Hey Nick Sylvester, you had to have been around when Beatlemania hit the radio and airways. And yes, it's really true, they changed the way we listned to music, heck, even classical musicians became aware of their sound, and played it on various stages around the country. My wife and I saw the great Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops
at the Hollywood Bowl bring the audience to it's
feet playing nothing but a Beatles program. Nick,
you missed a great beginning. Finally, the real leaders of Rock and Roll was the Rolling Stones,
not the Beatles. But the Beatles changed music.
Even that fake Elvis can't claim that.

Posted by: Lamartrotti at November 1, 2005 6:31 PM

Lamartrotti,

The Beatles *were* the true leaders of rock *not* The Rolling Stones who were good friends and big fans of The Beatles and even copied The Beatles several times! Mick Jagger was at 4 Beatles recording sessions and Keith Richards was at 2 of them with him. John and Paul wrote The Rolling Stones first hit song,I Wanna Be You're Man in early 1964.

Ozzy Osbourne is quoted in a 2001 online Bender Magazine interview saying The Beatles Are The Greatest Band To Ever Walk The Earth! They have been his favorite band since he was a teenager and She Loves You was one of the first records he ever bought.There are at least 6 music professors teaching courses on The Beatles at good universities. One of them is award winning music professor and classical composer Dr.Glenn Gass at Indiana University. He's been teaching The Beatles course and a course on rock music since 1982. He said he knows a lot of 20 year olds who really love The Beatles music. On his web site for his course it says he teaches about this extraordinary group and song writing partnership. It also says that the main purpose of this course is to get students to have a greater appreciation of The Beatles remarkable recordings.

Dr.Gary Kendall's Beatles course is the most requested at North Western University and a music profesor in Finland by the last name of Heinonen teaches a Beatles course in the department of music at JYVASKYLA university.

Brian Wilson said on a 1995 Beatles Nighline tribute show which had tributes from many diffeent music artists from many different music fields,(including a young black jazz musician and a black opera singer,Steve Winwood,vilinist Isach Pearlman,Meatloaf etc)that John Lennon and Paul McCartney were the greatest song writers of the 20th century. He also said that when he first heard The Beatles great album Rubber Soul, he was blown away by it. He said all of the songs flowed together and it was opo music but folk rock at the same time,and this is what he said he couldn't believe. This is what inspired him to make his Pet Sounds album.

Elton John was asked on a 1991 CBS morning show who he musically admires,and he said you can talk about your Rogers and Hammersten,but for the quanity of quality songs that Lennon and McCartney wrote in that short period of time,they were the greatest song writers of the 20th century. Brilliant classical composer and conducter Leonard Bernstein said this about John and Paul also!

There is an excellent book The Beatles Recording Sessions by Mark Lewisohn that is a very detailed musical diary of The Beatles amazing 8 year recording career.It thoroughly demonstrates how truly brilliant,innovative,and creative especially John and Paul were in the recording studio. Many of their recording engineers are also interviewed in this book and are very impressed with them also.Some of these engineers went on to work with other well known music artists,Norman Smith one of their early engineers went on to work with Pink Floyd,Ken Scott went on to work with David Bowie and Alan Parsons who was a highly impressed Beatles fan was one of their engineers on their last two albums,Let it Be and Abbey Road.

Many people have pointed out that Paul's Helter Skelter from The Beatles 1968,White Album,and John's I Want You She's So Heavy from Abbey Road were the two first true heavy metal songs! There is an online interview with Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro and he's quoted from Guitar World in 1991 and 1996 saying it angers and surprises many people that he has always hated The Rolling Stones! There is also an online interview with guitarist Frank Marino of the hard rock group Mahogany Rush from 2003 where he says he can't stand The Rolling Stones and he calls them the worst hoax ever! He said a lot of people are suckers for The Rolling Stones. In several recent online interviews he says he likes and listens to The Beatles,Jimi Hendrix,The Doors and The Allman Brothers Band.

