The Beatles

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Kim T

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THE BEATLES​
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The Beatles are, without a doubt, my favorite band. Earlier, I said I planned on writing reviews for every album by The Beatles. Well, I've sort of slacked off. I plan on finishing what I started. I've decided to start a thread where I just post my reviews in, so as to not clutter the forum with a bunch of different reviews.

These are some links to the other reviews I did in the past:
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Revolver
Magical Mystery Tour
 
Don't forget Happiness Is A Warm Gun, probably the darkest Beatle song ever that hints heroin use by Lennon. When the album was first released, Paul McCartney said Rocky Racoon was a humorous tribute to Bob Dylan's tranformation to more rustic song themes following his motorcycle crash. McCartney's imitation of Dylan's clipped vocal cadence at the beginning of the song (where McCartney sings: "Somewhere in the black mining hills of Dakota etc..) always brings a smile to may face.

Both Lennon & McCartney could do deadly parodies of other musicians and prominent public figures. Lennon also had a talent for clever word play as evidenced by his book title In My Own Write. George Martin infuriated the suits at EMI when doubled their he doubled the Beatle's song royalties from 1 penny to 2 pennies an album, during their first recording session. Martin's only explaination was that even without their musical talents, both Lennon and McCartney deserved additional points for the sheer entertainment value of their humorous observations.

With the White Album, one should consider the fact that it's a two volume album with 28 songs and 20 of those songs are up to par with the other Beatle albums and only 5 to 8 of the songs were filler. It's my favorite album by the Beatles of the post-Sgt. Peppers era and I like for the same reason many people dislike it: It's sprawling, overly ambitious and chaotic effort that baffled the critical establishment with it's wild mood swings and dark themes. McCartney's Rocky Racoon & Bungalow Bill sounded like children songs but each song had macarbe undercurrent of mayhem and violence. Harrison's Piggies and Lennon's Helter Skelter had similar themes.

The White Album was prophetic because the free floating dread of the White Album Beatles music seemed to anticipate the rise of heroin use by the hippie counterculture, the bombings of Weather Underground, the Tate LoBianca murders and chaos at Altamont. All of those events marked 1969 as the end of the dream.

If you want a picture perfect, mellow, coffee table Beatles album then Abbey Road should be your choice. I found Abbey Road to be a frustrating album for that very reason. Abbey Road was the Beatles retreat to the ivory tour of the Abbey Road 64 track studio to record breathtakingly beautiful songs that made everyone happy.

I can't really blame the Beatles for wanting to get out of the game at that point. There were thousanRAB people like Charles Manson who thought the Beatles were there personal savior and their music contained a message to them personally, usually about some sort of imagninary future apocalyspe. Manson's personal message ended up with his final solution of Helter Skelter.

It wasn't just Manson, droves of people had personal fixations on the Beatles and their music. A friend of mine who went on to acheive minor noteriety as rock guitarist confided to me that the Beatles were a fullfilment of the prophesies of King David, in the haze of an acid trip one night. I shrugged when he whipped out a Bible read the passages out of the Book of Pslams that proved the divinity of the Beatles.. but I was a little bit worried about the guy. In a little over a decade John Lennon would be murdered by a guy that believed he was Holden Caulfield from the book Catcher in the Rye and Mark David Chapman really believed world would be a better place without a "phony" like John Lennon. I think Abbey Road was intended to be a chill-out album and a final farewell to that pathological class of Beatle fans. Unfortunately Chapman had the opportunity to deliver the message and was given the opportunity to do so because John Lennon trusted his fans and refused to hire body guarRAB or use rear entry door to his home in the Dakota apartments.

The killing of John Lennon one of those traumatic events that will be forever imprinted in my memory like the Kennedy assasination, the 9/11 attack and the Kent State shootings. I woke up on the morning of Nov. 9th 1980 at 6 am to the sound of Lennon's Love Is playing on my clock radio. As I lay in the dark under the covers with my eyes closed, I was overwhelmed by the simple beauty of the song and as the song faded out, I heard WBCN dee jay Charles Laquidaria's announcement of Lennon's death at the Dakota and I cried... the dream was over. I've never been as overwhelmed with grief at the death of a public figure as I was with John Lennon's death.
 
I'm going to do a rare return to this forum and defend Yoko Ono. What killed The Beatles was their massive time spent with each other. Even if you're with your best friend, 10+ years of seeing them every day, most hours of the day, you will grow sick of them. The Beatles started as boys in the beginning, and to really become men and actually LIVE their lives, the thing needed to end. People make Yoko a scapegoat because they refuse to believe that this is a band of regular(working class) guys, with passions and ideas who eventually started to drift from each other. Yoko fell in love and so did John. If Yoko is to be blamed, John should get just as much blame as her.
 
