Look, The Beatles Were Just A Pop Band, OK? Classics They Weren’t
Adam Lovejoy writes from London: There comes a point when you say to yourself: enough’s enough. I’m talking about the dogged praise for the Beatles, as if they were some musical giants. Semi-educated dimwits, who’ve never opened a proper book in their life and never even heard of Mozart or Beethoven, are banging on about how great the Fab Four were and how they’ve influenced generations.
Let’s get one thing straight: the Beatles were just a pop band, ok? Three guys on electric guitars and one on drums. Just one of the groups that got lucky and had a huge marketing campaign unleashed in their name on the world of pop. The Beatles had good songs, no one disputes that, but they also had some pretty lousy ones. (Just listen to the White Album and you’ll know what I’m talking about.) And most of their lyrics were not that great. But at the time they fitted well into the ‘revolution’, the dumbing down of culture, and it worked out just fine. Eventually the Beatles got it into their heads that they were huge talents and it was just a matter of time before it all fell apart, like it always does when people start taking themselves way too seriously.
And then there were the drugs. Yes, the Beatles did their bit to promote dope. Which is not at all great. But the liberal trash loved them to bits for that. And, obviously, helped to promote them in a big way. Was Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds a good track? No, it wasn’t. It was pathetic actually. But the dopeheads couldn’t get enough of it. Turned it into their anthem. Just like Strawberry Fields, another very average song that became a hit just because it had druggy overtones in it.
The Beatles also appeared in films and they were total rubbish in them. They sang their songs to save the day but it didn’t really work out. They could have actually avoided making these films. Didn’t really enrich the cultural scene, these pathetic creations. But the people behind the band were too keen to make more money out of it and so the films were made.
After the Beatles had finally broken up, the legend was kept alive by the cunning marketing men, who were not prepared to lose out on their ‘legacy’. Especially as pop music generally was not really producing any great talents. So the idols had to be kept on the pedestal. And as a result the Fab Four were turned into ‘legends’ for generations of pop musicians, most of whom could hardly string a sentence together, wrote abysmal stuff and couldn’t really play or sing properly. And it came to a point when the Beatles became beyond reproach and criticism. What’s more, the politically correct brigade and the liberal mob started witch hunts against anyone who doubted the impact of the band on the world culture. Any punk could dance on the grave of the classics but if anyone dared to say a bad word about the Beatles, he was accused of near blasphemy.
These days the Beatles sound outdated. Back in the 1960s it worked. Well, some of it did. But nowadays it just seems not right. Times have moved on and the Beatles proved to be no classics to withstand the test. Yet, the marketing campaign goes on, with Paul McCartney keeping the ‘flame alive’ by appearing at major events and, to be brutally honest, looking old and freakish, as it happened at that Jubilee gig outside Buckingham Palace. And it all looks and sounds very primitive. But it seems to work on the Harry Potter generation with their low expectations and lack of good taste.
Sad really.
–End–
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Well, I like their stuff at the time but you are right – alot of it sounds very dated whilst Rolling Stones stuff has perhaps slightly more edge and therefore more longevity for real music fans. But a word of advice to that Paul McCartney bloke – YOU ARE 70 AND DIE YOUR HAIR MATE. JUST GO HOME AND RETIRE GRACEFULLY WILL YOU????
Or dye even. Freudian slip perhaps?
Nonsense. It’s like comparing apples and oranges. The Beatles have multi-generational fans because the music stands up. It’s beautiful. It’s fun. They weren’t at all like the Stones, and many of us are glad. To the person who thinks Paul McCartney should call it a day: wait until it’s your turn, bloke. People who stay involved with life instead of waiting for death on a recliner live longer and happier. He will rock until he drops. They can all rock with white hair flowing–the ones that didn’t drink themselves to death. I am all for crushing that old attitude that the elderly should just disappear.
One of the most unintelligent articles have had the chance to read, you have no facts, just your opinion. Find the facts and you’ll realize they are beyond classics.
I had something similar written Mike but this douche nozzle deleted it. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like The Beatles just don’t go crediting their success to a marketing campaign. Their music transcends time and geographic boarders.
First of all, I seriously doubt that you were even alive when the Beatles were recording. You seem to know nothing about the time except what you’ve read. And, it doesn’t sound like you’ve read very much.
Leonard Bernstein, Music Director of the New York Philharmonic and composer of “West Side Story”, “Candide”, “Wonderful Town” and other works actually compared them to Mozart and Beethoven. And, I have a sneaky hunch that he knew a heck of a lot more about music than you do.
