The other day I was in a Walgreens here in Florida and quite suddenly my ears caught a remake of the 1965 Beatles song, It’s Only Love.
I thought, how nice it is to hear the younger generation give the nod to the classics.
It would be like Jack Kerouac beating out a Shakespearean quote. Or Shakespeare sonneting Chaucer. Or Chaucer … Well, you get the picture.
I opened my mouth to voicelessly—and inconspicuously—sing along with the singer. “It’s only lo…”
The singer—gasp—messed up the lyrics. He didn’t know the lyrics to the song he was remaking.
No. It was something far worse. He didn’t know he was doing a remake of a classic.
This new song itself isn’t bad and the part in question appears to be just a bridge or mini-chorus. It has a catchy synthesizer riff that makes the song memorable without needing to plagiarize.
I have no idea who sings the song or what it is called—at my age (42) it would be downright embarrassing to know that—but if you are 20 and have never heard of the Beatles, lend me your ears and I’ll play you the chorus of It’s Only Love. Brace yourself: you’ll instantly shout, “Those rascally Beatles stole that from so-and-so!”
Only, barring the slim possibility the Beatles possessed time travel abilities, it was the other way around.
(Here is a very well-done cover of the song. Listen to the chorus.)
George Harrison, of course, had a similar problem. My Sweet Lord rips He’s So Fine. And honestly, his indiscretion was much worse. He didn’t have the youth excuse. He should have known better.
