Beatles First Listen - "Boys" and "Ask Me Why"
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Thanks for doing Ask me Why. This gave me a new appreciation for those vocals. The style is more old fashioned, and I suspect this was written for dance halls.
Picasso had to master the classical style before he became Picasso.
"The Beatles" became a band in Hamburg -- 8 hours a night 7 days per week -- where they were a rhythm & booze dance band.
Their enormous repertoire is result of their having to fill all those hours without repeating themselves.
@@jnagarya519 and having to learn all these different styles and songs adapted to a rock combo. This experience would serve them well allowing them to expand Rock and roll
@@Hartlor_Tayley I never really liked their cover of "Please Mr. Postman" -- until I saw a youtube video showing both performance of the original and theirs. Theirs is every bit as good. The problem is that it's a weak song.
@@jnagarya519 I didn’t care for that one at all either. Beatles did it as well as it probably could be done. I agree
@@Hartlor_Tayley And they did it because it was a frequent request of them.
I’m glad you’re listening in chronological order now in order to appreciate the amount of growth and innovation in such a short time. But remember, this was revolutionary for its time. My Dad always says you think very early Beatles songs are simple… until you try to play them.
Songs like “She Loves You” and other early songs are so distinctively Beatles that it can’t really be covered.
The Beatles learned their close harmony style mainly from two sources: The Everly Brothers and Motown girl groups. They spent a lot of time listening to those kinds of records in the late 50's (well before the Beach Boys were recording), and then tried to match or exceed the harmonies they'd heard.
Well said
"Boys" was originally recorded by Black R&B girl group "The Shirelles".
"Ask Me Why" is one of my favourites of the early Beatle songs. The melody and the singing are key to this song
It has that Cabaret style mixed in with other popular styles in a unique Beatle way. This is the song that really shows their strengths as songwriters singers and arrangers. It was progressive for 63
Ringo was killing it. Pure attitude. Who came first Beatles or beach boys. Neither it was the Everly Brothers. “Cathy’s Clown” is a good example
In rock maybe. Harmony vocal groups have been around as long as the music industry.
the everly brothers - all i have to do is dream /cathy's clown live 1960
@@netzahuacoyotl that’s true but promoters would tag the Beatles as Englands own Everly Brothers.
@@bakomako7607 I’ll have to look that up. Phil Everly was a great rhythm guitarist who was widely copied in those days. That jangle and twang.
@@Hartlor_Tayley th-cam.com/video/lTYe9eDqxe8/w-d-xo.html
This was of its time. But what a time!
I love Ringo's voice and he just has this certain Carefree fun attitude when he sings. He basically doesn't give a crap. Once I started working my way back into the early Beatles, this song really caught my ears and I really find it to be so catchy. With those stops and everything? It will just pop into my head sometimes even all these years later.
He had a number of songs with the Beatles but ironically, he sang lead on one of the most popular and well-known Beatles songs ever, Yellow Submarine!
“I wanna be your man” is another Ringo favorite of mine. “Act Naturally” a Buck Owens cover is also great Ringo vocal.
And Boys has almost what you could call Early Power Chords -- one measure long hard chords on the breaks. Love it.
@@Hartlor_Tayley Yes! I love both of those.
@@Alewifes_Husband Boys is a total banger!
I'm really enjoying this Beatles deep dive- very cool !
THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS THAT THEY ARE THE ABSOLUTE BEST GROUP EVER!!!!
The song "Boys" was originally recorded in 1960 by The Shirelles. It was the B-side of their huge hit "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" and it was more than 2 years before The Beatles included it on their album. In the late 50's and early 60's there were many girl groups (mostly Black) who preceded not only The Beatles but also The Beach Boys in intricate harmonies. The Chantels, The Chiffons, The Shirelles, The Marvelettes, just to name a few.
Ask me why was a stepping stone song for the band. You can hear that in this song they were playing around with a Latin beat and before this the band was into show tunes. You hit it on the head with their harmonies and let's face it, the Beatles were a first of their kind and influenced a lot of musicians, and still are. No, not a fan favorite but us Beatles fans understood that the ballads from the early years were to lead to some incredible, unforgettable tunes.
I can appreciate your perspective on their earlier material. All I can say is you had to be there to appreciate the ride. It was four short years between Love Me Do and Sgt. Pepper’s.
