Lancashire Nick

Whilst appreciating that musical taste is a matter of opinion ...................... I wouldn't label Eagles, The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Bob Dylan, Elton John or The Beach Boys with the term "Rock", classic or otherwise.

9th April, I'll be going to see Battalia ...................... My son is the keyboard player Here's the first song they wrote, "Battle Cry", hope you like it.

I appreciate I am very much in a minority .................. But when I say bland; as a pop act I think bands such as The Kinks were far more interesting ..................... Lyrically there were so many acts who reflected the times and wrote about more interesting topics than holding hands or flying back to Russia; writing about the political and social upheavals of the time e.g. Bob Dylan ................... Musically, I find even Sgt Pepper dull when compared to Hendrix or (admittedly a couple of years later) King Crimson, Led Zep, Sabbath etc etc Over the years I've come to accept that I don't get The Beatles, and never will; and it puts me in a minority.

I just find a lot of The Beatles music to be bland; and although some of their songwriting is good, their musicianship (in terms of ability to play instruments) is average.

There are so many .............. Radiohead, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Genesis, Kiss, I could go on for hours. But the one that i really don't get is The Beatles. I can understand that in 1963, if you'd grown up listening to middle aged crooners, then it was groundbreaking. I understand that they were the first to write and perform their own songs. But being the first doesn't mean you have to praise them forever. We might admire Henry Ford for producing the first ever production line car for the masses, but it doesn't mean we still all want to drive a Model T. When you want to watch a movie at home, you don't drag out your old VHS tapes; we're not still using cameras on a tripod. I'm very grateful to the caveman who invented fire, but if it's okay with him, I'll use an oven to cook my dinner, and rely on the central heating to keep me warm. Why do people still bow down to The Beatles when there's been so much better stuff over the last 50 years?