Posted by: at November 1, 2005 7:52 PM

By the way, I was born in 1965 during the middle of The great Beatles recording career and I was only 5 years old when they broke up! Also There is an excellent web site called, The Evolution of Rock Bass Playing McCartney Style by Denis Alstrand and in it Stanley Clarke,Billy Sheehan,Will Lee and Sting all say what a great melodic,influential bass player Paul has always been. The Rolling Stone Album Guide also calls Paul a remarkable bass player and calls John and Paul the two greatest song writers in the history of rock!

The All Music Guide in their Beatles biography also says that John and Paul were not only such great song writers but were both among the two best singers in rock!

Posted by: fab4fan at November 1, 2005 8:00 PM

By the way, I was born in 1965 during the middle of The great Beatles recording career and I was only 5 years old when they broke up! Also There is an excellent web site called, The Evolution of Rock Bass Playing McCartney Style by Denis Alstrand and in it Stanley Clarke,Billy Sheehan,Will Lee and Sting all say what a great melodic,influential bass player Paul has always been. The Rolling Stone Album Guide also calls Paul a remarkable bass player and calls John and Paul the two greatest song writers in the history of rock!

The All Music Guide in their Beatles biography also says that John and Paul were not only such great song writers but were both among the two best singers in rock!

Posted by: fab4fan at November 1, 2005 8:03 PM

Beatles still are important. I can add a few more to your list "If the Beatles didnt exist -
- but let's make it simple - shit would be boring - and that is enoough.

Posted by: FlowFeel at November 1, 2005 8:36 PM

The title of your article makes me puke, and to be making fun of the Beatles when you have little talent is like irony.

Posted by: Sam at November 1, 2005 11:44 PM

I cannot agree enough with the above comment.

Or understand it.

Posted by: Paz at November 2, 2005 12:26 AM

"Instead of people saying, "Hey, nice Beatles-style haircut," they'd say, "Hey, you sort of look like an asshole.""

This is gold.

Posted by: Connor at November 2, 2005 1:28 AM

The line about garage rock isn't true. There was plenty of garage rock well before anyone in America knew who the Beatles were. Paul Revere & the Raiders, and a whole slew of bands from the Northwest garage rock scene. Also, did you just try to make the claim that it took four white kids from England to make sure American music wasn't so white? Didn't blues and gospel come from the American South? And then mesh with country & western and other european folk forms to become rock? I'm 24 and know my rock history beter than you do. I don't think you'll find anyone on Earth that will say the Beatles weren't hugely influential and that their influence isn't still felt today, but please be factual (although for a New York rock critic, being a revisionist and an anglophile is nothing that should surprise me).

Posted by: Kyle at November 2, 2005 5:29 AM

Yes the Beatles were wonderful and would've cured cancer if Yoko didn't break them up but...My Generation (1965) by the Who, Manic Depression (1967) by Jimi Hendrix & Sunshine Of Your Love (1967) by Cream are "heavier" than les Beatles Helter Skelter & I Want You. Because a bunch of academics & classical musicians rate them above everything is indicative of their inability to keep an ear open to all styles of music or just different music. Probably the finest Beatle reissues of the last 35 years are The Mollusk (1997) & White Pepper (2000) by the band Ween. They're a "joke" band by academic rock critics but the melodies & harmonies on these 2 releases are better than anything McCartney's done since Band On The Run (1973) or Harrison since All Things Must Pass (1970). Lennon's gift was always honesty and confession; while possesing and ear for melody, he was too honest to merely remain a craftsman. The Stones: I originally hated in my youth (1980 to 1988) but grew to appreciate their sloppiness, funk, "outlaw" image (until 1977) and '70's ballads but they will always be limited by their image. Admit it, both of these artists were limited by their technical proficiency (which only sometimes results in listenable music) but as I always say when asked if I like the Beatles: oh yes, very much, but seeing as I've only heard their songs and albums 70 thousand times on radio and my "record collection", I can conjure up their material simply by memory. Ironically, the only song of theirs that surprised me of theirs in the last 10 years was Yellow Submarine; the reason probably being its simple cheery melody, charmingly inept vocals and the childhood memories it evoked. Other than that, Happiness Is A Warm Gun will always be their masterpiece, with Rain running a close second. RIP and let the argument end.

