The Beatles Appreciation Thread

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those are pretty good tunes. queenie eye has a cool video and early days is especially moving. haven't heard the rest of the album though, i should.

edit: yea i like this a lot.

 
this thread reminded me to start rewatching the anthology series, like i've been meaning to for a long time. damn it's good, although i know it's less so during the last few episodes where it really glosses over some ugly things.
 
It's weird to think the anthology series was around the 30th anniversary of the band U2 is now at their 40th anniversary era.


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So, the recent bump to this thread has sent me on a Beatles kick as well. Been listening to all the records. This music never gets old.

I've been putting together playlists of some of the early records that omit all the covers and re-insert the appropriate Past Masters tracks while preserving the official running orders as much as possible. Here's what I've come up with:

Please Please Me

1. I Saw Her Standing There
2. From Me To You
3. Thank You Girl
4. Misery
5. Ask Me Why

6. Please Please Me
7. Love Me Do
8. P.S. I Love You
9. Do You Want To Know A Secret
10. There's A Place

I think this works well - ISHST and FMTY is a great one-two punch at the top, There's A Place works well as a closer, and the whole is a leaner product without the covers(six were dropped). Though I do miss Twist And Shout. It's the only cover I miss from any of these early records.

With The Beatles

1. I Want To Hold Your Hand
2. It Won't Be Long
3. All I've Got To Do
4. All My Loving
5. Don't Bother Me
6. Little Child

7. She Loves You
8. I'll Get You
9. Hold Me Tight
10. I Wanna Be Your Man
11. Not A Second Time
12. This Boy

I know some won't like It Won't Be Long being stripped of its place as the opener, but I Want To Hold Your Hand is such a shot of energy that it didn't really fit anywhere else. She Loves You and it's b-side I'll Get You give the record a boost of adrenaline opening the second side, while This Boy is a quiet closer. This was always a difficult record for me to get through because of all the covers(again, six, nearly half the record), so getting rid of them and adding in the iconic singles improves it for me.

Beatles For Sale

1. No Reply
2. I'm A Loser
3. Baby's In Black
4. I'll Follow The Sun
5. Eight Days A Week

6. Every Little Thing
7. I Don't Want To Spoil The Party
8. She's A Woman
9. I Feel Fine
10. What You're Doing

I always regarded this as the weakest of the early records, because, again, the covers always took me out of it. 6 out of 14 again. But the original material is really solid, and I realize that i never gave it enough of a chance outside No Reply and Eight Days A Week. I think the placement of I Feel Fine gives the back end of the record an umph it was lacking, and its guitar fade-out flows really well into What You're Doing, which I think is a solid closer. She's A Woman isn't really that great of a song, so you could cut if you want, but I just put it there to bulk up the second side. I feel like I've re-discovered this record the most in doing this. Good stuff.

Hard Day's Night and Help have far fewer covers(HDN has none and Help only two) and less to add in(again, nothing for HDN, and only Yes It Is and I'm Down for Help, and I'm not sure either one is worth adding), so there doesn't seem to be much to do with them.
 
Beatles for Sale is underrated. That opening trio is stellar. Beef it up with some of the singles from the period and lop off a couple covers and you've got a sneaky great album.
 
namkcuR, I don't care for the premise of your project and I disagree with many of your opinions on the subject but I love your passion. Keep it up. Long live the Beatles...
 
I always thought Beatles For Sale was great.

I don't enjoy most of the covers either, but Rock and Roll Music was pretty well done. So was Please Mr. Postman.
 
Every couple years I go on a Beatles kick where I listen to almost nothing but The Beatles for a couple months and love every minute of it. It's been a couple years, so I have a feeling it's coming soon. I grew up on the early Beatles hits so they're the first songs I loved when I got older and got into them on my own. The first Beatles album I bought was "1" when I was 16 or 17. I wound up listening to the second half way more than the first half.

The last Beatles albums I heard in full were The White Album and Abbey Road. Ironically, they're my two favorites now.
 
Oddly enough, I probably listen to my custom Let It Be more than anything else now, or at least as much as The White Album. You throw in Don't Let Me Down and Ballad of John & Yoko (as well as a couple others) and it really stands with anything before it song-wise, even if the studio wizardry and innovation isn't there.
 
I always thought Beatles For Sale was great.

I don't enjoy most of the covers either, but Rock and Roll Music was pretty well done. So was Please Mr. Postman.


It is. It was also the beginning of the more serious tone the band took on. Lennon was influenced by Dylan at the time and that shown on the following albums, like Rubber Soul.


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Listen to Help! right now.

