THE BEATLES

I grew up in South Liverpool. It is actually a rather underrated area, given the reputation Liverpool has acquired as a poverty-stricken hell hole of crime, violence, and tacky sports clothing (although a trip to the likes of Fazakerly or Huyton will quickly substantiate such aspersions). Sandwiched in between the notorious inner city slums of Toxteth and the isolated ghettos of Speke is a substantial, sprawling mass of leafy middle-class suburbs with plentiful amenities and expansive park land (including the biggest municipally-owned park in Britain, no less). It sometimes strikes me when walking or driving through these streets where I was raised that half a century earlier three young men were also raised here (Ringo came from the blue collar Utopia of the Dingle) who went on to become, arguably, the most important artists of the twentieth century and quite possibly the most important British export since William Shakespeare was mincing round with his pointy shoes and his bells. I generally try to avoid engaging in the gross self-sentimentality Liverpool's residents and self-appointed spokesmen wallow in (I might like South Liverpool but I still hate Scousers in all their orange-faced, bad-mannered cultural depravity) but I cannot help but feel a slight swell of pride to think that of all the greatness that London, Paris, and New York might have contributed to the twentieth century the greatest band in the history of popular music originated from surbuban semis a spitting distance from my own upbringing (my school was literally next to Penny Lane). Of course, like true Scousers, all four members left their hometown at the first available opportunity and never again returned - a fact that is conveniently glossed over in the daily tributes in the local press.

Other than looking at things from such a personal angle, though, it is essentially impossible to write anything new or interesting about the Beatles. I do not need to tell you they changed not just pop music but society in general for evermore with their transcendent combination of melody and art. That everything we hear on the radio now is somehow in debt to the Beatles. That they were not just the greatest band ever but also the most popular, in one of those increasingly rare moments when art and popularity converge for one inexplicable moment. Not only were Lennon, McCartney and (to a lesser extent) George Harrison the most talented songwriters of pure pop songs they were also some of the most perceptive and forward-thinking artists of their time, ensuring that the five year or so period when they were at their peak will almost certainly be universally regarded as the very peak of popular music. I have only two things to add. Firstly, genuises though the three members were credit must also go to producer George Martin who was equally responsible in ensuring their pioneering vision was so successfully captured on tape. If anyone should be considered the 'fifth' Beatle, it is undoubtedly him. Secondly, if you think you do not like the Beatles you've got something wrong with you. Due to the fact they are so ingrained on the global popular consciousness some people are inclined to turn their backs and denounce their music as 'simplistic' or 'out of date'. I like all the challenging, esoteric trendy bands as much as the next hipster but how on earth can anyone put on, say, Abbey Road and say it is rubbish? I know I sound repulsively condescending and sanctimonous (quelle change) but if you don't like the Beatles you clearly haven't listened to them.

From: Mart K. Kuhn

Leave poor Ringo alone. He gets shat on enough (ugh, remember Shining Time Station?) without having to put up with your bashing the songs he sings. I'll have you know that just to spite your Beatles page, I've been listening to "Honey Don't," "Act Naturally," "What Goes On," and "Don't Pass Me By" repeatedly for quite some time... The fact is that they are good songs, hands down. The lyrics in them are all about losers (perfect for Ringo in that regard I suppose) and could easily have been heavyhandedly sung over downbeat songs, but the fact that they all have those jaunty beats makes them simply, in a word, fun. And that, my friend, is sublime. I wouldn't dare say that "Honey Don't" is a better song than "No Reply," for example, or that "Act Naturally" is a better song than "I've Just Seen A Face," but I can't sit idly by and let you call them "standout worst songs".

From: Paul

Got a laugh out of your Beatle page. The Beatles never wrote one important piece of music; indeed, they were illiterate musically, therefore couldn't write at all. No musicologist takes them seriously, they were hair-do primping puppets for the culturally illiterate abortion generation and their work is already beginning to go out of print and no amount of hype and lying to each other can change that. To say they were the "greatest band of all time" compares them to Count Basie, Harry James, Les Brown and many other acts that none of the members of The Beatles could even audition with, never mind get a real job: hype, hairdo, and a TV generation that wouldn't know a song from a fart... so that's what John Lennon sold them. Elvis was the pretty boy for the chemical-abortion generation, The Beatles were the pretty boys for the surgical-abortion generation. Musically they are irrelevant.

From: Chris Towers

I have to reply to Paul up there (^). How can you say that their work is already beginning to go out of print when 3 years ago they released 1 which sold over 10 million copies worldwide? And, apparently the whole basis of your argument is that they weren't virtuoso musicians. Well, I'm sorry if all they did was write the greatest songs ever and played them competently. I guess that isn't enough for high brow types like you. I personally believe that the Beatles will forever be considered the greatest band of all time, regardless of whether or not they could write in musical notation. I'm 16 and I appreciate everything the Beatles gave to the world, and I know hundreds of other people my age who agree with me. And can anyone tell me who Count Basie, Harry James, and Les Brown are?

