Classical Music Forum banner

The Beatles appraised

37K views 318 replies 49 participants last post by  SanAntone 
G
#1 · (Edited)
After so many decades have passed since this group was at the height of its powers and now that two of the members are deceased, the dust has settled. Their music is forever locked in history, unchanging and not dimmed by subsequent years. Still relevant, still excellent.

For me their greatest song was "Eleanor Rigby" (and you can hear Bernard Herrmann's "Psycho" influence right here, thanks to George Martin): it truly is a great song.



A documentary was made about the Beatles by Howard Goodall: he gives an excellent account of these missions and this is highly recommended:



This is also a favourite song of mine from the Beatles:



It makes you wonder whether without that song this one would have been written: absolutely bloody brilliant!!

 
#137 ·
Four Random Friday Night Beatles Songs

Hey Bulldog (1969)
She Said She Said (1966)
Get Back (1969)
Yer Blues (1968)

Hey Bulldog

A simple rock song composed by John Lennon for the Yellow Submarine film.

She Said She Said

Another rocker from John, about a story relayed to him about an acid trip. Paul McCartney had walked out in an apparent disagreement over the songs arrangement, so he doesn't play or sing on the track. George Harrison plays bass guitar and lead guitar. It was released on the Revolver album.

Get Back

Get Back was released as a single in April 1969, and was to be the title track for their next album. They were disappointed with the overall results of the sessions, and the album was neglected until the tapes were given to producer Phil Spector almost a year later, with the resulting album being retitled Let It Be, released in May 1970. Spector removed the Coda that had been added to the single version, instead adding studio sounds at the beginning and end.

This one has Lennon on lead guitar, as Harrison had briefly quit the band while the arrangement was being worked out. Harrison played rhythm guitar on the track.

Technically, the single was credited to "The Beatles with Billy Preston"; Preston played Fender Rhodes electric piano on the track.

This was a #1 Hit for the band in every country in which the single had been released.

Yer Blues

A rather anguished and emotionally-revealing moment in time from John.




 
#138 ·
Beatles are elite. I love Schubert because so much of his stuff is essentially songcraft, and he would have been a pop genius in the era of the Beatles. But not strictly 'pop', which is why the Beatles endure. They had some stank on their songs.

Day in the Life
Strawberry Fields
In My Life
Blackbird
You Never Give Me Your Money
Long, Long, Long
Rocky Raccoon (heck, all the White Album just about)
Tomorrow Never Knows
I'm Only Sleeping
If I Needed Someone
Rain
Dig A Pony

This is all highly personal, like all music. But I *am* the Beatles. So formative for me. I connect so strongly with songs like Long, Long, Long and In My Life. Strawberry Fields. Rain. That's me. Just about as much as Chopin Op. 27/1 and Schubert D760 and Mussorgsky's Pictures.
 
#150 ·
I was a kid when the Beatles became a sensation in the US, and a teen by the time they broke up.

By the time I started High School the individual Beatles had already released 13 albums and 5 non-album singles, although most of those were fairly oddball releases, either "experimental", soundtrack, live, or in the case of Ringo Starr, a nostalgia album and a Nashville album.

By the time I graduated from High School, the individual Beatles had released 19 proper studio albums and a couple of live albums in addition to that. That included the massive 3-LP studio album from George, All Things Must Pass, and the massive 3-LP live album from George, The Concert for Bangla Desh.

Yeah, I was pretty much right there in the middle of it.
 
#149 ·
Four Not-So-Random (sort of) Beatles Songs for a Monday Afternoon

A Hard Day's Night (instrumental) [1964]
The Bitter End/You Can't Do That [1965]
Pepperland [1969]
Revolution No. 9 [1968]

Here's something a bit different: A batch of instrumental tracks that appeared on Beatles albums.

Growing up with the Beatles (and an incredibly eclectic musical palette provided by my mom and older brother), the instrumental tracks made as much of an impression on me as the tracks played by the Beatles.

:eek:

A Hard Day's Night

When The Beatles released their albums in the UK, they had a big say on which songs would be on them, and the order in which they'd appear. They also took pride in NOT having their singles appear on their albums: The considered that to be gouging their fans by making them pay for the same song twice.

