by Sam Juliano
WitD regular Dave Hicks of Ohio purchased several of the recently-released Beatles’ remasters today, and he’s coming in with a glowing appraisal. There’s an early review out there by Chuck Klusterman of AV that’s well worth checking out, in the absence of a staff review at this early juncture. With posts on the one-year anniversary of the site, a Brit Noir Festival round-up and a Dance Meme sent on by our friend Pat of Doodad Kind of Town we have been unable to give deserved attention to these landmark releases. Here’s the link to Klusterman’s piece:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/chuck-klosterman-repeats-the-beatles,32560/
Dave
I read this review yesterday and it’s hilarious. I love the opening:
“Like most people, I was initially confused by EMI’s decision to release remastered versions of all 13 albums by the Liverpool pop group Beatles, a 1960s band so obscure that their music is not even available on iTunes.”
And I’ll just reiterate that The White Album sounds absolutely amazing. I have never really considered it among my 3-4 favorite Beatles albums, and I’ve never been one to be a big audiophile, but it’s really impressive.
Dave: The White Album may well be their greatest of all. There are so many tracks there that over the years have joined the ranks of their best-written songs. i.e. Happiness is a Warm Gun, Dear Prudence, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Julia, I’m So Tired, Back in the USSR, Rocky Racoon, et al. I’m excited to hear thi snew remaster based on what you say here!
This is great news for music fans.
While I am great fan of British music, I have never been a huge Beatles fan (a game friends and I like to play is I can name–and argue for– 25 English bands I prefer over the Beatles), but I would never say they ‘suck’ or anything that drastic (and if I did what difference would it make?). I will probably look to pick up ‘Rubber Soul’ and ‘Help!’ as soon as I can, and move form there.
I can’t wait to read the thoughts on this thread from admirers of their music.
On a side note, is it just me or does it anger anyone else how quickly every AV thread on their site becomes a ‘hipster face off/out hip the next hipster’. so lame, maybe it’s just me.
Indeed Jamie, indeed.
They are the greatest band of all-time, but that’s hardly a revelation. Their influence, artistry, lyrical and harmonic brilliance go beyond what any other single group can make claim to. No other group has as many great albums or great songs, and in John Lennon we have the greatest song writer in the history of the rock era. Like a number of others who come here I grew up with their music, and went through stages of obsession where i thought of nothing but The Beatles day in and day out.
My favorite Beatle songs are:
1. Across the Universe (“Let It Be”)
2. Eleanor Rigby (“Revolver”)
3. Penny Lane (“Magical Mystery Tour”)
4. While My Guitar Gently Weeps (“White Album”)
5. Strawberry Fields Forever (“Magical Mystery Tour”)
6. I Am the Walrus (“Magical Mystery Tour”)
7. Because (“Abbey Road”)
8. If I Fell (“A Hard Day’s Night”)
9. Come Together (“Abbey Road”)
10. And I Love Her (“A Hard Day’s Night”)
Also: Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, Hey Jude, Happiness is a Warm Gun, Here Comes the Sun, Ticket to ride, Yellow Submarine, Dear Prudence, I’m So Tired, Julia, Michelle, I Want to Hold Your Hand, She’s Leaving Home, A Day in the Life, She Loves You, Get Back, Let It Be, The Long and Winding Road, Norwegian Wood, and many more.
Well, Sam you are writing quite a few checks here I’m not sure you can cash (LOL). A few for me: “No other group has as many great albums or great songs” then “in John Lennon we have the greatest song writer in the history of the rock era”… head scratchers for this rock fan. As I said above I could name 25 from just the their little island I prefer, but I’d rather not go there (unless, of course, inquiring minds want to know). At some point it becomes all opinion and as I said I do not diminish there impact (or become ‘Bob Clark-ian’).
For me naming there top whatever songs is indeed tough, especially when one gets from like 5-15… so I will say my unquestionable favorite is ‘You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away’ (‘Help!’) then probably something like ‘In My Life’, and ‘And Your Bird Can Sing’.
I’d give a shout out to ‘Taxman’, if for no other reason it gave the Jam a bass line to crib and write the fantastic ‘Start!’.
OK, Sam, I’ll play (since we’re the two biggest list addicts here). And as a side note, if I was allowed to add Side 2 of Abbey Road in its entirety, that would be my #1:
1. While My Guitar Gently Weeps (White Album)
2. Strawberry Fields Forever (Magical Mystery Tour)
3. Come Together (Abbey Road)
4. A Day in the Life (Sgt. Pepper)
5. Day Tripper (Single)
6. For No One (Revolver)
7. In My Life (Rubber Soul)
8. Helter Skelter (White Album)
9. Something (Abbey Road)
10. I Want to Hold Your Hand (Single)
I could do a complete other list, though. The thing that I am reminded about when doing a list like this is that in most cases, I consider myself to like quite a few other bands better than The Beatles. But they’re one of the few bands whose entire catalog I love.
Dave, fantastic list!
But that’s just it with The Beatles, everything by them is great. That is why in answer to Jamie’s polite ribbing, I would say no other group can touch them in the ration of hits to misses. They had a scant handful of less than superlative tracks. I think time will bear out the extravagent claim I made there. Saying Lennon is the greatest songwriter though is a position most musicologists would support.
Sam I suppose all this is true, but art to me is genius can be captured once (and that is all that is necessary). If it’s never captured again by that creator, I could care less. I’m sure canon’s and entire catalogs are important, but in pop music greatness is achieved 3 minutes at a time (or for my argument 30-50 minutes at a time). Did the Beatles ever do anything better the ‘Arthur’ or ‘Village Green Preservation Society’ (Kinks) or ‘Sandinista!’ (Clash) or ‘This is Hardcore’ (Pulp) maybe, maybe not, to me it’s always song to song, or album to album. (As I said yesterday in my Doors vs. Spirit discussion). Some of those glorious three minute tracks on those ‘Nuggets’ collections attest to this, greatness can happen once and never again by complete unknowns– 2 minutes and 30 seconds at a time. Do the Beatles have one singular song as exciting as the three minutes ‘Something to Say’ by the Action offers? Man, I’m just not sure.
Plus it’s always important to note when discussing rock or pop bands the performance is of equal importance… many of the Beatles classics where never seen this way. In short how can one listen to ‘Live at Leeds’ (the Who) and say the Beatles are the best ever? It’s tough. That’s all I’m saying. I suppose I’m also saying making declarations like these are quite hard to do, and even harder to back up when surrounded by some of the serious audiophiles that frequent this sight.
“…that frequent this sight.” should be “…that frequent this site.”
My dyslexia strikes again!
Ah Jamie, you make excellent points there, and I will concede that my original statement did defy the time-worn adage that ‘beauty is in th eeye of the beholder.’ If Tony d’Ambra were here tonight I dare say that he might be agreeing with you, as he never bought the generally-accepted position that the Beatles towered over everyone else. There was a time in my life when rock music was the only thing I cared about. But remember jamie, you are talking here with an old fart, who has lost touch with modern popular music. I betrayed this kind of music almost 20 years ago, when I began my long obsession with classical and opera (a point which I’m sure you are aware of in view of some of the posts I write here) Most of my contemporaries would say it’s blasphemy to put anyone above the Beatles. As far as The Who, which you rightly celebrate there, they are my personal #2. Again a list:
1. The Beatles
2. The Who
3. The Beach Boys
4. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
5. Simon & Garfunkle
6. The Doors
7. Creedence Clearwater Revival
8. The Kinks
9. Jethro Tull
10. The Supremes
The whole package has been available on the Net for a week in loss-less format…
I must say having grown up with the Beatles starting in 1964 at age 11, musically they are without peer, but as a rock band only certain songs, like Back in the USSR, Lady Madonna, Helter Skelter, I am the Walrus, rank. I think the rock legacy is strongest with Lennon’s Ono band period where he went back to his rock roots – now there is a re-issue worth waiting for…
Hey Tony, I just made reference to you above! Ha!
tony,your list is way off..beatles obviously #1 but the 2 and 3 slots go to led zeppelin and the stones..you can then stick the who in at 4
You see Jamie, we are talking here from different generations. Tony and I are in our mid 50’s, while you are in your late 20’s. It’s a completely different perspective, value system and indoctrination. I am no longer equipped to make a full survey, but i will say in my time I did love the best stuff out there. I was strict with myself in that sense. I respect you greatly as you speak on the highest level.
Within a year, we will be conducting a poll here at Witd of the 50 greatest songs of the rock era (1955 to the presernt) as well as the 50 greatest albums.
That will be awesome.
But you’ll also notice that is why I specifically mentioned the Beatles and the Action (heck the Action where the OTHER band George Martin produced). Now that could lend itself to my bias (the Action are probably better known to garage rock/power pop fans now then back then). But as I said it’s really important to me to strip away all the meta surrounding these arguments, if you exposed your children to Depeche Mode’s classic period (‘Black Celebration’ to ‘Ultra’) maybe they’d like them better then the Beatles. So there is just to much subjectivity to ever make the sort of objective arguments we so often make.
Saying that I will say many of DM’s great albums compare to the Beatles 1 to 1 when one strips everything away.
This is what makes the Beatles seen as ‘the best’ everyone knows their catalog pretty well, even if you are just a casual fan. If children where raised with diverse, articulate pop music parents (as I was) there pop music homework would be done at 15 or so then the rest of there life could be spent finding the riches in the Manic Street Preachers, Big Star, or Flesh for Lulu’s of the World (or the Action). The Beatles are seen as the best because they are vanilla enough to be seen as incredibly talented, but also they don’t offend anyone (which is the exact opposite of what pop music should do IMHO).
You guys doing a top 50 albums and songs? WOW is all I can say. I will throw all objective criticism aside and start on a purely personal list(s). I will send out cd’s of my songs as well. can not wait.
You make a number of excellent points again Jamie. I think The Beatles went places that other groups did not. By the way, I do LOVE The Smiths/Morrisey!!! Their first album, THE SMITHS, and then THE QUEEN IS DEAD and MEAT IS MURDER are all brilliant, with a number of soungs that would rank highly on any song list. i am singing some to myself now. Ha!
Yes, the song and album polls will be a MAJOR event here at the site.
Sam – What does it say about me to be in my mid-20s and be obsessed with The Beatles (and The Stones?)? 🙂
I can’t help it…
It says you have tremendous taste Dave!
Jamie, you have the natural prejudice and fervor of youth. As Sam says, it’s generational. The music of the late 60s is the music of our youth and in inextricably part of our psyche. It was not just music – it defined us.
Anyway I am more about great songs than artists. There are brilliant songs by one-hit-wonders that are revered as much by songs from major artists, for example: I Fought the Law by The Bobby Fuller Four, Tar and Cement by Verdelle Smith, My Guy by Mary Wells, Holiday in Cambodia by the Dead Kennedies etc…
Bands like The Rolling Stones The Who, The Clash, The Smiths etc. had brilliant highs, but few artists have ever reached the consistent quality of the Beatles.
My music is squeezed on to an 8gb USB stick – 1550 songs and no albums. This is my desert island collection, which I play daily on shuffle – each day a memory, a new revelation…
Gasp! Did you just call the Dead Kennedy’s a one hit wonder! LOL. I see your point though. how about Jello Biafra’s other band Lard? Love them.
But as I just said to Sam I understand the generational thing, but that’s why I stick to talking about late 60’s bands (such as the Kinks and the Action). Or what about the Small Faces? I’d probably favor them over the Beatles and they both flamed out around the same time.
My music is contained on my ipod more or less (or everything I want to hear on a consistent basis as I have hundreds of albums on disc that have never entered my computer), which would be similar to your USB. Right now my ipod sits at 8,095 songs (and raises almost weekly). the cream of the absolute crop.
btw, I would take the Smiths/Morrissey over the Beatles in a cocaine heartbeat. the Smiths entire catalog contains no filler, which is pretty unreal when you think about it (i guess this is possible when you don’t have to write songs for the drummer to sing). and my favorite one hit wonder right now? ‘But It’s Alright’ by JJ Jackson, which is from a sub-sub-genre I love (Northern Soul), and I think right now it’s the greatest dance song I’ve ever heard.
Oh… and I caved. I went back and picked up the rest of the catalog, with the exception of Past Masters, which I couldn’t find anywhere around here.
Yes, I’m a compulsive buyer…
Hey Dave, I hate to tell you this, but you have the Sam Juliano sickness. Buy everything and worry about the finantial consequences later! LOL!!!
You are excused here though. Any way you cut it you need all of these, as I do.
