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April 24, 2007
Best Beatles Album
Freealonzo has requested that we keep things going around here by just posting simple questions that can hopefully generate discussion. I think it is a great idea and I will use a post by Freealonzo himself to get things going. Yesterday Free wrote an entry discussing Abbey Road and why it is his favorite Beatles album. I wrote a comment agreeing that it is a great album, while also adding I think Revolver is better.
So, the question for all of you today is, what is the best Beatles album and why? Is it as simple as Abbey Road vs. Revolver? Or should more be added to the mix?
Posted by snackeru at April 24, 2007 08:48 AM
Comments
Great, now I'm going to have to fix the error in my Abbey Road review before I get called out on it.
Posted by: Freealonzo at April 24, 2007 09:13 AM
Must be a pretty subtle error because I don't see it! Or maybe you fixed it?
Posted by: Shane at April 24, 2007 09:16 AM
Revolver? as in revolving door? as in; "getting back to the topic at hand"
Wasn't there supposed to be a key meeting regarding RR agreements etc...taking place today?
BTW - its "the White album" hands down, undisputable (or indisputable), either way.
Posted by: PN at April 24, 2007 01:04 PM
Shane, I don't know if the above link will work but great footage of Shark vs Octopus... who ya got??
Oh, and I liked "the White album" as well.
Posted by: zooomx at April 24, 2007 01:33 PM
The White Album? No way. There are at least 4 Beatles albums I'd put ahead of it.
And PN, what the heck do you want me to say when there is nothing to say? The Twins have not struck a deal with the RR yet. Until that happens, not a whole heckuva a lot to write about.
If you want to talk about nothing happening everyday then start your own blog. I'll even link to it. I've been writing on this blog for 3 years exactly how I'm writing in it now. If you want me to change, it ain't gonna happen.
Posted by: Shane at April 24, 2007 01:44 PM
I like 'em all, but I have a soft spot in my heart for Rubber Soul. They weren't yet in their experimental phase ("Love You To" and "Tomorrow Never Knows" from Revolver) or their indulgent phase (8-minute songs and "song cycles" on White Album and Abbey Road) -- they were just pumping out the tightest 2-3 minute kick-ass rock and pop masterpieces known to man. Many will argue that they hadn't yet been "freed" creatively and thus weren't producing their finest work, but there is definitely something to be said for great artists working within some boundaries.
Posted by: spycake at April 24, 2007 01:47 PM
Spycake, fascinating little tidbit about Rubber Soul. In the song Girl, the backup chorus is: tit tit tit tit. You really don't notice (t)it until you listen for (t)it.
And yes the word is actually what you'd think it is.
Re: ballparks. There is a 1 page interview with Opat in the Mpls-St.Paul magazine. It's all about the ballpark. Not a whole lot that is new but a good source of information.
Posted by: Freealonzo at April 24, 2007 01:59 PM
Free, you don't happen to have a link to the Mpls-StP mag site with the Opat interview, do you?
Posted by: Derek at April 24, 2007 02:08 PM
Free, Spycake -- not only does Girl include "tit" as the backup chorus, it also features huge intakes of breath to signify inhaling. In fact, the whole song may be nothing more than an homage to marijuana.
I agree Rubber Soul is a fine piece of work. My top Beatles albums would be:
1. Revolver
2. Sgt. Peppers
3. Rubber Soul
4. Abbey Road
Posted by: Shane at April 24, 2007 03:24 PM
Not a lot of Beatles comments, guess most of your readers are Stones fans. Here's my top 5:
1. Abbey Road
2. Revolver
3. A Hard Day's Night
4. Rubber Soul
5. Sgt. Peppers
Derek, sorry I couldn't find the Opat link in Mpls-St. Paul Mag. They appear to be one of those publications that waits a month before they put content on-line. I actually read the article waiting in line at Target, contributing my 12 cents to the Twins ballpark. (Man, now what am I going to do without that 12 cents?)
Posted by: Freealonzo at April 24, 2007 04:25 PM
Free,
If you are giving away that 12 cents EVERY week, it adds up quick. Just at Target alone, you will spend $6.24. If there are a half-dozen places like Target where you spend money. We are pushing $40 before you know it!!! After a few years, it will be the equivalent of what you would spend driving to Milwaukee or Chicago for a weekend to see outdoor baseball! Alas, after a few years, you will no longer have to drive to Milwaukee or Chicago to see outdoor baseball!!! So, you made back your money right there.
GO TWINS!
P.S. Remember, I only MINORED in Economics.
Posted by: Derek at April 24, 2007 04:45 PM
Oh, I'm well aware of the "tit-tit-tit-tit" backup vocals on "Girl" -- in fact, a couple years ago I saw Joe Jackson (English guy, not Michael's dad) perform the song solo on piano, and I wanted to sing the "tit tit tit tit" part from the audience. But no one else in the crowd looked like they'd get it, and I didn't want to seem like a perv...
