How Many Beatles Fans Or Am I Alone?

[total-recoil]

I never mentioned this before but as I think about it, it's fair to say I was obsessed by The Beatles from early childhood. I recall the way it started quite clearly. I used to listen to radio Luxemburg with those white ear plugs while in bed late at night curled up with a pocket transistor radio. One night, the DJ played this song that blew me away totally. It was Strawberry Fields Forever. So, I found out that it was a Beatles song and started to try and listen to more records but at that time I only had a mono cassette recorder. Anyway the first album I got was Revolver and I recall quite well the other kids at school used to make wise-cracks to the effect they were all into punk rock while I was still back in a time warp. However, this understanding you should never be into something just on a trend basis (to be like eveyone else) always persisted with me. I mean, if I like something I don't care about fashion.
Anyway, in time, I got my hands on Sgt Pepper and that really blew me away too. When my parents were out I'd play it loud in stereo together with the vinly Beatles 1967 - 70 album with that photo taken on a roof.
So, after many many years, I still find myself intrigued by The Beatles although now I tend to analyse the music a lot more now that I write my own material. You know, I was reading something online the other day where a guy stated he thought The Beatles were totally over-rated and that more modern bands such as Queen or U2 were better. The critic made his argument quite well but I think the point he missed was The Beatles went far deeper than just being a good band. For a start, their music was hugely diverse. They didn't just do the odd ballad or rock song but crossed vast boundaries. Like When I'm 64 is a song your grandad would enjoy, Get Back is a solid rock song, Tomorrow Never Knows is way out and trippy and they say Helter Skelter may have been the origin of heavy metal today.
There is more. Not only were The Beatles diverse but they became a cultural phenomenon. That is, unlike bands today they stood for a kind of revolutionary set of values that challenged the status quo. It may be fair to say The Beatles weren't the only band that got on the tune in, turn on, drop out bandwaggon but they were right at the forefront. This is something I really miss about music today which is so often studio based, boring, conformist shallow material that all sounds the same. Even Queen who I admit were brilliant composers and performers didn't really stand out with any message or cultural challenge to the establishment through experimentation with new sounds and radical lyrics.
Anyway, having got that out of my system I happen to know a great deal about The Beatles. The whole story of how they were discovered by Brian Epstein in Hamburg/Liverpool is a fascinating story of how four working class musicians became mega stars. The weird part of it no studio really wanted anything to do with them and it took Epstein a huge amount of work and effort to get them fixed up with a label. The rest is history.
Anyway if you have any similar thoughts on this, feel free to join in. It may well be I'm an isolated case on the forum and most people long since left the Beatles era or never even heard much of the music.

 

[Judge]

I grew up in those turbulent times. It wasn't so much that they changed the face of music, but rather they changed the face of our entire culture. Something Beethoven, Mozart or even Elvis couldn't quite match.

Most of all with so many bad things happening in those days...the Beatles remained the one thing that was always good.

"You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one"

 

[Ereth]

I may be young, but I, too, am a Beatles fan. While I do listen to lots of today's music, my parents raised me on the classics, and I love them too.

 

[wyverary]

I remember hearing someone say something along the lines of the fact that the Beatles, unlike many of their contemporaries, often, to this day, still sound "fresh" and not quite so "dated" as, say, the Rolling Stones or what-have-you. In my opinion, they were one of those bands who, well, I guess you could say, they really didn't know QUITE what they were doing al the time...and it is one of those cases where it DEFINITELY worked to their advantage. A lot of the sounds they came up with were WAY ahead of their time, even if they were nonetheless building somewhat on what some had done before (see: the overall sound/atmosphere of Sgt. Pepper, which was based off of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds). Their artistry has shone consistently while other bands have experienced their fame and then waned.

Like many (perhaps most?) other kids, I went through a serious Beatles phase, though I had been somewhat familiar with their stuff since early childhood--I remember my dad had a copy of Abbey Road on CD back when CDs were just coming into vogue.

