The Beatles Thing

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It's annoyed me for years, the way the BEATLES are so ubiquitous and loved; I think it's really stopped a lot of people being able to listen to them as just a BAND not as some massive cultural phenomenon. I was lucky and got into them (thanks to "Revolver") really young when I didn't really know about the whole thing, also pre-"Anthology" when it all went stupid. They're maybe my favourite band (getting 'With the Beatles' a couple of days ago helped), but it's hard to imagine getting into them now if I was younger... aren't they too much part of the establishment? Too cutesy (thanks maybe to Paul's version of things being more and more the gospel as his bandmates die off), too EVERYWHERE to relate to personally? Or maybe the many people I know who claim not to like them really do dislike them musically, which sounds unlikely, but I would think that I suppose.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Monday, 17 February 2003 12:27 (twenty-two years ago)

I like the "Anthology" thing, I actually have the programme taped off Tv and the book, it's just that's when it got really easy to get SICK of them being everywhere all the time.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Monday, 17 February 2003 12:33 (twenty-two years ago)

i agree, it's kind of sad. i've never gotten into their "music" because of how closely i connect that chaotic image thing. and sad because if you say "i like the beatles" everyone would think yr so unoriginal, even tho that isnt true at all.

― rebekah, Monday, 17 February 2003 16:04 (twenty-two years ago)

me putting music in quotes was not to say it wasnt real music. god, i dont know WHY i did that

― rebekah, Monday, 17 February 2003 16:15 (twenty-two years ago)

That was pretty much how I felt about the Beatles for ages: annoying semi-hippy commercial band (this was around the Placebo stage, so i can't be credited w/ much musical taste or expertise). And listening to the number one hits thing I didn't really like much of the music either. But since then I've been taped some stuff I really like, so I guess I have a higher opinion of them now, so I still don't like any of their big hits much.

― Livvie Tapper (Livvie), Monday, 17 February 2003 22:41 (twenty-two years ago)

everyone likes the beatles. the beatles are cool.

"getting with the Beatles a couple of days ago helped"

lol

― webber (webber), Tuesday, 18 February 2003 04:57 (twenty-two years ago)

But since then I've been taped some stuff I really like, so I guess I have a higher opinion of them now, so I still don't like any of their big hits much.

should be "ALTHOUGH I still....", obv

― Livvie Tapper (Livvie), Tuesday, 18 February 2003 05:26 (twenty-two years ago)

People feel bullied by the Beatles being everywhere, so there is a tendency to kick against it - they get held up as the best band ever, but that puts all kinds of burdens on the albums when you listen to them - I mean, is anyone really going to tell me that Sgt. Pepper's is the best thing ever?

― Damian (Damian), Friday, 21 February 2003 09:54 (twenty-two years ago)

the beatles are quite pop. pop is good. you just don't over thing it.

― Fergus Noodle (Fergus Noodle), Friday, 21 February 2003 12:40 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't think people should "thing" ANYTHING. Right on. It is what it is, etc. Another reason, maybe; people saying OASIS sounded like the Beatles, that'd put most sane people right off. Oasis (a few decent singles aside) sound like Status Quo or MAYBE Slade (not as good, not by miles), and I hate them. Stupid Oasis.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 13:30 (twenty-two years ago)

not fucking oasis...the dumbest person ever, noel gallager or whatever. he gets in fights and pretends he is a beatle, oh how sexy.

― rebekah, Tuesday, 25 February 2003 22:07 (twenty-two years ago)

That's also a good description of his numbnuts brother. They have two eyebrows between them, too.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 00:13 (twenty-two years ago)

The beatles are the most over-rated, over-priased, over-played bunch of no talent ass clown's that I have ever heard. IF you want to listen to good drug induced music listen to The Doors or Hendrix not the lame ass Beatles. I'm sorry Lennon was shot, no one deserves that just for being a individual, but come on people they're not that great or as profound as people make them out to be. Lennon is not some christ like martyr and the Beatles suck. In summary I hate the beatles.

― JimmmyHoffa, Wednesday, 26 February 2003 07:30 (twenty-two years ago)

"Lennon is not some christ like martyr"

oh ok not at all like hendrix or jim morrison then

― webber (webber), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 07:47 (twenty-two years ago)

youre right I don't know anyone who celebrates morrison's death aniversary or I never seen calendars with hendrix birthday's on them, such as I have seen of Lennon. Hendrix and the Doors aren't played on midi tracks in elevators or soundtracks to every other commercial on TV. and i am not saying that they are of god like status either but simply if you want to listen to stoned, lsd, hippie shit then these are the more talented alternatives, in conclsion I still hate the beatles.

