【洛杉矶时报 20140209】媒体在1964年对甲壳虫乐队的评论

满仓

【中文标题】媒体在1964年对甲壳虫乐队的评论
【原文标题】What the critics wrote about the Beatles in 1964
【登载媒体】洛杉矶时报
【原文作者】Cary Schneider
【原文链接】http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-beatles-quotes-20140209,0,1146431.story#axzz2sikvqvZn


甲壳虫狂热席卷美国。


甲壳虫乐队在1964年2月7日抵达纽约肯尼迪机场，开始了他们的第一次美国巡回演出。从左至右：约翰•列侬、保罗•麦卡特尼、林戈•斯塔尔、乔治•哈里森。接下来的两个星期里，甲壳虫乐队席卷了美国，三次登上“艾德苏利文秀”（前两次为直播，第三次录播），在数千名狂热的歌迷前举办音乐会。到他们离开美国的时候，这个四人乐队已经成为世界上最著名的乐队，明星的定义永远改变了。


1964年2月7日，左起保罗•麦卡特尼、林戈•斯塔尔、乔治•哈林森和约翰•列侬在美国出席第一次新闻发布会。


1964年乐队第一次在美国印第安纳波利斯巡回演出时，一名年轻的狂热歌迷向甲壳虫乐队固守林戈•斯塔尔伸出手。


1964年2月7日，5000名尖叫的歌迷到纽约艾德威尔德机场（现肯尼迪机场）欢迎甲壳虫乐队，之后他们在机场和媒体见面。


甲壳虫乐队的照片，宣传他们第一次参加“艾德苏利文秀”。


1964年2月9日，哥伦比亚广播公司的台柱艾德•苏利文在彩排甲壳虫乐队第一次登陆美国的周日晚间综艺节目。


甲壳虫乐队与艾德•苏利文。


甲壳虫乐队与艾德•苏利文。甲壳虫乐队首次登上哥伦比亚广播公司的“艾德苏利文秀”是在2月9日，正值其50周年庆典。哥伦比亚广播公司在晚上8点现场直播“改变美国的夜晚：格莱美向甲壳虫致敬”节目。


1964年2月9日，甲壳虫乐队在哥伦比亚广播公司的“艾德苏利文秀”节目中表演。


这是DVD《四个历史性的“艾德苏利文秀”甲壳虫乐队节目》中的截图，约翰•列侬的头像下有一行字幕，写着：“女孩子们，抱歉，他已经结婚了。”列侬是当时唯一一个已婚的乐队成员。


1964年2月9日，甲壳虫乐队完成了他们在“艾德苏利文秀”上历史性的演出。


节目彩排期间，艾德•苏利文查看保罗•麦卡特尼的低音吉他。左边是乐队的经历布莱恩•爱泼斯坦。


1964年8月28日，《生活》杂志的封面是英国流行乐队甲壳虫的四人照，标题是“甲壳虫：他们又来了，准备好应对骚乱！”


15岁的保罗•麦卡特尼（左站立者）在1957年10月14日与Quarrymen乐队的首次演出。左起：柯林•汉顿（鼓手）、莱恩•加里（贝司手）、约翰•列侬（吉他手）、埃里克•格里芬斯（吉他手）。乐队的名字来自利物浦的Quarry Bank高中。


女人在利物浦山洞俱乐部观看甲壳虫乐队演出。


甲壳虫乐队1964年的首次美国之行。


两张甲壳虫乐队在好莱坞露天剧场音乐会的彩色门票，唤起了人们60年代的记忆。


1964年2月16日，甲壳虫乐队在迈阿密杜维勒酒店参加“艾德苏利文秀”的表演，这是他们第二次参加这个节目。


1964年2月11日，林戈•斯塔尔在华盛顿大剧院的首次现场音乐会上。


1966年8月28日，甲壳虫乐队在道奇体育馆的倒数第二次演出前，接受媒体的拍照。


1966年8月28日，甲壳虫乐队在道奇体育馆演出。


1964年8月，甲壳虫乐队在贝沙湾租赁公寓的草地上休息。


1963年甲壳虫乐队的照片。


甲壳虫乐队在1962年以首唱单曲《Love Me Do》打破了英国音乐榜纪录，在甲壳虫狂热席卷全球之下，他们即将改变流行音乐的进程。


Chris Ridges的收藏品，甲壳虫乐队人物塑像。


Chris Ridges的收藏品，甲壳虫乐队胸章。


1964年1月，甲壳虫乐队在首次前往美国之前，在巴黎一家摄影棚里与美国国旗合影。


今天，甲壳虫乐队在摇滚历史上占据了至高无上的位置。但是50年前，当他们第一次跨越大西洋来到美国时，媒体的反应却是鱼龙混杂。下面就是当时一些媒体的评论。


《洛杉矶时报》
1964年2月11日

留着怪异的发型，甲壳虫乐队明显是广告推销员搞出来的一个大杂烩。连他们的妈妈也不认为他们唱的歌好听，或许只有乱七八糟的发型让人们印象深刻。他们表现出像小猫一样的魅力更加让他们像——请允许我们直说——猿人。


