THE BEATLES

I have so much to say I can't even write all of it here,but I have been a huge highly impressed Beatles fan especially a John and Paul fan since I was 9 years old even though I was born in 1965 during the middle of their recording career.

I started collecting Beatles albums when I was 9 and I got my first Beatles book for my 11th birthday and I had every album by the time I was 13. In 1989 I read for the first time Mark Lewishon's excellent book,The Beatles Recirding Sesions that is a highly impressive musical diary of their amazing 8 year recording career. I was even more impressed than I had been because it really documents how truly creative,inventive and brilliant they were in that recording studio especially John and Paul.

Brian Wilson was on Nightline in 1995 when many other music artists from all from different music fields including black and white young and old an opera singer,a young jazz musician Meatloaf,Steve Winwood and even classicaly trained violinist Isaac Pearlman who all talked about what great song writers John and Paul were and how great The Beatles were. Brian Wilson played With a Little Help From My Friends on the piano and said he just loves that song and said that Sgt Pepper was the greatest album he'd ever heard and that Lennon and McCartney were the greatest song writers of the 20th century! He also said that when he heard the Rubber Soul album he was blown away because all of the songs flowed together and it was pop music but folk rock at the same time and that's what he couldn't believe. This is what motivated him to make his Pet Sounds album!

Elton John was also interviewed in 1991 on the CBS moring news show and he was asked who he admired musically. He said you can talk about your Rogers and Hammerstein but he thinks that Lennon and McCartney for the quanity of quality songs that those two did in that short period of time they were the greatest song writers of the 20th century. The Rolling Stones and The Beatles were also very good friends and Mick Jagger was at 4 Beatles recording sessions and Keith Richards was at 2 of them with him! In The Beatles Recording Sessions book,there is an interesting big close up picture of Mick Jagger sitting right next to John and Paul in the console room for the remix for their Revolver album.

In The Beatles Anthology video series I have Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are seen walking in to the filmed party for the recording of A Day in The Life and in the film of The Beatles perfoming All You Need is Love on the live TV show Our World,Mick Jagger is clearly seen sitting right in fron of them with their other friends singing and clapping his hands. Keith Richards was also there along with Eric Clapton,and Gram Nash although you can't see them in the show. Also when arrived in Bangor in August of 1967 to study meditation for the first time Mick Jagger was with them on the train and he is seen in the news film standing with them when they arrived. He was with them there when they got the call that their manager Brian Epstein was dead.

Paul and Linda also went to Mick's wedding to Bianca in May 1971.Also in the authorized biography of Paul McCartney Many Years From Now by Barry Miles,Marriane Faithful Mick Jager's former girlfriend from the mid 1960's was interviewd and she said that she and Mick would often go to Paul's house and hang out in his music room. she said that Paul never came to them,they went to see him because he was Paul McCartney. Paul says that he even turned Mick Jagger on to pot in his music room and he said that it's funny because people would have thought that it was the other way around. The Beatles Recording Sessions book also documents that Mick Jagger came to their recording session of Baby You're A Rich Man in May of 1967 just to watch and listen to them record it. His name is the tape box and Mark Lewisohn says that it's likely that he sang on the free for all verses at the end of the song.

Also three years ago I found an interesting online interview with Charlie Watts from a 1973 magazine called Zig Zag. He was asked what musical artists he likes and he said that what made The Beatles so great is that they wrote one great single and one great album after the next! And The Beatles did give The Rolling Stones their first real big hit with the song I Wanna Be You're Man. So they were,are the greatest *rock* group of all time and they were mainly a rock group not a pop group! The weren't The Association,The Turtles,The Osmond Brothers Barry Manilow,or Engelbert Humperdinck,Hermins Hermit's etc!

[added a couple months or so later:]

Nick and Casey,

Thank you for printing my review of The Beatles. I have some more information to add though. There is an excellent important web site called,The Evolution Of Paul McCartney's Bass Playing and in it many grrat bass players such as Stanly Clarke,Sting,Will Lee and Billy Sheehan are quoted saying what a great melodic influential bass player Paul has always been. George Martin their producer who is a talented classically trained musician from the prestigious music school GuildHall in England says that there is no doubt that Lennon and McCartney were good musicians he said they had great musical brains but that you don't need your fingers to have great musical brains. But as it turned out they could all play their instruments very well and that Paul is an excellent musical all arounder,he said he's probably the best bass player ever,a brilliant guitarist,first class drummer and a competent piano player.The Rolling Stone Album Guide put out by Rolling Stone Magazine also says Paul has always been a remarkable bass player and called John and Paul the greatest song writers in rock.

Paul also won the greatest bass player title in two online polls the Mister poll and on Rate Your Music. George Harrison's mother said in the 1968 only authorized excellent biography of The Beatles by Hunter Davies called,The Beatles,that when George was just 14 he would stay up till 2 in the morning and play untill he got the chords right and his fingers were bleeding. One of the many highly impressive examples in The Beatles Recording Sessions book is that when they were recording the great Lennon song I'm Only Sleeping George played backwards guitar and chose the most difficult way of recording it even though he could have taken the easy way. It took him 6 hours just for the guitar overdub and then he made it even more difficult by adding more distorted guitars and Geoff Emerick who was one of their innovative engineers said that this was all George's idea and he did all of the playing.A few months before George died I found an online interview from 1992 with Eric Clapton and George Harrison from their 1992 tour of Japan. The interviewr asked each of them what they admire about each other and Eric Clapton said that George is a fantastic slide guitar player.Coming from one of the best gutarists of all time that's a big compliment!

I forgot to mention in my first review this important information,that in The Beatles Recording Sessions book many of their recording engineers and tapeoperators are also interviewd and they had some innovative engineers to who were al impressed with The Beatles especially John and Paul's brilliance. Norman Smith was one of their early engineers he went on to work with Pink Floyd who visited The Beatles in their recording studio in March 2967 when they were recording the Sgt.Pepper album,Ken Scot went on to work with David Bowie and Alan Parsons a highly impressed Beatles fan was one of the engineers on their last two albums Let it Be and Abbey Road.

Also, the online All Music Guide says in their biography of The Beatles that lets start with the obvious that has been already digested by tens of millions of rock fans,they were the greatest rock act of the rock era and introduced more innovations into music than any other rock group and that their melodic song craft is second to none. It also says that as singers John and Paul were among the most expressive and best singers in rock! Wilson and Alroy's online Record Reviews just like yours and just about every music review of The Beatles says they are the most talented influential and popular group of all time! There are some ignorant idiots though posting on message boards saying The Beatles suck or are the most overrated band of all time and some other idiots saying they hate them! Of course there are just about as many saying these things about The Rolling Stones but it's much more ignorant to say it about them when John and Paul have been considered to be musical genuises by just about every music and rock critic,other music artists even Ozzy Osbourne is interviewd online saying The Beatles have always been his favorite group since he was a teenager he not only owns their albums but books about them as well. He said that he had the honor of meeting Paul McCartney and that he really liked his last solo album,he is also quoted by a Beatles fan on a John Lennon site as saying,not loving The Beatles is like saying you don't love oxogen.Even the brilliant clasical composer Leonard Bernstein said that Lennon and McCartney were the most brilliant song composers of the 20th century. David Lee Roth is also a fan so is Bono and U2 who said so on a radio interview and they even recorded a few Beatles songs and Bono was one of many people on a tribute show to George Harrison afrer he died. So all of these people even though they are in a minority,but a shockingly sizable minority are really making ignorant fools of themselves!

I did find 33 Beatles convets on message boards and web sites,people who had hated The Beatles before and are now big fans and say they now see how stupid they were and that they now realize they were brilliant song writers and they now list them as either their favorite artists or one of them and either say they are the greatest group of all time or one of them! One is a 16 year old guy on the Rate Your Music site and it's from the Fall of 2003 the discussion was is there any music artists that you didn't like and now you do. He said he used to hate The Beatles and he says how I could I have been so stupid and hopes the rock Gods will forgive him. He lists them now as one of his favorite music artists along with The Rolling Stones,Led Zeppelin etc and he included ten Beatles albums on his list of the 100 greatest albums of all time! I also found a post on a guy named Nat a Brandeis University student who also plays cello in a band and is a technology major he lists his favorite music and said his favorite music is rock. He says he likes The Beatles better than The Rolling Stones and that he meets a suprising number of people his age and younger who like ti rag on the Beatles as being precursor to The BackStreet Boys and he says, very wrong I'm afraid.

I have seen this ignorant garbage being said about them too on some message boards calling them notthing but a pop boy band like NSYNC or The Back Street Boys or WestLife they have *no* knoweledge about them that they were a true *rock* group from the start and when their manager Brian Epstein first met rthem they were grungy,tough looking guys in black tight leather jackets and pants who were eating,smoking and cursing on stage and Brian told them they had to clean up their image in order to make it so they went along and John resented this the most. They played for 8 hours a night in Germany for two years taking speed pills to stay awake and sleeping on the floor playing in sleazy places like strip clubs and they worked hard to get where they got. But that this was al an act and that in their private life they were really very wild,having sex with all of these young women groupies and then the LSD. Anyway,I don't where these people are getting these ignorant negative misperceptions of them I guess from other ignorant people!

The good news is that Mark Lepidos who has hosting The Beatles Fests since 1974 was quoted in an online article from last year on the 30th anniversary of the fests said that he is pleased that the majority of the thousands who go them in different cities around the country are 30 and younger. The Beatles Anthology albums that sold milliions of copies soon after they came out 25 years after The Beatles broke up I heard a DJ on the radio say that 40% of those buying them were teenagers. And The Beatles 1 CD was the biggest selling album of the year in 2001 31 years after they broke up also had half of the buyers under the age of 30.Also I have recently found many message boards devoted to celebrating The Beatles and many teenagers and college students are posting from every country saying that they love their music and that they are the greatest! I also found 5 polls The Beatles vs The Rolling Stones and The Beatles won every one! Many young people voted and these were not on Beatles fan sites,one site is called,The Best and Worst.com another is called,Rotten Tomatoes,and another is called,The Mister Poll the others are on music forums and on people's blogs.

Carolyn

PLEASE PLEASE ME (1963)

(Casey Brennan's review)

The first album of the Beatles shows them as 'cute' and appealing moptops that made good, catchy rock n' roll songs. This was the new merseybeat sound but it actually sounds somewhat different than the other early period albums they made. Their clashy drum sound and songwriting wasn't quite in place yet; some of the album sounds like early 60's rock n' roll but it was so distinctive that it showed a kind of new sound. From the beginning count in of "1,2,3,4" on "I Saw Her Standing There" you know that this is more than just your average group. The song has high energy, a great beat, and a catchy danceable rhythm so it's the first classic Beatles song (and first song on this record! Strange).

"Love Me Do" (their first single), and "Please Please Me" (their first number 1 single) are two highlights put in the middle of the album. "Do You Want To Know A Secret", which is sung by George Harrison, is a great catchy pop song and the closer "Twist And Shout" is a excellent Beatles cover that is very youthful and energetic. There are 5 other cover songs on here too which are nothing more than decent such as "Chains", "Boys", and "A Taste Of Honey" to name a few. This is just the starting point here, so The Beatles would get better as they went along. The energy and youthfulness of this album is so great though, and it was all recorded in a mere 10 hours (except for the singles).

OVERALL RATING: 8

HIGH POINTS: I Saw Her Standing There, Twist And Shout, Please Please Me. LOW POINTS: Ask Me Why, A Taste Of Honey.

From a reviewing perspective, it's very weird coming to early Beatles albums after taking in all their classic stuff, but the existence of an album like Please Please Me makes their unbelievable career progression all the much more easy to appreciate. There's eight originals and six covers on here, which may not seem like a big deal until you realize how rarely their contemporaries relied that much on original material, and they recorded all the album tracks in just 10 hours - oh man, how music has changed since then (not always for the better, though - many albums that take 2 or 3 years to record aren't this good). My favorite aspect about Please, though, has got to be the album cover - that view from which they're looking down at you from that building is pretty trippy, man. But more importantly, there are some damn good songs on here, and loads of enthusiasm and energy, more so than even a lot of their later work.

As far as the 'originals' go, there's an immediate classic in the opener "I Saw Her Standing There" - a convincing rocker with a wonderful groove, suggestive lyrics ('well she was just seventeen, and you know what I mean'), and typically great melodic twists (love the 'whoooo' in the chorus - a trademark of several of their early songs). Also, the title track has arguably the best and most irresistibly fun vocal melody on here, and the addition of harmonica very much adds an interesting atmosphere to an otherwise fairly normal pop song (a spectacularly infectious normal pop song, though, and dig that little riff that answers the first line in each verse!). Harmonica also shows up in the ballad "There's A Place" (which does show signs that John Lennon would develop his more introspective side in the not-too-distant future even more so, and it's really good for a first try).

Apart from the darker-sounding "Misery" (another minor highlight with its' shifting, groovy verse melody), the other originals are somewhat on the dumber side though, but hey what else do you expect from 1963 pop? Their first single and side two opener "Love Me Do" has some of the stupider ones out there ('love, love me do, you know I love you, I'll always be true, so pleee-eeee-eeeee-ease.... love me to...' - genius), an aspect which would be distracting if not for the song's catchiness and the harmonica playing again! "P.S. I Love You", meanwhile, is typical but nice romantic fluff, the George Harrison-sung "Do You Want To Know A Secret?" is a lightweight guitar pop singalong, and "Ask Me Why" is probably one of the lamer songs they'd come up with, mostly because the vocal delivery is so clumsy and stupid ('I need yooooouuuu woowoowoowoo, etc.') that it takes away any of the potential the melody would have.

The covers are also a good reason for me not really wanting to rate this album over a solid 7, but even there, amongst stuff like the Ringo-sung "Boys" (those 'bop shoo wop... bop bop shoo wop' backing vocals... haha) and the inane "A Taste Of Honey", we get the closing "Twist And Shout" - one of those performances that everyone has discussed to death, with Lennon ripping out his vocal chords, etc., etc. and the particularly overlooked "Anna (Go To Him)" with its' creepy jagged guitar line and moody 'Aaaaannnnna' chorus. The other two covers ("Chains", "Baby It's You") are nothing really special either, but still pleasant at least. I can actually imagine this stuff must have sounded mindblowing to listeners around this time, even if over 40 years later(!) Please undoubtedly sounds like a merely good warmup in the wake of future successes, both by the same band and other influential bands/artists later on. A good, entertaining start here, though.

OVERALL RATING: 7

WITH THE BEATLES (1963)

(Casey Brennan's review)

Like Please Please Me, this album contains 8 originals and 6 covers, but the songs are stronger on here, even the covers. The classic early Beatles sound is showcased here as you can hear from the opener "It Won't Be Long" which opens up with a bang, and it contains those trademark 'yeah, yeah, yeahs' that would later be thrown into the single "She Loves You". "Beatlemania" was just starting in England around the time this album was released, almost everything was in place as we now have some classic songs on here.

One of them, "All My Loving" is a great McCartney song with a happy melody, and was part of their live act for awhile in 1963-64. "Little Child" is a very catchy and fast harmonica-driven song that must have had every teenage girl go crazy. "Don't Bother Me" is the first song written by George Harrison in the group, which has a lazy beat and a cool minor melody sequence. Also "Not A Second Time" has a great melody with good Lennon vocals so it's one of the best on here.

Some of the covers on here are more than decent like "Till There Was You", with its Latin-tinged simple melody sung by Paul. "Money" is a great closer in the style of "Twist And Shout" and has piano played by their producer George Martin on it. "Devil In My Heart" is also good so I guess the weakest cover on here is "Please Mister Postman" which has virtually no energy or grace to it. This is your early British Invasion music before it even hit America - soon it was going to hit, though, in a very monstrous way. The Beatles distinctive sound with their catchy poppy melodies, head bopping beats, and good harmonising made sure that they had the power to overtake America with its music (maybe I'm sounding a little too overdramatic but its true).

OVERALL RATING: 9

HIGH POINTS: It Won't Be Long, All My Loving, Not A Second Time, Till There Was You. LOW POINTS: Hold Me Tight.

Continuing on in the same direction as Please albeit with not with quite as much enthusiastic energy, this time around the quality of both the originals and covers have improved to more than compensate for that. Now, I'm no expert on 1963 pop music, but I can't imagine full albums in that vein being much better than this (The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, released a few months before, is a totally different spectacular beast altogether). There were undoubtedly individual songs around this time just as good or better in quality than the best stuff here, but albums? But enough rambling - "It Won't Be Long" in particular unleashes the excitement upon the listener right away, with its' ecstatic back and forth 'yeah... YEAH... yeah... YEAH' exchanges and exciting guitar energy... and, man, what else is there to say about it? It's a perfectly constructed early 60's guitar pop song, with a vocal melody just about any band (unless you're somebody avant garde like Tangerine Dream or someone like that) would kill for.

