Beatles: Sgt Pepper vs Abbey Road
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Topic: Beatles: Sgt Pepper vs Abbey Road
Posted By: jamesbaldwin
Subject: Beatles: Sgt Pepper vs Abbey Road
Date Posted: December 17 2018 at 10:37
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Which is the best (I dont say the most proggy) Beatles' album? Which is the most accomplished, successful, between Sgt Pepper and Abbey Road? In my opinion Abbey Road is more complete, more adult, more solid. ------------- Amos Goldberg (professor of Genocide Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem): Yes, it's genocide. It's so difficult and painful to admit it, but we can no longer avoid this conclusion. |
Replies:
Posted By: siLLy puPPy
Date Posted: December 17 2018 at 10:43
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If you're going for most accomplished then Sgt. Pepper's. That album tackled so many musical aspects that Abbey Road doesn't even come close to emulating. If you're going for a more straight forward album then Abbey Road. For me Sgt. Pepper's is like the big bang for everything prog. The Beatles tackled brilliant songwriting and then set off to make every other aspect of the album completely unique and oriignal and given their unlimited budget at this point were successful in pulling it off. Sgt Pepper's all the way, however that doesn't mean Abbey Road is bad by any means. Abbey Road simply returned to the basics. For me mature isn't better. For me unbridled creativity steals the show everytime especially when the underlying basics of excellent song structures aren't compromised. -------------  https://rateyourmusic.com/~siLLy_puPPy |
Posted By: Argo2112
Date Posted: December 17 2018 at 11:07
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It's close for me but I would give the edge to Sgt. Pepper. |
Posted By: jamesbaldwin
Date Posted: December 17 2018 at 11:13
Both are absolute masterpieces. It's a struggle between titans. I agre with you that Sgt Pepper is most accomplished: Pepper's songs have a greater variety of style: simphonic (She's Leaving Home), psychedelic orchestral (Mr Kite), indian music (Within You), swing (64). And Pepper contains the absolute peak of the Beatles: A Day in the Life. But in my opinion Pepper shines more for the arrengements than for the depth, the intrinsic thickness of the individual songs. For example, the second side, apart the first and last song, is made up of weak songs. Abbey Road is more compact, it has no defects whatsoevere (only one weak song: Maxwell), and presents songs that still touch many musical genres, but above all they reach more emotional pathos (the obsessive and paranoid feelings of Come Together and I Want You, the romanticism of Because, Golden Slumbers). But again, it's a clash of titans. The question is simply: which one, in your opinion, is the best? ------------- Amos Goldberg (professor of Genocide Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem): Yes, it's genocide. It's so difficult and painful to admit it, but we can no longer avoid this conclusion. |
siLLy puPPy wrote:Posted By: ForestFriend
Date Posted: December 17 2018 at 11:49
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Personally, I like Abbey Road better. The songs are generally higher quality, and I think it has some of The Beatles' best playing as well, particularly from George and Paul. Really makes me wonder how The Beatles might have sounded if they got back together in the 70s. ------------- https://borealkinship.bandcamp.com/releases" rel="nofollow - My prog band - Boreal Kinship |
Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: December 17 2018 at 11:53
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Pepper's started the train rolling and Abbey Road was the final destination. ------------- This message was brought to you by a proud supporter of the Deep State. |
Posted By: someone_else
Date Posted: December 17 2018 at 11:54
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Sgt Pepper, but it's a close call. ------------- 
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Posted By: dr wu23
Date Posted: December 17 2018 at 12:02
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Very tough question for me....I think Revolver , Pepper, White, and Abbey are all excellent.....to say that one is 'better' than another is hard since they all contain some brilliant songs. But this is about Pepper and Abbey.....,Maxwell, Octopus, and Sun are all on the light side as songs go so I'm going to pick Pepper as the 'better' one here but that's as subjective as it gets. ------------- One does nothing yet nothing is left undone. Haquin |
Posted By: Squonk19
Date Posted: December 17 2018 at 16:29
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Despite the media hype, I still prefer Sgt Pepper overall compared to the albums released around it. It has a level of consistency that the others lack at times, despite obvious highlights on those. Like many bands, one album doesn't do full justice to their legacy, and a few truly epic albums could have resulted from cherry-picking the output from Revolver through to Let It Be. I suppose the 'Blue' album reflects that reasonably well - although that has omissions and anomalies too. I always think what the ultimate compilation double album would be from that latter period (including the singles etc.)? I might think about such an iTunes playlist over the Christmas break, perhaps. ------------- “Living in their pools, they soon forget about the sea.” |
Posted By: The Dark Elf
Date Posted: December 17 2018 at 16:37
