jadis

One of those "how the hell was it not a worldwide smash" singles

rostasi

I guess so. (I know very little about The Beatles).

Siouxsie, on the other hand, ...
"The Staircase (Mystery)" actually did chart pretty high when it came out -
even tho it didn't have the grab of something like "Hong Kong Garden" during that time.

DianneW

i think when the song came out it was too early for that era..come the the 90's then they made it...

rostasi

There was only about a 6 month difference between those singles in the late 70s and both were very popular in the clubs.
... and considering that something like 10 of about a dozen of their albums came out and charted before the 90's,
I don't know how it can be said that they were too early for their time (???)
Superstition and Rapture weren't all that great and they decided to hang it up after those.

Flip side of that single has that T-Rex song too.

rostasi

jadis

That's interesting, how does someone as knowledgeable as you achieve this?

I remember being vaguely turned off by their ubiquity and canonicity, but then many of the artists I liked paid tribute to them or referenced them etc that I had to take a closer look... To find out I absolutely love The White Album for example.


What I was trying to say is "it's so catchy to me that I feel like it should've been a Police-size New Wave smash". Not that this pointless counterfactual deserves any thought, I'm bored with it already.

Yeah I wouldn't bother with "one of the quintessential New Wave groups should've been active in the 90s instead"

jadis

This is as good as it gets for me. I treat myself to it occasionally.

rostasi

Well, I've never had a reason to buy any Beatles records - it's pretty
much the same with a lot of pop music (or "classic rock" as its been called)
and so I have nearly zilch knowledge of this stuff. I remember one time at a
concert where this kind of "new wave" cellist was playing wild versions of
classic rock stuff and my wife had to tell me later what they were. I just grew
up with more experimental stuff or maybe it was just less popular stuff -
Right now, I'm wearing a Laibach t-shirt, so I kinda know "Let It Be."

Funny that you mention that Fricsay/Bartók.
About 90 minutes ago, I was listening to Fricsay/Strauss from this:

rostasi

Consider these too:

(with Bartók on piano):

jadis

Wonderful Bartok recordings, thanks.

He was a superb pianist, there's a recording of him playing a few Scarlatti sonatas and you can really hear his elegance and precision of touch.

Re Beatles, I guess there are those who would say that for all their popularity they were important precisely for their experimentalism (within the confines of rock), as seen from stuff like Tomorrow Never Knows or certain tracks off the White Album... Not that it means everyone should listen to them obv! To each one's own.