Just been listening again to Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band. His lyrics to Working Class Hero are up there with Dylan:
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you’re clever and they despise a fool
Till you’re so fucking crazy you cant follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
When they’ve tortured and scared you for twenty odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can’t really function you’re so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
Keep you doped with religion and sex and tv
And you think you’re so clever and classless and free
But you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
There’s room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
If you want to be a hero well just follow me
If you want to be a hero well just follow me
Wow, those are tremendous lyrics, no doubt about that! Relevant then and now!
Well, I’ll add these too.
Words are flying out like
endless rain into a paper cup
They slither while they pass
They slip away across the universe
Pools of sorrow waves of joy
are drifting thorough my open mind
Possessing and caressing me
Jai guru deva om
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Images of broken light which
dance before me like a million eyes
That call me on and on across the universe
Thoughts meander like a
restless wind inside a letter box
they tumble blindly as
they make their way across the universe
Jai guru deva om
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Sounds of laughter shades of life
are ringing through my open ears
exciting and inviting me
Limitless undying love which
shines around me like a million suns
It calls me on and on across the universe
Jai guru deva om
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Jai guru deva
Jai guru deva
And wow again!
Re-reading these, it strikes me that Lennon’s lyrics are really less about the proleteriat, who at least in that period of British history stayed by and large within the same professions and areas if I’m not mistaken, and much more about the mobile but extremely competetive ranks of the lower middle class (which is more or less where he came from – his was actually had the most materially comfortable of the Beatles childhoods – Ringo had the worst – though emotionally, John’s was probably the worst).
I won’t post full song lyrics, but I think my all-time one-liner in a song remains: “Got to be good looking, ’cause he’s so hard to see”
I guess a simple play on words, but for whatever reason it’s always just stuck with me.
Dave–
Great choice there from COME TOGETHER…….God that IS a great line!
SCHMULEE, SCHMULEE, SCHMULEE…. The greatest writer of songs in the “rock” era, everyone knows, was BOB DYLAN. Lennon and McCartney rear in just behind him and very closely. But, without bursting your bubble, I think you should take a step back and let the smoke of your enthusiasm clear. Bobby is the top guy, the big kahuna the CNIC of writers of the period. The GREATEST ROCK band? Hmmmmm? Either THE ROLLING STONES or THE WHO. There, I said it. BUT… The GREATEST BAND IN POPULAR MUSIC HISTORY: THE BEATLES-no question. They weren’t rock. They weren’t pop, gospel, rythm and blues, jazz or classical. THEY WERE ALL OF IT. To label them under any one heading is to do them injustice. When I think of what they were? My only answer is: THE BEATLES. They touched and mastered so many forms of music it is unfathomable to label them. THE BEATLES just… WERE! My favorites of ALL TIME. Tell Lucille to get the credit card ready Schmulee-WE NEED TO GO SHOPPING!!!!!!
Hahahahahahahaha!!!!!
tremendous, enthusiasm there Dennis!!!!!!!!! Great post too.
I disagree though on Dylan. I rate Lennon ahead of him, for so many reasons, and I assure you I am hardly alone.
About 5 years ago ROLLING STONE magazine did a poll among musicologists and popular music experts to whittle down the ten greatest songs from 1955 to present day. The song chosen as number ONE was: IN MY LIFE by THE BEATLES.
Dennis, over the years there have been thousands of polls conducted by thousands of organizations and sites. No les sthan 20 Beatles songs have headed such lists. IN MY LIFE is NOT one I would ever regard as a #1, to be honest. HEY JUDE, PENNY LANE, A DAY IN THE LIFE, STRAWBERRY FIELDS, AND I LOVE HER, yes……..
And it comes as no surprize that the sound and remastering of these albums is anything less than astounding. After all, the FIFTH BEATLE oversaw the remastering. Let’s give a big cheer for GEORGE MARTIN!!!! In the annuls of popular music history there may never have been a producer/mixer/ recording engineer more ingenious than Mr. Martin. He has been lovungly credited by the Fab Four as their guiding light and father figure. With Mr. Martin there very well may not have been the sounds we celebrate tonight. John, Paul, George and Ringo always thought of and verbally stated many times that George was the fifth member of the.band.
Boyohboyohboy oh.. BOY! I was not trying to debate the fact Sammy my dear friend, I was merely stating that ROLLING STONE magazine chose IN MY LIFE. Personally, A DAY IN THE LIFE would be my choice, it reaches further than anything John wrote and is the perfect capper for THE GREATEST CONCEPT ALBUM OF ALL TIME!
‘Greatest concept album ever’…
I guess you never heard ‘Odessey and Oracle’, ‘Tommy’, ‘Quadrophenia’, ‘Village Green Preservation Society’, ‘Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake’, ‘Arthur’, ‘Setting Sons’, and on and on and on….
I have each of those albums you list, and I would agree with Dennis… just personal taste. I think rating music is even harder than movies, as far as just _how much_ subjectivity is the deciding factor.
Odyssey and Oracle really is great though, isn’t it?!
exactly Dave, it’s all taste. that’s why these intense ALL CAPS definitive statements need to be followed with a ‘in my opinion’ or ‘the way I see it’, ect.
My favorite ‘concept album’? does ‘downward spiral’, ‘the holy bible’ or ‘in utero’ count? what about ‘Tim’ or ‘Zen Arcade’? interesting stuff.
I’ve never been that crazy about Arthur. I mean I like it, and it’s got some good songs, but it just doesn’t hold a candle to Village Green Preservation Society or even Something Else which song by song might be my favorite Kinks.
But then I’ve also never been able to see Rubber Soul as existing on the same level as Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, White Album, or Abbey Road. It’s got songs as good as any of those, but somehow it doesn’t feel as cohesive as powerful as those other LPs. I also think the Rubber Soul vs. Revolver thing is kind of like the Truffaut vs. Godard thing, in terms of the type of mood they evoke, and the energy they give off. Obviously, I’m with the latter in both cases.
The main thing I’m noticing on these remasters (particularly pre-Rubber Soul albums) is that a lot more individual elements to songs are very clear. On the old CDs, I thought, the two guitars sounds like they were mixed right on top of each other and at times were impossible to distinguish. They’re quite crisp to pick out the different guitar parts on these, at least when listening to them with headphones as I have been, which is great.
In actuality, and the more I think of it SGT PEPPER may be the greatest Album of all time PERIOD. Each song perfectly bleeds into the next and reveals themself in an order that can only be described as dreamlike. The construct of the album alluding to a concert being givin by a famous fictitional band is near perfection and the sound effects of the crowds cheering in the background set the illusion perfectly. The diversity of song styles compliments the song just performed and the one that will immediately play afterwards. With LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS, WITHIN WITHOUT YOU and A DAY IN THE LIFE you. Might have three of the many masterpieces the boys comitted to history. The final chord of DAY IN THE LIFE gouing on to infinity as a precursor to the legend THE BEATLES were becoming. I could listen to that album everyday forever.
Well, Jamie, I just can’t get on this bus with you. I love the Kinks. I love the Small Faces. I love the Who. I love many of the bands you mention. I love many of the albums you mention. I’d rather listen to many of them right now than the Beatles (though, ironically, I’m doing just the opposite as I’m going through my newly refilled iPod quite methodically and am currently listening to every Beatles track!). But when are things are equal and I’m not sick of the Beatles after gorging on them years ago, when I’m approaching it all with fresh ears, I just don’t see a way to deny the Beatles’ dominance. Both in terms of breadth and depth, but yes, especially breadth.
In a sense I agree with you about one time being all that matters, and I’ve held the fort against Bob on this before – saying that if a director’s got one great film that’s all they need. But I can’t help but judge pop music a little differently. There’s a lot of different factors to consider there – among them that, for me, the highs are generally higher than they are with most movies, but also more ephemeral. I’ve LOVED songs hysterically before, and then lost interest in them; shifted my focus from one song on an album to another to another, been devoted to one album only to see it eclipsed in my interest by one I had shrugged off before. Hence whatever most appeals to me at the moment can’t play a huge role in my overall judgement of who’s the best, who are the “titans” so to speak – it’s a definite factor, but so is what’s appealed to me in the past, the depth of the appeal, and other, more cerebral factors – the satisfaction a song gives me, in addition to the thrill, the admiration it evokes alongside the ecstasy.
The Beatles are simply untouchable in so many categories. And I think the breadth of achievement counts a little more in music than in movies, to be honest; ironically because of the brevity of the achievement. I’m not comfortable putting a one-hit wonders on the same plateau as a band that released a couple hundred classics; as SONGS, sure, but as artists overall, it’s a bit different (I don’t feel quite the same way about filmmakers, even when the films in question are shorts, not that I like that many of those, at least of the narrative stripe, but I digress).
I agree with Tony that the Beatles’ accomplishment is more of a pop accomplishment than a rock one. Taken as straight-up rock they are far outshone by the Stones and the Who, to name just two very obvious examples.
Boy, I can’t wait to hear these remasters. I had almost forgotten they were due, since it’s been so many, many years since they were first promised. And the initial shine of the Beatles tracks having worn off a bit by now, I can really hear how the recordings suffer in comparison to the succulent Stones remasters, for example.
Dave, you’re not alone. I am 25 and I haven’t a clue what’s out there now, except that when I hear it, it doesn’t interest me much. It took fifty years, but it seems the last vestiges of rebellion and spunk have been sucked out of rock. And come someone please explain what’s so fucking cool about whiney vocals? Every stupid song now, like it’s a prerequisite for getting taken seriously…
Movieman – very nicely said. Within the span of six years, The Beatles catalog is filled with classic after classic that one never gets tired of listening too. Today, an artist releases an album every couple of years and if you find a couple of decent songs your lucky. Back then, The Beatles and other groups, would release two albums plus a couple of singles in a year and yet the quality of the work remained superior.
Very well said, MovieMan. But I’ll slightly disagree on the point that has been brought up a few times (not just by you) saying that The Beatles are necessarily “rock.” I think they most certainly are. Particularly when you consider that in their era, the terms “rock” and “pop” had become virtually the same thing. Look at who their influences were — Buddy Holly, Elvis, Little Richard — who were actually much more rock n’ roll than the Chicago Blues artists that influenced a lot of the other British bands. And in the time that The Beatles were together, The Stones (who are probably my all-time favorite band) were sounding very similar, yet their rock credentials are never questioned. I guess I just follow a bit more open definition of rock, because it’s kind of like defining what is an “American.” It’s almost impossible to use an exact definition in either case, because each is the result of stealing/borrowing/integrating many, many previous influences.
Anyway, just a slight tangent…
No, I should have made myself clearer. The Beatles UNDOUBTEDLY belong to the genre, movement, and history of rock ‘n’ roll. It’s a no brainer. They’re a guitar group (which were “on their way out, Mr. Epstein”), they had all the influences you mention, and they rocked a lot harder than most of the American groups dominating the chart when they hit in ’64.
When I make the distinction between “pop” and “rock” it is not so much in those terms, as in terms of where their appeal lies and how it works. When I listen to the Beatles, I listen not so much to get a buzz or a rush or even a groove, the way I listen to the Stones, Who, Zeppelin, most punk rock, or hip- or trip-hop. I listen to them for something a little more subtle, a mood, a good feeling, an admiration for the sophistication and balance of the elements in play…all attributes I associate more with “pop” as a style and approach than with “rock.” That’s what I was trying to say. There are exceptions of course – Helter Skelter rocks, and while I admire Revolver as much for its discipline and diversity, it is generally a very full-throttle album, with a harder edge than much else. But even there, the feel is different for me from the hard rockers, the punks, even the early rock-n-rollers, like Little Richard.
Makes sense to me, MovieMan, and I guess in a way I do somewhat the same thing. If I want to put something on to really “rock” you’re absolutely right that it’s going to be the Stones, Zeppelin, etc.
“The Beatles are simply untouchable in so many categories. And I think the breadth of achievement counts a little more in music than in movies, to be honest; ironically because of the brevity of the achievement. I’m not comfortable putting a one-hit wonders on the same plateau as a band that released a couple hundred classics; as SONGS, sure, but as artists overall, it’s a bit different (I don’t feel quite the same way about filmmakers, even when the films in question are shorts, not that I like that many of those, at least of the narrative stripe, but I digress).”
Completely agreed Movie Man, though the matter of whether they are rock or pop or a combination of both is still unclear.
Great thread! I will add my own favorite Beatles songs here. Being a Lennonist my list weights heavy on John’s work and by no means do I slight Paul, George and Ringo. What made the group what they are the combination of them all. John and Paul especially held each other in check as far as each having their own tendencies to go toward their natural extremes. John was always stronger with words and Paul was melodic. Together they were magic.
