Music Madness

Drive My Car (into a tree, please)

I'll start off with this (knowing full well I'm going to be crucified, burned at the stake, etc.): I do not really like Rubber Soul. I enjoy the silliness that is Drive My Car and the cowbell in it. I enjoy Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) even though it is admittedly about John cheating on his first wife (if only he did the same to Yoko). Nowhere Man is alright and has some good harmonies and whatnot. Michelle is a weird song but I don't hate it as much as others here. The rest of the songs are folksy songs that don't really matter.

What does matter is George Harrison, the saviour of the album. Think for Yourself is a lovely song but his best work here is If I Needed Someone full of minor falls and major lifts (and baffled kings composing hallelujah) during the title lines in the song which a guitar to echo Harrison's feelings. This is a truly emotive song that is far too overlooked on the album. The other song, much like Someone is I'm Looking Through You which has a similar guitar style, albeit more acoustic (until the end of the chorus). This is one of the few Lennon songs I could listen to forever. And you can't talk about Rubber Soul if you don't mention the marvelousness that is In My Life: a tribute to getting old and reminiscing. Harmonies abound, it cannot save the album.

 

And then there's With the Beatles, one of their early albums rife with cover songs and catchy, marketable pop songs but it does have its great sides. Notably All My Loving, which is too adorable and catchy, being the big hit from the album. Early non-politically-driven Lennon is the stuff I prefer and with his songs like All I've Got to Do and It Won't Be Long: two marvelously fun songs.

But don't entirely discount their cover songs. Their version of Money is the most well-known and George does Chuck Berry a nice honor by not entirely destroying Roll Over Beethoven. Even The Beatles' tendency to cover songs by female groups (Devil in Her Heart, Please Mr. Postman, Chains, etc.) end up being successful especially Devil in Her Heart due to its harmonizing. And, as big a Smokey Robinson fan as I am, I really like their cover of You Really Got a Hold on Me. 

While not as deep as Rubber Soul, With the Beatles is a fantastically fun and underrated album. I'm more than happy to be the only vote for it.

Winner: With the Beatles

I've Got Blisters on My Fingers!! (from typing)

Help! is a marvelous album that began the Fab Four's stint as a folk group. Excluding the singles released off the album (Ticket to Ride, Yesterday/Act Naturally, and the title track), it's a very folk-pop-centric album. Ticket, which, as has been said here already, features Ringo's best percussion work, is just one of those miracle songs that hits it just right though you can't tell why and this is especially true because of the awkward speed of the song. You know, one of those awkwardly-speeded songs that middle schoolers dread because it's not quite a slow song but it's not a total, get-down party song. Yesterday has become a masterpiece in its own right becoming the most-covered song in history (even moreso than The Star-Spangled Banner). It's one of those universal songs about love and heartbreak that transcends language and makes its way into every culture. Help! is just one of those fun songs that you can completely get lost in without feeling anything but pure joy.

The highlight of the album is obviously You've Got to Hide Your Love Away, the band's initial attempt at a Bob Dylan tribute (the other being on the album Help! is squaring off against). John's voice is at its peak here (not including the opening notes of Mr. Moonlight) changing tone and pitch frequently especially during the chorus and bouncing so well off the guitar. Another underrated piece of work here is The Night Before which always seems to go unnoticed even among big fans which is a stroke of genius on McCartney's part. It's the first taste of Help! we actually get after the leadoff single we've heard so many times before. The same exact thing can be said about Another Girl. And then there's the perfection that is I've Just Seen a Face which I can proudly say I have loved and has been one of my all-time favorites before that horrendous Across the Universe film came out. It was Paul's attempt at a bluegrass song which he considered failed. I could not disagree more. It is the perfect example of what a love song should be.

 

Then there's The Beatles: a double album masterpiece which no other album has never before come close to touching. This is the rawest we get when it comes to The Beatles. This is The Beatles. Even the album says so. We get nothing but pure Beatles. Special attention should be noted during the three "animal songs." There's Rocky Raccoon, the other Dylan tribute which follows a more traditional folk ballad style. There's Harrison's other song about Beatles greed: Piggies. And there's, what some say is Paul's masterpiece, Blackbird which is a glorious contribution to music in and of itself. This is what soft, cutesy indie bands are trying to play like today. And the other tribute on the album is the California Girls-Beach Boys-inspired Back in the U.S.S.R. This is probably the best opening track from any of the Four's albums.

There's the overplayed Birthday as great as it is. Then there's Paul. Paul wanted to make some rock song that was just absolutely filthy. He wanted a song that would sound as if it were born from The Who. Helter Skelter was then born. One of those songs that make you feel like you need to shower afterwards. There's the hauntingly beautiful Julia in honor of the late Mrs. Lennon, there's the "Screw-you-Maharishi-Mahesh-Yogi" inspired Sexy Sadie, and the puppy-inspired Martha My Dear that round out the good songs with women's names (because God knows what I would do to someone in the room who played Dear Prudence). The original bluesy (and might I add extremely better than the grassroots remake) Revolution 1 remains a favorite of mine and is how the song should have stayed. Even Savoy Truffle, which is about how much Eric Clapton likes chocolate, is a good song. 

