The Surviving Members Of The Collection!

The surviving members of the collection!

I'm not sure why, but of late I've been hearing a lot of both talk and music by The Beatles on our local radio. I even got 'on air' and correctly answered on question on The Beatles this afternoon. Well I guess I am a bit of a Beatles aficionado! In previous blog entries I've commented that I once had the complete Beatles collection on vinyl, but sadly most of them have succumbed to heat warping. I still have three vinyl albums that are playable, 'With The Beatles', 'Beatles For Sale' and 'Rubber Soul', and of course I do have the full Beatles collection on CD and I still have the covers from the sadly warped and unplayable albums. I actually listened to the 'Beatles for Sale' vinyl album after lunch today. What a great and progressive band they were, and pretty well their career spanned the whole of that wonderful, but frequently chaotic decade of the 1960's, a decade of enormous change in just about every possible way! I've often wondered why on the CD versions the early albums were 'monaurised' as my remaining vinyl versions are stereo and sound fine! Mmmmmmmmmm.

During the week I heard that several albums were top ranking albums on a recent Billboard album survey. I seem to recall that 'Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band' was number one and 'Revolver' and 'Rubber Soul' rated highly in the list. Although they're all great albums, they are not my personal favourites from The Beatles. My favourite albums are 'Beatles for Sale' (1964) and 'The Beatles aka The White Album' (double vinyl album from 1968). 'Beatles For Sale', to my ears represents the true 'early' Beatles with just a hint of what was to come in terms of song writing progression. 'The Beatles' to me is just full of great songs after the lysergic haze of 'Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band'. I believe that George Martin (their producer) wanted the group to make 'The Beatles' a great single album against the group's wishes. Personally I'm glad it remained a double album. It's a great set all the way through, in my opinion! I seem to recall that the group insisted on a double album format for 'contractual' reasons.

A lot of the stuff on 'The Beatles', to my ears remain quite 'contemporary' sounding and in fact a few years ago I was playing 'The Beatles' on CD at a friends place when a young Generation Y visitor asked, 'who's that band, they're great'. He didn't know they were The Beatles! I believe that new Beatles albums remasters are either available or about to be. Personally I'm not really interested. I have a problem with 'tinkering' when it impacts on the basic recordings in an artistic way. Having said that though, I'll admit to one curious exception, the recent 'Let It Be- Naked' CD release. I applaud the 'restoration' work done on that album. The album is so enjoyable and sounds so good without all the Phil Spector overdubs I frequently wonder why The Beatles bothered to enlist his help in the first place with the album! Perhaps listening perceptions change over the years? Perhaps. I was never a fan of the 'original' 'Let It Be' album but I love the 'Naked' version! It is interesting that on the 30th Anniversary release of George Harrison's superb 'All Things Must Pass' debut solo effort, he was reported to have expressed some reservations on the Phil Spector 'sound', thirty years later. Yes, perceptions do change, it seems!

I would love to get new vinyl copies of the Beatles albums I have lost, but like Jimi Hendrix albums I've never seen any Beatles albums in the second hand shops so perhaps I might have to splash out and buy 'new' Beatles vinyl albums, after all. Great music like this is definitely work acquiring! More to come! Felix.