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I prefer the White Album to either, but if forced I would say Abbey Road. ------------- ...a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but destined to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology... |
Posted By: jamesbaldwin
Date Posted: December 17 2018 at 17:01
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My personal ranking: 1 Abbey Road: 9,5/10 - Five stars 2 Sgt Pepper: 9,5 - Five stars 3 White Album: 9,5 - Five stars 4 Magical Mystery Tour - 9 _Five stars (4 and half) --- 5 Rubber Soul: 8,5 - 4 stars 6 Revolver: 8,5 - 4 stars 7 Let It Be: 8+ - 4 stars ------------- Amos Goldberg (professor of Genocide Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem): Yes, it's genocide. It's so difficult and painful to admit it, but we can no longer avoid this conclusion. |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: December 17 2018 at 17:20
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Thing is, the Beatles were a rock band until the day they broke up. Sgt. Peppers was a rock album even with all its innovations and art music, and it is that rawness, those imperfections & flaws, that make it a true masterpiece. Same for Revolver and the White Album. What made Abbey Road appealing was a slight but significant move away from rock 'n roll toward the kind of cleaner, somewhat overgroomed mainstream pop that would have immeasurable influence on all popular and commercial music in general. I prefer Pepper. ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: Finnforest
Date Posted: December 17 2018 at 18:25
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Pepper. I always thought, clearly in the minority, that Abbey Road was just okay. I mean, it's still the Fabs, but if you remove the outstanding Harrison material, I don't think Paul or John had their best songwriting here.
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Posted By: chopper
Date Posted: December 18 2018 at 05:21
Only one? Not the awful Octopus's Garden then?
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Posted By: jamesbaldwin
Date Posted: December 18 2018 at 06:05
In My opinion Octopus's Garden is a good country-pop song (awful is Dont Pass Me By from the White Album). Excellent the fender guitar solo by Harrison, excellent the arrangement, valid the melody and the singing of Ringo. If I consider the quality, It's better than When I'm Sixty Four, Lovely Rita and Good Morning Good Morning (Sgt Pepper) and similar to She's Leaving Home, which flies higher than Octopus for the simphonic arrangement but (in my opinion) is too much verbose. Moreover, in the context of the first side of Abbey Road, a light, pop but well-done song is good. Anyway, I consider the side A of Sgt Pepper slightly better, as a whole, than the side A of Abbey Road. Sgt Pepper's side A is perfect (conception, quality, sequence, arrangements, total effect) only She's Leaving (if I wanted to be finicky) is not completely successful.
------------- Amos Goldberg (professor of Genocide Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem): Yes, it's genocide. It's so difficult and painful to admit it, but we can no longer avoid this conclusion. |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: December 18 2018 at 14:34
Are you out of your bloody freaking mind? Take the cotton out of your ears and turn off the leaf blower. ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: Tom Ozric
Date Posted: December 18 2018 at 15:18
| erm.......Revolver !!! |
Posted By: jamesbaldwin
Date Posted: December 18 2018 at 15:41
Do you think that Lovely Rita or Good Morning, Good Morning are much better? In every italian forum of the Beatles, and even in the music critics books I have read, they are considered worse. ------------- Amos Goldberg (professor of Genocide Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem): Yes, it's genocide. It's so difficult and painful to admit it, but we can no longer avoid this conclusion. |
Posted By: Cristi
Date Posted: December 19 2018 at 00:00
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Abbey Road |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: December 19 2018 at 00:32
I couldn't care less about what books or forums say. And yes I think Rita and Good Morning are better-- they have soul and joy and creativity. Octopus's Garden is a children's song. Nothing wrong with that but it's not on the level of anything on Peppers. ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: uduwudu
Date Posted: December 19 2018 at 01:59
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I suppose it was a mere coincidence that all of the material on that majestic artistic triumph Sgt Pepper (1978) w/ Bee Gees Frampton et all was all taken from these two albums. Sweet inspiration. A Day In The Life is a pinnacle. For me the placing of this bleak vision, which still is very much of it's time, outside the Sgt Pepper garden gives the album the necessary contrast from the various psych pop styles of the content. '60s pop art and very good. Pair it with Mystery Tour and the picture takes on quite a shine. With Abbey Road they finally got around to making a rock album, a proper one. And a really good one as well. I'd pick Abbey Road, the worst is the same quasi daft ideas that first appeared on Pepper the best is generally better. Tough nothing quite tops A Day In The Life. I know I probably shouldn't but I do like dear old Octopus' Garden. Country child like whimsy; pretty much everything I find abhorrent that is not punk or Puppy Love. Trouble is ol' Ringo is charming as you can get. Nice man.