They didn't have any say at all when their albums were released in the US. The UK version of A Hard Day's Night consisted of 7 Beatles songs from the film, plus another 7 Beatles songs on the B-Side of the album. In the US, The Beatles' distributor, Capitol Records, removed six of those extra songs and added four easy listening-styled instrumental versions of Lennon and McCartney songs arranged by George Martin conducting an orchestra of studio musicians (credited as George Martin and His Orchestra).

This bouncy be-boppy instrumental is from that album. I enjoy how the time signature wanders around from 3/8 to 4/4, with one of the bridges in a perplexing 6/8.

The Bitter End/You Can't Do That

Capitol Records did the same for the release of Help!, removing seven of the 14 tracks, and dropping in five orchestral tracks from the film's soundtrack composed or arranged by Ken Thorne, and contains one of the first uses of the sitar on a rock/pop album.

Pepperland

By 1968 The Beatles had managed to wrest control of distribution from "the Suits", but weren't all that keen on the notion of performing in yet another film. Yellow Submarine was a mostly animated psychedelic tour-de-fource, based on their song Yellow Submarine from 1966. Also included was Eleanor Rigby, also from 1966. Only four "new" Beatles songs were included on the soundtrack (one of which was cut from the US release of the film, and only two of which were written specifically for the film), and the rest of the album was filled with re-recordings of symphonic music from the soundtrack composed or arranged by producer George Martin.

The film was released in the UK July 1968, but not until November 1968 in the US. The soundtrack album would not be released until January 1969.

Pepperland is my favorite symphonic track from the soundtrack. What catches my ear is Martin's arrangement which seems to give a majority of the instruments in the orchestra a chance to shine, all in less than two and a half minutes.

Revolution 9

A lot has been written about this avant-garde/musique concrète track, which appeared near the end of the double-LP "The Beatles" (commonly referred to as "The White Album"), released in 1968. This experimental sound collage also included loops of an unused ending to Revolution 1, which was a largely improvised jam session meant to illustrate musically the chaos of an actual revolution. They had become enamoured by their discovery of the music of Edgard Varèse, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and, to a lesser extent, John Cage.

Writing for Mojo in 2003, Mark Paytress said that "Revolution 9" remained "the most unpopular piece of music the Beatles ever made", yet it was also their "most extraordinary [recording]".

While the songwriter credit is officially "John Lennon/Paul McCartney", it appears that it's more of a George Harrison, Lennon, Yoko Ono, and Ringo Starr creation, even though McCartney had already created the equally avant-garde/musique concrète Carnival of Light almost two years earlier.




 
#172 ·
Four Not-So-Random Beatles Songs for a Sunday Evening

Today's songs are most of the Beatles' instrumentals, although only one of these ("Flying") were given a release as an official Beatles track while the band was still active. Instrumentals just weren't their "thing", yet they explored this facet of music anyway.

Cayenne (1960)
Cry For A Shadow (1962)
12 Bar Original (1965)
Flying (1967)

Cayenne

This one is from back before they were even called The Beatles, although they'd soon be changing their band name from The Quarrymen to The Silver Beatles.

Regardless, this cheap recording, made by teenaged future Beatles torn between Skiffle music and Rock and Roll, shows an early aspect of their future success: They were writing their own material. This one is credited solely to Paul McCartney McCartney hadn't yet moved into the bassist spot, so that's him on lead guitar, accompanied by John Lennon on rhythm guitar.

Cry For A Shadow

In June 1961 The Beatles were booked as a session band for singer Tony Sheridan for a few tracks, who billed them generically as "The Beat Brothers". Somehow they managed to also record two songs without Sheridan, Cry For a Shadow, and a rocking cover of Ain't She Sweet with John Lennon on lead vocal.

That's Harrison, of course, on lead guitar, Lennon on rhythm guitar, McCartney on bass guitar (and scream), and soon-to-be-replaced drummer Pete Best.

Cry For a Shadow is the only song credited to George Harrison/John Lennon, and was intended as a parody of another popular backing band, The Shadows, who backed Cliff Richard, and were the most popular group in England at the time.

