Every once in awhile, I click on one of those quizzes that social media is always offering as clickbait, and occasionally I find them rewarding — such as when it was scientifically confirmed that I am, of course, Leo McGarry.
But boy, was this one stupid.
I clicked on this Beatles quiz (“How big a Beatles fan are you?“) because I figured I’d get 100 percent and have a small ego boost from it on my birthday, and the first question was so ridiculously easy that I almost didn’t go on. It said something like, “The Beatles were started in…” And at first, thinking they wanted a date, I was worried. Are they counting the Silver Beatles, or the Quarrymen, and didn’t John have a skiffle group that I can’t remember the name of, and when was that?
But the options were: “Liverpool,” “London,” and so forth. I snorted in contempt. Is there anyone on the planet who could not answer that?
But then, the third question was this:
Oh, come on! That’s completely illegitimate to any self-respecting fan! That’s not a Beatles album! That’s some stupid repackaging of old songs concocted LONG after the Beatles ceased to be, aimed at people who didn’t already own all those songs on the real albums. Why not offer compilations from K-Tel while you’re at it?
So I stopped right there. Stupid, stupid quiz…
Related Posts
OK, now here’s a discussion that real, self-respecting Beatles fans might have:
What was the last, real, legit Beatles album?
This is something that serious fans might disagree about.
One might be tempted to say it was the “Hey Jude” album. After all, it followed right on the heels of “Let It Be,” and you could say it was an original album in that the songs on it had not appeared on previous albums. Since it was composed of singles that had appeared only on 45s, you could say that this was a necessary album that completed the canon.
But no: It was a compilation of previously-released songs — although the first and most legitimate of its genre.
So we turn to “Let It Be”… But it has its own, unique problems. It was, in a sense, a leftovers album, an afterthought. It was released after the Beatles had broken up — just after. And all the songs had been recorded BEFORE (or during) the sessions for “Abbey Road.” And George Martin didn’t produce it. A bunch of tracks were thrown at Phil Spector, and he did what he did with them.
(I didn’t know this when I saw the “Let It Be” film, so I was really puzzled by the scene in which George is giving Ringo a hand writing “Octopus’s Garden.” The scene was joltingly anachronistic, if you didn’t understand how old it was.)
So, the last deliberate, intentional, serious, original album by The Beatles was “Abbey Road.” The song “The End” was, indeed the end. And it was released just in time for my 16th birthday — I read a review of it in the TIME magazine edition dated on my actual birthday, Oct. 3. And ran right out and bought it, along with a pair of desert boots, with my first paycheck from my first job, as groundskeeper at the golf course on McDill AFB in Tampa.
So there. Now you know.
Happy Birthday, Brad!
I guess now I’ll spend this rainy afternoon, searching the Internet for Beatles music! :). Waxing nostalgic
An appropriate Beatles song for a day like today is Rain, which, if you follow Brad’s reasoning, never appeared on any real, legit Beatles album.
How about yellow submarine, if you are in five points maybe 🙂 Although at my house I dont think we have gotten the great quantities predicted so far. Maybe Tomorrow Never Knows is appropriate as a comment on the forecast.
What about American vs British albums, or mono vs. stereo. Opinions?
Presumably the British mono versions would have truest to what the Beatles themselves worked on and put together as albums.
We’ve had about an inch in NE Columbia today. It has stopped for the time being.
I am not a huge Beatles fan. I like their music, and I have an appreciation for their influence on rock. I’ve just never understanding the need to know all the trivia. I feel the same way about most pop culture. The Beatles, Elvis, Star Wars (or Trek), or whatever. It’s ephemera designed to entertain. That’s all.
You’re too young.
I know the trivia without trying. I was just immersed in it at the time.
Funny thing is, I sort of missed the beginning of Beatlemania, since I was in South America from November 1962 to April 1965. Didn’t get to see their debut on Ed Sullivan. Only read about them in an old copy of The Miami Herald weeks later, and had no idea what sort of insect had invaded Miami when I saw the headline.
But I did manage to get my hands on a couple of singles and was really into what little I heard. Eventually, I managed to find an Odeon vinyl recording from what the cover called “La Banda Original de la Pelicula ‘A Hard Days Night’,” as the cover was in Spanish.
I think I just became a bigger fan than most people when I got back to the states, as a way of compensating for what I missed. As I’ve written before, I sort of mainlined pop culture when I got back to the land of TV right in the middle of 1965. NO ONE enjoyed what was happening at that time more than I did.
Can you be too young for the Beatles? I don’t think so. I was born in 1969. But I didn’t get into them until High School. Maybe I over compensated too.
1961.
My local station in southern Arizona leaned to the pop side of country. They were the only game in town. We just didn’t hear the Beatles much. My folks’ record collection was Opry-centric.
I discovered KOMA in Oklahoma City and a Mexican station that played rock at night about 1972. By that time The Beatles no longer dominated the airwaves as a group. They were solo artists.
Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, Aerosmith, Floyd, Alice Cooper, Queen and all the southern rock groups–these were the bands I listened to during my formative years.
I would venture that I know a bit of Eagles and Alice Cooper trivia that is pretty obscure, and I enjoy trivia (especially music trivia) immensely, but I just don’t get that excited by the Beatles. My bride does.
Playlist suggestions:
Five Feet High (Johnny Cash)
I Wish It Would Rain (Temptations)
Who’ll Stop the Rain? (CCR)
All Night Rain (ARS)
Backwater Blues (Bessie Smith)
Praying for Rain (new from Don Henley)
I apologize for including a few obvious ones.
You’re forgetting THE most appropriate song for this weekend — Randy Newman’s “Louisiana 1927.”
I think I’ll make that a separate post.
Oh–Let it Rain by Clapton.
But it was a great single — as were all the songs on the “Hey Jude” compilation of singles, from “I Should Have Known Better” to “Lady Madonna.”
Love both yours and Scout’s suggestions! Spent some time on YouTube. I have a friend from high school who spent a year with her grandparents in England. She came back with their first album. We thought at the time that their long hair would never go over. Little did we know… Sometime after the Ed Sullivan Show, they played Atlanta, and my friend’s little sister went. She was so overcome with emotion that she cried the whole time. I Want To Hold Your Hand and Rollover Beethoven were the first songs I remember- not their best. The ones Brad has mentioned were later and among the best.
Set up;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pms-Zr0T8CM
Thank you, Bill!
Awesome!
I think ELO’s Out of the Blue album with Concerto for a Rainy Day is much more appropriate for today. 🙂
Some people don’t consider Magical Mystery Tour a Beatles “album” since it was based on a TV show (or movie or something) and not a studio recording. However, it’s my favorite “album”. But Brad is right about all these post 1980 compilation things. They’re just an attempt to cash in on the Beatles continued popularity, even among Millennials.