From: Arthur A. Fiore

I spent 19 years as a musician (guitar player), singer and almost professional songwriter. (I didn't quite get the necessary break, although some good friends of mine did.). So, I know a little something about this art, or science called music. I've also been a Beatles fanatic since their first appearance on U.S. land.
Now, some thoughts on your Beatles site: First of all, your opening paragraphs say so much and say it so eloquently. I can think of more than few Beatle-bashers I've known of through the years whom I would definitely like to see tied to a chair and forced to either listen to, or read for themselves, your opening words about the greatest musical act in the history of life on Planet Earth . . . that is, if they are able to read.
Very nice write-ups on the individual albums, by the way. But, selecting a "best" Beatles album is completely impossible. I'd imagine it would be comparable to a parent choosing the child he or she loves the most. I will say, however, that Revolver is my second favorite . . . with my favorite being a tie between all the others! There are some classic tracks on Revolver, which are quite excellent. And, I would never discount, or underestimate, that album's importance in the Beatles' evolution. I have never been of the opinion, however, that just because something is different, unusual and has never been done before, it's brilliant and deserves to be called "a great innovation" or is worthy of the adjective "classic". This is particularly true of the track "Tomorrow Never Knows". The lyrics are quite good. But, the repetition of the one semi-appealing line of melody, John's whiny vocal and the complete absence of a chord combination don't make it a creative masterpiece for me.
One thing the Beatles always seemed to want to do was put out something new which was, to varying degrees, unlike everything they had ever done before. I think they achieved this with "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". I have for decades been unable to make up my mind about this song. Sometimes, it seems to me like a "cool" piece of rock and roll. Yet, more often, I see it as the only black mark on an otherwise incredibly interesting album (Abbey Road) -- a musically simple, lyrically infantile, and ultimately just-plain-noisy attempt at filling lots of space on a record. I do like "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", though. I think it's a nice little tune. The lyrics are another story. I think I know what Paul was shooting for there, and I think he didn't quite get there. And speaking of the spectacular Abbey Road, I always begin to get a little misty as the second medley approaches the segment in which each Beatle does what they must have known was going to be his farewell solo(s). First, Ringo's often imitated, never duplicated, tom-tom and bass drum gem, then Paul, George and John's sparring one-bar guitar runs . . . leading up to their famous last words ("And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make".)
Jumping back to the White Album, "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" is also a great little tune. In my opinion, though, Paul's best actual tune from those days -- possibly over all -- was "I Will". Meanwhile, I can't understand why people consider Beatles For Sale their "worst" album. In fact, were it not for "Words Of Love", I might call it my favorite. One look at what their schedule was like in 1964 would leave anyone wondering how they found the time and energy to write any new original songs at all!
I don't see the sin in liking something that is or has been a pop or commercial success. Therefore, I am not ashamed to say that I feel people have never fully appreciated the brilliance of "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "She Loves You" and "All My Loving". And finally, jumping back even further to the first album, I think the problem with the track "Misery" is that it's a lyric about pain and heartache set to a "happy-go-lucky" sort of tune.

Again, the early history of the Beatles is so often repeated that it is almost modern day folklore so I will but summarise. Two original members, of course, missed out on being the greatest stars of the century - drummer Pete Best and guitarist Stuart Sutcliffe who died tragically of a brain hemmorrhage in 1962 and was, legend has it, the most talented and glamorous original member (his story was documented in the film 'Backbeat'). The Beatles honed their skills through a gruelling schedule of two gigs a night in Hamburg with the 17 year old George Harrison having to falsify his visas to perform before the band returned to England to cut their first album in late 1962. It is also common practice at this point to have a laugh at the EMI executive who declined to sign the band on the basis that 'guitar music was on the way out'. So long story cut very short the Beatles' debut album was knocked out in a matter of days and became a massive hit, instantly setting in motion the wheels of revolution which they were so influential in turning. It is perhaps an interesting point to make that the quality of this album has actually been reduced by the very influence the Beatles went on to exert. At the time this came out it was a clear cut above every other pop album, diluted by obvious filler, and startlingly ambitious in the fact two thirds of the songs were self-penned, almost unheard of in pop music circles. In essence, then, this album was undoubtedly the greatest pop album ever at its time of release but it has of course now been drastically superceded by the far more sophisticated albums the Beatles (and others) subsequently released. That does not mean, however, that this album now stands in the twenty-first century as an irrelevance. It is obviously not as timeless as The White Album, which any contemporary band would kill to put their name to, but for a bunch of memorable pop songs it still fills a more than mere historical role. Despite the fact the band were not brave enough (or not allowed to) rely solely on self-penned numbers the covers (Burt Bacharach's classic "Baby it's You" aside) are easily the least distinctive numbers on the albums. As I said, although this is nowhere near as sophisticated as their later albums the Beatles' burgeoning songwriting talent is still in evidence with an array of hit singles, most prominently the power pop of the title track, the trademark "Love Me Do", and the controlled melodic aggression of "I Saw Her Standing There" - a song that instantly had the kids running wild and the conservative parents in a flutter. In truth, the other self-penned numbers are less compelling, although the underrated "Misery" features another top melody, and McCartney's "P.S. I Love You" is arguably the worst song he ever wrote (ignoring much of his terrible solo career). The frustrating trend of getting Ringo to sing a comedy number is already formed in the smug minds of the three talented members with the poor fool gurning his way through the sexually ambiguous "Boys". And if the album began explosively with "I Saw Her Standing There" it ends just as powerfully with a breathless run-through of "Twist and Shout" with Lennon's raw and ravaged vocals clearly pre-empting the amateur rebellion of rock'n'roll. In retrospect, the emergence of the likes of Iggy Pop make the notion of the Beatles being a threatening band a rather ludicrous one but there is no doubt that when this album first hit the shelves a new, undiscovered dawn was beckoning. Amazingly, the very band that started it all off were also the ones who did the most to further it.

Although the notion of turning production and arranging into an artform had still not yet formed in the Beatles' and George Martin's minds the increased sophistication of their approach was already in startling evidence on only their second album. Although Elvis Presley was obviously a massively important figure in terms of image and impact the instant and rapid progression of the Beatles puts his relevance as an artist into insignificance. In terms of style the Beatles' second effort does not tear down that many more boundaries, even if their confidence as performers is obviously heightened, but the quality of the songwriting has already come on massively. That said, the remaining covers that the band do choose to perform are well chosen and a couple form part of the highlights of the album. The exuberant "Please Mister Postman", along with "Twist and Shout", came close to being considered a Beatles' trademark without coming from their own pen and John's impassioned homage to soul music on Smokey Robinson's "You Really Got a Hold on Me" is a premature example of the band's diversity and willingness to experiment with different genres within a field that was still stiflingly narrow. Surprisingly, though, the famous cover of Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven", I believe, should share no such plaudits. Although it was famously often mistaken for a George Harrison original George's strength as a vocalist has never been aggression and one cannot help but feel John would have been better off belting it out. That said, George does still make his legitimate song-writing debut with "Don't Bother Me", a pretty non-descript effort but given the classics he was soon to come out with one can hardly deny him the practice. Lennon is the real star at this point, though, with the opening duo setting new standards, not just for the Beatles, but for pop music as a whole. "It Won't Be Long" is belted out with intoxicating exuberance, backed by a typically strong melody, but it is the subtlety of the following "All I've Got to Do" that is most impressive. The latter is one of the best compositions the Beatles ever did, in my book, with a deceptively clever multi-part arrangement and a wonderfully downbeat melody. McCartney should not be ignored, though, particularly given his "All My Loving" is arguably the most famous track on the album, resting on a notoriously difficult guitar rhythm. Again Ringo makes an arse of himself and this time the joke is a self-referential one as "I Wanna Be Your Man" was originally written by Lennon for the emerging Rolling Stones. Indeed, although the Stones were obviously also a legendary band, the Beatles' brilliance is even more obvious when they were penning songs of this quality on only their second album when bands like the Stones took years to come up to scratch as original songwriters. The first five or so Beatles albums may represent the slowest period in terms of artistic progression but they still show a band consisting of two songwriting genuises.

Global superstardom was not long coming and the Beatles were quick to consolidate their popularity with a full length motion picture. 'A Hard Day's Night' is the only one of their many films that I have actually sat through and given it is universally regarded as their best and personally regarded by me as rather dull I have not rushed to the video shop to pick up any of the others. That said, there is no doubting it was a superbly canny marketing move as those loveable mop-tops were able to further enchant their colossus fan-base with their roguish comic outings and, of course, further define their public caricatures (sarcastic John, sweet George, sentimental Paul, gormless Ringo). More importantly, though, the quasi-soundtrack album that accompanied the film (only the first side features songs from the film) was the best Beatles release to date and remains still one of the greatest pure pop albums in music history. It is almost certainly little coincidence that it was also the first to be entirely self-penned by Lennon and McCartney as their genius is no longer just glimmers of potential but almost fully-fledged. The title track is, of course, an insanely famous classic and undeniably a perfect pop song. If the release of Please Please Me a year earlier put the proverbial cat amongst the fictional pigeons the opening crash of "A Hard Day's Night" must have been like a giant elephant crushing all that stood in its path. Confused metaphors aside, it is undoubtedly a song that was crucial in further developing popular music into an artform. Even if Bob Dylan is to be regarded as more successful in that respect (an assertion open to serious debate) it was the popularity and success that the Beatles achieved from this album that drove him away from tired old folk and into such uncharted territories. In any case, this is understandably far from a one-song album and, indeed, almost the entirety of the first half is just as amazing, culminating with the equally successful "Can't Buy Me Love" - another breathless rush of peerless pop. "I Should Have Known Better" crams more hooks into one song than most bands manage in a career and the teen ballad is perfectly coined with "If I Fell" and "And I Love Her" (and if Dylan was inspired by the Beatles' pop the aforementioned couple in turn clearly bear his influence). The second side is generally less impressive (hence the one-less-than-perfect mark) as the band clearly rushed to knock out a second half of material after completing the film but "Things We Said Today" joins the accolades shared out on the first half, again sharing a distinct if subtle folk influence. Even so, though, the so-called 'filler' on here is easily the match of the material the Beatles produced on the previous two albums and the very thought that the melodic vitality of "Tell Me Why" and "Any Time at All" is somehow disposable is ludicrous. Indeed, one of the most important aspects about this album is the fact that the haughty ivory tower critics could no longer write off the Beatles and pop music in general as indisposable. Snobs can bang on all they want about the jazz legends of yesterday but although they no doubt created some great albums, they produced none that could so enthrall most of society with music of such quality.

Things do not always run smoothly, not even for the Beatles, and the only slight wobble the band incurred was in the period between A Hard Day's Night and Help!. Even though the band actually probably were super-human even deities have trouble balancing writing and recording two albums a year, non-stop touring, making feature length films and incessant promotion. So it is understandable, retrospectively, that something was going to slip at some stage. What is astonishing, though, is that the 'slip' led to the release of an album this 'weak' before the Fab Four were up and running again and heading towards musical nirvana and a five year period of productivity that had never been matched by anyone before and will almost certainly never be matched by anyone in the future. In one sense this album is a regression as, after the united songwriting front shown on the previous album, the band return to filling out the tracklisting with a few covers. On the other hand, their own songwriting is still obviously progressing and in some ways actually reflects more the sophisticated material on Rubber Soul than the immediately subsequent Help!, particularly the country and western flavour of, for instance, "I'm a Loser". Furthermore, the material on this album marks arguably the first time the Beatles really started paying attention to the lyrical dimension of songwriting. No doubt partly inspired by Dylan's revered folk albums of this time and also to reflect the negative and downbeat emotions the tired and jaded band were feeling some of the most notable songs, primarily the opening trio of "No Reply", "I'm a Loser" and "Baby's in Black", express explicitly pessismistic and introspective sentiments. Indeed, this is probably the most 'negative' album the Beatles ever did, a fact no doubt hugely influenced by their decision to give up touring altogether the following year. Perhaps the negative vibes of "No Reply" and "I'm a Loser" prevented the pop fans from embracing them with the same enthusiasm they did with previous songs of a similarly excellent standard but Beatlemania was still allowed to progress unchecked with the melodic genius of "Eight Days a Week". Although the self-penned material is still exceptionally strong - "Every Little Thing", "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party" and particularly "What You're Doing" ensure the album ends almost as strongly as it starts - the lack of obvious hit singles is noticeable, although it also stands as evidence of the fact that the Beatles were refining and maturing their writing. The covers add very little to the album, with the rock'n'roll numbers "Kansas City/Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey" and "Rock and Roll Music", already sounding like a reprise of their past, and Lennon's insistence on performing a childhood favourite of his, "Mr Moonlight", makes for a curious inclusion. One song from Paul's childhood, though, is a nice diversion, the sparse and simple "I'll Follow the Sun" showing that even as a teenage songwriter he still knew where to find a top class melody. Indeed, it is the fact that this album is equal parts retrospective and progressive that makes for such an uncertain listen. It is still a perfectly solid album but, for once, a few cracks appear to be showing through such an immaculate facade.

