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11 masterpieces of the Beatles albums

Published Saturday September 5, 2009

During the months of September and October 2008, we published an extensive report on the Beatles , taken from an old copy of the magazine very interesting with the permission of its director, José Pardina. After dusting for all that excellent work, divided into deliveries for the occasion, we later pending the publication of an appendix in which the original author said, in just a few lines (slightly more than two or three columns magazine), the eleven original records of the boys from Liverpool discounting singles, special editions, compilations and more. In the end, some other things we'd never publish it on the web. It is time, I think, to complete the circle and offer all that curious Annex, an exercise in writing a summary of my view. Enjoy it.

Beatles Forever: 25 years since "Love Me Do." Exhibit "11 Masterpieces of the Beatles albums"
Original author: Agustín Sánchez Vidal
Posted in Very interesting, number 77. October 1987
http://www.muyinteresante.es/

Comments on the text (bold italics) by Leo.

Beatles01

Covers the first four Beatles LPs.


The Beatles: Recorded at 16 hours and released in April 1963 contained seven titles composed by Lennon and McCartney (something unheard of until the arrival of singer-songwriters). An EP from the album, whose main theme was Tiwst and shout, was his first success in Spain.

With The Beatles: Published on November 22, 1963, ahead of the holidays, including seven original songs, plus a cover, much imitated later. Sale no single support, in its own right and not as a collection of hits. The song I Want to Hold Your hand opens the gates of the U.S. market.

A Hard Day's Night. Published on July 10, 1964, is an even more difficult: a full custom LP composed of John and Paul to serve as a soundtrack to a movie. A total success supported by the film.

Beatles for sale: As the title suggests, is a balance of Beatles. Exhausted after the effort of the film, made eight compositions in fits and starts for the LP, which comes out November 27, 1964. Low level of quality, but even then there are innovations in areas such as Eight days a week or I feel fine.

Help!: Published in August 1965 as the soundtrack for the film of the same title. It is not as homogeneous as A Hard Day's Night, but there are developments such as the influence of drugs (marijuana yet) Help!, Dylan You've got to hide your love away, and the famous Yesterday, sung solo by Paul.

Rubber Soul: December 3, 1965. The emphasis is on the album conceived as a whole, based on closed in the recording studio. Two important compositions Harrison: Norwegian Word and If I Needed Someone.

Beatles02

Not a few argue that Help! and Rubber Soul marked the boundary between the early Beatles, somewhat comparable to the later "boy bands" and musically uninhibited, and the band would come thereafter. The transition from juvenile mentality fostered by a more mature over the years, influences such as drugs and spend hours and hours experimenting in the recording studio resulted in a much stronger band, although change ended up losing the freshness of the early days.


Revolver: Published on August 5, 1966, marks a break in his career. It takes full advantage of the recording studio, and the low production rate of two to a yearbook. For many, the summit of the Beatles LP or which has aged better.

Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: Influenced by the LSD, are enclosed in nine months in the recording studio. When the album appears on June 1, 1967, is the first LP conceived as a whole, a long suite whose parts can not be altered without breaking the unity of the whole. His look has changed mustache and pseudo air.

The Beatles (White Album): Appeared in November 1968, is twofold and it means a return to origins. No longer act as a group, but as separate entities, with guests including Eric Clapton, who played with Harrison While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

Abbey Road: September 26, 1969. His last LP as a group, was recorded after Let It Be, but ended up throwing before. Paul dominates the A side and John the B, but the best results are George, Something and Here comes the sun.

Beatles03

The creative zenith of the Fab Four together in a single image. Four undisputed classic whose influence has spread beyond the field of popular music: the zebra crossing at Abbey Road became very famous just published the LP who took the name of the hitherto virtually anonymous street. Today it is a must for the millions of tourists visiting London each year who do not lose the opportunity to be photographed posing as the Beatles at that cover and mythical.


letitbe Let it be: Published on May 8, 1970, when each group member was for free. Producers George Martin, Glyn Johns and Phil Spector are responsible to do so commercially. The work of Phil Spector, ultimately responsible for the production of hard, raised suspicions from the beginning even between Beatles. Praised Lennon, but McCartney never tired of expressing his disgust at the aspect that the famous "wall of sound" Spector had given to the disk. Finally Paul got his way, and in 2003 he published Let it be ... naked to From an original idea of itself and the former Beatle, as the name suggests, Let it be presented to us "naked" of all property of Spector overproduction.

