News talk 2014-01-23: Beatles changed America

You had to live then, as I did, to fully understand the influence that this group had — mostly positive and arguably somewhat negative — on worldwide culture, particularly in the United States, Britain, and other Western nations.

We watched and listened as their musical experiments and successes continually changed, reverted sometimes, and changed again. What the Beatles offered that many other groups lacked (with notable exceptions) was intelligence. It wasn’t a manufactured band, invented purely by promoters. It was much deeper. This Telegraph retrospective is well worth your time. — MC