saintsfan
Footballguy
They also had like 12 in the top 100.Staggering...
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The Beatles (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter saintsfan
- Start date
NCCommish
Footballguy
All true and well said. I will say though that good bubblegum can still be good music. That's why it doesn't die. If done well it is catchy and fun. Unfortunately it is often done poorly.BTW hating the idea of waiting for the next installment. I am loving this thread. It's the first one I check everyday. Very good work being done here.
saintsfan
Footballguy
No, you're right. It was more aimed at the really bad stuff.Thanks for that. Sorry about having to wait. The whole work thing keeps getting in the way of my posting on the FFA. Hey, maybe I'll quit my job to be the OFFICIAL Beatles correspondent for the FFA. What does it pay??
NCCommish
Footballguy
Our undying love?No, you're right. It was more aimed at the really bad stuff.Thanks for that. Sorry about having to wait. The whole work thing keeps getting in the way of my posting on the FFA. Hey, maybe I'll quit my job to be the OFFICIAL Beatles correspondent for the FFA. What does it pay??
saintsfan
Footballguy
Ehhh. What the heck?? I'll quit anyway.
NCCommish
Footballguy
First airplay in America was in early December 1963 on WWDC-AM in Washington. DJ Carroll James remembers: a Washington D.C. teenager, 15-year-old Marsha Albert, mailed in a request to her local radio station and got the Beatles played on the air. That was only the beginning of a series of events.Albert would later remember, "I wrote that I thought they would be really popular here, and if he (James) could get one of their records, that would really be great." In response to her request, Carroll James imported a copy of the Beatles' newly-released single in Britain, 'I Want To Hold Your Hand,' and let Albert announce it on the air. The response that followed was a large number of phone requests from listeners as the song began to gain quick and strong popularity in the Washington D.C. market. Due to the response, the song was moved into heavy rotation on WWDC. Capitol Records was forced to take notice. This was an early sign of the possiblity that the Beatles could in fact catch on in America -- a fact that Capitol was finding increasingly difficult to ignore.
'I Want To Hold Your Hand' was released by Captiol Records in the States on December 26th 1963. It reached #1 on the American Cashbox charts on January 17th, and was #1 on the American Billboard charts by February 1st where it remained the top song for eleven straight weeks. On the week of April 4th 1964, the Beatles would occupy all five of the Top Five positions on the Billboard charts -- a feat which has never been surpassed or duplicated by anyone before or since.
Following the huge success of their February 9th appearance on the Ed Sullivan show, the Beatles traveled through the snow by train to Washington D.C. on February 11th. Disc jockey Carroll James had the opportunity to chat with the Beatles in a remote radio broadcast trailor before their performance at Washington Coliseum, their first concert in America. James takes a moment during the interview to introduce the Fab Four to Marsha Albert.
Also, please note, it's Capitol Records, with an "O" like the CapitOl Building...
Brock Middlebrook
Footballguy
just like The Wiggles...
Mr. Pickles
Footballguy
Leroy Hoard
Footballguy
...and the teletubbies.
saintsfan
Footballguy
Posting shortly...
saintsfan
Footballguy
Sorry guys. Like I said, busy day. I should be back on track now, though. Get you, at least, two or three posts per day this week. Next up...
The strange case of the Capitol albums
Thus far, I've mentioned only one Beatles album, that is Please Please Me, which was their first album on Parlophone in 1963. Also in 1963, the Beatles released their second album in Britain called With The Beatles, which also shot to #1.
As discussed the last time, in 1964, George Martin finally convinced Capitol records to release "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and it became a huge hit, therefore, Capitol wanted to immediately release an album. Instead of releasing With The Beatles, which was the Beatles album of the moment, Capitol issued an album called Meet The Beatles, which basically was the exact same album cover as With The Beatles, except the music on the album was the I Want To Hold Your Hand single and several songs from With The Beatles. Unlike it's British counterpart which had 14 songs, Meet The Beatles only contained 11 songs. Not only that, but for some reason, Capitol did strange things with the Beatles songs like adding echo to certain songs. This practice would continue all the way up until Sgt Pepper.
Some of the Capitol albums work OK as an album. For example, the Capitol Rubber Soul has a nice, folk rock kind of vibe that the Parlophone Rubber Soul doesn't have quite as much of. The British Rubber Soul has the folk stuff, but it also has the up tempo stuff missing from the Capitol Rubber Soul. Meet The Beatles is good. It mostly stays in the period as it's a lot of With The Beatles along with the I Want To Hold Your Hand single. The Beatles Second Album works as kind of the opposite of Rubber Soul, in that it's a pure rock album, which was never really the way the Beatles put albums together, but as a collection of kick ### rock tunes, it works. Beatles '65 takes the worst songs off of Beatles For Sale and replaces them with better songs, so it kind of works.
The most blatant offenders?? The movie soundtracks to A Hard Days Night (which really wasn't a Capitol release, it was United Artists) and Help, which have a lot of non-Beatles instrumental stuff. Kind of like Yellow Submarine. A rip off. Something New is really a funny title since several of the tracks appear on the United Artists soundtrack to A Hard Day's Night. The other great offender is Yesterday and Today which is REALLY a Frankenstein of an album, put together from Help, Rubber Soul, and worst of all, Revolver. The reason I say worst of all is that Revolver was a completely different sound for the Beatles and sticking Yesterday on an album with I'm Only Sleeping just doesn't work. Not only that, but by taking 3 John Lennon songs off of Revolver, the Capitol Revolver only had two Lennon songs, completely ruining the album, which has become a classic.
Overall, the Capitol albums are far inferior to the British versions, which are classics. If you want to get into the Beatles and understand their albums and how they evolved over the years, the British albums are the ones you should have.
Back to Yesterday and Today, it was for this cover that the famous Butcher Sleeve was done. Basically, a photographer takes a picture of the Beatles with butcher coats on and decapitated baby dolls with hunks of bloody meat everywhere and Capitol pastes it on the Yesterday and Today album and sent them out. Reactions start coming back, universally negative, so Capitol recalls the Butcher Sleeve covers and replaces them with a picture of Paul sitting in a trunk with the other 3 Beatles standing around. Capitol did this so fast that they pasted the new covers over some of the old covers that they had hanging around allowing people to steam off the trunk cover to reveal the Butcher Cover. If you own a Butcher Cover today, they are among the more valuable Beatles collectors items. We will get back to the Butcher Sleeve when we talk about Paul being "dead".
Next...The Movies
The strange case of the Capitol albums
Thus far, I've mentioned only one Beatles album, that is Please Please Me, which was their first album on Parlophone in 1963. Also in 1963, the Beatles released their second album in Britain called With The Beatles, which also shot to #1.
As discussed the last time, in 1964, George Martin finally convinced Capitol records to release "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and it became a huge hit, therefore, Capitol wanted to immediately release an album. Instead of releasing With The Beatles, which was the Beatles album of the moment, Capitol issued an album called Meet The Beatles, which basically was the exact same album cover as With The Beatles, except the music on the album was the I Want To Hold Your Hand single and several songs from With The Beatles. Unlike it's British counterpart which had 14 songs, Meet The Beatles only contained 11 songs. Not only that, but for some reason, Capitol did strange things with the Beatles songs like adding echo to certain songs. This practice would continue all the way up until Sgt Pepper.
