Love and Let Die: James Bond, The Beatles, and the British Psyche

by John Higgs

Judging the size and importance of the Beatles is a strangely disorientating task. They are like a Lovecraftian monster whose proportions and immensity are somehow beyond our perception. We know, rationally, that they are the biggest band in history and that, in terms of influence and record sales, they will probably never lose that position. We know that the phrase used to describe the ultimate in musical success is to say that someone will become ‘bigger than the Beatles’. Yet the Beatles have always felt homely and approachable, rather than enormous and untouchable. Their level of success was and is unthinkable, but they wore it so casually. They have always been part of the family, so familiar as to be unremarkable.