Beatles
The Beatles have sold more than a billion albums and been consistently hailed as the greatest band of time, inspiring stoners everywhere to create their own musical masterpieces. Thanks for that.
Just The Facts
- The Beatles were a British rock group formed in Liverpool in 1960.
- The Beatles were comprised of four members, John Lennon (on rhythm guitar and vocals), Paul McCartney (on bass and vocals), George Harrison (on lead guitar and vocals), and Ringo Starr (on schnozz)
- Despite breaking up in 1970, the Beatles remain one of rock's most successful and critically acclaimed groups ever. Most people, especially your dad, will call them the greatest band of all time. You will argue, and lose.
In the Beginning
The Beatles began as a Liverpool skiffle band (skiffle being British slang for "suck") formed by John Lennon (and known as the Quarrymen). Eventually a young Paul McCartney, followed by an already world-weary George Harrison, joined the group, before heading to Germany to hone their skills at multiple clubs in the Reeperbahn, a Hamburg street notorious for drunken brawls and prostitution.
Skiffle was supplanted by that newfangled rock and roll, and the band was on their way. Pete Best was recruited as their drummer, only to gain fame as a punchline by being fired right before the band made it big. After Harrison was sent back to England for being underage, McCartney and Best were deported for nailing a condom to their door and setting it on fire, officially making for the best deportation story ever.
Professional badasses.
Rise to Fame
After returning to England, the Beatles teemed up with manager Brian Epstein, a man best described as "straight as a broken arrow." While Epstein was struck by the group's raw charisma - in his pants - they weren't an easy sell. When Epstein attempted to sign the band with Decca Records, the label dismissed him by declaring "guitar groups" to be on the way out. Decca later passed on Led Zeppelin, Starbucks, and the Internet.
"I'm sorry Mr.Gore, but the information super-highway is on its way out."
Thanks to their relentless drive, limitless talent, and being, as some critics have put it, "pretty easy on the eyes," the Beatles were on their way to the big leagues. Epstein's careful management played on the band's distinct personalities; John was the "smart" one Paul was the "cute" one, George was the "quiet" one, and Ringo was the hard-partying, fast-living, musical prodigy.
With their first album Please Please Me, the Beatles scored a number one and sparked the fad known as Beatlemania. Despite getting a lot of critique for their "long hair," the Beatles were one of the first "teen" crazes, and were beloved by young girls around the world; they were basically the 1964 equivalent of Zac Efron.
The similarites are uncanny.
By 1964, with the release of A Hard Day's Night, the Beatles had already conquered both the U.K. and the U.S. It was a record-breaking appearance on the Ed Sullivan show that sealed the deal, with almost half of America tuning in to watch, making it nearly as popular as the Jon and Kate divorce special.
While their original sound was a loose pastiche of American R&B, the Beatles were working towards a more unique mix of American and British influences. Albums like Rubber Soul and Revolver challenged the authorities at the time by singing about fast cars, girls with long brown hair, and stalking your girlfriend ("You Better Run"). Simpler times. But by 1966, the pressure of touring became too much, and the concert at Candlestick Park was the last time the Beatles would play a concert venue together.
At the Top
By the mid 1960s, the Beatles had it all. Fame, fortune, critical acclaim, but there was one thing they were lacking - silly moustaches.
Everything is better with moustaches
And so, in 1967, under the influence of John Lennon's moustache hair, and copious hallucinogenics, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was born. Well, not born so much as "imagined" during an LSD trip and then somehow recorded. Depending on who you're talking to, Sgt. Pepper is the greatest album ever recorded or, if you're talking to a jaded hipster with a superiority complex, the moment pop music became "art," man.
Songs like "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" and "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" were anthems of the oncoming Psychedelic movement. Check out other famous works made by people hopped up on goofballs at The 5 Greatest Things Ever Accomplished While High.
These people made the greatest album of all time. While stoned out of their minds.
But the band was already starting to fray. By the release of Magical Mystery Tour, psychedelia was fading in popularity. Later efforts like The White Album and Abbey Road showed the group to be more of a loose collection of musicians than the tightly-knit band they once were. After the release of Let it Be in 1970, the Beatles were at an impasse.
The Legacy
By 1970, irreconcilable differences, and the lack of moustaches, had become too much for the band, and the Beatles split up. John Lennon had a successful solo career before being shot by a crazy person, Paul McCartney released several high-charting albums and formed Wings, before donating half of his money to a noble cause - divorce.
If those crazy kids can't make it work, who can?
George Harrison also had a successful career, while Ringo dabbled in acting. Although the Beatles broke up nearly four decades ago, Rolling Stone recently named Sgt. Pepper as the greatest album of all time, further proof that Rolling Stone wouldn't know current music if they were attacked with a copy of I Am…Sasha Fierce.
Whether or not the Beatles earned the title of "world's greatest band" is debatable. But, in less than a decade, they produced some of the greatest songs ever written. And, with over a billion albums sold…they still don't have the biggest selling album of all time. Fuck you, Glenn Frey.
I think the Beatles were great, like most people, and Sgt. Pepper's is the best album I've ever heard, really, no exageration, with The Smiths's The Queen is Dead, and The Cure's Disintegration, I can just listen those three row by row and I would love every minute (maybe throw a 69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields, to make it longer). But I think that most people exagerate about them. I mean, yeah, sure, they were pretty influential, freaking great, but most people would cut themselves and strip their clothes to defend them to death, if one says something like "Yeah, Revolution 9 is haunting, it really gives me the creeps".
ReplyAll excellent albums.
a decent band? yes, influentail ?duh, most overrated band ever? no doubt about it
Reply Hide All See All 30 Repliesgood article
What a total ignorant inaccurate comment!
As The All Music Guide says in their excellent Beatles biography "That it's difficult to summarize their career without restating cliches that have already been digested by tens of millions of rock fans, to start with the obvious,they were the greatest and most influential act of the rock era and introduced more innovations into popular music than any other rock band of the 20th century."
