The Beatles: Hey Jude

The Beatles: Hey Jude

1970

Capitol Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Da Track Listin': 1. Can't Buy Me Love  2. I Should Have Known Better  3. Paperback Writer  4. Rain  5. Lady Madonna  6. Revolution  7. Hey Jude  8. Old Brown Shoe  9. Don't Let Me Down   10. The Ballad of John and Yoko      


 Oh shit! It's been a whole 3 months since the Beatles have put out an album! Quick! Put something together! HURRY!!!!

 Another Beatles comp (released shortly after "Abbey Road") that I find super interesting...It consists entirely of material that hadn't appeared on a US album..Mostly single-only releases and a couple of early songs that must have been overlooked in the mind-bending jumble of US Beatles album releases, where up is down, left is right, and "Rubber Soul" is partially "Help!"

This stuff is great though.. Some of my favorite Beatles material is contained here...Like the "Hey Jude/Revolution" single, which I almost consider (along with the "Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever" single) the quintessential Beatles release...The Beatles in miniature...Paul delivers some fluffy, hyper-catchy piano pop while John rocks the fried fuck out...

  I've also always had a soft spot for George's bizarre "Old Brown Shoe," which is the sort of odd thing that only the Beatles could have pulled off as a hit...A bizarrely mixed, lumpy, dry, shuffly blues pop thingy with George's vague, scratchy vocals...Such a great song, that we've propelled it to the top of the "Most Played" section at the local bar we frequent...It sounds especially great when blasted at an dark, dank, empty dive...

The only track I don't care too much for is "Lady Madonna" where Paul gets over-blustery on some ugly boogie woogie...Although I know a lot of people who swear by this song, I'm just not getting it...Everything else is magic, though...

If  you like dry statistics as much as I do, then check this out...At this point there were still 5 songs that hadn't yet made it to a Capitol Beatles album at the time of "Hey Jude"'s release: "There's a Place," "Misery," "From Me to You," "The Inner Light," "I'm Down."  I guess if you wanted to be a nazi about it, you could make it 6 and add "Sie Liebt Dich"...

Again, you're not allowed to have Beatles videos on youtube so watch this instead:

“There’s a Place,” “From Me to You” and “Misery” — were omitted, as were a couple of B-sides, “I’m Down” and “The Inner Light,” plus the German version of “She Loves You,” “Sie Liebt Dich.” With Hey Jude‘s

Read More: 45 Years Ago: The Beatles Clean Their Closet With 'Hey Jude' LP | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/beatles-hey-jude-album/?trackback=tsmclip

“There’s a Place,” “From Me to You” and “Misery” — were omitted, as were a couple of B-sides, “I’m Down” and “The Inner Light,” plus the German version of “She Loves You,” “Sie Liebt Dich.” With Hey Jude‘s

Read More: 45 Years Ago: The Beatles Clean Their Closet With 'Hey Jude' LP | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/beatles-hey-jude-album/?trackback=tsmclip

The Beatles: A Collections of Beatles Oldies (But Goldies!)

The Beatles: A Collections of Beatles Oldies (But Goldies!)

1966

Parlophone Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. She Loves You  2. From Me to You  3. We Can Work It Out  4. Help!  5. Michelle  6. Yesterday  7. I Feel Fine  8. Yellow Submarine  9. Can't Buy Me Love  10. Bad Boy  11.             Day Tripper  12. A Hard Day's Night  13. Ticket to Ride  14. Paperback Writer  15. Eleanor Rigby  16. I Want to Hold Your Hand    


I have a  soft spot for Beatles comps...I've listened to the Beatles back catalog so extensively that I have every song, every word, every track listing, even the lengths of silence between the tracks (!) totally memorized...As a result, listening to a Beatles album can seem a bit rote to me nowadays...

So to keep the relationship fresh, I'll play Beatles albums with the tracks out of order or I'll pick up a compilation...The more non-chronological, the better for me...Y'see, "Day Tripper" suddenly regains its psychedelic shimmer again when it's juxtaposed with the bread n' butter "Bad Boy." "I Want to Hold Your Hand" regains its pop headrush when it follows "I Want to Hold Your Hand"...

You might ask yourself what the point of this album was? It was a rushed compilation released in the UK for the holidays..It was notable for including a cover of Larry Williams' "Bad Boy" which had previously only been issued on a wonky US album...There were also a handful of exclusive stereo mixes of mono singles included...And it must have been a fairly popular import in the US, since this isn't the first time I've run across a copy...Truthfully, the old-timey, subtly psychedelic art sold me immediately...Beautiful cover...

