THE BEATLES - Please Please Let It Be Me
The blurb at the top of this blog says that I'd like to do the Beatles but they aren't on Spotify. So great did my desperation become that for this Christmas I asked for all of the Beatles albums. Then on Christmas Eve, Spotify announces that all the Beatles back catalogue has been made available. Nevertheless, I got some as presents and filled in the gaps myself, Everyone should be in possession of these albums. I think they have brought out the best in me. The story of this chronology is strong, and no other artist quite encompasses the requirement for musical progression that I hope to experience. Having listened to them all, I get it. They are utterly remarkable and none of the individual members quite matched what they did between 1963 and 1970.
PLEASE PLEASE ME
Released: 22nd March 1963
Side 1
I Saw Her Standing There
Misery
Anna (Go To Him)
Chains
Boys
Ask Me Why
Please Please Me
Side 2
Love Me Do
P.S. I Love You
Baby It's You
Do You Want To Know A Secret
A Taste Of Honey
There's A Place
Twist and Shout
Here's my first question about the Beatles.Why did they hit it big when they did? Or rather, what was it that distinguished them at the time? It's hard to look back now and spot what they had that the others didn't. Clearly they did have something because we have the evidence of the extraordinary creative journey that followed. We all know that they didn't appear from nowhere and that all dues were paid in full in Hamburg and the like. If I had to guess (which I do) it would be the mix of a hint of dangerous rough edges and the clear songwriting talent. They were the first boy-band and so gave teenage girls something to scream at. And the music here is bang-on-the-money contemporary pop of 1963.
Maybe I can answer the question with the very first track, 'I Saw Her Standing There'. A classic hit straight out of the traps. I seem to remember an interview with McCartney where he said the original lyric was something like "She was just 17, Never been a beauty queen", but he realized that was too convoluted and so changed to it the punchier "You know what I mean".
All the albums have been remastered, obviously, but I'm never quite sure what that is supposed to add to the music, other than sometimes highlighting the limitations of the technology at the time. 'Misery' is notable for some massively intrusive piano phrases that sound like they'd stuck the microphone inside the instrument. When Lennon does the vocals he strains for the high notes sometimes. In the end that becomes his signature style, but he wasn't ever a brilliant singer. However on 'Anna (Go To Him)' it's the slightly drunken backing harmonies that catch the attention. Ringo steps up to the plate to sing on 'Boys' and his vocal is, well, workmanlike. My Uncle Peter had a lot of Beatles singles in his youth and I remember him having 'Please Please Me' with 'Ask Me Why' on the B-side. 'Please Please Me's combination of lapel-grabbing harmonica and build-em up, knock-em down vocals still sounds completely fresh.
First single 'Love Me Do' opens Side 2 and in my humble opinion it shows that all those jokes about Ringo's drumming are completely wrong, the pace of the song is dictated by him and it sounds to me like it is a difficult trick to pull off. The song is mostly percussion. 'P.S. I Love You' and it's light cha-cha-cha had me singing it in the kitchen at the office and getting funny looks from my colleagues. Lennon does a better job on 'Baby It's You' as he clucks from the back of his throat in a Buddy Holly style. Believe it or not I do try not to make these posts just a track listing with commentary, but most of the tracks are hard to ignore. Didn't know that George sang 'Do You Want To Know A Secret'. His voice is a mix of Macca's smoother delivery with a touch of Lennon's abrasiveness. The cover of 'A Taste Of Honey' seems a little incongruous, especially with Ringo's inappropriately strident backing vocal. Lennon sees how much damage can be inflicted on a set of vocal cords in 2 minutes and 32 seconds with 'Twist and Shout'. Nothing on this album lasts more than 3 minutes and the entire set of 14 songs are dispensed with in 32 minutes flat.
WITH THE BEATLES
Released: 22nd November 1963
Side 1
It Won't Be Long
All I've Got To Do
All My Loving
Don't Bother Me
Little Child
Till There Was You
Please Mister Postman
Side 2
Roll Over Beethoven
Hold Me Tight
You Really Got A Hold On Me
I Wanna Be Your Man
Devil In Her Heart
Not A Second Time
Money (That's What I Want)
Please Please Me was released in March 1963, and this followed in November of the same year. No hanging about. And I should imagine that the recording sessions themselves were pretty efficient. The original sleeve notes talk about how they have included their own compositions (including Harrison's first released contribution 'Don't Bother Me') alongside a number of selected 'personal choices'. So at this stage they are still building off their live reputation. The formula doesn't diverge much from that of Please Please Me, the self-penned songs are great although its claimed that none of them were singles. Can that really be true of 'All My Loving'? Also is it of any interest that the credit is McCartney-Lennon on the first album and Lennon-McCartney on this one?
