Why The Beatles Suck
The Beatles
Attacks on Nickelback by my fellow blogger Vic Stanley was cheap. It was almost like kicking a dead horse. Oops, sorry, did I just use a cliché. I know how he hates those. I am not saying that Nickelback don’t suck, but, come on, have the balls to go after some bigger names. Seeing how I have the said balls, I’ll go after a big name right off the bat and tell you why The Beatles suck.
The Beatles played pop music. I am not saying that’s a bad thing, I’m just saying that they were as guilty as any other past or current pop act of using the basic verse, chorus, verse, chorus format. They may have experimented a bit over the years, but their biggest hits remain pop music.
Backstreet Boys
The Beatles were a boy band. When I look at pictures or video during Beatlemania, I don’t see many guys there. The few guys that were in attendance were either there for the girls, or they were gay (not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course). As embarrassing as this may be for Beatles fans, there is one more recent boy band who have trumped two of The Beatles’ biggest-selling classic albums. The Backstreet Boys’ album Millenium has sold 40 million units. The Beatles’ best album in sales is Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band with 32 million sales. And that’s despite the clear advantage that the average Beatles fan has bought the album in vinyl, 8-track, cassette and compact disc formats. On the flip side, the Backstreet Boys were robbed from many sales courtesy of Napster. Please, don’t give me your crap on how music sales don’t mean squat. That argument may apply to underground indy bands, but they don’t apply to The Beatles. People know who the Beatles are and they know who the Backstreet Boys are. The numbers are clear, black on white. So think about it, Sgt. Pepper’s has sold 32 million albums, in redundant sales, under multiple formats, over a 40-year span, while Millenium sold 40 million units in just 10 years. Oh, and did I mention that the Backstreet Boys’ self-titled debut album has sold as many units as The Beatles’ Abbey Road?
Paul McCartney let Michael Jackson buy the publishing rights to the majority of the John Lennon/McCartney compositions. What makes it so funny, is that McCartney was the one who introduced Jackson to the financial potential of music publishing.
They were far from being musical geniuses. They were simply stoned out of their minds when writing their songs. Sure, the Rolling Stones don’t have the most insightful songs, but then again they never set out to change the world with their music. They just wanted to have a good time rocking out, snorting some blow and doing some chicks. How egotistical can you be to think that your very own music can change the world. Not everyone is looking for deep lyrics and revolutionary compositions. Some people just want to let loose, dance and forget their daily problems.
Every Beatles’ song remake is better than the original. I’m not talking about sound quality, that’s a given. Check out “Helter Skelter” by Aerosmith, “Yesterday” by Ray Charles and Our Lady Peace’s version of “Tomorrow Never Knows“, just to name a selected few.
Even John Lennon didn’t like the Beatles. In the song “God” by John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, Lennon sings: “I don’t believe in Beatles/I just believe in me.”
Buddy Holly
Eric Clapton played lead guitar, including the solo, on While My Guitar Gently Weeps. No one from The Beatles was good enough to do it.
Yellow Submarine. ‘nough said.
Their fans act as though music didn’t exist before The Beatles. Um, what about Elvis, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, and Little Richard, just to name a few? They were as influencial on future artists as The Beatles.
They can’t spell. It’s beetles, not beatles.
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Personally, I like The Beatles, but I am not one of those fans that think they are the greatest thing ever.
I have to disagree with you that other artists’ remakes are better than The Beatles’ originals. Some of the remakes are good, but they still don’t quite capture what The Beatles had in mind.
I was surprised that the Backstreet Boys had sold so many albums. Really?
Jesus Christ the “logic” behind this argument is attrocious.
“The Beatles played pop music”:
Yes, they did. But you also add that pop is not a bad thing, and that plenty of others have made pop music. Well, then, how is this possibly a criticism? The “basic verse, chorus, verse, chorus format” can be found in all kinds of genres of music, and that being said, many of those genres were touched on by the Beatles, who had more depth than almost any other popular act in history. The Beatles’ best-selling album (The White Album) and best-selling single (Hey Jude/Revolution) are excellent examples of this depth. No simple, verse-chorus-verse format there.
“The Beatles were a boy band”:
Yes, the screaming girls were the Beatles’ most vocal fan base, but lots of men also attended their concerts.
And yes, the Backstreet Boys might have outsold Sgt. Pepper. But what kind of criticism is that? Are the Backstreet Boys thus better than any band they’ve outsold? Because I can name quite a few. (And, for what it’s worth, the White Album outsold anything by the Backstreet Boys; but you don’t care to mention that).
“Paul McCartney let Michael Jackson buy the publishing rights to the majority of the John Lennon/McCartney compositions”:
So Jackson outsmarted McCartney in a business deal…therefore the Beatles music sucks?
“They were far from being musical geniuses”:
It would be helpful if you would provide a definition for musical genious here, or even an example of a musical genious. But you don’t. Regardless, a few thoughts:
They were not on drugs when they wrote the majority of their songs.
The Beatles didn’t set out to change the world with their songs, spare perhaps a short period in 1967 when virtually every pop act thought they could do so.
The Rolling Stones did attempt to write insightful songs (Sympathy for the Devil?), and arguably set out to change the world more than the Beatles ever did with their music (Street Fighting Man?).