It was intended at the time to be a single B-side (with a Sheridan track as the A-Side), but the record company (Polydor) shelved it, although once The Beatles proved to be extraordinarily popular, it was released in 1964 as an single A-side, with Sheridan's track moved to the B-side.

This is actually The Beatles' first original composition to be professionally recorded.

12 Bar Original

This 1965 attempt at an instrumental track was eventually scrapped, although it was finally released in 1996 for the Anthology set. It was recorded during the Rubber Soul sessions. This instrumental gets an unusual songwriting credit from all four band members (Harrison, Lennon, McCartney, Starkey)

What's remarkable is that they were again attempting something out of their comfort zone, and certainly something unusual. Also remarkable is just how unremarkable this rambling 12-bar blues is, although it certainly would not have been out-of-place amongst some of the other releases from other bands at the time.

Flying

This 1967 instrumental also gets an unusual songwriting credit from all four band members, and was written for their short film Magical Mystery Tour. The six-song soundtrack was released in the UK as a 2 EP set, although "The Suits" in the US grabbed a handful of non-album singles and created a full-length LP.

Is this truly an instrumental though? I'd say "yes", even though it features the four of them singing some wordless lyrics, their voices are functioning as instruments. It's mostly McCartney's tunes, and he wanted the vocals to sound un-Beatley, hence Starr's voice is the most prominent in the mix.

Interestingly, the outro of the song is almost as long as the song itself, and features tape loops, and backwards mellotron, which had been used earlier in the song.

THE BEATLES WIKI: "In the televised Magical Mystery Tour film, "Flying" is accompanied by images soaring over snow covered hills and mountains (specially shot in Iceland) washed in psychedelic yellows and greens [and other colours], then up into the clouds. It is followed immediately by John Lennon's introduction of the audience to the magical land of the four or five wizards, who appear to monitor and influence the mystery tour. This was one of the segments which suffered the most when the film was initially aired by the BBC on Boxing Day 1967 in black and white instead of colour."

Surprisingly, although it wasn't a hit record, it did get a significant amount of radio airplay, being used as filler and bed music.




 
#173 ·
Four Random Beatles Songs for a Tuesday Night

Glass Onion
Helter Skelter
Real Love
Long, Long, Long


I love randomness.

Three of tonight's random songs are from The Beatles' 1968 White Album

Glass Onion

This rocker from John Lennon also features from wicked strings that are all slidey, not how a typical string bed usually functions in pop music. But, no matter, the real treat here is the name-checking in the lyrics to previous songs.

Helter Skelter

This rocker from Paul McCartney may be about as Heavy Metal as the Beatles ever got, and some credit them with helping to create that genre with this song.

Real Love

The very, VERY, last "new" song from The Beatles, appearing on their Anthology 2 album. This was the second of three planned songs (the third was never finished, and scrapped) intended to be fleshed out from old demos from Lennon.

Long, Long, Long

This one is also from the White Album, written by George Harrison. This tender and spiritual song is loaded with some great vocals, excellent acoustic guitar, and an eerie ending featuring a glass full of something-or-other rattling on top of one of the amplifiers.




 
#174 · (Edited)
It's likely you're familiar with the song Nowhere Man, written by John Lennon.

Here's the isolated lead guitars (!) part played simultaneously by Lennon and George Harrison (on twin Fender Stratocasters). The crystalline sound of the lead guitars was created by Lennon's request that they be as "high-pitched as possible". The engineers, aghast, complied by pushing the treble of the guitar tracks as far as possible.

Of course, there are some other noteworthy things about the song, including the introspective lyrics, the equally jangly rhythm guitar, the bouncy yet melodic bassline from Paul McCartney, and some creative but understated drumming from Ringo Starr. The three part a cappella opening was also pretty different for a pop song at the time. Even the counterpoint of the backing vocals was pretty nifty, although they'd been doing THAT for years already.



.

Here's the track, as released way back in 1966 on Rubber Soul. Note the mixing used, with the vocals on one channel, and the instruments on the other.