The cover of 'Please Mister Postman' is on here, with an impressive 5 credited writers. Sleeve note writer Tony Barrow informs us that 'I Wanna Be Your Man' was specially written for 'their fierce-voiced drumming man'. In fairness he does a decent job to be honest, but he is a bit flat and shouty. George Martin mans the pianoforte on the last two tracks, 'Not A Second Time' and 'Money', the latter clearly a repeat of the trick of putting an energetic live fave at the end of the album, although this sounds slightly restrained. I imagine they kicked up a decent racket with it in front of an audience.
The artwork must be mentioned. The half lit faces in black and white which has probably been copied more times than Robert Palmer's 'Addicted to Love' video. The positioning is presumably to indicate their usual stage stances, with Ringo on a stool. But also inside the repackaged CD, a picture of them on Weston-Super-Mare sea front. John looks slim and cool in cuban heels, Paul has his thumbs in his pockets, but George and Ringo have not yet got the rock and roll knack. Socks and sandals I'm afraid. And that couple walking away in the distance, is that my Mum and Dad? They lived in Weston at the time.
A HARD DAY’S NIGHT
Released: 10th July 1964
Side 1
A Hard Day's Night
I Should Have Known Better
If I Fell
I'm Happy Just To Dance With You
And I Love Her
Tell Me Why
Can't Buy Me Love
Side 2
Any Time At All
I'll Cry Instead
Things We Said Today
When I Get Home
You Can't Do That
I'll Be Back
When I started this stuff with Bruce and Kate and The PSBs, I tended to just listen and write, relating things back to my own feelings about songs and memories associated with them. That's still the primary aim, but as time goes on and I stray into less familiar territory I do a little research on what I am listening to, mainly, as you will be aware, through the actually-quite-reliable Wikipedia. One thing that struck me about the entry for A Hard Day's Night is that in tackling the subject of all these songs being Lennon and McCartney compositions, there is that undercurrent that they had some kind of adversarial relationship rather than collaborative. Here's a direct quote from the entry: "Lennon dominates the songwriting, being the primary author of nine out of the thirteen tracks on the album, as well as being the lead singer on these same nine tracks. (Although McCartney sings lead on the chorus part of the title track which otherwise is strictly Lennon territory.)". 'Territory'? Its a funny word to use about two songwriters working and writing together, especially at this early stage. And did the delineations of responsibility need to be so closely defined? I know that the legend and history has been picked over to death, and maybe it is known that a certain amount of friction was part of the chemistry, but it does seem that with these two, you are expected to pick a side. Rather like the amalgamated comic Whizzer and Chips, you had to decide if you were a Whizz-Kid or a Chip-ite. In this case what would the tribes be? The Lennonistas and the errr, Macca-bees? I'm sure it is a matter of record as to whether the Lennon-McCartney songwriting brand was just a flag of convenience and they actually worked largely alone, but I think I always assumed they worked together.
So. we all know the title track, from the single chord intro to the bell-like guitar ending, but I never noticed Ringo clanking away on a cowbell on the 'When I'm gone...' bridges before. All kinds of key changes make this a much more complex song than it sounds like. I can't separate it in my mind from Peter Sellers doing Lawrence Olivier doing Richard III speaking the lyrics.
I don't think I've ever seen the film*, not properly anyway. Side 1 were in it, side 2 not apparently, and it's all fairly familiar, 'I Should Have Known Better' is closely followed by the sweet and gentle 'If I Fell', possibly one of my favourite early Beatles songs. In fact for me the slower paced songs stand out, including the softly strummed 'And I Love Her' which means I'm probably a Macca-bee. There's a weird falsetto part in 'Tell Me Why' which doesn't quite work, and Ringo's cowbell makes a comeback on 'You Can't Do That'. In less than 18 months The Beatles have produced three albums with the following songs included on them: 'Please Please Me', 'I Saw Her Standing There', 'Love Me Do', 'Do You Want To Know A Secret', 'All My Loving', 'A Hard Day's Night', 'If I Fell', 'And I Love Her' and 'Can't Buy Me Love' and 'Things We Said Today'. That's pretty good going isn't it? On the artwork front, Ringo doesn't look like Ringo on the front and a bit too much like Ringo on the back. A fair amount of hat action going on.
*2025 - I have now.