Fret not, for the Beatles soon got the smiles back on their faces and back on board the Beatlemania wagon. Another feature length film was rushed out and the accompanying quasi-soundtrack album made its inevitable appearance. Like A Hard Day's Night the quality of the album far surpassed that of the film and, after the sparsity of obvious hit singles on Beatles For Sale, the fans were sated with a veritable barrelful of classic pop songs, not least the rock'n'roll rush of the title track, another of the Beatles' immortal classics, the scourge of karaoke bars everywhere, and no doubt destined to leave the domains of chart music and become some sort of calling card for popular culture in the twentieth century. Despite the obvious popular acclaim of this album the serious undercurrents of the previous release had not been brushed away and many of the classics on this album are weightier than they first appear and, in turn, point towards the band's subsequent embracing of music as an artform. John's downbeat acoustic ballad "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" was a thinly disguised ode to legendary bender Brian Epstein who had become the boys' sinister mentor and, although McCartney's sincerity of negative emotions always had a whiff of falsity about it, the immortal "Yesterday" is famously pessismistic in its lyrical outlook. In all honesty, I cannot remember whether "Yesterday" is the most played song ever or the most covered but, in any event, it was the final step in securing the Beatles' legendary status, even with all the really great stuff to come, and is the first recognised step McCartney took towards saccharine super-stardom. The really great song on the album, though, and arguably the Beatles' best ever a-side is the superlative "Ticket to Ride". John belts out the anguished lyrics with unmatched sincerity and the stinging guitar lines underpin some of the best hooks the Beatles ever produced. If one was to divide the Beatles' career up into markers "Ticket to Ride" would undoubtedly be one of the most important, displaying Lennon's effortless songwriting genius and pointing towards a complete revolution of popular music. Unsurprisingly, it is the songs that still echo the past that are the weak links with another rubbish Ringo song ("Act Naturally") immediately off-setting the sublime brilliance of "Ticket to Ride", although we should be thankful that the closing "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" represents their last rock'n'roll cover, although George's stinging lead guitar perhaps bears the influence of the emerging Eric Clapton. Such excursions look out of place in the face of the growing maturity of the two principle songwriters with John's anguished ballad "It's Only Love" and Paul's wistful "I've Just Seen a Face" providing the highlights on the second (non-soundtrack) side. Even without the jump in quality from this album to the next the stylistic differences alone ensure that this release represents the end of the first era of the Beatles as the perfect pop band became the greatest musical artists the twentieth century had ever seen.

After a couple of years as the world's most famous pop band the Beatles started to grow up a lot faster and envisaged themselves, rightly so, as an entity more important than poster boys for teenage girls to scream at. In an unheard of move, and something that no doubt had the record company money-men tearing their hair out, the Beatles decided enough was enough and jacked in touring altogether. Due to the technical limits of amplification at the time the band were rarely able to be heard above the din of the stadium full of fans and had long ago stopped bothering to play in tune, in key, or in time. Clearly, though, men of their ability had something more to give the world and the decision to concentrate on the studio aspect of music directly led to the enormous progression the band led within music as a whole. It is (or should be) common knowledge that it was the following Revolver that really saw the band experimenting behind the controls and, as a result, there exists an arguable case for rating it as the most influential album ever released. Although Rubber Soul bears only traces of drastic experimentation (the sitar on "Norwegian Wood" and the sped-up piano part on "In My Life") the songwriting talent of the band had reached its formidable peak and, indeed, this album arguably contains the best set of actual songs the Beatles ever put together. The melodies are as memorable as A Hard Day's Night but the increased sophistication in arrangements and the far wider breadth of diverse influences absorbed by the band ensure the material is even more impressive. George Harrison has also finally reached the plateau shared by John and Paul with his two contributions to this album matching their's. Indeed, the Byrds-esque jangle of "If I Needed Someone" has always been one of my favourite Beatles songs and is a massive jump from the efforts he had contributed to the previous album. Furthermore, Ringo finally gets himself a co-writing credit and, amazingly, "What Goes On" is actually a really good song, with his dopey vocals perfectly matching the ironic tribute to country and western music. The picture of George in a cowboy outfit on the record sleeve is actually indicative of a lot of the material, with many songs having a distinct country flavour. Most of the stand out tracks on the album have gone on to become legendary songs - "Drive My Car", "Nowhere Man" (with its classic harmonies), Paul's Francophile classic "Michelle", and the funeral favourite "In My Life". It is "Norwegian Wood" that is perhaps the most important song, though. George's use of sitar was, of course, a revolutionary one, although his Indian obsession went on to mar his songs, rather than improve them, and one suspects the reason it works so well here is because it is removed from the context of actual Indian music. The song also represents Lennon's first obvious attempt to ape Bob Dylan (who was releasing equally important albums at the same time) with his attention to the lyrics drawing on his uncomfortably explicit misogyny; the closing "Run For Your Life" is a generic slice of woman-bashing and unfortunately ends the album on its weakest note. Although the sheer depth and scope of their future albums means this ranks a notch below in terms of quality it still represents an astonishingly adept set of material and is perhaps the Beatles' most instantly appealing album.

As someone who was not there at the time there is something inherently dubious about pinpointing precisely which albums released during the sixties were the most important in moving forward the revolution of pop and rock'n'roll music and were the most influential in terms of directly inspiring subsequent seminal albums released by peers and students. Thankfully, though, there is no doubt that this is one such album for which one does not need a time machine to recognise its impact. Even discounting the simple quality of the songs, the arrangement and production of this album is clearly a step above anything that had come before and, as a result, crucial in inspiring the subsequent developments made by other artists. Indeed, one of the most famous anecdotes in rock is that it was this album that drove Brian Wilson to drastically divert the career of the Beach Boys and, indirectly, cause him to temporarily lose his sanity. In traditional terms it was this album and its successor that were hailed as the two greatest albums ever and lauded as the highest pinnacle popular music ever reached. In fact, there are a handful of numbers on here that fall below the Beatles' perfect level of quality and, as a result, although this and Sgt. Pepper are no doubt the most revolutionary duo of the Beatles' career it is the less progressive but ultimately more satisfying White Album and Abbey Road that stand tallest as the greatest long players the band ever put their names to. On this album, Paul's saccharine double bill of "Here, There and Everywhere" and "Good Day Sunshine" are more sugar than substance and despite the fact that it has become a children's classic, surely sung at least once by every child ever, "Yellow Submarine" remains, in essence, another shit Ringo joke song. More sophisticated in its production, maybe, but still a song that sees such an intelligent band playing dumb for no good reason. Even Lennon is not without reproach as his inappropriate tribute to heroin, "Doctor Robert", is not without its critics. It is refreshing to start on a negative note, though, as there is so, so much to actually praise. All three songwriters show continued signs of maturity and progression with Harrison contributing the cynical bite of "Taxman", Lennon producing the drowsy sound-scape of "I'm Only Sleeping", and McCartney honing his sentimental skills with the melodramatic genius of the classic "Eleanor Rigby". The studio wizardry reaches its peak at the close of the album, though, with Lennon's legendary "Tomorrow Never Knows" - one of the most dramatic experiments ever committed to tape. Against a thumping rhythm, almost capturing the far away echoes of modern drum and bass, all manner of instruments and melodies are mutilated and distorted, like a wall of sound erupting from a magician's hat at the tap of a wand. To produce such a forward-thinking avant-garde experience in itself is audacious, to do so on what was obviously going to be a multi-million selling album in the mid-sixties was utterly revolutionary, a musical coup d'etat attempted by the very people who were already in charge. In other words, an unnecessary risk but one that brought down so many boundaries that the good of music lovers was forever assured. And, of course, it is not just the revolutionary aspect of this album that so impresses as there remain plenty of normal (by their own standards) songs that match such feats. The pick is Lennon's "She Said She Said", a burst of melodic energy, and "Got to Get You Into My Life" - McCartney's elated romp of a song, with wonderful brass embellishments and one of the best codas in modern music. As a result, then, it was the sublime combination of revolutionary experimentation with some of the finest pop songs ever penned that saw this album become so influential and, arguably, the most important album ever released. If any band released just one album this good they would be instantly revered, for the Beatles to have released four of this quality, of which at least two are probably superior, is simply unbelievable. The word 'genius' gets tossed around far too often but, in the case of the Beatles, it simply cannot be said enough.

