Past Masters Vol. 2

...and so the magic of the 'non-album' tracks continue.... It is EMBARRASSING how good these songs are and the fact they WEREN'T on their albums!!!! I have seen sites where people have 're-configured' the 'White Album' to include 'Hey Jude' and 'Lady Madonna', or re-configured 'Rubber Soul' to include 'We Can Work It Out' and 'Day Tripper'... it just don't work!!!! Their albums are 'peerless' and 'perfect'.... these singles showed you how great The Beatles were and how much they gave to the record buying public of the day.

Past Masters Vol. 1

We come to the end of The Beatles' albums reviewed.... This of course leaves us with the 'non-album' songs.... it just so happens that some of these 'non-album' songs happen to be the most significant, ground-breaking and brilliant songs EVER recorded!!!! Oh yes The Beatles did NOT short sell their millions of fans.... the very concept of constructing a song that is so utterly original and brilliant and NOT promote your latest album with it still to this day confounds me!!!! Picture this, release a song called, 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' (Top 5) and have the confidence and audacity that the album that you are releasing the same week ('With The Beatles') DOESN'T need a majestic song like 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' to 'sell' it!!!!! Man oh man....

Let It Be (1970)

And so we come to the end! Let It Be... an apt title for the last Beatle album released. Although as previously mentioned this was recorded BEFORE Abbey Road, but it was salvaged amongst the carnage left behind some 16 months earlier by the time this was released in April 1970.

This album I LOVE. Again it is different to the previous, perhaps not an improvement this time that is true but it is DIFFERENT! Captured as live and as raw as possible this is The Beatles ripping through newly constructed songs... 'Getting Back' to their roots, back to the first album 'Please, Please Me' in an attempt to 'drop' the studio trickery, the exotic instruments, the over-layered dubs and back to the days of The Cavern... to a three guitar and drums (maybe a piano) outfit! In fact the ORIGINAL album cover was even a re-creation of the 'Please, Please Me' photo!!! (Thankfully not lost as it turned up some 3 years later on the excellent 1967 - 1970 Blue album compilation)

A side note to this, is that as a 9 year old, I first fell in love with The Beatles' music (due to the sad death of John, this 9 year old was curious as to the 'attention' and sadness this man's death brought to the world) and hence my Beatle journey began! Of course as a 9 year old I loved 'She Loves You', 'From Me To You', 'I Want To Hold Your Hand', 'Love Me Do', 'Help!', 'Nowhere Man' etc ... you get the picture...so the more Beatle music I got my hands (ears) on the more I discovered wonderment UNTIL I walked into the record shop and bought 'Let It Be'!!! Yes I knew the title song, I knew the pulsating 'Get Back' and I knew the gorgeous 'Long and Winding Road' BUT I didn't know the rest and on my first listen I was AGHAST at the 'sloppiness' of the playing, the crazy banter between the songs, just the WHOLE scene was not what The Beatles were in my head at that stage... So I literally DROPPED the album from my turntable and focused on the 'polished' 'upbeat' Beatles for my early teen years.

Then as my appreciation for music widened, this 17 year old went back to 'Let It Be' and I discovered it properly!!!! And I could NOT stop playing this album from BACK to FRONT and then BACK again!!!! It was like I could see again!!!

This album TRULY inspired my LOVE of The Beatles... The songs are GREAT! The 'Two Of Us' is TOP 5!!! What a song... and what a gesture from Paul in writing a song designed for him and John to 'Get Back' to those beautiful harmonies feeding off from each other for this most beautiful of songs...

'I've Got A Feeling' and 'One After 909' are just damned exciting and George's 'For You Blue' is simply an uplifting song and the slide guitar work by John is ANOTHER bow to The Beatles canon and the banter between George and John is hilarious considering these were supposed to be 'bad' times for the four Beatles....

Again, The Beatles show they are peerless in the art of making music....