《波士顿环球报》
1964年9月13日

我们毫不奇怪地看到《国家观察》的一片评论。普雷斯利强忍着看完了一期艾德苏利文秀节目……他认为在将来，艺人或许要和章鱼搏斗来取悦美国的听众。甲壳虫乐队并没有这么做，可是为什么有人期望他们真的可以和章鱼搏斗，并且忠心盼望章鱼可以获胜。

甲壳虫不仅仅是糟糕，如果有人敢说他们比糟糕透顶还强那么一点点，这人必然要遭受天谴。他们可怕得令人发指，旋律令人毛骨悚然，这是对音乐艺术的亵渎，我们可以给他们戴上“反音乐”的皇冠，就像假冒的教皇以“反教皇”的名义被载入史册。


《新闻周刊》
1964年2月24日

视觉上就是一场噩梦——爱德华七世时代的、花花公子般的紧身衣和爆炸头。听起来更像是一场灾难，吉他的鼓混合出残忍的噪音，连二流的节奏和旋律都算不上。至于歌词（总是夹杂着傻乎乎的喊声“yeah、yeah、yeah”），更是惨不忍睹，就像情人节卡片上浪漫语句的荒谬大杂烩。

目前音乐界的主要问题是，甲壳虫热会持续下去吗？借用另一个时代的语言，否极泰来，我们很难想象一个风光不再的甲壳虫，更难设想他们的才能还能在其它什么领域上得到发挥。所以必然的结果是，他们终将退出人们的视野，就像很多成熟的评论人士所预测的那样。但是演出届界的规则经常被打破，甲壳虫多年来积攒了不少的人气。总之他们最好还是给自己另找一个产业去发展吧。


《纽约时报》
1964年2月10日

甲壳虫的音乐简单来说就是无规律的嘶喊，没有一个清晰的发音传达出歌词的内容。

至少有两个理由可以解释甲壳虫火爆的原因。一位专业人士说：“我们颇有几年没见过白痴了，甲壳虫的特立独行可以让我们消耗一些过剩的精力。”

另一个理论是说，家长越忍耐自己的愤怒，孩子们的叫声就越大。


《芝加哥论坛报》
1964年2月29日

甲壳虫必然是一个大笑话、一个跳梁小丑、一个巨大的阴谋。如果他们在纽约真的一天就以2.98美元的价格卖出了2万顶假发，那么我想这的确是所有人的笑话，也是所有人的福利。


《国家杂志》
1964年3月2日

卡耐基音乐大厅里的气氛并不是真正的刺激带来的真实反应……大部分观众都是中高产阶级的年轻女士，他们装扮时髦、化妆精致，乘坐私家车或者公共汽车来度过一个充满嚎叫、发泄、碰撞和扭打的夜晚，让所有人看到他们在当局的纵容下狂欢的样子。他们早晚会回到家里和妈妈团聚，但现在的时间属于他们，这是他们安全、私密的狂欢时刻。


《科学新闻》
1964年2月29日

甲壳虫乐队延续了名人对公众的轰动效应，最著名的人物是40年代的弗兰克•辛纳屈（译者注：20世纪最重要的流行音乐人物）和50年代的猫王。随着年龄增长，他们已经无法造成年轻人的轰动；或者说崇拜他们的年轻人也已经逐渐长大，不再需要他们了。

