People who insist that they hate the Beatles - C or D?

personally i like some of their stuff, but most people i know who don't are very genuine in their dislike.

People who like everything the Beatles did are frightening and strange.

However, earlier this year I was listening to some Beatles and realized I did enjoy a lot of their songs. A few years of distance from the situation finally did the trick.

Tom is OTM. And they fail to distinguish betwen the eras in some cases and cant even begin to say they like one period more than another. Barmy.

Then again, people who say the Byrds were better than the beatles are similarly ridiculous.

I like them, and somewhat revere them; for which no apologies.

I think that Tim H has hated them in the past. Possibly in the future too.

I like a lot of what I've heard (two albums plus the 'red' comp).

mark s you like everything.

that sort of fascism makes me WANT to hate the beatles, but i actually like quite a lot of their songs.

I don't mind the music but the it is overshadowed by the myths, the stories, the blah blah blah blah.

bob i agree with you about the kinks, but i think thats cos i went through a religious beatles phase at 12 and burned myself out on them somewhat.

if you have the records around i'm sure you'll get round to pulling them out someday kilian. its what having a record collection does to ya!

*shrug* So people go on and on and on about them. I also happen to adore with the biggest passion groups that the music press either elects to ignore or openly reviles, such as my beloved Duran Duran, so I feel it's all a matter of feeling (</reference="corny" classification="fannish">) here.

PF I think you've misread me. I was saying that people who like everything the Beatles did are mentalists, not that you had to like everything they did to like them. I like them and I think they made some quite bad records.

The mythology/context thing cuts both ways. Some people hate the Beatles because of what they have come to stand for critically, yes - these people can't listen to the records 'objectively' but who can or would want to listen to any records 'objectively'. But lots of people who love the Beatles love them because of the idea of what they achieved and what they were first to do - surely as valid/invalid a reason as hating them because of context.

If the Beatles' records have a certain 'Beatlish' quality (I'm not sure they do, I don't know all of them) which makes people like them then surely other people might dislike that quality too.

People who dislike the mythology of the Beatles could well be Beatles fans, I think I'd be wary of anyone who bought into it really.

Contra-dick-shun time:

I have like 10 Beatles albums but never listen to any, however. There's too much baggage there for me to even casually enjoy them without feeling the iceberg of their history-legacy breathing down on my neck, making me pressured to feel as if I should pay more attention to the lyrics/music/whatever, since its so "important." Listening to the Beatles is a ponderous task these days - shame on the mythologers!!

Also this is kind of off, the Beatles are not the tastes of society anymore. They are a historical event recorded in a specific way, over and over again.

Nowadays, though, you hardly ever hear about them, even in the music press its all Ramones and Velvet Underground and Television and so forth, which I suppose reflects the guitar music of its day just as the Beatles did in 1995-96. But does anyone out there (except possibly the Pinefox) really think they were the best band in the world ever? When was the last time any of you put their records on? Do the people out there really put Beatles records on as much as we are led to think they do?

I don't own any Beatles records... it feels like walking into a record shop and buying Revolver would be like admitting defeat, like admitting there's NOTHING else I want to buy in the entire shop. And it's a completely irrational feeling (like buying girl's drinks in the pub, heh heh).

But part of the reason why I asked it that way is that when I've run into people that say they hate the Beatles, they say it in an insistent way, like they're trying to lure someone into an argument. It didn't even really come up in conversation, they just kind of said it.

Regarding another point raised upthread, while I don't believe it's possible, I *do* enjoy at least trying to approach music objectively. Context is not monolithic and inescapable except in a very general sense; we pay attention to aspects of context that we wish to, and ignore others as best we can. It's an oversimplification to say that context is unavoidable -- I mean, yeah, it is, but so what? How does that play out in your actual listening and appreciation?

I'm a lifelong fan, and yet I think I'm gradually moving into the hate camp. Although I've continued to claim to like them, I haven't really wanted to put on a Beatles album that much for about five years, and right now Rubber Soul (which used to be my favorite) is playing where I am and it's annoying the shit out of me. They sound like retards.

they're not as bad as fall out boy

listen to side 2 of abbey road really loud

But they are a lot worse than Good Charlotte.

Sugar We're Going Down Swinging > the weaker songs on Rubber Soul

I really need to go long stretches of time without hearing the Beatles to appreciate them. They've been way, way too overplayed. And I think that's why I'd tend towards saying that I'm not much of a fan. Because I really do like a lot of the songs that you rarely hear or that aren't particularly iconic ("Only A Northern Song", "Blue Jay Way", "Dig A Pony", etc.).