Posted by: MillerYohansson at November 2, 2005 10:24 AM

You are really unfunny, and a boring read as well.

Posted by: dennis at November 2, 2005 10:27 AM

And I thought no one would ever write about a band so criminally overlooked! Maybe someday "The Beatles" will receive such lofty praise as Henry Cow has all these years...

Posted by: Blackmail Is My Life at November 2, 2005 10:50 AM

look everybody dennis loves the beatles

Posted by: riffraff at November 2, 2005 10:51 AM

Man, why do I click on links to Village Voice music articles? They seem to be universally inane. This was neither funny nor informative.

Posted by: tepr at November 2, 2005 1:34 PM

Man, why do I click on links to Village Voice music articles? They seem to be universally inane. This was neither funny nor informative.

Posted by: at November 2, 2005 1:35 PM

i also agree that this is gold. let's give it another look,

"Instead of people saying, "Hey, nice Beatles-style haircut," they'd say, "Hey, you sort of look like an asshole."

Posted by: jon at November 2, 2005 3:19 PM

The Beetles the most important thing in muisc what a joke.

Posted by: TK at November 2, 2005 3:44 PM

They're not as good as the Pixies.

Posted by: at November 2, 2005 5:35 PM

i can't believe some of the goons you get in the comment section here, this shit is obviously hilarious!

Posted by: john at at November 2, 2005 6:33 PM

Turn out the lights and turn up "While my guitar gently weeps". McCartney's work on bass is one of the finest ever recorded. Spellbinding.

Posted by: st pepper at November 2, 2005 9:48 PM

I am a huge Beatles fan. I think they are hugely important and have created the greatest music ever and wonderful influences on society. BUT...your article is hilarious. I can't believe people are getting so up in arms in their responses. However, one correction. If the Beatles never existed, your dad would probably come in the room and say, "Who do you think you are--Steven Adler," as opposed to the more generic, "some guy I've never heard of." Maybe I am wrong...just my opinion. Dad always was put off by early Gn'R.

Posted by: toddy todd at November 2, 2005 10:05 PM

Jon, if you cannot even properly spell beatles, it's obvious your hatred stems from limiting listening/your own conflicting rebellious adolescence. You slayed the sacred cow...via modem connection - kudos you faggot fuck. Trendy cock in the ass dime-store whore, I'll skull-fuck your Blink182 memorabilia.

The Beatles entire catalogue (yes, even pre-Rubber soul albums) are without a doubt the greatest albums/music to have been created.

From The Who/Zeppelin, Clash/Pistols, u2/GNR, Pearl Jam/Nirvana, to early-mid 90's hiphop - Any decade, any rock movement - their songwriting ability/fluidity within their albums, continue to amaze/outshine even their "influences influences" - forty yrs thereafter the fact. FUCK.

"I don't believe....in beatles..." - John Lennon

Posted by: M-Dizzle you fucks, remember the name! at November 2, 2005 11:10 PM

i think the beatles are in all likelihood the greatest rock band of all time. i mean, they're just so good-- and so influential-- on so many levels. would rock be the same without them? absolutely not. my college roommate and i used to talk about this all the time-- he had all these awesome beatles posters, too.

Posted by: simeon at November 3, 2005 7:19 AM

They weren't satisfied with every song sounding the same as every other song they wrote, like nearly every other imposter who followed even to today.

What is interesting is how the debate continues thirty four years after McCartney walked.
If it hadn't been him, Lennon would have and evidently had but was coaxed back as had Ringo and Harrison.

They squeezed every ounce of creative juice out of their beings as is possible in that short time, plus half of the band was blasted on dope with the business side spinning out of controle.

They were robbed financially and once push came to shove over money, things got ugly.

