Evolving musical tastes...

[BigSkyTaylorPlayer]

Isn't music a wonderful thing?  I grew up in the 70s and early 80s (amazing to think that I'm just now hitting 29.. ) and I can remember that the only thing the radio played was Led Zeppelin, if by chance they weren't never fear they would throw on Beatle's Sgt. Pepper.......ugh!

I have never been a fan of either and would just change the channel or outright turn it off.  The other choice was disco but I won't go there..... .....not that there's anything wrong with that.

Fast-forward to now........seems all I want to play are Beatles tunes - Yesterday, Let it Be, Something, Long and Winding Road, and many others.  What happened??!!!  I don't like this kind of music.....but it sure sounds good on my new uke!!  I also played Hey Jude and Yesterday on my guitar and just love them both.  Last night there was a special on Palladia - an hour long concert by Paul McCartney.  I sat and watched the whole thing, I just kept thinking, but I don't like the Beatles.....I loved it.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that one of Paul's guitarists played a very nice Taylor 12 string during Band on the Run.  I think it was an 800 series.

[Captain Jim]

Ah, that evening in February 1964, when the Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan was a defining time in my life.  I knew I HAD to play guitar.  These days, I play way more Beatles music than I ever did back in the 60s and 70s.  It's true that some things get better with age.   

Don't try to analyze it, just enjoy the music... even if you don't like the Beatles. 

Best wishes,
Captain Jim

[imorroy]

Ha! I've always been a Beatles fan, and now play their songs "salsafied" or "calypsofied" with my band. The one artist I did not like when I was growing up was Elvis Presley. I now play many of his songs in different styles, and rhythms with two and three part harmony, and I think he would approve. I have also come to appreciate Pink, after years of not really paying attention to her music.

There's so much you can do with existing music, by adding a new twist. Eva Cassidy was good at making covers sound like new.

[oatordeal]

maybe songs from the beatles are more relatable now since you are enjoying playing the uke and guitar. when i was younger, i never bothered listening to blues music. when i started learning how to play some guitar solo using the blues scales, everything changed. i now appreciate blues since i understand how guitar players do it and i can join the jam.

i also think that some songs are better to listen to rather than playing them and vice versa.

my 0.02 cents 

[Saxacat]

Surprisingly, I have never been a Beatles fan, even though I grew up in Liverpool during Beatlmania. We even had a family connection to Mimi, Lennon's aunt; she used to often send signed stuff over for my siblings and I, and we just used to give it away (Oh how I wish I'd kept some). I liked some of their singles, but never bought an album until many years later.
Even now I'm not a huge fan, (preferred George in the Travelling Wilburys) but I find a do like a lot of their stuff when played on an acoustic.

[cigarfan]

I am a Beatles fan and followed them with CSNY, JT and Eagles. Many others too but I find now it is the melody. So many good ones out there and it doesn't matter who wrote it or made it famous. I heard a Mel Torme song yesterday that blew me away. Mel who?

Nothing like taking a great melody and mixing in your own flavor.

[Saxacat]

.... I heard a Mel Torme song yesterday that blew me away. Mel who?

My older brother bought the family's first record player in the 60s, it was 2nd hand and it came with a few singles. One was Nat King Cole singing Ramblin' Rose, another was Mel Torme singing Comin' Home Baby. I was only young, it would be a few years before I could buy my own records, so I played the free ones over and over. Even now, over 50 years later, those songs give me goosebumps. The power of music 

[BigSkyTaylorPlayer]

Yes, go figure.  Now I have been working on a melody/chord arrangement of Frank Sinatra's version of "My Way"  Frank Sinatra???.....!  I think that's what's great about music, so much out there and so much waiting to be discovered you can't get bored.

[GuitNGood]

I was a kid when they broke up but I latched on to their music very early on. The other facet that creates a timeless quality to their catalog (in my opinion) is the amount of genres/influences represented within the body of work.

Depending on the era/album you can find songs that were inspired by folk, rockabilly, pop, rock, indian, classical, country, soul, blues, jazz, Tin Pan Alley, avant garde, etc.

This also allows for a lot of "rediscovering" songs you forgot they created when you hear them reinterpreted by others like immorroy mentioned Eva Cassidy as an excellent example.

GuitNGood

[not darth]

The Beatles have always had a prominent significance in my life. 
I was established in '76 and some of the very first music I remember hearing was that of The Beatles. 
Always loved it, still do!

I'll never forget a particular instance of hearing "Good Day Sunshine" being belted out of my brother's Hi-Fi phonograph. 
That intro is just timeless.
There is no mood that can stifle a smile when that snare comes in.  Definitely a go-to day-brightener for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRdtKUWn_wI

As a young boy I recall asking my older brothers (born in '68 and '71) if they'd ever been to a Beatles concert and they scoffed that that was impossible since the band broke up in 1970.  I was crushed!  It hadn't occurred to me that a band could stop existing, I actually remember crying about it. 

Although John and Pres.Reagan were shot within a few months of each other I actually don't remember the news of John's death but I have a clear recollection of the evening news on March 30, 1981 reporting the attempted assassination of Reagan.  Interesting that I remember one but not the other, especially since I recall my brothers holding onto a lot of anger and grief over John's death for quite a few years. 

As my own life has progressed I shift back and forth between listening to more early-Beatles (With the Beatles, Meet the Beatles), mid-Beatles (Beatles for Sale, Hey Jude) and the later stuff (White Album, Revolver, Abbey Road) but it's ALL good and given the hypothetical 'desert island exile with only one album' I really couldn't decide.