Opinions and perspectives,
most everyone of interest bearing one, represent the accumulated, deliberated,
or totally impetuous, personal reactions to events, artistic works, and all
other human exercise of thought and deed.
Today I bring to you an
example of such exercise of perspective from the drawer of historical general
irrelevance (though perhaps relevant to some).
In other words, I offer a
review of reviews.
In June of nineteen-sixty-seven
the Beatles released “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”.
The following is a partial review of the album followed by a review of the review which I then will review…
New York Times, Richard Goldstein (June 18, 1967)
“The sound is a pastiche
of dissonance and lushness. The mood is
mellow, even nostalgic. But, like the cover, the over-all effect is busy, hip
and cluttered. Like an over-attended child, ‘Sergeant Pepper’ is spoiled. It
reeks of horns and harps, harmonica quartets, assorted animal noises and a
41-piece orchestra; on at least one cut, the Beatles are not heard at all
instrumentally.”
Esquire,
Robert Christgau (review written in December 1967)
“Sgt. Pepper is a
consolidation, more intricate than Revolver but not more substantial. Part of
[Richard] Goldstein’s mistake, I think, has been to allow all the filters and
reverbs and orchestral effects and overdubs to deafen him to the stuff
underneath, which was pretty nice, and to fall victim to over-anticipation.
Although Goldstein still insists he was right, I attribute his review to a
failure of nerve.”
Mike Settles
The five months the
Beatles worked on the album before its release should have alerted the
consumer, radio DJ, and reviewer that this album was not to be a usual release
but an unprecedented musical adventure pushing rock music and the Beatles’ own personal
and collective creative expression to a relatively unrestrained crest.
I think what Goldstein
describes as an over attended child really was the freedom to experiment
without the conventional restraints of monetary budgets and recording company
policy.
Christgau describes
Goldstein as having fallen “victim to over-anticipation”.
One critic criticizing
another critic; though I think Christgau was right.
For sure I am not picking
on Goldstein. Though I disagree with his review of the album, I love the words
and imagery by which he derided the album.
Goldstein had once described
the voice of Nico (Christa Paffgen) with the following words…
“She sings in perfect
mellow ovals, like a cello getting up in the morning.”
You can deliberate upon
your own perspective of Nico’s vocal qualities by listening to “I’ll Be Your
Mirror” at the following Youtube link”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZudHYTya-dQ&list=RDZudHYTya-dQ&start_radio=1
