Given the side discussions on the porn adiction thread, lets have a poll:

I admit to owning all their studio albums, and I enjoy them. But there are a lot of artists from that era I like just a little more.

Fun fact: Elvis and the Beatles combined for 39 Number One singles in North America! and just as many in the UK!

Never was a fan although I could always appreciate Ringo's solid meter and George Martin's excellence in engineering their sound.

They just were not my cup of tea and always struck me as the world's first "boy band". I leaned more towards bands like The Who, Rolling Stones, Cream, Led Zeppelin etc.

Voted for the greatest band. Majority of people I hang out with are boomers or the gens who like boomer stuff.

Also on a personal note which is technically sad the Beatles played at my G'ma's funeral and her taste in music was exquisite.

Historically Beatles Mania is a term used to describe artisit who drive people wild. Wouldn't have that term if they weren't the best.


Hungry going to get toast and tea.

I like my memories associated with the bend more than their music itself. Like my cousins had Rock Band Beatles and my mom and aunt used to sing Yellow Submarine to my cousin and I (11 months apart) while giving us baths.

I voted "meh". It's funny how society tries to tell you who the GOAT is whether the masses agree with it or not but people just go with it anyway. The same thing happened in hip hop the powers that be told everybody BIG and Tupac where the greatest rappers of all time and everybody just went "yeah" without resistance. Lol

The Beatles are a great band who's influence cannot be denied. I hate country music, but I can appreciate Willie Nelson's music. There are songs I don't like and songs I do. However, I would not call them the greatest band ever. But, they are definitely not meh.

No matter how good a musician is or not or how talented they may be, when we are talking "how good a band is", the result is always going to be subjective. Some people like rap, some people don't. Some people think the Doors was rock and some think they're jazz/blues. Some people think Hagar Van Halen is better than David Lee Roth and some people cannot forgive them for the Gary Cherone years. You're gonna get a mix no matter the subject.

The Beatles was required listening for my music degree for a number of reasons. First and foremost, George Martin, aka "The Fifth Beatle" is a legend behind the console. There are tons of techniques he has done that influenced many on how they approach producing an album, from Led Zepplin to Metallica and Nirvana.

Secondly, they all are probably the simplest yet most effective musicians. Nothing flashy. Simple song structure. Memorable lyrics. Ringo, much like Watts had a rock solid tempo and all of them were equally talented.

Do I like them? No. Absolutely not.
Will that perception change? No. Absolutely not, BUT I can admit what they have contributed to the industry.

Well, you know if you saw the other thread...not a fan at all.

I honestly don't think they're "meh" but for the sake of the poll that's the only answer I could give. I definitely don't think they're the best band in the world and I definitely wouldn't call them an abomination (LOL) I personally think they're "ok". TBH they're not even my style. Even if they're not my style I can FULLY acknowledge, and respect there contributions to music business without questions.

They're probably not the greatest band;but it was the only way you could vote in this poll.They werte one of the best ever influencers,music writers,lyricists and fashion,i.e clothes and hairstyles.

I think their best album is, undoubtedly, The Best Of The Beatles.
Lol.

For anyone wondering about the poll options, I wanted something more than a binary love/hate choice, hence adding meh, but didn't want to go to the full on shades of like / shades of hate thing where you need 9 options, plus as it's not posible to control the order UMD poll options are shown in (it's random and different every time) a 9-option poll (3 degrees of like, 3 degrees of not fussed, 3 degrees of dislike) would just end up being confusing.

Best Beatles track in my opinion? Siouxsie and The Banshees cover of "Dear Prudence", which The Beatles wrote.

Appreciate all the votes so far!

That's first class

Creating a 9 option poll is something I would do hehe. I would have had options for:

* Who are the Beatles?
* I don't listen to music.

Personally I don't listen to music. I am meh. I dislike music most of the times. The Beatles are not bad. I just devote < 1% of my brain to listening to music, remembering song names, remembering lyrics, remembering artists, and other music trivia. If you ask me to name 3 songs of theirs, I couldn't. I remember Yellow Submarine and that is about it.

How about this comment:

"I love the Beatles. Imagine is such a good song!"

I google searched for that comment and had to read to understand it

The Wife and myself both love The Beatles.

huge Beatles fan, mad respect, and I'm including the post-band solo careers

greatest band of allllll time?
I'm going to say one of the most influential bands of all time.

