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I don't hate the Beatles, but I'm not much of a fangirl. I guess I've just felt that they've been shoved down my throat all my life, and nothing goes down well with me that way. However, I will say that "Norwegian Wood" is my favorite Beatles song.
Beatles '65. I was in 4th grade, and that dirty feedback whine opening "I Feel Fine" did me in. It's the first song I can ever remember being aware of loving in a self-aware, this is for me way. It may not be the best Beatles record, but I will never love another more. I was lucky to have had my mother's old records and total innocence of hype; I had no idea they were such a big damn deal. I just knew they made me ecstatically happy.
(Oh, and funny -- that same year I went to a slumber party at a friend's house and to everyone's confusion spent most of the time with her way older brother, who had Beatles and Who and Pink Floyd stickers and seriously awesome blacklight posters all over his walls. I was so excited that I finally had someone to talk about my obsession with! Just like you, he asked what my favorite record was, and I told him, and he basically said oh honey, you haven't heard anything yet, clapped some headphones on me, and played a bunch of songs from White Album and Sgt. Pepper's. I refused to believe that it could be the Beatles and told him firmly that it all sucked. He was quite deeply amused. Rachel's older brother, you were the coolest -- I wish I knew your name.)
The beatles were the first "english" music that i ever heard, on a spool type player that my aunt had dumped at our place in the hopes that i'd take it to a garage sale shop near my house. I didnt even know what it was in the beginning, because the spools didnt have labels. I listened to it obsessively, (that along with jethro tull) and to this day, i get a pleasant dissociation of space and time when one of those songs come on the radio or something. And later when i came across more and more western music, my interest in the beatles faded to almost nothingness, but the "i'm only sleeping" song (dont know what its called) is my all time favorite beatles song.
The whole singles-reissues thing caught necessary flack. But the whole clusterfuck pre "moderned" "Let It Be," especially for the lesser known tracks. I can picture the time, place, and situtation where I heard these tracks. "Dig a Pony." "Maggie Mae." Hard to beat.
I never have listened to them much. I like a few songs though...
While My Guitar Gently Weeps is my fav. I also really like
Eleanor Rigby, and Daytripper if for no other reason than than the songs it inspired. There are several songs I would listen to if they came on the radio, not that there is a station here that plays the Beatles.
Early Beatles was the first Bealtes album I ever bought and was the first album that I played waaayyyy too many times. Most of my favorite Beatles cuts came from the Beatles for Sale through Revolver period, and if I was forced to pick a favorite, I'd go with Rubber Soul. And you didn't ask, but my fave Beatles song is "Things We Said Today".
Sgt. Pepper's was the first Beatles album I remememebr hearing. My mom used to play it when she had parties or was sitting around with friends getting stoned. I'd hang out with them in the livingroom, trying to make sense of the lyrics and making up elaborate stories about all of the people on the album cover.
It's so funny that when you think about it, there are relatively few artists who are known (even if not loved) by multigenerational audiences--Beatles, Elvis, Stevie Wonder, Aretha, maybe Dusty and Dionne...even the Rolling Stones i don't think quite make the cut.
Revolver is my favorite, not a single duff track (although Dr Robert doesn't do much for me).
I remember as a nine year old kid being in the kids library and somehow the Blue album had found it's way in amongst the Hans Christian Anderson and Black & White Minstral records. I took it home and played it and immediately had my mind blown by Strawberry Fields which is one of the most extraordinary recordings - I don't think there's been anything quite like it before or since.
Sgnt Peppers - not the best album, but my friend and I would listen to it in her bedroom after school and talk about boys and dreams and clothes, and my parents would always call and tell me to come home, and I'd beg them to let me finish the album at least.
Find fault with this song, please. Rubber Soul. My childhood in the 70s. No Rolling Stones here ( ; > ) but lots of James Taylor and Joni Mitchell. And I LOVE "Band On The Run"...
"Being for the benefit of Mr Kite" wold be my favourite, but I don't have a favourite album, because I gew up hearing them on the radio, so don't really associate them with any album.
Plus, you give away your age by calling them "records", you know.
Man, "Band on the Run" - that brings back memories.
Bless your heart for posting that, jon. I've always claimed that Gimme, Gimme, Gimme is a metal song at heart and Alexi is just the guy to pull off the galloping riff and the sweeping arpeggiated bits.
Add yet another point to the "why I'm totally e-stalking anastasiav" tally.
Oh, and my favorite Beatles music varies wildly according to when you ask, but at the moment my favorite album is "Meet the Beatles", and my favorite single is "In My Life".
Another vote for "Revolver" as the best overall Beatles album, and a mention of my personal belief that if the Beatles had only recorded "I Am the Walrus" they would still be famous today. I have come dangerously close to subjecting CD swap participants with a CD of 18 different versions of just that one song, from The Swingle Singers (a cappella) through Frank Zappa, with Jim Carrey, XTC and Men Without Hats thrown into the mix.
Add yet another point to the "why I'm totally e-stalking anastasiav" tally.
Sweetie, you can stalk me anytime. Just don't ask me to move to Utah, 'kay? Too little ocean....
My high-school sweetheart and I used to spend hours on the phone disecting the lyrics to I am The Walrus and other Lennon psychodellic classics. I'm sure my mom thought we were having phone sex or something, but no, just music critisim.
On the other hand, the man I'm with now (and have been for 10 years +) doesn't really 'get' The Beatles. He thinks the music is ok, but it was hard to understand why they were considered so world-shattering at the time.
Our local NPR station does a thing on Friday afternoons where they play big chunks of the Top 40 singles list in 10 year increments - currently the ten top 40 top hits of 1925, '35, '45, '55, '65, and '75. Josh was trapped in the car with me the day they devoted an entire program to the Beatles conquest of the US charts in April 1964. Hearing the Beatles stuff in contrast to the rest of the US charts was quite an eye-opener for him.
I loves me some Rubber Soul, but I also believe that the vocal of the Beatles' cover of Barret Strong's "Money," is the best vocal performance he ever gave and one of the best in rock history.
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