These are in no particular order
In My Life
Get Back
Revolution
Across the Universe
A Day in the Life
Let it Be
Strawberry Fields Forever
I Am the Walrus
Bad Boy (Not written by The Beatles buy a great vocal by Lennon)
Don’t Let Me Down
You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away
Help
Helter Skelter
Here Comes the Sun
Hey Jude
I’ll Cry Instead
I’m a Loser
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
There are plenty of others….
One of the things I like about The Beatles and this applies more to Lennon is while some of their songs were pop music, if you listen to the words they are serious songs, in Lennon’s case he’s crying out. “Help” is a pop song yet if your ever heard Tina Turner’s excellent slow version the writer is in turmoil. Same with “I’ll Cry Instead.” Would “Help” have been a big hit if it were a slow blues? Probably not.
One other thing and I will shut up. In 1976, I went to the Coronet Theater in Manhattan to see the film “The Front.” It was a weekday afternoon, (I skipped out of work –the film opened that day) and as the crowd was filing out I found myself, unknowingly at first, standing next John Lennon and Yoko. As we continued out, they crossed 3rd Ave. going to Bloomingdale’s as I walked away still it shock. Growing up in New York, I am pretty jaded about seeing famous people but this was JOHN LENNON!
John, another one of your classic posts here! Needless to say your choices are up my alley. John, I am also a LENNONIST, though like you I do recognize the chemistry. Oddly enough, two of their greatest lyrics, PENNY LANE and ELEANOR RIGBY, were actually written by Paul, even if Lennon added a bit to the latter. Paul also wrote YESTERDAY and HEY JUDE, so go figure………but Lennon wrote ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, I AM THE WALRUS, COME TOGETHER, STRAWBERRIES FIELDS FOREVER and others.
Great Bloomingdales/The Front anecdote there!!!
The few hours I spent in the car today were made much more enjoyable by the new remasters… I finally made good use of the 6-disc changer that came with the car and loaded in the first five Beatles albums. I was driving so much today, I actually made it through all five. The remasters do a lot of good on these early records — PLEASE PLEASE ME in particular, and things like that opening 12-string guitar in A Hard Day’s Night just jumps out of the speakers. Again, I’m really struck by how crystal clear each individual element of the band is able to be picked out, yet not to the point of feeling like its detracting from the performance.
Dave, that six-disc CD changer is perfect for this batch! My wife piched up HARD DAY’S NIGHT this afternoon, so it’s here to be heard. I would tend to agree with you that the earlier stuff will show the most improvement. You really must have been in heaven this afternoon!
This doesn’t exactly relate to the remasters, but in the various Beatles lists I’ve noticed that a lot of others love “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” which is my favorite song from the group. Anyway, here is an awesome video of a performance from the 80s, with a very cool guitar duel between George and Clapton, along with playing with Ringo and Elton John. Enjoy:
SPECTACULAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dave you reall know how to bring a thread to th eheights of enrichment and celebration!!! This is a magnificent clip, and I must say this song is one of all-time Beatles favorites as well. Harrison wrote sparingly for the group, but ironically his three greatest songs (GUITAR, HERE COMES THE SUN and SOMETHING) are among the Beatles masterworks.
Thank You Thank You Thank You!!!
To close (and sort of address MovieMan’s great contribution), I just always wonder if we could hear all this stuff in a vacuum with none of the ‘Beatles are the greatest ever’ baggage that we are bombarded with since we are born (at least anyone born post 1970) would the majority still say the Beatles are unquestionable the best? I still say they’d be another (albeit great) band. Again, do the Beatles have 3 singular minutes that are as exciting as the Action’s 3 minutes in ‘Something to Say’? It’s so obscure most would flippantly say no (and have never even heard the song). If you haven’t type it in to youtube, and sit back, it’s fantastic.
This whole discussion reminds me of the 60’s PR stunt (1967 to be exact) where a record company released a new song and only said it’s by a cockney sounding pop band with a name starting with ‘B’ and ending in ‘S’ and 7 letters. Well people went absolutely nuts for the song (assuming it was the Beatles as it sounded like them) when they discovered it was actually the Bee Gees opinions immediately went to normal levels. How much of this is apparent in the thread? Is it all the meta surrounding the Beatles? I think much of it is. As I said the Beatles were great, but one cannot deny their almost vanilla universality that makes one impossible to hate them, but for a very articulate listener with a very defined worldview, hard to be rabid about. Think about the distinct personality of Townshend’s songs of the 60’s (like ‘I’m a Boy’, ‘Pictures of Lily’, and ‘My Generation’) one can assume how many people those pointed songs immediately ostracize (females are almost immediately out I’d assume), but in great art I think part of the audience shouldn’t get it. Who wants mass appeal art anyways? I suppose some do, but my personality does not. Different strokes, for different folks in the end is what it comes down too.
(btw the song that did this PR stunt was the fantastic ‘New York Mining Disaster 1941’, a great pop song in itself)
Jamie, I adamently agree and adamently disagree with you. When assessing the Beatles, should it be in terms of musical quality alone? If so, I think they still place highly – but what you are describing as the “greater” appeal is what I described as “rock” earlier, vs. pop. No, I don’t find (most) Beatles songs to be as exciting, as much a kick in the pants, as the Stones or the Who. (haven’t heard the Action song, so I can’t speak on that). But that’s not the only criterion of musical quality.
And besides, there are other factors, questions of influence, originality, diversity, breadth of achievement, not to mention one can never completely divorce the “meta” quality from the music, as it’s often addressed within the music itself. I’ll accept that perhaps meta should be given less weight on the scale than music, but you can’t discount it completely. It’s part of the appeal.
And you’re just wrong about the Beatles not having distinct personality in their songs – it’s just that you are taking their work for granted in a way you’re not taking “I’m a Boy” or “Pictures of Lily.” I assume we’re talking lyrics, right, given the songs you mention? OK, how about I am the Walrus, Day in the Life, Tomorrow Never Knows, any track of the White Album (Happiness is a Warm Gun – “a soap impression of his wife, which he ate and donated to the National Trust” !!! Hell, what about Revolution 9, which is actually the unappreciated linchpin of the LP).
The majority of their tracks from the second half of their career even? Universal? Perhaps, though their previous achievement helped in that regard. Vanilla? Hardly.
I mean the Beatles’ rep cuts both ways, Jamie. If the an obscure Nuggets band recorded Happiness is a Warm Gun or I am the Walrus I have no doubt you’d be on these boards citing it as evidence of something the Beatles could never touch in its obscurity and randomness and musical invention. But you’ve been used to them, probably since childhood, as certified grade-A classics and hence it doesn’t even come to mind as something that could challenge I’m a Boy.
I again suppose I wasn’t as clear as need be. The ‘I’m a Boy’, ‘Picture’s of Lily’ argument I meant a very distinct personality of the band. A Philosophy so to speak. When Townshend writes ‘I want to cut myself to see my Blood’, or ‘I Got So Sick Of Having Sleepless Nights’ to me I get that… I get that this man is articulating something real, something personal that not everyone is going to understand. Now this isn’t to say the Beatles don’t have instances of that, but collectively ‘Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds’ et all are sort of fluff, and non sensical. Great pop to be sure but it’s not overly consistent with other vantage points being made through out their career (Beatles I mean). Now I suppose you could argue that this lack of ‘philosophical cohesion’ is the result of three talented songwriters (whereas the Who is the work of one consistent mind), and I would wholly agree with you, AND you could probably say that is a strength of the Beatles NOT a weakness (and you’d probably be ‘more’ correct). It’s all taste then, (as we’ve all said), I like certain music about certain things, that kicks me a certain way, and I’m trying to vocalize why the Beatles don’t hit it for me, for the sole purpose for great conversation. It can for others, and I could see that as I’ll say again (for the third time) I am still a Beatles fan.
I guess the next thing we’d have to discuss, and surprisingly have not is what we think a ‘great band’ actually is, what it does, what it should strive for, and what it should represent. I suppose this should have been done to start things off to lessen confusion. For example one thing to be a ‘great band’ to me personally is an ability to play the albums live with visual OR technical flair (by technical flair I don’t necessarily mean ‘chops’ or musicianship… it could mean performance too as say a somewhat rudimentary band like Nirvana has tons of technical flair in the performance), AND perhaps expound or alter the songs live (such as jams, solos, ect) Now many of the Beatles great albums weren’t played live so I have to take that into account personally. I suppose another is the Beatles just aren’t dark enough for me… I bow to you and state that this is a 100% personal opinion. But it goes back to my statement that they are ‘vanilla’ (not meaning they are bland or boring) just that many of there stances are pretty universal, this will alienate no one in the audience. Music should have some confrontational quality for it to work with me. Music I like, my grandma should never enjoy, as a rule or thumb– put on ‘Here comes the Sun’ (which is perfectly fine) and she’d like it. I want something she doesn’t. This is certainly perhaps my generational bias talking or more exact my acute opinions talking, but damn it it’s art and I want stuff that I get (and others with my world view) and others don’t. In ’60’s music terms I suppose the Kink’s ‘I’m Not Like Everybody Else’ would argue my points better then I ever could.
I hope this explains my thoughts better. I appreciate your thoughts on ‘Happiness is a Warm Gun’, it’s in my top 5 or so favorite Beatles songs. But again I don’t see it as as personal, I hope this makes sense. It’s not a negative it’s just the kind of art I’m drawn to. In film terms it’s like me saying I like ‘Rumble Fish’ more then either ‘Godfather’, it seems more personal. In Beatles terms, i’d probably say I like Lennon’s solo career more then the Beatles catalog.
PS (to everyone)- I hope to continue this but I have a wedding to attend this weekend, so I apologize in advance if you respond and don’t hear from me again till Sunday evening, or Monday morning.
That works for me, Jamie, as I am rather stocked up this weekend too and have actually gone through with disconnecting internet so I won’t be distracted at least for the next 24 hours (I’m on a break at work now which is why I can type this.) I’ll respond in fragments:
1. Other than saying I don’t think Lucy in the Sky (which I love, of course) is necessarily typical of the whole Beatles oeuvre (or that you could characterize the darkness and dirtiness of Happiness is a Warm Gun as “fluff”) you pretty much cover my reaction in your own caveat – taste is taste, so be it.
2. However, this does bring up the matter of objectivity vs. subjectivity. Here’s how I see it. There is obviously a HUGE subjective element in art, greater than in probably any other field of human endeavor or appreciation. But I do believe there are grounds for an objective analysis as well. And I think it somewhat unfair that unlike in, say, sports, or business, or just about any other field to varying degrees, objectivity is often dismissed out of hand. Granted, this is because a cohesive, agreed-upon standards are hard to come by, and particularly because the currency, so to speak, of art is emotions – notoriously variable and erratic, even within an individual, let alone between them. But I think it does a disservice to the talents and efforts of the artists themselves to disregard objectivity altogether. That’s a matter for a much longer and more in-depth post, however; hey, I did say it was a challenge (if a worthy one).
3. “I bow to you and state that this is a 100% personal opinion.” Back to the grounds of subjectivity, it’s hard to argue with a statement like this. All I can do in response is make recourse to a sort of common ground and ask, do you feel that ALL Beatles songs are not dark enough (even, say, the aforementioned Happiness, nor Eleanor Rigby – which is certainly not grungey musically but is quite grim lyrically – or Helter Skelter, which lyrically is about a playground slide though – ahem – this could be “theoretically” be interpreted otherwise – but musically is pretty dark and edgy)? And if it’s just the majority you mean, how does this hold up against your statement that music must be judged purely on the basis of the “best song” an artist has to offer? (Or have I misinterpreted your “3 minutes” comment, in that it actually allows for accumulation, just in non-exponential terms?).
4. “but damn it it’s art and I want stuff that I get (and others with my world view) and others don’t.” I firmly disagree with you on this – I’m not into exclusivity at all. Let me explain. I am all for difficult, potentially alienating, yet deep, rich, powerful art which rewards close experience. But I am not at all happy when this “alienates” others. I don’t quite think you are either – this doesn’t seem to be “exclusivity” of the “I like being in the minority because it makes me different” variety (though the Kinks reference might belie this), but rather of “I know there are people out there who don’t think like me, so I want their viewpoint to be challenged” variety – i.e. you want your own perhaps esoteric needs satisfied, and if it alienates other people in the process, that’s ok. So I guess our disagreement is one of emphasis more than anything: you shrug off the excluded as collateral damage or even as “enemy dead” so to speak while I find frustration in marginalization – I actively desire art, however challenging, to be experienced and enjoyed (on some level – crucial point there perhaps) by as many people as possible. I think the other point of view runs the risk of elitism – and worse, to be honest and somewhat selfish about it, marginalization and fragmentation, hence trivialization (in one regard, if by no means the most important, but one I’m sensitive to nonetheless) of art’s power.