Rubber Soul​

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Rubber Soul is one of the albums that came along sparked the musical revolution of the 60s. Famous for it's reputation as their "turning point", that its used as an analogy whenever a band makes an album that breaks the mold of their previous albums stylistically, saying "It's their Rubber Soul." The reputation isn't given without warrant either. The Beatles really branch out in terms of subject matter and provide a glimpse of the genius that is to come.

Drive My Car is a great way to start off an album that moves like a hurricane. This album never fails to get my head bobbing and this song is no exception. The Beatles were known for having a great beat, and well, this album is a great example of why. I've always found that the beats from those early 50s rock songs were some of the best in popular music, and The Beatles emulate that style they so revered perfectly. An interesting tidbit, McCartney says that "Drive My Car" is a euphemism for sex.
YouTube - The Beatles - Drive My Car

Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) is a song mostly written by John Lennon, detailing a secret affair he had, it drove him so crazy that finally he had to write a song about it, writing it in a semi-cryptic fashion because he didn't want his wife to know about it. It sort of seems silly in retrospect, I mean, how could Cynthia Lennon NOT have known that John was cheating on her? In Liverpool Art College, where they met, John was the only person on campus who would have casual sex. Most of the students there were just rich white kiRAB, who wanted to be hip, but John was the real deal. In fact, their whole relationship really is a perfect example of the old adage, "opposites attract."

It features the first time a sitar is used during a pop song. When listening to this song, the influence of Bob Dylan on The Beatles becomes apparent. This song seems to almost be an homage to the sort of playful, cryptic lyrics that were Dylan's signature at that time.
Album Version of Norwegian Wood: YouTube - The Beatles - Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
And for all those interested, alternative version from The Beatles Anthology: YouTube - The Beatles - Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) Anthology

You Won't See Me is another great demonstration of The Beatles great beat, and of their expanding musicianship. In this point in his life, Paul was having a crisis with his then girlfriend, Jane Asher. She wasn't returning any of his phone calls and for once in his life, he was the vulnerable one in a romantic relationship. This accounts for the bitter feel of this song. I personally love the backing vocals by George and John, this song has such a nice flow, I find it's one of their more underrated songs.

YouTube - You Won't See Me - The Beatles

The next song is a classic of theirs, and in my opinion its one of their best vocal performances. John wrote the lyrics to Nowhere Man in fifteen minutes, and though I hate to keep repeating myself, is another example of their great beat and their expanding song writing capabilities. This is a surprisingly introspective song written by John, and is an earlier indicator that John has a really introspective, cynical and hard edge side to him. My favorite parts of this song are two sort of subtle moments. In the video link of the song, my first favorite part is about 1:38 in, where they repeat the lyrics "Doesn't have a point of view...", its an example of the beat I was talking about, and is something that is sort of missing from their later albums. Besides Sgt. Pepper, which has it's own style of beat, even though The Beatles go leaps and bounRAB as musicians, these earlier-mid 60s songs are the best songs just to let loose and dance to. For instance, I think in songs like Ticket To Ride and I Saw Her Standing There they have that classic, fun rhythm(though in Ticket To Ride, it gets a little funky.) My second favorite part is near the end, in the video it's around 2:35, where Paul's voice jumps higher than the others in the harmony at the lyric "Making all his nowhere plans for nobody." It puts the cap on a great song, and one of my favorites of theirs.

YouTube - The Beatles - Nowhere Man

In Think For Yourself, the boys get political. Well, namely, George does. This is one of George's earlier inclusions on their albums. I don't think it's George's best song by far, but I think it is quite a good song for someone who hasn't been writing songs for that long and has to compete with the dynamo that is Lennon-McCartney. We start to see George developing his own style on this song.

YouTube - The Beatles - Think For Yourself
The boys rehearsing the song, banter, for those interested: YouTube - The Beatles- Think For Yourself (Vocal Rehearsal)

Have you heard about The Word? OK, so I admit that I just saw Family Guy a couple of days ago and had to make that reference. This song is great for demonstrating that killer beat. Notice the maracas, and the great guitar part. It's one of the first songs of theirs where they talk about love, not about the act of love or being in love, but the abstract concept of love itself. It would end up being a defining theme(love that is, not the song, but it is a really good song) in the latter part of their careers, but also of the 60s as a whole.

YouTube - The Beatles - The Word

Michelle is quite a nice song with really good backing vocals in my opinion. I always find it interesting when songwriters include random worRAB in foreign languages, and Michelle draws on Paul's late teen years when he would go to hip college parties and would pretend to be French in order to pick up girls. It usually worked.