It is now a great deal more than twenty years ago today that Sgt. Pepper told the band to play and over that time this LP has become one of the most important and controversial albums of the past century. At the time, so far as I can gather, it was universally hailed as the pinnacle of the Beatles' career and served up as irrefutable proof to the remaining sceptics of the Beatles' genius. It is generally regarded as the first time an album became more than just a set of songs, with an inclusive concept driving the band into uncharted territories, from the fictional stage personas to the album's artwork, still phenomenally famous and undoubtedly revolutionary at the time. Furthermore, the Beatles' continued obsession with the element of music not produced by mere instruments, or at least with making mere instruments do new and different things, made this album their most experimental yet. These days, the studio production tricks might not seem that special but given George Martin was still working with a simple four track analog recorder due deference should still be immediately forthcoming. Like a lot of the Beatles' more pioneering works the very reason it sounds less impressive now is because it was so impressive at the time that everyone was forced to follow suit to emulate it. I will happily give the Beatles brownie points for such revolutionary innovations and even though the concept album has hardly gone on to receive much of a favourable reputation since the idea of the album-as-an-artwork has been essential in furthering the aesthetic boundaries of pop music. In other words, for instance, London Calling owes as much to this album as, say, Tales of a Topographical Ocean does. It is a fair question to raise, though, as to how much the impact of this album should really affect our actual enjoyment of it almost forty years on. In truth, not much. It is lucky, then, that the Beatles were also able to write loads of great songs. That said, it is difficult to still rate this as the greatest album ever made, as the baby-boomers have done so for so long. Personally speaking, this was the very first album, indeed adult music, that I ever became conscious of and, as a result, even I find it difficult to rate it in the same terms I reserve for albums I have heard during my adult life and that of a (self-appointed) record reviewer. It is pure insanity to dismiss this album as rubbish, as some extremists do when they see it so highly lauded, but, despite the influence, it is perhaps not the Beatles' finest effort. The truth is there is just too much of Sir Paul McCartney. Lennon and McCartney need each other to counter-balance their extremes (hence their execrable solo careers) and on here McCartney's tweeness gets the better of him, particularly the classic but almost unlistenable "When I'm Sixty-Four" (and that's a birthday party of his to avoid). He does give Ringo a great song ("With a Little Help From My Friends") and the title track and its reprise are surprisingly acidic but, otherwise, Lennon's cynical nastiness is sadly missed. Indeed, John's "Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite" is oddly whimsical, and more studio trickery than actual song, but "Good Morning Good Morning" is reassuringly biting (although its similarities with "She Said She Said" go beyond just a duplicated title). "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is his finest contribution and one of the very first psychedelic masterpieces by the Beatles or, indeed, anyone else. It is certainly open to debate whether this album is worse than Revolver as the latter still struggled through the likes of "Good Day Sunshine" and "Here There and Everywhere", whilst I have never seen why the sentimental string-laden "She's Leaving Home" on here is any more saccharine than "Eleanor Rigby". The biggest disappointment is that Harrison's sitar laden ethnic-fest "Within You Without You" is as unmemorable as Revolver's "Love You To". Still, he certainly revolutionised the background music one gets 'entertained' with in Indian restuarants. In any case, although this album does occasionally wobble from perfection amends are conclusively made with its climax - the inspired and inspiration "A Day in the Life" - one of the most revolutionary songs at its release and STILL one of the very best. John's dream-like downbeat piano ballad floats away into a psychedelic haze, only to be brought back to ground by McCartney's mundane monologue, before the song finally explodes into a shocking crescendo. Despite the effects it had on rock music at its release its importance can happily rest on its sheer quality. The Beatles may have gone on to release their two best albums in the two years following this album but this is certainly the last time they were ever quite so important. There may be too much McCartney, and George's song sucks, but one should never forget the impact this album had on modern music, not to mention its almost-unsurpassed, utterly timeless quality.

From: Alex Tahir

I just read your webpage about The Beatles, and I certainly agree with you on most things, especially the Beatles being the greatest band in history so far, whether people admit it or not. I only knew a few of their songs for a long time and liked them all, but thought that most of their songs were rubbish, simply because I had never listened to them. I am today very glad for owning all their albums, because; I love almost every song they made, or covered! But let me ask you why you dont like Harrison's song "Within you, without you" on Sgt. Pepper's ? I can't believe you don't like it, and I almost think you better listen to it again, or a few times. My recommendation is that you listen to these songs all in one go: "Love You To", "The Inner Light", "Blue Jay Way", "It's All Too Much", "Tomorrow Never Knows", "Within You, Without You", "Across The Universe". And then maybe you will appreciate George Harrison's amazing ability to write Indian music.

