Beatles: Yay or Nay? (you may vote for more than one item)
 

I get itchy when too much time passes without a Beatles thread, so here's another. Basically, were they worth a damn or not?

I promise not to hold it against anybody, really I do....

Please note that Multiple Choice is enabled in the poll.

I don't know how to vote in this poll. I can't stand the "best" lable. Who out there can say who else is "best" at something like music. It's so subjective.

That being said, I love the Beatles. I'm not a die hard fan, I have the #1's album and that's it. But I enjoy them. Though I do like early Beatles better than trippy Sgt. Pepper Beatles ;)

I voted "best ever" just because I could not bear to vote for "decent rock band."

Def Leppard is a "decent rock band," the Beatles are so much more and yet I still hesistate to say "best."

Anyway, for anyone who missed it, there is an awesome flash animation from a previous Beatles thread here: http://www.milkandcookies.com/links/16037/

Beatles were before my time and I've never really gotten into their music. My girlfriend's dad really likes them though.

Damn, warrrreagl...ya got me pinned here without a choice. I wouldn't say that they're the best band ever, but they're certainly a helluva lot better than just "decent". I feel disenfranchised. :(

You know, I'm going to edit the first post, because I forgot to advise everybody that you may vote for more than one option if you get stuck between two of them.

I voted for best ever. Without a doubt the most imaginative group there has ever been. No one has been able to match the songwriting talent of Lennon and McCartney. I have all their albums, and I never grow tired of listening to them.

BTW: I know just how you feel warrrreagl, I get anxious when there are no new Fab 4 threads too.

I voted decent, because although I consider them a great band, I don't consider them to be anywhere near the #1 spot. As many others, apparently, I'm between those two choices.

Teh Beatles = Teh Best. Maybe, dare I say, better than the Rolling Stones?!

Best rock band ever. Period.

I've always been of the mindset that there are two schools of music, before the Beatles and after. In my opinion, The Beatles changed everything.

Whether or not bands admitted it (and alot of them have) they were effected by them, if not influenced by them. The fab 4 broke a lot of doors down and changed the way music is seen, heard and played.

The problem with the current music scene is that it is stale. We need another Beatles, but we will probably never get our wish.

Entertainment Weekly ran an article that simply asked if The Beatles were still relevant after 40 years. The reporter basically answered the question himself by pointing the fact that we are still talking about them 40 years later, so they must be relevant.

I agree.

I just can't sse any of today's bands being much more than a footnote in 40 years.

My favorite Beatle album is Rubber Soul. Love the Beatles.

That's a hell of an adjective jump from "best, period." to "decent". What happened to "good", "influential", or "fucking superior, but not quite the match of some other behemoths of rock history?" Because that final option definately would have gotten my vote instead of 'decent', but 'best' would just be a lie.

Well, yeah, but that's not saying much.

I like the Beatles just fine, but many people make them out to be more important to their art than they really are. Sort of like Jimi Hendrix or Beethoven or Shakespeare or DaVinci. None of them had done anything extremely important or innovative to their school of art, except be popular. If you want me to elaborate on that, PM me, and I'll be happy to. The Beatles were more innovative and important in pop culture than they were in music.

True, true.

Agree totally...Beatles are awesome, but the BEST??

Yes. None of them did anything extremely important or innovative...except for completely revolutionizing the damn thing. What the hell are you talking about? Every one of them made amazing innovations that changed the shape of *their art* (Well, Hendrix doesn't belong up there, the Beatles would be much more fitting.) Do you actually know anything about their accomplishments?

Well, I'll be the first to post negative. I voted 'Pitiful Little Boy Band' simply because I hate the Beatles. I personally see the Beatles as an overrated band, but thats just my opinion, as much in the minority as I may be, thats ok.

Until we meet again. . .

I would definitely say they're better than decent, and I'd even say they're probably the best band, but for some reason I don't associate the label rock with them. I guess I just think of rock as a different type of music... but they are awesome.

i guess some people are funny about the word "best" but to me most influential and experimental and ground breaking would make them pretty damn good.

Overrated, IMO.

With the whole "Beatles invasion" thing, I think they were way overrated, and just a pop icon. As the years went on, their musi got better and better. But best ever, to me no, but a hell of a band yes.

