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The Beatles are/were rubbish.
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Dog 3000
Dog 3000
4611 posts

Re: The Beatles are/were rubbish.
May 11, 2005, 23:48
The Beatles were the greatest rock group there ever was and no other group comes close. Among their many innovations, they pretty much created "The Group" as we now know it (writing their own songs, producing their own records, controlling their image & destiny etc. -- just compare to the Elvis & the Colonel situation which was the pattern previously.)

John Lennon in particular was a singular songwriting talent, on par with someone like Thelonious Monk. Learn to play "I am the Walrus" and see what I mean -- it makes NO SENSE on paper, but it's so catchy you can hum along after the first listen. By comparison all of Jagger & Richards' compositions are on the kindergarten level of the Ramones -- functionally rocking, but hardly anything that musicologists will bother with in the future.

Sure you can quibble on some things -- McCartney wrote some dreadful shlock, and I don't think Harrison rates very highly as a songwriter or singer at all (a super-influential guitarist however.)

As has already been commented on, the ubiquity of the Beatles has taken a lot of the fun & novelty out the experience, and even makes them seem less important than they are. I think the same about Charlie Parker -- he was sooo fucking brilliant & ahead of his time, but it's hard to "hear" that today -- precisely because he was so brilliant that everyone who's come along since has based their work on his. His influence on jazz, like the Beatles on pop/rock, is so pervasive that you can't see it -- like the air around us.

Over-exposed certainly, over-rated never!
In reply to:
The Beatles are/were rubbish. (TheBear)		 Replies:
Hold the Fuck On! (postyesterdayman)
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