Michelle is probably my least favorite song in the history of recorded music.

I like Wait and I'm Looking Through You much more than you do though. Those are some of my favorite deep cuts from the Beatles career.

Revolver

8 months after Rubber Soul - and after an extended break from touring and recording - and I can immediately hear the band once again re-energized and refocused. Revolver brings their A game. Their best album yet, and one that completely lives up to the hype I've heard about it for all these years. Incredibly, they also cut "Paperback Writer" and "Rain" during these same sessions.

Taxman
Right off the bat this album sounds harder and meaner than anything before. Nice dickaround intro, chopping guitar chords, funky bass, and the way that lead slices into the song and takes no prisoners... serves notice right off the top. Things have changed.

Eleanor Rigby
This is the best side of Paul the craftsman. Probably, along with "Yesterday", as good as one can expect from his pedestrian mind. His rock moments can reach amazing heights, but those are the moments when Paul relies purely on instinct, and his instincts are great; it's only when he thinks that he runs into trouble. Here he's thinking and actually finding an idea.

I'm Only Sleeping
I may never have heard this before. Loving it. The backwards guitar even feels thematically correct. Understated melody and harmonies. The definition of instruments is sweet.

Love You To
Wow, a Harrison attempt at some eastern raga shee that actually works. Almost verging on atonal, definitely droning, very psychedelic in fack. It kind of pounds when you crank it too.

Here There And Everywhere
Even this trifle sucks me in. It's not trying too hard, just sorta luxuriates in its own melody and takes its time.

Yellow Submarine
Fuck off, Ringo... Holy shit, I never knew that this was a Lennon/McCartney song. Always seemed like a lock that it had been written by the dopey one. Still sucks.

She Said She Said
Awesome. Monster jangle. Seems like that eastern influence has finally been incorporated into the sound organically.

Good Day Sunshine
This is where Paul starts mining his cheap-ass nostalgia for the music his grandfolks used to like. Not yet as egregiously shitty as the crap in his near future.

And Your Bird Can Sing
Awesome again. Love this remastering. Hearing Paul's bass bounce around under that busy guitar is just plain heaven. Lennon's vox are spot-on.

For No One
Inoffensive filler.

Doctor Robert
Love it. Like "She Said She Said" and "And Your Bird Can Sing" this is the chirpiness of the early Beatles dragged into the modern age. The drugs have kicked in.

I Want To Tell You
A decent enough Harrison tune. Feels like filler among this album's amazing highlights.

Got To Get You Into My Life
Y'know, I can appreciate the craft of this, but goddamn I hate it. Should've been on Rubber Soul. It's Paul once again trying to win approval from his grandma.

Tomorrow Never Knows
Holy shit. Expansion. Lennon is 100 feet tall here. The mums and chirren skipped this one. For the rest of their lives. Must have sounded like primo, out-there, grade A, direct-from-god heavy shit in '66. Sounds like that right now with a mere flick of the volume knob.

Damn. Great album.

Favorite tracks are I'm Only Sleeping and And Your Bird Can Sing, but the whole album is a keeper except for Yellow Submarine which grates.

I love how every harmony vocal is different than the one before it on And Your Bird Can Sing.

Also, i love how inventive and different every drum fill ringo uses on She Said She Said, it really propels the track forward.

Tomorrow Never Knows is the start of non-linear recording in the pop world, so blame them and that track if you hate sampling.

This album is pretty fucking amazing.

Also, dig the Klaus Voorman collage for the cover art.

Cover art acts as a warning for what lies within. Even the back cover pic of the band - all of them wearing sunglasses and too cool for school - warns to forget about the immediate past. We on dem drubs.

I read that this was a dig at Sinatra. He had no love for the beatles, and was also fond of randomly working in "your bird" into sentences, apparently. He'd turn to a friend and say "get more fresh air, it's good for your bird!" or "Carefull with that drink, you'll spill it on your bird!" Shit like that. So Lennon worked it into this.

i think help! is worse than rubber soul. it's got some greater songs on it but isn't well put together as a whole.

