I agree that they peaked with “Revolver” and “Rubber Soul.” “Revolver” was the first Beatles album I ever bought, and it continues to be a favorite.
I think those two were the perfect middle ground between the poppy early stuff and their more mature later work. It had sophistication, but the passion and fun was still there for them.
Many people find Revolver their favorite Beatles album. I note this especially among people who are not Beatles fanatics, but I’ve met many Beatles fans that think that too. It and Rubber Soul are especially strong albums filled with top notch songs. Personally I like the later stuff (with AR my fav) better, but these are very high on my all time list.
I think A Hard Day’s Night (UK version) is a better set of songs than Revolver. My favourites are “Taxman”, “She Said She Said”, “And Your Bird Can Sing”, “For No One” and “Tomorrow Never Knows”, but the rest of it varies from pleasant album filler (“I’m Only Sleeping”, “Here, There and Everywhere”, “I Want To Tell You”, “Doctor Robert”) to stuff I immediately skip over (“Love You To”, “Yellow Submarine”, “Good Day Sunshine”, “Got to Get You into My Life”). “Eleanor Rigby” is an oddity in that I admire it as a piece of songwriting, but I just don’t enjoy listening to it.
I was around back then, and the release of ***any ***Beatles album was a major event. Of course we had no idea which would turn out to be the “best,” and we just assumed that any new album was better than its predecessors. Even if it wasn’t, it would at least be something different.
People’s reaction to Tomorrow Never Knows depended on how stoned they were.
And it wasn’t just the music; some of the album designs were breakthroughs as well. I was the layout editor for our college yearbook in the late 60s, and group photos were very different after the release of “Sergeant Pepper.”
Hmm I remember (as a 5 year old) hearing “Got to Get You into My Life” on Top 40 radio, as in all the time.
I would have loved, as a detached adult observer, to have seen the reactions of naive suburban teens to “Tomorrow Never Knows,” as they probably never heard anything like that before, by anyone.
I only just ‘discovered’ Revolver in September. I mean, I knew the most famous songs off it – “Good Day Sunshine,” “Yellow Submarine,” “Here There and Everywhere,” “Eleanor Rigby,” and “Got to Get You Into My Life” (although I was shocked by the latter, because I always thought it was a song from Paul’s Wings period – confused because of its release as a single in the mid-1970s when I was a wee thing). When I listened to the whole thing for the first time, I just fell. in. love. Especially with “Taxman,” “Tomorrow Never Knows,” “And Your Bird Can Sing” and “Love You To.” I don’t even know how I hadn’t heard “Taxman” before; I’d heard of it – I pretty much knew the title of almost every Beatles song, even if I’d never heard 'em – but somehow avoided the actual song.
What made me ‘discover’ the album was listening to a fabulous George Martin interview / analysis of the song production on the BBC in celebration of the box set release. The panel discussed “Taxman” and “Tomorrow Never Knows” in depth, taking them apart piece by piece from the drums to the incredible guitar work to the Leslie speaker effect used for John’s voice in TNK, and I was astounded.
Until September I’d have easily called Abbey Road my favorite Album. Now Revolver is tied. In both cases, I love every song, with the weakest songs in both for me being only “Yellow Submarine” and “Octopus’s Garden,” although they’re both enjoyable confections.
In fact I’ve even started to ration myself with Revolver: I don’t let myself listen to it more than once a week, because I don’t want to lose the freshness of my adoration for it.
By the way, I strongly recommend Everything Was Right: The Beatles Revolver, a two-hour radio documentary (available with a free account at PRX.org) by Paul Ingles and a panel of guests who dissect each song. Some of the Beatles experts here will probably find this all old hat, but I think many will find this analysis utterly fascinating.
To me, the Beatles didn’t have a peak. I think they started out as a remarkably high level, then built to a crescendo with Help and stayed there, with minor dips only for Magical Mystery Tour, The Beatles (some of the songs seem self-indulgent to me) and then a more significant dip with Let It Be (more self-indulgence–I can’t stand the “jokey” shtick they added in, not to mention Phil Spector’s ridiculous orchestral crap). But even on those, the jewels remaining would be the best from any other group. Considering their last recording was Abbey Road, I think they absolutely went out on a high.
I think I’d put Revolver as a close second to Abbey Road. Revolver is just amazing. Taxman, I’m Only Sleeping, Tomorrow Never Knows, Love You To and Eleanor Rigby are all up there with their greatest songs ever, and the first three are some of my favorite Beatles songs to play, and yet they all sound completely different from each other.
Since we’re on the subject, they just started a series of audio programs over at beatles.com. The first installment, Here, There and Everywhere has interviews with artists talking about how they were influenced by The Beatles.
