A personal revisitation | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Please Please Me

I Saw Her Standing There – this is one hell of a start to an album (and, for that matter, a recording career). The fact that they have played it about a million times by the time they get into the studio shows through. Seminal, in very possible way.
Misery – a decent song, but somewhat hamstrung by the limitations of instrumentation and recording technology inherent in making your first album in 1962/3, not to mention John’s cold. I would have loved them to have revisited this in later years.
Anna (Go To Him) – a boring dirge, made worse by John’s cold.
Chains – one of the better covers on PPM , but that’s not saying much.
Boys – nope. Sorry. Doesn’t work in any way whatsoever.
Ask Me Why – a very good song, delivered well, albeit it might have benefitted from a little more work on the arrangement, and the vocal reverb does it no favours. The lightness of touch means that it doesn’t sound as dated as much of the rest of the album.
Please Please Me – First rate in composition, arrangement and delivery. Gentlemen, you’ve made your first number 1. Bloody right.
Love Me Do – It has its moments (it was the first Beatles song I ever heard, and it definitely attracted my attention), but it’s not actually that good. “Gauche” might be a good word for it.
PS I Love You – I always felt that this is a solid companion piece to Ask Me Why – accomplished early songs which maybe deserved better than what they were able to be given at the time.
Baby It’s You – this one isn’t a boring dirge, it’s a turgid drone. See Anna, the same comments apply.
Do You Want To Know A Secret – a very good song, not done justice by George or his colleagues.
A Taste Of Honey – one of the better covers, destroyed by too much echo on the vocals, and an over-dramatic lead vocal.
There’s A Place – Superb. Everything works.
Twist And Shout – at last John’s cold pays its dues.

Revisiting this album (which I never really knew as an album, I was already familiar with everything on it by the time I finally got the LP) makes me realise several things:
1. Recording 10 tracks in a day was an amazing feat, but it shows. The spontaneity and energy is great, but the thing is massively underproduced.
2. The McCartney-Lennon originals are phenomenally good for a first album at a time when people didn’t write their own stuff: Love Me Do , their first single, is probably the weakest!
3. The covers, with the exception of Twist And Shout , are no better than adequate, and usually worse, with several bordering on horrid.

This album, revisited, impresses more than entertains.

A Hard Day’s Night

A Hard Day’s Night – Wow! What a song! They boys almost always kicked off albums with a killer track, and AHDN was no exception, doing the same job with the film as it did with the album – an electrifying start. Considering that this was essentially written to order, it is a stunningly good song, with a great group performance.
I Should Have Known Better – followed up with a joyous singalong. This was the first occasion on which John matched a downbeat lyric with an upbeat melody which is so infectious that you more or less ignore the mood of the lyrics.
If I Fell – and John’s third entry is his best ever ballad. A poignant and vulnerable lyric has a matching musical accompaniment in which John and Paul sing a two-part which is not so much melody and harmony as two countermelodies.
I’m Happy Just To Dance With You – George’s vocal is an under-rated song, very much in the same vein as I Should Have Known Better musically, albeit with an upbeat lyric.
And I Love Her – and Paul delivers one of the great ballads, too – good lyric, super melody, terrific guitar solo.
Tell Me Why – a third upbeat singalong-type song, with a great close harmony vocal running throughout the verse section. The trip into falsetto in the bridge lets it down slightly, the only misstep on this side of the album..
Can’t Buy Me Love – an established hit before the album came out, time shows it to have rather cliched lyrics, but they were still fairly fresh in 1964. And the Anthology version shows how well The Beatles shifted from drafts to final versions with arrangements which were exactly right.
Any Time At All – side 2 kicks off with the weakest track on the album so far – bags of potential, but not worked at long enough. Again, the falsetto doesn’t quite work out, and the instrumental bridge is a bit feeble.
I’ll Cry Instead – Noticeably better than the previous track, but still not quite Beatles at full strength. And another downbeat lyric. One starts to see a pattern emerging.
Things We Said Today – A B side which was worthy of being an A side – strong lyrics, strong musically, good arrangement and performance. Fine work from Paul.
When I Get Home – another fairly feeble track, the “Whoawoah – aaah!” being one of the weakest vocal elements on any Beatles song.
You Can’t Do That – following which John produces another killer. Stunningly good in every respect, and a great group performance.
I’ll Be Back – and the album draws to a close with a song which is both wistful and strong, with great harmonies and impressive shifts between major/minor. And the fade out, for me, lives in my auditory memory and kind of extends the album.

