The Beatles Backyard

[Kalevala]

It was based on a cheating episode he engaged in while he was married to his first wife.

K

[Szykneij]

I'm sure I picked my three favorite albums at some point 14 years ago when this thread was started, but I voted again for Abbey Road, Revolver, and the White Album. If "Yesterday and Today" was listed, I'd have to decide which pick to bump, but it was only released in the U.S. and Canada so doesn't appear as a choice. I'm curious if my picks have changed. I'll have to try to find my previous post.

[Szykneij]

I think this album is underrated. It was the first Beatles album I bought as a kid



although these two were given to me by a cool aunt:

I guess I'm consistent.

[Elgarian Redux]

Do we know whether or not that song is based on a true story or is totally made up?

K

p.s.  Reminds me that I've been wanting to watch that movie about what if the Beatles and their music weren't known to the rest of the world but rather by only one young man?

I recall one rumour that the girl was Maureen Cleave the journalist, but I don't know how reliable that was.

The movie you want is Yesterday, and I thought it was terrific, after watching it twice. There will be a third time.

[Kalevala]

The movie you want is Yesterday, and I thought it was terrific, after watching it twice. There will be a third time.

Thanks!

K

[Szykneij]

I recall one rumour that the girl was Maureen Cleave the journalist, but I don't know how reliable that was.

The movie you want is Yesterday, and I thought it was terrific, after watching it twice. There will be a third time.

I really enjoyed the movie also, but Julian Lennon not as much. He didn't care for how his father was portrayed.

[Karl Henning]

I'm sure I picked my three favorite albums at some point 14 years ago when this thread was started, but I voted again for Abbey Road, Revolver, and the White Album. If "Yesterday and Today" was listed, I'd have to decide which pick to bump, but it was only released in the U.S. and Canada so doesn't appear as a choice. I'm curious if my picks have changed. I'll have to try to find my previous post.

Those are three solid choices! Might be my own!

[Iota]

The movie you want is Yesterday, and I thought it was terrific, after watching it twice. There will be a third time.

Ditto. Such a great concept and so brilliantly done. Kinda touching too.

[Karl Henning]

Ditto. Such a great concept and so brilliantly done. Kinda touching too.

As, for me, practically any documentary of the band or its several members does prove.

[Iota]

As, for me, practically any documentary of the band or its several members does prove.

Yes indeed. Though in this case I was referring (as I think Elgarian R and Kalevala were too) to the movie. Perhaps you'd realised this anyway, I just wasn't sure.

[Karl Henning]

Yes indeed. Though in this case I was referring (as I think Elgarian R and Kalevala were too) to the movie. Perhaps you'd realised this anyway, I just wasn't sure.

Yes, though I realize I shifted the ground by saying "documentary."

As, for me, practically any documentary of the band or its several members does prove.

I'm a bit at a loss to account for this. The Beatles weren't really "the soundtrack of my youth" the way they were for millions. Well, with probably the notable slight exception of that single which chanced to come with the "Close and Play" phonograph: "Yellow Submarine"/"Eleanor Rigby." Which, by the way, must likely have been my first exposure to a string qquartet.
By the time I was fully conscious of them, they had been broken up for a few years. Still, I feel a strong sentimental bond. It's a mystery I may never fathom. My high school jazz band played a kicking arrangement of "Norwegian Wood," and at the time I'd never heard the original. You could have knocked me over with a swizzle stick, the first time I heard George Harrison sing "Something," because I'd heard the song in various "easy listening" arrangements a hundred times before. 

[Elgarian Redux]

Yes, though I realize I shifted the ground by saying "documentary."
I'm a bit at a loss to account for this. The Beatles weren't really "the soundtrack of my youth" the way they were for millions. Well, with probably the notable slight exception of that single which chanced to come with the "Close and Play" phonograph: "Yellow Submarine"/"Eleanor Rigby." Which, by the way, must likely have been my first exposure to a string qquartet.
By the time I was fully conscious of them, they had been broken up for a few years. Still, I feel a strong sentimental bond. It's a mystery I may never fathom.