The song was remixed to "modern" standards decades later when the song was included in the revamped Yellow Submarine "Songtrack" album, with the vocals spread from left to right, and the instruments mostly center. The lead guitars really sparkle in this mix, but the drums are mixed down to where they are barely heard, as though someone had thrown dirt on 'em.


 
#175 ·
Tuesday Night 4 Random Beatles Songs

She Loves You
Yes it Is
And Your Bird Can Sing
For No One


She Loves You

Well, one of the Beatles' first monster hits (1963) in the USA instantly made everyone sit up and take notice with it's very clever "Yeah, yeah, yeah" hook. Those falsetto "Ooo's" were also pretty "hook-y" as well. And of course, at this early stage in their career they were writing "I, You, Me, Love" lyrics that resonated with their intended teenager target audience.

But in terms of arranging and production, The Beatles were already kicking butt: The ringing cymbals, and the depth of the sound of the kick drum was bad azz. There's George Harrison's jangly guitar punctuations. Vocally, there's also a rather interesting interplay between the lines sung by Paul McCartney and John Lennon, in that one is not really sure which one of them is singing the melody.

The Beatles, at least in their earlier songs, also effectively used "stop time" liberally, and this song is no exception. And, of course, there's that clever use of ending the song with 3-part vocals singing a tonic 6th chord.

This was released as a single, and, as such, did not appear on an LP (in the UK) until a few years later.

Yes it Is

This was the B-side to the 1965 single Ticket to Ride.

This ballad features some rather rich and complex 3-part vocal harmonies from John, Paul, and George, and the arrangement features a volume pedal guitar played by George.

And Your Bird Can Sing

This one appeared on the 1966 Revolver album, and features a unique double guitar riff/solo/counter melody line played by Harrison and McCartney. In fact, it is one of the FIRST, if not THE first known recording of twin harmony guitars in Rock and Roll music (although Les Paul had been doing this sort of thing for many years). Some fine lyrics from Lennon that are vague enough to be intriguing. This song was buried on Revolver amongst a barrel of excellent songs, so it often gets a bit overshadowed and overlooked, even though it made Guitar World's list of Top 100 Guitar Solos list (at #69). I think that Lennon's jangly rhythm guitar is nifty as well.

For No One

This ballad, written mostly by Paul, is also from the Revolver album. It features a solo french horn solo, also used as a counterpoint to the melody in the last verse, a rather sophisticated arranging technique in popular music.




 
#176 ·
Four Random Beatles Songs for a Monday Night


Anna (Go to Him), (1963)
It's Only Love, (1965)
Long Tall Sally (Live at the Star Club, 1962)
Any Time at All (1964)


Anna (Go to Him)

A cover song, but note how the background vocals are really in the "background" as they are nowadays, but mixed considerably "hotter". Of course, even then the Beatles were known for their incredible harmonies.

Frankly, the Beatles have actually taken a page out of the Elvis Presley play book by covering an R&B song, this one by Arthur Alexander. At least The Beatles put their own stamp on the cover by adding the backing vocals. And Lennon, even on that first album, Please Please Me, was a great vocalist.

It's Only Love

From their 1965 album Help!, this original song by John Lennon features only John on vocals, going from a quiet and shy vocal to a rip-roaring rock voice between the verses and choruses.

It also features lyrics with some unsubtle double entendres, rather bold at the time. So subtle that it sailed right past the censors.

The overdubbed tambourine gives the song some energy, in direct counterpoint to the descending melody of the verses. And the vibrato guitar is a bit unique.

Long Tall Sally (Live at the Star Club, 1962)

This live bootleg from December 1962 just showcases the raw energy, the excitement, and potential of these four guys, including their new drummer Ringo Starr. Again, this one's a cover of an R&B song, this time from Little Richard, which Paul McCartney mimics quite well, to his credit.

It's also hard to fathom that there was practically no other band playing with this sort of grit and drive at the time.

Any Time at All

This one is from their 1964 album A Hard Day's Night. Although the lead vocals are from John Lennon, his bandmate Paul sings the higher second line of every chorus, sounding as much like John as he can.

