April 26, 2008

We know, already

Please explain why Amazon customers feel that Abbey Road needs 1,084 reviews. What do you have to add if you're the person putting that 1,084th one up?

That isn't the only album burdened with a plethora of reviews. Sgt. Peppers has 1,155, The White Album has 955, and even With the Beatles has 179.

Seriously, what's there to say? It's not like the reviews are old, either. The latest review for With... is five hours old as I type this.

Posted by Linkmeister at April 26, 2008 01:30 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Oh darlin', you're not getting this.

It's not the albums that are new, it's their constant discovery by new fans, fans that have just come upon something amazingly special to them that they need to talk about, even if they say the same things that people have been saying for over 40 years. It's that the music still MEANS so much to so many people, that it's so timeless, that we should be celebrating, not denigrating.

As I mention in my blog, the Riggs Residence is currently enmeshed in at least our third Beatles phase this year. Robin has just discovered over a dozen tapes of a radio show Macca did in the mid-'90s that neither of us had ever heard of before, and he's a major Beatles collector.

It just. Doesn't. Get. Old. No matter how old you and I may get. And I say, hurrah and more power to it!

Posted by: Elayne Riggs at April 26, 2008 05:53 PM

The reason I noticed was that I was using an Amazon GC to purchase a CD copy of Abbey Road. I'm not at all denigrating the music; I've been a Beatles fan since the first time I heard "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" on a Northern Virginia radio station in 1963.

I guess I'm just bemused by the need to add one's own voice to the other 1,000 reviews. Obviously nobody's gonna read them all to see if there's some new insight to be added, but still...

Posted by: Linkmeister at April 26, 2008 07:29 PM

The need to shout about the Beatles even if it's only to "hear" one's own "voice" never gets old. :) Granted, I rarely participate in any thread over 20 posts, but hey, I have a blog and a weekly column, and I can talk (and have done) about the Beatles any time I want. I think we might both be surprised at how many obsessives might actually read 1000-length threads...

Posted by: Elayne Riggs at April 27, 2008 11:08 AM

I should go see how many reviews Let It Bleed or Beggars Banquet have gotten. The Stones v. Beatles conflict may never have ended!

I did go look. It's not even close. Even Exile on Main Street only has 434 reviews.

Posted by: Linkmeister at April 27, 2008 11:42 AM