While that opener is by a slight margin my favorite on here (though it can be damn hard to tell on a lot of these Beatles albums what the top highlight is), except for the somewhat annoyingly dippy "Hold Me Tight" (despite a decent vocal melody as usual) the other originals here shouldn't be ignored either. Even if it has the typical dumb love lyrics of the period ('close your eyes and I'll kiss you, tomorrow I'll miss you'), the fact that the huge Beatlemania staple "All My Loving" boasts both an unbelievably groovy rhythm and one of those glorious Beatles melodies you hear once and never forget for the rest of your life to make it a total classic. "All I've Got To Do", meanwhile, is the obligatory stab at an early 'mature' introspective ballad (with good guitar interplay and a neat wobbling rhythm) and George Harrison writes a pretty good song too in "Don't Bother Me" - his first one, in fact. A pretty neat and addictive minor-key groove we have there, even if it isn't quite a highlight.

Also interesting in the department of originals is the groovy harmonica-driven pure rock and roll of "Little Child" (the 'Lennon was the rocker of the group' stereotype exists for a reason because of songs like these - notice how he sings lead vocals on a lot of them!), and it's interesting how that song sounds like it could easily have been a cover, and the acoustic Latin-flavored followup "Till There Was You" (actually the first cover of the album six tracks in) sounds like it could easily have been an original. Well, at least to me it does - it actually seems like it predates classic McCartney ballads like "Yesterday" and "Eleanor Rigby" in such a dead-on fashion that it's hard for me to believe Paul himself didn't write it (and it's gorgeously performed enough to be a highlight). Ha, I've gone into the descriptions of the covers already, haven't I? And described almost the whole first half, which closes with another one of them covers in "Please Mr. Postman", which, thanks to a strong Lennon vocal workout, is elevated somewhat above redundance.

The second side does get somewhat weaker than the first one, which is actually the case with all early Beatles albums, and it's also the side with "Hold Me Tight" on it and more of the covers, but it's still enjoyable listening, from the George Harrison-sings-Chuck Berry of "Roll Over Beethoven" (nothing too special, but good and exciting enough) to "I Wanna Be Your Man", a song originally written for the Rolling Stones but actually sung by Ringo of all people (which produces an almost hilariously comedic effect since the song is a bit raunchier than usual for the band, and Ringo's vocals.. well, don't exactly fit that description!) and the 'sequel' to "Twist And Shout" that closes the album in "Money", just with piano accompaniment from the 'fifth Beatle George Martin' this time. It's also got more of those raw Lennon yells, also featured to epic, haunting effect on the rendition of Smokey Robinson's "You Really Got A Hold On Me" from four tracks before. Good singing on these covers, yup!

Rounding out the album is another excellent original in the piano-driven "Not A Second Time" with one of the most immediately striking and perfectly flowing melodies on here and some great harmonies (which, of course, says a lot even for this 'formative' period of theirs) and the somewhat non-descript but still okay cover "Devil In Her Heart", by which time it's starting to become a little apparent that the Fab Four are too good at writing their own songs to be recording material like that. Fortunately, in a burst of creativity and inspiration several months later, they'd really get to prove their songwriting skills - not that this still really good album (and to think, it's actually one of the weakest in their catalog) didn't establish them enough.

OVERALL RATING: 8

A HARD DAY'S NIGHT (1964)

(Casey Brennan's review)

The Beatles had already conquered the United States at this point, and were ready to make another album for release in the summer. A Hard Day's Night was not only the third Beatles album but also the first feature length movie The Beatles made, which shows them as lovable moptops that are full of energy and wit. This is the first Beatles album made entirely of all originals by Lennon and McCartney, and they are even better than the originals on their previous two albums, with hardly any weak spots. This album shows them at the height of their powers during Beatlemania with plenty of excellent catchy melodies in their mix of fast songs and ballads.

"A Hard Day's Night" is a classic song that with its distinctive chord opens up the album, "I Should Have Known Better" is just as good with one of the best Lennon vocals on the album along with some fine harmonica. "If I Fell" has some of the best harmonizing on an early Beatles record, and George's first vocal comes in on "I'm Happy Just To Dance With You" which is a short snappy number. "And I Love Her" is a McCartney ballad with a minor melody, and next comes "Tell Me Why" which is fast, followed by the classic "Can't Buy Me Love" with it's clashy drums and well sung if meaningless lyrics (but hey, it's 1964, what do you expect).

The next six songs are the ones not on the film and they too are almost as good as the first half. "Any Time At All" is one of the best with its minor middle eight, "I'll Cry Instead" predates Beatles For Sale with its bluesy midtempo melody, but still the lyrics don't mean a lot. "Things We Said Today" and "When I Get Home" are decent too, "You Can't Do That" is the most rockin' song on here, and finally we have the gloomy "I'll Be Back" which has a hopeful middle eight. The best early Beatles album, period.

* OVERALL RATING: 10 *

HIGH POINTS: A Hard Day's Night, If I Fell, Things We Said Today, Can't Buy Me Love, I Should Have Known Better, And I Love Her. LOW POINTS: When I Get Home.

The big early breakthrough. As everyone knows, A Hard Day's Night marked the very first time a Fab Four album was composed entirely of original Lennon-McCartney material, and the feature film of the same name was also a first for them as well. What we have here are some of the catchiest pure pop melodies ever captured on tape within these 13 songs, and quite a worthwhile candidate for the title of 'best album in rock history up to this point'. Of course, some still complain that it doesn't vary much - all of these tunes are pop numbers that deal with love in some shape or form, but hey, not many songwriters were breaking out of that mold anyway (Dylan of course being the major exception). And besides, there's still a whole lot of great subtleties within the melodic flow of these songs, plus the overall approaches in the mood, tempo and musical base are surprisingly inventive - there's a jangly guitar sound, the shuffling R&B grooves, the Latin influences, the straightforward rockers, etc. Plus the album's only a half hour long, so it never has a chance to become monotonous at all.

The first half, of course, consists of the songs from the film, and in my opinion at least, it is one of the best stretches of music the band ever came up with, and that says a lot. I mean, what can I say about the title track and "Can't Buy Me Love" that hasn't been said already? These songs have two of the most distinctive vocal melodies ever written, and they both have their inventive charms as well. How can you deny the great opening chord, the effective lyrical weariness, and the fantastic 'when I'm home...' middle eight of the former (which is probably my favorite song on here)? Or the wonderful bounciness of the latter that only Paul could make so charming (especially the 'no no no.... NO!!!!' at the end of the chorus! Dig that!)? "I Should Have Known Better" even features some effective and appropriate harmonica work to go along with another one of the most killer melodies here.

As far as the ballads go, "If I Fell" is probably one of the most gorgeous you can find in their catalog. The harmonizing in the chorus in particular is a prime example of their abilities in that department, and the mellow vocal hook in the verses over an acoustic backdrop is simply gorgeous and breathtaking. Plus "And I Love Her" is a great merging of pop and Latin elements (in the acoustic guitar and the clicking rhythm track) with a gorgeous romantic atmosphere, and the 'bright are the stars that shine...' melody is another priceless one. Even the lesser songs on the side have quite a bit going for them - "Tell Me Why" is a fine uptempo track that might have been better suited for towards the end of the album, but it's got effective conviction-filled Lennon vocals, nice basswork and an unforgettable chorus, so you won't hear me complaining. Even George's vocal job, the snappy less than 2 minute number "I'm Happy Just To Dance With You" (his first one on an album, actually) has a groovy rhythmic base on that guitar line, so it's entertaining.

The second half of the album, unfortunately, pales a bit when compared to the opening one, as the only song in this stretch that ranks up there with the highs for me would be "Things We Said Today", whose melody actually has more of a depressing minor-key tone to it, but yet the lyrics still have those charming romantic sentiments, and that hook is one of the most criminally infectious on the album. Okay, maybe the closing "I'll Be Back" is a minor highlight here as well, as it also has a somewhat unsettling tinge (that melody is pretty darn ominious for a pop song), though it seamlessly flows into two more uplifting melodies anyway. Not that the other four songs are bad, though, just less enough that the album doesn't attain the utterly spectacular consistency the 'classic period' ones do.

Out of these remaining four songs, I suppose "You Can't Do That" is the best and most convincing 'rocker' of the album that showcases the effectiveness of Lennon's singing in bringing through another fine vocal melody, though I do admit "When I Get Home", while having a curiously awkward 'whoa-oh-IIIII...' hook that makes it memorable, has lyrics that are somewhat dumb and naive even by early Beatles' standards, and the melody isn't as great as the others. Still pretty good, though. As is the really entertaining shuffle "I'll Cry Instead", which probably fits the groovy description better than anything else on the album (great guitar and bass interplay) and another solid rocker "Any Time At All", with one of the more striking refrains and energetic drum work on here. Fabulous stuff, an essential effort that you should certainly head towards in realizing the full potential of the early sound (and the reason behind Beatlemania). That's all that needs to be said.

OVERALL RATING: 9.5

BEATLES FOR SALE (1964)

(reviewed by Casey Brennan)

The Beatles started changing just a little bit now; they were (especially John Lennon) becoming influenced by Bob Dylan, so some of the songs have better lyrics than anything they had done before. They were exhausted from all the touring and the two-album a year recording schedule so by the time they did this album they didn't have a lot of material ready. So we go back to 8 originals and 6 covers. The originals are awesome, but most of the covers seem half-heartedly done and weak, although there ares till enough good songs to make up for the weak spots.

Now lets go to the music: "I'm A Loser" and "No Reply" are two Lennon songs that were influenced by Bob Dylan, so they have the best lyrics thus far in The Beatles canon. The other highlights of the album are "Eight Days A Week" which is innovative in its early Beatles way because of its fade-in (probably the first rock song with one), the dramatic "Every Little Thing" is another great one that has a neat pounding drum after every line in the verses.

There is a more bluesy approach to this album in such songs as the ballad "Baby's In Black" and the excellent "I Don't Want To Spoil The Party" which has a perfect catchy melody and high harmonies that add to the power of the song. Of the covers "Rock And Roll Music" (a great stage number), "Honey Don't" (sung by Ringo), and "What You're Doing" with its neat drum intro are the best. "Mr Moonlight" is very bland and has a corny organ but I still think it's ok, and "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby" is just so-so along with a few others. Overall it's a great album and showed what was to come.

OVERALL RATING: 8

HELP! (1965)

(Casey Brennan's review)

This is the last of The Beatles early period albums, but it has a somewhat new fresh sound to it and this time there are only two covers on here. Like A Hard Day's Night the year before this album was made into a feature length film too, except this one was in color (but it's a weaker film because there is less of a plot and The Beatles seem to wander around - they were smoking a lot of pot, so there you go).

Anyway their is a strong collection of songs, even though a lot of the songs still have trite lyrics (the melodies and great singing makes up for it though). "Help" is the leadoff track and is so catchy and great, and is actually a real plea for help by Lennon who at the time was insecure. Other major songs on here are "Ticket To Ride" which has the 12-string guitar sound and a cool shuffling midtempo beat (it's also the longest Beatle song thus far), "Yesterday" is also a classic - in fact, its the major song on here because it's the first song that attracted an older audience because it has acoustic guitar and violins in it. Also it has the best melody on here, and it's a really moving emotional song.

Besides that we have "It's Only Love" which is very short and has a nice tune to it, "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" is another Dylan influence, an acoustic song which is another Lennon plea and has flutes at the end of it. "You're Going To Lose That Girl", "I've Just Seen A Face" (a fast country western flavor to it), and "The Night Before" are good too; George Harrison also has two songs on here now, "I Need You" and "You Like Me Too Much" which are decent, if not great.

The two and only covers on here are "Act Naturally" with great singing by Ringo and the rocker "Dizzie Miss Lizzie" which comes right after "Yesterday" and has some stinging lead guitar. The Beatles were about to finally break away from their early sound, and now would grow more mature in unknown ways. Overall I'll have to give this album an 8 instead of a 9 because Rubber Soul is so much greater (no biggie though).

OVERALL RATING: 8

(Philip Maddox' review)

HIGH POINTS: Ticket To Ride, Help!, Yesterday, You've Got To Hide Your Love Away, The Night Before. LOW POINTS: Act Naturally.

The Fab Four's popularity was so incredibly high that they were not only expected to crank out two albums a year, but they also starred in their second movie in two years, from which the title of this album gets its' name, and the first half of it, as on A Hard Day's Night, were the songs featured in the film. And the US record companies were starting to take advantage of them even more - my first exposure to the following Rubber Soul in its' vinyl format actually had two songs from this album ("It's Only Love" and "I've Just Seen A Face") replacing four others, one of them "Nowhere Man"! And the US Help! featured the songs from side one only paired with instrumental film score crap, with the side two songs on other American bastard releases. Man, no wonder they were so pissed off at Capitol for taking advantage of them like this. The various Help! releases (the main album and stuff like Beatles VI and Yesterday And Today floating around) represent record company greed in one of its' most notorious moments.

Anyway, bastard album rant aside, the real version of Help! finds the band simultaneously maturing and slightly regressing at the same time, though still with a lot of top-of-the-line material. The most famous, of course, are the title track and "Yesterday", both which have reached mythical proportions in Beatles history (the first an incredibly catchy plea for 'help' from Lennon - with great backing vocals, plus a timeless chorus and guitar riff - the second a McCartney string-laced ballad that's the most covered song of all time, was originally called "Scrambled Eggs", blah blah blah, you know all that stuff already), but that's not to say this isn't filled with other gems as well. They're starting to bring in other outside influences and embellishments that point the way to the next album - the Dylan-influenced vocal delivery, introspective atmosphere and great ending flute solo on "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" is just one example here.

There's also some effective electric piano use on "The Night Before", a wonderful McCartney-sung tune that might be a relative sleeper in the Beatles' catalog, as it has kind of a mildly reflective, haunting atmosphere to it, and the melody is as wonderfully flowing as ever (with more appropriate backing vocals!). It also reappears in "Tell Me What You See", whose most interesting features are the mantra-like delivery of the chorus and the excellent main riff - another lesser known pop gem here. Then it shows up again on George Harrison's contribution "You Like Me Too Much", a bouncy and slight, but rather charming, pop tune. I should probably say that Harrison was still developing as a songwriter at this point, as neither that song or "I Need You" (which utilizes a casually appearing echoey Byrds-style electric riff) are all that great, but they're certainly enjoyable, especially when compared to other filler tracks on most albums around this time period.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention my favorite, the side-closing "Ticket To Ride", which is actually their longest song to this point at a little over three minutes (it's amazing how far pop music has come since then). Not only does it have an awesome jangly guitar riff and spectacular vocal hooks, but Ringo's drumming is some of the finest he would ever put to tape - those syncopated beats he throws in there are so essential to the overall flow of the song, and the way it seamlessly switches into the middle eight is impressive. A classic, rhythmic pop number we have here, and not the only one, either. How about the high-speed vocal delivery of the very folk-ish acoustic tune "I've Just Seen A Face"? That qualifies as a really worthwhile gem on here as well (though I never want to think of it as the opener to Rubber Soul again, thank you very much).

But after all the interesting and excellent stuff here, what about the regressions, you might ask? Well, those particular tracks don't detract from the album much, as they're all at least somewhat enjoyable (except for maybe the somewhat corny Ringo vocal spot on the 'movie star' anthem "Act Naturally", one of two covers on here, and also the most pointless track), but still, there's not much need for, say, the closing rocker "Dizzy Miss Lizzie" when we've already heard Lennon testing his vocal chords on "Twist And Shout". Or slight, though still catchy, throwaways like "Another Girl" that sound like they were written in about 5 minutes. Even the harmony showcase "You're Going To Lose That Girl" sounds a bit too derivative of early Beatlemania stuff, and the otherwise nicely chiming "It's Only Love" is distractingly stupid in the lyrics, with the cliched 'high, by, fly, my oh my' rhyming pattern. But nevertheless, despite those flaws (and they are minor ones!), this is still an excellent album, and a springboard for even greater heights to come later in the year.

OVERALL RATING: 8.5

You know, I feel silly reviewing Beatles albums. I mean, I like 'em and all, but c'mon... almost EVERYONE knows ALL of these albums by heart. My reviews here are not exactly helping people discover the music of the Beatles...basically, I'm writing this for my own benefit (and so people can yell at me for liking some songs more than others, though this hasn't happened yet). Plus, I'm bored, and I feel a need to review my entire CD collection, enormous as it is. So you're getting more Beatles reviews. And you'd better enjoy them, too, or I may have to break into your house and... well, nevermind.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand - Help!, the album which is usually considered to be the end of the early Beatles period, before they matured a whole lot for Rubber Soul and Revolver. Really, though, I don't see how this is THAT much less mature than later efforts... the Beatles really did evolve pretty gradually. Several of the tunes here are every bit as "serious" as tunes you'll find on later albums, though this album does have a bit more of a 60's pop sheen on it than, say, Revolver. This album is sort of in the middle, actually - a transitional effort, if you will. So the result is an album that will please fans of both the later Beatles sound and the early, fun Beatles sound.

