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In which we pull away from the Get Back film for a while and converse about something completely different. Returning guest Gary Wenstrup and I conduct a conversation going through the first four Beatles albums, selecting our picks for Gold, Silver and Bronze status. Along the way we examine our criteria for what constitutes “favorite” songs, and how such values are fluid and ever evolving.
lovely program. favorite compositions change for me all the time as I think these experiences are true for most people. it’s all based on emotions and temporal experiences we continually have but our impressions tend to deepen and crystalize into ultimate “moments.”
I’ve kept a ritual of not listening to the Beatles songs all that often so that their impression never truly concretizes into specific moments in time.
Richard Rodriguez alludes to this in some ways which is nice to hear. I remind myself that reading and researching about the Beatles is not the same as listening to the actual music. Any historian, ethnographer or archeologist could possibly relate to this strategy am referencing.
Anyway, thank you Richard for opening the conversation up to include these relative moments and temporal experiences.
ps. fun is also relative to our individual experiences.. researching and worming through books and articles can also be defined as “fun”.
ps. fun is also relative to our individual experiences.. researching and worming through books and articles can also be defined as “fun”.
Thanks for giving some attention to It Won’t Be Long. I have thought for a long time that this song, though probably highly regarded by many Beatles fans, doesn’t get mentioned too often. Another interesting aspect of the song is that it is the first Lennon/McCartney verse-chorus song to appear on one of their albums. (I don’t believe anyone has pointed this out before. In other words, Please Please Me has only AABA songs and AABA/Hybrid songs. I forgot but there are about four Beatle-composed Verse-Chorus songs on With the Beatles. I may be wrong.)
But when John and Paul entered this new song-writing form (perhaps we need to ignore earlier songs), there seems to be some growing pains, remnants of AABA in their habits. In It Won’t Be Long, for example, they go to the bridge twice. This is a bit unusual and a characteristic of AABA-song writing, of course. In Nashville today, about 99.99% of the songs probably go to the bridge once.
The song’s format is:
Chorus – Verse – Chorus – Bridge – Verse – Chorus – Bridge – Verse – Chorus
I wonder if it were an AABA song and it was changed. I also wonder if George Martin suggested that they write verse-chorus songs.
Yes, there are some late songs (blue era) that are verse-chorus and go to the bridge twice but still on With The Beatles, they are a bit like an awkward looking teenager, handsome still but a little disproportional.
The issue when discussing Beatles’ albums is the fact they often left the best songs off since that was the UK process of the day.
Think about fantastic Revolver is…and then blow your mind by adding Paperback Writer/Rain to it.
Or We Can Work it out/DayTripper to Rubber Soul
etc
Perhaps for the next installments, you could include the singles that would’ve been on that album…
(I feel fine/She’s a woman) I’m guessing would be next…
I like the fact that they are not complicating things and staying away from the singles. By their very nature singles are “better” songs, or are thought to be. What I like about the exercise they are doing here is they are not trying to mix apples with oranges. When it comes to Beatles’ lists, I find it hard to mix red era songs and blue era songs.
I also find it hard to mix in cover songs, which they are doing here. To me, every cover has an asterisk next to it.
So, for me, I’m more interested in, say, what your favorite red era album is without covers? What your favorite early album is with covers? And what your favorite blue album is (Maggie Mae aside)?
(Rubber Soul, With The Beatles, The White Album)
Little Child? Wow “unsubscribes”. Not really, but a curious choice. No love for All I Got To Do and surprised the sensational A Hard Day’s Night (song) didn’t even get a mention. Anyway you know what they say about opinions
I very much enjoy SATB. and I very much appreciate the insight and great guests the host brings to our attention. And this was the very first episode where I felt maybe the idea well for shows was running dry. Being crazy blunt, I learned nothing here and not much fresh insight. The guest didn’t illuminate either. SATB is special because it take such a unique approach to the Beatles. But nothing fresh or unique about this one.