Well, I was 5 years old when The Beatles made their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in glorious black and white from the family room television console. My jaw hit the floor as I stood there in my footed pee-jays with the flap in the back, absolutely transfixed. "Early Beatles" really was one of the coolest things around for the mainstream pop music audience at the time, because they were such a unique blend of several distinctly different elements we'd seen before in pop music, all balled into one. They had Elvis' cool, Buddy Holly's songwriting chops, and a little Sinatra, Chuck Berry, and country and western thrown in for good measure. They wrote their own songs. They played all the instruments with little outside help. They sang their own harmonies. There was huge variety in the styles and genres they performed. They were acoustic musicians, electric musicians, solo and combo, all at once. No single band of musicians had done anything quite like it before. Indeed, the term "band" was redefined by their self-contained collaborative nature and multi-faceted influences and style.
As time went by and they morphed into the Psychadelic Beatles, I lost interest. That flower power Haight Ashbury Swinging London tune-in-turn-on culture stuff was kinda scary for an 8-year-old. Of course, I later learned as a teenager, it was also kinda cool. And I later learned as a musician how many "firsts" they are credited for.
The Beatles obviously borrowed from some pretty powerful influences, but let's be clear: They were influences of which the mainstream at the time was largely unaware. Credit The Beatles with vicariously exposing a whole treasure trove of great music and musicians, poets, and other creative artists, and even legitimizing those relatively radical (at the time) forms of expression.
I still want to be Paul McCartney when I grow up.
I have come to appreciate most of the entire Beatles catalog, but every release had its fair share of stinkers. They were not infallible. Only a couple of their albums could be considered air-tight and consistently "good" start to finish.
To underestimate or deny their influence on pop rock music in the mainstream as we know it would be nothing short of stubborn arrogance, whether you personally care for their music or not. If you "don't like" The Beatles, chances are still very good you like and appreciate an artist who not only "likes" them, but was influenced by them.
