The Beatles

[Ken Cheng]

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr were, as the Beatles, the greatest rock band in history (and probably always will be). Any other fans of the Fab Four here?

[pemberly]

strawberry fields forever!

[Ken Cheng]

I'm currently digging the A HARD DAY'S NIGHT album. Even as early as 1964, the Beatles were demonstrating why they were a level above everybody else in the pop music business.

This album is great, especially some of the quieter, less well known tunes such as "Things We Said Today" and "I'll Be Back."

[windstorm]

not really a fan but i grew up hearing their songs (thanks to my mom) and i kinda like it.
" all my loving" and "yesteday"

[Swanny]

I loved Lennon.

Imagine is always playing played on my iPod.

[Ken Cheng]

I'm a very hardcore Beatlemaniac. I own all their official CDs, a few bootlegs, old vinyl records and cassettes, THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY DVD boxed set, the A HARD DAY'S NIGHT and YELLOW SUBMARINE movie DVDs, and a shelf full of books and magazine articles about them.

My Beatles fandom inspired me to learn how to play the guitar (although not very well).

[Swanny]

I actually learned now to play something sounds like Imagine, I Want to Hold Your Hand, and other Beatle's songs. Sadly, I forgot them all since I haven't picked up a guitar in about 2 years.

[pemberly]

I'm a very hardcore Beatlemaniac. I own all their official CDs, a few bootlegs, old vinyl records and cassettes, THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY DVD boxed set, the A HARD DAY'S NIGHT and YELLOW SUBMARINE movie DVDs, and a shelf full of books and magazine articles about them.

My Beatles fandom inspired me to learn how to play the guitar (although not very well).

i did that for oasis. that guitar is in a corner collecting dust.

[Ken Cheng]

Anybody else check out the Beatles' new LOVE album? Interesting remixes on the familiar old songs.

[RongYingMin]

I love the Beatles though I was born after the day John died more than 10 years.
Besides the Fab Four, there are alot of music bands I like, but Beats is always the best IMO.
It's hard for me to understand why I love their music so much, perhaps because the way they played n the way they composed their lyrics are very simple n have great sudden inspiration.
Who could have imagined that such sentences as 'When I get older, losing my hair, many years from now, will you still be sending me a Valentine, birthday greeting, bottle of wine, If I'd been out till quarter 2 three, will you lock the door, will you still need me, will you still feed me, When I'm sixty four...' n so on could make great songs. That sounds so funny.

Anybody else check out the Beatles' new LOVE album? Interesting remixes on the familiar old songs.

I hear alot of good comments about this new album but I still don't afford to buy it.
Hope Santa or my parents will give this record to me as a present this X'mas.

[Ken Cheng]

I love the Beatles though I was born after the day John died more than 10 years.

Seriously? You were born on December 9, 1991 or 1992?

Besides the Fab Four, there are alot of music bands I like, but Beats is always the best IMO.

It's an opinion shared by a large portion of the world's pop music fans, especially by those who grew up with them, but also by those who (like yourself and even me) weren't born until after they had disbanded.

It's hard for me to understand why I love their music so much, perhaps because the way they played n the way they composed their lyrics are very simple n have great sudden inspiration.

It's not so hard to understand, really. They created some great, timeless music that didn't just belong to the 1960s, but would last for all time. Only a handful of musicians can accomplish this, and nobody else in the past century accomplished it as often and as consistently as they did.

Who could have imagined that such sentences as 'When I get older, losing my hair, many years from now, will you still be sending me a Valentine, birthday greeting, bottle of wine, If I'd been out till quarter 2 three, will you lock the door, will you still need me, will you still feed me, When I'm sixty four...' n so on could make great songs. That sounds so funny.

Heh. And that song was quite a departure for them (although they played so many different styles that it's difficult to identify a "standard" Beatles style), as it was more of a 1920s/1930s Vaudeville song than the 1960s rock that they're better known for. That was one of the great things about the Beatles, however: all their songs were different. If you took their twenty greatest hits, you'd swear they were twenty different bands.

I hear alot of good comments about this new album but I still don't afford to buy it.
Hope Santa or my parents will give this record to me as a present this X'mas.

I hope so too; the remixes breathe new life into the old songs.

[RongYingMin]

Seriously? You were born on December 9, 1991 or 1992?

Yeah, in 1991.

It's an opinion shared by a large portion of the world's pop music fans, especially by those who grew up with them, but also by those who (like yourself and even me) weren't born until after they had disbanded.
It's not so hard to understand, really. They created some great, timeless music that didn't just belong to the 1960s, but would last for all time. Only a handful of musicians can accomplish this, and nobody else in the past century accomplished it as often and as consistently as they did.

It's not strange that people born in the 1960s, 1970s as you like them. But nowadays, among my friends, the people born in 1980s or 1990s n called 'the Generation Next', there are few ones who like the Beatles, they prefer Hiphopers, Rappers, Newage rockers...
When I asked them why they don't like Beats much, they told me that they found Beats' music is too simple n gentle. =.=

Heh. And that song was quite a departure for them (although they played so many different styles that it's difficult to identify a "standard" Beatles style), as it was more of a 1920s/1930s Vaudeville song than the 1960s rock that they're better known for. That was one of the great things about the Beatles, however: all their songs were different. If you took their twenty greatest hits, you'd swear they were twenty different bands.

