Everybody Is Wrong: The Beatles

Arguments are fun, aren’t they? Who wants rational civilised conversation when you can simply bellow polarised points of view at each other?

hecklerspray certainly doesn’t. And that’s why Wednesday brings our weekly dose of Everybody Is Wrong - a feature in which we take something or someone widely heralded as being ‘amazing’ and flick bogies at them from the back of the classroom.

This week we’re taking a look at scouse moptop popbots The Beatles.

Okay, okay. We’re not saying that The Beatles are bad. They’re not. They’re pretty good. Pretty good - but also pretty damn overrated. Because - and brace yourself, Q readers, this might just shatter your universe - The Beatles never made a truly great album.

The White Album is probably about as close as they got. But even that has the hallmarks that spoil all of their previous efforts - of blistering, fantastic tunes being placed alongside absolutely rubbish ones.

But The Beatles, people splutter at this very moment. Rubbish songs? Impossible. They’re the bestest, most special band who ever lived, aren’t they?

Maybe the public consensus would be a bit less one-sided were people to do something novel - stop talking about the museum-encased albums and actually listen to them.

Take Abbey Road for a spin. Something is amazing, sure - one of the best songs ever written, in fact - but Octopus’ Garden? Maxwell’s Silver Hammer? Mean Mr Mustard? Dear Christ, give us a break.

Sgt. Peppers is oh-so-often heralded as being the greatest long-player of all time. True, it contains the astonishing majesty of A Day In The Life, but it also features the big pile of furry bollocks otherwise known as When I’m Sixty-Four. Fact - at the same time (1967), The Velvet Underground were busy chumming up with Andy Warhol and reinventing the sound of pop music as we know it. Call us dreadful cynics, but For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite just doesn’t quite compete.

Deal with it, everybody. They were a superb singles band. They never had an Exile On Main Street. They never recorded an OK Computer. Their The Queen Is Dead is all too sadly missing.

Cracking Best Ofs, though, weren’t they? 

[story by C J Davies]