help ethan get into the beatles

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after hearing love me do a million times on the radio i have decided they are actually worth a damn. what now?

― ethan, Friday, 22 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

and don't say white album because my friend already has that and i like it too.

― ethan, Friday, 22 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Revolver, if you have any interest where all the jangly guitar-based pop in the world came from. Or maybe Rubber Soul. Both of these albums have a lot of great pop songs, with a pretty good edge that you didn't really see in a lot of other stuff released at the same time. I don't really see why Sgt. Pepper was considered such a big deal after listening to Revolver, which was pretty revolutionary itself when it comes to production trickeroo.

― Sean Carruthers, Friday, 22 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Next step: pick up 'Help!' - the UK edition. Listen to "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" and realize that you're listening to some of the finest pop music ever created. The rest of the album is pretty good as well.

― Tim DiGravina, Friday, 22 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeap I'd go for Help! as the Beatles finest pop album. Though surprised no one has mentioned Abbey Road, thats a good 'un so get that as well.

― stevie, Friday, 22 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Seeing this thread title, I thought it was about helping Ethan to become a Beatle. (I was going to say, you're between three months and thirty-two years late, depending on how you figure it...)

― Phil, Friday, 22 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Here's my left-field suggestion: Past Masters, vol. 2--both sides of their later non-album singles, almost every one a killer and the rest entertainingly strange.

Can't go too wrong with the Revolver/Rubber Soul period, but the thing about the Beatles is that even their bad records have things so wonderful other bands would sell their souls for them. A friend of mine is most fond of their earliest stuff, with all those hyped-up covers of American R&B etc. ...

― Douglas, Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Uh isn't it a bit too late? Didn't they break up a long time ago?

― helenfordsdale, Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Revolver, yes, but second-best for me is With the Beatles--the first three songs (Lennon's hard "It Won't Be Long," Lennon's vulnerable "All I've Got to Do," McCartney's exuberant "All My Loving") remains the all-time three-part lesson in how to sing rock & roll. "Money" and "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" are all the evidence anyone needs that white performers doing black music doesn't equal theivery (unless the fact that Lennon steals the songs away from their originators counts). "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You" is one of the great underrated songs ever. And lots more.

Avoid (until after you get everything else, because you need everything else, including these...eventually): Beatles for Sale (their worst, most uneven record, the covers are dispirited/ing even if it does include the magnificent "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party") and Abbey Road (fussy fussy professionalism plus these are probably the only songs of theirs the radio really does play too much, meaning there aren't many surprises here the way there are on even Sgt. Pepper's).

― M. Matos, Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

you could try elliott smith's version of because. that cover made me fall in love with the beatles again.

― paul brownell, Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i need to fall in love with them in the first place before i fall in love with them again!

― ethan, Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Oh! Darling", "She Said, She Said", "For No One"
Sgt. Pepper's is their best because you don't have to take it seriously.

Oh, and anything from their ambient period.

― Keiko, Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I like either The Magical Mystery Tour or the white album best.

― sundar subramanian, Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I forgot Magical Mystery Tour! "Baby You're A Rich Man" is by far their best song.

― Keiko, Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Love Me Do is a very annoying song that would put me off the Beatles for good if I heard it a million times.

But seeing as you're taking that as the starting point, why not just carry on from there by buying the Please Please Me album (or better still, single!) and work your way through. Then you can experience their extraordinary evolution just like a pop kid of the 60s.

― N., Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

along the lines of the early r&b covers, i pretty much adore the bbc live record. for most people, i'd say it's inessential, but if "love me do" turned you on, then it might hit the spot. they nail every cover on the record and are awfully funny. have a banana!

― dave k, Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

yes nick that's me, JUST LIKE A POP KID OF THE SIXTIES.

― ethan, Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ha I bought Live At The BBC as my mum's Christmas present the year it came out. I wouldn't recommend it, really.

― Robin Carmody, Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

'Soldier of Love' and 'Some Other Guy' are great, though.

Ethan, the project amused me.

― N., Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i think discovering them bit by bit in the order they happened would be nice: esp. as they invented "progression" as an artistic concept within chart music

it also gets you out from under all the tiresome mojoid hindsight reverence: it's pretty hard to see now just how fun and how funny they were in c.1965

― mark s, Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Mark S is ON MY SIDE. Huzzah!

― N., Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

You could watch A Hard Day's Night. They're really cute in that, especially George.

― youn, Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

okay fine i'll do that. are beatles lps cheap? i've never really checked heh but surely they made like eighty million records back when people would actually buy them and now they're all pocket change right?

― ethan, Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I've no idea but pre-Sgt Pepper US issues of the Beatles LPs are a bit... odd. Still, it means you can experience them like an American 60s pop kid so to hell with authenticity.

I fully expect you to burn all your Beatles records in about 3 years time.

― N., Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Beatles Inc. have ruthlessly preserved their mystique by never discounting their albs, giving their songs to comps or soundtracks, or issuing 'budget price' samplers. Maybe secondhand Beatles vinyl is cheap in the USA; there used to be a big difference between UK and US versions of the early albs (don't know if this is still the case - I doubt it)but to stick to Nick's 'plan' you really should be buying the Brit albs. In their original 'mono' issues, natch. Good fuckin' luck!

― Andrew L, Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

you really should be buying the Brit albs. In their original 'mono' issues

This really would be an expensive plan.

― N., Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

this sounds like kind of a chore for the most popular band of all time!

― ethan, Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think all the CD copies of albums I've bought had the UK tracklistings on them, though maybe that was just my local music store.

