The Beatles

[stringvest]

I'd play this

 

 

 

I love that three way guitar thing with John, George and Paul trading little riffs towards the end.  

 

The Beatles have had such a fundamental impact on my life from a young age, I find it difficult to talk about them in the same way I would other bands, even the very best of the rest.  I used to voraciously consume every little bit of information about them that I could.  I still find it, and the ever changing dynamic within the band, endlessly fascinating. 

 

I went into Abbey Road studios to watch the permiere of Backbeat.  They had the Beatles corner of the studio, the same studio they'd recorded Let It Be and no doubt lots of other stuff, and I was genuinely overcome with emotion, blubbing like a soft cunt. 

[johnsusername]

The Beatles overshadow rock music like a colossus. I love the Allmusic description of them...

 

So much has been said and written about the Beatles -- and their story is so mythic in its sweep -- that it's difficult to summarize their career without restating clichés that have already been digested by tens of millions of rock fans. To start with the obvious, they were the greatest and most influential act of the rock era, and introduced more innovations into popular music than any other rock band of the 20th century. Moreover, they were among the few artists of any discipline that were simultaneously the best at what they did and the most popular at what they did. Relentlessly imaginative and experimental, the Beatles grabbed hold of the international mass consciousness in 1964 and never let go for the next six years, always staying ahead of the pack in terms of creativity but never losing their ability to communicate their increasingly sophisticated ideas to a mass audience. Their supremacy as rock icons remains unchallenged to this day, decades after their breakup in 1970.

 

It's hard to convey the scope of the Beatles' achievements in a mere paragraph or two. They synthesized all that was good about early rock & roll, and changed it into something original and even more exciting. They established the prototype for the self-contained rock group that wrote and performed its own material. As composers, their craft and melodic inventiveness were second to none, and key to the evolution of rock from its blues/R&B-based forms into a style that was far more eclectic, but equally visceral. As singers, both John Lennon and Paul McCartney were among the best and most expressive vocalists in rock; the group's harmonies were intricate and exhilarating. As performers, they were (at least until touring had ground them down) exciting and photogenic; when they retreated into the studio, they were instrumental in pioneering advanced techniques and multi-layered arrangements. They were also the first British rock group to achieve worldwide prominence, launching a British Invasion that made rock truly an international phenomenon.

[johnsusername]

Please Please Me gets my vote. As perfect as albums get. The fact that it didn't even need She Loves You on - the greatest pop song in history - which they released as a standalone single a couple of months later - to improve it.

 

 

Well my heart went Boom

When I crossed that room

And I held her hand in mine......

[AngryOfTuebrook]

When It's my time to shuffle off, and if folk can be bothered coming to my send off, they will be treated to Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) filling the walls of the church.

Across the Universe and (the Johnny Cash version of) In My Life for me.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Swung a sickie today and took the opportunity to watch George Harrison: Living in the Material World on Netflix.

 

Awesome. 3 and a half hours well spent.

[razor]

I love that three way guitar thing with John, George and Paul trading little riffs towards the end.  

 

The Beatles have had such a fundamental impact on my life from a young age, I find it difficult to talk about them in the same way I would other bands, even the very best of the rest.  I used to voraciously consume every little bit of information about them that I could.  I still find it, and the ever changing dynamic within the band, endlessly fascinating. 

 

I went into Abbey Road studios to watch the permiere of Backbeat.  They had the Beatles corner of the studio, the same studio they'd recorded Let It Be and no doubt lots of other stuff, and I was genuinely overcome with emotion, blubbing like a soft cunt. 

 

I'm with you, brother.  Whenever there's a discussion of great bands or whatever, I subconsciously default to a discussion about the second best band of all time, as The Beatles are out on their own and are judged by a different scale.

 

I'm looking at my book shelf as I type this and next to the whopping "Anthology" there's loads of other Beatles books including the best of the lot Lewishon's "Complete Recording Sessions" - endlessly fascinating.

 

I cried when McCartney played Penny Lane at Glastonbury, and also Hey Jude at the close.  I felt something that I have rarely felt when watching a band - that it was actually an honour to be there.

[Mook]

Love this picture from Abbey Road, 1965.

[Total Longo]

Love this picture from Abbey Road, 1965.

 

Ringo looking a bit lost there. 

[Kidder Bukowski]

 

Enjoy

[Tony Moanero]

 

 

Doesn't look like Paul McCartney has gravy, the oddball.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

On a roof in Hamburg - looking camp as a row of tents.

 

[Kidder Bukowski]

[Tony Moanero]

[Bjornebye]

[Guest Pistonbroke]

 

There's a Jammy dodger on that plate. mmmm

[Tony Moanero]

An early picture of Lennon and McCartney

 

[cloggypop]

.

[cloggypop]

Lennon recording Tomorrow Never Knows

 

[KMD7]

Lennon recording Tomorrow Never Knows

 

Brilliant

[Tony Moanero]

[aRdja]

Watching George Harrison’s doco on Netflix by Martin Scorsese... never realised that it was Eric Clapton who played the lead guitar in “While Guitar Gently Weeps”. It’s a very good doco btw.

[Tony Moanero]

Harrison and Clapton were best friends. Clapton stole Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd, off him.

[Guest]

Bet he has beans and the tomato sauce came out of the fridge.

[aRdja]

Harrison and Clapton were best friends. Clapton stole Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd, off him.

I knew they were friends. I really like the song too.. but the Beatles already stopped playing live when they released that song.. so no footage of them playing that song live I don’t think. I always had it pictured in my head that it was George on the lead guitar, especially given it was his song.

[Mook]

Bit controversial but I prefer the acoustic version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps sans Clapton.

 

A better Clapton cameo was his effort with Steve Stills in 1970...