Any Beatle song or album special to you for some reason?

[rurallib]

Since this weekend will be wall to wall Beatles (50 years ago blah, blah, blah)
Many may have heard this before, but when we were young parent and Mrs. Lib nearly died, I would sing my kids to sleep with "Golden Slumbers." Still can't hear that song without turning to mush.

Many other songs for various reasons, but Golden Slumbers has a special spot for me.

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. Meet the Beatles....and Abbey Road

Meet the Beatles because I still recall they day when our second grade teacher brought the album into school and played it for the class - we were astonished, blown away, and suspect, instant Beatles fans for the rest of our lives....FINALLY music that was ours to discover (and something to replace the Mitch Miller and Herb Alpert albums my parents always played!).

Abbey Road because it was their last - and to me, still one of the perfect full albums of all time. And even though I have loads of jazz, classical, alternative rock, ambient - Abbey Road is still one of those few albums that I can listen to with joy any time.

[rurallib]

2. Just finished listening to Abbey Road

which prompted the question

My mom bought me an album when the Beatles first hit.
She bought me "The Vogues" - she meant well.

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. I can still remember going to the local dept store just after each new Beatles album...

$2.33 for the mono version! Then of course...the 45s...and listening to the local AM radio on the front porch with my friends and calling in our requests!

[NRaleighLiberal]

4. WEIRD - as I typed my response to you, Come Together just started playing on

my wife's iPod speakers - the iPod is set to shuffle! Why that song out of thousands???

[orleans]

32. it's a sign! n/t

[pipi_k]

6. Oh, Abbey Road...

by far my favorite!

I still remember the rumors of Paul's "death" and all the "clues" on the cover of the album.

It came out during a time of my life that was on the edge of innocence about to explode into much turbulence.


I thought it was so cool that my name is mentioned in "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"

And a boyfriend at the time said that the song "Something" made him think of me.

Like you, I can listen to the entire album over and over and never get tired of it.

[malthaussen]

53. Ha, so is my mundane surname.:)

Went through a lot of "here comes Maxwell's Silver Hammer" in school.

-- Mal

[edbermac]

5. All of them!

One of the greatest band of musicians ever!

This is what they'd do to a bunch of punk-ass pop stars like Justin and Miley: TEAR THEM APART!

[pink-o]

7. The greatest of the great: Rubber Soul and Revolver (Brit collections)

As long as you delete the Ringo songs where they threw him a bone. He proved himself on "A Little Help from my Friends; before that don't bother.)

But I double-dog DARE you to find a more moving song than Eleanor Rigby or In my Life. I can barely listen to the latter since John's death; so simple and poignant.

And I love Across the Universe, since it is the first song I heard after finding out John had been murdered. I like to think of him as part of the ether: floating around us all and beyond the pain. But we're still hurting for missing him so much.

[Arugula Latte]

8. My daughter was born into the world to "Here Comes the Sun."

My husband said it should have been "Here Comes the Daughter."

[handmade34]

9. just a sweet song...

from Rubber Soul

[Jokerman]

10. "Revolver" was one of the first LP's I ever owned.

And it still one of my favorites.

[rurallib]

14. "Revolver" was kind of the "becoming an adult" album to me

themes seemed much deeper etc. If they had stopped there it would have been a great album of all time.
But then came Sargent Pepper - funny few on here have mentioned Sgt. Pepper.

[Aristus]

11. I've always loved the resigned, elegiac quality of "Let It Be".

I even like the Phil Spector version with the enhanced George Harrison guitar interlude. Although Abbey Road is the Beatles' swan song, I always felt as if they put the capper on their career as a group with "Let It Be".

Chris De Burgh recorded a song called Perfect Day that borrows the chord progression from the song, and features a cameo of the Harrison guitar solo towards the end. I love that.

Fastball's song "Out Of My Head" also features a chord progression similar to "LIB", and includes organ on the intro. The guitar interlude is so purely George Harrison that the song must have been written as a sort of tribute to him.

I adore the old Sesame Street sketch "Letter B", which features mop-topped, vest-wearing Muppet 'beetles' singing an ode to their favorite letter, with "LIB"-style musical accompaniment.

I must have 10-12 renditions of 'Let It Be' on my iPod.

Wonderful song.

[Walk away]

12. "Here There and Everywhere"

In 1972 I was spending the summer in Switzerland and fell in love with the most gorgeous young guy on the Ski Patrol. He was based in Zermatt and we would hike the sunny slopes of the Matterhorn and he would play Beatles songs on his guitar for me.

What a summer. I can close my eye and feel the alpine breezes. I have always thought it is a perfect song.

[TexasBushwhacker]

13. Imagine

[nirvana555]

15. Abbey Road. ...

I asked my dad for an advace on my allowance so i could
buy it. He said he'd just give me the money and wouldn't count it! He liked them too, even though he was of the Big Band generation. He was so sweet. He was killed in a car wreck just a few weeks later I was 12.

