Why Do We Love These Guys?

[mervap]

I've been asked this question dozens of times over the years....floks will say, "Why do you think these guys are so great?" I usually give them a short answer like, "The world changed because of them." They scoff and walk away, but really the reason I like them is because of the tunes....I've tried for years to write songs as simply complex, as artfully commercial and as inventively conventional as the Beatles. They had a knack for writing things that sound simple, but repeated listens reveal things one did not catch the first time around....layer upon layer of things that could have been songs in their own right thrown in for extra value. The well seemed bottomless and when their collective well was drying up or becoming too hard to draw from, they broke up....no feeble fade into the ether, they ceased to be. Our memories of the group are unbesmirched by bad albums and they were all under thirty....with a lot to offer individually as solo artists. The Beatles are thus frozen in time, young and at the top of their game, but still their appeal is somehow timeless....every generation to follow will have kids that pick up the Lads' music, as I did, long after the group ran down the curtain.

[2 of 3]

Only one fault really..........not enough cowbell.

[chris]

when people ask me...and they still do regularly, i tell them...they wrote the best songs. its a simple answer. and its one that, suprisingly, many do not understand. they were four good musicians (one may be able to argue that paul is a great musician, but that is a conversation for another time) who just played magnificently together. each one complimenting the next in such a fashion...that it seemed to actually improve the way they performed. their songs were simple. but they accomplished more in a simple arrangement than many, more virtoistic bands could have done.

lets face it. there were bands that had better drummers...and sometimes better guitarists...and sometimes better bassists. but went on jamming endlessly without a point to make. even those who had good songwriters sometimes could not get their point across in the alotted 4 minutes. the beatles had killer hooks. the best middle 8's. top notch harmonizing. and a willingness to try and do something that had never been done. and they accomplished this in a way that seemed not only rehearsed...but effortless.

this is rock and roll music. simple. joyfull. entertaining. and theraputic in a way it makes a whole bunch of people feel better. isn't that what we would all be doing if we only could? the rolling stones may have been billed as the world's greatest rock and roll band (which they had the good sense to call themselves, wisely, only after the beatles broke up) but we know better...don't we?

i do, however, have to agree with 2 about the immense lack of cowbell...

[2 of 3]

...though, they did have quite enough anvil.

[Paperback Writer]

The Fab Four is why - 1. Freedom 2. Spirit 3. Creativity 4. Fun!  Those are concepts, not enough words to adaquately describe them!  It's a feeling, experience, alchemy and kinship with the higher spirits andbetter angels in humanity.
 

[EddieV]

I think this is the only group which in so short amount of time developed and created so much