The Beatles

[Alpe d'Huez]

Only liked a few Stones songs, never understood why they were so highly revered. They didn't have the depth in music that the Beatles did. not even close.

One thing I really do detest though is Beatlemania, or anything similar to it. The Clash were right on that one for sure.

Edit - Hugh caught one I didn't see. The Allman brothers, before Duane died, were incredible, and it's sad their music is almost forgotten by so many today.

 

[Runitout]

Okay, since politics and various topics are appropriate here, I thought I'd bring up one I hope will get people boiling with anger.

I cannot stand The Beatles. The only one with any talent was George Harrison, and that was minimal. Every year around Christmas I froth at the mouth when I hear that "Simply having a wonderful Christmas time" song by the most talentless of them, Sir Paul McCartney. John Lennon was self absorbed and not a very talented song writer. "Imagine" just isn't that great of a song. And Ringo? Please!

The White Album could be amusing when under the influence of certain substances, but all in all, I am just not a fan of their music. In fact, I listen most anything they wrote, and turn it off quickly. Especially anything done by Sir Paul McCartney. He is a real hack.

And you?

The entire Chemical Brothers ouvre and the bulk of the breakbeat dance movement of the 1990s was based upon the opening twenty seconds or so of Tomorrow Never Knows, on Revolver. They admitted it. Compare Dig Your Own Hole to Tomorrow Never Knows. It's uncanny.

Bob Dylan said that 'Something' is the greatest love song ever written.

I didn't 'get' the Beatles until I heard the half of Abbey Road that wasn't a single. I was blown away by how good it is. The trouble is, their music is such a part of the architecture of modern music, that you don't even realise that you're hearing a reference to it. In the same way, a modern reader/theatre goer reading/watching Hamlet would think it was full of hackneyed cliches, yet that was where the cliches were first penned.

I don't listen to the Beatles very much. From that era, I prefer the Kinks, Stones, Hendrix, Led Zep, Yardbirds, and countless others. I'd much rather hear 'Paint it Black' or 'Whole Lotta love' than 'She came in through the Bathroom Window'. But I respect what they were able to accomplish, and seismic effect they've had on the music that followed.

YMMV.

 

[Anonymous]

Paul mcCartney turned out to be an idiot, i'll give you that. But you simply can't dismiss these:
Ticket to ride:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn_kNeorDSk&feature=related
day tripper:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwmtNk_Yb2Q
Hide your love away:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNMhPQoEbJE
A hard day's night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQwwqajZXD8&feature=related
And on and on

congratulations.. all you have to do is add she loves you to that list and your found the worst beatles songs to use an as example..

for me, as already mentioned by someone, the B side of abbey road is amazing, most of the white album is superb, shes leaving home, ballad of john and joke, the tail end of the let it be album, and rain..

thought i still think band on the run rivals anything the beatles produced..

 

[Anonymous]

Well I am going out on a side note and I know there are more knowledgeable and experienced people in GB that can add comments. But IMOH the Beatles, the Stones, the Who are all distractions to the issues that gave seed to the anarchy that gave birth of punk.

i think a few people on here need to read the rock family tree, and then come back and tell us the beatles wherent inportant..

the beatles influence on modern culture
the beatles influence on recording technology

 

[HL2037]

congratulations.. all you have to do is add she loves you to that list and your found the worst beatles songs to use an as example..

Dimspace, I pity you for your bad taste in music, but because of your hat I forgive you.

 

[Anonymous]

Dimspace, I pity you for your bad taste in music, but because of your hat I forgive you.

i love the beatles, just those where some of the lamer, more cheesy songs you could have chosen..

compare them with this for example..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imb4tYOk8GE

 

[HL2037]

i love the beatles, just those where some of the lamer, more cheesy songs you could have chosen..

Says the guy who recommends "She's leaving home", the epitome of cheasy, complete with sobbing violins and all.

But let's not get into a fight, taste cannot be discussed.

 

[Runitout]

Says the guy who recommends "She's leaving home", the epitome of cheasy, complete with sobbing violins and all.

But let's not get into a fight, taste cannot be discussed.

See- this is the problem. They started out as a 'boy band', and by the time Rubber Soul came about, they were genuinely changing the face of popular music. There's a lot of crap in their early catalogue, though.

Of course, the same mawkish sentimentality that begat 'she loves you' was always going to find an outlet in their later work, given how prolific they were. That's why you have to sit through 'she's leaving home' if you want to hear 'a day in the life'. I can cope with the trade.

