The Beatles - why did I wait so long?

[tZer]

My hope, since day one with both of my kids, was that there'd be enough musical inspiration around the house as well as enough instruments that they'd be able to just reach out and start doing something when the inspiration hit them.

They are getting to know some of the classing rock favs via Guitar Hero too. Foghat, Heart, and others... I just keep hoping that one day they'll both realize they have a full drum kit, basses, guitars and keyboards sitting right behind where they currently play Guitar Hero and that one day they'll say, "Hey! Let's try to play that song for real! DAD! How do we play 'Slow Ride' on real instruments?"

One day... one day...

 

[baba]

Revolver and Abby Road top my list, in that order. Amazing band that truly lives up to the hype.

 

[Ed Goode]

I was in high school when the Beatles hit .... at the time I was strictly a "pure" jazz guy and couldn't stand the Beatles or any other rock of that period. By the time I got into the mid-to-late '70's and started listening, I realized how much amazing stuff I had missed while growing up .....

And yeah, the Beach Boys had some super hip stuff going for them too ... those vocals are so tightly spaced, to this day very few bands can hold those close harmonies like the beach Boys did.

If you're just getting into that period, listen to it all .... as someone suggested above, that's the genesis of what much of the current music is based on .......

 

[Philbiker]

Overrated......



I was born in the mid 60s. The Beatles were the soundtrack to my house growing up. All my older siblings loved them. When I was about 7 or 8, the very first rock and roll LP I ever got (a Christmas gift from my parents I believe) was "The Beatles" aka "White Album". I've been a fan ever since and I absolutely adore everything Paul's ever done. I don't remember anticipating Beatles releases, but I do remember when Venus and Mars came out.

I still have a lot of Beatles on vinyl (the re-pressings from the 90s sound tremendous!) and CD.

Favorite LP: Rubber Soul
Favorite Song: All My Lovin'

 

[tZer]

Another Beatle-evolution related thing for me is growing to appreciate John Lennon. It wasn't hard for me to appreciate Paul or George through their Beatles and solo work, but John, for some reason, never hit me in the sweet spot - or at least I never really understood exactly how much of that great Beatles stuff was really John-centric.

NOW I see how significantly John influenced all of the Beatles work. Sure, it's mostly "McCartney, Lennon" that are credited on all the most known stuff - but when you separate the two you really see how John had a real edgy quality to him that Paul never had. I think that edginess is something that can be challenging to "get" and because of that, getting John as a solo artist required more work for me. Today, everything I hear by John as a solo artist is fantastic! How I could have missed his genius for so long is a shame. But I get it now!

Paul, on the flip side, has a melodic sense that is second to none. I think this is why he's 'easy' to get into as a solo artist/Wings. His songs are all so hooky and 'song-like'. When Paul and John blended, they complimented each other's styles and became bigger than the sum of the parts. But Paul alone is always so 'hooky' and 'sweet'. Since I am apparently getting older, I think just like with my taste in foods, sweet is not as important as 'interesting'.

 

[warnergt]

...Unfortunately [my son] also asked if we could go see the Beatles sometime and I had to tell him it will never be possible...

You can do the next best thing -- especially since you're from New Jersey.
Go see the Fab Faux with Will Lee. These guys play tunes that the Beatles
never played outside of the studio. They are truly amazing. See them
once and you will not be able to get enough of these guys.

 

[warnergt]

Here is an item I highly recommend for you Beatles' fans and you folks
just discovering the Beatles: The Beatles Anthology on DVD.
It's a five DVD set that will keep you glued to the TV.
It makes a great Christmas gift. Tell your better half to put this on your
Christmas list. I got it for my bass teacher last Christmas.

 

[dave64o]

The Fab Faux are actually playing near here this coming Saturday (10/25) at the Keswick Theatre just outside Philadelphia (GREAT venue!) and I wanted to go. Unfortunately my wife and I are attending a fundraiser for our son's travel soccer team that night.

But good point though. I do have to add them to my "interest list" on the ticket agency web sites I have accounts on so I get to see them sometime soon. Will Lee is of course amazing but so's the rest of the band. No slackers to be found!

 

[randal]

Also something I've never given the chance - The Beach Boys to me are dudes with overly high-pitched vocies singing about a sport (surfing) they've never done and driving cars they've never driven. Does this mean I have to start listening to them too???

i would suggest maybe opening ur mind a little more thats all. as musicians we should listen at all times w/ our God-given musical ears. those statements u are making,'overly high-pitched voices',singing about things they really didnt know about comes off sounding narrow-minded when i doubt that you are at all.you just need to put ur antanna in the air thats all.peace.Randal

 

[Honk'n_down-low]

Bill, here's my take on the Beatles...there are bands that rock harder, there are bands that had more social consciousness, there are bands that had darker natures, but the Beatles invented all those things, and you can trace the development of every rock and roll splinter group to the Beatles.