"Moreover they were among the few artists of *any* discipline that were simultaneously the best at what they did *and* the most popular at what they did." They also say as singers John Lennon and Paul McCartney were among the best and most expressive in rock.
Also on an excellent site,The Evolution of Rock Bass Playing McCartney Style by Dennnis Alstrand,Stanley Clarke,Sting,Will Lee,Billy Sheehan,George Martin and John Lennon are quoted saying what a great,melodic and influential bass player Paul has always been'
And Wilco's John Stirratt was asked in Bass Player which bass players have had the most impact on his playing and the first thing he said was, Paul McCartney is one of the greatest bass players of all time,if you listen to what he was tracking live in the studio it's unbelievable." "With his tone and musicality he was a huge influence,he covered all of his harmonic responsibilities really well but his baselines were absolutely melodic and inventive."
And in an online 1977 Eric Clapton interview,Eric Clapton In His Own Words he says that there was always this guitar game between John and George,and he said partly because John was a pretty good guitar player himself.He played live with John as a member of John's 1969 Plastic Ono Band.
And there is a great online article by musician and song writer Peter Cross,The Beatles Are The Most Creative Band Of All Time and he says that many musicians besides him recognize Paul as one of the best bass guitar players ever.He too says that John and Paul are the greatest song composers and that to say that John and Paul are among 2 of the greatest singers in rock and roll is to state the obvious,and that John,Paul and George were all excellent guitarists and that George is underrated by people not educated about music but that ERic Clapton knew better,he also says that both John and Paul played great leads as well as innovative rhythm tracks.
John Lennon co-wrote,sang and played guitar on one of David Bowie's first hits Fame in 1975 and David invited John to play guitar on his version of John's beautiful Beatles song Across The Universe.Brain May,Ozzy Osbourne,and Liam Gallagher and many more call The Beatles The Greatest Band Ever.
Also on MusicRadar Tom Petty,Joe Perry and Richie Sambora in What The Beatles Mean To Me all say how cool and great they thought The Beatles were when they first saw them on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964 when they were just teen boys,Richie was only 5.Tom Petty said he thought they were really really great.
Robin Zander of Cheap Trick said he's probably one of the biggest Beatles fans on the planet.Brad Whitford of Aerosmith said that a lot of that Beatles influence comes from Steven Tyler's collaborartion with Mark Hudson both whom are absolute Beatles freaks and he said I guess the goal is to try and emulate probably some of the best music of the last 50 years which has to be The Beatles.
Also in an excellent Beatles book Ticket To Ride by Denny Somach where so many other well known popular respected rock musicians and artists are interviewed about The Beatles praising them including Jimmy Page,Brian Wilson who says he's always loved The Beatles. And Brian Wilson called John & Paul the greatest song writers of the 20th century on a 1995 Nightline Beatles tribute show,(which had on music artists from every type of music,a young black jazz musician,a middle aged black opera singer,Steve Winwood,Meatloaf,and classical violnist Isak Perleman,who said he plays his children Bach,Beethoven Mozart and The Beatles)and he played With A Little Help From My Friends on the piano and he said he just loves this song. He also said that Sgt.Pepper is the greatest album he ever heard and The All Music Guide says in their Beach Boys biography,that Brian had a nerveous breakdown after he heard it. Brian also said that when he first heard The Beatles brilliant 1965 folk rock album Rubber Soul he was blown away by it.He said all of the songs flowed together and it was pop music but folk rock at the same time and he couldn't believe they did this so great,this inspired him to make Pet Sounds.
John Lodge and Justin of The Moody Blues are interviewed in this book and Bill Wyman and Ron Wood says how The Rolling Stones became good friends with The Beatles in 1963 after John and Paul wrote 1 of their first hits,the Rock n Roll song,I Wanna Be You're Man.
Ron Wood was asked what his favorite Beatles songs and he said there are so many apart from the obvious like Strawberry Fields I Want To Hold Your Hand is one he said he used to like a lot ,and he said he really loved We Can Work It Out.He also says that The Beatles used to have a radio show every Friday where they played live and spoke and he would never miss an episode. He said infact whoever has the rights to those shows should dig them up,because they are incredible.
Justin Hayward says that the album he always really loved ,and he said it was when they started experimenting with chord structures ,was A Hard Day's Night.He says they began to move away from the standard 3 chord thing and just went into more interesting structures .He said A Hard Day's Night was the album for him and their song If I Fell was the song.He said it started in a different key to how it ended up,and it's a beautifully worked out song and that there are some songs on that album that were very emotinal and evocative. He said that for everybody just starting to write songs as he was,it was a real turn on and eye opener.
And George Martin himself said in an online interview I found around 2002 said that he has worked with many different music artists but that he has never known or worked with anyone as brilliant as The Beatles!
In his biography All You Need Is Ears refutes he that he was the one who had most to do with The Beatles music. He admits most of the ideas came from them.
And if anyone ever reads the excellent book,The Beatles Recording Sessions by Mark Lewisohn which is a very detailed music diary of of every recording session in their amazing only 8 year career, which has interviews with their recording engineers,tape operators,George Martin quotes,and a very good interview with Paul in the beginning,they would see how truly creative,and innovative especially John and Paul were in the recording studio and that most of these great musicial ideas came from them.
George Martin was also once inerviewed on a rock station Beatles program and he said what is clearly obvious and true, John Lennon and Paul McCartney were incredibly talented people(and he said it like he still couldn't belive it.), they both were extrodinarily talented song composers and great singers.And notice how Ringo working with George Martin for 8 years didn't turn him into a brilliant song writer like John and Paul,and George Martin has produced many other music artists but non of them have had as much critical acclaim,success or popularity as The Beatles!
NME.COM
HOME
NME News
Bob Dylan talks of Beatles friendship
Legend admits: 'I'm in awe of McCartney'
May 16, 2007
Bob Dylan has spoken in depth about his longstanding friendship with The Beatles and his particular bond with George Harrison.
Talking to Rolling Stone magazine, Dylan talked freely about Harrison’s struggle to find his voice within the songwriting collective of John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
"George got stuck with being the Beatle that had to fight to get songs on records because of Lennon and McCartney. Well, who wouldn’t get stuck?" he asked.
