George Harrison, once known as the quiet Beatle, didn't break his vow of silence with that exact quote, but pretty close to it. The 54-year-old guitarist, who with his bandmates was once accused by Elvis of spurring the social unrest of the 1960s with "suggestive music," now has officially forgotten his youth and slammed the rock idols of a new generation.
In a new interview in the Paris magazine, Le Figaro, Harrison rips into the Beatlesque bad boys of Oasis, the easy-target Spice Girls and the previously thought untouchable U2.
Oasis, deigns the Taxman, is just "not very interesting." U2? Spice Girls? (Two groups most critics wouldn't mention in the same sentence for fear of offending U2's deified leader, Bono.) Same difference, in Harrison's book. In 30 years, he predicts, nobody will remember the Grammy-winning Irish rockers or the MTV-friendly bubblegum popsters. In fact, the way this ex-Beatle sees it, the only not-so-bad thing about, say, a U2 or Spice Girls music video is that "you can look at them and cut off the sound."
The timing of Harrison's remarks smack of sour grapes. He props up his band (a "group [that] has meaning and still lasts") at the expense of its contemporaries just as his native land is going ga-ga over Oasis. That group's new album, Be Here Now, sold some 356,000 copies its first week in British stores--making it the fastest-selling album ever in the United Kingdom. ("Ever" does indeed preclude any feat performed by the Beatles.)
U2 and the Spice Girls aren't doing shabbily, either. Bono and the boys are staging a triumphant return to their homeland this month, with shows in Dublin and Northern Ireland. The Spice Girls--critical featherweights though they are--have just wrapped their first movie, and been credited with helping keep the music industry in the black during a rough first half of 1997 with their best-selling debut album, Spice.
And for the record, while we're not taking bets that the Spice's "Wannabe" will still be considered relevant in 30 years, some of U2's hits ("New Year's Day," "Sunday Bloody Sunday," "Bad," "Pride") are already almost half-way there.
Okay, George?...Geez, hate to see what kind of mood you're in when you're 64.