[Beatl?Maniac]

Hi, I'm a 17 year old music fan and listen to all kinds of music (except rap and dance). Last year i discovered the beatles' revolver album and gradually collected every one of their other albums. Each time i was blown away by their creativity, musicianship and experimentalism. Before then Bob Dylan was my favourite artist but after listening to the Beatles i don't think any other band has or ever will top them. Their music is so timeless, engaging, honest and fresh (even now). Does anyone else feel the same way i do? Can anyone suggest a more influenacial and incredible band?

 

[greenhorn]

There is no more influencial and incredible band than The Beatles.

I would suggest you to get a taste of the Rolling Stones as well (try one of their early ABKCO albums, then something like "Sticky Fingers" or "Some Girls" - different periods = different styles), if you love Dylan and the Beatles, there are strong chances that you love the Stones as well.

 

[Sovkiller]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beatl£Maniac Hi, I'm a 17 year old music fan and listen to all kinds of music (except rap and dance). Last year i discovered the Beatles' revolver album and gradually collected every one of their other albums. Each time i was blown away by their creativity, musicianship and experimentalism. Before then Bob Dylan was my favorite artist but after listening to the Beatles i don't think any other band has or ever will top them. Their music is so timeless, engaging, honest and fresh (even now). Does anyone else feel the same way i do? Can anyone suggest a more influential and incredible band?

Do you really believe that, timeless? Influential yes, of course, I respect them and I know that there are a lot of Beatles fans that will crucify me in public for that comment, but the only really important thing that I really found in their music, is that they were the first band in mark the route to follow after for the rest, but other than that, sorry I can't barely stand them a few minutes, they sound so childish to me...I found them with the exception of a few tracks, as the music of my grandpa....LOL...Even the Rolling Stones will beat them to death in creativity, and why not, in talent, and I'm more than the double of your age....
Sorry but there are a lot of bands that I considered more creative and timeless than the Beatles, that lived at that same time, the Stones is just one of them...

I suggest you to try also The Who, Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Ten Years After, Jefferson Airplane, any early work of Jeff Beck or Erick Clapton, Cream, Yardbirds, Zeppelin, Sabbath, Deep Purple, etc.....but even while those bands played also in the mid/late 60's more of his good work were during the early 70's...

 

[daycart1]

Just last night I was watching a funny video of the Beatles. It was "Ticket to Ride" and they were all completely and obviously baked! And Paul was missing a tooth (Hey, I'm Paul, I don't care!)

 

[catachresis]

Saying the Beatles are/were the best band ever conveys something about how influential their songs were in creating our pop-landscape. They are canonical now: you can't explain what Western pop or rock is without trying to indicate how they helped make it. But clearly they don't have an atemporal 'eternal' appeal. Rather each decade rediscovers what the Beatles mean, and it's done differently every ten years.

Saying The Beatles are the best band in history is like saying Shakespeare is the greatest poet of all time -- which isn't true in any absolute sense.

That analogy is pretty cool though. That would make Elvis the Chaucer of Pop, The Velvets would be Philip Marlowe. Michael Stipe could be Alexander Pope. ;p

 

[GuineaMcPig]

The Beatles did two things, in my mind, that made them revolutionary. One is, they brought the complexity of musical theater to tunes with pop/rock instrumentation. Part of this was writing their own songs, which believe it or not was also pretty revolutionary...most popular songs before 1963 were covers. Instead of writing simple 3-chord ditties their whole career, they expanded the repertoire of every pop/rock musician after them. They weren't the best instrumenalists of all time but they certainly had good ears and were excellent songwriters.

The other thing is that they (along with George Martin) first realized the possibilities of using the studio as an instrument, not just a tool to capture a live performance. This, IMO, was a huge development and showed a complete paradigm shift in how one thinks about recordings.

 

[Sovkiller]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuineaMcPig The other thing is that they (along with George Martin) first realized the possibilities of using the studio as an instrument, not just a tool to capture a live performance. This, IMO, was a huge development and showed a complete paradigm shift in how one thinks about recordings.

