Do you like people who don't like The Beatles?

[harrythebannister]

I know of one person who thinks they’re over rated quite bizarrely, not sure what planet she is on.

[greyratfromBZ]

I have a neighbor that has said "the Beatles are just a boy band" followed up by "I like the Who" - which is said in such a self righteous way that he immediately goes into my annoying person bucket. I find myself being snarky to this guy now - which is probably fallout from his dumb comment.

[zaval80]

When I grew up, me and my best music-loving buddy kept what we called talmuds - "holy" journals to where we faithfully transcribed every bit of information we could find. My buddy was a bit more resourceful than me and managed to get hold of some West German reference book where every LP by every artist had the tracklist, but up to 1973 only (I think that was the first edition of "Rock Lexikon" or something). So, he was given a xerox of that book for some days and copied most of the bulk, and later gave his talmud to me so I could copy it too. I had a good laugh because he did not copy anything about the Beatles bar the line-up and the list of albums (well, I knew he wasn't a fan). But, tracklisting of every album and comp by the Beach Boys was there in his writing. The funny thing was, neither of us had a possibility to listen to even one song by the Beach Boys at that moment Something tells me if he did listen to some early thing by the BBs, he wouldn't bother with copying info about their output.

Then, we got hold of their "Carl and the Passions / So Tough" album (1972). By then, I already knew that was considered their weakest album from the classic era, from another book. Indeed, it seemed weak, not comparable to anything we liked. But I decided to give it another listen. Then, I was amazed to find out I gave that album something like ten listenings - in a row "If that's their weakest album, what about the strongest one?", I thought. Took me several more years to find out.

[misterclaudel]

My Step-Son said "I just plain hate The Beatles"......they are horrible and I hate them. I asked him what reasoning is behind this and he said just about all of their songs are horrible....totally horrible. He's entitled to his opinion as well as I and we all are. I think Kiss is the worst band to ever roam the earth and Rush too but I try to avoid them as much as possible.

[Megazeti]

Mum was a Monkees girl

[Lord Reith]

I usually find they are contrarians who need to rebel against anything that immensely popular. I then bet them that I can name at least 3 Beatles songs they do enjoy, which usually works to my advantage.

Ha! Touche.

Have a musician friend who's somehow still stuck in Beatles vs Stones mode, but in the wrong position. More irksome, they somehow think that makes them "cooler."

Oh yeah, that's a real tedious argument. The Beatles were actually way cooler, but being secure in their greatness they allowed themselves to broaden their palette and venture into styles which were sentimental or old fashioned. This alienates some people. But the thing is, when they did do it they always hit a home run. They wrote better songs than the people whose styles they were paying tribute to. And, of course, The Beatles would always revisit blistering rock and roll on a regular basis just to keep the pups in their place and remind everybody that no-one but no-one could rock like them.

What I've always noticed about people who don't like the Beatles are that they are usually very insecure and "angry" types.

Yeah, exactly. Only one string in their bow so to speak. Anger, anger, anger 24/7 at 120 decibels.

I have a neighbor that has said "the Beatles are just a boy band" followed up by "I like the Who" - which is said in such a self righteous way that he immediately goes into my annoying person bucket. I find myself being snarky to this guy now - which is probably fallout from his dumb comment.

I would be too.

All in all, while I can get along with people who don't particularly like The Beatles, when it comes down to it they are just not people I would want to spend time with. Sometimes it just turns out they have not heard enough of the music. I can relate to this because for most of my life I thought Dylan was overated until I was finally exposed to his work from 64-66. That completely transformed my opinion of him. So I can understand how some people might equate The Beatles with Yellow Submarine and Let It Be and not much else. That's why I enjoy those videos of "Call Me Caroline" listening to the Beatles for the first time and watching her slowly become a fan.

But people who state outright, "I hate The Beatles" and actually give reasons... that sort of person I cannot stomach. I know that their values or whatever are the polar opposite of mine.

[cdrtrade]

I feel sorry for people who don’t like The Beatles. It’s been a privilege for me to have enjoyed their music and to have been alive while they were making it and to have experienced it first hand. I can’t imagine having to live life without them. It would be a void that nothing else could fill. And I wouldn’t even call myself a super fan. I learned from going to Beatlefests what super fans are about. I’m nowhere near those folks, or most people here I’m sure. So as far as people who don’t like them, it’s their loss. I doubt they have anything going in life that could be so joyous. Led Zeppelin, great band. Stones? Great band. Sabbath? A great band. The Beatles are more than a great band. They influence the way we live.

I don’t think subsequent generations can fully appreciate the ground they were breaking at the time because the impact has been deluded over the years. We don’t have larger than life figures around anymore. It’s hard to explain the popularity of John Lennon to folks who weren’t around at the time.

“A world without The Beatles is a world that’s infinitely worse.”

[Golem]

I mean, people have their own opinions, I don't like country music for example, its totally fair for someone to not enjoy classic rock or the beatles

[dumbchops]

Back before I was married I met a beautiful redhead who became my girlfriend and quickly moved in (with her cat, computer, Playstation, etc.) and everything seemed to be going great when one day I put my Abbey Road cd on and she said "I can't stand the Beatles, especially "Mrs. Brown, You've Got A Lovely Daughter". I dumped her on the spot without a second thought. I wound up with a woman I met more than 22 years ago and we both agree that the Beatles were the best band ever. We also like a lot of other bands and artists and differ on the same but we will always agree about the Beatles. The biggest disagreement between us on the subject is that I appreciate Yoko Ono and she does not (we're talking as an artist not a person). This has been nice finally being able to share this story with people.

[mojofilter]

"Especially Mrs. Brown..?" Holy crap. That's just all kinds of ignorant. I got married to my wife whom I met over our love for The Beatles. It's coming up on 24 years, and the only music I like that she doesn't, so far, is Phil Collins. But that's OK. I never play him when she's home. I feel sorry for you guys whose significant others can't share in your love of The Beatles' music. I mean, I was all right until I heard "Come Together." Then my whole life's direction changed to my becoming someone who could play at least that well, in hopes of actually doing so one day.