Note: The 1960's concept album which most people like to think The Beatles started is not true. They started doing concept albums in response to "Pet Sounds" and then the Kinks started doing the same after the Beatles but probably took it too far in the early 70s. For my money "The Kinks are The Village Green Preservation Society" is the best concept album of the 1960's. Sorry Beatles. Other noted concept albums of the 1960's are "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" by The Byrds, (I've been listening to that for about a month straight now, I need help) and I'm going to go ahead and throw in "Odessey and Oracle" by The Zombies. Those last three albums were released in 1968, another big year for music.
"Strawberry Fields Forever" is probably the most recognizable Beatles song and probably it's most orchestral aside from "A Day In The Life."
"Magical Mystery Tour" drew upon the nostalgia of Liverpool, much like "Pet Sounds" drew upon the nostalgia of childhood, in a very William Blake like way. "Sgt. Pepper's" was supposed to kill The Beatles, hence the album cover. They wanted to be a new band and develop a new identity. We are going to listen to "Sgt. Pepper's" now. I will not write about it because I just feel like listening and more importantly I don't want to dictate how you should listen to this album because everyone hears it in a different way, so moment of silence...
George Martin says to this day he is haunted by the voice of John Lennon on "A Day In The Life." On the anthology dvds he is in the mixing room and he takes down all the music and just leaves John's voice on the track and it's pretty evident why. It sounds beautiful but it also sounds like you are listening to a ghost. However, despite the ghost-like sound I have listened to that song 33 times in a row on a flight from Orlando to NYC. It still does not beat my record of listening to "Do You Remember Walter?" by The Kinks 40+ times in a row on a trip from here to Tallahassee.
"Hey Jude" is the longest single to be played on the radio since "Like A Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan at over 7 minutes. Note: never sing "Hey Jude" at karaoke night at Common Grounds, the mc WILL make you sing all 4 minutes of na na nas.
"The White Album" was minimalistic from an artwork standpoint, but as an album it was chaotic, heavy, light-hearted, and spanned probably 50 years of musical territory. It wasn't a tribute to American roots music like "Exile On Main St." but I feel like it definitely covers a lot of influence and also breaks some musical rules at the same time. You weren't supposed to mix heavy psychedelic rock with tacky piano tunes and 1930s pop ballads, but they did. "The White Album" is hard for casual listeners to get into because it is so disjointed, and that can take away from the overall listening experience, but there certainly some gems on there. I suggest if you aren't capable of listening to an entire double album with so many different moods, to treat it as a singles collection.
John became obsessed with Yoko Ono shortly after that period. Some people credit this with the end of the Beatles. It's hard to tell. You can definitely tell in the song writing that they were all going different places, so maybe it was inevitable. You can definitely see a similarity in songs like "Something" and Here Comes the Sun" with George Harrison's solo efforts, so maybe he wanted to have more of a creative role in the band and felt like the only way to do it was to go solo. He always the most underrated Beatle. John's song writing near the end seemed a bit disinterested, and Paul being the world class musician he is, seemed like the only one who remained consistently focused on the total effort. These are just some of my speculations but the last two albums despite being made by a band knowing the end was near, were fantastic and mostly representative of a band who had been together for 8 years. It was new, fresh, and deeply emotional pop music. The messages of love were still lined in the music, they had just matured a bit.
So, it's been swell talking about The Beatles, mostly because I think it's one band we can ALL agree on. You may not like the blues, or the soul, or the weird pop or country, but you have to like The Beatles. You just have to. As always, I'd have you anytime.-DXL.
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"Revolution 9," which was created by John and Yoko together, became a source of conflict because John was convinced that it was the direction that the Beatles needed to take. He actually wanted it released as the first single off the album, which was a shocker to Paul (whose music was being dubbed "clown music" by John on a daily basis).
Just an interesting factoid.
Also there is an endless stream of frustrations I could express about Yoko, but I'll just keep it at "bitch."
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