About lucyinthesky

Greatest Drummers: Ringo Starr

“Phil Collins (who has always been a big Beatles fan since he was 13 years old in the audience of The Beatles concert in their great film A Hard Day's Night in 1994 he hosted The Making Of A Hard Day's Night and said how great their music was in this film and along with Pete Townsend played on 2 songs on Paul McCartney's 1986 Press To Play album) and Max Weinberge praise Ringo's drumming and musician and song writer Peter Cross in his excellent online article,The Beatles Are The Most Creative Band Of All Time, says that Ringo might be underrated by the public but he's not by most professional drummers and that he perfected the art of drum sounds and he said no drummer has ever recorded so many different sounds on so many different sounding records. He also says that Ringo invented a new style of slow drum playing epitomized on A Day In The Life and Strawberry Fields Forever. He also said that John said many times that Ringo has the best back beat in the business and he said and the professional studio drummers understand why John was correct. Phil Collins has said that he can't duplicate Ringo's great drumming on A Day In The Life and George Martin said that Ringo always had a great ear and feel for a song and that it was his idea to play the tom toms on A Day In The Life giving the song a disctintive percussion sound. Also in Mark Lewisohn's excellent detailed Beatles music diary,The Beatles Recording Sessions,he explains that in the 100's of recorded takes The Beatles did for over 100 of their great songs Ringo rarely ever made a mistake that stopped the tapes from running and he said his drumming was excellent and consistent from 1962-1970! His drumming has also been pointed out as great on Tomorrow Never Knows,She Said She Said,Rain(which he says is his best drumming ever)and Abbey Road.His drumming is also very good on a very early Beatles song,Thank You Girl especially towards the end. Also, when The Beatles got Ringo to join The Beatles he was in no way an inexperienced drummer,he was already playing for one of the top successful Liverpool bands,Rory Storm and The Huricanes for seceral years when they got him.And George Martin didn't think Pete Best was a good enough drummer and that Ringo was much better and The Beatles agreed.”

Best Song Writer: John Lennon

“And George Martin himself said in an online interview I found around 2002 said that he has worked with many different music artists but that he has never known or worked with anyone as brilliant as The Beatles! He says in his biography All You Need Is Ears refutes that he was the one who had most to do with The Beatles music. He admits most of the ideas came from them. And if anyone ever reads the excellent book,The Beatles Recording Sessions by Mark Lewisohn which is a very detailed music diary of of every recording session in their amazing only 8 year career, which has interviews with their recording engineers,tape operators,George Martin quotes,and a very good interview with Paul in the beginning,they would see how truly creative,and innovative especially John and Paul were in the recording studio and that most of these great musicial ideas came from them. George Martin was also once inerviewed on a rock station Beatles program and he said what is clearly obvious and true, John Lennon and Paul McCartney were incredibly talented people(and he said it like he still couldn't belive it.), they both were extrodinarily talented song composers and great singers.And notice how Ringo working with George Martin for 8 years didn't turn him into a brilliant song writer like John and Paul,and George Martin has produced many other music artists but non of them have had as much critical acclaim,success or popularity as The Beatles!”

Best Guitarists of All Time: George Harrison

“ George Harrison at only age 14 would stay up playing his guitar until he got all of the chords exactly right and his fingers were bleeding! And One of The Beatles engineers Geoff Emerick says that in early 1966 when The Beatles were recording John's song I'm Only Sleeping, George Harrison played backwards guitar the most difficult way possible even though he could have taken an easy way,and it took him 6 hours just to do the guitar overdubs! He then made it doubly difficult by adding even more distorted gitars and Geoff says this was all George's idea and that he did all of the playing! ”

Worst Male Artists: Bruce Springsteen

“Bruce Springsteen has the worst voice I've ever heard! He sounds like he's vomiting to a music backing, I don't understand how he got a recording contract much less be so popular, I have to turn him off immediately!”