我们可以预见同样的情况也适用于甲壳虫乐队。我们只能采用两种方式来应对：要么逆来顺受，要么放松享受。毕竟甲壳虫已经到来了。


《波士顿环球报》
1964年2月16日

别为甲壳虫操心了。只要你不关注它，它就会自己消失，几年后就再也没有人会提起……

年轻人们，享受你们的甲壳虫狂热吧。这死不了人，或许多年后当你找出他们的一张就唱片，或者偶然看到一张林戈留着平头的照片，可能会有会心的一笑。

利物浦神经病就像是中世纪爆发的传染病，定期横扫整个国家。

在最近一次的演出中，我们看到的是长长的头发、对旋律的亵渎、精神的高度亢奋和肢体的扭曲，古怪的口音不像是美国西南部，更像是摩西港口的人。

满耳朵都是“让我拉着你的手”、“yeah、yeah、yeah”。疾病正在高发期，但热度终将减退，病人今后一生都会对流行音乐免疫。


《华盛顿邮报》
1964年2月13日

想想甲壳虫就会让人头脑不正常，这个乐队和精神病有共同之处。尽管笨拙的举动不值一提，但附近的人们连续几天讨论的全都是他们的话题。


《洛杉矶时报》
1964年2月6日

甲壳虫席卷了全国，但他们欺骗不了Paul Petersen——Donna Reed的儿子。他在电视上说：“我觉得他们摧毁了年轻人的好志向。不断有成年人问我是否喜欢他们的音乐，我说不，他们说：‘那为什么我的孩子愿意花5美元去买他们的唱片？’或许他们还不知道，电台节目主持人已经把他们的小羊引入歧途。”


《纽约时报》
1964年2月10日

这些孩子们对我女儿起到的作用，绝不像弗兰克•辛纳屈对我的姐姐，猫王对我母亲起到的作用一样。

这个利物浦四人组合借用了每天早上电视中“袋鼠上尉”的发型，他们没有一点创新。为了彰显英国回归国际舞台的影响力，他们试图在欠发达地区用既有的方法重塑自身的形象。

他们利用媒体标题和苏利文先生来达成目的，这个人可真算得上是年度监护人。


《芝加哥论坛报》
1964年2月10日

我们认为，3B的音乐——巴赫、贝多芬、勃拉姆斯——绝对不需要担心甲壳虫，尽管猫王在昨天晚上也表达了他的祝福。




原文：

'Appallingly unmusical,' 'hirsute' and 'destined to fade away' — that pretty much sums up the general consensus

Beatlemania strikes the U.S.

The Beatles arrive at New York's Kennedy Airport on Feb. 7, 1964, for their first U.S. appearance. From left are John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison. Over the next two weeks, the Beatles stormed America, appearing on "The Ed Sullivan Show" three times (the first two live and the third on tape) and playing concerts in front of thousands of fervid fans. By the time they flew home, the Fab Four was the most famous band in the world, and the nature of celebrity had changed forever. (Associated Press /February 7, 1964)

Paul McCartney, left, Ringo Starr, George Harrison and John Lennon appear at their first American press conference, Feb. 7, 1964. (Dezo Hoffman / ABC  /January 27, 2014)

A young, passionate fan reaches for the Beatles drummer Ringo Starr in Indianapolis during the band's first U.S. tour, in 1964. (AP Wide World /December 17, 2004)

The Beatles face the media at Idlewile Airport (now JFK) in New York on Feb. 7, 1964, after a welcoming by a screaming crowd estimated at 5,000 people. (Charles Tasnadi / Associated Press  /February 7, 1964)

The Beatles, in a photo to promote their first visit on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

Longtime CBS mainstay Ed Sullivan rehearses his Sunday night television variety show with the Beatles in their first appearance in the United States, Feb. 9, 1964. (Edward T. Adams / Associated Press  /January 28, 2014)

The Beatles and Ed Sullivan. (CBS /January 28, 2014)

The Beatles with television host Ed Sullivan. The Beatles' first appearance on CBS' "The Ed Sullivan Show" is coming up on its 50-year anniversary on Feb. 9. To celebrate, CBS will air "The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to the Beatles," at 8 p.m. PST. (Copyright Apple Corp. Ltd.,  /January 27, 2004)

The Beatles perform on CBS' "The Ed Sullivan Show" in New York on Feb. 9, 1964. (Associated Press /February 9, 1964)

A frame-grab from the DVD "The Four Complete Historic Ed Sullivan Shows Featuring The Beatles" displays a title card over John Lennon reading "Sorry girls, he's married." Lennon was the only married Beatle at that time. (SOFA Entertainment Inc. /January 27, 2014)

The Beatles conclude their historic appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" on Feb. 9, 1964. (CBS /October 15, 2003)

Ed Sullivan holds Paul McCartney's bass guitar during a rehearsal. At left is the group's manager, Brian Epstein. (Apple Corps LTD., ABC /October 24, 1995)

