What I’m about to tell you may be somewhat heated for Beatles fans. Some won’t get it or even care. Those people have already stopped reading. But since you’re still here, I have a Beatles “Hot Take”.
HERE IT IS.
If you’re sixty years old, you’re the perfect age to be a Beatles fan.
I’m saying if you’re like me, first of all you may need counseling. Secondly, if you, like me, were born between the years 1956 and 1960, but specifically 1958, some of your earliest memories of listening to the radio and watching television may have involved the Beatles. You’ve never known a time without what multitudes consider the greatest band of the twentieth century and since.
Now, in case you’re rolling your proverbial eyes, or you’re thinking, “Psssh”, or “Hmph”, or “Meh”, or some other meaningless collection of vowel or consonant sounds to express your disagreement in my assessment, or you’re trotting out some other tired “The Beatles are over-rated” expression…
…allow me to remind you of the importance of this quartet on the world stage, much less my tiny psyche.
There were others before them. Many influenced them, and have an important position in modern music history. But like none prior or since, the Fab Four made an indelible imprint on the culture from music to art to fashion.
There have been countless records sold, books written, T.V. specials produced, and pods casted. It may seem everything about the Beatles has been said. Yet with each passing day, another bootleg is uncovered, another perspective is garnered, or Paul or Ringo release another record, or go on another tour. They simply have an uncanny ability to stay in the global conversation.
With four lead singers and three song writers, there is so much variety to be enjoyed from the Mop Tops. Consider the huge contrast between the “Please Please Me” album and the “White Album”. “Sergeant Pepper” sounds nothing like “A Hard Day’s Night”. This is before we even mention the dozens of solo albums.
No other artist has stayed this popular for this long. It started nearly sixty years ago and continues to this day. (Who would have guessed Sir Paul could produce yet another number one album? He did it this year.) The sheer volume of this group is phenomenal, not to mention the record breaking quantity of number ones in their relatively short eight year career.
They have been revered, condemned, and endlessly debated. But love them, hate them, or blow them off, what can’t be denied is their powerful presence and influence on the musical landscape. Approaching an amazing six decades of profound significance, there are few left who can even remember a time when there was no Beatles. We are now being impacted by artists, who were impacted by artists, who were impacted by John, Paul, George and Ringo. They have truly become multi-generational.
Sure, there are people of all ages who are lifelong fans.
From ages five to seventy five, this music has the ability touch the collective heart of any demographic group. Just about anybody can name a Beatles song. And according to my own unscientific poll, most can name a favorite song from the Lads from Liverpool.
But it is my contention, if you’re older than about 65, you can recall when the fifties were coming to a close, this new rock and roll craze was in full swing, and Elvis was King. The Beatles hit when you were well into your school years, and some of your earliest musical impressions may have already been established. The older you are on that sliding scale, from mid to late sixties, and even early seventies, the closer you were in that teenage target demo of the British invasion, which the Beatles dominated.
Those teen fans of the 1964 version of the “Fab 4” enjoyed a special time in history.
At the same time they perhaps are less likely to appreciate the mid-to-late sixties change in the Beatles music and look. They may even be more apt to say this is when the Beatles “got weird”. These folks could be more specifically and accurately described as “Early Beatles Fans”.
Conversely, if you’re younger than about 55, you’re too young to remember the onslaught of Beatlemania. You weren’t around yet to know the rush of hearing them live on The Ed Sullivan Show, or experience the excitement of hearing their songs go up the charts every week, or watch for their next semi-annual album, and what their hair would look like this time. (They looked different with each project.) In fact, you may not even remember them as a group, but only as a former group.
If you fall into this latter category, chances are you lean more toward the post-Sergeant Pepper era. You may prefer their later material. The early Beatles may even sound “too old” for you. Maybe you knew Wings before you knew the Beatles. So, by sheer chronology, it is entirely possible you are more specifically and accurately a “Later Beatles Fan”.
It is often said the songs of our your youth are the songs we stay with all our lives.
It is my belief that the closer you are to a 1958 birth date, the closer you are to the perfect Beatles fan age. Your earliest exposure to music was at the beginning of the mania, your primary years were through the development and transitions of the group’s career, and your teens were during their post-Beatles growth in the seventies, when they each produced some of their finest solo work.
You are the “Perfect-Age Beatles Fan”.
I know there will likely be push back to my premise. I know there will be exceptions to this general attribution. There will be gray areas. But this has been my impression and experience through a lifetime of following this group ridiculously closely. What’s more, I posit this view with great gratitude. I love the fact I came into the picture when I did. I love every song from “Love Me Do” to “Let It Be”, as well as the vast majority of their solo compositions. For me, the bar was set early and never exceeded.
No, I don’t claim to be the biggest Beatles fan in the world. (6’0”, 180 lbs)
But at the perfect age of sixty, I’m in the running.