That’s all I can say for now. Looking forward to continuing this conversation at a later time.
“How much of this is apparent in the thread? Is it all the meta surrounding the Beatles? I think much of it is.”
So I (or others like me) only like the Beatles because I’ve been programmed to? Interesting to make that leap based on the discussions thus far.
I’m not saying that’s WHY you like them, I’m saying that’s why the collective here unquestionably think they are the greatest ever. Quite different.
Because as I’ve said I like them too. They just aren’t the massive Zeus looking down on all others as so many think. I hope that was apparent in my post but evidently it wasn’t, so I apologize for any confusion.
I can see that as far as the not being the Zeus in terms of musical quality and things more subjective. But normally when I refer to them in such “reverent” language, I’m talking about their influence on pop and rock music, which in that regard they are justified being placed on a Mount Olympus like pedestal (along with Elvis and some others). I’m assuming you would agree with that?
Any other time I say something like “best” or “greatest” always keep in mind that I’m doing so with a massive IMO there, so please keep that in mind if I make such claims! 🙂
On a brighter note, you’ve stirred my interest in listening to ROLLED GOLD again, which I haven’t done in some time.
I agree with all this. Influence is very important, but one can influence in many ways other then songs and catalogs. For example, the Who’s pioneering of the double Marshall stack changed forever how rock bands sounded, toured and venue’s that could be played (clubs to arenas to stadiums). So therefor the financial aspect of rock-pop music changed. One could almost say this ONE thing changed and influenced music post 1950 as much as the Beatles did. It’s less obvious and weird to think– that if the Who broke up after ‘My Generation’ (as they almost did) they could have had the influence on the business and the world that the Beatles did but it’s entirely possible to debate and think about.
Good discussion.
To dip again or not (!) this is perennially the question with the Beatles! This set has been tempting me for a while, it’s finally released. I am still considering it! Here’s my list of top dozen Beatles singles (in no order):
1The long and winding road (Let it be… Naked — this version is a revelation, in general this album is far superior for its musical arrangements to the earlier Phil specter-tampered-with version)
2)Yesterday (Help)
3)While my guitar gently weeps (White Album)
4)Golden Slumbers (Abbey Road)
5)Eleanor Rigby (Revolver)
6)And I love her (Hard Day’s Night)
7)Strawberry Fields Forever (Magical Mystery Tour)
8)I’m only sleeping (Revolver)
9)Because (Abbey Road)
10)Michelle (Rubber Soul)
11)I me mine (Let it be.. naked)
12)Octopus’s Garden (Abbey Road)
As albums I have to say I consider Sgt. Pepper’s overrated. A strong album but I’d take Abbey Road and Revolver over it. Rubber Soul is at least it’s equal. Also like Let it be.. Naked even if it is not the equal of these works. But my personal favorite has somehow always remained a Hard Day’s Night. Less ambitious for sure, it’s an earlier work, but there is a certain spontaneity to it. The first five tracks on the album are especially a bunch I can listen to infinitely.
I realize I neglected to add Girl (Rubber Soul) here. In fact it should have been on the list before Michelle.
I must say that having heard Sgt Pepper yet again I am amazed at how much this album is overrated. Just don’t know how and why this became the best polled album around. It’s decent or better stuff but I consider every other major and half-major album of the band better than it
Interesting, Kaleem, because I’ve had the opposite reaction in regard to Pepper. I’ve always been a pretty big fan, but my enjoyment of it has only increased since listening to it again with the remasters. Yes, with the exception of one song (A Day in the Life) it doesn’t have as many individual songs that I would classify as the best of the Beatles, but taken as a whole I just really enjoy the entire album. And A Day in the Life is just such a great song.
That’s a mark of greatness for a band though, to have so many different albums that can be considered their best.
Having heard a few albums remastered so far (Rubber Soul, Sgt Pepper, White Album, Abbey Rd) there is no doubt that these new ‘editions’ justify the hype.
I wonder if there’s ever been another important band that has been as much in love with melancholy as the Beatles. There is more twilight in their work, tonally and thematically, than any other I can think of (not that I am an authority on this vast field of popular music by any means.. perhaps someone could correct me on this) along similar lines. It’s also remarkable that this group did just about all of their work in the 60s and yet they seems do not seem to celebrate that decade very much. The Beatles are one of the iconic images of the 60s (even if they of course transcend that decade) but they are never ‘selling’ the 60s. To have that kind of perspective about one’s own time when one is young is rather noteworthy..
Kaleem – Seeing that you really like Abbey Road, that’s one of the albums that is incredible with the remastering. General sentiment seems to be that The White Album and Abbey Road are the two that are amazing in the new releases, but a lot of the early albums sound great to me as well — although I know some people are traditionalists and insist they should be heard in mono.
Dave, thanks so much for this shout out.. I am still contemplating whether to get the whole thing or not but if I don’t I will definitely get the two albums you’ve mentioned. What’s the reason though behind these two sounding better than everything else?
Kaleem – A lot of it sounds like little stuff that you think wouldn’t make a huge difference, but it does when you compare. They fixed some editing problems on the old CDs. Those two albums in particular just sound a lot more vibrant — you can pick out individual elements of songs that before sounded like they were mixed directly one on top of the other.
http://popdose.com/cd-reviews-the-beatles-remasters/
Here’s a good link where they go over impression of each album. Check it out, it might be helpful for you to decide if you want to pick any of them up.
O. M. G.!!!
I just got in and the site have been gloriously beseiged!!!!! I have been taslking about this set all day with friends, and Dave and Kaleem, I did hear the early albums sound fantastic!
Jamie, I think you are suffering from pesces scifoso syndrome better known as the Fish disease. Sufferers chronically believe the less popular the better…
Jamie, I have listened to the Spirit (Spirit and Sardonicus), Mobey Grape, Love’s Forever Changes, and the Action song Something to Say (listen here http://slti.blogspot.com/2007/04/ive-got-something-to-say.html), and in all honesty there is not one arresting song. There may be some good lyrics there, but they are lost in muddled arrangements, derivative harmonies, and mediocre lead singers… Sorry I gave it a shot.
The greats are great because they stand out.
Tony, I can’t entirely agree with your last statement – I mean agree with it, but not the (perhaps) unintended corollary that the “non-greats” (in terms of popularity) don’t stand out. Of course neither do you really, as you are constantly celebrating noir obscurities. So perhaps I’ve misconstrued.
But I do agree with the general thrust of what you’re saying. I’ve disagreed with your populism in the past, but that’s mostly in terms of its negative qualities (the skepticism of obscure works which are celebrated by a small group) rather than its positive assertion that much of the time, the coincidence of acclaim and popularity happens for a reason and not just because the work in question is “vanilla” as Jamie likes to put it. And that those usually considered in the canon are very much there for a reason, and it’s worth trying to understand why even if you don’t “get” it right away – that it isn’t just some arbitrary grabbag of classics and
Also, Love has just never done it for me. I own Forever Changes, have listened to it multiple times and while other brands, from the Kinks to the Small Faces, took some getting used to on my part before I was completely won over, I just can’t warm up to Arthur Lee. I don’t know Spirit or Moby Grape (except for that one song from Rushmore, which I like), but I’ll listen to Action in a moment and see what I think…
…Eh.
Joel, get someone else to hide the modem, trash the place trying to find it, and then write a review of The Long Weekend…
I don’t have to be consistent – I am a (nice) eccentric remember 😉 Old obscure movies hidden away in studio vaults are a different story. Velvet Underground? Arresting yes but an acquired taste. I either love a song or not – it takes me somewhere or it doesn’t. That’s about it.
True about the VU – though I was intrigued right away, it was a few listens before I adored them. And a few more before I realized that the chaos of Black Angel’s Death Song was my favorite track on the album, and a few more before I realized that the absolute cacophony European Son was my new favorite track, and the ne plus ultra of my favorite album. The songs definitely take one somewhere – the question is, does one want to go there? I like to, as long as I have a return ticket. 😉
“Joel, get someone else to hide the modem, trash the place trying to find it, and then write a review of The Long Weekend… ”
Sorry to use the Internet cliche, but LOL!
Tony, out of curiosity, what’s your take on the Velvet Underground? Was it Brian Eno who said that very few people bought the VU & Nico in ’67, but every one of them formed a band? That album may very well be my favorite of all time. Now THOSE songs are arresting…albeit not necessarily in the usual hooky pop way (though often not antithetical to that either).
How, one may ask, am I writing all this from a computer from which, by my own admission, the modem has been disconnected and will not be reconnected until tomorrow when I finish all the other tasks at hand?
Uh… magic?
Since everyone’s taking this moment to call out their favorites, I might as well join in:
“Sgt. Pepper” is probably their most successful album, combining their mainstream songwriting and their experimental music sides with equal doses of entertainment. It showed Lennon at his most down-to-Earth, yet thought provoking, and McCartney doing his music-hall schitck as well as he ever would, but with a kind of sophistication that made up for his sentimentality that he could sustain for a song or two at times (“Eleanor Rigby” being a good example– “Revolver” was a creative turning point for the group, but it’s not quite so unified and cohesive as their later efforts) but never for an entire album before.
The White Album was sort of the next step, but also a step away from the mainstream. They embraced their fracturous, experimental aspects here, but what’s really remarkable is how connected it all feels. Each Beatle is more or less off in their own corner, but before long they’ve filled out the entire space. Lennon reaches deep inside himself here, and what he comes back with is sometimes touching and personal (“Dear Prudence”), dark and cynical (“Happiness is a Warm Gun”) and at turns inspiring and mind-boggling alike (both “Revolution” songs). There’s an emotional sincerity that’s really shocking from him– every song feels absolutely honest and naked. He was at his most expressive here, as was McCartney, whose sing-song numbers frequently took a darker turn– “Rocky Raccoon” is the best example, of course, but there’s also a bittersweet, melancholy lilt to “Martha My Dear”, my favorite of his, that implies a sort of unrequited love that justifies the sweetness. “Blackbird” is hard to top– haunting and tender, probably the best lullaby ever written. George also delivered his signature “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, and Ringo… well, I’m sure he had a song on there, too.
Altogether, the boys were at their top of their game on that one, on their own. As a group, of course, they were barely keeping it together. “Magical Mystery Tour” is where they went off the deep end– It might be my personal favorite album of theirs, especially for the “Sgt. Peppers”-recording session songs that didn’t make the final cut, but they were at their most self-indulgent here. Granted, it’s an entertaining sort of self-indulgence– “I Am the Walrus” is classic, even if it is mostly bullshit (back on the White Album even John made fun of it in “Glass Onion”) and “Your Mother Should Know” is a fantastic piece, especially in the original special, where McCartney’s nostalgic vision of the past is busted wide open with a musical staircase, waltzing couples and uniformed RAF girls saluting the boys. However, a lot of it is padding– “Fool on the Hill” sounds nice and all with the pipes and recorders, but it’s kind of an empty exercise in Paul’s beautiful-dreamer romanticism, and “Magical Mystery Tour” shows off Lennon’s psychadelia in a beautiful, but very hollow excitement. Hell, “Blue Jay Way” is probably the ugliest thing Harrison ever did.
“Abbey Road” might just be their best. Everyone’s grounded, more or less– there’s none of the huge ambitious flourishes of musical grandstanding from before. It’s their most rigorous, disciplined work since their days of perfecting songs based on R&B chords and harmony. “Come Together” is Lennon’s greatest populist anthem– it doesn’t have the naivety of “All You Need is Love” or the preachiness of “You Say You Want a Revolution”, and it does a fine job of appealing to man’s natural generosity, even from a streetside level. “Because” is also pretty incredible– it has a beautiful classical style to it with the contained harmonies that’s never betrayed by the Moog synth-sound, all of which fits the floaty, yet sort of mournful spirit of the piece. You could picture it at a goth-mod funeral. Harrison pulls off some of his best work without being tied down to the gimmick of a single instrument– “Something” and “Here Comes the Sun” might be his most lasting songs ever (though I do like the folksy gibberish over the credits of “Time Bandits”). McCartney’s song-and-dance side doesn’t go away entirely– “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” might be more of what John called his “granny music”, but it’s also a devilishly funny tune, the black comedy of “A Clockwork Orange” in a pop-tune pill. Hell, even Ringo pulls off a bonafide gem with “Octopus’s Garden”– it imitates Paul’s style a bit, but who cares? I like it. And of course there’s the Medley– a beautiful trip down a stream of consciousness that helps everyone, including listeners, come to terms with one another by the end.