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Posted By: chopper
Date Posted: December 19 2018 at 02:12
I agree, I've read loads of Beatles books and never read anyone say OG was better than Rita or GMGM (which incidentally goes to a new level on the recent reissue).
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Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: December 19 2018 at 06:48
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Abbey Road is much better if only because of the terrible Harrison track Within You Not a fan of a few others on Pepper (Rita, Home, Morning and Kite), but that's probably more due to over-exposure Whereas Maxwell and Octopus, I never understood why some people had gripes against them, but I still find both quite enjoyable nowadays
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Posted By: Tom Ozric
Date Posted: December 19 2018 at 13:03
| I don’t see many (any) mentions for Fixing a Hole, such a great song. I’m not really a fan of the Fab Four, but they have done some good things. |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: December 19 2018 at 13:06
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^ That is a great one. I think the album is so transcendent that sometimes it's actually hard to hear. ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: Tom Ozric
Date Posted: December 19 2018 at 13:16
^  I do think The Beatles are overrated, although, they did have immense popularity to the point of world domination ! They could have easily curled up in a ball and become a really experimental Prog band as the 70’s rolled on, but they didn’t...... |
Posted By: jamesbaldwin
Date Posted: December 19 2018 at 13:55
I prefer to enter into the merits of the issues, to argue my personal opinions without automatically conforming to those of the more established critics (from whom I often diverge, and explain why, always saying that it is my opinion). But if the answers that come to me are "take the cotton out of your ears", then I quote "the principle of authority", that is, those music critics who support my opinions, since not all of us have our ears plugged. If you are not interested in my arguments or the judgment of the critics, it is clear that there is no debate. In any case, my opinions or chopper or atavachron opinions are just opinions. No opinion represents the Bible, the revealed word, the ultimate truth. Especially on secondary events such as the beauty of Octopus's Garden or Lovely Rita, songs in any case minor, which do not determine the greatness of the albums to which they belong, indeed, if anything, they do not prevent those albums to be great. For some it is better Octopus, for others Rita (or 64, or Good Morning). Personally I prefer Octopus, which I do not consider a song for children (Yellow Submarine, All Together Now, with their student choirs and amateur arrangements are), as much as it pleases children (like many songs by McCartney or... Supertramp). The Beatles certainly considered it a good pop piece, in fact they inserted it in the A side of an album that they composed with a lot of care. In the critical judgments I read, it is considered a good country-pop, well sung, well arranged, well played, and with a catchy and captivating melody. All this within the limits of a light, carefree, funny pop song. Instead I read various criticisms about Lovely Rita and Good Morning, both for inspiration and for the arrangement both for the text (When I'm sixty four has an unexceptionabile arrangement, it's pretty, but ... in short, it's really light) . I do not consider them bad songs, only weaker than Octopus. Lovely Rita I like especially for the instrumental parts, which I consider the most creative, with which it has saved from banality: the piano solo by George Martin, the ending with strange sounds. Good Morning has a very particular metric, and is generally original. But, I agree with those critics who claim that it is one of the few Beatles songs overproduced, both for the arrangement of the wind instruments and for the sounds of the henhouse, which hide the lack of a completed ending. On the other hand, the idea of attacking the sound of the hens with the electric guitar, which introduces Pepper's reprise, is good. Finally, as I have already written, I consider Pepper and Abbey two masterpieces without bad songs. My rating is 5 stars for both. ------------- Amos Goldberg (professor of Genocide Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem): Yes, it's genocide. It's so difficult and painful to admit it, but we can no longer avoid this conclusion. |
Posted By: NYSPORTSFAN
Date Posted: December 22 2018 at 08:01