“Every Beatles’ song remake is better than the original”:
Bullshit. EVERY remake is better? I don’t think so. Are some better? Yes. But, in 40 years of being the most covered popular act in history, aren’t some better covers bound to appear, especially with modern developments in music performance and recording?
And are there some songs for which the covers will never be better than the originals? Yes. Elton John’s “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” though solid, doesn’t compare to the original, and I can’t for the life of me imagine someone doing “I am the Walrus” or “A Day in the Life” better than John did.
“Even John Lennon didn’t like the Beatles”:
Anger towards Paul McCartney and the weight of popular expectations on him, does not equate to Lennon disliking the Beatles.
“Eric Clapton played lead guitar, including the solo, on While My Guitar Gently Weeps”:
Because George brought him into the studio so that Paul and John would start taking his material more seriously, not because George couldn’t play lead, or the solo. George played that song over and over in live concerts after the Beatles break-up, without Eric’s help.
“Yellow Submarine”:
Yeah, true. Good thing, though, that it was one track, meant as nothing more than a joke, found in the middle of what is quite possibly the most musically solid album in rock history (Revolver).
“Their fans act as though music didn’t exist before The Beatles”:
As if this is a problem with Beatles fans, only….
Regardless, yes, there were artists that came before them. And, yes, some of those artists were very influential. However, objectively speaking, with a few exceptions, it’s hard to find a band or arist so closely tied to- if not almost entirely responsible for- such an explosion of, and radical change in, popular music, as the Beatles. Furthermore, while I can’t say with certainty (no one can, I think), one could reasonably say that no band is more cited by others as an influence, than the Beatles. And how many others can that be said about?
“They can’t spell.”
This might be your only credible point. They couldn’t read music either (at first, anwyay).
They also could spell, Cynthia Lennon John’s first wife says that John liked the spelling of Beatles with an A because it was Lesbeat backwards and he thought it was French sounding and cool. He liked to play around with words and he did a lot of that in his books that got critical acclaim from the literary establshment with a lunch in his honor when his first book came out,John Lennon In His Own Write in 1964.
He also said that he got the idea from Buddy Holly and The Crickets and he changed the second e to an because it sounds like beat music.
You suck at life…your argument is so pathetically weak that it didn’t even anger me enough to craft a reply. Quit trying to be a shock blogger and get a job…
Saying the beatles suck qualifies as shock blogging? Seriously? Weird. And here I thought it just qualified as the truth.
This is a weak argument. I think you know that. I hope its intentional.
The Backstreet Boys appear to have sold more albums because Nielsen Soundscan only started tracking a reporting album sales in 1991. Thus rendering that argument invalid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundscan
The Beatles played pop music
Most Beatles fans agree that their best music was in their latest albums – Sgt. Peppers, Revolver etc., which weren’t really Pop.
The Beatles were a boy band
So, a lot of girls liked them – so what? A lot of guys liked them, though fewer of the guys were in love with them, understandably. Also, if you are comparing Backstreet Boys with the Beatles, you are insane. Backstreet Boys don’t write their own music, and don’t play any instruments. Also, they suck
Paul McCartney let Michael Jackson buy the publishing rights to the majority of the John Lennon/McCartney compositions.
Irrelevant
They were far from being musical geniuses.
What do you mean, ‘genius’? Why are they not musical geniuses? Why should they not try to change the world? In which songs do they try?
Every Beatles’ song remake is better than the original
That is your opinion. I don’t see that too many people agree with you.
Even John Lennon didn’t like the Beatles.
Irrelevant. Also, a bad example. John was quite P.O.ed after the Beatles broke up.
Eric Clapton played lead guitar, including the solo, on While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
See Andrews post. So, by that logic, Queen suck (or rather, Freddie can’t sing) because David Bowie also sung in Under Pressure.
Yellow Submarine.
The Beatles suck because you hate this song. Yes, that makes a lot of sense. They didn’t write too many other songs.
Their fans act as though music didn’t exist before The Beatles.
A generalization about their fans – I like many other bands and singers from that time. Your logic is also flawed. The fans think something that is wrong – this doesn’t mean the Beatles suck.
They can’t spell.
This is just stupid.
[...] and a U2 world tour. I know I’m treading on thin ice here. Bad mouthing U2 is like saying bad things about The Beatles. Their fans, in all their arrogance, just assume that you have to like them. That they’re [...]
Thanks for what you said here, I really liked it. We are so lucky to live in a time when there are so many talented sisters singing their music. Keep up the good site.
Okay.
What got to me was:
1) Even Lennon didn’t like the Beatles.
The Beatles, during tours, would have a whole floor of the hotel to themselves, yet they would come together inside the bathroom just to be with each other. Yoko Ono herself said that whatever the Beatles had with each other was too deep for her to understand and even she couldn’t have that with her husband.
2) They were just a boy band.
Excuse me, I know plenty of people who are well taught and educated about music and they didn’t scream and trip over themselves whenever they heard/ saw them.
3) They played pop.
Pop people just don’t get away with confusing great guitarists. Guitarists have been trying to figure out how the opening chord for ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ is played.
4) They Can’t Spell
Excuse me? Did someone run out of imagination?
I appreciate the work that you have put in, in this page. Really good,