Ha ha, thanks for interesting information, S M Ken, though I've listened n loved ~ 160 songs of the band, I don't have much time to learn about the marginal things because of business.

[Ken Cheng]

When I asked them why they don't like Beats much, they told me that they found Beats' music is too simple n gentle. =.=

They obviously haven't listened to "Helter Skelter" or the second side of ABBEY ROAD, then.

[RongYingMin]

Heh, that song appears in the lyric of the famous song "American Pie" too.
"Helter Skelter in a summer swelter".
Anyway, Beats is the past. 80 years later, perhaps no one would listen to their song.
In the lyric of American Pie, there's a word whose meaning I can't look up in any dictionary:
'I was a lonely teenage bronkin' buck', do you know what is the meaning of the word bronking, SM Ken?

[pemberly]

oasis did as cover of helter skelter and i am the walrus. i am the walrus is a trippy trippy song.

[Ken Cheng]

Anyway, Beats is the past. 80 years later, perhaps no one would listen to their song.

I don't think so. Some things transcend their time and last for many, many generations. They don't need to be embedded on the pop charts permanently to be embedded into the fabric of the culture permanently. Many young people who don't know much about the Beatles when they are teenagers suddenly begin discovering their music in their twenties and thirties. In the year 2000, the Beatles' 1 greatest hits collection became the best selling album of all time...and all it did was repackage old songs that established fans would have had already. Based on industry research, most of the buyers of the CDs were teenagers and people in their twenties. Imagine that: a band that had broken up thirty years earlier outselling the current hip acts. Clearly, there's something very special going on here.

'I was a lonely teenage bronkin' buck', do you know what is the meaning of the word bronking, SM Ken?

That's the violent jerking motion a horse or a bull makes when it tries to throw off its rider.

Here's some live Beatles footage from one of their 1964 concerts that disproves the perception that they were a "soft" band. This was punk rock before there was punk rock.

[RongYingMin]

I don't think so. Some things transcend their time and last for many, many generations. They don't need to be embedded on the pop charts permanently to be embedded into the fabric of the culture permanently. Many young people who don't know much about the Beatles when they are teenagers suddenly begin discovering their music in their twenties and thirties. In the year 2000, the Beatles' 1 greatest hits collection became the best selling album of all time...and all it did was repackage old songs that established fans would have had already. Based on industry research, most of the buyers of the CDs were teenagers and people in their twenties. Imagine that: a band that had broken up thirty years earlier outselling the current hip acts. Clearly, there's something very special going on here.

It's likely you're right to a certain extent.
At least now I don't see many people who is around my age listen to the Beatles' songs. Even if they do, they often only listen to the hits.
Ha ha, I like some of the non-hits even more than the hits. For ex: She's leaving home, I'll follow the sun, Across the universe, Blackbird, Anna, Here There n Everywhere, etc.

That's the violent jerking motion a horse or a bull makes when it tries to throw off its rider.

Thank you so much, S M.

Here's some live Beatles footage from one of their 1964 concerts that disproves the perception that they were a "soft" band. This was punk rock before there was punk rock.

But that cannot deny the fact that the Beatles' music is already quite dated n quite soft to nowaday liking. Find several songs of Linkin' Park, Limp Bizkit, 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, you'll see.

Heh, I have a personal question: Which one do you prefer, John or Paul?

[pemberly]

i think you're wrong in saying a lot of "young people" don't listen to beatles. i think it's gotten past the i have a beatles album point, to becoming a part of our culture. who can not name at least one beatles song? as for current artists, many of them were influenced by beatles music, and are trying to recreate the success the beatles achieved.

[Ken Cheng]

But that cannot deny the fact that the Beatles' music is already quite dated n quite soft to nowaday liking. Find several songs of Linkin' Park, Limp Bizkit, 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, you'll see.

I think this is somewhat of an unfair generalization about the musical tastes of young people today. Yes, there is a large population of young (and not so young) music consumers who mindlessly gobble up whatever the record companies put in front of them, but there are also large numbers of people who will look beyond the current pop charts to find music that has proven its lasting value.

Moreover, if people were to disdain music or any other art just because it's older, we would have discarded much of the culture we've accumulated over the past several thousand years.

The Beatles are no longer an active recording or performing band. Indeed, two of their four members have since died. Naturally, they're not going to regularly storm the charts like they did in the 1960s, or like current acts do today. But the very fact that periodic rereleases of their old material in new configurations can still whip up a storm on the cultural radar and the pop charts speaks volumes for their lasting appeal.

And "soft" is a relative term in pop music. I find that today's electronically produced music hopelessly "soft." To me, hard, gritty music is the kind played with minimal electronic manipulation...such as the raw electric guitars and drums sound we hear/see in the 1964 concert video.

Heh, I have a personal question: Which one do you prefer, John or Paul?

I like them both, but I have more favorite McCartney songs than I do Lennon songs.

[Ken Cheng]

As of today, twenty-six years have passed since John Lennon's life was ended by a madman, depriving the world of one of its greatest musical figures.