This, of course, leads to the question of the songwriting. As with most transitional efforts, the songwriting is all over the place. Not really all over the place in quality - all of the songs are at least good - but some of the songs are certainly more successful than others. There are tons of classics here, as can pretty much be said of ANY Beatles album - "Help", "Ticket To Ride", and "Yesterday" need no introduction from me, and "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" and "You're Going To Lose That Girl" are only slightly less well known. All of these are great songs, of course (though "Yesterday" was never exactly one of my favorites... still good though). I'd talk more about them, but do you REALLY need to hear about them? Oh, alright, I'll talk a little about "Ticket To Ride". It has an AWESOME chiming guitar riff that I love, and Ringo's drumming here is REALLY REALLY neat. It clomps along and adds to the whole experience.

The other stuff isn't as well known. "Well, how is it?", you may ask. Well, I'll tell you. It's all good. All very good. Although I would only call one of these songs an utter classic ("I've Just Seen A Face", a goofy country shuffle that is actually one of my favorite Beatles songs... what a vocal melody!), all the songs are catchy, fun pop songs. Well, neither of the covers here (the dumb country of "Act Naturally" and the retread "Dizzy Miss Lizzy") are all THAT good, but they aren't really bad. And the rest of the songs are all catchy as all get out! Don't come here looking for unbelievable classics - there aren't that many - but the album is consistantly high quality, so dig in!

OVERALL RATING: 8

RUBBER SOUL (1965)

(Casey Brennan's review)

This was the album that showed 'A new Beatles world' to the public. The music is much more sophisticated and mature on here; the songs are still catchy and simple but it's the wider range of instruments they use, the greater lyrics, and the new studio innovations created that make this album revolutionary. The Beatles were now taking over in the studio and doing what they wanted to do no matter how difficult it appeared to create. Of course the pinnacle of their creativity would fully blossom on the next album or two, but here was the starting point.

"Drive My Car" is a classic catchy midtempo rocker that starts off the album and lets you know that this is a very different sounding Beatle record. "Norwegian Wood" is next, and is truly innovative because it's the first time a sitar was used on a rock n' roll record, and has a great melody and lyrics to go along with it. "You Won't See Me" is a classic McCartney song that is breathtaking with its high falsetto harmonizing (it's also the first Beatles song to reach 3 1/2 minutes), then comes the first Beatles song that isn't about love, "Nowhere Man", which is a personal Lennon song that hits a highpoint with its solo that is full of treble.

George's best song so far "Think For Yourself" is full of incredible fuzzbass and is just a great song. "The Word" is their first peace song and works real well even though it's only played on one chord. "Michelle", with its half French lyrics and great bassline ends the first side. "What Goes On", the weakest song on here but still decent, opens side two and is probably the simplest of all. "Girl" is another ballad in the same mode as "Michelle" and has a truly ear catching middle eight, "I'm Looking Through You" is one of the more louder songs on here, and that is followed by "In My Life" which is the one of the best and most moving on here. There is a very awesome piano solo played (by George Martin or Paul) in the middle of the song that is vari-speeded to make it fast, which gives the song an exciting twist.

"Wait", which is next, is considered weak, but I don't think it's weak at all, it's just very catchy and sparse sounding. "If I Needed Someone" is the second Harrison song on here and is filled with 12 string guitars, and finally "Run For Your Life", a fast little tune ends this great collection of songs. This is an album that basically paved the way for rock music and showed that you can make a record without filler.

* OVERALL RATING: 10 *

(Ryan Mulligan's review)

HIGH POINTS: In My Life, Nowhere Man, If I Needed Someone, You Won't See Me, Norwegian Wood, I'm Looking Through You, Girl, Drive My Car. LOW POINTS: Michelle.

The obvious key turning point in The Beatles' history (and in a large sense, pop music as a whole) came with this effort. Even though all the songs on here are at their core fairly simple pop songs, many of them show a musical depth to them that reveal something beyond their love-related themes, which they were beginning to move beyond, and typically first-rate pop melodies. This album also does a great job at immediately shattering the biases that John Lennon was the 'hard rocker' of the group and Paul McCartney the 'soft' one, as it's actually Paul who provides the awesome 'driving' piano led rocker "Drive My Car". It may still have slightly corny lyrics, but it's definitely just about as hard-hitting as the other tracks on the rest of the album, and the melody is flat-out undeniable.

It's the next number afterwards, though, that really shows the growing depth of these guys as lyricists. "Norwegian Wood" not only has one of the earliest effective uses of sitar on a rock record (if not the first), but also lyrics about an affair John had that he attempted to keep secret from his wife that really paint a strange enigma. If you're not really a lyrics guy, there's also the pretty acoustic guitar and timeless melody to keep you addicted to it, even if the song itself is only a little over two minutes long. "You Won't See Me", though, actually expands upon that length (nearly 3-1/2 minutes), and that's just more time to enjoy this McCartney gem, probably one of the most exceptional compositions on the whole album. The melody is brilliant and touching, with an absolutely smashing middle eight, groovy bass work, and a cool distinguishing feature is in its' tempo appearing to be faster than it actually is.

Afterwards, a philosophical leap forward for John Lennon as a songwriter comes with the Bob Dylan-inspired "Nowhere Man". It's the first Beatles song that moves completely away from love related subject matter, with excellent soul-searching lyrics like, 'doesn't have a point of view, knows not where he's going to, isn't he a bit like you and me?' The guitar line and harmonies on the song are no slouch either - both are really really effective in enhancing the stunning vibe of the song that's not unlike Dylan's classic period. Then comes a more minor gem from George Harrison in "Think For Yourself", a rather good fuzz bass rocker whose melody is solid and the lyrics well-written bitter love song stuff, and "The Word" is a hippie anthem which in 1965, actually preceded the 'summer of love' by two years. It has a simplistic piano line and lyrics, but along with the bassline and addictive rhythm, it provides a simply irresistible experience.

The next two songs are the only two relatively weak cuts here, but remember, this is Beatles standards we're talking about - they're still fine compositions by any other one, though. "Michelle" actually has a great melody and very appropriate basswork, but I've never appreciated it too much, just because the whole premise of Paul singing in French and the way it's executed is a bit hard for me to appreciate. "What Goes On" is a bit better, though, as it's a perhaps overly simple, but charming pop tune that sees Ringo take lead vocals, and that works well with the great harmonies of the chorus, and the 'disappointed romance' tune "Girl" certainly makes up for whatever shortcomings these two may have - perfectly placed sighs in the chorus to express disappointment, amazingly brisk melody, and beautiful guitar lines highlight here.

As far as pure energy goes to contrast the 'lost love' of the previous track, "I'm Looking Through You" fits the bill perfectly. It starts out as a wonderful folky tune in its' verses (with a top-notch melody of course), but what really gives the song power is it's loud, energetic chorus with a simply awesome organ burst, which makes it another one of my favorites. Even that one, though, is eclipsed by the most well-known composition here. "In My Life" has been called one of the greatest songs of all time, and one of John Lennon's finest moments, and there's no way I'm gonna disagree. It's another philosophical composition like "Nowhere Man", and it's built like a love ballad in its' flow and lyrics, but the lyrics work on a much more emotional level of reflection than that, which really makes it a truly timeless song that anyone can relate to, and that middle section with the sped-up harpsichord is breathtaking beyond words.

Winding down the whole album comes the last three tracks here, starting out with "Wait". It's generally considered its' weakest point, and that's certainly understandable, since John wrote it on the spot to prove how easy it is (for him, anyway) to write a pop song, and it's a true testament to his talent that it not only turned out listenable, but also quite catchy and impeccably well-written. "If I Needed Someone", meanwhile, is yet another timeless classic, and the best of the two George tunes here. A simply great attempt at imitating the jangling 12 string guitars of The Byrds, the effect is heavenly, especially with the band's harmony work in full force, and the darker chorus to contrast the whole thing. Speaking of dark, though, the intent-filled rocker "Run For Your Life" is one of the most lyrically edgy songs of the entire Beatles catalog, with the lyrics 'you'd better run for your life if you can, little girl' saying it all, and it brings kind of an unsettling close to the whole album. This album may be only a little less classic than what the band would come up with later, but it's still an absolutely crucial turning point in the Beatles legacy, and a sure essential for any record collection.

* OVERALL RATING: 10 *

The Beatles' sixth album, Rubber Soul, is universally recognized as the point where the Beatles' music began to stray from simple pop tunes in favor of more complex themes and arrangements. That's not to say they abandoned the pop formula completely, however. This album was released in December of 1965, and the influences are pretty evident. The album features more meaningful lyrics than the previous efforts. Dylan's impact on Lennon is seen on songs as "Nowhere Man", and "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)". The melodies of songs such as "If I Needed Someone" are reminiscent of the stuff the Byrds were doing at the time (not only in the fact that George borrowed the riff from them). The album's not strictly folk-rock, however, as the songs themselves could be put into many musical categories.

The album starts out with the poppy, bass driven "Drive My Car", which features typical McCartney lyrics, and an overall great vibe. "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" is a classic in that it was the first pop song to feature a sitar(courtesy of George). It also has a great melody, and some weird, though not really great, Lennon lyrics. "You Won't See Me" is another rather nice McCartney number that is one of their longer songs up to that point. That is followed by "Nowhere Man", in which John really shows his growth as a songwriter. It also features phenomenal vocal harmonies. "Think For Yourself", the first of two Harrison compositions, is no slouch either, with great vocal harmonies again. I just love these harmonies ("And you've got time to rectify all the things that you should"). It's also got some nice fuzz bass playing. Up this point the album is flawless, in my opinion.

However, things go downhill for a little while after that. "The Word" features some nice piano work, courtesy of Paul, but the lyrics are super weak. "Michelle" is often viewed as a classic by some, but certainly not by me. The lyrics are terrible with lines such as, "Michelle, my bell. These are words that go together well". Come on, Macca, you could do better. The third and final weak song is the Ringo-sung "What Goes On". It's good for a Ringo song, but why does he need a song?

Thankfully, things pick up after that little lapse with John's "Girl". I've always thought he had a great voice, and this song solidifies my opinion. "I'm Looking Through You", is yet another great McCartney pop song. Check out Ringo's wild organ playing! Did he used to work the Catholic church circuit? Next up is my personal favorite track on the album, "In My Life". It's quite beautiful and could probably bring a tear to a lesser man's eyes. Nice piano work by George (Martin) too. "Wait" is no great shakes, but it's certainly not bad or anything. "If I Needed Someone" is another restaurant quality Harrison composition. I'm a big fan of his voice too. Actually,the one Beatle voice I don't like is Paul's. Sorry, I meant to type big nose Starkey's.

"Run For Your Life" is a great album closer with a sing-along chorus (wait, what Beatles song doesn't have a sing-along chorus? Oh right, "Flying"). What's with Lennon's "I'd rather see you dead little girl" lyrics? Overall, it's a great album for sure that doesn't quite make the 10 point absolute classic level, because of those three lesser tracks in the middle. The boys showed us that they were maturing here, however, and the next album they put out is one of the better ones I own.

OVERALL RATING: 9

REVOLVER (1966)

(Casey Brennan's review)

The Beatles took a three month break off from recording and touring after Rubber Soul in the first three months of 1966, so in April when they got back to recording again they came up with arguably their best and definitely most consistent set of songs. It's also one of the most diverse albums they made with no weak songs whatsoever on here, just a bunch of great simple and catchy tunes layered with lots of studio experimentation and effects. John started taking LSD at this time, which shows in his acid-drenched songs that have lazy beats, chiming guitars, lots of tape loops and vocals put through a Leslie speaker. Oh, how The Beatles sound has changed in the past year. They were in the whole psychedelic thing now (though not as much as their albums from 1967 which are truly psychedelia at its height).

Anyway, John's songs are basically the more louder and rough-edged songs about LSD (or at least they usually have references to the drug) such as "I'm Only Sleeping", "She Said, She Said", and "Dr. Robert". These dreamy and slow harmonic melody type songs are put right next to the more lightweight and sometimes melancholy Paul songs like "Eleanor Rigby", "For No One", and "Good Day Sunshine". Also on here we have three George songs , "Taxman" (a hardhitting midtempo rocker about record companies taking too much money), "Love You To" (his first Indian song), and "I Want To Tell You" (with its great bass and minor harmonies). They are all great too. There is also the just plain fun song "Yellow Submarine" which is awashed in plenty of sound effects, such as a captain yelling, the sea, and a snippet of a brass band.

The real gem on this album, though, is John's "Tomorrow Never Knows", the ultimate drug song which surprisingly was the first recorded for the album but is the most daring and innovative. It's the first fully realized psychedelic song that is haunting and uses tons of weird experimentation: tons of tape loops, Paul's voice sped up to sound like seagulls, a backwards guitar solo (which was very difficult to achieve), plus a few other technical tricks. It puts a breathtaking end to the album and it kind of tells you that The Beatles were definitely heading into unknown paths. Possibly the strongest Beatle album of all in terms of melody and diversity, but not the most revolutionary (which doesn't always matter, it's the songs that count).

* OVERALL RATING: 10 *

HIGH POINTS: Tomorrow Never Knows, For No One, I'm Only Sleeping, And Your Bird Can Sing, Yellow Submarine, She Said She Said, Got To Get You Into My Life. LOW POINTS: None.

Over the years, this album has appeared in many 'greatest album of all time' polls around, and is considered by many to be the greatest achivement in pop music history, even ahead of Sgt. Pepper and The White Album (which seem to get all the votes this doesn't get for the spot). It's not my favorite album of all time, nor is it in my all time top 5 anymore, and it isn't even my favorite Beatles album, but I acknowledge it as an absolute landmark that builds on the strengths of the enormously influential Rubber Soul. In many ways it's an extension of its' predecessor - both albums have 14 relatively simple pop songs enhanced by subtle nuances in the sound that make for fresh repeated listenings with surprisingly mature lyrics. Revolver, though, makes an even further move away from the 'love related' themes of before, and the styles covered here are also more diverse, paving the way for the radical changes that would later come in the band's history.

This time, it's George who is allowed the honor of opening the album - his contribution, the opening "Taxman", is the band's first political statement, featuring lyrics about those greedy bastards that take all your money, stinging lead guitar work, top-of-the-line backing vocals, and overall great energy. From there, though, comes a much more melancholy, string-laced tune in "Eleanor Rigby", whose unforgettable melody is complemented perfectly by the sad and quite hopeless story told in the lyrics (so much for the 'happy, dippy pop song' label so many people put on Paul). It's only appropriate, then, that the following "I'm Only Sleeping" is such a wonderfully dreamy, relaxing and catchy song enhanced by backwards guitars, two perfect false endings, and LSD-related lyrics to quickly bring a more lighthearted feeling to the album.

Next comes a real toe-tapping number in George's first Eastern tune "Love You To", whose best features are its' fabulous intro build and overall groove the song gets into that can definitely put one in a trance, and the actual main melody isn't half bad either - interesting meditative lyrics here too. Somehow it really seems perfect preceding the 'prom' number "Here, There And Everywhere", which can sound like an incredibly lightweight tossoff at first, but even if you think of it that way, you cannot deny the quality of that melody. The whole vibe of it is simply beautiful and just elegant anyway (the guitar part helps too), and that's enough for me. Speaking of 'lightweight' material, though, "Yellow Submarine" is a pure children's song, enhanced with sound effects and Ringo's lead vocals, and the quality of its' singalong melody and overall charm is simply awesome. I can see how it would be way too dippy for some, but not for me.

From submarines to mind-enhancing drugs comes the really acid drenched number "She Said, She Said", with quite tripped out lyrics and unorthodox melody (I love that 'no, no, no you're wrong, when I was a boy, everything was right' portion). Cool guitar parts too. Great song, as is the really upbeat "Good Day Sunshine", with a classic catchy melody (and well-chosen piano notes during the verse sections) that really do it for me every time, as does "And Your Bird Can Sing", which definitely has the most effective use of the two-guitar lineup on the entire album, and it's just a plain fun, rocking song that you're sure to be wanting more from, since there are numerous uplifting melodies here, and the energy of it is great. To go from this to the sheer depression of "For No One" might be a little much, but the flow between them somehow works perfectly. A truly earth-shattering ballad, depression and beauty seem to be reflected from every note and lyric, with a powerful melody to boot.

It's surprisingly complemented well by the generally underrated guitar-driven "Doctor Robert", which has a really great groove, amusing drug related lyrics about John's 'doctor' and his 'special cup' and a highly memorable organ-led refrain. George's last contribution "I Want To Tell You" isn't any weaker, though - it's a really awesome and uptempo, harmony-filled song which shifts into this weird piano chord in the verses just before its' refrain comes (which is broken up by that fantastic guitar line that leads things). This album is unquestionably George's big breakthrough as a songwriter, as all his contributions here are smashing, even in the light of Paul's simply awesome horn-driven pop song "Got To Get You Into My Life", which, as someone else pointed out, probably made the career of big band rock acts like Chicago, and the song makes great use of that sound, just entertaining and melodic as hell.

