The Beatles *sigh*

[pixletwin]

I think what did it for me was Strawberry Fields Forever, and I Am The Walrus. Of course I had heard the "hits" like She Loves You, and I Want To Hold Your Hand, but it was something about the Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour era that planted the seed of curiosity, to use a really bad analogy/cliché. 

Oh my God yes. SFF is so hauntingly beautiful and the production is 30 years ahead of its time.

Great interview with George Martin about Strawberry Fields Forever

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFPMrXpWX04

[Summer_Days]

I think what did it for me was Strawberry Fields Forever, and I Am The Walrus. Of course I had heard the "hits" like She Loves You, and I Want To Hold Your Hand, but it was something about the Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour era that planted the seed of curiosity, to use a really bad analogy/cliché. 

Oh my God yes. SFF is so hauntingly beautiful and the production is 30 years ahead of its time.

'Strawberry Fields Forever' is ,as I said, my #1 favorite Beatles song and it's probably my favorite song that John ever wrote, though 'Jealous Guy' is my favorite solo track of his. Both songs are beyond beautiful.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

They all wrote some of the best songs in history. Well not Ringo  but he was an absolute beast of a drummer so that made up for it.  I can't choose between john and Paul. Can't. They played off each other so perfectly and their vocals were ace. Then you add in George and it's just...wow. if I had to choose I might lean very slightly towards Paul... who just may be my favorite artist ever besides BW.

[SMiLE-addict]

Shameless promotion of my own posts on the Music Banter forum (which I've linked here before, but might as well do another shameless promotion in this thread too).

BTW, I've noticed if you do a google search for "Beatles vs The Beach Boys," that page I linked ^above^ is the very first search result! I'm famous!

/shameless promotion

[EgoHanger1966]

They all wrote some of the best songs in history. Well not Ringo 

I laughed out loud.

[zachrwolfe]

‍

[Jay]

I think what did it for me was Strawberry Fields Forever, and I Am The Walrus. Of course I had heard the "hits" like She Loves You, and I Want To Hold Your Hand, but it was something about the Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour era that planted the seed of curiosity, to use a really bad analogy/cliché.  

Oh my God yes. SFF is so hauntingly beautiful and the production is 30 years ahead of its time.

Great interview with George Martin about Strawberry Fields Forever

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFPMrXpWX04

I've seen and heard George Martin tell this story countless times, and I never get tired of it. Having him tell me this story in a one on one conversation is on my "bucket list".  

[JohnMill]

They all wrote some of the best songs in history. Well not Ringo  but he was an absolute beast of a drummer so that made up for it.  I can't choose between john and Paul. Can't. They played off each other so perfectly and their vocals were ace. Then you add in George and it's just...wow. if I had to choose I might lean very slightly towards Paul... who just may be my favorite artist ever besides BW.

Most of the (few) songs Ringo contributed to the band I actually really like.

How much of Octopuses Garden was George responsible for? Judging by the Let it Be film (though I watched a long time ago), I think it was mostly getting the chords down I don't know for sure.

I always liked the verse he came up with on the fly.  It's a pity they didn't develop it more:

He wraps his many arms around me
winks and blinks his eyes to charm me...
So wouldn't it be nice?  
Paradise?  
In an octopus' garden in the shade

[guitarfool2002]

Every show I've seen on film or video has had that energy, that live spark which these guys could switch on and off at will, the way it seems. And musically, besides them missing a few cues and telling in-jokes between tunes to each other, the videos and clips I've seen have been solid and tight.

Heck, even the poor-quality bootlegs like the Philadelphia 1964 tape and similar ones can have bad sound quality issues, but musically even those are not that bad.

I've wondered if we were to sit someone down with all existing live tapes and ask for their opinion of the music itself, whether that opinion would be more favorable than the common versions of the Beatles live story have been?

Yes, they got sick of the road, yes, the road started to wear on them where it felt like an assembly line so they delivered an assembly line type of set to almost every audience, but hearing and seeing various shows can change your mind after years of hearing more negative things about these shows.

[guitarfool2002]

Around 12 minutes of live Beatles, playing the NME show in 1964. They can't hear a damn thing, they make a few comical mistakes with the songs and missing cues, but tell me they're not getting by on that pure rush of energy and adrenaline that they could call up at will on stage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG-DXGKDBcA

Now, just how musically bad were these shows at the height of their worldwide fame? 

[Jay]

God...to have seen them live back then must have been incredible. That photo gave me goosebumps for some reason.