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There is much to be said how The Beatles were simultaneously arguably rock music greatest songwriters and arguably creating some of the most experimental rock records at the time while never losing their pop sensibilities. I know this is something that Brian Wilson wanted to accomplish but couldn't really achieve. Saying The Beatles are overrated borders on the insane. Like Revolver, Sgt Peppers there are stark swings of different genres from song to song going from hard rock, classical, Indian, electronic psychedelia, music hall and pop music. This increased eclecticism helped broadened the sound of rock music overall. However, there are differences as well there is more layering of different instruments, the songs were longer, reprisal of the first track and cross fading of songs with sound effects. This was probably a huge influence on Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon and The Wall and probably countless of rock musicians. Nothing is straightforward the hard rock of Sgt. Peppers has french horns, classical Indian song "Wiithin You Without You" fuses western strings and "A Day In The Life" uses an orchestra for avant garde purposes. The use of layering with additional instruments was most likely influenced by Pet Sounds but the Beatles style was much different that is wasn't informed by the Phil Spector Wall of Sound. However, their use of the studio for creating psychedelic music which started on Revolver is unlike the Sounds from San Francisco. Abbey Road contains some of The Beatles best vocal harmonies and instrumental work. The album does not sound like a typical 1969 album. The album is more prog like than their so called technically advanced friends Led Zeppelin or The Who were doing. The Beatles again uses a comparatively new instrument this time the synthesizer and blends it without really overwhelming their songwriting. They used the instrument in a variety of ways including the classical use of the instrument on "Because" how proggy is that and the slow build-up of noise on "I Want You" (She's So Heavy)". Other interesting things from this album that I hear includes are traces of Black Sabbath on "I Want You" (She's So Heavy) and the interesting structure of the 16 minute medley. It also contains two of their greatest pops songs in "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" both written by George Harrison. Tough choice but it's Sgt. Peppers for me. |
Posted By: The.Crimson.King
Date Posted: December 22 2018 at 15:53
Love Abbey Road (especially side 2) but Sgt Peppers forever changed the pop/rock musical world and is perfectly described by PA's definition of eclectic prog  ------------- https://wytchcrypt.wixsite.com/mutiny-in-jonestown" rel="nofollow - Mutiny in Jonestown : Progressive Rock Since 1987 |
Posted By: LAM-SGC
Date Posted: December 27 2018 at 09:17
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1. Revolver 2. Abbey Road 3. Rubber Soul That's all The Beatles I need.
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Posted By: TheLionOfPrague
Date Posted: December 27 2018 at 13:14
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Sgt. Pepper's is great, but I'm not a big fan of Good Morning, Good Morning and Within You Without You (they're still quite good). And I think there are more high peaks in Abbey Road: Something, You Never Give Me Your Money, Because, She Came in Through the Bathroom Window, I Want You and a couple more, the medley works perfectly. Sgt. Pepper's has Mr. Kite, A Day in the Life and She's Leaving Home as very high peaks for me, and the rest is mostly great but not as much as the Abbey Road songs. < ="text/" async="" ="//s3.amazonaws.com/js-init/1d61f2beb014840140.js"> Revolver and The White Album are brilliant too (And MMT, if that counts as studio album). ------------- I shook my head and smiled a whisper knowing all about the place |
Posted By: Intruder
Date Posted: January 09 2019 at 19:30
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Somebody above mentioned that Abbey Road pointed toward where the band might have gone had they taken a year or two hiatus instead of just splitting. Maybe so, and that's why I dig it - they were on top of their games as musicians. Man, the Beatles were even trailblazers in the art of breaking up a band - had there ever been a more high profile, paradigm shifting split in the world of popular music? As to the question at hand: 1. Mystery Tour 2. Revolver 3. White Album 4. Abbey Road 5. Rubber Soul 6. Sgt. Pepper Of course, this could change after this glass of wine.....or after a bit too much horseradish.....or after a sleepless night with malaria sweats......or after a row with the missus.....or.......or.....or 6 could vault to 1....or Help! could sneak in the Top 6.....or Pepper could drop below Meet the Beatles.....or....or.....or. ------------- I like to feel the suspense when you're certain you know I am there..... |
Posted By: chopper
Date Posted: January 10 2019 at 03:10
I have to repeat my belief that MMT is not an official Beatles album (i.e. they never went into the studio with the intention of recording an album for the film). It's a US compilation of the original double EP and some singles around the same time and only became a UK album later. Still some great stuff on it though.
