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7.09pm
11 June 2015
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Did The Beatles facilitate your interest in any of the fine arts?
There is no question that The Beatles broadened my interest in music in general and opened my mind to different instruments besides guitars and drums. The recording of Yesterday may not have been the first time I ever heard a string quartet, but it certainly was the first time I ever bought a record featuring one. I didn’t even realize at the time that The Beatles were making this type of music sound cool to me, which later helped me to enjoy a whole new (old) world of music.
A little while later they expanded the concept with even more strings and classical concepts on Eleanor Rigby . I blasted that song on my stereo just as if it were Twist And Shout . I could actually feel the groove and get excited in the same way a guitar melody would move me.
There is no doubt that because of these records and the use of classical instrumentation by other 60s artists, a little while later when I first encountered Bach it was like we were already good friends.
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Beatlebug, The Hole Got Fixed, SgtPeppersBulldogYou and I have memories
Longer than the road that stretches out ahead
7.22pm
Moderators
15 February 2015
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Taking your question in a more general sense…
To the Beatles I owe my entire interest in rock music, and my initiation into serious artist fandom. Before I discovered the Beatles, I mainly listened to lyricless New Age music (e.g. George Winston, Windham Hill, Narada kind of things) by artists I knew nothing about; I thought I ‘wasn’t a rock and roll person’ (I was also eight years old sooo 
). The Beatles were the first band I actually got interested in as people as well as liking everything I’d heard by them. I have no way of telling how deep my interest in music in general would be had I not fallen in love with the Beatles at the age of nine. 
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2.48am
24 March 2014
Offline sigh butterfly said
Did The Beatles facilitate your interest in any of the fine arts?
Definitely. I was interested in music before discovering them, but once i listened to their songs i just got deeply interested in music. They way i listened to a song changed completely, i started focusing on not only the main melody or vocal line but in everything going on around and/or in the background.
It was because of the Beatles that i learned to play guitar when i was a kid and , years later, became a musician. And of course it was because of them that i developed an interest in learning english.
And surely they facilitated an interest in discovering certain substances and states of mind…
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6.26pm
11 June 2015
Offline Yes, I was influenced by The Beatles in similar ways. Beatlebug in my 1950s household the only music we listened to allowed was Broadway show tunes, Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland. My mom had a deep distrust of Elvis and the radio in general. She was the youngest daughter of a single mom and (I guess for her safety) was brought up to stay away from anyplace popular music was played. Among other phobias, she was always anti jeans of any kind as well. I may have mentioned elsewhere that sometime in the early 60s at a garage sale I bought a little blue transistor radio for $0.25 and used to sneak listens whenever I could. It’s kind of bittersweet to think that these rules loosened up because of The Beatles initial style and presentation. I don’t know if it was the matching suits, Ed Sullivan’s approval or the fact they were British (and not from the American south) that won her over.
But suddenly I was allowed to buy and play records, collect pictures, acquire a decent radio, and wear jeans (as long as I bought them with my own money).Sadly she felt very betrayed when the Beatles championed the counter culture and introduced some of the other influences of which you speak SW. Even though she was and is a liberal, progressive thinking woman I think she feels The Beatles were part of a massive conspiracy to corrupt the nations youth.
Ok, anyone for a little Shakespeare?
I admit to being a 60s fanatic when it came to just about anything Beatles. I took nothing they did at face value and was sure there were hidden meanings behind everything. This was no different for the King Lear coda at the end of I Am The Walrus . Convinced that the play may hold the key to understanding the eggman, I headed for the library and checked it out. However I could not fathom the Elizabethan English and soon gave up (I know thee well: a serviceable villain 
). Soon after I had a mind changing experience during a university production of Henry V. The play had been reimagined to a Roman Court with lots of pillars, torches and togas. I wasn’t paying too much attention until the King came to center stage and began to recite The Saint Crispin’s Day speech, words of encouragement to lead his soldiers into battle. As the speech went on the actors voice grew louder and the other players started to rise and murmur among themselves. The whole scene drew to a crescendo with the final words shouted as the King brandished his sword and the soldiers cheered:
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be rememberèd—
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day
…and off they marched. At that moment I remember having something akin to a religious experience. The rush of excitement transcended what I accepted as reality, as if I was actually living the play and the King had just inspired me to follow him. All of my emotions and physical senses were enlivened and later I remember thinking Shakespeare is a genius to be able to relay such strong human spirit across the ages. I turned out to be more of a sonnets kind of guy, but this experience opened my mind to another world I had resisted.
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6.33pm
Moderators
15 February 2015
Offline @sigh butterfly I love the sonnets. I’m going to perform one at a local sonnet reading later this month 
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6.42pm
1 January 2017
Offline sigh butterfly said
Did The Beatles facilitate your interest in any of the fine arts?
Back when I was still doing art in Year 9 (about two years ago) I remember I chose to do a mini research project on Magrite out of a group of artists because I had read that Paul was an admirer of his artwork and that it is where the inspiration for the Apple logo came from. 
I also credit The Beatles, Sir George 
The Beach Boys (especially their work with The Wrecking Crew) and even a bit of Spector’s “Wall of Sound” stuff for sparking my interest in orchestral music – I mostly like baroque music but I like a few things from the classical and romantic eras too. As for drama, not that much, but Peter Sellers is my favourite actor, and he had his fair share of Beatley connections.
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2017:
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