Some of the Capitol albums work OK as an album. For example, the Capitol Rubber Soul has a nice, folk rock kind of vibe that the Parlophone Rubber Soul doesn't have quite as much of. The British Rubber Soul has the folk stuff, but it also has the up tempo stuff missing from the Capitol Rubber Soul. Meet The Beatles is good. It mostly stays in the period as it's a lot of With The Beatles along with the I Want To Hold Your Hand single. The Beatles Second Album works as kind of the opposite of Rubber Soul, in that it's a pure rock album, which was never really the way the Beatles put albums together, but as a collection of kick ### rock tunes, it works. Beatles '65 takes the worst songs off of Beatles For Sale and replaces them with better songs, so it kind of works.
The most blatant offenders?? The movie soundtracks to A Hard Days Night (which really wasn't a Capitol release, it was United Artists) and Help, which have a lot of non-Beatles instrumental stuff. Kind of like Yellow Submarine. A rip off. Something New is really a funny title since several of the tracks appear on the United Artists soundtrack to A Hard Day's Night. The other great offender is Yesterday and Today which is REALLY a Frankenstein of an album, put together from Help, Rubber Soul, and worst of all, Revolver. The reason I say worst of all is that Revolver was a completely different sound for the Beatles and sticking Yesterday on an album with I'm Only Sleeping just doesn't work. Not only that, but by taking 3 John Lennon songs off of Revolver, the Capitol Revolver only had two Lennon songs, completely ruining the album, which has become a classic.
Overall, the Capitol albums are far inferior to the British versions, which are classics. If you want to get into the Beatles and understand their albums and how they evolved over the years, the British albums are the ones you should have.
Back to Yesterday and Today, it was for this cover that the famous Butcher Sleeve was done. Basically, a photographer takes a picture of the Beatles with butcher coats on and decapitated baby dolls with hunks of bloody meat everywhere and Capitol pastes it on the Yesterday and Today album and sent them out. Reactions start coming back, universally negative, so Capitol recalls the Butcher Sleeve covers and replaces them with a picture of Paul sitting in a trunk with the other 3 Beatles standing around. Capitol did this so fast that they pasted the new covers over some of the old covers that they had hanging around allowing people to steam off the trunk cover to reveal the Butcher Cover. If you own a Butcher Cover today, they are among the more valuable Beatles collectors items. We will get back to the Butcher Sleeve when we talk about Paul being "dead".
Next...The Movies
Last edited by a moderator:
Uncle Humuna
Footballguy
Haven't read one in 25 years, but read all that existed back in the late 70's and early 80's.My favorite from back then was "Shout".
saintsfan
Footballguy
Yeah, when I replied the other night, I was kind of tanked, but Shout is very good.The Walrus Was Paul was mentioned earlier for the Paul is Dead stuff.The best biography I've read, however, is the Beatles Anthology, IMO. Great detail and from the Beatles own mouth. The only thing I don't like about it is that we don't get John's perspective in the 90's, because obviously, he is gone. Glad they did it before George died, though.
Uncle Humuna
Footballguy
Brave Sir Robin
Footballguy
Thank you for a great thread.
saintsfan
Footballguy
The Movies
As with any huge musical phenomenon, immediately, somebody wants to make a movie before the artist flops. So it was with the Beatles. In 1963, negotiations started with United Artists to make a movie starring the Beatles. **** Lester was selected as the director. He made a short film called Running, Jumping, and Standing Still which the Beatles loved, so they were thrilled. The idea was to show a day in the life of the Beatles at the height of Beatlemania. Eventually, the title A Hard Day's Night was selected. One day Ringo was in the studio and was about to say that it was a hard day, but then looked out the window and saw it was night, so he added "'s Night" and the title was born. Ringo became well known for this habit of butchering the English language. It was shot in black and white on a shoe string budget. The Beatles really wanted it to be a good movie. They saw the Elvis films and other rock and roll films and thought most of them were pretty bad, so they wanted something better than that. Film critics everywhere went to see the movie waiting to trash the film.
It was, therefore, all the more surprising that the film was good. So good, in fact, that the Beatles were called the modern Marx brothers by some people. Probably a bit over the top, but the film WAS funny. Lots of good one liners and great music. It was called the Citizen Kane of jukebox musicals. It's definatly worth a watch, if for nothing else than the music, but I find it to be funny and you get all the Beatles stereotypes from this movie. Sharp John, whymsical Paul, quiet George, and goofy Ringo. Ringo, especially, got good reviews for his acting. The scene of Ringo kind of walking around as a lost soul was the result of Ringo being hung over from the night before. Ringo's words were something to the effect of "there was no acting going on. I felt like ####."
The second movie, Help, had a much larger budget than the first. It shows in locations in the Alps and the Bahamas. It was kind of the same thing as A Hard Day's Night, except it had kind of a wilder plot involving a religious cult trying to kill Ringo because he was wearing their sacrificial ring. Help was more of a cartoon than A Hard Day's Night and, IMO, doesn't work as well. Still great music, though and it was a box office success.
It should be pointed out that these movies created the Monkees entire career and had a huge influence in music video. Especially Help. Ticket To Ride is a music video in a way that we hadn't really seen before. Not simply a music artist singing a song, but fast cuts and action and strange camera angles.
The best thing about each movie, however is the music. Each movie had an album released along with it. A Hard Days Night, the album, is an early Beatles masterpiece. 13 songs, each written by Lennon and McCartney, the only such occurance in the Beatles career, is a masterwork filled with great songs. There are a couple of weak ones, but even those have their moments. Two things important about this album. First, it is the first time George Harrison used his 12 string Rickenbacker guitar. Yes, the guitar that the Byrds and every folk artist used in the mid 60's. The Byrds went and saw A Hard Days Night and wondered how George got that guitar sound. When they saw the 12 string Rick, they started using it, too. Second, the Beatles really started playing around with song forms and chord structure. If I Fell, for example, has an intro that is not repeated anywhere else in the song. The intro is in a different key than the rest of the song. The song has no chorus. Really, just verses and a bridge. The title track has the 12 String featured throughout and a crashing chord opening that's not your everyday rock and roll chord. Considerable debate as to what chord it is has been done. See this link at wikipedia about the chord as I don't feel like typing all of that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Hard_Day's_Night_(song).
Help is also a great album, although to my ears, inferior to A Hard Day's Night. However, Help has many other Beatle firsts. Ticket To Ride, for example, is probably the Beatles first use of distortion on Paul's lead guitar. Ringo's drumming on that song is also strange for the time. Rumbling, thunderous tom toms. Lennon called it the first heavy metal song. I don't know about that, but it WAS a heavy song for the time. The title track and You've Got To Hide Your Love Away have lyrics that were deeper than past Beatle lyrics. John's growing lyricism can be attricuted to his fascination at this time with Bob Dylan. Just as Dylan was influenced by the Beatles to go electric, so were the Beatles influenced by Dylan's deeper lyrical content. Lastly, on the B side of Help was a little song called Yesterday which only became the most recorded song in the history of music. Using, for the first time, a string quartet, Yesterday was another example of the Beatles re-defining what a rock and roll band could play.
