For all Beatle fans. For musicians that grew up with the Beatles and that want to aspire to their pop excellence. The Beatles set the standards of what can be done. They were the princes of pop. They set a new tone, a new social zeitgeist that defined our music and was acknowledged by their peers. They were and are continually honored by classical and jazz musicians that play their catalog of songs. Artists from Wes Montgomery to Jeff beck to Al De Miola have played Beatles songs on guitar. Countless classical musicians have paid respect to their brilliance by playing their repertoire. When I worked for The Moss Music Group, an American classical music company back in the 1980s, we had Ofra Harnoy, a beautiful young Canadian cellist, release an album of Beatles songs. The Beatles are and simply will be the genius musicians of our age.
This is my little contribution to their influence. A rough demo but a sincere gesture of my heartfelt warmth for the FAB FOUR.
I never knew what that song was. It seemed better than “Furniture Music” but not quite a pop song. Maybe it was a pop song for the future, not so much for the present. The dour forecast kind of works against the fun of it. It had a guitar opening, like "Rebel Rebel" had a guitar opening, but goes into an apocalyptic view of things, whereas Bowie was talking about strange kids in dance clubs. I think if Bill should redo "Panic in the World" he should change the lyrics. Bowie had a penchant for that Doom's Day thing too with Diamond Dogs where he talked about "rats the size of cats." But I can never tolerate it. Bill presents a sleek Dooms Day view but if he wanted a hit he should have kept it neutral: sing about hairstyles and kids in dance clubs. Because that's who's going to be buying it.