The band Aimee Mann called “The American Beatles”
As the most influential band of all time, it should come as no real surprise that virtually every band since the 1960s have tried to compare themselves to The Beatles. Usually, these comparisons arise as a byproduct of rock and roll arrogance, with adolescent upstarts naively thinking they can challenge the crown of Lennon and McCartney. In rarer cases, somebody will compare their favourite group to the Fab Four, blissfully unaware that almost everybody else will disagree. Such is the case with Aimee Mann, and her particularly divisive claim about The Beatles.
Regardless of your opinions on The Beatles, the band had an irreversible effect on the lineage of rock and pop music. Among the first groups to write their own songs, the group also helped to establish a variety of different musical styles and genres within the musical mainstream. From the influences of Indian music and Ravi Shankar, to their adoption of early psychedelic rock, the Merseyside icons embraced a plethora of styles, bringing them to the attention of mainstream audiences for the first time.
Ultimately, the incredible influence of The Beatles cannot be summed up succinctly, their impact was colossal and virtually inexplicable. So, when American singer-songwriter, Aimee Mann compared the Fab Four to the jazz rock fusion of Steely Dan, it quite rightly raised some eyebrows. “They’re the American Beatles,” Mann derisively said of Steely Dan, “because they coined a musical genre that hadn’t existed before”.
Continuing in her bizarre comparison of the two artists, Mann said, “Yes, it’s sort of a mixture of rock and jazz, but the way in which those two elements were combined was completely unique to them”. In fairness to the songwriter, it is difficult to particularly disagree with that point. Prior to the advent of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen’s outfit, jazz and rock had been largely disparate genres. Steely Dan managed to unite these styles, earning legions of dedicated fans in the process.
It seems as though Mann is firmly among these die-hard Dan fans, telling Uncut, “To have the musical facility to put beautiful melodies on top of unlikely chord changes, with such well-written lyrics about really broken, sad subjects, and to create a whole new sound with a really idiosyncratic vocal – that’s the whole package,” before adding: “They invented a new thing”.
Clearly, Mann has an appreciation for the unique stylings of Becker and Fagen, but her comparison to The Beatles seems somewhat overstated. Yes, Steely Dan did help to establish an entirely new sound. However, lots of bands have established new genres; Korn established nu metal, Bauhaus pioneering goth rock, Lennie De-Ice laid the foundation for jungle, yet none of these bands are drawing parallels with The Beatles.
Certainly, The Beatles did establish a brand new sound, which endeared them towards audiences in the 1960s, but that was merely a fraction of their appeal. Comparing any band to The Beatles is fairly contentious, but comparing Steely Dan to the band seems particularly outrageous. Nevertheless, such a comparison rings true, if only in the mind of Aimee Mann.
