The Beatles are the most overrated music group in history. Discuss.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Let's Get Covered In Some Funky Groovy Music Again...
The first volume of this series did come with a bit of surprising backstage shenanigans. Having received a bunch of Little Feat covers fro...
-
I figured I'd post this fabulous album some time here at One Buck Records and the time is now. Actually I was just reminded these last d... -
Time to open the alternative album section here at One Buck Records, and what better way to do it than taking a good but flawed album and ma... -
.webp)
The story of Gene Clark's ill-fated 1972 album, the follow-up to his classic White Light , is a complicated one. I'll try (and fail)...
Well, since this place has gone completely radio silent these last days...maybe this will get someone to talk...and if it doesn't, no one can say I didn't give it the ol' college try, wheeling out the Fab Four and everything...
ReplyDeleteThey were perhaps the first of their kind, riding the wave of their era's erupting expressive individualism's collective corrolaries even as they stirred the underlying waters, achieving a self-sufficiency unheard of before them and providing the bar-lines to a defining era. No wonder they became the icons many wish to clast.
ReplyDeleteTavistock Institute....Say no more, say no more, nudge, nudge, wink, wink...
ReplyDeleteAs someone once supposedly said "Guitar groups are on their way out, Mr Epstein" yet almost 65 five years later they are the band that reportedly have sold the most records in the world. Some estimates suggest EMI have sold over 1 Billion units of their music.
ReplyDeleteThey've had more numbers ones in the USA (20) (plus 16 solo number ones) than anyone else and second most in the UK (19) and twice ( in Hey Jude & Get Back) had songs reach number one in 11 major national record charts on its initial release. They've won an Oscar, 7 Emmys, 15 Ivor Novellos, 11 Grammys, 4 Brits (even though they broke up long before the Brit awards began) as well as being given 4 OBE's by Queen Elizabeth II. Only Elvis Presley (who didn't write most of his songs) has received more platinum records than the Beatles who received 42 (as well as 4 Diamond, 24 Multi-Platinum, and 53 Gold records from the UK and US alone) and that I think answers the question. For not only did the Beatles sing their songs but all four of them turned their hand to writing hit songs not only for themselves but for other artists (the Stones first single was a Beatles song) including a number one in the UK for Billy J Kramer. Now whilst Ringo's writing plaudits maybe modest, the writing success of the other three has been phenomenal both for the Beatles and as solo artists. How many other bands could claim to have songwriters of the quality of Lennon, McCartney & Harrison? Not only that but their music continues to sell long after they broke up (many of their awards have been made only on sales from the mid 1990's onwards almost 25 years after they broke up) and they had a number one album 30 years after they broke up and a number 1 single in the UK only 2 years ago, 60 years after their first number one. They've just about done it all so how anyone could say they are overrated is beyond me?
Whether you like them or not (and its a toss up whether they'd get into my top ten preferred bands or not), they were/are the most popular artists in popular music of all time. End of.
No, they are not. The fact that you'd venture this topic (albeit as clickbait), over a half-century after they stopped, proves that.
ReplyDeleteC in California
Well, you gotta try. Put up a thread with the Beatles and they will come. They did, but not to talk, though. But hey, if I post a half naked chick that will maybe get y'all to do stuff, but not talking either, I'm afraid.
DeleteI don't think so, but the further you get from the actual time they operated, it's harder to explain how revolutionary their act was at the time. I had a similar thing with Elvis; by the time I came along it was Fat Drug Addled Elvis time; the Sun singles never got any airplay. Yes, a few of the post '68 comeback records were...okay. "Kentucky Rain," "Suspicious Minds," "Burnin' Love"....they were okay. But they sure weren't cutting edge.
ReplyDeleteIt was only in the context of the times that I came to fully appreciate what he did, and to some degree you've got to put the Beatles in the cage match with their contemporaries, not compare 'em to acts from the future.
So...overrated compared to? Well, out of the first wave of the British Invasion, who else was as good? The Dave Clark Five? The Rolling Stones weren't writing at the same level, it took them a couple of years to hit their stride. The Kinks? The Hollies? I'm unable to think of a band that was at the same level of quality song writing, making huge advances in the soundscapes of their songs (credit to George Martin...), and slowly seizing control of their art back from the record company.
Now...as I listened to Ringo's "Early 1970" today, they did produce a lot of piffle that few other bands could get away with...but it was a time when the musical world was hanging on their every word.
As the Temptations put it, "The Beatle's new record's a gas!"
Well, as C correctly diagnosed, this was mainly said to get a person or two talking...
ReplyDeleteGood point on Elvis, though. I recently listened to a comp of the Sun tenure, and it's really powerful stuff.
And while I will always prefer the other two big B-bands (Beach Boys and Byrds) there's no arguing with the Beatles growth and prowess in record time...so I won't, even as devil's advocate...
I think the Beatles were more innovative, influential and had a stronger string of songs all in all than either the Beach Boys or the Byrds but I completely understand preferring to listen to either of those bands than the Beatles overplayed to death catalogue. Also part of being innovative is that they were constantly evolving and going in all different directions which isn't always what one wants the listen to.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the "overplayed" more than overrated...and I'll cop to the fact that I personally overplayed them in my life, bought the bootlegs, slogged through hours of dire Let It Be rehearsals, bought the catalog over and over in differing formats and deluxe editions.
ReplyDeleteThese days I drive around with 10,000 songs on a flash drive, set on random. The Beatles are in there...but few of the hits. I'd rather hear "Don't Bother Me" than "I Want To Hold Your Hand." There's a lot of their second-tier songs that still hold the original magic because I didn't ruin them with over exposure.
Hahaha, that's exactly how I listen to most of my music these days as well! If I start scrolling through my music collection I get completely paralyzed trying to choose something and a lot of the songs I enjoy listening to when they come up randomly are things I never would have picked out of the mountain of albums. Sometimes I'll hear something that makes me listen to all or some of an album but otherwise I just take a back seat and skip whatever pops up that I'm not in the mood for. Too much music can be a bit of a curse!
DeleteYeah, it's an accident of technology. My last player played in alpha-numeric order based on file name, so I could number files 01 (title), 02 (title), etc. and create a playlist. The new player plays based on title...so I would have to retag all the files with a number in the title. That looks like work, not enjoying music, so I just let it play randomly.
DeleteSo I get weird juxtapositions: Public Enemy, Frank Sinatra, Charlatans...it's all grist for my pop cultural mill.
Weird juxtapositions are great, no? I rarely get these because the very few times I go out with my I Pod (yes, old school! well, old -school-ish!) and I remembered to load it and load my earphones I'll put it on random...but that doesn't happen awfully often.
DeleteI still prefer whole albums - something you might have noticed on this blog - and since I mostly still listen to CDs...
As all of you, I of course have the problem of having too much music to have time to listen to it all...
Then again, what a luxury problem to have, eh...
DeleteYeah, too true! Definitely a first world problem ;-)
DeleteYeah, but it IS a problem, even if our younger selves wouldn't have understood it.
DeleteThe problem of "too much" is also a problem for musicians. I love a good CD box, liner notes, outtakes, etc. But I also know that I won't listen to it more than once or twice. The new Costello 6-cd set, $140.00 on Amazon? Yes, I have the money (but I also have to put a 12 year old through college in a few years). Will I actually play it enough to justify the cost?
I spend less than I used to in the past, and that's not good for the artists.
Not overrated. They were unusually good at writing and performing. Also, George Martin was one of the world's greatest producers. A series of lucky accidents but also exceptional talent and vision.
ReplyDelete