Fwd: Stats geeks look at the Beatles

Pete and Tess

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dave Bock <bock@htva.net>
Date: March 6, 2024 at 11:53:35 AM EST
To: Pete and Tess <peteandtess@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Stats geeks look at the Beatles

Kudos, Pete, for reminding me (yet again) what a great writer you are. This second paragraph is so, so spot on. Love it!

On Mar 5, 2024, at 12:12 AM, Mr. Pete <peteandtess@gmail.com> wrote:



I can relate Joe. The onset of the Beatles created excitement and energy but they soon became role models for young wannabe's who somehow thought hey we can do it too. We analyzed every song to break it down into harmonies and guitar parts and then practiced relentlessly to learn our respective parts. John - rhythm,  George - lead and Paul - Bass. I remember when we found a drummer our determining criteria was that he could play Wipe Out. One friend had a stereo and we could use the balance to feature one track or another. It was like magic. Songs were either 'fast' or 'slow' and all of them were meant to inspire you to ask a girl to dance. One statement that summarized their overwhelming universal appeal was when Chris Rock said "I wanted to be a Beatle". That pretty much said it all. We all wanted to Be the Beatles! And that that was not just in the free world, The Beatles have been credited for the fall of the Soviet Union https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/09/30/priority-beatles-brought-soviet-union-destroyed-communism/

But, I digress…. The depth of their creativity as well as the length of their songs increased as their music evolved from teen infatuation to deeper reflections of personal and social commitment. Their lyrics became more abstract, existential and ageless. From She was just 17, you know what I mean… to She's leaving home, bye bye…. Words that changed your perspective. Words that could make you think, even make you cry. Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm 64? And that was back when 64 sounded old… so again, I digress but what is a Ticket to Ride anyway??? It's these clever abstracts that raised the bar on rock and roll… Ticket to Ride, Hard Days Night, Eight Days a Week…. So simple and yet so elegant. These phrases are cliche now but before the creative chemistry of Lennon and McCartney, they didn't exist. So, again I completely understand your reaction to Ticket… it was still the Beatles, still rock and roll but something had changed. Something had shifted. This was not another rendition of Johnny B or Roll over B, on a 12 bar blues foundation. This wasn't even something you could dance too. This, this was something different. Something that made you stop and listen. This was something new. 

Pete and Tess

On Mar 4, 2024, at 6:32 PM, Joseph Kavanaugh <jkavanaugh99@yahoo.com> wrote:

 On the Beatles, whatever demarcations one sets out in their evolution, two albums that served absolute notice that musical eras were changing for them were Rubber Soul and Sgt Pepper. I've always seen 3 pieces of their evolution with those albums as clear demarcations in their music.  I played in a band as a teenager and we tried to cover some Beatle stuff,  but didn't even attempt anything after Ticket To Ride.  Just looked at each other in wonder and amazement when their next album came out….. Rubber Soul. 

Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone

On Monday, March 4, 2024, 10:57 AM, John Bodamer <johnbodamer@outlook.com> wrote:

Of course, it wasn't just the Beatles.  

One factor was FM radio began to change in the last 60s.  The FCC introduced new regulations that resulted in FM stations having different content from AM stations.  Prior to that if a station owner had both an AM and FM station they had the same shows.   

The FM stations now had different content, mostly music, but few sponsors.  The AM stations had sponsors, so they preferred the 3-minute songs.  FM stations had the freedom to play longer songs or even a complete album.

from Bill Joel's The Entertainer:

I am the entertainer
I come to do my show
You heard my latest record
It's been on the radio
Ah, it took me years to write it
They were the best years of my life
It was a beautiful song, but it ran too long
If you're gonna have a hit you gotta make it fit

So they cut it down to 3:05

The FM stations evolved into a new format, AOR - Album Oriented Rock.  Sgt. Pepper played a big role.  They did not release any singles (45s) from Sgt.Pepper.   Some folks thought of Sgt. Pepper as the first "concept album".   Not sure about that.  I think of Sinatra's Only the Lonely and Miles Davis's Sketches of Spain as concept albums.  

It is true that I spend lots of time today still reading about and listening to the Beatles,  Yeah, yeah, yeah!

Regards

JB

828-551-4474

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From: Dave Bock <bock@htva.net>
Sent: Saturday, March 2, 2024 11:37 AM
To: joe Kavanaugh <jkavanaugh99@yahoo.com>; Pete and Tess <peteandtess@gmail.com>; John Bodamer <johnbodamer@outlook.com>; Bob Miles <rmiles6514@sbcglobal.net>; Dan Bock <rshooz4@gmail.com>
Subject: Stats geeks look at the Beatles

 

You Beatles guys might find this exchange [edited for brevity] between some Stats teacher friends of mine interesting. 

Chris, a while ago I compiled a database of the Beatles tunes - with their song lengths and authors (whether Lennon, McCarthy, Harrison or a mix, and whether it hit #1 or not, as well as release date. At the time I was working on an exercise in comparing songs before and after Sgt Pepper's. Prior to that album, almost all songs were under 3 minutes - that album was considered by many to be the one that broke that rule, so I was using it as an example to test that theory.  — Paul

Hi, Paul — I plotted the Beatles data by "Writer" and made a scatterplot of length vs release date (rounded to month). It certainly looks like SOMEthing happened at the time of the release of Sgt Pepper (Late May / Early June, 1967.)  —  Chris