Quincy Jones Interview

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.

I was at a party in the early 70s after working on a Delaney and Bonnie show in Honolulu. Delaney wound up sitting next to me and we talked for a long time about stuff…amazing guy…he said he thought Ringo was the best rock and roll drummer in music, period, and he'd recently been hanging around with the English dudes. I thought that was pretty cool, although hey…those sort of statements are taken with a grain of salt of course, but to say that the Beatles weren't good musicians is ridiculous…I've been a professional musician for 50 years and remain astonished by Beatles music, and I mix live concerts with the best musicians on the planet. John wrote songs that still resonate everywhere and although he couldn't play like John Scofield or Joe Pass, who cares really? Get the Hollywood Bowl concert recording re-mix and ask yourself if they play well during incessant screaming (did they have monitors? I wonder)…they did play beautifully, utterly kick ass, and that's sort of what defined them in the early years. Jazz geniuses often perform Beatles stuff because it's simply great music, and if people don't agree with that I don't think it matters.