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In late summer 2020, my guest Kyle Driscoll penned a wonderful analysis of the three 1970 releases by three artists whose paths had intertwined and who, as it happened, all found themselves at similar crossroads at the time. You can read it here (which I strongly urge you do) and then listen to the deeper discussion we had on these artists and their impact on each other’s work.
Discussion is okay but lacks anything in-depth about Eric Clapton. Great way to contextualize the late 19690s and early 1970s Rock music scene
but the episode lacked a balance in Clapton’s presence. Except for the sound bites of his music and the whipped Layla references. The interesting
segments were in the conversation surrounding Harrison’s falling out with Lennon during his 1974 tour of the US. Something they never repaired.
Good points were made by Rodriguez + Driscoll when speaking about McCartney and Lennon’s attitude toward Harrison as a songwriter. Yes, both basically
were governed by their songwriting egos that they could not see the difference between their weak and unresolved compositions, Maxwell Silver Hammer, I want you, Don’t let me down, I Dig a Pony, to Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, I, Me, Mine, Let it Roll, Art of Dying etc.. All Lennon and McCartney saw was themselves. It makes sense why class was not in session anymore after Beatle Paul left the classroom. Everyone was waiting for one of them to call it a day. Harrison was obviously bitter, which Rodriguez and Driscoll articulate very well. Unfortunately, Harrison held on to that bitterness till the day he died. Never having closure with McCartney or Lennon. McCartney will always be in complete denial towards his ego then and now. Lennon died not realizing he needed some serious therapy for his resentment towards women.
It is always interesting to hear Clapton play the blues. He does it so well and yet he was the reason why Rock Against Racism (RAR) was established in 1976 by British musicians. Clapton’s racist rant about middle eastern’s and blacks in England certainly contradicted his love for Black music which he profited from financially. People often speak their minds when they are drunk. For better or worse. Can’t wait til the next program.
Coming to this late obviously but just want to say, the nuances of the British class system – and I say this without condescension – are really difficult to explain to a non-British person and I hear or read a lot of erroneous American interpretation of it re the Beatles.
Much is made of John’s middle class status growing up in Mendips but the reality is that doesn’t really put him significantly above, say, Paul in terms of class. A bit higher, sure, but not a whole rung and Mimi would have been considered very much lower middle class and a world away – a very far world away – from the Ashers; there really is no comparison. To say one was lower middle class and the other upper middle class doesn’t describe the difference properly and makes it sound closer than the truth.