Dylan highlighted the writing talents of Harrison, saying: "If George had had his own group and was writing his own songs back then, he’d have been probably just as big as anybody."
Speaking against popular belief, the singer also denounced any rumours of competitiveness towards Lennon and McCartney, asserting, "They were fantastic singers. Lennon, to this day, it’s hard to find a better singer than Lennon was, or than McCartney was and still is."
Nodding his cap to McCartney in particular, Dylan concluded: "I’m in awe of McCartney. He’s about the only one that I am in awe of. He can do it all. And he’s never let up... He’s just so damn effortless.
The Beatles wrote, played and recorded so many great critically acclaimed, popular songs and albums of all different styles of music and wrote about 50 or more years worth of mostly great music in just an 8 year recording career.
When The Beatles were playing live in 63,64, 65& 66 they had very limited primitive sound systems at the time,only 100 watt amplifiers,(and George Harrison says in the excellent video series,The Beatles Anthology that special 100 watt amplifiers were made for their August 1965 Shea Stadium concetts,and he said they went up from the only 30 watts before!) no feedback monitors so they couldn't even hear themselves play and sing(yet they amazingly managed to sing and play in sync and in tune with each other anyway!) plus all of the screaming from the crowds.
In their January 1969 live rooftop concert they sounded great, the sound systems had improved some by then ,although still pretty primitive compared to today's, and there were no screaming crowds anymore.
When I was a teenager I met 3 people who saw The Beatles in concert, 2 saw them in 1966 and 1 saw them in 1964, they all told me they could see and hear them and that they were great.
On the site Artist Facts in The Rolling Stones section a guy Steve from Canada said he saw The Beatles in concert in 1966 and The Rolling Stones in 1996(and the sound systems by then were a million tines better!) and he said don't get me wrong The Stones were great but they were no match for The Beatles and he said The Beatles were The *GREATEST* Band ever!
And former Kiss guitarist Bob Kulick who produced the heavy metal tribute Beatles album,Butchering The Beatles, said he saw The Beatles at Shea Stadium in 1966 and he said he only heard them in bits and pieces but he could hear parts of Baby's In Black and Paperback Writer and he said they sounded amazing. He also calls them the *GREATEST* band ever.
The Beatles revolutionized popular and rock music and were very innovative,prolific and creative,more than any other group. And their great timeless songs are the most covered in music history by everyone from jazz musicians,classical,Motown,rock,pop and even heavy metal recording and playing their great timeless music.
Many academic musicologists and music scholars have done serious studies,analyses and praise of their great timeless music,like university of Penn gradutate musicologist Alan W.Pollack who did an extensive 11 year detailed analysis of every Beatles song.He says he hadn't even listened to The Beatles in 20 years until they came out on CD for the first time in 1987.
And university of Michigan music professor and musician Walter Everett who wrote the 2 volume,The Beatles As Musicians:The Quarry Men Through Rubber Soul and The Beatles As Musicians:Revolver Through Anthology.And British musicologist and classical composer and music professor (who is dead now)Willifred Mellers 1973 book,Twilight Of The Gods:The Music Of The Beatles,and he also wrote about Beethoven,Mozart and Bob Dylan.
And award winning music professor Dr.Glen Gass who has been teaching a course on what brilliant composers The Beatles were and a rock music course at Indiana University School Of Music since 1982.Dr.Gary Kendal's Beatles course is the most requested at North Western university ,university of California also has one and Oxford university had a recent Beatles course.
How many serious music scholars and award winning music professors are teaching and writing serious academic works studying and prasing what "brilliant" composers The Rolling Stones or any other rock band were?
Also, classical composer Leonard Bernstein called John and Paul the greatest composers of the 20th century so did Elton John on a 1991 CBS Morning news show,he was asked who he musically admires and he said you can talk about your Rogers and Hammerstein but for the quanity of quality songs that Lennon and McCartney wrote in that short period of time,he said he thinks they were the greatest song writers of the 20th century.Brian Wilson said this too on a 1995 Nightline Beatles tribute show. The Beatles are in the Vocal Hall of Fame and John Lennon and Paul McCartney are in The Song Writing Hall of Fame(I checked both Halls of Fame's web sites and no members of The Who or Led Zeppelin are in them so far,only Keith Richards and Mick Jagger are in The Song Writing Hall Of Fame they were inducted in 1993 after both John and Paul were inducted in 1987,but Mick Jagger,Robert Plant and Roger Daltry aren't in The Vocal Hall of Fame) and they were awarded about 20 prestigious Ivor Nevello awards as great singers and song writers in just a remarkable 8 year recording career,John and Paul won the first one in early 1964!
They also won an Oscar for their film score of their Let It Be Film in 1970.
Not only did The Beatles give The Rolling Stones one of their first hits with their rock n roll song I Wanna Be Your Man in late 1963,and they wrote it right in front of them and Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were impressed and like wow how can you write a song just like that and it motivated them to start writing their own songs.
The Rolling Stones were good friends with and fans of The Beatles.
Mick Jagger was at 4 Beatles recording sessions and Keith Richards was at 2 of them with him.Also Mick Jagger was such a big Beatles fan that in May 1967 when The Beatles were redording their song Baby You're A Rich Man he came there and stood on the sidelines to watch and listen to them recording it. His name is also on the tape box and he likely sang at the end verses.
The Beatles remastered albums sold much more 40 years after their break up than The Rolling Stones remastered albums and they are still together! The Beatles have the best selling album of the last decade with their CD 1.
And Brian Jones played the saxaphone on the strange Beatles song, You Know My Name Look Up The Number and he and Mick Jagger's girlfriend at the time Marriane Faithful contributed sound effects on the song Yellow Submarine.
