All Things Must Pass?

I just read Rob Sheffield's Dreaming The Beatles.  It's a collection of essays about the group and their effect, told in generally chronological order.  His insights are often fascinating, often humorous and occasionally bizarre.

I recommend the book, but I don't want to go into detail.  Check it out for yourself.

I'd rather discuss how the Beatles--and this is a point made by Sheffield--have become a renewable resource.  How much more can there be to say about a band that broke up in 1970?  Yet there are hundreds of Beatle books, with more coming out every year.

And while they were the best-selling musical act in the 1960s, they've sold even more albums since they broke up.  They still sell a million a year in an age when no one buys albums.

For quite a while after their breakup, commentators tended to note the band was very much of their time.  Turns out they were wrong.  The Beatles were, and are, for all time.  Otherwise, how would they have tens of millions of fans whose parents weren't even born when the group broke up?

There's one more test, I suppose.  Will they continue to be so popular after the band as a going concern is no longer in living memory?  My guess is yes, but I'll never know.

PS  More evidence of their popularity: Sirius radio just introduced a Beatles channel.  I checked it out and the first tune I heard was "Only A Northern Song." Are they trying to test me?