Y'know, for the longest time I saw this album title as "A Collection of Oldies (But Goodies)" and would endlessly repeat that title and no one ever corrected me! When I pointed this out to my wife she was surprised because she had always read it as "Oldies But Goodies" too! I wonder exactly how widespread this misreading is...Or am I my own small island of ignorance?

Oh yea...You can't put up videos of the Beatles on youtube (trust me, I've tried and gotten notices to remove them), so instead let's watch some baseball player slide face first into another dude's ass...Enjoy...

The Beatles: On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2

The Beatles: On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2

2013

Apple, Capitol, UM^e

Track Listing: Disc 1: 1. And Here We Are Again  2. Words of Love  3. How About It, Gorgeous?  4.
Do You Want to Know a Secret  5. Lucille  6. Hey, Paul...  7. Anna (Go to Him)  8. Hello!  9.
Please Please Me  10. Misery  11. I'm Talking About You  12. A Real Treat  13. Boys  14.
Absolutely Fab  15.  Chains  16. Ask Me Why  17. Till There Was You  18. Lend Me Your Comb  19. Lower 5E  20. Hippy Hippy Shake  21.Roll Over Beethoven  22. There's a Place  23. Bumper Bundle  24. P.S. I Love You    25. Please Mister Postman   26. Beautiful Dreamer  27. Devil in Her Heart  28. The 49 Weeks  29. Sure to Fall (in Love with You)  30. Never Mind, Eh?  31. Twist and Shout  32. Bye, Bye   33. John – Pop Profile (Bonus interview track)  34. George – Pop Profile (Bonus interview track)

Disc 2:  1. I Saw Her Standing There  2. Glad All Over  3. Lift Lid Again  4. I'll Get You   5. She Loves You  6. Memphis, Tennessee  7. Happy Birthday Dear Saturday Club  8. Now Hush, Hush  9. From Me to You  10. Money (That's What I Want)  11. I Want to Hold Your Hand  12. Brian Bathtubes  13. This Boy  14. If I Wasn't in America  15. I Got a Woman  16. Long Tall Sally   17. If I Fell  18. A Hard Job Writing Them  19. And I Love Her  20. Oh, Can't We? Yes We Can  21. You Can't Do That   22.  Honey Don't  23. I'll Follow the Sun  24. Green with Black Shutters  25. Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!  26. That's What We're Here For  27. I Feel Fine  28. Paul – Pop Profile (Bonus interview track)  29. Ringo – Pop Profile (Bonus interview track)





This is the 2013 sequel to the 1994's "The Beatles Live at the BBC" album.


















It consists of live performances and interviews the band did with the British Broadcasting Corporation during the early part of their career ('63-64). There's quite a bit of overlap in the song selection, so a lot of people may see that as a drawback but these are different performances than were featured on the first volume. Still, it gives the impression this is less essential than Volume 1 since there's only 2 songs that have never been recorded by the Beatles this time around...

Being more of a "Rubber-Soul-on-up" Beatles fan, I was somewhat afraid I would have a rough time making it through the album...Two discs...63 tracks...Over two hours of early 60's Beatles. Turns out it wasn't hard at all...

While I listened to this I found myself pretending that I was around in '64 and listening to these for the first time...It feels so right...The interviews interspersed with the performances really compete the illusion and are actually the reason this is so entertaining. The Beatles were fantastic at interviews...To this day I don't think any other band has ever aced interviews the way the Beatles did. And this was the time period where music interviews were based around the questions, "Why is your hair so long? "Why do you play so loud?" But to be fair, the interviews contained on this release are of better-than average quality for the time, and the long-form pop profile interviews are informative and nicely done.

The big draw, much like the last installment of this series, was the chance to hear clear Beatles live performances, stripped of the white-noise/incessant audience screaming that marred live recording of the time.

 "LOOK! THERE'S THE BAND I SO DESPERATELY WANTED TO HEAR! SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

When I go to concerts the only screaming I usually do is when I get an eyeful of the beer prices...

"TWELVE DOLLARS?!?!?! SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I do enjoy the extra tinge of energy these live recordings generate too. Even the cover songs, which were always a major sticking point for me, are much easier to take in this context. Hell, I actually enjoy the shit outta them.  In particular, I love their spiky version of Chuck Berry's "Memphis, Tennessee."  They did this song on the first volume too, if I remember correctly, but it had been so long since I last heard that one that I had forgotten how much I liked it.  Listening to the two back to back, I like this version better. It seems a little more lively...But yea, when you find me grooving out to  songs like "Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!" you know something's up...

Holy cow, it just struck me that I've been writing this post for 4 days straight and the track listing is still longer than the post itself...I guess I just don't have much to say on this, other than count me in for Volume 3!
 
