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

[TonyJZX]

i really love St. Peppers and I really love a selection of their hits

but there's a lot there that leaves me cold

that's ok

i dont love every Porsche ever made either - its that vibe

 

[Joe Smith]

I think most people, or our brains, have a "soft spot" for music that was part of our formative years. Particularly songs or music that is linked to a very specific time and place.

But for me, it's not the main thing I listen to. I like new music, which is why streaming is important to me.

At the gym, in the circuit training room, they only play one local radio station - "The Bus" - who's self-congratulatory slogan is "we play everything." No you don't, I frequently mutter under my breath. You play the same damn 200 songs, day after day after day. If I ever have a mental breakdown, it will probably occur there. Not sure what the final trigger song will be - probably something kinda sweet, like "Jesse's Girl." They're nice songs, but really, listening to "Jesse's Girl" for the 250th time is a hollowing experience.

 

[EJ3]

Next thing someone will be saying they don't like the Eagles.

I don't exactly dis-like them but also don't think that they are the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Eagles as a group: better than many, not as good as some others.
(including some of their individual members whom were or are better when not in the Eagles).

 

[SSS]

I'm a fanatic music lover
But I just don't get the hype about The Beatles
Am I the only one?

Sure no. From beginning I liked the bad guys aka Rolling Stones and Who. Later the Ramones and other punk groups. Beatles were soft music for young girls.

 

[Robin L]

Next thing someone will be saying they don't like the Eagles.

Yo:

 

[Marc v E]

I'm a fanatic music lover
But I just don't get the hype about The Beatles
Am I the only one?

I don't like them either.
Imo the best they produced was Let it be.
So that's what I did.

 

[KSTR]

When I first heard the White Album I thought it was a compilation album of like 20 different groups/artists. There is so much diversity. And that's what strikes me most about the final period of the Beatles, they could do any song in any style and quite professionally so, not just pretending they could. With lots of real emotion. True universal musicianship at its best. That's why they stand out, to this day.

 

[concorde1]

I personally find their music shallow and irritating.

I do like a few of their songs - like "Yesterday".

 

[oceansize]

When I first heard the White Album I thought it was a compilation album of like 20 different groups/artists. There is so much diversity. And that's what strikes me most about the final period of the Beatles, they could do any song in any style and quite professionally so, not just pretending they could. With lots of real emotion. True universal musicianship at its best. That's why they stand out, to this day.

The White Album? That's the one with "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" on it? Yeah, great.

 

[Multicore]

Yeah, but, in 2024, unless Rick Beato says it in a youtube video, it doesn't count!


He's become the sine qua non for some reason that utterly escapes me...

And repulsive to me in the same way as Jeremy Clarkson. Blowhards self-consciously acting like blowhards for a camera. There's actually a lot of this type out there so clearly it's "a thing" that sells. Yuk.

Generally speaking I can ignore them and get on with my life. But – and I don't know how come – Beato won't leave me alone. I cannot ignore him. Youtube and Google aren't allowed to set cookies on my computer and I seldom log in to them but Beato is still always there, ffs. Even here I cannot escape. It's so annoying.

All I want for Xmas is a new Pat Finnerty.

 

[Multicore]

A career rock historian pretty much only gets to write the above statements, once. And that's as individual statements: to amass them all in describing one group, says something about The Beatles.

In a certain sense what he wrote is arguably true. But what Unterberger wrote doesn't describe the effect of listening to Beatles songs. He's writing about something else. It's like an engineering historian writing a popular press piece about the iPhone or modern chip fabs. Unquestionably superlative in the development of the art but not superlatively pleasurable for all of us.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Sure no. From beginning I liked the bad guys aka Rolling Stones and Who. Later the Ramones and other punk groups. Beatles were soft music for young girls.

THE RAMONES!? There is an over rated group. Yuck.

 

[Robin L]

I first heard the Beatles the same time as most other Americans; February 9, 1964, laying on the floor in front of the TV set. My parents were perplexed, I was enraptured. I was about to turn 9 years old. Soon I had a Beatle Haircut, Beatle Boots and the earpiece of a portable transistor radio installed into my ear, with the radio hidden away in my jacket when I went to elementary school. My sister got the Beatles Second Album as a birthday present. We noted how the Beatles were the one group that sounded the most like Motown back then and the group did appear to start off a competition to be the "Blackest" sounding white group of their era. We also listened to a lot of Motown and R & B at the time.