BEATLES FOR SALE
Released: 4th December 1964
Side 1
No Reply
I'm A Loser
Baby's In Black
Rock And Roll Music
I'll Follow The Sun
Mr. Moonlight
Kansas City/ Hey-Hey-Hey
Side 2
Eight Days A Week
Words Of Love
Honey Don't
Every Little Thing
I Don't Want To Spoil The Party
What You're Doing
Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby
There are two tracks that particularly stand out for me on this. 'Eight Days A Week' and 'Honey Don't'. I'll come to 'Eight Days..' later, but 'Honey Don't' is a Carl Perkins cover sung by Ringo. You often hear things being described as "so bad they're good". Well this isn't like that, it's just enjoyably bad. It's a 12-bar blues and Ringo uses his usual flat as a pancake delivery. But it's the insertion of the Americanisms in his lugubrious drone that really excite me. Did many people wander round Bootle, Kirkby and West Derby at the time saying 'doggone'? And George's guitar breaks are prefaced by "Rock on George. One Time for me!" and "Ah Rock on George for Ringo, one time". It borders on the homoerotic.
Wikipedia tells me that there were no UK singles off this album although 'I Feel Fine' and 'She's A Woman' were contemporary with it. But so many songs are well known anyway. The opening 'No Reply' is great, but Lennon does sound somewhat constipated. It gets a little dark with 'Baby's In Black', which is about fancying a girl grieving for a dead boyf. The opening "Oh dear what can I do.." tricks me every time into thinking they are going to sing "Oh dear what can the matter be?"
We're just over 2 years into their recording career (and incidentally one third of the way through their studio albums already) and structurally this is not too dissimilar from the first two albums, with a good sprinkling of live favourite cover versions including 'Rock and Roll Music' which formed the centrepiece of the 1994 Backbeat movie. In their own songs, Lennon seems to be getting more desperate ('I'm A Loser') and McCartney more pastoral ('I'll Follow The Sun'). I'm assuming that there is a direct correlation between lead vocal and main songwriter. 'Eight Days A Week' fades in, which I always quite like. Handclaps too. Cool. It's definitely in the perfect pop song category, especially as the lyrics don't make sense, a vital feature of the true classic. I also love the picked out guitar refrain in 'What You're Doing' which probably is more confirmation of my Macca-bee credentials.
The cover picture reminds me of the cover of Abba's Greatest Hits album. Same autumnal colour palate. There's also something more mature about it, like this is their coming of age?
HELP
Released: 6th August 1965
Side 1
Help!
The Night Before
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
I Need You
Another Girl
You're Going To Lose That Girl
Ticket To Ride
Side 2
Act Naturally
It's Only Love
You Like Me Too Much
Tell Me What You See
I've Just Seen A Face
Yesterday
Dizzy Miss Lizzy
So far in my efforts as a Ringo apologist, every time I have tried to point out a piece of great drumming, I have been shot down with "Well, actually, that was someone else you see". But now the defense offers Exhibit C, one 'Ticket To Ride'. I asked my muso son to identify the time signature and he said 4:4 but with changes of tempo, that sounds complex to me. Also, Wikipedia offers no further drummers on the album, so I think I am on safe ground. Doesn't excuse his singing though. This time he goes a little bit country on 'Act Naturally', which comes across as a kind of comedy offering, rather like the Barron Knights doing 'Lucille'.
I was suffering from some kind of virus as I was listening to this album earlier in the week and considered using the sofa time to do the write up. It would have been apt as the lyric "Help me if you can I'm feeling down" couldn't have been more apt. McCartney's bass actually acts as backing vocalist on the title track, providing the "down, down, down"'s that many people probably think are actually sung.
Lennon shows his Dylan influences on 'You've Got To Hide Your Love Away'; love the folky ending. I think I'd place 'I Need You' as my favourite song on the album, those guitar strums at the end of each line are compelling. It's a Harrison song and his songwriting seems to be easily on the same level as the other two, but he hardly ever got a look-in. Was he just very sporadic? Or was his stuff largely squeezed out? The other one of his on here, 'You Like Me Too Much' is also pretty much perfect and there's a taste of Simon and Garfunkel. Maddeningly though it REALLY reminds me of a much more recent song. 'You're Going To Lose That Girl' has an odd sentiment doesn't it? Half the time it sounds like friendly advice is being offered, at others naked threats.
After 'Act Naturally' the tone changes quite a lot, the move from immediate pop to sophisticated melodies begins to take hold. The Spanish guitar at the start of the skiffley 'I've Just Seen A Face' is rather incongruous, also it seems like another dashed off S&G pastiche (although I'm not convinced they were all that prominent at the time). Macca chucks in 'Yesterday' at the end. Is it really the most played song in the world? You hardly ever hear it. Apparently he wrote it in a dream. In one way the album follows the established pattern, they finish with a rock n' roll standard, 'Dizzy MIss Lizzy', which presumably is part of the set that also includes 'Good Golly Miss Molly' and (my personal favourite 'Lawdy Miss Clawdy'.