+1 Once again Jimmy nails it! This could easily become my new Sig Quote

 

[MtManiac]

Another Beatle-evolution related thing for me is growing to appreciate John Lennon. It wasn't hard for me to appreciate Paul or George through their Beatles and solo work, but John, for some reason, never hit me in the sweet spot - or at least I never really understood exactly how much of that great Beatles stuff was really John-centric.

NOW I see how significantly John influenced all of the Beatles work. Sure, it's mostly "McCartney, Lennon" that are credited on all the most known stuff - but when you separate the two you really see how John had a real edgy quality to him that Paul never had. I think that edginess is something that can be challenging to "get" and because of that, getting John as a solo artist required more work for me. Today, everything I hear by John as a solo artist is fantastic! How I could have missed his genius for so long is a shame. But I get it now!

Paul, on the flip side, has a melodic sense that is second to none. I think this is why he's 'easy' to get into as a solo artist/Wings. His songs are all so hooky and 'song-like'. When Paul and John blended, they complimented each other's styles and became bigger than the sum of the parts. But Paul alone is always so 'hooky' and 'sweet'. Since I am apparently getting older, I think just like with my taste in foods, sweet is not as important as 'interesting'.

Except for the late 80s and most of the 90s when I especially poo-pooed all things Beatles and disregarded it as boring (!), I've always liked John's solo stuff, back to the late 70s when I was still a young 'un and just started paying attention to music - I guess around the age of my oldest kid! However, like you, until recently I also have never really truly appreciated his solo stuff either, but am now a big fan. Something about his use of space within melody and rhythm has always really appealed to me, very dramatic. "Mother" is a great example of that, how he lets those chords on the piano just chime and roll off while the bass and drums play on. His lyrics also really resonate strongly with me, especially how much he can say with very few words, like in "Real Love" and "Love Is All You Need." I remember where I was when the news reported that he was killed, I was 10, standing in my parents' kitchen, holding a Stormtrooper action figure.

But yea, Paul is the sweet guy, which is probably why his solo stuff has never really grabbed me, and maybe ultimately what turned me off the Beatles for so long. His Beatles bass playing is (now, to me) just incredible, though I never appreciated it at all until recently. TB is partly to blame for that.

 

[ksandvik]

...I've been analyzing Revolver for a project of mine for a month now -- that album is plain amazing when you start to hear all the details as well as the big picture.

Not to speak of all the clever bass lines done by Paul. He even plays guitar solos here and there (such as the corky solo in Taxman.)

 

[Thor]

A couple of years ago my crappy classic cover band undertook
the slaughter of some Beatles classics. A horrible
experience I have yet to recover from.

I did come away with a new appreciation for how cleverly
constructed some of the song bridges/choruses were.

Case in point: You can't do that.

G7 rocker with 7'ths feel all around. The bridge grabs a B and
moves up through the circle of fifths with a slight variation
B-E-Am - C D G 'Every body's green ...

Another variation on the trick is in I'll Cry Instead
G C9 verse

Chorus goes Bm E7 A7 D E7 A7 D back to G for the verse.

They throw a little different flavor into the melodies by salting
in the minors and 7ths.

They use this ploy in a few of their early melodies and when
I analyzed it, a whole light bulb went off for me on their
writing style. Sheer genius.

George wasn't the fastest player in the guitar world, but he
was a genius at creating the right hook and the right solo sound
to fit the song. Examples: Day Tripper. Helter Skelter.
The whole Abbey Road medley. Doctor Robert. Etc.

 

[tZer]

Bill - Now that I have been more aware of who the Beatles are as individuals - that Paul really is the "Pop Foil" to John's more edgy genius - that George really was innovative in his exploration and incorporation of Indian music - that Paul's incredible sense of musicianship on piano, bass, drums, guitar, vocals; his sense of counterpoint - it allows me to even go all the way back to things like "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and see where these influences started out.

Being able to honestly put their music into context with it's time and being able to disconnect from all of what music evolved into really helps you see just how great they were even when they were still doing the sweet stuff.

I think as an adult, once you either become reacquainted with the Beatles or introduced for the first time, it's almost inevitable that you'll end up discovering and rediscovering more and more each time you either listen to or watch anything about any of them.

For me, each time I see one of those VH1 shows - like "John and the Plastic Ono Band" - I get a whole new perspective on things and suddenly a song of theirs that I never really thought much about suddenly becomes amazing to me.


[EDIT] THOR - excellent post! I now have a plan to put "studying Beatles albums and songs" on my list of things to do. Very insightful!

 

[Philbiker]

Another Beatle-evolution related thing for me is growing to appreciate John Lennon. It wasn't hard for me to appreciate Paul or George through their Beatles and solo work, but John, for some reason, never hit me in the sweet spot - or at least I never really understood exactly how much of that great Beatles stuff was really John-centric.

