Beatles – ”Beatles For Sale” (1964)

Another album on the theme "rescued from my parents' LP collection". Yes, even a classic like this was heading for an unknown destination - the trash or as a gift to some second hand store. I hope it likes it better in my home.

I have always said I like the Beatles from the album Revolver (1966) and onwards. It was then the Beatles began their serious experimenting, both with their music and their minds. The music they created earlier, I have always regarded as somewhat geeky and lightweight, songs like She Loves You comes flickering in my head, and I've never understood what people have raved about when they praised the Beatles’ early works. I am now prepared to ask for forgiveness.

I haven’t listened to Beatles For Sale since adolescence when I tried it out a few times at home. But since I didn’t think it was much to have, it sounded old and out-dated, it remained in my parent’s shelf and bided its time. When I listen to it today, I realize that it’s really, really great. Now I understand that the Beatles was actually a great band even before Revolver and the songs Lennon / McCartney created were something extraordinary. Yes, I know that countless people since the 60s have argued just this, but some people wake up late.

The album was recorded during an intense period of the Beatles career. It had only been a week after A Hard Days Night had been finished in the studio, when they started the new recordings. Moreover, it was recorded parallel with touring, television appearances, radio shows etc. But according to the contract they were under, the Beatles had to release two albums a year, so what can you do.

Since the pace was so high when it came to recording albums, the Beatles didn’t have time to write enough songs. So they did what they often did back then, they filled out with the album with a number of cover songs. The album includes eight original songs and six covers. In my world, some rockabilly numbers can be done without, but apart from those it’s an extremely strong collection of songs. Most known is perhaps Eight Days A Week, but there are other songs that are even better - No Reply, Baby 's In Black, Words Of Love, Every Little Thing, etc. Especially the cover Words Of Love surprised me as it sounds a bit different than other Beatles creations, it’s more the Byrds than the Beatles.

We are still far from Tomorrow Never Knows or Sgt Pepper, and it's sometimes hard to imagine that it’s only a few years before the Beatles created these psychedelic institutions. At the same time, several of the songs from Beatles For Sale could make it on Revolver or any of their subsequent albums. Everything the Beatles did from 1966 wasn’t fuzzy psychedelia, there were still lots of "normal" songs on the albums. It was also room for some experimentation on Beatles For Sale, in Mr. Moonlight we hear a solo with a Hammond organ, and on Every Little Thing Ringo contributes with punches on a timpani.

 

 

It's a surprisingly dark touch on many of the songs, and the music pros on allmusic.com say that the fatigue as a consequence of the Beatles extremely intense years now was shining through. Obviously I recommend Beatles For Sale, I 'm glad I finally have understood the greatness of the early Beatles.

The cover photo was taken in Hyde Park in London.

Tracklist

Side A
1. No Reply 2:15
2. I’m A Loser 2:31
3. Baby’s In Black 2:02
4. Rock And Roll Music 2:30
5. I’ll Follow The Sun 1:46
6. Kansas City 2:33
 
Side B
1. Eight Days A Week 2:43
2. Words Of Love 2:12
3. Honey Don’t 2:55
4. Every Little Thing 2:01
5. I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party 2:33
6. What You’re Doing 2:30
7. Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby 2:23

 

Beatles - "Let It Be" (1970)

Purchased at age of 16 when the Beatles was still a relatively unexplored concept, and their music was new to yours truly. This is not one of my favorite records with the Beatles, on the contrary, I think it's pretty boring.

The debate has long been running in the music world on how to look at this Beatles album. Is this their last album or not? And is it really a "real" Beatles album? Opinions differ since it was recorded early in 1969, before Abbey Road. But it was released in 1970, after Abbey Road. At the same time some last studio recordings were made to Let It Be in 1970. Hmmmm... Also, many people believe that Let It Be is to be regarded more as a soundtrack to the documentary film that was made in connection with the recordings, and not a "real" album.

 

To make it simple, I think Let It Be is a real Beatles album and that it was their last, although Abbey Road would have been a much more beautiful goodbye.

The recordings were made during a time when the Beatles members’ relations were strained. It went so far that George Harrison left the band after fights with Lennon and McCartney, but was persuaded to come back after a week. During his absence, Lennon suggested that Eric Clapton could take over from Harrison, but Ringo and McCartney said no. Lennon had a lot of other stuff going on at the time and was generally uninterested in the band and the recordings, while McCartney was trying to find the band’s old energy. He thought that a more "back to basics" approach, and more playing live, would bring them to this goal. But it didn’t work out so well.

 

The result on the record is considered to be affected by the dodgy relationships within the band, and the final blow, many people think, was Lennon's idea to submit some songs to Phil Spector for a final touch.

The recording started in the film studio Twickerham and continued in a studio in the basement of the Apple offices (Apple as in the Beatles' record label, not the computer company). It was on this building’s roof they had their famous concert which the police stopped after a while. The songs Dig A Pony, I've Got A Feeling and One After 909 is from this gig.

