Tag: John Lennon

Abbey Road is more or less The Beatles‘ final album¹, and it contains some of the group’s strongest work – especially George Harrison, who finally gets his day in the sun.

I’m not sure when I got my first copy of Abbey Road. Might have been high school, or it might have been the first release of The Beatles’ catalog on CD. This was back in the dark, pre-Internet, ages when knowing exactly what the “official” Beatles releases were was non-trivial.

The vast majority of Abbey Road was in heavy rotation on the local classic rock stations all through my formative years, of course, but it’s best appreciated in its entirety.

Continue reading ““Abbey Road” by The Beatles (No. 2)”

Here’s where it all began, my lifelong obsession with music. Technically, it was the movie Help! that helped turn me into a music junkie, but we’ll go with the album here.

Here’s how it all started. When I was seven, I came home from Sunday school (yes, really) and turned on the TV. There was usually a movie playing on the local non-network affliate channel around Noon on Sundays, and on one day I cranked the TV just in time to catch Help!.

If you’ve seen the movie, you know it starts with an attempted human sacrifice that fails because the victim isn’t wearing the sacrificial ring. Where’s the ring? Cut to a shot of Ringo Starr’s hand while he’s playing the drums as The Beatles play “Help!”

Continue reading ““Help!” by The Beatles (No. 3)”

Famed Rock critic Robert Christgau called Rubber Soul “when The Beatles began to go arty.” Reductive, perhaps, but also true.

Rubber Soul is not as adventurous as Sgt. Pepper or The Beatles, but it brings in elements that the band couldn’t reproduce on stage. And it also deals with some more mature themes than previous Beatles albums, albeit obliquely.

The album doesn’t jump right in to experimental tunes, though. “Drive My Car” is standard issue Beatle-y goodness that would have been right at home on Help! or Hard Day’s Night. It’s catchy, fun, and straight to the point. Continue reading ““Rubber Soul” by The Beatles (No. 8)”