Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Mike, have you heard the clip on "Anthology" where he's playing the guitar only on Julia...and then drops a chord? Classic JL in my book--the exchange he has with the booth always makes me smile...

Bill

i cant stand maxwells silver hammer, i dont like obla di obla da, although the anthology version is much better, in australia there was a childrens show called fat cat, which uses obla di obla da as its theme song, perhaps thats why i hate it

"She Said" has George on bass. Paul walked out in a snit. I do recall an interview with John in which he said, approximately, "The last three songs on an album are usually pure slog." This included "Run for Your Life" and "Wait," which he didn't like. After hearing all the outtakes on "Anthology" and other sources, I'm very impressed that they seemed to pick the best takes in almost all cases. I still like the version of "I've Got A Feeling" that breaks down with John blowing a lick and saying, "I cocked it up tryin' to get loud!" It has much more energy and interplay between J & P than the "official" version. Actually, I first heard this cut on the "Kum Back" bootleg LP in the early '70s.

They certainly let a fantastic version of Across the Universe get away in '68 and released a version later that was of significantly lower quality.

What Goes On has a kind of unique harmony vocal by John...sounds unlike all his others...if it just wasn't so long it'd be a decent album track. It was kind of a classic clunker on the jumble of an "lp" Capitol called Yesterday and Today (apparently Today didn't make the cut.)

Bill yes I have heard the anthology take. His communication with Paul in the booth does bring a smile to my face. Too bad there's no vocals on that version though.

Funny how it's oft said Beatles EPs bombed in the states. It didn't help that the picked songs like Mr. Moonlight and Honey Don't for them. No offense to Carl Perkins but Ringo singing a then ten year old rockabilly cover...how could that be expected to light a fire under 7-in buyers?

I've got a Feeling is one of my all time favorite tunes, Let it be has some great stuff on it, another is I dig A Pony. I like Let it Be better than many of their albums, it's very real and live sounding, much energy.
So sad they broke up. I got very depressed when I found out, seemed like they were there all my life, The Beatles were the most important and real thing in my life, was like a bubble burst. I was 17.

Yeah Let it Be has some great tracks on it. I prefer the non Phil Specter version though.

At least you were around when the Beatles were actually still a band and got to have that experience. The Beatles broke up 18 years before I was even born.

It's funny how Lennon thought Spector did the best he could with Let It Be and that any faults that it had were not Phil's when clearly this was not the case (then again, P.S. wasn't around when the tracks were being recorded and the ideas being discussed but only after the fact.)

I remember the day the news broke that the Beatles split. They showed the cover of Abbey Road on one of the major network news shows. I was 7, just old enough to realize it was something very, very big. And I remember where I was when discussing it a few minutes later with my oldest brother.

But I was not old enough to comprehend their mid 60s fame when it was happening. I did, though, recently read an interview with Big Star's original bass player, Andy Hummel, and even after all the fabs docs and books and whatnot I've digested, he seemed to put it in perspective in one astute statement.

It went something like this, "even today, it's hard for anyone who wasn't there to conceive of Beatlemania at its height, as it happened. There simply has been nothing even close to it since.

In those days, when you went to school, you talked about the Beatles with your friends. And when you went home, more likely than not, you talked about the Beatles with your parents at the dinner table.

And when your parents took you to someone's backyard BBQ during the weekend, the parents were talking about the Beatles with each other while the kids were doing the same, and the Beatles were on the radio. And this was going on all over.

The Beatles were everywhere, all the time, non stop, for years. Comedians told Beatles jokes. Sit coms had Beatlemania plot lines. And just when you thought you knew what was going on the Beatles did something new and different and it would all start anew.

It is nearly impossible to put into words how pervasive the whole thing was. If you weren't there it would be hard to conceive it."

Anyway, that's what I remember from it and it was well said.

"All Together Now" is also a good candidate for WORST.

Oh, c'mon now Kent!!! "1,2,3,4, can I have a little more"??? I only WISH that I could write lyrics like that! LOL!!!
(Honestly...I DO like the song)

I'm with you, Brian. The opening accoustic guitar, the first couple of seconds, are just plain cool.

ya gotta admit that it was one of those "throw aways" that Lennon talked about.... a piece of non-serious fluff.... kinda like a stoned out jam session that they decided to polish up a bit and throw on the record as filler.

the ones that comes up in my mind are

1) Revolution 9 (if it can be considered as a song)
2) You Know My Name/Look up the number
3) Within You, Without You

I usually skip them when listening to their albums

Glenn - that is so correct. I remember every day for years, there would be at least one article, however trivial ("George turns 21, smokes first cigar, throws drink on photographer") on the front page of the L.A. newspaper. It was almost mandatory to mention them, even negatively, to show one was hep. They were used as a cultural touchstone in their own time.

I have a Fantastic 5 comic book (given to me) from that period "The Fantastic 5 Meet The Beatles", and they do, as part of the storyline. (I'll scan the cover when I get home if anyone's interested).

Even in "Goldfinger" they're mentioned. A phenom that all-encompassing is unimaginable in this day and age, or ever again, I'd imagine.

So many splintered cultural groups today (I mean of those enjoying the arts and entertainment), the chance of one artist or movement capturing everyone's attention is unthinkable.