Abbey Road (1969)

The last Beatle album recorded but the penultimate release. After the shambolic, relationship deteriorating sessions of the 'Get Back' project (which turned into the 'Let It Be' album), Paul convinced the other three as well as producer George Martin to come back for one last hurrah! And what a hurrah it turned out to be! Perhaps this is The Beatle's most FLAWLESS album... SHEER PERFECTION on all levels!

Side 1 was designed to appease John that assembled a collection of great songs from 'Come Together', 'Oh! Darling', 'I Want You (She's So Heavy)' and surely George's greatest gift to The Beatles... 'Something'. Throw in Ringo's finest moment as a song writer in the very clever (check out the Paul and George water bubble blowing backing vocals) Octopus' Garden and you are cooking up a red hot album!!!

Side 2 appeased Paul, the grandiose, highly ambitious 'Rock Opera' which of course Beatles being Beatles, they manage to nail it PERFECTLY!!!

What makes The Beatles a true unexplainable chemistry is the fact that both Paul's and John's respective contributions to their non-preferred album sides are the very reason this album is as perfect as it is. It also appears that on a sub-conscious level that the four Beatles put all of their current personal differences aside and just focused on being 'Beatles' and each playing their part that produces that magic 'whole' ... The Beatles.... and I don't think they could even explain it... it just happens!

Did I say that 'Something' was George's greatest gift to The Beatles??? Bloody hell, where does that leave 'Here Comes The Sun'? This song still to this day makes me feel... just .... GREAT!!! I LOVE IT!!!!

'You Never Give Me Your Money', the first song of the 'Rock Opera' is a beautiful, melancholy piece from Paul that drifts into snippets of incomplete songs / scraps that unbelievably just WORK! Check out Paul's voice on 'Golden Slumbers'... the part where he sings, 'Smiles awake you when you rise'... SHISHKER BOB!!!!! Stunningly emotive and it just makes you feel a sense of loss and hope at the same instant!!!! Like he was telling the world that The Beatle dream is coming to an end! Then the three stinging lead guitars by John, Paul and George that close 'The End' flow in to the last Beatle lyric on the last Beatle album....'and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make'... very COSMIC!!!

Yellow Submarine (1969)

Not really a Beatle album but released as such. The Beatle's song on it are of course majestic but side two, the George Martin score, ain't what Beatle-o-philes would've been looking for. Still the four new songs on side 1 offer some great Beatle moments. The throw away 'All Together Now' is as catchy as it is simple and the two George songs, 'Only a Northern Song' and 'It's All Too Much' are great examples of psychedelic rock!!!

However BEST of all is the scintillating 'Hey Bulldog'!!!! I ADORE this song and am staggered that it doesn't register on the 'Beatle Radar' of casual fans!!! This song must simply be introduced to any casual Beatle fan for sheer evidence of what a GREAT rock outfit The Beatles were. The voices, the smashing piano, the RIFF and the scathing, mercurial lead guitar solo from George makes this John song one of his great 'late period Beatle' songs!!! Top 5.... EASILY!!!

The Beatles (1968)

The White Album... what to make of this sprawling landscape of the most diverse range of music to ever converge onto one title???? MAGNIFICENT is a good word!

I remember I was 17 years old when my Mother bought me this for Xmas. It was 1988 and it came with white vinyl!!! I had known a few of the more famous songs but had not heard the others.... it was a shock when I first heard it I must say! But very quickly it became an absolute favourite for me too.... perhaps this IS my favourite album!!!

The opener 'Back in the USSR' is perhaps the greatest opener on ANY Beatle album... as the soaring jet takes off so does this album.... and then the jets takes us back down to the gorgeous, spine tingling sounds of 'Dear Prudence'.... Ah and then the 'BOMP, BOMP' and off it goes into 'Glass Onion'!!! This truly is a showcase of four men whose talent had just been realized and each of them are as cocky as the other and almost daring each other to top the next song. 'Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da' I must confess is a mind blower... so easily dismissed as 'soft' but LISTEN to what is going on in this song??? Add to that the humourous / frustrated additions from John and George to Paul's last verse and this song just works!!!