As this guy Sal66 who has also posted on sites debunking ignorant cr*p about The Beatles has rightfully pointed out, The Beatles wrote,played and recorded I Feel Fine (which The All Music Guide says has brilliant,active ,difficult guitar leads and riffs) in the Fall of 1964 which was the first use of feedback guitar on a pop rock record and it also had a prominent guitar riff throughout this very good song almost a year *before* The Rolling Stones's Satisfaction came out.
And on John's great Norwegian Wood recorded in the Fall of 1965,George Harrison was the first to play a sitar on a pop rock song and it was released on their great album Rubber Soul in December and then in May 1966 The Rolling Stones song Paint It Black came out with Brian Jones playing a sitar!
And in Paul McCartney's authorized biography Many Years From Now, Mick Jagger's former girlfriend singer Marriane Faithful says that she and Mick used to go over to Paul's house a lot and hang out in his music room. She said he never went to see them at their house they always went to visit him because he was Paul McCartney.She also said that Mick was intimidated by Paul but that Paul was totally oblivious to this.
Paul also says in this book that he turned Mick on to pot in his music room and he said which is funny because a lot of people would assume it was the other way around.
The Beatles revolutionized popular and rock music and were very innovative,prolific and creative,more than any other group. And their great timeless songs are the most covered in music history by everyone from jazz musicians,classical,Motown,rock,pop and even heavy metal recording and playing their great timeless music.
Many academic musicologists and music scholars have done serious studies,analyses and praise of their great timeless music,like university of Penn gradutate musicologist Alan W.Pollack who did an extensive 11 year detailed analysis of every Beatles song.He says he hadn't even listened to The Beatles in 20 years until they came out on CD for the first time in 1987.
And university of Michigan music professor and musician Walter Everett who wrote the 2 volume,The Beatles As Musicians:The Quarry Men Through Rubber Soul and The Beatles As Musicians:Revolver Through Anthology.And British musicologist and classical composer and music professor (who is dead now)Willifred Mellers 1973 book,Twilight Of The Gods:The Music Of The Beatles,and he also wrote about Beethoven,Mozart and Bob Dylan.
And award winning music professor Dr.Glen Gass who has been teaching a course on what brilliant composers The Beatles were and a rock music course at Indiana University School Of Music since 1982.Dr.Gary Kendal's Beatles course is the most requested at North Western university ,university of California also has one and Oxford university had a recent Beatles course.
How many serious music scholars and award winning music professors are teaching and writing serious academic works studying and prasing what "brilliant" composers The Rolling Stones or any other rock bands were?
On Last FM. The Rolling Stones only had 80 members of their fan group in 2007, The Beatles had over 2,000 which is now over 12,000 and the average age of fans is 22 more guys than girls and they are from all over the world!
In 2006,2007 and 2008 The Beatles were the # 1 most listened music artists on Last.FM and they are very popular on YouTube and Rate Your Music where many male and female fans in their teens and 20's call them The Greatest Rock Band Ever!
The Beatles are still rightfully regarded by most people,most rock critics,and many other music and rock artists as The most creative,innovative,and prolific rock band ever!
As many people even some Rolling Stones fans have said, The Rolling Stones haven't made a great record in at least 25 years or more.
The Beatles wrote *plenty* of great rock songs including hard rock on The White Album and Abbey Road and as many have rightfully pointed out Paul invented heavy metal with his 1968 song Helter Skelter and people have also said John's I Want You She's So Heavy on Abbey road was also one of the first heavy metal songs.
Even in their early days they wrote some great rockers that were very rocky for the times, as The All Music Guide said,in their very good review of Past Masters Volume 1 that they proved they could rock really really hard,with John's I Feel Fine from late 1964 which featured the very recorded feedback guitar on a rock song,and Paul's great blues rocker,She's A Woman also from late 1964,and what they called the peerless I'm Down which is Paul's screaming rocker from mid 1965 which they performed even harder rocking, and screaming in August 1965 at Shea Stadium.
Also John's You Can't Do That from early 1964,is a great rock song, so is Day Dripper,Paperback Writer, And You're Bird Can Sing, She Said She Said,Taxman,Oh Darling,Hey Bulldog etc!
I recently read an online article that had an interview with Ernie Isley of The Isley Brothers about a recent tribute to Jimi Hendrix,in which he says that Jimi played for The Isley Brothers & lived with them & that they & he were fans of The Fab Four from the moment they all watched them on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964. I always thought that Jimi was only a later period Beatles fan,I knew he played Sgt.Pepper live the weekend it came out,& he played Day Tripper live also,& several people on different message boards said that when he was asked where the direction of music was going,he said ask The Beatles.
And the only reason that I posted all of this information is because I'm so sick of this kind of ridiculous inaccurate ignorant garbage being said about THe Beatles all over the place for years now.
I have been a huge highly impressed Beatles fan(specifically a big John and Paul fan) since I was 11 when I got my first Beatles book for my 11th birthday,I started collecting their albums at age 9,and I had every great album by age 13,I was born after 1964 too.
My father had a lot of different music in the house and was a big Bob Dylan fan and had many of his albums,he also had a Peter Paul and Mary album,a Leonard Cohen album and Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass albums which I liked even at age 4.I also had my own radio at age 9 and I listened to a lot of music.
My sister 4 years older had an even bigger diverse music collection, and she always loved The Beatles too.She bought Paul McCartney and Wings great 1975 rock album,Venus and Mars when it came out in 1975 and she said years later it's one of the best rock albums she ever heard and that it's unique and she knows no album like it and it is a great album.
When I was 9 I had a teacher in library class play The Beatles great rock album Abbey Road on a little record player and she said they were genuises.When I was 11 my music teacher asked us to guess who he was talking about when he said they were genuises and they wrote about 200 mostly popular acclaimed songs and many great albums in just an 8 year recording career,and I already being a big fan guessed it exactly right and said,John Lennon and Paul McCartney,The Beatles and he smiled and said yes thats right!
I'm really very happy to say that most people I have known throughout my life recognized they The Beatles specifically John and Paul were brilliant singer song writers and very good musicians.The only Beatles haters I ever knew were 14 and 15 year old boys in school and one of them became a huge Beatles fan on his own.
