4merper4mer Posted December 9, 2015 Share Posted December 9, 2015 In all honesty, I love the Beatles, but I do feel they're over rated. Great song writers, but from a musician standpoint, George was above average, Paul and John were ok, and Ringer was below average. Uncle Eugene and I used to argue about the Beatles all the time. I do think they had a lot of influence. John's music had influence but people forget his daughter turned out to be pretty good in her own right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpile Posted December 9, 2015 Share Posted December 9, 2015 (edited) The fact that so many books still name the Beatles "the greatest or most significant or most influential" rock band ever only tells you how far rock music still is from becoming a serious art. Jazz critics have long recognized that the greatest jazz musicians of all times are Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, who were not the most famous or richest or best sellers of their times, let alone of all times. Classical critics rank the highly controversial Beethoven over classical musicians who were highly popular in courts around Europe. Rock critics are still blinded by commercial success: the Beatles sold more than anyone else (not true, by the way), therefore they must have been the greatest. Jazz critics grow up listening to a lot of jazz music of the past, classical critics grow up listening to a lot of classical music of the past. Rock critics are often totally ignorant of the rock music of the past, they barely know the best sellers. No wonder they will think that the Beatles did anything worth of being saved. For most of their career the Beatles were four mediocre musicians who sang melodic three-minute tunes at a time when rock music was trying to push itself beyond that format (a format originally confined by the technical limitations of 78 rpm record). They were the quintessence of "mainstream", assimilating the innovations proposed by rock music, within the format of the melodic song. They were influential, yes, but on the customs - in the strictest sense of the word. Their influence, for better or for worse, on the great phenomena of the 60s doesn't amount to much. Unlike Bob Dylan, they didn't stir social revolts; unlike the Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead they didn't foster the hippie movement; unlike Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix they didn't further the myth of LSD; unlike Jagger and Zappa they had no impact on the sexual revolution. Indeed the Beatles were icons of the customs that embodied the opposite: the desire to contain all that was happening. In their songs there is no Vietnam, there is no politics, there are no kids rioting in the streets, there is no sexual promiscuity, there are no drugs, there is no violence. In the world of the Beatles the social order of the 40s and the 50s still reigns. At best they were influential on the secret dreams of young girls, and on the haircuts of young nerdy boys. The Beatles had the historical function to serve as champions of the reaction. Their smiles and their choruses hid the revolution: they concealed the restlessness of an underground movement ready to explode, for a bourgeoisie who wanted to hear nothing about it. They had nothing to say and that's why they didn't say it. Did you live through the sixties? I am not going to argue with you, but to state the Beatles had nothing to say is so untrue on too many levels to even know where to begin. The Real Buffalo Joe, on 09 Dec 2015 - 09:52 AM, said: In all honesty, I love the Beatles, but I do feel they're over rated. Great song writers, but from a musician standpoint, George was above average, Paul and John were ok, and Ringer was below average. I object. Ringer did not play for the Beatles. Edited December 9, 2015 by rockpile Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
/dev/null Posted December 9, 2015 Share Posted December 9, 2015 December 8th 1980 to October 2, 1981 what a short gap that really was. Reagan got shot in between too. At the time it seemed so long but in truth two influences in my life left in close proximity to each other. Not to mention over that same span the world also experienced Raiders of the Lost Ark Stripes Das Boot Escape from New York Clash of the Titans History of the World Porkys Cannonball Run Heavy Metal And only a few days after the premiere of Flash Gordon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts