U.S. Revolver?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Keith V, Oct 21, 2016.

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  1. acdc7369

    acdc7369 Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    Let's see... the UK track listing being the Beatles artistic vision for the album, and the US track listing being essentially just a compilation fabricated by record company fat cats entirely for profit.
     
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  2. Keith V

    Keith V Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Secaucus, NJ
    A great record sounds good even if the song itself isn't all that wonderful.
    Someone said (possibly Joe Walsh) that a good song will still sound good if just played on acoustic guitar or piano.
    Of course there are exceptions to the rule, I still use that as a guideline.
    A perfect example of a great song but not such a great record would be Here There and Everywhere. I think if they did it more like Yesterday or Michelle it would have been better.
    Of course they already had a Yesterday and a Michelle so I don't complain. It fits nice on Revolver and I like the unlikely arrangement.
    Wow. This is hard to explain :)
    Maybe more examples.
    Something. Great song and great record.
    Come Together. Ok song. Great record.
    I am the walrus...it really couldn't exist without the record. The record is pretty much the song.
    In My Life, Nowhere Man, Help...great songs and records.

    Of course this is all opinion but I'm trying to explain. I hope it helped.
     
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  3. Keith V

    Keith V Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Secaucus, NJ
    I don't disagree. And Dr. Robert is actually my favorite Beatles song/record. (See my post above)
     
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  4. notesfrom

    notesfrom Forum Resident

    Location:
    NC USA
    So if we're expanding the US Revolver album - with the inclusion of 'Paperback Writer' and 'Rain' - where do they go?

    Does it call for a reshuffling of the whole song sequence?

    Do you split 'Paperback Writer' and 'Rain' up and stick one onto Yesterday & Today?

    What would Dave (Dexter) do?

    1. Taxman
    2. Eleanor Rigby
    3. Love You To
    4. Here, There And Everywhere
    5. Yellow Submarine
    6. She Said She Said

    7. Good Day Sunshine
    8. For No One
    9. I Want To Tell You
    10. Got To Get You Into My Life
    11. Tomorrow Never Knows
     
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  5. slane

    slane Forum Resident

    Location:
    Merrie England
    Doesn't matter, because Dexter didn't sequence Y&T or Revolver - it was Bill Miller.

    But since you asked - Rain on US Revolver (=12 songs, addressing the lack of Lennon), PW on Y&T (=12 tracks).
     
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  6. NumberEight

    NumberEight Came too late and stayed too long

    You've confused me with your explanation. Why is Here There and Everywhere not such a great record and in what way does it have an unlikely arrangement?
     
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  7. Keith V

    Keith V Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Secaucus, NJ
    It's just a great song. Great melody, lyrics, etc.

    It would fit perfectly in the great American songbook. The Muzak versions I've heard are simply gorgeous.
    If the Beatles did it with strings (like Goodnight even) or acoustic like And I Love Her or Michelle ....or like Yesterday with a string quartet, it would be more beautiful.
    The Beatles version of Here There and Everywhere just sounds kind of wrong with the electric guitars. Not unlike the Beatles 66 live performances of Yesterday.
     
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  8. notesfrom

    notesfrom Forum Resident

    Location:
    NC USA
    Yes, I know Dave didn't sequence those. Thus, the What would Dave do? Not What Dave did.

    Paul is short on Y&T, and John on US Rev, so good farming.
     
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  9. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    I understand the process. Thanks for explaining clearly how it was a compilation album that the Beatles were involved with as a revisionist effort to rewrite history. Paul also keeps telling us how they were number one in America before they booked the Sullivan show. They do like writing their own myths.
     
  10. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    While I love the recording of HT&E, it is interesting that Paul is reinterpreting it on Piano in recent shows.
     
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  11. jwb1231970

    jwb1231970 Ordinary Guy

    Location:
    USA
    Lyrically they are weak.
     
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  12. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    Not clear which ones you are calling lyrically weak. Either the love focused cliches of their early songs or the unintelligible word salad of Lennon's 67 tunes could be considered lyrically weak, depending on one's perspective.

    Best Beatles lyric IMO is For No One.
    Few songs in history convey as much narrative and emotional weight per word as that one.

    Universal, accessible, emotional and intelligible. Conveys a convincing narrative that makes you feel for its participants in 115 words over less than 2 minutes. 20 minutes later I am still feeling it.
     
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  13. HfxBob

    HfxBob Forum Resident

    I would make it a two-fer with Eleanor Rigby and For No One...two of the most incredibly sad songs expressed with such brilliant economy.
     
