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Don't feel bad...
the Beatles killed folk music too.
(at least the syrupy pop-folk variety)
I'm not really a Beatles fan per se,
although I have a lot of respect for them
as a phenomenon.
I haven't looked at the link yet,
but I will...
still, I have to share some stuff off of the top of my head...
When the Beatles hit big, I was maybe 13...
and my sisters were 2 and 3 years younger...
they got infected with Beatlemania bigtime.
At first I loathed them and made fun of them,
but my sisters played their LPs all the time,
and after a while, I had to admit that the music
was pretty good, and cooler that <a lot> of what had gone before.
And think about it... if you were in a high school rock band,
and most of the girls in the audience you were playing to
and trying to impress had been Beatlemaniacs a year or two
earlier, wouldn't that influence your set list?
When I think back to what was going on,
it seems there was an element that I was hearing
in both my parents music, and in the '50s music
my friends older siblings were listening to,
(and the top 40s radio in 1964 when I got my transistor radio)
that was getting to be more than a little much... we were overdosing
on it.
There was this really sentimental syrupy quality in a lot of it.
It's so strong that some '50s hits I hear over store PAs
still almost make me gag.
The Beatles at the time almost entirely lacked that quality.
(Oddly Paul McCartney's solo stuff has lots of it... yuck!)
Surf music had probably less of that quality than any of
the other stuff around, but in my recent listening,
I can hear a wide variety of older influences in it,
country and jazz guitar being the most obvious,
(and that's part of surf's appeal for me, it's this eclectic mix)
but there <is> a "50's" quality in some of it.
(and I'm listening to surf stuff <in spite> of that quality,
not because of it)
And I think my generation had basically OD'ed on that quality.
And any musical genre that had even a <little> of it was not cool.
I can also understand that some of you seem to have OD'ed on
the Beatles pervasive influence!
Another factor is the rhythm...
it struck me as odd that one of you call
them the "Beat-less"...
now, that may seem true compared to what has come
since, but compared to a lot of 50's stuff,
they had a very driving beat...
it may not have been loud, but it moved right along, and
even the slower stuff had a more discernible beat to it.
There is this kind of rhythm in big band and a lot of 50's
stuff that is rhythmically sooooooooooo subtle...
it's kind of like you pretend it's not there.
It has this legato, ambling quality.
Anyway, the Beatles totally changed that...
And yeah, the point someone made about them being singers
is valid too...
teenage girls had swooned over Bing Crosby, Frankie Valli, Frank Sinatra,
and Elvis,
why would the next generation be immune to the Beatles?
I think it goes back to the medieval troubadour tradition...
there is a lot of that for example in mariachi music...
you know, where the guy plays the guitar outside his
beloved's window?
BTW, I think the Beatles "Day Tripper" has a surfy flavor
in the guitar intro,
and would make a great "surf" instrumental-
just add reverb!
Now I'll have to go look at that link to
see if I agree...
Michael
I'm a major Beatles fan, Michael, I just like to call them the Beat-less 'cause
it's fun.
-Marty
----- Original Message -----
From: Michael S Springer
To:
Sent: Friday, April 01, 2005 8:55 AM
Subject: Re: [SurfGuitar101] Beatles and Surf Music....
...Another factor is the rhythm...
it struck me as odd that one of you call
them the "Beat-less"...
now, that may seem true compared to what has come
since, but compared to a lot of 50's stuff,
they had a very driving beat...
it may not have been loud, but it moved right along, and
even the slower stuff had a more discernible beat to it.
There is this kind of rhythm in big band and a lot of 50's
stuff that is rhythmically sooooooooooo subtle...
it's kind of like you pretend it's not there.
It has this legato, ambling quality.
Anyway, the Beatles totally changed that...
And yeah, the point someone made about them being singers
is valid too...
teenage girls had swooned over Bing Crosby, Frankie Valli, Frank Sinatra,
and Elvis,
why would the next generation be immune to the Beatles?
I think it goes back to the medieval troubadour tradition...
there is a lot of that for example in mariachi music...
you know, where the guy plays the guitar outside his
beloved's window?
BTW, I think the Beatles "Day Tripper" has a surfy flavor
in the guitar intro,
and would make a great "surf" instrumental-
just add reverb!
Now I'll have to go look at that link to
see if I agree...
Michael
.
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