At what point do you think the Beatles stepped it up a notch and went from here today … hairdressers tomorrow to the real deal?
Real Beatleheads will probably say from the first 1234 but I’ve had a few listens to their albums in order and the first track that really stands out to me as a quantum leap out of the wobbly head, I love, you love, me love screamfest is 4 albums and 5 tracks in.
It was a very old song evidently put in only as filler. The original was very different but to think Macca wrote that when he was 16 is incredible. A precursor to the likes of For No One in my ears and my favourite track on Beatles For Sale.
Featuring Ringo on knee slap.
For me, “Now And Then” is the watershed game-changer moment in their career, when they married cutting-edge AI technology to their signature songwriting genius.
I won’t be reading any of your posts if they’ve been digitally messed about with. I’m only interested in the ones you wrote on vellum with a quill.
HP is nothing more than an AI chatbot developed by Stephen King.
Silly boy. Ironic that the correct answer is ‘Paperback Writer’.
A Hard Days Night album. First (and only) fully Lennon-McCartney offering, has all the early Beatles exuberance but the songs pretty much all stand up today. Brilliant album
Possibly my favourite Fabs’ elpee – just the sheer joie de vivre and apparent effortlessness of it all.
Rubber Soul is their first album to feature non- boy/girl relationship lyrics. Corresponds roughly to their exposure to marijuana.
Yep, Rubber Soul just feels more mature. The writing just gets better and better – it’s their 6th LP, and it’s still fresh.
Durrr, Hamburg!
Head hits keyboard, sleep assured
Yeah but, what’s better out of Wish You Were Here and Dark Side of the Moon?
Neither.
I woke up after a very strange dream
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-68595721
It could be argued they shifted up a gear with every release, and don’t forget the singles which were actually more indicative of their growth in some ways.
There is the common opinion that Beatles For Sale was a step back because AHDN was all Lennon/McCartney, but this is very much through the modern perspective of them as songwriters and not as performers. The covers do not weaken BFS – as a teen in 1964 I don’t think I’d ever heard any of them before, so they were as fresh as new songs to me, and up to 1962 they were primarily a live covers band anyway. In the summer of 1964 they also released an EP which had three covers – a couple of these could easily have been on AHDN, and again I had never knowingly heard those songs.
It is intriguing that they had written some songs pre fame that they only felt they could use later on. It’s almost like they had to grow into them, or that they had to find their time. When I’m 64 was, astonishingly, also one of those , as was Michelle.
Well Mr Moonlight certainly weakens BFS, Everybody’s Trying to be My Baby also, very lacklustre. The originals on the album are good, but I wouldn’t consider them a great leap forward from the previous album.As for the example in the first post I would argue Things We Said Today or I’ll Be Back at least match it
Drive My Car
Gear joke…
When John moved from hash to heroin?
When John moved from Cyn to Bri?
Oh no! Really.
Could you mean “… when did the % of male fans eclipse the % of female fans?”
I’ve posted this before:
Ticket To Ride, obviously. It marks a change of approach musically, lyrically and in terms of actually making records. John came up with the melody in December 1964 but the song was completed with Paul during an afternoon long writing session at John’s house on February 14th 1965. It was recorded as the first song for the upcoming Help! movie the following day in three hours.
After seven chirpy perfect pop singles, Ticket To Ride is gloomy, angry and disbelieving. It begins with the line “I think I’m gonna be sad,” and concludes with “My baby don’t care.” This is a song mourning the end of a relationship, one ended by the woman because she wants to be free. Unbelievably, for Beatles fans, she finds that John brings her down.
After two albums of mainly acoustic guitar, Ticket To Ride buzzes with electricity. It begins brightly enough with George’s jangling Rickenbacker introduction but the music soon gets heavy. The riff is picked out by two guitars. George strums A flat chords to add depth. Paul is credited with coming up with the drum pattern, which mimics the riff in its stuttering ‘Arabic’ rhythm. Even so, Ringo’s delivery is dramatic, replete with rolls and thundering floor toms. Paul adds harmony vocals and some neat lead guitar towards the end of the lines in the verses, building a tension that is eventually broken by a 4/4 section (‘she oughta do right by me’), sharpened by Ringo’s switch to the symbols. The final coda is effectively a new melody (“my baby don’t care”), driven by John’s falsetto vocal and Paul’s colourful guitar licks. It took the song beyond the standard three minute mark for a single and defies the DJ to edit out this surprise ending.
