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He Said He Said
The immeasurable legacy of the Beatles, part two
By Joe Sorren and Bodie Dennis
Published on 10/08/2009
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Editor’s note: Below is the second in a series of columns written
by two notorious local Beatle freaks: artist Joe Sorren and musician
Bodie Dennis. With the Sept. 9 release of the band’s newly remastered catalogue (both mono and stereo mixes), a total frenzy
ensued in the music world and here we have our own resident
experts to examine the newly found depth in the legendary
music.
Joe:
When I first got the Beatles mono and stereo box
sets, the first album I felt I rediscovered was Beatles For
Sale. Thought of by many, including John Lennon, to be a
throwaway, the record has aged extremely well. Listening today, we
clearly find a band with one boot in pure hard rock and the other in
more acoustic, introspective songwriting that points us toward a
future Help!/Rubber Soul direction.
Sonically, I feel it is one of the most successful of the re-releases,
as Paul’s bass is clearly revealed in a fierce, brazen role as his
confidence grows, and Harrison’s bell-like timbre is shown to be
present in these early records. What were your initial thoughts of
these early recordings, Bodie?
Bodie:
I definitely concur on Beatles For Sale. This
oft-forgotten LP has always been one of my favorites.
The Jekyll
and Hyde dynamics of “No Reply” about knocked me over when I
first sampled the ’09 revision, and the insidious roll of numbers like
“Eight Days a Week” and “Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey!” makes it
nearly impossible to remain seated.
But let’s rewind a bit. While it’s also my view that Beatles For
Sale marks the beginning of their long arc toward Rubber
Soul and Revolver, the two albums that preceded it are
every bit as splendid for very much the opposite reason.
I’ll explain. It’s become the norm to hear musicians striving to be
something greater than they presently are. While it’s certainly
nothing to be admonished for, it sometimes comes at a price.
Spend some time in the garden of my eclectic tastes, and it can
seem like musicians are seldom ever comfortable in their own skin.
Always reaching, never content to just be the best version of what
they actually are at that particular point in time.
The great thing about With the Beatles and A Hard Days
Night is that, for the most part, they show the Beatles saying,
“This is where we are right now.” The reason it works so well anyway
is, well, because it’s John, Paul, George and Ringo.
Joe:
I know! I remember deciding to like With the
Beatles back in the ’87 release. This was back when Fine
Young Cannibals were starting to make people’s ears bleed, and
U2 was still looking for things. It was so fresh to hear John shred
Smokey Robinson’s “You Really Got a Hold On Me.” The groove is
weird on that song too, like they are playing a strange facsimile of
Motown. And George …
Bodie:
Now, I realize that there are definitely some
important milestones on these albums too, like “Don’t Bother Me,”
George’s first recorded composition, and the gradual evolution of
the Lennon/McCartney songbook. But look at it this way: Here we
have the most important rock ‘n’ roll band in history at a point before they had wild delusions of grandeur, but after the butterflies of their debut had left the studio.
And you could also argue that these records are important for
another reason. This is also the period when the Beatles first began
to view the album as a work of art in and of itself—a phenomenon
they are almost universally credited with starting. The original liner
notes from the early ’60s actually mention the band’s desire to give
people their money’s worth in this way. Where other artists would
merely assemble a list of tracks from the songs that weren’t good
enough to be singles, the Fab Four wanted each song to hold up
as well as the next. And even though nothing could escape John
Lennon’s harshly critical hindsight, I would say that they pretty much accomplished their goal.
Still, all of these points stem from the same source—their increasing comfort in the studio. These boys are in the zone, and once again the ’09 reissues (particularly the stereo mixes) do an astonishing job at highlighting timbrel nuances never even heard by this lifelong fan. The thick, sensitive harmonies of “If I Fell” had me swimming in tone color, and the wonky, fret-buzzing guitar that parallels the piano riff in “Money (That’s What I Want)” made me instinctively clamber for more volume.
And isn’t that the response that I’m always looking for anyway? The
tendency to get analytical and zero in on detail is an inevitable
consequence of being so into music, but ultimately, what I love
most is a sound that transcends all of that cerebral garbage and
just makes me feel good. By that standard, these early Beatles
albums are among the finest ever made, and perhaps the highest
compliment I can pay to the new remasters is that they’ve left
almost no barriers between me and that feeling of mad jubilation.
Joe:
Good points Bodie, if not a little long winded. Next
week we’ll explore the cusp of the early and late Beatle periods with
a look at Help! , Rubber Soul and Revolver.
For Joe and Bodie's review of the Beatles' debut LP Please Please Me, click HERE.
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