But, easily, the two best songs on the album are While My Guitar Gently Weeps, featuring Clapton himself on guitar, and Happiness is a Warm Gun. The former being a terribly-moving work of art that only two master guitarists could pull off; the latter being an amazing examples of constantly changing time signatures. There are parts in the song where the time signatures change from 3/8 to 6/8 to 3/8 to 7/8 in a matter of half a minute. And this song is the only kind of song John should be singing in. Lennon's time in primal scream therapy must have had some influence on his singing because when he belt out, "and I put my finger on your trigger" amidst soft "bang bang/shoot shoot"s in the background the song turns into a complex work of art.

In the end, I have to give it to the only album in the bracket that I have on vinyl (I found an unscratched Magical Mystery Tour in the dollar bin of an Australian guy's record store).

Winner: The Beatles (White Album)

Good Morning Good Morning, Librarians!

George Regional (Round 2) - Sgt. Pepper's vs. Let it Be

Oh, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band! You're the king of all-time albums lists comfortably taking your throne atop Rolling Stone's list as well as the 1001 All-Time Greatest Albums book list. You're almost never outside the top ten, your album art won you a Grammy as well as earning The Beatles their only Album of the Year Grammy.

Paul's brainchild of an album, while some accuse of being too forced, cannot be denied for the genius it is. If Revolver started their psychedelic phase, this is where it hit its peak (although still being much less fantastic than Revolver). No song was quite as full of psychedelia as the Harrison-penned Within You Without You. This track demonstrates the high point of George's delving into Hinduism and traditional Indian beliefs. The sitar alone would have made for a great MTV Unplugged performance. While not being about LSD, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds further plays on the Beatles' newly-refined sense of pyschedelia. With obviously drug-inspired lyrics, Lucy is a fantastic voyage of a song rife with colour and imagery. It's truly a song to get lost in.

Right behind the medley on Abbey Road and right before Back in the U.S.S.R to Dear Prudence, the segue from the grassroots rock'n'roll Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to the poppy, Ringo-sung With a Little Help from My Friends may be their best transition through all their albums. The guitar on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band has a very distinct sound that was said to have influenced the sound Jimi Hendrix pioneered.

Sgt. Pepper's is also a marvelous example of very orchestrative sound. Paul uses clarinet as the main instrument in the cutesy When I'm Sixty-Four and what is there anything in John's half of A Day in the Life that isn't orchestral or operatic? In all honesty, I find Paul's half of the latter song much better and more refreshing (then again I'll fight to the death that Paul is the best Beatle).

But easily the greatest song on the album, and tied for my favorite Beatles song (alongside And Your Bird Can Sing as mentioned before), is She's Leaving Home. After reading an article about a teenage runaway , McCartney decided to write this poignant masterpiece. With John actually being effective in the background, this song comes together perfectly. This marked when double-tracked lead vocals really solidified the Beatles' sound.

 

And then there's Let it Be, a beautiful swan song of an album that was actually supposed to be released before Abbey Road. Nonetheless, it's a beautiful album featuring one of only two songs Paul wrote for his wife (Two of Us being here and I Will being on The Beatles). It's a glorious tribute to love like no one else could ever write it. McCartney also penned the single Get Back which has an absolutely lovely feel to it and is the perfect track with which to end the album.

The double A-side of The Long and Winding Road and For You Blue hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the only single to do so from this album (Get Back was released as a non-album single) but I've never seen why as these songs are really unimpressive to me.

Where Let it Be really hits its stride is with the title track and Harrison's song on side one. Let it Be is no doubt the Beatles greatest song. Such emoting through vocals has never been heard in a rock'n'roll song especially from a man. Some argue that the song loses its majesty after the five-hundredth "Let it be/let it be/let it be/let it be" (I'm the same way with na/na na na na na/na na na na/hey Jude) but, then again, they can't be a true Beatles fan if that is the case.  But I Me Mine is the song that may be the most important on the album. It's a very metamusical song about Harrison realizing the selfishness (mostly John's) that was tearing, and eventually tore, the band apart. (after all, who in their right mind would want anything to do with Yoko Ono?).

It's a hard pick for me, I wouldn't put Sgt. Pepper in my ten favorite albums or in the ten greatest albums ever, but I wouldn't do the same with Let it Be. There are only six songs on each album that I really, really enjoy. I have a Let it Be poster on my bedroom door; I have no Sgt. Pepper's paraphrenalia. Something's telling me to take the hipster vote and pick Let it Be but Sgt. Pepper's works better as a whole.

Winner: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, all good bloggers go to heaven...