Yes they had a great marketing campaign. But, surprise, surprise, they had the talent to back it up. After all, a good marketing campaign may get you there, but after that it’s up to you.
No, every song wasn’t a gem. Nobody’s every song is. For one thing, until late in their career they had trouble writing a decent “rock & roll” song (as opposed to a “rock” song). That’s why they did a lot of Chuck Berry covers.
Speaking of covers, they did manage to write the most covered song in history – “Yesterday”. And, a great deal of their music after the first year or so helped expand the boundaries of rock.
I’m sorry that the “White Album” was obviously over your head, but life’s like that sometimes. Not everybody “gets it” all the time!
As to the dope. Yes they used various forms, but I don’t recall any promoting it. If you interpret “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “Let It Be” or “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” as drug songs, well that’s where your head is at.
And, what’s this about your “liberal trash”, “politically correct brigade” and “liberal mob” comments? You have some serious issues that you need to address.
Also, you’re the first person I’ve ever known that considered Richard Lester movies “rubbish”, which proves you know very little about movies as well.
Small clue for you: Marketing didn’t turn them into legends, they turned themselves into legends by their body of work. As for sounding outdated, Beatles music still sells in the millions, several decades after they’ve gone. And, there have been quite a few classics in the mix, thank you!
A piece of advice, if you’re going to write a post, write about something that you actually know something about.
I was there when all this happened. I doubt if you were even “a gleam in daddy’s eye” back then.
I totally agree with Dave Kilby.
I was also there when the “Beatles” hit the music scene, a slim fourteen year old. They were one of two groups, that changed the music scene for ever, the other being the “Stones”. The short back and side brigade, with cloth cap to boot, were horrified! Change! “We don’t like change, do we Deirdre?” It was a magical time for teenagers who were there, and who were brave enough to grow their hair a bit longer, “long haired lout!” You would hear over and over again, from the previous generation. We didn’t start wars and kill millions of people, we just loved the music, and the styles that followed, something wrong with that?
The Beatles will live on, as Mozart and the rest have done.
Laim Gallager of the “Oasis” pop group, models himself on John Lennon, even his mannerisms.
Agreeing with Mr. Kilby, it’s probably pretty accurate when you describe the ranter as too young to have been there or have appreciated what was happening at the time in UK anyway. What a reet silly thing to say that The Beatles music sounds dated..erm…DERR! name us any band from the 60′s or early 70′s that doesn’t sound dated! It was mega new and fresh, and a revelation in many ways at the time!Musicians, bands, solo singers had to have at least a modicum of talent! Rush forward to today…vocoders, auto tuning machines to correct every little defect in singer’s of little talent’s voices. Technology that simply wasn’t there in the 60′s and 70′s.The engineers had to be more than talented and creative, and less of a few buttons to push!Furthermore, although there were a few well known “novelty” records around from time to time, without the creativity of The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Moody Blues (once they had tossed “Go Now” down the toilet) and myriad others, real class acts like Britney, Rebecca Black, Paris, Kesha, Selena Gomez, Jenna Rose, i could add lots more…. would not even be considered singers at all. Most of them couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket with a lid ! Yep i am really afraid that the ranter is in the proverbial minority of not many. It’s like comedy, if you are told a joke, A. you know whether you’ve heard it before, and B. You know whether it makes YOU laugh or not! That’s music, you either love what’s on offer or you don’t. Like personally i think the Gallagher Brothers should have taken up some other profession, like opening a Funeral Service Company, what a grim money making, miserable pair of twats they were! What the christ did anyone see in them?..but hey, that’s just my opinion. The Adam guy says they were, what was it, semi-educated dimwits? You mean Lennon writing books, writing some unforgettable songs with McCartney, playing a variety of instruments, penning symphonies etc etc…oh yeah! i see what he’s getting at now apart from when Adam says they left no classics behind, so All You Need Is Love, She Loves You,Hey Jude, Across The Universe, should now be consigned to the scrapheap? Finally, and really to give Mr. Lovejoy his jollies, simply because someone has taken notice of the wee lamb after all this time, there there mummy make it better. You really DO have a myriad of issues, that range from the incomprehensible, to downright ignorant speculation…Ooh! and BTW geezer, they made lots of cash too, maybe that’s what motivates you to trash them!
Speaking of one taking himself too seriously, the ranter really has a huge ego.
True enough, though a bit of moderation would make some people at least consider what you tried to state in your rant.
They were very influential, that is a fact, but to believe that they are well beyond any classics or even some of their talented contemporaries is an opinion not a fact. What they are today is not a band but a cult. Therefore any one can see that they had much more going on about them than simply musical talent.