You know how factories post signs "23 days accident-free"? How long do you go without hearing or reading some reference to the Beatles?

The idea struck me because I was reading an old comic series (Chronos) and there was a scene with the Beatles. The next day, I finished the series, and there was another scene with the Beatles. Turn on the radio, a Beatles song. Surf the net, an old BBC interview with George Harrison ( ). John Lennon's birthday. You get the point.

Since I started counting two weeks ago, I've had 2 successive Beatles-free days. Maybe it's a generational thing.

(Eight Days a Week! The radio's on in the background as I type this, and there's some guy talking about the Beatles' haircuts!)

Funnily enough I had a conversation with a student a few years ago that was almost exactly the same, he said that he didn't understand why he heard the Beatles all the time on the radio as he thought they were rubbish. I explained the history of their music and the influences they had, styles they tried and such like. For weeks afterwards I kept hearing their songs everywhere I went.

I'll keep a diary over the next few weeks and report back to you Nancy.

Until I saw this thread, probably months. Oh wait, yesterday I saw a thread about Lennon's birthday, so other than that...

Guess I live in a Beatles limited world.

With BB here. Until this, I can't remember the last time.

well i can never go too many Beatles free days, when i'm driving my cab listening to the radio especially when i have on WCBSfm or any of the local "classic rock" stations i'm most assuredly bound to hear a Beatles song at least every hour or every other hour during my shift. and of course every sunday it's a 2 hour Beatles love fest with "breakfast with the Beatles" on one of the mentioned "classic rock" stations. so i'm almost always on Beatles over-saturation, but i can't complain.

While I was driving to a restaurant this morning, Paul McCartney's "Silly Love Songs" came over the radio. Inside the restaurant, "Junior's Farm" played over the intercom.

The Beatles haven't taken over the world; only Macca has.

I won't go long without my Beatles fix. If the radio doesn't cooperate, then I'll just put on an album. Sure, I could live without the Beatles, just as I could live without literature or poetry or the Legion, but why should I have to?

I don't listen to the Beatles every single day, but it's rare that I don't see/hear an external Beatles reference in a given day. Internally, of course, every day I "listen to the music playing in [my] head".

John Lennon was killed the year before I was born, but just about every class I ever took in grade school, college and grad school felt the influence of the Beatles, and I think thats true for most of the USA. I'm curious as to what that means in 10-15 years when more people who were taught be people who were influenced by John Lennon take power in business and politics.

I also hear the Beatles constantly on the radio, on television in the background or in commercials. And I see references to them all the time.

My daughter is teacher herself acoustic guitar playing. She's become very good and is a big George Harrison fan, so I hear Beatles music almost daily. I don't mind it one bit.

Well, I definitely count today (even assuming this thread doesn't count ) as I was channel-surfing and landed a few minutes on E! and saw something about "top 30 celebrity feuds" or somesuch. Either 29 or 28 was Paul McCartney/Heather Mills!

This morning, I even had a Beatles dream! They were playing at Shea Stadium, where they were clowning around to make their stage show more "interesting." (Y'know, 'cause watching four guys who look like ants stand still and play is kind of boring, even if they are icons).

On the way to work this morning, I heard "Please Please Me" on the radio.

I gave up on achieving the Beatles-free ideal years ago. (Though as a certified Gen-Xer, I felt that it was my civic duty to at least try. )

I have at least one Beatles cover (KJ Denhert singing "She Loves You") on iTunes right now. Probably more to come.

There are worse songs to cover out there, I guess.

There aren't many Beatles free days around my house. I'm a hardcore fan. When I was a kid in rural MIssouri, my buddies and I would drive around on gravel roads getting high while listening to our favorite bands on eight track or cassette tape. On one of those trips I made the innocent comment, "Hey man, did I ever tell you I love the Beatles?" when Blackbird came on.

It was moment immortalized in our stoner history. My friends cracked up and teased me for years. Still do actually. My vacations home are typically marked by at least one incident of someone I haven't seen in years calling out from across a crowded room, "Hey man, did I ever tell you I LOVE the Beatles"?

Three days since this thread started (my last Beatles encounter) til today on the subway platform a guy was playing a guiter and singing a Beatles song. I forget what song as I am listening to Simon and Garfunkel now.

Can't resist sharing a couple of Beatles covers for their sheer eccentricity and/or randomness:

Ed Reed , one of my favorite jazz singers, on a stripped-down "Come Together."

Diana Yukawa (violin) with several uncredited beatboxers, Hikari Ichihara (trumpet), and an uncredited pianist, performing "Lady Madonna."

A couple more Beatles covers: Susan and the Surftones play "A Day In The Life."

And Throwing Muses plays "Cry Baby Cry" . (Just to confuse their fans and various search engines, the group also has an original song with the exact same title.)

