Curse of Beatlemania

LewRockwell.com ^ | 1/12/2002 | Joseph Sobran

[UnBlinkingEye]

Sorry Mr. Sobran, I thought the Beatles were great! The reaction to the Beatles was much more genuine than the article implies, at least it seemed that way to me. I was in the fifth grade when the Beatles got popular in the U.S. and grew up with them as their music evolved. We liked their funny, irreverent attitude as well as the music, like 'em or not they changed the world!

[billorites]

"A few weeks ago I wrote some mild criticisms of the Beatles and the sky fell. Angry readers called me "ignorant," "vicious," and various other things..."

Don't forget "cranky" Joe!

"What about – sticking to pop music – Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen, Harry Warren, Richard Rodgers, and Frank Loesser? "

Heavens, Sobran is younger than me, but what an old fart!

23 Skidoo, Joe!

[UnBlinkingEye]

23 Skidoo, Joe!

I thought the Beatles were the cat's pajamas!

[MarkWar]

>The reaction to the Beatles was much more genuine than the article implies, at least it seemed that way to me. I was in the fifth grade

I totally disagree with you.

I lived on the south side of Chicago and I was in grade school then, too. I and everyone I know HATED the Beatles.

And our thinking then was pretty clear and I still believe in it today: WHY even "import" the Beatles? We had the Beach Boys and we had Jefferson Airplane and we had The Doors -- any kind of music you wanted to hear, we had already! WHO THE HELL NEEDED THOSE WIMPY MOP TOPS WITH THEIR OH-SO-CUTE PRESS CONFERENCES? ("We turned left at Greenland...") Hell, for that kind of thing, the US biz kids made the Monkees...

And if you think the Beatles music was magic, just magic, I suggest you get (heck, I'd suggest EVERYONE get it anyway):

Mark W.

[UnBlinkingEye]

WHY even "import" the Beatles? We had the Beach Boys and we had Jefferson Airplane and we had The Doors...

When Beatlemania reached the U.S. we had the Beach Boys, but not Jefferson Airplane or the Doors. I lived in Las Vegas when they hit and most of us guys didn't like them at first either, then we noticed all the girls loved them, saw Hard Days Night and wished we were one of them.

[BluesDuke]

Says Joe Sobran: It was weird. I felt a pang of sympathy for the boys, because they obviously wanted to perform; they wanted to be musicians, and their own fans were making it hard. Could they be enjoying that kind of attention, which ruled out any real connection with the audience?

George Harrison probably said it all, Mr. Sobran: I asked to be successful. I didn't exactly ask to be famous.

[BluesDuke]

Says Sobran, re pop composers: What about – sticking to pop music – Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen, Harry Warren, Richard Rodgers, and Frank Loesser?
Say I: You left out George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and Jules Styne, all three of whom could wax the tails of the other four, good as they were. And as far as American music, period, Duke Ellington could eat them all for breakfast.

[UnBlinkingEye]

I lived on the south side of Chicago and I was in grade school then, too.

We lived in Brookfield when Kennedy was assassinated, used to ride my bike to the zoo.

[Reaganwuzthebest]

Dittos on that. Yes, we had some good bands (he forgot to mention CCR, the greatest of the American bands). But the fact is the Beatles were fantastic. Along with Floyd and Zeppelin. Are there any bands like them around today with that kind of spirit and energy? Britney Spears?? Cute to look at, not much more.

[UnBlinkingEye]

The Beatles probably did more for guitar sales than any group in history. I'd still like to get a Rickenbacher...

[UnBlinkingEye]

Yes, we had some good bands (he forgot to mention CCR, the greatest of the American bands).

The record company they were with really screwed them, can't remember the details.

[discostu]

I'm with the author. Always hated the Beatles. I think the only "contribution" they ever made to music was the perfection of cookie cutter moronic love songs. Towards the end they actually started writing some music, but it was too late, they'd already cursed the world with sacharine music substitute.

[Reaganwuzthebest]

Towards the end was when George Harrison started coming around as a writer. My favorite tunes by the Beatles on the White Album and Abbey Road are by him. Then they split. Ego city took over, fame does that.

[UnBlinkingEye]

Nothing personal, but I always hated Disco music.

[parsifal]

I tend to think Sobran is right. I maintain that "impure thoughts"are perhaps the biggest problem face the human race. By "impure", I mean thoughts that we are led to not thru discussion or reason but manipulation. Let me give you an example. Homosexuality.

I happen to be someone who does not think homos are going straight to Hell. I think it is a problem and not a good life style, by any means, but basically I don' t get torqued out by it, any more than I do schizophrenia or autism. I like to think that I arrived at that conclusion by reading about it and thinking about it.

I know some people who have about the same opinion as I do but they never read a book about it, and do not seem to be intellectually informed about the problem. I beleive they got their opinion from TV shows with sympathetic homo characters. In other words, they were slowly manipulated into feeling and believing a certain way without any real brain input. The methods are used by everybody everywhere. That is why I keep tin foil over my head. Down with Madison Avenue! parsy.

[Arkinsaw]

The "Beatles Taliban" can't compare to the "LOTR Taliban." Those freaks/cultists are completely out of control.

The "Harry Potter is the Devil" Taliban are the top of the crop at the moment.

[RayChuang88]

When Beatlemania reached the U.S. we had the Beach Boys, but not Jefferson Airplane or the Doors. I lived in Las Vegas when they hit and most of us guys didn't like them at first either, then we noticed all the girls loved them, saw Hard Days Night and wished we were one of them.

I think the biggest reason why the Beatles had such a huge impact was that in early 1964, there were very few American pop groups that were extremely popular (the Beach Boys being one of them). People forget what happened on that fateful day in 1959 when Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J. P. Big Bopper Richardson were killed in that tragic airplane crash--it wasn't called The Day the Music Died for nothing. These three musicians--had they lived--would have become the second generation of major rock and roll successes.

Along with Elvis Presley being in the Army at that time and Chuck Berry's legal troubles in the same period, no wonder the first wave of rock and roll music was nearly gone by 1960. The Beatles and the subsequent British Invasion of 1964-1967 reinvigorated rock and roll, which set up the second generation of rock and roll music that alas was gone by the end of 1970 with the deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and the fallout from the Rolling Stones' infamous concert at Altamont Raceway just east of Livermore, CA at the end of 1970.

[UnBlinkingEye]

The "Beatles Taliban" can't compare to the "LOTR Taliban." Those freaks/cultists are completely out of control.

I read the LOTR trilogy years ago, saw the movie last week, I liked both the books and the movie but both were a bit long.