A Hard Day’s Night is not a perfect album: it is a track short, for starters – Ringo deserved his one song per album. Plus there are 3 filler tracks on side 2 – nothing much wrong with them but, by Beatles standards, they fall somewhat short of expectations (my expectations, at any rate).

But, wow, an album of originals with John’s fingerprints all over it and, mostly, of stunningly good quality. This album, as opposed to its two predecessors, sounds as fresh as it did the day it came out. Considering the amount of work they were doing in 1963/64, the fact that they were able to produce a long-playing record of this quality, so far ahead of PPM and WTB in terms of quantity and quality of original material, production, sound and performance, is nothing short of staggering. This is a quantum leap over what came before – not the last such leap, for sure, but definitely ahead of what previous releases would have led us to expect.

I cannot praise AHDN enough. It is a major step towards my reconnecting with the catalogue.

Beatles For Sale

No Reply – a low key kicker-offer, but a great, great song. They worked on it, as Anthology shows, and it was worth it: this one is polished until it gleams.
I’m A Loser – John in downbeat lyrics/cheery melody mode. Great bassline from Paul, terrific c+w guitar solo, and superb vocals. Another great track.
Baby’s In Black – the third track from John (and the second successive jolly tune/depressing lyrics in a row), it’s not quite up to the previous two, but perhaps only because the lyrics are so black, juxtaposed with the jaunty melody, that the whole thing is quite obviously a joke (or, if not, it is in the very worst of bad taste!).
Rock And Roll Music – their best cover for some while, there is commitment and passion here.
I’ll Follow The Sun – an oldie pulled out of the exercise book, stripped down from its skiffle origins and retooled as a wistful and philosophical acoustic piece, what was originally a rather hokey bit of knockabout washboard trivia becomes a beautifully played and sung song which mixes sadness and hope to good ends.
Mr Moonlight – I don’t mind Mr Moonlight at all, even with the cheesy organ, and greatly prefer it to most of the covers on PPM . Great vocal from John.
Kansas City /Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey! – routine cover. Nothing much going on here. Move along.
Eight Days A Week – only ever an album track in the UK, another great piece – they worked on the arrangement and it shows. One of their great singalong pieces.
Words Of Love – a decent reworking of a Buddy Holly song – nice harmonies, atmospheric production (the increase in production value is much more noticeable on this album).
Honey Don’t – Not a favourite Carl Perkins song to start off with, and Ringo doesn’t do it any huge favours. It holds his place on the album, though only marginally.
Every Little Thing – a decent enough potboiler. The tympani crashes add something.
I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party – another potboiler. Lyrically interesting, and the verse/bridge variation works nicely. Good harmonies.
What You’re Doing – They worked enough on this one to have gone to a remake, but they still didn’t get it to work properly. I prefer the rawness of take 11. There was a great song struggling to get out here, and it remained only good.
Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby – horrible. Sorry George.

BFS was the second Beatles album I had – again, on reel to reel tape, before we got a record player. There was quite a lot I wasn’t familiar with as many of the tracks didn’t get much airplay.

BFS comes in for criticism as being a “tired” album (not suprising given their work rate during this period), and I understand the criticism (borne out by the inclusion of another half dozen covers). But that unfairly denigrates the album as a whole. The three filler tracks on side 2 are an improvement on the three filler tracks on side 2 of AHDN , and John’s songs on side 1 are as striking as those on AHDN . But it is the covers which really let this album down. With the exception of Rock And Roll Music and Words Of Love (and, arguably, Kansas City , though I don’t agree), they are an unappealing bunch.

So, in terms of reconnection, we have 2 negatives, one positive and a neutral so far (I thought you would like a little bit of electrical whimsy there – it will mean nothing to our Yank friends as they don’t have neutral, you can electrocute yourself easy as anything over there what with two-pin sockets everywhere and no earth).