A unique feature of this song is the use of an overdubbed piano on the bass lines during the verses. There's another hook that the Beatles were masters of right from the start, and that's the use of hard stops in the backing track - a very effective use of negative space.

There's also a rather interesting "solo" section shared by the guitar and piano, first playing in opposite directions, then in harmony, with the piano melody line being played in octaves.




 
#177 · (Edited)
Thanks for that YouTube channel with the Star Club remastered recordings.

They sang "Falling in Love Again (Can't Help It)" Marlene Dietrich in Blue Angel 1930

here's what's on the channel

Ask My Why -
Be Bop a Lula -
Besame Mucho -
Falling In Love Again -
Hallelujah I Love Her So -
I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry Over You -
I'm Talking About You -
Kansas City -
Long Tall Sally -
Mr Moonlight -
Red Hot -
Sheila -
Shimmy Like Kate -
The Hippy Hippy Shake -
Twist and Shout -
 
#178 · (Edited)
Four Random Beatles Songs for a Saturday Night

Girl (1965)
When I'm 64 (1967)
It's All Too Much (1969)
Something (demo) (1969)

Girl

Girl, released on the 1966 LP Rubber Soul, is a rather unique song, with several unusual elements. The most striking thing about this John Lennon song is the pronounced deep breath intakes in the middle of the choruses. Some lovely vocal harmonies in those choruses as well, which are in the relative major of the key in which the verses are played.

The backing vocals during the bridges are more like a some sort of vocals imitating instruments, but what sounds like "dit-dit-dit-dit" is actually them finding a way to sing dirty words, I think.

They're also using a countermelody in the second verse, which is also played with yet a third countermelody during the instrumental break, which is in the same rhythm as the backing vocals that are sung during the bridge.

And yet another odd feature is Ringo Starr's use of a rather loose open high hat alternating with a closed high hat, creating an almost reverse-cymbal effect.

When I'm 64

Another of Paul McCartney's oddball Music Hall songs, although this had been written years earlier. Producer George Martin's arrangement of woodwind instruments is deliberately "old school", per McCartney's wishes. Harrison doesn't appear on this track; instead the simplistic lead guitar in the last verse is played by Lennon.

It's All Too Much

This one didn't get recorded in time for 1967's Sgt. Pepper, but was set aside for the the Yellow Submarine film, released in 1968, although the soundtrack songs didn't get released until 1969.

This track is set apart by its pointed acid-rock psychedelic vibe, a genre that pretty much didn't exist at the time. This George Harrison written song has some wonderfully mystic, yet still snarky, lyrics (like "Show me that I'm everywhere and get me home for tea"), before it devolves into a uncharacteristic jam session.

There's been some controversy over which Beatle actually played that sonic guitar line at the beginning of the track, as Harrison was on organ, but I think it's actually Paul's bass guitar. Change my mind.

Something (demo)

I've already highlighted the finished product, but this demo shows the Harrison song in a more developmental acoustic manner, with Harrison scatting an instrumental break where one of his iconic guitar solos would eventually be played.

This demo version differs from the one found on their Anthology 3 album, which was stripped down. This one also has a piano part, presumably played by Lennon, as he also played on the album version of the song, although most of that piano part was wiped by George to make room on the tape for an organ part. The only part of John's piano is the descending line at the end of each sung line of the bridges.




 
#179 ·
The Four Random Wednesday Evening Beatles Songs

Michelle (1965)
Taxman (1966)
Fixing a Hole (1967)
Day Tripper (1965)

Michelle

First off: Ain't this a lovely melody? In Mixolydian, too. And some French lyrics? Cool.

Then there's the moving background vocals acting as though they're a woodwinds section. They move around, defining the harmonic progression, then start moving upwards, then suddenly drop out, leaving you focused on the lead vocal lyrics.

And there's a lovely muted electric guitar for the instrumental break.