If the Beatles were introduced today, there's no way they'd even get a chance at a record contract.

I can't vote in this poll because there's too much distance between "the best" and "decent." They're excellent, for both musical and pop culture reasons, but I don't know if I could label anybody "the best."

Pretty sad but true statement.



I'll amend my original comment above by adding George Martin and Brian Epstein and others to the mix, you expand the overall picture.

Were John, Paul, George and Ringo the "Greatest Band Ever"? NO

Did the Beatles as a whole (including George and Brian) change music and art forever? YES (IMHO)

I think "The Beatles" as a group get credit many things that happened around them. George and Brian were responsible for a lot of things as well as even other people within the circle. For example Astrid Kirchherr, Klaus Voorman, Stuart Sutcliffe, the Maharishi, Ed Sullivan and even Yoko all contibuted to the whole phenomenon.

I think in cases like this "The Beatles" refers to the whole experience.

But then again, maybe I'm reading way too much into it and over-analyzing a simple question...I tend to do that.

the beatles....a good band that i am really tired of.

they were really innovative in the george martin arrangments, which exploited possibilities in production that were avilable but had not really been exploited yet--and i like quite alot how they used tape manipulation techniques like looping/delay in a pop format.
they were the objects of a new kind of publicity.
i like their films.
i dont think they revolutionized anything--but there were a part of one in pop recording.
i dont think they were great musicians--if you only think about rocknroll, you might see them that way, but if you think about what was happening in jazz etc., then things fit into a different perspective.

i do like revolver.

nay for me. i know they were influential and everything, but their music sounds hollow to me. it could be that it was made at a time that didn't have the technology we have now to mix and round out things, but their music was empty for me.

They're doing well in the poll. What I like so much about them is the variety of their sound. So many songs sound so different, especially if you compare them to shitty bands like Nickleback, whose songs all sound way too similar.

Decent at best for me, but they were not of my time. I would much rather a good rock album from the late 70's through the early 90's then almost anything from the 60's to 70's era.

I voted decent rock band. I like the Beatles stuff even though they're not my favourite.

It's difficult to say "best ever," but that's what I ultimately have to go with. Any time anyone asks me what my favorite band is, I make sure to qualify that by making sure that they understand that it's unfair to put the Beatles in the running. They were far and away above what anyone else was doing. Everything in rock music happens before or after them. Their musical talent is questionable, (even though Harrison was an amazing guitarist) but it's not about thier raw talent; it's about what they did for rock, for music in general, and for our culture.

IMO, there is a point where the Beatles seriously sucked... and that was when they first made it big.

They changed the face of music, yes, but *NOT* with their ultra-cheesy songs like "I wanna hold your hand" and "Love me do". I honestly don't think a single (good) artist was inspired by THAT particular phase. It was their later, more experimental, stuff that did the trick ;)

Once they grew out of the corny boy-band-like phase, they were actually pretty good.

Decent rock band, GREAT songwriters.

I treat the two differently, so sue me.

oops, double post

Best ever, everything they put out was pure gold. And they never get stale, each album has its own sound. You can hear a song and normally tell what album its off of within 10 seconds.

The history of their evolvement, and the influence they have had other artists since their time, whether the artists are aware of it or not, is something that few bands have so sucessfully accomplished. Part style setter, part pop culture establishment, experimenting with new sounds, and most of all growing as a group is what I think makes them stand out so much. In all of life is there rarely anything that is excellent from the get go. The group started out playing what the crowds wanted to hear, and once they were established then went about making music and writing lyrics for the sake of music. Plus I'd give just about anything to be able to have a Steinway at my disposal.

Definetely a huge influence on music, and a inspiration to almost every other band after them, but I can't stand them. I really don't think they are that good.

Best rock band ever? wasn't Beatles more of a pop band than a rock band...?

anyhow The Beatles is pretty damn decent but not the best band in the world IMO

not even close..for pure catchy tunes and evolving style nobody come close by a long shot. It is also a scientific fact...I believe.

Amen. I've been making this case to my wife for years, but she never believes me.

I have great memories of being a kid and listening to the Abbey Road album on my parent's boat. To this day, it's probably my favorite Beatles album (especially the B-side), and maybe my second favorite album of all time.

the beatles started out pretty well, but it wasnt until after the beatlemania era that they started making really good music that was deep and philosophical. songs like "lucy in the sky with diamonds" and"strawberry fields forever" and those were really cool.