A guy I was friends with for many years who lived down the street and was 2 years older was a big fan too and he also liked Frank Zappa and his brother who was 10 years older than me had a big music collection and he loved The Beatles too,so did his mother and sister.I once spoke with their stepfather about how John and Paul are rightfully widely rearded by most people,most rock and music critics,and many other well known respected rock musicians and artists as 2 of the greatest song writers of the 20th century and he said I think so too.
Below is part of a Beatles review by a Epionions reviewer.
Home Epinions Music Please Please Me by The Beatles
Please Please Me by The Beatles
Overall Rating:
20 consumer reviews
Lowest Price: $5.90
at Amazon Marketplace
THe Beatles are rightfully widely rearded by most people,most rock and music critics,and many other well known respected rock musicians and artists and when I said to my guy friend's stepfather that I think that John and Paul are, as they are rightflly widely considered to be 2 of the greatest song writers of the 20th century and he said I think so too. My step cousin who was born in 1958 saw Paul & Wings in 1976 & he said The Beatles probably were The Greatest Band Ever & my first cousin who was born in 68 (he & his 2 brothers,parents & sister have always been fans)said when I asked him when he was 23 if he still liked them,he said best band that ever was.
He told me that when he was at the British Museum where Lennon & McCartney's song lyrics are in a glass case next to Sahkespeare,Dickens,Wodsworth & Keats everyone was like forget them lets go over to the Lennon & McCartney lyrics.
As The Rolling Stone Album Guide said,not liking The Beatles is as perverse as not liking the sun. And Ozzy Osbourne said not loving The Beatles is like not loving oxogen. And a guy who runs Keno's Classic Rock n Roll Site and who runs a Rolling Stones and John Lennon fan site says in his review of The Beatles 1967-1970 Red Album damn The Beatles were one great group and he said in his great review of The Beatles 1962-1966 Red album, that if you don't love or at least like The Beatles and their music then you are not a true rock fan and more than likely will never ever get it.
He also says that John Lennon showed on Paul's rocker Get Back why he should have played lead guitar more often because he did such a good job of it. He also said he played a pretty good slide guitar on George's For Your Blue and he said John also played one of the first and best acid guitar parts on his great rocker Revolution.
George Harrison at only age 14 would stay up playing his guitar until he got all of the chords exactly right and his fingers were bleeding! And One of The Beatles engineers Geoff Emerick says that in early 1966 when The Beatles were recording John's song I'm Only Sleeping, George Harrison played backwards guitar the most difficult way possible even though he could have taken an easy way,and it took him 6 hours just to do the guitar overdubs! He then made it doubly difficult by adding even more distorted gitars and Geoff says this was all George's idea and that he did all of the playing!
The 1992 Rolling Stone Album Guide calls Paul a remarkable bass player and rightfully calls John & Paul the 2 greatest song writers in rock history! Both Phil Collins and Max Weinberg both Beatles fans and both praise Ringo's drumming and Phil Collins says that Ringo's great drumming on A Day In The Life can't be repeated even by him! Also on Rankopedia The Beatles are # 1 Greatest Rock Band,# 1 Greatest Most Innovative Rock Band,John &Paul are # 1 Greatest Rock Song Writers, John &Paul are on The Greatest Rock Male Vocalist list, and Paul McCartney is # 2 after John Enwistle as Greatest Rock Bass Players, John Paul Jones is # 6, and Bill Wynman is # 20! And on Digitaldreamdoor where many musicians post,The Beatles are # 1 Greatest Rock Artists,John &Paul are # 1 Greatest Rock Song Writers, they are both on The Greatest Rock Male Vocalists list, and Paul McCartney is # 8 out of 100 Greatest Rock Bass Players, John Paul Jones is # 21, and Bill Wynman is # 95! George Harrison is # 54 On The Greatest Rock Guitarists out of over 100.
And there are many music professors teaching music courses at good universities on the brilliance of The Beatles especially of John &Paul, including by award winning music professor and composer Dr.Glen Gass, who has been teaching a course on The Beatles and rock music at Indiana University since 1982. On his web site for his course it says the main purpose of this course is to get students to have a better appreciation of this extraordinary group and their remarkable recordings. Dr.Gary Kendal's Beatles course is the most requested course at North Western University. And a music professor by the last name of Heinonen teaches a Beatles course at JYVASKYLA University in Finland, and the university of California also teaches a Beatles course etc.
Also check out Keno's Classic Rock n Roll Site he also runs a Rolling Stones &John Lennon fan site. And he made a Top 10 List and voted and the fans voted. He voted John &Paul # 2 after Bob Dylan as Greatest Rock Song Writers, the fans voted them # 1! He voted Paul McCartney # 2 after John Entwistle as Greatest Rock Bass Player, the fans voted Paul # 3. He voted John Lennon # 2 after Keith Richards as Greatest Rock Rhythm Guitarist, and the fans voted John in a tie with Jimi Hendrix and Brian Jones at # 4 .He voted John Lennon # 1 in a tie with Elvis as Greatest Male Rock Vocalist and the fans voted John # 1, he voted Paul # 6 and the fans voted him # 7.
And in 2001 VH1 had a panel of well known musicans and music critcs, that voted The Beatles The Greatest Rock Band Ever, and in 2004 Rolling Stone did the same thing and several people said on message boards that Rolling Stone had also had a panel poll like this and The Beatles were voted # 1 again and for darn great reasons too! Nobody created as much innovative, creative, quality,critically acclaimed, popular diverse songs and albums in such a short amazing period of time as The Beatles and thats why most people know that The Beatles Are The Greatest Rock Band That Ever Was Or Will Be!! Oh and A Hard Day's Night is a great pop rock album!!
And even Bob Dylan said decades ago about The Beatles early music, that their chords were outrageous, and the harmonies were wonderful and they were doing things in music that nobody had done before, and music critics of The London Times were praising their interesting and unusual chords that they used even in early songs like She Loves You & I Want To Hold Your Hand. Which were not as simple as they seemed and had clever subtleties in them.
