Beatle Eras

[rickinroma]

I like all of them, but if I had to choose....

Era 4: The Metamorphosis: "Rubber Soul"/"Revolver" (October 1965-August 1966)
Era 5: The Psychedelic years: "Sgt Pepper"/"Magical Mystery Tour"/"Yellow Submarine" (November 1966-February 1968)

[shamustwin]

The only problem is that your "stripped down years" doesn't last much more than 7 monthes...

Consider today, an artist puts out a CD, what, every two or three years?

[brammy]

and dont forget:

Prellys - Hamburg era
Alcohol - "Please Please Me" to "Beatles For Sale"
Marajuana - "Help" to "Rubber Soul"
LSD - "Revolver" to "Magical Mystery Tour"
Eastern religion - "The Beatles"
Heroin - "Let it Be" - "Abbey Road"

[shamustwin]

I don't know, on the cover of Beatles For Sale they all look as if they'd imbibed in herbal rejuvenation.

[revolver323]

The energy up to "Rubber Soul" was incredible. Very much like hearing the band live, I reckon. From "Rubber Soul" on, more studio craftsmanship, but I still love verything they've done.

[kiramdear]

Aside from the compositional analysis, here's one way to look at it:

1) Pre-Brian ('57 - '61)
2) Brian ('62 - '66)
3) Coasting on Brian's momentum ('67)
4) Floundering on their own for a while before dissolving ('68 - '69)

[beatlefreak]

Fine, except Brian died in August, 1967.

[kiramdear]

Fine, except Brian died in August, 1967.

Yeah, but he was kinda out of a job with them after Candlestick. When they decided no more touring, his influence waned considerably. He was hardly even allowed in the studio ever, anyway.

[Starless]

Looking at the original poster's timeline, I would lump Let It Be in with the White Album. They were only a matter of months apart and both steered clear of the effects-laden Pepper/MMT studio experimentation. Only Revolution 9 could be considered anything out of the ordinary as everything else was performed with a view to getting the best take or performance down on tape, rather than agonising over revolving Leslie speakers, backwards vocals etc.

Returning from Rishikesh saw them thoroughly cleansed of all that had gone before in terms of studio trickery and I would label the White Album/LIB nine month period as the 'Back To Acrimonious Basics' or 'George Martin - The Wilderness Months' era.

Abbey Road stands on its own as the 'See, This is What We Can Do When We Really Try' era, or 'The Determined Effort To Go Out On A High'.

Which is exactly what they did.

[deaconblues]

Looking at the original poster's timeline, I would lump Let It Be in with the White Album. They were only a matter of months apart and both steered clear of the effects-laden Pepper/MMT studio experimentation. Only Revolution 9 could be considered anything out of the ordinary as everything else was performed with a view to getting the best take or performance down on tape, rather than agonising over revolving Leslie speakers, backwards vocals etc.

Returning from Rishikesh saw them thoroughly cleansed of all that had gone before in terms of studio trickery and I would label the White Album/LIB nine month period as the 'Back To Acrimonious Basics' or 'George Martin - The Wilderness Months' era.

I don't know about that...there was certainly a lot of experimentation and complexity in the recording of the White Album.

Notably: 'Glass Onion', 'Wild Honey Pie', 'Honey Pie', 'Piggies', 'Long Long Long', 'Savoy Truffle', and especially 'Good Night' and 'Revolution 9'. Heck, even 'Revolution 1' had horn parts.

All standing in sharp contrast to the guitar-bass-organ-drums approach during 'Let it Be'.

Anyway, we now see the problem with condensing the work of the Beatles into 'eras' or 'phases' - it was a continuous musical and creative evolution, not a stage-by-stage process.

[brianeharmonjr]

"The White Album" has pretty much always been my favorite Beatles album, but in the past couple of years I've really been into the "Beatles For Sale"/"Help" era more than ever. I just love those albums more and more every time I listen to them. Then again, that could be said for any of these eras at one time or another. So, I guess I go through phases where one chunk of their stuff stands out to me.