The early Beatles singles and their timeless quality

Personally speaking in general terms. Not one song in particular. I'd say the singles from 1965 onwards tend to be much more timeless than the earlier singles in 62-63-64.

I find it to be a head scratcher that someone views it in the reverse. Penny Lane, Rigby & Come Together are dated, but Love Me Do & All My Loving aren't.

Sorry doesn't make any sense to me. I like a lot of the earliest ones too. But they really got clever & ahead of their time more from 65 onwards. Maybe 64 a little bit, but 65 was like a whole new world musically, lyrically, technically.

Ironically their equipment was a couple or three years behind the curve, others had 8 tracks & certain things earlier. But again the Abbey Road people invented things like artificial vocal doubling.

Nothing like a nice iced tea, a Cooper time cube & a good program.

Cooper time cube, cube, cube, cube, cube, cube, cube

 

Moondog, they took a while to get to 8 track, but they had the best consoles, pre amps, compressors and other equipment at that time. Not to mention the the tape recording machines. Those Studer 4 tracks were rock solid.

I could make an argument that studio 2 was probably the best sounding room around as well.

 

I wore out my original singles years ago...I have needle drops and do enjoy them often.

 

I can vouch for Studer making great multitracks. They sound great. There is a difference from company to company. Probably even between individual machines.

Yeah I said Abbey Road was a pioneering place. But the accounting people, didn't understand obviously. Just how quickly recording technology ws changing.

The general growth and industry standard, going from a two track to a 4 to an 8 to a 16, happened in what ? 4-5 years ? And then 24 track what 2-3 years later ? By what or when ? 24 track was standard by 72 ?

But the difference between 16 & 24 isn't that profound. The difference between 2 & 8 or 16 is really profound. Huge. So being 2-3 behind on that was huge.

But as you say, Abbey Road people knew how to use what they had. They had all the best stuff, if it wasn't something reinvented every 18 months. Best mics, pre amps, EQ, staff.. but having an 8 & or a 16 imagine what they might have done with that, sooner.

If Pepper was cut on an 8 track so less machine to machine bounces were necessary, & more time was spent by the Beatles creating, instead of waiting, the increased clarity & doubled vocals, better stereo, not oh gotta stop time to bounce repatch everything.

The early singles are less timeless & more dated, the later singles are more timeless imo.

 

Amazing achievement, all top-notch songs!

 

I don't think Love Me Do is much of a song, but it certainly has its place in music history, especially as a sample of the formative, primitive stage of Lennon and McCartney as songwriters.

 

My bad I misread it.
Thought he meant intros to any song not just albums.
That's what I get for posting at work.

 

IMO PS I Love You is the superior song.

BTW, the songs that are mainly responsible for their rise to superstardom, She Loves You and I want to hold your hand, were definitely co-written.

Love This Boy, love it. And totally agree about those first three songs on With The Beatles

Fantastic.

 

Yes, these were the songs that created Beatlemania and everything that followed. A real and for true revolution.

 

With me they do, I'll take AHDN or WTB or BFS over anything else, even Revolver.

 

Oh yeah...Oh yeah. Lol

 

People in the 1960s had an amazing taste, honestly.

 

Is it true that 'I'll Get You' was originally planned to be a single a-side track, like 'Thank You Girl' earlier as well?
I love both songs a bit more than the tracks that became the actual a-sides in the end.

Btw, sad that the session tapes from 'She Loves You' and 'I'll Get You' were destroyed. Would love to hear real stereo mixes of these.

 

Leave it in! The freshness, spontaneity and enthusiasm is still there, even if the song is somewhat inferior to the others! Chapeaux to Love me do!!!

 

my early Beatles playlist covering 1962-1964 (songs from PPM to BFS plus some singles) is my most played playlist in my car for a while now.

 

Neither one has a stereo mix on the stereo box. They are still in mono. But these were 2 track recordings, so it is probably better that they never got chopped up like other early Beatles recorded on 2 track. Imo, none of the two track stuff should have been mixed in stereo to begin with. It just sounds weird.

 

I agree. They might have been on 4 tracks later than some artists, but the quality of the mics, outboard gear, the REDD consoles and acoustics in Studio 2 make some of the best sounding records ever. The Telefunken M-10 4 track and the J-37 4 track are fantastic sounding machines. They sell J-37 tape machine emulator software to people who use Pro Tools because people want THAT sound, that rich full sound. Plus, they had George Martin, Norman Smith, Geoff Emerick, Ken Scott and some of the best trained audio people in the world working on their stuff. That is why, even though they were behind the curve on some things, their recordings still sound so incredibly good today, 50 plus years later. When they went to the TG12345 console for Abbey Road, I don't think it sounded as good as the older REDD desk, even though it was superior technology.

 

A lot of the Beatles output, from their whole recording career is timeless

both were singles, not album openers.

 

I remember reading somewhere, Lennon and Harrison were pissed off about the new transistorized board (TG12345 console) being installed. They couldn't seem to get the same bite on the guitars with it. Obviously they figured it out enough to make an incredible album, but it does make you wonder what Abbey Road would have sounded like if it were recorded on the good ol' REDD tube board they had used for all the other albums.

 

I think it would be more consistent sonically with the bulk of their catalog. It has a different feel. I prefer the REDD, but it was "old" and not as capable for the new stereo era and higher track counts. I wish EMI designed a new REDD board with enhanced capability rather than move to a solid state, but that is what happened.

 

From a sound quality perspective, absolutely, but I reckon a lot of bands today would kill to possess the sheer energy The Beatles exhibited in the studio in their early days. Then they discovered pot, and we know the rest of the story...

In other words, they'd actually sing "Please Please Me" in the X-rated manner with which I sing it privately? (No, I won't quote it, the post would be Gorted faster than you could say "oral sex"!)

 

I like the suit look. A nice, slim cut 60s style suit with skinny necktie is sharp. I prefer it to the grunge look.

 

Tubes just have a very different sound. I think that sound is one of the reasons The Beatles' records sound so cool, but obviously Abbey Road worked out pretty well, too.

 

It doesn't necessarily have a negative connotation; it just means it is of a particular time. To me anyway.

 

I would be interested in seeing an actual reference for this claim.