number 8.
this might seem a little controversial.
controversial in the sense that everyone ALWAYS puts
this band somewhere in the top 2 of any ‘greatest’ list ever…
ok. ready?
number 8 on my top 10 list of greatest artists ever is….
THE BEATLES.
see, the weird thing about the beatles for me is this:
i respect them. completely.
i see them as the total bad ass revolutionaries they were….
BUT
i don’t really like them all that much.
i never have.
i’m not sure the exact reason…
their music has just never really resonated with me.
or in me. (dirty!)
it’s never lit me on fire.
and i try. every year or so, i try.
i love watching “let it be.”
i like listening to ‘revolver.’ and ‘rubber soul.’ and ‘abbey road.’
paul mccartney’s guitar solo in ‘taxman’ sounds like a car
skidding into the rails of a freeway off ramp at 70 mph…
and i LOVE it.
their melodies are unmatched.
they came up with chord changes that will ALWAYS be theirs.
no matter who uses them,
there will always be ‘beatles changes.’
i think the sound of their records is PERFECTION.
i would argue, the best sounding rock recordings ever made
are the ones in the beatles catalog.
the band was fearless.
and effortlessly good.
they played like the instruments were extensions of their bodies.
with unbelievable, absolute, stumbling grace.
and then there is the production. i mean:
-the string quartets on ‘eleanor rigby?!’
-the middle and the end sections of ‘a day in the life?!’
-the tape loops in ‘tomorrow never knows?!’
these are pioneering achievements in music,
often duplicated, never matched.
and there has never been a better band who had the ability to
just shit out great pop song after great pop song.
the beatles charted the landscape.
they drew up the maps.
they spelunked in the caves and came out
with diamond after diamond.
it is beyond amazing what they accomplished in SIX (!!) years.
i respect them. and i get why everyone loses their shit over them…
i just don’t really find them all that inspiring to listen to.
analytically, i get it.
emotionally, i don’t.
john lennon’s voice has always moved me.
his voice.
but that’s it.
that said.
of all the great bands in the 60’s who changed the landscape of music
AND culture, the beatles did it in the most diverse and substantial way.
defying genres.
defying decades.
defying and defining fashion.
and changing the course of our art forever.
June 8th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
too bad they’re not number 9…number 9…number 9 on your list. i’m a lifelong beatles fan but i don’t expect that everyone is or should be. i appreciate your appreciation of them~
June 8th, 2010 at 6:02 pm
It’s like a great meal, cooked expertly with all the right ingredients, that comes out tasting just okay, good but not delicious. Maybe they pioneered a lot in their field, but I’m not in love. I’ll never eat-sleep-dream any of their music the way I lost my shit over “Come on Get Higher,” the first time I heard it, where it literally ached to put the headphones down and I played it like 100 times for days. I’ve been ashamed of my ambivalence toward The Beatles all my life, made excuses like they are not my generation or I don’t think any of them were all that cute. But those things have not stopped me with other artists. No, I’m just not in love. Thank you for admitting this controversial opinion, I’ll stop thinking up excuses for why I don’t love The Beatles, just don’t.
June 8th, 2010 at 6:29 pm
I COMPLETELY agree with you on “Eleanor Rigby”! I’ve played it in my orchestra and I LOVE it! Amazing string parts. Hands down some of the BEST.
June 8th, 2010 at 8:13 pm
I would never put a band that I “don’t really like… all that much” in my top 10. Why let the masses sway you?
June 8th, 2010 at 8:40 pm
Wow…this is the first time I’ve ever heard anyone express my feelings towards Beatles music in such a way. I understand why people like them, I just never have. I can’t blame the generational thing, because even though they were a phenom when I was small, I did LOVE the Stones. To reiterate what was said in the reply before me, thanks for stepping up and saying what lots of people probably feel…
June 9th, 2010 at 5:41 pm
I’m so there with you! They were amazing but I can’t feel them. This is like therapy for those of us music nerds who have always reached for a Beatles connection. The only emotional connection I can feel from Beatles music is my childhood memory of Hey Jude and Revolution piercing my big brother’s bedroom door as he played those 45’s over & over turning that black vinyl white.
June 9th, 2010 at 10:36 pm
Holy crap, thank you!! People always look at me like i have six heads when I say that while I respect the Beatles, I don’t *like* the Beatles. I can’t count on one hand the number of songs I truly love - and they are all connected to John Lennon. Just not a fan.
I’m a bibliophile, and I love words, but music is so far beyond my understanding, that it may as well be Klingon. So for me, 75% of everything i love about music boils down to the lyrics. Only 25% is that magical thing that happens with notes and instruments and tune and melodies and other words you use that i don’t understand. And for me, lyrically, the Beatles just don’t stand out. MAJOR credit for being ground-breaking and all, I just… never quite “got it.”
June 11th, 2010 at 8:42 pm
I agree too - I know they are supposed to be Awesomely one of the BEST but I just don’t get it. I have more of a connection with the art of the album covers than I do the music.
June 18th, 2010 at 12:21 am
…wow. I feel like I’ve found my long lost family or something. The Beatles? I get it, but I don’t GET it. I don’t like them. Never have, never will.
Matt, will you be my daddy in my long lost family? I kid. Or do I?
June 27th, 2010 at 5:57 pm
yay!! one more thing that makes me love you just a little more. lol i’m totally not a fan of the beatles either. i do, however, love when other artists cover their songs. lol *shrug* how weird is that?
thanks for the great post, matt. i love when you let us in your head a little bit.
July 7th, 2010 at 7:28 pm
I’m late to this party but just saw this one. I have been a Beatles fan since I was 10, and I was about 20 years late. I connected then, and I connect now. That being said, your emotional connection is your own. It’s kinda like I know I should like Coldplay, they are right up my alley but I’m just not feeling it. However in the face of the Beatles’ amazing awesome wonderfulness, I will cross my fingers that you and everyone who posted here will one day have an “a-ha” moment when the connection happens and they give to you what I’ve gotten for so long.
July 15th, 2010 at 6:05 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPtWh5XjiH0