Don't really remember much about the movie, something about Ringo's ring I think. Seen it once and didn't pay attention. Point of clarification for those of you in the US, apparently the version over there had quite a different track listing with a number of instrumentals and is more closely aligned to the film. Oh, and it doesn't spell HELP in semaphore on the cover
RUBBER SOUL
Released: 3rd December 1965
Side 1
Drive My Car
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
You Won't See Me
Nowhere Man
Think For Yourself
The Word
Michelle
Side 2
What Goes On
Girl
I'm Looking Through You
In My Life
Wait
If I Needed Someone
Run For Your Life
Wonky picture on the cover and a moderately wonky album inside. This seems to me to mark a clear step forward for the Beatles, almost completely abandoning now any vestiges of Merseybeat. And here's a funny thing, Wikipedia categorizes the genre as 'Folk Rock'. Hardly. Let's not lose sight of the fact that this is only 2 and a half years on from their debut. I wasn't there, I don't know, but this must have been so completely different from anything else available at the time. The mix of musical styles is broad and there is a tendency to stick completely unexpected sections either in the middle or at the end of songs.
Take 'Girl' which has an overwhelming sense of world-weariness but ends with a Greek balalaika part (and what are those sharp intakes of breath all about?). And 'In My Life' possibly the outstanding track on an outstanding album, we get the whole baroque piano/harpsichord thing supplied by George Martin. It works completely, but you suspect it shouldn't.
Before I started listening to this on an almost constant loop for the past week, I often had 'Drive My Car' and Hendrix's 'Crosstown Traffic' confused in my mind. Not sure why and it's probably just me, I'm quite suggestible so any song that mimics motor cars could easily confuse me. The Harrison songs 'Think For Yourself' and 'If I Needed Someone' have a west coast feel to them, easy and breezy, but they aren't as inventive as something like the dreamy, woozy 'Nowhere Man' or as well crafted as 'Norwegian Wood'
Of course Ringo has to have his turn at the mic. No show without Punch. The C&W 'What Goes On' even gets him a writing credit too, but it's the weakest song on the album. Lennon and McCartney prove they can still do pop too with 'Run For Your Life', 'You Won't See Me' and 'The Word'. This also includes 'Michelle', which I'm in two minds about, there's no need for singing in French after all
REVOLVER
Released: 5th August 1966
Side 1
Taxman
Eleanor Rigby
I'm Only Sleeping
Love To You
Here, There And Everywhere
Yellow Submarine
She Said She Said
Side 2
Good Day Sunshine
And Your Bird Can Sing
For No One
Doctor Robert
I Want To Tell You
Got To Get You Into My Life
Tomorrow Never Knows
Conventional wisdom has it that by now the drugs were beginning to take hold and you can hear it in the music. Well, yes. Sort of. Clearly they've been exposed to some fairly odd experiences before making this album, but there's no way you could produce this stuff while actually off your nut on LSD. This is also somewhat patchy. There are moments of greatness in 'Eleanor Rigby' and 'Here, There And Everywhere' but there is dodginess too with 'Yellow Submarine' and 'Love To You'. Anyway.
Julie Andrews gave good advice once, let's start at the very beginning. The Beatles are now rich, and the government of the day has punitive taxation policies for people like them. Surprisingly, George Harrison does not seem to see it as his moral duty to hand over 95% of his earnings and says so quite clearly in his song. They namecheck Wilson and Heath, so no party political bias here. The Jam stole the intro for 'Start'.
Then 'Eleanor Rigby'. McCartney's ability to produce little musical vignettes is superb. See also 'For No One'. Poor old Eleanor and Father Mackenzie. Lonely people indeed. Now, the production on this album is supposed to be groundbreaking, but I found the sudden transitions in 'Eleanor Rigby' from mono to stereo very distracting and somewhat amateurish. Also, track three, Lennon's 'I'm Only Sleeping' employs back masking, which is irritating too. I'm not buying the tablas and sitars in 'Love To You'. Fortunately McCartney steps straight in and saves the day with the beautifully simple 'Here, There And Everywhere'.