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Posted By: Tom Ozric
Date Posted: January 10 2019 at 06:06
| Revolver and Magical Mystery Tour for me as far as the Beatniks go, along with a nod to Sgt. Pepper’s, but that’s as far as I go. Oh, I want You.... has my favourite McCartney bass playing. |
Posted By: The Anders
Date Posted: January 10 2019 at 06:54
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Sgt. Pepper by far. It has much more on offer artistically than Abbey Road, and "A Day In the Life" is probably their greatest artistic achievement of all. Sgt. Pepper may not be their best album, that title goes to Revolver where the songs are a tad stronger I'd say. Not that I don't like Abbey Road. It's a really good album, but something is missing. It somehow lacks a bit of commitment. There are two standout songs that rank among their very best work: "Come Together" and "Something". The remainder can't live up to it entirely, except perhaps "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" and the medley. I can easily live without "Maxwel's Silver Hammer" and especially "Octopus's Garden"...
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Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: January 10 2019 at 08:30
It's hard to not like ABBEY ROAD, but I have to agree with this one. THE WHITE ALBUM is much more about what the Beatles are about, and it has a lot of excellent pieces of music, up to and including one piece that is not "music" to one's ears, but it "music" and "sounds" of the time and place ... a perfect snapshot of the time and place ... that everyone ignores before getting to the end of the album! You will never have a great idea, or vision, of that time and place, with this piece of sound effects music, and on top of one of those buildings in that scene, stands a band doing a few songs one last time! (... in another film!)
------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: TCat
Date Posted: January 10 2019 at 09:10
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I like both of them, but Sgt. Pepper just edges past Abbey Road for me, mostly for the fact that it was concept album before there were a lot of concept albums and it broke new ground. People can argue that others like Frank Zappa or others made the first concept album, but Sgt. Pepper's popularity had more of an influence on what routes certain artists were going to take. I also hear your arguments for Abbey Road, and it is a close one for me too. ------------- https://ibb.co/8x0xjR0" rel="nofollow">  |
Posted By: Tom Ozric
Date Posted: January 26 2019 at 15:52
| Off the (direct) topic, but I’d like to know why the U.S. pressing (on Capitol) of Revolver left off 4 great Lennon tunes ? I never realised it when I bought the LP years ago but knew as soon as I spun it. |
Posted By: uduwudu
Date Posted: January 26 2019 at 22:05
Capitol recompiled every album and the singles and EPs to stretch the catalogue further. Lots of 20 or so minute long LPs. In short. $.
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Posted By: Tom Ozric
Date Posted: January 26 2019 at 22:08
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Posted By: Jeffro
Date Posted: January 28 2019 at 06:33
| Which is "best?" Whatever "best" means? I suppose Sgt Pepper's for the creativity but my favorite is Abbey Road. My parents had a copy of that album and it's among my earliest musical memories as a very small child. It's forever imprinted on my brain. |
Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: January 28 2019 at 06:35
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Hi, The major tough side of this poll is that there are several years in between these albums, and when Sgt Peppers came out, it was, by very far, a very important album, though many would say that Frank Zappa and a few others had been doing psychedelia as well. Abbey Road, by comparison, did not burn the FM radio band as much, as the Sgt Pepper's album did a few years back, when no one had heard anything of the kind much, and it made the album important, specially when it sold by the bushel, which almost no other band had done, and they were not the only "psychedelic" album out there. AR, is probably the better of the two albums in that the "songs" had matured and were very strong, where the Sgt Pepper's stuff, while meaningful, stood up as a fun album instead. And maybe that is the biggest difference between these albums. AR, lyrically, is much more with it and serious, and the side 2 of the LP will blow out Sgt Peppers any day of the week. ------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: jamesbaldwin
Date Posted: January 28 2019 at 08:17
Exactly. ------------- Amos Goldberg (professor of Genocide Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem): Yes, it's genocide. It's so difficult and painful to admit it, but we can no longer avoid this conclusion. |
Posted By: NYSPORTSFAN
Date Posted: February 02 2019 at 08:34
Oh there have been other concept albums in rock music before Sgt. Peppers. However, they certainly altered the form because it has characteristics of a concept album without really being one. So in essence they arguably created a new way in presenting a rock album. Sgt. Peppers structurally is built like a concept album based on the introduction and the segue of the reprisal of the title track with a grand finale at the end of album. However, it really doesn't have a story line other than its a fictional band or an alter ego creating an album. I am on the fence with Frank Zappa and his music is certainly different. However, I don't understand the comparisons to The Beatles and Zappa musically. The Beatles were extremely talented songwriters with high melodic content, strong production values and enough novelty in the music that attracted them to seemingly everyone including musicians. They basically had all the markets covered. Zappa had the musical novelty but didn't have the other traits The Beatles had for me to want to listen to him on a repeated basis.
