So, our final four battles were tight, hard-fought, and resulted in the same score. Nine to seven. Clearly four albums of high enough caliber to bring significant competition, but only two can move on.
And those two are: Abbey Road and Sgt Pepper.
It's a surprising result for a lot of reasons, but mainly to me that Rubber Soul fielded the same amount of support as the White Album.
As much as I hate to see the White Album (sorry, dude bloggers, just can't call it anything else) go, I think we ended up at a final that showcases the Beatles at their most Beatle-rific. I'm not sure how those of you who picked them both will manage to proceed. It may be a Sophie's choice, but it's also your choice. Have it to me by Friday, March 16.
Abbey Road. Both are great records, but I've gotta stick with the swan song, where the studio experimentation, songwriting and musicianship ran neck-in-neck. So few groups end on a high note, and this one pretty much set the standard for the proper way to close out a career. Rubber Soul is a great, great record -- but its path to this spot in the tournament was pretty much unchallenged. Abbey Road had to defeat Revolver to get here.
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band or The Beatles?
Such a difficult choice. As mentioned in a previous post, these albums represent my introduction to The Beatles, so I've got a strong emotional attachment to each.
They're like the flip-sides of a coin: one full of dreamy, pyschedelic rock painted in technicolor, created from a band freshly rejuvenated after finally ending their soul-sucking life on the road as a toruing band; the other an attempt at back-to-basics rock 'n roll, a sprawling, epic affair chock-full of every sound and style they could toss in the bucket.
One finds the band [mostly] united in their efforts, pushing each other to new creative heights and aiming to make the greatest album ever recorded; the other a band torn and frayed, bitter and splitting apart, patching together pieces of brilliance.
Sgt. Pepper it is - because it was my first love. I'm sorry, White Album. I really am.
I listened to both these albums to prepare for this. I ended up liking Rubber Soul more than I'd imagined. That being said it's still no Blonde on Blonde or Blood on the Tracks when it comes to folk music.
Then again, Abbey Road is no Ziggy Stardust, In the Wee Small Hours, or, personal guilty pleasure and album about alien invasion, A Flock of Seagulls. Still Road has a great potency about it with memorable tracks. It is the better album between the two.
I'm voting for Rubber Soul out of spite that Abbey Road undeservedly beat Revolver.
Winner: Rubber Soul
This is the matchup that really matters for me. Sgt. Pepper's is marvelous and I'm almost tempted to vote for it because it has She's Leaving Home.
But The Beatles is leagues beyond Pepper and the standard for double albums nowadays. With Happiness is a Warm Gun, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, and Helter Skelter on this album there is only one choice.
Winner: The Beatles
Also, we should talk post-Beatles plans for what our next tournament will be.Is there any oter artist we are all grounded in (or to which we have easy access)? YouTube would certainly help. Maybe songs instead of albums in that case? We could debate (atrocious) Rolling Stone lists, etc. Let's get feedback, people.
Some really interesting matchups this round, and we're down to four. Again, a couple blow-outs, but two close ones as well. Let's take them in ascending order of contentiousness, which is also ascending order of top seeds.
First up, #4 Rubber Soul against Cinderella #12 With the Beatles. Not even close, 12-3 Rubber Soul. With the Beatles, like any Cinderella team, had its die hard fans, but no one thought this was going to be a real battle. Even Ryan thought he would be With the Beatles' only vote as he argued for the win.
#3 White Album vs #6 Help is next. Again, never really a game here. 12-3, White Album. A deep bench beats flashy starters every time.
#2 Sgt Pepper vs #10 Let It Be comes in next, and we're starting to see a ball game. Our blogging insiders called it, though. All three chose Sgt Pepper, and it took the win 10-5. I'm sad about this loss, I think Let It Be deserves a better exit. To make myself feel better, I'll blame it on the refs.
Finally, #1 Abbey Road and #8 Revolver. This was the battle everyone was interested in, the unfortunate early round matchup that inevitably sends a great album home too soon. The early voting was all Revolver, but a late surge eventually delivered the barest of victories to the #1 seed. Abbey Road takes it, 8-7. I have to admit true relief, Abbey Road is not just my favorite Beatles album, but one of my all time favorite albums by anyone, anywhere.
I listened to Abbey Road, and virtually nothing else, for a couple awkward tween years. During these same years, I also was overcome with love for Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising sequence of books (Um, yes, I was a nerdy bookish kid. Hell, I'm a nerdy bookish adult). I read them again and again, trading off my school library copies for public library copies to keep the maximum number of them in my possession at all times. Thus, when I hear Abbey Road today, I'm immediately recalled to those stories with a startling amount of detail. I'm vaguely convinced that if you put a vintage Abbey Road album on a turntable, I could recite parts of Dark is Rising verbatum. So thank you to the other 7 folks who joined me in voting Abbey Road on. The rest of you, you basically tried to destroy my childhood.
So, the seeds held. Our Final Four matchups are:
#1 Abbey Road vs #4 Rubber Soul
#2 Sgt Pepper vs #3 White Album
Get your votes in by March 12. Also, someone please give our erudite bloggers a run for their money and write up a post of your own.