Here's my recent interview with the BBC:

BBC: Jamin, why is your hair so long?

Jamin: It's not, me head's just short! (Ha ha ha ha)

BBC: Why is your music so darn loud?

Jamin:  Can't help it. I turn up the knob on me stereo and the music just comes out that way! (Ha ha ha ha)

BBC: What's the first thing you notice in a girl?

Jamin: That look of disgust! (Ha ha ha ha)



Alright, enough horsin' around, here's "If I Fell" by the Beatles...

Beatles: Various Greatest Hits

Beatles: Various Greatest Hits Albums:



1962-1966

1973

Apple Records

Format I Own it On: Compact Disc

Track Listing:

Disc 1: 1. Love Me Do  2. Please Please Me   3. From Me to You  4. She Loves You   5.I Want to Hold Your Hand  6. All My Loving  7. Can't Buy Me Love  8. A Hard Day's Night  9. And I Love Her  10. Eight Days a Week  11. I Feel Fine  12. Ticket to Ride  13. Yesterday

Disc 2:  1. Help!  2. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away  3. We Can Work It Out  4. Day Tripper  5. Drive My Car  6. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)  7. Nowhere Man  8. Michelle  9. In My Life  10. Girl  11. Paperback Writer  12. Eleanor Rigby  13. Yellow Submarine

As you can see, I have a bunch of various Beatles greatest hits albums, and instead of dragging you through them one by one, I'm just going to cover them all in one post...

I love Beatles greatest hits albums! I mean, I must...I have 4 different ones...I started out with  "1962-1966." As I mentioned before I'm not the biggest fan of early Beatles...I liked the originals just fine, but I can only take so many inferior Chuck Berry covers and old show tunes, so when I saw this big bright red cover I thought "A-ha!"

I think before I might have said if you were interested in getting a taste of the early Beatles then "A Hard Day's Night"  was the place to go...I take that back...This is definitely much better...Track after track of some of the best pure pop ever made...Disc 2 is flawless...




1967-1970

1973

Apple Records 

Format I Own it On: Vinyl

Track Listing:

Disc 1: 1. Strawberry Fields Forever   2. Penny Lane  3.Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band  4. With a Little Help from My Friends  5. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds  6. A Day in the Life  7. All You Need Is Love  8. I Am the Walrus  9.  Hello, Goodbye  10. The Fool on the Hill  11. Magical Mystery Tour  12. Lady Madonna  13. Hey Jude  14.  Revolution

Disc 2:  1. Back in the U.S.S.R  2. While My Guitar Gently Weeps  3. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da  4. Get Back  5. Don't Let Me Down  6. The Ballad of John and Yoko  7. Old Brown Shoe  8.  Here Comes the Sun  9. Come Together  10. Something  11. Octopus's Garden  12. Let It Be  13. Across the Universe  14. The Long and Winding Road


I later obtained a copy of the "1967-1970" compilation on vinyl. I think I traded my friend JJ a vinyl copy of Slayer's "Diabolus in Musica"  for it...




I think I also got a copy of Bob Dylan's "Greatest Hits Volume 2" and John Lennon's "Imagine" from him...I think pound for pound "1968-1970" is the best album on planet Earth...It showcases the peak period of the greatest band ever...Every single track is an undisputed masterpiece....

Out of all the various Beatles compilations this is an easy favorite...It includes the big hits but doesn't neglect the lesser known material like "Old Brown Shoe" and "The Fool on the Hill" Whoever chose the tracks for this album did a hell of a job...

Rock N' Roll Music Volume 2:

1980

Capitol Records

Format I Own it On: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Dizzy Miss Lizzy  2. Anytime At All  3. Drive My Car  4. Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby  5. The Night Before  6. I'm Down  7. Revolution  8. Back in the U.S.S.R  9. Helter Skelter  10. Taxman  11. Got To Get You Into My Life  12. Hey Bulldog  13. Birthday  14. Get Back
"Rock N; Roll Music Volume 2" on the other hand,  seems like they just chose random Beatles songs  out of hat to determine the track listing."I'm Down" sounds like it's from a totally different planet when it sits next to "Revolution." Big hits like "Get Back" are featured as well as inconsequential filler like "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby." A completely random and fascinating listening experience! 

