Are the Beatles overrated?

[Freedom]

By the way Walrus, I've been a Beatles fan from the very beginning of their career in America.

I was age 8 and watching TV with my older teen-aged sister when the Beatles first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. They were always my favorite band after that. I used to sing their songs while walking to school and other places. We kids used to buy Beatles bubble gum cards, I didn't know at the time that the sugary bubble gum was bad for my teeth.

I saw the movie A Hard Day's Night in the cinema when it came out in August 1964, and Help the next summer. I bought all the Beatles albums when I had more money in my later childhood. When I got a cheap guitar in my early teens, I learned to play a bit, and I bought a songbook with all the Lennon-McCartney compositions, and learned to play every one. I noticed Paul's compositions were more musically complex than John's, but I always liked John's use of certain major-to-minor chord sequences.

I remember being very excited about Lennon's and McCartney's first solo albums, but liking John's and being extremely disappointed in Paul's. However I preferred Paul's later good-natured songs from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s much more than John's self-pity/insecurity songs.

I still listen to the Beatles quite a bit. I do think they were and are a bit overrated, but they are still my favorite band of all time.