Next...Touring during Beatlemania
As with any huge musical phenomenon, immediately, somebody wants to make a movie before the artist flops. So it was with the Beatles. In 1963, negotiations started with United Artists to make a movie starring the Beatles. **** Lester was selected as the director. He made a short film called Running, Jumping, and Standing Still which the Beatles loved, so they were thrilled. The idea was to show a day in the life of the Beatles at the height of Beatlemania. Eventually, the title A Hard Day's Night was selected. One day Ringo was in the studio and was about to say that it was a hard day, but then looked out the window and saw it was night, so he added "'s Night" and the title was born. Ringo became well known for this habit of butchering the English language. It was shot in black and white on a shoe string budget. The Beatles really wanted it to be a good movie. They saw the Elvis films and other rock and roll films and thought most of them were pretty bad, so they wanted something better than that. Film critics everywhere went to see the movie waiting to trash the film.
It was, therefore, all the more surprising that the film was good. So good, in fact, that the Beatles were called the modern Marx brothers by some people. Probably a bit over the top, but the film WAS funny. Lots of good one liners and great music. It was called the Citizen Kane of jukebox musicals. It's definatly worth a watch, if for nothing else than the music, but I find it to be funny and you get all the Beatles stereotypes from this movie. Sharp John, whymsical Paul, quiet George, and goofy Ringo. Ringo, especially, got good reviews for his acting. The scene of Ringo kind of walking around as a lost soul was the result of Ringo being hung over from the night before. Ringo's words were something to the effect of "there was no acting going on. I felt like ####."
The second movie, Help, had a much larger budget than the first. It shows in locations in the Alps and the Bahamas. It was kind of the same thing as A Hard Day's Night, except it had kind of a wilder plot involving a religious cult trying to kill Ringo because he was wearing their sacrificial ring. Help was more of a cartoon than A Hard Day's Night and, IMO, doesn't work as well. Still great music, though and it was a box office success.
It should be pointed out that these movies created the Monkees entire career and had a huge influence in music video. Especially Help. Ticket To Ride is a music video in a way that we hadn't really seen before. Not simply a music artist singing a song, but fast cuts and action and strange camera angles.
The best thing about each movie, however is the music. Each movie had an album released along with it. A Hard Days Night, the album, is an early Beatles masterpiece. 13 songs, each written by Lennon and McCartney, the only such occurance in the Beatles career, is a masterwork filled with great songs. There are a couple of weak ones, but even those have their moments. Two things important about this album. First, it is the first time George Harrison used his 12 string Rickenbacker guitar. Yes, the guitar that the Byrds and every folk artist used in the mid 60's. The Byrds went and saw A Hard Days Night and wondered how George got that guitar sound. When they saw the 12 string Rick, they started using it, too. Second, the Beatles really started playing around with song forms and chord structure. If I Fell, for example, has an intro that is not repeated anywhere else in the song. The intro is in a different key than the rest of the song. The song has no chorus. Really, just verses and a bridge. The title track has the 12 String featured throughout and a crashing chord opening that's not your everyday rock and roll chord. Considerable debate as to what chord it is has been done. See this link at wikipedia about the chord as I don't feel like typing all of that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Hard_Day's_Night_(song).
Help is also a great album, although to my ears, inferior to A Hard Day's Night. However, Help has many other Beatle firsts. Ticket To Ride, for example, is probably the Beatles first use of distortion on Paul's lead guitar. Ringo's drumming on that song is also strange for the time. Rumbling, thunderous tom toms. Lennon called it the first heavy metal song. I don't know about that, but it WAS a heavy song for the time. The title track and You've Got To Hide Your Love Away have lyrics that were deeper than past Beatle lyrics. John's growing lyricism can be attricuted to his fascination at this time with Bob Dylan. Just as Dylan was influenced by the Beatles to go electric, so were the Beatles influenced by Dylan's deeper lyrical content. Lastly, on the B side of Help was a little song called Yesterday which only became the most recorded song in the history of music. Using, for the first time, a string quartet, Yesterday was another example of the Beatles re-defining what a rock and roll band could play.
Next...Touring during Beatlemania
Last edited by a moderator:
Michael Fox Fan
Footballguy
Favorite thread in the FFA.
saintsfan
Footballguy
Your welcome. Please stay tuned.
Uruk-Hai
Footballguy
Thank God this got cleaned up, as it used to be terribly confusing (not to mention expensive) trying to collect the entire Beatles' official catalog. The British albums, plus Past Masters Vols 1 &2 (for the non-album singles) ties things up in as neat a bow as possible. In what can only be described as ultra-geeky loserdom, some friends & I used to argue over which non-album singles (the Past Masters' cuts) we'd insert into the albums & which album cuts we'd replace with them.As far as I know, the Stones' catalog is still a giant mess.
saintsfan
Footballguy
LOL. I used to do the same thing.My two favorite are replacing When I'm Sixty Four and Good Morning Good Morning with Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields on Sgt Pepper and Wild Honey Pie and Revolution 1 with Hey Jude and Revolution on the White Album.
BroncoFreak_2K3
sucker for Orange
Fascinating thread. Big Alan Parsons fan who was the Asst Engineer on the Abbey Road album (actually had Alan sign my copy), so this thread is right up my alley...thanks. Looking forward to more
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saintsfan
Footballguy
Oops. I missed the part where you said Past Masters. SFF and PL belong on Pepper, but are on Magical Mystery Tour..I'd probably put Day Tripper and We Can Work It Out on Rubber Soul or Paperback Writer and Rain on Revolver. Of course, I'm not sure which ones I'd take off because those are probably the Beatles two best albums from top to bottom. Maybe Wait and Run For Your Life on Rubber Soul and Dr Robert and Good Day Sunshine on Revolver. Probably not, though. I don't think I'd mess with those two albums.
Gigantomachia
Footballguy
Knowledge of musical history waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down. Granted, there was similar stuff going on in the black communities, but without the Beatles making it popular we would still have country music as our measure. 
Mjolnirs
Footballguy
After Walter Cronkite died I saw several parts of his Cronkite Remembers series. He mentions that the first time the Beatles were actually seen on American TV was during a CBS news broadcast from London. Evidently Ed Sullivan saw it and called Walter wanting to know how to get them for his show. I think Cronkite gave him a name and in return his daughters got to meet the band backstage during the Sullivan show. They showed pictures of the girls with two of the Beatles, but I can't remember which ones.As to "where were you when" ... I was born two days later, but my mom says she's pretty sure she was watching Ed Sullivan that night though.
saintsfan
Footballguy
Touring during Beatlemania
So, the Beatles had been touring since 1960 when they took their first trip to Hamburg. In 1963, however, they began experiencing something which the press termed Beatlemania. It started in Britain, but spread to America and everywhere else they toured. Beatlemania can only be described as a sort of hysteria that followed the Beatles wherever they went. Crowds, screaming and general mayhem were a constant for the Beatles from 1963 through 1966. At first, it was probably novel and quite exciting to be that adored. After a time, however, it got tiring and started to affect the Beatles live performances.
If you see any film of the Beatles playing live, the first thing you will notice is the extremely primitive state of the technology at the time. The Beatles were using extrememly small amps and could only be heard over PA systems which were not equiped to handle a rock show. The problem is that the Beatles were the first act that could fill a football stadium, for example, so nobody knew how to put on a rock concert for an extremely large group of people with more than half of them screaming. Hearing the Beatles was a problem and the Beatles hearing themselves was an even bigger problem. Anyone who plays music knows that you have to be able to hear yourself sing and play during a live performance. There were no monitors and the Beatles amps were pitifully small for the job. The Marshall stacks hadn't been invented yet. All of the Beatles said in interviews that their live act got extremely sloppy because they had problems hearing themselves and nobody was listening to the music. They'd come to the concert just to scream. They also said that they couldn't really improvise on stage because that would require them to hear each other. Ringo said he'd just play the basic beat because he was trying to keep it together and if he tried to do anything fancy, they would all get lost. The Beatles would come out and play the same 20-30 minutes every night and call it a day.
Really, if you want to judge the Beatles as live performers, it is unfair to use the shows at the height of Beatlemania. by that time, it had been so long since they had played before an audience and been able to hear themselves, that their musicianship had suffered. Personally, if you listen to the Live At The BBC, Live at the Star Club, and some of the early shows on Anthology 1, that is the best indication of the Beatles as a live band. IMO, they were a good live band when they were tight in the early days.
Out of this Beatlemania, however, some extraordinary things did come about. First and foremost, the concert at Shea Stadium was a first. The first time any band or music act had played in a major outdoor stadium. The largest crowd, by far, at that time that had ever attended a rock concert, and the largest gross of any rock concert. Basically, the Beatles created the stadium concert. The Beatles also played at the legendary Hollywood Bowl, which would be taped and released in the mid 70's as The Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl.
Ugly things also happened on tour. The most famous is the incident in the Phillipines. Amanda Marcos planned a banquet for the Beatles and the Beatles politely refused because it was their day off. Marcos basically ejected the Beatles and their party from their country, but not before roughing them up a bit and taking the money they were paid for the concert. The Beatles Anthology documentary has a full telling of this story with John humorously saying that "I was very delicate and moved whenever they touched me." Reportedly, the Beatles tried to hide behind a couple of nuns in the airport.
In Candlestick Park in 1966, the Beatles performed their last live concert. They didn't tell anyone that it was the last one, but they intended to stop touring and concentrate on making records. How they were going to make records and promote them without touring was the question since rock bands/rock artists toured to promote. As usual, the rules didn't apply to the Beatles and they would prove it over the next 4 years.
A side note, which doesn't have anything to do with touring, but only of the Beatles tiring of the whole Beatlemania thing. In 1966, Maureen Cleave, who was a reporter and a friend of John Lennon, wrote some things in the press that John had said in an off the record conversation. They were talking about the state of organized religion in Britain and how bad it was because the churches were empty. As an off the cuff remark, John said something to the effect of "The Beatles are more popular than Jesus. I don't know what will go first, rock and roll or Christianity." Well, Maureen printed what John said without the context in which he had said it and it just blew up in America. America was a much more religious country than Britain, so it started a firestorm of anti Beatles stuff. Records were burned, protests, death threats, ect. John went on TV and issued an apology, even though he hadn't really said what they thought he said. He explained that he wasn't saying the Beatles are better or greater than God or Jesus, he was talking about the lack of religious participation in Britain.
Anyway, this incident, IMO, was the straw that broke the camel's back for John especially, but also symbolic of how tired the Beatles had become of the whole Beatlemania thing.
Next...Brian Wilson provides some competition
So, the Beatles had been touring since 1960 when they took their first trip to Hamburg. In 1963, however, they began experiencing something which the press termed Beatlemania. It started in Britain, but spread to America and everywhere else they toured. Beatlemania can only be described as a sort of hysteria that followed the Beatles wherever they went. Crowds, screaming and general mayhem were a constant for the Beatles from 1963 through 1966. At first, it was probably novel and quite exciting to be that adored. After a time, however, it got tiring and started to affect the Beatles live performances.
If you see any film of the Beatles playing live, the first thing you will notice is the extremely primitive state of the technology at the time. The Beatles were using extrememly small amps and could only be heard over PA systems which were not equiped to handle a rock show. The problem is that the Beatles were the first act that could fill a football stadium, for example, so nobody knew how to put on a rock concert for an extremely large group of people with more than half of them screaming. Hearing the Beatles was a problem and the Beatles hearing themselves was an even bigger problem. Anyone who plays music knows that you have to be able to hear yourself sing and play during a live performance. There were no monitors and the Beatles amps were pitifully small for the job. The Marshall stacks hadn't been invented yet. All of the Beatles said in interviews that their live act got extremely sloppy because they had problems hearing themselves and nobody was listening to the music. They'd come to the concert just to scream. They also said that they couldn't really improvise on stage because that would require them to hear each other. Ringo said he'd just play the basic beat because he was trying to keep it together and if he tried to do anything fancy, they would all get lost. The Beatles would come out and play the same 20-30 minutes every night and call it a day.
Really, if you want to judge the Beatles as live performers, it is unfair to use the shows at the height of Beatlemania. by that time, it had been so long since they had played before an audience and been able to hear themselves, that their musicianship had suffered. Personally, if you listen to the Live At The BBC, Live at the Star Club, and some of the early shows on Anthology 1, that is the best indication of the Beatles as a live band. IMO, they were a good live band when they were tight in the early days.
Out of this Beatlemania, however, some extraordinary things did come about. First and foremost, the concert at Shea Stadium was a first. The first time any band or music act had played in a major outdoor stadium. The largest crowd, by far, at that time that had ever attended a rock concert, and the largest gross of any rock concert. Basically, the Beatles created the stadium concert. The Beatles also played at the legendary Hollywood Bowl, which would be taped and released in the mid 70's as The Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl.
Ugly things also happened on tour. The most famous is the incident in the Phillipines. Amanda Marcos planned a banquet for the Beatles and the Beatles politely refused because it was their day off. Marcos basically ejected the Beatles and their party from their country, but not before roughing them up a bit and taking the money they were paid for the concert. The Beatles Anthology documentary has a full telling of this story with John humorously saying that "I was very delicate and moved whenever they touched me." Reportedly, the Beatles tried to hide behind a couple of nuns in the airport.
In Candlestick Park in 1966, the Beatles performed their last live concert. They didn't tell anyone that it was the last one, but they intended to stop touring and concentrate on making records. How they were going to make records and promote them without touring was the question since rock bands/rock artists toured to promote. As usual, the rules didn't apply to the Beatles and they would prove it over the next 4 years.