Rubber Soul

Drive My Car
Solid, catchy, a little sparse sounding though. Not as good a start as they usually have though. Favorite part: harmonies on "But I Can Show You A Better Tiiime..." Also, the slide on the guitar solo. Lookit 'ol George branching out again. It appears quietly in the background again afterwards, meowing and sliding around under the other stuff.

Norwegian Wood
I had a friend in highschool who was this old soul in a kid's body, a fucking phenominal guitar player, and who tragically got sucked into a cult in college and fell off the planet pretty much. He dumped all his beatles records into the Broad River in Athens and quit playing for anyone but the church band. He's happy, i guess, but damn what a waste. Anywho, I went to his house one day in highschool and his mom was like "he's upstairs I think" so I went up there, and he was laying around playing this on a 12 string acoustic, singing it perfectly. I had ever really paid attention to this song before that, but suddenly I was like "oh that is a really cool song." And I still think of that when I hear it. John becoming John.

You Won't See Me
I just noticed the sorta hokey background vocals. Meh. This is pretty enough but only if you turn your brain off. Highlight: 2:24, the "No I Wouldn't, No I Wouldn't, Hooooo" from John behind Paul.

Nowhere Man
Simple but interestingly arranged and sung. I like it, but don't get excited. Great 12 string solo. Favorite part: harmonic to end that solo. Great little touch. Man John sounds half asleep on this.

Think For Yourself
Meh. Teenybopper lyrics and tamborine headshaking beat just sounds dated.

The Word
More tamborine teeny shit. I think I might hate this song.

Michelle
As a kid I thought it was fine and all but now the french... it just feels kinda contrived. Wierdly muted guitar solo almost saves it. Sounds like they put a pillow over the speaker cab before they mic'ed it.

What Goes On
Stoppit.

Girl
See I fucking love this song. So sleepy and draggy, but then the layers of vocals on the chorus are just soooo nice. Definately a russian folk vibe here, especially the solos, but not just that, it's the verse melody too.

I'm Looking Through You
God what a great song. This one just stays good for me, year after year. More country/rockabilly guitar influence on the solos. Again with the goddam tamborine though, damn, stoppit already.

In My Life
Serious, but they pull it off. Agreed on the jarring harpsichord solo... a little out of place and possibly a rare misstep by Sir Martin. Song sounds a little like it belongs on a slide show at Senior Year Graduation but it is pretty.

Wait
"Nice rhythm guitar work. Another song with a decent chorus and shitty verse." -Rads. Are ALL the guitars swelled in and out, constantly? No there's one in the right ear that strums, but there are at least 2 if not 3 that swell in and out. More fun with volume pedals I guess.

If I Needed Someone
Sorry George, nope. Nothing memorable here.

Run For Your Life
Yeah, interestingly dark. More fun with guitar slides. Favorite part: super-high falsetto harmony on the choruses. Like a Liverpudlian mosquito snuck into the studio and chipped in.


Overall fine enough but not up to the standards they'd established. Transition album, I guess.

Revolver

Taxman
Much better start this time. They sound good. John's at his best when he sneers, and you can hear him doing it here. A little bit of eastern influence sneaking into george's searing solo bit. This might the least restrained he's sounded yet, I donno. He definately rears back and gets a running start at that solo.

Eleanor Rigby
And Paul is best when he tackles something more somber, like this. Sir George does a great job with the string arrangements, I love what he did here. The jumping low runs that answers the lyrical line on the verses, contrasted with the high restrains after chorus lines. That shit really paints contrasting colors behind what's going on, breaks things up into big chunks. Favorite part: that high sung bit behind the chorus, "Ahhh look at all the lonely people." Shit is haunting.

I'm Only Sleeping
One of my favorite Beatles songs. And yes, DRUGS. This almost sounds like later Heroin John. Favorite part: "keeping an eye on the world going by my window...taking my time" that shit is sooo good. I don't know why, but those chords, something about it is magically delicious. Special Mention: the audible fake yawn at 2:03. Nice touch boys.

