Love Me Do, Or Else

Last weekend on my Twitter feed some bloke expressed disbelief that a person could actually dislike The Beatles, then someone else said that anyone who claimed they did was only trying to be “cool”. I don’t know if they were all reacting to some story or tweet somewhere but the collective, absolute certainty of them really got my back up. Experience has taught me not to get involved in Twitter fights so I wrote this instead.

Let me say right off the bat that I think The Beatles are fine, I like them, but anyone who think it’s impossible to not feel that way is operating under the old-fashioned and blinkered assumption that the default position of pop music is white boys with guitars. The truth is that hasn’t been the case for about 30 years now and Kraftwerk and James Brown have been far more influential on the last few decades of pop than the Fabs. If you grew up loving Hip-Hop, Techno, or even Death Metal they would not only mean fuck-all to you, but you might not even like the sort of thing they do.

I know there’s a difference between not thinking they’re the greatest thing since sliced bread and actively disliking them, but I swear some Beatles evangelists act like the former position is the only correct one and they can prove it by citing the number of classic songs they wrote like it’s empirical data. But music isn’t football and you don’t “win” the game by scoring more goals. The Fabs did write an incredible number of great songs — they probably have the best goal difference of any band — but I honestly like “Tin Soldier” or “Waterloo Sunset” more than all of them (if we’re comparing apples to apples).

My own personal feeling about The Beatles is more admiration than love. I wouldn’t claim that The Jam were a “better” group but I prefer them because they mean more to me. I swear I’m not just trying to be cool (ha!) when I say that I would take All Mod Cons over Revolver any day.

Given attitudes like the above it’s not surprising there are still teenagers who feel the need to declare “THE BEATLES SUCK!” and think they’re being punky rebels by doing so. I know we all have a patronizing laugh and tell them it’s just a phase they’ll grown out of, but I completely understand the impulse to say that. Who needs some middle-aged man (and it always is men) telling you what you’re supposed to like and calling you a liar if you don’t? It’s the sort of bollocks that makes me want to say this is better than the original. Not that I would, but…

Download: Strawberry Fields Forever – Candy Flip (mp3)