Beatlemania

[Gaelbert]

No one has made a thread like this? This makes me sad.
Up until a few days ago, I was one of the people who believed the Beatles where incredibly over-rated.
Then I actually started listening to their music.
I turned out to be dead wrong. I had heard most of the music before, but I guess I wasn't paying any attention or maybe I didn't realize it was the Beatles.
So far, I've listened to all of the songs from the albums The Beatles/1967-1970, and The Beatles/1962-1966. My question to y'all is what are other good songs from later? Which ones are your favorite?
This thread is intended for general discussion, so feel free to talk about anything Beatles related.

[Skippy]

The Beatles are an amazing band. I love almost all of their music. Perhaps it must be because I don't understand most of George Harrison's songs, but I don't like them (Blue Jay Way, Within You Without You...)

I hadn't listened carefully "Dear Prudence" until a few days ago. And I totally loved it.

[Gaelbert]

Like I said, the only ones I've listened to have been the earlier ones, but so far my favorites have been While My Guitar Gently Weeps, The Fool On the Hill, and Eleanor Rigby. However, Basically all of the ones are so close to 1st that I don't even know why I bother trying to pick. Octupus's Garden, Here Comes the Sun, and countless others. I don't know why I never picked up on this before...

[Icewalker]

I've probably heard about half of it, and have heard that the other half is better, but I've never been a huge fan overall. I dislike their earlier stuff, but there are definitely some great songs in there, like While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

[Skippy]

The "newer" ones are more complex, and some times they are better. If you are only relatively new to the Beatlemania, I'd recommend trying to find the albums "Love" or "1". "1" is a collection of songs that hit #1 in the hit parade. "Love" is the newest album, and it's amazing.

[Icewalker]

Let me check what I have on my iPod, which is most of what I've listened to:

Abbey Road
Anthology
Rubber Soul
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
White Album
Yellow Submarine
1

[Skippy]

Let me check what I have on my iPod, which is most of what I've listened to:

Abbey Road
Anthology
Rubber Soul
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
White Album
Yellow Submarine
1
Which one of the anthologies? There are three...
I love the White Album and SPLHCB!!! The best two discs ever!

[Kraggi]

You need Revolver and Magical Mystery Tour. But, congratulations, good sir! Welcome to the first step of achieving music-snob Nirvana!

No offense.

[Rare Pink Leech]

I wouldn't suggest listening to Love if you're new to the Beatles - that's much more of an album to listen to after you've gotten to know them at least a little bit. I'm also not sure that I'd suggest 1 to most people. Even though it is all their #1 songs from the U.S. and the U.K., they tend to be their poppier songs, and most people I know who don't like The Beatles tell me it's because "they're just a pop band".

Anyway, I absolutely love The Beatles. Easily the greatest band of all time, both musically and how they influenced the recording industry to this day. And in case anyone says "well, they're not that special, because if there had been no Beatles then someone else would have taken their place." And that's true, some other band undoubtedly would have taken their place. But they didn't. The fact is, it is The Beatles who changed popular music.

And now for what seems to be a fairly unpopular opinion among Beatles fans: Sgt. Pepper's is not their best album. The White Album is light years ahead of Sgt. Pepper's, especially Side One (Back In The U.S.S.R. through Happiness Is A Warm Gun). Next comes Abbey Road, and I'd even put Rubber Soul ahead of Sgt. Pepper's, followed by Revolver, the other popular candidate for best Beatle's album.

Edit: Yes, I see the irony in ranking Sgt. Pepper's #5, even though that's the album I take my avatar from :smallwink:

[Emrylon]

I have to say I still think they are over-rated. I mean they are good and I enjoy litening to them and don't get me wrong I realise how much they contributed to music. I just don't think they are as good as the majority of people I have talked to think they are.

[Tirian]

Which one of the anthologies? There are three...
I love the White Album and SPLHCB!!! The best two discs ever!

I think that the anthologies are a great way to sample the Beatles over the course of their career. You either get the three albums from Anthology or the Red and Blue Albums (also called 62-66 and 67-70), and you can hear for yourself which eras you like the most.

Me, I am also someone who likes Revolver and the White Album, with SPLHCB in third. But I can easily listen any era, except for the parts where John or George are so stoned that they can't bother to record real music. (I apologize to fans of the sitar for the above comment.)

And I don't think it is sufficiently accurate to accuse them of being a pop band. In fact, they are the pop band. It's a little cleaner and simpler than today's pop music, but there is quite a bit of it that would not be out of place today. If you are tired of the sound, it is because artists over the last forty years have done a bad job of mimicking it. In my opinion, it is worth listening to the originals before rejecting them.

I'd also be interested in knowing the acts that you all think have done a good job of carrying the Beatles sound into future generations. Me, I get the same joy listening to ELO and the Traveling Wilburies. (Of course, George Harrison was in the latter, which explains a lot.)

[Rasumichin]

In my opinion, the reason why so many people believe the Beatles to be overrated is the fact that you cannot listen to them the way people listened to them before they changed pop music (same goes for ervery other band of even remotely comparable influence from that decade, be it the Stones, Hendrix or whatever).
We have all grown up with music influenced by them, we can only retrospectively grasp their innovation.

Still, they have a bunch of absolutely wonderful songs, and besides that, you will always lack understanding of contemporary music if you don't realize where it's coming from.

As far as the OP's question is concerned, i definitely second picking up Revolver.
Great album, probably my favourite.
Not as groundbraking as the White Album, but wonderful songs and very few fillers.

