Miscellaneous questions about the Beatles | Page 16 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Bother, I can only see “the making of” documentary on YT but I’m sure if you look around some other sites *cough*, you’ll be able to find the clip you’re looking for. It’s in the middle of the documentary from what I can remember. 

Okay, I’m double-posting, @Ahhh Girl, but that’s your fault for editing to change the parameters of your question while I was responding to another.

Why did Brian refer to them as the “Boys “, a description that many others adopted as well? Part of that was because that was how Brian viewed them, his “Boys “. As things unfolded, it fitted the non-threatening image – especially sexually – for them that Brian wanted to project. In that respect, they were the original boy band, and that description still stands for many male pop groups.

So, if that is the questions, the public perception of them as the “Boys ” started dying the moment they stepped off stage at Candlestick Park in 1966.

The reference to them as the “Boys ” shouldn’t be taken to mean that they were not also regarded as men. At what age, for instance, do men and women stop having respectively a “Boys night out” or a “Girls night out”? In that way, we as adults, cling to our youth. While women, at a certain stage, may switch from a “Girls night” to “Ladies night”, there is no real equivalent in male language. For us, it’s a “Boys night” or a “Lads night”, both of which sound rather juvenile.

It’s just the way the language works.

C.R.A. said

I disagree.

While true that Epstein referred to them as ‘the boys,’ so did numerous other people, including family, friends, and associates, including Mona Best, Neil Aspinal, Bob Wooler and George Martin.  And this was before they ‘broke.’  It’s a term of affection, to be sure.  But The Beatles weren’t known for just their singing (the chief element in a ‘boy band’), they were also known for breaking the songwriting barrier -you know of what I speak.  Hindsight saddles them with this term and, I’m going to presume, some of them might have found it unflattering and maybe even a bit offensive.

The term ‘boy band’ is a term that gained notoriety only as recently as the 1990’s.  It wasn’t used in the 1960’s (that I’m aware of).  Retrospective application of it landed on The Beatles, but unfairly.  If you’re to create justification for a ‘boy band,’ it would center on ‘manufactured’ groups (by producers, record execs, A&R people, etc.) and focused largely for their vocal ability.  Rarely does this include musicianship, and never on their own songwriting.  ‘Boy bands’ also involve dance choreography and a few other elements that The Beatles lacked (or didn’t even consider) unless you wish to count their unison bowing.

Knowing your Beatles history tells you that, before anything, The Beatles were a straight-up rock band that evolved into a more complex rock act as they musically matured. Name me a single ‘boy band’ where you find that.
If you’re going to apply the term retrospectively, in the rock genre, you’re going to have to stop at The Monkees.  They were the original boy band.

Incredibly well put. In my view, the notion of the Beatles being referred to as a boy band is ludicrous.

Ahhh Girl said

I guess what is getting in my way here is the idea of the “bubble” that people say they were in while Brian was alive. Brian took care of them. I’ve seen the posts on the forum that say the bubble burst when Brian died. Maybe that is part of what is coming into my thinking when I try to imagine them having to grow up and become men.

I was thinking about your question, AG – “when did they become men?”. RN is on the right track in saying Hamburg, but to me that was just where the tendencies began. Turning teenagers (yes, I know John would soon be 20) loose in Hamburg is like letting a kid loose in a candy store. Humping everything that moved is not being a man. However, sending money home to their families showed manly (a loose adjective) responsibility. Shouting obscenities at your audience is not being a man. Showing tenderness and depth of feeling toward Astrid upon Stu’s loss is. I could go on, but hopefully by now you see where I am coming from. Even after Hamburg when it came to sacking Pete, they hid behind Brian. Men face up to it. I’m not going to sit here and tell you definitively when they became men. I would be daft to try. But Hamburg was definitely the beginning.