Forty Years Later And Still Fabulous [40th anniversary of Beatles 'She Loves You']

The Mercury ^ | August 26, 2003 | Duncan Du Bois

[dogbyte12]

The weird thing for me, is listening to how underproduced the Beatles albums were. The sound would be considered so thin now. I could very easily see somebody who was young not getting it, when they are so used to well "a wall of sound".

I also think that some of the solo work in under rated. I think that Paul McCartney's song "Hope of Deliverance" from the Flowers in the Dirt Album that Elvis Costello produced is a great song. The production value on it though compared to a Beatles song makes it like comparing apples to oranges though.

[KevinB]

He was referring to "The Rutles" (the spoof band) not The Beatles.

Thanks for the clarification. Sorry Cincinatus.

[ZviTheWise]

I don't know... I always thought the White Album sounded like an incredible one-record album of material that was overinflated with a second record of doodling and outtakes.

[KevinB]

The Mamas & The Papas version of "I Call Your Name" sorta blew the Beatles away

You're right, a superior version. I forgot about that one.

[g'nad]

Happiness... is a warm gun... bang bang, shoot shoot...

[Peter Porcupine]

The Beatles were far ahead of their time, so that, 40 years later, people are still enthusiastic about their work, and it still seems relevant....one reason they are still relevant 40 years later is that so much of everything else is not worth paying attention to.

I'd say you got my point, however oblique I was in making it. And I think I'd have to agree with your assessment of the current state of popular culture.

[gracex7]

"You're the one, you're the one
(you're the one, you're the one)
You're my number one
(you're the one ,you're the one)
You're my second to none
(number one, number one)
You're the one, you're the one

ooooooooooooohhh!!

Oh yeah, pre-fab alright!

[AppyPappy]

Revolution 9 gave me really creepy, bad dreams.

During frat ritual, we had to play music in the pledge room to keep the pledges from hearing what was happening. One of the songs was a continuous loop of "number 9, number 9". It would drive you nuts.

[Rebelbase]

One of my very first memories as a child is being in the backyard with my family raking leaves and my older brother and sister listening and singing to the 45 "Hard Day's Night".

[AppyPappy]

Most interesting was that Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra were burning up the charts when the Beatles threw them off the pile.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

POPULAR SONGS
1923

Ain't You Ashamed?, Alibi Baby, Annabel Lee, Annabelle, Bambalina, Barney Google, Beale Street Mamma, Bebe, Beside a Babbling Brook, Bugle Call Rag, Chansonette, Charleston, Cielito Lindo, Covered Wagon Days, Dearest, You're The Dearest To My Heart, Dirty Hands, Dirty Face, Dizzy Fingers, Down By The River, Dream Daddy, Estrellita, Farewell Blues, First, Last And Always, From Broadway To Main Street, Happy Ending, I Cried For You, I Like A Big Town, I Love Life, I Love You, I'm Sitting Pretty In A Pretty Little City, In Love With Love, Indiana Moon, In Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo', It Was Meant To Be, Just A Girl That Men Forget, La Rosita, Last Night On The Back Porch, Learn To Do The Strut, Linger Awhile, Little Butterfly, LouisvilleLou, Lovey Came Back, Mama Goes Where Papa Goes, Mama Loves Papa, Mexicalli Rose, Mindin' My Business, My HomeTown In Kansas, My Sweetie Went Away, No, No, Nora, Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out, Oh Didn't It Rain?, Oh Gee, Oh Gosh, Oh Golly, I'm In Love, Old Fashioned Love, Once In A Blue Moon, An Oranqe Grove In California, Out There In The Sunshine With You, Raggedy Ann, Rememb' ring, Sittin' In A Corner, Sleep, Smile Wil7 Go A Long Long Way, A, So This Is Love, South Sea Eyes, Stella, Steppin' Out, Sugar Blues, Swingin' Down The Lane, Take, Oh Take Those Lips Away, Tell All The Folks In Kentucky, Tell Me A Bedtime Story, Ten Thousand Years From Now, That Old Gang Of Mine, Twelve O' clock At Night, Waltz Of Long Ago, When Lights Are Low, When You Walked Out Someone Else Walked Right In, Who'll But My Violets?, Who's Sorry now?, Wildflower, Yes, We Have No Bananas, You've Gotta See Mama Ev'ry Night.

[RayChuang88]

What is so amazing about the Beatles is the fact their musical output is still highly-respected even in 2003.

Who can forget the fresh, envigorating sound of the early albums (Meet the Beatles, With the Beatles, and A Hard Day's Night)? The great songs of their late touring career (Rubber Soul and Revolver)? Or the ground-breaking studio albums (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, White Album, and Abbey Road)? Only the Beach Boys of the 1960's and the pre-1972 Rolling Stones could come close to what the Beatles achieved.

[Rebelbase]

FAB bump.

[Remole]

My children (9 and 7) just love the Beatles, especially the 1963--67 era. There is hardly a clunker in the whole corpus. What geniuses they were.

[SuziQ]

40 YEARS!!????
Damn, am I feelin old! LOL!

Tell me about it! I was 10 when "She Loves You" was written. My older sister got married that summer; she celebrated her 40th Anniv. three days ago!

"Fixing a Hole" was always my favorite; such a haunting little melody. I can't believe I've never gotten the White Album on CD. Guess I'll put that on my Christmas list. I didn't realize until the other day, when I was singing along to a tune on the radio, how much the Beatles propelled me into singing, especially harmony.

[SerpentDove]

"Wild Honey Pie" is a stinkeroo IMHO.

But you're right, bad Beatles songs are a minority.

;-)

[GB]

I disagree about the early stuff, for my money the strongest album they ever did was "A Hard Day's Night." It certainly wasn't as innovative and ground-breaking and mind-blowing as "Pepper" ... but can you imagine a group today putting out an album with this tracklist: Hard Day's Night, I Should Have Known Better, If I Fell, And I Love Her, Tell Me Why, I'm Happy Just To Dance With You, I'll Cry Instead, Can't Buy Me Love, Anytime At All, Things We Said Today, When I Get Home, You Can't Do That and I'll Be Back? Thirteen songs, all written by Lennon/McCartney, and not a weak note in the whole lot.

BTW, it's only available in the gray market ... or to be quite blunt, the dreaded B-word (as in boot) ... but if you REALLY want to hear Sgt. Pepper, you need to hear it in the mono mix. Yes, I know it's 2003 and everybody listens to stereo, but you have to understand that in 1967 most people were still listening to mono and the mono version is the one the Beatles and George Martin took the pains with, they just slapped the stereo mix together. The mono mix is a completely different and IMHO better listening experience, there are tons of stuff that pops out at you because it was deliberately intended to pop out at you in the mono mix, and it's just not there or not as distinct in the stereo mix.

[driftless]

Your comment points out to me the fact that though production techniques are greatly improved over forty years ago, superior production techniques alone do not make great music. The composer and musicians still have to create and execute the music. You can't make a silk purse out of sows ear etc. That is why I listen to music recorded more than sixty years ago...Bing Crosby, The Mills Brothers, Nat King Cole etc. Even the Beatles early stuff is easily preferable to todays no-melody, screaming garbage. Don't even get me started on (c)Rap "music".

P.S. Is my age showing too much?

[Chancellor Palpatine]

I admit it - I hate the Beatles. I can't say when I started to hate the Beatles, but it had to be in the late '70s when continuous play of their crap was muscling out the development of new forms.

John Lennon's lyrics and philosophy were pretentious, and Ringo Starr was a moron. The only ones with any talent were McCartney and Harrison, and they were drowned out by those other two oafs.

So there.