I listen to the local oldies station while getting ready for work, so luckily, I never have a Beatles-free day!!
Just for giggles, here\'s a Beatles cover by the B-52s!!

After watching an all Beatles cover show on BBC4 last night here is a quite unusual cover of Petula Clark singing Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

This guy was famous for prepping and playing a Beatles' cover a few days after the song's release. McCartney was impressed and flattered.

Jimi Hendrix


(OK, he was famous for other stuff too.)

Jeepers! How can you have a thread of Beatles covers without Richie Havens ?

Holy Toledo! What've they done to poor Tinya's costume?!

Wow, that Richie Havens cover has some energy. I know nothing about him.

Richie Havens is primarily remembered these days for being the first act at Woodstock (and for writing "Freedom", a major Woodstock anthem that he improvise on the spot when he had to fill time). In the late 60s/early 70s, he was a pretty major folk artist, particularly known for his frantic guitar strumming on covers of tunes by the Beatles, Dylan, etc. His stuff is definitely worth checking out.

The Beatles show up in comics from time to time. I read the #1-1/2 issue of Midnight Nation last night (it was some special Wizard promo) and John Lennon made an appearance. Nice story, too.

There's a funny written segment in Alex Robinson's graphic novel Box Office Poison where the struggling fiction writer is exploring an alternate universe; one where Paul McCartney is the Beatle who got shot instead of John Lennon. Naturally that means that McCartney is the dude who gets lionized by everyone.

I think I'd read that comic.

Just to show that not everyone got the Beatles.

Re: The Beatles in comics.

Anybody else remember the Teen Titans issue from the late '70s, which focused on two pop music acts, Peter McCarthy & Flyer (a.k.a. Paul McCartney & Wings) and the Woodworkers (a.k.a., the Carpenters)? In the end, it was revealed that both groups were actually the same group operating under different disguises.

Only a middle-aged square could have written that issue.

Or Batman #222, which is a take-off on the whole "Paul Is Dead" thing.

Never read the Batman issue, though I did read about it. As I recall, it's the three other band members who have died and the fourth one who survives to cover up their deaths.

One thing that has always bothered me (from seeing the cover): Why is this mystery worth the time of the Dynamic Duo?

Easily fixed.

Great find, Eryk. It reminds me of when "Paul Mcarthy and the Flyers" and the "The Woodworkers" - Wings and Carpenters parodies appeared in the Teen Titans. Does anyone else remember that one?

There was also the 2008-2009 Vertigo mini "Greatest Hits" about the 1960s super-hero team The Mates - who closely parrelled the Beatles. It was a fun read.

Thanks for posting the link, Eryk. It was fun to read!

My imediate reaction is that it's a piece of the period: The Beatles were so darned important that Batman and Robin just had to get involved in solving the mystery.

However, the story is also quite inventive. It begins with Dick in college and talking with some college chums about something that college chums would likely have been discussing circa 1969/70. From there, it turns into a real mystery with a surprising plot twist. I still don't think Batman would have deigned to investigate it (except, perhaps, to go along with Robin's teenaged obsession with a pop group), but he's not the central character; Robin is.

Loads of fun, in any case.

I picked up George Harrison's "Brainwashed" and Paul's "Driving Rain" yesterday. I have only had time to listen to a few tracks but they seem pretty cool.

Do we have a "Beatles Trivia" thread?

Well, they do give Bruce a bit of a motivation with the "major shareholder in Eden Records" bit. Making sure his investments are on the up and up is a pretty standard Bruce storyline, especially during that period.

Hm. I missed that reference. Not unusual, as it was something the kid in me wouldn't have related to.

For some reason I really latched onto that line. I liked the fact that they went for "Eden" rather than more obvious references like "Orange" or "Lemon" as the name for the record company.

Well, since Adam and Eve were supposed to have eaten an apple, which caused them to be expelled from the Garden of Eden, it's not so unusual a reference.

Yeah, that's clearly the connection, but it's not the first one I would have made when looking for a substitute for "Apple".

I wonder if the writer thought that his youthful audience would draw the connection. I mean, some of the references in the story are superficial: Oliver Twists = British = the Beatles; Glennon = Lennon; and so forth. So, perhaps the writer thought he was being clever by substituting Apple for Eden.

I think that's why it stood out for me. It seemed a lot more subtlely clever than most of the other ones.

I see your point. The Apple/Eden reference requires a familiarity with Judeo-Christian religion. Could it be that the writer drew on such familiarity? Or, conversely, did the writer assume that the average reader wouldn't pick up on it?

To me, the reference seems obvious; however, I was raised Catholic. Had I been reading this story in 1970, I would have picked up on that reference a lot quicker than I would have picked up on the Beatles analogues. In some ways, it's odd to combine a pop culture mythology (the Beatles) with a religious motif (Eden); in other ways, it's fitting: the Beatles have taken on an almost godlike status.