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  14. The single thing I regret about the recording of the gorgeous song HT&E is Paul's vocal performance. For some reason he doesn't sound very solid to me on the hight notes. He should have either lower the key or give the song to somebody else to sing, outside the group. A girl perhaps.
     
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  15. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    Shh. Be glad he didn't give it to Ringo.
     
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  16. Linto

    Linto Mayor of Simpleton

    I once did a blind test on my friend, using Here There and Everywhere as the test track
    He listened to

    UK 60s Mono -2
    UK 70s UK stereo
    German Apple 70s Stereo
    Japanese Stereo digital 2001 ish.
    USA Stereo on Apple, I think this is a 70s one.

    my friend preferred the USA one. He's no audiophile just enjoyed it more.
     
  17. notesfrom

    notesfrom Forum Resident

    Location:
    NC USA
    Possible 'reverb' value-added analysis needed on that US pressing.
     
  18. 905

    905 Senior Member

    Location:
    Midwest USA
    Always thought it was nice having those two Ringo songs on Yesterday and Today. Ringo and country rock ( for lack of a better term) go together.
     
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  19. Bingo Bongo

    Bingo Bongo Music gives me Eargasms

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    I'm sure the 2014 mono release of MMT must blow them away, but then again, it ain't Stereo.....
     
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  20. drbryant

    drbryant Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    Well, I certainly can't say much in the face of such a persuasive argument!

    I would just note that in the fifty years since their release, those psychedelic era Lennon tracks are increasingly being mentioned as influential milestones in the development of popular music. According to Wikipedia, "A Day in the Life" was #1 on Q Magazine's list of the greatest British songs of all time, was #1 on Mojo Magazine's 101 Greatest Beatles' Songs, was #1 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Beatles Songs, and #5 (the highest ranked Beatles song) on Pitchforks 200 Greatest Songs of the 60's. "Strawberry Fields", "Tomorrow Never Knows", "Walrus", "Come Together" and a few other lyrically similar tracks are high on the lists as well. So at least current musical journalists appear to disagree.

    Personally, if I were going to a desert island, I'd trade Pepper, MMT and the Yellow Submarine album for a nice vinyl copy of The Beatles' Second Album (with those insane covers of "Money", "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Long Tall Sally"). Because frankly, rock and roll is what I want.
     
  21. Licorice pizza

    Licorice pizza Livin’ On The Fault Line

    I haven't listened to the MMT 2014 mono reissue. But if last years purchase of Past Masters 2012 (Sean McGee) is any indication of sound, I'll stick with the German copy.
     
  22. jwb1231970

    jwb1231970 Ordinary Guy

    Location:
    USA
    But what do you think? Are the lyrics to Dr Robert and I'm only sleeping groundbreaking, moving forward from let's say In My Life, - now when you get to Strawberry Fields, Walrus, Lucy he has truly found his poetic way.
     
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  23. drbryant

    drbryant Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    I think "I'm Only Sleeping" is brilliant. There are literally thousands of songs written about dreams, or about sleep as a metaphor for escape or emotional exhaustion or death. But, I can't think of too many songs that are simply about sleeping - an activity on which most human beings spend 1/3 of their lives (put into context, if you live to be 80 years old, you will have spent 27 years asleep).

    Lennon captures the sensations so well - before falling asleep (an eye on the window, staring at the ceiling, waiting for the sleepy feeling), falling asleep (floating upstream), sleeping (miles away, please don't wake me, leave me where I am), of waking up (early morning, lift my head, I'm still yawning). All of which is perfectly reflected in the music - so languid, lazy, content. I find it fascinating, and think that it must have been much more difficult to write than yet another song about unrequited love.

    A similar song is "Daysleeper" by REM, which is about the sensations experienced by those who have night jobs and have to sleep during the day; probably the only song in pop music history with "circadian rhythms" in the lyrics.

    I've never really given any thought to "Dr. Robert" - it's got a nice guitar riff and those great vocals by John and Paul ("You're a new and better man, he helps you to understand . .").
     
    Last edited: Oct 24, 2016
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  24. Chemguy

    Chemguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Western Canada
    Right! There's no WAY that the British is worse. The extras are completely excellent, of course. We just like the flow of the US!

    Nuthin' wrong with that...
     
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  25. NumberEight

    NumberEight Came too late and stayed too long

    I can't imagine those block harmonies being as effective without the rhythm track. We'll have to agree to differ there.

    (As for The Great American Songbook, I disagree with the inclusion of many of the songs it appears to include. Let's not go there.)
     
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