Finally, you may be wondering what I think the ultimate achievement on this album is, and the answer may be a bit obvious, but for me, I've come to think of "Tomorrow Never Knows" as the most musically significant, daring, enormously influential and original song the band wrote during this period. Its' steady, simple and truly hypnotizing rhythm is a backdrop for John's extremely frightening, possessed vocals and lyrics, as well as really difficult studio tricks like Paul's voice being sped up and backwards guitar soloing that produces a staggering otherworldly (and modern-sounding!) effect never really captured this effectively by anyone else again. Basically, if everything else on this album was forgettable, this song alone would make Revolver an essential, but the exact opposite is true, as throughout all these songs the album displays John, Paul and George's wide-ranging talents to the core, without a single weak song throughout. And their best was still yet to come!

* OVERALL RATING: 10 *

In the eyes of many people, this is the most creative album in the Beatles cannon. Many people consider it the best, even (John McFerrin's love for this album has no end, and VH1's special called it the best album of all time, though they also called Nevermind the second best, so forget that). It is, of course, a spectacular album, though I personally don't consider it to be the group's best album. Just to get the flame bait out there, let's discuss the problems I have with this disc first and get them out of the way. Problem #1 - "Love You To", George's first Indian song, isn't bad, but in my opinion, it's the worst Indian song he recorded while in the Beatles. "Within You Without You", "Blue Jay Way", and "The Inner Light" were all better. Problem #2 - "Yellow Submarine" kinda bugs me. It isn't bad - in fact, it's pretty good - but, perhaps due to the fact that I didn't grow up with the song, it sounds a bit on the dopey side. Problem #3 - "Doctor Robert" is pretty decent guitar rock, but it's just that - decent. Not amazing or anything. And, just to be a little picky, the album is quite short.

OK, I'm through bitching. Now let's get on with how awesome most of this stuff is. The opener, "Taxman", is a fantastic George Harrison rocker, complete with great, biting lyrics about record company executives take 95% of all of his money ("If you get too cold/I'll tax the heat/If you try to walk/I'll tax your feet"), complete with a great solo (Harrison wasn't the best technical player around, but he was certainly no slouch). "Eleanor Rigby" and "For No One" are two of the most depressing, somber, beautiful songs Paul ever wrote. The former in particular features some highly depressing lyrics. That melody is just so damn SAD! Especially during the "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... look at all the lonely people!" bit. Those tunes can make you cry. Easily.

"Here, There and Everywhere" is Paul's attempt at copying Brian Wilson's tunes on Pet Sounds, and he certainly didn't do a bad job. It's another extremely pleasant, slow tune. A great slow dance number, I'd wager. And hey, what about my two favorite songs on here. DUDE! You might not have ever heard "She Said She Said" if you don't have this album, but you should. It features some GREAT jangly guitar from Harrison (I LOVE that jangly style! From the Byrds to R.E.M., I can't get enough) with some really creepy singing and lyrics from John ("She saaaaaaaaid/I know what it's like to be dead/I know what it is to be sad/And you're making me feel like I've never been born"), with a breathtaking bridge.

Even among these awesome highlights, though, nothing quite hits the splendor of the closer, "Tomorrow Never Knows". That song sounds so MODERN! And I don't mean that in a bad way (as most radio fodder nowadays completely sucks). It hasn't dated at all. If it came out today, in addition to kicking the ass of everything else on the radio, it wouldn't sound old. The heavy beat, the distorted vocals, and the weird, almost techno-ish sound effects make the song perfect. Absolutely perfect. The end part of the song, where John chants "Is the be-ginnnnnn-innnng..." over and over, I just about break down. Hear this song NOW if you haven't.

You know, I was planning on giving this a 9 (I even had that nine already all typed out), but listening to this album now, I just can't do it. "Here, There And Everywhere" is playing right now, and I love it love it love it. I hate to be unoriginal and throw 10s on Beatles albums, but how can I not? They were utterly groundbreaking and I'm having trouble finding too many flaws in any of the ones that I own (I've been a bit of a hard-ass about them in the past, but I'm over that now). Aw well. Buy this. And buy the rest, too.

* OVERALL RATING: 10 *

[email protected] (Fredrik Tydal)

COMMENTS

Actually, that's Paul playing the guitar solo on "Taxman". An interesting topic, by the way; the Beatles members switching instrumental duties between each other. Let me see... George plays bass on "She Said She Said", John plays lead guitar on "The Ballad of John And Yoko" and Paul drums on "Back In The U.S.S.R." and "The Ballad of John And Yoko". Oh, and Ringo of course plays organ on "I'm Looking Through You"...

SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND (1967)

(Casey Brennan's review)

This is the most influential and revolutionary Beatles album that kickstarted the 'summer of love' and changed the course of Rock music forever. It probably isn't as strong as Revolver in terms of quality but it's definitely the more interesting sounding and shows The Beatles at the height of their powers in the studio. They were stretching the boundaries of Rock in all directions; by slowing and speeding instruments up, using reverb and echo, compressing sounds, using various and exotic instruments, editing and splicing tracks, or just whatever they could think of on a four track machine. They were only using four track (it doesn't sound like it)!

This is another major advancement from Revolver and is quite different from it because the songs are more elaborate and complex like "A Day In The Life" and "Within You, Without You" which both go past the five minute mark. Their are still plenty of simple songs but they are all spiced up with either tons of studio trickery and overdubs which make the songs even more exciting within the concept of 'Sgt. Pepper's band'. The album flows like one huge piece and starts out with "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" which rocks in fine form with some live audience sounds dubbed on and brass horns layering it. This segues right into the incredibly high-spirited and melodic "With A Little Help From My Friends" that is sung by Ringo and is thought to have references to drugs in it; 'I get high with a little help from my friends', but of course it doesn't.

The concept is lost with the the next song "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds", a psychedelic masterpiece that puts listeners into a relaxed dreamy state until the fast chorus comes in. The next few songs range from the joyous performance of "Getting Better", the introverted "Fixing A Hole" which has a great guitar solo, the string infested "She's Leaving Home" and the vaudivillian "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite" which has tons of circus sounds in it.

The second half starts with the understated "Within You Without You" which is a classic in its own right; it has thought-provoking lyrics, a full blown orchestra, and a neat solo in the middle(some find this song annoying with its sitar sound). In contrast to that song is Paul's simple swing song "When I'm Sixty-Four" and then comes "Lovely Rita", in which those buzzing sounds you here is paper being rubbed agaisnt combs, also it contains a great piano solo played on high notes. The hardest rocking song complete with saxes and great guitar, "Good Morning, Good Morning", segues right into "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band(reprise)".

This in turn goes right into the Beatles greatest achievement, "A Day In The Life" which in turn made people think of them as the greatest composers since Beethoven. John had the first part ('I read the news') and Paul the middle eight ('I woke up..'), which are linked together with an orchestral climax (a musical orgasm) that is simply breathtaking (at the end of the second climax we have the first hidden track on a rock record). This is simply a pop masterpiece, maybe overrated? It sounds too good and innovative for me to say so.

* OVERALL RATING: 10 *

HIGH POINTS: A Day In The Life, With A Little Help From My Friends, Getting Better, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite! LOW POINTS: Within You Without You.

Revolver may have shown a much more experimental and diverse side to the band than ever before, but this was the point where The Beatles incorporated what they had learned from their creativity into a full-blown opus. It also featured a really important-looking album cover that showed the band dressed in fancy outfits alongside a whole bunch of celebrities and important cultural figures around that time, and that's certainly one of the most celebrated album covers of all time. It was even the first album to print lyrics, but more importantly, really transformed rock music into a serious art of seemingly limitless possibilities. It's funny that during the period when they were recording this album (the gap between this and Revolver was a long time in those days), the general public figured they were just going to fade from existence. Well, they didn't, to say the least, of course.

That said, beyond all of the album's immaculate packaging, numerous classic songs, unparalleled construction and songwriting, the overall quality of the music falls somewhat short of the previous Rubber Soul and Revolver, plus, I really don't hear much of a cohesive flow between them at all like with several of the other albums. I have admitted to being anti-hyped about the album at first since I was expecting to hear the greatest rock record of all time and came out very underwhelmed. Sure, a few songs struck me as amazing right away, such as the godlike pop singalong "With A Little Help From My Friends" (another Ringo vocal number), whose melody is quite possibly the most infectious on the album (the background vocals are heavenly too), as well as the well-known uptempo tune "Getting Better", which has been used in commercials ad nauseum, but is still an incredibly memorable song with a distinct, simple guitar part and unforgettable chorus. By and large, though, not that much of it struck me as classic at first.

But even now, with those biases gone, I can still hear several flaws - mainly, a few individual tunes that are weak by Beatles standards. For instance, George's composition here "Within You Without You" is probably the only Beatles tune I've ever heard that doesn't strike me as memorable in the least - the lyrics are good if a bit preachy, but the whole thing manages to just drone on and on instead of captivate like his Eastern tunes before and after, and the melody keeps refusing to stick in my head no matter how many times I hear it. There's also the horn-filled guitar rock of "Good Morning, Good Morning" that's certainly energetic, but for whatever reason it doesn't strike me as that engaging, possibly because the melody is just decent instead of great, and the lyrics are somewhat stupid. It's not a bad song, of course, but it's a definite weaker track here.

With those complaints about the album out of the way, though, I can praise most of the album, because it really is a terrific achivement. Even a couple songs that I didn't care for that much at first, sound really good to me now (though not quite absolute classics, admittedly). "She's Leaving Home" struck me as just a song that took the sap factor a little too far with its' atmosphere and strings at first, but it's really a strong heartwrenching ballad of a young girl who's left her parents behind - the melody is great, and John's backing vocals ('we gave her most of our lives') fit just perfectly. Plus, "Fixing A Hole" makes up for its' slight "Getting Better" rewrite status a little more with a simply excellent middle eight, "Lovely Rita" is one of those corny song done in a really loveable Paul way, with really silly lyrics and a fine, fine melody, and "When I'm Sixty Four" is a bit dippy, though it's an extremely solid and inventive use of swing instruments that Paul probably wishes he never had written, for obvious reasons.

As for other ultimate highlights on here, though, John's psychedelic classics "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" and "Being For the Benefit Of Mr. Kite!" definitely qualify, with the former painting an extremely trippy and colorful picture with its' playful lyrics (the way it changes from a more bouncy chorus is a definite highlight of the album, too), and the latter having a plain weird carnival-esque atmosphere created by expert use of spliced tapes, insistent melody, and strange lyrics apparently read straight off a poster for a circus advertisement. Regardless of the fact the supposed concept breaks off shortly afterwards, the short introductory title track is a wonderful, celebratory way to kick off the album, and its' fast bass-heavy reprise toward the end of the album works well to precede the ultimate highlight.

That ultimate highlight, of course, is "A Day In The Life", which has been cited by many as the greatest song of all time, and inconceivably enough, I was actually bored enough with it on first couple of listens that I considered it one of the weak points of the album. In the end, though, it's just devastatingly epic - the first part of it consists of a piano-led reflection sung by John ('I read the news today, oh boy...') that's both beautiful and tragic at once, and the way it's linked to a completely different poppy section sung by Paul ('woke up, fell out of bed...') with a huge orchestral climax that somehow works perfectly, followed by those vocal 'ahhhhs' that come right before the final verse, blowing my mind in the process. It's quite possibly the greatest achievement in Beatles history, and although the album itself is excellent, it does have a real lack of classic moments and flow as compared to their albums, so I can never quite give it a 10, though my conscience might force me to cave in one day since this is such an important album. Call it probably the most significant 9.5 ever, though.

OVERALL RATING: 9.5

Deny it all you want to, this is the most influential album ever recorded. Sure, the Beatles may have made significant contributions in other places, and this album didn't do all that many people say it did (in no way did it invent psychedelic music, and calling it revolutionary for printing the lyrics out is being a bit petty), but it DID establish rock as a more serious art form. All of the segues, orchestras, tape loops, indian experiments, music-hall tunes, fast-then-slow dirges, sound effects, and endless variety shown here blew the door open for many other bands to do the same things. Sure, the Beatles had done most of these things before, and did all of them again after, but this is the place where everything gelled perfectly (although I'd argue if you called this a concept album - other than the 2 title tracks, I see no concept here AT ALL).

Like on my Revolver review, let's discuss all of the part I don't like first. "When I'm Sixty-Four" is cute, sure enough, but if the album contained nothing but tunes like that, I'd probably give it a 7 or something (though it IS cool how it segues from "Within You Without You", which is about as different a tune as you could find, unless you were to somehow hijack "Puncture Wound Massacre" from Cannibal Corpse's Vile album, though that wouldn't work as well, largely due to the fact that "Within You Without You" is beautiful and Cannibal Corpse sucks). And, well... that's about it. This is a very even, very good album.

I could write a lot about all of these tunes, but that would take a long time, and you probably already know this entire album, even if you never bought the album (the only tune here I haven't heard on the radio is "Within You Without You"). First of all, let me rave about the often-dismissed-as-filler "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite", which is one of my favorites. That tune is just so damn WEIRD! It twists and turns, piling up image after image on the listener, taking him or her through lots of weird detours (like that instrumental break in the middle). It rules.

On a similar note, I adore "Within You Without You". It's light years ahead of "Love You To", featuring some gorgeous vocals from George and a super-cool instrumental break. All those sitars and tablas make it work perfectly. "Good Morning Good Morning" is fantastic guitar rock. I love those fast bridges in it. And the main vocal melody isn't anything to sneeze at. "She's Leaving Home" is melodramatic and schmaltzy, but it's oh-so-pretty that I can't slam it at all. You know what? I'm just gonna stop now. I just realized that if I only describe my favorite songs on here, I WILL describe every song on here (except "When I'm Sixty-Four"). So just know that the other songs rule. And "A Day In The Life" is classic in every way, plowing all opposition out of the way and ushering in a new era of rock. So there.

Again, I don't know if I'd call this the best album ever made (there are other Beatles albums just as good, and there are a few albums out there I like just about as much), but if you were to call it the greatest, I wouldn't argue with you. 34 years after this album came out, it might not sound as revolutionary and experimental as you'd expect (there was stuff TONS more "experimental" that this coming out, but those experiments rarely fused with pop songs, and the revolutions made here were copied so much that they won't even sound revolutionary anymore if you're just listening to this album for the first time and haven't listened to a lot of the music that came out before this). Still, this is fantastic pop music, and if you decide to buy it (which I highly recommend), you'll like it. End of review.

* OVERALL RATING: 10 *

(Kevin Baker's review)

Ever been in the mood for a specific song or album? For the last few days, I have listened to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band like ten times...I don't know why I've been in such a Peppery state. Maybe it has to do with the utter joy of BASICALLY HAVING A FIRST GIRLFRIEND AND GOING ON YOUR FIRST DATE TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!! Call me pathetic if you will, but I'm on Cloud Nine.......Thousand. I have never been this giddy before in my life. OK, Ashley and I aren't official yet.....emphasis on the yet part. I bet we will be by Thursday.....oh yeah, this is a music review. Before I fully go into that mode, let me say that Leah is a stuck-up, pretentious weasel who even I think I'm too good for, and this is coming from someone who suffers from marked self-esteem problems at times.

Anyways, if you haven't heard of Sgt. Pepper, you're either a 2-year old, an idiot, or Carol Beatty. Carol is a girl I go to school with who never listens to music or watches TV; she just reads. She didn't even know who Elvis was until last year! That's sad. Anyhow, I say that only to prove a point---this is easily the most universally known and praised album ever, with perhaps the exception of Dark Side Of The Moon. Even then, it's no contest as to which is the more well-known one. Every Beatles fan except one teacher of mine who thinks it's a Satanic plot (no joke) has a copy. Even the most casual classic rock fan usually has a copy or at least an mp3 of A Day In The Life. I normally don't think much of public consensus, but how can anyone say this is not a great album, a musical milestone, and even a cultural landmark? It is all of these, but I don't love it just because it was a cool, hip thing or proof that even that "silly old rock n' roll" could be art. I love it because the music is awesome.

It has become fashionable for people to say that this can't be all that great since it's not serious, etc. Malarky. Where is it written that rock music has to be serious? Nowhere, as far as I am concerned. Yes, these songs are poppy. So is Abbey Road. So is Rubber Soul. So is Revolver. So is a lot of the White Album. So is everything the Fabs did before 1965. This whole criticism of Sgt. Pepper as being too silly or light is so off-base that it's sad to hear. People say because it's "light" that it's not art. Is Monet totally serious? Were all the great early filmmakers serious? Art doesn't have to be serious, it just has to touch emotional centers. That's why it's art. Since life is not all sorrow and heartache, Sgt. Pepper strikes chords in our other emotional centers, and I love it dearly. By the way, if you do want those parts of your emotions probed, listen to She's Leaving Home or A Day In The Life. So there!