I can only assume that Ringo was a fiend when it came to drafting contracts and managed to make sure he always had at least one song per album. This time the best he can do is 'Yellow Submarine', which along with 'Octopus's Garden' was a staple of Play School in the early seventies. 'Good Day Sunshine' doesn't stand up very well. A bit repetitive, even if it is upbeat, but 'And Your Bird Can Sing' sounds years ahead of its time. It's all eighties indie jangly guitars and that. I looked up 'Doctor Robert' on Wikipedia to find out what it's all about and was confronted by a prolonged piece about 'Mixolydian Modes', 'double tracked out of phase chords' and 'blissful modulation'. And this is before it gets onto the drug references. The last two tracks are McCartney's 'Got To Get You Into My Life' and Lennon's 'Tomorrow Never Knows', which probably illustrate the divergence in musical styles that was going on. McCartney's is driving, poppy and immediate, Lennon's is fuzzy, weird and disengaged. The drum loops are pretty complex too, so Ringo has clearly proved himself by now. The cover art is like the adult colouring books that are all the rage. Now where did I put my felt-tips?
SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND
Released: 26th May 1967
Side 1
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
With A Little Help From My Friends
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Getting Better
Fixing A Hole
She's Leaving Home
For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite
Side 2
Within You Without You
When I'm Sixty Four
Lovely Rita
Good Morning, Good Morning
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise)
A Day In The Life
Over the past two and a half years or so, I've listened to a number of albums that figure highly on many lists of the greatest of all time. Born To Run, Ziggy Stardust, Rumours, Led Zep II, Dark Side Of The Moon, Tommy, London Calling, Seven And The Ragged Tiger. By virtue of being recognized as the most important album by the most important band of all time Sgt. Pepper is usually near the top. My view is that trying to give an accolade like that is pointless. I'd vote for 'Clutching At Straws' by Marillion because of it's position in my own time and space, or for more credibility I might go for The Who's Tommy because there was a period where I just loved it. Of course the downside to an album being universally acclaimed is that the casual listener is tempted to pick holes and find reasons why it's not so great. No-one is a totally casual listener when it comes to the Beatles, I've heard this many times before and the individual songs are etched into Generation X's DNA, however I will succumb to the temptation and suggest that it's not all it's cracked up to be.
The premise is that this isn't the Beatles at all, but the eponymous band. Apparently it allowed room for experimentation. Didn't seem to stop them before though. Ringo makes an early statutory appearance as Billy Shears on 'With A Little Help From My Friends' The irony of the opening line was presumably lost on him. I've never been sure about this song. Joe Cocker's over-wrought reworking is almost definitive, but for me it's just too much. Controversially I think that Wet Wet Wet's more faithful rendition is best, at least Marty Pellow can hold a tune.
'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds'? Let's stop kidding ourselves shall we, it stands for LSD, no matter how much Lennon and McCartney denied it. For the record, I've never taken non-prescription mind altering substances, beyond alcohol, so I really don't know if the lyrics and tune are influenced by being on a trip, but many better qualified people DO seem to think so, so the title cannot be coincidence.There's plenty of evidence of developing 'musical differences' between Lennon and McCartney. John opts for flights of fantasy ('For The Benefit Of Mr Kite', 'Good Morning', 'A Day In The Life') while Paul keeps his feet on the ground ('Getting Better', 'Fixing A Hole', 'Lovely Rita', 'When I'm 64' and 'She's Leaving Home'). In fact, in 'A Day In The Life' they manage to combine these tendencies in one song. 'She's Leaving Home' is a highlight for me. A continuation of the mood of 'Eleanor Rigby' but possibly even sadder.
As for George, he's left half his mind at the ashram, the trad Indian 'Within You Without You' is not my cup of darjeeling. Other observations: for the first time I noticed a similarity between the clarinet on 'When I'm Sixty Four' and the theme tune to the Wombles. Try singing "Underground, overground, Wombling Free, The Wombles of Wimbledon Common are we" to the tune. It definitely fits. Not sure why McCartney's accent veers from Scottish to Lancashire in the space of one line.
So why am I not acknowledging it's genius as I'm supposed to? I think some songs are poor ('Within You Without You', 'Mr Kite', 'Good Morning, Good Morning') and some are ordinary ('With a Little Help...'). Maybe familiarity HAS bred contempt, but I think I'll hear better before I get to the end. I'll not make any attempt to discuss the Peter Blake cover, it's been done to death, as evidenced by the hand hovering above Paul's head.
MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR
Released: 27th November 1967
Original EP Tracks
Magical Mystery Tour
The Fool On The Hill
Flying
Blue Jay Way
Your Mother Should Know
I Am The Walrus
1967 Singles
Hello Goodbye
Strawberry Fields Forever
Penny Lane
Baby You're A Rich Man
All You Need Is Love
Let me take you down, cos I'm going to....Little Paxton, Huntingdonshire, December 1967. Picture the scene, it's Boxing Day and yours truly is nearly 2 months old and mewling and puking in my Moses basket. 3 year old elder brother is playing with his new train set and probably plotting ways to eliminate the newly arrived cuckoo in the nest. Not much on the telly those days, even at Christmas, only 3 channels to choose from and one of those was BBC2, which only opened for business at about 5 pm. But wait! A special festive treat is being provided on BBC1. It's the premiere of the Beatles film, Magical Mystery Tour. Doubtless Mum and Dad settled down with a sherry and some left over ham and pickles to take in the latest artistic effort from the most influential musical act of the modern age. If they did watch it, I doubt they made it to the end and by the time they got onto the tin of Quality Street had probably switched over to Christmas at the London Palladium, or whatever it was ITV was putting up against it. It's no good whatsoever. Mainly featuring all-round entertainer Ringo, squabbling with his aunt on a clapped out bus, with a detour to a strip club at one point and ending with the fab foursome in white tie singing 'Your Mother Should Know'.
The album is actually a double EP, later enhanced with additional (better) material to beef it up into a full album. The title track, when listened to objectively, is a bit of a mess really, and the divergence of Macca and Lennon continues apace. In fact if you take Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever, it's almost as if they were both briefed with writing a moderately nostalgic song about a place and they both came up with something utterly in keeping with their own preferred style. For me, as a dyed in the wool Macca-bee by now, I like the McCartney songs and can take or leave the Lennons (I'm still applying my vocalist = main writer assumption). 'The Fool On The Hill' is about as trippy as Paul gets whilst 'I Am The Walrus' probably represents Lennon holding back somewhat. 'Blue Jay Way' is Harrison's only solo-penned contribution and all that early promise has come to nothing. It's not great. This and Sgt. Pepper before both feature good doses of those slightly comedic brass sections that were so thoroughly ripped off by Tears For Fears on the Seeds Of Love album. One example is 'Hello Goodbye' which also has that odd coda at the end. Speaking of odd codas, there's another at the end of Strawberry Fields which I didn't really know existed. I wanted to point out that ‘Penny Lane' was hilariously covered by Bowie, who, despite being born and bred in the leafy South East London boroughs retained a scouse inflection on the cUstomer that the barber is shaving. However the know-it-all internet suggests that it wasn't him at all, just a session singer who sounded like him. Boo! It all ends with 'All You Need Is Love' which is most often seen in the clip of them performing it with all their showbiz pals on the first global television link 'Our World' I don't really like the way it all falls apart at the end. It's just a bit too knowing.
THE BEATLES (THE WHITE ALBUM)
Released: 22nd November 1968
Side 1
Back In The USSR
Dear Prudence
Glass Onion
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Wild Honey Pie
The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Happiness Is A Warm Gun
Side 2
Martha My Dear
I'm So Tired
Blackbird
Piggies
Rocky Raccoon
Don't Pass Me By
Why don't we do it in the road?
I Will
Julia
Side 3
Birthday
Yer Blues
Mother Nature's Son
Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey
Sexy Sadie
Helter Skelter
Long, Long, Long
Side 4
Revolution 1
Honey Pie
Savoy Truffle
Cry Baby Cry
Revolution 9
Good Night
Not usually the Beatles album that many people think of as their greatest achievement. As already discussed, that distinction, right or wrong, goes to Sgt. Pepper. But I would confidently argue that this is their most influential work. It lays the groundwork for much of the next 20 years of popular musical development. Take the sound effects scattered throughout. They dipped into this in Sgt. Pepper but now you can hear the kind of stuff that Floyd latched onto. In particular the 'I've got blisters on my fingers!' at the end of 'Helter Skelter' appears to have been completely ripped off by Waters on The Wall with "I've got a little black book with my poems in!". Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da is calypso influenced disco. There's Bonzo-style satire and madness, reasonably successful with 'Piggies', not so much with 'Wild Honey Pie'. They show Led Zeppelin the way forward with 'Yer Blues'. Bryan Ferry took some hints on vocal delivery from 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps'. 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun' is the whole progressive rock genre condensed into one 'concept' song. A generation of singer songwriters listened to 'Martha My Dear' and immediately sat down at a piano and had a go themselves. 'Helter Skelter' launched a thousand Glam Rock riffs (and if you'll allow me to be rather niche for a moment, those falling guitar arpeggios are pure Richard Thompson). And talking of Glam, 'Revolution 1' could have been written for Marc Bolan, so much so that he did his own Revolution song anyway. 'Mother Nature's Son' nails the folky ballad. 'Everybody's Got Something To Hide Apart From Me And My Monkey could be a Stones' piss-take with a punk riff chucked in at the end. 'Honey Pie' let Peter Skellern know that you could build a career on mock-twenties trad jazz piano. I'm guessing that 'Glass Onion' is the running cipher key for Beatlebores, since it revisits many of their 1967 singles and possibly provides a little more enlightenment on 'I Am The Walrus', Strawberry Fields Forever', 'The Fool On The Hill' and probably more that sailed right over my head. It even gives a nod to Lady Madonna, which was a single release at around the same time.
