Beatles N00b seeking recommendation

[thisnameistaken]

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1370462997' post='2101447']
It's a good song, not doing it for me yet though. Liking Dr Robert.
[/quote]

I think that's the track I like the least. It's Lennon being Lennon. Nondescript music and transparent lyrics masquerading as something clever.

Of the Lennon tunes on Revolver the one I like the most is And Your Bird Can Sing, but I think it's for the vocal harmonies and the tidy little two-guitar riff on the intro and the bridge (apparently tracked by McCartney).

[Dad3353]

A nice try, Nigel, and congratulations for the attempt. You'll get whatever you get from your 'research' (enjoy..!), but you can't discover, this way, what 'we' discovered in '66 et al when this stuff (and much more...) came along. I'm not trying to discourage, or play the ol' 'you had to be there' card, but the music stands higher in comparison to its peers, rather than its offspring. The 'Animals as Leaders' video, fine as it is (and it is..!) is not a fair gauge. I realise that this wasn't entirely your intention, but to put Ringo beside Matt Garstka, Terry Bozio or Dave Weckl and such is not doing any of them justice.
I firmly believe that 'analysing' music in this way, although instructive in many ways, is a bit self-defeating. The 'Fab Mop-Tops' or whatever did some great, and some very poor, stuff, as did, and do, most composers, bands, groups or whatever. Don't look for what's not there. You don't have to like or dislike any 'label'. It would be more interesting, perhaps, to listen to music without knowing by whom it was composed/performed. Alas, a bit of a pipe-dream for most of the Beatles stuff, but everyone's vision is treated by the lenses they have acquired over time.
Enjoy, just the same, but the very disturbing opening of doors won't come to you now; at least, not through this medium. At 16, and in '66, Revolver was an electroshockkfor me. This, plus he Fairports, the Airplane, the Dead, Zappa, Shakti... the list is long.
Great try; respect.

Edited June 5, 2013 by Dad3353

[Beedster]

White Album would be the best Beatles album without doubt had they lost half the songs and released it as one disk only. Of course, the real problem would be which ten songs to drop and i expect every fan would choose a different ten. Ringo and Paul both said it was the only album since the early days in which they recorded like a band, and I think that comes through in the recordings, there's a real energy to it that hadn't been there since Rubber Soul or even earlier.

[miles'tone]

Abbey Road is my fave (as long as you skip Maxwell's Silver Hammer - a Macca tune that even the other 3 said was like pulling teeth to record. Cheesey.)

But here's another vote for Let It Be....Naked.
It's the one that Paul went back to a few years ago (got loads of sh*t for it) and stripped all the bolt-on strings away by Phil Spector on the original Let It Be.
Sounds ace! It's just the four of them 'getting back' to their roots and simply playing live in the studio.
It's the wild card, check it out.

[BetaFunk]

[quote name='Beedster' timestamp='1370470851' post='2101638']
White Album would be the best Beatles album without doubt had they lost half the songs and released it as one disk only. Of course, the real problem would be which ten songs to drop and i expect every fan would choose a different ten. Ringo and Paul both said it was the only album since the early days in which they recorded like a band, and I think that comes through in the recordings, there's a real energy to it that hadn't been there since Rubber Soul or even earlier.
[/quote]
I bought the White Album when it was first released. When i got home i realised that someone had written a number on it. It took me ages to rub that number off.

[BetaFunk]

[quote name='miles'tone' timestamp='1370471022' post='2101641']
Abbey Road is my fave (as long as you skip Maxwell's Silver Hammer - a Macca tune that even the other 3 said was like pulling teeth to record. Cheesey.)
[/quote]
My friends Dad was the one banging that very hammer.

[grumble]

[quote name='miles'tone' timestamp='1370471022' post='2101641']
Abbey Road is my fave (as long as you skip Maxwell's Silver Hammer - a Macca tune that even the other 3 said was like pulling teeth to record. Cheesey.)
[/quote]

Abbey Road is the only one I can still go back and listen to. Maxwell's Silver Hammer was a Macca ? All these years I never knew, always sounded like a Ringo (crap) track to me. You may have guessed I'm not a massive 'Fab Four' fan coz I didn't know this

[Beedster]

[quote name='miles'tone' timestamp='1370471022' post='2101641']
Abbey Road is my fave (as long as you skip Maxwell's Silver Hammer - a Macca tune that even the other 3 said was like pulling teeth to record. Cheesey.)

But here's another vote for Let It Be....Naked.
It's the one that Paul went back to a few years ago (got loads of sh*t for it) and stripped all the bolt-on strings away by Phil Spector on the original Let It Be.
Sounds ace! It's just the four of them 'getting back' to their roots and simply playing live in the studio.
It's the wild card, check it out.
[/quote]

I've Got A Feeling from Let It Be Naked is my all time fave Beatles track. IMO Macca was right to do what he did, as that's what they recorded, Lennon and Spector snuck back in afterwards and did the wall of sound stuff. Still pretty effective, but not what the band had set out to do. To get back to the idea that everything they played in the studio had to be doable live, Macca played his Hofner on LIB, and you can hear the crap intonation up the neck at times

[mike257]

Its Abbey Road and the White Album for me, despite the latter having a bit of filler as mentioned (find me a double album that doesn't!). I think Abbey Road sees McCartney really showing his range with his vocals, as well as condensing tons of cool musical ideas into that big ol' medley on side 2.

Having said that, I really enjoy the early stuff in a different way, great catchy pop songwriting isn't an easy thing to pull off. Don't listen to any of it all that much these days but always nice to revisit every once in a while.

