LINK: A vitriolic editorial about The Beatles that completely misses the point

Richard Freeman sent me a link to this mildly irritating editorial from The Daily Telegraph. It completely misses the point. The Beatles are historically and culturally significant, and it would have been idiotic to have a celebration of British culture without including them. We as a nation seem to be embarrassed about our heritage. A young relative of mine recently told me about what they were studying in English Literature. Shakespeare? No. Milton? No. Chaucer? No. It was a book of anti-war poems by Benjamin Zephaniah and a book of short stories about lesbians.

Now, I am not a pillar of the establishment. I am an anarchist, and one of my favourite bands is Crass, but it would be ludicrous to expect the powers that be to have presented Reality Asylum as one of the items in the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games, which - by the way - I thought was a disgusting waste of money and resources.

Why the British seem to do our best to forget our achievements I have no idea. We have given the world great art, great music and great literature. Of course, so have other countries, but can you imagine expecting the Swedish to forget Abba or the Americans to eschew Elvis? Don't be ridiculous.

And, to answer another one of the points raised in this mealy mouthed editorial. I, for one, still believe that whereas love may not be all you need, it is a damn good starting point.

Peace.



Why do we keep wheeling out the Beatles at any available opportunity? This year we closed the Olympics with the painfully drawn out strains of "Hey Jude" howled at us by an OAP. We gave the world the greatest show on earth; why did we end it like this? And now, to top it, we have a new musical to mark their 50th anniversary – it's 50 years today since the release of their first single.

Read on...