First of all let me be clear.
- The Beatles are one of the best rock bands of their era, and definately on the list of most influential rock bands of all time.
- They had an incredible work ethic, world class musicianship (yes even on Drums) and a knack for relevant, complex yet accessible song writing and lyrics.
- They dealt with fame well and effectively used the attention of the world without becoming irrelevant and cliche (though media attention was kinder and gentler then).
- They grew and changed showing an uncommon courage and versatility that few bands before or since have been even close to.
- They were very aware of the current social issues and spoke to them without losing sight of their own perspectives.
So I like, respect and am incredibly impressed with what The Beatles were able to accomplish.
I am appreciative that there’s at least two if not three demographic generations that can, and arguably should, be brought up to speed on what an incredible rock band The Beatles were.
I also have an appetite for something new, and I’m not an audiophile, and apart from noticing “Wow you can really hear Paul McCartney’s amazing bass lines better on these mixes” I don’t have an ear for what’s so much better. I guess if I pulled out my Vinyl albums it would be worth picking up new ones, so there is that.
I also appreciate that video games are an important medium now, and The Beatles Rock Band promises to be a very profitable (and even looks like it might be fun to play).
Having said all that, I’ve had enough of The Beatles. I have been over saturated with the Beatles since I bought and played The Soundtrack to Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Movie (Featuring The Bee Gees) to death in 8th Grade. A band I still think was amazingly talented1.
The Beatles were great, if you’ve never listened to them, please do. Get Revolver at least and play it non-stop for a few days, it’s amazing. Frankly all their records are at least good, and starting with Rubber Soul onward they are all really great.
While your catching up, or looking back, please bear in mind that many many people in the world have already discovered and rediscovered this amazing musical act a few times, so we don’t all need to catch up with this whole The Beatles re-re-re-re-re-release thing. Again, if you’ve never really noticed how amazing songs by this fine band are, well you should take some time to sit down and figure that out for yourself. But please don’t talk to me about it. I get it.
That’s all I have to say. Thanks for your time.
Oh and one more thing, you all can blame Yoko Ono if you like, but really it’s pretty small minded. Do you think so little of the bands commitment to excellence that one members spouse could really break them up? They were done, that was it, now move on. She’s probably a very nice person.
1Yes you read that right, The Bee Gees were amazingly talented, and unlike The Beatles were still performing together when I was in 8th grade.
At that point in my life I figured out, wow the Beatles are revered to the point where people that could otherwise record a new album or play new songs can master a Beatles song or three and people will like that better. Years later I figured out that the Bee Gee’s at that point in their career were pretty much over and that doing a movie musical of the album Sergant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band was essentially them sucking very badly.
Still more years later I figured out that despite being inextricably associated with that unfortunate Disco business they were really were amazingly talented. Further I noticed that The Bee Gees were a good enough band that they could have gotten a whole lot braver than wrapping themselves in one of the more critically acclaimed Beatles records. It would have been better had the Bee Gees actually tried an album that wasn’t “disco” but instead was really new. Certainly you didn’t see the Beatles doing that, but then they did know enough to quit when their run was over.
