*promote the original fab four!

It's veritable Fab Four Cacophony! =o0

By no means do I claim to be a Beatles expert, but here I go:

Two summers ago, I decided, having never really payed attention to the Fab Four before, to immerse myself in "The Beatles Experience." My plan for this was to simulate traveling back in time and reliving their career starting from their surprising burst of popularity all the way to their painful demise. To do this, I acquired their first US release (since, after all, I am a US citizen...) "Please Please Me." I listened to it until I got sick of it. (This took a very long time!) I then acquired their second release, and so on, and listened intently, repeating this process all the way to their end.

I found myself eagerly anticipating the next release, aching for new music while simultaneously reveling in the genius of each new acquisition. Everything they did seemed to completely surpass everything else they had previously done. Surprise after surprise after surprise. The whole exercise took nearly a year, and I can only imagine the yearning and mania which must have accompanied experiencing the whole thing in real time.

Important to note: I decided to exclude any books, interviews, retrospectives, documentaries, etc, and only listen to the music. I had heard various stories of their demise, and decided to leave out all print/visual/other media and let their music tell me the story. I didn't even read the liner notes or song credits. Just the music.

This was an interesting experiment for me, because it became apparent to me very early on that John and Paul had strikingly different musical philosophies and approaches. It was a miracle that they stayed together as long as they did. Toward the end it became painfully obvious that each new album was a struggle to contain two galactic sized musical geniuses at odds. A clear favorite emerged for me, as I'm sure did for millions of fans, and I'll reserve my opinion for some other discussion. For now, the important thing is, it's amazing that they stayed together as long as they did.

I can't listen to Let It Be. All I hear in this album is the fighting, the struggle to express differing styles and it actually makes me sad. When I see them all in the studio gelling perfectly for a common goal despite the differences which took years to ferment, I'm amazed. Even more amazing is that despite all of the opposing forces they exerted, they still managed to transcend and make beautiful music, sad as it was at the end.

^Are you kidding? Try not stoned at all.

I love this video. It is really interesting to see how much the Beatles changed over the years. At the beginning they always seemed like they were having a good time. They lapped up the attention and it seemed like everything was new and delightful to them. The later years are marked by much more sober Beatles, especially John, who used to be the goof-off.

If you're a fan like me, I recommend a band called 1964 The Tribute, a Beatles tribute band. It sounds really corny and silly, but I went because the tickets were cheap and I really enjoyed myself. They are actually very good musicians and have spent years perfecting their impersonations of The Fab Four. I have watched a lot of Beatles footage over the years and these guys got everything right. The way they strummed their guitars or played the drums, their stance on stage, the timbre of their voices, the way they talked and the kind of things they said to a live audience, their mannerisms, everything was nearly perfect. It was highly entertaining.