I don't like The Beatles, am I the only one?

[EJ3]

(A) I started my music collecting OCD phase in the '70s:
*I collected few thousand rock (and derivative) LPs/CDs of that earlier decade.
*My collection kept growing (adding probably another thousand albums) and I moved on to the newly offered alternative music scene of the '80s/'90s earlier decades.
*Here it is 2026, and my digital music collection has probably grown to well over 5K, while still foraging for new and alt music, non-stop.
(B) Gave up all of those activities!

I only gave up #3 (as much as possible). 1 & 2. I continually check them out to try to find to make sure that I'll know when it is that I will start not liking them.
I would not want to miss the change over and be late to the party.

 

[Mort]

What if you just think they are just okay and generally overrated by boomers like a lot of classic rock?

 

[Mart68]

What if you just think they are just okay and generally overrated by boomers like a lot of classic rock?

Maybe we need a flow-chart?

 

[DavidEdwinAston]

What if you just think they are just okay and generally overrated by boomers like a lot of classic rock?

My brother went to see Chris Montez, many years ago. A supporting band was called The Beatles. Pretty good, he thought.
My position. It isn't a crime to dislike The Beatles, but it should be!

 

[Mart68]

I grew up in the same neighbourhood as the Beatles albeit 20 years later. One of my uncles always maintained that, whilst he was away serving with the Military Police in West Germany, Richard Starkey stole his drumkit from the storeroom of the church hall.

They did do some great songs but they also did a lot of filler, music hall inspired crap, and children's songs. Probably from all their output you could put together one really good double album. That's the main reason I don't own any of their albums.

 

[DeadBeatAnon]

I have limited knowledge/appreciation of classical music. I own Wagner’s Ring cycle, the Amadeus soundtrack, and fondly remember lovely pieces my mother used to play on the piano, like Debussy’s “Clair de Lune”. So it would be ridiculous for me to post here, “I Don’t Like Bach”.

But I’m left with the curious impression that over 90% of the posts here are written by people with (at best) superficial knowledge of the Beatles and their work. We’re on page 29 of this thread, with almost nothing like a serious critical analysis of the band’s work. At minimum, that heavy lift is required by the OP, since his claim is that the Beatles = hype. I do appreciate Newman (post 64), Robin L (post 113), and Sonitus Mirus (post 134), the few who made a serious attempt.

 

[Mart68]

But I’m left with the curious impression that over 90% of the posts here are written by people with (at best) superficial knowledge of the Beatles and their work. We’re on page 29 of this thread, with almost nothing like a serious critical analysis of the band’s work

Thought the second para of my post above pretty much summed it up

Seriously though I went to school a hundred yards up the road from Strawberry Field, Pete Best's nephew was in my class, I used to catch the bus in Penny Lane on the way home from piano lessons. Grew up with their music and the whole thing, still not massively keen on them.

 

[wadude]

I grew up in the same neighbourhood as the Beatles albeit 20 years later. One of my uncles always maintained that, whilst he was away serving with the Military Police in West Germany, Richard Starkey stole his drumkit from the storeroom of the church hall.

What a great story!

 

[DeadBeatAnon]

Mart68: my post wasn't directed at you, it just happened to follow your post. OTOH, living near Strawberry Field, or tutoring Pete Best's nephew, or catching the Penny Lane bus is interesting, but I'm not sure it's relevant. Here in Oklahoma, "Big Dog" Toby Keith lived within a few miles from my home. I'm really hesitant to claim that proximity gives me any insight into his work.

 

[tineared]

Could this be The Long and Winding Road?

 

[Mart68]

Mart68: my post wasn't directed at you, it just happened to follow your post. OTOH, living near Strawberry Field, or tutoring Pete Best's nephew, or catching the Penny Lane bus is interesting, but I'm not sure it's relevant. Here in Oklahoma, "Big Dog" Toby Keith lived within a few miles from my home. I'm really hesitant to claim that proximity gives me any insight into his work.

I didn't think you were specifically posting to me.

I wouldn't claim relevance purely on proximity but if you grew up in Liverpool in the '70s you got the Beatles everywhere, all the time*. Most of my pals at school had all their albums, often the originals passed down from older brothers and sisters. Even my parents, who almost never listened to recorded music, had the blue and red compilation albums.

So I'd say I was deeply familiar with their work and could probably recite from memory all the lyrics to many of their songs even though I've never owned any of their records.

*Although it wasn't until the mid 1980s that the city realised the Beatles' legacy was a tourist attraction and began to actively promote it.

