Best Middle-Era Beatles?

[Beware the Beast Man]

Poll question: Best Middle-Era Beatles?

[Beware the Beast Man]

1. Rubber Soul

Not to discredit any of their other LP's but this is by far their most cohesive.

[mac56]

2. A hard choice.

I'm in awe of the technical achievements and songwriting prowess on display in "Revolver". But "Rubber Soul" makes me happier. Wish I could vote for both, but went with "Rubber Soul".

I'm one of the rare few that believes either of these albums leave "Sgt. Pepper" in the dust. "Magical Mystery Tour" is a K-Tel hits package.

[Beware the Beast Man]

3. I agree- Sgt. Pepper

IMO is a technical masterpiece, and showed their evolution into serious artists respected outside the pop/rock community, but it's such a dated, overrated album. It's still good, just not their best.

[jpgray]

4. Apparently you're not as rare as you thought

I also don't think Sgt. Pepper's stands up very well to Revolver or Rubber Soul. :)

I have to go Revolver from these choices--Rubber Soul is arguably more consistent, but the guitar tone and the high points on Revolver beat it out, in my view.

[mac56]

5. Another poster, another thread

made the argument that "Revolver" was the first ever power pop album. I gotta agree.

[GCP]

6. Revolver - "Tomorrow Never Knows" is an overlooked classic

Unlike most other Beatles songs it's all in one chord, and Ringo's drumming is like a steel spine running through it and holding it together.

Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream,
It is not dying, it is not dying

Lay down all thoughts, surrender to the void,
It is shining, it is shining.

Yet you may see the meaning of within
It is being, it is being

Love is all and love is everyone
It is knowing, it is knowing

And ignorance and hate mourn the dead
It is believing, it is believing

But listen to the colour of your dreams
It is not leaving, it is not leaving

So play the game "existence" to the end
Of the beginning, of the beginning

This is from amg.com

"Tomorrow Never Knows" was the most experimental and psychedelic track on Revolver, in both its structure and production. This was not a song that could be easily sung by a rock group live, as the special effects and tape manipulation that were integral to the tune could not be re-created on-stage. In addition, there was a conspicuous absence of the riffs and verse-bridge-chorus-dominated construction that had colored virtually every original Beatles composition before 1966. The underpinnings of "Tomorrow Never Knows" were a single-tone drone, influenced by the group's growing interest in Indian music, and unforgettable stop-start, stuttering drum patterns by Ringo Starr. Eerie high-pitched seagull-like chanting was in the background throughout; principal composer John Lennon had actually envisioned the sound of monks chanting, and if this effect was not precisely what he had in mind, it was equally memorable. The lyrics were psychedelic, which is not just a critic's assumption: some of the words were adapted from Timothy Leary's book The Psychedelic Experience and the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Regardless of the source, the lyrics were philosophical, existential, sometimes inscrutable reflections on the state of being: a heavy subject for popular music, whether in 1966 or any other year. It would be difficult to assign an interpretation to the Beatles' own viewpoint as seen through "Tomorrow Never Knows," since the words are themselves a kaleidoscopic shift of thoughts and feelings, sometimes seeming to advocate passive relaxation and acceptance, at others intense karmic exploration, and at others advising unconventional intuition (as in the exhortation to listen to the color of one's dreams). There's way too much going on in the production of the track to detail in one paragraph: readers are advised to consult Mark Lewisohn's The Beatles Recording Sessions for full details of the tape loops, organ, honky tonk piano, wine glass, and Leslie speakers employed to conjure the dreamlike ambience. Bits worth noting, however, are the final verse, in which Lennon's voice suddenly takes on an interstellar intercom-like quality; the alarm-like noise heard just as Lennon starts that final verse; the berserk gyrations of the riffs, as such, in the instrumental break, which sound like a tape being threaded through the machine on varispeed; and Lennon's insistent repetitions of "in the beginning" at the end, which puts things on a somewhat more tranquil note before everything winds down in a cacophony of chants and piano. One would think that "Tomorrow Never Knows" is one of the most uncoverable of all Beatles songs, but actually the new wave raga- rock group Monsoon (with singer Sheila Chandra) did a credible version in the early '80s. -- Richie Unterberger

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

7. Very hard choices. Rubber Soul and Revolver were like bookends

to each other. They marked dramatic changes in the maturity of Lennon, McCartney (and I must give credit to Harrison) as song-writers. Sgt. Pepper, of course, was credited as being the first concept album and ushered in "The Summer of Love." Man, I love "A Day in the Life."

I read the news today oh boy
About a lucky man who made the grade
And though the news was rather sad
Well I just had to laugh
I saw the photograph

He blew his mind out in a car
He didn’t notice that the lights had changed
A crowd of people stood and stared
They’d seen his face before
Nobody was really sure
If he was from the House of Lords.

I saw a film today oh boy
The English Army had just won the war
A crowd of people turned away
But I just had to look
Having read the book.

I’d love to turn you on

Woke up, got out of bed,
Dragged a comb across my head
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup,
And looking up I noticed I was late.
Found my coat and grabbed my hat
Made the bus in seconds flat
Found my way upstairs and had a smoke,
And somebody spoke and I went into a dream

I heard the news today oh boy
Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all
Not they know how many holes it takes
To fill the Albert Hall.

I’d love to turn you on.

[jfxgillis]

9. PSYCH!!!!

Oh God, you must have ESP.

I was about to say "Revolver" is the best album the Beatles ever produced, but "Day in the Life" is the best song.

I have pulled over when it came on in the car because my mind gets to wanderin' ...... and a wanderin' mind is no state to be in while driving.

I LITERALLY remember the first time I heard it on the day Sgt. Pepper was released, on WMEX Radio in Boston, the Steve Fredricks Show.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

12. I was born the year the Beatles broke up; Lucky that you were around

when they were "all together now"!

[jfxgillis]

13. You'll have memories long after I'm dead ...

... so it'll even out, but I DO feel lucky.

I was 14 years old and my Mom let me stay up past midnight to listen to it on the radio--they played it straight through at the moment of the legal release date. I came downstairs halfway through and said "Mom, this is REALLY weird, you GOTTA hear this!!" and we listened to side two together.

[jfxgillis]

8. Sgt. Pepper isn't "Middle Era" . . . .

( . . . . although Magical Mystery Tour is).

Sergeant Pepper is the first late album, not the last middle album.

[jpgray]

11. Magical Mystery Tour is a mix of pre-Pepper singles and post-Pepper songs

Flying and The Fool on the Hill, for example, were recorded in the Fall of '67, some months after Sgt. Pepper had been recorded.

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

10. Rubber Soul

nt

[Deja Q]

14. Paperback Writer

Hello Goodbye

[dbt]

15. Revolver Kick!

In memory of George Harrison's poor, abused Vox AC30 amp and the fact that the LSD made the frets disappear from whatever guitar he happened to pick up!

"She Said She Said"
"And Your Bird Can Sing"
"Dr. Robert"
"I'm Only Sleeping"

:loveya:
dbt

[Parrcrow]

16. They are all great albums

I gave Magical Mystery Tour my vote because I think that it is underated. Actually, I really prefer Revolver it came first of this group and was truly innovative.

[MrSlayer]

17. Revolver for me.

This is where the Beatles got really good and stepped away from the bubblegum crap completely.