One good thing, George seems to be a bit more with it. 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' featuring wife-poacher Eric Clapton is a bona fide classic, covered ad nauseum, and they've found a use for his sitar obsession that doesn't ruin the whole album on 'Dear Prudence'. Yoko crops up on 'The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill', and it could only be her really. The song's a stupid bit of fluff, but it's pretty catchy. 'Blackbird' is a nice song, but for me, listening as I often do on headphones, the metronome (or whatever it is) accompaniment is quite irritating.
There's some dross. 'Rocky Raccoon' leaves me bemused as does 'Good Night' and 'Don't Pass Me By' is downright poor (it's Ringo on vocal cords and quillpen) and 'Revolution 9' suggests someone should have been enforcing some editorial control (or telling Yoko to play with her tape recorder somewhere else). Further odds and sods of observation: the version of Revolution on here ('Revolution 1') is slower calmer than the one I'm more familiar with, which was the B-Side of 'Hey Jude'. 'Savoy Truffle' is a journey through a box of Black Magic. What is montelimar anyway? I always went for the coffee creams.
I have to touch on the packaging. It's referenced in the Spinal Tap "none more black" episode, but it is possibly the most revolutionary thing about the whole album as it's simplicity renders the album special in some indefinable way, almost as if you don't need anything on the outside because of what is inside. A triumph of substance over style.
YELLOW SUBMARINE
Released 13th January 1969
Side 1
Yellow Submarine
Only A Northern Song
All Together Now
Hey Bulldog
It's All Too Much
All You Need Is Love
Side 2
Pepperland
Sea Of Time
Sea Of Holes
Sea Of Monsters
March Of The Meanies
Pepperland Laid Waste
Yellow Submarine In Pepperland
OK. I'm a bit confused. Magical Mystery Tour is not counted as a proper Beatles studio album because it was originally released as an EP, even though the later reissues with the additional singles actually renders it a full length and actually quite strong album. This on the other hand is afforded full studio album status despite only having 4 original Beatles songs on it and half of it being the soundtrack to the film composed by George Martin.
The previously unreleased songs aren't even in the first rank of Beatles material. 'All Together Now' is nothing more than a nursery rhyme, like the previously released title track. 'Hey Bulldog' is probably the best new thing on Side 1 but the larking about at the end is no fun for anyone listening in.
As for Martin's soundtrack, well, it's fine. It's a soundtrack after all and they're rarely very inspiring when divorced from the movie. He chucks in 'Air On A G String' at one point. I have seen the film, a very long time ago. Not even the Beatles doing the voices I think. Wasn't one of them Coronation Street binman and lodger to Hilda and Stan Ogden, Eddie Yeats? I'm betting it wouldn't do much for a modern audience.
ABBEY ROAD
Released: 26th September 1969
Side 1
Come Together
Sometimes
Maxwell's Silver Hammer
Oh! Darling
Octopus's Garden
I Want You (She's So Heavy)
Side 2
Here Comes The Sun
Because
You Never Give Me Your Money
Sun King
Mean Mr Mustard
Polythene Pam
She Cam In Through The Bathroom Window
Golden Slumbers
Carry That Weight
The End
Her Majesty
It's not something I often do, but I am going to indulge in a spot of theorizing. I reckon that after the last 5 albums (including this one) we see Lennon's star fall and McCartney's rise. Sgt. Pepper has good contributions from both, but Lennon's probably stand out more, as they do on Magical Mystery Tour. The White Album seems to see them playing out a score-draw, but Yoko is on the scene and giving John arty-farty ideas. Yellow Submarine has nothing to offer from either, but Abbey Road appears to be McCartney's album, and Harrison comes in a clear second with 'Something' and 'Here Comes The Sun'. The lazy conclusion, that Yoko was a bad artistic influence, no matter how much he loved her, would also appear to be valid to me. I'm no Beatlebore, I don't know the story from start to finish so I get my information from the musical output. I think it's fair to say that I didn't really know who Lennon was when he was shot in 1980, but I did know who McCartney was, mainly because of bleedin' 'Mull Of Kintyre', I think that means that Lennon had fallen into a degree of obscurity (let's call it the 13-year-old test, if you're known to a contemporary 13 year old, you're above a certain level of fame), something like we saw with Bowie when he was living quietly in New York up to the release of 'The Next Day'.