Worst Male Artists: Robert Plant

“Terrible screaming and screaching most of the time! ”

Greatest Musical Act: The Beatles

“ As The All Music Guide says in their excellent Beatles biography "That it's difficult to summarize their career without restating cliches that have already been digested by tens of millions of rock fans, to start with the obvious,they were the greatest and most influential act of the rock era and introduced more innovations into popular music than any other rock band of the 20th century." "Moreover they were among the few artists of *any* discipline that were simultaneously the best at what they did *and* the most popular at what they did." THey also say as singers John Lennon and Paul McCartney were among the best and most expressive in rock. Also on an excellent site,The Evolution of Rock Bass Playing McCartney Style by Dennnis Alstrand,Stanley Clarke,Sting,Will Lee,Billy Sheehan,George Martin and John Lennon are quoted saying what a great,melodic and influential bass player Paul has always been' And Wilco's John Stirratt was asked in Bass Player which bass players have had the most impact on his playing and the first thing he said was, Paul McCartney is one of the greatest bass players of all time,if you listen to what he was tracking live in the studio it's unbelievable." "With his tone and musicality he was a huge influence,he covered all of his harmonic responsibilities really well but his baselines were absolutely melodic and inventive." And in an online 1977 Eric Clapton interview,Eric Clapton In His Own Words he says that there was always this guitar game between John and George,and he said partly because John was a pretty good guitar player himself.He played live with John as a member of John's 1969 Plastic Ono Band. And there is a great online article by musician and song writer Peter Cross,The Beatles Are The Most Creative Band Of All Time and he says that many musicians besides him recognize Paul as one of the best bass guitar players ever.He too says that John and Paul are the greatest song composers are among the 2 greatest singers in rock and that John,Paul and George were all excellent guitarists and that George is underrated by people not educated about music but that Eric Clapton knew better,he also says that both John and Paul played great leads as well as innovative rhythm tracks. John Lennon co-wrote,sang and played guitar on one of David Bowie's first hits Fame in 1975.Brain May,Ozzy Osbourne,and Liam Gallagher and many more call The Beatles The Greatest Band Ever. Also on MusicRadar Tom Petty,Joe Perry and Richie Sambora in What The Beatles Mean To Me all say how cool and great they thought The Beatles were when they first saw them on THe Ed Sullivan Show in Februar 1964 when they were just teen boys,Richie was only 5.Tom Petty said he thought they were really really great. Robin Zander of Cheap Trick said he's probably one of the biggest Beatles fans on the planet.Brad Whitford of Aerosmith said that a lot of that Beatles influence comes from Steven Tyler's collaborartion with Mark Hudson both whom are absolute Beatles freaks and he said I guess the goal is to try and emulate probably some of the best music of the last 50 years which has to be The Beatles.”

