The Beatles

"I grew up with The Beatles, and they`re one of the greatest bands of all time. They created an explosion from which pretty much everything is measured." - Rocket From the Crypt`s John "Speedo" Reiss, 31

"They were a huge influence on me. They took popular music into some really new and valuable territories." - James Taylor, 53

"Those guys ruined music." - MTV`s "Beavis & Butt-head," ageless teen-agers

Love them or loathe them, the impact of The Beatles has yet to diminish.

This is all the more astonishing today, 30 years after the most famous of all rock groups acrimoniously disbanded. The breakup was quickly followed by a flurry of lawsuits, which pitted singer-bassist Paul McCartney against singer-guitarist John Lennon, guitarist-singer George Harrison and drummer (and sometime vocalist) Ringo Starr.

But no matter, because more than any other rock act before or since, England`s perpetually Fab Four set an enduring standard. In barely seven years, the group transformed pop music from a simple, black-and-white medium into a Technicolor panorama in which all things were possible.

Thanks to the peerless team of Lennon and McCartney, and Harrison`s increasingly assured songwriting in the late 1960s, The Beatles amassed a repertoire of 241 classic and near-classic songs that both defined and transcended their time. The band`s influence is enormous, extending from Bob Dylan to Frank Sinatra and Duke Ellington (both of whom recorded Beatles` songs), and - more recently - from Squeeze to P.M. Dawn and Soundgarden, Elliott Smith and countless others from either side of the Atlantic.

Here, there and everywhere, The Beatles` unprecedented level of artistic and commercial success has yet to be surpassed by any group or solo act in popular music. And it surely won`t be in this content-deficient era of top-selling teen-pop automatons and grunting rap-metal lunkheads.

"1," the latest Beatles` greatest-hits album, entered the U.S. charts recently at No. 1, even though none of the band`s three surviving members did a single interview to promote it. (Lennon was shot to death 20 years ago outside the New York home he shared with his wife, Yoko Ono, and their young son, Sean Lennon.)

"1" extends The Beatles` string of chart-topping albums to a remarkable five decades. It is the band`s 19th album to top the national Billboard sales charts since "Meet The Beatles" accomplished the same feat in 1964. That`s more chart-topping albums than any other act has scored, and 10 more than either Elvis Presley or the still-active Rolling Stones.

Meanwhile, the band`s voluminous, 340,000-word autobiography, "The Beatles Anthology," is a worldwide best seller. And the film industry is anticipating large audiences for the American re-release of "A Hard Day`s Night," The Beatles` 1964 debut film.

But what does it all mean?

How can a band that`s been defunct longer than Ricky Martin and Britney Spears have been alive fare so well, and for so long?

The answers are both simple and complex, as befits a band that irrevocably changed the face of popular music and culture almost as fast as you can say "In My Life," "Strawberry Fields" or "Revolution"

Almost single-handedly, The Beatles transformed pop music from superficial entertainment into an increasingly sophisticated, envelope-pushing art form. In the process, they made it mandatory for bands to become self-sufficient units that wrote and performed their own music.

Before The Beatles came along, pop albums were usually little more than a collection of singles and B sides. But that quickly changed with such landmark Beatles albums as 1965`s "Rubber Soul" and 1966`s "Revolver."

Daringly creative and unabashedly ambitious, these albums made it imperative for rock acts to stretch out musically, to use recording studios as instruments and boldly explore uncharted terrain with each new release.

The Beatles changed everything, ushering in everything from stadium rock concerts and music videos to the use of sitars, string quartets and orchestras in pop and rock. In addition, the band had a profound impact on fashion; introduced many fans to meditation and Eastern philosophies; and helped change social and political mores, both through music and personal action.

With Lennon and McCartney inspiring each other to new heights, this unassuming, working-class band from the English port city of Liverpool perfectly captured and mirrored a rapidly changing world and (in particular) the budding of youth culture. They did so with such skill and vision that it`s impossible for many who grew up in the 1960s, or beyond, to separate major and minor events from the music of The Beatles.

The Beatles created the soundtrack for a generation; a soundtrack that - unlike this long-dormant band - won`t subside anytime soon.

(c) Copley News Service

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Author: George Varga