The Beatles

Right place, right time, right product, right manager, right attitude, right engineer, right customer base. And the memories will sell vast numbers of records for the next 20 years. Why is there still so much fascination over the JFK assassination? Because of the indelible memories that it involks. Some people like The Beatle's music, and some don't. ID guess I never heard anyone say that The Beatles were the best musicians in the world. Who told you that Shubertmaniac? If you were between 5 and 20 years old in 1965, then The Beatles have far more significance than just their music. They rode, and changed, the culture of youth at that time. And their vehicle for doing it was their music and the media. Nobody has ever had the top five songs on the charts at the same time like The Beatles did, and they probably never will again.

Beatles a rock n' roll band? Who says. Pop by all definitions. Like Goodman, Kenton, Ellington, Sinatra, and Gilligan. Prolific masters within their genre. But, for bloody sakes, give the boys credit for the expansion of mega-stardom into creativity. Drug induced? Likely. Time enhanced? Undoubtedly. Promulgated by the masses and their needs? Seems so. Propelled by their engineers musical acumen? For sure. All necessary ingredients in manifestatation of a time, a culture, an outpouring of radical transformation. The music was exploratory, innovative, especially to the ears thinking Pat Boone, Sinatra, and Elvis were the end-all. From the early days in Hamburg, and later the Cavern, most things written/filmed/critiqued the Beatles as taking their penchant as entertainers and musicians (again, of their ilk)to new levels. To attain such world notoriety and massive appeal, and yet diverge from the formula, with exploratory syncopations, utilization of non-conventional instrumentations is tribute to the greatness they acheieved. To compare most any composer to Beethoven, much less a contemporary pop band, is truly ludicrous. If you perceive The Stones as the ultimate rock band, as I do, it still does not diminish the creativity and the impact wrought upon virtually the entire Earth. Some have opined the Beatles influence as early stages of Russian downfall. Pervading arrested minds with potentiality. Song after song; melody, lyrically. Each selection carries a uniqueness few groups or individuals have replicated. Anyone who does not recognize their influence on the present world of "music" has not truly researched it's evolution.

They say everyone has about 15 minutes of fame in them. I must say they were wrong - you Maniac have none. Form a band and see how you do - it sounds as if in your own mind it will be a legacy in itself since you know what's on.

I am not a beatles fan, but they progressed a lot during their careers. Early albums were collections of radio friendly pop songs, future muzak material. They took big step forward during Sgt Pepper/White/Abbey Rd album sessions, doing conceptional ablums full of interrelated songs and creative use of sound and studio effects. This is where they cemented their place in history, much more creative than earlier albums. At least the beatles can play instruments, look at the crap we have today, karioke rock stars, just sing and dance, no band, ie Brittany Spears, backstreet boys et al

Speaking of classical and the Beatles, I think we all should remember the influance the Beatles had on bringing classical instruments to a new generation. After the Beatles played with the sound of strings and woodwinds the other European invaders followed, The Who, Led Zepplin, Rolling Stones, etc. and of course the San Fran. groups followed that. If any band in the past 30 years has had a greater influence, who was it and how?