Revolver and Sgt. Pepper had both contained elements of what we like to call 'the psychedelia'. In 1967, of course, the psychedelia was everywhere and this season's new look. There was something called a summer of love and San Francisco suddenly turned gay. The Beatles were placed at the forefront of the psychedelic movement, which is interesting given they only really made one genuinely psychedelic album. In fact this is hardly even an album in the purist sense as it, in fact, consists of two EPs tacked together - the songs from their psychedelic romp 'Magical Mystery Tour' and a collection of single releases and b-sides from the surrounding period. Given their next album was far from an opus of free love and acid tripping it is perhaps a little erroneous to claim the Beatles were so deeply involved in such a - let's face it - silly scene. Sure they had the looks and the words (Lennon in particular) but bands like Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead, even Cream, lacksadaisically ploughed such a furrow for a lot longer and the Beatles did not even come close to matching the sonic insanity of Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd. If you boil it down, the Beatles were all rather normal blokes and one suspects they woke up a few months down the line after one hell of a party with that humbling feeling that they've just done something really wrong. Of course, as I keep on saying, the Beatles were bloody great songwriters. So even their psychedelic shit is far from, well, shit. Absolutely amazing, for the most part. Lennon was undoubtedly more successful with the psychedelia than Paul and it is his good self that provides the three massive hits from the psychedelic era. The distorted strings and psychedelic sound collages of "Strawberry Fields Forever" (again, very near where I grew up) and "I Am the Walrus" represent the very peak of psychedelic pop, with such drugged-out loved-up weirdness supporting yet more unforgettable melodies (not to mention lyrics - the egg men indeed!). "All You Need Is Love" is far more conventional in terms of music although its unabashed hippyness means it is undoubtedly the wettest anthem ever. Even the hardest of cynics, though, would do well to deny the very base, sheer quality of the song. The Beatles were not at their unbeatable best at their most loved-up, though, and indeed the first half of this album (the 'Magical Mystery Tour' soundtrack) is surprisingly a touch away from perfection. Paul's "A Fool on the Hill" is sound enough but his "Your Mother Should Know" is too much twee and George's "Blue Jay Way" is good without being spectacularly great. We do get treated to the Beatles' only ever instrumental - the bizarre "Flying" - but one suspects great vocal melodies and pop hooks was more their forte. Only when the side ends with "I Am the Walrus" does one breath out relief at continued evidence of their superiority. The a- and b-sides from the second half are mostly marvellous, though. Paul mostly stays away from psychedelia (never being one for hard drugs) with his cabaret classic "Penny Lane" (ALSO near where I live - jealous yet?) and the cloyingly simple yet ludicrously effective "Hello Goodbye". Indeed, on the second half only another tribute by John to Brian Epstein ("Baby, You're a Rich Man") fails to hit the heights of perfection. As such this album is one of their more inconsistent ones and whilst it does mostly stand as further evidence of their genius it also shows that, while that whole psychedelic thing was fun to begin with, the better artists soon got their kicks and moved on.

In a typically progressive move, for the naturally eagerly anticipated full-length follow-up to the instant classic Sgt. Pepper the Beatles made an album of complete opposites. The eponymous title and blank artwork were a direct antithesis to the extravagant presentation of Sgt. Pepper and, instead of a conceptual whole, this album is a deliberately disparate, sprawling collection of songs. It is also, of course, the only double album the Beatles ever released and, as a result, normally thrown into the running for the accolade of 'best double album ever'. There is, of course, some tough competition with the likes of Exile on Main Street, Electric Ladyland, London Calling and company in with a shout but, in my view, it is only Dylan's Blonde on Blonde that really runs this album close. As I said in the previous reviews, the Beatles arguably entered their strongest period as artists at the same time they ceased to be the most fearless pioneers of the contemporary music scene. Whilst some bands were exploring the darkest recesses of psychedelia, others redefining rock music as hard rock and/or heavy metal, and some even incorporating jazz and classical influences wholesale into their approach (thanks a lot King Crimson) the Beatles consolidated their songwriting within a more conventional framework. Even the dastardly sitar was left in George's living room for future recordings, although this album does feature the Beatles' most ludicrous experiment - Lennon's nine-minute sound collage "Revolution #9". Although there is a tendency to praise everything the Beatles ever did even I am not star-struck enough to be led down by the garden path by such a slice of obvious pretension. It is not even that revolutionary, as someone like Frank Zappa was producing unlistenably long experimental sound collages on earlier albums. It is evidence, though, of Yoko Ono's first attempts to destroy the world's greatest band and we can be thankful that in the future Lennon reserved such avant-garde nonsense for his and Yoko's 'arty' solo projects. Thankfully, nearly every single other song on this album is utterly fantastic which, for a double, is not bad going. That said, Paul also gets a moment to spoil proceedings with his own form of extreme - the intolerably trite "Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da". Like "Yellow Submarine", the fact kids like it is not in itself a faultless recommendation, although it is suitably surreal to think such a piece of twee tosh may well be considered the first ever white reggae song. "Guns of Brixton" it ain't, though. As a result of the freedom of four sides of vinyl and no concept to stick within the Beatles are at their most humorous and irreverant with the Beach Boys parody "Back in the U.S.S.R.", the childish "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill", Paul's burlesque "Why Don't We Do it in the Road", the parodic "Yer Blues", and the madcap "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey" all showing off a vitality that has not been heard since the very early days of their teenage pop. On the converse side, though, the band are also at their most reflective with the beautiful ballads "Dear Prudence", "Julia" (Lennon's mournful ode to his dead mother), and George's almost subliminal "Long, Long, Long". Furthermore, there is ANOTHER facet of the Beatles on display with the searing rockers "Birthday", "Helter Skelter", and "Revolution #1" (all on the second CD) proving that even the Beatles were not without their masculinity and laying down the gauntlet to the emerging Led Zeppelin. Other than the pastoral elegance of "Mother Nature's Son" the remaining highlights are found on disc one, specifically the multi-part brilliance of "Happiness Is a Warm Gun", the satirical bite of "Glass Onion", and George's classic "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"; which features one of Eric Clapton's most famous guitar solos. Even Ringo's song, "Don't Pass Me By", is rather fun. Apart from "Revolution #9" and that bloody "Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da" shit the number of great songs on here is absolutely astonishing. Even though the band might have passed on the baton in terms of progressive aesthetic experiments their songwriting is at such a level that STILL no other band can touch. It would seem a formality to label this their best release if it weren't for the fact there was one even finer to follow. And that, my friends, is some achievement.

