The Beatles

[Thelemech]

I have been going through a Beatles faze and I just bought all of the UK albums on CD with jewel cases.  The set I had uses just paper for cases and they scratch every time you take out the fucking disk.
Also the remastered versions are brickwalled to a ridiculous degree 🙄

I have been listening to the Red Album and it's sequel the Blue Album
on a regular basis. It's truly amazing how much they grew from 62 to 70
Starting with Love Me Do and then moving on to a song experimentation like Strawberry Fields Forever is incredible

I know that they are not everyone's favorite but I think they deserve your attention and time if only to hear their influence on rock and even metal

[Vyn]

I have a love/hate relationship with the Beatles - I heard them so much growing up that their "hits" became the backdrop to everyday life, much like TV commercials. But there are quite a few songs from them that I do really enjoy.

Regardless of my personal feelings regarding their output - it is undeniable that they were a group of musically talented dudes who happened to hit their stride during a time when the media climate was perfectly suited to turning them into icons. The fact that they broke up when they did only sealed their legacy as the bar-setters. That was 1970 - they still sell shit-tons of music, are a musical touchstone, and yeah, their stylistic progression over less than ten years is remarkable.

I would never dissuade anyone from tearing into their entire catalog, there is much to be had.

[Typhon]

Having also grown up with the Beatles, I agree with almost everything Vyn said.  Though some of their early stuff I very much enjoy, the problem for me was that pretty much every song is about loving your girlfriend, and that got kind of sickening.  Their later material was much better.

I also agree that every young person should expose themselves to all the Beatles' music.  Their contribution to the industry is too important to ignore.

One big point I wish to add.  When the Beatles broke up, that was it, over and done with.  McCartney, or one of the others, didn't gather other musicians together and continue to call it Beatles.  Sorry Mr. Iommi, but that's the way you do it.

[Zzzptm]

I have a "love-hang on a minute there" relationship with the Beatles. I played their albums as a kid and really locked in on Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, White Album, Abbey Road, and Let It Be. I didn't intentionally lock in on their later works, it's just what I enjoyed listening to back in 3rd-6th grades.

And even though I didn't like slow songs, "Something" really resonated with me and continues to do so.

Over the years, I always kept a few Beatles songs in my back pocket, especially the heavier tunes like "Hey Bulldog" and "Helter Skelter". My favorites were tracks like Taxman, All Too Much, Something, and Here Comes the Sun - all written by George Harrison, so he's my favorite of the fab fours.

Some years ago, about 8 or 9, while working with my mom on the radio show, we wanted a way to deal with everyone calling in wanting to hear Beatles tunes. My mom was dead-set against it for two reasons. One, the format of the show was playing songs before 31 December 1963, and The Beatles didn't hit the US charts in a big way until January, 1964. Two, my mom HATED The Beatles. All those Beatles records I played when I was a kid were my dad's.

My solution was to take the Beatles' BBC recordings from 1963 and pair them up with the artist they were covering. We thought it would be interesting to compare them, but the original artists tended to blow away the Beatles. In defense of The Beatles, they didn't have the best production on the BBC sessions, they were young, and they were more focused as songwriters than as performers. They're definitely enthusiastic, but enthusiasm only got them so far.

And when I later started doing the show as the primary DJ, I tried that bit out again in my Rock & Roll Football segments and it got to be tiring to hear the Beatles blown out week after week. When I switched to their studio recordings, same results. And those, unlike the BBC ones, were handled by professional producers. When I had The Rolling Stones go up against their original artists, they were in a whole 'nother league. Those enthusiastic young fellers could write great tunes AND perform the hell out of them. Much closer in musical talent to their idols than The Beatles were.

But the Beatles' songwriting is strong stuff. When I started my Funk-Soul show, I found LOTS of Beatles' material getting redone in ways I hadn't anticipated, and the funk and soul versions often work out very well. Very well, indeed... so much so that I consider Aretha Franklin's cover of "Eleanor Rigby" to be the definitive version of the song. Isaac Hayes' "Something" is nearly 12 minutes of extending Harrison's brilliant original into something amazing. Junior Parker's take on "Taxman" reworked as a hard blues tune truly cooks.

I think the lasting legacy of The Beatles is more in the songs they wrote than in how they performed them.

[Charger]

Beatles were never my thing. Never liked that style of music really.

I do understand that their song writing was very influential and that they kind of if not created surely mastered the "rock" song formula and as such paved the way for future bands.

But honestly I'd live my life perfectly satisfied if I'd never ever hear another Beatles song as long as I live.