Where (and what) constitutes the divide between early and late era Beatles for you?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Kim Olesen, Mar 14, 2015.

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  1. delmonaco

    delmonaco Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sofia, Bulgaria
    I think that in the course of the 7 years recording carreer there are about 10 differently sounding Beatles.
     
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  2. BejittoSSJ5

    BejittoSSJ5 Forum Resident

    Ticket to Ride marks a new era into the mid-Beatles and is the biggest milestone for me, which extends all the way to Lady Madonna which marks the return-to-form thing they had going on after Sgt. Pepper and MMT.
     
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  3. Awesome Connor

    Awesome Connor New Member

    Location:
    Temecula, CA
    But on a scale of early, mid, and later:

    Early- Please Please Me-Help!
    Mid- Rubber Soul- Sgt. Pepper
    Later- Magical Mystery Tour- Let it Be
     
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  4. Awesome Connor

    Awesome Connor New Member

    Location:
    Temecula, CA
    I think it fits great in 3 periods


    Early 1962- August 1965
    Please Please Me-Help!
    For the most part, it's just the same old Beatlemania love songs that we've been used to all this time. Although they did start changing a tiny bit in Beatles for Sale and Help!.

    Mid December 1965- November 1967
    Rubber Soul-Magical Mystery Tour
    This is their experimental period. Rubber Soul marked a new era in the lyrics, Revolver marked a new era in their music, and Sgt. Pepper marked a new era in their look. The whole period is mostly psychedelic. Even Rubber Soul with the sitar.

    Later February 1968-April 1970
    The White Album- Let it Be
    In these albums, The Beatles were a straight rock band. No more psychedelia here. It's all rock in The White Album, Abbey Road, and Let it Be. Do I need to mention the hippies, the fights, the beards, and Yoko?


    To me, this is the definitive dividing line.
     
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  5. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!"

    Location:
    Canada
    June 14 1965 (when they recorded "Yesterday")...McCartney's ascendancy as top dog in The Beatles. IMO "Yesterday" was the turning point- as it showed how much The Beatles had matured and that the four individual members were not indispensable in the studio, a trend that would appear occasionally for the remainder of their career. Consider, for example, that John and George make instrumental contributions to only two out of five McCartney compositions on Revolver. Chances are that never would have happened before "Yesterday"- up to that point all four Beatles played on every song, or arrangements were altered to accommodate the four of them. Not so after mid-1965.
     
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  6. David G.

    David G. Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin, TX
    Rock music was born in 1966 with the releases of Pet Sounds and Revolver. Up until that point, it was Rock & Roll. Brian Wilson and the Beatles essentially invented a new genre.
     
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  7. Awesome Connor

    Awesome Connor New Member

    Location:
    Temecula, CA
    I disagree! Besides Tommorow Never Knows and maybe Love You To it could be live
     
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  8. Brewmeister

    Brewmeister Forum Resident

    Location:
    Baltimore
    The Beatles in my mind had three periods. Early, Middle, and Late.
    The Middle was from Rubber Soul through Revolver.
    Everything before that is Early, and after that Late.
     
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  9. Yovra

    Yovra Collector of Beatles Threads

    The Rock 'n Soul Beatles- Please Please Me & With The Beatles
    The Merseybeat-Masters-A Hard Day's Night & Beatles For Sale
    The Pop-adventurers-Help, Rubber Soul
    The Psychedelics-Revolver, Peppers, Magical Mystery Tour
    The Rock Band-White Album, Let it Be, Abbey Road.
     
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  10. Isamet

    Isamet Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    MMT. Otherwise known as 62 to 66 and 67 to 70 :)
     
  11. Yovra

    Yovra Collector of Beatles Threads

    There's quite a bit psychedelic stuff on the White Album, I think...Cry Baby Cry, Glass Onion...
     
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  12. lechiffre

    lechiffre Forum Resident

    Location:
    phoenix
    Reminds me of the original CD release schedule.
     
