So here I am, listening to The Beatles. I’d spent some time a few weeks ago and copied most–but not quite all–of my Beatles collection to the hard drive for easy access at writing time.
(The only things I didn’t copy? Live at the BBC, 1, and The Capitol Albums, because they duplicate so much what I’d already copied.)
Twenty-one hours of Beatle-y goodness.
The Beatles are on shuffle. I’ll go from “Something’ to “Run For Your Life” to “Day Tripper.” No rhyme, no reason.
I went through a twenty minute span of early stuff. “I Saw Her Standing There,” “You Really Got a Hold On Me,” “Besame Mucho” (from the Decca sessions). I don’t often listen to the early Beatles. There’s no reason for the absence, I just tend to gravitate to Rubber Soul and beyond. Revolver, especially, my favorite of their albums, the one I could listen to forever and day if I could only listen to one Beatles album ever.
A Hard Day’s Night, that I listen to often. With the Beatles? That gets stereo time. But Please Please Me? Beatles for Sale? Almost never. I think it’s the covers–the Beatles’ covers, even though they’re amazing (like “You Really Got a Hold On Me” and “Baby It’s You” and “Long Tall Sally” and “Twist and Shout”), just don’t excite me as much as the Beatles’ own material.
Listening to “I Saw Her Standing There” I could just see the Beatles in that little studio at EMI. I could see Ringo working the drum kit. I could see it all. And I wondered if perhaps I’d been too harsh in not giving the early Beatles the same stereo love their later work receives.
Maybe it will all depend on my mood. 😉