I have to applaud Donna and Eric for seeding the tournament the way they did. For me, the first round was easy. The second round also has its easy choices, namely in the George (Sgt. Pepper), Paul (White Album) and Ringo (Rubber Soul) regions.

But it's the John region that is providing a tremendous challenge, a true clash of the titans with The Beatles' peak as a fully-functional working unit -- Revolver -- battling the band's stunning sign-off, a stellar swan song so superb. It's astonishing they ended this way. More on that later.

George: #2 Sgt. Pepper vs. #10 Let it Be

A band that once conquered the globe and packed stadiums full of hysterical girls decided that they'd had enough of the life of a touring band. Having tasted the sweets of two back-to-back records that conjured up creative energies that had been untapped, they were ready to abandon the stage for the studio, where they could make a record completely free of any pressures to meet completion deadlines that were set according to tour schedules.

From the start, ambitions were high. They set out to make the greatest LP the world had ever heard. They didn't -- but what they produced is still a remarkable accomplishment, considering the tools at their disposal in 1967. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is clearly the sound of a band willing to embrace any and every idea, a band fussing over the details and carefully sculpting a record that would break many rules and conventions set by the music industry.

The layers of sound are spectacular. There's much to be discovered in the record, from Paul McCartney's melodic bass and the intricate vocal harmonies to the dizzying array of overdubs -- instruments, sound effects, weird noises, snippets of conversation. Never before had a band spent hundreds of hours in a studio delicately shaping sounds and building a work of art in ROCK music.

Without going into commentary on each song, why do I feel that Sgt. Pepper's isn't the masterwork of The Beatles? Simply because there are records with stronger songwriting, better representations of collaboration within the group and less embellishments. For all of my gushing over the layers of sound -- sometimes it can be too much.

The arc of the The Beatles' career shows they started as a stripped-down rock 'n roll group, grew to add a greater depth of sound to their albums and eventually reverted to a "back to basics" approach at the end of their career.Their period of deep fascination with the studio right generated mixed results. There's a lot of beauty, some of it dressed up in junk.

Let it Be is the opposite of Pepper. While the former was created with the aim to become something of greater significance than anything recorded before, the latter was part of a process to strip away the excess and return to the group's roots.It too was a failure, with blots of brilliance.

Whether you find the tittle track heartfelt or hokey is up to you, but it is a message of light and hope in the midst of a very dark time for the band. Constantly at each other's throats during the sessions, it's amazing they could eek out any tunes at all. "Get Back" and "I've Got a Feeling" are two of their best flat-out rock songs they ever recorded.

But the once-mighty unit had splintered, and things would never be the same. The sessions were so disastrous that they'd be shelved until after they recorded Abbey Road. By the time producer Phil Spector got his hands on the tapes and splattered strings and choirs all over them, The Beatles had pretty much called it quits. I elaborated a  litle more on this in a comment on a previous blog entry.

ANYWAY -- both records have their merits, and one is certainly more beloved than the other, but they both  in my mind didn't live up to their potential. That being said, Sgt. Pepper was my introduction to The Beatles, and because of that emotional connection, it wins.

*WINNER: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Ringo Regional: #4 Rubber Soul vs. #12 With the Beatles

This was a no-brainer. You just can't compare the two. Rubber Soul was a great leap forward for the band, with music and lyrics more sophisticated than anything they'd done before -- and it was the first work that was truly meant to be heard in its entirety, the first album. I don't understand my fellow bloggers' disdain for Paul's French-folk ditty "Michelle." It's by no means a high mark for The Beatles, but I'd rather hear this than "What Goes On."

But the energy of "Drive My Car," the funk of "The Word," the worldly sounds of "Norwegian Wood" and the first non-love-story pop song, "Nowhere Man" completely top the still-in-the-works sound of With the Beatles. It's just not a fair fight here.

*WINNER: Rubber Soul

Paul Regional: #3 White Album vs. #6 Help

The same concept applies here -- it's really no comparison between these two. The records were recorded three years apart and simultaneously sound WORLDS apart. In the previous round, I selected the group's 1962 debut, Please Please Me, over Help, and found myself in the minority.

As stated in my first post, Help has its share of great moments that showed The Beatles were exploring and growing at an incredible rate - but it suffered from some sub-par filler material.

Some might say the same about The Beatles -- the PROPER name for what has been called The White Album for years.

Sgt. Pepper introduced me to The Beatles; this record is what turned me into a full-on Beatlemaniac. I remember being a young kid, looking at the four photos of the band inside the record sleeve, just staring at those faces while listening to the music, trying to imagine them coming to life. 

But to step back for a moment -- think about what came right before the White Album: Sgt. Pepper, an album of excess, an album that was the last under the guidance of the band's manager, an album with an elaborate, colorful, decadent cover.