Having said all that, Lennon comes in first on Abbey Road with his best shot to date (in my view) 'Come Together' with that muted bluesy tune and deceptively offbeat lyrics. Now here's a thought, if you listened to Harrison's sublime 'Something' as a karaoke version, would it sound like a 70's porn movie soundtrack? Not that I'd know of course. That and 'Here Comes The Sun' are both confirmation that those early great Harrison compositions were no fluke.
I have a tale about 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' I learned it as part of a choir performance at secondary school. It was for a house music competition, I was in Yellows (Offa). I think the song was selected by some of the sixth formers (I was probably in fourth year - this is in the days when school years made sense) and I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and will assume that they didn't get the double meaning of "late nights all alone with a test tube, oh, oh, oh oh". As a consequence the song holds a fond place in my heart. Never noticed Macca's little snigger halfway through before though.
The obligatory kids song from Ringo represents a high point in his canon. 'Octopus's Garden' is pretty good really, not even his awful voice can ruin it. Lennon goes slightly Santana on Yoko-tribute 'I Want You (She's So Heavy)’, and it works rather well. It follows McCartney's deranged doo-wop of 'Oh! Darling'. Side 2 is mostly made up of a medley of short songs which do knit together into quite a satisfying whole. I liked the laid back nature of 'Sun King' and the climax through 'Golden Slumbers' and 'Carry That Weight' hints at where Paul would go after they went their separate ways.
Wikipedia goes on at great length about how final 'Her Majesty' was originally included in the medley, then got taken out and tagged onto the end. It's the original hidden track, but you only have to wait 14 seconds for it, as opposed to the actually quite annoying modern phenomenon of leaving 5 mins silence on a CD before you get something not really worthy of release.
The cover has to be mentioned. I've lived in and around London for 24 years* now and have never been to Abbey Road, let alone irritate local motorists by walking across a zebra crossing just for the hell of it. Paul's barefoot, meaning he's dead, but he was making a poor job of it when I saw him in Hyde Park with Springsteen in 2012**.
* 2025 - 31 years and counting
** And with Little Steven at the Roundhouse in 2017
LET IT BE
Released 8th May 1970
Side One
Two of Us
Dig a Pony
Across the Universe
I Me Mine
Dig It
Let It Be
Maggie Mae
Side Two
I've Got a Feeling
One After 909
The Long and Winding Road
For You Blue
Get Back
The road through The Beatles studio albums has been neither long nor particularly winding. In fact the narrative here has been quite clear to read, from pop-stars, through self discovery, slow drifting apart and finally, simply the most important and influential band that ever existed. There is a little twist at the end however, which is linked to the slo-mo explosion of them going their separate ways over the last 3 years or so. By all accounts, Let It Be was largely recorded before Abbey Road, and some argue that that is their last album, not this. However, issue date works for me, and there is an air of finality about this, especially in the cover photo, showing them separately and isolated. It feels like the kind of cover you'd put on a retrospective. But I do get annoyed by the spoken studio snippets throughout.
'Two Of Us' is sung by Lennon and McCartney and is therefore laden with meaning. However despite all we know about the recording of this album, some of the interactions between the two of them are superb. See 'I've Got A Feeling' as well. If we are to consider this and Abbey Road together then my previous theory that Paul was dominant by now is slightly rebutted by Lennon's contribution here. The pairing on Side 1 of 'Dig My Pony' and 'Across The Universe' represents him on top form and provide signposts to where he would go next. Harrison's efforts 'I Me Mine' and 'For You Blue' are middle ranking by his standards, although the former is quite a nice mash-up of young up-beat Beatles and older jaded Beatles.
Meanwhile Macca's two most prominent songs are the title track and 'The Long And Winding Road'. It occurred to me that you can link 'Let It Be' and Lennon's 'Imagine' in that as a reflection on what's wrong with the world both offer similar answers, Lennon can only imagine an ideal world while McCartney accepts that fate will deal your hand. The difference I guess is that McCartney is introspective, 'Let It Be' is a personal song, while Lennon is looking outward at the wider world. I do love 'The Long And Winding Road', which Paul imbues with an epic quality through the orchestration. Could do without 'Maggie Mae' to be honest, but at least they don't prolong it. It all ends (and I mean ALL) with 'Get Back' originally intended as the album title to indicate a back-to-basics approach and the song itself is a classic blues/rock riff which no-one would be surprised if it was a cover version of a fifties standard*. This album is remarkable in one more sense as well. At last, at long last, Ringo doesn't get to sing.
*2025 - Having seen the Peter Jackson film, the genesis of this track suggests that Paul was indeed drawing on all that history and experience to conjure the bloody thing out of thin air.