Part 1
David: So you don't like the Beatles, Chris, I'm shocked! Everyone of every generation likes the Beatles-at least something that the Beatles did-some of their quieter, more reflective tunes, some of the more angry, hard-rocking tunes, the older Beatles with those nice little pop songs, the later Beatles with those drug-induced hippie songs-you don't like them at all. Why is that, Christopher?
Chris: Well, personally I don't hate them, but I just think that they were way before my time. I think that was more of my mother's generation, as well as my father's generation. I give them credit-they did a lot during the Vietnam War with the whole "love movement," what is it, "Peace is not war," but, or, "Love is…" I don't know. I forget what they say.
David: "Give peace a chance." Chris: That's it. "Give peace a chance." Exactly. I thought that whole movement was fantastic, and we need more of that in society these days. More movements, more people getting together and fighting for what they believe in, instead of living under the corporate rule, as to say.
David: Okay, Malcolm X, that's enough. I want to know about your opinions of the Beatles. Mozart lived two hundred years before me. I think his music is just awesome, okay? The Yardbirds were before my time, they're my parents' generation, so are the Beatles. Any music that came before you being born is available. It's part of your repertoire of what you can listen to and enjoy. That's what I love about it, at our age. We can listen to everything that's being recorded now-the new Green Day, the new Orbital, the new Megadeth-but we can also listen to everything that came before it, all the music that gave birth to these new sounds that we're hearing, the sort of neo-punk sort of sound from Blink, and Sum 41. So you don't like the band because of their sound? Explain it, and is there a sound you prefer to the euphonious music of the Beatles?
Chris: I think more or less it's not really the sound, I think it's more or less the meaning of the music. I think that I personally enjoy hip-hop-a lot of people call it rap-but hip-hop is contrived of many aspects. Hip-hop I can relate to, it's how I live my day-to-day life, I guess. Well, it's not all about guns and violent-it's quite glamorized that it's all about violence-but really there's an underlying meaning to it. A lot of it is suffering, and it's a story of others. I think everybody suffers at one point in their life, but with the Beatles, I can't relate to them, and that's just I guess what makes it so that there's no connection between myself and the Beatles. David: The Beatles are writing music about being young and falling in love with girls. You can't relate to that, but you can relate to being shot at by the cops, being beaten up by the cops, and suffering. You, living in West Vancouver, [laughter] you relate to suffering, but you can't relate to simple songs about falling in love and seeing a girl on the dance floor and going "God, she's so beautiful, I'm dreaming about her." Chris: Well, I do have-I do listen to music under-following those lines of love and lust toward women. But we have a new type of music, I believe-rhythm and blues, R 'n B-which is more or less my generation and it's, I guess, more or less something I can relate to. Yeah, it's a hard question. I mean, I don't get shot at by the police every day, but I do get harassed by the police, I see a lot of people get harassed by the police, it's a common thing. I do live in West Van, it's more of a populace than the ghetto that you often hear of in the music, but it's not only about the ghetto. It's about overcoming obstacles, and the past paves the way of the future and makes who you are. David: So what do you listen to right now? In general, you like hip-hop, or rap, some other people have other names for it. I mean, I showed you those old-school beats, from way back, so I listen to that stuff. I pick and choose what I like, especially nowadays-there's some great hip-hop sounds.
