"In memory," Tennessee Williams wrote, "everything seems to happen to music." And to most of a generation, a good portion of life's soundtrack was written and performed by the Beatles.
John, Paul, George and Ringo mixed their personal charm with a knack for pop melodies, clever lyrics, experimental sounds and good old rock 'n' roll. The recipe worked so well that you can hear echoes in songs today, 20 years after the band's demise.Take Tears for Fears' recent smash as an example, suggests Craig Rackley, assistant manager of Starbound Compact Discs, Cassettes and LPs. " `Sowing the Seeds of Love' starts out just like `I Am the Walrus,' " he laughs, "and people don't realize that until you play the songs back to back, and then they go, `Whoa!' "
Other contemporary groups, like XTC and Crack in the Sky, lace their music with Beatles references, just as earlier bands like the Electric Light Orchestra, Utopia, Klaatu and the rib-tickling Rutles did even more obviously a dozen years ago. "Many of them are celebrating the Beatles," Rackley says, "even if some of it's very tongue in cheek."
The former Beatles themselves also seem to be coming to terms with the legacy of their legend. George Harrison summoned forth both the times and the musical stylings in his hits "All Those Years Ago" and "When We Was Fab." Ringo Starr recently rerecorded his 1965 ditty "Act Naturally" with Buck Owens, who'd made it a country hit even earlier. Paul McCartney has been performing Beatles songs on his world tour, and rerecorded "Yesterday" and "Here, There and Everywhere" for his movie "Give My Regards to Broad Street."
Interested in tracking down some of the more recent Beatle-like efforts? Often the resemblances are in the ear of the beholder, but you might consider these artists and their recent work:
-Tears for Fears: Even the video for "Sowing the Seeds of Love" taps into the airy, surreal imagery of the Fab Four, circa 1967. But Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith had no intention of becoming the new Beatles - "Seeds" is the only track evoking the Sgt. Pepper era on their Fontana-PolyGram album, "The Seeds of Love."
-Lenny Kravitz: When critics and fans describe a modern musician's music as being "Beatlesque," they're not usually ripping into a performer. Kravitz is Beatlesque in the best sense of the word. Songs like "Let Love Rule" and "I Build This Garden for Us," on his debut album (Virgin Records), are almost all strong, melodic and issue-oriented. His natural, scat-laced vocals and acoustic rhythms draw comparisons to the pared-down Paul McCartney of a certain period, 1968-1970.
-Michael Penn: Another talented newcomer, Penn writes and performs pop-rock that's Beatle-like in appeal and instrumentation (beyond the big, persistent beat), without obvious mimicry. Tracks like "No Myth" and the moody "Cupid's Got a Brand New Gun" on his debut album, "March" (RCA Records), are ornamented with vocals and guitars reminiscent of Lennon, Harrison and McCartney, yet Penn's originality is never submerged.
-The Smithereens: Singer-songwriter Pat DiNizio and company bridge the '60s and the '90s with remarkable ease. The band's latest album, "11" (Enigma/Capitol Records), starts off with a power-pop roar on "A Girl Like You," but also includes lovely ballads like "Blue Period" and "Cut Flowers" - and the bouncy "Yesterday Girl," which would have fit perfectly on "Rubber Soul" or "Revolver" . . . except that DiNizio's beat-poet vocals don't even remotely mirror those of the Beatles. Smithereens songs in general are Beatlesque more in spirit, variety and inheritance than in sound.
-Enuff Z'Nuff: Here's a surprise: '60s-ish tracks on an album by a metal-and-glitz rock band, in particular the single "Fly High Michelle" (how's that for a Beatle-referential title?). Enuff Z'Nuff's self-titled album (on Atco) features a big, lime-green peace sign on the cover, and the band's videos show off a group harkening to the flower-power era. Donnie Vie's vocals have a curiously muffled nasal quality, which gives the band some of its distinctiveness, and the guys seem to be having fun Osterizing the decades.
-Boris Grebenshikov: Yep, a Russian. Probably no album in the past year betrays the Beatles' influence more than Grebenshikov's American debut, "Radio Silence" (CBS Records). Produced by the Eurythmics' Dave Stewart - a talented disciple of the '60s himself - the set offers folk-and-poetry, lively pop and songs like "Fields of My Love," with strings, lyrics and a pace recalling both Lennon and Harrison.
-Freiheit: This German band basically delivered Euro-pop on its 1989 album, "Fantasy" (WTG-CBS Records), but "Keeping the Dream Alive" - also used in the movie "Say Anything" - was a jaw-dropping re-creation of the strings-and-heavenly-choir school of Beatlesque balladry.
Earlier, the decade of the '80s witnessed several other notable forays into Beatles territory: Stars on 45's No. 1 medley in 1981, featuring snippets of nine Lennon-McCartney songs (even more on the album); Prince's clever hit "Raspberry Beret"; Bourgeois Tagg's melancholy, string-quartet-backed "I Don't Mind At All"; Billy Joel's Beatle-descended pop (give "Scandinavian Skies" on the "Nylon Curtain" album a listen if you have any doubts); not to mention the eerie emergence of Julian Lennon via "Valotte," sounding very much like his father, John.
The Beatles possessed magic. No one group or artist may ever again have the cultural impact or entertain us so well for so long in quite the same way . . . but that doesn't mean they're not going to try.