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

You are going to hurt your cheek with your tongue pressed so hard in it.

 

"Yesterday"...and Today is the line in the sand

 

Nah...clamped between my teeth.

 

The white album. Everything before it including Pepper and the MMT era stuff is rooted in the '60's. The white album, get back sessions, and Abbey Road have a timelessness to them.

 

This was the point of no return:



Or "Tomorrow Never Knows" at the end of the previous album, Revolver.

 

Even the white album invokes The Monkees influence with "Everybody's Got Something to Hide 'cept for Me and My Monkey [Monkee]". They weren't done with the Monkees influence quite yet.

 

The K in monkey was typo. It was supposed to read 'money.'

 

Things changed when Paul died and they got a new bass player.

 

^ Exactly this

 

The Beatles themselves proclaimed how transformative cannabis was to their music. 1967 is too late.

 

Without reading all this thread first, I have to say I don't divide into simply "early" and "late." If I did it, RUBBER SOUL would end the early and REVOLVER would start the late.

But I do it thusly:

Early: PPM--HELP. These are all virtually love songs.

Transitional album--RUBBER SOUL this is MAINLY love songs, but there are some twists, a "Nowhere Man" and 'Think For Yourself" in the mix. I would listen to an argument that HELP! was the transitional album, and RUBBER SOUL belongs in the "mid" period, because I've made that argument myself in the past. I now lean differently.

Mid--REVOLVER through MMT. Experimental era, subject matter of the songs is venturing far afield from the love songs of the early period.

Transitional single--"Lady Madonna." There wasn't really an album that marked the entry into the transition. "Lady Madonna" was not all tricked out like much of the '67 stuff. Had "Hey Bulldog" come out around the same time, the transition phase here would be even clearer.

Late--The White Album to LET IT BE. Yes, there are some psychedelic moments on YELLOW SUBMARINE, but we now know when these were recorded and why. By and by, these songs were more straight forward in the presentation, but not a reversion to the love songs in the early years.

And for my money, it's the middle period that I like best.

JcS

 

EARLY:
PLEASE PLEASE ME to HELP
Beatles are still mostly a great pop/rock band
MIDDLE:
RUBBER SOUL to MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR
Beatles experiment and get into folk/rock, psychedelic, Indian music and increased studio sounds
LATE:
WHITE ALBUM to the end
Beatles get back to playing more traditional styles and more are more distinct as individuals

 

Between Help! And Rubber Soul.

 

For what it's worth, I generally consider Sgt. Pepper to the end to be late period and everything prior to Sgt. Pepper to be early period. I don't claim to be "right" on this one.

 

The Paperback Writer/Rain single. First record I remember playing by them. I wasn't much of a Beatle fan before that, although I did enjoy hearing them on the radio. This was around the same time I began smoking marihuana. On hearing that bass sound and the backward guitar, I knew they were too.

Then I bought or maybe borrowed Pepper and my world changed.

 

The problem with your delineation is that you're considering only half the songs. You're only considering lyrical content and not recognizing the beginning change in sound and style during the "Help!" era.

 

Agreed. Revolver ushered in the band's more sophisticated production and arrangements. I think it is a pretty defining moment in the catalogue.

 

For me, Wednesday April 6, 1966 is the commencement date of the "late era". The day they commenced the Revolver sessions, with the recording of "Mark 1".

 

Another supporting piece of evidence is the Beatles Again/Hey Jude album. A very cohesive album considering the span of time the songs were recorded over.

 

OK, so there is no reason, except possibly new engineer.

 

I thought Good Day Sunshine could be a possibility - but... it's a bit too jolly perhaps? Lyrically the other two might have worked but for me, RS has a sound of its own (quite folky and 'dark' in its way) and unless they were had significant re-arrangements, I can't picture them suiting - no more than Taxman (again, with different instrumentation/arrangement.)

 

See i think the Revolver tracks sticks out.

 

For me, the last Beatles album that falls under the "Beatlemania" era is Help.

Rubber Soul and Revolver are the strong transitionary albums.

Sgt. Pepper FIRMLY starts "later" Beatles, in my opinion

 

Who?