1 2000 Format I Own it On: Compact Disc Track Listing: 1.  Love Me Do  2. From Me to You  3. She Loves You  4. I Want to Hold Your Hand"  5. Can't Buy Me Love  6. A Hard Day's Night  7. I Feel Fine  8. Eight Days a Week  9. Ticket to Ride  10. Help!  11. Yesterday  12. Day Tripper  13. We Can Work It Out  14. Paperback Writer  15. Yellow Submarine  16. Eleanor Rigby 17. Penny Lane  18. All You Need Is Love  19. Hello, Goodbye  20. Lady Madonna  21. Hey Jude  22. Get Back  23. The Ballad of John and Yoko  24. Something  25. Come Together  26. Let It Be  27. The Long and Winding Road This one was a no-brainer, really...It simply compiles all the Beatles biggest hits chronologically onto a single disc...Of course it's great, if a little unadventurous in its song selection...but then again, this isn't meant to surprise anyone...This is for folks who want to buy one album that has both "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "Come Together" on it... These greatest hits albums mark the end of my Beatles posts...You can sometimes get so lost in the pursuit of new and exciting music that it's easy to neglect some of the classic albums already in your collection...I had so much fun revisiting these old favorites...I love the band so much that not even a viewing of the 1978 "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" film starring Peter Frampton and the Bee-Gee's was enough to shake my faith...(Although  hearing the two robots sing "She's Leaving Home" was so traumatic that I couldn't bear to listen to the Beatles for two whole months)... So let's play the Beatles one last time...Ladies and Gentlemen..."Hello, Goodbye."

Beatles:Antholgy 3

Beatles:Anthology 3

1996

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing:  Disc 1: 1. A Beginning   2. Happiness is a Warm Gun  3. Helter Skelter  4. Mean Mr. Mustard  5. Polythene Pam  6.Glass Onion  7. Junk  8. Piggies  9. Honey Pie  10. Don't Pass Me By  11. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da  12. Good Night  13.Cry Baby Cry   14. Blackbird  15. Sexy Sadie  16. While My Guitar Gently Weeps  17. Hey Jude  18. Not Guilty  19. Mother Nature's Son  20. Glass Onion  21. Rocky Raccoon  22. What's the New Mary Jane  23. Step Inside Love/Los Paranoias  24. I'm So Tired  25. I Will  26. Why Don't We Do It in the Road?  27. Julia

Disc 2:  1. I've Got a Feeling  2. She Came in Through the Bathroom Window  3. Dig A Pony  4. Two of Us  5. For You Blue  6. Teddy Boy  7. Medley: Rip It Up/Shake, Rattle and Roll/Blue Suede Shoes
8. The Long and Winding Road  9. Oh! Darling  10. All Things Must Pass  11. Mailman, Bring Me No More Blue  12. Get Back  13. Old Brown Shoe  14. Octopus's Garden  15. Maxwell's Silver Hammer  16. Something  17. Come Together  18. Come and Get It  19. Ain't She Sweet  20. Because  21. Let It Be  22. I Me Mine  23. The End


The third and final Anthology installment. I find Anthology 3 to be the most rewarding entry in the series, mainly due to the the high number of new Beatles tracks...

Sure, a couple of them are relatively unexciting, tossed-off cover tunes, but there's a ton of fascinating new originals (most of which have made later appearances on the band member's solo records).

Probably my favorite of the unreleased songs is the sweet longing of "All Things Must Pass." This later became the title track to George Harrison's  first post-Beatles solo album, but it appears in a stripped down, and honestly, even better demo version here...Apparently, this was an outtake from the "Let It Be" sessions, which is just bonkers...They used "The Long & Winding Road" but cut "All Things Must Pass"?  George is also represented by the less successful but still enjoyably funky "Not Guilty." Looking at the back cover this is clearly labeled "Take 102." Holy shit! Is that a joke?! If I had to do...gulp...102 takes of something I'd be damned if I would let the song end up an outtake!

McCartney's outtakes are just as good. We have two tracks that would later appear (and steal the show) on his first solo record ("Teddy Boy" and "Junk.") and the the huge hooky pop of  "Come and Get It" that Paul very generously gave to Badfinger....



Paul also has the Latin-tinged "Step Inside Love," which he wrote as the theme for a television series...The version here is a loose run through from the "White Album" that tacks on the humorous "Los Paranoias," which is a fictional name the Beatles gave themselves...Too many herbal jazz cigarettes? You decide...

John is represented by the goofy, experimental "What's the New Mary Jane." It comes across as a mix of Syd Barrett and "Revolution 9." John said at some point he wanted to release it as a single alongside "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number"! I would have loved it if this would have happened...I like it when the Beatles get far out...They were the world's biggest band, but they weren't slaves to the public's fickle tastes...They were going to make an experimental noise track, and you're going to buy it and like it  because they were the goddamn Beatles!  If more bands would take this attitude I think the world of music would be a much more interesting place...

 George Martin even gets in on the outtake action with "A Beginning" which was originally intended to work as an introduction to "Good Night" on the White Album.It reminds me of the beginning of a Disney movie or something...I can see cartoon animals waking up to this in an enchanted forest...