A side note, which doesn't have anything to do with touring, but only of the Beatles tiring of the whole Beatlemania thing. In 1966, Maureen Cleave, who was a reporter and a friend of John Lennon, wrote some things in the press that John had said in an off the record conversation. They were talking about the state of organized religion in Britain and how bad it was because the churches were empty. As an off the cuff remark, John said something to the effect of "The Beatles are more popular than Jesus. I don't know what will go first, rock and roll or Christianity." Well, Maureen printed what John said without the context in which he had said it and it just blew up in America. America was a much more religious country than Britain, so it started a firestorm of anti Beatles stuff. Records were burned, protests, death threats, ect. John went on TV and issued an apology, even though he hadn't really said what they thought he said. He explained that he wasn't saying the Beatles are better or greater than God or Jesus, he was talking about the lack of religious participation in Britain.
Anyway, this incident, IMO, was the straw that broke the camel's back for John especially, but also symbolic of how tired the Beatles had become of the whole Beatlemania thing.
Next...Brian Wilson provides some competition
saintsfan
Footballguy
See, I tried not to cut any George songs or Ringo songs since they had to have their number per album. I cut one Lennon and one McCartney song since I was replacing them with another Lennon and McCartney song.In the case of Revolver, cutting Love You To would still leave 2 George songs, so that might work. On Rubber Soul, cutting Think For Yourself and What Goes On would give George only one song and Ringo none.Whatever. It's all theoretical as those two albums are about as perfect as rock albums could be, therefore, cutting anything would be unheard of.
Godsbrother
Footballguy
An even stranger case is the album called "Introducing the Beatles".When "Please Please Me" took off in Britain, EMI offered the single (and LP) to their American label, Capitol Records. Capitol passed on both the single and LP and EMI began shopping it to see if another label would release it in America. After being turned down by Atlantic records, EMI finally found a taker in Vee Jay records who had some success with another EMI act, Frank Ifield, a year before.saintsfan said:
Vee Jay records was known mainly as an R&B label but was having success in pop music with the Four Seasons and decided to give the Beatlesa shot. Vee Jay acquired the rights to the songs on the Love Me Do and From Me To You singles as well as the Please Please Me LP.
Vee Jay promptly issued "Please Please Me/Ask Me Why" in February 1963 and though the single was topping the charts in Britain, it completely failed to make the charts in America. Unphased, Vee Jay decided to release an album though they reduced the Please Please Me LP to 12 songs which was standard in America by eliminating the two songs of the Please Please Me single. The engineer also didn't like the count in for "I Saw Her Standing There" and so he removed it. After changing the running order of the songs, the LP, now titled "Introducing the Beatles" was ready for release in July of 1963.
The only problem was the company was swimming in red ink due to the gambling debts of the owner. Deciding to only promote established acts, the company put the Beatles and Frank Ifield on the back burner and cancelled further release of the recordings. EMI then cancelled their contract with Vee Jay records which should have been the end of the story.
With the growing success of the Beatles in Britian, EMI and Brian Epstein were convinced the Beatles could make it in America. However the Beatles themselves had made a pact that they would not tour America until they has a number 1 record. Promotion was therefore left up to the label.
EMI decided to again offer their latest British chart-topping single, "She Love You" to Capitol who amazingly turned it down again. Having been burned by Vee Jay but finding no takers, EMI licensed the single to a small label called Swan records. Swan released the single in 1963 but sales and airplay was low.
Finally in late 1963 Brian Epstein and the top brass of EMI met with Capitol records and planned an all-out promotion of the Beatles next single "I Want To Hold Your Hand". With radio airplay at saturation level, Vee Jay and Swan promptly reissued their Beatles singles. Suddenly recordings that had been considered dogs rose to the top of the charts.
Vee Jay then decided to finally release "Introducing the Beatles" which rose to the #2 position, kept out of the top spot only by "Meet the Beatles". The album was a huge success and Vee Jay was back in the black. The only problem was they had no other Beatles material to release.
Again that should have been the end of the story but the public demand for anything related to the Beatles was so great that Vee Jay decided to release a ridiculous "copilation" of eight Frank Ifield songs with the four Beatles songs they held the rights to that did not appear on their "Introducing the Beatles" LP. The title of LP was : "Jolly What! The Beatles and Frank Ifield on Stage!", which was curious because they were not live recordings. Even the cover was strange: it featured an old man with an oversized mustache.
If that wasn't silly enough a few months later Vee Jay decided to release a double album called the Beatles vs the Four Seasons. This was just a repackaging of the Introducing the Beatles LP with a previously released Four Seasons LP and contained a song-by-song scorecard to vote for your favorites. They were also doing multiple repackaging of their singles as well as creating 4-song EPs from the Introducing the Beatles material.
Capitol records, now fully aware of what they had in the Beatles began court proceedings to stop Vee Jay releasing Beatles material. Right before the final judgement Vee Jay once again reissued the Beatles/Frank Ifield LP, this time replacing the picture of the old man with the Beatles. They also reissued Introducing the Beatles for the fourth time with a slightly different song lineup.
By January 1965 Capitol had finally gotten the rights to release the Please Please Me LP in America and released "The Early Beatles" in March of 1965 though by this time the 1962-63 recordings sounded pretty primitive compared to the music the Beatles were currently producing. Remarkeably the LP sold pretty well, cracking the top 50, considering it was the fifth time the material appeared on an LP in America.
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saintsfan
Footballguy
Great post. When I first got into the Beatles, I listened to my mom's Beatles albums, which were all of the Capital ones. She didn't have Introducing The Beatles or The Early Beatles, which I thought was strange, until I heard about this story. No wonder she didn't have it. Those Please Please Me era recordings and who had the rights to them and such was a mess.
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Godsbrother
Footballguy
We had a thread years ago where we discussed all of the innovations that Ringo was responsible for during this time with the Beatles. He really is underrated.One other interesting aspect of Ringo was that for a time he was the most popular Beatle in America. He routinely got more fan mail than the other Beatles which is one of the reasons why "Yellow Submarine" was released as a single (and promoted as a double "A" side with Eleanor Rigby").
Godsbrother
Footballguy
The Tony Sheridan recordings were a huge mess as well with Polygram, MGM and ATCO releasing different parts of the LP multiple times. The amusing thing is they always boldy displayed the Beatles name on the label and put Tony Sheridan's name in smaller print.Fortunately people started catching on and each subsequent reissue was less successful than the previous attempt.
The Beatles at the Washington Coliseum, Feb. 11, 1964, the first live concert in America
http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&...e&resnum=4#
The sound on this video isn't oo bad, the screaming isn't at the levels that it would become later on. Songs on the clip are: She Loves You, I Saw Her Standing There, and Please, Please Me. The stage was a boxing ring with the ropes removed, which is why they have to rotate the drum kit periodically so that everybody could see their faces.
http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&...e&resnum=4#
The sound on this video isn't oo bad, the screaming isn't at the levels that it would become later on. Songs on the clip are: She Loves You, I Saw Her Standing There, and Please, Please Me. The stage was a boxing ring with the ropes removed, which is why they have to rotate the drum kit periodically so that everybody could see their faces.
Mr. Pickles
Footballguy
Those U.S. concerts are really odd to look back upon. They played for a half hour tops and had insufficient equipment. It's clear that nobody had any idea of how to organize and run a stadium concert, which is entirely excusable since it had never been done before.My mom actually went to the 1965 show at the Metropolitan Stadium near Minneapolis. She said the concert itself was horrible and really only went because my aunt was too young to go by herself. The funny thing is that she became a huge Beatles fan later on, but at the time she didn't really care all that much.It's too bad they didn't stage these arena tours better or at least move them to smaller venues. Given their extremely limited number of live appearances, it would have been nice to have some better recordings of those shows.
saintsfan
Footballguy
Brian Wilson provides some competition
OK, so while the Beatles were doing all of their stuff from 1963-1965, the Beach Boys were also doing some good stuff. Brian Wilson, the Lennon and McCartney of the Beach Boys, was thrilling listeners with Phil Specter's Wall of Sound, except instead of walls of instruments, Brian employed walls of voices, namely, the Beach Boys lush harmonies. The Beach Boys had also progressed, at first, with songs about the surfing and cars, to more personal and complex arrangements, like In My Room and California Girls.
By 1965, Brian was no longer touring with the Beach Boys, preferring to stay at home and write songs. Sometime in 1965, Brian heard a Beatles album called Rubber Soul and it changed his life. From that moment on, Brian's goal was to make something better than Rubber Soul.
Rubber Soul was really the Beatles starting to branch out from the lovable moptops. More acoustic in nature, Rubber Soul had such classic tracks as Norwegian Wood, Nowhere Man, In My Life, Girl, Michelle, and Drive My Car. The entire album, from top to bottom is great. They started introducing new instruments, like George playing a sitar on Norwegian Wood. The lyrics were becoming more serious, as well. Norwegian Wood is about an affair John was having. In My Life and Nowhere Man were introspective pieces that John had written. I'm Looking Through You was about a fight Paul had with his girlfriend Jane Asher. Also, Paul's bass playing really started to come to the forefront. Listen to Drive My Car for an example of how Paul's bass playing had evolved and would continue to evolve over the next few years.
Anyway, Brian loved Rubber Soul. He had a couple of problems, however. First, the record company, Capitol Records actually, wanted a new album and the Beach Boys were scheduled to go on tour in a few weeks. A few weeks wasn't enough time to create what Brian was hearing in his head, so he got together with the other Beach Boys and recorded an album called The Beach Boys Party, which was basically the Beach Boys with some acoustic guitars sitting around with their friends singing songs. They did it quick and got it to the record company, meanwhile, the other Beach Boys left to go on tour leaving Brian alone to start creating his album or his Pet Sounds (that's where the album got it's name). Anyway, Pet Sounds is a watershed moment in pop music history. If you haven't heard Pet Sounds, you need to. Paul McCartney said your musical education isn't complete until you've heard Pet Sounds. PS is a sad little album. So lush with instruments and vocals, but in a good way. Great songs off of the album include Wouldn't It Be Nice, Sloop John B and the gorgeous God Only Knows and the heartbreaking Caroline, No. Get it. Listen to it. Listen to it multiple times. It's not an album that grabs you immediately, but once you listen a couple of times, you start to hear the little nuances.
Paul McCartney LOVED Pet Sounds and badly wanted to top it. That's where Sgt Pepper came from, an attempt to top Brian. Note here, that in Paul's mind, the only person who could compete with the Beatles was Brian Wilson. Not the Stones. Not the Who. Brian Wilson, alone.
Also worthy of note, after Pet Sounds, Brian set out to create what he called a "pocket symphony" and created Good Vibrations, which is, IMO, the height of Brian's genius. His next idea was to try and create an entire album of Good Vibrations type songs and that led him to the now famous aborted album called Smile. A discussion of Smile is a thread all by itself, but suffice to say, the other Beach Boys didn't like Smile and Brian's fragile personality couldn't handle the pressure of trying to please the Beach Boys, please the record company, please himself, and compete with the Beatles at the same time. Smile was shelved, Pepper was released to universal praise and Brian and the Beach Boys started a slow decline that they never really recovered from. Had the other Beach Boys listened to Brian, Smile could have changed history, but it wasn't to be.
Next...Revolver and Sgt. Pepper
OK, so while the Beatles were doing all of their stuff from 1963-1965, the Beach Boys were also doing some good stuff. Brian Wilson, the Lennon and McCartney of the Beach Boys, was thrilling listeners with Phil Specter's Wall of Sound, except instead of walls of instruments, Brian employed walls of voices, namely, the Beach Boys lush harmonies. The Beach Boys had also progressed, at first, with songs about the surfing and cars, to more personal and complex arrangements, like In My Room and California Girls.
By 1965, Brian was no longer touring with the Beach Boys, preferring to stay at home and write songs. Sometime in 1965, Brian heard a Beatles album called Rubber Soul and it changed his life. From that moment on, Brian's goal was to make something better than Rubber Soul.
Rubber Soul was really the Beatles starting to branch out from the lovable moptops. More acoustic in nature, Rubber Soul had such classic tracks as Norwegian Wood, Nowhere Man, In My Life, Girl, Michelle, and Drive My Car. The entire album, from top to bottom is great. They started introducing new instruments, like George playing a sitar on Norwegian Wood. The lyrics were becoming more serious, as well. Norwegian Wood is about an affair John was having. In My Life and Nowhere Man were introspective pieces that John had written. I'm Looking Through You was about a fight Paul had with his girlfriend Jane Asher. Also, Paul's bass playing really started to come to the forefront. Listen to Drive My Car for an example of how Paul's bass playing had evolved and would continue to evolve over the next few years.
Anyway, Brian loved Rubber Soul. He had a couple of problems, however. First, the record company, Capitol Records actually, wanted a new album and the Beach Boys were scheduled to go on tour in a few weeks. A few weeks wasn't enough time to create what Brian was hearing in his head, so he got together with the other Beach Boys and recorded an album called The Beach Boys Party, which was basically the Beach Boys with some acoustic guitars sitting around with their friends singing songs. They did it quick and got it to the record company, meanwhile, the other Beach Boys left to go on tour leaving Brian alone to start creating his album or his Pet Sounds (that's where the album got it's name). Anyway, Pet Sounds is a watershed moment in pop music history. If you haven't heard Pet Sounds, you need to. Paul McCartney said your musical education isn't complete until you've heard Pet Sounds. PS is a sad little album. So lush with instruments and vocals, but in a good way. Great songs off of the album include Wouldn't It Be Nice, Sloop John B and the gorgeous God Only Knows and the heartbreaking Caroline, No. Get it. Listen to it. Listen to it multiple times. It's not an album that grabs you immediately, but once you listen a couple of times, you start to hear the little nuances.
Paul McCartney LOVED Pet Sounds and badly wanted to top it. That's where Sgt Pepper came from, an attempt to top Brian. Note here, that in Paul's mind, the only person who could compete with the Beatles was Brian Wilson. Not the Stones. Not the Who. Brian Wilson, alone.
Also worthy of note, after Pet Sounds, Brian set out to create what he called a "pocket symphony" and created Good Vibrations, which is, IMO, the height of Brian's genius. His next idea was to try and create an entire album of Good Vibrations type songs and that led him to the now famous aborted album called Smile. A discussion of Smile is a thread all by itself, but suffice to say, the other Beach Boys didn't like Smile and Brian's fragile personality couldn't handle the pressure of trying to please the Beach Boys, please the record company, please himself, and compete with the Beatles at the same time. Smile was shelved, Pepper was released to universal praise and Brian and the Beach Boys started a slow decline that they never really recovered from. Had the other Beach Boys listened to Brian, Smile could have changed history, but it wasn't to be.