The raucous 'Why Don't We Do It In The Road', the heavy 'Helter Skelter', the tender paean to 'Julia', the wacky 'Rocky Raccoon', the classy 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps', the angry 'Yer Blues', the mini-suite 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun' to the call for 'Revolution', the pro-civil rights, 'Blackbird', the social comment of 'Piggies' and the closer 'Goodnight' that I must point out that I was CONVINCED for years this was a Paul song sung by Paul... hell, I then find out it was a John song sung by Ringo!!! That's what The White Album was about, it turned all of The Beatles conventions upside down and what came out was ANOTHER direction for The Beatles and ANOTHER major victory of creativity!

Can I add that 'Long, Long, Long' is perhaps THE most underrated song in The Beatle's catalogue!!! This song personifies tenderness and grace in the one breath! Oh and one other.... Is 'I'm So Tired' the first palindromic song??? Listen to it!!! It convinces you that you are tired!!!! BRILLIANT!!!

PS... The cover??? Only The Beatles knew how to top the glorious Sgt. Pepper cover didn't they? Plain white with 'The Beatles' embossed into the cover. Again, it's only the magic of The Beatles who could turn a plain white cover into something so iconic...

And I also really need to point out again the joy it must have been to be a member of the record buying public back in the day... this 30 song masterpiece came hot on the heels of perhaps their best single, 'Hey Jude' back with the fast version of 'Revolution'.... WOW!!!

Magical Mystery Tour (1967)

The American record distributors certainly carved up those early Beatle records and 'destroyed' the 'art' of what The Beatles were presenting to the rest of the world. However, in the case of Magical Mystery Tour, they actually augmented the Beatle catalogue by turning an outstanding Double EP into an incredible album that today is ACCEPTED as an album in The Beatles' catalogue.

Rounding up the 1967 singles ('Hello Goodbye', 'Strawberry Fields Forever', 'Penny Lane', 'Baby You're A Rich Man' and 'All You Need Is Love') with the excellent EP tracks makes an all-time classic album! How good is 'Hello Goodbye' by the way? Just an impossibly infectious song that is PURE pop genius and one of those effortless Paul songs that has SO much going on in it.

Of the EP tracks, 'I Am The Walrus' has ALWAYS been in my Top 5!!! It is a sprawling epic of a song that perhaps sums up what the 'Psychedelic Summer' was all about. The strings, the drums, the lyrics (oh those crazy lyrics) and the dramatic changes of key and mood that make this John song truly unique. Can you think of any other song that is similar to this??? The gorgeous 'The Fool On The Hill' is another example of Paul's effortless ability to create beautiful melodies that just stick in your head long after you hear it. Strangely, I think this song is 'overlooked' far too often. This would be any other band's masterpiece if they were able to record something of this quality! Oh and I also need to mention 'Your Mother Should Know'... A dance hall type number that has an INCREDIBLE piano riff that drives your feet crazy!

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

The studio years go into full flight.... first with the incomparable 'Double A' sided single, 'Strawberry Fields Forever' / 'Penny Lane'... Seriously, is this NOT the GREATEST EVER achievement to be put on plastic???? Strawberry Fields Forever has been and always will be my number 1 song of all time... no bargaining... it just is... perhaps for more personal reasons BUT it is ASTONISHING! The equally brilliant 'Penny Lane' meant the record buying public of the day were treated with an embarrassing, endless stream of quality music that only stopped upon The Beatles' split. Compare it to today's great artist... 1 album every 3 or 4 years???? With singles ON the albums??? Man oh man!

But you know what? 'Strawberry Fields Forever' and 'Penny Lane' is such a 'stand alone' masterpiece of music that living by itself away from any album is the ONLY place it could have truly lived.... and so it did!!!!