YouTube - The Beatles 'Michelle'

What Goes On is a song where I don't know which way to lean. I think it's sort of catchy. Sometimes I listen through the whole thing. Sometimes I just skip over it. It's the first song Ringo wrote that is on an album. Mediocre at best.

YouTube - The Beatles - What Goes On

Girl. John Lennon's flight into his mind, and him detailing, almost painfully, his fantasy woman. Later on, he will find that woman. I think it's the only Beatles song where the chorus is one word and a sigh. It may hold the record for shortest chorus in length for a pop song, but someone should check my facts on that one. I like the guitar during the chorus, how the sort of whimsical guitar strumming.

YouTube - The Beatles - Girl

I'm Looking Through You is the best demonstration on the album of the beat I was talking about. It is the most underrated song on the album. I love the acoustic guitar opening. The song is about Paul's dissatisfaction with his relationship with Jane Asher. I love the parts of the song where it sounRAB like someone is clapping sort of fast, it is so catchy.

YouTube - The Beatles "I'm Looking Through You" 1965 (video montage)
Anthology version:YouTube - The Beatles - Anthology 2 - I'm Looking Through You

In My Life was the first Beatles song I heard. My dad played it for me. It's been in my memories for so long, that it sort of seems old to me. I know it's beautiful, I know it's one of John's best lyrical jobs, but for some reason I can't get into it like I was, and I used to be obsessed with it. I still think it's one of the best songs they've written though, if I look at it from an objective, critical stand point.

YouTube - John Lennon Tribute In My Life

Wait is another one of those underrated songs I think. The beat is absolutely infectous in my mind. This is some of my favorite drumming by Ringo, and I really like the exchange between the guitar and the drums at certain points. It is a very solid pop song that for some reason gets looked over. I don't find it mediocre at all.

YouTube - The Beatles - Wait

If I Needed Someone is George's second song on the album. He admits that this song is heavily influenced by The ByrRAB. This is the only song of Harrison's that The Beatles sang on stage, the only other songs that Harrison sang on stage were cover songs. One of my favorite parts is when Paul backs up George with a really high voice in the harmony. I find it quite good. The guitar part is quite 60s.

YouTube - The Beatles - If I Needed Someone

Run For Your Life is a mystery, I don't know why this song is so catchy considering the subject matter. As I'm listening, I notice that the harmony during the chorus is actually quite cool. Lennon said this song was just one of those songs you write for the sake of writing it and getting it out of the way. I sort of agree, it's nice and catchy but it definitely isn't a stand out.

YouTube - The Beatles - Run For You Life


9.5/10
 
Great reviews man, can't wait to see some more. Literally about ten minutes ago a mate said John was the only one with talent and the rest got lucky - I could've strangled the ****er!
 
Abbey Road​

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Abbey Road's album cover is one of the iconic photos in popular culture. In my mind, it's their crowning achievement. In a way, they saved the best for last. Although it isn't their last album in order of release, it is their last chronologically. It was the end of the biggest part of all their lives, and to be frank, they were all glad it was over. They were in, in the truest sense of the term, brothers. You need to move away from your family if you want to grow up. And so they did.

After the disastrous "Get Back" sessions(which would later be salvaged and turned into the album Let It Be), the group took a break. Finally, they all got back together, and in the spirit of their shared legacy, wanted to create one more great album. It's their cleanest album, and though it doesn't have much of their great raw energy, in terms of quality, none of their albums really come close.

Come Together was originally written as the campaign song for Timothy Leary's presidential campaign in 1968. Common sense finally got Leary arrested and John decided to use this song on Abbey Road. Thank god too, because it's one of John's coolest songs. Probably the best bass in a Beatles song.
YouTube - Beatles Come Together
Anthology version: YouTube - Come Together (Take 1, Anthology 3) - The Beatles

Frank Sinatra called Something the greatest love song ever written. Very high praise from a legend. The first line is based off of a song written by James Taylor, who actually got discovered by The Beatles' record company, Apple.
YouTube - The Beatles - Something
Anthology version(quite beautiful, just George with his guitar): YouTube - The Beatles-Something

Maxwell's Silver Hammer is one of Paul's wierder songs. That being said, it still has all the marks of a Paul song, great melodies and pretty good lyrics. I like the nice added touch of the hammer effects whenever Paul says "bang, bang"
YouTube - "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"

