What's your favourite Beatles album?

1 Let It Be
2 The Beatles
3 Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Wibbs wrote: »

+1 He was a very interesting drummer. Being a leftie playing a right handed kit was some of it. I find him more a "percussionist" of sorts. He's not so much a drummers drummer if you know what I mean? He rarely played mad fills or was flashy or got into a groove, more a guy who wrote drum parts for specific songs.

Yamanoto wrote: »

All you need is cash

Indeed.

The Blue Album

Wibbs wrote: »

Funny enough I could never see the attraction of Floyd. I fully understand and appreciate why they're so well liked and revered, but never appealed to me. I find them a bit Eh lads, great song, but could we cut it in half?

I thought the opposite about Wish You Were Here (the song), I could stay with it for a few more verses but instead they cut it brutally short as if it was half finished.

I never could get into Floyd either, a bit too up themselves I find, but there are some tracks I like a lot e.g. Wish You Were Here, Run Like Hell, Comfortably Numb, The Gunner's Dream and a few others I can't think of right now, so they do have a place on my Spotify Playlist. I can't stand Another Brick in the Wall, though.

storker wrote: »

I couldn't isolate one...but a few contenders (based on what I've listened to lately) would be:

Tin Soldier - The Small Faces
White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane
I Can't Explain - The Who
Gimme Shelter - Rolling Stones
The First Cut is the Deepest - P.P. Arnold

Now, maybe they're not deserving of the all time No. 1 spot for the decade (back to subjectivity again) but I wouldn't rate Waterloo Sunset higher than any of them, as much as I like it.

Some great tunes there. Tin soldier is class. What a voice Steve Marriott had. Very underrated. Gimme shelter for the female vocal is unreal.

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

I don't care if someone doesn't like The Beatles. It's the use of the word 'overrated' that bugs me. Just say The Beatles aren't your thing if you don't like them. "I don't like them" is a subjective opinion. "They're overrated" suggests you're going to come up with a more compelling argument than "lol they're shite".

They're not my thing and I still think they're overrated and I've explained why. You don't have to like it or agree with it, but I stand by it.

And saying there's a lot going on in Strawberry Fields Forever or that there's a lot of exotic instruments on it isn't a subjective opinion. There is a lot going on and there are a lot of exotic instruments on it. There isn't a lot going on just for me. There's a lot going on in the song full stop.

True, and I agree there's a lot going on it but claiming that because of that it's better than everything else is too much of a jump, and that's when things become subjective.

That would be like me saying Mariah Carey can't sing just because her music doesn't appeal to me, someone telling me that she has a five octave vocal range and me replying with "that's just your opinion".

That's not a great analogy, because, I'm not saying the Beatles couldn't sing, or play, or write songs, or play them well. I'm saying that there were plenty of other groups around at the time who could do all those things too, and I get the impression that people go on too much about the Beatles when there were equally-talented contemporaries around and that's what I mean by overrated.

It's very relevant to point out how much work went into something when someone is calling it overrated.

I think you're on dodgy ground there. Mere work expended is not guarantee of quality in most walks of life (except maybe the gym). What not just accept that in music, as in art, as in literature and poetry there are lots of conflicting opinions that don't jibe with each other. Such is life. Why get upset over it?

storker wrote: »

I thought the opposite about Wish You Were Here (the song), I could stay with it for a few more verses but instead they cut it brutally short as if it was half finished.

I never could get into Floyd either, a bit too up themselves I find, but there are some tracks I like a lot e.g. Wish You Were Here, Run Like Hell, Comfortably Numb, The Gunner's Dream and a few others I can't think of right now, so they do have a place on my Spotify Playlist. I can't stand Another Brick in the Wall, though.

They were great as the Syd Barrett falling the fùck apart supporting band, and for Wish You Were Here and DSOTM, where things just fell into place incredibly well and everyone worked together at what they were good at.

As the Roger Waters ran band though, they were fùcking pretentious and puerile as bum. And post Syd, pre Darkside, they didn't really know what the fùck they were doing, though they have their moments.

The Gilmour albums after Roger left though are some of the worst albums I've ever heard, at least Roger's era had Dogs, Comfortably Numb, The Gunners Dream, the odd thing like that.

Revolver
Abbey Road
Sgt Pepper/ White Album/Rubber Soul (depending on mood)

Talking to people about how great The Beatles were is often a total waste of time. It's kinda like saying, "I've seen this amazing sport called football, have you ever heard of it?"

The point being that they're literally the most famous and acclaimed band of all time: there's not much left to add in many respects.

Still though...

I was a committed metal head growing up and anything that didn't have crunching distorted guitars and a vocalist screaming their head off wasn't much of an interest to me. But when I reached 18/19 my ears needed a bit more and I started to let go of my prejudices about other genres of music and I started to go back and listen to all the greats from the 60's and 70's.

What a time that was, really discovering all the proper legends and my knowledge and appreciation of music grew and grew. This was the early to mid-noughties, the last hurrah of spending twenty quid on an album by someone you hadn't heard before, you'd just read about. And to justify the outlay I'd listen to albums again and again and again. I listened to nothing but Trout Mask Replica for about a fortnight straight at one stage, because it was famous and I was going to try to understand it dammit' - I don't know if I succeeded there, but I love that album for what it is.

Anyways, I digress, but I got a fairly good handle on all of the big hitters from that era. The Who did nothing for me. I appreciated Bob Dylan, though I never crossed over into the evangelical fandom phase. Pink Floyd were great in places. The Kinks were solid - occasionally amazing. The Doors were kind of perceived as a bit of a joke, but I'd put them up there with the very best - the amount of classic tunes they wrote was obscene. The Rolling Stones were amazing and dangerous. The Beach Boys were obviously great, fantastic melodies, but maybe a bit overrated for me. Who else made an impression? Creedance, Zepplin, Velvet Underground, King Crimson, Neil Young, Townes Van Zandt, The Stooges - ah, there's loads more, but those were the ones that did it for me the most.

But, man, The Beatles. The Beatles were number fcking one. The melodies. The harmonies. The variety. The innovation. The absolutely insane artistic growth they displayed over such a short space of time. The distinctiveness of a Lennon song to a McCartney song - and then, eventually, a George song - the magic when a collabaration worked. The way they never had a fallow period, they just kept evolving and changing right up until the point where they just stopped dead. I don't listen to them religiously anymore, but when I meet one of their songs every now and again it usually precipitates a major binge for a little while and I still love the tunes even after hearing them a thousand times. Hand on heart, I actually think because they were that good that, if anything, they're underrated.

Lot of love for The White Album, I have to agree, it's my favourite Beatles album. Let It Be is their most underrated album imho.

Steve F wrote: »

A lot of people feel the same about U2 especially Bono but if they voice their opinion they are stared at like they have 2 heads.It's not compulsory to like U2...or any other band.Personally I wouldn't cross the road to see U2. Music tastes, like a lot of other things in life, is subjective

This makes no sense, but I liked U2 up to (not including) Achtung Baby. Now I fúcking hate them, to the point I can't even enjoy their older stuff any more. Bono is such a tosser I can't even enjoy Where The Streets Have No Name or Bad any more.

storker wrote: »

I can't stand Another Brick in the Wall, though.

I love Pink Floyd but hate that song too. Skip up until the guitar solo