[73T/A]

Originally Posted by MikeNoun

The Beatles were not trite back then. When you see their 1964-1966 performances, people think they're corny, a bit lightweight. But in 1963-1964, no one saw anything like this before.

There were no bands on the charts back then, and by that I mean ROCK bands. The Beatles were the first rock band, and became the blueprint for every band that followed in the 60's and beyond.

The Beach Boys were popular in America in 1963, but they had very little musical talent, just a great songwriter in Brian Wilson, and of course great harmonies. All the other singing groups of the day were lead singers with a backup band (Elvis, Sam Cooke, Tony Bennett, The Four Seasons, Bobby Darin, etc).

The Beatles were a group. All four could sing, three of them (John, Paul, George) were lead singers. With two guitar players, bass, drums, harmonies, exceptional song writing, long hair, thick accents, sharp humor, the world was waiting for something like this.

The Beatles are great,but as John Lennon said,"before Elvis there was nothing".Elvis kicked the door down for everybody else to follow.

[MikeNoun]

I agree, Elvis was the first, he broke down the barriers for rock and roll.

McCartney, Harrison, and especially Lennon, all idolized Elvis. But it was the music of Buddy Holly that swayed them the most. In fact, the name "Beetles" was in tribute to the Crickets, and Lennon changed the "e" to an "a" as a play on words (promoters back then hated the name Beatles, they thought it was corny and immature, and thought they should change it). Buddy Holly was the prototype for a rock and roll musical group, as he played guitar (rhythm and lead), wrote his own songs (which really blew the minds of Lennon and McCartney when they found this out), and Buddy had what would become the prototype for a rock group; two guitars, bass, and drums.

The Beatles brought out the rock group format that Buddy Holly started, with two guitars, bass, and drums. The difference was that The Beatles had 3 lead singers, plus a drummer who could sing when required.

What many people don't realize is that The Beatles were hard rock, VERY hard rock, compared to other acts of the day. The Beatles were the bad boys of rock and roll, until their manager decided their stage act needed to be cleaned up in order to make it big.

[PonchoV8]

I don't dispute that it was time...long past time for a new beginning. But I disagree. Those lyrics and music are trite and sugar pop.

It doesn't take anything away from the period. For instance look at Sabbath and what they did, forging new ground. But listen to the riffs and music and from THIS PERSPECTIVE ONLY, it was simplistic. Simple is good. They're each also outstanding musicians and (like the Fab also were) an incredible band together.

[bird72]

I look at two Beatles. I don't play the first few albums, but Revolver is a masterpiece, Rubber Soul is good also. So the latter Beatles were another thing, and trite doesn't come to mind for me, but everyone's MPG varies....

[Bob Dillon]

Yeah yeah yeah, YEAH!

Yup, remember it well.

[PonchoV8]

Originally Posted by bird72

I look at two Beatles. I don't play the first few albums, but Revolver is a masterpiece, Rubber Soul is good also. So the latter Beatles were another thing, and trite doesn't come to mind for me, but everyone's MPG varies....

Same opinion here. I'm talking about the first songs. But look at Shake It Up Baby later in the video. I don't consider it trite, but simple and raw. One of the best vocal bridges in history. I hope to not be misunderstood.

[MikeNoun]

I understand what you're saying, and I agree, there are a few of their songs that are trite. But no worse than "Hound Dog", or "Be-Bop-A-Lu-La", "Splish Splash", "Peggy Sue", or countless other songs that made it to the top. The difference was that Lennon and McCartney wrote their own stuff, and that was absolutely ground breaking at the time. There was no other rock group that wrote their own material, with the exception being Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, and Buddy Holly.

Their early songs did have Lennon and McCartney teething a bit, but then they found their groove quickly with "Please Please Me" and "I Saw Her Standing There". They were more interested in song publishing at that time, thinking they would be the next Goffin-King or Rogers-Hammerstein. But things changed rapidly after 1963.