Sir Cliff slams Beatle Guitar solos

Latchy

From todays Daily Express

Sixties pop icon Sir Cliff Richard blasts The Beatles' guitar solos
By Mark Jefferies 02/02/2008

Showbiz pictures Sir Cliff Richard has slated The Beatles' guitar solos as "horrific".

The 60s pop icon told Q Magazine: "Some of the guitar is so out of tune it's unbelievable. I couldn't believe that here they were in this hi-tech age and they couldn't go back and do it with a tuned guitar."

Sir Cliff, 67, then claimed he was the ultimate pop star, saying: "I've sold more singles than...everybody." But it's the Beatles not Sir Cliff that US space agency NASA have picked to mark their 50th anniversary.

On Monday they are beaming the Fab Four's song Across The Universe to the North Star.


On a lot of Beatles stuff, particuarly the early albums the guitar work is very thinny and weak from Harrison and i think the pot smoking on thier late album session might have added to the list of errors but Sir Cliff is forgetting one thing

His records with the excetion of devil womon hardly charted in the states at all never mind as hits ,were as the Beatles Had dozens of no 1's hits there .

Hank marvin as lead guitarist with the beatles ? now that would have being somthing else :cool:

BumbleB

Bit Rich, coming from the guy who sang the most horrendous christmas song ever mistletoe and wine. Cheek of some folk !.

Mossy Monk

May I be the first to say Cliff Richards songs are ****. I would much prefer to listen to guitar solos from the fab four any day.

DublinWriter

latchyco wrote: »

The 60s pop icon told Q Magazine: "Some of the guitar is so out of tune it's unbelievable. I couldn't believe that here they were in this hi-tech age and they couldn't go back and do it with a tuned guitar."

This has crossed my mind many times. Listen to any of songs up to the Rubber Soul period and most of the middle-eight guitar-breaks (could hardly call them solos) sound awful.

Neither Harrison or Lennon were lead guitarists, but in fairness, Harrison really grew as a musician after the Beatles split.

Rigsby

Writing-wise Harrison was easily a match for L&Mc IMO, but I never cared much for his guitar style or tone at any stage. Having said that, it's a bit rich to hear it from (basically) a non musician like Richard, given that he is entitled to his opinion.

loyatemu

best beatles guitar solo is on Taxman, and that was (apparently) McCartney, despite it being a harrison-written song.

but they weren't a guitar solo type of band anyway - totally redundant criticism from Cliff.

D.L.R.

well thank christ we have sir cliff to protect us from sub-standard music :rolleyes:

funktastic

most guitar solos from any band sounded fairly tinny/crunchy up until 1965/66.

BumbleB

funktastic wrote: »

most guitar solos from any band sounded fairly tinny/crunchy up until 1965/66.

Thats definitelly true , the reason why?, Producers , producers have a huge impact on the actual finished record they make or break a recording , they actually tell musicians what works and doesn't work ,they eq the tracks producers will affect your guitar tone ,your drums etc. Rock n roll was a new sound and the producer( george martin) probably had no idea how to mic up an amplifier, he after all he came from the bbc special effects department . Listen to - are you experienced -hendrix thats a pretty raw recording too.

Bubs101

I think everyone knows that Octopus' Garden is not only their best song but also has their best guitar work

Rigsby

Bubs101 wrote: »

I think everyone knows that Octopus' Garden is not only their best song

Kevster

... ..."blasts"? ..."slams"? These are words that are overused in trash newspapers to turn something minute into something sensationalistic.

Beanstalk

To be fair, although i've no respect for cliff and his music whatsoever, early beatles guitar solos weren't that great, but as they developed their quality of guitar playing got way better...*awaits barrage of abuse*

Jerichoholic

Poor old Cliff is getting on a bit now, soon he'll be attacking the Beatles on how half of them are dead, and he's very much still alive and still having "hits".

What age is Cliff now? Must be about 34 ish.

DarkJager

I also recall him saying something like "I've sold more than anybody else" and he was validating his opinion on this. Well Cliff, a lot of people would take quality over quantity any day. I'm sure your legions of coffin dodging fans were cheering you on, but to everyone else, you've just re-inforced the steroetyped image that you are completely up your own arse and out of touch with reality.

Jerichoholic

Yeah, you don't see much demand for Cliff's old 50's albums getting the remastering treatment. Probably due to the outrageous album titles:

"Let's go to the movies girl (but first we'll go to mass)"

Latchy

He's obsessed with staying young instead of growing old disgracefully and he wasn't kidding when he sang ' batchelor boy until his dying day ' yet has always denied his homosexuality imo .

One would imagine anybody releasing a song today with that title would immediately be put into the gay/bisexual bracket

DarkJager

latchyco wrote: »

He's obsessed with staying young instead of growing old disgracefully and he wasn't kidding when he sang ' batchelor boy until his dying day ' yet has always denied his homosexuality imo .