What came next? The white album -- nothing on the cover but the name of the band. No photos of the band standing together as a unit, no grand statement. It's an accurate visual representation of the state of the band at the time: four individuals, confused and unsure of their direction, falling apart and not knowing how to fix it. It's the first glimpse we finally get of the individual talents within the band, completely unhinged and taking the shotgun approach to record-making.

Some of it stuck, some of crashed through the wall, some of it fell short. But it's a beautiful, flawed mess, with some UNBELIEVABLE music that transcends genre and time. Things were really bad during the making of Let it Be, but this set the stage.

The atmosphere was so bad, John, Paul and George were often in separate studios recording their own works. If one of them wasn't available to contribute to a track, the others would simply do it without 'em. Paul even plays drums on a few tracks, and Ringo quit the band temporarily for a few weeks during recording.

But it's impossible to resist the delicate beauty of "Julia," the manic, nightmarish noise-rock of "Helter Skelter," the plodding intensity of "While my Guitar Gently Weeps" or the schizophrenic "Happiness is a Warm Gun." This record has soul, folk, rock, music hall, funk, schmaltzy lullabies and everything in between. Sgt. Pepper pushed the boundaries of styles of music that can be put on a rock record -- this continued in that vein and took it to new extremes.

Some talk about it, some don't mention it, but I'll go there. The White Album also marks the first time John Lennon brought his new love, Yoko Ono, into the studio -- much to the resentment of his fellow bandmates. Nobody had ever penetrated their inner circle, and without any warning, Lennon brought in an outsider to their insular world. The idea of The Beatles as a unit, a working band all in-sync with one another, was crumbling, and it's all on record.

But what a beautiful record.

*WINNER: The Beatles (The White Album)

John Regional: #1 Abbey Road vs. #8 Revolver

This is it -- the ultimate showdown. I've shard my thoughts on Revolver previously. Never before had there been a record that tried so many new things and at the same time made them all sound like they belonged together. Nothing on Revolver was ever meant to be played live. It was their declaration that they'd no longer be a performing band -- but recording artists.

The band was firing on all cylinders, churning out impeccable melodies, expertly crafted arrangements that hit hard -- or gently swayed -- and turned the entire notion of record making completely inside-out. It's an amazing accomplishment, one that has stood the test of time.

So why say anything more? 

Abbey Road.

Where to start? The Beatles were crumbling, their busines empire -- Apple Records -- was struggling, they'd each found new loves outside of the band, and it was clear that the four of them were no longer on the same page. So how on earth did they pull together one last time and make a record that's earned the label as the quintessential Beatles album?

Countless theories exist as to how/why The Beatles broke up and how their final twitch as a dying legend produced something so marvelous. I'll just chalk it up to the lads understanding it was time to set the egos aside and "come together" to make a final, grand statement. They'd evolved more rapidly than any act before.

They'd been through Beatlemania, the pressures of the early years of constant touring and recording. They'd been through their period of early growth, discovering Dylan and folk music. They'd been through the psychedelic excess, the drugs, the "anything goes" period, and they'd been through absolute hell trying to rediscover their roots.

They were no longer cheeky moptops, boys trying to make it big -- but worldly, wise young men who had carried quite a weight in the span of a decade. It's a true miracle that they hadn't imploded earlier in their career. But by now, they were seasoned, hardened veterans, experts in writing, arranging and recording albums that broke new ground each time.

The swampy drums-n-bass-n-keyboards of "Come Together" kick off the album so properly, setting a tone that The Beatles are serious about this parting record. The pitter-patter drum fills and George's crying lead guitar in the outro -- marvelous. George's "Something," finally a tune penned by the quiet one that stands with the Lennon-McCartney material. John's "She's So Heavy," a simple lyric set against a heavy rock backdrop and a swirling, noisy outro.

"Maxwell's Silver Hammer" falls into "Yellow Submarine" territory for some -- more of Paul's "Granny music" Lennon would say. It's a brilliant juxtaposition, though: a jolly, jaunty music hall number with lyrics depicting the story of a hammer-wielding murderer. Like the environment the band now occupied, it's a story reminding us all that even when things are going well, life can have a way of bringing the hammer down on you at the most inopportune time.

The complex harmonies of "Because" are intoxicating. The Side B medley, a masterfully woven tapestry of song fragments, is like an aural representation of The Beatles themselves -- a collection of individual parts that added up to a greater whole. A triple-guitar shootout and the first Ringo drum solo in "The End." 

It's a tightly constructed record and shows many flashes of brilliance of the band playing together as a working unit again, although those moments were far fewer than before. It's a very difficult decision to give this round to Abbey Road, but it's such a remarkable accomplishment for a band that broke rules, rewrote the rules, and then broke their own.

Many bands fade out in a slow descent of sub-par material and in-fighting that eventually causes the collapse. Some go out on high notes. This set the bar for how to end a career, how to bow out gracefully and leave a lasting legacy that's like no other.

*WINNER: Abbey Road

Now the question for me is: Abbey Road vs. The White Album?

