John Lennon - Imagine.

I've said many times before that  it was sir Macca's performance on Live Aid that got me into the Beatles, and it was - there's no doubt about it, but people often mistake that for me being into Paul McCartney before any other Beatle, but that's wrong.

It was this song that had me infatuated with John Lennon. Maybe that beautiful introduction reminded me of a childhood spent on listening to 'Don't Look Back In Anger', maybe at the age, I was, I was sick of hearing songs about hoes and bitches - I finally had real music, music that inspired me and music that I was proud to listen to. 

Simplicity can be a beautiful thing and John Lennon has created one of the most beautiful songs to have ever been recorded with Imagine, spreading the message of peace across a piano and to the world for an earth that was driven by hate and war - a song that's message is as powerful now as it was in 1971, it was so simple that even those under the age of ten can understand it.

And for the record, this is my favourite number one.

Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

I love the Beatles, I always have done and Sgt Pepper's was the first Beatles Album that I ever bought, but it wasn't until Wednesday night that I was really blown away by it. I've always assumed that the only way to listen to this album is to be intoxicated by acid (or any other drug) BUT! I then found that being half asleep causes much the same effect. I don't take drugs and don't plan to, it's not my scene, so I figured there was no point me ever trying to strip this album down and review it in it's fine details (which, as a music tech student, I tend to do with all songs and albums - it's just a natural occurrence). But there I was, unable to sleep, although I was knackered, and I had noticed someone on Twitter posting about how great of a song 'She's leaving home' is I obviously agree with the statement and decided to give it a listen, remembering how calming it was and so that maybe it would send me off to sleep.

It opens with the chattering of an audience, more than likely a middle-class audience that would listen to a big band. It's the audience participation that really does it for me as an opening, the way that George Martin has panned it and manipulated the volume for the cheers and applauding - wow! I love good old panning techniques. Also on that line 'we'd like to take you home with us, we'd love to take you home' it has that effect of going right through your head until Paul McCartney begins singing right into your right ear.

'With a little a help from my friends' - the song on the album that just makes me smile whenever I hear it. It's not complicated like the other songs on the album, it's easy to listen to and more than likely the reason for it being the more famous song from the great album. Something that does catch my little ear drum is the bass line, and that is something that stands out throughout the whole album - I've never heard an album with so many great bass lines! 

Picture yourself on a boat on a river, with tangerine trees and marmalade skies. Does anyone actually believe that this was a song based on a drawing of young Julian Lennon? Maybe it was, but I like to believe that they were completely off of their mop top heads on acid when it was written - and even performed. From my understanding a technique called Varispeeding was used, which, in layman's terms, is a technique in which you record various tracks on a multi-track tape but at slightly different speeds - it's used on most of songs on the album though 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds' has it laid on thick to give it that 'thick' sound. A brilliant, brilliant song that I could listen to everyday.

Another upbeat song comes along after 'Lucy in the sky' - 'Getting Better', a song that could have easily been on 'Revolver', 'Abbey Road' or even 'Rubber Soul'. The only part that gives it that 'Sgt Pepper's' feel is the sitar, and how it is long drawn out in the background.

'Fixing A Hole' - only the Beatles could manage to pull off a song about fixing a hole. But this it what the album is about, childhood and everyday life - this fitting in rightly with the theme of everyday life. But I like it, I honestly do - it has a certain meaning to it, about finding things to occupy your mind from your worries - it's a thing I often find myself doing, in fact when I built my shelves I was humming this song to myself. And you know what else? It has an amazing bass line.

The album played on shuffle. The first song I listened to was 'She's leaving home', it's a song that has meant so much to me for so long, as my grandma died on a Wednesday morning - at around five o' clock. But it's John Lennon's haunting vocal that really does it for me; Overdubbing/Double Tracking and Reverb will have more than likely been involved in the process to create that spine tingling vocal line - but it's John Lennon who we should give credit to for performing it without any imperfections. Those lines he sings 'bye, bye' - nothing could put goosebumps all over my skin more.

'Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite'. This song honestly gave me a bit of a fright when I listened to it. The room was pitch black and by now I had my eyes open, but I have odd fears; gas masks, songs getting played backwards and music that reminds me of old time fairgrounds. And yes, this song reminds me of old time fairgrounds. I think it's Lennon's vocal that freaks me out the most - it sounds so monotone which is not what I'm used to when listening to him, he sounds practically fed up - which you would be if you had to sing this everyday to an audience of circus goers, which I think is what Lennon was attempting to achieve. Also the fairground organs do nothing to stop my fear. 

And, I must say, Ringo does a splendid job on his little drum kit.

One of the most experimental songs on the album come under the name 'Within You Without You'. George is the only Beatle to perform on this song, Lennon, McCartney and Starr just watched as four Indian musicians played Tabla, Dilruba, Swarmandel, and Tambura (well done me for remembering how to spell them!). There is so much going on during the instrumental that it confuses me, I couldn't listen to this whilst doing something of importance - it's too much of a mind bender so my mind tends to ignore it but getting to hear it when I'm half conscious does weird things, I closed my eyes and my eyes felt Kaleidoscopic. It was certainly a weird moment for me.  

I never realised how important the bass was to this album until I listened to 'When I'm Sixty-Four', especially to this particular song; it creates the song as we know and love it. McCartney sounds very young, he could easily be mistaken for a ten year old - which gives it a kind of 'aww, bless him' quality - not a quality that I feel should be on any other Beatle song but a quality that makes you fall in love with this tune.