[orleans]

33. how sad. but that was a very cool thing he did--& you've never forgotten. n/t

[The Second Stone]

16. Abbey Road for me. Like the Ode To Joy

Happy, complex and damn near perfect. Never insisting on itself.

[Skittles]

17. A Day in the Life

"....found my way upstairs and had a smoke" - reminds me of my English grandparents. When I was with granddad, he smoked so we had to go to the upper level of the double decker- my grandmother never let me upstairs because she said that was where all the "bloody riff raff" went (yes, AND? )

[Art_from_Ark]

18. I Wanna Hold Your Hand/I Saw Her Standing There

It was their first US singles release (45rpm), and the one and only Beatles record that I had while they were together.

Also, Penny Lane, because it always takes me back to carefree nights of skating at the roller rink, and

Eleanor Rigby, because when I heard it in the trailer to Yellow Submarine that was shown on the Today Show, it immediately fascinated me because of the Vivaldiesque cello accompaniment.

[LWolf]

19. Sure.

Album? The White Album.

Songs? Yesterday. Let it Be. Hey Jude.

[TeeYiYi]

28. +1. ..nt

TYY

[WinkyDink]

20. "She Loves You." Transports me to age 14. The chorus is sung by my entire generation, YEAH, YEAH,

YEAH! A defining Line of Demarcation, for our parents would NEVER have sung that refrain.

[mulsh]

21. Meet the Beatls always sounds frech to me.

The stuff they first released has an energy that the later group just couldn't find. Hey Jude and Long and Winding Road sound like dirges to me. Let It Be sounds like a dirge too with the added aspect that it is what my Irish grand parents would say to tell us to "Leave it alone.' I always thought it was McCarney's subtle way of saying "it's over".

I also really love the BBC sets. Beatles at their best with none of that "dead Beatle sound" crap that Lennon complained about with their recorded stuff.

[Scuba]

22. "If I Fell"

[hermetic]

23. Special memory!

Way back then, Albuquerque, met a guy at a party and we danced to this song. We had a thing, but then he got sent away to school and I never saw him again. That wasn't you, was it? Whoa...that would be wild!

I still think of him when I hear this song.

[Scuba]

54. Sadly no. But the sentiment is shared.

[hermetic]

56. Awww, thanks.

I ain't got no money, honey, but here....

[Scuba]

57. Here's some hugs ...

[Trailrider1951]

24. Yes, Here Comes the Sun

Just the most positive way to start your day EVAH!

[cyberswede]

25. My sister used to play and sing "Yellow Submarine" when I was little.

She was 14 years older than I was, so she shared lots of her music with my little sister and me.

My favorite album now is Revolver.

[rurallib]

26. Revolver coupled with Rubber Soul were the two albums

that broke the whole "June, spoon, moon" mold that pop music was in.
Rubber Soul started to break it and then Revolver just smashed it with the likes of "tomorrow never knows" and She Said" also "Elenor Rigby." Made a person think.

[progressoid]

29. Love 'Tomorrow Never Knows' from Revolver.

I have a hard time picking one favorite album but Revolver is always in contention.

[TeeYiYi]

27. Yes. Beatles Love Songs...

TYY

[kwassa]

30. Rubber Soul. Still a great album.

My first Beatles album, one of the first albums I owned, a gift, as I recall.

[rppper]

31. My first two albums were...

Billy Joel's 52nd street and the 67-70 greatest hits album...I bought them the same day!...I'm a bigger fan of anything from rubber soul forward...

[orleans]

34. abbey road & the song "i want you/she's so heavy"

in an era of free love, touchy/feely, teenage hippie sexuality
in a friend's basement
on a friend's waterbed
with the smell of pot and incense
and a mirror ball (i think it was 1974)
and a couple of friends
on several occasions
or just my one friend
on countless occasions
probably some of the most sensual experiences of my life and that record and that song as the soundtrack.
it was heaven.

[6000eliot]

35. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Mainly, it's because when we were very poor my mother spent the money to get it for me as a Christmas present. I also love the music, however.

[rurallib]

36. Sgt. Pepper is like the mother ship of Beatle recordings

It was literally a watershed work. There is music before Sgt. Pepper and music after Sgt. Pepper. I thought I remember it coming out at Christmas. I had a girlfriend, good grades, a good job, prospects and Sgt. Pepper playing over and over til early morning. Life was good.

I remember reading someplace that a decision was made to not include Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane in the work. Can't remember why or if they would have replaced other songs.

[6000eliot]

43. Before the album was completed, the label asked for a new single.

George Martin and The Beatles offered these two completed songs. In England, groups usually released singles separately from albums, so putting the songs on 45 meant that they would no longer be considered for the album. Martin says to this day that he regrets the decision.

