Getting into the Beatles...

Great calls on The Night Before & I'm Looking Through You. 2 of my favorites - though with them, if I would think it through seriously, I'd come up with 10-15.

 

Looks like the Beatles catalog will be getting a good run through on my transit to/fro work in the upcoming days.

 

"Abbey Road" is my favorite, but you really can't go wrong with almost any Beatles album. I'll second the "red" and "blue" collections, though, as good starting points. Particularly the blue one, for my money.

 

I've seen some love for the terrific "Paperback Writer" on a few threads here. Anyone ever read the late-70s book by the same name which is a satirical look at their career culminating in a comeback on a bill at Shea Stadium with Peter Frampton and the Sex Pistols? I imagne it's been long out of print but it was some funny shit.

 

Excellent post, although I'll give "Rubber Soul" the benefit of the doubt. I count "Yesterday" as the watershed between teeny-bopper band and absolute genius. And the greatness of "The White Album" was the showcasing of all four (yes, I said four) members' talents. It was like four solo albums in one, but it all fit wonderfully.

"Here Comes The Sun" could've been recorded in 1988 and still been a hit, much less '68.

 

One of my favorite songs is And Your Bird Can Sing, just love the bass lines in that song.

But really, there are too many to say one is my favorite. I mean the Beatles put on their pants just like everyone else, but when they did it they made gold records.

 

A couple gems rediscovered during this morning's ride:

"I Need You", with the plaintive, wah wah guitar. And cowbell to boot

"If I Needed Someone"

Both George Harrison tunes. It's near impossible to get out from under the shadow of the Lennon/McCartney legend, but George wrote a catalog of amazingly catchy songs.

 

I'm still trying to wrap my hands around the idea that someone is talking about "getting into" the Beatles in the same way I talk about getting into Leadbelly.

 

Yeah, I read it. It came out in 1979-80, IIRC. Lennon's murder took a lot of wind out of its sails.

 

Just because no one else has mentioned it, I'll through "She Said, She Said" off Revolver as my favorite all-time Beatles song. Inspired by a chance encounter at a party between Lennon and a pre-Easy Rider Peter Fonda.

And some of those early pop tracks still hold up after 45 years. Not just hits like "Love Me Do," and "Eight Days a Week," but deep album tracks like "Chains" and "Everybody's Tryin' to Be My Baby." Go back and listen some time.

 

Great thread.
For some odd reason, I have a huge soft spot for "Your Mother Should Know". And "Happiness is a Warm Gun" is a great tune. And "Rain" may be one of the most underrated songs ever. (You rarely hear it mentioned as one of the great Beatles tunes, but Noel Gallagher would probably castrate himself to write a song like that)

 

Rubber Soul and Revolver are my favorite Beatles albums.

I might get flamed for this, but I also think Let It Be ... Naked is a lot better than the original Let It Be. The sound is fantastic and I love the more bare-bones "The Long and Winding Road."

As for favorite beatles tunes, both actually come from the LIB Naked album: "Don't Let Me Down" and "Across the Universe"