Jump ahead, my sister bought Revolver, the second Beatles album in the house. One hardly needed to buy the records back then as the radio stations playing top 40 played the Beatles every fifth song or so. Revolver was clearly different from the earlier records, as was the programming on KRLA. Must have been something in the water. "Tomorrow Never Knows" clearly stood out from the other songs on the album. A year later, KRLA would play all the songs from Sgt Pepper in spite of the fact that the album had no singles. I managed to get the White Album the following year when I returned a defective electronics kit intended for youngsters. I was 13 at the time. I played it a lot. Revolution #9 drove my brother and sisters crazy, which I found useful at the time. My father, for some odd reason, bought us Abbey Road when it came out even though he expressed distaste for the band.

Come 1975 I was working at Wherehouse Records and there was a subsidiary to Wherehouse nearby called Big Ben's. They had all the Beatle records on Parlophone imports and I bought them all. The most revelatory was the Hor Zu German import of Magical Mystery Tour, with all the singles in true stereo, unlike the Capitol issue. By that time, I was addicted to their music. By the time the 1990s rolled around I had access to a number of bootlegs. My favorites were the Christmas records.

Right now, I still have two different CD copies of the White Album; the first CD issue and the Mono top-loading CDs that came later. I've also got the original issue Pepper, Abbey Road and "1". Also, Anthology 1. My DVD-A of "Love" is tucked away somewhere, I can see my DVD of "Yellow Submarine" from where I'm sitting. I guess the most interesting is the 4 CD set of the Beatles at the BBC where you get to hear them perform live in the studio, very little editing, usually none at all. This set indicates the actual musical skills of the group when they had their first success, raw, uninhibited and sloppy. Interesting to think of how many other groups had better chops than this. Consider James Brown around the same time. That's what I find striking about the group right now, how so much of what made the group famous was essentially hype.

The Beatles will doubtless sell into the foreseeable future. The technical work on the 2023 reissues of the Red and Blue compilations is, frankly, amazing. But I think I'm overexposed and becoming tired of them. There is so much music in the world and so much music where the musicianship is of a higher grade. Paul wants to be taken seriously as a classical composer but can't make the effort to learn to read music. He's got amazing stamina as a performer, I'll admit. Ringo has been coasting along on charm ever since the band broke up. And the other two are no longer with us. Folks will doubtless worship at their altar into the foreseeable future. It's still a viable business. But I'm worn out.

 

[Johnboy1964]

Their music never did much for me but I don’t mind it. I’m glad that they make a lot of people happy though.

 

[Somafunk]

I’ve heard loads of Beatles tunes over the years but I’ve never owned any tracks/albums nor have I ever streamed any..

Not my sorta music.

 

[OldHvyMec]

I like um. They were a lot of fun and still are. They made a lot of music over a short period. I still have their records and they are all in good shape.
Stones, Beck, Carlos, Rod the Mod, ELO, Tubes, Who, Hendrix, Janis, Elton John, Sonny and Cher, Jackson 5, James Brown, Al Green, Supremes
Linda Ronstadt, Tower of Power, Gram Central, War.

I think I'll start with "Rubber Soul" and finish up with the "Outlaws", "A boy named Sue!"

Regards

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

I dunno. I'm in the prime age group for the Beatles, maybe a couple of years older than the true sweet spot. I was 17 when they appeared on Ed Sullivan. I watched them. I liked them. I thought that after a few albums they began taking themselves too seriously. Somewhere after Revolver they got too self conscious for me. I still like some of their later songs like "Maxwell's Silver Hammer." I haven't listened to them in over 40 years. I think Sgt Pepper was the edge of the cliff. By that time I was concentrating on blues and folk music with jazz and classical on the side. My sister was in junior high when the Beatles arrived. She told me how to tell them apart. "Paul looks like a girl. George looks like a rat. John looks normal and Ringo looks like Ringo." It worked for me.

 

[Killingbeans]

I'm a fanatic music lover
But I just don't get the hype about The Beatles
Am I the only one?

Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road are great fun. Don't care much about the rest.

Although, I like a lot of stuff that would get me tarred and feathered if I played it at a HiFi show, and I have zero regrets.

 

[kchap]

I dunno. I'm in the prime age group for the Beatles, maybe a couple of years older than the true sweet spot. I was 17 when they appeared on Ed Sullivan. I watched them. I liked them. I thought that after a few albums they began taking themselves too seriously.

I'm a fan, but fair comment.

I think Sgt Pepper was the edge of the cliff. By that time I was concentrating on blues and folk music with jazz and classical on the side.

Understandable, after all those genres could never be accused of taking themselves too seriously.

 

[kchap]

While the odd "hand grenade" may have been been thrown, we all seemed to have reached a consensus:

• Not all of us like The Beatles. I do like them but many others don't.
• Our taste in music is often influenced by what was popular in our teens.
• We can except accept each others views.

Too boring. I'm off to read the latest on the New Jersey UFO stoush and Silver sounds different to Copper bun fight.