Next...Revolver and Sgt. Pepper
saintsfan
Footballguy
You're right. It's almost comical to see them in the middle of Shea stadium, each with a little amp surrounded by 65,000 people, some of them running at the stage only to be tackled by policemen.Absolute mayhem. Music was the least of the attractions and it wasn't being heard. The Beatles were so far ahead of their time in so many things and this is one of them. Because of stuff like this, people had to figure out a way to put on a rock show in front of a large audience.The only record we really have is Hollywood Bowl, but it was heavily edited by George Martin, because the fact was, you couldn't get a decent live recording from the Beatles because of the screaming. A lot of the tapes that were gathered from the Hollywood Bowl were unusable.That's why, to me, if you want to know what they sounded like live, it's Live At The BBC and Live at the Star Club.
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Godsbrother
Footballguy
I have always wondered though which version of Rubber Soul was Brian listening to? My bet is the American version which does not have Drive My Car.
I have a bootleg version of the original SmiLe album sessions and after listening to it for years and the "final" version Brian did a few years ago they are very similar. Therefore I consider the bootleg to be pretty close to what would have been released.It certainly has it's moments: Heroes and Villians, Wonderful, Good Vibrations and my personal favorite, Surf's Up. But it also contains a lot of weird snippets the pop world was just not ready for in 1967. Pet Sounds was considered a commercial failure at the time but it would have been a rousing success compared to SmiLe.
I do enjoy listening to SmiLe but there is no denying the weirdness. Frankly it was so far out that it does not compare favorably to the better albums of 1967, a truly great year for music.
saintsfan
Footballguy
I read an interview with Brian and it was the British version. They asked him that very question.As far as Smile, I have heard the same bootlegs. The individual tracks are similar, but I have a feeling the sequencing would have been totally different had it been released in 1967. If for nothing else, the fact of the matter is that Brian had too many songs/fragments to fit on an album back in 1967. IMO, had he been in his right mind, he would have put together only the best songs and, perhaps, some of the fragments like The Elements, ect. would have ended up on one or two instrumental tracks, kind of like Pet Sounds had a couple of instrumentals. We'll never know, but an album with Good Vibrations, Surf's Up, Wonderful, Cabinessence, Wind Chimes, Vegetables, and Heroes and Villains would have been successful.
Commercially successful?? I don't know, but it would have been praised by critics everywhere IMO. I'm not saying it would have been bigger than Pepper or anything, but it certainly would have been a more commercial album than Smiley Smile, which was released in it's place. One of the great mysteries to me is why Smiley Smile was more acceptable to the other Beach Boys than Smile. The 7 songs I named above were, far and away, more commercial than anything on Smiley Smile, except Good Vibrations. Even the different versions of the Smile songs, like Wonderful, were much weirder on Smiley Smile. Wonderful is a hit in it's Smile configuration. So is Surf's Up. Good Vibrations was already a hit.
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saintsfan
Footballguy
GB, check this out. This Smile stuff is kind of a side topic that the Beatles are related to only indirectly, but check this out.
You don't think this is a hit/successful album or, at the very least, a critically praised album? I do. I think it's better than Pet Sounds.
Heroes and Villains
Cabinessence
Wonderful
Song For Children
Child Is Father of the Man
Surf's Up (think of the way these last four flow into each other on the 2003 version. This would probably go on the B side of the LP)
Vegetables
Wind Chimes
Fire
In Blue Hawaii
Good Vibrations
You don't think this is a hit/successful album or, at the very least, a critically praised album? I do. I think it's better than Pet Sounds.
Heroes and Villains
Cabinessence
Wonderful
Song For Children
Child Is Father of the Man
Surf's Up (think of the way these last four flow into each other on the 2003 version. This would probably go on the B side of the LP)
Vegetables
Wind Chimes
Fire
In Blue Hawaii
Good Vibrations
Godsbrother
Footballguy
Heroes and Villains - YESCabinessence - NOWonderful - YESSong For Children - NOChild Is Father of the Man - YES (though better as a fragment appended to the end of Surf's Up)Surf's Up - YESVegetables - NO (interestingly this track features Paul McCartney chomping carrots)Wind Chimes - YESFire - NOIn Blue Hawaii - NOGood Vibrations - YESIn no shape, way or form do I think this lineup is anywhere close to Pet Sounds. And you are leaving off such notables as the Old Master Painter, You Are My Sunshine and She's Going Bald. All of which, and a few others, are forgettable.Finally "Good Vibrations" was really just added onto the lineup at the insistence of Capitol. It really wasn't part of the concept album.The original idea of Brian to have an album that goes from coast to coast of Americana was a good one and some of the songs and fragments are brilliant but he just was never able to pull it off due to his increasingly fragile mental state and the sometimes nonsensical lyrics of Van Dyke Parks.As an aside I much prefer the bootlegs to the version that Brian released in 2004. Sure it is a little more polished but the vocals are just not quite right.
saintsfan
Footballguy
I guess I like them a bit more than you.As individual songs, some of these aren't great, you are correct, but as parts of the whole, I think they would have worked. Certainly better than Smiley Smile.I mean, are When I'm 64 or Good Morning Good Morning great songs?? No, but they work in the whole that is Pepper. Song For Children and Child Is The Father of the Man aren't great songs, but as part of the 2nd movement on 2004 Smile they are great. Fire is a strange song, but no stranger than Within You Without You. As an oddity, it would have fit. Vegetables is a throwaway, but as a goofy song, ala Yellow Submarine, why not??Lots of the other stuff was forgettable, you are correct. I took the best ones and tried to sequence it into an album, which is what I believe Brian would have done had he been in his right mind or maybe he wouldn't have. Unfortunately we'll never know.Anyway, we can't agree on everything. I think Beatles and Disneyworld are enough. Back to the Beatles...
Godsbrother
Footballguy
Actually I like SMiLE but I like some off the wall stuff. I just don't think it would have been very warmly received had it been released. I could be wrong, time to move on and get back to the Beatles (pun intended).
Leroy Hoard
Footballguy
saintsfan
Footballguy
Revolver
OK, so when we last left off, Rubber Soul was released to glowing reviews and, as usual, brisk sales. Those who thought the Beatles couldn't get any better, however, were wrong.
It should be noted that 1966 was the end of the Beatles as a touring band, so the studio became a more important part of their work and as advanced as Rubber Soul might have seemed, it would be NOTHING compared to the jump they would take on the next album.
When I say jump, I don't really mean songwriting. The songs written on Rubber Soul could be the best in their catalogue. When I say jump, I'm referring to the sounds that were coming out the studio. First, Revolver is a much more electric album than Rubber Soul. Loud, distorted guitars everywhere. Second, Revolver employed backward tapes. I'm Only Sleeping, Tomorrow Never Knows, and Rain, which wasn't a part of Revolver, but was recorded during the Revolver sessions. Third, loud bass. Thumping bass which hadn't been heard in that way before on a Beatles record. Paul started playing a Rickenbacker and played more in the style that he started with on Drive My Car. Fourth, everything was limited and compressed. That's where the sounds for the drums came from. You'll notice the sound of Ringo's drums were much better on Revolver. She Said She Said and Rain are Ringo showcases. Fifth, styles. The album contained Indian music, rock, jazz, children's music, soul, classical ballads, and psychedelic music.