Every single they put out was better than the last. It was an incredible journey
@@Hartlor_Tayley ain’t that the truth! The progression was palpable and exciting. Waiting for the next single and album to drop.
@@rogerdarby908 and you didn’t have to wait long. They were so prolific, every month or two. My childhood was mostly collecting change any way I could to buy more Beatles.
Lots of good points and questions in this one, Syed. The Beach Boys predated The Beatles by a few years and their harmonies were modelled on the Four Freshmen, a more harmonic jazz vocal group from the early 50's, while The Beatles learned theirs from more recent pop/rock acts like The Everly Brothers. One note about the songwriting of the era - at the time it was rare for singers and groups to write their own material, and most relied heavily on tried and true songwriters who usually worked for companies that sold the songs. On your previous reaction Chains is a good example of that, written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King who, like dozens and dozens of writers and writing teams, worked of of the famous Brill Building in New York. They would write the songs and others would record them. Chains was a hit for The Cookies, and Boys was a hit for The Shirelles, though written by Luther Dixon and Wes Farrell, who also worked out of the Brill Building.
The Everly bros wrote their own songs but yes it was more rare in those days.
They took their name from an artist / band who wrote their own songs.
@@cazgerald9471 Absolutely right, and I wonder if it was Buddy's influence that prompted them to write their own.
@@harrydoupe9315 I think John and Paul were writing songs before they even met,I think Paul was at least.
"The Four Freshmen" was lounge so-called "jazz". "The Beach Boys'" striped shirts were "Kingston Trio".
"The Beach Boys" "predated" "The Beatles" by having no trouble getting a recording contract because their father was in the industry.
"The Beatles" never mentioned "The Everly Brother," but they had to be an influence. But "The Beatles" were not ignorant of either 1930s-40s music in both UK and US. Lennon's "Please Please Me" was inspired by the lyric of a Bing Crosby song, and was written "for" Roy Orbison.
I recall Bing Crosby and "The Andrews Sisters" from when I was 2-5 years old. Look up "Sparrow in the Treetop".
Ask Me Why is such an embryonic version of their later songs. It’s evident what Martin saw in them. I think it’s important to listen to their early stuff to understand this band. Dylan’s first album was just old folk covers but it’s part of understanding Dylan. . The sixties were a completely different world when they started to when they ended.
Yes, Dylan only wrote 2 of the songs on his first album.
When he wrote "Ask Me Why", John started with the first few notes from a song written by Smokey Robinson called "What's So Good About Goodbye", and wrote a different song from those first few notes... the Beatles had tremendous versatility in their appreciation of music other than rock and roll, and this diversity set them apart from the very beginning
I mean, Please Please Me isn’t the record that’s gonna get a new fan into The Beatles. But eventually once you’re hooked on the later stuff I think you can go back and gain some good appreciation for this stuff.
You haven't listened to it with open ears.
Please Please Me did LOL. I had heard of the Beatles before but never got into them until last February, then I started listenening to the first album and boy is it awesome
Speak for yourself. The early stuff made me a fan
The Beatles were the perfect storm - the sound, the timing when rock was becoming more acceptable as mainstream, television - the Ed Sullivan show, even the Arthur haircut. The first world wide super boy band.
These songs were just as genius as any the wrote. Their purpose was to enthrall 14 -18 year old girls who actually drove the music market as boys had to be there for the girls. Boys liked the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys and all of the car genre songs. They didn't write these songs for you. The wrote them to make money. Once they had money they wrote the music they wanted to explore. They did this so they could do that. That is genius IMO.
Teenage girls bought most of the pop records. Four cute English lads guys in matching suits and haircuts singing fun songs about how much they loved you.
The Beatles recorded the entire Please Please Me album in one day. They could only get so much studio time when they were first signed. I think they recorded Twist and Shout, the last song on the album, only like once or twice because John’s voice was so shot by the end of the night
They saved that for last because they knew John would shred his voice singing it after singing all day, it required a lot of shouting/singing/rapsy voice performance from him..
No, 4 of the 14 songs (the singles and B-sides) they recorded on different days in 1962 already (Love Me Do, P.S. I Love You, Please Please Me and Ask Me Why)
I always say that I love early Beatles, but so far you're really only at pre-early Beatles!....long way to go! I understand why these old songs don't appeal to guys as much, but there were still many early guy fans.
