Was there a Beatles 'backlash' in the late 70s??

Beatles Monthly, the 60s magazine, was revived in 1976 and grew so popular that it led to a second magazine, Record Collector, growing from it. Beatles Monthly ran from 1976 to 2002. No late 70s slump.
The Concert For Kampuchea in 1979 was fuelled by feverish rumours of an actual Beatles reunion. Maybe in certain smalltown high schools in the backwoods there was a backlash, but it never affected the level of interest in The Beatles.

 

That's kind of the thing. That you didn't see it doesn't mean it didn't exist, because others did so it obviously did.

 

I think Imagine hit around #6 too when it was first issued as a single in 1975 in the UK.

 

In 1971, 'Ram' was number one and 'Another Day' was number two. Hit singles in 1972 as well. I think lots of artists would like to struggle like that.

 

Like UFOs?

 

Yes; it was - finally - issued as a single here to promote 'Shaved Fish'. Lennon suggested in his last BBC interview that it wasn't issued here at the time of the 'Imagine' lp so people would have to buy the lp to get the song. The hand of Allen Klein?.

 

Seems Klein generally had more influence in the USA?

 

The only "backlash" I can recall would be that their early and middle period material was not played on Top 40 or AOR stations, as it was considered a little old-fashioned.

Of course, many of these stations would have a "Beatles Brunch" or all-Beatles weekend programming, when the entire catalog was available for airplay.

 

No backlash per se during the mid to late 70's in northern California, where I grew up. The Beatles music still got played on FM AOR stations, alongside The Stones, The Who, Aerosmith, Boston, Steve Miller Band etc. I was in high school at the time, and Led Zeppelin was definitely big among the students, as well as Yes, Genesis, and others. Nationwide, it was the time of the blockbuster albums, like Frampton Comes Alive! (recorded partially at San Francisco's Winterland), Hotel California, Rumours, and obviously, the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.

As was mentioned earlier in the thread, the Rock and Roll Music album reached number two on the Billboard charts in 1976, with Got To Get You Into My Life released as a single and going to number 7. Now this was summer '76, and obviously the Wings Over America tour generated a lot of interest in Beatle music, too. The Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl was released a year later, and also was number two on the Billboard album chart.

Marshall

My review of The Original Mr. Peabody & Sherman WABAC Adventures DVD's:
http://marshfish.hubpages.com/hub/T...n-WABAC-Adventures-Vol-1-and-Vol-2-DVD-Review

 

YES there is certainly an element of truth in this, but it did not seriously adversely affect the original product and how it was viewed imho, the distaste for the re-hashing and the dreadfull pepper film was for just that

 

I saw Robin Gibb give the answer to this question in a TV interview about 4 years ago.

 

I was born in 1960 so i guess i must be a bit of a freak then but i kind of know what you mean, but love of the Beatles stems for the dearth of the pop music scene and depressing culture of the early 70's, i viewed what had been going on when i was younger as a golden age in comparison the the uncool and brown & beige early to mid 70's....thank goodness for the arrival of punk and new wave that shook it all up just like the Beatles did in 1963....

 

well thats all we disagree on cos i pretty much agree with everything else you have said there buddy, i also agree that 331/3rd was ok but then the earlier dark horse was weak but after 33 1/3rd i do maintain that until his mini resurgance in the late 80's there wasn't much to get excited about between 76-86 imho...

 

But then again, it didn't.

 

IIRC, the reprints of 'Beatles Monthly' (where would we have been without BM? - they ALWAYS had fabulous pics that you still don't see anywhere else, and they kept ALL the pics they never used first time around) were launched on the back of the singles being re-released.

 

Everyone can only write about what he or she witnessed or perceived among friends, on the street, or in the media. Even then the world was a fairly large and multifaceted place, so there could have been quarters where there was a backlash of some sort. Was it widespread in the sense that there was a prominent, tangible backlash against, say, Disco music? From my little perspective on the world in the late 1970's, definitely not. If it did happen I never knew about it.

 

No. It was more personal and individualized than that. It wasn't a media event, you (I and the handful of Beatle nuts I knew) were just looked at a bit askance for being into something so old-fashioned and provincial. This was before there was "classic rock" - when it was just "old s***". Oldies stations were on the AM band that no one listened to anymore.

Still, citing sales figures to disprove it is a bit nonsensical. For example, there was a prominent tangible backlash against Disco during its highest selling years.

 

The question posed centered on a "backlash". The punk movement and referencing of dinosaurs wasn't directed at The Beatles, because The Beatles hadn't been an active band for 6-9 years (to fit the "late 70's" timeline). They weren't some lumbering dinosaur continuing past their due date. They were over. So there wasn't any reason to have a backlash.
I would have been 21 in 1979 and was listening to Neil's rust never sleeps, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads and The Modern Lovers...but I wasn't ashamed of The Beatles records in my paltry (by forum standards) collection. And they would get played with my friends all enjoying the music. It might be Abbey Road then My Aim is True. No backlash.
What I do remember are people forming into "John" and "Paul" camps...even after all those years (6-9 yrs). I thought it was funny, then...but it was kid stuff compared to what happens on this forum.
Note: I can see how, on this forum, there can be a backlash to Beatles mania. I've had a good laugh on occasion due to the zealotry. BUT, that doesnt mean that any time someone happens to come down on the side of The Beatles ( or in this case, simply say something didn't happen) that they are some kind of whack job. I didn't even know the term "Macca" before discovering this board and yet I've had a number of off-base comments, lumping me into that Beatles Forever camp. Funny, but occasionally irritating.

 

I was 16 in 1979. There wasn't a backlash--they were still reissuing albums like Rock & Roll Music and Hollywood Bowl was a best seller, but they weren't all that popular, either. It didn't help that in my school, the Beatles fans tended to be obsessive and were the type that went around quoting Monty Python sketches in high pitched British accents.

They were more popular than punk, less popular than Led Zeppelin, AC/DC or Van Halen.

 

Ha, I remember that! (it was 1978, and two weeks sounds right.) Because I didn't have most of the albums yet, it was the first time I heard several Beatles songs, including "If I Needed Someone" and "Yes It Is."

 

I agree with most here. From a mini-peak in the mid-70's (Wings Tour, Rock and Roll Music, Hollywood Bowl), interest in the work of the solo Beatles simply waned in the late 70's. No "backlash", but a general lack of interest. I was a high school intern at a top 40 radio station in Hawaii in 1978 and remember "Girls School" being played on air and receiving virtually no reaction (caller requests) at all. Same with "Goodnight Tonight", "Getting Closer" and "Arrow Through Me". Same with "Blow Away", "Love Comes to Everyone" and "Faster". I know those records charted, but I think it was primarily airplay and not sales.

 

that was me Beatles and Python, oh and star trek too...oh and i am British lol !!

 

I think "critical reappraisal" oversteps. Do you have any examples?

 

Not at all.