I'm new to the music of The Beatles. Can anyone make some suggestions about what albums are essential for me to get? I'd graetly appreciate it.
[This message was edited Thu May 20 13:02:50 2004 by xpertluva]

It'd be my pleasure!

In no real order:
Rubber Soul
Abbey Road
Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band
Revolver
The Beatles (The White Album)
Past Masters Vol.2

My personal favourite is Rubber Soul, the white album is probably the least accessible of all those albums, has many great songs but it's a huge double album and quite a few songs are only average!! It's also the most expensive to buy!!

And if you like the earlier rock and roll sounding songs then their most consistent album from that period in my opinion is A Hard Day's Night. That album's also one of my fav's but i wouldn't say that's essential, hope all that helps!!

phillipt said:

It has to be Revolver. Probably the best guitar pop album ever recorded. " If you only buy one Beatles album, buy Revolver". It's worth it for Tomorrow Never Knows alone. This track was recorded in 1966 and the rest of the world is still trying to catch up.

So true about Revolver..actually Rubber Soul and Revolver could be one album. Recorded only a year apart. Magical Mystery Tour & Sgt. Pepper have that same feel.

Okay, I got into them really by enjoying their hits.. then gradually stepping into demo's and such.. yeah, I got into them in a strange approach, but it was a building process and it was beautiful.. man:)

Essentials:

Revolver
Abbey Road
Magical Mystery Tour
Sgt. Pepper
Rubber Soul
The White Album (Best 2cd of all time, High peek of their musical creativity.. during a strange time )
Set 2 and 3 of the Demos and Outtakes (The apple demo cd's) F*ckin Rock!!

Thanks for the replies! Unfortunately, money might be a little too tight to get more than a few albums right now. Which if any albums can be supplemented with The Beatles 1's or some other anthology?

I COMPLETELY AGREE!!!!

xpertluva said:

Maybe Abbey Road is a good start! To me it is really the best album they've made!!

If you want to start on an album or too...

Try

Rubber Soul
Abbey Road

Different periods in their careers, and great songs.

Please Please Me
With The Beatles
A Hard Days Night
Beatles For Sale
Help!
Rubber Soul
Revolver
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Magical Mystery Tour
The Beatles (White Album)
Yellow Submarine
Abbey Road
Let It Be
Pastmasters 1
Pastmasters 2

Cloudbuster said:

Magical Mystery Tour is a such a underrated album imo. It has I Am The Walrus, Strawberry Fields Forever, Fool On The Hill, Penny Lane, the title track, and All You Need is Love...all essential Beatles classics. MMT was the 1st Beatles album I ever owned...bought it when I was 10 years old, and from then on have been a Beatles fanatic.

Beatles For Sale & Past Masters Vol 1 are 3 star albums imo.

Magical Mystery is a very solid album. Its packed with catchy, trippy pop/pysch songs that are layered to perfection. George's Blue Jay Way is way ahead of its time, the same with Strawberry Fields Forever.


These are the types of albums that define a period/era, and this one did a splendid job of doing so.

Pagey said:

Magical Mystery Tour has some of my favorite songs on it, but I think it lacks the flow of Sergeant Pepper or Abbey Road.

Like Prince, it depends what era the listener likes when it comes to recommending albums.
Hard Days Night--For early mop-top Beatlemania stuff
Rubber Soul--for post puppy love early psychedelic creative songs
Revolver/Sergeant Pepper--Fullblown psychedelic. Have traded the title of the "greatest rock album ever" back & forth. My vote would go to Sgt Pepper, though Revolver is not as famous, therefore a cooler choice.
White Album--The Beatles' Sign 'o' the Times. All over the place. A bit uneven. Maybe the greatest.
Abbey Road--The most polished. Not a John Lennon high point, but does have Come Together. Side 2 flows as well as any album ever.

andyman91 said:

Indeed. And I can't believe you think Abbey Road isn't a John Lennon high point!! Come Together is a classic, obviously, but what about I Want You (She's So Heavy) and Because?
I think they're both amazing songs.

Cloudbuster said:

I'm not saying John's stuff is bad. It never is.
Come Together is one of my top five songs ever. Shes so Heavy is also great, but not my favorite composition. It's basically a two line song. It's more a tribute to the band's prowess that it is so great.
Compared to A Hard Days Night, where virtually every song is by Lennon, Abbey Road is more of a Paul LP.
The side 2 songs Sun King, Mr Mustard, Polythene Pam, sound like unfinished songs that were worked into the medley. Worked in brilliantly, I must say. But the whole medley was designed by Paul, scorned by John.
It seems Paul was the real energy behind the album.
I think John had mentally left the Beatles by this time, but he did have some songs lying around to contribute.

"Let It Be: Naked" is the only one I don't own, but I have heard it a few times, and it may become an essential for me.

Stax said:

It seems so much like Let it Be upon first listen.
I thought too much was made of the Phil Spectorization, as the only song I could think of with orchestration is the Long & Winding Road (which I still don't really like, by the way).
But the new production has really grown on me. It is so clean. What Spector did was muddy up the recordings with reverb.
Also I like the new song sequence & removal of the studio chatter, which I thought I didn't like at first.

My girlfriend pointed out how it's nice to hear Beatles songs that you don't always hear, like Dig A Pony, For You Blue, Two of Us, & I've Got a Feeling.
It has been such an overlooked album (despite the many classics on it) that it is almost like a new album from them.

Stax said:

See I dig this one more, because of the initial concept.. a "naked" album.. no overdubs or added things.. just a "live" album. the proof is in the fly on the wall disk.. their constantly saying what their expectations were for the album..

Pauls vocals are stunning and beautiful, as well as the others. their voices sound free.

andyman91 said:

True. I know some of his contributions to Abbey Road were leftovers from the White Album. And the White Album was pretty much the only album/project post Revolver that wasn't mainly Paul's idea. Sgt. Pepper, Magical Mystery Tour, the Get Back sessions and Abbey Road were all initiated by Paul. I reckon John had lost interest with the Beatles by the time they stopped touring in '66. Even more so after Brian Epstein passed on. It was that which was primarily responsible for John's decline into depression and major drug abuse. He still contributed some absolute gems to the group but his heart wasn't really in it. He once said that the only reason he remained with the Beatles for the last couple of years was because he didn't really know what else to do. I'm glad he did hang around, tho'. They created some of their best ever work during that time.

Pagey said:

But apart from adding a star each to Beatles For Sale, Magical Mystery Tour and Pastmasters 1 you would say I got it right, eh?

Cloudbuster said:

Pretty close...although Help is 4 stars (showed the beginnings of Rubber Soul & Hide Your Love Away...thus its 4 stars). Please Please Me & With The Beatles should be 3 stars since they both have so many classics . I am not a HUGE fan of the early stuff but you can't deny their impact and I like the fact that they are just simple rock n roll.

I'll take that as a "No", then.

If you could own only one Beatles album, make it this one:


[This message was edited Mon May 24 18:45:43 2004 by NWF]

NWF said:

Agreed.

Cloudbuster said:

Yep, abbey road wouldn't have been the same without him (not to mention Sgt Pepper through Let it Be!). Likewise, I think on Plastic Ono Band, where he was fully engaged, the music doesn't sound as good even as Mr Mustard because it's not the Beatles/George Martin. Still love that album, though.