Help !

Help ! – another killer track to kick off the album. They really did find these great songs to start things off with a bang. Help ! Is another nearly perfect song: the combination of lyric, melody, arrangement and performance is stunning.
The Night Before – a potboiler, but rather a good one. Lots of nice little touches in a solid group performance.
You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away – John produces a melancholy acoustic piece with lovely guitar work and – often forgotten due to its being overshadowed by Yesterday ’s string quartet – the first use by the Beatles of orchestral instrumentation, the flute passage closing out the song. Very highly thought of by many, I would rank it bottom of Division 1/top of Division 2: very good, but not classic.
I Need You – after the qualified success of Don’t Bother Me, George pulls a winner out of the hat. Everything works here – the lyric and melody dovetail perfectly, and the arrangement is terrific. The volume pedal gets all the glory but, personally, I love the swelling background vocals. And more cowbell!
Another Girl – Like The Night Before , this is a superior potboiler, with Paul’s first(?) recorded lead guitar piece. Again, excellent backing vocals (what a surprise).
You’re Going To Lose That Girl – one of the most under-rated songs in the entire Beatles catalogue, perhaps because John didn’t rate it that highly. But it is simply terrific – an imaginative chord sequence and structure, an engaging melody, good words, excellent vocals (both lead and supporting), this is one of my favourite Beatles tracks.
Ticket To Ride – a stunning piece of pop in its day, TTR has lost some of its allure for me over the years: I now find it rather turgid and overlong. But it is distinguished by many original elements – the droning opening chord held for so very long, the unusual drum pattern, the pronounced variation from verse to bridge, and the overall feel of the piece – and it thoroughly deserved its success at the time.
Act Naturally – this track holds a unique place in the Beatles catalogue, being the only cover version which was not a part of their live act (as far as is known) before they recorded it. Ringo does a good job on it – the sentiment suits his toneless vocal, but it is George’s licks and Paul’s harmony which really score.
It’s Only Love – somewhat under-rated (again, perhaps because of John’s self-denigrating put down of it), this is a rather lovely minor love song, with a vocal of gentle emotion which belies John’s comments.
You Like Me Too Much – George gets two songs on an album for the first time! This is a rather jolly effort with a strong electric piano holding it together, and one of the earliest Liverpudlian flourishes in the vocal.
Tell Me What You See – a potboiler, quite good but not 100% successful. Some nice vocal work on a melody which isn’t quite sure what it wants to do.
I’ve Just Seen A Face – a very well realised acoustic foot-tapper. Somewhat inconsequential, but everything works and works well. And Paul’s Liverpudlianism joins George’s.
Yesterday – there is a reason why Yesterday is the most covered song of all time – it is very very good. The melody from nowhere is joined (after months) by a well thought out lyric of some depth (putting the lie to the notion that McCartney can’t do good words), and an exquisitely poignant string arrangement produces what is probably the Beatles’ first piece of Class.
Dizzy Miss Lizzy – horrid tinny lead guitar spoils any chance this cover had of being listenable.

Help ! was the first Beatles album I owned, and I have it in my head as a unity rather than a collection of tracks. I love it all, apart from Dizzy Miss Lizzy which I think is awful. Even the potboilers are among my favourites of their ilk.

While it isn’t as significant (I don’t like that word) as AHDN , and it is noticeably a re-tread of that album, it remains a very solid album in its own right, and one of my favourites.

