John Lennon Said The Beatles Were ‘More Intellectual’ Than the Bee Gees
John Lennon said The Beatles were “more intellectual” than the Bee Gees. In the same vein, he revealed what he thought about songs from the 1970s in general. Notably, both bands had many No. 1 hits in the United States.
John Lennon revealed what the Bee Gees’ fans said about The Beatles during the 1970s
The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono includes an interview from 1980. During the interview, John discussed music in general. “All music is rehash,” he said. “There are only a few notes. Just variations on a theme.
“Try to tell the kids in the ’70s who were screaming to the Bee Gees that their music is just The Beatles redone,” he continued. “There is nothing wrong with the Bee Gees. They do a damn good job. There was nothing else going on then.”
John Lennon said ‘the middle classes’ didn’t listen to The Beatles until a newspaper published an article about ‘It Won’t Be Long’
John contrasted The Beatles to the Bee Gees. “The Beatles were more intellectual, so they appealed on that level, too,” he said. “But the basic appeal of The Beatles was not their intelligence. It was their music.”
John discussed why the Fab Four were seen as intellectual. “It was only after some guy in the London Times said there were aeolian cadences in ‘It Won’t Be Long’ that the middle classes started listening to it — because somebody put a tag on it.” John was asked if the song actually included aeolian cadences in the track. “To this day I don’t have any idea what they are,” he said. “They sound like exotic birds.”
How the Fab Four and the Bee Gees performed on the pop singles chart in the United States
The Beatles and the Bee Gees were both huge artists on the Billboard Hot 100, but The Beatles reigned supreme. 20 Beatles songs topped the Billboard Hot 100: “Eight Days a Week,” “Paperback Writer,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Penny Lane,” “The Long and Winding Road/For You Blue,” “I Feel Fine,” “Hello, Goodbye,” “Ticket to Ride,” “Yesterday,” “All You Need Is Love,” “Get Back,” “We Can Work It Out,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Help!,” “Love Me Do,” “Let It Be,” “She Loves You,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “Come Together/Something,” and “Hey Jude.”
Meanwhile, the Bee Gees had nine No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. The songs were “Stayin’ Alive,” “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?,” “Night Fever,” “How Deep Is Your Love,” “Too Much Heaven,” “You Should Be Dancing,” “Tragedy,” “Love You Inside Out,” and “Jive Talkin’.”
The Bees Gees were huge even if John said The Beatles were “more intellectual.”