Anyway, those are my top three. I don’t put them in any order. They’re good enough to deserve better than having to compete with one another.
Bob, I dont know what to say! You are really something else!
OK, what the hell, I’m going to repost reviews I wrote of all the Beales albums on Amazon in 2004. That was a time when the Fab Four’s music was completely fresh to me. Though I’d grown up with them and probably considered them my favorite band, I was not a music guy at all – the kind of person who owned a few random albums, more soundtracks and greatest hits collections, and some burned CD mixes. I’d recently grown tired of contemporary hip-hop, while my obsession with movies was hitting a stonewall which would subsist for several years while an extreme passion for rock music quite unexpectedly took hold of me.
In late 2003, I really only knew the songs from Sgt. Pepper & the Yellow Submarine era, as well as the big pop hits from earlier in their career. It was only in the winter of 2003-04 (spurred by my first viewing of Hard Day’s Night) that I started exploring their full catalog and reading everything I could get my hands on. I started buying the albums, progressing until I owned each one by May, by which time I’d also begun to buy albums by other artists of the era – starting with the Stones – and had also started utilizing myTunes to grab thousands of songs from the iTunes of other people on the dormitory’s network.
I could bore you with the rest of my musical trajectory, which continued pretty much unabated for a year and a half, but instead I’ll move on. I’m using these reviews because I want to contribute my thoughts on the Beatles albums, but don’t want to search for words at the moment; besides, this perspective captures a moment when their music was still fresh to me and I had not wearied or numbed myself to it at all as is much the case today.
If for some strange, unfathomable reason you don’t want to waste several minutes of your life reading 5-year-old reviews of all 13 Beatles albums, skip to the Revolver and Beatles for Sale ones which are probably my most expressive.
:
Movie Man:
I am bursting at the seems here! As I’ve stated, I’m a lifelong Beatles fan, and I’ve written much about them, but nothing as comprehensive as a full survey of all their albums. You have me smacking my lips here. i am still reading through what is most assuredly my Boston friend as the greatest swingle comment ever logged in at this site, largely because of the scope. Yes, many others here like Bob Clark and Kaleem and the man who inspire dthis entire thread that wonderful young man and great friend from Ohio, Dave Hicks. But I am stunned here…….the four songs from Rubber Soul you name as tops are exactlt those four and in exactly that order!!! i will have much more to say……but i need to read it all!!!!!!!!
Well, if you want to read about Magical Mystery Tour please refresh the page and look below; I had to revise the comment accordingly. Quite glad you are enjoying my old (young?) thoughts!
[Re-posted as Sgt. Pepper review was accidentally pasted in where Magical Mystery Tour was supposed to be; it has been fixed]
PLEASE PLEASE ME
Welcome to the Cavern
“1, 2, 3, 4…” Minus the cheering fans, this is the closest we can come (not including some Anthology tracks) to the Beatles’ stage show in their early days. Their story is fantastic if you don’t know it; how they went from a rag-tag teenage skiffle group in the late fifties to a bunch of young men playing all night long in Hamburg (and rewarded with speed, booze, and women) until they’d tightened their act up and finally to a professional, exciting Liverpool group that wowed the local Cavern Club when they got back from Germany. It took a few years, but they were finally noticed, signed to a label, and cut a few singles. When Please Please Me (the song) hit #1 in the charts, producer George Martin knew they had to get an album out to capitalize on the hit. There’s the history if you didn’t know it. As for the album? Well, it was recorded in a single day. And yet, or because of that, it’s a fantastic debut. This was the cream of the Beatles’ act, showcasing their diverse taste in pop and their own keen songwriting instincts. Their lyrics are still pretty light (though there’s some fascinating Lennonesque introspection in There’s a Place), but the compositions are outstanding. The album infamously kicks off with the early masterpiece I Saw Her Standing There, the best track on the album and the perfect place to start listening to the Beatles. Next up is Misery, which is anything but. Followed by a lot of interesting covers, including Anna (Go to Him), Chains, and finally the notorious album closer Twist and Shout which as you probably know shredded John’s voice (and yes, they had to save it for last). And there’s the famous singles, still catchy after all these years, Love Me Do and Please Please Me. Poppy material, like P.S. I Love You is pleasant, and Do You Want to Know a Secret, seemingly nothing more than a silly love song, has a darker side: John wrote it while he and his wife were staying in manager Brian Epstein’s flat, where Brian conducted his discreet homosexual liasons. Anyway, if you’re new to the Beatles sound and you want to start at the beginning, start here, from the countoff and “She was just seventeen…” to John screaming his head off, “Woooooooooo…”
5/6
WITH THE BEATLES
A Second Time
The Beatles top their debut with their second album; from the spring of ‘63, when they recorded Please Please Me, to the fall of ‘63, when they released this album, they had gone from a local Liverpool group with a hit single to Britain’s biggest stars. Over the summer, Beatlemania had exploded and now the Fab Four were playing the Palladium and a Royal Command Performance rather than the Cavern. Check out the covers, and you’ll see the difference. The four eager kids on the first album have morphed into the cool, aloof icons on this one. And the music? This is where the Beatles kick off their flight to ever loftier heights. This is more rock and roll than Please Please Me, and it’s faster and more urgent as well. John’s performance on Please Mr. Postman is outstanding; he’s said he was the leader of the group at this point, and on With the Beatles his peculiar voice dominates most of the songs he sings on. It Won’t Be Long kicks off with a jarring variation of the “yeah yeah yeahs” from their hit single She Loves You, Little Child is an underrated classic where Lennon changes his voice every line, veering from sensitive and sorrowful to tough and deep, and Money closes the album sardonically with a gleeful celebration of greed. Paul’s no slouch either, effectively crooning the show tune Till There Was You and memorably delivering All My Loving, the most famous song on the album. And George has his first composition with Don’t Bother Me, which is not highly regarded but very good nonetheless. It has the strange Harrison touch which is recognizable in so many of his songs. Ringo sings I Wanna Be Your Man (a song written for the Rolling Stones-legend has it that when Jagger and Richards saw Lennon and McCartney compose it in a few minutes, they were encouraged to take on songwriting themselves), plays the bongos on Till There Was You, and bangs an Arabian bongo on Don’t Bother Me. This LP (CD now) moves the Beatles beyond their humble origins and thrusts them into the realm of musical superstars. They could’ve stopped here and their reputations in Pop would still be secure. But no, they didn’t. This was just the beginning…
5/6
A HARD DAY’S NIGHT
He’s a Clean Old Man, Isn’t He?
Anyone who’s seen the film won’t forget the virtuoso musical sequences, from the fast cutting of the opening, with the four faces flashing before us as A Hard Day’s Night kicks off, to the boys playing around in a field as the soundtrack blares Can’t Buy Me Love and the aerial camera soars and dips. And the energy of those sequences are in the songs, which are the most professional and confident of the Beatles’ career up to this point. This album’s all Lennon-McCartney, start to finish, and remains the only pure Lennon-McCartney album in the Beatles canon (George would be chipping in soon). This was the Beatles at the peak of their powers at the peak of Beatlemania. Personally, I find this to be an album that grows on you rather than wows you right away (though I’m pretty much alone in that). That’s because despite the rock and roll flair of the two singles (which you’ve probably heard before this album), there’s a lot of more subtle material on here. The first few listens I didn’t even register Things We Said Today until I realized it was one of the best songs here. The sound of the guitar on this is quite memorable. And I Love Her is a classic ballad, probably the most famous song after the singles, but so is If I Fell, John’s touching (and confusing, if you listen to the lyrics) ode to a love he can’t pursue. This, along with the title track and I Should Have Known Better, kick off the album with a grand start. Some of the songs on side 2 (especially the aforementioned Things We Said Today) are just as strong as the first 7 tracks, which were the ones included in the movie–though there’s no doubt that side 1 is superior. But I’ll Be Back, You Can’t Do That, and Any Time at All are all catchy pop–and at this stage the Four were writing songs with the best of ‘em in Tin Pan Alley. Soon of course they would move far beyond pure pop rock as a form and love as a subject, but this is the pinnacle of their earlier, more focused phase.
5/6
BEATLES FOR SALE
Some Losers
They were on top of the world, but Beatlemania was taking its toll, as you can see on the cover, detect in the slightly cynical title, and hear in the songs…but you probably know that already. What’s most amazing about this album is not the Beatles’ decline (producer George Martin felt it was weak, as did some of the group) but their growth. This is a growing-up album if there every was one, and it’s the closest the Beatles ever came to a breakup album too (well, maybe Abbey Road for obvious reasons). After the uncertain, depressed Lennon triumvirate of No Reply, I’m a Loser, and Baby’s in Black (all great songs) the bouncy pep of Rock and Roll Music sounds less like the covers on their other LPs and more like nostalgia. And indeed, the overall mood here is bittersweet, a mixture of weariness, uncertainty, nostalgia, and romance, not the gleeful love or even the idealized angst of past Beatles songs, but a deeply romanticized, and also painful, yearning. Yesterday appeared on their next release, but it wouldn’t have been so out of place here (though this time it’s John not Paul who expresses loss). But when they’re happy, they’re happy, and Eight Days a Week is as joyful as any early Beatles song, but more sophisticated and stylized (dig the fade-in). And I’ll Follow the Sun is the perfect song about yearning and dreaming, no less because it was written by a teenage Paul before he became famous; it may be the best song on the album. Beatles for Sale is melancholy but not bleak, musically sophisticated, with lots and lots of underrated songs. Listening to Mr. Moonlight again, I was surprised at the soul John pours into his singing; the song might be dismissed as filler, but there’s something there. And the final trio of songs (before the closer, a Perkins cover) expresses more self-doubt and ambivalence, Every Little Thing tender its its recognition of love’s delicacy, I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party an revelation of painful insecurity, while What You’re Doing is suspicious and doubtful. The moptops get serious? You decide; pick up this album right away.
5/6
HELP!
But now my life has changed in oh so many ways…
Despite some real rockers, this is a mellow Beatles album. Even heavier numbers, like Ticket to Ride, have a laid-back feel. The “Beatle sound” has undergone an evolution in two years, and on Help! the songs have a richer texture and breezier feel than what came before. Bob Dylan continues to influence the music, especially John’s (Help! and You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away) both through his own songs and by turning the boys onto pot the year before. While shooting Help!, the Beatles were toking up between takes. Anyway, the music. There’s still some filler here, but it’s always enjoyable filler, and Help! has several standout tracks. Help!, You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away, Ticket to Ride, and yes, of course, Yesterday (though often I prefer Hide Your Love Away) are the classics, 3 of which were #1 singles. George also adds 2 songs for the first time, the best being I Need You. It has that distinctive, discordant George sound. Ringo sings Act Naturally, a cover that is nonetheless ridiculously autobiographical, in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way. Another Girl and The Night Before are memorable numbers, I’ve Just Seen a Face feature some fast singing from Paul and Dizzy Miss Lizzie is a rocking cover song shouted by John, in the tradition of other album closers like Twist & Shout and Money. Incidentally, it was the last cover song the Beatles would ever release. The most famous songs on the album are definitely the title song, which John has later said was a true cry for help on his part (he calls this time his “fat Elvis period”…OK) and Yesterday, also known as Scrambled Eggs (Paul’s original title). There’s not much more to say about that number, is there? I actualy prefer the live version. Why? I think it’s simply because I haven’t heard that version a million times, so it still sounds fresh. So, it’s a good song after all (yes, I know, you needed my opinion to determine that). Anyway, some people would say this is the Beatles’ best album up to this point. I wouldn’t necessarily go that far, but it continues their development as artists and musicians, and paves the way for Rubber Soul.
