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Beatles Timeline: 50 years on

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    #51
    Beatles Timeline: 50 years on

    Nah,

    Eleanor Rigby

    actually must remain my favourite Beatles track. Was it written by one and sung by the other? It's too melancholy to have been written by "Pipes of Peace" McCartney, surely.

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      #52
      Beatles Timeline: 50 years on

      Rogin the Armchair Fan wrote: Nah,

      Eleanor Rigby

      actually must remain my favourite Beatles track. Was it written by one and sung by the other? It's too melancholy to have been written by "Pipes of Peace" McCartney, surely.
      That's my favourite Beatles tune, too. An extraordinary vignette tied up in just over two minutes.

      And, yep, it was one of Macca's.

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        #53
        Beatles Timeline: 50 years on

        A good few of his songs have a melancholy edge, Yesterday for example.

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          #54
          Beatles Timeline: 50 years on

          The breadth of Revolver is amazing, and all the tracks are packed to the gills with interesting details. Sgt. Pepper is perhaps more self-indulgent but still has these awesome pairings of tracks, such as Lovely Rita/Good Morning Good Morning and She's Leaving Home/Mr Kite. Lucy In The Sky is a track I have to be in the right mood for (it's a poor man's Strawberry Fields) but when I like it, I love it: the spaced out vocal on top of the bass and organ, "taped with a special organ stop sounding not unlike a celeste"; the Alice In Wonderland dreamscape.

          The Beatles seem to be able to be simultaneously gentle and tough, sweet and bitter, rock and pop (and experimental, orchestral or soulful). An extraordinary range of influences but filtered through an acute sense of what to use and what to discard.

          Yes, I think Macca had a lot of melancholy: his mother died young, like Lennon's, and he grew up in a dark period (Liverpool 1942-56).

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            #55
            Beatles Timeline: 50 years on

            Indeed. Lennon had one up on the other three by growing up in a nice middle-class environment. But, of course, the circumstances of parental abandonment, and then his mother's death just as they were finding one another, created much darkness in his psyche.

            Paul and George suffered greater economic hardships but had more settled homelives, and didn't have those scars. And that often showed in the lyrics.

            Had John written "Eleanor Rigby", he might have had a more cynical go at Father McKenzie than the non-judgmental pathos of Paul's lyrics.

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              #56
              Beatles Timeline: 50 years on

              Getting back to Rubber Soul, I was thinking the other day it might be The Beatles album with the dodgiest gender politics. There's some unpleasant misogyny behind a lot of the lyrics on that album (especially Run For Your Life).

              Still, 'In My Life' is probably my favourite Beatle song.

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                #57
                Beatles Timeline: 50 years on

                Disco Child Ballads wrote: Getting back to Rubber Soul, I was thinking the other day it might be The Beatles album with the dodgiest gender politics. There's some unpleasant misogyny behind a lot of the lyrics on that album (especially Run For Your Life).
                The opening track does have a guy trying to chat up a girl, only for her to immediately take over the narrative and relegate him to her chauffeur ("and maybe I'll love you").

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                  #58
                  Beatles Timeline: 50 years on

                  Other melancholy peaks: Girl, and For No One. The brass on the latter is just perfect.

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                    #59
                    Beatles Timeline: 50 years on

                    Disco Child Ballads wrote: Getting back to Rubber Soul, I was thinking the other day it might be The Beatles album with the dodgiest gender politics. There's some unpleasant misogyny behind a lot of the lyrics on that album (especially Run For Your Life).
                    Lennon hated "Run For Your Life". He called it a "nasty" song.

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                      #60
                      Beatles Timeline: 50 years on

                      But then the same man writes the middle eight of Getting Better (an admission), the totally open Julia and the apologetic Jealous Guy. And I don't think any other songwriter of the time made that journey from sexist pig to male feminist.

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                        #61
                        Beatles Timeline: 50 years on

                        Ringo remembers

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                          #62
                          Beatles Timeline: 50 years on

                          If the Beatles had stayed together - in particular as a collaborative writing team - what of their individual 1970s stuff would have been better, or maybe not recorded at all? Surely John Lennon wouldn't have let McCartney get away with "Wonderful Christmas Time" or "Mull of Kintyre", or is that just wishful thinking? On the other hand, both the Live and Let Die theme, and Band on the Run, are good but maybe improvable for some finishing touches, and Jet is so in the Beatles style that it's hard to see it being changed at all?