'Lovely Rita' is my favourite song from the album. Maybe this explains why I love Rita from Coronation Street so much? Maybe, I don't know. Is there actually a song on this album that doesn't use reverb? I also don't know the answer to that question, but let me tell you now that it serves the Beatles well on this certain song. This is also a song that could have appeared on any other later Beatles album, but it didn't! And once again it's John Lennon's backing vocal that basically sums up why, I can't believe how brilliantly he performs during this album - it's my favourite album that Lennon has ever been involved with. 

This song also holds one of my favourite lyrics 'Give us a wink and make me think of you' it seems to go back to those very early Beatles days where they had those cheeky little lines.

'Good Morning Good Morning' now, I have a sort of love hate relationship with this song. When I see it on my iPod I tend to skim straight past it and because I just hate that introduction of 'Good Morning, Good Morning' repeated - I think it sounds terrible and nothing about it particularly appeals to me. But getting past that I find it to be one of my favourite drumming tracks of Ringo. He holds it together well, he gets himself noticed by using his drums - and not by singing, I'm glad that the Beatles had actually given a chance for Ringo to be properly heard at some point during their reign.

Did I say 'Lovely Rita' was my favourite song from the album earlier? Well I'm sorry, I forgot about the amazing 'Day In The Life'. It has everything going for it, what an amazing end to an epic album. I've made it clear that Johnny Lennon's vocals have been very haunting and beautiful throughout the album and doesn't this just make clear of my statement? Why did he never do more songs with just a slowly played acoustic guitar? This is also the song that makes me realise how much Lennon and McCartney's song writing had differed, with Lennon's depressing story of reading how someone had 'blew his mind out in a car'. The orchestral comes in, almost as if it's a metaphor for time moving backwards as McCartney turns into the boy that blew his mind out in that very car. Everything cheers up, cheesy is a word that comes to mind throughout most McCartney songs on this album, he tells the story of his day as he wakes up and gets read and then comes the line 'Somebody spoke and I went into a dream'. 

I have to admit, I had some pretty freaky dreams when I eventually got to sleep. I also woke up on the floor, maybe I was fighting Blue Meanies (sorry, Yellow Submarine reference). But all in all this album is just pure brilliance, most probably the greatest album created and that will ever be created - The Beatles (and George Martin) got something right when they made this album, a classic upon classics and I can't wait until I have kids so I can show them it.

The Beatles

John, Paul, George and Ringo – the fab four, as they’re known by many millions across the universe. The most famous band that Britain have ever produced, it’s hard to believe that Decca even dared to turn them down when these four talented scallywags entered their lair, what utter fools to have not seen the obvious talent that was pouring from the speakers as they played their tapes.

Many people can connect with the Beatles, it’s hard to find someone who isn’t a Beatles fan – I’m putting this down to the amounts of genres that they crossed into; Mersey beat, ballad, psychedelic, rock, the list is endless. Album sales reaching record amounts, the hundreds of Guinness world records’ that these four own is astounding, and it all happened to four young lads from Liverpool. John Lennon, a troubled teen that had a poet buried deep inside of him that was just waiting to get out, everyone thinks of the Beatles as four happy chaps but if you listen to songs such as ‘Julia’, ‘Help’ and ‘Norwegian wood’ it’s understood that this was a troubled genius that was crying out, in his poetry, for some love and attention. And it was Lennon who brought Paul McCartney into the group, Paul is the charismatic brown-eyed boy who had all the girls weak at the knees with one smile, a better guitarist than a bassist but his song writing outshone them both, it’s easy to see why Paul had so much to smile about when you listen to how cheeky and uplifting his songs are, take ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’, ‘When I’m sixty-four’ and the middle half of ‘A day in the life’ – it’s easy to see in that last example where he and John differed in writing styles during their later years. From Paul the Beatles gained George Harrison, an excellent guitarist with a shy nature – it was a long time until George had a well deserved number one with ‘Here comes the sun’ – and for many people it’s a favourite. I love listening to isolated guitar tracks from the many works of the Beatles because of how blown away I get by George Harrison’s talent as a guitarist, Harrison is never failing to surprise me when I hear something I had never noticed before and it takes a lot for me not to just stand up and applaud it. The replacement of Pete Best caused a stir throughout the early Beatle fans when Ringo sat down behind that famous Ludwig drum kit, hearing the chants of “Pete Best forever, Ringo never” almost every night until his cheeky smile warmed their hearts and Ringo became as much a part of the Beatles as John, Paul or George was. A warm hearted drummer that lives without the recognition he deserves from fans all over the world, without his steady drum beat songs that we love so much would have never sounded the same, a simple drummer that was never to be a free drummer but it’s what we we’re comfortable with when listening to the Beatles, it’d be no good having John Bonham or Keith Moon in the Beatles.

I can’t think of a Beatle song that I don’t like, nor can I think of an album that I don’t like. The first time I listened to them changed it my life, it was at the instance that I wanted to have a career in music and for many years that has always stayed the same, and I thank the Beatles for most of the amazing things that have ever happened to me.

Song of the day. 06/10/2011

The Beatles - Help!

This is my favourite song of all time hands down. Lennon's first call for help and also Lennon/McCartney's first none love song, correct me if I'm wrong. I think a lot of people have been able to connect with the song at one time or another - a reason why I love it so. The song in whole was the first sign that the Beatles weren't just going to be some love sick mop tops, this was the first time I think people really realised their potential as serious musicians (not that they're earlier work wasn't fantastic). From Ringo we expect the usual from him; just making a beat in the back because they need it and not really expressing himself, and although we do hear a lot of it in this song there are small bursts of Ringo energy in there with the odd drum roll and the tight patter on his snares. Then we hear McCartney's input with his soft twang on his bass that hits you right in the gut, those descending three notes that will want to make you replay the song over and over again. It is just a work of art.