The Elite Eight or, for four more records, O-U-T spells out.

Greetings lovely audience. This morning, I woke up, fell out of bed and had the thought that, in the midst of this competition (hail Donna for the idea), we need to pause a moment and recognize what a vast accomplishment we are dealing with. The 12 albums that all of us are attempting to whittle down to one champion, were all written, recorded and released in the span of less than a decade. That’s not to mention all the various other projects, failed and realized, that this quartet gave to the world. Something to keep in mind also is that, while we enjoy, debate and dissect the music, these (at the time) young men weren’t simply providing all of us with music to pass the time, they were giving their nervous systems. Food for thought but now, we’ve moved on to the Elite Eight and we got some new matchups to work on!

I’m going to go in a slightly different order with the brackets this time around and drop the naming convention. In my previous format, I would have had to lead off with Abbey Road v. Revolver and I’m afraid I’m just not ready to make that Sophie’s Choice yet. So let us start with…

 

Rubber Soul v. With The Beatles

A word of apology off the bat that, inexplicably, I was mistaken that the track ‘Michelle’ was on Revolver, but it actually appears on Rubber Soul. However, I still stand by my assertion that it is the least of all the McCartney compositions during his tenure with The Beatles. Also, since we went with the official UK discography to compile the seeding, I’m going to deal with the UK release of this album. Why in the world the North American version leads off with ‘I’ve Just Seen a Face’ and completely leaves off the UK lead-off track ‘Drive My Car’ is pretty baffling. Rubber Soul should be qualified as the first Beatle record that is meant to be listened to as an album, rather than a compilation of singles with some filler thrown in. Also in its favor is the fact that, after hearing this album, Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys was inspired to create a similar document and came up with something called Pet Sounds (my personal all-time favorite album). This led to a quasi-competition between The Beatles and The Beach Boys, a “fight” which obviously favored The Beatles due to strength in numbers (and other factors we won’t touch on here), that found The Beatles responding with Revolver, Brian Wilson producing ‘Good Vibrations’, attempting to get SMiLE off the ground (and ultimately failing…but please check out The SMiLE Sessions box set released last year to hear what could have been, it’s beautiful) and The Beatles giving the game point called Sgt. Pepper’s… in the final volley of this friendly competition. The music world is so much better off for those folks pushing each other.

With The Beatles is not without its merits. ‘All My Loving’ is the song that’s most remembered off this album but it does also feature a great cover of Chuck Berry’s ‘Roll Over Beethoven’ (using George to sing lead on this was a stroke of genius, something very hypnotic about his delivery) and George and John sharing vocal duties on Smokey Robinson’s ‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’ (I could give another thousand words on how underrated Smokey Robinson is, even as great as he's already considered) but there just isn’t enough on With The Beatles to overcome Rubber Soul. Keep in mind what Rubber Soul would contribute to not just how albums were made but how they were listened to. Singles were the dominate music medium, commerce-wise, at the time and The Beatles released a record meant to be ingested as a whole. Very ground-breaking.

WINNER-RUBBER SOUL

Sgt. Pepper’s… v. Let It Be

I’m going to jump across the brackets for this next one and deal with the match of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band v. Let It Be. This one is slightly weird for me, I didn’t pick Let It Be in the previous round and am not a fan of Sgt. Pepper’s as a whole. I feel its subsequent lauding over the years has been based more on what it meant culturally rather than musically and as such, I will judge this face off on that criteria. To hear The Beatles tell it, Sgt. Pepper’s is a failed concept album based on their childhoods. We should all be so lucky to have such “failures”. On a side note, Who’s Next by The Who was also born out of such “failure”. Keep in perspective that this is the level of greatness and ability we are dealing with here. In The Beatles mid-period of 1966/1967 (in no particular order), the boys managed to break away from touring to focus strictly on studio work, released Revolver, the amazing stop-gap single release of ‘Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane’ (thank you Dad for passing this 45 on to me) and Sgt. Pepper’s, and roughly 12 weeks later dealing with the sudden death of manager Brian Epstein. Quite a whirlwind for a band that existed in a whirlwind.

As for Sgt. Pepper’s itself, this album revolutionized the art of album production and pushed the boundaries of what was possible in the studio. It was the vanguard of not just the new (and short-lived) psychedelic music movement but youth culture as a whole (as could be said about nearly everything The Beatles did). The amazing structure of ‘Day in the Life’, the melancholy of ‘She’s Leaving Home’ (one of the few songs by the boys with none of the band members playing instruments) and the over-all conceit of the title track, with the idea being that The Beatles themselves were now this fictionalized Lonely Hearts Club Band (another concept planned for the entire album but dropped) makes this a runaway winner over the, ultimately disappointing Let It Be. While Let It Be does have its moments, having previously touched on the title track and ‘Long and Winding Road’, it does also feature one of my favorite George songs ‘I Me Mine’, this release and its lack of effort from the band simply cannot size up with Sgt. Pepper’s and all of its legacy and lofty ideals, even 3 short post-release years later.