[Maulrus]

I wouldn't suggest listening to Love if you're new to the Beatles - that's much more of an album to listen to after you've gotten to know them at least a little bit. I'm also not sure that I'd suggest 1 to most people. Even though it is all their #1 songs from the U.S. and the U.K., they tend to be their poppier songs, and most people I know who don't like The Beatles tell me it's because "they're just a pop band".


Gotta say I disagree. I stubbornly refused the Beatles for years, then one of my friends snuck Love onto my stereo. I got totally addicted, and I have been since it came out.

My list of favorite, in order of luff:

Rubber Soul is their masterwork. Every single song on it is nearly perfect, and it's such a change from Help! and their earlier stuff.

Revolver's mostly pretty good.

Magical Mystery Tour has Strawberry Fields, Penny Lane and All You Need Is Love (and I Am The Walrus). Great.

Sgt. Pepper is, well, Sgt. Pepper. Some of it, I don't like, but stuff like A Day in the Life is wonderful.

If you took about a half, maybe a bit more, of the White Album and put it together, you'd have a much better album. Some of the extraneous bits of the White Album aren't that great. Stuff like Blackbird, Back in the USSR, Dear Prudence and Revolution 1? They are.

Let It Be has Let It be and The Long and Winding Road. 'Nuff said.

Abbey Road is pretty consistently good, but some of it is not so good. Here Comes the Sun is one of my favorites of all time.

Help! has some good, mellow tunes.

It goes on. I don't know much about the albums before '65, but the singles are good. I Want to Hold Your Hand, I'll Follow the Sun, Please Please Me, I Wanna Be Your Man, etc. All good stuff.

[Daze]

And now for what seems to be a fairly unpopular opinion among Beatles fans: Sgt. Pepper's is not their best album. The White Album is light years ahead of Sgt. Pepper's, especially Side One (Back In The U.S.S.R. through Happiness Is A Warm Gun). Next comes Abbey Road, and I'd even put Rubber Soul ahead of Sgt. Pepper's, followed by Revolver, the other popular candidate for best Beatle's album.

I think most people (and critics) rank Sgt. Peppers so highly because it was a very "different" album at the time of it's release. It scores highly on originality and thought provocation and showed people a very different way in which music could be taken. I give it kudos for that, but musically I preferred some of thier other albums.

Personally I rate Abbey Road as their top album, I think some of the most beautiful songs come off of there.

But apples and oranges... who cares? They're all pretty darn good, arent they?

[Kraggi]

Oh, something that I find so depressing. I have LP two of the White Album, but not the first LP. It's really a bummer, that. And I have the American release of Revolver, which doesn't have "And your Bird can Sing" and a few other songs. But, I would recommend the red one. The set that was red? It has a lot of nice early songs, which is the main reason I like it. The later songs I feel are best heard in the context of the album.

[Serpentine]

I think I've listened to most, if not all, the Beatles albums (my dad has a Golden Box set of records that i think is meant to have all of them), but I haven't really taken note of the albums or the order in which they were made. I think that basically I really like everything from Sergeant Pepper's onward - including, I might add, the White Album, but I don't think that'd be a very good one for a newby to listen to to get into them.

[Kraggi]

Oh, and don't touch Revolution 9.
Take this, brother, may it serve you well! Pew pew pew!

[Serpentine]

I like Revolution 9 :smallfrown:

Then again, I also like Sweet Honey Pie :smallamused:

[Kraggi]

Wild Honey Pie is awesome. What I'm saying is Revolution 9 is not for the weak of Beatle-Fu. I should note that I myself am not strong enough to listen in more than small doses.

[Serpentine]

Ah, Wild Honey Pie, that's the one. I thought I got it wrong. I don't know what honey pie is, but it sounds tasty... And yeah, that's a good point.

[Rare Pink Leech]

Gotta say I disagree. I stubbornly refused the Beatles for years, then one of my friends snuck Love onto my stereo. I got totally addicted, and I have been since it came out.

Huh, that's good then. I didn't think Love would be good since it remixes the songs, and for some reason that would mean someone listening to The Beatles for the first time would get the wrong expectations or something. But I guess anything that piques someone's interest in The Beatles is a good thing. I view the Across The Universe movie in the same way - I know some people say it was a butchery of The Beatles' music, but I have a friend who has since become a Beatles fan because of it, and I know I've started delving deeper into their music and becoming a bigger fan since seeing the film.


I like Revolution 9 :smallfrown:

Then again, I also like Sweet Honey Pie :smallamused:

I personally don't care for Revolution 9 at all. Revolution 1 is much better, and Revolution (the electric version of Revolution 1 that was actually released first as a single - you can find it on the Blue Album now) is even better.

I also think Wild Honey Pie is a great song. As far as nonsense songs from The White Album go, you can't beat The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill. That song holds a special place in my heart.

[Kraggi]

I liked Across the Universe as a random collection of Beatles songs, but not as a movie. To me it was far too convoluted to enjoy. I'll not get into my rant about this.

[ZombieRockStar]

The Red and Blue albums are good places to start, but if you really want to get into the Beatles, you need their actual albums. For one thing, they don't have any of the covers from the early albums where the Beatles sang good old hits from the canon of 50s rock and motown: "Twist and Shout," "You've Really Got a Hold on Me," "Rock and Roll Music" and others. Some of the best covers ever.

I currently really like Help!, but I'm in a sorta poppy mood currently. Probably on the basis that "I've Just Seen a Face" is a damn catchy song. I think the white album is probably the best all together, with the most innovative songs, but it isn't for everyone (even though it's the first Beatles album I ever listened too...something between "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" and "Everybody's Got Something to Hide (Except for Me and My Monkey)" is where I got hooked on them).