Rubber Soul

Drive My Car – again, the album has a great opener. Overfamiliarity via Paul’s live performances have taken the edge off it somewhat, but it is still a great song musically, with a powerhouse group performance. Only the lyrics are, with hindsight, a bit weak – like many jokes, it doesn’t stand up to repetition.
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) – and the sitar makes its first entrance in John’s veiled confession song (and another joke is in here too, albeit so obfuscated that you don’t know until you have it pointed out to you). With 3 distinctly different versions in existence, all 3 are good.
You Won’t See Me – an unusually personal song from Paul, this is almost very good. It fails – just – on the grounds that, having made its point, it stays around a little too long. Good bass line, one of the first songs where Paul’s bass starts to stand out.
Nowhere Man – a gem. A lyric of depth, a great performance, and a terrific 3 part harmony (and kudos to George for handling that thankless melody-free middle part).
Think For Yourself – the fuzz bass is lovely, but the song is no better than OK. It is one of George’s earliest examples of lecturing his audience. Good backing vocals.
The Word – A Potboiler. It has its moments – the staccato shuffle rhythm has a hypnotic insistence and some of the vocal work is effective, but as a whole it doesn’t quite come off. And the lyric is not one of John’s best.
Michelle – the schoolboy French adds a naive charm to this terrific song – gorgeous acoustic guitar and bass.
What Goes On – Ringo’s track on Rubber Soul comes in for criticism, but it’s OK. No better than OK, admittedly, but not awful.
Girl – another great piece from John – an interesting lyric, original arrangement, and fascinatingly different vocals.
I’m Looking Through You – and Paul chips in with another very personal song, dressed up in cheery singalong fashion. It’s a fun listen, albeit its inspiration may not have been fun for its writer.
In My Life – John turns out a fourth classic. The early lyrics show the benefits that came when they devoted some effort to crafting their work. I love this song, although I sometimes find myself wondering what it might have sounded like if delivered with a little more delicacy and less robustness.
Wait – even though it was a leftover from the Help ! sessions, I love this one, too. I think it has a very good lyric, and fabulous vocals. It is also great fun to play.
If I Needed Someone – George’s second song on Rubber Soul , and his first song to be covered, I think (The Hollies had a hit with it). It’s not bad, but I think it needed more work on the arrangement. The guitar pattern on the offbeats is a good idea but (for me) doesn’t work when maintained throughout the song, and I find George’s earliest use of deliberately clumsy timing/structure, well, clumsy.
Run For Your Life – singalongawifebashing! John’s piece of Elvis-flavoured oop North misogyny is huge fun. Ignore the words, listen to the music – this rattles along wonderfully.

Rubber Soul was an album I lusted after, and didn’t actually own until a number of years after it was released. This was the first album where the sleeve made me go “Wow!” – notwithstanding the arty-farty b/w of WTB, the excellent design of AHDN and the great photo on BFS, this one was the first sleeve which shoted “We’re different!” (as if we needed telling).

The weak spots on this album are few and far between, and they’re not that weak – when I listen to this album, I don’t skip any tracks.

So, 6 albums down, and two negatives, one neutral, three positives. It’s going well…

Sgt Pepper ’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Sgt Pepper ‘s Lonely Hearts Club Band – they had sound effects during Yellow Submarine , but the orchestra tune-up was the first time they had used an effect to set up expectations, viz. the start of a show. And it worked very well at doing that. And, again, a hell of a song to kick off the album – those vicious guitars, great harmonies, the complete move away from rock band to brass with the horns, the audience reaction effects, and the song setting up the start of a show. Brilliant.
With A Little Help From My Friends – and then segueing into Ringo’s song, and it’s another classic. Ringo’s voice doesn’t even harm it, it actually enhances it. The song is excellent and the performance (group and lead vocalist) is great.
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds – and then in steams some full-blown psychedelia. On an album where John is fairly lightly represented, Lucy displays a pretty big footprint. Everything works – the far-out lyrics, the spaced-out arrangement, the vocals and harmonies. This is Tomorrow Never Knows without the Ugly.
Getting Better – Another one where everything works – the chopping crotchet guitar from the intro onwards, the bass which wanders about all over the place, the lyric (and counter lyric), the Indian drone – great song, great arrangement.
Fixing A Hole – a far less immediate song than anything so far, but caressed by classy guitar work from George. Another great song which needed a little time for its joys to be brought home.
She’s Leaving Home – Eleanor Rigby mk 2 – I like the song, I don’t particularly care for the arrangement which I find rather more glutinous than what George Martin would have come up with. Still pretty good though.
Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite ! – and more Lennon psychedlia, with another sound picture constructed to match the subject matter of the lyric. And a killer end to side 1.
Within You Without You – It took me years to come round to this, but once I got my head round it everything changed, and I have come to regard it as a classic – lyrically more profound than anything else on a Beatles album, and blessed with a wonderful combination of Indian and western instrumentation, this is a brilliant musical collaboration between the two Georges.
When I’m Sixty-Four – and a witty and thoughtful bit of sequencing sees it followed by this jaunty bit of whimsy – fruitiness, perhaps. You may not like Paul’s Granny music, but this is clever example of it: catchy melody, amusing lyrics, simple but effective arrangement
Lovely Rita . If this album has any potboilers, Rita comes closest. It is more whimsy and, arguably, the album might have benefitted by having something different inserted between two pieces of Paul whimsy. That said, it is quite different to 64. There are some nice elements in the arrangement (backing vocals, piano break) but, overall, it’s a bit forgettable.
Good Morning Good Morning – GMGM would also be a potboiler if not for a) great vocals, b) great drumming, c) great guitar solo and d) the wonderful playing around with time signatures. I LOVE trying to conduct this, it’s all over the place!
Sgt Pepper ‘s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) – the repeat was a brilliant idea, Neil Aspinall, with a completely different feel to the opening track, and clever connections to the tracks which bracket it.
A Day In The Life – followed by the best closing track on any album ever. I first heard this on my transistor radio one early summer afternoon, down on Shanklin sea front, about a week before the album came out, and I had to sit down on the sea wall, I was so stunned. They never did anything which surpassed this track.