One would imagine anybody releasing a song today with that title would immediately be put into the gay/bisexual bracket

So true...plus not many people know he released a rare collection of b-sides titled "When I come knocking at the back door". And what sort of straight man would be caught dead wearing fcukin cardigans????

Latchy

I think his biggest beef was never having a hit record over in the states .A bit strange to cuz if you look at that early 60s period (before beatlemaina) over there in the states, male sugary singers like cliff were in big demand and his catchy pop stuff like 'the young ones 'and 'summer holiday' would have appealed to that particular innocent amercian audience of the time .But he never took off

He charted with ' devil womon ' in the 70s but typical cliff took exception with the americans when they thought it was about a prostitute

Rigsby

Dont know (or care) much about Cliff, but I always thought (how wrong you can be :rolleyes:) he was a humble sort of a guy. In an interview he gave a few years ago, he said (about when he was being compared to Elvis back in the 60's) that he never considered himself anywhere close to being as good as him. Maybe the "grumpy old man" syndrome is starting to kick in these days.

Mr. Presentable

latchyco wrote: »

I think his biggest beef was never having a hit record over in the states .A bit strange to cuz if you look at that early 60s period (before beatlemaina) over there in the states, male sugary singers like cliff were in big demand and his catchy pop stuff like 'the young ones 'and 'summer holiday' would have appealed to that particular innocent amercian audience of the time .But he never took off

He charted with ' devil womon ' in the 70s but typical cliff took exception with the americans when they thought it was about a prostitute

He had several top 40 hits in the USA - Devil Woman went to number 6.

But on topic, he's entitled to his opinion, is he not? And, for all that you might deride him, he is a successfull professional musician and therefore better qualified than I suspect any of us here to criticise.

Rigsby

nipplenuts wrote: »

he is a successfull professional musician

Musician "Entertainer" would be closer to what he is IMO. He probably knows a few guitar chords alright.

Latchy

nipplenuts wrote: »

He had several top 40 hits in the USA - Devil Woman went to number 6.

But on topic, he's entitled to his opinion, is he not? And, for all that you might deride him, he is a successfull professional musician and therefore better qualified than I suspect any of us here to criticise.

Yeah top 40 indeed ,says it all .

I would rather go see the Shadows in concert .

Real muscians and Eirc Clapton and Pete Townsend have both said how big an influence Hank Marvin was on them .

Chardee MacDennis

can you say bitter!!!

BumbleB

latchyco wrote: »

Yeah top 40 indeed ,says it all .

I would rather go see the Shadows in concert .

Real muscians and Eirc Clapton and Pete Townsend have both said how big an influence Hank Marvin was on them .

And jimi hendrix believe it or not .

jazoo

im big beatles fan but have to agree with cliff.when the beatles where starting out the most accomplished guitarist was the youngest member george harrison the others could hardly play, they learned as they played which made them better musicans .its very noticable in the early guitar solos compared to revolver onwards . dont be knocking cliff hes heading for a come back, wait and see, cliff at glastonbury

Rigsby

jazoo wrote: »

im big beatles fan but have to agree with cliff.when the beatles where starting out the most accomplished guitarist was the youngest member george harrison the others could hardly play, they learned as they played which made them better musicans .its very noticable in the early guitar solos compared to revolver onwards . dont be knocking cliff hes heading for a come back, wait and see, cliff at glastonbury

As you can see from the posts above, most people agree with Cliff's opinions. My basic point was why come out with this now ? and it's a bit rich (ards ) coming from a non musician, though he is entitled to his opinion.

jazoo

he is trying to get some publicity for his come back thats probably why he chose to do the interview with q magazine...

Mr. Presentable

Rigsby wrote: »

As you can see from the posts above, most people agree with Cliff's opinions. My basic point was why come out with this now ? and it's a bit rich (ards ) coming from a non musician, though he is entitled to his opinion.

How would you qualify him as a musician, out of curiosity?

Rigsby

nipplenuts wrote: »

How would you qualify him as a musician, out of curiosity?

I dont consider him a musician at all, in the real sense of the word i.e. being able to write (as in score) music and being proficient on an instrument. I consider him(as I said above) as more of a singing entertainer. Though as I also said above I dont know much about him, so maybe I'm wrong. This is just how he appears to me.

Latchy

Cliff richard has had 50 years of sucess at the top as an entertainer but he had a good backing group in the shads on a lot of his british hits .They being accomlished musicisans themselfs . The opening guitar riffs on ' Move it ' from Hank Marvin and Jet Harris are exellent and brian bennet has to be one of the best unsung-drummers of the last 50 years ,so cliff has had a lot of help along the way .

Jay P

I read this last night actually just because I had seen this thread, found it quite laughable really. I personally have only heard of Cliff Richard, yet I am a great fan of the Beatles. I found it a bit funny that he was insulting one of the greatest bands ever, and he has no grounding in that type of music, ie. he has no knowlege in that field. They might say he was rock and roll, but that was the 50's. That is very different from 60's and 70'srock.