Topic: The Beatles are fucking good.

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Would All you Need Is Love be a bit late for Sergeant Pepper?

Too late, with too different a feel I reckon.  It works surprisingly well as a closer for Yellow Submarine, though.

I prefer to hear the singles as singles rather than appearing on nearby albums (unless they've been especially recorded or changed for the occasion).  As such I can't listen to Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane as part of the Magical Mystery Tour batch.  Magical Mystery Tour is the Beatles being delightfully sloppy; Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane predate Sgt Pepper and have the band in a completely different experimental mode.  They don't mesh well in the US album version, and I prefer to take them as a double EP and unrelated singles.  The joy of overly-anal chronological playlists!

[CaledonianGonzo]

All You Need Is Love is easily one of their weaker singles, so I wouldn't let it near Sgt Pepper with a bargepole.

I mean, it's still quite good, but Within You, Without You adds more texture and 'vibe'.

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Within You, Without You adds more texture and 'vibe'.

It's a bit finger-wagging but I don't mind Sgt. Pepper having a bit of finger-wagging in the middle.  I wouldn't lose it but some people really hate it!

[El Unicornio, mang]

I just find it dull, really. A melodic black hole. And way too long. I guess it kind of works as a closer to side A of the vinyl, but on a full listen through on CD/mp3 I just can't wait for it to end.

[grassbath]

My favourite thing about Within You Without You is that it goes into When I'm Sixty-Four. A few years ago, when my friend convinced me to reluctantly try LSD and generically chose Pepper as part of our soundtrack, the lunacy of that juxtaposition was literally too much to bear.

[KLG-7B]

You're giving me the fear, a bit.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Whoops, it opens side B, doesn't end side A, my bad.

[SteveDave]

I just find it dull, really. A melodic black hole. And way too long. I guess it kind of works as a closer to side A of the vinyl, but on a full listen through on CD/mp3 I just can't wait for it to end.

It's the start of side 2 isn't it?

I used to hate it but one day it popped on my iPod & now it's in my top 5 Beatle songs. [nb]In no order- 1. Old Brown Shoe 2. Within You Without You 3. Long Long Long 4. Strawberry Fields Forever 5. Tomorrow Never Knows[/nb]

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3. Long Long Long

I love that.  Extremely underrated Harrison classic.  It may not be rated at all, in fact.  Whoever talks about it?  It's just lost on the White Album!

Interesting that your top 5 are 3 Harrison, 2 Lennon and 0 McCartney.  Fair enough though.

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Whoops, it opens side B, doesn't end side A, my bad.

Worth breaking albums back up into "sides" sometimes.  It can change the feel enormously.  I occasionally create playlists for this purpose.

[SteveDave]

I love that.  Extremely underrated Harrison classic.  It may not be rated at all, in fact.  Whoever talks about it?  It's just lost on the White Album!

Interesting that your top 5 are 3 Harrison, 2 Lennon and 0 McCartney.  Fair enough though.

But yet Paul was my favourite Beatle. Odd.

[daf]

All You Need Is Love is easily one of their weaker singles, so I wouldn't let it near Sgt Pepper with a bargepole.

Not helped by the shocking stereo LP version[nb]would have been mono for the single of course.[/nb], everything's in one ear at the start.

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Not helped by the shocking stereo LP version[nb]would have been mono for the single of course.[/nb], everything's in one ear at the start.

How did it appear on the 1969 LP version of the Yellow Submarine soundtrack?

[daf]

Yes - it got it's stereo debut on the 'Yellow Submarine' soundtrack  (mix done on 29 October 1968)[nb]The version on the Capitol 'Magical Mystery Tour' stereo LP was in fake stereo ('duophonic') (as was 'Penny Lane' and 'Baby You're a Rich Man').[/nb]

The mono version of that album was just a fold down of the stereo (so doesn't really count).

Insanely, in the case of 'It's Only a Northern Song', they abandoned a proper stereo mix[nb] problems arose to getting both 4-track machines to begin playback at exactly the same time[/nb], so made a fake stereo version out of the mono, so the Mono 'Yellow Submarine' Lp contained a mono fold down of a fake stereo version of the original mono mix.[nb]Mono released for the first time on the 2009 re-issues. A true stereo version was made in 1999 for the 'Yellow Submarine Songtrack' album[/nb]

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• not correcting the speed error on 'Across the Universe' - it's too fast on Past Masters, and too slow on the Let it Be album.[nb]At the right speed on Anthology 2.[/nb]

The Anthology version is superior in other ways too.  It's a completely different recording, and has some lovely little guitar and vocal "clip clop" flourishes.  Infinitely more beautiful.  On my "fan" assembly it's a soothing antidote to The Long and Winding Road.

