CONTEMPORARIES

During their active reign in the world of rock, the Beatles influenced and inspired a plethora of musical contemporaries - and the Beatles, in turn, appreciated their contemporaries' music.  Below, I've outlined the relationship some of these musical contemporaries had with the Beatles through interviews, etc. 

Some of these contemporaries were active musicians while the Beatles were recording and releasing new albums, and some were younger, budding musicians in the 60s who were heavily influenced by Beatlemania.

.....................
T H E   M O N K E E S 

T H E   B E A T L E S   O N   T H E   M O N K E E S

John
“I think they’re the greatest comic talents since the Marx Brothers. I’ve never missed one of their programs.” 

John
“Monkees? They’ve got their own scene, and I won’t send them down for it. You try a weekly television show and see if you can manage one half as good!” 

Paul
“I like their music a lot…and you know, their personalities. I watch their tv show and it is good.” 

Paul
“I’m sure that the Monkees are going to live up to a lot of things many people didn’t expect”

George
“The Monkees are still finding out who they are, and they seem to be improving as performers each time I see them. When they’ve got it all sorted out, they may be the greatest.” 

Ringo
“It’s the combining of their sound with their jumping around and all that which makes ‘em so popular with the kids, I guess. With me, too.” 

Ringo
“They’re not really just copies of us, now, are they? The Monkees have a fine way of their own, you know?”

Listen to an audio clip of Paul discussing the Monkees with a fan in 1967
BeatlePeople: The Monkees
George Harrison and Peter Tork!

T H E   M O N K E E S   O N   T H E   B E A T L E S

Davy Jones, when asked "How important was [The Beatles'] approval?"
"It means something that anybody likes us. Paul McCartney called me up in the '60s and asked me to send some stuff to his daughter, who was a fan of the Monkees. And Micky has tapes and videos of George Harrison and Ringo Starr at his house, in the Canyon, in the late '60s, down in his little studio, playing. Those tapes must be great to listen to.

"It's great the Beatles loved us." [read full interview]

.....................
D U S T Y   S P R I N G F I E L D

T H E   B E A T L E S   O N   D U S T Y

The Beatles, Helen Shapiro, & Dusty Springfield on "Ready Steady Go!"

Paul
"Dusty always had credibility.  I was glad I had the chance to tell her how much I and the other Beatles had always thought of her.  She was a great singer and a beautiful lady who will be missed by many."

View Dusty's interview with the Beatles on "Ready Steady Go!"

.....................
P H I L   C O L L I N S

P H I L   O N   T H E   B E A T L E S

when asked, "What do you remember as the first music to make an impression on you?" (from a 1986 Playboy interview):
"Definitely, the Beatles.  I used to stand in front of a mirror with a tennis racket, pretending to be John Lennon.  Still do.  When I first heard the Beatles, I went out and bought each album as it came out." [read the whole interview]

when asked about his cameo appearance as a 13-year-old in the concert scene of A Hard Day's Night (from a 2004 Hollywood Reporter article):
"I was in the concert sequence, in the audience.  A bunch of us from school were bused to this West End theater, but we weren't told why.  When the Beatles came out on stage, we naturally just did what we did.  I was listening, but my friends were all screaming.  We knew it was important, and we later saw it 20 times in cinemas when it came out in 1964.  Years later (in 1994), I got to narrate "The Making of A Hard Day's Night" (now on DVD), and I freeze-framed the shots of me in the audience.  In fact, I circled my head just to prove I was really there." [read whole article]

.....................
J O N I   M I T C H E L L

J O N I  O N   T H E   B E A T L E S

Joni, remarking about how the Beatles helped people break into the music scene (from an interview by Camille Paglia):
"When we started out, it was uncharted waters. I mean, it's not like I grew up playing air guitar in front of my bedroom mirror. Artists were still disreputable. I was a painter and wanted to go to art school, but my parents didn't want me to - to be an artist wasn't respectable. Then the Beatles hit, and suddenly people thought, 'There's gold in 'dem hills.' I never thought I'd have a record deal. I come from a wheat-farming community where it's the tall poppy formula: Stick your head above the crowd, and they'll be happy to lop it off for you!" [read interview]

.....................
T H E   G R A T E F U L   D E A D

T H E   D E A D   O N   T H E   B E A T L E S

Bob Weir
"The Beatles were why we turned from a jug band into a rock and roll band."