And by the way I have read some people saying on message boards that they don't think The Rolling Stones were the best technical musicians, and many even some fans have said they haven't done anything good in 35 years, and that their overrated and I have also found many people saying they hate or don't like The Rolling Stones and many people say the only Rolling Stones song they like is Paint It Black! Oh and by the way, in every major poll of The Beatles vs The Rolling Stones, The Beatles always win as # 1 even on sites and message boards that are not Beatles fan sites! And when we look at the solo career comparison of Mick Jagger's and Keith Richards solo careers with John, Paul & George's, the facts are John Lennon's first brilliant solo album, and his second great album Imagine are rightfully critically acclaimed, and I love John's Walls & Bridges album and Paul McCartney's first solo album McCartney is very good, and he played every instrument all by himself at age 27, and he played so many different instruments great! Wings 1975 Venus & Mars is a great rock album too!
And he and Denny Laine are the only musicians on Paul's great 1973 Band On The Run album, which is critically acclaimed and popular, and he played every instrument by himself again great on McCartney 2 in 1979(although I don't like this album besies his great musicianship), and most of the instruments on his 1997 Flaming Pie album, and his 2 recent acclaimed popular albums, Chaos And Creation In The Backyard, and Memory Almost Full. And John Paul Jones, David Gilmore, John Bonham & Pete Townsend all played on 2 songs with Paul and Wings on the last Wings album Back To The Egg, in 1979, and they played in the last Wings concert too in December 1979.
And I and many people understandably feel that John Lennon had the best rock voices ever! George Martin said John's voice was one of the best he ever heard, and in May 1967 when The Beatles were recording their song, Baby You're A Rich Man, two recording engineers said they were always fascinated with the sound of John Lennon's voice, and they always wanted to record it live and when they heard him singing this song live they said they couldn't believe how great his voice was and that anyone could sing that well live.
Also, The Beatles were *NEVER* a boy band at all not even in 1963, 1964 and 1965, and they were Mostly a Great *ROCK* Band from the start! They started out playing 8 hours a night for two years in a row playing in the sleazy strip clubs of Hamburg Germany wearing tight leather black pants and jackets, cursing and smoking on stage, and taking speed pills to awake, and going to bed with many young women groupies. The cleaned up image was a fake joke that their manager Brian Epstein created which John hated and resented the most.
There were a lot of rough thugs who came into those clubs, and if they played bad live, they would have beaten the crap out of them playing 8 hours a night for 2 years! Instead they became the most popular successful group in these German clubs even with all of the competition from other groups from England and Germany! They also played live in The Cavern Club for several years. They worked very hard to get where they got! Their cleaned up image was a fake image created by their manager in their early days.
Also there is an online interview with Roger Daltry,Roger's Journey With The Who in The Sun and he was asked if The Who had screaming girls at a certain point,and he said after Can't Explain they did.He said it ws the sceaming teen era every band had them on their way up.He said it was fun at first but the trouble for a performer when you are that young and inexperienced is that you start to judge your performances on the amount they scream,he said it's nonsense which is why Lennon gave up. He also said that The Who's manager turned their image overnight from scruffy rockers to Mods.
If you still insist the false ludicrous claim that The early Beatles were ever a "boy band" then you are just further proving the title of this topic,your stupidity.When The Beatles played live in 1963,64,65 & 66 they only had 100 watt amplifiers,no feedback monitors so they couldn't hear themselves sing and play,plus the screaming crowds and that's why they gave up touring.
George Harrison says in The Beatles Anthology video series,that for their August 1965 Shea Stadium concerts, special 100 watt amplifiers were made and that they went up from only 30 watts before. Given how limited and primitive the sound systems were then,it's amazing they sounded as good as they did live.
A guy Steve from Canada said on Artist Facts,that he saw The Beatles live in 1966 and The Stones in 1996(and the sound systems by then were a zillion times better!) and he said don't get me wrong,The Stones were great but they were no match for The Beatles and he called The Beatles The Greatest Band Of All Time.
And a guy said on a message board in September, said that he too once wrongly believed that the early Beatles were a boy band like The Back Street Boys,until he got out of 7th grade.The Beatles started out playing 8 hours a night in the sleazy strip clubs of Hamburg Germany,taking speed pills to stay awake,wearing tight black leather jackets and pants,smoking and cursing on stage,and had sex with so many young women groupies including the strippers in those clubs,they were successful there. They also played successfully in the Liverpool Cavern Club for years.
Even many fans of The Rolling Stones who are also Beatles fans, said on several Rolling Stones message boards,and Beatles fans said this on Beatles fan boards,that THe Beatles cleaned up image was a total fake one created by their manager,and that they know that The Beatles were just as wild as The Stones with sex and drugs in their personal lives and were friends who hung out together.
They also had sex with tons of young women groupies many who were underage teen girls,during their touring years from 1963-1966.
There used to be an online interview with Charlie Watts from a 1973 Magazine called,Zig Zag called,The Drinking Man's Rolling Stone. He says that The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were good friends,and that they were a lot alike as people. He also said what made The Beatles so great is that they made one great album and one great single after the next.
And I don't want to be on bad terms with anyone on here, and I'm not trying to bother anybody ,but I really am just trying to debunk this totally inaccurate ridiculous unfortunately common myth that The Beatles were ever a boy band,they were a great *ROCK n ROLL* band from the start!
John and George especially hated Beatle Mania,and George says in The Anthology series,that it took a toll on their nervous systems,they had no life either trapped in hotel rooms most of the time. They wanted to be popular & successful as every band does,but they didn't want or ask for the hysteria.John says in his 1975 Tomorrow Show interview that the screaming wasn't doing the music any good,and that things would break down and nobody would know.
The Beatles sound great on their live roof top January 1969 concert in The Let It Be Film, and the sound systems had improved by then,(although still very limited compared to today's) and there were no more screaming crowds.
Paul was playing guitar and writing songs at 14 and he started soon after his beloved nurse and midwife mother Mary died of breast cancer,and he wrote the beautiful song Let It Be after he had a real seeming dream where he saw her alive again and she told him to just accept things as they are.He says in his authorized biography,that when he woke up he thought how great it was to see her alive again.