I wonder if the average kid in 1970 would've even known that the Beatles record company was called "Apple"? That seems like a pretty basic fact to those of us at least moderately well-versed in rock history, but I don't have a really good sense of how familiar the fact would've been to the average person at the time.

I imagine that anyone who bought Beatles records would have drawn the connection. Apple Records featured a large, green apple on its labels.

One of the earliest records I (still) have is Wings's "Live and Let Die," which features that label.

" And I Love <strike>Her</strike> Him ", the Shirley Horn* cover.

[happy sigh]

Nothing's more smokin' hot than Shirley Horn.

*(1934-2005)

Apple was pretty big news back in 1968. The Beatles had their own record company - anything the Beatles did was big news. Was that the first time a band had established their own label? Abbey Road was the first Apple album I remember, but there would have been some singles released before that.

Despite that, I don't know if I would have gotten the Eden reference at the time. It took years before "Jo Nah" clicked.

How many Beetles free days?

No where near enough.

Never like'd em', never will.

Though, Harrison was really great on his own and with the Willbury's.

Wow, that really read much snarkier than I ever intended. Sorry bout that.

Hm. I always figured you for a charter member of the Allan Sherman Fan Club, Rick.

Heh. Pretty cool. I don't downplay or diminish their accomplishments or relevance, I just don't like their sound or what it spawned by way of the "british Invasion".

There are a couple of songs by them I like, but it turns out that Billy Preston had a major hand in them.

I just lean towards the hard stuff, as evidenced by Zep. I don't really like the Stones either, and I've always hated the Who. Tastes are subjective. I grew up with so much differnent stuff by way of music, from Freddie Fender to the Doors that the "british" stuff in the beetles vein just left me cold.

You don't have to apologize, Rick. Not everyone does love the Beatles--as I once found out when I used one Beatles reference too many in conversation with a co-worker who was about the same age as the Beatles. I had assumed that everyone her age would universally agree that the Beatles were "important" if not aesthetically pleasing. Yet she let me know in no uncertain terms that she thought the Beatles were silly.

My mother, who was only a few years older than the Beatles, recalled that when they made their landmark first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, she had gone shopping at a local mom-and-pop store. When the owner--an elderly lady--asked her why she wasn't home watching the Beatles, she shrugged and said, "ehh."

Then, there was the 29-year-old co-worker of mine who shared her birthday with Ringo Starr. When I mentioned this to her, she at first looked pleased. Then she turned to me and said, "Ringo Starr? Wasn't he in a group?"

So, yeah, some people get along just fine without falling in love with the Fab Four.

I have to admit that I've never really caught "Beatlemania" myself. I can appreciate their importance on an intellectual level, but I don't really get the same sort of visceral connection to it that I do a lot of stuff from the same period/milieu.

Don't get me started on how massively overrated Zep are, though.

I'm always amazed when people a lot younger than I am dig the Beatles or any other artist from the '60s and '70s. Yet this past semester, I had a student who's 18 or 19 and loves the Beatles and Pink Floyd. Of course, part of their appeal is that he's able to share their music with his father. Another part of it is that he's a musician and is able to appreciate the music on that level.

I was six when the Beatles broke up and didn't discover them until ten years later. But that was the era of Paul McCartney & Wings, John was still alive, George had a hit with "Blow Away," and Ringo was famous for being Ringo. That the individual Beatles were still famous and still making hit records cemented their mystique.

And then there were the TV specials, a made-for-TV movie, and magazines showing girls screaming as the Beatles tried to perform simple love songs. There was the ubiquitous music itself and cover versions by Aerosmith ("Come Together"), Earth Wind & Fire ("Got to Get You Into My Life"), and Elton John ("Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"). The Beatles were indeed something special.

They represented a sort of youthful hope in the future, as John F. Kennedy did to an earlier generation. So long as the Beatles were alive, there was hope that they would get back together. If they could mend their rifts, there was hope that anyone could. Lennon's death destroyed that illusion, as had the death of the earlier John. However, the Beatles' music has lived on ever since. It still speaks of hope, optimism, and universal love. One does not need to be a Beatlemaniac to appreciate those qualities.

The Beatles are so ubiquitous that it really does take a cover for me to get any sense of what I like and don't like about them.

I admit that I get exasperated with fans who carry on like nothing of consequence happened in popular music after they split up, but that's a common affliction not limited to one band or one age group, so...

I've wondered if it's the ubiquity of the Beatles that reduces their impact for me.

On the other hand, no matter how many times I hear "Tuesday Afternoon" in a credit card commercial, I still get that tingly feeling from anything Justin Hayward sings.