 

[DeadBeatAnon]

For those interested in the Beatles work, I'd recommend Mark Hertsgaard's A Day in the Life: The Music & Artistry of the Beatles. Hertsgaard focuses on the music. In one passage, Lennon gets a phone call from McCartney, who's working on a new song and invites Lennon to come by his flat. Lennon brings a friend, a non-musician. McCartney leads the pair into his music room, then sits at the piano. He plays the first two verses of "Eleanor Rigby", the first verse about the lonely Eleanor, the second about a parish priest, Father McKenzie. Then McCartney stops abruptly and turns to Lennon: "I don't have an ending--I need an ending."

Before Lennon can say anything, his friend blurts out: "I know! Father McKenzie buries Eleanor!". And that's how the song ends. Lennon added the last line, the final twist of the knife: "Father McKenzie...wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave, no one was saved".

 

[mhardy6647]

Here are a few random replacement fuses: just in case!
View attachment 529743

I was oh-so-tempted to post this image originally.
(I like the audiovisual alert style best, BTW)

PS I guess the la vache qui rit in a Swiss style would be higher impedance than the regular kind(?).

 

[mhardy6647]

For those interested in the Beatles work, I'd recommend Mark Hertsgaard's A Day in the Life: The Music & Artistry of the Beatles. Hertsgaard focuses on the music. In one passage, Lennon gets a phone call from McCartney, who's working on a new song and invites Lennon to come by his flat. Lennon brings a friend, a non-musician. McCartney leads the pair into his music room, then sits at the piano. He plays the first two verses of "Eleanor Rigby", the first verse about the lonely Eleanor, the second about a parish priest, Father McKenzie. Then McCartney stops abruptly and turns to Lennon: "I don't have an ending--I need an ending."

Before Lennon can say anything, his friend blurts out: "I know! Father McKenzie buries Eleanor!". And that's how the song ends. Lennon added the last line, the final twist of the knife: "Father McKenzie...wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave, no one was saved".

apropos of the drum kits, Penny Lane buses, etc. in this thread.
I went to high school with Mark Hertsgaard. And his siblings. Actually his younger brother Peter was in my class; Mark was a couple of years ahead of us.
Their father (Rolf) was the NBC affiliate's local TV news anchor in Baltimore in those days.

irrelevant but true!



_____________
* actually, come to think of it, he and I have the same college alma mater, too.

 

[wadude]

One analogy is that on Glyn John’s version of Let it Be the Beatles’ sound is very similar to their work on Tony Meehan’s Decca audition tapes, although the mood of enthusiasm on the Decca tapes was undermined by a sense of ennui on the Get Back sessions. Even though Lennon and Harrison were excited about the warts and all production the album didn’t see release until Phil Spector figured out how to make a presentable product from the tapes. In the end Lennon expressed relief with the outcome.

People always point out George Martin when it comes to the Beatles but producers make a huge difference in every recording artist’s work. Just listening to the differences between About a Girl and Smells Like Teen Spirit, I heard lyrical growth and a more focused drummer, but by far and away the biggest change is the sound of the new producer’s impact on Nevermind.

 

[xanalog]

Here are a few random replacement fuses: just in case!
View attachment 529743

Oy! Nostalgia set-in for me, seeing that fuse-collage!
I remember the days when we just reached in our pockets for a copper'd penny... when a replacement -for a blown- fuse was needed.
In the g00d-old-days, when we used to mint pennies!

 

[xanalog]

...Probably from all their output you could put together one really good double album. That's the main reason I don't own any of their albums.

In those days, if you wanted to audition an album, you had pay for it first!
I had listened to the "White Album" album just once and it had made me yawn.

I would have gladly gifted it to you, had I only kept it.

 

[wadude]

What if you just think they are just okay and generally overrated by boomers like a lot of classic rock?

Being overrated is difficult to sustain for five plus decades, I don’t care how good your handlers are.

 

[Tim Link]

Being overrated is difficult to sustain for five plus decades, I don’t care how good your handlers are.

There's something about the Beetles' music that has held a lot of interest for a long time. Cannot be denied. If more people were like me they'd still have made it to fame, but far less prominently. The thing is, if more people were like me, I'd probably change just to be contrary. Now that I think about it, that's probably what happened to me.

 

[DeadBeatAnon]

People always point out George Martin when it comes to the Beatles but producers make a huge difference in every recording artist’s work. Just listening to the differences between About a Girl and Smells Like Teen Spirit, I heard lyrical growth and a more focused drummer, but by far and away the biggest change is the sound of the new producer’s impact on Nevermind.

In that Nirvana period between Bleach (1989) and Nevermind (1991), Cobain discovered the Pixies' Surfer Rosa (1988). I read a quote where Cobain said he changed Nirvana's sound after listening to Surfer Rosa. There's nothing wrong with that--I think the Pixies were the greatest band of that era. Cobain took that influence and raised the bar for himself and his band. The result: two terrific albums, Nevermind and In Utero. I think that "change in sound" had very little to do with the producer and everything to do with Cobain resetting the musical direction of the band.