The recording method was different, representing greater experimentation in exploiting studio techniques. The Beatles rehearsed the tune with the tape rolling, then re-spooled for a take. The first take fluffed at the start but take two was good. It was a rhythm track, drums, bass and two guitars. They had used overdubs before but not as many. There are double-tracked vocals, extra rhythm and lead guitars and handclaps and tambourine.
Ticket To Ride represents a move from pop music to rock, it tackles unusual lyrical themes and it effectively starts to use the studio as an instrument. It is the sound of a pop group growing up.
It, also, is a true group effort. All four Beatles make crucial contributions to the final result. Remove any one of them and you wouldn’t have anything like the same record. It still sounds great today. Every moment is packed with detail and little nuances so that the listener (I’m sure I’m not the only one) remains interested even after hearing it many thousands of times.
You could argue its positioning in the move Help! and a promotional film for broadcast on the 1965 TOTP roundup, makes it the first song with its own videos.
It is a fine, fine record, and you’re on the money here, although you can’t resist crediting them with a first that isn’t theirs. There were many dedicated pop videos (as opposed to edited movie clips) produced before this, as a cursory wiki search (Scopitone) will show. They were mostly French, though, so I suppose that doesn’t count.
I Should Have Known Better precedes it as a video as recently remarked upon by Ellen and Hepworth, and I think they did plenty of break up song before that. It is great though
Scopitone was producing music videos in the late ‘fifties. For French pop artists. Not the Beatles. They weren’t the first, as in many other claims made on their behalf. Donovan regularly gets a good kicking here for inventing everything, but he has as much, if not more, credibility as an innovator. Cue Beatles fans putting their fingers in their ears and humming LOUD.
Ah but it had two videos. You’ve missed the plural.
What kind of videos? You can probably find music in films with miming in them from the 30s. In the Beatles movies, Dick Lester produced creative representations, whether that means he invented the “video” would be doubtful. The Fabs did later produce promotional films for Paperback Writer and Rain with the main purpose being they didn’t have to go on Top of the Pops or the Ed Sullivan show and perform which kind of is what “music videos” became known for, particularly after Bohemian Rhapsody which some also claim to be the first one. Other bands were doing it in the 60s too, Kinks, Stones, Who probably.
What kind of videos? Short films produced expressly to accompany pop single hits, to be played on video jukeboxes. Dai, read the fucking wiki page on Scopitone. This kind of Fabs First With Everything nonsense is borderline deranged. They made some good records – isn’t that enough?
I just asked a question, thanks
The second one was made for TOTP.
On 23 November 1965, the Beatles filmed promotional clips for “Ticket to Ride” and four other songs, including both sides of their upcoming single at the time, “Day Tripper” / “We Can Work It Out”, at Twickenham Film Studios in south-west London. The films were directed by Joe McGrath, who had worked on Help! as an assistant to Lester. In the case of “Ticket to Ride”, the clip was made for inclusion in Top of the Pops’ round-up of the biggest hits of 1965.
You can tell that clip is November 65 rather than summer when the single came out.
“We are now so stoned we can’t even stand up”
Francoise Hardy on a big wheel. That was my favourite Scopitone.
I know Ringo is sometimes jokingly referred to as “not even the best drummer in The Beatles”, but asking him to “switch to symbols”? That sounds like Richey Edwards’ role in the Manics..
Well, it was for the movie Help!
See first video.
This thread is so interesti…..
CRASH TEAM!!!
Would anyone be interested in a Famous Fab Firsts That Weren’t Actually thread? Cast your vote now!
(Me: not particularly)
For Mr. Thep:
*OH LA LA! SAUCY FRENCH UNDERWEAR ADVISORY*
Do keep up.
I think if you check the timestamps you’ll find that, because of the time difference between Siam and Piddlehinton St. Hubbins, my post predated his, by several years. The idea that Hubes is the first with everything is borderline deranged.
And you’d “forgotten the stockings and suspenders” … chinnychinny.
………………..