Because everything is now digital, it’s interesting to see how younger people use words differently than we did at the time. Syed refers to each track or song as a record. To us, the physical album was a record. The disc of vinyl, whether it’s was a 33rpm album or a 45rpm single, was a record. Albums were a collection of songs, not a collection of records.
That's because the young listeners today have no sense of context. Christ, I have a friend a few years younger than I who only listens to two or three "favorite" songs on a greatest hits of "Who" songs -- I doubt he's listened to the entire CD, and doubt he's heard any of those he hadn't already heard.
By being extreme in their AVOIDANCE of music they've not heard, mostly because others tell them to ignore it, younger generations deprive themselves of a grounding in music history -- which means listening to stuff that preceded and eventuated in "new" stuff they think is "creative". (The country/rural blues of the 1920s-30s-40s at least had melody; so-called "rap" and "hip-hop" are even more primitive and limited -- in ability and skill -- than uneducated Delta blues musicians.)
I've had people who took my advice and went back and listened to "The Beatles" -- only to have them tell me they didn't hear anything "new" in them. Well, yeah: they didn't listen to anything before "The Beatles," and "The Beatles" opened the door for all that followed; so what "The Beatles" originated doesn't sound "new," in reverse, because virtually all who followed borrowed so much from "The Beatles" that their innovations became ubiquitous.
In my listening I go back to at latest the 1930s-40s. Check out "The Ink Spots" and "The Platters," Brenda Lee -- Lennon praised her as having the ORIGINAL rock and roll voice. Check out Fats Domino. Actually go back and listen to Buddy Holly, "The Everly Brothers," and Elvis' Sun Records period. Listen to Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins. Listen to Patti Page. Check out the innovations of Les Paul.
You can't stop this album here! You have to get ot "Baby, it's You"
It's also important to remember that just like those who came after the Beatles were influenced or inspired by them, so the Beatles were influenced by the music they heard as children and up through their adolescence. Paul was especially influenced by the cabaret and stage music enjoyed by his family that could also be heard the radio from the 40s through the 50s before/as rock n' roll was developing out of the blues played/created by African American instrumentalists and singers. They also used some of the popular Latin styles of that time.
In short, they were sponges that also had their own, innate and individual genius to apply...genius that grew more confident in itself as they got older.
And while they always had those influences that initially shaped them, they quickly grew into the influencers of nearly everyone who came after them, both the performers and the rest of us as listeners.
Yes. Bossa nova, polka, country, Sinatra etc. all in there.
Boys loved. The Beatles as much as girls. I was eight in ‘63 and loved the Beatles then and still do now. The early songs are brilliant. Perhaps more if their time than the later ones but, as I mentioned in another comment, just compare them to what else was going on at the time and you’ll see how exciting they were next to their preceding contemporaries such as Cliff Richards. Sorry Cliff.
There are many Ringo songs. The Beach Boys began in 1962, so their recording career slightly pre-dates the Beatles. Both groups were able to create brilliant vocal harmonies.
Helene here. I’m kind of surprised that you gave yourself the task of listening to an entire album of early Beatles….since it is totally “ of that time” and you are certainly not the demographic for it. It was early 60’s rock and roll done REALLY well. I was a 16 year old girl at the time, so…….yeah. But it certainly does give you a great historical perspective on their impact on popular music when they did begin to evolve in 1965.
They began to "evolve" with "A Hard Day's Night" LP (if we ignore the single "Please Please Me," which blows the doors off) with which all 14 songs were written by them.
Ask Me Why is among the most underrated Beatles songs. They could have been a great doo wop band if they wanted.
As always, some of these early records are of their time, and Ask Me Why draws very heavily on 50s doo-wop harmonies that predate both The Beatles and The Beach Boys. I admit that Ask Me Why is a track I rarely listen to, just because it's not my taste (saying that as someone who was actually born in 1963). Boys is more to my liking, especially because I'm a drummer who has Ringo at the top of my list of my personal Top 10 drummers. It also reflects the type of material they played in the Hamburg clubs and at the Cavern in Liverpool. If I'm not mistaken, Ringo still plays and sings Boys in his All-Starr Band concerts.
I was born in 1948 so recall the first hits that were called "rock and roll". And before that it was such as "Andrews Sisters" (they KICKED ASS!) and Bing Crosby.
to think, when the first albums up to AHDN, they were still thought of as a flash in the pan, hence their first movie was in B&W, if it wasn't a hit, at least the music would still be popular. They were writing for the market of the time, aiming at teenage girls.