• Removing all the stings Spector put on - it's there to cover bum notes and fill the sound out a bit. (they can cut the choir though,  that does seem WAY over the top)

The version on Anthology 3 is the 'Let it Be' one, stripped of orchestra, with all the bum notes in plain sight.  The one on Let it Be Naked is a completely different recording - built from the version we see in the film[nb]Note the alternative lyric - "anyway you've always known" vs "anyway you'll never know".[/nb].  It lacks the bum notes, but it still feels empty without something on top of the main band.

[daf]

The version on Anthology 3 is the 'Let it Be' one, stripped of orchestra, with all the bum notes in plain sight.  The one on Let it Be Naked is a completely different recording

I didn't know that - I wonder if they fixed the bum notes on the naked version with autotune?

Anyway, if anyone's interested, here's the mono mix of 'All you Need is Love' :
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/25173419/music/11%20All%20You%20Need%20Is%20Love%20mono.mp3

It's slightly longer than the stereo version.

Speaking of bum notes, check out the lead guitar solo - which gives up the ghost with an exhausted 'splong' at 1:28!

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I didn't know that - I wonder if they fixed the bum notes on the naked version with autotune?

There never were any bum notes in that particular recording.  You can see in the film that it's fine, and they just happened to pick a dodgy version for the album. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkOcCMdq3I0 (that's the full Let it Be movie; skip to 54:40 for The Long and Winding Road)

or here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6AuKENgmLQ

It may not be exactly the same mix as the Naked version, but that definitely uses the same basic take.  I suspect that for the Naked version they grabbed bits from here and there to create a unique mix of "perfect" takes, not only with this song but for the entire album.  Hence it feeling so dry.

I don't know why Spector picked the recording of the song he did, but it's likely he just took the one treated as "best" by Glyn Johns (as appears on all his abandoned 1969 assemblies) and didn't bother looking back through the sessions for an alternative.

[wosl]

Pepper's is my favourite by quite a way.  I think it's their best.  The most cohesive, the most inventive and avenue-opening, given what was going on at the time it came out, the best packaging.  It has no real sag or weak spots (Revolver has a couple of more impactful individual tracks, but they're offset by relative clunkers like Dr Robert and Love You To). Sgt. Pepper's - John, Paul, George, Ringo and George Martin team-working to the max.  Everest.

[Jemble Fred]

Everest.

Nah, that was Abbey Road.

(As in, one of the original titles.)

[wosl]

Indeed!

[daf]

^{phhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee}
ever could be any other wayNever could be any other wayNever could be any other wayNever could be any other wayNever could be any other wayNever could be any other wayNever could be any other wayNever could be any other wayNever could be any other wayNever could be any oth . . . . clunk.

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I always heard that as "never could be any other word".  I'll assume it's "way" though - it makes much more sense.

[daf]

superior in mono, of course!

[biggytitbo]

It's a bit finger-wagging but I don't mind Sgt. Pepper having a bit of finger-wagging in the middle.  I wouldn't lose it but some people really hate it!

Nobody wants to be finger wagged by a grumpy 23 year old multi millionaire though. George is truly a tosser around that time.

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Nobody wants to be finger wagged by a grumpy 23 year old multi millionaire though. George is truly a tosser around that time.

A grumpy 24 year old millionaire, don't you even know facts yet?  But yeah, very fair point.

[biggytitbo]

There's plenty of weak tracks of Pepper though, certainly as much if not more so than Revolver.

Good Morning is a dirge for instance and I'm not convinced Getting Better, Fixing a Hole, She's Leaving Home and Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite are anything but lesser Beatles songs.

[Jemble Fred]

She's Leaving Home? Most people would put that in the top 5% of their output. I'd put Getting Better in there too, but it's less of an obvious solid gold track than SLH. I agree that Mr Kite is skippable after a hundred plays or so though.

[El Unicornio, mang]

'When I'm Sixty Four'? I mean it's a jolly little song, but I'd have it as one of my least favourites on the album

[CaledonianGonzo]

Mr Kite - again it's about texture.  Strummed by itself on an acoustic guitar it's not the strongest song on the planet - but when coupled with that arrangement and the mood and images conjured up by the lyrics, for me it's a clear album standout.

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'When I'm Sixty Four'? I mean it's a jolly little song, but I'd have it as one of my least favourites on the album

It's important to view it in context as a parody song; a lot of people (not you, I am sure) take it to be quite earnest and plodding because they are wrong idiots.