Beatle-Blogging

The Great McCartney Re-Listen... is my journey though the works of Paul McCartney. Over many many posts, I will uncovering his tropes, tricks and musical experiments through-out his complex and diverse solo career. But before we skip ahead to 1970's McCartney (I). We need to start at the beginning...  As a solo writer within the Lennon-McCartney partnership and the band's bass player, Paul McCartney starts with a handful of solo tunes. Yet, the tunes that he brings to the band are stand-outs, microcosms of pop, and later giants within the greater classic rock landscape. The success of the Beatles allows McCartney to explore musically unlike any other songwriter, amassing a bag of "songwriting tricks" to produce songs. As collaborator, Lennon and McCartney fuel the Beatle machine with endless tuneful songs until 1969.  1962-1966 Paul's contributions to the first two Beatle albums are minimal, but not slight. Please Please Me offers 'P.S. I Love You' and ...

1. The Beatles – Revolver (1966) My absolute favorite Beatles album. Contrary to the sparse production of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Revolverhas a rich production value that can't be rivaled. The album is full of ideas and genres, ranging from west coast psychedelia, northern soul, Motown, folk, folk rock, hard rock, pop, music hall (the english equivalent of american vaudeville), experimental rock and electronica, pre-dating it by nearly 20 years. Lessons Learned: Genre jumping is not a bad thing; being diverse can be artistically, commercially and satisfactorily done, Taking chances is a very good thing, Coping other people is a great idea, Good songs help too! 2. Beach Boys - Pet Sounds (1966) If one dislikes the Beach Boys, then you haven't heard them. Pet Sounds is the apex of pop music in any shape or form. Bridging classical music with then modern day pop music, Brian Wilson created Pet Sounds to surpass the Beatles' Rubber Soul in 1966. The a...

Welcome back... So now that you're acquainted with the characters of the story, now it's time to jump head first into the content. Content seems to be the ultimate word of the 2020's. The zeitgeist of every social media influencer, video maker, musician and podcaster is making content, and wether or not that content is good, meaningful or even exceptional is for us consumers to ultimately decided and reject. Given the short time the Beatles were together, and the Swinging London and Apple Record apparatus, not including the films, other music and books during their life time, they produced a lot of "content". To sort thru the "muck and the mire", I'm going to walk thru the Beatles Essential albums, films, and books  to get one more involved in the Beatle world.  Essential Beatle Books The Anthology Project brings the entire lifespan in a cohesive narrative, aligning the Beatles story to Joseph Campbell's hero's journey. It's a great icebr...