THE BEATLES - BEATLES FOR SALE @ 60

Released on December 4th, 1964, the fourth LP by The Beatles, Beatles for Sale, turns 60 years old today. The album was not officially released in North America until The Beatles catalogue was standardized internationally for CD in 1987. Instead the US and Canada got Beatles '65, released concurrently with Beatles for Sale, and containing 8 of the latter album's tracks, with the remainder of the album's 11 tracks coming from a track excluded from the US release of Help, plus a UK non-LP single.

The overall mood of Beatles for Sale is markedly darker and more sombre than their previous albums, with the band shying away from the trivial love songs that were predominant on their earlier works. Part of the reason for this has to do with their trip to the US and their first meeting with Bob Dylan, who famously lauded their musical abilities while chiding them for their superficial lyrics. He encouraged them to use their influence to explore more meaningful and introspective subjects. John Lennon took his comments particularly to heart. But don't think the influence was only one way. It was shortly after Dylan's encounter with The Beatles that he made the decision to go "electric" and front a rock band, recognizing that the format The Beatles had popularized was where the future of pop music was heading. The group's trip to the US also influenced the album in its use of country and folk influenced musical styles, as the band were exposed to US country music radio and sought to incorporate that style into their sound.

The album also brought a new palette of sounds into the group, particularly in the use of more exotic percussion instruments, like tympani and African hand drums. By this point, the studio was also undergoing a transition as far as how the band perceived its use. Rather than being merely a place to document their live sound, they began to understand the artificial potential of the tools at their disposal. It was with this album that they truly began to take an interest in the process of recording and the techniques that could be used to alter their sound. With this, they began to augment their arrangements, stripping back layers and complexity and giving depth and space to their sound with the use of reverberation devices.

The other factor that influenced the end result for the album was the breakneck schedule that the group had been held to because of the unprecedented explosion of popularity that had happened in the preceding two years. They were worked to the bone by their label, and because of their naivety, didn't understand that they had any say in the process. The schedules of recording, touring and making personal appearances on radio and TV meant that the group's principal songwriting team of Lennon and McCartney were left with very little time to come up with new tunes for their latest record. With Beatles for Sale, they only had eight new original songs, plus a couple used for a non-LP single, so the remainder of the album's 14 tracks consisted of cover versions of songs they'd been playing in their live set. This was a bit of a step backwards given that the previous LP had been all originals.

Despite the lack of time allowed to work on the album, the band still managed to come up with something that demonstrated definitive progress, both as song writers and performers. There was a palpable evolution in the maturity of the music, its emotional scope and the group's willingness to push their own boundaries. They were reaching a point where they would soon develop a complete command of their abilities and the tools they used to realize their vision. Critics of the times were picking up on this as well, and the album received overall very positive reviews, and of course, it was able to continue the domination of the charts The Beatles had secured with their first three albums.
 

THE BEATLES - ABBEY ROAD @ 55

 

Released on September 26th, 1969, the "sort of" penultimate Beatles LP, Abbey Road, turns 55 years old today. The confusion of its chronology comes from the fact that it was recorded after the Get Back/Let It Be sessions, but released before Let It Be. As such, it represents the last time the Beatles, as a group, were in a recording studio together at the same time.

The background for Abbey Road is inextricably linked with the Get Back sessions that preceded its recording. The Get Back project had rather spun off the rails to a large degree, with its plans for a return to the bands roots, documented in excruciating detail in a planned documentary film and capped off with an elaborate live performance, undermined as the group's internal relationships continued to fragment and their grandiose plans only culminated with a bizarre, albeit infamous, roof-top live performance atop the EMI recording studios (later renamed Abbey Road).

Following the rooftop gig, what would be the last ever live performance by the band, Paul McCartney suggested a regrouping effort to producer George Martin, who agreed to the concept with the provision that he be given full producer authority over the sessions like during the group's earlier albums. The fragmentation of the group had set in during the so-called "White Album" sessions, a situation that the Get Back project had meant to address, but which had only fermented more. Abbey Road was sort of a last-ditch effort to try to restore a sense of unity in the band, but even with the best of intentions, some antagonisms were simply too deeply rooted to extricate.