John was writing deep heavy poetry when he was a kid,and he started writing his own songs at age 17 not long after he met Paul and was impressed that was writing his own songs. Paul wrote the very pretty song,I'll Follow The Sun at age 16. They didn't know at this age they would make it big and they weren't making a penny from it then.
Pete Townsend along with John Bonham, John Paul Jones and David Gilmore played on 2 songs on the last Wings album Back To The Egg that came out in 1979 . They also all played with Paul and Wings in the last Wings concerts in December 1979.
Pete also along with Phil Collins who is also a big Beatles fan since he was 13 in the concert scene in the Beatles film A Hard Day's Night, played on Paul's 1986 album Press To Play.
And I have found over 50 former Beatles haters on different message boards who are now big Beatles fans,many call them The Greatest Rock Band Ever and most say they now think they were brilliant song writers. I didn't communicate with these people, but they said in their posts that they hadn't even heard most of their songs and albums,and had inaccurate misperceptions of them like the ridiculous one that they ever were a "boy band." Which as a poster Reverend Rock who is a Reverend and a rock musician and a big Beatles fan said on a classic rock site said some years ago that besides knowing even most of their music and knowing their history knows is totally ludircious to even suggest such a thing and is false.
Last year a musician posted on some message board about the new John Lennon biography, and he said watch The Beatles Anthology video series and learn how truly immensely talented this band was.
Most people don't hate The Beatles in the first place and people don't usually go from hating a band to loving them, so it just goes to show how great and timeless their music really is/was!
I once found a post a few years ago of a 35 year old musician in Jamaica who said on his blog that when he was younger and a big Who fan he used to think The Beatles were overrated, but that he did a 300 degree turn around and he said he now truly believes that The Beatles were the greatest rock band ever.
Bob Dylan ,Roger McGuinn of The Byrds and music critic William Mann of The London Times as early as 1963 and 1964 pointed out that even in early Beatles songs like She Loves You and I Want To Hold Your Hand had unusual and interesting chords and they arranged them.
And as early as late 1963 a music critic Richard Buckle in The London Times called John and Paul the two of the most briliant composers since Beethoven after John and Paul composed the music for a ballet Mods and Rockers.
And John and Paul wrote one of The Rolling Stones first hits, I Wanna Be Your Man in late 1963 right in front of them. And Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were impressed and said wow,how can you write a song just like that and it inspired them to start writing their own songs.
John Lennon and Paul McCartney were such amazingly talented singer song writers that they were already writing hit songs for other artists as early as 1963 when their own song writing success was getting off the ground,besides The Rolling Stones,they also wrote hit songs in 1963 for Billy J.Krammer and The Dakatos,Celia Black,and Peter and Gordon etc.
Paul wrote his first song at age 14 and was playing guitar,John wrote heavy deep poetry but didn't start writing songs until he met Paul and was impressed that he wrote his own songs,and he too started to write his own songs at age 17,and they wrote together and never stopped from then on.Paul wrote the very pretty song I'll Follow The Sun at only 16!
The Rolling Stones also wrote quite a few soft sentimental pop kind of songs,Lady Jane,As Tears Go By,Rubey Tuesday,Angie,Wild Horses,Waiting On A Friend and the 2 dreadful disco imitations,Miss You and Emotional Rescue. At least when Paul McCartney did a disco like song,Good Night tonight it was good interesting sounding music!
Many people have said about The Rolling Stones ,that their albums have a few good or great songs but the rest is filler.
But a radio host who was a former DJ once said that The Beatles are one of the only if not only bands that almost all of their songs were great including the album tracks that weren't released as singles.
On a message board discussion some years ago about what bands and artists people consider overrated,quite a few said The Rolling Stones and some said The Beatles or both,and a guy said if you ask almost anybody in the music business they will tell you that The Beatles were the Greatest Band Ever!
I once spoke to a rock DJ about The Beatles and even though he said they aren't his favorite,he said nobody can say that The Beatles weren't great,he said especially John Lennon and Paul McCartney as song writers.
And I once spoke to another rock DJ who is a huge Beatles fan & who has hosted a 2 hour Breakfast With The Beatles radio show for over 20 years & I said that The Beatles work in the recording studio described in details in The Beatles
Reording Sessions by Mark Lewisohn,is so impressive & brilliant & he said oh it's the work of genuises. I said how can anyone not recognize what extraordinary singer song composers John Lennon & Paul McCartney were? And he said oh you can ask anyone in the music business & they will tell you that.
The Boston Globe has an online article from March 2009,called I Confess I Don’t Like… written by all of their music critics and Luke O’Neil wrote that when people talk of classic bands they don’t like they’re really speaking in coded language.He said for example “I don’t like The Beatles.” is the same as saying,”I’m a liar” he said but when I say I don’t like Led Zeppelin there’s no subtext.
He then says a lot of it has to do with Robert Plant’s fiendish helium-powered caterwauling. He says he tends to prefer bands with vocalists not police sirens in tight pants.He also said the lyrics which run the gamut unimaginative doggerel to too-imaginative fantasy goofs don’t help.
He then says sure they inspired a lot of great bands,but should we not then hold them accountable for the thousands of downright awful imitators they’ve inspired? Remember that whole hair metal thing in the 80’s? He says who do you think put the bustle in those dudes hedgerow? And grunge? He says that was basically goateed Led Zeppelin on Smack.
Below is part of a Beatles review by a Epionions reviewer.
Home Epinions Music Please Please Me by The Beatles
Please Please Me by The Beatles
Overall Rating:
20 consumer reviews
Lowest Price: $5.90
at Amazon Marketplace
John Lennon also co-wrote,sang and played guitar on one of David Bowie's first hits in 1975,Fame. David also invited John to play guitar on David's version of John's beautiful Beatles song,Across The Universe.
