Changed music forever? Come on, terry, cliched claptrap, showing the exact type of brain-washing that has been far too successful.

The first half of their career was spent regurgitating various R and B tracks from America. The second half was their ramblings while on LSD. There is nothing, NOTHING more boring having to endure the ins and outs of some other phuckers` trip!

I am an old hippy myself, normally loving everyone, man, but there is something about this infatuation with these chancers that gets to me. It`s a bit like the `religion` argument: you either believe they are the best thing ever, OR, you`see it for the scam that it is.

Indeed!

One last point, if I may: wiki tells me that the very first single they recorded was "My Bonnie". Whaaaatttt??? As in `My Bonnie lies over the ocean`?  And the B-side? `When the Saints Go Marching In`!
Yep, truly ground breaking stuff, boys!

Sorry, a second `last` post! (I wish I could remember all the salient points at once but, hey, what can you do?)

Musically they were nothing, no better or worse, than many others. So what DID set them apart? How, and why, have they stayed in some peoples record collections? I can only think that they had an incredible PR team behind them. Who might that have been? Who could have pulled off such a con? Surely not Chit Chat`s favourite publicist, Mr. Max Clifford? Surely not!!!
Case closed, I do believe...

timbuctooth 04 May 14 15:13 
One last point, if I may: wiki tells me that the very first single they recorded was "My Bonnie". Whaaaatttt??? As in `My Bonnie lies over the ocean`?  And the B-side? `When the Saints Go Marching In`!
Yep, truly ground breaking stuff, boys!

You're really clutching at straws there.
You can't judge anyone on their very first recording, they were kids,
still learning.

some real dippy bastards on here really.u can insult my wife but not the beatlesAngry

Oh dear what have i started here ... Wife Fred coming up

To respond to some of the idiocy posted on this thread, by people who, as always, think it's 'cool' to knock and deride the Beatles.
Timbuctooth:
My bonnie was a song recorded by a bunch of teenagers just starting out.
The next 3 years of 'Rock and Roll' were by the band then making their name, although there were some very well put together and cleverly concocted songs chord patterns and harmonies among them. They then went on to write and record some of the biggest songs ever written - Still, let's not let any of those get in the way of a very silly point, eh?
Also it was half of the 1st 3 albums which included cover versions. not half their careers.
Most of their singles weren't even on albums.

The Beatles then went into studio recording and using fairly basic and what is now antiquated machinery, invented music the like of which had never been heard.

In just 8 years their output of memorable and classic songs (whether you like to agree with that or not, it's fact) was unequalled.

I would think anyone, and this includes kids, would recognise at least 50 Beatles songs.
They wrote hit after hit for others too.

Musically, they were brilliant.
Paperback Writer comprises just one chord and 2 derivations and almost impossible harmonisation. They used string quartets (Eleanor Rigby), the Harp (She's leaving home}, Brass bands (Penny Lane, For no one), reverse tracking, (Strawberry fields).
They didn't stick to one format, they made kids songs, rock songs, ballads, and so much more.
They were original. Many many bands since have modelled themselves on the Beatles (ELO, Oasis and nearly every other band whilst learning/practising) and you won't often hear any musician say a bad word about their music.

I'm not saying they were particularly nice/not nice people, nor that they were as good once the Beatles disbanded.
There was some sort of chemistry between them and they happened to meet at the right time, and they gelled, they worked together well and I reckon they enjoyed what they were doing, which would have helped.

NBK:
As for the old McCartney wasn't fit to string Lennon's guitar crap. You simply have no idea what you're typing.

Artie;
I have no idea what you consider musical ability - but the Beatles were fine musicians, and wrote some very very clever stuff.

It's as if none of you can stand the thought that maybe, just maybe, most people are right, and they actually were very, very good, and that wouldn't fit in with your pseudo-fasionable, "well the Beatles were over-rated" blagh blah blah nonsense.

One other thing. Anyone who says they "cannot stand the Beatles" hasn't heard all the songs. There MUST be 2 or 3 songs from such a varied and massive repertoire that you would like. Even 2 or 3 is as more than most bands manage, let alone a couple of hundred.

These are just a few of the songs they recorded which were not 'My Bonnie':

Something, Here comes the sun, The long and winding road, All my loving, Blackbird, You've got to hide your love away, Michelle, Fool on the Hill, Help, Ticket to ride, Taxman......

Now it's case closed.
I do believe.

Good question terry. I don't know - it's more like arguing against a false point really.

I play a few instruments and have played a fair share of 'gigs'. I'm not trained and I can't read music, but I have learned SO much in terms of styles and chord combination, from different Beatles songs. Most musicians I have met, whatever type of music they play, say much the same.

timbuctooth 04 May 14 15:13 
One last point, if I may: wiki tells me that the very first single they recorded was "My Bonnie". Whaaaatttt??? As in `My Bonnie lies over the ocean`?  And the B-side? `When the Saints Go Marching In`! Yep, truly ground breaking stuff, boys!

percy filth - "You're really clutching at straws there. You can't judge anyone on their very first recording, they were kids, still learning.

Percy - you are perhaps more correct than you think, and Timbuctooth's post is even more boll ocks than is first apparent. This was not a "Beatles single". At that time they were acting as a backing band for "cabaret type pop singer" Tony Sheridan, and the single was credited as such.

Dobbo - I saw the Rolling Stones and Dylan (each several times) and wouldn't disagree with your assessment of them. BUT the preposition on this thread is NOT that the Beatles were "the greatest band of all time" IT IS THAT they were "pretty cra p". If you think that, then good luck to you, but probably best to argue that position rather than an invented one of your own.

You mention Velvet Underground, did you see them live? If so where and when. Be good to share experiences.

So I have to like who Dylan likes? Are you mental.I couldn't care less who he thinks is brilliant. Besides you can never take Dylan at face value. Did he really believe that Smokey Robinson was Americas greatest poet?

Blackbarn I never saw the Velvets live.Remind me are you the guy who used to go to the Irish club in Goldhawk Road and to the Island?

I don't know. That's the second time you've called me mental. lol

Dylan did believe that Smokey Robinson was Americas greatest living poet,
It is an interesting and shrewd observation.

Dylan always secretly envied songwriters like the Beatles and Smokey
Robinson and their ability to write deceptively simple lyrics and music.

You know him do you 1971?

Dobbo - I went to UFO a lot, AND saw Pink Floyd a lot, but not I think at UFO. They had moved on by the time I went there. Bands I defo saw at UFO were Soft Machine, Family, Incredible String Band (Whoooo!!), Jeff Beck (Whooooooooooo!, and Ten Years After (loud, fast and cra p).

kenny..... "weaver of life, let me look at you"   Only kidding!!

Vaguely Tiny Time falsetto voice, and used to raise one arm in the air. Roger who managed to be balding and have long hair simultaneously.

incredible String band. I had forgotten about them When I was a young man back in the 1960's"And Soft machine I saw them at UFO also.Floyd first played at The Crypt in All Saints Square  with the light show being a sort of lampshade on a record player turntable with dyes and glycerine creating that LSD effect. There must have been all of 20 of us there.

Dobbo - contrary to popular myth, the Incredible String Band were excellent on record and live too when they were not "otherwise engaged". They were a disaster of course at Woodstock having refused to play in the rain. I wasn't there, but they followed Santana and the Keef Hartley Band, so they probably wouldn't have gone down too well.