[Tom Ripley]

37. We used to listen to the white one at the ranch a whole lot

[hibbing]

38. Norwegian Wood

Last edited Sat Feb 8, 2014, 01:14 AM - Edit history (1)

I once had a girl, or you could say, she once had me. Then I later found out the melody is from a Dylan song, which was interesting. I've always heard the story that Dylan introduced the Beatles to weed. Their music did get better. I also liked their real trippy songs.

Peace

[rurallib]

42. Many years back i read that Norwegian Wood was originally banned

because the original words were to sexually suggestive.
to be honest "Norwegian Wood" does not make a lot of sense in this song, but since it was the Beatles many probably didn't care.

But if the words were "knowing she would" the song makes much more sense.

"And when I awoke,
I was alone
This bird had flown
So I lit a fire
Isn't it good
Knowing she would"

[Glorfindel]

39. "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" - It came out while I was in Vietnam

What a revelation! Nothing before or since has ever had such an impact on me: "With our love, with our love, we could save the world, if they only knew..." We listened to it on a daily basis and never got tired of it.

[TrogL]

40. Let It Be

No specific reason.

[lastlib]

41. Not a Beatles' song, but....

...Elton John's "Empty Garden" haunts me to this day, for obvious reason. As does "Imagine". What might've been..............

[doc03]

44. Hey Jude sticks in my mind. Remember being plastered singing along with that

with my buddies in the Army back in 1968-69 over in Germany. Hated the army but had some great times.

[struggle4progress]

45. I heard some of their stuff so often I can barely hear it anymore

So I'll just mention two that I thought were interesting that got less play

Some of their stuff is terribly dated: I always liked the beat and guitar line of "Run for your life" -- but the lyrics now seem horrific to me

[Manifestor_of_Light]

50. I think John apologized for Run for your Life.

[struggle4progress]

51. That could be

All I've been able to find by websearch is that John said it was a throw-away based on any earlier song

Here's a better throw-away IMO

[8 track mind]

46. wow that's a tough one

revolver, abbey road, sgt. peppers. never really cared for the white album, it had some good moments, but it wasn't the most listenable

Now picking a single most favorite Beatles song? wow, that's a tough one. If i had to pick, i would say "Hey Bulldog". The lead solo by George Harrison is one of my all time favorites, along with the opening riff. Great lyrics and vocals by Paul and John, Ringo's drumming is spot on.

[rurallib]

47. is there one that for some reason has a special meaning

not necessarily your favorite.

[Corgigal]

48. She's leaving home

As we were driving back from dropping our youngest daughter at her school. Was my husband's first time ever hearing it, so he cried and said he never wanted to hear it again.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

49. The obnoxious version of Revolver on 45 with distortion.

Because John screams at the beginning.

Mom heard that and yelled, "WHAT IN THE HELL IS THAT??"

"That's John."

"WELL WHATEVER IT IS, TURN IT OFF!!!!!!"

Dad would say "Turn it off, I can still hear it!"

He liked jazz, real jazz, not sanitized for white people jazz, and realized that some of the people playing rock and roll were good musicians, while my mother the square and the grand-units sat there and bitched and whined about that "noise" and those "men with facial hair and long hair that look like girls." He would shut down their fallacious arguments about men with facial hair and long hair.


The other one that was great for pissing off the parental units was conveniently the first track on the White Album, "Back in the U.S.S.R." starting with a jet landing for maximum obnoxitude.

The parents never played any records. We got a combo stereo/color TV/ AM/FM radio by Zenith in 1964, but only my sister and I used it.
My mom refused to listen to jazz because that was "nigra music". She went to dances in college with, I kid you not, "Paul Whiteman and his orchestra" playing. Jazz sanitized for Southern white virgins.

My grandma walked through the den at her house one Saturday morning when we were trying to get American Bandstand on her black and white TV (with a 30 foot antenna outside) and she said "Y'all shouldn't be watchin' that nigra music." We all died laughing behind her back. She thought we should be watching Lawrence Welk which I could not stand because the people acted like zombies.

I should have said "Yeah that Dick Clark is really black" but she wouldn't have known who he was anyway. She would have had a heart attack if she'd known about Soul Train.

[Miles Archer]

52. The White Album

In Massachusettts, there are basically two types of basements / cellars. The first is largely unfinished, a real "cellar" of sorts (that's what my parents had). The second is the fully finished "rec room." One of my friends had the "rec room." He and I and one other friend used to hang out there and listen to The White Album, Wheels of Fire, Disraeli Gears, Cosmo's Factory, Anthem Of The Sun, the first Velvets album, the first Doors album, Surrealistic Pillow...we also formed a band before any of us could really play. Many less-than-pleasant memories of growing up in a small town in Massachusettts. This was one of the pleasant ones.

[nytemare]

55. Blackbird

I sang it to my best friends Mom the night before she died in hospice care. Farewell Frannie.