By the way,I am a very creative artistic person myself,and I have a very good ear for music.I started writing stories with illistrated little drawings when I was 4(John Lennon also did this as a child too),I wrote a book from paper folded over and stapled when I was 8 about the harms of polution called,A Solution For Polution with drawings to demonstrate it and I still have it,and I was a very good drawer even when I was only 8,9,10 and 11,I drew great very detailed pictures in magic markers of swans,clowns,fish,butterflies,ducks,a raggedy Ann doll and flowers.I can't even draw as good now as I did then.My mother was an artist who went to art school for several years and she even sold some of her sculptures in a few local galleries.She also drew in charcoal pencil and pastels great too.
I went to an art and music camp when I was 14 and I started to write a lot of poems instead of stories many people said some of them were very good and I wrote a lot of essays about different issues starting when I was 18.I think it's a lot of I have always been such a big Beatles fan,they were extremely creative,artistic talented people.
I'm not saying that all creative talented people love The Beatles though.But it's certainly no coincidence that I always have.
Also Paul won 13 grammy awards in his solo career,a doctorate of music from Sussex University in 1988 and a doctorate from Yale in 2008,and he has been in the Guiness Book of World Records since October 1979 when he got a spec ial award as the most successful song composer of all time!
His early -mid 1970’s music was his best post Beatles music,his first solo album McCartney where he played every instrument by himself for the first time is a good album and he played so many instruments great,and he played every instrument again 10 years later on McCartney 2 (although I don’t like that album)his Wings albums REd Rose Speedway and Band On The Run are very good and only he and Denny Laine played every instrument on this album,and the 1975 Wings rock album Venus and Mars is a great album and he produced all of these albums too.There are 3 great songs on his second solo album Ram,Too Many People is a great rocker,Uncle Albert is brilliant and Back Seat of My Car is also very good.
Paul was also already playing the guitar and writing his own songs at only 14 and started to soon after his mother Mary who was a nurse and a midwife died of breast cancer and he wrote the beautiful song Let It Be about her after he saw her alive in a realistic dream he had 12 years after she died,and she told him in this dream to just accept things as they are.He said in his authorized biography Many Years From Now that when he woke up he thought how wonderful it was to see her again.
He also wrote the pretty song I’ll Follow The Sun when he was only 16.
Paul also won quite a few Ivor Novello awards in his solo career.
You have to be pretty much deaf and dumb not to like at least some of Paul McCartney’s great diverese music,and yes it does need defending if someone says such a totally ignorant ridiculous thing as Paul is an untalented hack!Especially if someone doesn’t like Paul because they believe this,and I’m sure haven’t even heard most of his great diverse music.
I don’t like classical music but I would never say much less think that Beethoven,Mozart,and Bach were untalented hacks,the most overrated suck etc,I don’t like Bob Dylan either but I would also never think or say that he’s also an untalented or overrated, because I would be making a total ignorant fool of myself!I believe that Beethoven,Mozart,and Bach were the brilliant composers they are widely considered to be,and I believe that Bob Dylan is one of the greatest song writers as he is widely considered to be.
Obviously a lot of people couldn’t possibly have heard most of Paul’s solo/Wings music,he did a lot of great diverse music including a lot of great rockers even some hard rock in the early-mid 1970’s before and during early Wings which I think is his best post Beatles music period 1970-1975(the great 1975 Wings rock album Venus and Mars I think is last true great album)and he wrote and
played a lot of great obscure album tracks and B-sides many which were better than the well known hits,although I like the hits too.
Beware My Love for example is a great less known heavy Paul rocker and it’s the best song on the 1976 Wings At The Speed Of Sound album,Wings performed a pretty good rocking version on the very good live rock Wings album,Wings Over America.
And John also wrote in addition to
a lot of great rockers,some very sentimental songs As The All Music Guide rightfully says and points out,that the critical party line often champions Lennon as the angry realist rocker and McCartney as the melodic balladeer but they say this is a fallacy:each of them was capable in roughly equal measures of ballsy all-out rock and sweet romanticism.
There are many Beatles song examples of this too,Paul even wrote some of their earliest very good rockers,I Saw Her Standing There in 1963 which many people have said is a very good rocker,I’m Down which the all music guide calls a peerless and one of the most frantic rockers in their entire catalog,and they said The Beatles proved that they could rock really really hard with this song,John’s I Feel Fine and Paul’s late 1964 blues rocker,She’s A Woman which they said was one of the hardest rocking early Beatles orginals and they said McCartney to often unfairly pegged as a sweet balladeer demonstrates that he was also one of the best white rock hard singers of all time with his shrill yet rich even ballsy vocal.
Many people on different message boards have said the only Rolling Stones song they like is Paint It Black, my first cousin who is a head hunter helping people find jobs,she used to an accountant,and when she was 21 a huge Rolling Stones fan she also had The Beatles Revolver album in her bedroom.
When The Rolling Stones did their Steel Wheels tour in 1989 I asked her if she still liked The Rolling Stones and she said no,but the same year at her wedding shower my male and female cousins were talking about The Beatles who we all love,and my cousin Randi said Oh I love The Beatles.
And when I was going to Paul McCartney live for the first time in 1990 and I was very excited about it,I was going on about how great he,John and The Beatles were and she said OK,I said you said you love The Beatles too and she said hey bottom line they were genuises!
And I once heard a radio host who was a former rock DJ and he said The Beatles are really like the only music artists who have just about every song they did was great and wasn't great was still good. He said even their album tracks that weren't released as singles.
TL;DR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
overkill.
You f*****g got right on that s**t eh?
Christ. and I thought I was a beatles freak.
That was epic.
Ha! I loved the dad part. I am a huge Beatles fan, though I'm not old enough to have seen them in concert. My Dad doesn't hate them, but he holds a grudge to them for keeping CCR out of ever getting a number one record.
Replycould've used more wit. But really good article. The Beatles being the best band is not debatable....it's more of a fact than opinion.
Replywe will never know who "the greatest" was;
Replybut The Beatles were certainly the most influential band
Nice. I'm a big Beatles fan and I enjoyed this. A lot better than most of the music-related topics on here, in my opinion.
Reply