The video game Rock Band released their Beatles volume about a month ago. Everyone went nuts over the release of the video game. Classic rock radio stations were dedicating days exclusive to the Beatles catalog with the DJs falling over themselves in the way they were lauding the music. They never got that excited over Molly Hatchet. VH1 started showing Beatles videos, but they weren’t actual videos, they were clips of the Rock Band video games.
Some New York myopic master craftsman of bloviation even declared Rock Band:Beatles to be the “most important video game ever.” Fist of all, this guy probably never beat Super Mario Bros. and shouldn’t even get to talk about video games until he does. And second…really? Is jamming out Helter Skelter on a toy guitar going to open my eyes to life’s possibilities for the first time? The basis for his title was the camaraderie and bridging of the generations the game would create. The Wii already did that, taking videogames out of the basement and into the living room. If mom wasn’t playing Wii, or any of the ten other Guitar Hero or Rock Band games out there, she’s not going to change her mind with this edition.
What makes the Beatles so great? What makes them better than the Rolling Stones or the Kinks, both of which their contemporaries and still performing? Pink Floyd, Velvet Underground, even the Beach Boys who were involved in a rivalry with the Beatles were experimenting and pushing the boundaries of rock and roll. The debate never arises, like there are three certainties to life: death, taxes, and the Beatles are the greatest rock band ever.
The Beatles are credited for being the voice of their generation. John Lennon is revered by many, even beyond Baby Boomers, as some mystical and spiritual institution. People hang off his words and ideas like they have any more philosophical and spiritual meaning than Peter Noone’s. Love, love, love wasn’t a two way street. Lennon was a documented misogynist. After all, this is the guy who wrote Norwegian Wood, a song about buring down some lady’s house because she wouldn’t sleep with him. Paul McCartney is considered the asshole Beatle since he wanted to take what was so pure, magical and creative as the Beatles’ music and capitalize its lucrative potential to the max. That drove the rift between John and Paul. Selling records isn’t cool, and by that rational Ringo is by far the coolest Beatle.
Initially I blame the Baby Boomers for holding the Beatles in their lofty position in rock history. Baby Boomers are convinced everything they ever did is the most important thing the world has ever seen. Their ideas were infallible, their culture was absolute utopia, and their music was truly peerless; no other band shall ever approach the brilliance the bands of the 60s achieved. I blame the Baby Boomers for a great many other things, like the ruinous state of the world. We now see few of the radical ideas of the Baby Boomers ever changed the world. We’ve moved on, except for the music, which even contemporary music publications linger the standard bands of the Sixties as the apex of music.
Ultimately, the Beatles were a perfect storm of a band, probably never to be repeated in the predictable future of music. Their pop hits and friendly charm in the early Sixties built a base of loyal teenie-boppers (The damn New Kids on the Block are on a successful tour right now). Plus with such a narrow and yet to be fragmented range of popular music at the time more people defaulted to liking the Beatles with the limited other options. Then when all music went psychedelic, so did the Beatles, and so went their fanbase for the ride. All of a sudden the teenie-boppers are all Hari Krishnahs and the Beatles are the greatest band ever for their creative daring, even though every other band was doing similar things.
Rock more or less peaked in the Sixties. Though it hasn’t become less popular per se, rock’s diversity began to grow and splinter into different categories as did the rest of popular music. Music has splintered into exponential categories and subcategories that appeal to their certain niche and never gather as substantial an audience as the Beatles enjoyed in the Sixties. All that, and they made pretty good music too.
There is no good way to write about the Beatles. If you fawn all over them you sound like everyone else in the world. But if you critique the Beatles you’re that guy, that contrarian who’s just being a jagg trying to get a rise out of people cuz everyone loves the Beatles. I’ve come to the conclusion that the Beatles will be the greatest band in the history of music for at least the next twenty years. By then maybe there will be a consolidation of media as more companies buy other companies offering less options for receiving information. Until then, the Beatles are the greatest rock and roll band ever. Second best, Deep Purple.