In the end McCartney was right in his desire to controle the business side of the business and he's proven that. Look at MPL's website.

Sure, it's hard to do more then they did, the sum of the four greater then the individuals but truely the time was very rich with musical creativity, a time long gone now.

Does the Critic think that over a billion in record sales (500 million more then the next guy) has any value as a measuring stick?

Posted by: Steve at November 3, 2005 9:33 AM

i think that it is unfair to say that if someone was wearing a beatles haircut that people would call him an asshole. also volkswagon "beetle" and beatle are not the same thing and they aren't even spelled the same so that's not meta at all. also the country music awards would clearly not happen every day because people would get bored with it after awhile. no one would buy tickets and no one would watch on t.v. so that's wrong. all in all i think that sylvester has made some really misleading comments in this article and that he should retract most of it because most of it isn't true at all and then write an article about how the beatles are the most important rock band ever and how they changed music.

Posted by: strbryflds4evr at November 3, 2005 9:56 AM

The Beatles give me a headache. I think a lot of people just say that they think they're the "greatest band of all time" because that's the line that they were fed.

Posted by: swede86 at November 3, 2005 6:09 PM

This article will be far more enduring than the Beatles, who admittedly are a great band - if you're 12.

Posted by: shanemoritz at November 3, 2005 6:15 PM

12?

It has nothing to do with your age, these days.
It's lasting work.

Yea, the mania and the touring was about kids.

They were kids, young handsome working class boys in nice suits, who were funny and sang cutting edge songs (for the time - still catchy) they actually wrote (nobody did that then) and they began the whole long hair thing.

You can not take away their influence on rock music and recording, popdom, and the business of rock and imagemaking.

It's easy to criticize the Beatles or to try to be cool slamming them but on thing is true, no one has climbed their mountain - yet.

Oh, and the songs hold up over time.

Posted by: Tina at November 3, 2005 7:11 PM

The greatest band ever.
For those that don't understand, you never really listened to the body of work.

Paul will go down as the mozart and beethoven of our generation.

Posted by: rocco at November 4, 2005 12:32 AM

If the Beatles didn't exist - no one would make the statement it's his/hers/their Sgt. Pepper in reference to a good album.

Posted by: at November 4, 2005 12:05 PM

All young anti-Beatles never understood John's fight for artistic freedom from the commercial marketing giants to rise up and write solo songs that were also big hits like Imagaine and Watching the Wheels. If it wasn't for John, Paul would have wound up in the Bay City Rollers.

Posted by: Beeny at November 4, 2005 1:24 PM

Beeny, you're an idiot.

Posted by: Jeremy at November 5, 2005 2:19 PM

if the beatles had never existed, we wouldn't have disparaging articles written about them by pyar sark-arses.

I was born in their home city of Liverpool, and though they aren't the greatest ever thing to ever happen to all music ever, their influence on popular culture, both local and global, has been so obvious it can't just be childishly dismissed.

I couldn't give a butcher's fuck if you can do courses in 'I am the Walrus' at Harvard, 'cause almost all of academia is out-of-touch bullshit anyway - but just accept that the story of The Beatles was a very important one, and that they essentially embodied the 1960s, a revolutionary period in modern cultural history.

They had a few decent songs too, like.

PS: I take it you're a fan of Joy Division? Good good, but I'm not sure where you're going with that whole 'investment bankers' thing. The beatles went and took pop in a necessary direction, leading the way for a lot of inspired music as well as a fair amount of toss, and then a decade later the pioneers of punk rock did the very same - you can hate them all you want, but you can't undermine the role they played in taking it forward.

Posted by: Lenin & McCarthy at November 6, 2005 1:33 AM

I have a correlary question - I wonder what people would talk about if Nick Sylvester had never existed?

Posted by: DudeAsInCool at November 8, 2005 3:43 AM

Hey Mr. RiffRaff, how does my above comment about you being boring and unfunny, translates to me liking the Beatles?

Posted by: dennis at November 8, 2005 10:34 AM

This poem is entitled Dennis.