Lennon's insistence on including Yoko Ono in the sessions was one such ongoing source of conflict and consternation in the band. This even extended to the point where, after Lennon and Ono were in a car crash, resulting in an injury to Ono, Lennon had a hospital bed installed in the studio to accommodate her recovery and allow her to continue to observe the band's activities. Harrison's relationship with the group was also continuing to strain as he attempted to assert a greater influence on the album's content. But it wasn't all gritting teeth and exasperation in the studio. For the most part, the mood was actually mostly cordial and pleasant much of the time, though the underlying stresses would simply never entirely abate.

Despite the percolating tensions, the group's creativity was bolstered by the use of some cutting edge technology, principally in the form of an eight track recording system with a solid state mixing console, both of which helped the group to achieve a far more expansive sound, with the freedom to explore even more complex overdubbing. The other notable bit of kit was the MOOG modular synth system that Harrison had purchased the previous year and used for his sophomore solo release, Electronic Sound. While the instrument had been used for little more than noodling effects on that album, by the time it was incorporated into the Abbey Road sessions, Harrison's prowess with it was sufficient that it became integrated as proper musical accompaniment and not merely for exotic sound effects.

For the album's cover, McCartney had conceived of the idea of a photo of the band crossing the street outside the EMI studios building at Abbey Road, which would also give the album its title. Apple Records creative director John Kosh designed the album cover. It is the only original UK Beatles album sleeve to show neither the artist name nor the album title on its front, which was Kosh's idea, despite EMI saying the record would not sell without this information. He later explained that "we didn't need to write the band's name on the cover. They were the most famous band in the world". The iconic image has since gone on to become one of the most recognized, replicated and imitated group photos to ever be created. Scores of fans have tried to recreated the photo, and in 2011, a webcam was installed at the crossing. The cover also helped stoke the "Paul is dead" conspiracy, with McCartney appearing in the photo as out of step with the others in the band, holding his cigarette in the wrong hand, and the only one barefoot, leading to speculation that these were somehow symbolic of the person in the photo being an imposter.

The album was released with virtually no promotional campaign, amid internal disintegration, with Lennon already having announced his intention to leave and Paul about to make a public statement of his departure, thus formalizing the band's dissolution. But promotion wasn't much required as the album immediately shot to the top of the charts, where it lingered for quite some time. The group machinery continued to hang on long enough for a reassessment of the Get Back material, which was put in the hands of Phil Spector to get it finished while the group disintegrated.

While the sales for the album were brisk, critical response was mixed, with some finding the use of the electronics gimmicky and the songwriting inauthentic. Regardless of this initial ambivalence, retrospectively, the album has become considered perhaps the band's most lauded and appreciated release. While it may not have had the conceptual and cultural impact of Sgt. Pepper, in the long run, aficionados of the band repeatedly cite the LP as their crowning achievement. Whether that's the case is a matter of preference in the end.

GEORGE HARRISON - ELECTRONIC SOUND @ 55

 

Released on May 9th, 1969, George Harrison's second solo album, Electronic Sound, is turning 55 years old today. It was the first LP of entirely electronic music released by a rock musician, breaking new creative ground, though perhaps lacking in sophistication or any true understanding of how to use the instrument.

In the late 1960s, the MOOG modular system was a novelty, for the most part. Micky Dolenz of The Monkees had purchased one and it was used on the group's fourth LP, released in 1967, one of the first pop music appearances of the instrument. George Harrison became fascinated by the MOOG soon after and purchased his own the following year. While in California making the purchase, he recorded a demonstration session by Bernie Krause (of Beaver & Krause) which ended up becoming No Time For Space on Harrison's album. This recording was done without Krause's permission or knowledge and its release undermined Krause's plan for his upcoming collaboration with Paul Beaver because he'd utilized a number of themes they were planning on incorporating into their project during his demo for Harrison. Harrison initially had Krause's name on the LP cover, but it was painted over at the insistence of Krause, who was offended by the use of his demo without permission as well as subsequent interactions with Harrison which he found disrespectful and insulting.

The second piece recorded for the album was done by Harrison in England after receiving delivery of the synth. Under the Mersey Wall displays Harrison's lack of understanding of the device, a situation aggravated by the lack of a user manual included with the unit, something about which Harrison complained to Krause, further aggravating their already strained relationship. The recording amounts to little more than childlike noodling with the synthesizer, with little in the way of nuance or clear intention.