I also want to ask...has anyone been able to get their hands on the original monaural mixes? I was familiar with Sgt. Pepper for a long time, but when the mono mix came out, I gave it a listen and...wow. There's a reason aficionados and collectors were thrilled when those were released on CD for the first time. The mono mix of SP is even weirder and more original than what came out on the initial stereo mix.

 

[Axeman52]

I also want to ask...has anyone been able to get their hands on the original monaural mixes? I was familiar with Sgt. Pepper for a long time, but when the mono mix came out, I gave it a listen and...wow. There's a reason aficionados and collectors were thrilled when those were released on CD for the first time. The mono mix of SP is even weirder and more original than what came out on the initial stereo mix.

My uncle has all the original mono LPs. He let me borrow them for a little while once. Those were happy days

 

[Noah McKelvie]

No, you're not alone. I've been obsessed with The Beatles since I was 8 or 9 (I'm 20 now). Shamefully, I liked the Backstreet Boys and some other similar pop acts before I was 8, but I only knew some of their songs and researched them no further than listening to them. The Beatles were the first band I became a hardcore fan of though, having to know as much as I could about them as a band as well as their solo endeavors post-1970. I was so obsessed with The Beatles in grade school, that I got picked on once for it.it. It was fourth grade and I got knocked into the dirt and was called "Beatle boy". Thankfully, I wasn't picked on that much in school because I have a phenomenal mom who cares about me enough to check with the teachers and aides so that didn't happen much. This is a great website if there's any other Beatle aficionados on this forum (made almost all the books I had as a kid about them obsolete)-
The Beatles Bible: songs, albums, history, profiles, places, photos and more.

^ That was my first post on this message board by the way

 

[Axeman52]

Once upon a time, or maybe twice, the same uncle who has all the original Mono LPs showed me the Yellow Submarine film when I was very young. I actually used the opening phrase appropriately there, because I definitely saw it more than once as a kid - in fact, I used to insist on watching it every time I visited. I loved the counting sequence with the colourful numbers that is synchronized with When I'm Sixty-Four.

Always loved the music. I think Abbey Road is my favourite album - not because it consists of a collection of my favourite of their songs to listen to individually, but because each song works well as a part of the album - mostly because of the 2nd half of the album where everything's joined together. The album that has the biggest number of my favourite songs is Rubber Soul, but as a complete album, I prefer Abbey Road. I hope that makes sense, because it's another one of those situations where I know what I mean, inside my head, but I'm not convinced that I have translated my thoughts into words clearly enough.

 

[Divrom]

MASSIVE Beatles fan!

Second only to Bob Dylan.

 

[bentHnau]

I've been a huge Beatles fan for years (they are definitely one of my favorite bands), but I was born in 1980 and therefore lack a nuanced historical perspective on their music, although I agree that their work sounds quite "fresh" in comparison to other music of their era.

 

[nowwhat]

"When I'm 64" came up on my player today and I laughed out loud at the part where he asks here to fill out a form. Some of the best music of all time came from those lads.

 

[total-recoil]

As it happens I winded up working on the song Because on Abbey Road a few days ago. It's not all the way there yet but getting closer as I just started working it out on basic piano. I heard that Because has some connection to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata so far as inspiration goes. It seems fairly typical of an Abbey Road song since what happened was the Beatles decided to use a lot of unfinished songs and simply run them all together (as you said). Because is really pretty short but even shorter is Mean Mr Mustard, Polythene Pam and so on.
Sometimes I wonder what happened to all the other scrapbook songs they had that were never finished off.
I always try to be pragmatic and honest where the Beatles are concerned. All in all, I rate them as the best band ever although I concede they sometimes wrote substandard tracks like Bungalow Bill or Wild Honey Pie. I take the mainstream view Sgt Pepper probably was their overall best album.

Once upon a time, or maybe twice, the same uncle who has all the original Mono LPs showed me the Yellow Submarine film when I was very young. I actually used the opening phrase appropriately there, because I definitely saw it more than once as a kid - in fact, I used to insist on watching it every time I visited. I loved the counting sequence with the colourful numbers that is synchronized with When I'm Sixty-Four.

