Cat Stevens on The Beatles song that “broke all sound barriers”
Trying to summarise the legacy of The Beatles is like trying to run a marathon without training: it’s over before it even begins. It becomes tempting to view the band as a standalone entity, neglecting to take into consideration everything that came before and followed after. According to Cat Stevens, however, this is the precise beauty of the phenomenon.
It’s difficult to start at the beginning of The Beatles’ trajectory without looking at the shoulders on which the Fab Four stood. Prior to Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison’s revolutionary take on rock ‘n’ roll, there were many stars that pioneered separate spaces, like rhythm and blues, folk, classical, pop, and countless others.
Throughout the 1950s, the artists who hinted at an early iteration of the rock genre were the ones who infused it with all the edges that made rhythm and blues appealing. Although these sensibilities existed long before Elvis Presley commanded the spotlight, these elements were symptomatic of the times, with acts like Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and many more forging a more intrinsic connection with blues and rock that sounded more upbeat and exciting than ever before.
This means that the arrival of The Beatles marked a significant turning point in popular music that drew together various genres, like blues and rock, resulting in a sound that drew people from all walks of life. According to Cat Stevens, while some may view this as merely a repackaging of older, original material, this is what made The Beatles stand out.
During an interview with Gold Radio, the musician elaborated: “[The Beatles] were being fed by the blues. All the kinds of sounds that were coming across from the States, all the new singles that were coming into Liverpool port, they were listening to all of this stuff. I was listening to a lot of that stuff in the discothèques and R&B was just massive.”
He continued, explaining that The Beatles “combined that with the Mersey sound”, resulting in “unbelievable” and “strong” music.
Discussing specific songs crafted by the Liverpool quartet, the musician points to one in particular that caused a notable explosion within the UK music scene. “I think ‘Twist and Shout’ broke all of the sound barriers when John [Lennon] broke that wall down,” Stevens said. “And that was it, we were through.”
Deemed one of the most important rock singles in history, The Beatles’ version of ‘Twist and Shout’ was a vital bridge between earlier rhythm and blues contributions and their new vision for contemporary rock ‘n’ roll. It also demonstrated a rawness to the band’s take on popular music, providing a certain level of simplicity and excitement that came to be emblematic of early ’60s culture.