I agree on the first part entirely but here I have my concerns, their use of the stereo was simply horrible, one of the worst I have heard, in some albums the music is in one channel mainly, and the voice in the other!!!!!!

 

[eyeteeth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sovkiller ....LOL...Even the Rolling Stones will beat them to death in creativity, and why not, in talent,

Spin Sgt. Pepper's and then Satanic Majesties Request. Now that's funny!

 

[eyeteeth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by eyeteeth Spin Sgt. Pepper's and then Satanic Majesties Request. Now that's funny!

Come to think about it the Stones never really did do anything but imitate others, in the same way early Zep just had their way with American blues.
Brilliant transmutations of course but hardly breaking totally new unheard of ground in that profoundly Beatlesque way.

1967
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles
Magical Mystery Tour - The Beatles
David Bowie - David Bowie
Buffalo Springfield Again - Buffalo Springfield
The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw - Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Days of Future Passed - Moody Blues
Younger Than Yesterday - The Byrds
Greatest Hits - The Byrds
John Wesley Harding - Bob Dylan
I'm a Lonesome Fugitive - Merle Haggard
Branded Man - Merle Haggard
Evil - Howlin' Wolf
Blues Is King - B. B. King
Something Else - The Kinks
Everybody Needs Love - Gladys Knight and the Pips
The Way I Feel - Gordon Lightfoot
Taj Mahal - Taj Mahal
The Marvelettes - The Marvellettes
Crusade - John Mayall
Moby Grape - Moby Grape
More of the Monkees - The Monkees
Headquarters - The Monkees
Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, & Jones, Ltd. - The Monkees
The Pandemonium Shadow Show - Harry Nilsson
Pleasures of the Harbor - Phil Ochs
The Fastest Guitar Alive - Roy Orbison (motion picture soundtrack)
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn - Pink Floyd's debut album
How Great Thou Art - Elvis Presley
Clambake - Elvis Presley
Procol Harum - Procol Harum
Between The Buttons - The Rolling Stones
Morning Dew - Tim Rose
Waist Deep in the Big Muddy - Pete Seeger
Silk and Soul - Nina Simone
With a Lot o' Soul - The Temptations
Ten Years After - Ten Years After
Happy Together - The Turtles
The Velvet Underground and Nico - The Velvet Underground
The Who Sell Out - The Who
Little Games - The Yardbirds

Between The Buttons - The Rolling Stones
1. Let's Spend The Night Together
2. Yesterday's Papers
3. Ruby Tuesday
4. Connection
5. She Smiled Sweetly
6. Cool Calm And Collected
7. All Sold Out
8. My Obsession
9. Who's Been Sleeping Here
10. Complicated
11. Miss Amanda Jones
12. Something Happened To Me Yesterday

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles
1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
2. With A Little Help From My Friends
3. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
4. Getting Better
5. Fixing A Hole
6. She's Leaving Home
7. Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!
8. Within You Without You
9. When I'm Sixty-Four
10. Lovely Rita
11. Good Morning Good Morning
12. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
13. Day In The Life

Magical Mystery Tour - The Beatles
1. Magical Mystery Tour
2. Fool On The Hill, The
3. Flying
4. Blue Jay Way
5. Your Mother Should Know
6. I Am The Walrus
7. Hello Goodbye
8. Strawberry Fields Forever
9. Penny Lane
10. Baby You're A Rich Man
11. All You Need Is Love

It's like comparing prime NY Yankees with a farm team.
In the category of 'pioneering role of advancing the art of pop music' I would say The Beatles are the best ever.

 

[elrod-tom]

As usual, there's one in every crowd who has to try to make himself look good by taking a gratuitous and over-the-top shot at a group that is for VERY good reason considered to be amongst the most innovative and important in rock music history. My brother-in-law is like that...I sometimes wonder if he listens to the **** that comes out of his mouth.

I'm reminded of a quote from Maurice Gibb that I once read in Playboy. He was talking about their about-to-be-released "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" movie, staring the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton. The late Mr. Gibb was talking about how, in a year, nobody would be talking about the Beatles any more when Sgt. Pepper came up in conversation, and that the Bee Gees were about to replace the Beatles as kings of Rock.

