The Beatles

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?

Jadem6 Obviously you never heard Pat Boone sing "April Love" with "101 Strings" in the support mode. Just kidding but couldn't resist and I do agree with the way the Beatles used orchestra, Tin Pan Alley style and completely until then mixes that weren't even conceived (thanks George Martin for the help, you don't get enough recognization for the great producer you are). By the way Siddh great post and great insight very succintly stated except for the part about the Stones being the "Greatest Rock and Roll Band". I don't agree with you but that is for another thread. The Stones are the greatest longest living rock band. Although I'll always love Keith Richards for being the GREATEST GUITARIST WHO EVER LIVED TO TOUR!! He eptiomizes the Stones to a greater extent than Jagger ever will to me.