Oh! Darling is one of Paul's best vocal performances. It sounRAB like one of those 50s crooner love songs, slightly tweaked. The backing vocals are really smooth. It's unbelievable how high Paul's voice can get on this song. John never forgave Paul for not letting him taking the lead on this song, even though Paul primarily wrote it, which is weird.
YouTube - The Beatles "Oh! Darling"

Octopus's Garden is one of those polarizing songs. I've met people who think it's the best song on the album, while there are others who hate it. I think it's basically of the same quality as all the other Ringo songs, which is mediocre, but not Beatles caliber.
YouTube - Octopus's Garden

I have to admit, at first I wasn't the biggest fan of I Want You(She's So Heavy), but it's a song that has definitely grown on me. It's a really raw, signature style Lennon song. The song is probably Lennon's best on the album. There is something that happens in the song that is such a Lennonish experimental thing, the part where it goes "She's so" and then the guitar plays for about two measures and then they yell "heavvvvvvvyyyyy!". It isn't that big of a thing, but its my favorite part of the song.
YouTube - The Beatles-I Want You (She's So Heavy)

Here Comes The Sun is the second Beatles song I've ever heard. As a result, I've heard this song ALOT during my life, and have grown tired of it. I know it's a beautiful song, but personally, I think it isn't Harrison's best. It isn't his best on the album as far as I'm concerned. But some people absolutely love it, and I can respect that.

Without a doubt, Because is their best vocal performance. The lyrics are a poem written by Yoko, one where she really plays around with puns and double meanings. My favorite song of the album, I think it's absolutely beautiful.
YouTube - "because"-"the beatles" video clip

The Medley​
Abbey Road has a section of songs where they all connect together. The Beatles had all these semi-finished songs, so instead of dumping them, they put them into one giant medley. If you include Because, it's, in my mind, the best section of an album in the history of pop music. The thing deserves to be listened to as a whole, so here are the youtube links to the whole thing:
Part 1: YouTube - Abbey Road Medley part1
Part 2: YouTube - Abbey Road Medley part2

You Never Give Me Your Money is one of those really great and really underrated songs by The Beatles. It's the longest song of the medley, though it contains lots of different sections. Mainly a Paul song. Shows off Paul's talent for writing catchy songs with different sections, which would show up later with Band on the Run and Live and Let Die.

Sun King is probably the weakest section of the medley. It's a great song, but in my mind slows down the flow of the thing considerably. It's in reference to Louis XIV I believe, who was called The Sun King. Also features The Beatles in their "stringing together incomprehensible foreign worRAB" mode.

Mean Mr. Mustard A really nice song, very catchy, too short for any real analysis.

Polythene Pam Good song, for some reason I've always liked the line "Yeah you could say she's attractively built." Notice the backing vocals, they are pretty good.

She Came In Through The Bathroom Window is the second best song on the medley and in my eyes, third best song on the album. I really like the chorus. It's very clever story telling by Paul, about the teenage girls who would break into his house. He wrote this song as a tribute to one of them who he actually became frienRAB with. Lucky girl. :p:

Golden Slumbers is the best lullaby song ever written. It is my second favorite song on the album, and is the best song in the medley. The chorus is so Paul, it's him at his sappy best. I absolutely f*cking love it.

Carry That Weight is the token song where it seems like everyone is singing along to a really catchy line and it sort of sounRAB disorganized but sounRAB really raw and emotional. You hear it a lot in rock opera concept albums, especially how it sort of reprises a part from You Never Give Me Your Money. Such a great song.

The End is well...the end. It's the only Beatles song that features a drum solo. John, Paul and George each get a turn to do a solo. The final lines really sum up the whole Beatles philosophy:

"And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."​

You thought that was the end? Well you'd be wrong. Actually, the last track is Her Majesty. It was supposed to be in between Polythene Pam and Mean Mr. Mustard, around that area, but it didn't flow right. The sound engineer was instructed never to throw away something by The Beatles. Not knowing what to do, he stuck it at the end of the album. It's a sort of unexpected thing, and the boys liked it. I can play it on guitar, it's pretty simple. It's a nice song.

This is my favorite Beatles album. 10/10
 
Couldn't agree more. John and Yoko just fell in love and I don't see how that is the problem. People are stupid when they say that banRAB should be prioritized over relationships. It's always the female that gets labelled as the intruder who wrecks everything. Band's don't last forever. It wasn't solely Yoko's fault.
 
What do folks think of Love, Giles Martin's (George Martin's son) remix and mashup album of Beatles music released in 2006? The best part is Martin's 5.1 surround sound remastering which makes the music swirl around and jump back and forth between the front and back speakers when you play it on a surround sound stereo rig. Even on a conventional two speaker sound system there's a vast improvement in sound quality. Giles Martin's production work on Love was done at the same Abbey Road facility where the Beatles record all of their studio albums. A short history of the studios at Abbey Road is worthwhile because George Martin crafted the Beatles distinctive studio sound at Abbey Road, one session at at time, over the entire span of the Beatle's seven year recording career.

