The Beatles

[br d]

I was sort of born between two stools. As a little kid I have vague recollections of my mum dancing around the kitchen to Beatles songs and I remember a couple of their albums being in the house but I was only 5 when they broke up so it didn't really register.

Then at 13 or 14 punk hit and I spun into that and all the subsequent musical movements. I have a hugely eclectic taste in music and have always prided myself on liking Elvis, Nile Rodgers, Tom Waits, Dusty Springfield, David Bowie, Rod Stewart, the Cockney Rejects and Mark E Smith in equal measure. I always thought I had a handle on this stuff, I thought I knew my music. I never thought I was an expert in anything but loving Bob Marley as much as The Temptations must mean I've thought these things through right?

I didn't mind the Beatles, they had some good songs, how could they not with such a wide cannon of material? They were there, ever present but I didn't really get them.

About 10 years ago I started playing an instrument and my interest in music became even more immediate. The first 7 or 8 years was all about learning to play the stuff I love, Brian Setzer and Rockabilly being my main influence. I'm no musical theory expert but playing an instrument does wonders for turning over stones you hadn't previously noticed.

And so, The Beatles.

I started to get a little more interested, I've never really liked Lennon, always seemed a bit of a cock to be honest but I started sniffing around their stuff more intently.

It's a revelation, a fking revelation.

What these 4 guys did over an 8 year period is nothing short of miraculous. For me they literally re-invented Western music. They took Bach, Jazz, Big Band and Blues and spat out harmony, melody and wonder across all of it to make music the like of which we will never see again. We simply can't see it again because they've already done it.
There are a million bands and singer songwriters making superb music right now but frankly none of it could have existed without them.
I surprise myself by sounding like some sad little fanboy but this is just how it is.

I still think Lennon personally was a cock but fk me what genius went with it. Four people who got born, got together and got inspired at exactly the right time to change the entire future of popular music.

I'm spending hours on YouTube catching up on what I've been missing for 40 odd years. Over all that time I've been listening to people say "Oh yeah but the Beatles were the best", now I'm finally getting it.

We can all list a thousand artist who did something, somewhere better than them and somebody who they took inspiration from but as a whole? As an influence on everything we have now?

Nah, this really is where it all comes from.

Edited by br d on Saturday 20th October 17:53

Edited by br d on Saturday 20th October 17:55

[vixen1700]

I think they took a lot of different things in board.

There was a lot going on at the time, top of my head think of The Sonics, Captain Beefheart and The Velvet Underground.

Loved to have been around to see the monumental shift in music from say 1961 to 1969.

[Skyedriver]

I was 10 in 1963 when "I want to hold your hand" came out. It started me down the musical path
Best Beatles LP = Revolver, by the way.

And I've lived my life through music, everything from early day stuff like the Beatles, through Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, Dusty Springfield, Beefheart, Robert Johnson, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee, Bill Broonzy, Soft Machine, Sandy Denny, The Nice, Chickenshack, More recently, Classical Music, Waterboys, gone retro finally understanding Deep Purple, Joe Bonamassa and Joanne Shaw Taylor as well as the likes of Dixie Chicks, Eric Church. My tastes have changed over the years but I could still listen to most genres of music and enjoy as long as it was well done.

Tonight I've just seen Rab Noakes, now aged 70 play in the village hall with Jill Jackson, a lady 30 years younger than Rab. Been a lovely evening, .mostly"folk/country" beautifully played and sang. Tomorrow it'll be back listening to Planet Rock probably

[audidoody]

It wasn't only music they reinvented -they were the catalyst for revolution in the entire music and fashion industries and sparked off the counter-culture.

Every aspect of the music industry. Pre-Beatles the artist was just a "dumb" resource. They were told what to record and how to record it. The Beatles established the concept of the recording artist. Someone who wrote the songs and decided how they were to be recorded,. George Martin was indeed the Fifth Beatle, and was their sounding board and processed the sounds in their heads into a technical process.

