Michael Howe

"We were driving through Colorado [and] we had the radio on and eight of the Top Ten songs were Beatles songs. In Colorado! 'I Want to Hold Your Hand,' all those early ones. "They were doing things nobody was doing. Their chords were outrageous, just outrageous, and their harmonies made it all valid . . . but I kept it to myself that I really dug them. Everybody else thought they were for the teenyboppers, that they were gonna pass right away. But it was obvious to me that they had staying power. I knew they were pointing the direction where music had to go. "In my head, the Beatles were it. It seemed to me a definite line was being drawn. This was something that never happened before . . . "They were fantastic singers. To this day, it's hard to find a singer better than Lennon was, or than McCartney was and still is. I'm in awe of McCartney. He's about the only one that I'm in awe of. He can do it all. And he's never let up. He's got the gift for melody, he's got the gift for rhythm, he can play any instrument. He can scream and shout as good as anyone, and he can sing a ballad as good as anyone. And his melodies are effortless, that's what you have to be in awe of . . . he's just so damn effortless. I just wish he'd quit [laughs]. Everything that comes out of his mouth is just framed in melody. "As for Lennon . . . John has taken poetics pretty far in popular music. A lot of his work is overlooked, but if you examine it, you’ll find key expressions that have never been said before to push across his point of view. Things that are symbolic of some inner reality and probably will never be said again. "America should put statues up to the Beatles. They helped give this country’s pride back to it. I think they're the best." --#BobDylan #Dylan #Songwriter #Author #Icon #Influence #Pulitzer #NobelPrize #Oscars #HallOfFame #Beatles #TheBeatles #Impact #Singers #GOATs Sources: Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock 'n' Roll; Rolling Stone magazine, 2007; Playboy, 1978; Down The Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan, Howard Sounes