Why The Beatles are still Relevant

This is the post excerpt.

“They have been gone for such a long time” sure but their music is timeless.  I first found the Beatles in the 1970’s growing up and as a young kid, I bought that terrible repackaged album that Capital released called Rock and Roll music…some great music but a truly terrible silver cover that made the Beatles look like they came from the fifties. I first bought the Hey Jude Again album in 2nd-grade in 1975. I was transformed. When I heard those songs I started to buy more of their albums and I could not believe the quantity and the quality of the songs….the great songs kept coming like a well that never runs dry. I missed them of course when they were active but I could not believe one group could have so many great songs. I felt…and still feel that I was born too late and missed out on something great. I could not imagine listening to Sgt Peppers on the radio in 1967 when it was all new. I did find other groups…On my 3rd grade notebook, I would write the names of bands like others did… that I was just finding out about…The Beatles, The Who, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones and The Yardbirds. A little late but better late than never.

Now getting back to the title of this post…In the 1980s being a Beatle fan was not a  popular thing…not that I cared…but…since the 1990s the Beatles are current again and remain current in 2018. My son is 18 and him and his friends all like them. They also like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Who, The Stones. Beatles albums still sell consistently. Here is a youtube video of different people from Rap Artists to Ozzy Osborne talking about the Beatles…

Here is an interesting one with Lemmy from Motorhead talking about the Beatles.

Most have read about their appearance on the Ed Sullivan show on February 9, 1964.. I recently was with a friend who bought two Kustom bass cabinets from an older country drummer. The Beatles got brought up in conversation and he told me about that night when he sat on the couch and watched them. He said the next day the world was a different place. Not just hairstyles but attitudes. I asked him to compare the mania to something since then….his answer was Michael Jackson in the 1980s times 1000 or maybe more…Now that is a statement. Is it coming from someone famous? No, but he was there. I have talked to others who say the same that was there.

An answer from Mick Jagger about being compared with the Beatles…

The Beatles were so big that it’s hard for people not alive at the time to realize just how big they were. There isn’t a real comparison with anyone now. I suppose Michael Jackson at one point, but it still doesn’t seem quite the same. They were so big that to be competitive with them was impossible. I’m talking about in record sales and tours and all this. They were huge.

Of course, I’m a fan and have read a lot about them so I am biased (I recommend Tune In) and a great website…their story is almost as great as their music. I’ve had fun arguments with friends about Beatles vs Elvis… Beatles vs Stones etc. It’s all in good fun though…although I have always been right…

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

8 thoughts on “Why The Beatles are still Relevant”

  1. “My son is 18 and him and his friends all like them. They also like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Who, The Stones. Beatles albums still sell consistently. Here is a youtube video of different people from Rap Artists to Ozzy Osborne talking about the Beatles…”

    Amazing how current music evolves into classic music.

    Liked by 2 people

  2. I was born in 1979–my parents were Beatlemania generation. It definitely felt uncool to like The Beatles for much of my childhood. I mean, as children, with no understanding of cultural context and artistic influence, The Beatles’ look and sound just seemed so dated and pretty uncool when compared against their descendants, who many kids my age were into–Zeppelin, The Who, Pink Floyd. McCartney was still somewhat relevant but he seemed like a Dad (was, and still is a Dad, for that matter). But yeah, like you say, somewhere in the late 90’s–I guess due to Oasis and Britpop and all that, it was like everyone my age suddenly got hip and realized that The Beatles not only spawned all the rock we liked but were still better than literally all of their artistic descendants. By the time I was in college, there was no hipper record to like than the White Album or Abbey Road. And that is still true today as far as I’m concerned!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I was born in 67 and growing up in the 80s like you said…The Beatles were not “in” at all. I tend to look at some 80s music as over produced…to the highest degree because of the fake drums and the way they used synths.
      In the 90s when The Beatles Anthology came out then you saw young people get into them because they were cool again so to speak. You are right…Oasis and the Britpop phase helped big time.

      We are on the same page. When I was in second grade in 1975 I was grooving to Paperback Writer when my classmates were singing The Old Grey Goose is Dead.

      I didn’t meet many people with my tastes except older people…in high school I started to meet more…like us!

      I define modern rock as BB and AB…Before Beatles and After Beatles. Don’t get me wrong…I do admire Chuck Berry, Little Richard and those guys because they influenced The Beatles…but the Beatles were a different animal…self contained…writing and playing their own music.

      Liked by 1 person

Leave a comment