Greatest Bands: The Beatles

“ As The All Music Guide says in their excellent Beatles biography "That it's difficult to summarize their career without restating cliches that have already been digested by tens of millions of rock fans, to start with the obvious,they were the greatest and most influential act of the rock era and introduced more innovations into popular music than any other rock band of the 20th century." "Moreover they were among the few artists of *any* discipline that were simultaneously the best at what they did *and* the most popular at what they did." THey also say as singers John Lennon and Paul McCartney were among the best and most expressive in rock. Also on an excellent site,The Evolution of Rock Bass Playing McCartney Style by Dennnis Alstrand,Stanley Clarke,Sting,Will Lee,Billy Sheehan,George Martin and John Lennon are quoted saying what a great,melodic and influential bass player Paul has always been' And Wilco's John Stirratt was asked in Bass Player which bass players have had the most impact on his playing and the first thing he said was, Paul McCartney is one of the greatest bass players of all time,if you listen to what he was tracking live in the studio it's unbelievable." "With his tone and musicality he was a huge influence,he covered all of his harmonic responsibilities really well but his baselines were absolutely melodic and inventive." And in an online 1977 Eric Clapton interview,ERic Clapton In His Own Words he says that there was always this guitar game between John and George,and he said partly because John was a pretty good guitar player himself.He played live with John as a member of John's 1969 Plastic Ono Band. And there is a great online article by musician and song writer Peter Cross,The Beatles Are The Most Creative Band Of All Time and he says that many musicians besides him recognize Paul as one of the best bass guitar players ever.He too says that John and Paul are the greatest song composers are among the 2 greatest singers in rock and that John,Paul and George were all excellent guitarists and that George is underrated by people not educated about music but that Eric Clapton knew better,he also says that both John and Paul played great leads as well as innovative rhythm tracks. John Lennon co-wrote,sang and played guitar on one of David Bowie's first hits Fame in 1975.Brain May,Ozzy Osbourne,and Liam Gallagher and many more call The Beatles The Greatest Band Ever. Also on MusicRadar Tom Petty,Joe Perry and Richie Sambora in What The Beatles Mean To Me all say how cool and great they thought The Beatles were when they first saw them on THe Ed Sullivan Show in Februar 1964 when they were just teen boys,Richie was only 5.Tom Petty said he thought they were really really great. Robin Zander of Cheap Trick said he's probably one of the biggest Beatles fans on the planet.Brad Whitford of Aerosmith said that a lot of that Beatles influence comes from Steven Tyler's collaborartion with Mark Hudson both whom are absolute Beatles freaks and he said I guess the goal is to try and emulate probably some of the best music of the last 50 years which has to be The Beatles.”

Most Overrated Songs: Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin

“I hate everything I have heard by Led Zeppelin!”

Greatest Vocalists: John Lennon

“As The All Music Guide says as singers John Lennon and Paul MCCartney were among the best and most expressive in rock. John had such a beautiful unique voice and a strong great singing voice, he and Paul could sing rock songs and love songs great! Just listen to John's beautiful singing on This Boy especially the middle parts, and If I Fell, I'll Be Back, etc and his great rock vocal on Twist and Shout which he sang and recorded in only 1 take with a very bad cold and bad sore throat, and his rock vocals on Money and Rock and Roll Music Reveloution, etc etc are also great!”

Greatest Vocalists: Paul McCartney

“ He did a lot of great diverse music including a lot of great rockers even some hard rock in the early-mid 1970's before and during early Wings which I think is his best post Beatles music period 1970-1975(the great 1975 Wings rock album Venus and Mars I think is last true great album)and he wrote and played a lot of great obscure album tracks and B-sides many which were better than the well known hits,although I like the hits too. Beware My Love is a great less known heavy Paul rocker and it's the best song on the 1976 Wings At The Speed Of Sound album,Wings performed a pretty good rocking version on the very good live rock Wings album,Wings Over America. And John also wrote in addition to a lot of great rockers,some very sentimental songs even a few mushy did you ever hear his song for Yoko on his Mind Games album?As The All Music Guide rightfully says and points out,that the critical party line often champions Lennon as the angry realist rocker and McCartney as the melodic balladeer but they say this is a fallacy:each of them was capable in roughly equal measures of ballsy all-out rock and sweet romanticism. There are many Beatles song examples of this too,Paul even wrote some of their earliest very good rockers,I Saw Her Standing There in 1963 which many people have said is a very good rocker,I'm Down which the all music guide calls a peerless and one of the most frantic rockers in their entire catalog,and they said The Beatles proved that they could rock really really hard with this song,John's I Feel Fine and Paul's late 1964 blues rocker,She's A Woman which they said was one of the hardest rocking early Beatles orginals and they said McCartney to often unfairly pegged as a sweet balladeer demonstrates that he was also one of the best white rock hard singers of all time with his shrill yet rich even ballsy vocal. He also wrote a lot of very good rock songs in their later career as did John but he also wrote quite a few beautiful love songs as well.”