My memory of my first encounter with this LP are recounted elsewhere – it is an amazingly strong memory.

Time has treated Pepper unkindly. After PPM and WTB, Pepper is the most dated sounding of their albums, because everything on it places it so squarely in 1967. For me, it was always a holistic listening experience – I can’t imagine any of its songs existing anywhere except in the company of the other songs on the album and, for that reason, Pepper as a whole has a listening flavour which says “Psychedelia” more strongly than any one of the songs on it. This is a weakness, and not a fair one, because Pepper blazed trails, all of which have now become clichés.

I forgive it. I love it for what it is, and for what it was, and because it is very very good, and because it is probably the most important pop/rock album of all time, because it showed the world what was possible: ephemeral, trivial, superficial pop didn’t have to be like that – it could be ART.

So add another positive!

The Beatles

Back In The USSR – The Beach Boys /Chuck Berry pastiche was a great way to kick off the album. Over the years, this track has lost its allure for me somewhat, however, as I come to realise that it is not something I seek out, but rather I just passively experience it.
Dear Prudence – this odd and rather hypnotic track is brilliant, stellar guitar, rather good drums, excellent backing vocals.
Glass Onion – a lot of effort went into this, to relatively little effect. John puts in a good vocal on a track which simply doesn’t work.
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da – this cheery bit of quasi-reggae, on the other hand, works well, despite Paul putting everybody’s back up by working it so excessively. The song is amusing nonsense, but the arrangement is great.
Wild Honey Pie – drivel.
The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill – another John song which doesn’t really work. One appreciates how it came to be written, but as a singalong it’s a bit dreary, the structure is all to cock, the stop/start business is awkward rather than effective, and the messy way it slithers to a conclusions is, well, messy.
While My Guitar Gently Weeps – George’s first offering is commonly recognised as one of his classics. But I’ve gone off it over the years, especially after the far superior Anthology demo and the Love version with strings. The one thing the guitar is not doing on the White Album version is gently weeping, it is stridently wailing. For me, this song works far better as a gentle lament rather than a bombastic howl.
Happiness Is A Warm Gun – and here, John gets everything right. This profoundly peculiar piece, assembled from ill-fitting components nailed together in a frame of bizarre time signatures before concluding with an outrageous cod doo-wop sequence which manages to be both straight-faced and tongue-in-cheek at the same time, is perfect. One of my very favourite Beatles songs.
Martha My Dear – jaunty and melodic and, for McCartney, very irregular. In fact, for me, its deliberate irregularity works against it: I would have found it more successful if it hadn’t been quite so metrically awkward.
I’m So Tired – Atmosphere and lyrics match perfectly in a sparse, funny song from John, beautifully played and sung by everyone.
Blackbird – a song of apparent simplicity (but not really), great beauty, and lyrical subtlety. One of Paul’s Great pieces.
Piggies – George picks up the humour baton (there is a LOT of humour on this album, albeit some of it quite savage). Very funny, very mordant, great vocals, and Chris Thomas’ harpsichord makes it. Let’s not forget those cellos which see the thing out, either.
Rocky Raccoon – oh ha ha. Paul is a bit too self-aware to pull off the humour necessary for this to succeed. I do like the rinky dink piano in the bridge, though.
Don’t Pass Me By – the only song in the Beatles catalogue played on a brass bedstead. Or it sounds like it, at any rate. Kudos to Richy for actually getting a composition on record, even if he had to wait 5 years for it. Shame it wasn’t a better one.
Why Don’t We Do It In The Road? – drivel.
I Will – sublime. One of Paul’s most underrated songs. Beautiful melody and lyrics, beautifully sung and played.
Julia – One of John’s most personal songs, this has an ethereal dream-like atmosphere to it. Sung and played well, I just wish it had been wholly about Julia , but hey ho. A gentle conclusion to disc 1.

