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

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.

Matt I last put a Beatles record on on Wednesday. It was Abbey Road: I didn't enjoy it much.

A few years ago, as others have noted above, they seemed inescapable and the heavy rotation of their classics drove me crazy. I now find the Beatles thoroughly escapable and I have grown much more interested in actual 60s melodic pop (as opposed to 60s inflected melodic pop).

I quite like some of Revolver.

As PF says, maybe I'll work up a little hate in the future. It seems a bit pointless now.

I think one of the best 15 bands maybe. But I think most of the general public think that they're the best band ever.

**When was the last time any of you put their records on?**

Sunday - Anthology III to hear 'Come And Get It'. I ended up playing the whole of both CDs

**Do the people out there really put Beatles records on as much as we are led to think they do?**

Yes.

I don't think there's anything wrong with being suspicious of them because of the whole mythology, or anything wrong with trying them and not liking them. But I am quite staggered that so many folks here have such a *thing* about not even trying them out. Especially people with an ear for pop. I just don't understand it. Just grab a copy of Abbey Road/Revolver/Help/White Album - no-one will laugh at you, and it's not compulsory to buy the anthologies on DVD as well - just treat them like any other artist. For me,I admit I love them the mythology is optional; there are times when I've immersed myself in it, but mostly they're just *there* along with Abba, King Tubby, Chic, Joy Division, The Supremes..... all fucking great.

1. I do
2. Most weeks, I'm afraid
3. Why not?

This is different from what you then said, which was, um: "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 expect you can see the difference. But OK, it is not worth either of our precious times to bother about this point anymore. We both like the Beatles, anyway. Hooray.

I like the Doc's post too. And Tim H's, though he is saying something different.

Let's take sides: is that a valid or an invalid opinion? It seems bogus to me, more or less because, listening to the Beatles while reading the I-Mac book a few years ago this was really how I heard them.
But the effects of the book wore off, and there was no emotional connexion with these songs left over. So: claiming to hate them is a bit much, but certainly not dud.

I still don't like much that they did, but the only Beatle I actively dislike (musically) is McCartney.

one reason i don't feel bad about being an unabashed beatles lover anymore is that people who say they hate the beatles tend to big up the stones. recently i realized that no matter how many stones songs i say i like (and i do like a lot) i could never LOVE them, for so many reasons (mainly that i find their myth/reputation far more irritating than the beatles' ever was), and i do love the beatles. i could sell all my beatles albums tomorrow and use the money to buy every stones record i don't have and this would be no less true.

I don't hate the Beatles, but for me, it's the Beach Boys and the Kinks who I praise a lot more.

I often find the Kinks to be wildly overrated. Although I like them, I think.

anthology 2 (tape 2)

Who would dare, and risk getting trampled by hordes of indignant girls?

I like everything the Beatles did. Or every song the Beatles sang (I don't much like the film Yellow Submarine, or the members' houses). There are lots of songs that I think are weak (half of Sgt. Pepper, 'Piggies', 'Get Back'), but I like them enough to listen to them, to not skip them. When I'm listening, I'm liking.

The overfamiliarity: I know, but then I listen to, of all things, 'Yesterday' and I think I'm not familiar enough with the version that's on the record, which is pure and bold.

But I don't understand what liking the Beatles can actually mean, even as I'm doing it. Who is being propped up? Not the liker, not the likee. I meet people, at bus-stops and stuff, who claim to like dinosaurs, or the Romans. But I can't take them seriously unless the bus is taking them to a bone-dig, or a toga fitting. And still, 'seriously' is pushing it. And I never meet people who hate these things. Big deal for the brontosaurus, no doubt.

Abba, mentioned somewhere, are kind of the same.

I must have heard it, I know I must have, but it seems like the song has surpassed the record to such an extent that I don't need to have heard it. I suspect there are very few other acts who can do that (Sinatra is one).

Full disclosure: my favorite Beatle is Yoko. My second favorite is George Martin.

So you habitually avoid the well-known to preserve an elitist cool then?

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.