I too was aiming at teenage girls at that time. Girls were a really big deal back then. Beatlemania was mass hysteria and I wanted in.
Boys is Ringo singing I think. They were all really good rock and roll singers, and Boys is one of the best vocal performances they had on those old rock and roll numbers.
Beach Boys formed in 1961 & impressively released their 1st single the same year. The Beatles officially formed as the Beatles in 1960, but McCartney & Harrison joined John Lennons band in 1958. Beatles first release was in 1962. Until the Beatles landed in USA in 1964, neither band had probably heard each others music.
"The Beach Boys" hadn't heard "The Beatles" until 1964. But US records -- and UK covers of them -- were always in the UK Top 10. "The Beatles" MASSIVELY turned that around.
Regarding the "live sound" - George Martin wanted to capture the energy of their recent club appearances. He considered doing a live recording in the club they had been playing but realized that while it was great for energy, it would be crappy for recording. They did the best they could playing "live" in the studio. I thing in most of them they laid rhythm first and then added on top but not more than one layer because the tech was pretty limited then.
In glorious mono
They were also unknowns. Just another rock and roll band. No one had any idea what they would become.
Initially George Martin was evaluating them for who to make the lead singer -- Paul or John -- because that was the make up of most groups of the time. He decided to leave it alone.
Remember that Bing Crosby, Perry Como, and Doris Day were still popular in 1963 and The Beatles were wearing matching suits and ties. Plus, those 20 year old kids were writing song after song after song like nobody's business. It's the complete picture and evolution of The Beatles that will always be super impressive.
What you have to understand is that they were just getting started as SONGWRITERS: they were learning their craft.
Most studio audio equipment back then used tube amplifiers. Moved more to solid state by the 70s. At this time they set up and played live in the studio with close mics and room mics. Recorded to half inch 2 or 3 track. Basic compression, plate reverb, sometimes extra vocals or instruments would be dubbed later. But the equipment was top notch. It was just limited in number of tracks, fewer effects and difficult editing. Usually several things were recorded to each track, so the spatial positioning in a stereo mix was limited. That’s why the used hard pans (all the way right or all the way left) in stereo mixes. They spent more time on the mono mixes at this time because most consumers would hear the songs on mono playback equipment. This album is pretty much full band live performance.
They recorded for Mono in those days. The early stereo mixes kinda sucked in comparison
It WAS NOT "panning". The STANDARD was to record all the vocals on one track, and all the music on the other track -- that's why the "hole in the middle" of the PRE-MIXED MONO. READ George Martin's _All You Need is Ears._
The INTENTION, from the OUTSET, was that the final release would be MONO, because the MARKET and the promotional medium -- RADIO -- were ALL MONO.
The Beach Boys put out their first record in 1962, and they had incredible harmonies right away…they and the Beatles really are true contemporaries, but I personally don’t feel much need to compare them
The Beaches were doing it in SoCal while The Beatles were doing their thing in the UK and Germany both at the same rime. These songs are Rock and Roll derivative of the 50’s and early 60’s music. Given your comments, you will probably start to enjoy the mid Beatles album more starting with Rubber Soul from 1965.
@@ArniePorter "Beatles for Sale" is a great LP. But most later generations believe the hype that it isn't.
The US "Beatles '65" -- much of it from "Beatles for Sale" -- was a revelation.
Harmonies came from late fifties, early sixties doo-wop vocal bands, that were very popular at those times. It were Beach Boys that were perfect at it, but they didn't invent it. The Beatles followed the trends in popular music, and doo-wop bands were at the peak immediately before Beatles (and Beach Boys).
"Beach Boys" harmonies: see "Kingston Trio" and "Everly Brother". "Beatles": "Everly Brothers" among others. "Beatles" were also steeped in British music never heard in the US.
I'm not a big fan of the really early stuff either, but hey, it's The Beatles! The album "Help!" (and the movie "Help!") has a variety of songs that hints where they came from and where they were going. I used to have the Beatles downloaded to my iPod and would listen to them in order. There'd be music that was okay and every now and then a song would play that I liked a lot. Then... the song "Help" would come on and my happy switch would be on full for the rest of the day! Love your channel!
