Nick Mason, drummer for Pink Floyd, once said that a rock and roll band is a drummer and a bassist, with additional novelty acts. I don't know if that's strictly true. But I will tell you that the pounding rhythm of this cut, I Saw Her Standing There, blew my ten-year-old self away on that long-ago Monday morning before school started in Mrs. Cooper's 6th-grade classroom. The Beatles had appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show the night before, and all of us were cranked. When the needle dropped on this 45 rpm single, that was the moment my life went from black and white to color.
Click below for the instrumental track that still makes my heart skip a beat.
So here’s the thing: I have many good friends who believe the Beatles’ body of work is — to put it charitably — overrated. I respect that view, although I disagree. For example, Timothy Ladd said, “The Beatles were hit or miss. More phenomenon than music.” And there’s some truth to that. But suggesting that it’s either-or, that they’re not musicians but rather spectacle or flash, has helped me develop a theory I’ve been thinking about for some time.
I’ll get to that shortly. But first, I want to emphasize that you can be a musician and a spectacle, flash, phenomenon, etc. It’s not either-or, especially if you’re a purveyor of live performance.
Also, in the case of the Beatles musicianship, they didn’t know that they were living back then. In other words, they made do with the music of their time, not ours. Their influences were people like Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, Eddie Cochran, Dr. Feelgood and the Interns, Little Willie John, and others.
So here’s my theory.
First of all, it’s rooted in the awkward but unavoidable fact that I’ll be 71 in a few weeks. Yes, I’m a Boomer. My point is this: My age cohort's experience of the Beatles wasn’t just with the music but also that we experienced it in real-time, simultaneously with everyone else. Television had everything to do with that, of course.
I suppose you could make an algorithm for all that, but I’m told that for every scientific formula you include in an article, you halve your audience. Besides, I’m not a scientist and don’t even want to play one.
I’m saying that for an entertainer, the impact, the legacy, and everything in between has to do with an artist’s output. But it also has a lot to do with other factors:
The quality of the output
The size/demographic of the target audience
The medium in which the performance occurs
The immediacy of the performance event
The historical context in which the artist(s) exist
The Beatles were a rock and roll band, perhaps the first boy band (more on that another time). The target audience for the Beatles of the early Sixties was huge (see “Boomers,” above). The event was simulcast on The Ed Sullivan Show before a huge audience watching on TV. And the audience was ready to move on from the shock of recent events, such as the assassination of a President.
There have been others.
I've read that France Lizst was the first performer to cause the audience to swoon during his performances. Then, it was Sinatra. Then Elvis. Then the Beatles. Maybe I've missed a few. Maybe Taylor Swift is the newest entry. That's not for me to say—I'm not in her audience. But, to a greater or lesser degree, all of those performers have made a significant impact because of those variables I mentioned.
FUN FACT: John Lennon is said to have played harmonica on I Saw Her Standing There, but if he did, I can't hear him.
POSTSCRIPT: Here are some deep cuts from a few of the artists I mentioned earlier. First up, the original recording of a song that the Beatles covered on Beatles for Sale, performed by Dr. Feelgood & the Interns:
Mr. Moonlight has an interesting backstory all on its own.
From Wikipedia:
Click once below to listen.
FUN FACT: It was Paul and not John on the Hammond organ.
You can hear John (quietly!) rehearsing his vocal intro here. Click once below to listen.
He then blows it on take #1, then crushes on #2. This version has a funky guitar break instead of the final, more familiar Hammond organ:
And last but not least, here’s a cut written and performed by Little Willie John. John Lennon loved it, played it live, and recorded it. But was left off of Beatles For Sale. Click once below to listen.