This is also why I voted Best Ever. The Beatles did things that no one else had thought of before. They basically invented the idea of an album, made studio bands a viable thing, ushered in the usage of "world music" and spearheaded the journey out of Elvis-land into the explosion that followed in rock. They didn't invent everything, but they inspired most of it. They, along with Dylan and some others, also made popular music a genre that critics had to take seriously.

Even if you don't like their music, you have to recognize their enormous contribution to popular music.

Personally, though, I think their early stuff, while very good in a technical sense, was really just more of what came before. It wasn't until Revolver/Rubber Soul that they began to mature and invent their own styles.

Bingle

I hate them... fucking yellow submarine.

Best rock band ever... my mom got me interested in them when I was about 7 or 8 years old. I consider them rock n roll, the only way to categorise them into pop would be the solo careers, but that's just my opinion. :)

I didn't really think much of the Beatles till the last year. I just started finding out that all these songs that I'd heard but didn't know who did...was the Beatles. They have a LOT of good songs...and there's a lot of variety.

They were great songwriters, decent technical musicians, but their musical importance is overblown, IMO. They are almost unquestionably the greatest pop band ever, but I don't see them as a rock band. Pretty much until their later music they were a glorified boy band. But their evolution and musical development is unquestionable.

Abbey Road is the second greatest album ever, behind DOSTM.

Right on. The Beatles biggest influence was PRODUCTION. Yes, John and Paul wrote some damn catchy songs, and George may have helped to popularize Ravi Shankar and the whole sitar/enlightenment thing, but they were far from the best artists of their time. (Ringo sucked.)

Even in rock music, similar things were going on all around them. They sold the most records. Listen to The Mothers of Invention (Zappa) albums Freak Out and We're Only In It For The Money, and you will see that the Beatles were not really pushing the envelope as far as Rolling Stone may want you to believe. WOIIFTM, in particular, acts as the perfect foil to Sgt. Pepper and really shows the other side of the "psychadelic rock" movement.

There was a time where they slid from best rock band ever into the decent rock band category and I think that started with a trip to India.

But how could there have been a "We're Only In it for the Money" if there hadn't been a "Sgt. Pepper" first?

As far as being a tight road band, I agree completely here. My God, "Twist and Shout" is unbelievably tight, and how in the hell does Lennon manage to not lose his voice entirely on that one?

8-9 hour sets in Hamburg will do it for you everytime.

i dont't like the beatles very much,i think they are overrated.

Being as popular as they were, and still are, it's nice to know that the "they are overrated" crowd are the minority.
I'm sure the naysayers haven't really listened to the band, maybe one or two songs, but not enough to appreciate their outstanding musical ability.

I would say they're the most prolific band. Just think about all the hits they had. They get played so much still to this day that most people forget that they were only together for about 7 years or so. For a band to churn out that many great songs over such a short period is incredible.

John Lennon, behind Bob Dylan, is/was the most influential person in rock music...period.

I'd probably have them second on my list with only the mighty Led Zeppelin ahead of them. I don't really care for much of the bubblegum crap early in their career, but pretty much everything after "Revolver"/"Rubber Soul" is simply amazing. "Abbey Road" is my all-time favorite album.

The Beatles started out as a great pop band with their signature vocal harmonies that most bands of the day admitted they could not equal. They then grew to be a band which was greater than the sum of their parts. Their constant search for new & fresh sounds and originality in lyrics while keeping that great vocal sound brought them to a status very few bands have reached. The careers they had after breaking up are a stark reminder of the magic they had togethor, which they could not equal apart. Some bands had parts of the magic, such as The Beach Boys had the harmonies, Pink Floyd and others wrote great songs but I don't believe anybody has put it all togethor as well as the Beatles. While they would be considered a "pop" band, they did much which definitely is in the rock genre. That is what is amazing to me. They tackled many genres and ideas and were spectacular in all. For those of us who were alive at the time, we all knew how groundbreaking, original and audacious they were. Such music had never been heard before. I think perhaps those who are younger can't appreciate this as so much of today's music has been shaped by them. I think there are other bands who have equalled the Beatles in some respects, but taken as a whole I can't think of any other band that shaped a whole mountain.