Oh yea, a lot of these "new" Beatles songs that debuted on the Anthology records were originally slated to be released by EMI on a record called "Sessions" that the Beatles originally vetoed, but it did get as far as a cover having a cover printed...

 As much as I enjoy slogging through the endless demos and various takes on the Anthologies, something as clean and succinct as this sounds pretty appealing...I guess now you can just make a playlist or something that does this, but dammit...I want to walk over to the record shelf and pull out a record and toss it on the turntable and kick back w/ a Straw-Ber-Rita and listen to "Come and Get It" and "Leave My Kitten Alon" back to back...

(Damn. These tall boys of Straw-ber-Rita" have a way of sneaking up on you sometimes...You start out all "Mmm...Tastes like Kool-Aide" and before you know it you're drunkenly posting the "White Review."  Stick with the little 8 oz. fun-sized cans...It gives you a more accurate perspective...)

The remainder of the album is made up of demos, and the White Album ones are especially interesting...It kind of plays as an alternate "unplugged" version of that album..The acoustic demo of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is a cool counterpoint to the grand White Album version. And who knew that "Helter Skelter" started its life as a slow, smoldering blues number?  Or that "Obla de obla Da" started out more calypso than ska? Man, I love this shit...Is there any way we can get an "Anthology 4"?  No? Howzabout "Carnival of Lights" at least?

Oh well, let's listen to the demo for "All Things Must Pass" once more...

The Beatles: Anthology 2

The Beatles: Anthology 2

1996

Apple Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: (This might take a while!)

Disc 1: 1. Real Love  2. Yes It Is  3. I'm Down  4. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away  5. If You've Got Trouble  6. That Means a Lot   7. Yesterday  8. It's Only Love  9. I Feel Fine (Mono)  10. Ticket to Ride (Mono) 11. Yesterday (Mono)  12. Help! (Mono)  13. Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby (Mono)   14. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)  15. I'm Looking Through You  16. 12-Bar Original  17. Tomorrow Never Knows  18. Got to Get You into My Life  19. And Your Bird Can Sing  20. Taxman  21. Eleanor Rigby 22. I'm Only Sleeping   23. I'm Only Sleeping  24. Rock and Roll Music  25. She's a Woman

Disc 2:   1. Strawberry Fields Forever (Demo Sequence)  2. Strawberry Fields Forever  3. Strawberry Fields Forever (Take 7 and Edit)  4. Penny Lane  5. A Day in the Life  6. Good Morning Good Morning  7. Only a Northern Song  8. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!  9.  Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!  10. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds  11. Within You Without You   12. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)  13. You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)  14. I Am the Walrus  15. The Fool on the Hill  (Mono) 16. Your Mother Should Know  17. The Fool on the Hill  18. Hello Goodbye  19. Lady Madonna 20. Across the Universe

Hmmm....Apparently I don't own a  copy of "Anthology 1." Oh well...This is part two of the Anthology series that was released in 1996 to coincide with the awesome Beatles Anthology documentary. The documentary kicks my soul's ass by the way, 10 hours of Beatles history and videos...I can't recommend picking up the DVD set enough...

I'm a little more hesitant to recommend the Cd sets however...If you're not a complete Beatles scholar/obsessive, then I'd recommend you skip these completely. I doubt you'll find much value in hearing the Beatles giggling over the backing track of "And Your bird Can Sing"  or listening to three back-to-back takes of "Strawberry Fields Forever." However if you're as big a Beatlemaniac as I am, you're going to find a lot to like here...

First, there's the "new" Beatles track "Real Love." The first installment of the Anthology series featured "Free as a Bird" , where the three surviving Beatles fleshed out a John Lennon demo into a brand new track...I for one, really like these...Are they on the same level as "A Day in the Life"? Hell, no, but a simple pleasure nonetheless...



There's also three unreleased Beatles songs, which at the time was the big draw..."If You've Got Trouble" was supposed to be the Ringo vocal track on "Help!" but was cut from the final running order in favor of "Act Naturally"...I don't understand this at all! I know there's quite a few folks who don't care for this song, but I honestly think it's the best Ringo track...You can keep your "With a Little Help From My Friends"...This is fast, rocking and funny...It almost has an old punk-rocky feel, as Ringo sings in that lovable monotone of his:

"You think I'm soft in the head,
Well, try something softer, instead..."

I love it!  "That Means A Lot" is another outtake from "Help!" It's kind of surprising that this song is from "Help!"  since it feels like it should be older...I could totally see it on "With the Beatles." Perhaps that's why they didn't use it...All in all, a perfectly serviceable McCartney soft-pop...

