Music is like love, you can’t live without it. Music touches souls, evokes feelings and memories. With just a few notes you can be taken back to a time and place in the past like it was only yesterday. Artists have a way of putting feelings and thoughts in a way you never knew was possible, and for this I will be forever grateful. However, when it comes to artists and the talents they possess, there are still a few things that I just don’t quite understand. Call me a music snob if you will, it’s ok, it’s true.
Being raised by my Grandparents, I didn’t have the same musical influences as most people my age. I was brought up listening to Kenny Rogers, Hank Williams, Dolly Parton and Willy Nelson. Around 6 years old is my first memory of listening to Punk Rock. I was sitting in the backseat of our car while my Grandma and cousin rode up front. We were probably driving home from the mall or some sort of shopping excursion, when I suddenly became parched. I told my Grandma that I was thirsty and if we could please stop and get something to drink. After arguing back and forth about how I could wait until we got home, I decided the only way I could express myself at that moment was to yell out “All I wanted was a Pepsi, just one Pepsi, and she wouldn’t give it to me, just one Pepsi!”. Imagine walking up to a sweet (looking) little 6 year old girl and saying “What is your favorite band?” and the response you get is “Suicidal Tendencies”, probably not the answer that guy was expecting when he asked me that. I’ve been a music rebel ever since.
My biggest issue/misunderstanding when it comes to music is The Beatles. I don’t get it; never have, not sure if I ever will. It wasn’t until about 4 years ago that I came to have at least an appreciation for their music, and that alone took 29 years. I’ll admit that part of my dislike towards The Beatles is that everyone else liked them. Part of this still is true. It’s not really the fact that everyone likes them, but it’s the way people talk about them that really gets me. They use words like timeless, revolutionary, legends, innovative, brilliant, and the list goes on and on. This is what I do understand and purely because facts are facts. They have withstood the test of time, they are legendary, and they undoubtedly are the greatest band that ever was. But why? I have yet to meet anyone who can convince me why they are all of these things. I think it bothers me that people use these words to describe them and when I ask them why they feel this way, the answer is so generic, “because they’re amazing songwriters”, well, what makes their songs so amazing? To me they are just average songs, nothing I have found spectacular, good, but not spectacular. I feel if you are going to make a statement like this, you should be able to tell me what makes them stand out from everyone else. Is it because this is what your parents said? The media? The critics? Why do YOU find them revolutionary? I want specifics, not just blanketed statements that everyone says about them. A big part of me honestly feels that people think this way about The Beatles because they are supposed to. I mean everyone else feels this way, a million people can’t be wrong…right?
When I hear The Beatles, I hear another pop band. What was the craze, and what is it about them that it has lasted this long. I’ve tried to break it down in my head and really try and figure out what it is that makes this band such a phenomenon. I have had endless conversations about them with very convincing and passionate people and I still don’t get it. The Beatles had their first hit in 1962. While Elvis and Chuck Berry (who in my eyes is the Pioneer of Rock N’ Roll), had their first hits in 1955. So it can’t be that the Beatles brought rock n’ roll to America, it was already here. Granted it they might have brought a different style, but was it that far off the course of what we already had? I don’t think so. Then I think about the image they brought, but again back to Elvis and Chuck Berry with their pelvic thrusts and “raunchy” lyrics, the Beatles looked like altar boys compared to them. Is it purely the whole “British Invasion” idea? In that time the UK was trying to duplicate our style of Rock N’ Roll, but America had never really had a taste of what the UK had to offer. To me, it’s like Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Lady Gaga. They all brought something new to the table, image wise. The music they put out is nothing special, but their look is. It’s edgy, it’s something people have never seen before, but what is it about their music that makes them so special? Is it that people feel that their look is so revolutionary that surely their music must be too? Catchy, yes, but revolutionary? Were/are people so desperate for something new and different that they will buy into anything that is put in front of them? “I listen to Lady Gaga, I’m so edgy”, her lyrics are not edgy at all! Was it the same with the Beatles?
Let’s talk lyrics. The Beatles first number one in America was “Love Me Do”. How simple is this song! Personally I believe that music is the universal language, but was the Beatles lyrics so simple that it made it even that more universal? “And please say to me/you’ll let me hold your hand/you’ll let me hold your hand/I want to hold your hand”, who cannot relate to that?? No one!! Boom Beatles! You did it! You wrote the most basic love song ever! I will give you a hand for that! But brilliant? Innovative? Maybe it is brilliant that they were the first ones to think of something so simple, but I’m not buying that. I will admit that while I say all this, I have not listened to all of their records. I would probably say my two favorite are Beatles for Sale and Abbey Road. When I say favorite, I use that term loosely. I have listened to one of their other records from later in their career, when they were obviously influenced by drugs or a way out of their record contract, it’s hard to say. I listened to a song that said “Number 9” over and over and over again. Now I ask you, revolutionary? (and for those who know me, no I will not get past that song, it was stupid dumb).
In my opinion, to be revolutionary, you need to be a game changer. Did the Beatles change the game or just influence a game that was already being played. When I say game changer the first band that comes to mind is Nirvana. For the record, I am not a fan of Nirvana, never was, so I would think this opinion is a little unbiased. Nirvana was a game changer. They put an end to an era with one song. I think if you listened closely when “Smells like Teen Spirit” was first played, you could hear the spandex industry weeping. They changed music, they changed fashion. It went from bands looking like they were drag queens to bands that if you didn’t know were a band, you might think they were homeless. Kurt Cobain was revolutionary. Will I say lyrically he was brilliant or as a musician was he brilliant? No. Like I said, I’m not a fan, but he brought something to the table that no one had. I don’t see how the Beatles were game changers.
I have nothing but respect for the Beatles, but obviously I’m missing something because when a band can’t even be heard over the screaming of the crowd and when after 48 years you are still revered as the greatest Rock N’ Roll band that ever existed, you must have done something right.
And for the record, George Harrison was the best Beatle. I mean look at him, he looks like Jesus!
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