Love You To
I may have listened to this all the way through twice, ever. I know Young Squirrgle sure as shit wasn't gonna sit around and listen to it. George had this terrible lyrical habit of using 60's slang too much, shit like "you don't get to hang a sign on me." Reminds me of other tired phrases from the era about plastic cages and whatnot, makes his songs sound more dated. The point of this song seems to roam between him wanting to be independant and him wanting to get laid.

Here There And Everywhere
The chorus makes it interesting, but it's a little too close, too claustrophobic. I want Paul to back up a little bit, get out of my space. I can smell him in here.

Yellow Submarine
ugh. Harmless enough and sorta pleasant, but why why why? Were they bored? Was it a joke? A wierd cul de sac they explored on tape that should've been left alone, perhaps.

She Said She Said
I don't get much better than this. Busty and I used to cover it and it made me love it even more. I love the plodding back and forth pacing, I love the scale runs on the guitar behind the chorus, I love the off-time phrasing on the chorus, the doubletime drums to end it ... I don't want it to end.

Good Day Sunshine
A little hokey and whimsical but it doesn't offend me. Is this just piano drums and bass? Guess John and George went out for a burrito and Paul cranked one out quick.

And Your Bird Can Sing
Picturing John singing this to Sinatra makes it better. The quick delay on his vocals is great. This really is a great fucking song. Damn, the picked out chords on the chorus is a great touch. Allman Brothers-esque 2 guitar harmony on most of this. Cool.

For No One
Again I like Paul better here when he's on something somber. He can write a great vocal line, and when it's not belting out pure maple syrup it helps. Hmm, again no guitars, just piano drums and harpsichord. Could be interpreted as the beginning of individual efforts in the studio, leading up to them not even seeing each other...?

Doctor Robert
"Love it. Like 'She Said She Said' and 'And Your Bird Can Sing' this is the chirpiness of the early Beatles dragged into the modern age. The drugs have kicked in." -Rads. Correct. Geat chorus especially.

I Want To Tell You
As good as George gets on this album, I guess. Meh. More of his bad lyrics... "it's only me, it's not my mind..." Put the bong down.

Got To Get You Into My Life
Once again an ode to Paul's unwavering dedication to "her." Most of his songs are about staying with a woman, and then when he married Linda they never spent a night apart. I guess he wasn't fucking kidding. Now he's nailing that young meat. Great, now I'm thinking about wrinkly old man balls. FUCK YOU PAUL.

Tomorrow Never Knows
Whoa. The layers are actually really effective. As a 33 year old I can't really imagine what this would've been like at the time, but I assume it was some far out shit. I wonder what the other beatles thought.

Taxman is Harrison

oh damn you're right.

Sgt. Pepper
I really wanted to be able to find more to like about this album because shitting on it for being overrated has become such a tiresome cliche, but it's just not that good. Maybe I would have joined in the chorus of praise if I'd been old enough to experience this chronology project in real time (as it happened), although if I was the same person I am now chances are good that I'd be one of the few insisting Pepper wasn't all that. And it ain't.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
The hard rock guitar makes this feel at least a little desperate, otherwise it's a mere confection that even Herman's Hermits may have rejected.

With a Little Help from My Friends
Maybe the only Ringo song that deserved to appear on an album. Still don't like it much, but that's my problem not theirs.

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
I can't help but like this. The chorus is absolutely killer despite the 40 years of constant over-exposure. Lyrics are nothing but cute at this point, and probably were never much more than that.

Getting Better
Chirpy Beatles without the forward momentum of their club days but filled with all those gosh neato sitars and effects 'n' shit. Paul is auditioning for Wings here.

Fixing A Hole
If you really want to fix that hole you'd kick Paul out of the band.

She's Leaving Home
All craft. Impressive craft, I'll admit. Did someone lock Lennon out of the studio?

Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite!
Or was Lennon sitting in a corner banging his head against the pulsing softness of a granite countertop? I guess we're back to the, um, concept based around some sort of circus. I guess. I don't really care enough to think about it.

Within You Without You
Oh shit maaaaaaaaaaan, my hands are breathing!

When I'm 64
Fuck off, Paul. More of that cheap-ass nostalgia. Must've seemed awfully clever and ironic to the hip hippie hipsters in '67 - and there's a cautionary tale for all you kiddies out there.

