In defense of “All You Need Is Love”
Entertainment Weekly has picked their 50 best Beatles songs and worst five. And “All You Need Is Love” is … on the “worst” list. EW‘s take: “All You Need Is Love … which get [sic] repeated to the point of self-parody in this catchy but thoroughly maddening novelty song.” (I am not usually a siccer, but I’m happy to sic all over this statement.) Novelty song? Maybe “Octopus’s Garden”, “Yellow Submarine”, “Maxwell Silverhammer”, and “All Together Now” would fit in that category. But not “All You Need Is Love.” From the Wikpedia entry on the song:
“It was an inspired song and they really wanted to give the world a message,” said Brian Epstein. “The nice thing about it is that it cannot be misinterpreted. It is a clear message saying that love is everything.” Lennon was fascinated by the power of slogans to unite people and never afraid to create art out of propaganda. When asked in 1971 whether songs like “Give Peace a Chance” and “Power to the People” were propaganda songs, he answered, “Sure. So was ‘All You Need Is Love’. I’m a revolutionary artist. My art is dedicated to change.” Read the lyrics. More from Wikipedia: It was first performed by The Beatles on Our World, the first live global television link. Broadcast to 26 countries and watched by 400 million, the programme was broadcast via satellite on June 25, 1967. Check the video. These guys were heading up the army of good. To paraphrase Mojo Nixon, the writer or writers at EW apparently have no hippie in them.