But that introduction has a couple of wonderfully crystalline guitars (or is it just one?), rather an unusual sound for 1965. Actually, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and George Harrison all played acoustic guitars with capos on the 5th fret (the photo from the session shows Paul on his 6-string Epiphone Texan, John on a Jose Ramirez nylon-string acoustic guitar and George on John's Framus Hootenanny 12-string). George overdubbed his solos on his Gibson J-160E in unison with producer George Martin on a Hohner Pianet out of microphone range. Paul overdubbed his bass guitar part using a capo, a rather unusual move.

This one was mostly written by McCartney, with help from bandmate Lennon on the middle 8, and appeared on the Rubber Soul album.

"Michelle" won the 1966 Grammy Award in 1967 for Song of the Year, in spite of it not being released as a single. As the new album had no songs on it that were singles, DJs in the US played whatever songs from the album that pleased them, and this one happened to get considerable airplay.

Taxman

Well, lyrically, this pop/rock song was a vast departure from the typical subject matter of pop songs of the day. This George Harrison song was the first track off The Beatles' 1966 album Revolver.

The unique Eastern-flavored guitar solo is played by Paul, not George.

Fixing a Hole

This McCartney song was released in 1967 on the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Stylistically, I'm not sure where this song really lies, although if pressed, I might call it some sort of Vaudevillian Psychedelia hybrid. However, amidst the eclecticism and eccentricity of the rest of the album, this imaginative song ends up being one of the most straight-forward tracks. The only oddity here is the inclusion of the harpsichord.

Day Tripper

This one was released at the end of 1965 as a single, and not included on an album. This quintessential rock song is also in Mixolydian, and is heavily based on a catchy guitar riff. While Fixing a Hole may have been a rather subtle nod to marijuana, this one is an almost overt reference to LSD, as well as being a sexual double entendre, especially evidenced to the build to a climax in the instrumental break.




 
#180 ·
^^^^
Has anything been written about whether they had the lyrics in mine first and then fit the melody? I don't remember reading anything about that. From the info we have from George's handwritten notes he seems to be using the phrases first for melodic material (I guess he sang them to himself, but maybe prior to the earliest words he built upon..).
 
#181 ·
They all wrote both ways. They'd have lyrics and then fit a melody to it, and they'd have a tune and tailor lyrics to fit.

For instance, George's Taxman had some lyrics that George wasn't really happy with, and he evidently asked John for some help, which was grudgingly given. In the backing vocals where they sing "Taxman Mister Wilson, Taxman Mister Heath", it was originally "Everybody'sgottabitamoneyeverybody'sgottabitamoney everybody'sgottabitamonnnney". They decided that was a bit to hectic, and tried something else, erasing the tambourine in during those bits as they were part of the same track. You can also hear the original uninspired ending, before the guitar solo was floated in instead, then faded out right before the lead vocal would have returned.



.:devil:

You can hear them working through songs on the Anthology albums, and you can hear Paul with a tune and trying out words, phrases and even subject matter, or John working out how the vocal will go. There's demo recordings featuring discarded lyrics (While My Guitar Gently Weeps: "I look from the wings at the play you are staging / while my guitar gently weeps / as I'm sitting here doing nothing but aging / still my guitar gently weeps")
 
#184 · (Edited)
4 Friday Night Beatles Songs

Sexy Sadie 1968
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/The End/Her Majesty 1969
Tomorrow Never Knows 1966
I'm Only Sleeping 1968

Sexy Sadie

The Beatles went to Rishikesh in Northern India to study Transcendental Meditation with the Maharishi Yoga guy in 1968, on the recommendation of George Harrison, to get away from the fame, the crowds, the bugger-all, and whatnot. It didn't really work out as planned, with unfounded allegations that the Maharishi was trying to pick up on the young women. John was upset enough about it that he wrote this nasty song about him, but changed "Maharishi" to "Sexy Sadie", just to be on the legal safe side.

The instrumentation is typical of The Beatles, John on rhythm guitar, George on lead guitar and tambourine, Ringo on drums and tambourine, and Paul playing bass guitar, organ, and piano. John sings lead, and John and Paul sing backing vocals. It appears on the 1968 White Album.

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/The End/Her Majesty (aka The Abbey Road Medley)

The 16-minute medley of eight to ten short songs that take up a large portion of Side Two of Abbey Road.