For every step forward there was a step back to twee, quaint old style music hall and something to not frighten the audience – thank you Paul. Great! They took a risk. Shame about the other pap. It was really Ringo that changed the game for them and being a part of the general changing times. Apparently they invented growing your hair long and having beards. Compare the red and blue album covers. Wow! Yeah but everybody went through similar changes
My hair grows every day, including out of my nose and ears. Do I get credit for it? No!
‘Quaint, old-style music hall’ was in their collective DNA as much as rock-‘n’-roll. It’s natural that they referenced it to greater and lesser degrees. Also, the whole psychedelic Swinging London schtick was partly built on reflecting back to the earlier part of the century.
I am aware but other acts had a more cohesive style, like The Kinks for example. Nostalgic, and a little old fashioned at times but nothing that doesn’t work with the rest. The Beatles have stunning experimentation then hohum plod.
Maybe 5 or 6 music hall style tracks from McCartney, going back 30 or 40 years or so for inspiration, where as their era is now 60 years ago from now!
* When I’m 64
Your Mother Should Know
Martha My Dear ? (sounds very 68 to me though)
Rocky Raccoon (hillbilly)
Honey Pie
Maxwell’s Silver Hammer?
I like most of them
I overstate it a bit. I like Martha and Your Mother Should Know out of those. But why not more of the adventurous stuff? Why just one on an album? I guess supporters will say the diversity is a strength. Not putting singles on them weakened the albums I would say. These critiques of 50 plus year-old, celebrated pop records are certainly what the world needs more of.
Of course I think they were the best band ever, but, for me, all their albums have weaknesses. Not always the Ringo track, but as stated earlier perhaps A Hard Day’s Night comes closest to consistent perfection which doesn’t have one. Part of their charm I think that they became so diverse and didn’t always worry about quality control. Would Rain and Paperback Writer improve Revolver? Absolutely! Is is cool that they were on a standalone single? Yes.
The weakness of AHDN is that it lacks variety. Too many John songs and too few George & Ringo!
It’s almost a John solo album, but I think possibly his vocal peak and he was a pretty good songwriter too
There is track missing from side two, of course. Try putting I Call Your Name before Things We Said Today. It’s still all Lennon/McCartney compositions but just waaaay too much Lennon lead vocal. Makes you yearn for a Ringo track.
Lennon also dominates Beatles for Sale and With the Beatles, but not quite as much. When I hear Lennon sing I do not yearn to hear Ringo have a go on the mike.
13 songs is still a sumptuous feast and I Call Your Name is fine, but maybe not quite top notch Fabs.
When I Get Home isn’t top notch either.
I’ve some sympathy with the argument that Can’t Buy Me Love and Things We Said Today are the best songs on the album.
😉
Lennon hater! I actually dislike Can’t Buy Me Love. One of their weakest singles for me, just annoying.
Any Time At All, title track, I’ll Be Back, If I Fell etc all completely wonderful. When I get Home is relatively weak I agree.
I think of this as the first rock video. It’s not the title sequence and has nick-all to do with the rest of the film. It’s designed to be detached from the film to sell the song. Additionally, it’s bloody ace.
I profoundly agree that this “Beatles invented everything” schtick is getting very old.
Yebbut, yebbut…I thought DONOVAN invented everything. Have we changed schtick and I missed the memo?
“Number 47 said to number three
“You’re the cutest jailbird I ever did see
I sure would be delighted with your company
Come on and do the Jailhouse Rock with me””
The Beatles would never stoop to such filth…..apart from Just Seventeen, Please Please Me and 242 other ditties. (Moose, I said ditties)
“The warden threw a party in the county jail”
“In the first place, NO HE DIDN’T”
Go to around 2:25 for his version of your critique…
I think of this as a recent video, but Orson Carson’s hair is the 1999est thing in the universe. And that’s a quarter of a century ago. Oh dear.
Crikey …. 63 years in and I always thought it was ‘I went to a party at the county jail’ … as you were.
That’s very close to 10cc – Rubber Bullets…
To this day, prisons are same-sex places so here’s Elvis pre-dating Bronski Beat by about 30 years.
I was in a cafe yesterday and they had a nice selection of 60s music playing. The intro to Love Me Do blared out and in the context of the preceding songs, it sounded fantastic. I tend to dismiss LMD as a simple, early doors plodder but the gob iron intro and the clattery drum is, dare I say it, iconic.
