It’s nice that the Red and Blue were released. The 4 cd’s give very comprehensive coverage of the band’s material.
I like the early years because of the energy. It sounds like they were having a great time. Love me do, She loves you, Can’t Buy Me Love all make me smile and brighten my day.
Having grown up with the American versions of the albums, I’ve needed to re-associate in my head the songs with the original British albums. A Hard Day’s Night now looks to be the huge leap in quality that didn’t seem to occur until Rubber Soul. And the songs Americans heard on Yesterday and Today that added to their greatness are totally out of sequence, messing up the connection to Revolver.
So when I say the middle years, I mean mid-1964 to mid-1967.
You know, if Capitol records had just released the British albums as they were, the Beatles could really have been something.
I think in the very latter Beatles, they got away with putting stuff on vinyl that never would have gotten pressed if they weren’t The Beatles. That isn’t to day they didn’t also record some pretty good progressive rock in those days also.
I’d disagree. The official albums that were very later, such as The White Album, Abbey Road and Let It Be were flawless for what they were trying to attempt to do. I get it that people don’t like Revolution 9, but give it a re-listen as an old fart. A lot of artists were doing this kind of noise thing then, and putting it on vinyl. The feeling of depression and existential dread this track evokes without being explicit is very strong. It is an abstract variation of A Day In The Life.
Are you an Early Beatles fan or do you like the later stuff?
Yes.
I was going to say pretty much the same - while the early stuff is great, from RS to AR represents, to me, the peak of their career.
Except for “Fool on a Hill”. That song just sucks.
Depends what you mean by “early.”
I’m not a big “Love Me Do”/“Please Please Me” fan. But my favorite Beatles songs come from the period between 1964-66 (or, if you prefer, from Hard Day’s Night through Revolver).
Well, you’re wrong about this, but whatever…
There are many very good Beatles songs from June 1967 forward.
But most of my favorite ones (and there are so many it would be easier to list the ones I just like rather than love) were released from October 1962 through February 1967 (i.e., “Love Me Do” through “Strawberry Fields Forever”). So I guess this would count as early and mid-period Beatles.
Their hits are justly celebrated, but it’s instructive that out of the 45+ Beatles songs in the repertoire of the acoustic duo I’m a part of, there are only two that were A-sides of singles. All the rest are either B-sides or album cuts.
So this (strictly IMHO) is why I used the word “wrong” in my previous post.
Examples? (I predict “Run for Your Life” — amazingly, some people actually take this song’s lyrics literally.)
And the phrase “a product of the time” has no meaning for you?
Also yes.
http://thecurvature.com/2008/11/15/top-5-anti-feminist-beatles-songs/
Those are the top five, and you correctly predicted “Run for Your Life”. These songs and a lot of others the Beatles did treated women as property.
Give them some credit, they did stop it later in their career.
As far as the red and blue compilation goes, they are great, but you will miss their best stuff this way. Tomorrow Never Knows isn’t on either. Many other great songs are not on them. And the Abbey Road side two medley is not represented at all, and it is always a top contender for best pop music ever laid down.
Hell, it had only been some forty odd years on both continents since women were allowed to vote! Of course society was misogynistic. It’s not The Beatles fault.
That’s the way it was back then. Listen to a lot of song lyrics from back in the 60s and 70s. The constant “you are mine,” “you belong to me,'” “you’re my girl,” etc.
As time went on The Beatles also had some liberating lyrics for women; the female in “Norwegian Wood” controlled the situation. “Girl” sounds like a controlling woman. Paul praises his mother, “Mary.”
Don’t confuse The Beatles misogyny with misogyny in general at that point in time. They were working within the cultural norm.
I love the white album and Abbey Road. I also enjoy some of Sgt. Pepper’s and Magical Mystery Tour. Before that, it’s pretty hit-or-miss for me. I’m just more of a '70s rock kind of guy, and so it’s the later Beatles stuff that’s closer to my tastes overall.
So, definitely Blue for me, the later the better.
All of it in general, but the earlier stuff in specific.
Middle for me also.
My favorite albums are Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Abbey Road, so that definitely leans towards later Beatles, I guess.
ETA: If this is Red vs Blue, looking at the songs on each album, it’s a toughie, but I’ll go with Blue, which is the later years. First of all, it’s got “Something,” which is the greatest love song ever written. So that pretty wins it for me. But then “A Day in the Life,” “Here Comes the Sun,” “Strawberry Fields,” “Across The Universe,” “The Long and Winding Road.” Yeah, gotta go with Blue there.
same.
The middle to late stuff, although I do love all of it. My favorite albums are “Rubber Soul” and “Revolver”.
My favorite songs?
“Here, There, and Everywhere”
“In My Life”
“I’m Only Sleeping”
“Back in the USSR”
“Fixing a Hole”
“Julia”
“I Will”
“Good Night”
“Oh! Darling”
“She Came in Through the Bathroom Window”
Their early stuff, I like, “I’ll Follow the Sun”, “I Feel Fine”, and “If I Fell”.
(Can you tell I’m a big Beatles fan?)
We do disagree. I just don’t believe George Martin would have allowed “Wild Honey Pie”, “Honey Pie”, “Don’t Pass Me By”, “Why Don’t We Do It On The Road”, “Good Night”, “Dig It”, “I Dig A Pony”, or the long fade outs on “Helter Skelter” and “Hey Jude” to be pressed if some group he had just signed had recorded them.
Though, “Honey Pie” might have been a better fit on the Sgt Pepper album.