Eh you probably wouldn't have been able to have heard yourself think given their audience.  If you are talking about experiencing the mania aspect of it all, then yes I'm sure it would have been an incredible experience.  However more times than not Beatles live performances were lousy.  There are some exceptions but especially on the big tours of America for example, the insanely large crowds they played to, the fact that technology hadn't advanced so that they themselves could hear what they were playing and the fact by the end of their touring years they themselves didn't really want to be onstage anyhow more times than not made for some lousy performances.  

What would you say is the "best" Beatles show?

Well John Lennon went on record as saying that the show The Beatles performed in Stockholm in October of 1963 was their best live performance aside from the stuff they did in Hamburg that wasn't recorded (not to be confused with The Star Club material that was recorded and subsequently released in the nineteen seventies).  Most of the Stockholm performance is on "Anthology 1" and Lennon is right as it is a great performance as not only are The Beatles in top form here but this performance captured the band before Beatlemania effectively ruined almost every attempt to capture a recording of the band live in concert.  

There are other shows worth checking out all of which have been officially released in some form or another over the years either on LP or VHS.  Things like "Hollywood Bowl 64'', "Shea Stadium 65'" and "Tokyo 66'" are all worth checking out for their individual merit(s).  There have also been rumors as to one of the projects Apple has in the pipeline is a DVD/Blu-Ray compilation of live performance footage shot throughout all of The Beatles tours.  So we'll see.

Vancouver 1964 has been a favorite lately. It's a great show if you can get past the fairly distorted sound quality. It has an awesome live version of You Can't Do That. The other thing is, I have never heard a Beatles show where they were having so much fun! John and Paul seem to crack each other up at one point on every single song. I don't know what got into them, but they were having a blast that day!  

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Just Listened to MMT for the third time. The American release is possibly my favorite right now despite being cobbled together like 20/20 was a couple of years later. Is it just me or does Flying sound like 90s downbeat electronica? I so want to cover that song...

[EgoHanger1966]

Just Listened to MMT for the third time. The American release is possibly my favorite right now despite being cobbled together like 20/20 was a couple of years later. Is it just me or does Flying sound like 90s downbeat electronica? I so want to cover that song...

I think when people on this board call 20/20 a mishmash, or cobbled together album, it's a bit of a cop-out. Besides the two SMiLE tracks, everything was recorded after Friends, so it's not like they were really dipping back into the vaults. It sure is an eclectic mix of sounds, but then again, so is The White Album....and no one is calling that a hodge podge.

I wouldn't consider MMT cobbled together, either, really. I mean, it is, but no more than any of their other soundtrack albums before then. Songs from the film on one side, contemporaneous songs not in the film on the other. It works quite well.

[JohnMill]

Just Listened to MMT for the third time. The American release is possibly my favorite right now despite being cobbled together like 20/20 was a couple of years later. Is it just me or does Flying sound like 90s downbeat electronica? I so want to cover that song...

It's interesting that a lot of the feedback I get from new Beatles fans over the years is that "Magical Mystery Tour" is their favorite LP in the early months of their fandom.  I think beside from the fact that there are some really great tracks on that record, it's just so accessible containing one entire side of hit singles and the soundtrack side itself isn't too shabby either obviously.  There is actually another American LP similar in approach to "Magical Mystery Tour" entitled "Yesterday & Today" which is most famous for it's infamous pulled "Butcher Cover".  The thing is, "Yesterday & Today" is almost a mini greatest hits album for the mid sixties period pulling tracks from "Help!", "Rubber Soul" and "Revolver" in order to craft a surprisingly consistent LP.  While it is not the best of the Capitol albums (in my opinion anyhow) it is still a highly enjoyable release with tracks such as "Yesterday", "Drive My Car", "Day Tripper", "We Can Work It Out", "Nowhere Man", "If I Needed Someone" and "I'm Only Sleeping" finding their home within the framework of one LP.  Given how quickly The Beatles' music progressed from "Help!" - "Revolver" you'd think this would make for an uneven mess but again the album hangs together rather well and is a recommended purchase if you can find it in a used record bin at a reasonable price.

PS: Have you had a chance to watch MMT (the film)?  A lot of Beatles fans think it's a huge collection of garbage but I've actually always liked it.  It's quite reasonable to assume that The Beatles weren't taking this project seriously (well Macca may have) but there are a lot of interesting sequences which although they've been criticized for not being able to hang together as a cohesive film are quite enjoyable nonetheless.  The recently released DVD adds some deleted footage as well including the "Fish & Chips" segment which although illustrated in the original MMT LP picture book, was cut from the final version of the film.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Haven't seen the film, John, although I have seen (and enjoyed) Help! recently. MMT now has a contender, though...I'm listening to Abbey Road all the way through and I'm on the medley.