Birthday – a barnstorming upbeat rocker – little substance but bags of vitality and a great group performance. Such good fun to play along with, too.
Yer Blues – an unattractive generic blues just to show we can do it.
Mother Nature’s Son – an interesting track. I don’t think a great deal of the lyrical content, but I quite like the melody, and there is some nice stuff in the arrangement. I like the way it wavers between jauntiness and wistfulness.
Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey – there are some elements of the arrangement which I like in this otherwise annoying song. I don’t like being hectored, and that’s what this song does (the first of rather too many finger-wagging songs from John). Also it’s an aural mess.
Sexy Sadie – well done! After the clever opening, where conflicting rhythms suddenly all come together, this goes off in its own direction. The arrangement is undisciplined, but it somehow still works.
Helter Skelter – a loud boring mess which outstays its welcome. McCartney exercises his unpleasant shrieking voice.  Just plain nasty.
Long, Long, Long – an exquisite song from George. A personal and spiritual lyric gets an arrangement where every instrument is given its own spine-tingling moment to shine. There is no other Beatles song with such dramatic dynamic contrast in it. Simply wonderful.
Revolution 1 – I love this every bit as much as the harsh electric version. Terrific.
Honey Pie – Paul Granny music, but cleverly (and accurately) pastiched. Others don’t like it, but I do.
Savoy Truffle – great stuff from George – more of that dark, laconic humour, and a terrific arrangement. I’m not a big fan of saxes, but I love them here, that distorted farty sound is just great. And this, too, is huge fun to play along with. Love the cut off ending (did it give John ideas for I Want You, I wonder?).
Cry Baby Cry – another of John’s songs which seems to live on the edge of dreaming. There is a dusty evening feel to this song which poaches images from nursery rhymes before meandering off into the borders of the following track.
Revolution 9 – what to say? I actually quite like the start of this track – the “number 9”, the bit of piano, and the early effects. If it had been segued into something else at about 30 seconds…. but, no, the Lennons give us 6 minutes of increasingly tiresome, what’s the word now? oh yes, drivel.
Good Night – I didn’t recognise Ringo’s voice when I first heard this: it took me some considerable while to finally comprehend that this was Mr Starkey warbling. Commonly regarded as saccharine dross, I really like this and always have.

The White Album was such a cool thing to have when it first came out. It was the soundtrack of many a teenage Christmas party in 1968 (by which I mean the sort of party when the parents were out for the evening, you got drunk by 7.30, spent the next 2 hours snogging in a darkened room with the White Album playing, and the tried to sober up before catching the last bus home), and my first copy got ruined on one such occasion. My second copy had one of the discs melted when someone put it on a radiator – it was a cold winter, and the heating was on high – I moved to stereo on my third copy. My fourth copy is the original CDs. I’m stopping there, thanks, the absence of further accidents permitting.

