I know and like their songs obviously but never really listened to their catalogue so today I'm marathoning it all.
And up to Rubber Soul it was a slog. With the exception of few well-written songs it's really boring, safe and generally uninteresting. Now Rubber Soul seems to mark a major change in the band's philosophy, songwriting is inspired from beginning to end and the production is pretty good.
I thought about quitting after Help but now I want more.
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You're about to experience the absolute peak of the Beatles musically speaking: 1966-1969 studio albums. Feel free to skip 'Yellow Submarine', though.
Help has elements of that too, I think, but yeah as soon as you hear Drive My Car and Norwegian Wood there's no going back
The main reason for their transition from boring to not, is pic related. You have to check him out, Lennon worshipped him.
Fuck outta here that song was recorded after Sgt. Pepper
He has earlier songs that preclude the Beatles in style, I just picked one of the most Lennon like songs of his. They influenced each other bigtime.
>When Nilsson became famous, Turner decided to release these early recordings, and contacted Nilsson to work out a fair payment. Nilsson replied that he had already been paid – five dollars a track.
Good guy Harry
It's cool that he and Lennon/Mccartney were mutual fans
Everything before Rubber Soul - with the exception of a few songs - is not worth listening to, and for the most part is complete shit. You're a retard for not doing your homework and realizing that before going into it. That said, you should enjoy the latter half of their catalog considerably.
This is my face on Revolver.
Did you ever see the documentary about Harry and John hanging out? People "in the know" said if Nilsson showed up and took you somewhere, you'd not come back for 3 days and did nothing but cocaine and acid while going to various parties. Nilsson was rumoured to be a drug dealer of musicians.
see
Lennon didn't get into Nilsson until around '67-'68. The Beatles' creative turning point is objectively Rubber Soul/Revolver, which were recorded and released in '65-'66. That said, I do enjoy some Nilsson. Although I was disappointed that two of my favorite songs of his were not actually written by him (Everybody's Talkin and Without You). Still has some solid originals and a good voice, and seems like an all around champ as this user would attest , but I was nonetheless a little disappointed.
I gave music a chance to speak for itself. If that's retarded I don't want to be smart.
You're retarded. Did you not know what early British Invasion pop sounds like?
>tfw i consider myself a big beatles fan but have never listened to any pre rubber soul albums
Fair enough, I'm not at all opposed to that. In virtually any other case I would be in full support of that mentality. But surely as a person who doesn't live under a rock you must have heard early Beatlemania hits (Twist and Shout, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Can't Buy Me Love, etc). I find it hard to believe you didn't realize long ago that they were little more than a shit boy band in their early years, especially when further listening just confirmed this for you.
Meanwhile I enjoy their early stuff just as much as their later stuff. Then again I'm a big fan of early rock 'n' roll in general. "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Twist and Shout" are two of my all-time favourite Beatles songs.
No need, with the exception of a few singles from '64-'65, they suck.
Any other bands who became LESS pop with time?
Listen to Scott Walker's earliest songs from the late 50's and early 60's.
I will admit I hadn't heard any of these songs. Not bad. Everybody's Talkin is a hard one to top though
Daylight has caught me is my favorite because it mirrors my life and supposedly mirrored his. He was an enigma and a wonderful composer just like lennon.
>tfw you realize the plebs are the ones who love the White Album and hate Please Please Me
Also this credits song for a movie
Listen to Beatles for Sale
kek
congrats user, you've ventured so far up your own ass into obscurity that you like shitty music now
your brain is broken
Just wait until to get to let it be. Their best album And also the one that has aged like fine wine
Good for a chuckle. I wouldn't consider this a serious part of his catalog though.
I should admit, on the other hand, I was delightfully surprised that he wrote that Best Friend song for that one TV show that I'm too young to have seen but hear in more recent stuff from time to time
>let it be
>their best album
Still a better choice than anything pre-Rubber Soul, but that's about it
You're right. Just a whimsical example of his quirkiness. I heard best friend several times on several shows before I found out who he was. Always knew lime in the coconut and everybody's talking, but had no idea who sung it.
I finally fell for the Beatles meme.
I hate it when people say the beatles were better after 66. Fuck you, please please me and hard days night are dope, along with all those other singles from those years
Alright, OP, how far are you now and what do you think?
Are you listening to the U.S. or British catalogue?
A lot of it is quite different.
Also are you listening to the mono or stereo versions of the albums?
Rubber Souls is definitely when The Beatles became (objectively?) the best band of all time, and compared to later albums all before it are garbage, but as stand-alone album Help is good.
Interestingly, The Beach Boys had the same shift in 1965 with Today!
Can the whole "early Beatles are bad" meme please die already? That early music is amongst some of the most important things they contributed to pop music canon.
Yes it was written with a commercial, young female audience in mind, but it's still quite creatively (at least for the conventions of pop music at that time) and of course melodically engaging. When people think of pop music marketed to a demographic like that they think of a boardroom of square, wealthy businessmen cynically tailoring everything about some blank slates "creative" output and public image.
That was absolutely NOT the case with The Beatles. Their "boardroom" was basically just Brian Epstein who told them to wear suits and to stop cursing during interviews. All the songwriting was more or less exclusively conducted by Lennon/McCartney with occasional interjections by George Martin (who likely didn't care too much about the commercial aspects). Lennon and McCartney knew what they had to write about to get popular, but that doesn't mean actual content within the music/performances is nonexistent. They were a huge force to be reckoned with even then, popping out these intuitively crafted pop songs that are incredibly catchy, but not obvious. A Hard Days Night might be the tightest album they ever recorded from front to back. I'm telling you, you did not hear pop artists perform with that kind of youthful energy before The Beatles, you did not hear pop artists use those kinds of chord progressions or harmonies or melodies. You don't even really hear that in mainstream pop artists nowadays.
Sure those songs sound quaint compared to how creatively and emotionally expansive their later stuff is, but the base of their appeal is all their. They were just geniuses in terms of songcraft and that applies whether they were writing about superficial young love or the Tibetan book of the dead.
oh yeah and sorry for the blog post, this shit just frustrates me to no end.
and I know there are some grammar errors in there, I was writing it in a beatles fueled rage
me too, good post
Good post user
Update: That was a pretty cool thing I treated myself to today.
And I haven't said that there's no redeeming qualities about their first few records. What I meant is their full of filler with really great songs in between.
Rubber Soul onwards it's pretty much consistent 10/10 and I'm already sad there's no more.
I
Inb4 John Lennon plastic dude something.
Relisten to the albums, listen to singles not on the albums, listen to anthology and love, listen to solo stuff too.
Also, is there any albums you'd consider putting in your top 50? If so, which?
Help! is a good album and *almost* a serious musical accomplishment. Hard Day's Night isn't bad. Everything else and I mean literally every single other thing is so fucking disgustingly amateur and irredeemable that I can honestly say that music history would be improved if it forgot about them.
The only positive thing I have to say about even the very best of the Beatles' pre-1967 ditties (they're not even really songs) is that they are mercifully short.
All true
You're making good points, but I'm not sure how much it matters. Most "intentional listeners" (people who are seeking out the beatles specifically) find the later work more stimulating. But of course the thing that makes the Beatles "art" music as fascinating as it is, is the fact that they had reached a peak of international fame that had never been seen before and will probably never be seen again (the celebrity landscape is too populated today for any one group to have as much attention focused on them as the Beatles did).
By Rubber Soul they were writing from this unique perspective, and the message they chose to send with all their influence was countercultural. It's a fascinating moment in 20th century history, and one of the formative events of everything that came after.