Quora: What is the best band with the worst individual members?

(Answered by Mike Bowerblank)

Assuming you mean “worst” in the “lacking individual talent” sense, then I offer this:

Producer: “Okay, so tell me about this rock band you discovered.”
Agent: “They sound amazing and they’re unlike anything you’ve ever heard.”
Producer: “Sounds terrific. Tell me about the lead singer.”
Agent: “He’s actually a drummer, but we moved him to lead vocal. He can’t really carry a tune, he has myopia and a learning disability, and he doesn’t enunciate his words and he lacks anything resembling eloquence.”
Producer: “Uh, and he’s the lead singer, you said?”
Agent: “Absolutely.”
Producer: “I assume he’s charismatic.”
Agent: “Does that mean tall, geeky, introverted, and enigmatic?”
Producer: “Not even close.”
Agent: “Then no.”
Producer: “What about the lead guitarist?”
Agent: “There isn’t one.”
Producer: “And this is a ROCK band, right?”
Agent: “They have a rhythm guitarist and he only knows three chords.”
Producer: “And you signed these guys?”
Agent: “On the spot. Their bass player writes amazing lyrics.”
Producer: “Oh, okay. He’s a poet, is he?”
Agent: “Not at all. His songs are about beating on kids, dysfunctional families, and mental disorders, and many of the songs sound fascist.”
Producer: “Please tell me I’m being Punk’d.”
Agent: “Kind of. We’re calling this new sound punk rock.”
Producer: “I can see why. Who’s the drummer?”
Agent: “He’s a producer, actually, he doesn’t even like drumming.”
Producer: “You’re so fired. Get out of my office and take those.. those…”
Agent: “Ramones.”
Producer: “Take those Ramones with you.”

All the Revelations in the New We Are the World Doc, from Waylon Jennings’ Exit to the Prince Solo That Never Was

(via People) by Rachel DeSantis

The new Netflix documentary The Greatest Night in Pop, featuring interviews with Lionel Richie, Bruce Springsteen and more, is streaming now

Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson and co. had one night only to nail their recording of “We Are the World” — and nail it they did, with the charity single becoming one of the most successful hits of all time.

On Jan. 28, 1985, A&M Studios in Los Angeles was a who’s who of music’s biggest stars, all of whom were gathered to record a song in support of African famine relief, specifically in Ethiopia.

Richie and Jackson wrote the track together, and it was produced by Quincy Jones, with everyone from Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Kenny Rogers, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Diana Ross, Willie Nelson, Ray Charles, Bette Midler lending their vocals to bring it to life…

Read more: https://people.com/we-are-the-world-documentary-revelations-from-waylon-jennings-exit-to-diana-ross-fangirling-over-daryl-hall-8548314

Quora: What Beatles Song Can Compete with Stairway to Heaven?

(answered by Steve Rapaport)

You should know by now that the Beatles did everything first.

The Beatles originally wrote Stairway to Heaven in 1964 and recorded it, but never released it. They gave it away to Robert Plant for his new band a few years later.

Here’s the original:

Quora: What is the “Norwegian Wood” Lyric Referring to in the Beatles Song of the Same Name?

(Answered by Ely Matawaran)

John Lennon, who was the main writer of the song with McCartney as co-writer, said to Playboy in 1980 that it was about an affair he was having:

“I always had some kind of affair going, so I was trying to be sophisticated in writing in such a smoke-screen way that you couldn’t tell.”

When asked about the title itself, he answered:

“I don’t know how the hell I got to ‘Norwegian Wood'”

Sir Paul McCartney:

“John told Playboy Magazine that he hadn’t the faintest idea where the title came from but I do.

“Peter Asher (of Peter and Gordon, brother of Jane Asher and roommate of McCartney in their house) had his room done out in a wood, a lot of people were then decorating their places in wood, Norwegian wood.

“It was pine really, cheap pine. But it’s not as good a title, “Cheap Pine, Baby”…

“So she makes him sleep in the bath and then finally in the last verse I had this idea to set the Norwegian wood on fire as revenge, so we did it very tongue in cheek.

“She led him on, then said, ‘You better sleep in the bath’.

“In our world, the guy had to have some sort of revenge. It could have meant I lit a fire to keep myself warm, and wasn’t the decor of her house wonderful?

“But it didn’t, it meant I burned the fucking place down as an act of revenge, and then we left it from there and went into the instrumental.”