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                            #63
                            Beatles Timeline: 50 years on

                            I could also see moments like Maybe I'm Amazed, Helen Wheels and Listen to What the Man Said passing muster, but Lennon might've repented slightly to Macca's cornier moments if only to gain leverage for his own syrupy paeans to Yoko...

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                              #64
                              Beatles Timeline: 50 years on

                              Well, in 1971 The Beatles released their Everest double album. The tracklisting was as follows:

                              Side 1
                              Instant Karma (We All Shine On) (John)
                              What Is Life (George)
                              Maybe I'm Amazed (Paul)
                              Every Night (Paul)
                              Apple Scruffs (George)

                              Side 2
                              Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey (Paul)
                              Stardust (Ringo)
                              All Things Must Pass (George)
                              Isolation (John)
                              Ram On (Paul)
                              Jealous Guy (John)

                              Side 3
                              Mother (John)
                              Wah-Wah (George)
                              The Back Seat Of My Car (Paul)
                              Hold On (John)
                              Love (John)

                              Side 4
                              Too Many People (Paul)
                              Working Class Hero (John)
                              Isn't It A Pity (George)
                              Junk (Paul)
                              How? (John)

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                                #65
                                Beatles Timeline: 50 years on

                                I stole this shamelessly from the FB alert I received, but fifty years ago this week, the Beatles began recording sessions for Revolver and I was still a one-year-old. Of all the songs to start with, it was this.

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                                  #66
                                  Beatles Timeline: 50 years on

                                  Tomorrow Never Knows, Rain and Paperback Writer would all be done and dusted by April 14th.

                                  Of the 1971 output, George's material is the only work that seems to fit the period: rock, folk, West Coast influences. The Lennon & Macca tracks are so private and insular that they really are solo works, not really in the rock canon at all.

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                                    #67
                                    Beatles Timeline: 50 years on

                                    I take some satisfaction from knowing that The Beatles began recording Revolver on the very day I was born. And they did so with a song that helped revolutionise music.

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                                      #68
                                      Beatles Timeline: 50 years on

                                      46 years ago today....

                                      http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/paul-mccartney-announces-the-breakup-of-the-beatles

                                      http://s4.postimg.org/tjp6dyu9p/p_00471756.jpg

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                                        #69
                                        Beatles Timeline: 50 years on

                                        A friend of mine now owns houses in Liverpool where 3 of the Fab Four grew up; just Paul to go.

                                        She's not rich, but snapped the first up quite cheaply at auction and has let them to Beatles enthusiasts. If I go to Liverpool I can stay in one of them. Which is nice.

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                                          #70
                                          Beatles Timeline: 50 years on

                                          Genuinely, how in the blistering heck can Tomorrow Never Knows be half a century old?? It still sounds revolutionary even now.

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                                            #71
                                            Beatles Timeline: 50 years on

                                            Various Artist wrote: Genuinely, how in the blistering heck can Tomorrow Never Knows be half a century old?? It still sounds revolutionary even now.
                                            Played it in the car on my way to work this morning. Probably my favorite track ever.

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                                              #72
                                              Beatles Timeline: 50 years on

                                              Agree with the above posts.

                                              G-Man wrote: I take some satisfaction from knowing that The Beatles began recording Revolver on the very day I was born. And they did so with a song that helped revolutionise music.
                                              Epstein first saw them play the day before I emerged. But then, I imagine a lot of us will have a Beatles anniversary of one form or another.

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                                                #73
                                                Beatles Timeline: 50 years on

                                                G-Man wrote: I take some satisfaction from knowing that The Beatles began recording Revolver on the very day I was born. And they did so with a song that helped revolutionise music.
                                                Have I missed something here, possibly in another thread?

                                                If so, I'd appreciate somebody guiding me to it.

                                                If not: G-Man, old mate, I know you were born a year before I was. I'll belatedly drink a beer and orangeade in your honour this evening.

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                                                  #74
                                                  Beatles Timeline: 50 years on

                                                  Cheers!

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                                                    #75
                                                    Beatles Timeline: 50 years on

                                                    Side 5

                                                    Sunday Bloody Sunday (John)
                                                    Give Ireland Back to the Irish (Paul)
                                                    Luck of the Irish (John)
                                                    Will you gobshites feck off and write some decent songs? (The Irish)

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