Fun Fact: Her Majesty was originally sequenced between Mr. Mustard and Polythene Pam, but Paul instructed the engineers to remove it and destroy it. By this time the engineers knew to NEVER destroy ANYthing recorded by the Beatles, so it was removed and spliced onto the end of the reel-to-reel in case it was needed later. During a listening of the tape, the snippet blasted in, and everyone loved it that way. And thus the "bonus track" was born, as they didn't bother listing the song on the album cover or record label.

Tomorrow Never Knows

Tomorrow Never Knows was a feat of studio wizardry that, in 1966, had seldom been seen before.

This one from John was the first song recorded for the Revolver album, and the last song on the actual album. This avant-garde track's lyrics were based on lines from The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead by Timothy Leary. John wanted decided he wanted his vocal to sound as though it were a thousand monks on a mountaintop, and even suggested he be suspended from the ceiling. Eventually they took the unusual move of routing his vocal through a Leslie speaker, which they used for the second half of the song.

The recording also features several handfuls of different tape loops that were manually faded in and out as needed over Starr's rather unusual drum pattern.

George Harrison also played an Indian Tamboura, adding an ethereal feel to the soundscape.

I'm Only Sleeping

Yet another of John's songs that was on Revolver, although it didn't appear on the US version of the album, as it had been pirated by Capitol Records and released a few months prior on a US-only release.

I'm Only Sleeping" is notable for its backwards guitar, conceived by George Harrison in a late-night session, inspired when a studio engineer accidentally flipped a tape and Harrison was amazed at the effect and decided to "do it for real." So he wrote down a solo and then played it twice, once forwards and once backwards, with fuzz effects on one track. At the end of the track it's both George and Paul on the backwards guitars.




 
#186 · (Edited)
4 Random Beatles Songs for a Sunday Afternoon

If I Needed Someone (1965)
Good Day Sunshine (1966)
Tell Me Why (1964)
I Got A Woman (1963)

If I Needed Someone

If I Needed Someone was released on Rubber Soul in December 1965, but was removed from the Capitol Records version of the album in US. It wasn't released in the US until June 1966, when it appeared on the cobbled-together Yesterday . . . and Today.

This 1965 George Harrison song features a jangly 12-string Rickenbacker electric guitar that imitates the sound used by The Byrds on their version of The Bells Of Rhymney, which was, in turn, inspired by Harrison's use of the 12-string Rickenbacker electric guitar on the 1964 album A Hard Day's Night.

There's also a distinct Indian influence in the tonal structure of the song, the drone effect and Mixolydian mode during the verse.

In fact, if you're paying close attention you can hear another Byrds influence during the instrumental break: Buried under the up-front 12-string and the thick 3-part harmony vocal bed is a distinct finger-pickin' banjo-ish lick, also a direct lift from The Bells of Rhymney. It was likely on a track that had been "wiped", but can still be heard as it "bled" onto other tracks.

The song gave Harrison his first chart hit (peaking at #20), but it was the version released by the Hollies in December 1965.

And speaking of the vocal harmonies, that stunning 3-part parallel harmony singing may well have had a major influence on the 3-part harmony singing of the supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash. It's worth noting that Crosby had been in the Byrds, and Nash in The Hollies.

Good Day Sunshine

This 1966 Paul McCartney song features some subtle key and meter changes, and likely drew inspiration from The Lovin' Spoonful (which Paul and George saw in concert earlier in the year), specifically the songs "Daydream" and "Do You Believe In Magic", and possibly The Kinks' "Sunny Afternoon".

In fact, analysis of the chords by others has led to dissent as to what key the song is actually in. The chords used in the introduction (E throughout) and chorus (B, F♯, E and E7) suggest a key of B major, however, the B chord reveals itself to be the V of V of A once the verse is heard for the first time. Then again, there's an odd key change to D major occurs midway through the second verse, which becomes, instead, a piano solo.

And the meter changes in the choruses: Are they alternating 3/4 & 5/4 measures, or are they simply a syncopated 4/4?

There's also the innovative key change for the ending that involves the 3-part vocal harmonies in a gone-too-soon imitative canon.

