Think that the lyrics to "You Can't Always Get What You Want" are "Heart Of Stone" reduced to platitudes and obfuscation, and the music is made relatively lame and unfocused by being stretched-out. And the whole thing has the gassy air of being an Important Statement that "Heart Of Stone" lacks. However, I could say that "Street Fighting Man" has an air of Importance as well, and other than that it has none of the faults of "You Can't Always Get What You Want." Wouldn't say it's as good as "Heart Of Stone" or "Under My Thumb" or "Back Street Girl" or "Complicated" or "Get Off Of My Cloud" or "Satisfaction" or "Jumping Jack Flash" or "She Said Yeah" or "The Last Time," but that's just because the riff and rhythm aren't as strong, not because it's going for importance. Of course, one thing that's going on is that the words to "Street Fighting Man" are deliberately undercutting the song's sound of world-important aggression.
So anyway, not sure that the striving for importance is destructive of importance in itself. Maybe there's the need to take shortcuts, to symbolize importance rather than to do something important?
Think that McCartney's late '60s attempts to be fun and silly and light were much more debilitating than Lennon's attempts to be politically serious.
So anyway, not sure that the striving for importance is destructive of importance in itself. Maybe there's the need to take shortcuts, to symbolize importance rather than to do something important?
Think that McCartney's late '60s attempts to be fun and silly and light were much more debilitating than Lennon's attempts to be politically serious.
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