Also, Mr. Jackson replaced the inhaling with a sigh. It worked pretty well.
(I'm mildly surprised these "tit" posts are making it past the filter!)
Posted by: spycake at April 24, 2007 05:02 PM
i was just listening to revolver today at work, weird. my vote goes to revolver, although it's close. i prefer rubber soul to both, though. it perfectly captures the maturity of the lennon/mccartny writing.
Posted by: mullen at April 24, 2007 05:56 PM
Derek, no way we spend $80 a week on taxable items at Target. I once figured that right now I would spend about $50-$60 a year for the ballpark. However right now I have two middle school children. In 10 years I'll be an empty nester and the amount I spend on taxable items will drop significantly. In 20 years or so I will probably be retired and my taxable spending will drop again. Over the next 30 years I'll probably dish out around $800-$1000 for the ballpark mostly in 3 to 15 cent increments. Well worth it -- I gladly pay it.
Posted by: freealonzo at April 24, 2007 07:33 PM
I have to put a plug in for Let It Be. I wouldn't say it's my favorite, but I have two older sisters that played the album constantly when I was growing up. I was basically raised on it. Granted, the Beatles all hated each other by the time this was recorded.
Suprisingly, nobody has mentioned Magical Mystery Tour?!?!
I would say that it's easier for me to name my favorite Beatles singles rather than full albums. A Day In The Life, Stawberry Fields Forever, Dear Prudence, and Eleanor Rigby are some of my favorites.
Posted by: Jeff T. at April 24, 2007 09:24 PM
Nothing beats Sgt. Pepper's. Pure brilliance, in my humble opinion. I can't wait to visit the stadium site when I come down in June to see the Twins/Brewers battle. Hopefully Santana is pitching better then...
Curt in Grand Forks
Posted by: Curt Hanson at April 24, 2007 10:02 PM
I choose Magical Mystery Tour. However, Sgt. Pepper's gets credit for the single greatest Beatles song, "A Day in the Life".
Posted by: Will Young at April 24, 2007 10:35 PM
Anybody heard anything credible concerning the County's collection rate on the imposed tax falling woefully short of funding the bonds to build the park?
I heard they're collecting 2 million a month, but expected 3 million?
Posted by: STM at April 25, 2007 08:45 AM
Free, I think you missed my sarcasm. I was trying to point out how little this will truly cost us, especially considering that we get to watch outdoor baseball in return. It's like the Cheers episode where Sam sells his Corvette to buy the bar back, so that he can scrimp and save for years to make a tiny profit until one day, somewhere in the distant future, the bar will make him rich enough so he can...buy a Corvette.
Posted by: Derek at April 25, 2007 08:47 AM
Derek, Sorry. Guess I did miss sarcasm, obviously we're on the same page.
STM, I don't know how collections are going but I gotta believe they can't be that far off. Bonding firms look pretty close at how much $$$ can be raised and these firms are typically pretty conservative. We would have to be in a nasty recession for collections to be 2/3 of what is expected and there is no indication that the first 4 months of 2007 have been recession months. (If we were in a recession that bad, GWB's approval ratings would be in the single digits). Furthermore 4 Spring months gives very little indication of how much sales tax is being collected. I am guessing a lot of sales tax is generated over the summer and during the Christmas shopping season.
Posted by: Freealonzo at April 25, 2007 11:26 AM
$3 million a month seems high. I think there were some optomist saying it would be that high.
I recall that they were talking $27 million a year with about $23 million needed for debt service. So $2 million a month if that is right is actually in the ballpark.
Posted by: pragmatic_cynic at April 25, 2007 12:13 PM
A few days ago I made my first quarterly sales tax payment which included the line item for the ballpark tax. Want to know how much my customers paid toward the ballpark in the first quarter of 2007? $5.00! Five dollars. One Abe.
Now, I do a lot of stuff for customers outside of Minnesota, and a hefty share for tax exempt outfits, but even I was shocked at how little I'd collected (and I have been very diligent at calculating it correctly and collecting it).
How much I paid out at Target is another matter. I'll have to look into that...
And, it's gotta be Abbey Road for me. (I'm one of those dorks who had to go to St. John's Wood when I was in London to get my picture taken walking across that street -- and nearly getting killed by numerous angry motorists who really hate it when dumb American tourists stop traffic to do that.)