NOW I see how significantly John influenced all of the Beatles work. Sure, it's mostly "McCartney, Lennon" that are credited on all the most known stuff - but when you separate the two you really see how John had a real edgy quality to him that Paul never had. I think that edginess is something that can be challenging to "get" and because of that, getting John as a solo artist required more work for me. Today, everything I hear by John as a solo artist is fantastic! How I could have missed his genius for so long is a shame. But I get it now!

Paul, on the flip side, has a melodic sense that is second to none. I think this is why he's 'easy' to get into as a solo artist/Wings. His songs are all so hooky and 'song-like'. When Paul and John blended, they complimented each other's styles and became bigger than the sum of the parts. But Paul alone is always so 'hooky' and 'sweet'. Since I am apparently getting older, I think just like with my taste in foods, sweet is not as important as 'interesting'.

And yet John wrote "Good Night" and "Oh! Yoko" while Paul wrote "Helter Skelter" and "Let Me Roll It". They had so much love and respect for each other and each other's particular strengths. Paul says all the time that he was a huge fan of John; I don't think it's much of a stretch to suppose that the feeling was mutual.

 

[ksandvik]

The quick switch from the bridge to verse in I'm Only Sleeping is also very clever. Many of Beatles songs have such clever arrangements -- wish more of that happened in our current somewhat stagnated way of writing and arranging songs. Just break the rules, Beatles did it all the time.

 

[Philbiker]

Here is an item I highly recommend for you Beatles' fans and you folks
just discovering the Beatles: The Beatles Anthology on DVD.
It's a five DVD set that will keep you glued to the TV.
It makes a great Christmas gift. Tell your better half to put this on your
Christmas list. I got it for my bass teacher last Christmas.

Highly recommended. My only complaint with that documentary, and it is a significant complaint, is that there is no archival post-Beatle interview footage from anyone but John. I would like to see what the other members thought about the band when they were interviewed in the 70s.

People don't remember, but there was big hope among fans for some kind of reunion through the 70s, the band members were constantly harassed about it. This is actually fairly well covered on the Paul post-Beatles documentary "Wingspan" - also very highly recommended, along with the "Imagine" movie.

 

[Philbiker]

The quick switch from the bridge to verse in I'm Only Sleeping is also very clever. Many of Beatles songs have such clever arrangements -- wish more of that happened in our current somewhat stagnated way of writing and arranging songs. Just break the rules, Beatles did it all the time.

Often those "clever arrangements" you speak of are credited to George Martin, but McCarney and Lennon often would work together and throw little parts and arrangement ideas to each other a lot.

 

[tZer]

And yet John wrote "Good Night" and "Oh! Yoko" while Paul wrote "Helter Skelter" and "Let Me Roll It". They had so much love and respect for each other and each other's particular strengths.

Oh yeah, Paul could get gritty - not doubt about it. But for John, the grit took on many subtle forms where (to me) Paul's was more along the lines of "turn of the volume" - to put it way too simplistically.

But Paul, to me, also had a fantastic sense of whimsy and humor that really appeals to me. Much like what I like about the band XTC - the ability to create comical characters and humorous events seems to be something Paul comes to quite easily.

So - Paul would be the one who is Vaudevillian - more straight ahead and just plain entertaining, while John would be more sardonic, from a humor angle - more of the Marx Brothers to Paul's Monty Python, maybe?

Paul says all the time that he was a huge fan of John; I don't think it's much of a stretch to suppose that the feeling was mutual.

I'd like to believe the feeling is mutual - but all the documentary post-Beatle era stuff leads me to believe quite the opposite. And this is one area where I feel John's personality, while brilliant, is also disappointing. He seems extra bitter when it comes to Paul in particular. In all the docs I've seen, Johns still hung with George and Ringo - no Paul. There was a seen in one film where Georgy and John were in a small studio just jamming and recording - seemed like they were just hanging out - but in the lyrics of the song, John is clearly talking about Paul and says something along the lines of "what a *C-word*" when referring to him.

Since I still hold Paul's contribution up very high - almost on the same plane as John's - the fact that he seemed to end up really disliking Paul (probably personally, not necessarily musically) - really makes me feel like there's a part of John that's quite petty.

And of course Paul says he is a huge fan of John's. John's dead. What sort of a jerk would Paul be if he said anything else. But I do believe Paul sincerely means it. I am also pretty sure the reason they stopped working together was because Paul wanted to keep moving in a pop-ish direction - concerts, recordings, movies, etc... while John's social and political consciousness wouldn't permit him to enjoy or find value in that pursuit.

 

[ryco]

Wow! No love for "Beatles for Sale"

The nice thing about having the Beatles catalog re-released on CD is they came out with the song titles and song order The Beatles wanted them sequenced. In the US Capitol butchered the song order in order to put out more albums; read "product".

Plus you get more songs! US albums had anywhere from 7 (soundtracks) to 12 songs per album, the UK versions had 14+. Rumor has it that is why the US "Today and Yesterday" album had the "butcher" cover, because the Beatles hated the US Capitol formatting. The Beatles denied this.

If you have kids the "Yellow Submarine" soundtrack and DVD is a must!