 

Beatles rehearsed a lot of songs during the recording of Let It Be of which some are heard on Abbey Road, but also on the members’ later solo albums. Apparently there are many bootlegs around since everything was filmed and taped. I haven’t seen the documentary, but apparently the band's internal conflicts are to be seen clearly, and many believe that it’s a film about a band in disintegration rather than a band in a creative process.

As mentioned, I have never liked Let It Be. Not only is it a different sound on many songs, more of McCartney's a bit rough "back to basics" without exciting studio effects of psychedelic and experimental kind. And many songs are not that good, basically. There are many, including the Beatles members themselves, that don’t like Phil Spector's Wall of Sound treatment on selected songs, especially Across The Universe and The Long And Winding Road. Personally I have always liked Across The Universe in Spector's version, the most druggy and psychedelic song on the record. However, I hate the cheesy The Long And Winding Road. As always Harrison contributes with nice stuff in the form of I Me Mine and For Your Blue. A previous favorite was Dig A Pony, but today I think less of it. However, I have come to like the opening track Two Of Us better, where Lennon and McCartney sing in harmony.

 

Well, if it's one of the Beatles albums you can skip I guess it’s Let It Be. The title song is a classic, but I think it's a little too cheesy. But it’s still an album of the Beatles, music history's most legendary and probably most important band, so it still feels like a must-have in the collection.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Two Of Us 3:37
2. Dig A Pony 3:55
3. Across The Universe 3:48
4. I Me Mine 2:26
5. Dig It 0:50
6. Let It Be 4:03
7. Maggie Mae 0:40

Side B

1. I’ve Got A Feeling 3:38
2. One After 909 2:54
3. The Long And Winding Road 3:38
4. For Your Blue 2:32
5.Get Back 3:09

 

Beatles - “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (1967)

Is there an album that has been more thoroughly analyzed, studied, interpreted, described and hailed as the Beatles' eighth album? Probably not. Is there anything yours truly can add that has not already been said? Probably not. Should I stop writing today's post right here? Probably.

But I won’t.

In the spring of 1987 I was 14 years old. That was the time when, at least in Sweden, you either listened to synth music or heavy metal. Depeche Mode or Iron Maiden. A teenager did absolutely NOT listen to the Beatles, if you did you were bängaloo (as you said in Sweden at that time). Old people, like your parents, maybe listened to the Beatles. Maybe. So I was feeling very nervous and looking anxiously around me when I stepped into “Expert”, the record store which was situated at the main square in the city of Uppsala, to buy this album. What if someone saw me?

For a while I had been curious about this album since I had understood that it was "psychedelic". This attracted me because it was clear to me that this meant a lot of drug references and a general hazy music. Which of course seemed exciting. I had also heard a radio program about this album (an entire radio show dedicated to an album! In Sweden. 1986.) which analyzed and described it as if it were a work of art.

Once inside “Expert”, I first aimlessly wondered around to act moderately interested in the album shelves. I walked past the 'B' –section a few times without stopping. Again, to buy a Beatles record was not what a normal 14-year-old did, and I wanted nothing more than to be normal. When I felt that I could not continue wander around aimlessly without the staff starting to suspect me of being a shoplifter, I took a deep breath and began to look through the Beatles albums. Just when I picked up the Sgt Pepper album I suddenly saw one of the school's tough guys and his buddies stand at a different record shelf and check out the albums. Heavy Metal, of course. "Oh no!", I thought half panicing and cursed my bad luck. I saw the rumor spread across the school that Markus had bought a Beatles album. I would be the clown this week. I walked rapidly to the checkout and hurried to pay. I hopedI wasn’t discovered.

When I walked homeward through the city center, I hoped intensely that I would not meet someone I knew. A big record bag under the arm was not possible to hide and the question what you had bought was quite natural and difficult to avoid answering. Luckily, I encountered noone I knew.

Back home, I listened with reverence to my first Beatles album and went on the journey so many have done before and after me. A new world opened up to me, a world not only inhabited by the Beatles but also of all other bands in the 60’s and 70's who played the sacred "psychedelic" music. However, if I’m honest, I’m still not sure what something is when it is psychedelic.

I think Sgt Pepper is a good album (but not the Beatles’ best) but all the songs are not good. Songs like "She's leaving home" or "Fixing a Hole" I think are a bit boring, the same goes for "When I'm Sixty-Four". On the other hand, there are also many great songs. As said initially, this album is so well described by others so I don’t write anything more about the music here. All I will say is that although I had heard a lot of music at age 14, Sgt Pepper was in some way different than anything else I've heard. Maybe it was quality I heard? However, I would like to share some facts that I read online, which I find interesting.

The songs "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" were the first songs recorded for this album. However, their manager Brian Epstein thought they needed to release a single so these songs ended up being this single. And as their habit was, the Beatles didn’t put the songs from a single on a LP. The album is also considered to be one of the first concept albums, with the fictional band Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band at the wheel. The record opens up with an introduction of the band and then continues with band leader Billy Shears (Ringo) who sings "With a little help from my friends". A kind of replay of the opening song ends the B-side, together with the subsequent "A Day In The Life". But all the songs in between really don’t have anything to do with this concept, and especially John has been insistent that all the songs he wrote for this album could have been on any other of their records. So if this is a concept album or not, I let others decide, but as I said, it do get credits for being one of the first.