This album was good listening value – there was an awful lot of stuff to listen to (not only 2 LPs, but they were both 5 minutes longer than usual). There are undoubted low points – the throwaways should have been thrown away, and both Paul and John come out with some major missteps (George doesn’t, and his fifth White Album song was pretty good, too).

But the good stuff here is really good and far outweighs the poor stuff. Another strong positive score.

Abbey Road

Come Together – I always regard this as John’s Beatles swansong – the strongest single song to come from him in the last batch of group recording sessions. I didn’t realise it at the time, I just took it as a wonderful opening track. It had a feeling unlike any other song they had ever recorded, opening with that strange echoing amalgam of drums, Shh sound, and echo. The strange and uneasy lyrics, the swooping bass and idiosyncratic drum pattern, the electric piano burbling in the background, the stone-hard vocal harmony – so much to love in this track.
Something – and George pulls a classic out of the hat. A lovely song, beautifully delivered (and with THAT guitar solo), with Paul’s contributions so important – that melodic bass which complements rather than detracts, and the high harmony vocal. Just gorgeous.
Maxwell’s Silver Hammer – I love it and, if you don’t, that’s fair enough. It’s daft, melodic, and has some lovely touches in the arrangement.
Oh! Darling – a bit too generic to be wholly successful. Outstays its welcome a bit.
Octopus’s Garden – unfairly maligned as a retread of Yellow Submarine , the only thing it has in common is the underwater theme. I love this. OK, it’s trivial nonsense, but it is melodically strong, well sung by Ringo, and beautifully played and sung by the others. I love the modulation in and out of the bridge, and George’s terrific solo, as well as his work generally on this.
I Want You (She’s So Heavy) – I’ll say this for John, he took no prisoners. He was going to make his point no matter what. I love the instrumental section in the main body of the song, but I don’t care much for the vocal sections (never did) and the best thing about the extended end section is when it stops (both literally and figuratively).
Here Comes The Sun – and George delivers another unqualified triumph. The song is a beauty but, again, there is a lot added to it by the arrangement, particularly synth, backing vocals, and lovely crisp drumming. And I love the way the instrumentation changes place in the stereo mix with every pass through the “Sun sun sun” section, especially effective on headphones – it’s like having a rainbow of sound dancing in your head.
Because – I have mixed feelings about Because . On the one hand, it is a lovely listening experience. On the other hand, the words annoy me a bit because they’re not as clever as they think they are.
You Never Give Me Your Money – a great song. Here is the medley notion encapsulated in a single song. The wistful opening section, the Lady Madonna voice, the terrific things going on in the Magic feeling section, the exhileration of the One Sweet Dream bit, and the chanting fadeout. I loved it from the start, still do.
Sun King – of no lyrical significance whatsoever, this is a lovely piece of work, with melodies and harmonies layered around each other. Gorgeous.  I wish they’d done more like this.
Mean Mr Mustard – and off we go into the medley. Daft words (but an evocative word picture nonetheless), terrific group work behind them.
Polythene Pam – morer daftness but, again, you can see Pam. And read about her in the UK’s trashiest Sunday newspaper, in full scouse. And a good instrumental section leading to –
She Came In Through The Bathroom Window – more inconsequential words which serve as a framework for terrific vocal and instrumental work. These 3 segments have words of utter bleh, but they are good fun and musically fantastic.
Golden Slumbers – McCartney nicks some old words (without a sleeve credit to poor old Thomas Dekker, although he was hardly likely to sue) and puts them to a rather sombre tune, which allows him to let rip on the Golden Slumbers line – much better and more worthwhile than on Oh! Darling , by the way.
Carry That Weight – a terrific group effort which acquires greater significance in hindsight – what did it mean? We may not have known at the time, but now we do. I loved – and love – the You Never Give Me Your Money reprise, and also the way Ringo’s voice stands out.
The End – and how on earth can you build something as wonderful as this from a scrappy collection of bits and pieces. Just the best possible note for them to end their recording career on.
Her Majesty – except for a little humorous coda with which to puncture any pomposity which might remain.

I was a conscientious schoolboy, but the day Abbey Road was released I skived off early with Gwilym Mason and Tim Slade, and we went to Gwilym’s house and listened to it for the first time (I think I had heard side 2, from Money onwards, previewed on a TV programme at Bob Hutchinson’s house the previous Friday evening).