Now, the music itself is astoundingly good, even by Beatles standards. Everybody knows half the songs off here, notably the title track (but not normally the reprise), A Day In The Life, With A Little Help From My Friends, When I'm 64, and courtesy of Phillips Magnavox commercials, Getting Better. Oh, and Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. And each of these songs is great, too. The title track has some great brass, With A Little Help has Ringo's best performance as a singer ever, When I'm 64 is irresistibly cute, Getting Better has that sharp guitar lines and a wonderfully catchy chorus, and Lucy In The Sky boasts an assortment of great sounds. I'll save my thoughts on A Day In The Life till the end.

Now, those are the well-known ones. The lesser-known, but just as good, songs are as follows: Fixing A Hole, She's Leaving Home, Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite, Within You Without You, Lovely Rita, Good Morning Good Morning, and the short reprise to the title track. Fixing A Hole has some great harpsichord and a cool guitar solo, She's Leaving Home is an emotional ballad abaout a teen runaway with the most gorgeous harp playing I've ever heard, Mr. Kite has that weird calliope and lyrics from a Victorian circus poster, Within You Without You (my least favorite) is George Harrison's Indian ode to the power of love (I love the laugh track at the end!), Lovely Rita is a cute popsong about a meter maid, Good Morning is a rocker with animal noises and lotsa brass, and the reprise kicks some butt for it's short running time. But none of those songs are the real highlight. Oh no, they save that for the ending.

A Day In The Life is one of the most shatteringly awesome songs ever written. It wrings more emotion from me in one listen that a billion listens to anything else, even my favorite song (Strawberry Fields Forever). It evokes so much emotion in me personally. It's hopeless and hopeful, world-weary yet full of life....it is the song of my life, in all honesty. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is awesome. A perfect album no matter what the naysayers say. Don't deify it; just listen to it and love it.

* OVERALL RATING: 10 *

COMMENTS

what, exactly, makes this "such an important album"?

MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR (1967)

(Casey Brennan's review)

Directly after Sgt. Pepper was made in April of 1967, George Martin said to The Beatles, "Hey guys, come up with more of these great ideas", and so they went to work on Magical Mystery Tour that same month. Unlike Sgt. Pepper's high spirited and perfected experimentation the sound on here is much more trippy, weird, and disorganized. Now into their most heavy LSD period, they were also at their most bigheaded and let their egos run wild in the movie of the same title, which was to be released in December.

The music is still great though -- there are the classics "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" which were originally gonna be on Sgt. Pepper but were made into a single instead. "I Am The Walrus" is the centerpiece of the album and is a pure example of organized chaos; it has some of Lennon's most fascinating word play, complete with a haunting melody drenched in violins and cellos. It's the most psychedelic song on the album, that has a long fade out full of Shakespeare clips and sound effects.

"Blue Jay Way", a haunting Harrison song with swirling organs and is in the same vein as the "I Am The Walrus". Also the 'summer of love' anthem "All You Need Is Love" is on here; it's awesome and considered a classic although it was actually written in a few minutes as an afterthought because they needed a song for their televised special. There are some lightweight piano psychedelic songs from Paul on here like "Fool On The Hill" which is a catchy and highly melodic song and "Your Mother Should Know" which is not bad but more trite. The other songs are all pretty damn good too, especially the title cut which is exciting, and the hip "Baby You're A Rich Man". This was an album in the U.S. but was a double EP in the U.K., so the British had to wait almost a year and a half for another Beatles album to come out -- that sucks.

* OVERALL RATING: 10 *

HIGH POINTS: Penny Lane, Hello Goodbye, I Am The Walrus, Magical Mystery Tour, Strawberry Fields Forever, Fool On The Hill. LOW POINTS: None.

This is actually a 'bastardized' American release, combining the EP of songs from the Beatles' movie of the same name and another EP of singles from around that time (two of which, "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever", were recorded for the last album). Call me crazy, though, but even if the songs here are in a very similar psychedelic vein as Sgt. Pepper (sometimes even trippier), and the overall album doesn't hold a candle to it in terms of revolutionary impact, I really don't think Magical Mystery Tour is the slightest bit weaker than that album - in fact, I somewhat enjoy it more. To me, the actual quality of the songs and their flow together are a lot more effective, and outside of possibly the latter half of Abbey Road with its' epic medley, the second half (featuring the singles) is absolutely one of the most breathtakingly perfect sides of music I've ever heard, and that's saying quite a lot.

The record as a whole kicks off with the title track, which is a classic introductory tune done in a meaningless, but highly anthemic way with awesome backing vocals - a fine setup for the Paul-sung ballad "Fool On The Hill", an extremely powerful tale of an alienated 'fool' set to an upliftingly hopeless melody (yes, that's a contradiction, there), with flute embellishments that contribute to making it another classic. The instrumental "Flying" is a nice transition point (even if it probably worked better in the movie) to the first George tune "Blue Jay Way", a great minor key piece with an absolutely eerie atmosphere - a far better crafted work than the previous album's "Within You Without You" - and the chorus of 'please don't be long...' that comes after the song switches gears is stunning. Then out of nowhere, we get one of the classic 'stupid lyrics over an irresistible melody that most bands would kill for' songs from Paul in "Your Mother Should Know." An extremely catchy song that I'm ashamed to admit is stuck in my head right now.

The centerpiece of the album, of course, is John's "I Am The Walrus", one of his most celebrated works. It's not exactly my favorite Beatles song (or even my favorite on this album) like it is for several others, but it's unparalleled in its' creativeness, from the lyrics so random and goofy it's almost scary, and the music is disoriented as you could possibly imagine, from the samples, the 'hahaha's and such, the ominous violin, you name it - it's there. It's a more than worthy ending to the first side, and the second starts with "Hello Goodbye", another stupid on the surface but glorious tune due to its' amazing melody, quite appropriate guitar breaks, and unexpected chant at the end that brings the song to a perfect close - it's undoubtedly one of those pop songs I shouldn't adore, but maybe since Paul McCartney has just got to be the greatest melody writer ever (which usually elevates any shortcomings to genius), I just love it.

Then comes the two songs that comprise the 'greatest single of all time', symbolizing all that is classic about the individual styles of John and Paul, with John's "Strawberry Fields Forever" a defining song of Beatles '67 that quite impressively melds his sophisticated lyrics and melodies with elaborate background orchestration and horns to go along with a really weird ending. It really would have been more appropriate on Sgt. Pepper instead some of the weaker material, in my opinion, and it probably would have made it a classic, but oh well. Paul's "Penny Lane", which has to rank as one of his absolute best charming pop tunes in my mind, with the amazingly pretty, unbeatable melody and chorus. It's actually my favorite on the album - even with the often dumb lyrics, it's irresistibly playful, and the melody transcends anthing else out there that just happens to be mortal.

The album then comes to its' fantastic finish with the very groovy Eastern-tinged singalong "Baby You're A Rich Man", which most detractors of the album will peg as a low point because of its' seemingly tossed off nature and awkwardness of its chorus, but if you can get past that, there's a powerful bassline there for you, and a first-class melody as usual. To close the album is one of the group's most well-known songs "All You Need Is Love", which was written as an afterthought when they needed a song for their televised special. That explains its' simplistic nature, but the mantra-like beauty of the song is still breathtaking, and the ending (with a hilarious reference to the band's earlier days in the chant of 'she loves you yeah, yeah, yeah' coming out of the horn section) seems to wrap up this release on a perfect note. Magical Mystery Tour may not be formed in the most complete and artistically adequate way imaginable, but almost all of it ranks among the Fab Four's absolute best ever, and that's no small feat.

* OVERALL RATING: 10 *

(Samuel Fassbinder's review)

How do you follow an album as enormous as Sgt. Pepper? The answer is obvious - you don't. This album wasn't even released in Britain - side 1 of it was released as a double EP, and side 2 was just a bunch of stray singles that didn't get released together. In America, though, the double EP soundtrack to the Beatles psychedelic TV special was slapped on one side of a record, and side 2 was cobbled together from the aforementioned singles. By all logic, this album should suck. REALLY bad. Especially considering that the special is supposed to be one of the most godawful things ever released. What do I think about the tossed-off results of this mixture? I think it's every bit as good as Sgt. Pepper was.

You might be thinking "How could this guy rate a slapped together record-company release as highly as Sgt. Pepper?" The answer is this: just look at the songs on this release. Though the album was indeed just pieced together, the actual SONGS pieced together are spectacular beyond words, and as a compilation of sorts, this is immaculate. As I've done before, let me get all of my complaining out of the way. First of all, Harrison's "Blue Jay Way" is a good tune, but it isn't his best Indian tune, and seems a bit weird where it's placed in the album. Secondly, "Baby You're A Rich Man", while good, seems a little weak. This isn't the fault of the song, really - it's good, but it seems pretty weak sandwiched between "Penny Lane" and "All You Need Is Love". Complaints over.

Musically, this album contimues the psychedelia of Sgt. Pepper, but intensifies it significantly. Nothing on that album was really trippy. There are a couple of 'em on this album. One is the aforementioned "Blue Jay Way". Another is the brief, groovy instrumental "Flying", which I like a whole lot. The last is "I Am The Walrus", which may be the best Beatles song. Well, it might not be my absolute favorite, but it's definately in the top 5. Loads of sound effects, a PERFECT vocal melody, and one of the most fascinating codas ever. Oh MAN, is that an awesome song.

The rest hardly falls short of those standards, though. You've probably already heard this whole album in one way or another. The title track, "The Fool On The Hill", "Penny Lane", "I Am The Walrus", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "All You Need Is Love", and "Hello Goodbye" don't require an introduction from me. I'll just state that I love them to death, just like everyone does. So allow me to gush about a slightly more obscure number - Paul's "Your Mother Should Know", which RULES. It's often dismissed as filler, but I don't see it at all. It's so fun! And that melody is infectious. Unbelievably so. Don't believe me? Find a copy of that song and listen to it. Now listen to it again. Try not to sing along. So, all in all, the music here might even be a little BETTER than Sgt. Pepper, but it doesn't have that album's flow, so I guess I'll have to call it a tie. In other words, buy this album the next chance you get.

* OVERALL RATING: 10 *

(Kevin Baker's review)

Well, since there's no political crap to discuss, I think I will just take second to play sequel and carry on my 1st paragraph love life update. Basically, Ashley told me last night that she is "in love" with someone else and feels like that's who God wants her with, and I told her go for him and that I wouldn't feel hurt. Bull. I DO feel hurt, and Leah's starting look a lot less stuck-up and pretentious at the moment. Well, when I feel hurt, I listen to Strawberry Fields Forever; for some reason I fell comforted by that song. So, since I have Magical Mystery Tour, I figured "why not review it?" So I am. Duh.

At any rate, this one is as good but not as good as Sgt. Pepper. While the actual song quality is as a whole better (because of Srawberry Fields, Penny Lane, I Am The Walrus, the title track, The Fool On The Hill...ok, everything but Baby You're A Rich Man and Blue Jay Way), there is no cohesiveness or bonding to hold it all together, so it seems more like a mini-compilation rather than a full album. Admittedly, it almost is, as it is a combo of the Magical Mystery Tour EP and all of the 1967 singles. As it is, 1967 was a GREAT year for music, so that's quite alright by me.

The MMT EP itself was a fairly decent release, marred only by Blue Jay Way. I'm sorry, but it just drags and drags, and it is one of the few Beatlessongs that doesn't take me anywhere. It's overlong, overdull, and really shouldn't have made it on here. Fortunately, the rest of the EP is fantasmo. The title track is just a fun rock and roller with some of the Fab's best brass usage, The Fool On The Hill is one of Paul's best ballad with some gentle flute lines, Flying is a groovy little instrumental, Your Mother Should Know is a cute, funny little peice of nostalgia, and I Am The Walrus is every bit the classic it has come to be. The words are a trip and very fascinating, and all the effects and stuff really make the song sound so....cool. It's one of the most unqiue and distinctive songs in rock.

The singles are no letdowns either, and with the exception of one SERIOUS stinker, they all manage to be as good or better than the rest of the album. Hello Goodbye (the flipside of the I Am The Walrus single) is one of the best pure pop songs they ever did. A wordgame that is catchy as can be. I'll get back to Strawberry Fields in a minute.....I'll need plenty of space to discuss it. Penny Lane is another favorite of mine, and the piccolo trumpet is breathtaking and one of the most unique instrumental embellishments they ever made to a song. But we come down from rock heaven with Baby You're A Rich Man. I HATE THAT SONG! It annoys me, and I find it incredibly stupid. They go too overboard with sounding cool, and apparently forget to make the song catchy withput being obnoxious. It belongs in the trashcan of musical history, in my opinion. However, the naive hopefulness of All You Need Is Love takes away the pain of the preceding track.

Now that the rest of the review is basically done, I'm going to talk about my favorite song of all time, Strawberry Fields Forever. From those opening mellotron-flute parts to the cry of Cranberry Sauce a little later, I cannot get enough of this song. It's totally unique in musical history. One of the first "psychedelic" songs to make an big chart impact, one of the first deeply introspective Lennon songs, and on tops of all of that, it boasts one of the weirdest production stories in history. They had recorded two different takes of the song, one softer and dreamier, the other a bit more rocking with more percussion. Nobody knew which version to put out. So they did the near-impossible and combined the tapes by slightly speeding one up and slowing the other down, resulting in that premature fadeout and also the slight tempo differences, changes in voice, and all other manners of oddities. But it was all perfect for the song. If nothing is real, then why should the song sound real and normal? This one moves me and fascinates me, and I use the wisdom contained within the song in life. I've lost count of how many times I've quoted the song in papers and speeches and such. It's the perfect song for me. Suffice to say, MMT gets a ten from me. It's as good as Sgt. Pepper musically, plus it has Strawberry Fields Forever on it, so it can't be THAT bad.

* OVERALL RATING: 10 *

With each of the Beatles' albums since Help, the previous album reveals in embryo the concept of the album you're listening to, which forms the core concept of the next one that was produced after that. Thus it's worthwhile to listen to them all in chronological order, for they push outward (in a conceptual way) like a flower revealing its petals. Magical Mystery Tour is one of my favorites among these, with the sprawling White Album being my favorite. Oh, sure, a lot of people say it's a soundtrack to a throwaway movie with a bunch of singles tossed in for good measure. The old Rolling Stone album guide even deducted a point and gave it only four stars out of five. Whatever.

The late-period Beatles were a kaleidoscope of viewpoints, George in a fog ("Blue Jay Way" -- this was before Let It Be's "Across the Universe" or the White Album's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"), John residing in his head ("Strawberry Fields Forever") or maybe looking down upon the world ("All You Need Is Love"), Paul going back and forth in time while lingering in an antique shop ("Your Mother Should Know," "Penny Lane," both resting on the shoulders of "When I'm Sixty-Four"). The songs on the albums flit back and forth between the perspectives giving everyone the multiple photoimages that once came in a picture within a cool booklet that you can still find if you can hunt down vinyl edition (reproduced lamely in the CD edition).

The songs are so good that it hardly matters how they were made up, in what order, or which ones made it into the movie. The movie? A kaleidoscope in itself, but you will have to drain your head of starch before you can sit back and laugh, otherwise the wait will be intolerable. OK, this was the LSD period. Hippie ethics makes no distinction between digital and analog, PC or abacus, this is the reason for Joni Mitchell's off-key chorus in "The Circle Game" and it's the reason for the movie. Did of the other reviewers hear this stuff when it first came out?

"The Magical Mystery Tour" is doubtless a takeoff on the Merry Pranksters, OK, the movie was "amateurish," but this was the frontier of LSD experimentation. Now that we rode that wave some time ago we relativize that experience, but it did happen, just as something is happening to us right now. Are we really formative today like we were when we first took psychedelics? Did we experience the light and the darkness and the way to the light, like it describes in the Tibetan Book of the Dead? Or even that cool gross scene in the movie where they heap endless amounts of spaghetti on this plate with a huge trowel, as the sitting woman (or was it a man?) cries?

"The Fool on the Hill" was the Maharishi, of course, the real Nowhere Man to be sure. "Flying" is a trip, and "Blue Jay Way" an extended pun -- "please don't be long, please don't belong" -- an anthem of coming together and separation, all in that "fog upon LA." "I Am The Walrus" is the movie's masterpiece song, "everybody's got one" dropped in as John's theme of universality, the chorus at the end. You were supposed to be cresting upon your tab of Yellow Sunshine as you listen to the sound collage at the end (if you can remember back to a time long before one's TV set equated petty drug use with terrorism). "Hello Goodbye" is the sort of nonsense we can hear in (Yellow Submarine's) "All Together Now," but in this song we are playing Freud's first game, "fort-da." Now you see me, now you don't. The lyrics of "Strawberry Fields Forever" are incomparably profound, this song will echo in your head for weeks. I'm not going to interpret them, they say what they say. Nothing is real. You might even remember the part of the movie where Strawberry Fields is mentioned.

