THE BEATLES

MirrorProfiles said:
on Abbey Road George is writing way ahead of Lennon and McCartney’s contributions
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Arguably the two best pure songs on the album but to saw way ahead is a bit hyperbolic. Who knows how much input the rest of the band and George had on the production of those two songs anyway. No way George came up with those Something harmonies, for example.
 
fretworn said:


So grateful our world/lives has stuff like this to offer …
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Did you hear about this? Not sure how the heckler survived in the crowd for as long as he did. What a DICK!

www.sandiegouniontribune.com

‘Kick him out!’ Inside Pat Metheny’s mind-boggling battle with a heckler at his San Diego concert

How unprecedented is it for a world-renowned jazz artist to be heckled — let alone frequently — during a concert?Until Pat Metheny’s Saturday night solo guitar performance at The …
www.sandiegouniontribune.com www.sandiegouniontribune.com
 
Achilles said:
Arguably the two best pure songs on the album but to saw way ahead is a bit hyperbolic. Who knows how much input the rest of the band and George had on the production of those two songs anyway. No way George came up with those Something harmonies, for example.
Click to expand...
Sure, but they were still the best songs George had brought to the table, and it was always a struggle for him to get McCartney and Lennon to contribute on his tracks to the extent that they'd work on their own ones. Come Together is a classic, and You Never Give Me Your Money is one of my favourites, but Something and Here Comes The Sun are arguably two of the best Beatles songs in their entire catalogue rather than just two of the best songs on the album.


IMO of course.
 
MirrorProfiles said:
Sure, but they were still the best songs George had brought to the table, and it was always a struggle for him to get McCartney and Lennon to contribute on his tracks to the extent that they'd work on their own ones. Come Together is a classic, and You Never Give Me Your Money is one of my favourites, but Something and Here Comes The Sun are arguably two of the best Beatles songs in their entire catalogue rather than just two of the best songs on the album.


IMO of course.
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Wasn't that what compelled a lot of the crisis with George leaving the band briefly during
the Get Back sessions?
:idk

When I watched that Documentary I was blown away by how insecure and fragile George
was (feeling like he wasn't quite the guitarist a Clapton was) but also wanting to be stronger
and assert himself with Paul and John and not always defer. That's such an amazing watch. I
need to view it again.
 
la szum said:
Wasn't that what compelled a lot of the crisis with George leaving the band briefly during
the Get Back sessions?
:idk

When I watched that Documentary I was blown away by how insecure and fragile George
was (feeling like he wasn't quite the guitarist a Clapton was) but also wanting to be stronger
and assert himself with Paul and John and not always defer. That's such an amazing watch. I
need to view it again.
Click to expand...
Yeah my understanding was Lennon+McCartney treated it very business like - they had their writing partnership where it was always split 50/50 and then Harrison was on his own. I think it was just a case of money/credits being a bit regimented and that’s how it was.

I think there was definitely some resentment from the other 3 towards Paul since pretty much Sgt Pepper onwards when he was asserting his dominance more and more (but also driving the band to actually get anything done). Towards the end George must have really felt he needed more space to get his ideas out with less pressure on him.

en.m.wikipedia.org

Only a Northern Song - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org
 
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I really like the vocal melodies on many of their songs and would love to re do them a bit more modern rock style. The production on most of their stuff was not great to my ears.

What is interesting that Ringo does not stand out as a killer drummer to me, however, Gregg Bissnette and many other killer drummers cite him as a primary influence.
Also, the change from Beatles as the greatest to Zep as the greatest is such a shift -in a good way to my hard rocking mind! :guiness
 
cragginshred said:
The production on most of their stuff was not great to my ears.
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Do you mean production in terms of fidelity, or production in terms of the range of sounds used, the tones of each instrument and how they were captured?

