Just to play devils advocate:
Charles manson was a big fan. He believed their music was a prophecy of a racial war. Sharon tate was murdered to further that belief.
Also I believe there was some controversy when one of the members during an interview said "we're bigger then jesus"
The song Helter Skelter, which Manson loved so much, is about an amusement park ride.
When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide
Where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride
Till I get to the bottom and I see you again
Here's the Helter Skelter:
Manson's interpretation of the song says more about his twisted brain than about Paul or the Beatles.
John's comment about being more popular than Jesus was more a commentary about the ridiculousness of Beatlemania than about religion.
I think they were/are over rated. Not sure about them being evil though.
Whether or not you think their songwriting and performance are overrated, they are certainly
not overrated when you consider their contributions to the sound recording process in general.
Prior to the Beatles, all recording was done on 2 track, then 4 track recorders. The Beatles' demands in the studio required the innovation of 8-track and more, as they had the engineers run several 4 track machines together. They were the first to require that drums in kits be mic'd separately rather than one single microphone above the kit. Looping & sampling were first done by the Beatles. John sang
through a Leslie, which to that point had only been used for organs and guitars... gave way to the vocal tricks done after.
Without the Beatles, music wouldn't sound anything like it does today.