One track in particular sounded like it came from another planet. A song that started off life in the studio as Mark I, almost like it was a prototype of a new kind song or something, and it kind of was. The song would eventually be called Tomorrow Never Knows, which one of Ringo's butchering the English language phrases. John sat in front of George Martin with a guitar and stummed earnestly on a C Major chord "Turn off your mind relax and float downstream..." It modulated only once, to B flat major for "It is not dying..." Anyway, John's instructions were he wanted to sound like the Dali Lama shouting from the highest mountaintop, except he still wanted to be heard. He also had the idea of a thousand monks chanting. What they finally discovered is that if you run John's voice through a Leslie speaker, which is the rotating speaker inside a Hammond Organ, it takes on this kind of wavering quality. In addition, the song is made up of a bunch of tape loops. Some backwards. Some heavily distorted. Meanwhile Ringo and Paul play this hypnotic beat behind it all. Really, Tomorrow Never Knows is decades into the future. It's really the first techno song based upon its beat alone.
It should be noted that many of the sounds that were coming out of the studio for Revolver were the result of the Beatles never ending search for new sounds and a new recording engineer named Geoff Emerick. Geoff, being young and curious was willing to try many things that the Beatles other recording engineers were not. Emerick's work on Revolver and Sgt Pepper is detailed brilliantly in a book called Here, There, and Everywhere written by Emerick himself.
I have mentioned a bunch of technical stuff, but what about the songs?? George was growing with three great songs. Taxman with snarling guitar and bass, Love You To which was Indian flavored and the brooding I Want To Tell You. Paul had Eleanor Rigby, one of those songs that will still be around 100 years from now, Here, There, and Everywhere, For No One, featuring a horn solo by Alan Civil and the thumping Got To Get You Into My Life. John had the dreamy I'm Only Sleeping, the growling She Said She Said, the soaring And Your Bird Can Sing and the previously mentioned Tomorrow Never Knows.
Revolver also had an art cover, the first time the Beatles really had done that. Their old Hamburg friend Klaus Voorman created a collage and drew some pictures of the Beatles. It was a very eye catching cover.
Revolver was definately an album that presented a changing Beatles. It was the last album my mom bought from the Beatles. I'm sure they lost some fans because the music was so different from what had come before, but they gained a lot of new fans. For what it's worth, Revolver is consistently a top 2 or 3 album in almost every list of great albums. It's place is richly deserved. To me, it is the Beatles at their absolute best.
For most artists, this would be their all time achievement and there would be nowhere to go but down. The Beatles had other ideas.
Next...Sgt Pepper
OK, so when we last left off, Rubber Soul was released to glowing reviews and, as usual, brisk sales. Those who thought the Beatles couldn't get any better, however, were wrong.
It should be noted that 1966 was the end of the Beatles as a touring band, so the studio became a more important part of their work and as advanced as Rubber Soul might have seemed, it would be NOTHING compared to the jump they would take on the next album.
When I say jump, I don't really mean songwriting. The songs written on Rubber Soul could be the best in their catalogue. When I say jump, I'm referring to the sounds that were coming out the studio. First, Revolver is a much more electric album than Rubber Soul. Loud, distorted guitars everywhere. Second, Revolver employed backward tapes. I'm Only Sleeping, Tomorrow Never Knows, and Rain, which wasn't a part of Revolver, but was recorded during the Revolver sessions. Third, loud bass. Thumping bass which hadn't been heard in that way before on a Beatles record. Paul started playing a Rickenbacker and played more in the style that he started with on Drive My Car. Fourth, everything was limited and compressed. That's where the sounds for the drums came from. You'll notice the sound of Ringo's drums were much better on Revolver. She Said She Said and Rain are Ringo showcases. Fifth, styles. The album contained Indian music, rock, jazz, children's music, soul, classical ballads, and psychedelic music.
One track in particular sounded like it came from another planet. A song that started off life in the studio as Mark I, almost like it was a prototype of a new kind song or something, and it kind of was. The song would eventually be called Tomorrow Never Knows, which one of Ringo's butchering the English language phrases. John sat in front of George Martin with a guitar and stummed earnestly on a C Major chord "Turn off your mind relax and float downstream..." It modulated only once, to B flat major for "It is not dying..." Anyway, John's instructions were he wanted to sound like the Dali Lama shouting from the highest mountaintop, except he still wanted to be heard. He also had the idea of a thousand monks chanting. What they finally discovered is that if you run John's voice through a Leslie speaker, which is the rotating speaker inside a Hammond Organ, it takes on this kind of wavering quality. In addition, the song is made up of a bunch of tape loops. Some backwards. Some heavily distorted. Meanwhile Ringo and Paul play this hypnotic beat behind it all. Really, Tomorrow Never Knows is decades into the future. It's really the first techno song based upon its beat alone.
It should be noted that many of the sounds that were coming out of the studio for Revolver were the result of the Beatles never ending search for new sounds and a new recording engineer named Geoff Emerick. Geoff, being young and curious was willing to try many things that the Beatles other recording engineers were not. Emerick's work on Revolver and Sgt Pepper is detailed brilliantly in a book called Here, There, and Everywhere written by Emerick himself.
I have mentioned a bunch of technical stuff, but what about the songs?? George was growing with three great songs. Taxman with snarling guitar and bass, Love You To which was Indian flavored and the brooding I Want To Tell You. Paul had Eleanor Rigby, one of those songs that will still be around 100 years from now, Here, There, and Everywhere, For No One, featuring a horn solo by Alan Civil and the thumping Got To Get You Into My Life. John had the dreamy I'm Only Sleeping, the growling She Said She Said, the soaring And Your Bird Can Sing and the previously mentioned Tomorrow Never Knows.
Revolver also had an art cover, the first time the Beatles really had done that. Their old Hamburg friend Klaus Voorman created a collage and drew some pictures of the Beatles. It was a very eye catching cover.
Revolver was definately an album that presented a changing Beatles. It was the last album my mom bought from the Beatles. I'm sure they lost some fans because the music was so different from what had come before, but they gained a lot of new fans. For what it's worth, Revolver is consistently a top 2 or 3 album in almost every list of great albums. It's place is richly deserved. To me, it is the Beatles at their absolute best.
For most artists, this would be their all time achievement and there would be nowhere to go but down. The Beatles had other ideas.
Next...Sgt Pepper
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saintsfan
Footballguy
LOL.Yeah, I always thought it was strange that Yellow Submarine was an A side in America.
Cheesy McGee
Footballguy
Godsbrother
Footballguy
Thanks for making me feel old -- this is the first LP I bought with my own money. I was 7 years old at the time and $4.99 was a fortune but I had the money from my communion.
Leroy Hoard
Footballguy
My first buy (my older sister & brother bought a lot of the others on LP & 45) was Magical Mystery Tour on 8-track.
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