Lovely Rita
I mean, seriously, what do people hear in this fluff?

Good Morning Good Morning
Ditto as above.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise)
I love how the sequencing of this track, which is apparently supposed to "end" the "concept", is pretty much an overt admission by Paul and George Martin that they KNEW "A Day In The Life" was miles above the rest of this baby food.

A Day In The Life
This is just plain incredible. I don't even mind Paul's mundane section about waking up - the mundanity works in the context of the song. They should have scrapped everything beforehand and just released this as a single. The remastering once again blows me away - those orchestral bits almost make my brain cells melt.

I love that lyric in "Getting Better" that sneaks in out of nowhere, "I used to be cruel to my woman, I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved", then there are those four quarter note hits like she's getting beat right there and then, "man i was mean but i'm changing my scene, now i'm doing the best that I can"

It's like where the fuck did that come from?

Not my favorite album, but it's got some great moments, of which "A Day in the Life" is definitely the highlight.

As with almost any Beatles album (save Yellow Submarine), I'd kill to make an album 2% as good.

Lennon was in a bit of a writer's block at this point, feeling stuck in his marriage, drinking too much. Paul had just cheated on Jane Asher for the last time (she caught him in her bed with another chick).

That writer's block is about to end to some extent with the visit to Rishikesh. Brian Epstein is about to unexpectedly die. Yoko is about to enter the picture, and Paul meets Linda at the album release for Sgt. Peppers.

They're not gigging, they're not really writing together, John's not doing much writing at all (although Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite is his... meh)...

Paul had conceived of this album to be paired with short films, precursors to music videos, that would tour for them to promote the album. If the beatles wouldn't gig, then maybe this alter ego of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band would. That's pretty forward thinking, even though it never got off of the ground.

holy shit that's horrible.

Which of the Beatles had the biggest cock?

Bump this too.

Magical Mystery Tour

Maybe PoD can shed some light, but at this point in the game it seems like the Beatles have already fractured. Revolver was a triumph, but afterwards it sounds like Paul was the only Beatle who wanted to continue approaching music as a 9 - 5 factory line job. Lennon definitely seems to have been rebelling from the industry treadmill they were on. That said, this album never got its proper due - coming on the heels of the Pepper hype and being a sort of odds 'n' sods collection/ soundtrack. Man, if only half of these songs could've replaced the shitty songs on Pepper, it may have deserved the "greatest album of all time" mantel that's followed it around with the gotdamn boomers.

Magical Mystery Tour
Basically a rewrite of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", but more overtly druggy.

The Fool On The Hill
This is McCartney at his sweetest really. Academically, I guess it's a great song. In actuality, however, that recorder makes me want to punch a baby.

Flying
Instrumental filler. Stereolab's career was built on less.

Blue Jay Way
So this is what the song sounds like. I'd never heard it before. More of that phased drugginess. Someone keep George from the microdot.

Your Mother Should Know
"Get up and dance to a song that was a hit before your mother was born" - Paul bares his ultimate ambition. He wants to write the songs his grandma loved.

I Am The Walrus
It's like a completely different band just all of a sudden popped in. This isn't fake druggy like that Harrison track or the title song, feigning a hallucinogenic experience with cute studio trickery, this is a hairy, tripping, hitchhiking psycho on the verge of losing it completely. Fucking awesome, in other words. And the integration of the orchestra into the rock 'n' roll song is accomplished here seamlessly - makes it heavier, in fact, rather than a pretty adornment or a McCartney-ish attempt at music teacher respectability. Gigantic.

Hello Goodbye
Feels like we just time travelled back to '65.

Strawberry Fields Forever
For me this stands right beside "I Am The Walrus". Just a slice of genius.

Penny Lane
It's interesting that this and "Strawberry Fields" were released as a double A-sided single - both appear to be songs based in nostalgia for a previous era. But, of course, there's a vast difference between Lennon's nostalgia and McCartney's. The cryptic "Strawberry Fields" looked back at the same time it looked forward, both deeply personal and somehow inclusive, whereas "Penny Lane" is all music hall schlock - a sonic version of a Norman Rockwell painting. Melodically, at least, it's more palatable than "When I'm 64".