Continuing with my non-Revolver hijack, I just saw the VH1 TV movie, Two Of Us. The movie is a fictional account of Paul’s meeting with John in 1976. If you’re a fan, I think it’s really worth watching.
I once made a list of the 20 reasons Revolver is the best Beatles album. Here it is (or close to it):
Case closed.
Agreed, but you missed “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)”.
I still think Abbey Road is their best – the medley especially is the apex of their music and it’s too bad that this was just an afterthought before the group finally called it quits.
But Revolver and Rubber Soul are nearly as good, hindered only because the group was not being quite as ambitious as it was later.
The Beatles Double Album has as many great songs as either, though many more second-rate ones. If it had been cut in half, it would have been up with the rest. Sgt. Pepper is great more in historical context than as music; it’s innovations seem very dated right now. Still, it’s first-class work.
Yeah, but that one was a b-side, so I left it off to make the case for (against) songs on actual albums.
My impression of Revolver is that it wasn’t as “user-friendly” as the previous albums… it had some challenging songs on it, like “Tomorrow Never Knows”, “Love You To”, and “I Want to Tell You”. Not surprising, I guess, considering that it was the Beatles’ first “LSD album”… they were maybe a bit out in front of their audience at that point.
A travesty? I guess it depends on your taste. I would count “Fool on the Hill”, “I Am the Walrus”, “Penny Lane”, and “Strawberry Fields Forever” as great songs, with “Hello Goodbye” and “All You Need Is Love” close. That’s 6 of 11 songs. On “Sgt. Pepper’s”, by comparison, I would probably count “With A Little Help from My Friends”, “Lucy in the Sky…”, and “A Day in the Life” as great, with the title track and “Good Morning Good Morning” as close… that’s 5 of 12 songs (or 13 if you count the title track and reprise as separate songs). Now, you can argue that “Pepper” is more consistent, and also that it’s a “real” album as opposed to a patched-together collection. And, of course, the film was… well… let’s say “for special tastes”. Still, I see nothing travestitial about the album. (What the hell is the adjectival form of “travesty”, anyway?)
I remember reading something about George Harrison saying that Rubber Soul and Revolver could have been the same record, a double LP. These two are easily my favorite two Beatle records.
:rolleyes:
Case most definitely not closed.
There are a lot of great Beatle songs in that list. Some classic, some not, but there’s no way most of that list goes on the lousy Beatle song pile.
Says you. But it’s my list, and I say those songs suck ass. Revolver, on the other hand, has not a weak track on it.
Thanks for the roll eyes smiley, though. That shit never seems dickish.
You’re the one who said “case closed.” Seems like you invited any response that people would give. Rolleyes is about the mildest.
Seemed pretty obvious to me it was tongue in cheek. I forget saying you don’t like something on the Dope is the same thing as calling those who do like it pieces of shit.
Well instead of just going is too, is not, I’ll just say that to me, a good 50% of the songs on woodstockbirdybird’s list are at least “good” songs, with several being “really good” and two being “awesome.” So it just goes to show you taste is, as we know, hella subjective.
The Good:
The Word – very hippie and such fun to 60s-dance to.
Fixing A Hole – trippy and thoughtful.
Piggies – Snarky, dark, socio-political message, terrific keyboards, what’s not to like?
Octopus’s Garden – I don’t get liking “Yellow Submarine” but putting this down as one of the worst. I find them both light, cute songs, the “least” on their respective albums but certainly not lousy
Really Good:
Think For Yourself – I love this underappreciated song.
Run For Your Life – yes, the lyrics are creepy as hell but I love the menacing vibe and the terrific music itself. I know John said he regretted writing this but I don’t think it glamorizes the stalker who’s singing the song, I think he’s supposed to be hateful.
Blue Jay Way – the sinister, off-kilter music floats my boat.
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da – joy joy joy set to music. A confection but what’s wrong with that? Paul’s inadvertent slip with 'Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face" turns this into a deliciously off-kilter story.
Birthday – another infectious, pure rockin’ song.
The Awesome:
Within You Without You – I mean, what? This is a bad song!!! Sexy, dreamy, incredible rhythm, hypnotic… I adore this. Loving “Tomorrow Never Knows” and “Love You To” but not “Within You Without You” doesn’t seem possible.
Maxwell’s Silver Hammer – I know it’s a controversial choice (a lot of people seem to hate it) but this song cracks me up. It’s a Terry Gilliam cartoon from Monty Python set to music. The cheerful music combined with darkety dark-dark lyrics captivate me. A must-sing-along-to song.
I’m noticing a lot of these are sort of creepy, scary, black humor type songs. Maybe that’s just the sort of thing that I dig. And yet if I were compiling the above “worst songs off Beatles albums” list, I’d have put “Bungalow Bill” on it, another snarky song, so there ya go.