The album was released in tandem with John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions, the second album in their trilogy of experimental recording releases. Both were issued on the same day by Zapple Records, a short lived subsidiary of Apple Records that was set up for the purpose of issuing budget priced spoken word and experimental sound recordings. The sub-label, however, was quickly folded after these releases, with a third title being shelved before being released. The cover for Electronic Sound featured a childlike painting created by Harrison himself, which quite nicely suited the amateurish innocence of the music on the record.

At the time of its release, it was mostly dismissed or ridiculed by serious music critics, though some found it oddly amusing or confounding, yet fascinating. However, despite its crudeness and the issues with the questionable provenance of one of its recordings, it has managed to become something of a cult favourite in some quarters. As with the Lennon/Ono releases, and Harrison's previous debut solo release, these flew in the face of expectations for The Beatles, as a collective, and were nonetheless expanding the boundaries of pop music. In the case of Electronic Sound, it cracked open territory that would later be properly explored by the likes of artist like Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream and Cluster. The concept of abstract electronic ambience was just getting started, and Electronic Sound was the first foot in the door of that genre in many respects. As crude as it was, it still managed to carve out a place as a cornerstone album.

THE BEATLES - YELLOW SUBMARINE OST @ 55

Released on January 13th, 1969, and celebrating its 55th anniversary today, is the Beatles' original soundtrack for their animated feature film, Yellow Submarine, which premiered in London in July of 1968. It was the tenth studio album by the band, though it does not, in fact, offer a full LP's worth of original Beatles music. The B-side of the LP is entirely taken up with incidental music created for the film by George Martin, the Beatles' producer. It was essentially a contractual obligation release due to the band having singed a deal for the film stipulating that they would create four original songs for the soundtrack and include Martin's score on the release.

The first side of the record features six songs from The Beatles, two of which had been released previously. These included the title track and All You Need Is Love. Of the 4 songs unique to the album, Only A Northern Song, a gripe-song about George's publishing contract, and It's All Too Much, an ode to LSD, were both Harrison compositions, with the former being a rejected leftover from Sgt. Pepper. The latter was originally over 8 minutes in length, but was edited down for the final version. All Together Now is a McCartney composition that was inspired by British music hall singalongs and was considered by its author to be a "throwaway", while Hey Bulldog was contributed by John Lennon, who described it as, "a good-sounding record that means nothing."

The B-side of the LP consists of re-recordings of the incidental music by George Martin and many consider this material to have severely compromised the overall quality of the album. Even John Lennon dismissed the music as "...all this terrible shit" and blamed Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager, for allowing Martin to participate in the project. Plans were even made to release an EP containing only the 6 Beatles songs, but this release, even though it got as far as mixing mono versions of the songs and mastering, was ultimately abandoned. George Martin certainly wasn't going to agree to have his contribution dropped as this was going to be a major payday for him, given the massive publishing and royalties he'd be getting by piggybacking on The Beatles popularity. This was only changed when a 30th anniversary edition of the soundtrack was released in 1999, which omitted Martin's work and added 9 Beatles songs that appeared throughout the movie, but were not included on the original soundtrack due to being previously released songs.

Though the new material for the soundtrack was recorded and completed before the group started work on their eponymous "White" album, release of Yellow Submarine was delayed until after the White album was released in order to avoid having the impact of that album undermined by the soundtrack. Upon its release, it did well in terms of sales, but the critical response to it was mostly ambivalent and many felt that it simply didn't offer the kind of value that was a consistent trait of previous releases. The Beatles themselves were simply disinterested in the project as a whole and agreed to an animated film simply because it meant the most minimal commitment from them.

Personally, this album was my introduction to the group, at least in a way that left an impression on my very young mind. I couldn't have been older than 5 or six when a babysitter brought the LP over and played it for my brother and I. I was immediately enthralled by it, and it became my touchstone for my first impressions of the band. As such, it has a certain sentimental value, even though it's likely their least significant record.
 

THE BEATLES - PLEASE PLEASE ME @ 60

 

Celebrating its diamond jubilee today, at a whopping 60 years old, is the debut LP from The Beatles, Please Please Me, which was originally released in the UK on March 22nd, 1963. It was an LP which launched the era of the so-called “self contained” band, artists who were both songwriters and performers, and revived the spirit of rock ’n’ roll, which had waned since Elvis was drafted into the army.

