A Brief Introduction.

The Beatles. Great harmonies, great guitar work, inventive songs, arrangements and recording techniques. Anybody who doesn’t give them a well-deserved nod of respect needs to step back and really listen to some of their work. A lot of people, myself included, consider them to be one of the greatest rock bands in history.

Or at least I did.

I’ve opened my eyes, now I want to help open yours.

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This is the Problem:

You cannot escape the beatles. You have no choice but to like them because you’ve been brainwashed. You are an open wallet and a vacuous mind whittling away your time and money into a bottomless chasm of corporate greed, exploitation, and lukewarm drivel.

Disagree? Walk into a bookstore, this time with your eyes open.There is at least one new book written every week, at Christmas these figures quadruple. Every mundane aspect of their lives has been chronicled in pictures and biography after biography. Do you really need to know what John Lennon ate for breakfast on July 3rd, 1968? Do you care that Paul McCartney once had a boil on his ass? Who said what, when, to whom and why? Is this band so important to the world that over twenty thousand books still can’t say enough? Ask yourself, do they really need to have five shelves in the music section, as well as taking up space under biography, art, photography, pop culture, movies, sociology, pre-school curricula, children’s books, poetry, cooking, graphic novels, calendars, business, law, philosophy, self-help, religion, comicbooks…

The list is endless. If you think I’m joking try one of the links.

But hey, people still buy them, so why not pump out some stale facts about a band that broke up over thirty years ago. How exciting!

Walk into a music store; once again with your eyes open. Beatles cds take up at least three solid rows (all full priced, at about $20USD each, not including double albums) and the latest best of, anthology, or remix occupies space in the bestseller rack.

But people still buy them, so why not pump out some stale albums by a band that broke up over thirty years ago. How exciting! If you think about it for a moment it’s like repackaging and reselling the same sandwich every day. It doesn’t any fresher, yet for some strange reason people can’t help themselves from devouring these crusty remnants.

Here is where it will begin to make sense.

Walk to your car and turn on the radio. Even if you don’t put on your favorite cd, or even listen to classic rock radio, you will hear the beatles! Alt. rock covers, country covers, orchestral versions, jazz versions, easy listening instrumentals, reggae, dub, dance, R&B, you name it. If you aren’t exposed to them through station programming you will hear them during the commercials. Turn on the TV, same thing.

-Walk into an office building or a shopping mall. You will hear beatles muzak.

-Walk down the street. You will hear buskers playing them.

-Cars driving by will be blaring them.

-Migrant farm workers forgo the work chants of old and instead sweat to the rhythm of Oh Darlin’.

-When you go into the bar to drown your sorrows if there isn’t a band playing a cover you’re guaranteed to hear them either on the jukebox or the house system.

You’ve heard the beatles everyday since you’ve been born. The first album I ever had was A Hard Days Night. It was gift from my parents, and I played it on my little plastic (government issued?) Fischer-Price® record player. We now know about the dangers of second hand smoke on children, but what about the dangers of the Ludovico Technique destroying their freedom of thought? This is Orwell’s NewSpeak. I was forced to hear it in the womb, which we’ve only recently learned is the deadly Fetal Beatle Syndrome (FBS).

Now stop and think, ‘Do I really like the beatles, or am I just so bombarded by them that I’m programmed to tap my feet and hum along while spouting bits of useless trivia?’ Isn’t it strange that you already know the words and melody to every beatles song, whether you realize it or not. It’s sad, really. You’ve never even had the chance to figure out if you like them, the decision has already been made. It’s been drilled into your head from the time you were a toddler, and you know their catalogue better than you do the alphabet.

If you’ve made it this far, you’re beginning to see the truth. Stick around and take a look around. There is a lot to learn, and more importantly, unlearn.Clear your head from the psychological manipulation you’ve been subjected to for so long. Spread the word and free some minds of your own if you’re so inclined. The insatiable hunger for useless warmed over facts you already know and songs you could sing in your sleep is nearing its end.

Thank you,

Das