The final unreleased track is "12 Bar Original," a funky instrumental outtake from "Rubber Soul." It kind of reminds me of  Booker T & the MG's, but it retains that Beatles stiffness...The Beatles weren't groovers, really...They were more like sonic architects, but it's fun to hear them try it out...It would have been very interesting if they had actually put this on Rubber Soul...I think for fun later, I might try and sequence a version of"Rubber Soul" that includes this song...And yes, that is my sad idea of "fun."

The remainder of the album is made up of demos, alternate takes and some very cool live recordings from the band's final proper live gigs...There's not a lot of good quality recordings of Beatles shows, and these ones are probably among the best, being clearly recorded and featuring exciting performances form the band...

The demos and alternate takes are interesting, if not particularly revelatory...The Beatles usually seem to go into a song knowing almost exactly what they wanted...In most cases the early take and the final take are 90% the same, but there are a few exceptions...There's the aforementioned takes of "Strawberry Fields Forever" that chart of the evolution of the song, from a sweetly nostalgic acoustic-folk track to a psychedelic powerhouse...We even get to clearly hear John say "Cranberry Sauce" which finally gives us incontrovertible evidence that Paul really is still alive...Well, that and the fact that he's playing the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida tonight...

  If you're one of those people that just has a Beatles song or three on his/her ipod then skip this, however, if the idea of peicing together a bizarro world version of "Revolver" that features alternate versions excites you, then this thing is a treasure trove...

So let's dig in...

The Beatles: Past Masters

The Beatles: Past Masters Volume 1

 1988

Parlophone/Capital/Apple

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing:  1. Love Me Do  2. From Me to You  3. Thank You Girl  4. She Loves You  5. I'll Get You  6. I Want to Hold Your Hand  7. This Boy  8. Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand  9. Sie Liebt Dich  10. Long Tall Sally  11. I Call Your Name  12. Slow Down  13. Matchbox  14. I Feel Fine  15. She's a Woman  16. Bad Boy  17. Yes It Is  18. I'm Down

The Beatles: Past Masters Volume 1

Parlophone/Capital/Apple

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Day Tripper  2. We Can Work It Out  3. Paperback Writer  4. Rain  5. Lady Madonna  6. The Inner Light  7. Hey Jude  8.  Revolution  9. Get Back  10.  Don't Let Me Down  11. The Ballad of John and Yoko  12. Old Brown Shoe  13. . Across the Universe  14. Let It Be  15. You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)


 This is was originally sold as two  separate discs but was recently reissued as a two disc set, that looks like this...



 "Past Masters" consists of all the Beatles non-album releases (singles, ep's, compilation tracks,etc.).

The first disc covers the early years, from "Please Please Me" through "Help!" This is where you find the band's early smash singles like "She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" that caused girls to scream and the guys to get Beatles haircuts...

Simple pop classics! Even the Ringo vocal showcase ("Matchbox") is enjoyable! The only tracks I ever skip are the superfluous German language versions...But even those are entertaining...



 As fun as disc 1 is, disc 2 is where we get into the really great shit...This covers the Beatles creative peak from "Rubber Soul" to "Let It Be," and honestly, if you're looking to get into the Beatles, this is a fine place to start...The "Rubber Soul" & "Revolver"-era singles are particularly great...Innovative songwriting and recording techniques abound, like "Day Tripper, and its immortal guitar riff, " the backwards vocals on "Rain," that waltz-time bridge on "We Can Work It Out." Innovative songwriting and recording techniques abound... 

 

There is a bit of a jarring jump from "Rain" to the White Album, since all the 1967 singles are used on "Magical Mystery Tour," It's not a big deal, but it is noticeable..The band sounds audibly older and more cynical on "Ballad of John & Yoko" and "Don't Let Me Down," but they still retained their sense of fun (check out  the wacky "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number").

 

And boy are some of their later singles stunners...The real heart of the record is probably the classic "Hey Jude/Revolution" single...John's raw, raucous take on "Revolution" absolutely blows away the laid-back take used on the White Album and "Hey Jude" establishes an entirely new type of song that's so widely emulated now...The earnest piano ballad with the extended almost gospel-like coda...Paul's finest moment! This is probably the reason we, as a culture,  let songs like "Bip Bop" slide...

 This also features the sped up version of John's "Across the Universe that the band contributed to a WWF charity album...



No, not that WWF...The World Wildlife Fund, who released the compilation "No One's  Gonna Change Our World."



"Across the Universe" is one of John's greatest...This song is so great that it isn't even ruined by the band's decision to have some groupies provide the backing vocals! A melody so simple and affecting it's a marvel that it wasn't written before, John finds himself at the cosmic crossroads where Earthly weariness  and spiritual longing meet:

"Jai Guru Deva Om,
Nothing's gonna change my world...."