Let’s also not discount the cover art or the fact that the “twenty years ago today” would have been 1947, making it now 65 years since “Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play”. We’ve exhausted our time on this end of the bracket so, for the benefit of Mr. Kite, let’s slide Billy Shears and his boys into the Final Four.

WINNER-SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND

The Beatles (aka The White Album) v. Help!

Moving on now to the region below the previous tilt, we’ve got The White Album pitted against round 1 winner Help!. The soundtrack is appropriately titled because in order for it to come out victorious, it’s gonna need a lot of help…and not from its friends. I touched on the numerous highpoints of Help! in my round 1 recap so I’ll spare us all that again and mainly focus on The White Album for the sake of equal time.

To begin with, I’m going to admit, I love this album. It’s been criticized for being too bloated but I disagree with the notion that, had it been scaled down, it would have made for an amazingly solid single record. To scale down a project of this size would have been to strangle all the charm out it. Yes, it is disjointed but therein lies the beauty of the entire album. This “scale it down” claim has been made about other double albums, some correct (Use Your Illusion I&II), some incorrect (Physical Graffiti), in the case of The White Album, it is completely asinine. The Beatles (the official title of the album) was released 5 years to the day that (round 1 winner) With The Beatles was released and the disparity between the two can’t be more stark. Most bands don’t evolve this much in a lifetime, The Beatles did it in 5 years. While there aren’t many peaks on this record (strictly in terms of all-time Beatles go-to songs, and that’s not meant disparagingly) there are, in my opinion, absolutely no valleys. Some would argue that ‘Revolution 9’ is a flight of fancy, and while that is a valid argument, there’s something very charming about it being included with the rest of the mass of information featured. The almost unpolished feel to some of the tracks is what makes the entire album. Listen closely to ‘Happiness Is a Warm Gun’ at the :58 second mark and you’ll hear a mistake in the erasing of the tape before using it again to record another take. It’s minor but its presence is the essence of the entire song. This also seemed to be the first album where Paul and John started letting up on the reigns a bit on Ringo and George. Granted for the 4 sides, they had to give a bit more space to George and Ringo and they were rewarded with ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ (guitar solo by some dude named Eric Clapton), ‘Piggies’, ‘Savoy Truffle’ and ‘Long, Long, Long’ from George and ‘Don’t Pass Me By’ (Ringo’s greatest contribution to the band, song-writing wise in my opinion) and the very sweet and tender album closer ‘Good Night’ from Ringo. From the chaos of ‘Helter Skelter’, a song that Paul wrote and sang on but was his attempt at a John-style song, to the in-jokes of ‘Glass Onion’, the so-dirty-you-need-a-shower ‘Yer Blues’ (just the four of them in a room, blasting out a stripped-down, Dylan reference-filled performance that would be the template to the next project, the Get Back sessions, later released as Let It Be) to the paean to Mia Farrow’s sister ‘Dear Prudence’, there is a lot to get through but it is worth every moment.

The main reason behind the glut of new material was a trip to India to visit the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (the titular character in 'Sexy Sadie') accompanied by, among others Donovan, Mike Love of The Beach Boys and the aforementioned Prudence Farrow, and while they were starting to come apart at the seams, the turmoil obviously sparked a rejuvenation at a time when an extended break would have been more than welcome by the band. Not only were the 30 songs released on the album composed and recorded in a relatively small amount of time, there were quite a few that were recorded but not issued, including soon to be used gems ‘Mean Mr. Mustard’, ‘Polythene Pam’, ‘The Long and Winding Road’ and ‘Something’. In sports that’s what’s called a deep bench. I could go on and on about the virtues of The White Album but we’re gonna throw in the towel on this massacre (a completely unintended Manson reference) on this finishing note, my passion for this record could possibly be traced back to my ownership of a mint copy of the original vinyl pressing, complete with the poster…*humblebrag*.

WINNER-The Beatles (aka The White Album)

Abbey Road v. Revolver

Now we come to the part I’ve been dreading. I really, really, REALLY don’t want to have to make a choice here. This is the Bird v. Magic in the Finals match that Donna and I saw coming, but here it’s in the second round. Think of the Final Four or NFL how the semi-final games are always better than the championship and back that up one more round and you’ve got this colossal match. Being on the selection committee, I could make a one-time decree allowing me to call this a tie but I’ve got to soldier on and make a choice. Let’s get this over with.

Having two albums in your discography that could face off in such a manner is what they call in the sports world “having quick twitch muscles”. Much like the other Elite Eight match ups, I’m going to focus a little more on the album that had the first round bye (Abbey Road) and won’t really touch back on the album that won in the first round to get here (Revolver), similar to all the previous first round winners. So, let’s take a look at The Beatles next to last released but last recorded album, Abbey Road.

