The Beatles

Yep, love White album :+1:
Rocky Racoon and Ob-Li-Di can fuck off though :slightly_smiling_face:

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You and me, we’re the same :upside_down_face:

Errr, maybe don’t brag about that, eh ?

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Oi!

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Honestly I wouldn’t say so - it’s both more and less than that. On one hand I’d love to learn about any group that could write, play, innovate and perform better? On the other familiarity breeds contempt. The Beatles are so familiar my mind rather takes them for granted - They can become wallpaper. It’s only when I play their records with open minded ears and consider their contemporaries and their output in context that I get rather astonished. I can’t think of a single other band that makes me feel this way. Perhaps the stones to a far lesser degree?

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I think I would have to agree with all of that.

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Beatles and Stones compared to some awful shit that was going on in US popular music. No wonder kids got excited about that.

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This fucking album appeared amongst my sisters Beatles albums when I was a kid …drove me nuts. …

It may have been launched across the canal frisbee style …

Wings Over America

When gatefold covers meant something

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Other than the rooftop concert I don’t think I’ve ever watched anything live that was even listenable. I can appreciate the pioneering spirit and how they have influenced music but they aren’t, as a band, in my top ten. I listen to them quite a bit with my granddaughter as they do great melodies which are easy for her to pick up on but if I want to listen to something on my own that really blows my mind it won’t be the Beatles. Overfamiliarity and the fact my parents saw them as a boy band, they both preferred the Stones and the Kinks, has probably influenced my thunking.

Was just going to mention The Kinks. What a change their output saw; the wild early hit single success that allowed them the control to later do whatever they wanted so you got multi LP rock operas and tuba solos :smiley::+1:
Imagine they never had the four year US tour ban

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I’ve been looking for this thing on Instagram. They are playing live, somewhere in the states, it’s in high definition with good sound. They are absolutely rocking. No onstage monitoring. God knows how they are hearing each other. It’s amazing how much energy is coming off them.

Thing is right… that’s one of those ones where I’m in the pushchair in the green grocers and it’s playing on the radio whilst mum buys a cauliflower…

Would you find it more acceptable if the cod ska feel was removed?

Mull of Kintyre is another that I have trouble hating. I get it ( the hate) but I’m beyond being cool and it’s pre me trying to be cool as a kid, so it sits in this sweet spot, reminding me of Christmas. I can remember when and where I first heard it - in the bath, on the radio and introduced by Dave Lee Travis as “Wing’s new one…”

I think it may be the biggest selling single, ever. Imagine writing the fucker. You’d never have to work again! :laughing:

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I’m one of those who underappreciated The Beatles for a good while before ‘discovering’ just how good they were once I was middle aged.

They didn’t get played in our house as my father preferred riff driven stuff like Rolling Stones and 70s rock, and my mother was into 60s R&B etc. It was my aunt who had previously opened my eyes to Bowie who played me Sgt Peppers and then bought me a copy of Rubber Soul and then Revolver when I was about 13 ish.

At this time like many of my contemporaries, I largely dismissed The Beatles as old hat and music for the last generation, and besides I was moving from an early love of New Wave & synth pop and into electro/ early hip hop. So The Beatles sounded in musical presentation very dated to my ears and whilst they were interesting to listen to, I’d never play them in front of my friends :open_mouth:

Yeah that opening to Tommorow Never Knows is just astonishing from so many perspectives and probably single handedly sent me off searching and finding the many great 80s indie guitar bands it influenced.

During my 20s I played RS & R at home but didn’t have spare cash or motivation to go and start buying and listening to their other albums until I was into my mid 30s and bought Sgt Peppers & Abbey Road. I still wasn’t really hooked to be honest and it took another few years to be really convinced and yes Macca really is off putting as I thought. Hel has always had a better appreciation of their talents tbh.

Watching the Get Back documentary really opened my eyes, especially to the impact and influence of Macca who I got a much better appreciation of as a creative musician. Up to that point I’d always given Lennon and Harrison in particular credit for the tracks I tended to prefer.

The one album I have criminally ignored to date is the White Album and this thread has very helpfully inspired me to go find a decent copy to listen to as a complete work rather than cherry picking individual songs (and ignoring some obvious others).

PS Wings can still go get to fuck.

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Yes. I have done exactly this since the eighties. With The Stones too, actually. I became more open minded towards them and just gave in to their magnificence, and since then, go through an irregular cycle of not playing much of it, and then listening for weeks to little else.

I love the 68-72 period of The Stones, but they aren’t in the same league as the Beatles in any way. The are more an attitude and a groove. They don’t give me the feels like the Beatles do. The Beatles can make me feel pretty much every emotion.

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I can play The White Album over and over. A huge sprawling thing with loads of nooks and crannys. It’s on daily here at the moment. I just play it through, Honey Pie, Rocky Raccoon an’ all. :laughing:

Lennon’s contributions are off the chart. :+1:

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