― JimmyHoffa, Wednesday, 26 February 2003 08:28 (twenty-two years ago)

"Hendrix and the Doors aren't played on midi tracks in elevators or soundtracks to every other commercial on TV."

ha ha ha.

― webber (webber), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 08:35 (twenty-two years ago)

“Light My Fire” was sold for use in a Chrysler commercial while JM was still alive and recording with the Doors. It wasn’t until Michael Jackson obtained the rights to the Beatle catalog that Beatle music was used for commercial purposes.

Who becomes the bigger sell-out? The Doors for selling their biggest hit to a car company? Or a band who never did?

Death was the best thing to happen to JM’s career— they were essentially a one-hit band who were so over-as-quickly-as-they-started that they weren’t even invited to play Woodstock. What does that say when the concert promoters preferred Canned Heat over the Doors?

Similar with Hendrix. Had he not died, he would be mentioned the same way we speak of Albert Lee. It was only the saavy marketing of his manager post-death that give him the status he has today.

“Stoned, lsd, hippie shit” = “Inna Godda Da Vida,” not “I’ve Just Seen a Face” or the rest of the Beatle’s pop. It’s Ok to not like them (even if it’s because you find it somehow fashionable to hate them), but if you’re going to trash something based on its merits, at least try to know what you’re talking about.

BTW if you want hippie music, try Hawkwind.

― No One (SiggyBaby), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 16:37 (twenty-two years ago)

good heavens. i like the beatles okay. i grew up with rubber soul and help constantly on my folx turntable and i got really obsessed with them when i was 12, and now i'm mostly sick of them. studying them in music when the music department was all "the beatles are the only legit rock/pop music" was quite offputting too. especially since the "legit" album was sgt peppers, the thing is tho, they were right, that album IS right there with tristan und isolde, its largely crappity crap. "when i'm 64", i ask you. HOWEVER last time i was in oamaru i put rubber soul on and i realised that some of the songs really do have lasting appeal, even paul ones like "i'm looking through you". i doubt i could ever hate the beatles, i'm just not in luv with them anymore.

― di smith (lucylurex), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 22:52 (twenty-two years ago)

What, because 'Sgt Peppers' has no breaks and sounds a bit like a suite or something? 'even paul songs' ARGH

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 23:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I know what you mean, but ARGH

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 27 February 2003 00:05 (twenty-two years ago)

ARGH is so expressive.

― di smith (lucylurex), Thursday, 27 February 2003 00:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm very fucking eloquent

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 27 February 2003 01:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I can't stand the Beatles. I find them extremely boring. They're so overrated, just like those other "important" bands like The Velvet Underground. I mean, they have made their contributions but I could care less. Enough hero worship already. Today's music is such an orgy of necrophillia.

― Justin Price, Sunday, 2 March 2003 07:01 (twenty-two years ago)

No no, I didn't actually 'get with' them, it's an album title. Webber was joking.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Sunday, 2 March 2003 10:50 (twenty-two years ago)

if it wasn't for the beatles you wouldn't be listening to a hell of a lot of stuff you have and will listen to. the beatles were amazing, that's how they're still selling records dumbass.fair enough mcartney has gone a wee power mad but you cannot say that the beatles are crap especially since they, n my opinion, changed music forever - there'll never be another band to even equal their influence. so you cannot say they were crap, tards.

― nevermind^, Tuesday, 11 March 2003 23:17 (twenty-two years ago)

four months pass...

ilm's kneejerk beatles hate is one of the things that seemed attractive and daring about the forum when i first saw it, but now seems kind of silly. to me the beatles still sum up most of what's good about pop, and lennon was the all-time great rock singer.

it can be hard to appreciate the beatles now, especially since the way they've been oppressively remarketed to 90s/00s audiences makes it near-impossible for anyone (except young kids just coming to them for the first time) to think of them as "their" special band. i had to take a really long break from listening to them in order to like them again.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 23 July 2003 20:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, I got into them in about 93, before there was much of that going on. I'm really glad.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 24 July 2003 02:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, I remember listening to the white album for the first time back in '92, when I was about 12, and I was really blown away. That's probably still my favorite album by the Beatles... but somewhere along the line I found that I needed to take a break from them as well... maybe around when the Anthology came out? Whenever the hell that was. I listened to Abbey Road for the first time in a while the other day, and I was reminded of why they were so interesting to me in the first place. The Who, however, I have never grown tired of.

― The Man they call Dan (The Man they call Dan), Thursday, 24 July 2003 04:07 (twenty-two years ago)

And too many of them are dead for a documentary/reworking history thing, too. I loved Anthology, though. I knew what they weren't talking about, which helped.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 24 July 2003 05:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Idiots.

― Adrian McCoy (Adrian McCoy), Wednesday, 30 July 2003 21:46 (twenty-two years ago)

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