Help is another gear change, I think. Mainly due to the despair in the lyric. A really unusual subject matter in pop songs, even now. Again, familiarity has smoothed over the greatness of the song – but it’s an astonishing song and showed that there is self-awareness and a willingness to be different and to change.
Alan White on those drums? I find it really quaint, the least groundbreaking single they made, at least until probably Hello Goodbye.
Andy White, shurely? I’m no Beatles expert, of course – but I think Alan White appeared in the story a bit later (Live Peace in Toronto?)
Yes …
Yes, wasn’t thinking right.
Can you shift up a gear when you are just turning on the ignition?
Yes: but you stall – or the car blows up – or something…
LMD was after those years in Hamburg etc so I think it’s fair to say it was moving the car into second gear, at least.
I feel that The Beatles were the Wankel rotary engine of pop…
Going to Hamburg = Starting the car.
Signing with EMI and teaming up with George Martin = Moving away in first gear.
What point is equivalent to flooding the engine by giving it too much choke?
The Beatles invented flooding the engine by giving it too much choke. It’s generally agreed to have happened at 7:41am on the 17th January 1962 (although I’ve read some books that give the time as late as 8:14!).
You can read about it on pages 2367-2379 of the Lewisohn book.
Not sure you guys are trying hard enough. No Beatles thread in the entire history of the AW has failed to win a hamper. C’mon, let’s have some proper discussion about who played drums on Let It Be or the first time George Martin said “By mistake I played this bit backwards, what you think?”
I’m off to sort my perforated from my unperforated, did I ever tell you about that weekend in Rhyl?
Drummer on Old Brown Shoe has been under intense discussion, in the Abbey Road boxset it claimed Macca was the drummer like he was on the other side of the single (Ballad of John and Yoko). However to most Beatles nerds it sounds too good to be Paul.
That’s more like it! Fascinati….
!!CRASH TEAM!! HE’S GONE AGAIN!!
Was it this weekend Lodey?
Somewhere around then I saw them Beatles in Aberdeen Beach Ballroom in front of a crowd of around 200. I have no memory whatsoever of the gig except that Mary Duguid refused my tempting invite to walk her home
Aware that you were intent on no Duguid, no doubt. Those granite city pavements are a less than inviting pivot for teenage kicks, especially with yer kecks off.
She looked at me with unconcealed contempt, my heart broke into a thousand pieces on the floor. Beatles shmeetles
Oh god, it’s stuck with 22 still to go. Surely somebody has an interesting (?) story/question re that time when Ringo’s drumstick broke and Paul said ” never min….
I effectively killed the thread by providing the correct answer.
Sorry. 😊
Where did you do that? Can’t find it 🤔
John killed Paul on that zebra crossing. “After you, never mind that 42-wheeler barreling down Abbey Road, it’s just another day in your life”
Turn me on zebra man
In a good-spirited attempt to boost this rather pathetic hamper-grab, I’d like to list my all-time Top Nine favourite Woody Woodmansey’s U-Boat tracks before I die ever!
U-Boat
Movie Star
Slow Down
Star Machine
I’m In Love
Rock Show
Let You Be
Hope They Come Back
Oo La La
From The Top
So – nobody else want to talk Beatles? Cuh.
Woody belongs on the Bowie thread, doesn’t he?
Woody belongs on EVERY thread
Including the classical section
*gives Moosey matey cheek tweak*
I read today that John Lennon met a small boy also called John Lennon while The Beatles toured Canada in 1964. They wrote to each other regularly until 1980 when for some reason the correspondence stopped.
Wordle 1,009 5/6*
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⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜
⬜🟨⬜🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Is anyone else seeing a graphic representation of Any Time At All here? FABTASTIC.
After a week of 25C it’s turned right chilly here. I lit the wood burner tonight. World’s gone bonkers. I wonder what John would have made of it all?
He would have put one of his 50 fur coats on, probably.
Another three comments and its Beatle Hamper Time!!!!!
LET’S DO THIS, PEOPLE!
NO!
I am Samuel K. Amphong
When did the Beatles shift up a gear?
On Beatles for Sale they depressed the clutch.
On Help they moved the gearstick.
On Rubber Soul they put their foot on the gas. HARD. Beep beep!