Not sure how this will go, but let's try it out. There's always a Beatles topic in The Lesson every now and then, and a few of you had said "how about an albums appreciation post? Unfortunately with The Beatles you can go in many angles, so I'm going to go with maybe one or two. Let's see how this goes.

The post is not only to discuss the albums by The Beatles, but also to honor the late John Lennon, who would have turned 67 on October 9th.

It was also on October 5, 1962 that Parlophone Records released a single, "Love Me Do"/"P.S. I Love You", the first record released under The Beatles name. While they had done a recording session as the backing band for German singer Tony Sheridan (where they were credited as "The Beat Brothers"), this was the result of almost two years of non-stop gigging and pushing their music to record labels. This means that October is the 45th anniversary of The Beatles' first record.

We all know the stories, we all know the superhype, we all know what became known as Beatlemania. I grew up with their music when all of them were solo acts, so I had to learn by going back and doing research. Fortunately, book stores were my haven, that and used record stores. The Beatles were always on the radio, there was no clear distinction between what was old and new, there was no "classic rock" radio stations in the late 70's. You could hear disco and country along with Bill Haley and Parliament. There may have been special shows dedicated to a certain era of music, but that's how it was. Plus, the late 70's was also a time when people were hoping for a Beatles reunion, which kept Capitol Records busy with compilations and a live album containing unreleased music. I am sure we will get into the compilations, where there are many.


The first part of this "appreciation post" will consist of the albums the Beatles released between 1963-1970. The group released albums in their home country of England, but when they were signed to Capitol Records in the U.S., the label felt a need to divide up the same material in as many ways as possible. It would become the norm for them and a number of other British groups, and I say this because there wasn't a "norm" like that, there weren't many foreign acts making it big on the American charts, save for maybe opera. Even that would be untouched, since classical works were not meant to be tampered with. Because of this, British and American fans would hear the same songs, but presented in different ways. It continued until 1967, when SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARS CLUB BAND would be the first album to be heard in the same way in both countries, and around the world (with the exception of two seconds of audio in the run-off groove that we'll get to in a bit).

I'll do this in chronological order until we get to THE BEATLES CHRISTMAS ALBUM, released at the end of 1970. The albums discussed here will only be the ones specifically recorded for Parlophone/Capitol, although if there are a few turns into alleyways, we can get into that too.

Let's begin.











JOHN BOOK'S MYSPACE
http://www.myspace.com/crutmusic

THE RUN-OFF GROOVE
http://www.musicforamerica.org/node/114473

BOOK'S MUSIC Podcast
http://booksmusic.podomatic.com/

THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND
http://www.allmanbrothersband.com/index.php?vst=45730