So great! I'm also a pretty big fan of George's shuffling "Old Brown Shoe." Hell, every second of "Past Masters Volume 2" is incredible! I'm telling you...Just go out to your local record store this Friday Night and pick up a copy of this...It's vital, man...

...So let's check out  "Piledriver" from the WWF album...(BTW, you must watch this video at all costs)

Alright...Now let's check out "Rain" by the Beatles...

Beatles: Let It Be

Beatles: Let It Be

1970

Apple  Records
Format I Own it on: Vinyl and Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Two of Us  2. Dig a Pony  3. Across the Universe  4. I Me Mine  5. Dig It  6. Let It Be  7. Maggie Mae  8. I've Got a Feeling  9. One After 909  10. The Long and Winding Road  11. For You Blue  12. Get Back

This is a new phase Beatles album...One not quite as good as the others...

Released in 1970, this is the final Beatles album, but in reality it was largely recorded prior to "Abbey Road" and shelved cos...Well, a quick viewing of the accompanying film well tell you all you need to know... I personally thinks it gets a bit of a bum rap...Sure, it's a fairly lackluster farewell (and the overblown Phil Spector production touches probably didn't help either) buuut if you think of it as a quick n' dirty follow-up to the White Album it actually kind of works....A lot of it shares that album's loose, off the cuff presentation (between song chatter, jokey song fragments) but yea...Coming hot off the heels of career-highlight "Abbey Road" probably didn't help its reputation any....

Phil Spector and his big, murderous wig were brought in after the fact to spruce up the unfinished material, but he wasn't given much to work with. Basically, the extent of his input is adding orchestration and choirs on the slower material, which pretty much destroys "Across the Universe" and "The Long and Winding Road" (the latter of which wasn't so hot in the first place).  To his credit, it does work beautifully on the artificially extended "I, Me, Mine." 

Listening back to "Let it Be" it really is hit or miss...They add a few new classics to their repertoire;  the eulogistic title track gives us Ringo's most thoughtful drumming and really makes a case for Billy Preston's  inclusion as the fifth Beatle...

 (Billy Preston had the most significant afro in music history...It's so super-dense...Like the core of a Neutron Star or something...)

"Get Back" is loose and groovy, as is Harrison's "For you Blue" which turns a standard blues progression into playful pop.  I'm also nuts about Lennon & McCartney's close harmonies on "Two of Us." Its "just the two of us" imagery made all the more poignant by the band's dissolution. again, as highlighted in the film:

Pictured above is the CED (Capacitance Electronic Disc) of the movie...I think this was the last time it was released here in the U.S...Do you guys remember these things? They were like video discs but they were housed in big plastic cases and when you cracked them open there was a big, black record inside...

 They were kind of like records in the sense you had to flip over the movie halfway through...And if it was a really long movie it would come as a double album! And best of all, they skipped sometimes! Movies skipped! I remember at the time these were in direct competition with Videocassettes and Betamax, but this one lost pretty early...I remember around 1988 or so my Dad brought home like 200 of these things one night...I think the story was someone had a video store or something and when the format died, they sold off the movies and my Dad bought a ton of them. This was one of my favorite summers ever! I spent the entire summer watching them all! The most memorable ones in the pile were...

The Warrior and the Sorceress

 To this day I still hear people going on and on about the girl with three boobs in "Total Recall." Now don't get me wrong, that was awesome, but check out the cover to this movie...The woman in this movie had not one...not two...not even three...but four cans!  My eleven year old mind was blown!

Neil Young: Rust Never Sleeps

I used to love this one and watched it all the time. As I've mentioned before, I'm a Star Wars fanatic and this had frickin' Jawas on the cover...Close enough for me! I didn't know who Neil Young was at the time and I didn't care...All I wanted to see was the Jawas, but eventually I grew to love the music and I'm proud to say, Jawas introduced me to the music of Neil Young. I can recall back in the day (before internet) I would try and explain this movie to people I'd tell them "DO you remember the movie where Neil Young was really  tiny, and he was surrounded by giant instruments and Jawas were his roadies..." and people were convinced I was making it up. Even after the internet was invented it took forever for this movie to rate a mention...But eventually it was re-released to DVD and I finally had proof, dammit...

It Came From Hollywood:

I watched this 10 billion times! I loved it! It was mostly a compilation of choice scenes from low budget Z-movies, but check out that cast! It featured everybody that meant anything to me in the 80's! Dan Aykroyd! John Candy! Gilda Radner! Cheech & Chong! Hell yes! And most importantly, it introduced me to the films of Ed Wood! I rented a videotape of this a few years back from Casa Video in Tucson and was surprised that I still knew every scene...

