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Post by lonelysummer on Feb 8, 2023 21:15:37 GMT
If no one wants to talk about the live albums, we can move on to Love Songs, released for the Christmas season, 1977. I never owned this album until a few years ago when I finally decided I needed it to complete my collection. There seemed to be declining sales for these Capitol releases after Rock 'N' Roll Music. I would guess most fans had the original albums - unlike other bands, their original albums were never out of print. They also had an unusually large amount of albums considered classics. Talk to the casual BBs fan, and they'll say Pet Sounds. The average Beatlefan is just as likely to say Revolver, Rubber Soul, Abbey Road, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, or The Beatles (the shite album). In fact, sometimes they didn't even have to create a "new" album. With the release of the Pepper movie and soundtrack, Capitol gave a renewed push to the original, and it made the charts again. And then there was the first round of colored vinyl releases (the red, blue and white albums); and picture discs (AR and Pepper).
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Post by lonelysummer on Feb 8, 2023 21:17:39 GMT
And then there were the bootlegs. Attachments:
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Post by lonelysummer on Feb 8, 2023 21:20:06 GMT
I've got a few of these types of records. Attachments:
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Feb 8, 2023 21:27:41 GMT
If no one wants to talk about the live albums, we can move on to Love Songs, released for the Christmas season, 1977. And, that's when I got it - as a Christmas present in 1977. It was a better album cover and packaging this time; it was textured (is that the term?). I don't remember that much about the listening experience. For some reason I recall the vinyl sounding a bit thin or distorted on some of the songs. Even though it was a "love songs" album, I don't remember it dragging or anything. I do think some of the songs were questionable as to whether they qualified as "love songs".
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Post by lonelysummer on Feb 9, 2023 3:17:59 GMT
If no one wants to talk about the live albums, we can move on to Love Songs, released for the Christmas season, 1977. And, that's when I got it - as a Christmas present in 1977. It was a better album cover and packaging this time; it was textured (is that the term?). I don't remember that much about the listening experience. For some reason I recall the vinyl sounding a bit thin or distorted on some of the songs. Even though it was a "love songs" album, I don't remember it dragging or anything. I do think some of the songs were questionable as to whether they qualified as "love songs".
The copy I got did not have the embossed cover. I guess that's why it was cheap. It's a nice collection of mostly ballads, but yeah, the song selection is questionable. "She's Leaving Home" is a love song? One thing that always stands out to me on the Hollywood Bowl album is George playing the 12 string on "Long Tall Sally. Gives the solo a unique sound. I find it hard to listen to, though - those piercing screams all through the album. My 50 year old ears don't react politely to that anymore. And the problem on the Star Club album is the vocals are buried under the pounding drums and thrashing guitars. it's raw, it's sloppy, but again, not an album I go back to often. So glad we got better versions of many of these songs on Live at the BBC.
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Post by kds on Feb 9, 2023 14:13:06 GMT
I'll be honest, I had no knowledge of these 70s compilations. At all. Surprisingly, I don't even think they got a mention in any of the Beatles catalog books I have. Even the Sheridan Tapes and Star Club releases got mentions.
I'll throw in my two cents on The Hollywood Bowl.
Best - She's a Woman - I think there's a certain energy on the live versions of this song that's lacking a little on the studio cut.
Worst - Boys - Not trying to pick on Ringo here, but yeah.