Except for "Strawberry Fields". I really do love that song, no matter how many times I hear it.

I've never personally known anyone who claimed to HATE the Beatles, though I've known many to be bored or indifferent.

I've only encountered die-hard haters on the internets, and they don't seem like proper people.

we had a drummer once said he hated the Beatles. He also thought U2 had a a great rhythm section. We fired him.

I don't hate the Beatles, I just don't listen to them.

I can't say I hate them yet, but their cuter stuff irritates the shit out of me now.

I don't listen to them all the time or anything - easy to get overexposed to them and not always in the mood - but man, what really gets me about them is their harmonies. I r a sucker for vocal harmonies.

Yeah. Is beautiful. Then again, I love the Star Club stuff, too.

Just for the teenage bashing, I mean.

the Beatles are probably going to go by the wayside a tad now that the boomers aren't foisting them on their kids anymore. they're not hard or ironic or fearful enough for youth of today. I don't listen to them much, but I'm glad they're there. I bought Magical Mystery Tour today.

chaki otm

there's loads of irony in the Beatles

Dude, kids are ALWAYS talking about the goddamn Beatles, which is why I (partly) understand the pointless revulsion listed upthread. Beatles, Zep, Floyd -- these bands are the holy trinity for a certain kind of sincere youth. They will never die.

no, they are 100% ingenuous

these sincere guitar-playing kids will buy charts to "Stairway to Heaven" and "She Said, She Said" forever.

I think the Beatles and Zep and Floyd appeal do very different flavors of youth

rock school franchises will make sure of it

I think the Beatles and Zep and Floyd appeal do very different flavors of youth

Yeah, twelve-year-olds and fifteen-year-olds

I really dislike the early Beatles quite a bit though. Isn't that more common?

Yesterday afternoon I actually snapped at a student for going, "DUDE, Zep ROCKS. `Stairway' is such a guitar anthem!" I gently tried to explain why you shouldn't assume anything, how it's not the conclusion that matters but the argument, etc etc until I heard myself sound pedantic and shut the fuck up.

The point is, I'm more apt to snap at a student for loving Zep and his malformed arguments for loving them than the Beatles, just because the latter have more of an emotional range. Whatever.

I actually said, "`The Rain Song' is better than `Stairway'!" and while that's probably true, it reminded me of those lit guys who say Marlowe's Edward II is better than Macbeth.

The Rain Song is WAY better than Stairway

its okay Alfred cuz you were right

being familiar with www.ilxor.com means you know where all the Beatles haters are.

even so, I can go years and not hear a Beatles song and not feel incomplete or anything. Or I could, if such a thing were possible.

that's true...than I hear an obscurity like "All I Wanna Do" or "And Your Bird Can Sing" and remember.

Lennon apparently grew to hate hearing Beatles songs as they had bad associations for him (though he was proud of them).

I like the story of a flunky being despatched to find out who it was repeatedly playing Beatles records in the Dakota appartment block that was driving him mad.

I don't like "Stairway," but it ain't no thang, y'know

But, really, the question comes down to: if you're a professional music critic how much older favorites do you have to time to hear? I'm always hearing laments on how that Sharrock, Miles, Aretha, or Eno album never gets the attention it deserves because there's simply too much new shit to assess. I've heard enough Beatles in my lifetime to never hear another note, yet will sing or marvel anew when a song plays on a jukebox or friend's car.

Yeah, there again: love me some Led Zep, can't stand "Stairway". Blame classic rock radio. And the 15-year-olds.

Alfred OTM for like 10 posts in a row.

Anthony Burgess, in an essay on Marshall McLuhan:

"His adoration of the Beatles (always, to me, an index of intellectual unsoundness) is based presumably on their having become priests of electronics."

Typical jealous Manc.

let us all stand in awe of the intellectual giant who wrote the screenplay for jesus of nazareth

I like his work but yeah he does have the classic autodidact attitude problem. Looking forward to reading the Roger Lewis bio.

Brb petitioning to change my job title to Priest of Electronics

Burgess was a devotee of symphonic and chamber music and he wrote many pieces which were never popular, even among classical musicians and audiences, but thank god at least they were intellectually sound. This was one of his more twatish pronouncements and being a twat was one of Burgess's great talents.

Technically correct: the best kind of correct.