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The recording studios at 3 Abbey Road

Part of the reason nearly all the Beatles studio albums had such a wonderous and pristine sound was their use of the the EMI studios at 3 Abbey Road, a state of the art recording facility built in 1931 and was primarily used to record jazz and classical music prior to rise of the Beatles.

Sir George Martin began his association with EMI and the Abbey Road facility way back in 1950. Many Beatles fans mistakenly believe that the Beatles built the studios at 3 Abbey Road but the EMI studios at Abbey Road have a long and proud history prior to the entry of the Beatles in 1962 to begin their seven year relationship with producer George Martin.

In 1962 Decca RecorRAB had taken a pass on signing the Beatles, so manager Brian Epstien had the Beatle's demo tapes delivered to George Martin through a mutual friend. Martin had previously recorded a handful of pop artists without much success. Martin wasn't that impressed with musicianship of the band, especially the unimaginative drumming of Peter Best. Martin signed on as the Beatles producer because he saw a great potential in singing talents of John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

Peter Best was sacked as the Beatles drummer during the first recording session but the session engineers weren't that impressed with Ringo's drumming either. The studio engineers relegated Ringo to playing tamborine on Love Me Do and doing nothing on Please Please Me while session drummer Andy White played drums. At the time Ringo was the most accomplished professional musician of the Beatles and he wasn't happy with the situation. Despite this early sleight to his drum kit skills Ringo persevered and turned out to be the perfect drummer for the band.

Over his long career as a producer Martin has produced hundreRAB of albums by classical, jazz and pop artists and the Beatles catalog is only a small part of his illustrious career as a producer. With or without the Beatles, George Martin is arguably the greatest studio producer in the history of recorded music.

Martin was also a first tier composer, orchestra director and the master of multiple musical instruments including piano and several wind instruments, most notably the oboe which he studied under BBC Sympony Orchestra oboeist Margaret Eliot. Eliot was the mother of Jane and Peter Asher. Jane Asher went on to be a Paul McCartney's girlfriend and the "it girl" fashion model of swinging London in the early Sixties. Peter Asher was in the British invasion group Peter and Gordon. After an Abbey Road apprenticeship under Martin, Asher moved to southern Califormia and as a producer crafted his own trademark SoCal mellow sound of the 70s and produced most the great albums by Linda Ronstandt, James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt. Paul McCartney has maintained his early frienRABhips with Peter & Jane Asher and George Martin which date back nearly 50 years.

The most notable technological advance that came out of the studios at Abbey Road was the development of multi-track recording during the sessions for Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Acutely aware of the limitations of 4 track recordings, Martin relied on engineer Ken Townsend to invent and build a system whereby two 4 track machines could be linked together. Martin used Towsend's schematic in short order to expand to 16 tracks and then 24 tracks and the age of multi-track recording began. The newly developed 24track recording equipment made Abbey Road the state-of-the-art studio that every rock band wanted to record in. Multi-track recordings revoluntionized rock music and following the Beatles break up, Pink Floyd replaced the Beatles as the house band at Abbey Road. The epic Pink Floyd albums of the Seventies were all products of the Abbey Road studio.

3 Abbey Road was originally a 9 bedroom residential townhouse built in the 1830s in St. Johns Wood, City of Westminister, London England. Abbey Road's name came from the road's close proximity to the Kilburn Abbey an ancient 47 acre monastic estate that dates back to medieval England. The Abbey Road studio is located in heart of St. John's Wood, a posh London neighborhood where Paul McCartney has maintained a home, since the 1960s along with other prominent St. John's Wood residents such as Kate Moss, Jude Law, Ewan McGregor and Lily Allen.

The EMI studio at 3 Abbey Road also has a set of apartments to house musicians who are recording in the studio. Between the apartments and the studio is a footpath that leaRAB to the grounRAB of Kiburn Abbey which is now a large public green space in the City of Westminister.

In 2009 the Abbey Road studios faced closure at the hanRAB of real estate developers but the studio was saved by an act of the Parliament declaring the EMI studios at 3 Abbey Road a national historic landmark.

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The iconic crosswalk at Abbey Road & Grove End Road where the Beatles cover to the the Abbey Road album was photographed. The Abbey Road studios are the smaller two story building in the center of the photo. The crosswalk at Abbey & Grove End has been a London tourist destination for millions of Beatles fans over the years.
 
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