The Beatles are number 12

[dube@nyu-csd2.arpa (Tom Dube)]

Joe Turner:
>Mr Marvick!  "So what", indeed!  You know VERY WELL that if there was
>no "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", there might not BE any
>"Dreaming"!!

My first reaction is: "NO Sgt Pepper? NO Dreaming? what a wonderful world
it would be."  But no, this isn't right. Sgt Pepper isn't a bad album.
If the Pretty Things had made Sgt Pepper, I would probably listen to it.
The reason this album leaves such a bad taste with me is the hysteria
it causes among brain-dead jerks who wouldn't listen to anything half
this adventurous if it didn't have the names of their Beatles stamped
on it.  No wonder they think this is wonderful.  Their only point of
reference is top 40 trash.

I'm sorry for this tirade, but the description on this newsgroup says
that it is dedicated to progressive music.  If Beatle worship is
progressive, Springsteen must be avant garde.

Personally, I'm glad that I've heard the Beatles.  They were a very good
pop group.  I'm glad the Residents heard the Beatles. I love their version
of "Hey Jude/Sympathy for the Devil".  I wish the MOR DJ's had never
heard the Beatles.  20 years of shoving this stuff down our throats
has really killed it off.

My ranking of favorite pop/rock sixties bands would look something like this:
  1.  Velvet Underground
  2.  The Pretty Things
  3.  The Rolling Stones  (ignoring everything post 1970)
  4.  The Kinks
  5.  The MC5
  6.  The Seeds  (Higher than they deserve, but I like 'em)
  7.  The Stooges  (would be higher, but only 1 album in the 60's)
  8.  The Who
  9   Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band.
 10.  Jimi Hendryx
 11.  Bob Dylan
 12.  The Beatles
 13.  13th Floor Elevators   (They have to be number 13 on the list :-) )
 14.  The Troggs
 15.  Love
 16.  The Monkees
 17   Pink Floyd
 18.  Blue Cheer
 19.  Cream      (Some great stuff, but too many clunkers.)
 20.  Dave Clark 5  (It's obvious that this was a drummer's band.)

I like all these bands top to bottom, but the Beatles (and to a lesser degree
Hendryx and Dylan) suffer from too much hype.  I'm sorry there wasn't room
in the top 20 for P.R. and the Raiders.  

In making this list, I realized that there are lots of 60's bands I know
too little about.  Besides their "hit", I would love to hear something
else by The Shadows of Night, The Standells, The Easybeats, ect.

>I'd love to turn you on,
>-joe

Captain Beefheart: "The Beatles lost me with that 'turn you on'
stuff.  That's stupid.  You can't turn someone on, either they're on or 
they're not."
                            Tom Dube         dube@csd2.nyu.edu