Coming off the disastrous Get Back sessions (as mentioned before, later to be released as Let It Be), the idea that a band so uninterested in being a band anymore could come together (pun sort of intended) and make a final statement like this is a testament to the amount of talent, pride and interest that The Beatles had in making a lasting document to their monumental powers and a worthy swan song for their legions of followers. Not that it was all sunshine and good feelings, discounting the obligatory slot on one side for a Ringo tune (‘Octopus’s Garden' in this case) and the one per side for George (his greatest per capita contributions ‘Something’ and ‘Here Comes The Sun’) the album was basically intended to be “one side for John, one side for Paul”. That framework didn’t shake out that way in a literal sense but you can hear in side 1 that it’s a bit more Paul leaning, even though only 2 of the 6 are Paul compositions and does feature the lead track ‘Come Together’ by John and closes the side with another John tune ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy), what lies in between feels overly like Paul (even Ringo’s aforementioned tune sounds more like a Paul song than a John) with ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ (a song John lobbied to not include) and ‘Oh! Darling’ being the McCartney songs on the first side. There is a more overall tone to this first side that leans toward Paul and his tastes. As for what John wanted, he was still in a bit of the mood that the Get Back sessions would have produced, the four boys in one room playing rock and roll…like the old days. The second side is a bit more reflective of the sound John was looking for, a bit more rock edge to it. The compromise for John comes in after the first two songs on the second side, George’s beautiful ‘Here Comes The Sun’ and the slightly dreamy sounding ‘Because’, complete with some silly foreign word play from John. After these two, we get “the medley”. These song “fragments”, some more fully realized than others, were sequenced together to make a very solid song cycle that finishes with the line from ‘The End’, “and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make”. That, for all effects, ends the album and puts a beautiful end note to The Beatles career. After a short silence there is a quick track called 'Her Majesty' that takes a little of the air out of the seriousness of this somber good-bye. Not that the album itself is somber, just the occasion of finality. Think of 'Her Majesty' as Jordan coming back to play for Washington after having put a perfect cap on his career, posing over Bryon Russell in the NBA Finals (too much sports geekery?).

It was not necessarily planned to be the last album but the boys knew what was in the air for all of them and the time had come to put it to rest. Getting back to the ‘Abbey Road Medley’, my favorite part has to be the section consisting of ‘Golden Slumbers/’Carry That Weight’. I absolutely enjoy the strength in Paul’s voice on ‘Golden Slumbers’ and backed with the rock crunch and the wailing guitar solo that leads ‘Carry That Weight’ into ‘The End’ it is the stuff dreams are made of. I think that through the course of me examining this record during my writing, I have come to the decision that Abbey Road will get the slight edge over Revolver and it pains me to say that but, it is not for Revolver to lower its head in shame, this was a noble defeat. Revolver was a great step forward for The Beatles in their evolution but in its context, it was meant to be a logical next step. In the context of The Beatles bickering and animosity, the fact that Abbey Road could be produced is pretty astonishing. Look closer kids and study the greatness that had to be harnessed to accomplish this feat. This is the intangible that gives it the victory.

I can't end this without touching back on how completely brilliant 'Tomorrow Never Knows' from Revolver is. The tape loops, the sitar, the backwards guitar solo, the vocals that sound like they were recorded on a mountaintop...it is a true achievement in a career full of them. I also find a bit of odd pleasure in the fact that when Michael Jackson bought the Lennon/McCartney publishing catalog of Northern Songs, he attempted to license 'Something', only to find out to his disappointment that he did not own the song. On the flip side of that satisfaction comes the slight, yet completely unintended insult from Frank Sinatra. When The Chairman would sing 'Something' in concert he would refer to it as a Lennon/McCartney tune. But hey, are you gonna be the one to set Frank straight?

WINNER-Abbey Road

Got to Get This Out of My Head (do-do-do-do-do-dooo)

I'd like to thank Donna for inviting me in on this. My picks for last round would have been Revolver, With the Beatles, Let it Be, and Help.

John regional: Abbey Road vs. Revolver

This is the easiest matchup this round. There's Abbey Road: essential Beatles album and a quintessential use of the concept album (though nowhere near Ziggy Stardust or In the Wee Small Hours). The album's diversity is the one thing gor which the album should be noted. There are traditional, straightroots rock'n'roll tracks like Come Together and Oh! Darling and haunting, symphonic songs like Because and I Want You (She's So Heavy). The album is probably most noted for Harrison's work unlike any other Beatles album. Harrison was only ever allowed (it seemed) one song per side, but it's absolutely the most effective it hsa ever been here as most only know, apart from Come Together, Here Comes the Sun and Something on the album. And I would be damned if I didn't mention Ringo's song on here! Octopus's Garden is one of those gloriously fun songs that has absolutely zero depth to it (much like those modern pop stars record).