The Aug. 28, 1964, issue of Life magazine features a portrait of British pop group The Beatles accompanied by the headline "The Beatles: They're here again and what a ruckus!" (John Loengard / Time Life Pictures / Getty Images /July 22, 2028)

15-year-old Paul McCartney, standing left, makes his debut public performance with the Quarrymen on Oct. 14, 1957, with, from left, Colin Hanton (drummer), Len Garry (standup bass), John Lennon (guitar) and Eric Griffiths (guitar). The band took its name from Quarry Bank High School in Liverpool. (EPA/STF /January 27, 2014)

Women watch the Beatles perform at the Cavern Club in Liverpool. (Kaye Peter / ABC  /January 27, 2014)

The Beatles during their first U.S. tour, in 1964. (Associated Press /January 1, 1964)

A pair of colorful tickets to a Beatles concert at the Hollywood Bowl provide a reminder of the times in the 1960s. (Los Angeles Times /November 4, 1995)

The Beatles perform on "The Ed Sullivan Show" from the Deauville Hotel in Miami, their second appearance on Sullivan's show, Feb. 16, 1964. (COPYRIGHT APPLE CORPS LTD. /January 27, 2014)

Ringo Starr rocks out at the Washington Coliseum during the band's first live U.S. concert, Feb. 11, 1964. (Dezo Hoffman /July 17, 1998)

The Beatles pose at their press conference before their penultimate live performance, at Dodger Stadium on Aug. 28, 1966. (Earl Leaf / Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images /December 31, 1969)

The Beatles play at Dodger Stadium on Aug. 28, 1966. (File photo  /January 28, 2014)

The Beatles relax on the lawn of their rented Bel-Air mansion in August 1964. (Larry Sharkey / Los Angeles Times /January 27, 2014)

The Beatles are all smiles in a 1963 photo. (CBS Television Network /October 7, 2002)

The Beatles broke through the U.K. music charts in 1962 with their debut single, "Love Me Do," and were to change the course of pop music and fashion for years to come as Beatlemania gripped the world. (AFP /January 1, 1962)

Beatles figurines, part of Chris Ridges' collection of Beatle Memorabilia. (Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times /January 28, 2014)

A Beatles button, part of Chris Ridges' collection of Beatle memorabilia. (Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times /November 3, 1995)

The Beatles pose with an American flag in a Paris photo studio before their first visit to the United States, in January 1964. (Associated Press / Copyright Applecorps Ltd. /December 15, 2000)

Today, the Beatles hold an exalted place in the history of rock 'n' roll. But 50 years ago, when they first crossed the Atlantic to perform in the United States, the reaction was decidedly mixed. Here is a sampling of what the critics were saying.

Los Angeles Times
Feb. 11, 1964

With their bizarre shrubbery, the Beatles are obviously a press agent's dream combo. Not even their mothers would claim that they sing well. But the hirsute thickets they affect make them rememberable, and they project a certain kittenish charm which drives the immature, shall we say, ape.

William F. Buckley Jr.
Boston Globe
Sept. 13, 1964

An estimable critic writing for National Review, after seeing Presley writhe his way through one of Ed Sullivan's shows … suggested that future entertainers would have to wrestle with live octopuses in order to entertain a mass American audience. The Beatles don't in fact do this, but how one wishes they did! And how this one wishes the octopus would win….

The Beatles are not merely awful; I would consider it sacrilegious to say anything less than that they are god awful. They are so unbelievably horribly, so appallingly unmusical, so dogmatically insensitive to the magic of the art that they qualify as crowned heads of anti-music, even as the imposter popes went down in history as "anti-popes."

Newsweek
Feb. 24, 1964

Visually they are a nightmare, tight, dandified Edwardian-Beatnik suits and great pudding bowls of hair. Musically they are a near disaster, guitars and drums slamming out a merciless beat that does away with secondary rhythms, harmony and melody. Their lyrics (punctuated by nutty shouts of "yeah, yeah, yeah") are a catastrophe, a preposterous farrago of Valentine-card romantic sentiments….

The big question in the music business at the moment is, will the Beatles last? The odds are that, in the words of another era, they're too hot not to cool down, and a cooled-down Beatle is hard to picture. It is also hard to imagine any other field in which they could apply their talents, and so the odds are that they will fade away, as most adults confidently predict. But the odds in show business have a way of being broken, and the Beatles have more showmanship than any group in years; they might just think up a new field for themselves. After all, they have done it already.