When I referred to their finest release as still to come immediately above I was, of course, referring to a full-length album of all new material and not this soundtrack compilation, featuring a small-child-size handful of new material, a couple of old classics, and a whole side of orchestral music by George Martin. The film 'Yellow Submarine' was actually a cartoon (I watched it when I was a child but it didn't make any sense at the time) and, as I said, only four new songs were recorded for its soundtrack. The title track is, of course, on here (hurrah!), as is "All You Need Is Love" which, great song though it undoubtedly is, we already of course had on the second side of Magical Mystery Tour. That said, of the four new songs only one is sub-(Beatles) standard, the old-fashioned vaudeville of "All Together Now". Being a sloppy and lazy reviewer I admit I do not know, and have not bothered to research, whether the new material was recorded after the White Album but I imagine not as it has far more in common with the psychedelic pop of Magical Mystery Tour. In any event, although I can imagine one's reluctance to part with hardly earned cash for such a meagre offering of new material, this album does contain two of George's finest efforts - "Only a Northern Song" and "It's All Too Much". Both excellently mix his Indian obsession with contemporary psychedelia and, furthermore, fall back upon excellent vocal melodies, meaning the listener is equal parts intrigued and entranced by such apparently opposed approachs (art and pop). The burst of feedback that opens "It's All Too Much" is particularly impressive. Furthermore, Lennon shows off his snarling side with the vitriolic old-school rock'n'roll of "Hey Bulldog", again respected as one of the best numbers in the Beatles' cannon. In a perverse way, it is a shame they are such good songs as the rest of this album is so utterly dispensable. On top of the two songs we already own the second half of the album is devoted solely to George Martin's orchestral score to the film. I really could not say whether it is 'good' music and, more to the point, I simply don't care. Certainly, the CD era is more favourable to Martin as it means the listener now has to make a positive action to prevent his material from being played. It is hard to imagine, in the good old days, that anyone bothered to turn the vinyl upside down once the first side had ended. What you really have, then, is a four song EP with a hell of a lot of filler on it. I am not a MP3 sort of guy at the moment but I imagine the revolution of the music business has rendered the purchase of this album utterly pointless to all but the most supportive of George Martin's relatives.

After the critical and popular success of the White Album the Beatles began their inevitable disintegration. Yoko Ono's appearance added to the wedge that was already driven between Paul and John and George was becoming increasingly unsatisfied with the bitter fighting between the band, particularly when it resulted in his own material being rejected out of hand. Ringo still just sat there tapping away, but with a slightly less chirpy smile on his face. The 'Let it Be' project, which was supposed to produce a feature length film and accompanying soundtrack album, struggled towards completion and in the end the musical results were temporarily shelved. The back-to-basics ethos did see them together for one final live performance, though, their famous gig on the roof of the recording studio. Despite the growing acrimony the band were focused enough to return to the studio to record one final album before going their separate ways. It is, of course, interesting to speculate as to what the Beatles would have been like if they had stuck together through the seventies and eighties but, given the mediocrity of their respective solo careers and the swift deterioration of the Stones, Kinks, the Who, and other peers, one should probably be thankful that their immaculate reputation remained utterly untainted. Indeed, it is immensely appropriate that the perfect career of the perfect band should end at its highest, with their finest release and, arguably, the greatest LP ever released into this ever-changing world in which we live in. When charting out the progression of their career the brilliance of this album seems like the natural conclusion and it is both apt and awesome to compare the sophistication of this release to the rough and tumble of their ground-breaking debut. It is a feat that is unlikely to be matched now, due to the acres of fertile ground that was there to be sown in the sixties, but no other band could have developed quite so much in a mere seven years. Even more so than on the White Album, the band consciously limit their experimentation to manageable limits, and in doing so produce a set of material that is so focused and so polished that, as a work of art, it has few rivals in the entire field of popular music. The first half does feature a little studio trickery, particularly on the epic "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", which contrasts spritely pop with a menacing, ever-rolling climax of post-psychedelic hard rock. Most other numbers merely consolidate the Beatles' pioneering experiments, such as George Harrison's gorgeous "Here Comes the Sun" making perfect use of his Indian influence, rather than losing itself in it, and the entire band's harmonies on the divine "Because", which taunts the Beach Boys with a grown-up version of their tired teenage shtick. George shows himself to be the equal of John and Paul with his classic ballad "Something" stealing much of the limelight. Shame Frank Sinatra didn't notice, though, when he described it as 'the only good song Lennon and McCartney ever did'. Lennon's genius is evident through the crawling blues of "Come Together", which is yet another example of the Beatles making a traditional genre sound utterly unique, and the multi-part "You Never Give Me Your Money" which manages to be both beautifully emotional and deeply cynical. I am going to admonish Paul a little for his contributions to side one - John would have been better ripping through the soulful "Oh! Darling" and "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" is simply bereft of quality and the only noticeable stain on an otherwise immaculate exercise - as he wrote the entirety of the second half of the album and it is, probably, the single greatest side of vinyl in music history. The seven songs in essence consist of two medleys and the fluid flow of the suites is simply astonishing. The first makes its way through perfect tongue-in-cheek pop before reaching its climax with the sublime "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window". The latter is more self-important, with "Golden Slumbers" featuring his greatest vocal performance, and the power of the medley simply knocks the listener sideways, before the apocalyptic finale delivers the definitive last word of the band - "and in the end... the love you take is equal to the love you make". Paul could not let an album end on such a magnificent moment, though, so he throws in an off-the-cuff coda devoted to "Her Majesty". In truth, the deliberate off-setting of the weight that appears to end the album is a witty touch and, in its way, sums up the brilliance of the Beatles. They were great artists, genuises no less, but they were also human beings and it is through their humanity that such great art managed to appeal to so many people of so many different types. As I said above, it is highly appropriate that the last hour of the Beatles also proved to be their finest.