Baby You're A Rich Man
Hmm. I think I've only heard a cover of this, but I don't know where. It's actually almost as cool as its title, although that mosquito buzz guitar throughout is a little distracting (or, kind of annoying). Pleasant surprise, all around.

All You Need Is Love
I've always loved the verses of this one, so much so that the hippie chant of the chorus doesn't even phase me. In fact, for 4 minutes at a time, I kind of believe it.

Magical Mystery Tour is one of my favourite Beatles albums, save for that final tune. It was years before I heard the actual record, but when I was a kid I had the Blue 67-70 album and I played Side 2, kicking off with 'I Am the Walrus' over and over and over. It was so fucking weird and just purely awesome.

Also, 'Baby You're a Rich Fag Jew'.

I read an interview with John somewhere, and he said the Sgt. Peppers era was one of his highest ebbs of drug use. He said he was out of it a lot mentally, and Paul was really keeping the band together and dominating the group dynamic where he had dominated prior.

Also, I forgot until I saw the original artwork again that Paul is sporting this:



A very curious choice.

The Beatles (aka the white album)

I'm doing this monstrosity one disc at a time.

Disc One:

Back in the USSR
Spectacular opener. I've heard this song so often in my life, yet don't ever quite get tired of it. And this remaster really opens it up - great definition of instruments. The screaming guitar in the final verse is a great moment.

Dear Prudence
Sudden shift in tone, but a good one. Ringo's drumming really stands out in the final minute. Very cool.

Glass Onion
Love this song, although lyrically it appears to be about other lyrics, which is always a symptom of a lack of ideas. Y'know, when art turns toward commenting on the art itself and all that. Still, cool song.

Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da
Oh man, what can you say about this? There's an inevitability to it that is at once impressive and stomach churning. It's hard to hear it with any objectivity, and I'm not sure if I even want to.

Wild Honey Pie
Scrap of a song. One minute of WTF.

The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
The chorus makes me want to kill puppies. The verses are surprisingly cool... but that chorus. Oh god. Make it stop.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Lyrics are so bad that I'm surprised they weren't written by Bernie Taupin. Sonically it's a great song, I guess. But those lyrics really ruin it for me. And I mean really ruin it. I would've preferred a Harrison guitar solo over this Clapton effort, which lacks any kind of personality at all.

Happiness Is A Warm Gun
Lennon has officially jumped off the bus with this one. One of my fave songs ever. That doo-wop coda slays me - I could have this song on repeat all day.

Martha My Dear
Oh come on. What is it with the young Sir Paul's obsession with this nostalgic tripe? Sounds like an XTC b-side with placeholder lyrics.

I'm So Tired
One of my fave Beatles "deep cuts". Lennon's not hiding anything here. The treadmill has been killing him and his gift for melody is the only thing keeping him afloat.

Blackbird
It's so pretty that it's hard to come down on this. But those bird noises really piss me off. Plus they don't sound like any blackbird I've ever heard. Meh.

Piggies
More animal noises. Don't mind if I never hear this again.

Rocky Raccoon
"Her name was McGill and she called herself Lil but everyone knew her as Nancy" - that's deep, Paul. Thanks for trying to wreck the album. On the plus side, this brings an end to the shitty animal metaphor trilogy, so +1.

Don't Pass Me By
It's quite possible that Ringo was an undiagnosed retard. He had a talent for banging pots, but could never quite manage the complexities of making noises with his mouth.

Why Don't We Do It In The Road?
Paul either trying to prove he can rock, or trying to make a statement that rocking is kid stuff. Serious or parody? Did Paul even know?

I Will
Barf. With clip clops.

Julia
I don't mind this, but the melody feels unfinished. Nice enough, just lacking Lennon's usual knack for a distinctive hook.

This brought the lolz.

the lyrics to this are really dumb but i like the way paul sings it.

Frightened by how much I agree with rads on those songs, except I Will. I cannot deny that song. When I was younger I liked Paul's stuff a lot more, but it hasn't aged well, whereas John has become the whole point.