What song/single/LP did The Beatles peak with artistically? | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

This had me thinking quite a bit. Automatically I wanted to say Sgt Peppers. It’s always hailed in pop culture, even today as The Beatles greatest achievement. But when you actually sit down and think about it, each album has it’s own charm doesn’t it?

Revolver is The Beatles going from those teeny boppers singing about holding hands and how much they love [you] to expanding their minds and music to the wider world. With the help of drugs or not it certainly holds more maturity than something like AHDN full of songs such as If I Fell and And I Love Her . They’re trying new things, creating themselves a new sound. Of course there are tiny hints of this in Rubber Soul I’ve thought. The idea of being a Nowhere Man or Norwegian Wood (this bird has flown) are almost like transitional. If you’re listening to their catalog from Please Please Me to Let It Be , to me Rubber Soul always felt like the stepping stone from Help ! to Revolver . I have seen a lot of people cast Rubber Soul off as boring but I love it, and think it was necessary in the creation of Revolver .

Of course Sgt Peppers is a work of art. It’s not as psychedelic as Revolver , no, but it has the obvious new influence of India heavily present in Within you and Without you. The orchestra swells in A Day In The Life is something I’ve never heard recreated quite like that before. Even the sweet little dittys like Getting Better are notable, showing the careful balance of Pauls positivity (I’ve got to admit it’s getting better…) and Johns negitivity (Can’t get much worse).

Magical Mystery Tour is their first attempt at recording alone, without Brian. And, for me at least, seems like the last album they ever really did together as a band. It contained some real gems, even if it was short and the first side was the soundtrack to a film that basically flopped when broadcast. Each track is very different but it didn’t really “peak”, probably due to the film. It did contain Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever which, when it comes to singles really can’t be beaten.

The White Album has also been mentioned. It’s hard to see that as a Beatles album, in the sense that, as I’ve read and agreed with, it sounds a bit like each four coming up with their own bits and then putting them all together. Almost a side a Beatle, if Ringo had more of a look in.  It even contained Don’t Pass Me By , which if I remember correctly, had been rejected by Lennon/McCartney over and over. I seem to remember reading Ringo had penned this in the earlier days and it was just constantly rejected until The White Album . Of course they never really pulled together. The constant arguing during Let It Be , as shown in the documentary, supposed to show The Beatles new era and accidentally recording their break up.

Abbey Road , while I love it, seems to be full of ‘throw aways’ having to bunch three little songs together. George and Ringo really come into their own, producing Octopus’s Garden and Here Comes The Sun and Something . Perhaps made possible with Lennon caring less and less about The Beatles until he turned around and left (resulting in Oh! Darling which I love for Pauls raw vocals). Of course Lennons attention has been slowly drifting from The Beatles to Yoko. (I would like to point out here, while I don’t like her, I don’t think that’s her fault, I don’t think she was responsible for the break up. The band had been starting to splinter for a long time before Yoko really came onto the scene. I don’t like her for other reasons-but I digress.)  Lennons best (IMO) contribution to Abbey Road , Come Together is brilliant, a perfect subtle balance of instruments complimenting Lennons vocals and the words. I want you (She’s so heavy) takes a bit to really appreciate. I’ve known people get bored of the length and felt uneased by the sudden ending. Because has some amazing harmonies. After this the album sort of declines into odd bursts of songs they never really developed. It always felt to me like they were just using up what they had left before, eventually, properly going their separate ways. 

Let It Be again only has a few solid songs, unlike the earlier days when you would go through a journey from beginning to end. I often find myself picking and choosing the songs I listen to on there, meaning it’s difficult to listen to the LP and end up listening to CD. The reason I discovered when I bought a copy of Let it be…Naked was the editing. The silly snippits of speech that had nothing to do with the songs added to songs without much thought. Such as the bizzare comments about Doris getting her oats before The Two of Us. Some people love it. My boyfriend prefers Let It Be over Let It Be …Naked. But Let It Be had odd contributions such as Dig it and Maggie May. They sound like bits that should have been in a making of or behind the scenes documentary, not the actual album. It’s possible I just don’t “get” these bits but even Paul hated the album, and when the artist doesn’t like it, there’s not much going for it. I’m glad Let It Be … Naked was released. It seemed like the vision Paul had for the album. 

To me, it’s very difficult to decide whether Sgt Peppers or Revolver was the “Peak”. For now I consider that time frame to be the peak of The Beatles career.The middle of the road where they had built up a reputation from Please Please Me to Revolver and, unfortunately due to many factors started to decline from Sgt Peppers to Abbey Road .