[Beedster]

[quote name='grumble' timestamp='1370471919' post='2101660']
Abbey Road is the only one I can still go back and listen to. Maxwell's Silver Hammer was a Macca ? All these years I never knew, always sounded like a Ringo (crap) track to me. You may have guessed I'm not a massive 'Fab Four' fan coz I didn't know this
[/quote]

Ringo doesn't write songs about serial killers

[AntLockyer]

I never enjoyed listening to the Beatles until I got This http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_(The_Beatles_album)

[dand666]

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1370462952' post='2101444']
McCartney's got a great voice eh!
[/quote]

Listen to his solo stuff, in particular, Maybe Im Amazed.

Im a massive fan of The Beatles and find myself listening to the whole catalogue all the time.

But if you dont like the early stuff, then listen to White album and Abbey Road. As a musician you should be able to appreciate them. Abbey Road is arguably the best album ever made.

[sticker]

I'm a massive Beatles fan and could never choose just 1 album , I also consider that you should listen to the singles released in conjunction with each album as they're not on the albums , ie I consider Paperback Writer/Rain as an extension of Revolver and Strawberry Fields Forever/ Penny Lane as the same to Sgt Pepper as they were recorded during the same sessions.

Hope you can find something to enjoy !

[ead]

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1370470746' post='2101633']

I firmly believe that 'analysing' music in this way, although instructive in many ways, is a bit self-defeating. The 'Fab Mop-Tops' or whatever did some great, and some very poor, stuff, as did, and do, most composers, bands, groups or whatever. Don't look for what's not there. You don't have to like or dislike any 'label'. It would be more interesting, perhaps, to listen to music without knowing by whom it was composed/performed. Alas, a bit of a pipe-dream for most of the Beatles stuff, but everyone's vision is treated by the lenses they have acquired over time.
Enjoy, just the same, but the very disturbing opening of doors won't come to you now; at least, not through this medium. At 16, and in '66, Revolver was an electroshockkfor me. This, plus he Fairports, the Airplane, the Dead, Zappa, Shakti... the list is long.

[/quote]

This pretty much sums it up for me. I remember buying the LP of Dark Side Of The Moon shortly after it emerged. I listened to it so much I pretty much wore out the grooves in a few weeks and had to buy another. Completely altered my perception of music.

[KevB]

Yes, I was going to raise the point about non-album singles myself. A good reason to consider compilation albums as a start point rather than full albums. Fortunately some astute person at apple or wherever made a good fist of it as a 'taster' set with the 'red' and 'blue' compilations. I suspect a lot of people around my age bought these as an introduction and an easy way of getting non album tracks. They are probably due an upgrade though as CD's have much longer playing times than when these first came out so a revised edition could include many more tracks if they stuck with the double CD format. The red set in particular doesn't look very good value anymore with each disc running to less than 45min each!

[LawrenceH]

I've known the Beatles stuff since I was a tiddler so I just enjoyed them for what they were, which IMO was a great band who evolved an awful lot over a very short timescale (I can't think of any other pop artists who made that many albums in that much time).
But, listening to them for the first time as an adult with an already extensive listening history is bound to be different. Lots is going to sound derivative/obvious until you put it in the context of when it was happening.

I can say for sure, learning their songs as a child, breaking down how they worked, was a great and very accessible musical education in pop music harmony, melody/polyphony and arrangement.

[xilddx]

[quote name='LawrenceH' timestamp='1370518531' post='2102066']
I can say for sure, learning their songs as a child, breaking down how they worked, was a great and very accessible musical education in pop music harmony, melody/polyphony and arrangement.
[/quote]

I was wondering last night if The Beatles are responsible for a lot of the mediocrity in mainstream pop, much like Led Zep are for rock bands. No conclusions were reached

[Dave Vader]

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1370518848' post='2102072']
I was wondering last night if The Beatles are responsible for a lot of the mediocrity in mainstream pop, much like Led Zep are for rock bands. No conclusions were reached
[/quote]

Owch, you will get replies now Nige, i reckon...

[xilddx]

[quote name='Dave Vader' timestamp='1370519424' post='2102082']
Owch, you will get replies now Nige, i reckon...

[/quote]

Not the Beatles fault! Just the drones that reckon they define the boundaries of pop music and can't break out of them.

[Beedster]

To be honest I find it hard to listen to any one Beatles album all the way through, I've several playlists of ballads, funky stuff (or funky for the time), rock etc. I like the Past Masters compilation album for this reason (Rain is genius), also the red & blue albums, which were definitive listening as a kid, in fact I could probably list all the tracks in order off the top of my head.

And don't you come near me with your 'Beatles' 'mediocre' in the same sentence malarky young man

C

[xilddx]

[quote name='Beedster' timestamp='1370519932' post='2102094']
To be honest I find it hard to listen to any one Beatles album all the way through, I've several playlists of ballads, funky stuff (or funky for the time), rock etc. I like the Past Masters compilation album for this reason (Rain is genius), also the red & blue albums, which were definitive listening as a kid, in fact I could probably list all the tracks in order off the top of my head.

And don't you come near me with your 'Beatles' 'mediocre' in the same sentence malarky young man

C
[/quote]

I didn't say the B's were mediocre, only those who are in thrall to them

[lojo]

Revolver

[Conan]

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1370462552' post='2101435']Taxman has a nice bass line, as shown here: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGHRrHMxORY[/media][/quote]

Isn't that the one they ripped off from The Jam?

[BetaFunk]

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1370518848' post='2102072']
I was wondering last night if The Beatles are responsible for a lot of the mediocrity in mainstream pop, much like Led Zep are for rock bands. No conclusions were reached
[/quote]
I've made my own conclusions...........