Rob Sheffield has something to say about the puzzle of this trans-generational effect. I'll quote him:

"The Beatles' second career has lasted several times longer than the first one. John, Paul, George and Ringo remain the world's favourite thing. Yet every theory ever devised to explain why has failed. It wasn't their timing. It wasn't drugs. It wasn't that they were the voice of a generation. The vast majority of Beatles fans today weren't born when the records came out - yet the allure of the music keeps on growing nearly fifty years after the band split. ... How did this happen? The world keeps dreaming the Beatles, long after the Beatles themselves figured the dream was over. Our Beatles have outlasted theirs. ...
I'm not looking to solve this riddle - just understand it better."

[Elgarian Redux]

Two more juicy quotes from Rob Sheffield's book:

1. On the making of Sgt. Pepper:
"The album will be famous primarily for being the Greatest Ever, and then it's going to be famous as the album that makes people argue about whether it's really the greatest or not."

2. On Beatles v Stones:
"Every time the Beatles discovered a new trick and proved it could be done, the Stones would breeze along a few months later to prove it could be done sarcastically."

[Karl Henning]

On Beatles v Stones:
"Every time the Beatles discovered a new trick and proved it could be done, the Stones would breeze along a few months later to prove it could be done sarcastically."

That's aptly snarky, which has a holistic rightness. And that of itself probably appealed to John.

[Elgarian Redux]

Battered by high winds and bitter cold, we've spent the day huddled by an open fire, stoking it up with logs. For lunch we ate cheese on toast, drank a giant pot of coffee, and read our books (mine being Dreaming the Beatles, still). To go with all this, we needed something warm, cosy, and gentle, with Christmas not so far away. We chose Paul McCartney's Working Classical, and it was bloomin' perfect. Great music it is not, if we're thinking Mozart or Wagner. But restorative, gentle, lovely and melodic - yes, it is those things.

[Karl Henning]

Battered by high winds and bitter cold, we've spent the day huddled by an open fire, stoking it up with logs. For lunch we ate cheese on toast, drank a giant pot of coffee, and read our books (mine being Dreaming the Beatles, still). To go with all this, we needed something warm, cosy, and gentle, with Christmas not so far away. We chose Paul McCartney's Working Classical, and it was bloomin' perfect. Great music it is not, if we're thinking Mozart or Wagner. But restorative, gentle, lovely and melodic - yes, it is those things.

You turned me onto that album, very nice!

[LKB]

I've started a second reading of Rob Sheffield's Dreaming the Beatles, which would be in my top 5 list of Beatles books:



...And then I've never read such a delightfuly offbeat Beatle track review as this, about:
"the Swinging London hipster in Norwegian Wood, the one who stays up late drinking wine on her rug with John and tells him she has to leave early for work in the morning. She's got John Lennon in her bathtub - for that you'd think she could call in sick."

It's hard not to read this book with a perpetual daft smile on my face, but it won't be for everyone.

I'm sure many recall the end of that particular song, when the protagonist warms himself at the expense of her furniture. Classic early Lennon. 

[Karl Henning]

I'm sure many recall the end of that particular song, when the protagonist warms himself at the expense of her furniture. Classic early Lennon. 

Ikea protest before it became cool?

[LKB]

Battered by high winds and bitter cold, we've spent the day huddled by an open fire, stoking it up with logs. For lunch we ate cheese on toast, drank a giant pot of coffee, and read our books (mine being Dreaming the Beatles, still). To go with all this, we needed something warm, cosy, and gentle, with Christmas not so far away. We chose Paul McCartney's Working Classical, and it was bloomin' perfect. Great music it is not, if we're thinking Mozart or Wagner. But restorative, gentle, lovely and melodic - yes, it is those things.

I've always considered Standing Stone to have some very nice moments. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with his more recent endeavors.

[AnotherSpin]

Probably, after Rubber Soul, The Beatles transitioned into a realm of songs that are difficult to classify. Nevertheless:
- The most beautiful song is Something.
- The most heartbreaking is For No One.
- The most transcendent is Come Together.
- The greatest breakthrough is Strawberry Fields Forever.