Click here if you want to read "Beatles forever: 25 years since" Love Me Do. "

Posted by Leo / Filed under: Reviews
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The Soft Boys - "Positive Vibrations"

Posted on Sunday November 23, 2008

The leader of the "Soft Boys, Robyn Hitchcock (Robyn Rowan Hitchcock), was born on March 3, 1953 in London (West London). His father, a cartoonist, painter, cartoonist, writer of fantastic stories and unconventional shaping his peculiar way of seeing the world and express it in their songs and other artistic projects. Spent his childhood in a boys' boarding school ("you spoil the mind and then let you get out to lead the country"). Lured by rock music influences from his youth was marked by classical names, from Elvis and rock'n'roll from the 50s to Phil Spector, Bob Dylan, Beatles ("we used to go to Robyn to learn them the entire albums Beatles, "Andy Metcalfe"), Beach Boys, The Byrds, Syd Barret in its infancy with Pink Floyd, the Velvet Underground and Captain Beefheart. By the time he began writing his own songs in the early '70s might fall within the psychedelic pop, but with multiple style influences while still defined. In late 1974 decided to move to Cambridge, after leaving the academy of art, with the intention of forming a band. He soon began playing weekend at the Portland Arms Folk Club, where he met Rob Lamb and the new group that it was forming, the Dennis & The Experts, Rob Lamb on guitar, Andy Metcalfe on bass and Morris Windsor the battery. Rob accustomed to take so transcendent music and performances of works that were considered at that time larger (Steely Dan, Little Feat ...), Robyn saw as a person too capricious and eccentric artist, deciding to leave the band. All other components remained together ever better understood. As Robyn was still very skillful with the instrument in 1977 decided to add a guitar solo: Alan Davies, also a friend of Morris. In the first show with new guitarist Robyn told the audience that changed their names, just write the song "Give It To The Soft Boys" and it seemed a good idea (but then regret it) to announce that as of that time spent on called "The Soft Boys." Their repertoire consisted of versions of Elvis, The Who, The Band, David Bowie ... mixed with some of Robyn's own compositions, which were already defined the peculiar theme of his songs, death, love and sex, from a psychotic point of view and a strong sense of absurdity with large doses of humor and cynicism. With this lineup recorded a demo at the home of Hitchcock, which came on 1 EP "Give It To The Soft Boys" (Raw Records, 1977).
We must remember that at that time a new musical movement (and social) had just arisen in England, and all the media echoed this, punk. While at first agreed with the ideas defended this move, going against the overblown music and certain types of progressive rock, suddenly bucked the way in which this so-called revolution was passing ("we could not refuse the and pretend that we had suddenly learned that only knew a single line ... I guess you could say that, musically, the Soft Boys were a sort of reaction to everything happening around us at that time). At the local level were very successful, ongoing trials helped to evolve musically ("I have always conceived the work as an approximation of what Captain Beefheart, in which there are two guitars playing two totally different things, and not a single guitar and a rhythm "). Alan Davies decided to switch to another guitarist who seemed much more comprehensive and special, Kimberley Rew (it was part of another group known at that time in Cambridge, the Waves). The seal Radar Records signed them to a recording contract. Recorded enough songs for an LP, but they only released one single, "(I Want To Be An) Anglepoise Lamp" ("We thought the best song of this session was' Where Are The Prawns?" But they edited it that, in his opinion, it sounded more like what people listened then, and not what we were doing well. That is a problem that has dogged us over the years ... "). Finally, LP was recorded but never released Radar (the legendary lost album ").
Given the bad experience for both parties decided to terminate the contract and record again on his own and his way all the songs they had prepared no matter who liked it or not others, becoming the 1st LP official band " A Can Of Bees, "published by the independent label Two Crabs in 1979. A masterful blend of guitars punk sounds of the past and that because of the rejection felt by this movement ended up going through its own filter, with influences of the voices of The Incredible String Band, the guitars of Captain Beefheart and the acceleration of the Vibrators.
That same year, while recording the next album, bassist Andy Metcalfe left the band, being replaced by Matthew Seligman (who had played in the first concert as Dennis Hitchcock and The Experts, with Alex Chilton and The Local Heroes). Its incorporation influenced so that the new songs were more "Poppys". The album spent several years unpublished until 1983 which was released as "Invisible Hits", when training was already dissolved. In 1980, before deciding their separation, they recorded the work convertitiría one of the best guitar albums of the '80s, the " Underwater Moonlight "(" ... I remember I was sitting with Matthew and he said: Look, we this album is great. The world can end, but at least we know that we have done "..." ... our ego was not in very good position, but what if I remember is that immediately after recording 'Kingdom Of Love 'I thought: God, can I end up in hell, but this is great! "..." We did that record less than 600 lbs. The producer Pat Collier made a deal with someone so that we could burn it ... Most took August 1 tracks, and one must remember that was the time of Steve Lillywhite and all that ... ").
Never had major sales in England, best seen in the United States gave several concerts in New York, but in the absence of clear results in order to live the music decided that separation as a band and looking for new projects was the best way out ("may we would have had any future in the United States, but the feeling we had was that we would not get anywhere. ")
Come to be regarded as "the father of psychedelic revival," Robyn Hitchcock followed his own path, with a career more or less stable but always with quality work, pulled out several solo albums or the Egyptians, participated in numerous projects and activities including with REM (Peter Buck said many times that the Soft Boys were influenced more than the Byrds), Billy Bragg, Grant Lee Phillips and Jonathan Demme in the recording of the musical film "Storefront Hitchcock." Already in 2001 requested collaboration for the reissue of the classic "Underwater Moonlight" (Matador), to mark the 21st anniversary of the original edition, delighted with the idea decided to add 26 shots and took him out as previously released double CD. Robyn spoke with Kimberley Rew, Matthew Seligman and Morris Windsor and decided to float The Soft Boys to perform a mini-tour. Given the good reception, the next step was to publish an album with new songs: "Nextdoorland" (Matador 2002), with sculptures on the cover of her sister Lal Hitchcock, as in "Underwater Moonlight", also becoming the musical a worthy continuation of this. Without ever leaving their personal projects Robyn follows the journey in particular "long-distance train:" What I intend is rather long and inevitable and I have not finished. It's like a very long train, you can not see or where to start or where it ends. It's like something going through the interminable season. One day they stop, someone will come out and explain everything. "