"Respect my intellect," his strident yell
Can pierce the very air through which he fell
No shill, to be precise, the toughest sell
He doesn't take no bullshit very well.

In his descent from heaven, heaven-sent
With pen that rends, this trendy revenant
Contends against pretenders and their bent
Contentiously.

What I'm saying is that Dennis is a great warrior who does God's work.

Posted by: Assman at November 9, 2005 2:16 PM

I've been called many things before, but never a great warrior. Thanks, Ass!

Posted by: dennis at November 9, 2005 3:35 PM

Shut up.

Posted by: Assman at November 9, 2005 8:48 PM

What an insightful comment Assface!

Posted by: dennis at November 10, 2005 8:37 AM

I was 9 when the Beatles played Shea Stadium. If you didn't live it, you don't get it. The world lost a great artist/peace maker when John was taken from us. He had alot to say. I wonder what his response in song would have been to 9/11.

Posted by: joanne at November 14, 2005 1:20 PM

You people are morons.

Posted by: Good god at November 18, 2005 12:59 PM

the zombies should have been the beatles

Posted by: prince choad at November 23, 2005 4:54 PM

Time an' time again I gotta tell dese niggaz an' dese hoes
I'm from College Park where we move dat weed an' we slag dat blow
Get dope on a daily basis
Get high make dem ugly faces
Pull the dro' an' I'm on probation
My blunts I don't be lacin'
I'm on Kryptonite
Come to my crib tonight
Let me beat dat puss all night
Run tell yo buddies I fucked you right
Tell 'em bout all the plaques on the wall
Tell 'em how you licked my balls
Tell 'em how Konkrete run the streets
Big Boi, he put us on my

aw, I got jizz in my eye

Posted by: Blackowned C-Bone at December 5, 2005 5:51 PM

The Beatles, for those who weren't there:

I think people think the Beatles were not that good because EVERYTHING they hear, from pop songs to albulms to commercials have been influenced by them:
1. The concept albulm.
2. Longer songs.
3. The use of classical instruments, violins, trumpet, etc., piano.
4. Random lyrics, ambiguous lyrics, sexual lyrics, sophisticated lyrics, nonsense lyrics.
5. The clothes, hair. The suits.
6. The group persona.
7. The artwork on the albulms.
8. The conflicts.
9. The love affairs.
10. The politics
11. The religion.
12. The variety.
13. The happiness they generated--a new Beatles song would make everyone happy. A new albulm would be listened to immediately after St. Pepper. This before the internet.
14. The placement after World War II. A whole book could be written about their generation's place in Britain between World War I and World War II and this "sensibility" shows up everywhere, especially Magical Mystery Tour. BUt also Hard Day's Night.
15. Culture.
16. George Harrison. Need I say more? THe most soothing voice in Rock Music, but humerous, deep, thoughtful and an all-around good guy.
17. Paul McCartney is the marking genious of the 20th Century. Also musical.
18. Ringo Starr.
19. John Lennon.

& dozens more. If you think The Beatle's weren't that good, it's because all the music you've heard since them, your whole life if you're younger than 43, has been influenced by them. Not only music, but movies, commercials, politics, art. Half of what goes on on TV wouldn't happen if The Beatles had not invented it. Half the songs you hear, if not more, owe something to the Beatles. Everyday I hear a song or a commercial and at one point my brain goes "The Beatles." Because, yes, they did invent it.

But the most important thing--they made us HAPPY. A great "natural" band. THey did it by being real. Thanks, John, Paul, George and Ringo.

Posted by: Linda Sabile at February 4, 2006 2:56 PM

Just an addendum here-- I meant, their growing up after World War II. It would be of course their parent's generation between wars. But growing up right after World War II--they were born right before/during-- was a significant time period in the world. You had to be there. And prob more significant in Britain than in the U.S. given the British exp in the war and the proximity to Europe rebuilding.

Posted by: Linda Sabile at February 4, 2006 3:05 PM