The Beatles had been working together in various iterations since they began as a Liverpool skiffle band in the late 1950s. After several years of paying their dues in clubs in the UK and Germany, they finally caught the attention of EMI, who consigned them to their Parlophone imprint, a division run by producer George Martin. Initially, the band had focused mostly on cover songs, but Lennon & McCartney had gradually been building up a cache of original compositions, though Martin originally felt that they were lacking as songwriters. At the time the group signed their deal, Pete Best was still on the drums, but after an initial trial recording session, which failed to produce any usable results (even with a session drummer subbed in), the group gave Pete his marching papers and brought in Ringo Star to finalize their lineup.

After their misfired initial studio session, Martin’s first idea for the band was to make their debut LP a live album. He went down to the Cavern Club to check them out, but binned the live album concept after hearing the sound quality in the club and deeming it unsuitable for recording. Switching to the idea of a regular studio album, he got the band back in to record and they captured their first single, Please Please Me. Though Martin was still doubtful of their songwriting abilities, he agreed to release the song and was surprised by the success they achieved, with it hitting #17 on the charts. After that point, he put his doubts aside and embraced the duo as competent pop music composers, allowing them to contribute half of the material for the album.

At the time The Beatles were emerging in the studio, the idea of a band writing their own songs was not the norm. Song writers and performers were two separate entities and did not generally cross paths. The Beatles also did not use session musicians for this LP, which was another exception to the usual process for bands. Throughout the 1950s & 1960s, session musicians were behind the vast majority of music created for the pop charts. However, with Ringo now on drums, they had the capacity to nail performances in the studio without the necessity of bringing in more adept musicians. They’d been hammering out their music in the clubs for years, so delivering flawless performances in the studio was well within their wheelhouse.

When it came time to record the album, Martin asked the band what they could whip through quickly and they said their stage act was the easiest for them to get down without much hassle. The group were recorded primarily live in the studio with limited overdubs. Back then, studios didn’t have the luxury of massive amounts of tracks. Two tracks was generally the standard of the day, so layering was extremely limited. In this case, most of the instruments were on one track with the vocals on another. The sessions took place over the course of a mere few days with the band doing a quick run-through of each song to get a level and then banging out the finished version, often in a single take. Given the legacy and importance of what came out of those sessions, it might just be the most efficient 585 minutes of studio time ever booked.

During the sessions, John Lennon was suffering from a bad head cold and spent the whole time downing throat lozenges to battle the congestion. This caused Martin to have to be strategic when recording John’s vocals, leaving the most demanding song, Twist and Shout, to the very end of the sessions. Martin remarked: "I don't know how they do it. We've been recording all day but the longer we go on the better they get.” Lennon said of his one-take performance: “The last song nearly killed me. My voice wasn't the same for a long time after; every time I swallowed, it was like sandpaper."

The 14 song version of Please Please Me was released in the UK only in mono initially, which was standard practice for the times. The stereo mix was issued on April 26th. Outside the UK, The Beatles debuted with variations of the UK version, re-titled and with different cover art and altered track listings. This was also a common occurrence, particularly within the first half of the decade. This created a rather confusing catalogue for fans to collect for many years as variations of their albums could be found in different markets. It wasn’t until decades later when the albums were remastered for CD that their catalogue was standardized to the UK editions, internationally.

Please Please Me hit the top of the UK album charts by May and stayed there for a stunning 30 weeks. It was the beginning of Beatlemania in earnest. Only their sophomore LP, With The Beatles, pushed it out of the top spot. This chart success was another revolutionary aspect to The Beatles’ career as the album charts were typically dominated by soundtracks and easy listening pop vocal releases. The Beatles blasted open the charts to be dominated by rock ’n’ roll artists, with acts like The Rolling Stones, The Who and The Kinks soon to take up residence in this new commercial terrain.

Cracking the US market would prove to be somewhat more difficult. Initial single releases in the US didn’t strike up a lot of interest at first and Capitol Records passed on releasing their debut. Ultimately Vee-Jay Records took up the album and trimmed off a couple of tracks to fit the US track count standard, re-titling the album to “Introducing the Beatles”. This version was not issued until January of 1964. By that time, the group had managed to score a US hit single with I Want to Hold Your Hand in December of 1963. This success lead Capital Records to finally be convinced of the commercial viability of the band, buying back the rights to their catalogue and releasing Meet the Beatles, a further modified version of their debut, shortly after the Vee-Jay album’s release. Following the February 9th, 1964, debut US TV appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, the spark was ignited for the group to take over the US market and kick off what would become known as “the British Invasion” period of rock music.

