The Beatles

[Roofless Toothless]

I recall reading that In My Life, Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever were conceived as part of an album dedicated to Liverpool and their memories of places and people there. The Kinks were doing similar things with London when you come to think of it.

[br d]

Really into Help at the moment. This feels like the first proper Beatles Album. Obviously they had some great self penned tracks on albums before this (Saw her standing there is still on constant repeat for me) but this one seems to be when they really matured as song writers. I accept I could be completely wrong.

[br d]

Something else worth noting. Both help and rubber Soul only have one song each that's over 3 minutes long. They were so succinct, so many classic songs just done and dusted, no padding.

[br d]

And one more post into my journey of Beatles discovery.

When I snuff it, which will definitely be before my beloved partner, I will have In My Life as my dead song. I realise I'm about 40 years too late to the party for picking that as my burning up accompaniment but I can't think of anything more appropriate.

[DickyC]

I hadn't realised they were still going.

[nonsequitur]

DickyC said:

I hadn't realised they were still going.

Still going. Now called Macringo. A rock / salsa combo.

[DickyC]

nonsequitur said:

Still going. Now called Macringo. A rock / salsa combo.

Does the "cring" element of the name rhyme with ring or cringe?

[nonsequitur]

DickyC said:

nonsequitur said:

Still going. Now called Macringo. A rock / salsa combo.

Does the "cring" element of the name rhyme with ring or cringe?

Alert ! Beatle confusion.

[P5BNij]

Beatles For Sale...? It'll never catch on.

Secondhand Fabs anecdote alert : my mate Jon's Dad did some part time work at a theatre in Cov during 1963, the band were booked to play there one night while he was backstage tidying up, waiting to go on the boys were killing time with a game of cards and he was invited to join in, up until he died last year he was adamant that Lennon still owed him five bob from that card game

Gratuitous anally retentive Beatle pics ahoy, just because...!!

Abbey Road car park, July '69...



Robert Freeman's original 'Rubber Soul' cover shot before it fell over and went a bit wobbly (see Macca's Anthology interview on the album for details), taken in Ringo's back garden in November '65...



Chez George, Summer of '67...



Abbey Road car park again, 1965, John has just passed his driving test in George Martin's Triumph Herald, the next day he went out and bought a brand new Ferrari 330GTC...



George arriving at Chiswick House, West London in May '66 in his Radford Cooper S to shoot the 'Paperback Writer' promo film...



John writing 'Strawberry Fields Forever' in a rented villa in Almeria, Spain in October '66 while filming 'How I Won The War', Ringo took the photo...



John and Macca arriving at Abbey Road on 24th November '66 to start their first recording session since they gave up touring in August, they made a start on 'Strawberry Fields' that night, they've just driven round from Macca's gaff a few minutes away in Cavendish Avenue in his Radford Cooper S...



John, George and young Julian at 'Kenwood', John's pad in Weybridge, Summer of '67 with John's Bahama Yellow 911 just in view...



Taking a wander in Hyde Park, 18th May '67, the locals must have thought the Martians had landed...







Going for a spin in the 911, Summer '67...



Shooting the 'Strawberry Fields' promo at Knowle Park in Kent in January '67, looks bloody cold.... seeing the finished article on Top Of The Pops must have seemed mindblowing at the time, lest we forget, they were beaten to no.1 by Engelburt Humperdink…









A rather stoned Fab at the 'Pepper' launch party in Brian Epstein's Belgravia townhouse...







The chap with George is Terry Doran, 'the man from the motor trade' in 'She's Leaving Home'...



Shooting the 'Pepper' LP cover at Michael Cooper's studio in Flood Street, Chelsea on 30th March '67, afterwards they went back to Abbey Road to continue recording...





















The young lad in this shot is Michael Cooper's son, I wonder if he remembers the day he met the Beatles...

[nonsequitur]

Brilliant. Thank you.

[Stella Tortoise]

I was born the same year as the Beatles became famous and, therefore, they have always been there for me. In reality my problem with them is that they have always bloody been there and I grew disinterested pretty early on due to overexposure.

[Mark V GTD]

Holy thread resurrection!

I recently purchased The Beatles stereo box set (2009) and really enjoying it. There are also some recent special editions of the later albums available although not cheap - anyone heard them?

[zygalski]

Camoradi said:

I'd like to think I was delivered by Doctor Robert, but I was about 5 years too early

back on thread, Revolver to me is their masterpiece. To think they went from "She Loves You" to "Tomorrow Never Knows" in just a few years is astounding

Same here.
Revolver
Pepper
Rubber Soul
Abbey Road
All the rest...

People who bang on about the White Album being a great Beatles album have clearly disregarded half the crappy songs on it which were left-overs and half finished efforts in some cases dating from many years before 1968.

[caziques]

Rubber Soul, Revolver, White Album, Abbey Rd, Please Please Me...........

Mrs Caziques has banned me from taking the CDs if we do a long car journey

Favourite band of all time

Surprised no one has mentioned "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" yet, sublime.

[zygalski]

Do you actually listen to songs like Rocky raccoon, The continuing story of bungalow Bill, Piggies, Revolution 9 & Why don't we do it in the road & think "wow - these are really good Beatles songs"?

[nonsequitur]

zygalski said:

Camoradi said:

I'd like to think I was delivered by Doctor Robert, but I was about 5 years too early

back on thread, Revolver to me is their masterpiece. To think they went from "She Loves You" to "Tomorrow Never Knows" in just a few years is astounding

Same here.
Revolver
Pepper
Rubber Soul
Abbey Road
All the rest...

People who bang on about the White Album being a great Beatles album have clearly disregarded half the crappy songs on it which were left-overs and half finished efforts in some cases dating from many years before 1968.

Yes, imagine the White Album as a single disc. Plenty to choose from but which tracks in what order?

[nonsequitur]

Have just finished reading 'One Two Tree Four' by Craig Brown. An excellent Beatles book. Quirky style, jumps around a bit but a great read with lots of fresh Beatles facts and stories.
Highly recommended.

[zygalski]

I have Revolution in the Head, Here, There and Everywhere & You Never Give Me Your Money.
All great books if you don't have 'em.

Anyway, we can rescue the White Album.

Not sure about track order, but this would have been in my top 3 Beatles albums:

Back in the USSR
Dear Prudence
Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da
While my guitar gently weeps
Happiness is a warm gun
Martha my dear
I'm so tired
Blackbird
Julia
Mother nature's son
Helter skelter
Long, long, long
Revolution 1
Cry baby cry

That is a strong album in anyone's book.

[paua]

zygalski said:

I have Revolution in the Head, Here, There and Everywhere & You Never Give Me Your Money.
All great books if you don't have 'em.

Anyway, we can rescue the White Album.

Not sure about track order, but this would have been in my top 3 Beatles albums:

Back in the USSR
Dear Prudence
Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da
While my guitar gently weeps
Happiness is a warm gun
Martha my dear
I'm so tired
Blackbird
Julia
Mother nature's son
Helter skelter
Long, long, long
Revolution 1
Cry baby cry

That is a strong album in anyone's book.

They never had a weak album, a few weak songs ( count them on the fingers of your left hand), but never a poor album.

[zygalski]

I respectfully disagree.
Let it be is a washed-out mess with 3 or 4 decent songs & the white album sounds like the work of a band tearing each other to bits, with the collective hand taken away from the QC button.