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Post by lonelysummer on Feb 11, 2023 4:34:54 GMT
I guess you could call this scraping the bottom of the barrell - a collection of recorded oddities, in most cases, with very minor differences compared to the standard versions. "I Am the Walrus" with a few extra measures of music before "yellow matter custard"; "Penny Lane" with a few notes of trumpet on the end; "I'm Only Sleeping" with different guitar sounds. At least I finally got to hear the original Ringo on drums version of "Love Me Do". "Misery" and "There's a Place" finally find a home on a Capitol album. "The Inner Light" finally appears on an album. And for better or worse, so does "You Know My Name (Look Up My Number)". Attachments:
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Post by lonelysummer on Feb 12, 2023 22:04:26 GMT
Now this is truly scraping the bottom of the barrell. "Reel Music" contained songs from the Fabs 4 theatrical releases, A Hard Days Night, Help!, Yellow Submarine, Let it Be, as well as their Xmas 1967 TV special, Magical Mystery Tour. A full year after Stars on 45 successful Beatles medley (which inspired The Beach Boys Medley), Capitol put together their own "Beatles Movie Medley", which made the top 20 here in the US. The booklet that comes with the album is quite nice, but all of the songs on the album had already been used on previous compilations. At the end of 1982, Capitol released "20 Greatest Hits" - and that was it for Capitol comps of Beatles hits. Attachments:
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Post by lonelysummer on Feb 13, 2023 5:58:39 GMT
This thread is dying a slow death. After 20 Greatest Hits in fall 1982, there weren't any new Beatle comps from Capitol. An expert might be able to fill me in on the details. I know there were changes in their contract with Capitol, something that prevented Capitol from releasing anything other than the standard UK catalog. So in 1987, the first US Beatles CD's were released - and that meant fans in the US could finally buy Please Please Me, With the Beatles, A Hard Days Night and Beatles For Sale in the original UK versions. The downside for some was that we only got mono versions. The second batch, Help, Rubber Soul and Revolver, were stereo. So this standardized the Beatles catalog - although the US albums were still available on vinyl for a few years after that, and the cassettes seemed to be in print up into the 90's. I was very late to make the move to CD, but I did hear the initial run of CD's, and frankly, I didn't feel they lived up to the hype. They sounded like the records to me. I did eventually buy the albums on vinyl. I have all except Help! Looking ahead, the first "new" Beatles album in many years was one that I came to love just as much as the original albums. Attachments:
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Post by lonelysummer on Feb 13, 2023 21:13:46 GMT
I'm gonna leave this one up for a few days because, unlike the endless Capitol comps, this is a pretty significant release in the Beatles catalog. Attachments:
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Post by B.E. on Feb 15, 2023 1:05:18 GMT
Best - "Soldier of Love" - This has been my favorite track since I first heard the album way back when. But there are many highlights here, such as, "Clarabella", "Don't Ever Change", "Crying, Waiting, Hoping", and "Memphis, Tennessee", just to name a few. You also get John singing "Honey Don't" and the Lennon/McCartney original "I'll Be On My Way". You also get to hear more of their country roots here than you would on their studio albums, as well as, stuff like "The Honeymoon Song". I love how diverse their musical influences were!
Worst - "Love These Goon Shows" - Yeah, not a song, just a link track. You'd think it would be easy to choose but I actually really enjoy nearly all of these, too. This one and "Ooh! My Arms" being the only ones I'm indifferent toward.
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Post by kds on Feb 15, 2023 16:06:39 GMT
Best - Some Other Guy - It's pretty cool to have a lot of non catalog covers on this BBC collection. I could've gone with Hippy Hippy Shake, Memphis, or Too Much Monkey Business, but on a fresh listen, Some Other Guy jumped out.
Worst - Love These Goon Shows - Could've been any of these tracks really. I also considered She's a Woman. As much as I like some of the live versions of this song, the BBC version just seems a little flat.
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Post by lonelysummer on Feb 17, 2023 2:39:37 GMT
Live at the BBC felt like a feast for the ears. 2 hours (or more) of performances I (mostly) had never heard before. Soldier of Love might be my favorite track on the album - even got to see Rain, the tribute band, do it back in 1995. Baby It's You is a better performance than the studio version; Some Other Guy is great (finally found out what that song was in the often seen Cavern footage). A lot of these songs were also on the live Star Club album, but these are much better recordings. There's also a few songs I knew from their Decca audition, but again, these are better performances. I don't mind the spoken word tracks; it gives the feeling of sitting the radio listening to the actual broadcasts. There's only a couple songs I don't care for - Don't Ever Change and Clarabella.
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Post by jk on Feb 17, 2023 9:06:11 GMT
Some interesting covers there. "Some Other Guy" was introduced into the UK beat group scene by The Beatles' stable mates The Big Three. Their (in my view) definitive version gave them a UK #37 in April 1963: Like "Anna (Go To Him)" and the Stones' "You'd Better Move On", "Soldier Of Love (Lay Down Your Arms)" was originally recorded by Arthur Alexander:
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Post by lonelysummer on Feb 18, 2023 2:22:23 GMT
Some interesting covers there. "Some Other Guy" was introduced into the UK beat group scene by The Beatles' stable mates The Big Three. Their (in my view) definitive version gave them a UK #37 in April 1963: Like "Anna (Go To Him)" and the Stones' "You'd Better Move On", "Soldier Of Love (Lay Down Your Arms)" was originally recorded by Arthur Alexander: Marshall Crenshaw did a very reverent cover of "Soldier of Love" on his first album. I could assume he had heard a bootleg of the Beatles' version, but more likely he actually knew the original. Myself, I have to thank the Beatles for introducing me to so many of the great pre-Beatles rock and roll and rhythm and blues classics.
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