I'd say go for A Hard Day's Night and With The Beatles even before that one.
(And I'm one of the many who think that Beatles For Sale is their least favourite of the early albums. Despite Eight Days A Week being my favourite Beatles song.)
 
Maybe AHDN, definitely not With the Beatles.

Help!
The Night Before
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
Ticket to Ride
I've Just Seen a Face
Yesterday

All fantastic, essential tracks.
 
A Hard Day's Night or Help! for sure to start, the former being my recommendation.

if you don't immediately love If I Fell then there is something wrong with you cobbler.
 
Maybe AHDN, definitely not With the Beatles.

Help!
The Night Before
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
Ticket to Ride
I've Just Seen a Face
Yesterday

All fantastic, essential tracks.

I'd add You're Gonna Lose That Girl and It's Only Love to that list, but yes, agreed, great record.
 
I've recently rediscovered how wonderful Things We Said Today is. That's a perfect song.

the chord progression in the chorus is incredible (the chorus of how much a dollar cost reminds me of it a lot). as is paul's vocal delivery.

also a big fan of the nearly-atonal guitar riff in you can't do that.
 
I'd add You're Gonna Lose That Girl and It's Only Love to that list, but yes, agreed, great record.

Yeah, that one is probably my favorite on there.


All this talk is making me nostalgic for our "Beatoffs" period and such gems as "I Just Sprayed A Face" and "Crabby Load".

Good times.
 
Help is top tier Beatles. (Except for Dizzy Miss Lizzie, which is on my list of Worst Beatles Songs Ever.)
 
Help is top tier Beatles. (Except for Dizzy Miss Lizzie, which is on my list of Worst Beatles Songs Ever.)


It's not a great song but I find this one pretty fun, if only because of John's wild vocal, which almost replicates the awesomeness of Twist and Shout.

I think it suffers a bit from having to follow Yesterday; it feels tacked on.
 
Rubber Soul is so great. They aren't yet experimenting with sound and concept(and acid, let's be honest) in the way they would starting with Revolver, but it was a giant leap in songwriting from Help, which itself was a great record. In particular the record was a leap for Harrison I think, with Think For Yourself and If I Needed Someone. There isn't a track there that can't get stuck in your head, imo. This is some of the most purely infectious pop music they ever recorded. Even better when you add Day Tripper and We Can Work It Out back in(they work well opening each side). The kind of record that just makes you feel good.

1. Day Tripper
2. Drive My Car
3. Norwegian Wood
4. You Won't See Me
5. Nowhere Man
6. Think For Yourself
7. The Word
8. Michelle

9. We Can Work It Out
10. What Goes On
11. Girl
12. I'm Looking Through You
13. In My Life
14. Wait
15. If I Needed Someone
16. Run For Your Life
 
I wonder if my opinions today would match my opinions from a few years back when it comes to customization playlists of albums. I somewhat remember having interesting White Album, Sgt. Pepper's/Magical Mystery Tour hybrid thing, and Let It Be playlists. But all my playlists went away when I changed computers.

I seem to remember laz pointing out that some of the Sgt. Pepper's and Magical Mystery Tour stuff came from different sessions (which I didn't really care about then and now having done a bunch of recording sessions, don't really care about now either) and that Revolution 9 should be on any White Album compilation (but it will always be cut, for me, in any customized White Album playlists - just as quickly as Wild Honey Pie [I find both to be in my bottom 5 or so by The Beatles, though I'm not comparing them]). And I think people really don't like Savoy Truffle (but I still love it and how it has a totally sinister musical undercurrent that changes the song around for me).
 
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Without listening to transitions, I'd do something like this on paper:

1. Back In The USSR
2. Dear Prudence
3. Glass Onion
4. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
5. Happiness Is A Warm Gun
6. Blackbird
7. Martha My Dear
8. Piggies
9. Rocky Raccoon
10. Mother Nature's Son
11. Julia

1. Birthday
2. Everybody's Got Something To Hide
3. Sexy Sadie
4. Helter Skelter
5. Long Long Long
6. I'm So Tired
7. Revolution
8. Savoy Truffle
9. Cry Baby Cry
10. Hey Jude
11. Good Night

8 Paul songs, 9 John songs, 4 George songs, 1 Ringo song.
 
savoy truffle is fantastic. i love the distorted horn section. i read that the horns were from some symphony orchestra or something and were already not too happy about appearing on a rock record (although still willing to take the paycheque). they finished recording, and it was played back for them with the crazy distortion, and they were mortified to the point that george apologized as the horns immediately departed.
 
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