The long and winding Web

by Eric Schwartzberg

Column - Web watch

John Lennon said the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus" - and when it comes to the World Wide Web, he might have been right.

How popular were the Fab Four? The official Beatles site (www.beatles.com) gives one an excellent idea. Every chart-topping song (and there were a lot of them) gets the royal treatment: pictures of the original cover art, photographs in the studio, audio and video files, even shots of the state of both United Kingdom and U.S. music charts at the time.

Beatles.com might be the best of the flashy, Shockwave-driven Web sites, but "Steve Clifford's Beatles Web Site" (http://www.islandnet.com/~scliffor/beatles/fabhome.htm) is its low-graphics, fan-managed equivalent. From a list of fanzines and book reviews to a collector's forum, free classified ads and too many other goodies to fit in one column, this is definitely one of the best sites for those struck with an incurable case of Beatlemania.

While they share the same obsession (and the same first name) Steve's Beatles Web Site (http://www.stevesbeatles.com/) offers a different brand of adoration - a short list of Beatles anomalies (things that shouldn't be there, but are), the lyrics to every Beatles song (conveniently alphabetized for those of us who don't know which album a song appears on), an ongoing series of polls and a "Name That Tune" style Beatles quiz.

With the popularity of the Beatles, it's a wonder someone didn't spoof them sooner. "The Rutles - Pre-Fab Four" (http://www.rutlemania.org/) takes an extensive look at a mid '70s parody of the Beatles concocted by Monty Python veteran Eric Idle. For a more comical look at The Rutles, check out "Tragical History Tour - The Official Rutles Web Site" (http://www.rutles.org/).

Of course, if you're the type of person who doesn't take the band ••too•• seriously (or someone who can't stand them altogether), then you might get a chuckle out of "The Beatles SUCK Homepage," (http://www.areddy.net/beatles_suck/). But be warned that it's a hate mail page from the tirades of furious Fab Four fans who use more expletives than Eminem on a bad day. Beatles fans making death threats? Whatever happened to "All You Need Is Love"?

Perhaps those fans should (to paraphrase '60s icon Timothy Leary) turn on, tune in, and check out Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the guru who guided their heroes through the pathway to transcendental meditation. Billed as "the foremost scientist in the field of consciousness" the site (http://www.lisco.com/wuebben/TM/Maharishi.html) presents "a taste of the wondrous ideas and practical programs that Maharishi has offered to the people of the world in his joyous task of creating Heaven on Earth."

Certainly more in the spirit of the Beatles - and of the man Lennon claimed they were more popular than.

Schwartzberg, a junior journalism major, can be reached at ecstra@hotmail.com Web Watch runs every Thursday.