I don’t listen to the Beatles particularly often. They are repeated the least on my general circulation of albums, and I’m very fussy about what actually gets on to my iPod – with artists or albums that I listen to less often I tend to cream off the really important or personally enjoyable stuff so I can guarantee that’s what I’ll hear when it does come on. As a result, they eventually spring up in conversation with friends and family. And I’m genuinely surprised by the number of people who don’t understand the Beatles, and their purpose in modern musical history. Nine times out of ten I’ll get the reply of “I don’t really understand what the fuss was all about” – and this isn’t from not liking them, its purely from a lack of understanding. You may not like quantum theory for some reason, but there is a fuss to be made. However, I also found it very hard to actually explain to people not so much why they were good, but why they were, and still are, so important. A lot of the problem stems from the fact that music that was so original and impossibly hard to produce, music that required such ingenuity and creativity unheard of at the time is fairly easy to replicate on an iMac these days, and in some way or another finds its way into the latest manufactured goop. Building a PC from components is a doddle for anyone with even a limited amount of technical knowledge these days, but trying to do it in 1902 would have been a real challenge. So where does this all come from? I read a quote in The Salmon of Doubt today that in a single paragraph neatly explains why the Beatles were great even if you like them or not, which I can just repeat to people if need be. Laziness triumphs once more…
“I didn’t know it was art then, of course. I only knew that the Beatles were the most exciting thing in the universe … you had to fight the grownups, parents and teachers who said that you were wasting your time and pocket money on rubbish that you would have forgotten by next week.
I found it hard to understand why they were telling me this. I sang in the school choir and knew how to listen for harmony and counterpoint, and it was clear to me that the Beatles were something extraordinarily clever. It bewildered me that nobody else could hear it: impossible harmonies and part playing you had never heard in pop songs before.”