When the vinyl album is finished it ends with a sound loop that goes round and round instead of the usual silence (with the regular click). This loop has been subject to many interpretations and a lot of people have of course heard a secret message when you play it backwards. Paul has said that a group of kids came up to him in the summer of 1967 and complained about this secret message. Paul denied that such a message existed, took the kids to his home and played the loop backwards for them. He then heard to his horror that it sounded very much like "We'll fuck you like Superman."

On the album’s cover (as studied and interpreted as the music itself) there are yellow hyacinths planted in the shape of a guitar. With a little imagination the flowers can be read as "Paul?". Yes, I have checked this out and it is true. This of course put fire to the rumor that Paul was dead, a classic urban myth that has come and gone. The above mentioned "secret message" in the sound loop has also been interpreted to "Will Paul come back as Superman?" which of course also was proof of his death.

Summary: A good album, maybe a little over analyzed, and a source of some initial neuroses whithin the 14-year-old Markus. But it also gave me a lot of joy and was a step into a new musical world. By the way, no one saw me buying the record and when I a few years later started the swedish gymnasium (something like the last years of an American high school), I could suddenly talk about owning this and other Beatles albums. And there were others who did too! Oh, how wonderful it was to get to know other connoisseurs. For now I understood, that was what you were when you owned Beatles albums, not bängaloo.

 

Favourite tracks

Lucy in the sky with diamonds

Being for the benefit och Mr Kite!

A day in the life

 

Tracklist

Side A

1. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 
2. "With a Little Help from My Friends" 
3."Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" 
4. "Getting Better" 
5. "Fixing a Hole"
6. "She's Leaving Home" 
7. "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" 

Side B

1. "Within You Without You"
2. "When I'm Sixty-Four" 
3. "Lovely Rita" 
4. "Good Morning Good Morning" 
5. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)" 
6. "A Day in the Life" 

 

Beatles - “Yellow Submarine” (1969)

With a warm heart I remember the time in my life when bands like the Beatles were still unexplored worlds. Each new album you laid your hands on was a new adventure. It was that time of life when you had time to explore an album in depth, ponder on the texts or meditate on the symbolism of the cover art. A lot could be seen, of which probably 97% were one's own mind's inventions. You created a deeper personal relationship with each LP compared with today, when music is so easily accessible. If the old times were better times I leave unsaid, though.

Since this album with the Beatles is a bit more neglected than their other creations, I was even more curious about it. I got it for Christmas, I think I was 18 years old. The music is a soundtrack for the film of the same name and the album contains four previously unreleased Beatles songs, two previously released, and a B-side which is an orchestral work by George Martin. This explains why this record has been overlooked and hardly counts as a "real" Beatles album.

Personally, I skip the B side when I listen to the album, George Martin's symphonic film music is not very interesting and sounds like soundtrack to animated films often do (I imagine). What I like with the A-side is that it includes some less familiar songs by the Beatles,songs I find really good. It starts with "Yellow Submarine", a song originally on the album Revolver. Everyone knows this tune and personally I liked it better before. Now I’ve heard it too much and it gives me the vibes of children’s music. Above that, the sing-a-long chorus is completely worn out.

Then it gets more interesting with George Harrison's creation, "Only A Northern Song". This song was a leftover from the recording of Sgt Pepper and is a song with an unusual amount of keyboards (for being the Beatles). The song title is apparently a reference relating to Harrison's dissatisfaction to be related to the company Northern Songs regarding his musical creations, a company of which John and Paul owned the largest part. It is certainly a nice psychedelic gem, quite dark in its tone.

The LP continues with "All Together Now", a McCartney song that don’t need to be heard. In the past I liked it, but not today. Typical McCartney sing-a-long like "Yellow Submarine".

Then we hear, "Hey Bulldog", a Lennon song with a bit more punch in it. The song is not wellknown but sounds typical Lennon, a bit bitterness, a bit nasty and a bit critical.

"All Too Much" follows next and is the highlight of the album. Again a Harrison song, with both mellotron and lots of guitar feedback. This is a really fine example of psychedelic music, a music teacher who lectures on this kind of music should be forced to play "All Too Much". It is unusually long and stops at 6:25.

The A-side ends with "All You Need Is Love". A classic (previously released as a single) which we have heard too much. I’m really tired of it, but to be honest, I actually have never liked it. Are you allowed to dislike this song?

Favorite tracks

“Only A Northern Song”

“All Too Much”

 

Tracklist

Side A

1. Yellow Submarine

2. Only A Northern Song

3. All Together Now

4. Hey Bulldog

5. All Too Much

6. All You Need Is Love

 

Side B

1. Pepperland

2. Sea Of Time

3. Sea Of Holes

4. Sea Of Monsters

5. March Of The Meanies

6. Pepperland Laid Waste

7. Yellow Submarine In Pepperland