The re-inventedd the concept of a band - pre-Beatles you had a front man and backing musicians and singers. The Beatles established the concept of a self-contained unit of multiple 'front' lead singers.

They were the first stadium band. They invented touring. Look at those YouTube videos of the first US tour. Two blokes to carry and set up the equipment. Check out the Washington DC gig at the Coliseum. Ringo is moving the drums around the circular stage himself - mid act!

No mixing desks,. No sound engineers. No stage monitors. Just little Vox amps stuck through the house PA system meant for spoken public announcements. Listen to Ringo keep a perfect beat on a tiny-unmiked kit even though all he could hear was the jet engine sound of 20,000 screaming teens. Listen to the perfect harmonies when the jet engines roared even louder (eg Shea Stadium).

Between 1963 and 1970 they produced two era-defining albums just about every six months - each one unlike its predecessor.

Anyone who says the Beatles "were crap" has instantly excused themselves from any intelligent debate about contemporary music.

[iSore]

The Beatles are, as far as I'm aware, the only band that got better and better, breaking up at their very peak. The first post Beatles solo albums - All Things Must Pass, McCartney and Imagine show just how good they were as individuals.

My fave ten Beatles tracks?

Norwegian Wood
Get Back
She's leaving Home
A day in the life
I saw her standing there
Carry That Weight/The End
Come Together
The ballad off John & Yoko
I've got a feeling
It's all Too Much

Plus a lot more. Best album? Sgt Peppers for me. An extraordinary body of work.

[iSore]

Some early stuff, playing is tighter than a gnat's chuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceJe1So7Tos

[castex]

iSore said:

Some early stuff, playing is tighter than a gnat's chuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceJe1So7Tos

What fun!

[Simes205]

Remember George Martin’s involvement was huge as an arranger and producer.
The Beatles revolutionised the recording process, using the studio itself as an instrument.
I’ve been quite lucky to record in studio 2 at Abbey Road, it’s quite eerie!

We study The Beatles alongside, Mozart, Brahms, MHler, Cage etc at A Level music.
A friend of mines dad was an engineer on Sgt Peppers.

[forsure]

'Sgt Pepper's Musical Revolution'

BBC4, 2330 tonight.

Howard Goodall (a talented musician/composer) analyses some tracks from the album, plus Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields.

Highly recommended.

[Simes205]

Good spot, it’s a repeat but worth watching. Goodall is excellent (and well qualified!).

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

br d said:

I was sort of born between two stools

Ooh, messy & smelly.



Sorry, couldn't resist

[singlecoil]

Skyedriver said:

Best Beatles LP = Revolver, by the way.

I don't get the Sgt Pepper worship, I think it must be from people who are simply following the hype.

[Simes205]

First concept album combined with recording techniques.

[singlecoil]

Could be. I'm not so much into concepts or recording techniques, it's the songs that I go by.

[WilliamWoollard]

Skyedriver said:

I was 10 in 1963 when "I want to hold your hand" came out. It started me down the musical path
Best Beatles LP = Revolver, by the way...

I think I would have to say The Best of The Beatles.

[iSore]

singlecoil said:

I don't get the Sgt Pepper worship, I think it must be from people who are simply following the hype.

My late Dad got it when it arrived in 1967, and I played it as a kid in the seventies. No hype, just a great album. But if you don't like it, that's just fine.

[nonsequitur]

br d said:

I was sort of born between two stools. As a little kid I have vague recollections of my mum dancing around the kitchen to Beatles songs and I remember a couple of their albums being in the house but I was only 5 when they broke up so it didn't really register.

Then at 13 or 14 punk hit and I spun into that and all the subsequent musical movements. I have a hugely eclectic taste in music and have always prided myself on liking Elvis, Nile Rodgers, Tom Waits, Dusty Springfield, David Bowie, Rod Stewart, the Cockney Rejects and Mark E Smith in equal measure. I always thought I had a handle on this stuff, I thought I knew my music. I never thought I was an expert in anything but loving Bob Marley as much as The Temptations must mean I've thought these things through right?