Anyway...onto the masterpiece that is Sgt. Pepper. So much has been written and told about this astonishing achievement that one can become 'immune' to it's brilliance and delve into other Beatle albums to try to 'level' the lavish praise of this gem. But let's be honest... It's F@#$ING brilliant! This is what happens when The Beatles actually gave themselves some REAL time to mess and fool about in the studio to see what they could make...and WOW did they make something that the world had never seen.

Paul dominates but it is George and John who provide the sparks of genius that makes this album incomparable... and that is what this album is....

'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds', 'She's Leaving Home', 'Getting Better' and the awesome bass on 'Fixing A Hole' and your head is truly awash with sounds of whimsy, happiness, love, hope and sadness... what about "With A Little Help From My friends'? Yes in my top 5... Ringo's finest moment as a vocalist... of course his drumming is WILD in 'Good Morning, Good Morning' and the George epic, 'Within You, Without You' perhaps was the last Beatle song 'I got' but once you 'get' that song, you'll forever love it and it could ONLY have been on Sgt. Pepper!!!!

The title track is a great rocker, both versions, and then the purest example of how Paul made John and how John made Paul occurs in the most gripping of finales to ever close an album, 'A Day in the Life'.... shivers and tingles right through my spine just THINKING about it let alone when I HEAR it!!!

Revolver (1966)

OK... When a band makes an album that could be seen as the pinnacle of their achievements / powers (Rubber Soul) what are they to do? I know... re-define the very GENRE of 'the album' and create a MASTERPIECE that not only is a showcase of what they do best but ADDS new, exotic and exciting instruments to the mix. Tablas, Cellos, Violas, Tenor Sax, Trumpets, Tape Loops, Backward Guitars, French Horn to name but a few! And so here we are... the STUDIO years begin!!!!

What strikes me about this album is the symmetry of it... It is possibly THE MOST symmetrical album The Beatles ever made with every song that follows the other belonging to a different Beatle!!! (If that makes sense???)

Anyway, as John produced the pure classic standard songs on Rubber Soul so does Paul here on Revolver. 'Eleanor Rigby', 'Here, There and Everywhere', 'For No-One', 'Got to get you into my Life' and 'Good Day Sunshine'. However, in true Beatle fashion, John gives us the eccentric.... and mind blowing it is... 'Tomorrow Never Knows' (a throw away comment by Ringo)... OMG this song is not real... unbelievably produced...can you believe they made this in 1966 ????? 'I'm Only Sleeping' with it's backwards guitars and the soaring 'And Your Bird Can Sing'... It is also the album where George puts his first bona-fide classic up in 'Taxman'... Great lyrics, searing lead guitar and THAT bass!!!! WOWEE!!!

And of course Ringo comes to the fore taking lead on the whimsical, wildly psychedelic Paul song, 'Yellow Submarine'... On the surface this song was written with children in mind for children to enjoy but if you think about it... a YELLOW SUBMARINE!!!! Not even Roald Dahl thought of that!!!

I think this is the album I come back to the most when I try to nominate my 'Favorite Beatle Album'

A footnote on the album cover... AGAIN a striking cover designed by their old chum Klaus Voorman from the Hamburg days.... why is it that the Beatle story has these 'weird' happenings???? A man they meet in Hamburg in 1961 also happens to be a funky artist who produces a cover that could ONLY be used for this album!

Rubber Soul (1965)

OK... this is where things get stupid! Picture this... August 6, 1965, The Beatles release 'Help!', an album so perfect it's insane... on the back of a crazy touring schedule that includes the first football stadium concerts in the States, on top of another motion picture movie... then get asked by 'Beatle people' to come up with ANOTHER album and ANOTHER single for the Xmas market (cause that's what Beatles do!)....