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

My favorite Beatles song:
Eleanor Rigby

 

[Anonymous]

pre beatles, record companies found their own artists and song writers. elvis, the beatles, bob dylan broke that system down... it was called tin pan ally in america. early beatles songs are in the form they are in, length, form, because that's what the record companies demanded.
when they quickly hit it big that all change. it put power in the hands of the actual artist.

It doesn't surprise me that you lean toward crappy pop that morphed into crappy hippy drug music. You sound like one

and your punk music was so drug free wasn't it...

and it was not crappy music.. i know music.. i play music.. i've studied music.. i'm a musician...

Music has always been in the hands of the artists if all they wanted to do was play music. If you wanted to get rich, then you played the game of the time. The Beatles did that. End of story. If their take-over of the music industry was so complete, why didn't it last? Why do the Rolling Bones...excuse me Stones put down their walkers and put out crappy CD's today? Not to mention the amount of Metamucial and Ben Gay they must have to use to keep a tour going...

And before the Beatles there was Elvis and Buddy Holley, and before them...No, music didn't start with the Beatles. Hell, you can trace aspects of this back to the Greeks if you want. It was crappy music. There are plenty of people who know, play, study, and are musicians that like crappy music. You are no different.

As for the drugs, all I can say is at least people like Jello were doing them for the real reason people do them, because they like the effect. They weren't trying to create some unrealistic utopia where everyone turned on, tuned in, and dropped out. "Hey man, we can change the world if we just get everyone high enough." Again, most of the bands you listed are boring displays of self indulgent, hedonistic narcissism masquerading as a "philosophy." Enjoy your crapathon of listening.

 

[Anonymous]

Love Omaha!!!! Skip Spence = genius. Sadly, Moby Grape died from sh*t management, endless litigation, and Matthew Katz.

But back to the thread... I'm ambivalent to The Beatles. Not the soundtrack of my life, to be sure. They were just too everywhere for my taste. They should be so proud too, they've finally made it to Vegas.

I need to digress again...
Canned Heat's On The Road Again brings back good times.
And Hendrix can do no wrong.
Mott the Hoople is another fave.
Saw The Clash open for the Sex Pistols (their last show before they broke up) at Winterland. Nothing but solid fun and fuzzy memories.
I'm also strangely drawn to the music of Dr. John.


But I guess that's what's great about music - and The Beatles - always something for everyone's taste.

...and Guitar Hero

 

[Anonymous]

congratulations.. all you have to do is add she loves you to that list and your found the worst beatles songs to use an as example..

for me, as already mentioned by someone, the B side of abbey road is amazing, most of the white album is superb, shes leaving home, ballad of john and joke, the tail end of the let it be album, and rain..

thought i still think band on the run rivals anything the beatles produced..

Okay, I will admit that once while on mescaline, I listened to The White Album and thought it was pretty funny.

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

Thoughtforfood, i understand you're not a beatles fan. But why this crusade?

Ofcourse they didn't make crappy music. Music that is liked by other people is not crappy.

 

[Anonymous]

In all honesty, I just started this thread because I was looking for a fight because sometimes I like to fight. I really don't like The Beatles. I really do believe they and The Stones are entirely too overhyped. I do however like some of the music from the late 60's/early 70's. The Allman Brothers, The Who, Velvet Underground (love them), Pink Floyd, and others are good music. Far superior to The Beatles and The Stones IMO. But the soundtrack of my life was REM (Life's Rich Pageant and before), The Minutemen, Butthole Surfers, DK, Fugazi, dinosaur jr, etc. I wouldn't walk across the street to see Paul McCartney or The Rolling Stones though. Just cannot stand the stuff.

I do accept however that varying taste in music if part of life, and that there are intelligent people who like them. I just don't and I thought it would be fun to see the response I would get from attacking a cultural icon.

Plus, I worked in a record store in my late teens. It made me a snob.

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

Ah, sounds more reasonable .

Like i said, i also prefer groups like Velvet undergroud/Pink Floyd/Doors/Kinks/Clapton/... over beatles & stones. But i don't believe my personal taste changes anything to the capacity of these two bands

Music is only good when people find it good. So when people like the music, it is good music (for those people).

 

[TheNJDevil]

I find it quite intriguing that formulaically, a good number of the Beatles songs are exactly the same. Most other bands in history that didn't vary the formula much didn't make it long term. The Beatles formula must have been the correct formula.