I didn't mind the Beatles, they had some good songs, how could they not with such a wide cannon of material? They were there, ever present but I didn't really get them.

About 10 years ago I started playing an instrument and my interest in music became even more immediate. The first 7 or 8 years was all about learning to play the stuff I love, Brian Setzer and Rockabilly being my main influence. I'm no musical theory expert but playing an instrument does wonders for turning over stones you hadn't previously noticed.

And so, The Beatles.

I started to get a little more interested, I've never really liked Lennon, always seemed a bit of a cock to be honest but I started sniffing around their stuff more intently.

It's a revelation, a fking revelation.

What these 4 guys did over an 8 year period is nothing short of miraculous. For me they literally re-invented Western music. They took Bach, Jazz, Big Band and Blues and spat out harmony, melody and wonder across all of it to make music the like of which we will never see again. We simply can't see it again because they've already done it.
There are a million bands and singer songwriters making superb music right now but frankly none of it could have existed without them.
I surprise myself by sounding like some sad little fanboy but this is just how it is.

I still think Lennon personally was a cock but fk me what genius went with it. Four people who got born, got together and got inspired at exactly the right time to change the entire future of popular music.

I'm spending hours on YouTube catching up on what I've been missing for 40 odd years. Over all that time I've been listening to people say "Oh yeah but the Beatles were the best", now I'm finally getting it.

We can all list a thousand artist who did something, somewhere better than them and somebody who they took inspiration from but as a whole? As an influence on everything we have now?

Nah, this really is where it all comes from.

Edited by br d on Saturday 20th October 17:53

Edited by br d on Saturday 20th October 17:55

IIRC, Paul Mcartney said that it all started with the American rock 'n roll records that the crew members from the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth bought back to Liverpool from New York. John Lennon's dad was a merchant seaman.
Thereafter Lonnie Donegan and Skiffle. Bert Weedon also had an input on their influences.

Edited by nonsequitur on Wednesday 24th October 10:08

[nonsequitur]

singlecoil said:

Could be. I'm not so much into concepts or recording techniques, it's the songs that I go by.

In which the concepts and recording techniques played a major role. See George Martin.

[singlecoil]

iSore said:

singlecoil said:

I don't get the Sgt Pepper worship, I think it must be from people who are simply following the hype.

My late Dad got it when it arrived in 1967, and I played it as a kid in the seventies. No hype, just a great album. But if you don't like it, that's just fine.

I didn't say I didn't like it. How on earth could I not like it. I don't just like it, I love it. But Revolver is even better.

[cherryowen]

Just to add my 2PW into the mix, I'm not (and never have been) a "fan" of Beatles tunes. I can't explain why; I knew they were well crafted songs played to the best of their ability, and their ability playing their instruments is somewhat under-rated I think. McCartney's bass lines are very accomplished and his acoustic work on "Blackbird" equally so.

However, over the last few months I've been getting into music theory to try and spice up my guitar playing. A common theme is, "The Beatles did this quite commonly" with regard to musical thinking. Much of it is rooted in classical music, believe it or not.

One example is called a Plagal Chord Shift (!!!). I'd never heard of it until a few months ago. Say you're playing in the key of A major; a popular chord progression would be A / D/ E with each chord being played for one measure of four bars in 4/4 time. So it goes A (four beats per bar), D (four beat per bar), E (same beats), back to D (same beats) resolving back to the "root" chord of A. Now, A, D and E together sound very jolly and "happy" so to tone the "happiness" down what The Beatles would often do is - in bar 3 - play two beats of D major, then two beats of D minor before resolving back to A major.

Another one they did was a "Mediant Third" where the first chord would be - say- A major, but the next chord would be a minor third i.e. C minor. So the tune starts of "happy" then immediately sounds "forlorn" so to speak.

Very clever to apply this sort of stuff into popular music.