NOTE: Norwegian Wood was a landmark recording being one of the first Western pop songs to feature the sitar, an Indian instrument played by George Harrison, which would soon become an integral part of psychedelic sound.

Quora: Which Artists/Bands Showed No Progression from Album to Album?

(answered by Don Stuart)

AC/DC is the poster child of no progression. 40 years, 17 albums. Nada.

There’s a reason: Malcolm and Angus, the two guitarists in AC/DC, had an older brother named George Young who was in a 60’s band called The Easybeats.

George and his friend Harry Vanda (both were guitarists too) wrote an international hit with that band called “Friday On My Mind.” It was one of the cooler songs of 1966–67. The Easybeats didn’t get big outside of Australia (where they were huge) but they eventually became underground rock legends.

George and Harry were helping young Malcolm get AC/DC rolling in the early 70’s. They produced most of their 70’s albums, and they remembered what worked for The Easybeats. Only this time there was Angus Young, their “baby brother” guitar prodigy.

They also remembered how The Easybeats got whipsawed chasing the fickle trends of 60’s rock.

As soon as AC/DC had the slightest success in Australia, it was “Nope.” George made them stick to the formula and refine it. The only time they deviated (slightly) was when they signed with gigantic Atlantic Records. The label made them dump George and Harry and brought in Mutt Lange to produce the album Highway to Hell. A little more polish, a little more success.

Then came the monster Back in Black album and the formula was perfected. Malcolm, the undisputed leader, booted Lange after one more album and never let the band change. With George minding the shop — it was always a family business.

Angus likes to joke that he’s been flogging the same guitar solo for 40 years. All the way to the bank, mate.

Postscript: Mutt Lange remembered the formula, too. Compare the boom-crack beat and quasi-rap in “Back in Black” with Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar On Me” — Lange’s next monster — and then “Any Man of Mine,” the breakout hit for Shania Twain — Lange’s ex-wife, and the best-selling woman in country music history.

Quora: What is the meaning of the song “Helter Skelter” by the Beatles?

(Answered by Ely Matawaran)

A very interesting question. Because this song had two meanings:

The first was the meaning according to Paul McCartney which we could consider its true meaning since he was the one wrote the song.

And second was the meaning that Charles Manson found in the song that we could consider its twisted meaning since it made him and his group to kill people.

First of all, the title:

‘Helter Skelter’ referred to a fairground ride mainly popular in Britain, in which people could climb the inside of a wooden tower and slide down a spiral ride on the outside.

Paul McCartney about the song:

“I was using the symbol of a helter skelter as a ride from the top to the bottom -the rise and fall of the Roman Empire – and this was the fall, the demise, the going down.

“You could have thought of it as a rather cute title but it’s since taken on all sorts of ominous overtones because Manson picked it up as an anthem, and since then quite a few punk bands have done it because it is a raunchy rocker.

Charles Manson:

“Helter Skelter means confusion. Literally, it doesn’t mean war with anyone. It doesn’t mean that those people are going to kill other people. It only means what it means.

“Helter Skelter is confusion. Confusion is coming down fast. If you don’t see confusion coming down fast, you can call it what you wish.

“It’s not my conspiracy. It is not my music. I hear what it relates. It says, ‘Rise!’. It says, ’Kill!’.

“ Why blame it on me? I didn’t write the music. I am not the person who projected it into social consciousness! “

John Lennon commented:

“I don’t know what Helter Skelter has to do with knifing anyone. I’ve never listened to it properly, it was just noise.”

Yes, John Lennon said ‘Helter Skelter’ was just noise, and you’d wonder why the melodic Paul wrote this raunchy track which had been described as a prototype for 1970s Heavy Metal Sound.

Paul McCartney:

“I was in Scotland and I read in Melody Maker that Pete Townshend had said: ‘We’ve just made the raunchiest, loudest, most ridiculous rock ‘n’ roll record you’ve ever heard’. I never actually found out what track that was that The Who had made, but that got me going; just hearing him talk about it.

“So I said to the guys,’I think we should do a song like that; something really wild’. And I wrote ‘Helter Skelter’.

“You can hear the voice cracking, and we played it so long and loud and so often that by the end of it you can hear Ringo saying, ‘I’ve got blisters on my fingers!’”

As John Lennon once said about himself and Paul, “Whatever they can do, we can do it better.” And in the case of Helter Skelter, louder and wilder.

They made it so loud and wild that unfortunately, other people like Charles Manson heard it differently.

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