5/6
RUBBER SOUL
These Birds Have Flown
Rubber Soul is many a listener’s favorite Beatles album. I consider it slightly overrated (I don’t think it’s quite in the same class as Revolver or the White Album) but it’s head and shoulders above anything the Beatles had released so far (only A Hard Day’s Night comes close for tightness and originality). And it definitely belongs in the pantheon of great Beatles albums for two reasons: 1) the songwriting and the music has has developed at an astonishing rate, and 2) at least three or four of the songs deserve a spot on any top 30 list of Beatles songs. There may be more bona fide masterpieces on this single Beatles disc than any other. The numbers are, in order: Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown), John’s slightly surreal ode to an affair with touches of George’s sitar; Nowhere Man, with it’s transcendent score, breathtaking harmonies, and memorable lyrics (the first that did not involve love in any fashion); Girl has some of the best lyrics on the album, plus great playing and unforgettable vocal flourishes (the “tit-tit-tit” backing, and the sharp breathes before “Girl”); and In My Life is one of the most beloved songs every written, with its moving lyrics and sped-up piano playing. Interestingly, the four best songs on the album are largely thanks to John. Paul has the next-best song, another one that can be considered great (though some find it cloying): Michelle, partially in French. I’m Looking Through You is also a classic, You Won’t See Me is fun, and Drive My Car further showcases the Beatles’ lyrical growth with clever lines that are a long way from “Love love me do. You know I love you. I’ll always be true. So please, love me do…” Finally, George is growing by leaps and bounds as a songwriter. Think for Yourself is his first “prophet” piece, and If I Needed Someone is one of the best songs on this album. Another cool number is The Word, which has been described as proto-hippie. At any rate, this album has tons of excellent songs and is well worth your money. Yet, believe it or not, better things were to grow from the seeds of Rubber Soul…and not just material by the Beatles. Brian Wilson pushed the Beach Boys to record Pet Sounds as a direct response to the innovation and tight songwriting of his competitors, and he wasn’t the only one impressed. By the way, this has a memorable cover and the best title of any Beatles album.
REVOLVER
Why can’t I give six stars? Or ten?
This is often called the greatest album of all time and deservedly so. In three and a half years, the progress the Beatles made as musicians and artists is truly mind-boggling. Revolver stands with Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road as their most cohesive album, and yet the songs and styles are so diverse. The Beatles leave romance far behind as a theme (only 2 songs deal directly with love, both Paul songs, and they’re a far-cry from simple puppy love ballads), and embrace everything from taxation to loneliness to drugs to Buddhist transcendentalism to well, yellow submarines. And the music is as eclectic a mix as the White Album…jangling rock, classical orchestration, backwards guitars, Indian raga, sound effects combined with a brass band, and an explosion of tape loops, drumming, and vocal distortion. So how does this wildly diverse album hold together? For one thing, this is definitely the Beatles playing as a group; though each song clearly belongs to one of the writers, they are collaborating on the musical performance to reach their full potential.
There is a thematic thread running throughout: in its diversity, the album is a reflection of existence itself, from the confusions and pleasures of the material world, to the lures of a druggy escape from reality, and finally the transcendence of meditation, LSD, or death, take your pick according to what you think Tomorrow Never Knows is about. Taxman opens things up very much in the material world with its cynical, sardonic rant, and it’s followed by Eleanor Rigby, which explores the social world and the way people are isolated from one another. John’s answer to life’s problems is to sleep, while George offers the first glimpse of wisdom and an answer with the first full-blown sitar number on a Beatles album (and probably in any Western pop song). Paul shows us the more romantic side of life with Here, There, and Everywhere, takes us on a comical fantasy trip into a children’s tale of yellow submarines, and then John takes us on a more real, more frightening voyage with his She Said She Said, based on a bad acid trip. Side 2 kicks off with our last look at life’s simple pleasures (Good Day Sunshine) before weaving a mix of songs about drugs (speed in Doctor Robert, pot in Got to Get You Into My Life), frustrated miscommunication (And Your Bird Can Sing, I Want to Tell You) and disappointment in love (For No One). And then finally, the track that tries to guide us through all the confusion, the spellbinding and unforgettable Tomorrow Never Knows, which advises us to “play the game existence to the end.”
From the album’s cover (designed by Klaus Voorman, it may beat Sgt. Pepper as the coolest and it’s certainly the trippiest) to the musical content, this is the Beatles at their most mind-blowing. With John eating acid for breakfast and Paul encouraged by his forays into the art world, Lennon-McCartney had never been bolder or better. But George is outstanding too, and for the first and only time, he has three songs on a single disc, including the album opener. With its cough and mumbled “1, 2, 3, 4…”, Taxman is I Saw Her Standing There’s evil twin; and just as that was the perfect kickoff for the Beatles’ debut this is the best way to start their first truly adult album. All the Beatles are in top form, including Ringo with his forceful drumming on some of these tracks and yes, Yellow Submarine (don’t tell me it sucks, I grew up with that song). If you don’t own this album, stand up now, walk out the door, go to your nearest music store, and pay up. To paraphrase Mr. McCartney, you’ve got to get it into your life.
6/6
SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND
The Greatest Album of All Time
OK, it’s debatable. But it remains my favorite Beatles album. Why? It’s not because it has the best songs, though the songs are great. It’s not the Beatles’ most mature work, it doesn’t have the discipline of Revolver, but what it does have, in spades, is flair, mood, and atmosphere. Every songs, from a dance hall number like When I’m 64 to a pure Indian track like Within You Without You is permeated with a psychedelic carnival vibe. One can visualize Sgt. Pepper and the boys setting up under the big tent to perform the greatest show ever, and wowing the audience with a couple of catchy numbers before launching into a mind-expanding “trip” through a psychedelic wonderland (Lucy), a classical paeon to freedom (She’s Leaving Home), a bizarre circus show (Mr. Kite), a meditation on the state of being (Within You Without You), and then there’s even time for an unconventional ode to a lovely meter maid (Rita). Every track oozes Sixties exploration and liberation, circa the Summer of Love. Sgt. Pepper is like a happier, more hippiesh sequel to Revolver. It too explores the many facets of life (love, aging, self-improvement, work, escape, friendship, the bizarre sideshow quality of society, its mundane aspects, and the possibility of understanding and awakening). However, unlike Revolver, in which the songs remains anxious, tired, and frightened much of the time (giving it that edgy quality that many critics prefer these days), Sgt. Pepper views these themes most often with bemusement, entertained bewilderment, or intrigued awe. Through drugs and the countercultural community, the worried citizen of Revolver has found bliss and escape…or has he? The band closes out with a resounding reprise and then as the show ends, and the tent’s packed up, and the spectators go home, we’re left to contemplate the brutal reality of a “day in the life.” This song is bipolar, veering from acute, morose awareness of life’s tragedy and absurdity, to cheery disinterent and focus on the mundane tasks of the moment, and then back again, until the emotions escalate and end in the overpowering chord that slowly dies out, leaving nothing in its week. A Day in the Life rescues Sgt. Pepper from being complete fun, gives the album an undertone of seriousness it would lack otherwise, and reaffirms the album’s importance as a coherent statement from the greatest band of all time. In this period of their careers the Beatles truly were, to borrow a phrase from the great Wind in the Willows (and the title of Pink Floyd’s debut), the pipers at the gates of dawn. Enter as soon as you can.
6/6
MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR
Best American Album
When Capitol Records took the Beatles’ British EP Magical Mystery Tour and added the rest of the band’s ’67 material (excluding what was on Sgt. Pepper) they created a hodgepodge album as they usually did, but this time they got it right. If you own this and Sgt. Pepper you have everything the Beatles released in 1967, and that’s as good a basis for a music collection as anything. Around Christmas of ’67, the Beatles put out Magical Mystery Tour, a six-song soundtrack to their TV special of the same name. The songs on this are fun, a continuation of the Sgt. Pepper hippie songs, but for the most part they are neither groundbreaking, visionary, or “serious,” and the critics were (and still are) a bit disappointed. Magical Mystery Tour is a silly little trifle, but a catchy, enjoyable song, The Fool on the Hill was a popular ballad and is one of my favorite songs and Flying is a rarity, a Beatles instrumental, that’s enjoyable but not spectacular. Blue Jay Way is a creepy George song that some find montonous, but is actually very cool; Your Mother Should Know is a great little Paul song in the tradition of When I’m 64 and Martha My Dear; and I am the Walrus, usually recognized as the masterpiece of the bunch is John’s unforgettable surrealist manifesto. The performance of the song is one of the otherwise embarassing TV movie’s best parts. So, good songs, most not as mind-bending as Revolver or Sgt. Pepper, but solid material.
However, the American audience was treated to something more: namely, the rest of the Beatles’ singles and B-sides from that year. So next up is Hello Goodbye, another catchy Beatles song which is fun and has that distinctively Beatlish combination of pop and psychedelia. From there on, the album becomes an essential masterpiece. Strawberry Fields Forever, only available on this and the greatest hits compilation Blue Album (it didn’t make it on 1), can make the top 2 or 3 every time for most important and best Beatles songs. Penny Lane, its flip-side, is Paul’s own tribute to a place of his youth. Baby You’re a Rich Man captures the Summer of Love in its essence, as does All You Need is Love. These songs are all classics, and their inclusion merits this album 5 stars. Song-by-song, it’s actually one of the Beatles’ strongest but since it was not an original British album, and since it followed Sgt. Pepper, it is generally underrated by the critics.
My favorite songs are: The Fool in the Hill. The character in this song always struck me as Nowhere Man’s brother, and it has a very memorable Romantic sound to it. I am the Walrus is dark, sinister, twisted, and awesome, a stream of gibberish that somehow adds up to create a picture of a gleefully demented psyche: this is an acid trip providing cacophany instead of enlightenment. Strawberry Fields Forever is one of John’s most profound songs lyrically, exploring the essential loneliness of the human spirit and mind, and musically it was a shot heard round the world, precursor to Sgt. Pepper. Penny Lane is an exploration of life’s pleasures and wonders, nostalgia at its best and unforgettable. Baby You’re a Rich Man has that thumping, psuedo-Indian sound in the introduction which draws you in right away, luring you to the climax which is found in the chorus. And All You Need is Love, well, I think it speaks for itself.
5/6
THE WHITE ALBUM
Fresh, eclectic, fun, thought-provoking, dense, sparse, cool
These are just some of the adjectives to describe this amazing collection of music. The first time you listen to it, you probably won’t be able to stop, and it remains fresh after all these years because despite some familiar songs this actually has some of the Beatles’ lesser-known material (still, we ARE talking about the Beatles). After a year and a half, what a follow-up to Sgt. Pepper (not including Magical Mystery Tour which wasn’t a full album at first). The White Album, or THE BEATLES as it’s properly called, has a reputation for simplicity following the heavily produced psychedelic output of 1967. True, there’s a lot of straightforward rock and quiet acoustic ballads, and the production is much less adorned, but it’s not quite “simple.” There’s an astonishing range of music here. Honey Pie sounds like it came straight off a 20’s record. Back in the U.S.S.R. combines good old fashioned rock and roll with Beach Boys harmonies and really clever lyrics. Blackbird is as acoustic as they get: Paul playing his guitar with a metronome ticking in the background. That’s it. Helter Skelter on the other hand is probably the heaviest Beatles song, showing they could rock hard if they wanted to. Long, Long, Long, which has caught on with me recently, is a beautiful George songs, with that transcendent quality he was able to bring to pop so easily.
The last three songs on the album were written by the Lennon half of Lennon/McCartney. It’s a fascinating indication of how much John was opening up in his songwriting. He’d always been a personal singer, even from his earliest songs, which had a morose, introspective air. But now, with the influence of Yoko, he is baring his soul as honestly as he can. Cry Baby Cry is surreal, said to be influenced by Syd Barrett, and expresses a skewed, very unsual perception of reality. It’s followed by what sounds like Paul singing, “Can you take me back where I came from, can you take me back home…” The perfect introduction to Revolution 9 which, contrary to public opinion, is essential to the White Album. Some interpret this aural collage as the “sound” of a revolution, of chaos turning over society; while it’s also been read as the story of John’s life, including a baby crying and the eventually the voice of his new lover, Yoko Ono. In fact, Revolution 9 is probably more abstract than that, but it is definitely more than just a random assemblage of noise. It feels more like a journey into the subconscious. Finally, the album closes with one of the perfect album closers of all time, Good Night. This lushly orchestrated number is sung by Ringo, but written by John as a lullaby for his son Julian. After what’s come before, this is an excellent, comforting send-off.
In 1969, John would tell the other Beatles he was leaving the group, a dozen years after he’d met Paul during a Quarry Men performance at a garden party. And so just a year before “the dream is over” we can hear the Four going the separate ways on this album. Some songs are indeed solos. But this is still a Beatles album, and it’s one of the best. It showcases the individual Beatles’ talents, but within the context of the group. When I listen to it, I picture a rotating stage: as the notes of one song die out, a new Beatles is revealed and begins playing his number.
