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. bhazen

    bhazen I Am The Walrus

    Location:
    Deepest suburbia
    ... and the mono version rocks!
     
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  2. AndyK235

    AndyK235 Forum Resident

    To me, their 1962-1969 recording career is broadly three categories (stylewise): Early, Middle and Late. Early (more conventional beat group) goes from Love Me Do to Beatles For Sale and the "I Feel Fine" single. The middle period (most experimental) starts with "Ticket to Ride" and ends with Magical Mystery Tour. . The late period (all over the place musically, with a more individualistic approach marked by increasingly divergent styles among the songwriters) is basically everything from 1968 on. There are subsections, because even within those periods they developed and changed and had ups and downs.
     
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  3. AndyK235

    AndyK235 Forum Resident

    That music dividing line coincides with the change of main balance engineer in the studio from Norman Smith (rock solid but more traditional engineer) to Geoff Emerick (more experimental).
     
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  4. Awesome Connor

    Awesome Connor New Member

    Location:
    Temecula, CA
    Yeah but Norman Smith engineered Rubber Soul which was very experimental. It had the sitar, fuzz guitar, harpsichord effect, and more dark lyrics. I think some of the Norman Smith era was very experimental.
     
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  5. Scott S.

    Scott S. lead singer for the best indie band on earth

    Location:
    Walmartville PA
    I put the beginning of the last half at the release of Rubber Soul.
     
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  6. Awesome Connor

    Awesome Connor New Member

    Location:
    Temecula, CA
    No
     
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  7. Awesome Connor

    Awesome Connor New Member

    Location:
    Temecula, CA
    Actually no. All of those things happened AFTER Revolver.

    Remember Revolver came out on august 15, 1966

    End of live concerts- August 29, 1966
    Change of style- February 1967 w/ SFF and Penny Lane single

    End of individual capitol albums- Sgt Pepper. Revolver in the US was missing 3 tracks

    John meeting Yoko
    November 1966


    As you can see, all of these events happened AFTER Revolver so really, the late era starts with Sgt Pepper.
     
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  8. Morton LaBongo

    Morton LaBongo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Manchester NH
    To me, the bridge between Beatles For Sale and Help is the end of what I consider the early Beatles era. I think of The Beatles as existing in four fairly distinct eras -- early rock, folk rock, psychedelic rock and late rock -- although there is some overlap. Particularly at the end there. The early solo years are a sort of a "fifth Beatles era" but that's just my skewed view of their history...
     
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  9. Pepper
     
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  10. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!"

    Location:
    Canada
    Norman Smith claimed he wasn't a fan of the music on Rubber Soul, all that experimentation, which is why he quit as their recording engineer after that. I always found it funny that Normal didn't like Rubber Soul yet went on to produce Pink Floyd's early stuff which is even more experimental:laugh:
     
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  11. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Divide ?
    Sgt Pepper on.
     
  12. Diamond Star Halo

    Diamond Star Halo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vancouver
    Yes
     
  13. douglas mcclenaghan

    douglas mcclenaghan Forum Resident

    Early is pre-Pepper. Why? Because they went downhill from there. Just my opinion.
     
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  14. jimjim

    jimjim Forum Resident

    Revolver. Period.
     
  15. ShayLaB

    ShayLaB Forum Resident

    Location:
    Northern Ireland
    Paperback Writer

    A single but not a love song
     
  16. SteveS1

    SteveS1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Weald, England, UK
    I see three stages. Early (PPM - Help!) Mid (RS-Sgt Pepper) Late (White album onwards). If dividing into two stages Revolver was the transition for me.
     
  17. Etienne Hanratty

    Etienne Hanratty Forum Resident

    Location:
    uk
    For me, the early period ended with Help! and the late period began with Revolver. Rubber Soul stands alone as an offshoot which would have taken them in a completely different direction had their collective mojoes led them there.
     
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  18. Awesome Connor

    Awesome Connor New Member

    Location:
    Temecula, CA
    No
     
  19. Awesome Connor

    Awesome Connor New Member

    Location:
    Temecula, CA
    Sgt Pepper. PERIOD
     
  20. Awesome Connor

    Awesome Connor New Member

    Location:
    Temecula, CA
    Nowhere Man and Think for Yourself weren't Love songs.
     
  21. Awesome Connor

    Awesome Connor New Member

    Location:
    Temecula, CA
    Yeah but you stated in the original comment how Norman Smith was a more traditional engineer. Even though he didn't like rubber Soul, he still did a lot of experimental stuff.
     
  22. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    Pepper...
     
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  23. 9la

    9la Forum Resident

    Norman Smith also went on to produce the Pretty Thing's psychedelic recordings, especially "S. F. Sorrow" (1968), which is a link between "Sgt. Pepper" (1967) and "Tommy" (1969). Some of the singles that he produced were milestones of psychedelia, like "See Emily Play" and "Defecting Grey".
     
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  24. Bingo Bongo

    Bingo Bongo Music gives me Eargasms

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    Nuff said...
     
  25. tommy-thewho

    tommy-thewho Senior Member

    Location:
    detroit, mi
    Anything after Revolver is late era and not a fan..
     
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