Abbey Road proved to be the perfect swan-song for the Beatles but in the immediate aftermath of their acrimonious divorce Lennon passed on the tapes from the aborted 'Let it Be' sessions to sinister svengali Phil Spector and the struggling Apple record label (founded by the band) were therefore delighted to have a final product to flog to the fans. For that reason, I do not count this as a proper Beatles album as such but the quality of the majority of the material means it still stands out as an all-but-essential purchase. Paul McCartney was famously livid with Lennon's actions and instantly disowned Spector's remixes which culminated in him releasing his own take on the material, long after Lennon's death, with the infamous Let it Be... Naked. I can sympathise with Paul, particularly as the whole point of the Let it Be project (which was primarily his baby) was to show the Beatles back at their raw roots, but trying to rewrite history over thirty years after the event just smacks of sour grapes (like when he tried to change the songwriting credits round to read 'McCartney/Lennon' for his compositions). In any event, I have heard the new remixes and they are mostly pretty pointless. Perhaps "The Long and Winding Road" does sound better without Spector's pompous strings but it is still a great song in either form and the difference is insignificant enough to not warrant an entirely new album. Furthermore, Spector's influence on the remaining tracks is not all that prominent (given his unmistakable trademark) and, certainly, improves Lennon's classic "Across the Universe" (the original can also be found on Past Masters Volume Two) with its wall of strings and slowed-down wah-wah. In truth, the real reason this album is a notch below the rest of the 'mature' section of the Beatles catalogue (the mid-sixties onwards) is because it simply does not contain as much A grade material. As well as "The Long and Winding Road" Paul delivers the ultimate piano ballad in the form of the timeless title track and his retro blues of "Get Back" has also reached classic status in the Beatles' archive but the rest of the numbers fail to match such high standards. "Two of Us" is nice enough and the forced mating of two separate songs produces the intriguing "I've Got a Feeling", which must be one of the only times Lennon and McCartney truly collaborated since "A Day in the Life". The likes of "For You Blue" and "One After 909" (apparently the first song Lennon and McCartney ever wrote together and cruelly lampooned in 'This Is Spinal Tap') are deliberately generic and, as a result, disappointingly dull. Furthermore, the likes of "Dig it" and "Maggie Mae" are mere joke songs and one suspects would not have featured on any proper Beatles album, given their painstaking (and massively rewarding) approach to quality control. It is a problem that affects the album as a whole and it is hard to really consider this a true Beatles album, given it so obviously misses out on the attention to detail that made their previous artworks such masterpieces. That said, it still contains a fair few absolutely classic songs and enough in reserve to at least interest the listener, even if Abbey Road was, really, the last word that needed to be said on the subject.

I do not really understand why, like most bands of the era, in the early sixties the Beatles released different albums on the different sides of the Atlantic. The majority of the same tracks were featured but in different orders and on various compilations with different names. When the Beatles albums were released on CD in the late eighties the record company made the decision to just release the British versions of the albums on CD (unlike the Stones SACD remasters). This left a number of songs that were released as a- and b-sides in Britain but were not included on any of the official albums. EMI therefore did the sensible thing and rack 'em up over two CDs. Volume One deals with the releases up until the mid-sixties and Volume Two (reviewed below) covers, essentially, from Rubber Soul onwards. With that information in mind one will no doubt not be too shocked to learn Volume Two is the more impressive of the pair, containing a bumper bonanza of classic pop songs. As with the corresponding albums released at the time covered by this first compilation the material does sound unavoidably dated. It would take a madman to suggest the likes of "She Loves You", "From Me to You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" are not great pop songs but in the brave new world of the twenty-first century enjoyment of them does not come naturally. Of course, most pop bands - those around now or at any time over the past forty years - would kill to have recorded songs as catchy, let alone written them, but it is not the sort of CD I stick on with any great regularity. In fact, one would even suggest that the singles of this period are even less sophisticated than the album material and, whilst inherently melodic, are simply not that fascinating. As the Beatles progress to the Beatles For Sale and Help era, and their songs start to become more reflective and ambitious, the corresponding material does start to increase in interest, particularly John's bullish ballad "I Call Your Name". There is only one song that successfully combines their pop perfection with an increased sophistication, though, and it is the 1964 single "I Feel Fine" which even has the audacity to open with a swell of feedback (the sleeve-notes had to make clear it wasn't a recording error). "Bad Boy" proves to be one of their most aggressive and impressive rock'n'roll covers but the likes of "Long Tall Sally" and the Ringo-sung "Matchbox" reinforce the notion the Beatles were always far better off performing their own material. For curiosity value this album does include versions of "She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" recorded for the German market as "Sie Liebt Dich" and "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand". Amusing though they are they don't exactly scream out as compilation material. Of course, this album does serve an essential purchase and, as I said, it is impossible to argue with the quality of most of their early singles. Having been on this planet for twenty four years, though, I no longer have the desire to hear them for yet another time.

Thankfully, though, I have no qualms about sticking this on the stereo as the singles and accompanying b-sides the Beatles put out in the mid- to late-sixties were, understandably, utterly superb. Indeed, in some instances one can make the case that they are superior to much of the material that went on the accompanying albums but, strangely, in those days it was deemed sensible to record one's best songs as singles and leave them off the albums. It was not until Led Zeppelin came along that the record companies woke up to the fact that you make more money selling an entire album on the basis of one song, rather than a mere seven incher. Interestingly, the strongest material on here actually accompanies the early 'classic' period albums, rather than the superior later ones. For instance, it appears Abbey Road was accompanied only by the run-of-the-mill "The Ballad of John and Yoko" and George's mediocre "Old Brown Shoe" as its b-side. The aborted 'Let it Be' sessions did produce alternate versions of "Get Back", "Across the Universe" and "Let it Be" (although the latter only features a different guitar solo) as well as the excellent impassioned ballad "Don't Let Me Down" (which was included on Paul's Stalin-esque attempt at rewriting history). Similarly, an alternative version of "Revolution" appears but it is faster and heavier than the White Album version. This compilation also ends on a very disappointing and incredulously bizarre note with the cabaret parody "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)" which sounds more like the work of the Monty Python team. I guess it is up to you whether you find it funny because it sure as hell can't be enjoyed as a proper song. Thankfully, though, the first half of this collection is absolutely astonishing (bar ANOTHER of George's rubbish Indian songs, "The Inner Light"). We all know how good Rubber Soul is but it is even more amazing to think they also wrote "Day Tripper" and "We Can Work it Out" at the same time, both of which are simple yet sublime pop songs. As the albums got more progressive the singles obviously followed suit and although the multi-part madness of "Paperback Writer" (with its ingenious post-modern lyrics) is a revered classic it is the b-side "Rain" that is most impressive, taking the tape manipulation of "Tomorrow Never Knows" but framing within it a superb vocal melody. It is also astonishing to think that even with the number of fantastic songs over four sides of vinyl on the White Album the band were able to reserve for single release the piano-based classics "Lady Madonna" and "Hey Jude" (the latter self-consciously the most anthemic song the Beatles ever released). Even with the second half of this compilation not offering us much beyond what we already had it still stands up as an essential purchase on the basis of the first eight songs. We all know the Beatles were the best band ever but to listen to their classic albums and then hear what they released on seven inches at the same time merely confirms it.

• Return to the main page
• Go to the George Harrison page

Email me at: jackfeeny@yahoo.co.uk