If you were in a neighborhood bar in an imaginary world where no one had ever heard the Beatles, and that night's band was the Beatles playing their 12 best songs, would you look up from your beer and

I wonder if we'd be able to recognize the true greatness of the Beatles or the Stones in this context. Your thoughts, please

Oh, this thing truncated my question. Here's the full question:

If you were in a neighborhood bar in an imaginary world where no one had ever heard the Beatles, and that night's band was the Beatles playing their 12 best songs, would you look up from your beer and say HOLY SHIT or would you just think of them as "just another band"?

What do people usually listen to in this imaginary world?

oasis

this is a really good thread idea, except i don't drink beer. is it okay if i have a gin and tonic instead? otherwise i would maybe have some pinot grigio.

i think performance comes across more than songwriting when you're seeing a band for the first time with no prior context or knowledge of their music. but i think even if you weren't struck by the quality of the songs, i'm thinking the Beatles were sufficiently charismatic and talented performers that i think you might tap your toes, yeah.

their best songs were from after they played live

though according to Lemmy, of all people, in the Cavern days they were the best live band ever, so they could play a bunch of not-best-12-songs and I might look up too

is this bar in williamsburg?

by Polio Police does that mean you arrest people that have polio

or bad polios?

can we see your badge

anyway, i don't think those are their best songs

are the Beatles performing on a Sunday night? that might hamper my enjoyment because I'd have to go back to work the next day.

their best songs were from after they played live

― Θ ̨Θƪ (sic), Sunday, January 15, 2012 10:05 PM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

well it's not like if they played their Shea Stadium setlist in this hypothetical bar anyone would be like "these songs are ok but maybe they'll MATURE into something more INTERESTING"

BRAINTREE —
Former Braintree Police Chief John V. Polio, who spent 26 years as the controversial leader of the department, died Thursday at age 87 after a brief illness.
Appointed chief in 1962, Polio ruffled feathers and attracted scandal throughout his time at the helm of the department, where he railed against corruption and political favoritism, creating enemies in many officials and fellow officers.

take it up w/ poliocop not me, shipster!

i'd look up but i wouldn't use swears

It's an interesting question. I've never liked the Beatles' music (the whole cultural-tidal-wave that is/was/shall ever be THE BEATLES is totally a side issue; I just don't like the tunes or their voices), so I don't think seeing them in a bar would change my mind.

It's Ricky Gervais' next film project.

i wonder if maybe the greatness of the beatles has something to do with ubiquity more than being great songwriters (which they were). clearly the two are related, but something about spearheading the cultural zeitgeist might have made their songs more powerful than they would have been otherwise

if they were playing shit like "honey pie" and "yellow submarine" and "maxwell's silver hammer" and "ob-la-di ob-la-da" i'd think they were corny as all shit, a charge i never really thought to level against them when i listened to them on record.

I'd just be pissed that there was a band in my bar.

Well, presumably in this alternative universe there was no beatles hence no beatles influence, so the half of pop music that went beatles>stones>rock was missed out. Guitar groups really would have been on the way out. Also, no punk.

So in a world that has been dominated by funk and soul and disco and house, even more so than i the real world, a bunch of 4 guys playing folk songs (the nearest reference point) would seem like a novelty or pastiche. People would think it weird before it would be good. Even the Everley Brothers harmonies would sound corny.

When the kids were growing up they got to hear a fair bit of 'old' music in a non-linear fashion (They got to hear The Monkees before The Beatles, and, famously, The Ramones before them)

I got Bill Haley's "Rock around the Clock" lp in a sale, Alice's take was "The first two songs on each side are great, but after that it's dull" (She'd be about five then)

Anyway, I didn't tell them that The Beatles were "the biggest pop band ever, back in history", they just took to it and enjoyed it for what it was. (I had to explain that Paul was Stella's dad, they had met her (and her dog) previously)

People argue about how much they 'changed the world' but we're still in a world where they don't seem totally anachronistic, as opposed to Brian Poole and the Tremiloes, or Billy J, etc.

(oh, and before anyone says "That's spelled wrong" : http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=2195062 )

I think the question is asking "imagine everything as it is except without the Beatles" which is impossible because they changed the past 50 years of culture to such as degree that pop music and rock music might have commercially died very quickly without them, and so a good 90% of the bands and culture that arrived since then might have never existed. In this context, the question could be asking "what if they arrived now instead of then?"

Although the question might also be suggesting that they did exist exactly just the same, except without their 12 best songs, and everything else somehow existed just the same without "Rain" and "Dear Prudence" and "Things We Said Today" etc etc which I still don't see how it's possible, but I guess it could be... And some random-ass band shows up, and in the alternate-universe they were the ones who wrote these songs and they just happened to be a new band. Well, I guess that would be pretty cool....

according to Lemmy, of all people, in the Cavern days they were the best live band ever

There is no way that this isn't true simply because of the source.

And He Would Know!

He was Jimi Hendrix's roadie and said The Beatles were the best live band ever.............

I would enjoy this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JgcwzhxTQg

since lots of bands are influnced by The Beatles, i might think they are imitators

I think i've decided that so much of what i like about them is captured in the second half of their recorded output, where they used a shitload of studio trickery. What would "I am the Walrus" be like live? I bet not nearly as good.

12 songs from their later years that would still sound good without studio trickery:

Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey
Two of Us
Here Comes the Sun
She Said She Said
You Never Give Me Your Money
Happiness is a Warm Gun
Long Long Long
Martha My Dear
Hey Bulldog
Rain
Because
Strawberry Fields Forever (lots of the early acoustic version still sound good)

"i want to hold your hand" still sounds like the world splitting open

I bet IATW would be kinda cool live if it was all loud and heavy, a West Coast psych thing. Not sure you'd come away thinking it was a devastating classic on first listen, but I think it'd fly. I think most of the later stuff would all be great though - the studio work is wild and mindblowing but the songwriting is awesome and there are probably some things that get a little too precise or clean-sounding on record.

My ears might prick up if they played Revolution 9 tbf.