It was 40 years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band ...

[Ford Prefect]

Well okay it was APPROXIMATELY 40 years ago that The Beatles came to America and appeared on The Ed Sulivan Show starting what came to be called Beatlemania and the British Invasion.
Yes I am old enough to remember sitting in front of the black and white with my disbelieving parents as an audience of young girls went totally nuts on poor Ed.
Lots has been written on the musical brilliance or lack therof of The Beatles. Suffice it to say that you really had to be there to understand how different the world became when they were popular.
Their music was just American "colored" music cleaned up and made availible to the white teenagers whose huge numbers were causing problems for the status quo. They became a focal point for change and their music is a menomic trigger for the feelings of that time of life and society for many of us.
I remember the moment I "got it" about music and girls and joy and all that stuff. I was at the skating rink, which was the approved activity for teenagers in Chilliwack in the mid 60's, after the rink had closed to be resurfaced for some hockey game or other my older brother some of his friends put a quarter in the jukebox and one of the three tunes was "I Want to Hold Your Hand". The older kids kicked off their shoes and with a line of girls on one side and boys on the other started dancing. Girls in short skirts and tight sweaters jumped about and pranced to show off to the boys they wanted to notice them and I stood there by the jukebox, music loud in my ears and suddenly I understood a lot of things about life amoung the young.

[Arol]

Ah yes nostalgia!
Same song, but at a dance at Royal York Collegium in Etobicoke.
And yes same show on television, parents even more disbeleiving as they were recent immigrants.

[Flabby Chick]

Their music was just American "colored" music cleaned up and made availible to the white teenagers whose huge numbers were causing problems for the status quo.

Can you read music Ford?

[Ford Prefect]

Sorry FC but my formal musical education is limited to two years of junior high school band claranet. During interviews with various Beatles I have heard them express their dissapointment when they came to America and listened to the radio only to hear their own songs instead of the musicians they admired. One of their early hits "Mr. Postman" (I think that was the title) was a cover of a tune originaly recorded by a black American group. The syndicated radio show "Beatle Brunch" carried accross North America on Sundays at 11am has many such tidbits offered up.

Ah yes disbelieving parents:
My father always refered to any music recorded after 1963 as "That damn Yeah Yeah music.
Watching the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour featuring a performance by Joe Cocker. My mother watched his distinctive perfomance style for a minute and then turned to me and asked "He's making fun of crippled people isn't he?

[TheCops]

Lots has been written on the musical brilliance or lack therof of The Beatles. Suffice it to say that you really had to be there to understand how different the world became when they were popular.
Their music was just American "colored" music cleaned up and made availible to the white teenagers whose huge numbers were causing problems for the status quo.

i wasn't there... but they are some of my favorite writers. i think it is a bit of oversimplification to say the were just doing american black music cleaned up. of course that's what they cut their teeth on playing those endless gigs in germany... and paul mccartney does a smoking little richard impersonation... but their writing had tons of influence that can easily be heard. The fact that they didn’t hide their influence is important… lennon spoke freely about his admiration of rhythm and blues.

to me the amazing thing about the beatles is the transformation and the consistency of their songwriting skillz in such a short period of time. now a days you'll be lucky to get 4 solid songs on an album, from rubber soul all the way to their break-up there are like 4 or 5 bad songs… that’s just amazing. they were constantly growing and mutating their recording technique and style while keeping the words simple and communicative so that anyone can sing along.

sgt. pepper is not my favorite beatles album (abbey road is) but it’s significance is monumental to this day in pop culture.

[Will Robinson]

Ford, I think your mom and mine must be related. I was watching Joe Cocker on TV and my mom said basically the same thing!

I heard John Lennon interviewed where he said he was most satisfied, not by the screaming masses but by the compliments they recieved by the producers and engineers at Sun Records where the 'american sound' was being created. Apparantly Scotty Moore told someone who told John Lennon that he thought the Beatles had "that sound" and that was the thing that made Lennon happiest about the Beatles reception in america.

They were great because they showed their influences, which were many, but they didn't constrain themselves to any of them, they expanded on them.
With all four of them so talented and so free to create they were a rarity even back then when talent came first. Today talent takes a back seat to marketability so the likelyhood of a 'Beatles' quality group is probably very slim indeed.

Here's an interview with John from 1981 in Playboy that was pretty good:

PLAYBOY: What about the people of your generation, the ones who feel a certain kind of music -- and spirit -- died when the Beatles broke up?

LENNON: If they didn't understand the Beatles and the Sixties then, what the ★■◆● could we do for them now? Do we have to divide the fish and the loaves for the multitudes again? Do we have to get crucified again? Do we have to do the walking on water again because a whole pile of dummies didn't see it the first time, or didn't believe it when they saw it? You know, that's what they're asking: "Get off the cross. I didn't understand the first bit yet. Can you do that again?" No way. You can never go home. It doesn't exist.

[Flabby Chick]

The Beatles were certainly influenced by the black rock and roll artists, but to dismiss their music as "coloured music" cleaned up does them a huge disservice. They were so much more than that. On the first couple of albums you've got rock and roll, country and western, girl groups all with an Everly brothers harmony. There's even a Meredith Wilson song in there somewhere (i think it was "till there was you" but i could be wrong) Later on they had classical, tea room and the indian thing going on. And they made it all sound so easy.

The Beatles got me on to music as a kid, no doubt about that, but it seems the older i get the less i listen to them, as though they seem a bit childish now compared to the music i've been exposed to over the years (more of a feeling than the truth) Revolver and Abbey Road are the classics for me.

And a quick mention for the song "Blackbird" which got me laid countless times when i was younger 'cause the ladies thought i was dead cool 'cause i could play it.

[Ford Prefect]

If at some point it seems that I lack respect for the musical skills of The Beatles I apologize.
They were the soundtrack to my youth and to me the greatest musical group in the recient history of music.
I mentioned the black music thing as a social milepost of the time. Black music was a seperate genre at the time and many North American radio stations would not play "race music" on their rotation. By being white and foreign The Beatles were allowed to use black music influences without suffering a boycott of their music by DJs. When Beatlemania took off and other British and American groups started emulating them the barrier collapsed along with many others. As I said a time of great social change came about.

"With all four of them so talented and so free to create they were a rarity even back then when talent came first. Today talent takes a back seat to marketability so the likelyhood of a 'Beatles' quality group is probably very slim indeed. "

I agree totally. Marketing has taken over from talent. Jan Arden is one of the great singer/songwriters of this age. But she is overweight and so is excluded from the stardom she deserves.