Maybe Ringo Starr wasn’t actively having sex with teenagers. There are similar stories about David Bowie, Steven Tyler, Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop. Ted Nugent had himself appointed legal guardian of his 17-year-old girlfriend. Marvin Gaye met his second wife, a daughter of a friend, when she was 17, and he was reportedly singing directly to her when he recorded “ Let’s Get It On.” Jimmy Page once allegedly kidnapped a 14-year-old girl. In the ’70s, a whole lot of great musicians were regularly having sex with children, and nobody treated it like it was weird. If you have heroes, your heroes will end up being terrible fucking people. Maybe everyone in Alabama just wanted to take away Ringo Starr’s achievement.ĭon’t have heroes.
CNN host Chris Cuomo reacted with total disbelief, and the clip went lightly viral, just like so many other clips of right-wing pundits saying outrageous bullshit on news stations.īreitbart senior editor defends Judge Roy Moore citing Ringo Starr's hit cover of the song "You're Sixteen You're Beautiful (And You're Mine)" Įven running as a Republican in Alabama, Roy Moore lost. Pollak was trying to make the case for why that wasn’t such a big deal. At the time, Roy Moore was running for Senator, staying in the race even after multiple women came forward with stories about him dating children when he was an adult. That was Breitbart editor Joel Pollak, talking on CNN in 2017. Do you want to take away Ringo Starr’s achievement?” He was thirtysomething at the time, singing about a 16-year-old. “You know, in 1973, Ringo Starr hit #1 on the Billboard charts with the song ‘You’re Sixteen (You’re Beautiful, And You’re Mine),’ and it was a remake of an earlier song. Sure, they make points about economic realities and social hardship but the real focus of their anger is the loss to humanity, the snuffing out of that spark of life burning inside Liam.In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present. Around him, Loach and Laverty paint an all-too-credible portrait of modern-day Britain, with whole communities trapped in a dead-end existence. He's a cheeky, dignified, loving boy who is caught in a no man's land between a child's sense of fun and an adult's sense of burdensome responsibility. The Scottish teenager carries the movie like a veteran, drawing us right into the tragic heart of Liam's dilemma.
To this end, Sweet Sixteen is raised high by a storming debut from Martin Compston. That's why Loach is at his best with My Name Is Joe and Sweet Sixteen - the films aren't about issues, they're about people. Laverty is the perfect collaborator for Loach his politics are just as passionate, but his eye for character is tender and true, which helps soften the polemic. His observation of the difficulties facing working-class communities in areas of high unemployment brings heart to the drama in My Name Is Joe and Sweet Sixteen. His former career as a human rights lawyer in Nicaragua fuels the politics of Carla's Song and, indirectly, Bread And Roses.
Laverty's writing has given a distinctive voice to four of Loach's films in the past six years. But to think that somehow it all falls together without anything on the page is a misconception that was happily blown out of the water when Paul Laverty won the Best Screenplay award at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Granted, the authenticity of Loach's work is rooted in the performances of the non-professionals in his cast. Hands up if you believe Ken Loach films don't have scripts, that the actors just improvise dialogue as the camera rolls.