“With the release of ‘Revolver´ in 1966, the Beatles began to transform themselves from teen idols into storytellers. … One of the album´s chart hits, the sing-song ‘Yellow Submarine,´ reaches back beyond rock for its inspiration. A children´s song, it pointed in the direction the Beatles were to go: the British Music Hall.
“Sgt. Pepper´s (1967) may well have transformed the rock world, but it owes nothing to rock´s Romantic myth. It is built largely from the music and imagery of the Victorian and Edwardian pleasure palaces of the industrial working class. …
“A long list of later Beatles songs is drawn, directly or indirectly, from this tradition: ‘Martha, My Dear,´ ‘Your Mother Should Know,´ ‘Penny Lane,´ ‘All You Need Is Love,´ ‘All Together Now,´ ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,´ ‘Honey Pie,´ ‘Maxwell´s Silver Hammer,´ ‘Magical Mystery Tour,´ ‘Good Night,´ and almost everything on the B side of ‘Abbey Road,´ down to and including the inner-groove run-out, ‘Her Majesty.´ …
“But what do … these elements have to do with the mythology that the rock establishment embraces? Precious little. In the end, the rock world´s head was turned by music that was sweet, corny, artificial, and intensely sentimental.”
–Charles Paul Freund, writing on “Still Fab: Why We Keep Listening to the Beatles,” in June issue of Reason magazine
