Early Beatles Vs. Later Beatles | Fab forum

Though I really liked the mop top era I think Id have to say the later beatles were my favorite. Abbey Road will forever be my favorite album.

It is an interesting question. As someone who was born in the middle of Beatlemania and raised in the Church of the Beatles, my tastes have changed a lot. When I was younger (so much younger than today) I really liked everything between "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help." I particularly hated "Little Child" which my older sisters would sing at me constantly. I liked some of the songs on "Meet The Beatles" and "Second Album" but since I was in the US, "Beatles 65" and "Beatles 6" were (IMHO) better albums.

But that was then. As I got older I adored the middle era. "Sgt Pepper" and "The Beatles" were my favs. I listed to the vinyl on headphones over and over. Although, I must say I never made it through "Rev. 9" with headphones. And interestingly enough, I never heard the play out line after "A Day In The Life" on SPLHCB until I got the '09 stereo remastered edition. When I heard it, it was like an electric jolt, and I jumped on the intenet to find out what the heck it was. Just goes to show, all these years later it is still having the effect that John and George Martin intended!

In college, I was definitely an "Abbey Road" fan. I never cared for "Let It Be" and I was burnt out on everything else except "The Beatles." If I had answered this question then, I would definitely have said post-"Rubber Soul" without hesitation.

But after getting the stereo remix box set, I started listening to everything all over again. I realized I never really understood the music or lyrics, I just took everything in a childlike way at face value. I got Bob Spitz's biography and read it cover to cover. It was definitely an eye opener. So much I didn't know, even though I had seen "The Compleat Beatles" and the "Anthology" documentaries. I listened to each album as it came along in the book and tried to evaluate it outside of my previous thoughts and feelings.

Since I am now middle aged and given to the normal middle aged interest in history and scope, I really felt drawn to the early albums. I really like old boogie woogie and rockabilly and I realized that I knew a lot of the songs that influenced the early Beatles. When I read that Paul played "20 Flight Rock" to John when they met, I realized I knew that song! I had done an end around and learned all about 40's and 50's rock, boogie and jive after I learned about the Beatles, Stones, Who, Kinks, Zeppelin, Floyd, Animals, Zappa, etc. Suddenly, all of the early stuff made more sense to me. I understood "skiffle," I understood "Mr.. Moonlight," I could dig the difference in energy and style that the Beatles brought to these songs. I was old enough to understand the uniquely fortuitous place in history into which the Beatles had debuted, and why post war depression in England, and the Kennedy assassination in the US had been catalysts. I finally understood what made Beatlemania tick.

So now, looking back on it all, I have to say the early albums are my favorites. They are upbeat, youthful, vigorous, unpretentious, exuberant and full of artistic surprises. Even the early albums have some interesting and innovative songwriting. It helps if you understand the context and have some knowledge of 50's/60's rock and roll. For example, "No Reply" has a little bossanova swing to it, "What You're Doing" is a song that sounds like it could have come out of the Pub Rock scene in the 80's or the indie jangle rock revival of the last decade, and the use of the timpani drum on "Every Little Thing" has to be a first for a beat group. There are a lot of things to like on the early albums.

So there's my 2 (or 20) cents.