Is it so wrong to not like The Beatles?

[jff]

Jesus.

 

If he had only been more popular.

[jakobnicholas]

Bottom line, would I call Beatles my favorite band. No. They don't hold that kind of connection with me. Is there anyone ever that can hold a torch to them. No freaking way. People are throwing around Dylan, Kinks, Van Morrison?. It isn't even close. I once watched a documentary talking about how Beatles songs seemed to have always exsisted, that they are that much in our subconscious. I ask anyone to really view the world of song and try to tell me how Dylan or Kinks songs exsist in the beautiful simplistic well crafted perfect melody of the Beatles world. I get it, I gravitate toward the Byrds, I LOVE Donovan and I appreciate the Kinks and Dylan. And Neil Young is my favorite. But cmon, The Beatles wrote instant perfection like they were taking a shower. It isn't even close.

 

 

Nice post.

 

I always liked the Beatles as a kid and loved listening to my Mom's red and blue Beatles albums. And later I bought some of the 1987 discs and really got into the White Album and Sgt. Peppers and Magical Mystery Tour. Over the next number of years I kind of branched off into all sorts of music that I loved. I re-discovered the Stones and convinced myself that Exile on Main Street alone might make the Stones better than the Beatles. Sometimes I might have argued R.E.M. was better. And Dinosaur Jr., Radiohead, the White Stripes, Wilco and Flaming Lips all impressed me with their creativity and there were times I might have convinced myself that some of those bands might be on the Beatles level. But I know that's all just silly.

 

I can get mesmerized by discs like Perfect From Now On, Aeroplane Over the Sea or the very new Mountain Goats disc. And I think most of the time, I'd reach for discs like that over the Beatles , because I find them to be emotionally powerful. But it's probably also 'cause I haven't heard those songs a thousand times like I've heard a lot of Beatles songs.

 

But getting reaquainted with the Beatles the past few months just really hit home for me how AMAZING they were. Some of their older material (I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Please Please Me, If I Fell, And I Love Her) sound overly simple and a little cheesy when compared to some modern music, but their such perfect pop songs. The leap of creativity from thier early days up to Sgt. Peppers, White Album and Abbey Road is astonishing. As great as their albums are, they had 20+ singles released....most of which are as good as anything on thier albums...songs like I Feel Fine, We Can Work it Out, Hey Jude.

 

Speaking of which, someone mentioned not "getting" Yesterday or Hey Jude. I'll admit both songs musically may be a little bland. But the lyrics are so simple and powerful to most. And Hey Jude, at the part after "better, better, better..."....when McCartney screams "YEAH!"...then goes into "na, na, na..."......if that doesn't give someone a boost of adrenalin, then that person ain't alive.

 

Many are bringing up Dylan. It's very hard for me to put him on the same level as the Beatles, because, well...it's JUST Dylan. I appreciate what a great musician he is, but with the Beatles we got to hear the writing of 4 songwriters. The partnership of Lennon and McCartney, who were opposite people in many ways, was so perfect. Either guy could have led a great band, but the fact they loved working together, I think took the Beatles to a whole other level. Add in Harrison's song-writing ability, Ringo's drumming skill, George Martin's arrangement skills and McCartney's unparalleled bass playing...wow! And the Beatles did their thing in 7 years. Dylan's had 40+ years.

[Oil Can Boyd]

There's an (apocryphal?) quote attributed to Dylan - saying condescendingly about the Jagger/Richards that he could write a "Satisfaction" if he wanted to, but they could never write a "Mr. Tamborine Man"...

Kind of off-topic, but I was just reading a recent interview with Dylan and he was asked about Stevie Wonder. He said "I could write a song like Superstition but I couldn't write one like Sir Duke."

[tugmoose]

I can remember when I was 3 in 1964 running around the house singing/shouting "Hold your hand, hold your hand!" And in 1967 when I saw my dad tapping his fingers to "All You Need Is Love," I knew the end was near. So I was around when it was happening, and just naturally assumed things would keep getting better and better and better . . .