Theodore Strongin
New York Times
Feb. 10, 1964

The Beatles' vocal quality can be described as hoarsely incoherent, with the minimal enunciation necessary to communicate the schematic texts.

Two theories were offered in at least one household to explain the Beatles' popularity. The specialist said: "We haven't had an idol in a few years. The Beatles are different, and we have to get rid of our excess energy somehow."

The other theory is that the longer parents object with such high dudgeon, the longer children will squeal so hysterically.

Donald Freeman
Chicago Tribune
Feb. 29, 1964

The Beatles must be a huge joke, a wacky gag, a gigantic put-on. And if, as the fellow insisted on What's My Line?, they're selling 20,000 Beatle wigs a day in New York at $2.98 a shake — then I guess everyone wants to share the joke. And the profits.

Hartford Courant
Feb. 23, 1964
Stiff lip, old chap, even the Beatles will pass! The question is, what next?

Alan Rinzler
The Nation
March 2, 1964

The reaction at Carnegie Hall was not a real response to a real stimulus.... The full house was made up largely of upper-middle-class young ladies, stylishly dressed, carefully made up, brought into town by private cars or suburban buses for their night to howl, to let go, scream, bump, twist and clutch themselves ecstatically out there in the floodlights for everyone to see and with the full blessings of all authority; indulgent parents, profiteering businessmen, gleeful national media, even the police. Later they can all go home and grow up like their mommies, but this was their chance to attempt a very safe and very private kind of rapture.

Science Newsletter
Feb. 29, 1964

The Beatles follow a line of glamorous figures who aroused passionate cries and deep swoons. Most prominent in the 1940s was Frank Sinatra and in the 1950s Elvis Presley. Their glory passed when they got too old to be teenagers' idols or when teenagers got too old to need them.

The same, it is predicted, will happen to the Beatles. In the meantime, there are two ways to handle the situation: either grin and bear it or relax and enjoy it. For the Beatles are inevitable.

George McKinnon
Boston Globe
Feb. 16, 1964

Don't let the Beatles bother you. If you don't think about them, they will go away, and in a few more years they will probably be bald….

And teenagers, go ahead and enjoy your Beatlemania. It won't be fatal and will give you a lot of laughs a few years hence when you find one of their old records or come across a picture of Ringo in a crew cut.

The Liverpool lunacy is merely the 1964 version of a mild disease which periodically sweeps across the country as the plagues of the Middle Ages once did.

In its current manifestation it is characterized by an excessive hair growth, an inability to recognize melody, a highly emotional state with severe body twitches and a strange accent that is more American Southwest than Mersey dockside….

So now it's "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "yeah, yeah, yeah." The disease is at the height of its virulence, but the fever will subside and the victims may receive immunity for life from fads.

George Dixon
Washington Post
Feb. 13, 1964

Just thinking about the Beatles seems to induce mental disturbance. They have a commonplace, rather dull act that hardly seems to merit mentioning, yet people hereabouts have mentioned scarcely anything else for a couple of days.

Percy Shain
Boston Globe
Feb. 17, 1964

"They … sound like a group of disorganized amateurs whose voices seem to be fighting each other rather than blending…. If I call the act rank, I have a two-fold purpose in mind. For the word has two meanings — strong and disagreeable, and luxuriant growth.

Hedda Hopper
Los Angeles Times
Feb. 6, 1964

The Beatles have taken the rest of the country by storm, but they didn't fool Paul Petersen, Donna Reed's son on TV. "I can't stand them," he told me, "and I think they are helping destroy the teenagers' image. Adults keep asking me if I like them. When I say no, they ask, 'Then why does my kid pay $5 for their records?' Guess they don't know the disc jockeys are leading their little sheep astray."

Jack Gould
New York Times
Feb. 10, 1964

The boys hardly did for daughter what Elvis Presley did for her older sister or Frank Sinatra for mother.

The Liverpool quartet, borrowing the square hairdo used every morning on television by Captain Kangaroo, was composed of conservative conformists. In furthering Britain's comeback as an international influence, they followed established procedure for encouraging self-determination in underdeveloped areas.

In their two sets of numbers, they allowed the healing effect of group therapy to run its course under the discipline of Mr. Sullivan, the chaperon of the year.

Larry Wolters
Chicago Tribune
Feb. 10, 1964

We think the three B's of music — Bach, Beethoven and Brahms — have nothing really to fear from the Beatles, even though Presley wired them his blessing last night.

Pentium_5

抹不去的历史。
Beatles, an unbelieveable, unerasable and undeniable historic event.