Why I hate The Beatles with a passion. A short essay by Scooter Nik.

Musical history revisionism isn't a new thing. Apparently Elvis invented Rock and Roll, despite his early material being covers of earlier hits by black artists. What he actually did was to popularise a music that most of the American record buying public (ie white college kids) wouldn't otherwise have come across, the charts being populated with Perry Como, Frank Sinatra and similar bland swing acts. Fair play to him there, he released a beast that is still chewing up the musical world 60 years on (He's dead though, get over it).

Move forward to the sixties, and you have a young group starting out. They start as every young group does, covering other people's material. The difference here is that although they're covering black artists, in much the way Elvis did, these acts are by this point well known amongst the young music fan of the day (Motown was a 'known', although not very important at this point, label). They took those songs, reworked them in a way that took any real passion out of them, and unleashed them on the unknowing British record buying masses (as opposed to 'music fan'), allying it to a cute and cuddly public image. The first boy band in short.
The Beatles 'invented' the British beat sound - by washing US R&B to the point where it was a pale copy of the originals. At the same time, other British bands - noteably The Stones, The Animals, Manfred Mann - were covering the same material in a more authentic, and thus less palatteable manner . Compare The Stones and The Beatles versions of Barratt Strong's 'Money' for a fine example of this.
But the lovable scouse moptops were credited with somehow inventing a 'new' sound. By p1shing the originals out.

Now let's move on to the mid 60s. The Beatles have continued to thrive, living high on the back of bland pop songs and a massive fan base, largely fuelled by media photos of them arriving wherever they went to screaming hordes of largely prepubescent females (Hi there Bay City Rollers and Take That, are you taking notes?) and the odd 'witty' soundbite from the 'rebel' in the band, Lennon.
The Beatles discover harder drugs, and a new sound coming out of the US. Jumping on the bandwagon, they appropriate this sound too, to the extent they are now often credited with inventing psychadelia, despite it having been kicking around in the US for a couple of years earlier!

Finally the band implodes. They play a famous gig on top of their property and call it a day.

This wonderful band fragments. McCartney vanishes off doing rather twee child-level songs (despite his proclaimed song writing genius), Lennon (Ever the master manipulator of the media) stays in bed with Yoko, declaring 'Give Peace A Chance' as if it is some hugely radical idea that no one has ever thought of before, despite people having marched against the bomb since the late 50s. Harrison comes off the best ironically, having saved his material/been sidelined by Lennon/McCartney throughout The Beatles carreer. Starr? Well... he was a drummer. Enough said.


And this is why I consider The Beatles the most overhyped band of all time.

Why I hate all musicians with a passion. A short essay by Durham Giant.

The world was full of birds and animals and wondrous sounds of nature.

Stone age man copied the sounds and invented instruments to recreate that sound even though it could be done better naturally by wildlife.

Then those men and women took over and made loads of money from it and the animals and birds were marginalised.

Music is about lots of things and means different things to different people. To suggest that in some way some musician is more authentic than someone else is ridiculous as eventually every generation or artist is influenced by what has gone before it.

I would argue that Folk music is more authentic than every band you have mentioned it is what happens. Chill out and get over it

Hmm, I obviously didn't make my point very well.

OK, hype over originality or passion.

Is that better?

Well i could probably agree with that.

Dont believe the hype Public Enemy
Stars in their eyes Just Jack

Anything to do with the x-factor, jls, onedirection, etc...

My most detested group of all time without a doubt is take that. They were awful the first time around and are even worse now.

On a slight tangent, look up '50p' by Dirty Revolution, I don't think they believe in hype.

I like that but it does remind me a bit of the fear by Lilly Allen

If you can, get a copy of "Living Life Without Loving the Beatles."

You will bloody love it!

Have you heard the early Kings of Leon stuff?

The last two albums were rubbish,main stream mum rock,but before that they were a great band.

Youth and young manhood and aha shake heartbreak are two top class albums,you would think it was two different bands.

Huey Lewis & the News.

And the Beatles.

It would be hilarious if anyone had said it but they didn't. In my case it was a specific reference that IMHO (you get what that means don't you) Jaggers lyrics were massively better than either Lennon or Macca, yet strangely never credited for it by the Beatle fawning British media. That was all, other than that I see no way in which the Beatles interfered with the Stones or vice versa - they both did rather well for themselves.

As far as I'm aware the Stones are considered by most people as a great or at least important band with a great legacy regardless of not dying when required by you. I mean listen to yourself and how ludicrous you sound. They chose to carry on doing what they do best, big wow. I assume we should dismiss Muddy Waters or Bo Diddly and many others for having the audacity to perform whilst old! What utter and cliched nonsense you spout.

As for the Beatles having the good sense to break up, yep did em the world of good. Without Harrisons valiant efforts L&M wouldn't have produced enough decent material to fill an EP after 1970. Especially Lennon who's output was self indulgent crud. They broke up because Lennon in particular was an egomaniac with a manipulative wife, nothing to do with music or legacy and we all know it.

Still you got your wish and I can only assume Chapman is a hero to you for putting a bullet into Lennon and instantly giving him a legacy and making him great in a way he wouldn't have been alive. This is your theory not mine.

I see now your grasp of popular culture is nearly a poor as you grasp of RL.

Joni Mitchell... Musical kryptonite!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDKDyExcjHw&noredirect=1 Do you like Huey Lewis & The News?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDKDyExcjHw&noredirect=1 Do you like Huey Lewis & The News?

If there was a thread for acts that I find it very hard to show any passion for, either love or hate, it would be Huey Lewis & The News.

I hate Huey Lewis & The News but that scene from American Psycho is fantastic.