Wednesday, February 24, 2010

#59: Meet The Beatles- The Beatles

Listened to: Vinyl

Can you imagine being a young kid in the early 60’s, putting on this record for the first time, and hearing the beginning to “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” for the first time? It’d probably be more memorable than losing your virginity. We know Beatlemania as a part of history, but can you imagine looking at the cover of this record, and not knowing their names? This was it. The start. Where the rocket really picked up speed. Even though “Introducing…The Beatles” was the first album, legend now states this was the first album. And when the legend becomes truth, print the legend. So, now that we’ve covered the historical significance, I feel fully comfortable saying this album has also stood the test of time.

“I Wanna Hold Your Hand” is not only a landmark song, it’s still great. Anyone writing music today wishes, or should wish, they could come up with something as good. That clapping, the harmonies, everything, it’s utter perfection. I can’t think of a fraction of a thing that I would change on this song. To make it even better, “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” is followed by one of my favorite Beatles songs, the hard-rock before there was hard-rock track “I Saw Her Standing There”. Hell, you can find vague traces of punk-rock in here if you listen hard. That yell of “1. 2. 3. 4!!!!!!” kick starts an upbeat piece of brilliance. To be honest, I don’t know how many people know what he means by “She was just 17”, but we all know that feeling. P.S., guys who say Ringo wasn’t that good a drummer, watch the way he does fills on this and goes right back into the beat seamlessly. Then you try. Yeah, fuck you, buddy.

“This Boy” is a nice slow dance track, and one that probably wouldn’t have been almost forgotten about, were I not packaged between the one-two punch of “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” & “I Saw Her Standing There”, and the supercharged, and brilliantly harmonically back “It Won’t Be Long”, that I for one still think of Evan Rachel Wood when I hear it (fun cat: One of the actors we’re auditioning on Saturday was in Across The Universe). “All I’ve Gotta Do” switches from soft melody and heavy chorus (well, as heavy as it got in 1964) like some masterful attempt at the Pixies, except 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 times better, and far ahead of it‘s time. “All My Loving” is again an absolute classic. The guitars’ frenetic strumming only adds to the beauty of the multi-tracked melody. Listen to those “oooohs” on the background of the “All my lovin, I will send to you”, and tell me you don’t get chills.

“Don’t Bother Me” has a dark, mysterious feel to it that may not be a staple in the Beatles oeuvre, but it is an early George Harrison composition, and this oughta show you fresh off that there was something special about George. “Little Child” has one of my favorite harmonies on the line “I’m so sad and lonely”. Another song that gets forgotten next to the Beatles “hits”, but which could have been a hit in it’s own right. “Till There Was You” was originally from Meredith Wilson’s The Music Man, but Paul sings such a heartfelt rendition that my father spent his childhood believing it was a Beatles original. If that’s not a ringing endorsement for the song, I don’t know what is.

“Hold Me Tight” is another one that is inseparable from Across The Unversed to me, and in the best way, because it helps me better visualize what it would be like to be In a 60’s dance hall, blaring this track and just dancing. This is a great rocking track that I sincerely wish I wrote. The same goes for “I Wanna Be Your Man”, except now I’m thinking of A Hard Day’s Night. The frenetic dancing, the whole atmosphere had to have been amazing. The album ends on “Not A Second Time”, a great vocal track, whose melody goes into great, beautiful, and unexpected places, but never once falls short of great and right. Plus, that piano part is just genius. Actually, to conclude, the whole album is genius. In fact, this is an album that absolutely defines what should be the criteria for a Greatest Albums list. Historical significance (either influential on the culture as a whole or future musicians, in this case both) mixed with quality music. This album is most definitely worth listening to, over and over again. Hell, as soon s I’m finished typing this, I’m gonna start the album over again.

-Mike

Catch you guys tomorrow for #494: She’s So Unusual by Cyndi Lauper. And to avoid me being overly praising of the album, I brought in my good friend Tom Lorenzo to offer some alpha-male balance. Come back and check it out.

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