  13. OldSoul

    OldSoul Don't you hear the wind blowin'?

    Location:
    NYC
    Early: PPM—BFS
    Mid: Help!—Revolver
    Late: Sgt. Pepper—Let It Be

    I can't really see it any other way, personally.
     
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  14. owsley

    owsley Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston
    I almost agree with your groupings. Help is kind of both the end of their beat era with songs like You're Gonna Lose That Girl, Night Before and the transition into their 'advanced pop' phase with Ticket To Ride. My mid-period ends a bit later with Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane. Both songs are pop-psych and are an extension of the creative progressive pop of Revolver.

    Sgt Pepper to me was a totally new direction and IMO radically different than Revolver because Pepper was more rock and high art than pop. Unfortunately for all the praise this lp gets, IMO it started the demise of the pop scene with the transition into serious creative art rock. Suddenly it wasn't cool anymore to produce pop. Those that stuck with it like the Kinks produced magnificent works in the late 60's that few cared about nor purchased, which is a shame. I wish Pepper never happened and the Beatles mid-period of mind blowing progressive Revolver-esque pop could have lasted another few years.
     
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  15. Gems-A-Bems

    Gems-A-Bems Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Duke City
    They could have done those, too, with something like a customized mellotron.
     
  16. qm1ceveb

    qm1ceveb Forum fanatic

    Location:
    Fort lauderdale
    First era is up to Help! Rubber soul initiates the second. And it is a smooth, exceptional transition.

    The lyrics have progressively changed. Introspection, concern for relationship matters and social themes are now fully present. They had shown hints very early with There's a place and more prominently in the Help! album. How talented is this group of young guys that they did that maintaining musical quality and even improving it?

    Sonically there is also a big change, distorted guitars and assorted new instruments. Production and arrangenents also go along with the change of course.
     
  17. libertycaps

    libertycaps Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, OR, USA
    1965's Help! OST is the beginning of The Beatles psychedelia and the end of the Mop Top era.
     
  18. Carl Swanson

    Carl Swanson Senior Member

    Beatles for Sale and Help!

     
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  19. The Hole Got Fixed

    The Hole Got Fixed Owens, Poell, Saberi

    Location:
    Toronto
    October 12 1965 at 2:19 A.M.
     
  20. bhazen

    bhazen ANNOYING BEATLES FAN

    Location:
    Deepest suburbia
    "Ticket To Ride" is a good year, year-and-a-half ahead of its time; the raga-droning A string, the "Tomorrow Never Knows" drum part, etc. ... good catch.
     
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  21. maui jim

    maui jim Forum Resident

    Location:
    West of LA
    Something happened between those MMT sessions and working on the WA. Listen to how much fun Paul is singing on
    Baby Rich Man. There is none of that joy on the WA. They are just Session men on each other songs. The flame is flickering.
     
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  22. MelodyFair

    MelodyFair West Coast Suburban Hausfrau

    Location:
    British Columbia
    I prefer to think of three eras, Early: PPM-Help, Mid: Rubber Soul-Peppers, Late: The Beatles-Let it Be. If I were to divide it into two, I'd go PPM-Help and Rubber Soul to Let it Be.
     
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  23. Awesome Connor

    Awesome Connor New Member

    Location:
    Temecula, CA
    Yeah I guess so. Sgt pepper couldn't have done it though
     
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  24. Awesome Connor

    Awesome Connor New Member

    Location:
    Temecula, CA
    Yeah but it has mostly rock compared to the great deal of psyechedic stuff from 1967.
     
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  25. owsley

    owsley Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston
    The Ticket To Ride chorus may be the most incredible magic thing they ever did. John could have easily been lazy and predictable and repeated "She's got a ticket to ride" with the same chords and melody but each of the three refrains and chord progressions start with the same chord but are totally different! F#m to D7; F#m to G; F#m to E. What a piece of freaking genius. George gets high marks too for his volume pedal guitar overdub during "ri-hi-hide". This is what separates the Fabs from everyone else.
     
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