And it all sounds so effortless.

Tell Me Why

Tell Me Why was included on the the 1964 A Hard Day's Night LP in both the UK and the US (as well as on Something New in the US a month later). This again features those impressive 3-part harmony vocals that were one of the many elements of the Beatles' recognizable sound. It also features a less well-known knack of theirs of writing happy upbeat tunes with sad lyrics (and vice versa). It also echoes that sound they appropriated doing covers of R&B girl groups like the Shirelles, the Cookies, Martha & The Vandellas, and others. There's also a piano part contributed by producer George Martin (as there was on Good Day Sunshine - that barrelhouse solo in the middle).

I Got A Woman

This one's a cover of I Got A Woman by Ray Charles, originally recorded and released in 1954, although the Beatles' version sounds more like Elvis Presley's 1956 cover of the song. The Beatles recorded this one twice for BBC radio shows, once in 1963 for the Pop Go The Beatles show, and again in 1964 for the Saturday Club radio show, although these wouldn't be officially released until 1994 (on Live At The BBC) and 2013 (On Air - Live At The BBC Volume 2). It had been a regular song in their setlist prior to signing with EMI records in 1962.






:)
 
#187 ·
Thursday Night Random Four Beatles Songs

Ooh My Soul
If I Fell
Happiness Is A Warm Gun
The Honeymoon Song


Ooh! My Soul (1963)

Another cover of a 1958 Little Richard song, this one's a performance at the Playhouse Theatre in Manchester for the BBC's "Pop Go The Beatles" in August 1963. This band is one tight unit, and McCartney nails the vocal.

If I Fell

A ballad from John, featuring some clever non-parallel vocal harmonies in contrary motion. This is from A Hard Day's Night (1963), and there's been some advancement in the fastidiousness of their vocals . . . clean and distinct cutoffs, etc. It also has a unique two line introduction (in Db, while the rest of the song is in D) that they never return to. Interestingly enough, John's voice is double tracked in the intro in the stereo version, but single-tracked in the mono version. As this was a soundtrack album, the film studio, United Artists had first release rights in the US, so the song also appeared as the B-Side to another ballad, And I Love Her, just 10 days later.

Happiness Is A Warm Gun

Released on their 1968 White Album, this Lennon track was banned by the BBC for its sexually suggestive lyrics and drug references. The three distinct sections are composed and performed as a four-part through-composed structure, and the shifting meters and stylistic changes make this one of the Beatles' most progressive tracks. George Harrison helped John with the difficult meters.

The Honeymoon Song

This was also a cover recorded for the BBC in 1963, and was originally released by Marino Marini in 1959, written by Mikis Theodorakis (who also wrote the soundtrack for the film Zorba the Greek). Again, these covers recorded for the BBC just shows what a tight band these guys were.




 
#189 ·
There are few albums in my collection that don't have, to my ears, both weaker and stronger songs. That doesn't invalidate the album. Once the idea of 'album' as a whole piece, not a mere 'consecutive collection' developed, it became easier in my mind to treat all songs as an integral part of something greater. The Beatles was not, to my mind, meant as an album of 30 number ones ("The Great Beatles Songbook") but a showcase of the band's 'personality', with all its loose ends showing.
 
#193 ·
it's interesting to compare the double-album rivals from the two iconic Invasion bands- "The Beatles" is almost defiant in its lack of cohesion and huge variation of styles, and "Exile on Main St" is almost the exact opposite, where it's about this extended, ragged mood that permeates the whole thing . the first time i listened to the latter the fact that like 75% of the songs sounded the same really turned me off- now it's one of my favorite rock albums.
 
#194 ·
I am listening to The White Album and it strikes me like a group of demo work tapes - the songs are short (some very short), lightly produced, which I like. Almost like an album of "stuff we've been working on."

But the general quality of the songs is very high, IMO.
 
#195 ·
What's interesting is when they did it too. The Beatles are credited as one of the first major artists to work with the LP as a cohesive artistic work and just a few years later they're more or less dumping everything they have in their heads on a double LP with minimal artwork. No matter what, it was wonderfully unexpected.
 
Top