My favorite songs here: Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da. Just pure fun, like an early Beatles song with more musical sophistication and storytelling lyrics. Life does go on…/While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Truly a classic, this may have been the first irrefutable proof that Harrison could be just a good a songwriter as Lennon-McCartney. It’s even got Eric Clapton playing fifth Beatle for a day as he lays down the solo./Happiness is a Warm Gun. More than just an exploration of different rock and roll styles, it’s a creepy, edgy, ironic ode to drugs, sleaze, sex, and violence. Check out the raw version on Anthology 3; it’s really great./Rocky Raccoon. This is just a fun Paul song, telling a humorous story with a hummable tune./Julia. Touching tribute to John’s mother with some references to Yoko (ocean child)./I’m So Tired. First he was only sleeping, now John’s an insomniac. The chorus is great./Martha My Dear. Great piano playing, this is an underrated Paul opus./Mother Nature’s Son. A quiet, relaxing ode to the great outdoors…Ok, I’m going to stop here because this could go on and on. Every song on here is essential; without a piece of crap like Wild Honey Pie the album would be less sprawling, and we can’t have that now, can we?
6/6
YELLOW SUBMARINE
It’s not too much
This is actually half an album, really less than half. Only six of the thirteen tracks are Beatles songs, and only four of those six are new material, exclusive to this album. I got this is as a Christmas present years ago, thinking it would have all my favorite songs from the movie. Unfortunately, Eleanor Rigby, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Nowhere Man, and the like are all missing. But, once you get over the disappointment of how insubstantial the Yellow Submarine soundtrack is, you can enjoy what’s there. There are of course the two classics which can be found on other albums. The title track is loved by some, despised by many others, but it fits in much more as an opener here than it does in the middle of Revolver. And All You Need is Love is the best song on the soundtrack. The other four are actually pretty good tunes. Hey Bulldog is probably the best of these, it’s a great rock song with a humorous ending. It’s All Too Much, depending on your mood, can be just what its title suggests or it can be an excellent mind trip. Either way, it ended the movie on a great note. Only a Northern Song has some nice sounds and makes a good listen, and All Together Now was one of my favorite songs as a kid. The rest, songs 7-13, are all George Martin instrumentals, good for background music, but likely to be skipped over. If you want all the songs featured in the movie (even if they’re only heard for a few seconds) buy the remastered songtrack. Yellow Submarine is the least essential of the Beatles’ original albums but if you’re a die-hard completist, there are much worse ways to spend your money.
3/6
ABBEY ROAD
Once there was a way to get back home…
Not only is this the Beatles’ most poignant album, it is also their last recorded, as many others have stated. That it begins with a bizarre plea to “come together” and ends with a beautifully constructed medley of different Beatle songs is probably no coincidence. The other three Beatle masterpieces, Revolver, The White Album, and Sgt. Pepper, can be appreciated either as a cohesive (or in the White Album’s case, deliberately non-cohesive) whole, or as a fantastic collection of songs. Abbey Road takes that a step further. The first eight songs are, indeed, a fantastic collection of songs while most of Side 2 is taken up by the cohesive weaving of disparate tunes into a connected web. Side 1 is more or less rock, the highlight being George’s beautiful ballad Something. Side 2, including the medley, is much mellower. The rock songs are great, from Octopus’s Garden, which is easily Ringo’s best song (not there’s much competition) to the quirky Maxwell’s Silver Hammer. John hated this song, and many Beatle fans seem to agree, but it’s a lot of fun.
And Beatle fans were given one of the great moments in 60’s rock 20 years after the fact, once the CD eliminated the distinction between record sides. When the harsh, hypnotic tones of I Want You (She’s So Heavy) end suddenly, we’re left with a brief pause before the simple, breathtaking opening of Here Comes the Sun. There could be no better expression of coming out of a tunnel of darkness and despair into the light and comfort of a new morning. Here Comes the Sun is the best song on the album and may be the best song George ever wrote. And it’s one of my ten favorite Beatles songs, at least. It’s followed by another beautiful song, Because, which John probably didn’t think much of, but he should have. Then the medley, which is really more like two medleys. The best joining-up of a song is Polythene Pam to She Came in Through the Bathroom Window. My favorite songs are Sun King, Mean Mr. Mustard, and Golden Slumbers. You Never Gave Me Your Money and She Came in Through the Bathroom Window are unforgettable as well, while The End ends things on a rousing note, followed by the memorable Beatle coda:
And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make…
LET IT BE
Good but not great
Even though this was recorded before Abbey Road, Let It Be was the final release of the Beatles, and it feels like their last recording. Phil Spector must have been baffled with the tapes he received, because his production here is sloppy: besides famously overpowering The Long and Winding Road with too much orchestration (granted, some disagree) he adds bits of dialogue, goofing, and warming up to the main tracks. This is probably to give the album more of a “live” feel as was the original intention, but Let It Be feels too rough and uneven. Still, there’s some appeal to that raw vibe (when it doesn’t feel forced by Spector or overpowered by orchestration). Nonetheless, I prefer Let It Be…Naked and recommend it to the casual fan who wants the songs here (save Maggie Mae and Dig It which aren’t included on Naked. However, I doubt any casual fans will be looking for those songs). While Let It Be doesn’t earn 5 stars in my book, I can’t give it a very low rating either, because some of these songs are just fantastic, even if the delivery of the product isn’t as polished as Naked. Let It Be, Across the Universe and I’ve Got a Feeling are pretty unforgettable. Other favorites of mine include Dig a Pony, Two of Us, and the underrated For You Blue, which is catchy as hell. Also it must be stated that Get Back is a great album closer, complete with the sketchy start, the spirited live playing, and the humorous outro which is a nice touch to end the Beatles’ last album (”hope we passed the audition…”) As a song list, Let It Be is hard to beat. Completists (like me) shouldn’t hesitate to buy this CD. If you have this, the dozen other Beatles albums, and the two Past Masters collections, you’ve got everything the Beatles released in the eight years between Ringo joining and Paul publicly calling it quits.
4/6
Movieman, this is a fantastically comprehensive and insightful piece! Thanks much..
Oh thank God, I was afraid it got eaten. it’s back!
Needless to say, I do not necessarily concur with all the points made here – these were my impressions relatively early in my acquaitance with much of the music. Among other things, I’ve come to realize (with the help of others) that George’s re-recorded solo on the Specter album smokes the both the single and Naked versions (listen to them back to back and you’ll see what I mean). And that other songs benefit from the raw, messy feel of that version – I’ve Got a Feeling for example – as opposed to the clean Naked, which delivers Across the Universe wonderfully (a song that was, sadly, always under-presented despite its essential greatness) but does not necessarily do justice to the rock vibe of Let It Be. So I guess I would hesitate before recommending Naked over the original today. And that’s just one difference among many.
Neither here nor there, but worth pointing out, I guess.
[…] https://wondersinthedark.wordpress.com/2009/09/09/early-word-on-beatles-remasters-from-chuck-klusterm… […]
General Beatles impressions after reading all these great posts from Bob, Sam, MovieMan, et al:
– Movieman, I’m glad that you mentioned your opinion changing regarding Specter’s work on Let It Be — particularly the title track, which has some of George’s best playing. I actually prefer the Specter mix of the album by a lot and rarely ever listen to the Naked version of the album.
– I’ve seen the quote many times, so I don’t know who deserves proper attribution, but these are my sentiments exactly: “Side 2 of Abbey Road is what ears were made for.” Still amazes me.
After going through the entire Beatles catalog in the last two days, here would be my personal, completely subjective listing of favorite albums:
1. Abbey Road
2. Revolver
3. Sgt. Pepper
4. The White Album
5. Help!
6. A Hard Day’s Night
7. Rubber Soul
8. Let It Be
9. Magical Mystery Tour
10. Beatles For Sale
11. Please Please Me
12. With the Beatles
13. Yellow Submarine
I obviously rank Rubber Soul lower than most Beatles fans, but it’s still a great album. Magical Mystery Tour is one that I used to rank even higher, but the others have overtaken it. That Top 10 is staggering… I have other bands that I could find with three or four album streaks that I might prefer over any from the Beatles, but a 10-album streak? It’s a no contest for me.
My order on the albums:
1)Abbey Road
2)Revolver
3)White Album
4)Sgt Pepper/Rubber Soul
5)Hard Day’s Night
6)Let it be
7)Magical Mystery Tour
8)Help
9)Beatles for Sale
Actually, Dave, that quote is mine. I just whipped it up in one flash of Beatles inspiration.
Rubber Soul is an excellent album, I can well see why so many rank it with the greats (even if I think it has more weaknesses and less cohesion than they do). Yet for some strange reason I can never quite warm up to it. Invariably, when I listen to it, every single time, I can feel myself straining to enjoy it more than I do. Weird.
Especially since several of the songs, taken on their own, where already favorites of mine before I became better acquainted with the album as an album. Perhaps it has to do with the sequencing – I’m not sure the group placed the tracks in prime order though I’m not sure how else they should have done it. Yet somehow Nowhere Man doesn’t arrive at the right moment. Who knows?
Just having heard it today once more on the remastered edition I will now put it over Sgt Pepper’s, contradicting my earlier ranking here. And yes I will agree it’s a very strong work.
Also, I think Beatles For Sale is their most interesting – not necessarily best, but most interesting – album pre-Rubber Soul.
Yikes, I have not done any work on my weekend project. I’m quite glad, as this turned out to be a rather fruitful visit to Wonders, but as soon as Allan posts his latest piece I’ve got to put the nose back to the grindstone…
Dave, thanks so much for that link..
Oh boy that review really drives home the point!
Dave I’ve brought about an Obama-like compromise here (!). I am getting all the albums I really like but ignoring the minor stuff (some early works, Let it be.. as I only like the ‘Naked’ version here which I have). So between Amazon and discounted CDs at Borders and bids won on ebay I’m spending about 55% or so of what I normally would have to acquire Hard Day’s night, Revolver, Rubber Soul, Abbey Road. Sgt Pepper, Magical Mystery tour, Help (only for yesterday!)., White Album. I’ve heard bits of White Album, Abbey Road so far as these I picked up at Borders and you’re quite right. The difference is palpable. I must say though that While my guitar is smoother on the earlier release and while one really loves the clarity of the new version and how it accentuates the strings I don’t really think the older version is rendered superfluous. Also listened to a bit of Sgt Pepper and I think the difference is significant here too. Thanks again for the heads up.
Glad you like them, Kaleem. And you’re definitely right about picking them up now if you’re going to get them, because everyone has them on sale for their regular retail price. That’s why I just took the plunge and bought what I wanted now, because I knew that sooner or later I’d decide to get most of them anyway… and if I waited, these deals likely wouldn’t still be around.
And apparently these discs are selling like crazy… I saw a headline where it said the Beatles are going to have something like 5 albums in the Top 20 this week.
“And you’re definitely right about picking them up now if you’re going to get them, because everyone has them on sale for their regular retail price.”
To quote HAL 9000, “Stop it, Dave. You’re hurting me.”
Beatles Sell Strongly
By BEN SISARIO; Compiled by DAVE ITZKOFF
The remastered Beatles albums released on Wednesday are racking up strong early sales, according to preliminary data released on Friday by Nielsen SoundScan. On Wednesday and Thursday at least 235,000 Beatles albums were sold in the United States, including individual titles as well as the stereo and mono boxed sets, all released by EMI and Apple Corps. “Abbey Road” was the top title, with sales of 32,000 in its first two days; “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” was next, with 27,000. Citing “chart prognosticators,” Billboard reported on Friday that the whole Beatles catalog could sell between 500,000 and 600,000 this week, and would dominate that magazine’s catalog sales chart for titles more than 18 months old. The Billboard 200, however, which ranks new albums, will probably be topped by Jay-Z’s album “The Blueprint 3” (Roc Nation/Atlantic), which sold at least 200,000 copies from Tuesday to Thursday.
even sales on the mono sets have exceeded expectations..
