Van Morrison says The Beatles’ influence is ‘meaningless’ because ‘there was stuff before them’

The influence of legendary band The Beatles is “meaningless” according to Van Morrison.

The Moondance hitmaker would be infatuated with Bob Dylan and went on to work with Roger Waters on adapting The Wall. But his countrymen The Beatles were of no interest to Morrison, who believes they were “peripheral” to the scene and had done nothing to advance music history. Reflecting on The Beatles’ influence, Morrison said that they were, at best, overblown. The Astral Weeks songwriter would suggest there is much more beyond the band and that the influence people allowed Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr to have is unwarranted. It doesn’t seem Morrison has cooled off on his opinion, either, suggesting many “don’t think music started” with The Beatles.

He said: “I don’t think ‘pre-Beatles’ means anything, because there was stuff before them. Over here, you have a different slant. You measure things in terms of The Beatles. We don’t think music started there.

“The Beatles were peripheral. If you had more knowledge about music, it didn’t mean anything. To me, it was meaningless.” Morrison would instead use the interview with The New Yorker to praise other veteran musicians like Little Richard. He would also take a swipe at Elvis Presley, saying he was simply an inferior performer to the Tutti Fruitti hitmaker.

He added: “Little Richard was doing rhythm and blues, but with horns. It was different than Elvis Presley, and so I preferred it. Why would you like Elvis if you had the real stuff?” Morrison’s outlandish view of The Beatles’ work may be surprising, but it’s hardly unique. Artists like Lou Reed and Frank Zappa would also question the influence of the Fab Four.

Reed would offer a mix of love and hate for The Beatles, once calling them “garbage” and on another occasion suggesting it was a tragedy they had broken up. After calling the group nothing more than trash, he said: “They just make the songs up, bing, bing, bing. They have to be the most incredible songwriters ever – just amazingly talented. I don’t think people realise just how sad it is that the Beatles broke up.”

Morrison would go on to work with other musical influences, like Dylan. A performance from the pair, on a rooftop in Athens in 1989, comes as the pair found themselves at two very different points in their career. Dylan was preparing to release Oh Mercy and would find himself back in the good graces of the listening public.

Morrison would release Avalon Sunset, a commercially and critically successful album which continued his ’80s successes. But the pair’s performance of Crazy Love during a get-together in Athens is one of many brilliant moments from the pair.

The performance would be broadcast by the BBC as part of the One Irish Rover: Van Morrison in Performances series. He and Dylan were seen on top of the Hill of the Muses just after Dylan had wrapped his European tour earlier in the week. The performance has been hailed by viewers, with many commenting with praise under a YouTube upload of their work together.