary and a thesaurus (had to use a dictionary to look up how to spell “thesaurus” too. Too bad these comment boxes don’t have spell check)! Even if you chose to criticize the, somewhat, complicated syntax and vocabulary you have to admit that the overall themes of the article are worthy of discussion…or you wouldn’t have bothered to comment!