Always loved the music. I think Abbey Road is my favourite album - not because it consists of a collection of my favourite of their songs to listen to individually, but because each song works well as a part of the album - mostly because of the 2nd half of the album where everything's joined together. The album that has the biggest number of my favourite songs is Rubber Soul, but as a complete album, I prefer Abbey Road. I hope that makes sense, because it's another one of those situations where I know what I mean, inside my head, but I'm not convinced that I have translated my thoughts into words clearly enough.

 

[total-recoil]

Big question is why did it happen? Would The Beatles ever have been such a social force if Brian Epstein hadn't pushed them into the limelight? They had been a simple club act in Hamburg and Liverpool for quite some time and no real obvious symptom of major, creative genious. However, Epstein did see something special and took the group on the basis of manager. Most record companies turned them down and weren't at all impressed. Then, somehow, the whole Beatles phenomenon exploded. Maybe had it not been for Epstein the group would have just continued to do small gigs in Hamburg with covers of Chuck Berry numbers and Twelve Bar Blues rock songs.
It might also be fair to say The Beatles prepared the path for the Rolling Stones to suddenly appear on the scene. After that the whole sixties music phenomenon took off with groups like The Beach Boys, Jefferson Airplane and Jimmy Hendrix.
It could well be the case that The Beatles got a lot of help and were in the right place at the right time when the kind of music they wanted to do would be taken seriously.

 

[total-recoil]

I think the "She Loves You" beginning tracks were The Beatles realisation they were playing for normal working families who wanted a good tune to dance to at the bars or hear at work. They weren't in a position to do Within You Or Without You at that stage. I think they realised they could start to be more creative around 1965 once they had a core fan base.
I am intrigued by the hippy movement and Charlie Manson for some reason. I read a lot of material on Manson and his connection with the Beach Boys. I suppose it intrigues me as it was a very strange development and unexpected. I suppose the hippy movement was fairly diverse, some genuine and some just riding the surf till the fashion died out. One thing is clear, drugs were not the innocent, peaceful cure-all the hippies imagined. If drugs aren't respected, they can destroy lives and minds and so many of our Rock idols were also destroyed by them or forced to back off.

 

[Bruce]

My all time favorite group. I have all their LPs.
I read most of the books on them but bought mainly Lennon material.
I even bought Catcher in the Rye to try and work out Hinkley's motive for his assassination but never did. My dad used to listen to one radio station when I was growing up in the 60s and they played Top 40 stuff.
Therefore alot of my favourite groups are from the 60s barring Led Zeppelin, T Rex, Slade, The Sweet and many many more.

 

[theduckrabbit]

I have only known one person who claimed to hate the beatles but he pretty much did whatever he could to be "different" and contrarian and obnoxious. Lol @ folks who try so hard to look like outsiders so they can seem cool. Dont try too hard, buddy, you might hurt yourself.

 

[Bruce]

I honestly feel that George Martin's genius in opening their eyes (and ears) to the myriad of musical options available to them accelerated their musical development exponentially in their later recording years.

I always sound so clever when I write..........how deceiving lmao

 

[Axeman52]

Therefore alot of my favourite groups are from the 60s barring Led Zeppelin, T Rex, Slade, The Sweet and many many more.

Some good stuff there - I think I have an "old fashioned" musical taste for my age because my dad kept all his records from the '60s and '70s and I found them when I was a kid and got really obsessed with listening to records. there was a time when I was 7 years old where that was all I ever wanted to do.

 

[tree]

When John was shot, Michael Moore held a memorial service in Flint.
Flint Expatriates: Flint Photos: John Lennon Memorial at the Capitol Theater
I went. Walked there.
This is just a photo.

 

[Tia Maria]

Also a Beatles fan! Here are two of my favorites, although they have so many great songs that I also love.

 

[clg114]

I really like British classic rock bands. The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, BeeGees, Led Zepplen and of course The Beatles. These were the top rock bands when I was young. I sill have a bunch of old records of these bands that I bought way back when.