The Beatles: “Meh”

I’m 100% behind Paul Shirley in his appraisal of Beatles-lovers. They were a very influential band whose music is so over-praised it’s maddening. His journey basically reflects mine:

As I grew older, I was confused by everyone’s reverence for The Beatles. Curious, I listened, read and researched. Eventually, I had to admit that the band was important and influential. But that didn’t make their music any better. It was predictable, fairly dull and seemed elementary. Because I thought “Achtung Baby” was better, I listened to “Achtung Baby.”

I can’t agree with all the sentiments in his article — I’ve never been able to get through a Dean Koontz novel and I, at least, find it questionable to compare his work to Bram Stoker’s — but the essential point is a sound one. People who mindlessly celebrate a band that actually wrote a song with the chorus “All you need is love / All you need is love / All you need is love, love, love is all you need” need to have their heads checked. Just sayin’.

(Yes, yes, they were super influential blah blah blah. I honestly don’t care. Their being influential does not make me enjoy their music more. It just doesn’t.)