“I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, ‘The Beatles did’.” – Kurt Vonnegut, 1997
I’ve always been as much amazed as amused by the British comedic thread running from the Goon Show with Peter Sellers, to the Beatles, then to the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and Monty Python.
Michael Palin has said there wouldn’t have been Monty Python without the Bonzos. Would the comedy troupe have existed if the Beatles hadn’t first changed the world? Palin talks about what the Beatles made possible for others in their wake, in this 2012 interview.