"Penny Lane" tries to bring an exotic, detached feeling to images of cleanliness and order, "then the fireman rushes in/ through the pouring rain/ very strange" under suburban skies. "Baby You're A Rich Man" makes light of the band's wealth. "And have you traveled very far? Far as the eye can see," existentially-speaking. This song has an underappreciated bass line. "All You Need Is Love" tells us there's "No one you can save that can't be saved," I guess the idea is that you're getting the rest already, so all you need is love. Spooky echo at the end: "She loves you / yeah yeah yeah." Did anyone here see the original telecast performance of this song?

This was the Beatles at their most existential, before the glut of sign and substance and stop that was "Yellow Submarine," before the evil mass-media gossip about how "Helter Skelter" (from the White Album) inspired Charles Manson to commit murder, and definitely before the endless 1970s gossip about when will the Beatles get together again, before John was killed and the hopes of the period died with him. We might have hoped for something more from George on these Beatles albums after the unfolding of (Sergeant Pepper's) "Within You Without You," but I guess that's what the early George solo albums were about. (Try Wonderwall Songs.)

Why am I reviewing this, even after four previous authors did so? I thought someone ought to get past the technical and anecdotal stuff on this album to discuss the intimations of headspace that made it so great, even as the oldtimers might sniff and say, "Oh, LSD? I don't do that anymore." What would history be if none of this stuff had ever happened? (I can imagine it looking like the forthcoming Episode III of Star Wars, where Anakin becomes Vader.) Otherwise the reader is likely to wonder why some MJA reviewers conceded this album a 10 before criticizing it so thoroughly. Its reputation precedes it like a rainbow-colored aura.

* OVERALL RATING: 10 *

THE BEATLES (WHITE ALBUM) (1968)

(Casey Brennan's review)

The Beatles had just come back from meditation in India with over 30 new songs written, and they wanted to record every song so it was quite certain at the time that it would be a double album. The songs are of varying quality, but what an astonishing set of songs. The order these are in on the album is quite effective and set off a tone for how each following track is going to enter; also the many different styles and genres The Beatles tackle on here is amazing. The songs range from fast rockers ("Back In The U.S.S.R."), novelty piano tunes ("Ob-La-Di ,Ob-La-Da"), humorous ("The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill"), blues ("Yer Blues"), hard rock ("Helter Skelter"), countryish ("Rocky Raccoon"), the avant-garde ("Revolution 9") and so on.

Fast, slow, hard, soft, silly, short, and long are all words to describe the music here, with a few mumbles, sound effects, and studio oddities thrown in. One example of this is how "Bungalow Bill" shoves itself right into the classic George song "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", which has some great guitar soloing done by Eric Clapton. The other three George songs on here are also great - "Piggies" is a harpsichord and violin song about snobs, "Savoy Truffle" is very entertaining with its great guitar fills and saxes, and "Long, Long, Long" which is emotionally stirring and the quietest one on here of all (interestingly, it's right after the hardest and loudest song "Helter Skelter").

Basically, The Beatles were coming out of their psychedelic period and were writing more emotional, personal, or sarcastic songs. Most of them are John's such as "Julia", a gentle and acoustic ballad about John's mom; "Glass Onion" a sarcastic reference to other Beatle songs that has a neatly played violin fade-out; and "I'm So Tired" which is about his discontent with missing normal life while out in India. One of the best songs on here, though, are the tricky times and tempos of "Happiness Is A Warm Gun". It has four distinct sections in it, it starts out as being a dark ballad and turns out to have a 50's doo-wop flavor to it at the end, all this in one breathtaking sweep.

Some of the weaker cuts are "Wild Honey Pie", "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?", and the first Ringo song "Don't Pass Me By"; but they are all still enjoyable because of their humorous quality and how they are sequenced throughout the album. Part 1 of White Album is the softer one of the two, because the 2nd part contains a lot of the heavier stuff, but all in all it is a consistent and very varied album. This is the ultimate Beatles album that still shows them as a unity and collaborators, although a lot of the songs on here are also done on an individual basis. What more can you ask for with this album? You have The Beatles doing every genre they can within their sound and making it their own.

* OVERALL RATING: 10 *

HIGH POINTS: Birthday, Mother Nature's Son, Julia, Rocky Raccoon, Dear Prudence, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Happiness Is A Warm Gun, Martha My Dear, Yer Blues, I'm So Tired, Sexy Sadie, Helter Skelter, Piggies. LOW POINTS: Honey Pie.

The Beatles entered their later, more mature period following their psychedelic releases of the previous year with the intent of recording and releasing their newest, quite varied bunch of songs in a double album set. So varied, in fact, that it's probably the most diverse, comprehensive album in rock music history, proving the Fab Four could attempt basically any musical style they wanted to and get away with it within these 30 tracks. Not only that, but the diversity of the material could have suggested an incoherent, messy record whose songs don't flow together at all, but incredibly, the exact opposite is the case - the order of the songs is just about as high level genius as the songs themselves, as whether they're novelty, hard rock, swing, pure pop, acoustic, or whatever, each one seems quite naturally designed to precede and follow the next, which makes for a thrilling experience.

The first record is easily the most powerful in its' presentation in its' overwhelming range, from the opening (the irresistibly catchy and rather hilarious Beach Boys sendup "Back In The U.S.S.R.", which throws in references to Moscow girls that 'make me sing and shout' and a reference to Ray Charles) to the closing (the introspective and sincere acoustic ballad "Julia", whose passionately beautiful chorus melody absolutely takes my breath away, and it has to rank amongst my imaginary list of the most gorgeous songs of all time), and everything in between, which is no slouch either. Two amazing George Harrison classics highlight here as well. "My Guitar Gently Weeps" is probably the most popular here, deservedly so, as it has a dramatic, emotional build (the 'I don't know whyyyyyyyyyy...' refrain rules) to showstopping guest solos from Eric Clapton. The short harpsichord-led satire of "Piggies" is irresistibly clever and memorable in its' lyrical put-downs of snobs, too (with cool pig noises to boot).

Of course, no Beatles album would be complete with 'so extremely stupid it's irresistible' novelty piano pop, and "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" is certainly a highlight in that department, a universally recognized tale of 'Desmond and Molly' with a seemingly banal premise, but immortally fun melody and chorus that seems so timeless it's hard to believe it didn't exist before 1968. There's even a hysterical kiddie singalong "The Continuing Adventures Of Bungalow Bill", with the silly lyrics in the slow-moving verse (actually written by John) wonderfully building up to it, and the 'hey up!' transition at the end moving to "My Guitar Gently Weeps" is so perfect it simply defies description.

These two perfectly contrast more extremely beautiful ballad fare like Paul's soulful dedication to his sheepdog "Martha My Dear" (whose piano intro is just an immaculately beautiful moment, and it has a romantic feel I just totally adore) and the majestic, child-like "Dear Prudence", whose quiet acoustic guitar parts with that great melody create a really poignant effect, even when the song gets to a harder ending. "I Will" and "Blackbird" are two lesser, but still great, softer songs by Paul - the former lasts less than two minutes but manages to create a warm melodic feeling anyway, and the latter really hits the mood of the 'blackbird singing in the dead of night' line perfectly in its' sparse arrangement. "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" even expertly condenses a long epic into a two and a half minute pop format, which boasts a surreal beginning, an intense 'Mother Superior jump the gun!' section, and a simply great doo-wop and harmony filled ending.

There's also a reference to the past here - "Glass Onion" is a really cool way of slamming the door on the band's psychedelic era by the song title references from that period in the lyrics (Strawberry fields, the walrus was Paul, etc.) in a clever way without sounding recycled, while "I'm So Tired" is a rather perfect title for this weary John ballad with a very striking chorus (by the time it gets to the part where he screams, 'I'm going insane!', especially), "Rocky Raccoon" is a charming 'saloon' ballad with an unbeatable melody from Paul as usual (man, for such a simplistic song, it manages to remain totally powerful with its' funny lyrical images), and Ringo's contribution "Don't Pass Me By" pales in comparison to the other stuff but by any other standard is a fine melodic number, if a bit repetitive. Even two of the shorter 'tossoffs' "Wild Honey Pie" and the bluesy (and controversial) "Why Don't We Do It In The Road" have enough ideas that they could have been developed into fuller songs quite easily, especially the latter with its' hilarious over the top screams of the title and amazing Paul vocal range.

Record number two boasts some of the most harder-edged songs they ever attempted, including "Helter Skelter", the heaviest Beatles tune and intense enough to be the loudest thing in its' time (also including Ringo's famous cry 'I've got blisters on my fingers!'), with its' 'roller coaster' inspired lyrics mistakenly associated with Charles Manson, and "Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey", an absolutely fabulous riff tune which people probably dismiss as filler because of its' title, but you shouldn't - it's totally convincing and hard-hitting. "Sexy Sadie" and "Cry Baby Cry" also work well in the piano-pop and acoustic vein respectively, the former with a passionate piano-laden melody in which John really gives it his all, and the latter is a noteworthy understated ballad sung by John with a perfect appearance by Paul in its' reappearing ending.

But my favorite sequence here has to be the opening three songs. "Birthday", in addition to being my favorite song here, is one of the most convincing and direct 'short' rockers I've ever heard, with one of the best Beatles riffs of all time, simple but extraordinarily effective melodies (I simply can't get enough of the energy and fun of this song) and great lyrics about celebrations and stuff like that, while "Yer Blues" is one of the few blues songs they ever did, but oh man is it awesome in its' presentation as of one of John's confessional numbers (with an ultra-memorable hard hitting atmosphere about it), and "Mother Nature's Son" is perhaps the highpoint of all the ballads on the entire set, with maybe the most gorgeous and soaring melody on the album that flows so wonderfully as if it took you right to some beautiful, calm place where life just seems like heaven. It's the sort of melody that no one can beat Paul at.

Oh yeah, there's also two George compositions on this portion of the album (a record setting four from him), with "Long, Long, Long" being the quietest and most unmemorable song of the whole album, but it's mood is quite beautiful enough for me to appreciate and become addicted to, and the rocking, horn filled dessert ode "Savoy Truffle" is pure entertainment, and it's certainly also notable. Side four also features two more John contributions, and both are among his most notorious - though "Revolution 1" works better in its' harder, faster single form (found on Past Masters), it's still a really great protest song that perfectly captures the unrest of 1968, while the startiling, notorious "Revolution 9" you've probably already heard about as a disorienting sound collage that goes all over the place, and it's really one of those things you must experience at least once, with numerous interesting samples

The remaining two songs, the swing number "Honey Pie" (probably the only track I don't care for at all, simply because Paul really takes the sap too far here) and the MGM-styled orchestral ballad "Good Night" (sung by Ringo in a gorgeous, though a bit schmaltzy, sweep), are possibly overly sappy, but like most everything else here, they have entirely memorable hooks, and are essential to the album's sequence (especially the latter that closes everything). Sorry this song-oriented analysis was so long, but does it ever need to be (it's absolutely dizzying in its' variety and depth, and there's something for everyone on this collection!), as the 'more Beatles is better Beatles' theory definitely works here, making it their most quintessential album, and arguably their best ever (though my current favorite is still Abbey Road by just a little).

* OVERALL RATING: 10 *

The Beatles were hardly even a band when this album was recorded - they all pretty much hated each other (except for Ringo - really now, how could anyone dislike Ringo?), and they all wrote songs individually which had little or nothing to do with each other's. And due to them pulling apart so quickly, John and Paul both wrote a HUGE amount of songs (in addition to 4 George songs and, *gasp*, a RINGO song!!!) and refused to compromise. As a result, the Beatles just recorded every last one of them. Again, much like Magical Mystery Tour, this should be an ungodly splintered mess. But again, it isn't. In fact, in my opinion, this is THE best Beatles album, and one of my 3 or 4 favorite albums of all time.

The first big reason is the absolute diversity of the material. This album ranges from good-time rock 'n' roll ("Back In The USSR"), gorgeous acoustic balladry ("Blackbird", "Mother Nature's Son"), blues rock ("Yer Blues", "Revolution 1"), Frank Zappa-ish experimental weirdness ("Revolution 9", "Wild Honey Pie"), novelty tunes ("Piggies", "The Continuing Adventures Of Bungalow Bill", "Don't Pass Me By"), and... well, you get the idea. This might be the most diverse album in pop music history. What makes it so awesome in particular is that all these songs flow together perfectly! I mean it! The goofy shenanigans of "Bungalow Bill" sounds like a natural precursor for George's gorgeous hymn "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (featuring a fantastic solo by the man that everyone in the world has a love/hate relationship with, Eric Clapton).

Even if the album was the most diverse album ever and everything flowed correctly, the album would still not be great on those facts alone. The songs would need to be really, really good as well. And, with a couple of exceptions (the fifties throwback of "Honey Pie" sucks, and "Good Night" is unbearably cheesy, ending the album on a down note), they do. Several of the tunes here are among my all time favorites - Paul's "Blackbird" is gorgeous beyond my ability to express, "Helter Skelter" is one of the most fantastic hard rockers ever, "Revolution" is a perfect doo-wop tinged blues number (unlike most, I actually prefer it to its speedier single version).

My favorite, though, will probably surprise some. No, it isn't "Revolution 9", which is an interesting sound collage, but Frank Zappa did it better. Nope, I'm talking about "Martha My Dear", Paul's ultimate good-time love song, features the most perfect vocal line I've ever heard and features a PERFECT arrangement - this piano line flows into an orchestra, and then the horn solo... aw man, that song chokes me up every time. I could go on like this about every song, but I won't. Needless to say, you really should get this. Unfortunately, Apple Records will charge you something like 38 bucks for it. Get it cheaper if you can, but if not, bite the bullet and buy this anyway.

* OVERALL RATING: 10 *

[email protected] (didier Dumonteil)

COMMENTS

excuse-me,but dear Prudence is a John song!Never mind,i totally agree with you;the white album is a work for which even 10 is not enough.should take another scale for such monuments.Didier

[email protected] (Brad Langoulant)

I think Philip Maddox's summed up what is so good about the white album when he said that his favourite song is "Martha My Dear". Its not that i agree with him on "Martha My Dear" being the best song on the album but the fact that you can ask 30 diferent people for there favouite songs and could get 30 different responses is the thing that makes The White album so good.

Dear Prudence ... starts like a letter, a small note you would write to a friend who needs a wake up call. It says all that needs to be said - simply, quietly.

In my world it is the most perfect beatles song. The white album

The perfect album to introduce the beatles to children to, to have a journey with.

This album has it all…Blues, Harmonies, Metal, Basic Rock and Roll…But still, there is one song really that outshines everything else on this amazing and eclectic record to me…

Dear Prudence: A song that never bores me…because its beauty lies in its quietness and the way it slowly builds up the tension…maybe the Beatles best melody ever (isn’t that a controversial statement, but I almost have no doubts about that)…and of course, the harmonies are amazing too…As James Alroy said, “harmonies which would put The Byrds to shame”…Actually, The Byrds would seem amateurish in comparison to this effort because a lot of their songs focus excessively on the harmonies and forget the actual melody, while the strength of this one is the tone and the atmosphere…the harmonies only increase the strength of the song…The exact reason that no one has ever beaten The Beatles at their game…

YELLOW SUBMARINE (1969)

(reviewed by Casey Brennan)

This is the soundtrack to The Beatles cartoon of the same title. It's not very worthwhile because there are only 4 new songs on here; the rest of it is made up of two older Beatles songs, and a side full of the George Martin orchestra. Of the four songs "Hey Bulldog" is the best with a powerful piano riff that won't quit and fierce singing. This one dates back to early 1968 and is the point where John was coming out of his LSD phase and into his heroin phase. Also two other good ones are "Only A Northern Song" and "It's All Too Much" which are both George songs that are full of sound effects that appear to be haphazardly put in all over the place. The latter song comes in with some psychedelic feedback and turns into an acid style midtempo rock song that goes on for 6 minutes; both from 1967. The last is "All Together Now" which is just OK, because it is rather silly but it's so short so it doesn't bother me. That's all their is on here that is Beatles music besides "Yellow Submarine" and "All You Need Is Love", which can be found on other albums.

OVERALL RATING: 6

ABBEY ROAD (1969)

(Casey Brennan's review)

This is The Beatles last album to be recorded (though not the last to be released) and is a masterpiece in every way. It is their most modern sounding because of it being recorded on 8-track and having some synthesizer on it. Side one is made up of individual songs by all four Beatles, while side two is a classic slice of rock/pop songs formed into one long medley. What this album did is it showed that Rock was a mature type of music during that time, because of the layers of musical richness on here. There is a lot production on this album like Sgt. Pepper but is totally different sounding than that (no traces of psychedelia, and more texture to it).

