Definitely. Especially surprising for a long time to me, given that their early songs seem really simple (She loves you...). And while that may be true, what one must realise is that the Beatles kind of started out as a cover band, as a "live juke box" really playing in clubs. So even before they published the first album they had a routine of hundreds of songs from memory. I think this cannot be underestimated as a foundation on which they built in their later years.
Compare that to today, where someone who picks up a guitar learns two songs and can get into a rabbit whole on youtube learning all about jazz harmonies, and song-composing, yet will lack the routine that these guys had when their career really launched.
And while that may be true, what one must realise is that the Beatles kind of started out as a cover band, as a "live juke box" really playing in clubs.
Funny thing from the recent Rubin/McCartney interview series: McCartney mentioned that they'd play with other bands the same night and that there was always the risk that another band did a better cover of a song that was also on their set list. So, they started writing their own songs to avoid that other bands would play the same songs that night.
A big difference is the source material. The Beatles didn’t have a very wide exposure to music, but they had a very deep one.
They grew up in an era when American R&B was literally revolutionizing the musical culture of Britain. And in crossing the pond and being selected by disc jockeys with rabid audiences, there was a distillation that took place.
So the Beatles in their youth were not just exposed to some American music - they were listening to the absolute best R&B ever created, and way more of it than most white kids in America were getting.
It’s fascinating that this sort of convergence of all the most incredible aspects of American roots music had to take place outside of the US, create genres like Skiffle (unheard of in America), and spit out kids like Paul McCartney who would go on to “invade” America with a sound that was familiar to US ears and yet something else entirely.
The magic still happens - see Amy Winehouse, the Scoundrels - but these are sort of like subsequent moon landings, despite being amazing in their own right.
Agree, but let's not forget that American kids were beginning to also get served some R&B tailings served up to them by the likes of Elvis and Buddy Holly, etc.
My point is really that what Americans mostly heard on the radio - Elvis and Buddy Holly etc. - were _products_ of the R&B canon. Owing to the particulars of how R&B was appreciated in the UK, which was quite unique to the UK, the Beatles had deeper access to the source material.
Yeah I think it was all those years of practice that made them really good simply as a band that were essential for when they later started getting recognized as composers.
Indeed. There's knowing something having learned it from somewhere, and then there's KNOWING that thing, having used it for years. There aren't really short cuts to that second level.
Compare that to today, where someone who picks up a guitar learns two songs and can get into a rabbit whole on youtube learning all about jazz harmonies, and song-composing, yet will lack the routine that these guys had when their career really launched.