Having now heard most all the major stuff on the remasters I have some very basic observations to make and I wonder if people here agree or disagree. I think by and large the sound is much better than it was in earlier releases. My own sense is that ‘strings’ on the songs do better than just about any other element but overall these are cleaner, crisper tracks in these editions. It’s very hard to for me to pick any problems whatsoever with Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt Pepper, Abbey Road. I am a bit less sure about White Album. Granted it sounds superb here but this is an instance of the guitar being privileged over everything else. Perhaps this is truer to the intentions of the band but in the older release I think there was more ‘evenness’ to the sound. I suppose one could say that ‘strings’ were diminished on older releases except that with the four albums I’ve mentioned here I don’t get that sense. Those four sound like the older albums, they’re just ‘clearer’. Let me pick an example from White Album — while my guitar gently weeps has I think a ‘fuller’ sound on the older release. I just don’t know what it’s really supposed to be like. Finally two albums where I believe there are problems are Magical Mystery tour (where the sound just seems a bit off in instances.. it’s again clearer overall but I sense issues at points) and Hard Day’s Night (here I think the older release was definitely better..).
I think all of this brings up a larger question. ‘Remastering’ is often not as neutral a word as it sounds. Specially not in the case of a band like the Beatles where you are going from mono to stereo and so forth (by the way I disagree with the purists as well.. I would shell out on the mono set if I could for the different sound but a CD still cannot match LP formats for the ‘kind’ of sound.. I think LPs overall had the fullest sound and therefore might prefer these to CDs as a personal matter anyway). There is a similar problem with DVDs where different companies often come out with images that can differ quite significantly and one has a hard time figuring out what is true to the director’s intentions. Even director approved restorations are problematic inasmuch as a director might see in one qualities that he or she wasn’t able to get on the original film but that nonetheless might satisfy him or her more after the event. Then there are many pristine quality DVDs that clearly (pun intended!) create distortions in the image in the sense that no one ever saw the film that way in a theater. The ‘cleaning up’ process hence conforms to an ideal of what the picture ought to have looked like. This is very different from what ‘was’. And I’m not even getting into Blu-Rays here.
In any case would love to hear some thoughts on the Beatles deal. I know Dave would certainly have something to say here.
And this is from a man who once told me that he wasn’t musically astute! Ha! Brilliant report.
And I was right Sam! Thanks for the comment though..
I don’t think that the mono vs. stereo issues is that big of a deal, because in almost every instance the Beatles recordings were mixed in both versions. Mono was the preferred format of the time, so that is usually what was released. But with only a few exceptions, the songs got mixed in both mono and stereo at the time they were recorded.
I’ll definitely disagree on A Hard Day’s Night… I think it sounds much, much better. Same with The White Album, I like the more vibrant sound that allows you to pick out individual elements of songs throughout the album. Just being clearer is an improvement in comparison to its first CD release. Magical Mystery Tour didn’t strike me one way or the other, so you very well could be spot on with that one. But again, I’ll take the clearer sound. Some, such as MMT, aren’t huge improvements, but I don’t think that any of them are worse.
The idea of “remastering” is an interesting one and is something that I’ve often thought about. In some instances, I would agree that it might not be the best idea or lead to the experience that the artists actually intended. In this, I’m thinking of bands who prided themselves on getting close to that “recorded live in studio” with each album. These are bands that didn’t want to do anything in studio that couldn’t be recreated live (Allman Brothers immediately come to mind for me, but there are certainly others). There are bands that will constantly talk about wanting to release albums “warts and all.” The reason I don’t see any issue with remastering The Beatles is that from around Rubber Soul on, the entire focus of the band was to use the studio, and whatever means it provided, to create unique recordings. Recreating it live was never a concern — the entire purpose was to use the studio and create the best songs and albums possible. I have no way of proving it, but I tend to believe that if such remastering or sound quality had been available to The Beatles at the time they would have utilized it.
This whole topic of remastering that you bring up is incredibly interesting and I’m glad you brought it up because it could spark some great discussion.
thanks as always Dave for some great points here.. interesting you bring up the Allman Brothers because it seems to me that the remastered White Album belongs much more to such a genealogy (or perhaps begins it) than one would have thought based on the earlier CDs. On Hard Day’s Night I will defer to your clearly superior understanding. Any thoughts on let it Be? I didn’t get this one because after hearing the Naked version I could never quite digest Phil Specter. Yet there are reviews that suggest that some of what Specter did is redeemed more in the remaster. Also what is your take on Naked overall? Apparently McCartney loved it and felt it was true to what they did at the time. But there are others who argue that ‘musically’ many of the songs do not feel complete in the sense that they cannot quite see the numbers being released without the addition of more instrumentation and so on. I will say that my favorite track on the album, Long and Winding Road, seems ‘complete’ and seems to belong to the more minimalist Yesterday tradition that the band engaged in from time to time. Again I don’t see any problems with Across the Universe or I Me Mine. Could probably say the same for some of the other tracks though at least a few do come across as rough cuts.
I don’t think I have “superior understanding” at all, Kaleem, I’m just a music junkie who listens to a lot of stuff! 🙂 It had been a while since I listened to the first CD version of A Hard Day’s Night, so I might not even be the best to make a judgment. I just remember thinking that little nuances were more obvious to me in this remastered version — but that could just be the fact that everything is a bit more “up front” on the recording.
I actually prefer the Specter version of Let It Be. I think you’re absolutely right that the Naked version is more in line with what was the original purpose of the Get Back Sessions. But for whatever reason, apparently the band itself wasn’t thrilled with the results of the session anyway, which is why everything laid around and was left for Specter to come in and put together. I’ve heard Paul mention that the Naked version is truer and I don’t think there’s any better authority on the topic than him. Specter’s work must not have bothered George and John, though, because they both used him to produce their early solo work. It’s probably just personal taste or the fact that I’m so much more used to the Specter version. But there is something of a contradiction in that the whole point of those recordings was to “get back” to playing things in the studio like they used to, then the studio whiz Specter comes in and gives it the full treatment. Still, I can’t help but prefer it… but I won’t argue with anyone who would rather have the Naked version.
Speaking of Specter and Beatles solo work… listened to All Things Must Pass this evening. I love that album, it’s far and away my favorite solo album from any of The Beatles!
There are myriad variables at play: the quality of your hi-fi equipment, the speakers, the room you are listening in, the equaliser settings etc…
The stereo discs were also remixed, as the band were more involved in the then more important mono mixes, and the remix of the stereo tapes received less attention. So the remastered stereo CDs are markedly cleaner than existing CDs. Re-mastering mono tapes requires specialist equipment and very expert engineers, and I found the mono remasters flat. RCA did a much better job with the 50s Elvis Original Masters sets using a specialist Sony lab. It should be remembered that in the 60s recording equipment did not capture the fuller bass of modern equipment, so tracks from the period will benefit from stronger bass equaliser settings.
The whole vinyl vs digital debate is very much predicated on using very high-end and very expensive turntables/equipment. So for the average listener, the clarity of the remastered CDs will definitely be enhanced, and a loss of warmth is a necessary trade-off, since digital samples while analog is totally faithful to the original recording. Again RCA went better with Elvis offering limited releases of vinyl sets of the original masters.
thanks for this addition to the discussion Tony.. it’s very enlightening for me..
Your welcome Kaleem and thanks.
Bragging Rights for Beatles, Jay-Z on Album Charts
By Dave Itzkoff
The Beatles
Jay-Z
In a rare week when new releases from the Beatles and Jay-Z duked it out on the album sales charts, the British pop group and the Brooklyn rapper are both entitled to boast about their accomplishments.
According to preliminary sales numbers from Nielsen SoundScan, the Beatles sold a combined 626,000 units in the U.S. last week, including albums that weren’t part of the Fab Four’s remastered catalog. (By comparison, Beatles albums moved just 21,000 units in the previous week.) Beatles records accounted for 15 of the top 20 releases on Billboard’s pop catalog albums chart, which measures albums 18 months or older; the remastered “Abbey Road” was No. 1 with 89,000 sales, followed by “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” with 74,000 sales, and “The Beatles” (a k a “The White Album”) with 60,000 sales. The “Beatles in Stereo” and “Beatles in Mono” boxed sets are both eligible for the Billboard 200 chart; “Stereo” enters at No. 15 with 26,000 sales and “Mono” places at No. 40 with 12,000.
Jay-Z easily took the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 with “The Blueprint 3,” which sold 476,000 copies. Billboard said that Jay-Z has now surpassed Elvis Presley as the solo act with the most No. 1 albums in Billboard 200 history. The rapper also has the second-most No. 1 albums among all acts, eclipsed only by — you guessed it — the Beatles.
Further down the chart, Miley Cyrus’s “The Time Of Our Lives” is No. 2 with 120,000 sales; Raekwon’s “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Pt. 2″ in fourth place with 68,000; Brooks and Dunn’s “#1s … And Then Some” is fifth with 55,000; and Boys Like Girls‘ “Love Drunk” debuted at No. 8 with 41,000 sales.
Dave, hard to argue with your comment on that George Harrison. I still have a weakness for (based on some nostalgia) Got my mind set on you (Cloud Nine)!
Hi! Sam Juliano, Allan, Joel, Tony, and Wonders in the Dark readers…
I must admit that I ‘am not familiar with The Beatles’ music, but…here goes an article that was posted over there on Tony d’Ambra’s good friend Lloydville’s blog mardecortesbaja.
By the way, Lloydville’s blog name sounds intriguing …hmmm
I wonder what the origin of his blog name is…
A Little Trivia…
There is an irony mentioned in his article…What do you think that it is? 🙄
The Beatles Remastered
DeeDee 😉
Dee Dee:
I read through this most interesting piece twice now, and I hav enot picked up the “irony” you are speaking of. The buyers are mostly middle-aged, and the sales were super-brisk, so I can’t figure what is different in this picture. But I’ll keep thinking! LOL!!! Great addition to this thread!
Lloydville said,”There were about fifteen other guys waiting with me — no women. “They can’t all be here to get the Beatles boxes,” I thought, but with one exception they were…”
Hi! Sam Juliano-
I’am not quite sure what Lloydville, meant…when he said,”There were about fifteen other guys waiting with me — no women. But I thought… after I viewed the videoclip (below) over there on youtube…how ironic not one woman, girl, female, etc, etc, etc … in sight!
These youngsters are suffering from a highly contagious disease called Beatle mania. The symptoms are…screaming hysteria hyperventilation fainting fits seizures and spasmodic convulsions it is not fatal but it sure is fun.
Having gone through the remasters on all but three early albums I thought I’d re-open this discussion yet again! First of all the remasters do deserve the hype in most instances and no one who gets these will feel let down even if we might end up with varying opinions on what sounds the best. As I’ve said before in this thread I’ve somehow never been big on Sgt Pepper despite trying to approach it with an open mind each time I listen to it. I continue to find it overrated though again it sounds terrific on the remaster. Of the other albums the very strongest I think are, in no order, Rubber Soul, Revolver, White Album, Abbey Rd. A kind of quartet for me. As a critical matter I would put Sgt Pepper after this though I still like Magical Mystery Tour, Let It Be.. Naked and even Hard Day’s Night more (this last is in any case a very personal favorite). If I had to choose only one Beatles album I might go with Abbey Rd but as Dave suggested earlier one of the reasons this band is so great is that different people can come up with different equally credible choices for greatest album. I would add that just revisiting the albums tends to make one revise one’s views each time. Just a few months ago I preferred Revolver to Rubber Soul. Now it’s the other way around. I would agree with many who think that Magical Mystery Tour is not a cohesive album the way so many other major Beatles albums are. And yet it has some extraordinary highlights which is why I rank it so high. Finally a note on Let It Be. I persist in finding the Spector version infinitely poorer to the Naked album. Now admittedly this too is hardly a final cut for the Beatles but that being said it sounds a lot closer to what the Beatles might have done with it based on the evidence of the earlier work than I would think Spector’s additions. The Beatles were always innovating but spector’s additions just come off as mediocre and a bit too predictable at times. On what I believe to be the album’s sublime peak, the Long and Winding Road, there is light year’s difference between the minimalist Naked version and overdone Spector one (which sounds cheesy with some of those soaring notes on the score). Some of my other favorite tracks here don’t fare too badly with the latter but I still prefer the Naked version. Yes, there is sometimes an unfinished quality to the latter (though Long and Winding Road seems perfect to me) but it is way better in my judgment. Nonetheless, I will accept that the Spector version for better or worse is now part of Beatles history and must be examined. Incidentally I don’t think the remaster is all that great here.
I eventually got all the remasters. Should have got the box in the first place! But I’ve truly enjoyed these. Having heard each remastered album at least 5-6 times (I’ve been listening to nothing else literally) I should say that the whole deal is very much worth it. There’s no doubt about it. I now have my sights on the Mono set! Must get it somehow! Ha!
Haha, Kaleem I had the same problem… I should have just bought the box to begin with! Regardless though I’m in the same boat as you — I had so much fun going through the new albums, that it was worth it regardless.