Jerry Garcia, on why the Dead became an electric band (from a 1971 interview):
"And the Beatles...and all of a sudden there was the Beatles, and that, wow, the Beatles, you know.  Hard Day's Night, the movie and everything.  Hey, great, that really looks like fun." [read the interview]

.....................
P I N K   F L O Y D

 P I N K   F L O Y D   O N   T H E   B E A T L E S

Nick Mason, in a Wall Street Journal interview:
"They were God-like figures to us.  They all seemed extremely nice, but they were in a strata so far beyond us that they were out of our league."

Roger Waters, in a 1992 Musician interview:
"You can draw a line between what I'm interested in and what I'm not interested in.  On one side you can name Dylan and Lennon, who observe the world and have feelings, and write songs directly from those feelings.  On the vapid side you have pop groups who need material and write songs to fill the hole, rather than getting somebody else."

Roger Waters, in a 1992 Q Magazine interview (when asked who ranked above him as one of the five best songwriters since WWII):
"John Lennon...I'm trying to think.  Er, I can't think of anybody else." [read the interview]

David Gilmour, speaking at the release of his recent "Live at the Royal Albert Hall" DVD in 2007:
"I borrowed my first guitar of a neighbor and never gave it back.  I've still got it actually.  I was an enormous fan of The Beatles.  I copied everything they did before I started creating my own stuff.  I like to have been in the Beatles.  They did well." [source]

"I really wish I had been in the Beatles.  I was always a massive fan.  The Beatles taught me how to play guitar, I learnt everything.  The bass parts, the lead, the rhythm, everything.  They were fantastic." [source]

from Guitar World interview with David Gilmour, 1993
(when asked how he and Syd Barrett influenced one another in college):
"We sat around learning Beatles songs, Rolling Stones songs, R&B, blues songs...I can recall spending some time working on 'Come On', the first Stones B-side or whatever it was, working all that out, playing harmonicas and stuff." [read the whole interview]

from Guitar World interview with David Gilmour, 1993
(when asked about experimentalism in music vs. structure):
"I should add that I like structure. I'm very keen on melody, I'm a big Beatles fan, and just about everything else I love - like the blues - is highly structured. Totally free forming is not my thing. But totally rigid structure isn't either."

.....................
B O B   D Y L A N

B O B   O N   T H E   B E A T L E S

George Harrison with Bob Dylan at the Concert for Bangladesh

from Melody Maker, 1 May 1965
(when asked, "Are The Beatles on the way out?"):
"They will never be on the way out - you know that."

from MM, 1 May 1965
(when asked, "How much do you think The Beatles contributed to your success [in Britain]?"):
"I find it very hard to understand the meaning of the word 'success.'  I like The Beatles - they are the best.  I don't know what they said about me or anything."

 

T H E   B E A T L E S   O N   B O B

George Harrison with Bob Dylan at the Concert for Bangladesh

John, from Melody Maker, 9 Jan. 1965
"Anyone who is one of the best in his field - as Dylan is - is bound to influence people.  I wouldn't be surprised if we influenced him in some way."

John, from MM, 9 Jan. 1965
"Paul got [some Bob Dylan LPs] off whoever they belonged to, and for the rest of our three weeks in Paris we didn't stop playing them.  We all went potty on Dylan."

George, from MM, 9 Jan. 1965
"...there must be a lot of staunch folk fans who like Dylan but who don't like The Beatles.  I do know he likes our work and that knocks us out."

George, from MM, 9 Jan. 1965
"I like his whole attitude.  The way he dresses, the way he doesn't give a damn.  The way he sings discords and plays discords.  The way he sends up everything - I mean some of the words are just marvelous, y'know."

.....................
J I M I   H E N D R I X

 J I M I  O N   T H E   B E A T L E S

from Melody Maker, 28 Jan. 1967
(...about the English pop scene):
"You see, The Beatles man, they were where it was all at.  When they dropped out altogether things changed, because they were the group who really kept the scene going.  They were holding it up.  As soon as The Beatles begin to relax their grip, the bottom starts falling out again."