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Beatles forever: Fourth (and final) Part

Posted on Sunday October 26, 2008

Continued from Part Three

Finally we conclude the report on the Beatles that we have published in serial form over recent weeks. He initially planned to divide the latter into two separate parts, but I decided to publish it all in one chapter. Although this would be a text a little longer for the rest of deliveries, I think you should go read by the public will understand why over. I assure you it is worth, because this last part is really beautiful, and is what ultimately makes the difference between a good story about the Beatles and the vast majority of what has been published about them online. I sincerely hope you enjoy it as surely they will have done so far.

Original author: Agustín Sánchez Vidal
Posted in Very interesting, number 77. October 1987
www.muyinteresante.es

Comments on the text (in bold) by Leo.

BELOW: The figure of John Lennon, idealized for his tragic end at the hands of fan Mark David Chapman in 1980, stands out from the pack easily. His relationship with Yoko Ono led him to divorce the Beatles, anything you do not forgive or their fans or their own peers.

In May 1970, coinciding with the release of the entire last album, Let It Be, Paul officially the separation of the Beatles. John already had some time working on his own albums with Yoko Ono in more experimental than the Beatles (and sometimes also much more unbearable), and end up waging a crusade for peace and disarmament which would be signed by the FBI and hinder their settlement in New York, where he established to raise his son with Yoko, Sean, born in October 1975. It would be murdered outside his house several shots at close range on December 8, 1980. A lunatic fan, Mark David Chapman , was waiting his return from the recording studio, where he and Yoko were putting the final touches on the album that meant his return to music, Double Fantasy.

Paul ended up marrying Linda Eastman , Kodak heiress, a homely little woman began to fill with children and striped vests. His music became a bit tacky (more so than it was in its final stage with the Beatles), but had the courage to start from scratch with his band Wings, playing in small rooms. John died, was the only one able to resume the Beatles multitudinous successes, and today he estimated revenues of around 130 million a day (in 1987 pesetas, that is). Its most widespread song, Yesterday, has reached the 1500 versions, and sounds an average of once per minute throughout the world. In the late '90s, coinciding with the illness and death of Linda to cancer, his star began to decline. The vicissitudes of his private life have made her name ends occupying more space in the society pages and the dreaded British tabloids in the charts, though thanks to his daughter Stella, who has carved out a niche as a fashion designer the place of the family between the personalities of success seems to be safe.