Ask Me Why was the B-side to their single Please Please Me. Great song and beautiful harmonies. Boys was a song that Ringo used to do in their live sets. A lot of energy and not always appreciated, but it's actually really difficult to sing and play drums at the same time.
It's funny because I was listening to this a lot around the time that I was sixteen or Seventeen and yeah this is the kind of song that I would skip more often than not, and I was listening to things like Black Sabbath and Kansas and Boston and Lynyrd Skynyrd and Nazareth and all that kind of thing so you can imagine. But the thing is I played the entire record enough times that years later, when I hear it, I think, oh I remember that song and that is actually a beautiful composition, now that I've been a singer and a songwriter and a band guy for years and years. All the major 7th and all the augmented and diminished and John Lennon's voice just sounds absolutely great.
7th chords are endemic to blues. It's amazing how often "The Beatles" used 7ths (especially Lennon -- he loved dissonance). Even when NOT doing blues -- "She's a Woman" as example.
The harmonies are a straight line homage to/from THE EVERLY BROTHERS ! Syed I Love your take and incredible insights. Thank you for being so open & for sharing HIP-HOP references. Good Karma. Peace.
The b/w photo of John and Paul in your thumbnail taken by David Bailey, is iconic. Also, you can't buy it anywhere... but ... I have one! It's 6 feet by 3 feet and I got mine at a special exhibition at The Barbican in London. It's beautiful. I tried subsequently to get another but Bailey owns the copyright and you just can't get it. Had I known this at the time I would have bought the whole set. I've been offered a wedge of dosh for it but never would I sell.
The reason for the "crispness" of sound is down to the quality of the recording equipment used by EMI at Abbey Road - although the technology at the time was basic, serious money was spent by the studio to ensure the mixing desk and microphones etc were the best that money could buy.
George Martin writes of visiting Capitol Records studio in Hollowood and being blown away by THREE-TRACK MONO.
We like honesty 👍
Thanks for posting this! Ringo can sing, but didn’t know that he had such an early sound. Check out his solo song “Photograph”. It’s amazing. Very bittersweet. Early 70s.
Thank you! Thoughtful reaction as always. It's actually hopeful to see you analysing and appreciating Beatle music from 60 years ago.
'Boys' was not a fav of mine before, but years later I think this is one of Ringo's more inspired singing. When are you taking on the song 'Please Please Me', Syed?
there was a song for Ringo on every album
If you keep doing it this way -- close listening two songs at a time -- you'll really get at their growth and evolution.
And ALWAYS the ENERGY -- the positive joi de vivre.
The first Beach Boys song to chart in the UK was "Surfin' U.S.A." which was released over a month after Please Please Me was in the can.
Host is honest in saying that the song's content is lacking for him. But the appeal of the Beatles in that time was also the new musical style they brought in, breaking the 1950s & early 60s.
Then there were the complexities of their presentation - from instrumental explicitness, harmonizing genius, chord structure and more... making the Beatles irresistible then for all ages.
Appreciate your honesty and agree. I love the Rubber Soul and beyond stuff the best.
Fantastic Ringo vocal on Boys. I always took the lyric as saying " hey girls, don't you love boys?"
The early 60’s were basically a continuation of the 50’s…in music and in culture. When people speak of “the 60’s”….they are actually thinking of what happened in 1966 and later (whether they know it or not)……the music, the counter culture, the psychedelia. For early 60’s, just think late 50’s.
I think the sixties really started in America with JFK being shot.
Nope. They are referring to the massive impact of and changes caused by "The Beatles" beginning in 1964. I was there; you're still ignoring everything before "Revolver," and you are depriving yourself by doing so.
Keep these coming please.
The first Beachboys album, Surfin’ Safari, came out in 1962. So these harmonies were already present in pop music. At least in the US. Don’t know if The Beatles were influenced by The Beachboys that early on though.
I assume you didn't mean to imply that vocal harmonies were absent in pop music prior to '62.
The Everly brothers way more than beach boys.
Harmonies have been used in music since forever.
I always did like Ringo's voice, not as technically proficient as the others but still nice!
The chord changes are monumental!
The Everly Brothers were a big influence. John and Paul shared all their music with one another . They worked together on songs in many ways and signing off on each others writing. Each band member contributed to writing and specially music. If one member said no to a song it was not done or it was given to another group. The person that came up with or wrote the song sang it except when John and Paul were the main writers .One song for Ringo, two songs for George on each album. George started writing later and Ringo worked with George on his first song. they were a tight group . Mick Jagger called them the Four Headed monster.