Maybe the most important part of the album is the medley after Because. It's a wonderful mesh of songs that harken back on one another (such as the sudden interjection of You Never Give Me Your Money in the middle of Carry That Weight, the two best songs during the medley alongside the real-life inspired She Came in Through the Bathroom Window). Even Polythene Pam and Maxwell's Silver Hammer aren't bad songs as beautifully non-sensical as they are and The End (as cliché as the name is) has an amazing section proving their vocal harmonies as well as two drum solos that prove Ringo may deserve the title as a Beatle.

The only tracks I would call throwaway tracks are Golden Slumbers which has never struck me as anything except a segue into the pub-song-esque Carry That Weight. The other falls under the same category. Sun King really has nothing to do with the album other than to lead into Mean Mr. Mustard which I like but has no outstanding values or strength.

 

Then there's Revolver which can do no wrong. Every single track is wonderful and it's a damned shame it's only remembered by most folks for the amazing jeremiad that is Eleanor Rigby. The fact that a song as eloquent and memorable as Eleanor Rigby features no percussion and does not rely on a piano to fill that void is a musical feat rarely accomplished. One of the first signs of the Beatles becoming political was the lead track Taxman and Harrison does it in such a catchy way that it's easy to forget this is a protest song (while not on the protest level of We Shall Overcome or anything like that. Harrison always was one for subtlety).

When Harrison wasn't subtle, he was psychedelic and, alongside Within You Without You, Love You To is a stupendous sample of psychedelia. And when Harrison wasn't being psychedelic, John was. Possibly the best final track on any of the Fab Four's albums is Tomorrow Never Knows due to its fade-out and the noise of a spinning record departing with its needle. Almost as great is sitting by a swimming pool and listening to a Beatles song. At least that's what was happening when Paul wrote the very underrated Here, There, and Everywhere. Less psychedelic than the two previously mentioned songs but still demonstrating the same themes is one of my all-time favorite Beatles tunes: She Said She Said. The sudden change of key, pitch, and time between "She said/you don't understand what I said/I said no no no you're wrong/*change*/when I was a boy" is an expert decision and so perfectly-executed it's making me goose-pimply right now.

And if you need any further proof that Paul is the best Beatles just look at what he's done on this album alone: Eleanor Rigby, Here There and Everywhere, For No One, Good Day Sunshine, and the absolute greatest pick-me-up ever: Got to Get You into My Life (try not to hear the trumpets that go right after those words. It's impossible) which has been covered by just about everyone. But my favorite, and the best, song on the album, and tied for my favorite Beatles song of all-time, is the Marianne Faithfull/Mick Jagger-inspired And Your Bird Can Sing. Never had George created such a catchy, effective riff. Some blame Lennon for making the lyrics too cryptic, but that's like sitting through a David Lynch movie and expecting a Disney flick (The Straight Story aside...).

And then there's Yellow Submarine. Sigh... next song.

All in all, these two albums are probably the Fab Four's best but I'll go ahead and be the sole voter who believes that Revolver is their greatest album as it was the first album to define what the rest of the Beatles' music would turn to be. Help! and Rubber Soul were just a folksy phase the band went through. With Revolver, their music changed forever and everything that followed did so in suit.

Winner: Revolver by a landslide

"(ed. Note- “Revolver” does have the absolute worst Beatle original they ever did, ‘Michelle’, a piece of complete dreck that made it on the album, presumably, due to Paul’s well-documented bossiness.)"

In regards to that, I'd like to point out that Rubber Soul has Michelle simply so Revolver's name isn't tarnished.

Round One, Done

Round one voting is closed.  We ended up with two runaway winners, a squeaker, and because of the weird initial seeding, a couple of upsets.

In the George regional, #10 Let it Be put a deep hurt on #7 Beatles for Sale, pulling out an upset 12-4 victory without breaking a sweat. This was despite the fact that our two voluble music bloggers argued eloquently for a different outcome.

The Paul regional ended with a similar score, but along more expected lines. #11 Please Please Me fell before #6 Help 12-4, aided by a last minute vote switch by Paul devotee Carolyn. She was swayed by the revelation that we were talking about the Help album, not the movie. She could not choose against Yesterday, in the Paul region of all places. Sir Paul sent along his thanks.

Ringo's regional brought another upset. #12 With the Beatles upended sentimental favorite #5 Yellow Submarine, 10-6. Generations raised on classic Sesame Street wept bitter tears.

Finally, the John bracket brought us our most hotly contested battle, pitting #8 Revolver against #9 Hard Day's Night.  Hard Day's Night held the lead early, but could not contend with Revolver's brilliant endgame. 9-7, Revolver.

So, on to the quarterfinals.  Will any of the top seeds fall? Make your picks by March 6:

• John Regional: #1 Abbey Road v. #8 Revolver
• George Regional: #2 Sgt Pepper v. #10 Let It Be
• Paul Regional: #3 White Album v. #6 Help
• Ringo Regional #4 Rubber Soul v. #12 With the Beatles