FINAL SCORE The Beatles-58 (2) Metallica-25

[OleMissCub]

I respect your opinion that Metallica is a better band....I'm a massive fan myself, in fact, the bands that are pretty much constantly on my ipod are Radiohead, Beatles, Zep, Sigur Ros, Smashing Pumpkins and Metallica. As someone who has played rock drums since I got my first kid trap set at age 5, I'm a huuuge Lars fan and his method has been very influential to my development. Also a huge fan of James' voice as well.

 

Now, to this whole absurd Beatles 'rock music' question, which I think is a massive slap in the face to the men, who, as teenagers were quite literally one of the only 'rock bands' in the world (which is how they got their first gigs in strip clubs in Germany, because they were such a novelty and their music was considered to be somewhat risque at tha time) ...some things to consider.

 

1) When they first coming up in the late 50's playing those gigs in Germany, they were famous in the underground music scene at the time because they played traditional 50's music (elvis, chuck berry) twice as fast and twice as loud with pumped up electric guitars and electric bass with a constant heavy backbeat from the drummer, thus helping to create the very sound that some of you accuse them of not having.

 

2) If you aren't going to call the Beatles 'rock', then you may as well say that the Rolling Stones, the Doors, or the Kinks aren't rock. You have to view things in context...when 'Satisfaction', 'You really got me', and the Beatles' 'Day tripper' came out, that was as hard as rock had gotten at that point for the most part. You can't expect those guys to bust out with 'Seek and Destroy' in 1965 do you?

 

I guess someone could make an argument that the Rolling Stones aren't rock because of 'Play with fire' or 'As tears go by'.

 

3) One would have to be a complete fool to argue that their last 3 albums, White Album, Let it Be, and Abbey Road, aren't rock in the traditional sense of what classic rock is.

 

The fact that some people are stuck in this mindset that the Beatles are just She Loves You, Yesterday, or Love Me Do, really just proves that they haven't listened to the Beatles, but are rather forming their opinion off of the Beatles pop culture and radio play status.

 

Very good post. The Beatles are as "rock" as it gets. Are we to blame them because they expanded upon rock and roll? Because they had - and exercised - the capacity to transcend the borders of the musical genre for whose very existence they were largely responsible? If anything, we should celebrate it.

 

It's like claiming that Mozart isn't classical music because he didn't use horns or trumpets in his music like the classical music of today.

 

And last i checked, this was BEST ROCK BAND ever, not 'best heavy rock' group ever.

[OleMissCub]

Out of their 30 #1 singles, the vast majority more closely resemble the pop music of today, not the rock music of today. That's not necessarily their fault, but it's something to note that their most popular stuff was also some of their softest.

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That's because, much to chagrin of Lennon later in his life, most of their popular songs were McCartney songs. Indeed, with perhaps the exception of Helter Skelter, nearly all of the Beatles heavy rock songs are Lennon songs i.e. 'me and my monkey', i want you, yer blues, come together, happiness is a warm gun etc

[Derwood]

Happy 40th Birthday "Revolver"!

[OleMissCub]

Happy 40th Birthday "Revolver"!

 

An album that introduced horns into rock music: 'got to get you into my life', introduced eastern music into modern rock: 'love you to', first to have fullout symphonic music with a rock band song: 'elenaor rigby', first to have backwards music: 'rain'(revolver sessions), first to have tape loops and sampling (p diddy should be thankful): 'tomorrow never knows',and first to have acid rock: 'she said she said'

 

better than sgt. pepper by leaps and bounds. i'm glad its starting to get voted higher than pepper in some greatest album polls.