Abbey Road – the last album The Beatles recorded – is filled with originality (the sound of the opening track, the use of synth, the creeping noise of the Heavy ending, the creative amalgamation of fragments both into medleys and within songs, a 50-minute album etc,). They were still blazing new ground, even right at the end. Plus there is a LOT of instrumental work outside of simply backing the vocals on this album – good solos on Come Together , Something , Octopus and Pam, and significant instrumental sections in Heavy, Sun, Money, Sun King , and the final medley, and it shows just how good they were as instrumentalists: maybe not flashy, but always RIGHT.

And this is a good hearted album – you can hear them working together.

I simply loved this when it came out, and I love it just as much now. The only difference is that now it breaks my heart, too.

Past Masters 1

Love Me Do – see PPM
From Me To You – not wonderful. Pleasant enough, but a mere placeholder. Better things were to come.
Thank You Girl – amiable but forgettable. They came up with better B sides.
She Loves You – a stunning single. This cemented their position in the forefront of pop stardom in the UK. It sounds a little dated these days in terms of instrumentation and production, maybe, but it is still a brilliant song with killer hooks and a great performance.
I’ll Get You – see Thank You Girl
I Want To Hold Your Hand – similar comments to those for She Loves You , but in an American accent. As if we needed reminding after She Loves You .
This Boy – and a stunningly good B side, highlighting their vocal versatility.
Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand – for completists, part 1.
Sie Liebt Dich – for completists, part 2.
Long Tall Sally – one of the great covers, albeit never really to my taste. Paul stays clear of his strangulated vocal. Just.
I Call Your Name – a good song (good but not great) with some pleasing touches in the arrangement and a strong vocal.
Slow Down – another good cover with a good vocal.
Matchbox – OK, I appreciate you had to fling Ringo a bone every Now And Then , but this would have been a lot better with a vocal from any of the others.
I Feel Fine – another brilliant A side. Watch Ringo’s drumming when they do it on Ed Sullivan – this is rock’n’roll?
She’s A Woman – a good B side – better than the early filler B sides, not as good as This Boy or others to come.
Bad Boy – another very good cover. In the UK, you had to buy an LP of stuff you already had in order to get this track. This was their (or EMI’s) first piece of cynical profiteering marketing, which taints this track somewhat for me.
Yes It Is – Some regard it as a retread of This Boy : I think it is gorgeous, aurally and lyrically. The wistful melody suits the lyric so well.
I’m Down – classic, I suppose, but my interest doesn’t really lie at this end of the spectrum.

Tidying up loose ends begins.

There is nothing on this album which is bad, and a lot which is powerful, significant, and hugely enjoyable. And half a dozen which are completely (for The Beatles) average. But the album is, of course, essential and, paradoxically, due to it being a collection of disparate odds and ends, one of a pair of orphan twins, forever looking in from outside. An opportunity was lost when the Past Masters tracks weren’t integrated into the mainstream albums as bonus tracks.

There is a distinct line between the mainstream catalogue (up to Past Masters ) and the afterthoughts (Anthology, BBC, Hollywood Bowl, assorted etceteras, and I may yet post some thoughts on these, too).

Notwithstanding my reservations over the first couple of albums, the mainstream catalogue is packed with quality listening pleasure. There are duds here and there but, quite honestly, most of those have their points, too. This catalogue still deserves the high praise it has had over the years and, mostly, hasn’t dated at all.

The afterthoughts. First, I must say that I would rather have them than not. They shine lights into hidden corners and are, for the most part, never less than interesting. But if I take a step back and am honest with myself, most of it isn’t that entertaining. There is the odd diamond in the rough, just like there is the odd dud in the main catalogue, and the proportion is probably not far away from an exact inverse.

It has been an interesting exercise to go through this. I realise that I haven’t really fallen out of love, but I have been dulled by the volume of afterthoughts which don’t really come up to scratch. But there’s an easy answer – only listen to the good stuff!

Thank you for listening to my rambling, good people: I now return you to your normal programming!