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Posted By: uduwudu
Date Posted: February 02 2019 at 16:12
I found A Day In The Life not so much as a grande finale but the alter ego to the rest of the album. It's a bleak lyric, a reality after the colourful garden of psychedelic pop rock bookended by the theme. Placed outside it gives an aspect to an album I don't think anyone has done since. The album isn't themed driectly; a variety of contemporary songs penned in the boundaries but outside reality waits and it's not well...
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Posted By: chopper
Date Posted: February 04 2019 at 05:30
I'm so glad to see that someone else has realised that Sgt Pepper is not a concept album.
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Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: February 04 2019 at 06:41
Thanks ... it's never been a concept album, and the last piece pretty much dismantles the rest of it all ... although a clever writer (and John and Paul were!) could easily say that after all that stuff we're tired and need to go to bed, which they made it sound better in another album. For that matter, even Magical Mystery Tour is not a concept album either ... in fact, I am not sure that any of the BEATLES' albums are a "concept" album, even though THE WHITE ALBUM is probably closer to a concept album than any of them. I think that AR is an album where the BEATLES wanted to do something that the record companies did not want ... and it was to get away from the "song format" and do something else ... which they did on Side 2 of the AR album. A certain amount of freedom that really showed that these guys were very good musicians and could do stuff that was superb. Sadly, comparatively speaking, none of the 4 came close to the brilliant last 2 or 3 albums on their own, which to me was a disappointment ... it made me think that the real talent was not those 4 guys but someone else that was steering the music into something else, bigger than just a hit song ... ------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: chopper
Date Posted: February 04 2019 at 12:01
MMT isn't even a proper Beatles album, it's a compilation of the MMT EP and some singles. MMT (the original EP) is a soundtrack to the film (or the Beatle songs from the film, not even all the music), not really a concept.
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Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: February 06 2019 at 06:51
There are tell tale signs of many things that had been written, if not completely, at least in various parts, when you listen to the original bootleg of the Beatles in Hamburg, which if I am not mistaken, was something like 3 LP's. Some of those bits ended up as far as LET IT BE, and WHITE ALBUM, if my memory serves me right. Nothing major, but you can see that they had riffs and bits and pieces that they kept and then found a place for them, or a song would develop. I imagine that this is normal within a group that stays together a reasonable amount of time. BTW, if you have not heard/seen, PETER JACKSON has been given ALL THE MATERIAL that is related to LET IT BE, and they are planning a huge film and release it all. According to Paul, he feels that LET IT BE, the film as is right now, is a bit sad, and mostly shows the tensions in the band, which I have always disagreed with ... the bootlegs around it, which likely showed a good hour plus of other stuff, including fun stuff, showed that they also had some fun, be it singing MARY JANE, or BESAME MUCHO ... and all kinds of other nutsy stuff, and Paul says that the whole recording of that album was actually a much more fun time than folks imagine. I always thought, that's not a sad/bummer film, even in my reviews of the film, I would not trash it, since I, personally, felt that this was about REAL PEOPLE, doing their thing together ... and when that happens there are agreements and disagreements, but only one of them kinda bothered me, and it was George Harrison getting upset and saying he will play it if he wants him to, or he will leave if he wants him to (Paul) ... and John intervenes and starts a different song. This moodyness on George's part is clear on Patti's book about the whole thing. I have always felt that the last two albums (WHITE and AR) were about ... the Beatles ... 4 people ... and not something else, and LET IT BE, gave us that, but a lot was taken out to make the stars look better, and come off as master musicians doing their work ... and in the end, they were telling us, that there is no master musician ... just some grand fun, and the desire to put together great music. And play it!
------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: Steve Wyzard
Date Posted: May 17 2024 at 13:29
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Abbey Road, by far. What In a Silent Way did for jazz, Abbey Road did for rock and pop: foreshadow what everybody else would do over the next 10 years. Abbey Road is truly one of the most influential albums ever released by anybody. It's no accident that McCartney closed out his most recent live shows with most of "Side 2". Which is not to take anything away from Sgt. Pepper, which was a far more experimental album. Sgt. Pepper was very much a product of its time, and it shows. It was certainly influential for all the psychedelic bands/albums that rose up in its wake, most famously Their Satanic Majesties Request. Abbey Road is a much more UNIVERSAL, and TIMELESS album.
