Quincy Jones Interview

I thought he sounded a little senile in this interview, but you have to appreciate his brutal honesty. I didn't much care for the Beatles earler hits like "Do you want to know a secret" and "I want to hold your hand", but once I heard them cover "Twist & Shout", I was hooked. You have to give George Martin some credit for upping their game.

You have to compare early Beatles to what was going on at the time, and as a band in the early days they had honed themselves into a kick ass live act by playing out in clubs (Hamburg). Not everybody, when given good production and opportunity, comes up with good music. The Beatles not only had natural excellent vocal abilities and an ear for actually wanting a certain blend, they had the ability to use the resources of George Martin's production to get their ideas out there and by Rubber Soul they pretty much left everyone else in the dust. Note that Martin produced other people that went nowhere. It's sort of a little too late to criticize the Beatle's impact on music, or at least the relevancy of what I consider to be timeless stuff (I listen to Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Sgt. Pepper and other Beatle stuff still…and it's astonishingly hip and clearly holds up). Regarding the Monkees,  they initially weren't supposed to be much more than a funny (questionable) rip off of the Beatles, and utilized the best musicians, songwriters, and production to get the music out. That's why some of it is good, pretty much having zero to do with them personally although some musical talent did exist. Note that when a new Beatle album came out in the 60s the world sort of stopped…I remember hearing "Im Looking Through You" for the first time on my tiny car radio in a parking lot someplace…couldn't drive unit it was over, and just sat there stunned…do people get that sort of buzz from Taylor Swift or Ed Sheerhan? Maybe they do, but doubtful.

Q stopped being relevant to me when he 4ever linked himself at the hip to MJ.  This interview read like the ramblings of a stoned out old goober!

Great comments by bdp24. I agree, except that I think the opinion of someone who has been such a force in the music INDUSTRY is relevant if only to explain some of the seemingly unexplainable. What I think is being missed here, and is obvious to me from his comments, is the reality of the corrupting power of that kind of success and wealth and of being part of the ENTERTAINMENT elite. It takes a special personality to remain grounded and not lose touch with the basics of what it is to be an artist. In most respects what happens in the upper echelons of the pop music world is no different from what happens in Hollywood; it is a breeding ground for overblown egos and self-aggrandizement. For me the most interesting thing in his comments was his focus on and criticisms of the musicianship of The Beatles, Hendrix and others. Q is an extremely talented producer/arranger without a doubt, but he was a very mediocre section trumpet player who found his niche as an orchestrator while in Basie’s band. I know and have known so many orchestrators who when hanging out with the players on a session or rehearsal like nothing more than to “talk shop” with the musicians who play whatever their own instrument was when they were getting started in the business. Deep inside some of them are frustrated instrumentalists.