On the subject of covers, I took the time (you should do too) to look at some contemporary discographies. Start with Chuck Berry’s (an artist covered by The Beatles in their early work) you’ll see it was very typical of the era to include a fair number of “standards”.
Man, I never gave them shit for using others people’s stuff (except the stolen parts). I object to the “they wrote their own songs” argument because they didn’t always and what does it matter?
It is meant as a rebuttal to the “but they wrote their own stuff.” They didn’t always nd even if they did so what. Lot’s of people / groups did. Why does that earn the Beatles a medal?
All right sparky, let’s try another one. (I will give you credit for taking the time to read the article and actually watch the video.)
From the comments section in the article I cited, there’s this.
There are over a dozen artists citing the Beatles’ influence including Dylan and Andy Summers no less. Now I take it you will dismiss most of it as substance-less gushing that we’ve all heard before. Yet you wanted something with a greater degree of specificity. From the article, Dave Mustaine, lead singer and guitarist of **Megadeth **states:
So stuff that one in your hash pipe and smoke it bub!
Ok. So maybe there’s been some talking at crossed purposes. The thing is, The Beatles moved relatively quickly to writing all their own stuff, some time before that became the norm.
I don’t think that you can dismiss people covering the Beatles so easily. I think that it is hard to make an argument for one band being better or worse than another but if you are looking at quality of songwriting, then one criteria could be how many other bands choose to cover a song. Now you could argue that songs are more covered if they are more popular but if you want to argue that you consider certain bands “geniuses” who play the best music, then looking at which songs these bands choose to cover certainly shows which songs they consider worthy of their talents. Even if you see them as a “manufactured boy band”, the Beatles are clearly revered among other musicians* that you consider to be geniuses* for their songwriting talents alone.
It’s much more than that. How did it become the norm? The Beatles forced everybody to adapt or die in terms of writing their own material. They changed the lives of all musicians and those professional songwriters who had been writing the tunes previously.
Bert Berns said “Those boys are geniuses, They may be the end of us”
Very few musicians who succeeded after the Beatles have disavowed the Beatles influence on their own music. If we had some citations for them we might be able to take the OP seriously.
Judging by the last post of the OP it’s not going to happen. It’s past raving now. Not liking the fabs is OK, but not knowing what you’re talking about when you do it? C’mon.
Again it is a Beatles fan site. The questions insisted that the answers revolve around the Beatles.
Douglas Adams loved them? Great Although I think his listing the Plastic One Band as being his favourite album either suggests that he’s taking the piss or he lacks any sort of taste.
Musicians, unsolicited, giving a Beatle as an influence. Not “well I used to listen to them and they made me want to play” but "I think George Harrison went painfully unnoticed. His technique and what he could do on a guitar really opened my eyes to the possibility.
Goal post haven’t moved. Not a fan site, not a “what do you think of the Beatles” answer. a simple, unsolicited example of a musician citing any one of the Beatles as an influence.
Should be easy. One of the first questions in any interview is “who were your influences.” Really, how hard is this? If they influenced so many people and if each of them were such great whatevers then there should be a tonne of musicians dropping their names like flies after raid.
So come one. Please. Goal posts are the same as always But in spite of them being static not a single ball has gone through.
I will say again, just for the cheap seats, I don’t think the Beatles suck. I don’t hate the Beatles. I simply don’t think that they are the bestest ever.
And all you Beatles fans have failed to dissuade me from that opinion. I’ve read your cites. I’ve listenned to more Beatles in the last 24 hours than I have in the last 10 years.
I made two challenges and I’ll make them again:
An unsolicited example of a musician saying that any one of the Beatles was a major influence
Produce the best of the Beatles’ lyrics and I will find something better by a contemporary - who wrote their own stuff.
If the Beatles are the bestest ever neither of these should be difficult. The fact that no one has managed to do either is somewhat telling.
After seeing the title of this thread, I thought, what the hell, despite a thread title that sounds like a petulant comment made out on the playground, I’ll read through it. Maybe the author of the OP will give a cognizant argument for that statement.
You’re not so much shifting the goal posts as making up the rules as we go along. I will staunchly try to keep up.
Go to youtube and type in “who were your musical influences beatles” and there are dozens of clips of artists speaking on the topic.
But wait! That won’t work because they were all prompted to answer along those lines, the question wasn’t open-ended so all of those testimonials are to be dismissed with extreme prejudice.
Here’s one of Geddy Lee that appears to fall within the narrow parameters you set. He is a musician of certain renown speaking of McCartney’s influence and doesn’t appear to be prompted to answer in a particular way.