<forgive me in advance if you've posted with me forever and have heard me recount this story several times before, including on the classic "Who Are You?" thread on the old DC Boards...>

When I was growing up, I always associated the Beatles with songs like "She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and just figured that was the only type of music they ever made.

Then, Nike put "Revolution" on their commercials. I loved the sound and couldn't believe it when I found out these same Beatles were behind that song! It really opened my eyes to what they were capable of, and I very quickly bought a compilation cassette tape (remember those? ) Beatles: 1967-70 that contained "Revolution" and tons of other songs from the era. I played that frickin' thing to DEATH!

I later bought the companion tape Beatles: 1962-66. While I enjoyed that one, too, I was really more drawn to the later stuff and bought "Sgt. Pepper", "Abbey Road", "Magical Mystery Tour", the White Album and "Let It Be", some on cassettes and others on this newfangled dealy called CDs.

For a while the Beatles and John Lennon solo music was just about all I'd listen to. Before I got into them, all I cared about was whether the music sounded good. But with the Beatles I cared a lot more about the musical choices and especially the lyrics.

Later I branched out into metal and other classic rock bands, but the Beatles are probably still pretty much my favorite if my back's against the wall. Really, the only others that compete with them for my affections are Metallica and System of a Down.

Heck, I just realized I'm wearing my t-shirt of the Abbey Road album cover as I type this!

*Goes to the closet and pulls out my Abbey Road tee shirt and puts it on. We're twins, Chief.

When the Beatles retrospective album "One" was released in 2000, I made a conscious decision not to buy it. I owned enough Beatles music, right? Somebody was just cashing in again, I thought. Knowing what a huge Beatles freak I am, my sister bought it for me for my birthday any way. Thank goodness. Listening to their number one hits, in order, gave me a renewed sense of just how much they evolved in such a short time. Here's a promotional piece for it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZFxthKAVj0

Also, for anyone going to Vegas, I can't recommend "Love" at the MGM highly enough. Seeing it was one of the best entertainment experiences of my life.

WHOOO!!!

(Terrific album, btw! "And in the end...the love you take is equal to the love...you make!")

I passed that up, too, since I've got all the individual songs. Maybe the perspective and the mix might convince me to pick it up after all at some point. (For the record, I still buy CDs when I want them; can't imagine just having it digitally.)

Haven't seen it (heck, haven't ever been to Vegas! , but I own the CD and enjoyed the mix and the alternate versions a LOT! It's awesome!

I also loved the movie "Across the Universe" and all of the great covers of the songs they chose. Excellent vocals and cast that celebrate their music wonderfully. I own the soundtrack for that as well.

I used to get my Beatles fix by listening to my parents LP's on the old record player in the basement. They had most of the albums, not all...but most.

I think they still do actually.

A pretty little cover of "I Am The Walrus" , by jazz vibraphonist Freddie McCoy (1932-2009).

The Beatles came up in a joke today. The one about a guy entering a pub quiz in Liverpool without a clue when it came to general knowledge. He put down either "The Beatles" or "Steven Gerrard" for every answer. He finished second. Let's see how many more days until the next reference...

Still got the same shirt and wearing it as I sit!

Longevity! The T-Shirt as much as the Beatles

I forgave him all the crap solo albums.

I forgave him for not retiring even when his vocal range was mostly gone.

I even forgave him the facelifts that have left him looking like a chipmunk!

But I will not forgive Paul McCartney for trying to steal songwriting credit from John Lennon in his new book "The Lyrics."

"I've always believed that love is all you need." LIAR, you're the one mocking that very song in its final fade! Anyone with half a brain can tell that those na?ve yet utterly sincere lyrics are 100 percent Lennon.

Anyone with half a brain can also tell that at least half (the better half) of "A Day In the Life" is Lennon.

I may not even be able to listen to "Penny Lane" or "She's Leaving Home" or "Yesterday" or any of McCartney's own good songs anymore.

Stupid old wanker! He can go to hell for all I care!

When I saw the topic headline pop up with "How Many Beatles-Free Days? my first thought was 'It will depend on what Paul has put in "The Lyrics"'.

Not surprised to see it in FIckles' post.

In other news, John Lydon claimed in his court case, that technically there were no Beatles free days, as he created them, formed the Pistols from them, fired one of the other Pistols for even liking the Beatles that he had left behind, and went on to do even better Beatles things in PIL that is still on tour. Across the court room, the other Pistols wondered what other (never minfd the) bollocks Lydon would come up with next.

Speaking of Public Image LTD, my radio station, The Bridge 909, is currently playing "This is Not a Love Song." It clocked in at No. 562 of the top 909 songs of the '80s in a listener's poll.

He keeps getting BETTER!

"ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNSVGoPkiWk

Absolutely AMAZING story!

How Did Ringo Starr Join The Beatles? | Vinyl Rewind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30ikMPx65V8