Are the Beatles overrated?

[El Kabong]

I think they ticked all the boxes when Rock'n'Roll was brand spankin new there was Elvis who is The King and he went through the ups and downs of his career (which kind of mirrored Frank Sinatra's to be honest: the teeny bopper heart throb, to the Army [Frankie didn't do that part], to the wild guy unable to be shown from the chest down on Edd Sullivan, to the movie star, to Vegas, and fade out) ....likewise The Beatles went from teen heart throbs to wild rockers, to movie stars, to pushing the envelope, to drugged out loons, to guys who ended up in their own different little worlds.

Lennon and McCartney are probably the best songwriting duo in the history of Rock'n'Roll, George Harrison's guitar playing is MASSIVELY underrated (he was going to be replaced by Eric Clapton for fucks sake! Yes, in The Beatles) Harrison was always overshadowed by the others but God damn he was talented, Ringo is a hell of a drummer, he didn't do crazy solos or draw all the attention to himself, he was just a very solid role player for The Beatles.


Also, like Elvis, like Sinatra, The Beatles did ballads, they did R&B songs, they did pure rock, they pushed the envelope with proto-progressive rock, shit early on they covered folksy kind of music and standards. They covered all the bases, they had gobs of talent, and they were the first ever to do it that big and that wild.



Like Rocky Marciano or a PRIME Mike Tyson The Beatles can't help but be both, they're overrated but they're underrated at the very same time. Their best is amazing, their average is amazing, it's so difficult to compare and contrast to anyone else even The Rolling Stones who have been around for ages.

[mrbig1]

Truth.

[walrus]

Anyone who dares ask this question should be shot. Just the fact that Lennon and McCartney met proves the existence of God. Their voices were meant to be together. Paul was a great bass player. Sgt pepper to this day is one of the greatest pieces of music ever written. I've been lucky enough to see McCartney and Richard starkey. The Beatles are like Mozart and Beethoven it will always be. I think some take these statements as an insult to music they like but it isn't. Know lock this thread and slap 👋 master

[mrbig1]

Name one other band that changed the world. Just one.

[walrus]

Name one other band that changed the world. Just one.

Bob Dylan changed music. Like a rolling stone was ahead of it's time. Dude is the American Shakespeare

[mrbig1]

Name one other band that changed the world. Just one.

Bob Dylan changed music. Like a rolling stone was ahead of it's time. Dude is the American Shakespeare

100% agree.

[Master]

Name one other band that changed the world. Just one.

Bob Dylan changed music. Like a rolling stone was ahead of it's time. Dude is the American Shakespeare

100% agree.

So there you have it, 1 band has been named.

[Beanz]

Name one other band that changed the world. Just one.

Tricky one. They changed a world that Bill Haley/Elvis/the Blues artists etc had already ripened up for teenagers and revolution. Their key was a willingness to change adapt and move on and use people like Martin in realising a sound that was unique. Everyone after had big shoes to fill but hard to pretend these did not change the world

The Sex Pistols/The Clash - Punk was much more than the music and represented a seachange in sensibility and approach and what The Clash did for Reggae alone changed many attitudes

Run DMC /Grandmaster Flash - Hip Hop again liked punk changed everything from fashion to the acceptance of things like street art and again attitudes and language

Black Sabbath/Led Zeppelin - No heavy metal or heavy rock scenes without these two giants and again culturally pushed the envelope and legitimized another kind of rebellion for millions

Kraftwerk - It's easy to dismiss electronic Music as it is everywhere but no techno/trance/ambient/house music etc without these guys first

James Brown - Again no Funk/Soul/Disco etc whole genres springing from the groundwork laid by him. Can you even imagine people like Jackson without him ?

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Huge impact for much more than guitar gods, Jazz/funk/rock/fusion bands started because of him and the whole counter cultural movement


Pink Floyd - Again moving on things like recording technology and even influencing detractors like the Pistols to rebel against their prog/concept


Nirvana/Sonic Youth - It gets hard this far down the line but again a sea change in approach and sound spawning many bands and an influence still heard today


Duke Ellington/Count Basie

The Beach Boys

The Grateful dead

Abba

yes I did just say ABBA (check out harmonies, songwriting, astonishing attention to detail in recording)

[Xwetie]

lol, don't we all live in a yellow submarine?

[Xwetie]

talk bout a head of time, written 83

Well, my shoes, they come from Singapore
My flashlight's from Taiwan
My tablecloth's from Malaysia
My belt buckle's from the Amazon
You know, this shirt I wear comes from the Philippines
And the car I drive is a Chevrolet
It was put together down in Argentina
By a guy making thirty cents a day

[Nameless]

I've never been a big Beatles fan at all, save for a few songs on the white album. However, I think that their impact and their influence over the musical scene is absolutely staggering!

[Freedom]

The Beatles may have been a bit overrated, since George Martin never got the credit he deserved for refining their music.

But that being said, they were amazingly creative musicians. While many other bands did well for a year or two and then stopped being creative, the Beatles kept coming out with genuinely good music year after year, and continued doing so during their solo careers. Just when people said they were finished, they would bounce back with more good music.

While other groups got stuck in the kind of pop the Beatles were doing in 1963-64 (bands like The Dave Clark Five, The Searchers, and Gerry and the Pacemakers), they evolved (with the help of George Martin) and their music kept on improving as they became more more musically sophisticated, with the Rubber Soul, Revolver and the Sgt Pepper's albums.

I think John Lennon was mainly responsible for the Beatles early success, for example writing their first hit Please Please Me and writing the majority of songs on the Hard Day's Night album. He reached his musical prime around 1965 with songs like Ticket to Ride, Help, You're Going to Lose That Girl and the brilliant In My Life.

From 1966 to 1968 Paul became the main Beatle as John became more interested in LSD and other things. Paul wrote 8 of their last 10 #1 singles, and most of the music on Sgt Peppers. Paul was still writing nice songs in the winter of 68-69 with Let It Be and Long Winding Road (both released as singles more than a year later) but his contributions to Abbey Road such as Maxwell's Silver Hammer and Oh Darling sucked (that being said, he put some nice bass on Something and Come Together).

The best Beatles songs by mid-1969 (Abbey Road's Something and Here Comes the Sun) were from George Harrison, and the best solo album in 1970-1971 was from George (All Things Must Pass). Paul's first solo album was awful. John's Plastic One Band was much better, music critics at the time bashed Paul (calling him overrated) and praised John, and suggested that Paul couldn't write good songs without John. But John's subsequent albums had too many self-pity songs, and the critics and the public soon grew tired of his stuff (his Mind Games album was sickening). But then Lennon bounced back with a better album Walls and Bridges and a #1 single Whatever Get's You Through The Night.

And Paul eventually came out with a great album Band on the Run which had several hit singles. A couple of years later, the number one song on Billboard for the year of 1976 was by Paul, Silly Love Songs. In in the fall of 1987, after not doing much for several years, George Harrison had a #1 single, I've Got My Mind Set On You.