Let’s discuss; I don’t the like majority of their music, although some of it is alright. I would imagine many skeptics like them.

I like most of it. My favourite song is probably “Something.”

Mike!!! It’s the Beatles man! Our generation grew up to the sound. These guys were genius writers in their 20’s and experimented with all forms of music and a few drugs as well.  Norwegian Wood was always my favorite. The Beatles and jimi Hendricks created a whole new sound and forced America out of the Hit Parade style of tunes. They took Rockabilly into the 60’s and then came Heavy Metal. Yuuuch.

Cap’t Jack

Yes, “Norwegian Wood” is great. It would probably be in my “The Beatles Top Ten.”

I could never get into “Something”. IMO, Harrison was the least talented of the group.  I like “Lovely Rita” and “Martha my dear” a lot. Anybody remember those? Overall though, the Beatles don’t do much for me.

I didn’t appreciate the Beatles when they were around. I started listening to music seriously around 1973 or so, so it was over by then. I spent my teen years listening to Kansas, Boston, ELO, Styx, Fleetwood Mac, etc. I also liked the Stones and The Who a lot. Oh, and definitely Pink Floyd.

But later on, around the time John Lennon was killed, I started really listening to them and then I discovered what all the fuss had been about. I’ve been a fan ever since. I also like some of the stuff Lennon did after the Beatles and of course McCarney’s work with Wings and later on his own is quite listenable, if far from his earlier genius.

I’ve never (neither now nor when younger) gotten the loud volume most live music is played at. Why so?

I have moved to the Seattle area to Tacoma (specifically, Bing Crosby’s childhood parish!). There was a live concert at a local cafe, in a room the size of a largish auto-repair garage and with echoing acoustics. Everyone had an amplifier - okay, electric instruments, you need an amplifier. But one guys sings the, uh, what i call The Depressing ‘Alleluia’ Song, a very intimate song when you listen to it, at a volume that made you want to take a bat to him; and then another guy screams, and *also* uses an amplifier - because, you know, screaming isn’t very loud in a garage.

Now mind you, the audience seemed to like it (except the few of us lounging at the far end of the room, wincing and yelling our complaints into each others’ ears). So what gives? This room was an ideal for what used to be called ‘chamber music’, but everyone played as if they were in an outdoor concert hall holding thousands - and this isn’t unusual.

I grew up with church and classical music, and never moved beyond acoustic music in general. So what gives? Is loud music just what the public wants? Are people just uneducated - hardly anyone knows any better than to demand quiet music when appropriate? Nowadays being ‘caught up’ in the music mean being seized through volume?

I tell you, when my revolution hits, the amplifiers will be the first against the wall.

chris kirk

I think I can almost agree with you here, Chris. Although I like The Beatles I despise the amplifier and even the electric guitar. OTOH, I can appeciate some of the electronic music, like Vangelis for example, and I think Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon” is a masterpiece. But if 99.9% of rock music sudenlly disapeered (along with the amplifiers ), I don’t think I would mind it one bit.

Absolute agreement on the volume issue. I rarely go to concerts even for groups I like because I can’t hear the music over the noise that is the amplified music. I’m more of a hippy folk cafe or Irish pub music listener!

Every couple has “our song.” Ours is “In My Life”

I like the Beatles.  MMT is my favorite album.  I sometimes wonder though about the Beatles Legacy.  For me one of the pillars of musical prowess is an artist’s influence on other artists.  The Beatles no doubt influenced a Universe of Music.  I just hope that the people who influenced the Beatles get their just desserts.
Another pillar of musical prowess is live performance- the actual exposition of any given musicians talents, as opposed to massively engineered and perfected studio recordings.  Unfortunately most of my favorite Beatles material was never performed live by the Beatles.(please don’t list the crowd issues as a reason either…lot’s of bands had crowd issues. Theirs would have tapered off considering their genre change of the late sixties.)

inthegobi - 21 February 2012 10:44 AM

I’ve never (neither now nor when younger) gotten the loud volume most live music is played at. Why so?

I have moved to the Seattle area to Tacoma (specifically, Bing Crosby’s childhood parish!). There was a live concert at a local cafe, in a room the size of a largish auto-repair garage and with echoing acoustics. Everyone had an amplifier - okay, electric instruments, you need an amplifier. But one guys sings the, uh, what i call The Depressing ‘Alleluia’ Song, a very intimate song when you listen to it, at a volume that made you want to take a bat to him; and then another guy screams, and *also* uses an amplifier - because, you know, screaming isn’t very loud in a garage.

Now mind you, the audience seemed to like it (except the few of us lounging at the far end of the room, wincing and yelling our complaints into each others’ ears). So what gives? This room was an ideal for what used to be called ‘chamber music’, but everyone played as if they were in an outdoor concert hall holding thousands - and this isn’t unusual.

I grew up with church and classical music, and never moved beyond acoustic music in general. So what gives? Is loud music just what the public wants? Are people just uneducated - hardly anyone knows any better than to demand quiet music when appropriate? Nowadays being ‘caught up’ in the music mean being seized through volume?

I tell you, when my revolution hits, the amplifiers will be the first against the wall.
chris kirk

I sympathise fully with you…but that’s no reason to ban amplifiers.  Not by a long shot.

Buy musician ear plugs. Protects your hearing too.

I mainly listen to their Sgt. Pepper’s album, and it’s great.

George - 21 February 2012 10:56 AM

I think I can almost agree with you here, Chris. Although I like The Beatles I despise the amplifier and even the electric guitar.

Well, I’m not dissing rock music or electric instruments; and if I go to The Clash (for example) and *don’t* have a ringing in my ears, it’s cause for complaint, oi? And to another poster, the comment about amplifiers was a joke of course.

My questions stand: what is it about the commonness of *overly* loud music, music that’s loud when it’s better to be softer, music amp’d for large halls but played in small venues, and so on? What’s it for? What’s it *do* for the people who like it? Is it just that most of us are too ‘nice’ to complain? Or, does the typical ‘youngun’ feel he’s being deliciously transgressive (I never wanted to feel that way) by listening to any kind of live music, even intimate songs, at top volume? Or, does the culture have a theory of ‘good’ music that the volume is what ‘grabs you by the ears’ as Plato says somewhere about music?

Now get the hell off my lawn. And pull up your pants, too.

inthegobi

I’ll listen to moderately loud music when I am by myself and doing nothing else. No idea why people who go to bars to socialize and to talk to each other enjoy instead yelling at each other.

I have the answer, throughout their teen years they banged their heads to Mettalica on amp 10 and ruined their hearing. Now as adults they all have tennitus and can’t hear a damn thing but continuous roaring so they turn up the music and scream to be heard. Oh what fun they had listening to Motley Crue screaming through story tall amps!  What? Come again?

Cap’t Jack