CW50 - The Bands Edition - No. 1

[GIMH]

1. The Beatles

Points: 424
Nominations: 21
3rd Place: 3
2nd Place: 3
1st Place: 4



A future inmate of Reading gaol once famously mused “He who is tired of London is tired of life”. Just as the undoubted hub of western civilisation in the Victorian Age belonged to a tiny island to the north of France, so too does the group who forever settled any arguments as to which is the most influential in popular music. They sprang not from the big smoke in the south though, rather from a once prosperous provincial port now fallen on hard times a couple of hundred miles further north. In this writer's opinion it's scarcely an exaggeration to apply Oscar Wilde's London maxim to them too.

You know of where and whom I speak. Voltaire said of God that if he hadn't existed it would be necessary to invent him; the band whose singer once proclaimed they were bigger than Jesus did exist and were no record label or studio boss invention. Dues were paid & crafts honed at Merseyside garden fêtes and in Hamburg bierkellers. After their initial rejections by cloth-eared talent scouts, over a recording career that lasted less than a decade they left behind the body of work against which all others in their chosen medium will forever be judged and forever found wanting.

The Beatles are there for everyone to discover. So deep and pervasive is their reach that they are, to all intents and purposes, impossible to ignore but if you believe you know them then dig a little deeper and you'll find riches to embarrass Croesus. Their better known works, paled through familiarity, slander and traduce the more recondite jewellery in their trove. Less than three years separate the simple pop pleasure of She Loves You from the towering double tracked genius of Tomorrow Never Knows. Exponential doesn't begin to cover that kind of growth.

There is nothing more tiresome than being told what to like. I know of what I speak; such was and is the Fabs' ubiquity that long haired callow ****s with more education than sense like my younger self would chafe at the idea we were missing out by remaining cold to their blandishments. I was a graduate before the Cambridge branch of Our Price reducing a copy of Sgt Pepper to £7 finally persuaded me to do myself the huge favour of beginning my own Beatles journey. The scales fell from my eyes (well, ears, technically, I suppose) and I realised that old whore posterity occasionally does know best.

The Beatles - Get Back (rooftop concert 1969) - YouTube

Members

John Lennon: Vocals, Rhythm Guitar
Paul McCartney: Vocals, Bass Guitar
George Harrison: Vocals, Lead Guitar
Ringo Starr: Drums

Discography

NB – UK discography is being used, US releases ignored, with one exception detailed below.

Please Please Me (1963)
With The Beatles (1963)
A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
Beatles For Sale (1964)
Help! (1965)
Rubber Soul (1965)
Revolver (1966)
Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
Magical Mystery Tour (1967)*
The Beatles (1968)
Abbey Road (1969)
Let It Be (1970)

*Magical Mystery Tour originally released as an EP in the UK but an LP in the US. The LP became part of the worldwide Beatles canon in 1975 with the UK LP release.

Also

Past Masters Volume 1 (1989)
Past Masters Volume 2 (1989)
The Beatles Anthology 1 (1995)
The Beatles Anthology 2 (1995)
The Beatles Anthology 3 (1996)
Yellow Submarine Songtrack (1999)
1 (2000)
Let It Be…Naked (2003)
Love (2007)

Many other compilations also available, however those listed above are the only ones which contain different songs, or alternative versions of songs, to those in the core discography listed above.

Download these songs:
A Day In The Life; Strawberry Fields Forever; Tomorrow Never Knows; She Loves You; Ticket to Ride; Girl; All You Need Is Love; While My Guitar Gently Weeps; And I Love Her; Eleanor Rigby; A Hard Day’s Night; You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away; Day Tripper; Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown); Paperback Writer; Penny Lane…hell, just get the lot.

Write-up by Boy Brumby

[Ikki]

Great write up. An awesome band. The Bradman of Bands, really, IMO. Just unbelievable depth and variety to their music. They made the soundtrack to life.

[cpr]

Wilde, Voltaire and Greek Mythology? **** me talk about playing up to your reputation!


But yeah, few arguments, only 4 no 1s mind.....

[GIMH]

Over 100 points ahead of 2nd place. If those 4 firsts hadn't voted for them at all they'd still have won.

[zaremba]

One of a number of excellent write-ups. A great series. Hats off to gimh for spawning and nuturing the project.

it was Samuel Johnson ftr

[chasingthedon]

Yes indeed, great fun. Fittingly I'm wearing a Beatles t-shirt for work as I type this. Many people are unaware of the peripheral influence the Beatles had, e.g. printing lyrics on the sleeve for example.

[The Sean]

Originally Posted by zaremba

One of a number of excellent write-ups. A great series. Hats off to gimh for spawning and nuturing the project.

it was Samuel Johnson ftr

This. A brilliant exercise, a worthy number one and the right bloke writing about them.

Kudos to GIMH and everyone else involved.

[Teja.]

Yeah, Kudos GIMH, great exercise.

Time for some stats, IMO.

[Agent Nationaux]

Well done GIMH.

[GIMH]

Originally Posted by Teja.

Yeah, Kudos GIMH, great exercise.

Time for some stats, IMO.

Will post some stats tomorrow or through the week anyway

[Cevno]

Didn't know about half the bands that made the list probably, but i have tried to follow it as much as i can and it's been a pretty good read and can't really argue much with Beatles at no.1 either.

Well run GIMH!

[Ikki]

Originally Posted by The Sean

This. A brilliant exercise, a worthy number one and the right bloke writing about them.

Kudos to GIMH and everyone else involved.

No disrespect to Brumby but would love to read a write-up about the Beatles from you mate.

[GIMH]

I must admit, Beatles was the second write-up I decided upon an author for (Oasis being the first), with about half the votes still to come in. And the general rule was, if you voted a band first you get offered their write-up. But I handpicked this one (BB didn't vote the fabs top).

[Cevno]

Originally Posted by Ikki

Great write up. An awesome band. The Bradman of Bands, really, IMO.

And guess, who didn't have them in his list?

Originally Posted by Flem274*

The Beatles didn't make my list either.

[GIMH]