Actually, picking a favorite album is a little bit like trying to pick a favorite flavor of ice cream. Different flavors are my favorite at different times. I think each Beatles album works for a different time of day:
Please, Please Me -- First thing in the morning
Meet the Beatles -- Second thing in the morning
Hard Day's Night -- Prime time in the evening
Beatles For Sale -- Just after lunch
Help! -- Just before news time
Rubber Soul -- Late morning, brunch time
Revolver -- After midnight
Sgt. Pepper -- 3:00 PM any summer day
White Album -- So it ends at the stroke of midnight
Let It Be -- 3:00 AM, or any sleepless moment
Abbey Road -- Late afternoon, so it ends as the sun sets
(Save "Magical Mystery Tour" and "Yellow Submarine" for weekends. And don't forget those Christmas fan club records -- they're good any time of year. "Anthology" when you need to ponder. "Beatles at the Beeb" or any live recording when you need to sweat.)
+
Posted by: Rick at April 25, 2007 01:21 PM
You know, I wrote that and just realized that I haven't actually listened to any of these records in years! Time to get them on the MP3 player, I guess...
+
Posted by: Rick at April 25, 2007 01:23 PM
Has anyone heard Let It Be - Naked or Love? Whaddya think? Are they worth hard drive space on my I-pod?
Posted by: Freealonzo at April 25, 2007 02:57 PM
Let It Be Naked is fun. I'm generally not one for re-mastered sound, but it is definitely crisper and cleaner, and ditching thoes frilly string and horn sections was long overdue.
Of course, if you're not an audio-phile and you can make do with less audio quality, there are some interesting bootlegs from that period floating around out there, with new tracks, different takes, etc. (Although then you have to wade through a lot of material the Beatles themselves didn't want to bother sorting out!)
Posted by: spycake at April 26, 2007 09:40 AM
Revolver is the soundtrack to the Beatles identifying that they didn't want to be "the four f*****g mop tops" anymore. It's the halfway point, chronologically and creatively, between Rubber Soul and Sgt. Pepper, giving the album a freshness that was missing on the former and Help!. While the individual songs still have the structure of the Beatles from years past (hard seperation of tracks, verse/chorus/verse/middle 8/chorus), there's so much that was new at the time that Revolver as a whole is basically the first album of the second half of the fab four's career.
Abbey Road was the final sigh. Even though it was released before Let It Be, it was recorded after, and it contains no sound of the external or internal pressures that had been imploding the band. Every track is timeless in the best sense, and it marks the ultimate completion of the Beatles' transition from pop to rock. Many tracks flow into the next, giving the album a consistency and uniformity that even Sgt. Pepper didn't have.
For me, it comes down to which album has songs that I like the best. For me, it's Abbey Road.
Posted by: Jesse at April 26, 2007 09:11 PM
Actually, the true "halfway" point would be the Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane single. Like you say, Revolver maintained the album structure of years past, and at the time of its release the Beatles were still touring and still dressing and grooming much like they had in years past.
Truth be told, I think it all ties into the Beatles' mustaches, which I think first appeared publicly around the time of the above single (early 1967).
Posted by: spycake at April 27, 2007 09:40 AM
In order to keep this Beatles thread going, does anyone think that The White Album could have been the greatest Beatles album (and maybe Greatest. Album. Ever.) if they had had the discipline to separate the wheat from the chaff and released it as a single album? I know you can't put the genie back in the bottle but think of the possibilities. I'm going to play with the album list on my I-Pod and see if I can come up with that mythical greatest album.
Spycake, you might be right with your halfway point and the moustache theory.
Posted by: Freealonzo at April 27, 2007 01:37 PM
No, part of what makes The White Album so great is the breadth, the reach, the sprawl. That's why it's so quintessentially of the '60s and the spirit of the band. Even if you could, I don't know why you would want to pare it down to a tidy set of "hits," separated from a second class of "outtakes." You'd spoil the album's flavor.
Off the cuff, I'd say my Top 5 Beatles albums are:
1) The White Album
2) Abbey Road
3) Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
4) Magical Mystery Tour
5) Beatles for Sale
If Past Masters Vol. 2 counted as a proper album, I'd probably slip that in there ahead of #4 or #5.
Also, an honorable mention to Help! That's an underrated album, coming just after A Hard Day's Night and the stuff that broke them in America, and just before the more highly praised Rubber Soul and Revolver (which I think gets overrated these days). Maybe that should be at #5.
Posted by: frightwig at May 22, 2007 02:55 AM
The best Beatles album is the one you can make by putting Revolver and Rubber Soul on one CD.
Posted by: chapman at May 29, 2007 11:03 AM
My top 5?
1. Abbey Road, it's probably the best album of all time. Whether it's your favorite or not, I think we all know it's the pinnacle of pop rock song writing.
2. Magical Mystery Tour, the most underrated album of all time. Complexity wise it's not much of a leg up over Sgt. Peppers but I just love this album.
3. Revolver, I was getting tired of Beatlemania, and even Rubber Soul wasn't completely broken free.
4. Rubber Soul... It's still a damn good album.
5. White Album, it's kind of a lot to swallow, and there are some times when it loses it's drive, but I still think it's an excelent album.
Posted by: Eric at July 6, 2008 09:11 PM
