It has been a long couple of weeks where I have thought of little but The Beatles and their music. That was a tall order for someone like me who does not consider himself a Beatles fan. I'm sure those of you reading this who are fans probably think I've unfairly maligned the band. You may have a point. After all I'm probably in the minority of those who have a strong opinion of The Beatles music. I'm betting most people in the world don't care. Of those who do care, most are in the "I like their music" or "I LOVE their music" category. I am in probably the smallest category, in that I don't really care for the bulk of their music.
After listening to the band's entire studio catalog I can finally say that opinion is not uninformed. I feel the same way today about The Beatles' music as I did before. I can't argue they are a shitty band, nor did I ever. I have respected their place in music as being rightly earned. Having listened to full albums like Rubber Soul and Sgt. Pepper I have a more solid level of appreciation. What also has been fortified is how I feel The Beatles are overrated.
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| WWWHHHHAAAAAAATTTT?!?!? |
Please, bear with me. I know that's the last thing a fan of a great band ever wants to hear. I'm not saying The Beatles were anything less than a great group of musicians. I'm also not discounting the talents of any individual member. To do so would be wrong. But in my literal decades of arguing with people about The Beatles what I keep coming up against is this brick wall made of claims that not only were they great, but they were hands-down THE GREATEST OF ANYTHING EVER. It's also not unusual for all of their albums, even their bad ones, to appear on a list of best albums of all time, or for any one of their albums to be trumpeted as the best album ever. That's where my issue is.
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| Seriously Rolling Stone? 4 of the top 10? 3 of the top 5? |
I started listening to The Beatles material hoping to find one performance that was extraordinary, outside of what I was expecting. I didn't find it. I listened to 220 songs and can't think of one individual performance by any Beatle that stood out. (supposedly Ringo's drumming on "A Day In Life" is meant to be great, but it was muffled under the orchestration.) I suppose if I was looking for a fiery guitar solo or drum break I should have known that's not The Beatles schtick. But to me that would take The Beatles into that level beyond just good song writers and excellent producers into outstanding performers. It would take that much for me to consider The Beatles to be the hands-down greatest. As it is they are "merely" part of the discussion. I say "merely" because even being in the discussion of greatest bands ever is a pretty big deal. At least it should be, but that might not be enough for some of the fanatics.
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| That screaming girl is calling me an asshole right now. |
I have also heard that The Beatles were the genesis behind the "album as a work of art" idea. In that they do have Sgt. Pepper, which is a very neatly arranged and produced album front to back. Aside from that the only other albums I felt were cohesive wholes were A Hard Day's Night and Rubber Soul. The rest felt like collections of singles (in the earlier albums) or stuffed with fill (on their later albums). The idea that The Beatles somehow mastered album-oriented music is certainly overstated. Their catalog is top-notch, but The Beatles definitely made their mark with individual songs rather than whole albums with one definite exception. (To me anyway. If you love Revolver or Abbey Road, fine, whatever. But seriously, fuck "the white album.")
There is also the idea, expressed to me more than once, that The Beatles never released a half-assed effort. They tried hard and brought something new to every song. This is easily refuted first by the fact that their early albums contained myriad cover songs, almost all of which were easy transfers. It is also very evident during "the white album" that the band wasn't really into being a cohesive unit, and Abbey Road and Let It Be are filled out with some very half-baked or incomplete songs.
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| The only case where "half-baked" is not a bad thing. |
So my final verdict on The Beatles? They were a great band. Like all bands they had lots of great songs, lots of pretty good songs, and plenty of useless junk. In their prime years they made music that stands among the best popular music ever made. Their influence on popular music and culture is undeniable. I like plenty of their songs. I can't really begrudge anyone for loving their music, because there's plenty of really good stuff available. But as a whole The Beatles just don't stand up to me as the absolute hands-down no-contest best. If that's the worst I can say, I don't feel I am being all that harsh really.
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| If you're angry right now, please remember it's not your computer's fault. |
How does what I say compare to The Big List? Well according to The List, the Beatles albums I had to hear before I died were With The Beatles, A Hard Day's Night, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, The Beatles, and Abbey Road. Since The Beatles were a huge part of the 60s I agree that hearing the majority of their catalog is important. I'd have to make a couple adjustments. With The Beatles has "All My Loving" but really nothing else great. I would replace that with Please Please Me, which is not only their introduction to the music world, it has "I Saw Her Standing There", "Love Me Do", "Twist And Shout" and in general just more punch and a better sound than With The Beatles.
I'd love to toss out "The White Album", but lots of people love it so it might as well stay. Abbey Road has some good tunes on it, but really isn't that great an album. Rather than replace it with one of their proper albums, I can do better by including a compilation. Yes, I know compilations shouldn't be considered albums by right, but in The Beatles' case many of their biggest hits were released as singles. If you were to limit your listening to albums only, you'd miss a lot of their great tunes. So I recommend listening instead to Past Masters Volumes 1 and 2. That covers almost all of their singles, though oddly enough I couldn't find a collection that included "Strawberry Fields Forever".
So there. Now at least no one can say I haven't done my due diligence on The Beatles. I have, and I still don't really like them.
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