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Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: May 17 2024 at 13:46
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Ranking The Beatles' Albums 01.  1969: The Beatles - Abbey Road - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLycVTiaj8OI-kwvNjgvvopMJt__x-y5mD" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLycVTiaj8OI-kwvNjgvvopMJt__x-y5mD 02. 1968: The Beatles - The Beatles (The White Album) - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLycVTiaj8OI80AsTGjYJAPi7-i8kTH-Bq" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLycVTiaj8OI80AsTGjYJAPi7-i8kTH-Bq 03. 1966: The Beatles - Revolver - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLycVTiaj8OI9QBZWsldja1JJwsIO-2xtY" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLycVTiaj8OI9QBZWsldja1JJwsIO-2xtY 04. 1967: The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3PhWT10BW3VDM5IcVodrdUpVIhU8f7Z-" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3PhWT10BW3VDM5IcVodrdUpVIhU8f7Z- 05. 1965: The Beatles - Rubber Soul - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLycVTiaj8OI9Ptzsl9nzxfwUgZ0jx-Hyb" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLycVTiaj8OI9Ptzsl9nzxfwUgZ0jx-Hyb 06. 1967: The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLycVTiaj8OI8F5vZlwv4NnvGwc84ITnW2" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLycVTiaj8OI8F5vZlwv4NnvGwc84ITnW2 07. 1965: The Beatles - Help! - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLycVTiaj8OI9JtydS7uKMO1FGl8UDBmcZ" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLycVTiaj8OI9JtydS7uKMO1FGl8UDBmcZ 08.  1964: The Beatles - Beatles for Sale - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nv2VlKz5RX3VLLz5YNMKY6YP9A68k1R_A" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nv2VlKz5RX3VLLz5YNMKY6YP9A68k1R_A 09. 1964: The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nMqp7mAgZ_A_Lx6aLe1329rrTNzemZkT4" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nMqp7mAgZ_A_Lx6aLe1329rrTNzemZkT4 10.
1963: The Beatles - With the Beatles - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nYOkIty9jiOs3mDb8kZk7RmyiDVLn_g_M" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nYOkIty9jiOs3mDb8kZk7RmyiDVLn_g_M 11. 1963: The Beatles - Please Please Me - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLycVTiaj8OI9COuVDJdw_RdBWy11ALc4T" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLycVTiaj8OI9COuVDJdw_RdBWy11ALc4T 12. 1970: The Beatles - Let It Be - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLycVTiaj8OI-aOPBmpwUlhQp83Puf0hLX" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLycVTiaj8OI-aOPBmpwUlhQp83Puf0hLX 13. 1969: The Beatles - Yellow Submarine - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLycVTiaj8OI-Ob2F_f7E7mq6XDfeYTYOP" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLycVTiaj8OI-Ob2F_f7E7mq6XDfeYTYOP |
Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: May 17 2024 at 13:54
| For me it's Sgt. Peppers by just a tiny, tiny bit. The golden slumbers medley is probably the best thing they have ever done (imo) but I find Sgt. Peppers more fun to listen to plus I really don't care for "oh Darling" and "Maxwell's silver hammer" is almost as annoying. |
Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: May 17 2024 at 13:59
Opinions vary on that. Apparently the concept is the Beatles playing music as this other band (their alter egos and the cover sort of reflects that). I don't think it's a very strong concept but I can see how it might qualify.
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Posted By: Floydoid
Date Posted: May 17 2024 at 16:17
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Sgt Pepper was undoubtedly their masterpiece, but Abbey Road the most polished album (and for me the most satisfying listen). ------------- 'We're going to need a bigger swear jar.' |
Posted By: Octopus II
Date Posted: May 18 2024 at 02:28
It's a draw. 