OOPS! Guess that didn't work out so great. History has a way of straightening out short-term goofs, now doesn't it.

I know lots of folks who might not care for the Beatles' music, but VERY VERY VERY few who will not acknowledge the obvious.

All one need do is start to think about albums like Rubber Soul and Revolver, albums that still stand out today. Let's not forget when these albums were RECORDED in 1965 and 1966!! Show me ANY two albums by any two bands that were recorded within TEN YEARS of these albums that can measure up to the test of time, level of originality, etc...and when we're through with that, we'll consider albums like Sgt. Pepper's and The White Album and start from square one again.

I'm certain that we'll be listening to the Beatles 30+ years from now, and that it will still sound as fresh and relevant as it does today.

 

[Fenwik]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beatl£Maniac Can anyone suggest a more influenacial and incredible band?

The Velvet Underground.

I like the Beatles, too. I like The Velvet Underground more. Whether they are more influencial/incredible is, of course, a matter of opinion.

 

[Rempert]

The Beatles were (and are) certainly very influential, both to pop music in general and to rock. Perhaps moreso, they were and are influential to popular culture itself.

The thing is, they get so much credit that it kind of creates a backlash. Maybe it's the influence of the baby boomer generation, I don't know.

There are kids and people my age who can name 20 Beatles songs, but couldn't name 5 blues standards or 5 blues artists if you asked them to.

 

[catachresis]

The 'Backlash' isn't always a bad thing.

For anyone stricken with an acute episode of Beatle-loathing, may this chemist recommend the infamous "Beatles Medley" from the epic/shambolic double-album, The Chadbournes - LSD/C&W .

John Zorn roots his yakety-sax through a wet and muddy Octopuses Garden, and Taxman comes over all malevolent through waves of tax-objector feedback, with everything settling and decaying at last in a cover of Starting Over that would have shocked and appalled Yoko. It's a Marvel Comics "What If. . ." issue in which the Beatles grew up outside a failing truckstop somewhere in North Carolina.

 

[eyeteeth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by elrod-tom As usual, there's one in every crowd who has to try to make himself look good by taking a gratuitous and over-the-top shot at a group that is for VERY good reason considered to be amongst the most innovative and important in rock music history.

I considered the post was a troll/bait post, and ordinarily I don't bother responding to such posts, but I was stuck at the time having to sit through and proof-listen a CD that needs to exchange hands this morning. My post was just a time killing exercise of shooting some fish in a barrel.

Quote:

Let's not forget when these albums were RECORDED in 1965 and 1966!!.

That's the part that seems to get overlooked by the naysayers and yet that is the point. And as for those indulging in a "backlash" they are admitting to particpating in a dishonesty.

I don't listen to The Beatles very much and when I do I do a fair amount of track skipping because maybe I'm overly familiar...a little bored. But I'm not going to deny the obvious regarding the revolutionary importance of The Beatles.

 

[markl]

Quote:

The Velvet Underground. I like the Beatles, too. I like The Velvet Underground more. Whether they are more influencial/incredible is, of course, a matter of opinion.

Sorry, no offense, much as I love the VU, IMHO FWIW this is complete and total revisionist history. Do you know that even the VU were influenced by the Beatles? You know that almost NO ONE bought any of the VU's albums? They broke up penny-less. They played a few tiny dives in front of a few bohemians. The Beatles OTOH were (probably still are) the best-selling, the most popular, most widely known all around the planet rock band of all time. EVERYONE followed what they did, EVERYONE has the Beatles as an influence, they were playing on the world stage. Everyone from Dylan to Ozzy Osbourne to Kurt Cobain have the Beatles as a directly sited influence. The Beatles changed the culture, influenced modern politicians and even some revolutionaries (the old Soviet Union states are chock full of them) who would smuggle their albums into their repressed countries and play them in seceret.

The VU and Lou Reed are great, but the sum total of their influence is a teeny-tiny sideshow compared to what the Beatles accomplished and who they influenced. Modern critics like to go back in time and re-write history to portray the VU as something much much bigger than they actually were, particularly because the strain of music they pioneered is particularly in favor with music critics, so it's a sort of closed feedback loop there.