Since its release, Please Please Me has become codified as a cornerstone for a new approach to pop music where the artist became responsible for nearly all of what became documented on their albums. It reinvigorated the rock ’n’ roll genre as a commercially dominant musical form and set millions of teenagers around the globe on the path of starting their own bands. You can’t talk to any pop music artist who came from the 1960s and find one who wasn’t inspired by seeing The Beatles on TV for the first time. They caused a cultural epiphany which triggered a paradigm shift in the way music was perceived and created. The very concept of a rock band still resides in the shadow of The Beatles and what they put to vinyl on that first album.

THE BEATLES - MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR @ 55

 

On November 27th, 1967, 55 years ago today, The Beatles released the Magical Mystery Tour LP in the US. The double 7’ EP variation followed in the UK on December 8th. Following on from their paradigm shifting Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, it continued their exploration of psychedelic experimentation, though for some, it may have been a bit too self-indulgent.

After completing Sgt. Pepper, Paul McCartney conceived of the idea of creating a film for TV along with its accompanying soundtrack. The concept was inspired by the activities of author Ken Kesey’s “Merry Pranksters”, who had become infamous among the "hippie" generation for their roving busload of freaks on LSD, touring the country and turning people on with their “Acid Test” parties. Paul had thought of doing something similar, though giving it a Liverpudlian twist by incorporating John’s recollections of seaside holidays from his youth. It was to be an unscripted, stream of consciousness experience which would be aimed at elucidating the psychedelic experience for the program’s viewers. The band were at the peak of their dalliances with the substance at the time and were also deeply involved with Transcendental Meditation as taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The basic framework for the narrative was to have “ordinary” people having “magical” experiences.

Work on the project began in late April, but was soon sidetracked as the group became distracted by their meditation studies, launching their Apple Records imprint and working on songs for the pending Yellow Submarine animated film project. Things only refocused on on Mystery Tour after the sudden unexpected death of the band’s manager, Brian Epstein, who had given his approval to the project before his passing. Again, it was McCartney who drove the project forward, despite the resistance of the other band members. Paul’s ambitions toward film production and changing the direction of the band were fired up by the project and he soon became an unstoppable force.

Recording of the music and production of the film occurred in tandem and the entire endeavor is reported to have been rather unfocused and undisciplined. Without Epstein’s guidance, the group were largely left to their own devices to motivate themselves and the overall milieu resulting from the frequent “tripping” going on within the group encouraged a state of barely organized chaos as they sought to take advantage of happenstance and spontaneous improvisation. Work on the soundtrack was completed on November 8th and the finished film was aired in the UK on December 26th.

The response to the film was decidedly weak from both fans and critics. The film was intended to be a colorful adventure, but because BBC1 weren’t able to broadcast in color, it was aired in black & white and looked terrible. It was rebroadcast again in color a few months later, but it didn’t make much difference because so few people had color TVs. The lack of any clear story certainly didn’t help. It was the group’s first major critical failure and the poor reviews dissuaded any US networks from airing the special. Fortunately, the music fared significantly better.

In the US, it was released as an LP with the A-side containing all the soundtrack music while the B-side was filled out by all the non-LP singles which had been produced and released during the time of production. This included songs like Strawberry Fields, Penny Lane and All You Need Is Love. The UK release only included the music used in the soundtrack, so there were only 6 songs, not enough for an LP. The innovation here was to issue it as a double 7” EP, which was the first time such a format was used in the UK. Both versions included a booklet with photos and a comic strip. However, when the Beatles LP catalogue was standardized internationally, the US LP version was taken as the standard over the UK edition, the only time this was done for a Beatles LP.

Despite all the muddle from a confused production process, the group were still able to deliver some of their most important music. Though it may have been a misadventure spurred on by artists who were a bit lost in their grief, coupled with ambitions distorted by narcotic indulgences, The music created during this period is nevertheless representative of the band’s genius during one of their most creative and inventive periods.