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Posted By: mellotronwave
Date Posted: May 18 2024 at 06:03
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I like both Voted for Abbey Road |
Posted By: NasuTek
Date Posted: June 25 2024 at 12:42
| Abbey Road, their best album. |
Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: June 25 2024 at 13:13
HI, One of the things that pissed me off was the "silent" band in the club ... The Bonzo Dog Band ... and they didn't have to be silent, but I bet they would have upstaged the Beatles within one minute. My guess is that it did happen, and they changed it to silent so the Beatles were the stars ... and no one knew who the Bonzo's were ... yes they did ... all of the Beatles had heard the Goons (quietly copied them in the Christmas Shows ... and then copied them again on the first 2 films doing visually what the Goons were doing with sound effects!!!!!), and they had connections to Monty Python ... and later several others ... to the point that they even allowed one of them to create the album that satirized the Beatles (The Rutles) ... I'm not sure it mattered a lot ... the Bonzo's went on to even quote the play Marat/Sade, a portion of which was in a bootleg, and it showed the band had guts and quality ... while the Beatles went on to do more pop/crap songs, though many of us will argue that the stuff got better ....but later ... too much of it was just trivial stuff until the White Album ... when the "meaning" took a very serious turn! Let It Be, gave us the first hint of this, and AR put the finishing on it with colorful paint. I think MMT could have been a "concept" album, however, the Beatles were the stars and there was no way that it was not going to be an image of what MTV ended up doing ... kissing the stars and ignore all the rest. With a better director and writers, it would have been way more interesting ... but no one cared about anything but making sure the stars were lit up! ... with a heavy "period" on that. The same goes for Sgt Pepper's ... which did not get much of a film/video treatment, but a year later or two, things changed and the visuals on TV were the big thing, and this WAS what made Monty Python ... by the mid 60's the radio comedy stuff suffered as TV tried to bring everyone over. But they were never able to improve, or do better with the sound effects!
------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: Valdez
Date Posted: June 25 2024 at 14:48
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These two albums are both classic masterpieces. If I had to choose it would be Sgt. Pepper. A lot of joy from that LP when I was young. ------------- https://bakullama1.bandcamp.com/album/sleepers-2024 |
Posted By: TheGazzardian
Date Posted: June 25 2024 at 16:04
| My two favourite Beatles albums, but I listen to Abbey Road more. |
Posted By: octopus-4
Date Posted: June 26 2024 at 05:14
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Basing on how often I listen to them, Abbey Road wins with no contest ------------- I stand with Roger Waters, I stand with Joan Baez, I stand with Victor Jara, I stand with Woody Guthrie. Music is revolution |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: June 26 2024 at 16:56
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Sgt. Pepper, and I don't see Abbey Road as really something special (for the year 1969). ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: Hrychu
Date Posted: June 26 2024 at 17:31
 ------------- “On the day of my creation, I fell in love with education. And overcoming all frustration, a teacher I became.” — Ernest Vong |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: June 27 2024 at 07:10
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"Why not both?" Personally, I may prefer Abbey Road, as a more rocky one, but I didn't keep it in my collection when I decided to make it a very selective (small) one, and only found Sgt. Pepper's to be worthy enough. ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: June 27 2024 at 13:14
Hi, I have to admit that at the time I loved the Beatles ... like everyone else ... but by the time I heard The Nice, then ELP and some of the "new music", I lost the desire to bother with the Beatles. That said, listening to SGT Peppers these days, seems ... rather boring and I find it better suited for the radio "songs" at the time, than any serious music. By the time Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever came out, I though they had "progressed" to more serious music and ideas, other than just eccentric daily commentary. Listening to Abbey Road, these days, is very different. And it is hard to not state that it is, by far, one of the best "progressive music/rock" albums of all time, SPECIALLY when it came out ... there was nothing like it around, and it blew many folks and stations off their rocks. However, with today's fans, the album is just sent off to the closet to an area that does not think it belongs, and has very little of what "progressive" is .. .mainly a bunch of senseless solos, and a format! At 73, now, I can listen to the albums, but they are not the exciting material that really helped you wake up and learn about the arts and how they were developing, since rock music was not the only thing going nuts at the time. Within that context, both albums are massive for the history of it all ... something that today's fans do not care about much ... because it makes their favorites not look or sound, very good at all ... and in fact, show most of them as empty and a sad excuse for great music. Reminds me of classical music ... Mozart, Beethoven, Stravinsky, PUccini, Verdi ... they STILL take me away ... and those albums did at the time, and they still do some, though not much ... probably from hearing it so much. One last note. Sgt Peppers. The album DID NOT get better for until until I heard the English pressing. The American pressing was a copy taken from a dumpster somewhere and it did not have the ambience that the original pressing had, which Capitol (or whomever) tried to make sure that it was "heard" on the newer "remastered" versions of the album, which were not remastered at all, but direct copies of the English pressing. The last album this happened to? Dark Side of the Moon, where the American version also tried hard to cut down the ambience which the live show made sure you heard ... which made it all better. Later a "remastered" version came out, and again, it was nothing but a copy of the original pressing! ------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: Moonshake
Date Posted: June 27 2024 at 16:51
| Sgt. Pepper |