And what eventuates??? Oh my lordy... Their greatest album to date (considered by many to be their best) and not just a progressive sounding single, BUT TWO singles and hence another term in the music industry is coined thanks to The Beatles... the 'Double A' single... 'We Can Work It Out' coupled with 'Day Tripper'... Can you imagine today a band coming up with those two songs and NOT put them on their next album!!! So there we have it... The 'Double A' single released 3rd December 1965 on the SAME day as the brilliant 'Rubber Soul'!!!!!

And what of 'Rubber Soul'? 'Drive My Car', 'Norwegian Wood' (that sitar), 'Nowhere Man' and the beautiful, beautiful Michelle... Oh did I mention 'In My Life' (Top 5), 'Girl' and 'I'm Looking Through You'???? PPPLLLEAAASSSEEEE.......

It could be said that this is John's creative peak (as Paul reaches next album) but it's the BLEND and influence on each other that makes The Beatles otherworldly. Why oh why did George bring that Sitar in???? He made a great John song into perhaps up to that point his greatest song!!! It's these crazy universal collisions that drove this band up into the stratosphere...

One more note... The album cover!!!!! Bloody hell !!!! Iconic....

Help! (1965)

The seminal 60's album for mine! A gorgeous blend of pure pop, great rock and heart wrenching ballads that are sequenced in a manner that defines pop music and the intent of pop music to make you feel good!
Yes The Beatles progression continues in the form of deeper lyrics ('You've Got to Hide Your Love Away'), orchestral embellishments ('Yesterday'), the introduction of heavy rock ('Ticket To Ride') and the title song that is as clever in lyrics as it is in it's genius arrangement...
Can I also add that 'You're Going to Lose That Girl' happens to be in my Beatle Top 5!!! Add to that Top 5 the hugely underrated 'It's Only Love' which has ALWAYS perplexed me (maybe it's John's droll delivery or that jangly guitar that keeps resurfacing?)
This is also the album where George make his mark as a writer (although he had written 'Don't Bother Me' on the earlier 'With The Beatles') and his two contributions, 'I Need You' (the double use of 'two, to' .... that's really cool) and 'You Like Me Too Much' add to the perfect 'pop-scape' that this album is!

Beatles For Sale (1964)

The Beatles' 4th album (in under two years) goes back to the formula of originals garnished with a few covers... The covers are exceptional, 'Rock and Roll Music' they made their own and the 'Kansas City / Hey Hey Hey' medley is as close to The Beatles 'live' as we could ever imagine!!!

But again it's the originals that capture the awe of this amazing band. 'Eight Days A Week' is an outrageously great song (the arrogance of them NOT to release this as a single displays the prodigality of their talent) and in my personal opinion, the opening three cuts of this album, 'No Reply', 'I'm a Loser' and 'Baby's in Black' is a fine a 'trilogy' of Beatle songs to ever grace an album! And have a listen to 'I Don't Want To Spoil The Party'... man I love this song!!!!

Strange to me that this album has been suggested as 'weary' or 'tired', a reflection of the Beatlemania that consumed every living minute of these guys lives for the previous two years. For mine, this album is just GREAT... and out of the first four albums (my definition of 'The Early Beatle Albums') it is my MOST played of those as it just flows seamlessly from one track to another and showcases all I love about the Beatles' music without me dancing around like a maniac and getting myself all tired and listless after I feel when I play one of the first three albums!!!

A Hard Day's Night (1964)

So where do The Beatles take their third album? They decide that they will now write the ENTIRE album!!! No more covers, no more favs from the Cavern days... just 13 entirely new and original songs from the remarkable Lennon and McCartney. In fact this is the ONLY Beatle album to consist of just Lennon and McCartney songs... Future albums (except two) of course contained ALL Beatle originals however they also contained Harrison and Starr originals!

And what of the quality of this album??? My oh my... 'A hard day's night', 'Can't buy me love', 'And I love her', 'If I fell' just to name a few of the standards not to mention the pulsating 'I should have known better' and the awesome 'Things we said today' (personally one of my 'Top 5' Beatle songs... as a side note, you should know that I have about 123 Top 5 Beatle songs!!!!)