I think especially the earlier material sounds as though it was recorded with fairly primitive gear gear - magnetic tape, consoles etc hadn’t really advanced to anywhere close to where they’d be even by 1970. An even bigger factor is how people listened to music back then. I think Abbey Road holds up pretty damn well to modern standards, largely in part to the EMI TG12345 desk getting used, stereo being slightly more established, having more time in the studio etc. I think recreating this sound now would be a very tall order - the mics alone are among the most high end and revered you can find, the outboard is similarly regarded as the pinnacle of what is available. It’s also a world leading studio, the top engineers, George Martin etc.

In terms of production in a more arrangement sense, I think it’s pretty amazing what they achieved. There was a constant pursuit of new sounds, and combining things in ways that hadn’t been done before. So many different instruments, both old and new (at the time) were combined in creative and musical ways.

Regarding Ringo’s drumming…. I think his genius stems from the creativity of his parts - there are so many songs that have very unique drum beats that would ONLY fit with that particular song and don’t really confirm to typical patterns. Come Together is an obvious example, but there are so many that are like that (In My Life, Here Comes the Sun, Tomorrow Never Knows).

The other aspect to his drumming, is he has a VERY distinctive and unmistakeable sound that manages to ooze personality and yet never impedes on the song or gets in the way. Absolutely no one is able to imitate his exact groove, it pushes and pulls in a very unique way that only he can pull off.
 
cragginshred said:
The production on most of their stuff was not great to my ears.
Click to expand...

Crappy echo and reverb pedals. :rofl

Abbey-Road_hrk7vj.jpg
 
cragginshred said:
I really like the vocal melodies on many of their songs and would love to re do them a bit more modern rock style. The production on most of their stuff was not great to my ears.

What is interesting that Ringo does not stand out as a killer drummer to me, however, Gregg Bissnette and many other killer drummers cite him as a primary influence.
:guiness
Click to expand...

Absolutely no offense meant, but you seem to be missing some of *the* core qualities of the Beatles.
Back in the days, their productions were almost revolutionary and redoing their vocals in a more modern rocky style would be... well, I dunno.
And as far as Ringo goes, his way of playing isn't praised that much just because he was a Beatle. It's really unique and extremely musical.
 
I grew up listening to the Beatles, (born in '58), so they will always hold a special place in my heart.
So many great songs ( and a few turkeys, it must be said, Octopus's Garden!!!)
But for me, my personal favourite is Rain, b side of the Paperback Writer 45.
For a record released in 1966 this sounds amazing.
Could be the song Oasis built a career on 🤔

 
Talking about mono vinyls...
Anybody ever played Beatles stuff through one of those cheap 70s plastic portable turntables? Like the ones with the speakers in the lid? Kinda like this:
Vinylplayer.jpg


That one actually looks gorgeous, mine didn't. But anyway, apart from the looks, mine wasn't stereo. It also wasn't exactly mono - no, it was half-stereo, so you'd always only listen to the left (I think) side.
Now, if you remember the first stereo mixes of the Beatles (and quite some others, of course), they were partially using extreme panning. So much that the drums or even the lead vocals would be completely panned to one side (only if you were lucky, you'd hear some bleed on the other side).
So, I had that thing (snagged it from my aunt or so) and my mum brought me the red (or blue, don't remember which one was first) double compilation of the Beatles everybody had back then while I was sick in bed. But things were just wrong. I mean, like completely wrong. Songs without drums. Or with almost only drums and no lead vocals. So, when I was fit again, I went to the shop, complaining something was wrong with the record printing or so. The dude in the shop would then put it on and everything was fine. WTF? So I had to get home to check whether I was doing something wrong. Same thing, of course. Next day I went to the shop with my portable thingy so the guy could listen to what was happening - he could actually even explain it to me. Next thing: Me running home "mum/dad, could I borrow some money for that new stereo record player?" Which they fortunately did.
 
Been listening to the Hunter Davies audiobook and it’s absolutely amazing. Just an insane level of depth to all the research and interviews and constant interesting anecdotes thrown in. Fully recommend it
 
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