That last one Ask Me Why, hadn't heard it in years, but realize now it is heavily influenced by Buddy Holly's pop records.
One thing that you mentioned, one in one track and one in another, was that Ringo and George both had different styles Ringo leaned a bit more toward the country genre and George was into Carl Perkins rock-a-billy style. That is an interesting mix to add to the John/Paul twosome. Why were they different? All of them influenced the music. Nobody had to go along to get along. Every band decision had to be unanimous. If one member didn't want to do something they didn't do it. It was all for one and one for all and it worked for 19 years from Hamburg to Revolver. It became more dicey from Sgt. Pepper on but somehow it made the music even advance more.
The crediting of both Lennon and McCartney was contractual, agreed to before they got famous. Even when one wrote a song the other usually contributed suggestions. Sometimes one would write most of the song and the other wrote the middle eight. And why not? It worked.
Another song which is just plain fun. Decent background vocals too. Yeah - not changing the lyrics was kinda brave. Audio quality was also duo to the studio technicians. The variety of songs came partially from their eight hour live gigs. Evidently the mafia guys that ran the clubs wouldn't hesitate to shout out random songs they wanted to hear. The band pretty much had to oblige. LOL
BTW - exploring the Beatles chronollogically is a really good way to go. You'll see their growth over the albums.
The Beach Boys' first album predates The Beatles' first album by a little over six months. The Beach Boys, however, were an American outfit signed by Capitol, and had their first top twenty with Surfin' Safari several months before their first album issued. The Beatles, however, were only a thing in England initially, and didn't have a charting U.S. single until later in '63, by which time The Beach Boys had multiple hits.
Either way, both bands' harmonies were inspired by the Motown girl groups and Phil Spector at that point, although The Beach Boys, with five vocalists and Brian Wilson at the helm, did it better. The Beatles, though, ended up being much more diverse as a band.
What would've happened had Brian been able to complete Smile in '67? Who knows, but The Beach Boys, and to some degree, Brian Wilson, never really recovered from that breakdown.
Ringo used to sing this song when he was with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. I think this was best but he always had one song per album.
The Beatles hit the USA before the Beach Boys made it big, but not by long. There was almost always a friendly competition and mutual admiration between the two bands.
The Beach Boys attributed their harmonic stylings to the Four Freshmen. They said their music combined the Four Freshmen with Chuck Berry. Actually, the harmonics come from all the earlier music, pop songs of the 50s etc.
John Lennon and Paul McCartney were just learning their songwriting craft on their debut UK album. It would take a couple of more years before they would hit their stride as songwriters.
It didn't take years. The evolution of their songwriting was astonishing. Their 3rd LP, in 1964, was 14 originals.
In my own personal opinion, The Beatles really began to blossom and bloom as songwriters for the 1965 U.K. version of their “Rubber Soul” album.
@@LaptopLarry330 The REVOLUTION began with "Rubber Soul" -- though it's taken years for later generations to cease pretending everything began with "Revolver" because they were TOLD that.
If you listen to their recordings before "Rubber Soul" you'll begin to learn where THAT LP came from. All along they were ahead of the pack.
Their first LP was #1 for 30 weeks, then replaced at #1 by their second LP, and in January 1964 their second LP was #1 and their first LP was #2.
"Rubber Soul" was their 5th LP. They were all along #1 before then for good reason.
The Beatles' harmonies were influenced by The Everly Brothers, among others. It's worth checking them out for that.
"The Everly Brothers" are worth checking out for their own sake. And Buddy Holly. And Elvis before he left Sun Records and became a stiff.
Superb analysis.
They won MY heart, and I ain't a girl 🙂
It's called Fake Stereo and the Beatles were one of the first to play with it although they moved on pretty quickly. But the reason why it sounds crisp Isn't so much from that as much as the fact that it has a huge dynamic range because it has very little compression on it. Music for quite a while now has a huge amount of compression and not very much of a dynamic range. That's most of what you're hearing.
That’s fact. Prefer the mono singles.
@@Hartlor_Tayley I generally do as well. At one point I got a boxed set of Beatles stuff and it had both the mono version and the stereo version, this was on CD. And it was interesting to listen to the stereo version because you could pick things out a little bit better but it lacked the warmth and the solid blend and the punch of the monaural versions. And exactly the same for that early Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass stuff.
