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Maybe you’ve heard of the Simeon, a self-made synthesizer featuring 13 oscillators, fed through various echoplexes and wah‐wah pedals? Played by Simeon Coxe, co-founder of experimentalists Silver Apples, the Frankenstein machine, played with telegraph keys and wired together in a shopping cart, helped create some of the most exciting music of the late 1960s.
Or how about Roky Erickson-fronted outfit 13th Floor Elevators? The group pioneered psychedelic rock, often literally. They also believed in telepathic evolution and heavily used the electric jug. There are also the Shaggs, three sisters from rural New Hampshire, who were forced by their father – who acted upon the prophecy of a palm reader – to form a rock band. No matter they couldn’t play or sing in time or tune, they recorded an album: Philosophy of the World.
The United States of America? They were an avant-garde outfit, used no guitars, and fused rock with electronic sounds in 1968 – decades ahead of the curve. Led by Joe Byrd, his leftist politics briefly put the band under FBI watch.
The list goes on, running to hundreds of innovative, exciting, creative, groundbreaking acts, all of whom never got their fair share of the limelight. Each was overshadowed by the Beatles and a number of other colossal acts which blocked out the sunlight during the mid-to-late 1960s – and continue to do so to this day.
Let It Be
By now, the story is so overly familiar many of us could recite it in our sleep. Formed in Liverpool in the late 1950s, the Fab Four rose from local gigs to global stardom, via a stint in the clubs of Hamburg, with their infectious melodies, harmonies and boyish charm. Composed of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, they sparked Beatlemania with hits like Love Me Do and revolutionized popular culture.
As their sound matured, they explored new styles and studio techniques on albums like Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and The White Album, before internal tensions led to their breakup in 1970. Lennon was tragically murdered in 1980, Harrison died of cancer in 2001, McCartney became a successful solo artist and continues to play Hey Jude with alarming regularity, while Ringo Star waits awkwardly in the wings.
Not a Second Time
The position of the Beatles in popular culture is closely linked to the evolution of the communications industry in the 1960s, particularly through television, radio, print media and the burgeoning field of global mass media. Their explosion onto the American scene via the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 is a prime example, worthy of study in its own right. Over 73 million people watched, a record at the time.
This massive, coordinated media presence marked one of the earliest instances of global celebrity culture, powered by a maturing communications industry, and lay the groundwork for how pop stars are promoted today.
Yesterday
But that was yesterday.
In many ways, we are still enduring the hangover from Beatlemania; we have been unable to move past this moment in pop history. 1, a greatest hits album from the band, was the biggest selling CD of the 2000s in the UK, while Peter Jackson released The Beatles: Get Back in 2021, taking an eight-hour-deep-dive into the creation of Let It Be.
This year, we have confirmation Sam Mendes is to make four separate films about The Beatles – one from the perspective of each member of the band. Due for simultaneous release in 2028, the project means Beatlemania will last until at least the end of the decade – 60 years after the band broke up.
This is not a sign of a healthy culture; we must look forward and not back. It’s time for all of us to move on. To draw a line in the sand.
Tomorrow Never Knows
How does this relate to our work at Fire on the Hill?
The lesson we can take from the continued obsession with the Beatles is that more interesting stories get missed – that the biggest might not be the best. Silver Apples is at least the equal of any album by The Beatles, but it will be heard by a tiny fraction of the listeners.
The same is true today in technology. While we were waiting for the next innovation from Google, Meta or Amazon, OpenAI was preparing to wow the world with ChatGPT. Moreover, while the world was waiting for the next innovation from OpenAI, Liang Wenfeng was preparing DeepSeek.
Nobody had heard of Napster before it reinvented the music industry. How many of us bought into Bitcoin when it was merely a white paper by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009? Should Tesla have been looking over its shoulder at the cars BYD were developing in China?
These, initially, smaller stories all proved to have more lasting value. They may not have attracted millions of clicks initially, but over time, they build a more sustainable and engaged narrative. Niche innovations, like a breakthrough in electric cars or music sharing, or a quiet scientific advancement, may not make headlines right away, but they can significantly impact the future.
By focusing on quality and impact rather than just mass appeal, we enrich the story of progress and contribute to a broader understanding of the world.