― Josh, Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

No, worldwide CD reissues all followed the original UK format (and opted for the mono versions of the first four albums and stereo thereafter). The mono and stereo versions of Beatles LPs is awholenother story and collector's market - the differences go way beyond just mono/stereo. I'm getting boring now.

― N., Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Short answer: EMI in the US didn't understand what all the fuss was about and didn't pick up the option to release the first albums from the Fab Four, instead letting smaller label Vee-Jay release them. When EMI finally realized the mistake they made they finally released a hodge-podge of albums that tried to play catch-up on the older material, meaning they were routinely gutting the proper albums of "inessential" tracks, replacing them with previous hits. And then finding out that some of those tracks they removed weren't so inessential, and releasing them later.

― Sean Carruthers, Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

hang around the 6 train and wait for the cutest beatles cover band you'll ever see - a black guy and his laughing 10-year-old daughter. he plays guitar and she holds down the rhythm section (bongos). and they both sing harmonies and melodies up and around each other on timeless classiXor like that one that goes "oh i-i - never realized, the way it could be -" or "i wanna hold your hand". it's a RARE busker who manages even a smile from me but they get EVERYONE going thru 1) attitude 2) solid technique but 3) the material is great and joyous and allows them to be generous with their voices.

― Tracer Hand, Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

after hearing love me do a million times on the radio i have decided they are actually worth a damn. what now?
Turn Back Before its Too Late! Fall not prey to the Hellish Blandishments of the eeeeeeeevil that is Paul McCartney!

― Lord Custos, Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Tracer, where on the 6? Just, like, in random intervals up the East side, or what? Where do they hang out the most? (I ask because I live on the 6 and have yet to see these guys, but would very much like to.)

And boy, there are a lotta people 'round these days who know absolutely nothing about the Beatles but have very firm opinions about same to match. Beatles disrespect out of a desire to appear sufficiently hip is incredibly lame. All the heat that Suck took for their let's-blame-the-Beatles-for-causing-all-the-angst-we-gen-Yers-f eel-towards-our-aging-boomer-parents fiasco last year was extremely deserved. The Beatles can't help it that they're a cultural phenomenon, nor is it a problem that the music that they made continues to reaffirm and build this status.

Eeth, I changed my mind about this question from what I said the other night. Whoever said it above is right--you should get With The Beatles if you were taken by the R&Brit stomp of LMD, which I bet you were. LMD's not on there, but the cover of "Money" needs to be taken into consideration under "best cover, ever, of any song by a rock band" and will thoroughly satisfy in that area. Same with the Smokey Robinson cover ("You Really Got a Hold On Me"). (Their first four albums except A Hard Day's Night are half covers and half original material, and they could pick excellent cover choices for themselves like nobody's business.) Plus, as an added bonus, the record (their second) netted them their first citation in a non-rock musical reference, for the aeolian vocal cadences in "Not a Second Time."

― matthew m., Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'll stick up for Beatles For Sale. The originals show Lennon's depressive side starting to emerge (No Reply, I'm A Loser, Baby's in Black, I Don't Want to Spoil the Party) and right down to the gloomy- looking cover and jaded title of the album itself it's like the dull grey 'morning after' to the whole Beatlemania experience.

On the other hand, Rock And Roll Music is just as good a cover as Money or Twist and Shout. It's the best version of that song I've ever heard. (Don't even mention the Beach Boys' version - or the Manics' for God's sake - to me) Lennon sounds so exuberant. It's probably the last time anyone used the phrase 'rock and roll' in a song without being the least bit ironic.

― Justyn Dillingham, Monday, 25 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Agree with Justin there on "Rock n'Roll Music" - pure stuff. The early albums are actually underrated. Articles in rock monthlies always bang on about the Beatles post 1965 as if this was more "important" era in the great scheme of things. However, Lennon himself in his late interviews always looked more fondly on the earlier records and compared them to the initial bliss and eroticism of a love affair. He considered the later records to be just good craftsmanship. To paraphrase him, the early excitement of the love affair became routine and jaded.

― David Gunnip, Monday, 25 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

matt I almost got the feeling that it wasn't a full-time gig for them because they were having too much fun. after "never realized" or whatever everybody clapped (!) and the dad sincerely (and kind of tiredly) asked people "to contribute," cause they "really did need it." the next day i saw a mother wake up three kids (8-12), all fast asleep on top of each other, by manhandling them by their ears and arms and whatever was easiest to grab and standing their still-sleeping bodies up against the pole. which could be a metaphor for the beatles' solo careers.

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 26 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

two months pass...

My first Beatles album was Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Although there would seem to be a lot of mixed feeling about this one, I personally like it a lot and for a year or two the Beatles were my favourite band (until I discovered Talking Heads) through Sgt Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour. But my favourite song (can't remember off-hand which album it's on, not either of these) is Here Comes the Sun.

― Anna Rose, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

so i got this lou rawls live record where he does a really glorious version of 'something' but i still dont have any beatles albums!

― ethan, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

the problem is that beatles albums just arent the sort of thing you want to buy, even if you like them fine. ive been wanting to get revolver for a long time, but hell if im ever going to actually purchase it. i don't fully understand this

― Ron, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Tracer and Matt - it is a full-time gig, or at least I've seen them myself. It was right around the time George died, which hit me kind of hard (my parent issues and Beatle issues are pretty intertwined). I was on the 6 (or maybe the 4), and the train was packed. Dad and his daughter get on and proceed to stake out an area to sit on these crates. Dad takes out a Beatles songbook and starts going through Paperback Writer with daughter, working out the harmonies, which she picks up immediately. Then dad spends the next 20 minutes vainly trying to get the solo/riff down, and never quite getting it. You rarely see that kind of practice in public. The whole thing tickled me.

― Rufus King, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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