[Jay]

The Flying scene in the MMT movie is probably my favorite scene. Supposedly, some outtakes from the final sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey were used. It's a very psychedelic looking scene. The Blue Jay Way scene is trippy as hell. 

[Dudd]

The medley is so dang good... Sun King might be my favourite thing they did.

I like the MMT movie, but it is deeply, deeply flawed. The musical numbers are fabulously done (The Fool On The Hill and Your Mother Should Know are probably my favourites), but the filler is so awkward and aimless you wonder if that's what they were going for.

[JohnMill]

The musical numbers are fabulously done (The Fool On The Hill and Your Mother Should Know are probably my favourites), but the filler is so awkward and aimless you wonder if that's what they were going for.

In my opinion it's the flaw of every Beatles feature not entitled "A Hard Day's Night" which benefited from a brilliant screenplay by Alun Owen.  The remainder of The Beatles' attempts to do the "Hollywood thing" are confusing to put it lightly.  Have you ever seen a feature film that Macca did in the eighties entitled "Give My Regards To Broad Street"?  It's exactly as you described MMT.  Some brilliant musical sequences held together by a plot that is anything but.  The film is extremely hard to watch in my opinion and aside from the fact that it's Macca up there on the big screen really doesn't have anything else to offer the audience from an entertainment standpoint.  Basically with the exception of AHDN, in any type of feature when The Beatles are performing music, it's worth the price of admission alone.  Everything else though is in my experience has proved thoroughly confusing to say the least to it's audience.

[Jay]

The musical numbers are fabulously done (The Fool On The Hill and Your Mother Should Know are probably my favourites), but the filler is so awkward and aimless you wonder if that's what they were going for.

In my opinion it's the flaw of every Beatles feature not entitled "A Hard Day's Night" which benefited from a brilliant screenplay by Alun Owen.  The remainder of The Beatles' attempts to do the "Hollywood thing" are confusing to put it lightly.  Have you ever seen a lfeature film that Macca did in the eighties entitled "Give My Regards To Broad Street"?  It's exactly as you described MMT.  Some brilliant musical sequences held together by a plot that is anything but.  The film is extremely hard to watch in my opinion and aside from the fact that it's Macca up there on the big screen really doesn't have anything else to offer the audience from an entertainment standpoint.  Basically with the exception of AHDN, in any type of feature when The Beatles are performing music, it's worth the price of admission alone.  Everything else though is in my experience has proved thoroughly confusing to say the least to it's audience.

Just imagine if they had included the "I'm Going In A Field" scene with Ivor Cutler! 

[Wrightfan]

I think what did it for me was Strawberry Fields Forever, and I Am The Walrus. Of course I had heard the "hits" like She Loves You, and I Want To Hold Your Hand, but it was something about the Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour era that planted the seed of curiosity, to use a really bad analogy/cliché. 

Oh my God yes. SFF is so hauntingly beautiful and the production is 30 years ahead of its time.

'Strawberry Fields Forever' is ,as I said, my #1 favorite Beatles song and it's probably my favorite song that John ever wrote, though 'Jealous Guy' is my favorite solo track of his. Both songs are beyond beautiful.

Strawberry Fields Forever is one of my favorites as well. I love the "morse code guitar part" in the beginning. Hadn't noticed for years until someone pointed it out to me on a forum.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Neither had I, until you just did!    Pretty freakin' cool!


My copy of Geoff Emerick's book just arrived today; just got home an hour ago and about to tear this bad boy apart in a bit.

[Jay]

I always thought that it was a Mellotron, not a guitar. If I'm thinking of the same part you guys are.

[Summer_Days]

No, it's after John sings "Let me take you down cause I'm going to..." Way in the background there is a high pitched guitar playing a morse code thing. Right behind John singing the "Strawberry Fields...nothing is real".

[RangeRoverA1]

Serious question to Bill: What is your favorite film with The Beatles? Mine is Magical Mystery Tour, Ringo's really fun to watch there. Also I like their Shakespeare sketch, here's the link if you haven't yet seen that, enjoy:

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Utterly entertaining 60s artifact! The chasing scene with "girley" John & lion Ringo is sth. else!)

[Amazing Larry]

No, it's after John sings "Let me take you down cause I'm going to..." Way in the background there is a high pitched guitar playing a morse code thing. Right behind John singing the "Strawberry Fields...nothing is real".

Naw that's a mellotron.