You’ve got a nasty reputation

There seems to be an increasing tendency to rewrite history. In recent MOJOs we have read how Lennon and McCartney were not actually the best songwriters within The Beatles, but it turned out to be George Harrison [MOJO 341]. This was implied by your article (mainly on the back of the recent Get Back documentary, which was edited to show George in a particular light), and, of course, George did write some good songs. But good though he was, he was never on the same level as Lennon and McCartney.

Then we read how marvellous Karen Dalton was [MOJO 341]. The reality is she sold few records because her singing was total garbage. But the modern way is to proclaim that the person was merely far ahead of their time and/or misunderstood rather than to admit the truth. We then read similar things about Vashti Bunyan [MOJO 342]. She is slightly different to Dalton in that she was undoubtedly more musical, and even a bit listenable too. But the reason that her records did not sell well originally was because her singing and her songs were plainly bland – the easylistening style of folk music – and not anything that stood out from the crowd. I have no doubt that in about 50 years’ time someone will be reading what a brilliant singer XXXXXX (insert any one of a hundred modern “social media” “stars”, all of which have zero real talent) was, but did not get recognised as such in their own time. We know the truth now, but will those readers of the future know what to believe?