At about the age of 10, my sage older brother got a copy of Abbey Road, and I learned every groove of that record. Then, let's say in adolescence, the cassette of all the greatest hits and #1 singles and all that, which was ubiquitous in my piece of suburban America, burned me out on all the early stuff, especially. I dallied with "The White Album" for awhile, had a good long fling with Revolver in the car stereo for a bit, have been through Sgt. Pepper's a few times, but the rest is very patchy. In short, my understanding of the Beatles is woefully inadequate.
Anyway, while walking dogs I picked out the stereo remasters (2009) of Sgt. Pepper's (1967), "The White Album" (1968), and Abbey Road (1969).
The real revelation to me has been "The White Album"."Glass Onion" and "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" have been ringing in my ears for two weeks.
Having just spun through the Beatles' discography, and considering my preference for "later" stuff, it looks like I might start with the last track of Yesterday and Today (1966) --"Day Tripper"-- and spin forward through to the end. That'd be some good listening.
Though Magical Mystery Tour looks like it has a bunch of songs that I plan on not loving.
ReplyDelete65-66 is my favorite period. It's incredible what they put out those years. Rubber Soul, Ticket to Ride, and more, culminating in Paperback Writer/Rain and Revolver. I sometimes wonder what it must have been like to have been a teenager during then and hearing that stuff and what Dylan was putting out in 65-66 and the Stones, and the ways they all influenced each other. Or from the perspective of a banjo-playing folkie.
ReplyDeleteI am going to load those on for my walks. I can't stop listening to The Beatles (1968).
DeleteThis morning it was the second disc, "Mother Nature's Son" and "Savoy Truffle", really everything is pretty great.
ReplyDeleteIt's important to recall that after Sgt Pepper's, the Beatles kind of didn't know what to do. Magical Mystery Tour isnt really an album, rather a film soundtrack shoehorned into LP shape for commercial purposes. For the White Album, the boys simply copied the style of every single commercial kind of radio pop music there was. Being The Beatles, and all, they were better at it than most of the original practitioners, but it's a strange kind of pastiche. Abbey Road, too, though they are a bit less formal about it.
ReplyDeleteI memorized those albums when they came out, and I, too, was subsequently burned out on them for decades. It was only much later, when I was more knowledgeable, that I realized White Album and Abbey Road were just a form of cover albums, albeit "covers" of styles in songs written by the Beatles themselves.
Joe: About 18 months ago I wrote a little piece about my top-5 Beatles experiences with Jerry and the Dead. http://gratefulseconds.blogspot.com/2016/01/my-top-5-beatles-moments.html Even at 58, I had limited expereience seeing members of the Beatles, 1976 at the Boston Garden for Wing Over America and then last October at Desert Trip seeing Paul again.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget that you have convenient access to one of the world's leading experts on the Beatles. ;-)
ReplyDeleteRingo (and Pete Best of course) the only Beatle who never met a member of The Grateful Dead, but there's still time
DeleteI have been thinking of you!
ReplyDeleteMan, you're down the rabbit hole now! I won't mention dr. Ebbetts sound system or the some might say originally as artist intended mono mixes, the stereo mixes were an afterthought and left to others...
ReplyDeleteAny port in a storm, of course. :) We'll see how much more I soak in. Crew in the car yesterday put on a long CD of the early hits, and I like that stuff so much less ...
DeleteWhat do you make of the putative drummer 'Ringo' at the Golden Bear on 10/27/74 (IIRC), also Maria sitting in?
ReplyDeleteThe white album is a whole summers listening on its own, a real psychedelic revalation indeed . Up here in Canada we all had a 'hey Jude' compilation album which is excellent, ballad of John and yoko especially. Revolver and rubber soul are great sing along albums.
ReplyDeleteIf the crew in the car includes youngsters don't miss 'beat bugs' a psychedelic Netflix kids cartoon which passes the Beatles tunes onto the next generation.
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