PS. A bunch of Michael Jackson's songs followed the Beatles successful formula.

 

[Anonymous]

I find it quite intriguing that formulaically, a good number of the Beatles songs are exactly the same. Most other bands in history that didn't vary the formula much didn't make it long term. The Beatles formula must have been the correct formula.

PS. A bunch of Michael Jackson's songs followed the Beatles successful formula.

I think you hit on one of the reasons I don't like them. I am not saying that I don't find some of their songs catchy or listenable, I just don't think they are amazing or anything, and there are many bands I like far better. I even think The Stones "Sticky Fingers" is a pretty good album (in fact "Can't you hear me knocking" is a fantastic song. Keith's solo is this strange bit of optimism that is pretty striking when you listen to the tone of the rest of the album. Good stuff, that I will grant you) I just don't like much else from them. There are spots for both bands where I hear good music, I just don't find that to be true across most their repertoire like many people do.

 

[Oldman]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby_Grape



THE BEAU BRUMMELS, another great San Francisco band.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beau_Brummels

Follow that all with a chaser of Quicksilver Messenger Service/Happy Trails. Saw it live and they could play. For the Brits: Ooooold Fleetwood Mac, Spencer Davis Group (Stevie Winwood was 16 years old!), John Mayall Blues Band.

 

[krebs303]

Hey hey we're the Monkees

 

[usedtobefast]

hung out with John Cipollina of Quicksilver back in the old days. his brother
Mario went on to play bass with Huey Lewis and The News.
i think Duke Ellington said it best about music. "if it sounds good, it is good".
being an emotional medium, it is totally a subjective thing. in my work i am involved with all kinds of music,and some i like more than others, but hearing
live music by anyone who can play is usually good.

 

[Oldman]

hung out with John Cipollina of Quicksilver back in the old days. his brother
Mario went on to play bass with Huey Lewis and The News.
i think Duke Ellington said it best about music. "if it sounds good, it is good".
being an emotional medium, it is totally a subjective thing. in my work i am involved with all kinds of music,and some i like more than others, but hearing
live music by anyone who can play is usually good.

If it can't be heard live, is it music? My musician friends have always been skeptical unless the music's creator can replicate a version for an audience.

 

[tifosa]

If it can't be heard live, is it music?

If it can be heard live, it's a performance; still it may or may not be music...

Reading everyone's responses has me thinking of other artists and songs:

Stones: Gimme Shelter (a masterpiece, along w/Can't You Hear Me Knockin')

Quicksilver: Who Do You Love (best guitar EVER - except for Keith's opening of Gimme Shelter); I love the every part of Fresh Air.

Led Zep: any song, for they could do no wrong - but if I had to pick, Going To California, for sentimental reasons.

Beatles: someone had mentioned this earlier - Eleanor Rigby (All the lonely people, where do they all belong? I will give McCartney all due credit for the best question ever set to music.

Chicago: Make Me Smile (before Peter Cetera made them all their songs touchy feely)

Clash: Clampdown (I fondly remember an entire night drinking, playing pool, and general carousing with Mick Jones and Dan Donovan at a club in Palo Alto after Big Audio Dynamite played). I was with the band.

Radiohead: Pyramid Song, Karma Police, and Everything In It's Right Place are perfection to my ears, and little pieces of musical genius.

Beck: Sea Change is his best, and saddest.

Hole: Hate Courtney Love the person, but loved that band. Doll Parts - Hollywood celebutante angst set to music. "I want to be the girl with the most cake" indeed.


There are just too many artists and songs that have provided key soundtracks and musical interludes in my life. Buy the ticket, take the ride (thanks, HST.) Life without music is life not well lived.

 

[usedtobefast]

If it can't be heard live, is it music? My musician friends have always been skeptical unless the music's creator can replicate a version for an audience.

studio recording is a whole different animal. i know guys that are amazing live players, but just get intimidated when the engineer hits record. studio work is
very demanding for a lot of reasons it is not better or worse than live music. just different. quite a bit different really.

 

[Hugh Januss]

Ok, so maybe we should circumvent the troll (sorry TFF, but in this case, if the shoe fits...) and turn this into what's your favorite track. Live if possible, captured on video if possible. I'll start with one of mine....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQsAxHk54x4
Lets see what you got.

 

[HL2037]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8juCMy16LzQ