'You can't Do That' and 'I'll be Back' again displaying the extraodinary song writing talents of John and Paul. To think that 'on demand' they came up with these songs because the movie director, Richard Lester, (directing 'A Hard Day's Night') wanted music for the fillm!!! Sure, no problems.... just 13 songs in one month!!!!

With The Beatles (1963)

How do you follow up a stunning and exciting debut? Just make a BETTER record. Yes 'With The Beatles' may in fact be my favorite 'early Beatles' album just basically due to the greater confidence that the 4 Beatles were beginning to display. This album has such an cockiness about it that it is difficult to imagine that they just barely reached their 20's!!!

The opening rocker, 'It won't be long' would've been a sure fire Number 1 had they chose to release it as a single... but this is The Beatles we are talking about and this song was merely pushed back to 'album status' because the spine tingling 'I want to hold your hand' had just come out of their collective gasp!!!
Oh and 'All my loving'... are you kidding??? WOWEE this song is special... great lead vocal, soaring harmonies supporting that vocal and an urgency in the playing that makes you feel like you are singing the song to the girl you're longing to see.

I must also point out the pulsating 'Hold Me Tight' which I have ALWAYS adored. Listen to it!!! It's just an incredibly raw and exciting song! I once read a review where this song was 'knocked' down??? WHAT??? For mine it is a pearler...

'You've Really Got A Hold On Me' is one of the great Beatle cover versions... this Smokey Robinson song is given a facelift by The Beatles and the result is not only a homage to their roots but an embellishment to the song. Great vocal!

Please Please Me (1963)

For me the early Beatles captured an energy and sound that still gets me jumping around and trying to sing like they do! The voices.... oh the voices that blend together to create an excitement that is just pure and uninhibited!

1, 2, 3, 4!!!!! and CRACK!!! Off we go to the sound of 'I saw her standing there'. Can you actually believe the very first Beatle album starts of with '1, 2, 3, 4!'??? It's almost like the '1, 2, 3, 4' was inserted by a movie director AFTER he found out how great The Beatle story is!

'Yes... how to get this story off to a flyer' ... amazing to think they chose the '1, 2, 3, 4' intro... as if they KNEW how GREAT they were going to become!

I love the early excitement of this album, famously recorded in ONE day (well 10 of the songs were as 'Love Me Do', 'Ask Me Why', 'Please Please Me' and 'P.S. I Love You' were the first two singles released by The Beatles and this album was made on the back of that success).

ONE DAY to make an album!!!! In just four short years from this they come out with Sgt. Pepper which took something like 700 HOURS to make!!!!

The covers including 'Anna', 'Chains', 'Boys' capture the Cavern excitement but it was the originals that made the public stand up and take note. Bands DON'T write their own songs!!!!! EVER!!! But this being probably the first of MANY barriers and conventions that The Beatles smashed down in their pursuit of genius. Also of note was this album didn't have a LEAD singer... They ALL sang!!! Again this for the day was rare and I guess even today's great bands only have the one singer!!!

However, as great as this album is and as well sequenced it is (the concept of an album as ONE piece being born) it was the closer that stole the show. The John sang 'Twist and Shout' is the GREATEST cover version ever recored surely!!! And to think that what you hear today WAS the 1st take AFTER a 13 hour day of recording goes beyond comprehension!!!! Thankfully the recent digital remastering of the Beatle's catalogue brilliantly shows up a hilarious but telling factor right at the last second of this song where you can here John's ravaged voice completely give out!!!!

The Beatles' Albums

Where do you start when describing The Beatles' Albums?
Clearly THE most important and significant catalog in the history of recorded music. Unrivaled for quality and released at an astonishing rate that built on the previous release in originality and genius. The Beatles' Albums reviewed...