Another daily random Beatles post -- Cheese would not be proud

[Dottleshead ★]

 

[Square Wheels]

The Beatles were on a lot when I was a kid,

[Dottleshead ★]

20 minutes ago, Square Wheels said:

The Beatles were on a lot when I was a kid,

I bet.

[MickinMD ★]

In 1965 I had a music teacher named Mr. Fraling who wanted to demonstrate how far below Bach, etc. the Beatles were in music composition.

He asked the class what the Beatles' first U.S. hit had been in 1964.  Half the class said, "Please, Please Me" - which was the Beatles first big hit, but in the UK.  The rest of us correctly said, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was the Beatles first hit - rising to #1 - in the USA.

Mr. Fraling never got to make his point about the Beatles breaking the rules of harmony and voice leading (how the soprano, alto, tenor, and bass notes change and when one voice can dip lowest or rise highest in pitch, etc.) because we didn't have Google back then and spent half the class arguing which Beatles song came first.

Later, while taking music theory classes in the Adult Program of the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins U, I learned that Bach broke the rules too whenever he thought it worked.  I don't think Bach thought much about them.  I don't know if he would have liked the Beatles but I bet he would have.  Mozart would like them for sure.

 

[Prophet Zacharia]

6 minutes ago, MickinMD said:

Bach broke the rules too whenever he thought it worked.  I don't think Bach thought much about them.  I don't know if he would have liked the Beatles but I bet he would have.  Mozart would like them for sure.

I’ve long been impressed with what both the Beatles and Stones knew about song writing and musical composition, presumably just from listening to records. Now, they shared some producers and engineers and arrangers along the way who obviously had a lot of influence, but these guys knew what they wanted to sound like, and nailed it.