"Come Together" opens up the album as a blues based rocker that is one of John's best; the phrase 'shoot me' that he sings against McCartney's bass is a thrill, and the guitar solo in the middle is great too. George's song "Something" is the best of his career; it is a moving ballad full of perfectly restrained guitar lines and sweeping orchestra that has a dramatic middle eight. "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" is next, an enjoyable novelty tune full of hammer sounds and a little synthesizer, that was hated by the other Beatles because of its silliness. It has a great melody nevertheless, though I can see how the other Beatles must have gotten annoyed with Paul, because of how much time in the studio he took on this one.

"Oh Darling" is a far cry from the previous track; it has a 50's vocal style to it in a late 60's rock/pop setting, and makes good use of Paul's range. "Octopus's Garden" is Ringo's second and last Beatles song, it's not half bad, but then comes the side closer "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", which is a truly dark and powerful bluesy song. It has very few lyrics but is a major highlight on here with it's mood and how the repeating riff keeps on going and going at the end, until it comes to a complete stop unexpectedly.

"Here Comes The Sun" another George song opens up side two and has a nice melody; "Because" is next and has some of The best harmonies ever done by the fab four. "You Never Give Me Your Money" is a major highlight on here that starts off as a ballad and goes into some musical twists that are simply breathtaking and masterful. This flows right into "Sun King", a song sung in half French, that starts off the medley. The rest of this medley is truly a piece of art in the way it is put together; "Mean Mr. Mustard", "Polythene Pam", and "She Came In Through Through The Bathroom Window" follow in one gigantic sweep; brilliantly played, fast, and quirky.

"Golden Slumbers", which has the same intro as "You Never Give Me Your Money", is a piano-orchestrated tune full of emotion and segues right into "Carry That Weight" which is about how the group were able to stay together through thick and thin. Last in the medley comes "The End" with the only drum solo in a Beatles recording (Ringo hated drum solos) that turns into a rocking manifesto with George and John taking turns playing lead guitar. Perfect way to end The Beatles career. But that's not it, stacked on the end is the ditty "Her Majesty". There we go, one of the best and most perfect Beatles albums and one of their best sellers, so The Beatles go out on a high note (but there is still more).

* OVERALL RATING: 10 *

HIGH POINTS: Here Comes The Sun, Something, Maxwell's Silver Hammer, You Never Give Me Your Money, Oh! Darling, I Want You (She's So Heavy), Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End. LOW POINTS: None.

This was The Beatles' final album together as a group (not Let It Be, which emerged the following year), and without a doubt in my mind, it is one of the most thrilling and rewarding albums ever made - the best swan song ever, if not the single greatest album of all time. For one last time, John, Paul, George and Ringo were able to work out their differences and anger toward each other and come up with an utterly stunning product - with vital contributions by all four. It is also their most mature and modern-sounding album, which is probably a big reason why I love it so much, with great production, effortless flow between tracks, and a showcase of the individual talents that made this band great. It may not be too thrilling on the surface that the band broke up just eight years into their career, but it has undoubtedly helped their reputation as 'the greatest band to ever exist' live on, and the thought of them actually putting out a horrible product is something unfathomable to me, although it might have happened based on the quality of a few of those solo albums....

In any case, on to the highlights here (out of the many, many there are). George's "Here Comes The Sun" is probably my favorite of all, a mainly acoustic number that, combined with perfect synth washes, the delicate acoustic parts, it's simply beautiful beyond words in its' melody and atmosphere, but virtually anything can be considered classic on here. The showcase of the staggering four part band harmonies in "Because" that follows it, for instance, has such a haunting yet inviting tone to it, which is a very great contrast in its' all too brief length, and even Ringo gets into the act by contributing possibly the best song he's ever written in the classic pop tune "Octopus's Garden", whose memorable refrain will sure to get stuck in your head, and it one ups "Yellow Submarine" in entertainment and charm.

Elsewhere, the opening "Come Together" is the most well known song on here, with its' bassline perfectly merging with its' rhythm and psychedelic wordplay over a melody that was partially stolen from Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me" is a quite interesting number that I certainly acknowledge as a classic despite hearing its' chorus (and that opening bassline) enough times to the point of nauseation. "Oh! Darling" is a seriously passionate old rock and roll style ballad whose most special feature is its' absolutely prime Paul vocals, and "Something" is another peak for George in the songwriting department as a breathtaking love song, with extremely well placed piano chords in the middle eight and slow poppy verses that pretty much cement the song as an all-time pop classic. Very symphonic and tasteful.

As far as the biggest 'lighthearted Paul moment' goes, "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" has a premise that sounds so idiotic (the main character in the song basically goes around killing people with the thing), and it was a big point of annoyance in the Beatles' history on account of Paul taking so much time on it, but that melody - any band would kill for a vocal melody that great, regardless of the lyrics, and the appearance of synths later on in the song is awesome beyond words. As much of a love/hate song as that is, though, the biggest point of controversy here, though, seems to be the nearly 8 minute long "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", which basically has only four lines of lyrics the whole way through and repeats the same groove and later a dark riff over and over again until it just cuts off. Fortunately, though, The Beatles were one of the few bands talented enough to get away with a song like that, and I enjoy every second of the drama that contrasts the following beauty of "Here Comes The Sun" - plus, it probably helped build the career of quite a few dirge-like bands (The Cure or Type O Negative, the latter which covered the song in a medley).

I haven't even gotten to one of the most distinguishing features of the album, though. Towards the beginning of the second side, after "Here Comes The Sun", "Because", and one of the hugest highlights of the album in "You Never Give Me Your Money" (which has very bizarre, but flowing lyrics, fantastic melodies, and great vocal range by Paul - I originally thought John sang part of it actually, and I simply love the transitions from the verses to the refrains) comes a medley of 'outtakes' conceived mostly by Paul that run together in suite like form. These outtakes generally run about a minute or two long, and aren't phenomenal by themselves, though they've still absolutely got unique individual melodies, and are rather fun. Flowing together in suite like form, though, it produces a really gripping, immortal effect.

Silly numbers like "Polythene Pam" (a fast rock and roll tune with hilarious lyrics and a 'race to the end' melody), "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window" (a funny blues), and "Mean Mr. Mustard" (a quirky piano tune) balanced with heavenly moments like "The Sun King" (a ballad which features George singing in French). The highpoint of this portion, though, comes when "Golden Slumbers", the absolute climax of the entire medley, with a beyond breathtaking melody and emotional lyrics, merges with "Carry That Weight" (a huge anthemic number) and the last moments of "The End", which feature dueling George and John guitars, a Ringo drum solo(!) and a gorgeous call of 'and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make' - truly something that must be heard to be believed. In all, this may not be nearly as revolutionary as other efforts, but everything about Abbey Road is well-crafted to the point that it hits in just the right spots at the right time emotionally, and that's something those albums can hardly match, as brilliant as they are. This defines the word 'essential'.

* OVERALL RATING: 10 *

This album, the last the Beatles recorded, but not the last they released, is considered by many to be their finest, but then again, so is just about every album from Rubber Soul on. I won't argue that it's a really, really good record. I don't think it's their best, though. In fact, I consider it to be the weakest of their "classic period" from Rubber Soul on. Most of my problems on this record fall on side 1. A collection of six unrelated songs, they just don't seem like the best songs that the Fab Four ever recorded. "Come Together" is a decent blues number, but it was never one of my favorites. "Oh Darling" is a decent soul number, though it is quite generic. "Something" is another good George Harrison love song, but I don't consider it to be among his best either - very pretty, but not quite great.

Most of my problems come on the two most often maligned numbers here - "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". "Maxwell" is a VERY dippy novelty number with a so-so melody and lyrics that kinda kill my love for the song. And "I Want You" is a decent, slow hard rocker, but it lasts for over 7 minutes. It's supposed to be threatening, but it leaves me kinda bored. WAY too long. Unbelievably, my favorite song on this half of the record is "Octopus' Garden", a RINGO number! Goofy and dippy, but SO MUCH FUN! A GREAT little fun tune, way better than "Maxwell".

Side 2 blows away all doubts of the album's worth, though. Consisting of the famous suite (plus Harrison's perfectly gorgeous "Here Comes The Sun", one of the greatest Beatle songs ever), it rules consistently. The most famous bit is "Golden Slumbers", which segues into "Carry That Weight" and "The End", all of which get played on the radio a lot, and deservedly - they're absolutely perfect. My favorite moment in the suite, though, is the beautiful beyond words "Because", a nearly a capella number with the creepiest, darkest, most gorgeous vocal harmonies I've ever heard. Simply stunning. Perhaps the best side of Beatles music, and that says a lot. So, sorry about the lower rating, but side 1 keeps me from raising it higher. This is still a necessity in your CD collection, though, and this is a Beatles 8 this is getting, which is probably a 9 in most places. If I sounded angry, I'm not - the first half is still good, but in my opinion, isn't quite prime Beatles.

OVERALL RATING: 8

(Kevin Baker's review)

My goodness. The perfect record. I don't know how mortal man could put together such an incredible collection of songs that say so much and move so much in so little time. There are majestic, soaring moments alongside humble, gentle moments and cathartic, poignant moments....this is the only album that has ever literally brought me to tears. It also makes me laugh in parts. I love it to death.

Ha, I bet you thought I would go straight into a run-down style review from there. No such thing. This is my review, and if I want to do things in a nonstandard order, I will. So, I'm going to talk about the continuing sonic evolution of Apollo 18, my band. We had a very good jam session yesterday, in which we all realized we all like, and are all good at, playing hard rock. So, that's what we do. But we're not just hard rockers; we have a sense of humor, and we also have my oddly special poetic lyrics and really quite passable riffing abilities. So, you of course will want to preorder our cd for $5 just by sending a simple little email to me! OK, back to the Beatles.

Everybody has likely heard the classic that opens this gem, Come Together. The bassline is really a show-stealing feature of the song, threatening to overtake John's fascinating lyrics and excellent delivery. Meanwhile, Ringo is drumming like there's no tomorrow, and this record does indeed hold probably Ringo's best album performance. I'm also a big fan of Something, which is considered by many to be the best love song ever written. There is a legitimate reason why this was the A-side of the Come Together single---it's GREAT!!! I really like the liquidy guitar tone George uses. It seems so perfect for the song.

Elsewhere, we have Maxwell's Silver Hammer, which, while not one of my favorites, DOES manage to be almost annoyingly catchy and sing-along-ish, plus it makes good use of synths and sound effects. In a display of opposites, we have the almost stripped down, raw Oh! Darling. The story goes that Paul secretly rehearsed the vocals for a week before they recorded it to get that raw, emotional vocal that is indeed the highlight of the song. John thought he could have done better, but I don't know about that; Paul could hold his own with the best of them when it came to singing a rock and roll song. By the way, the other Beatles didn't hate Maxwell's Silver Hammer because it was dopey; they hated it because Paul made them do 50 takes on it in a row.

Heck, this is such a primo Beatles album that even Ringo gets a chance to shine on Octopus's Garden, which is one of my favorites on the album, actually. I really like octopi, though, so maybe I'm biased. Yes, chicks do find that weird. Leah did think it was funny in an odd way, though.. The "epic" of the album is I Want You (She's So Heavy), and it really is kind of menacing, and definitely avant-garde with all the static and white noise. Also, never before had the Fabs had guitar-vocal interplay like they do on that song; it's almost scary how well it works. In a totally different direction, we have yet another famed song and one of George's best songs, Here Comes The Sun. We go from menacing blizzard to sunny springtime. How cool is that? Very, I say. My favorite part of the song is the middle eight (sun, sun, sun here it comes). They then blow our minds with a three part harmony on Becuase that the Beach Boys would have killed for.

Then we go into the famous suite---You Never Give Me Your Money, Sun King, Mean Mr. Mustard, Polythene Pam, She Came In Through The Bathroom Window, Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight, and The End. I ignore Her Majesty, and so should you. Now, the suite as a whole is something totally revolutionary and ultra-cool. While it works as a unit, it also does on a song-by-song basis. You Never Give Me Your Money is almost an overture of the whole thing, and each little segment is great, with excellent bass and guitar throughout. Sun King is very lazy, Mean Mr. Mustard has a WICKED bassline and is funny, Polythene Pam's got some wickedly funny lyrics and some cookin' guitar, She Came In Through The Bathroom Window is my favorite part of the suite as in 2 minutes' time, it has great guitar, intriguing words, and another faboo delivery from Paul, Golden Slumbers is simply majestic, Carry That Weight is almost anthemic, and The End is just that. It sums up the Beatles in 2 minutes. And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

* OVERALL RATING: 10 *

LET IT BE (1970)

(Casey Brennan's review)

The sessions for this album were frustrating, disastrous, and gloomy. While the final product has traces of this there are still plenty of good songs on here. It was supposed to be a "get back" album to their roots, with hardly any overdubs (almost like an anti-Sgt. Pepper) and for the most part that's how it is, although after it was aborted Phil Spector picked up the pieces and added some orchestration on a few tracks. The best track on here is "Let It Be"; it's about Paul and how he realizes that if the group was gonna split it was gonna split, just let things be. It's a ballad that contains some heartfelt lyrics and a great guitar solo in the middle. That's one of the songs with orchestration added to it, another one that has it is "The Long And Winding Road", which has a good melody but is bogged down by the shmaltzy orchestra.

The rest of the album shows the Beatles live and bare to the bones in the studio with some rough and bluesy songs like "Dig A Pony" and "I've Got A Feeling", which are both highlights. Their is also "Two Of Us", an acoustic song that starts off the album and shows them at their simplest. George has two songs on here "For You Blue" which is one of his lesser ones, and the short half rocking "I, Me, Mine" that is actually the last Beatles song to be worked on in the studio. Throughout this their are little studio chatters in between each song which gives it a live feel; this adds to the strength of the album and shows the less serious side to the group. The only thing that keeps this from being a classic is that their are a couple sloppily played rock n' roll songs on here, and two short ones "Dig It" and "Maggie Mae" which are interesting, but nothing special.

OVERALL RATING: 9

HIGH POINTS: Across The Universe, Let It Be, I've Got A Feeling, The Long And Winding Road, Get Back. LOW POINTS: None.

Everyone knows this isn't really the Beatles' final album, as much as it more obviously shows that the band was beyond repair in terms of staying together. It was intended to be a 'back to the roots' album with a very live in the studio (or in some cases, live on the rooftop) feeling to several songs here. The tension during the recording, in fact, was so high that the album sessions during early 1969 were actually abandoned, with Phil Spector doing some controversial overdubbing work afterwards (adding strings and embellishments). This approach to the recording, and the state of the band, left a good amount of the album in a very raw and sometimes even unfinished-sounding state, with the actual quality of the songs on the whole not being quite as great as before. Consequently, some critics spit on this album (I particularly love how the Musichound Guide To Rock gave it one bone out of five and called it the 'depressing sound of a band breaking up'), ignoring the fact that this is still peak period Beatles we're dealing with, and even their "half-assed" efforts during this time kick tons of bands out the door.

I might as well get the lesser songs out of the way first. Quite the contrary to Abbey Road, while the two Harrison songs here are still very good, both of them feel less filling than his best work, particularly the slide guitar 'blues' of "For You Blue" (excellent guitar work, but an unassuming, if still nice, melody). "I, Me, Mine" is better, particularly the effective way the beautiful gospel-ish verses contrast with the repetitive rocking chorus, even if it sounds a little underdeveloped. There are also a couple very short interlude bits that don't hurt the album's quality on the whole (and actually help its' flow), but nobody's going to argue that the groove "Dig It" or the rootsy extract of the "Maggie Mae" cover are at all substantial. And even though the bluesy "Dig A Pony" is entertaining, it seems way too awkward lyrically (with the rawness a bit distracting). I do enjoy how the chorus melodically sounds like Joe Cocker's radical reworking of "With A Little Help From My Friends", though.

However, all of these songs are good - they merely prevent the album from hitting the usual 10 quality of their mid-late period, a quality which most of the rest really lives up to. As on Abbey Road (though to not as great a degree), there are a few songs here that actually feel uplifting in the face of tension and frustrating times. I particularly love the homely and comforting tone of the opening acoustic singalong "Two Of Us", which has a very bouncy and infectious country-tinged melody, and the rocker "One After 909" (actually a song they performed in their very early period) has fabulous tightness and unity in Lennon and McCartney's singing, with great organ embellishments. Also, I view "I've Got A Feeling" as one of the most obviously stunning examples of how well their individual songwriting complements each other - it's basically a simple bluesy ballad with Paul singing some romantic lyrics in his convincing rougher tone, with John later joining in on the completely different, but seamless, 'everybody had a hard year...' melody, and both of them sing their parts at the same time later on for an astoundingly cool effect.