George had a spirited start with his triple album All Things Must Past, then overshadowed by the kidnapping conviction of his most famous single, My sweet lord, the same as He's so fine the Chiffons. The benefit concert for Bangla Desh was his big moment before moving on to a slight shadow. Discrete darkness from which he never came Ringo Starr, which made its more or less sympathetic and often more than their cinematic adventures. In 2001 George also lost a long battle against cancer. For years before that sad event, many fans of the Beatles have endeavored to vindicate as the "brain in the shadow" of a band and as an instrumentalist and composer more than competent. Many moviegoers also have a place booked through his company Handmade Films, responsible among other of the classic Life of Brian as the best film of the brilliant Monty Python. In any case, your balance alone can be compared in any way the legacy they have left as a group.

The chemistry of the Beatles worked like a strange amalgam of personalities. Their producer, George Martin, described the match between John and Paul in comparison with the mixture of vinegar and oil: isolation, may be too acidic or too oily, together, are in balance. Lennon brought a tear undeniable, a corrosive force blues and a touch that added bite to the songs, McCartney gave the lightness, optimism, melodic fluidity. And do not dismiss them as instrumentalists: John impressed on his guitar a personal, nontransferable pace, Paul introduced many innovations in the use of bass and guitar solo drummer George or Ringo were just and effective, far back of the rock exhibitionism .

And then there were their personalities: easy to differentiate, but, like their voices, perfectly able to amalgamate into a whole. It is difficult to pinpoint, however, of Lennon, enlarged by the mythology and necrophilia. John Winston Lennon was a child of postwar full-born German bombing Liverpool. He carried a stigma war that second name in tribute to Winston Churchill, as well as the post-1939 Spain was populated by Jose-Antonio significant. "I nausea in Liverpool while Hitlerism bombed the neighborhood," he wrote in In His Own Write.

His favorite book was Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and the myth emblematic: the syndrome who refused to grow. Not that Lennon did not want to evolve: it was the Beatles because they were resigned to stagnate. It is accepted that the initiation mechanisms through which someone stops being himself to fit the mold that everyone, as the coffin, she has prepared: profession, occupation, mood, character, identity card, military card, drivers license ... Not to accept would not even go through life being a Beatle. And that was his undoing. One of his fans did not accept this change ended his life.

However, there is something radically different to John Lennon, not only to other illustrious men, but also in relation to other figures in the rock. He had everything at 25 years was world famous and entering your checking account each year 900 million of that time without doing anything. He said he was glad to have reached that situation because young and felt completely liberated. He felt terrible struggle a lifetime to stand, become famous, be respected and influential, have pasta. He had already accomplished and devoted directly to a person. To be a person, not an adult. And from one point wanted to use his influence to fix things up. No lacked instinct to embrace the cause of pacifism, which provided its anthem Give Peace a Chance .

The influence of the Beatles music and popular culture remains intact after almost fifty years since the publication of his first single. LEFT: Cover of the LP The Black and White Album The Hives (2007), clearly inspired by the cover of With The Beatles, 1963.

But many of the characteristics that John gave a superlative degree would be extended to the other Beatles. They emerged in the 60s by a series of circumstances hardly repeatable. When they appeared on the scene, rock and roll we now call classic, fifties, was virtually extinct, with Elvis in the Army, Little Richard in a convent in jail Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly's grave, Jerry Lee Lewis out of action for marrying his cousin for 12 years ... The Beatles took up that legacy, the stylized, the recreated, the day began, made it evolve and saved all that teenage energy stream projecting toward more ambitious goals.

As luck would have it all coincided with a vast movement for revision of values that people like them (or Dylan) became spokespersons. As Lennon would note, had the impression of all in the same boat sailing forward, maybe they were on the bow or on top of the mast, but the ship was moving in solidarity. No wonder the Beatles themselves always refused to Paripe round of recurrence: it would have been necessary to reconstruct an entire season for his return that made sense. Surely there have been times in the avant-garde culture of the twentieth century, and even more commercial, but so compelling mix of depth and has rarely spread and difficult to be repeated.

BACK TO ANNEX "11 MASTERPIECES: THE Beatles album."

Posted by Leo / Filed under: Reviews
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