Greatest album of all time remastered and re-released

[ronrat]

The Beatles were over rated.

Just as well Magpie greg doesn;t post here anymore or you who have to circle the wagons.

[Mountains Magpie]

Yep, the Stones music from the second half of the '60s has aged very well. It's of it's time and it's timeless - a bloody hard thing to do. I'm amazed they lived long enough to do Exile On Main Street

On McCartney, while it's debatable that there would be no Beatles music after 1966 without Paul, John contributed his share: Strawberry Fields (Penny Lane's twin), Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite, Good Morning Good Morning (early use of 5/4 in pop) just on Peppers. Plus A Day In The Life of course. A masterpiece in every respect, even with Paul's bit in the middle.

Most folks cite Revolver as the Beatles best work (Tomorrow Never Knows last track but She Said She Said is a jaw dropper. Not to forget I'm Only Sleeping - chordally just outrageous and largely 'borrowed' for Split Enz' Message To My Girl) I personally love the White Album. John's songs on this record are just excellent. Dear Prudence, I'm So Tired and Julia are top shelf.

By Abbey Road John is virtually unsighted. Come Together and I Want You only jump out IMHO.

I don't find anything on Pepper 'dire', care to expand Mugwump? I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.

MM

PS: There's a live version of She Loves You (used on the mid '90s anthology but on youtube here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoF-7VMMihA) that I find so exhilarating. I have no superlatives for this recording.

[Mugwump]

^ taste is a funny thing, MM. None of the songs you mentioned do much for me, though I admire the soundscape of Strawberry Fields. I find almost all of Lennon's singing through this period a waste of the one genuine great talent he had - a wonderful rock and roll voice. This is submerged under layers of drippy trippy hippy sludge - reverb, delay, melisma. Ugh.

On Sergeant Peppers, I struggle to think of one great song apart from Lucy in the Sky, which is excellent. A Day in the Life is ok if you like hallucinatory and incoherent lyrics and sleepy singing, and why anyone who is not stoned would consider a long orchestral crescendo on Em a sigificant cultural event is beyond me. The best thing about Mr Kite is the orchestration, credit to George M. Good Morning Good morning seems like a mess with no melodic structure and fittingly, an ending of animal babblings. George's Indian witterings are a waste of time. Fortunately he found his bearings again on
Abbey Rd. She's Leaving Home is McCartney at his sugary worst, Fixing a Hole is tedious, and Ringo's song is a curiosity item as usual.

Honestly ? I reckon it's a record made before people discovered that drugs make you more interesting to yourself, but incredibly boring to others. Oddly, the Fool on the Hill, made around the same time, was one of their finest melodies, as was the incomparable Penny Lane. Strange that these did not make it onto the record.

As to the Stones, Exile on Main Street sounds like a record made by tax exiles on heroin, which it was. Mick Taylor's guitar saves bits of it, because he was young enough to care.

[Mountains Magpie]

Cheers Mugwump - always good to read someone else's perspective.

Can't believe I forgot Lucy

[Mugwump]

^ you too, MM. we don't have to agree, and I hadn't realised that parts of good morning were in 5/4 so thanks for that very interesting snippet.

[stui magpie]

Some of the Beatles best work was after they broke up.

George was great in The Travelling Wilburies
Ringo in Thomas the Tank Engine

[Pies4shaw]

The Beatles were over rated.

Just as well Magpie greg doesn;t post here anymore or you who have to circle the wagons.

I thought they might let him back in for this one, like they did when Greening was inducted into the HoF. That might have been hilarious. I look forward to Greg joining us again. Just in case: "Easy Money is a much, much better song than Let It Be - consider and discuss".

Anyway, has anyone else got the special 16-disc 40th anniversary edition of Lark's Tongues in Aspic?

And meanwhile, has anyone actually listened to any Rolling Stones album made before Beggar's Banquet? Apart from Big Hits: High Tide and Green Grass (which is, of course, a compilation of hit singles), most of those records have a fair song or two on them at best but some don't have any.

[thesoretoothsayer]

I compare Sgt. Peppers to the Orson Welle's film "Citizen Kane".
All the ground-breaking, innovative stuff in Citizen Kane has been so incorporated into modern movies that when you watch it these days you think "what's all the fuss about".
Sgt. Peppers is the same.
Listen to it now and you think "what's all the fuss about" but back in 67 it must've been mind-blowing.

[stui magpie]

I compare Sgt. Peppers to the Orson Welle's film "Citizen Kane".
All the ground-breaking, innovative stuff in Citizen Kane has been so incorporated into modern movies that when you watch it these days you think "what's all the fuss about".
Sgt. Peppers is the same.
Listen to it now and you think "what's all the fuss about" but back in 67 it must've been mind-blowing.

maybe they were at the time, but growing up in the 70's their songs weren't on high rotation on the jukebox.

Most of their stuff just doesn't stand up to the test of time, whereas the Stones songs do.

Paint it black and Sympathy for the devil are much covered and still get airplay today, just for 2.

Innovators
Flash in the pan
Over rated

[thesoretoothsayer]

Stui,

good point.

Love the Stones and if I had to pick a few singles to listen to I'd take the Stones ahead of the Fabs any day.
However, when it comes to albums the Fabs tended to produce less filler (they had 3 songwriters).

The unfortunate thing about the Stones is that they didn't split up in 1975.

[Mugwump]

^ they all have their charms, and I don't think there is really any strong point of comparison. But for pure craft, Something, Let it Be and Here .Comes the Sun have a delicacy and sophistication that far outstrips the Stones. The Stones sound great doing what they do, and that is pretty satisfying. But their range is far less. They are a bit like a Peter McKenna (Stones) vs a Peter Daicos (Beatles).

[Pies4shaw]

Yes, sorry, Stui - I went back to add the link to the article from Rolling Stone and must have hit quote, instead of edit. Ooops.

[Pies4shaw]

[stui magpie]

^

good points well made, but I got it the first time.

[piedys]

The Beatles were over rated.

Be still you heathen, whilst I wash your filthy mouth out with a cake of Dove soap; and stop biting my fingers already!