And the remaining four songs are just as classic, and in some cases even surpassing that collaborative work of towering genius. Of course, the most notorious hit is the McCartney penned title track, which can easily be taken as a farewell statement, with the emotional tone of the lyrics (though they are actually a tribute to his late mother). Not to mention the melody and arrangement (with effective organ, and one of the best guitar solos in their canon) is completely top-notch. I probably love the Lennon ballad "Across The Universe" even more, though, as it somehow hits upon an absolutely amazing, complex melody (and I really mean amazing) within the simple acoustic guitar atmosphere and mysterious lyrics. And what about those orchestral embellishments? Among the most haunting and otherworldly I've ever heard. What an astonishing song that one is.

As for the other song with orchestral use, "The Long And Winding Road" is often criticized for being ruined by that very feature, and I can see how it would make the song overly sappy for some listeners. I can't share that mindset, though - the orchestral bursts give it a perhaps even more epic quality than it previously had (even if Macca didn't agree, as he was furious at Spector for this), the melody is beautifully majestic, and the lyrics are in some ways an even more appropriate Beatles epitaph than the title track. Not that I mind the closing single "Get Back" as an end to the album (even if I prefer the single version on Past Masters 2) - it sums up the 'back to the roots' feel the band intended for the album perhaps more than any song here, as McCartney sings a powerful anthemic melody in his 'bluesy' voice, with more great organ going in the background and B.B. King-styled licks throughout. All in all... a fantastic effort - a strong 9 (close to 9.5), a work any band would be proud of...... and yet it doesn't even approach the top half of their 'best albums' list. How dare they release a 'subpar' effort like this!

OVERALL RATING: 9

1962-1966 (1973)

(reviewed by Robert Grazer)

HIGH POINTS: It's a Beatles compilation (All). LOW POINTS: None.

I think a lot of people are too hard on this album. And yeah, they have their reasons to do so. The most important of these is that there's no reason to get this if you have all of The Beatles' albums, since there's nothing like any bonus tracks or anything like that, and you have the songs here if you have their albums and the Past Masters compilations. There's nothing new here. But on the other hand this album shouldn't be for people who are already Beatles fans. The Red and Blue compilations should be for those interested in The Beatles, because while there may have been better selections from their early albums, no one would ever be able to agree on it. So take what most people consider to be the defining early moments and be done with it. I like this compilation, though I don't often listen to it. It's a better place to get acquainted with The Beatles than One, that's for sure.

OVERALL RATING: 8

PAST MASTERS VOLUME 1 (1988)

(reviewed by Casey Brennan)

The Beatles were always a singles and album band, so most of their singles are of great quality -- even the B-sides are usually great. This set collects the Beatles singles, B-sides, and E.P. tracks from 1962-65, so we have some of their biggest hits like "I Want To Hold Your Hand" (one of their most known and melodic songs), "She Loves You" (with their trademark 'yeah, yeah, yeah's'), and "I Feel Fine" (which has the first use of feedback on a rock song).

Other great songs on here include "This Boy", which has good three part harmonies, "Thank You Girl", a simple pop song, and "She's A Woman", which has rough vocals by Paul and one chord throughout it. The "Long Tall Sally" EP is included on here and contains the title track, two other covers, and an original "I Call Your Name" by John. One of Paul's most hard rocking sung songs are on here as well like "I'm Down", which I guess is The Beatles version of the cover "Long Tall Sally" mentioned above. We have all these songs collected on one great release now so it's worth buying like the rest of their catalog.

OVERALL RATING: 8

PAST MASTERS VOLUME 2 (1988)

(Casey Brennan's review)

The second collection starts off with the Rubber Soul-era double A sided single "We Can Work It Out" and "Day Tripper" and ends with their humorous last B-side "You Know My Name, Look Up My Number". "Day Tripper" contains one of the best Beatle riffs that goes off into a guitar buildup in the middle, and then falls back to the same riff after the shake of a tambourine. Some of their more harder edged tunes are on here like the 1966 A side "Paperback Writer" which is a chugging midtempo rocker that has the refrain 'paperback writer' repeated in echo; the B side to that, "Rain" is full of acid inspired lyrics, great drumming (some of Ringo's best), and sounds close to the style of "She Said, She Said".

1967 is totally skipped since they released everything that year on their two albums or on the soundtrack Yellow Submarine, so there are no overtly psychedelic songs on here. "Lady Madonna", starts off the 1968 tunes, and is a short ditty, with great honky tonk piano. It has heavy bass with Paul singing in his most deepest voice; quite different than the stuff on Magical Mystery Tour he did a few months earlier. Georges last Indian song "The Inner Light" is the B side to that, and then comes the anthem "Revolution", a fuzzy hard-rocking song that is the symbol of the counterculture in the summer of 68'.

"Hey Jude" from the same time, is the longest Beatles single at 7 minutes (also their most successful), and contains a long refrain at the end. Other songs on here are from the 1969 era; "Don't Let Me Down", a heavy tune that wouldn't seem out of place on Let It Be, "The Ballad Of John And Yoko" which considering what it is about it surprises me that Paul helped John with, and the single version of "Let It Be" which is inferior to the album version because of the guitar solo not being as excellent. On the other hand the single version of "Get Back" is on here, and is superior to the album version. This compilation shows that The Beatles 'other' songs not on their long players are usually just as good.

* OVERALL RATING: 10 *

HIGH POINTS: Lady Madonna, Day Tripper, We Can Work It Out, Paperback Writer, Revolution, Rain, The Ballad Of John And Yoko. LOW POINTS: None.

The second Past Masters volume is more proof that The Beatles were the greatest band ever to exist and will probably always hold that honor. All this material (outside of alternate versions of a few Let It Be songs) consists of singles and B-sides from 1965 until the very end in 1970 that never even made it to their original studio albums - and many are just as good if not better than the highlights on them. For starters, the opening "Day Tripper" only has one of the most celebrated guitar riffs of all time going for it (which Jimi Hendrix certainly liked enough to cover), as well as top-notch harmony and melody, giving the song such incredible power that it's extremely hard to believe that a song this good was merely released as a single and not on Rubber Soul. The B-side to this, "We Can Work It Out" is just as great, though, and possibly even better as a heavenly folk rocker with an indispensable melody, and it's extremely awesome how its' pace slows down with the accordian backing in the verses.

Similarly, the singles from 1966 would have felt right at home on Revolver (and easily been highlights). "Paperback Writer" is such a fabulous driving rocker sandwiched by great vocal echoes, a wonderful harmony burst and interesting lyrics, its' B-side "Rain" is just about as exceptional as John's acid stuff on that album like "She Said, She Said", with an awesome trippy atmosphere, a really great mantra-like chorus of 'raaaaaaaaaaaaainnnn, I don't mind', as well as cool backwards vocals (the first Beatles song to do this). Then we have the 1968 single, "Lady Madonna", and oh boy do we have it. This song is probably my absolute favorite track absent from their albums, and is a shining example of how this band can just effortlessly churn out classic pop tunes with such natural flow as if it was easy to write something like that - another obscenely catchy number with powerful 'deep Paul vocals' and appropriate piano parts.

That's just the first five songs, though, and the remaining ones are definitely not any weaker. "The Inner Light" is one of the most melodic and fascinating of George's Indian songs, and there's also "Hey Jude" here too! Yes, their most popular single was a non-album track, and Paul's tribute to John's son Julian is a really moving piano ballad with great melody, but of course, the distinguishing feature is its' unprecedented repeated 'na na na na na na...' coda that makes it last over 7 minutes, and of course it needs no explanation. Similar, of course, to the original of "Revolution" presents the song as one of the hardest, most convincing rockers of their career, where John's political lyrics seem so much more biting over the heavy performance. It's far superior to the acoustic and mellow White Album version, though I can understand why it was left off, since the second record of that one is already too rocker-heavy as it is.

The next few songs on here are alternate versions of songs that later ended up on Let It Be, with a stripped down version of "Across The Universe", the single version of "Get Back", and that album's title cut (which has a different guitar solo from the original) still sound like classic songs presented here, for better or for worse. And... phew... there's even more. Another John contribution "Don't Let Me Down" is a really great slow, pessimistic song with effective vocal yells and an inspired organ performance from Billy Preston, and the other George song here, "Old Brown Shoe", has a great piano-led groove and is quite catchy, still shining despite having a much worse production job than the other tracks, which makes it a bit harder to get into than other songs on here, but it's worth it when you do.

Finally, there's the exceptionally catchy acoustic shuffle of "The Ballad Of John And Yoko", which basically chronicles their umm, adventures, and surprisingly, the only two people playing on it are John and, you guessed it, Paul. If that isn't a curiousity I don't know what is. Oh, I think the ultra-bizarre comedy track "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)" would fit that description, as it's certainly intriguing with its' quite unconventional and screwed up jazzy structure, instrumentation and voices all over it. A rather strange way to close this out, I must say. In spite of the fact that this isn't a regular album, merely a compilation, there's still no reason why it shouldn't earn another perfect 10, a grade I never give to these things. It's another absolutely essential purchase for any collection as the actual song quality for the most part is typically Beatles quality classic, and it collects all this stuff in one convenient package.

* OVERALL RATING: 10 *

COMMENTS

by the way hey jude is not the longest beatles song... I want you is look at the times when they end

Thanks,

Matt, Beatles rule

YELLOW SUBMARINE (SONGTRACK) (1999)

(reviewed by Robert Grazer)

This is only the songs for the movie and not all of the other orchestra stuff that made everyone hate the actual soundtrack. I've actually never heard the soundtrack myself, and don't really have any desire to. This one's fine. Four new songs, and then just the others that appear in the movie. I saw the movie once a few years ago, but I don't remember "Eleanor Rigby" or "Love You To" in there at all. Whatever. Anyway, the new songs are good, "Hey Bulldog" being the best with a killer riff, in my opinion better than the famous riff for "Day Tripper." "It's All Too Much" and "Only a Northern Song" are good in their own special way, but if you want me to be honest I have to say my favorite is "All Together Now." Why? Its only a single chord on the guitar played again and again, but the song still manages to be so much more interesting that what you'd expect. It's great fun to listen to, regardless of how simple it is. Who else but the Beatles could do such a thing? Anyway the other non-original songs are mostly from Revolver, Magical Mystery Tour and Sgt. Pepper, but "Nowhere Man" and "Think For Yourself" are on here too. It's worth a few bucks for the new songs without the George Martin orchestra side, yet I still think it would have been better accepted if it were released thirty years earlier as a '65-'67 Greatest Hits album with four previously unreleased tracks.

OVERALL RATING: 6

LET IT BE... NAKED (2003)

(reviewed by Rob Eustace)

HIGH POINTS: Across the Universe, Don't Let Me Down, The Long And Winding Road. LOW POINTS: I Me Mine, For You Blue

The greatest band of all time, no question surely, and for me much of this is attributed to their timing, not in the sense that they could hold down a good rhythm but simply that they broke through at a critical period for the development of popular music and even more critically split while they were still on top, and importantly stayed split. This way the legend remains intact, you only have to look at their individual solo outings beyond 1971 to realise that their legacy could have been irreparably damaged had they continued on for another two or three albums. For a band that to this day command the accolades and respect that they do if we're brutally honest we must accept that their collective solo output is woefully inadequate.

This is part of the reason that releases such as the Anthology series and now this Let it Be Naked concern me. The Beatles are the one band who never need to release anything ever again, their reputation can surely only be damaged buy parading a series of unnecessary "alternate take" releases. Let it Be Naked has been unleashed upon us as "the bands take" on the sessions, minus the work that Phil Spector lavished upon the material following the rejection of Glyn Johns attempts and is being billed as some kind of improved version of the original that appeared no less than 33 years earlier. OK if you want to release an alternate version of the Let it Be album that's one thing but after 33 years to try to market Naked as the definitive version is a different matter altogether. At the end of the day the original 1970 release is, and will always be The Beatles Let it Be album no matter what your views are on this newly repackaged edition.

So what's it all about, well to my ears not a lot I'm afraid. I've always felt that the original 1970 album comes in for a lot of unfair criticism, I've never felt that the tracks were of a lesser quality than the albums that were recorded around it. Many of the tracks have a raw edge to them but that was the whole idea behind the project and Billy Preston's performances injected a freshness into the collection and gave the tracks a uniqueness from the remainder of the Beatles catalogue. On listening to Naked I've got to say that apart from cleaning away the studio chatter that littered the original, many of the tracks here don't sound that fundamentally different from the 1970 version. Yes I accept that if you are going to lay tracks down side by side and dissect them second by second you'll find enough differences to satisfy those who wish indulge in the joys of "alternate takes", but to the casual listener there's nothing radical happening here. This is what confuses me about the release, the majority of tracks are not staggeringly different, and if different is what you desire then just go and buy a copy of Anthology 3 and you can happily edit yourself a far more satisfactory alternate and un-orchestrated version of Let it Be than the one that is presented here.

So to recap a little, technical diehards will detail each and every minor difference between the two albums, but to my ears "Get Back", "Dig a Pony", "For You Blue" and "Two Of Us" don't sound radically different from the original. Sure the removal of the studio banter between tracks generally presents a more polished finished product and the tracks all sound brighter and clearer than ever before, but wait a minute, that's not what Let it Be was supposed to be about is it?. "I've Got A Feeling", "One After 909" and "Don't Let Me Down" all appear to be different takes from the original release and so do add a little more worth to the release than the first four tracks mentioned, but again they are simply alternate takes and still not astonishingly different from the originals.

The most radically different tracks are those that have received the de-Spector treatment "Across the Universe", "I Me Mine" and "The Long and Winding Road". "I Me Mine" is nothing more than "I Me Mine" minus the strings, so once again no great attraction here. "Across The Universe" is however impressive in this form and works more effectively than the previously released versions as a simple acoustic ballad. "The Long and Winding Road" is the big sales pitch for the album and I would imagine McCartney's key motivation for the conception and release of this set. It does sound very different here without Spector's lavish production, and short of Billy Preston's brief interlude for the best part it's simply Paul at the Piano with a few minor lyrical changes and of course no strings. To his credit this does appear closer to the version that McCartney has always performed live during his post Beatle years, but much as I enjoy this version it will never replace the original in my mind.

Spector has historically been made the scapegoat for most of the criticism the original album takes, McCartney appears to be the most concerned over Spectors production but a lot of the press surrounding Naked sight this as a group wide reaction. This again doesn't entirely add up when you consider that after the original release both Harrison and Lennon were quite happily allowing Spector to work on what turned out to be their prime solo material. Let It Be Naked ultimately serves no real purpose. If the original Glyn Johns tapes had been released as originally intended (way back when) that would have been one thing. If the album had been released in a true alternate format using the Anthology version supplemented with some of the rumoured hours of recordings that exist from these sessions, that would have been something else. What about an official DVD release for the film itself, surely any of these options would have been more satisfying than Naked which promises far more than it can ever deliver.

What about the bonus disc, well it's pretty much an insult to your intelligence. It's billed as "a fly on the wall, unique insight into The Beatles at work" but in reality amounts to nothing more than 20 minutes of snippets of conversation and frustratingly short 10 - 20 second bursts of songs from the sessions. You will play this disc only once and you are to be applauded if you actually manage to sit through the complete disc, yet again another wasted opportunity.

Having pulled this release apart the tracks that make up Let It Be remain classic Beatle material in my view with the exception of Georges tracks that have always been the weaker tracks here for me and surprising for two reasons. Firstly that his selections on the albums and singles that surrounded these sessions stood shoulder to shoulder with the Lennon /McCartney tracks "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Something", "Here Comes the Sun", "Old Brown Shoe", "The Inner Light", "It's All Too Much". Secondly he had a pile of material stacked up that was stronger than "For You Blue" and "I Me Mine" that would eventually see the light of day on the incredible All Things Must Pass triple set just over a year later. The Lennon/McCartney tracks however are all top notch and the cuts on the original album saw the band reach a new maturity with no sign of any of the frustrating novelty filler that littered the surrounding albums such as "All Together Now", Octopus's Garden", "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", "When I'm Sixty Four" etc.

If I was reviewing the material on the original 1970 release I would easily be able to justify a 9.5 rating but judging Naked on it's own merits I simply view it as an unessential purchase. Just to make matters worse who's to blame for the ridiculous title and the cover artwork that is simply dreadful. It appears to me that someone at EMI has been paying a close eye on what Edsel Records did with Marc Bolan's catalogue on their "Alternate Series" releases, it's all a little familiar to say the least. There really isn't anything radically different happening regularly enough for me, and casual listeners are going to be disappointed as Let it Be Naked can only surely be a desirable acquisition for completists. Fundamentally of course this is what Anthology, Yellow Submarine Songtrack and Let it Be Naked are all about, because as far as EMI is concerned the words Beatles and Completist is a marketing strategy in itself.

OVERALL RATING : 6