I don't have an "alllll time" band.. man, there are just too many life-changing hits coming from every which way out there

My list of "top 3" bands/artists is about 50 long

As an almost life time fan (my Dad had an 8 track of The Yellow Submarine in his Land-Rover which I listened to from the age of 5), I couldn't select 'meh' so although I don't think they are quite the greatest band ever, that's the one I picked.

I agree on Siouxsie and the Banshees cover of "Dear Prudence" being excellent. I also like Roxy Music's cover of Jealous Guy.

On a slight side note, talking about covers... one of my favourites is Disturbed's cover of Sound of Silence.

I like the Beatles very much. They had a distinct style, they continued to evolve and try new things over time, and they contributed greatly in terms of leaving behind a vast catalog of pretty interesting music.

I think people often make the mistake of thinking their songs are simpler than they are, probably because the tunes and parts are so intuitive and melodic. The A section of "Yesterday" being 7 measures, for example, or the interesting mode mixture in "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," or that the guitar riff of "Octopus's Garden" isn't quite as intuitive as it sounds....these things don't make the songs genius, categorically, but to me it's like the subtle seasoning that makes the meal. As a hobbyist musician, I'm always learning something from their songs whenever I listen.

That being said, I don't often listen outright to the Beatles. I'd almost prefer to hear someone else cover the Beatles. Like hearing Joe Cocker play A Little Help from My Friends or Jeff Beck play She's a Woman or A Day in the Life or Kurt Elling doing Norwegian Wood or Gregory Porter doing Blackbird.

Speaking of, Prince tearing it up on While My Guitar Gently Weeps will just make your weekend if you're a Beatles fan.

I like a handful of songs from the Beatles, but bands like the Bee Gees and Doobie Brothers resonate with me more.

Disturbed typically slams home some of the best renditions of other artists. "Shout 2000", "Land of Confusion", etc. All great stuff.

My vote isn't quite on there!

I like the Beatles, especially the White Album, but they're just part of the music I like and there's a lot of other music I listen to more.

Nessie

I love the Beatles.

My favorite album of theirs is Revolver; my favorite song is Come Together (I know that my favorite song does not appear on my favorite album; it can't be helped)

I played their Rock Band game a lot; it's too bad that it wasn't constantly updated. I wanted their entire discography on the game (yes, including Revolution 9; I wanted to see how the programmers would chart that song for guitar and bass)

They were a good inspiration for other artists to cover ...

This 1971 version by an all girl band rocks and is better than the original version.

https://youtu.be/Pdwzko9DZ0s?si=1uQHw0r-slGKkaIl

This sums up my thoughts well. I'm not a crazy Beatles fan, I do like them, but here's a good rebuttal to the haters.

https://youtube.com/shorts/1E44gimGIZ0?si=iV4rxdkbM5IhOzt2

The Beatles, for what it's worth, had a great dynamic range. I like or prefer my music to be more on the intense side with a lil bit of dirt to match so bands like Tool, Helmet, Chevelle all the way to Slayer, Megadeth, Machine Head etc but the Beatles were definitely masters of playing 3-4 chords in masterful and inventive ways. Moreover, they could play in a dynamic manner that invokes an emotional response from quiet to loud, soft to hard and so on.

Again, nothing flashy. Just brilliant composition and song writing. Sometimes that's all a band needs.

Just like to add I love Tool and Chevelle! Chevelle is a group that doesn't seem to get name dropped much. Also Disturbed gave the best cover of "Sound of Silence " I've ever heard. The first album I got of theirs was 10,000 Fist I rember because I had just also gotten into SevenDust and I bought the "Seasons" album from a few years before the same day lol.

So the results are in:

25 people said "Meh."
23 people think they're the best band ever ever ever.
And 4 people want them obliterated from history.

If you're a surviving Beatle, you probably need to watch out for those four. The Unfab four as it were. Horsemen, perhaps?...

Only just noticed this, make it 26 for Meh!! A bit before my time, the 70s was my era for music, but I've never been able to get into them at all. Some of their early 63/64 era stuff was ok, but I always thought their late 60s recordings were boring dirges. Curiously though, a lot of the stuff the four individual members did on their own after they broke up I do like