Wait, what was I originally talking about? Oh yea...The "Let It Be" movie! I actually loved it and wish they would give it a proper dvd or bluray release.  I actually didn't find it as tense or as big a bummer as it was made out to be...I watched and saw the bickering but ultimately had to shrug my shoulders and say "Is that it?!?!" Man, you should check out the arguments in my band when we record an album! Making a record is always a heated and emotional experience....Sheeyyiiiiit...I don't consider an album complete until every band member has quit or been fired at least once!




The record was later re-released in 2003 as the two-disc "Let It Be...Naked," which seems a little easier on my ears...the updated version strips away most of the Phil Spector overdubs, deletes a couple of tricks and adds the wonderful "Don't Let Me Down" single that should have been on "Let It Be" all along...Even "The Long and Winding Road" is even a bit more tolerable in this stripped-down form.  The biggest improvement has to be "Across the universe." As much as I love the World Wildlife Fund version, this might replace it as the ultimate take.

On the downside I really miss "Dig It." Am I the only person that loved that song?! I mean, they put it on disc 2 (hell, they even extend it) but you have to fast forward through so much studio banter just to get to it...Oh yea...Disc 2 is pretty much all talking...Interesting once, but I can't imagine anybody rocking this disc too often...

So let's mourn the untimely demise of the world's greatest band by gathering together and listening to "Across the Universe." Enjoy...

The Beatles: Abbey Road

The Beatles: Abbey Road

1969

Apple Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl & Compact Disc

Track Listing:  1. Come Together  2. Something  3. Maxwell's Silver Hammer  4. Oh! Darling  5. Octopus's Garden  6. I Want You (She's So Heavy)  7. Here Comes the Sun  8. Because  9. You Never Give Me Your Money  10. Sun King  11. Mean Mr Mustard  12. Polythene Pam  13. She Came In Through the Bathroom Window  14.   Golden Slumbers  15. Carry That Weight  16. The End  17. Her Majesty     

This was originally intended by the Beatles to be their final album...It didn't quite turn out that way, since they went back and finished their abandoned "Get Back" project...



Which eventually became their final album (chronologically speaking)  "Let it Be." I've always pretended that "Let It Be" came out first, thereby giving the Beatles a more fitting (and much happier) ending...

Although, I also like pretending that Bambi's mother never really got shot...

(This is one of my favorite scenes where Bambi suddenly hears a loud "Bang!" and hooray! It's a surprise celebratory fireworks display!)

Anyway, the Beatles go out in grand style! This is one of their most rewarding albums, as just about every song works...Side one is made up of individual tracks, showcasing each members singing and songwriting abilities, and side two is mostly dedicated to a tremendous side-long suite...

Highlights on side one include John's slithering "Come Together" which also shows just how great a bass player Paul had become, as does John's "I Want You (She's So Heavy), where the Beatles finally nail the Cream-style heavy electric blues thing they attempted on "Yer Blues." Paul inventively tosses out endless variations of the song's main riff as the mighty jam slowly dissolves into an impenetrable wall of white noise...Oh yea...I love on the compact disc how the radiant opening riff of George's "Here Comes the Sun" sounds coming in immediately after "I Want You" ends...It sounds so right...I kind of wish the vinyl could have fit "Here Comes the Sun" on side one...\

 Ringo even writes a cool tune, with "Octopus's Garden." which comes off as a honky-tonk "Yellow Submarine."   The only member who doesn't come across 100% on side one is Paul...His two contributions ("Maxwell's Silver Hammer": and "Oh Darlin'!") seem a little routine compared to the fresh stuff the rest of the band was doing, but that's okay because Paul owns side two! Check out his powerhouse vocal on "Golden Slumbers." He  tosses off winning pop miniatures like crazy ("You Never Give me  Your Money," "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window.")

Most of side two is made up of various song snippets pieced together (think "Smile!" by the Beach Boys). None of the individual tracks can really be considered the greatest single Beatles song or anything, but taken together they comprise one of the most epic and unforgettable album sides in rock history.  They finish strong with the appropriately titled "The End," where  every band member gets a brief instrumental solo spotlight and then all join together to sing:

"And in the end,
the love you make,
is equal to the love you take..."

 "...Is that true?"

Yes it is...You see? That's how you end a music career! So next time you're listening to all your Beatle albums in a row, do yourself a favor and throw this one on after "Let It Be."  The Beatles got back together and gave us a final masterpiece and quit while they were on top.

Bless 'em.

Let's check out "You Never Give Me Your Money" by the Beatles...