The Enduring Appeal Of The Beatles

In theory, this should be a very short and uninteresting article. Why? Well, there's no mystery as to the enduring and massive continued appeal of the fab four. Without complicating matters at all, it boils down to a couple of basic factors. Ignoring such side-tracks as innovation and influence for just one second, it boils down to firstly the quality of the songs they released. A frighteningly consistent run of catchy, tuneful, inventive and intelligent songs released between 1962 and 1970. There's no mystery surrounding that particular factor, indeed, it's the single most important factor to the enduring appeal of The Beatles. The second factor one may consider is the sense of perfect closure their career involves. Unlike contemporaries such as The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, The Kinks or The Who, we never had to experience an eighties synth drenched Beatles album. We never had to wonder about an out of fashion Beatles album released at the height of the punk wars. The closure that the groups split in 1970 gives us is similar to the closure the death of Jimi Hendrix gives us in respect to considering his recorded output. We never had to witness The Beatles, as an entity, going into decline. Of course, the fact that the decade they produced music in, the sixties, changed the face of rock/popular music forever and exerts a lasting influence fast forwarded into eternity also helps their standing immensely. Everything was exciting and new and The Beatles were, more often than not, at the forefront of any innovations that happened during that most thrilling of decades.

It wasn't always this way. When The Beatles evolved out of local Liverpool skiffle group The Quarrymen, the music scene was very different to how it looks today. The newly christened Beatles took their sound directly from a combination of Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley and, importantly ( and this is often overlooked ), UK skiffle king Lonnie Donnegan. Lonnie, arguably more than any other performer in England during the late fifties/early sixties, was responsible for really kick-starting the rock scene all over the United Kingdom. Whilst The Beatles were honing their skills in Hamburg, Cliff Richard became one of the firstly geniuinely English Rock N Roll performers. He was helped, in no small part, by his backing group, The Shadows. The Shadows ruled over the pre-merseybeat English pop scene. They wore matching smart suits, their image was incredibly influential and provoked dozens of existing beat-groups, including The Beatles, to think sharply about their image. The Shadows also, in a sense, invented the idea of the guitar god. Hank Marvin inspired many many guitarists the land over to pick up the instrument, to try and look cool and to be the lead focus ( alongside the singer ) in any worthwhile rock n roll group in England. Once The Beatles arrived, having honed their many influences into their own particular version of Rock N Roll, The Shadows faded into the background, somewhat. However, their influence cannot be underestimated.

1963 and 1964 were the peak years of Beatle-mania. These years can be seen as the forerunner to much of todays teen-pop, boybands and chart music. The Beatles became a phenomenom, not only in England, but the world over. Nobody had quite seen anything like it before. The Beatles assimilation of various influences, as opposed to most groups basing their act of a mere one or two influences, was crucial in setting them apart. To The Beatles credit, they continued searching for new influences to add to their sound. Early Beatles songs had immense excitement, yet arguably were lyrically simplistic and musically lacked the sophistication of cuts a Phil Spector or the Brill Building guys ( both hugely admired by John and Paul ) were producing. The first couple of Beatles albums both featured a then industry standard norm of the half dozen covers any record company would expect their act to feature on an album. Rock acts still weren't considered important and the scene as a whole was considered a fad which would soon pass. On the otherhand, artists such as Frank Sinatra had been producing thematic and fully considered album projects since the mid-fifties. It would take The Beatles until 1965 to translate that into the Rock scene. By then, The Beatles had taken on lots of other influences. Bob Dylan transformed John Lennon and the direction of the lyrics The Beatles were producing. This process started on the Help album but was solidified by the 'Rubber Soul' album. By this stage, The Beatles had been introduced to marijuana by Bob Dylan and his associates.

The relaxed and mature feel of 'Rubber Soul' was in part down to The Beatles enjoying smoking 'the weed'. Other influences played a part, that were introduced to the world at large by The Beatles, on 'Rubber Soul'. The indian-sitar George Harrison played through 'Norwegian Wood'. Both Roger McGuinn and David Crosby of The Byrds met with The Beatles ( John and George in particular ) many times during 1965 before the songs for Rubber Soul were recorded and written. Roger McGuinn of The Byrds was already an experienced taker of LSD, a drug that hadn't readily permeated over to England. The Beatles had taken the drug before, yet hadn't experienced or considered the full potential of the drug. The Beatles took LSD and messed around with guitars alongside Roger McGuinn and David Crosby of The Byrds. George Harrison borrowed heavily from The Byrds for his composition 'If I Needed Someone' and both Roger and David introduced George to Ravi Shankar and John Coltrane, artists The Beatles didn't appear to yet be familiar with.

Everyone was astounded by the speed with which The Beatles assimilated influences into their sound. Bob Dylan was impressed and later joked about 'regretting' that he had turned The Beatles onto marijuana. It wasn't quite as simple as that. Bob himself ended up moving into the pop-charts whilst The Beatles moved ever further out. 'Revolver' was the peak of their experimentation, the tape loops used during 'Tomorrow Never Knows' proving to be genuinely new and daring within the context of a rock/pop group. By the time of 'Sgt Peppers', psychedelia was brought to the world at large outside of the music underground, by The Beatles. They heard about the scene and matched it with english music-hall to create the biggest album of their careers. By the time of 'The White Album', The Beatles were fully self-contained. The talents of the four individuals had progressed so much, they didn't need anybody apart from themselves. Of course, The Beach Boys had been a self-contained ( with original compositions and production and playing ) since 1962. The Beach Boys were another influence on The Beatles sound, circa 1966/1967, thanks to 'Pet Sounds'. George Martin assisted The Beatles in creating their own dream. George Martin was vital in the creation of both 'Sgt Peppers' and The Beatles swan-song, 'Abbey Road'.

By virtue of The Beatles immense popularity throughout The Sixties, word has been passed down through subsequent gennerations. It seems to matter not in 2004, that many of The Beatles innovations were simple assimilations of innovations of others. In effect, The Beatles were the innovators, because it was they, not The Byrds ( for example ) that introduced the sitar to the western music world at large simply by dint of their huge popularity. They married their found and borrowed innovations to a level of song-writing few other artists could consistently match. Thus, remembered facts have been passed down throughout the years and have now become gospel. It isn't enough that The Beatles arguably wrote the best songs, they also have now become credited with inventing many musical acts and genres. Without whom.... etc, etc. The reality was rather different than this, yet these things are now written in stone. There is no cringe inducing embarrassment at admitting to a sixteen year old in 2004 to liking a Beatles album, yet there is in admitting to liking a Beach Boys or a Byrds album. Mostly because, they probably won't have a clue who you are talking about! The Beatles are now icons far beyond the realm of popular music, like Marilyn Monroe or Elvis Presley are icons. Their popularity is now not something that is ever likely to change, it's there and always will be.

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