@@stevedahlberg8680 whipped Cream and other Delights. I wore that record out as a kid. Tijuana Taxi too. I think it depends if the band was mixing primarily for mono or stereo. Like you said it’s good to have both.
"It's called Fake Stereo and the Beatles were one of the first to play with it".
Holy shit -- more nonsense. "The Beatles" were just another unknown rock and roll band at the time this LP was recorded. The intent was MONO, because the MARKET was MONO, and the promotional medium -- RADIO -- was MONO. At EMI it was not "fake stereo"; it was PRE-MIXED MONO.
The STANDARD was to record all the music to one track, and all the vocals to the other track, then mix those to MONO.
It was US Capitol who made fake stereo out of MONO by recording the same mono signal to both tracks but delaying one by a fraction of a second.
@@Hartlor_Tayley The early "Beach Boys" were MONO. They were subsequently released as FAKE "stereo".
It isn't rocket science: the technology, promotional medium -- radio -- and market were MONO. Stereo only became marketable as to recording, manufacture, and marketing slowly, in the late 1950s -- "audiophile" market, which was tiny -- early-mid 1960s. On March 16, 1959 a "Kingston Trio" (they were huge, on Capitol) LP was marketed as "The Stereo Concert".
I think it was Bob Dylan who said to John Lennon that the Beatles were great but they never said anything but "I love you" in various ways. Lennon said it had a major impact on his writing.
As you mentioned in the last video, the landscape of music was very different back then - love/relationship songs took up 95% of all songs at this period in time. Nearly all the first 5 albums focus on Love for the majority of the songs. While this might not engage you, try to focus on the music and the feeling the music conjures rather than placing too much emphasis on the subject matter, it’s how they can take you on a journey through melody and rhythms and complex arrangements where you will find the substance in these songs.
"love/relationship songs took up 95% of all songs at this period in time."
That is the reality with EVERY period of popular music. Check out, as examples, "The Andrews Sisters" and "The Platters".
And Lennon's "Please Please Me" was inspired by a lyric in a Bing Crosby song.
Ringo sings on many songs. I think his most famous would be With A Little Help From My Friends.
You have to admire thier song writing skills at all stages, They were as you say satisfying a market the record label required,, This established them, and they developed an independent way.. With the fantastic success of the early stuff the record label had to give them a free hand, ,, This opened the door for such freedom for many bands who followed in that era.. Pink Floyd worked next door .. That freedom was lost during the 70 s to some extent but a fight back through independent labels came punk and Two Tone label .. I think the labels ahve the upper hand for a while now, --
Great review! As a huge fan of The Beatles and of John Lennon who is much close to me by his personality, I really appreciate your opinion and outstanding view! Please listen the song To know her is to love her by John Lennon Live at the BBC 1963. His voice there is awesome!
I’m sure they didn’t mean it that way, but as a sprouting gayling, I took it as a guy singing about how much he liked boys 😝
In those days, you took what you could get.
Back then recording was pretty primitive by today's standards. Basically the band played the song together in the studio, and it was recorded direct to stereo. An yes, sounds crisp and great, and all those other things you said!
These are just fun songs. There's not a lot of deep content in the songs, but for the genre they were doing, they did it very well vocally and instrumentally.
Hang in there. There's surprises in store, earlier than you think. A couple albums down.
The Beatles saved the world from the likes of Pat Boone and Bobby Vinton. Rock and Roll had reached a point in the late 50’s where the record industry needed to tame it (think Elvis gyrating his pelvis or the pumping piano of Jerry Lee Lewis and his first cousin scandal). So as the new decade of the 60’s began, saccharine sweet songs presented by teen heart throbs ruled the airwaves (gag). To be fair some good music came out of the era. Some of the earliest Beatles music reflects the time it was produced. Lennon and McCartney were only 22 and 20 and still honing their craft. What were most of us doing when we were 20 - certainly not crafting timeless music and creating it in world class recording studios. Once they got their foot in the door and were allowed more artistic freedom we see the Beatles blossom and that’s when the fun really begins.
The old mono recordings were really punchy. Stereo dissipated that aspect of it. If given a choice I choose the mono mixes. Late Beatles stereo is often better.
It took second and later generation "Beatles" fans years to get over their baseless demand for stereo releases of their first 4 LPs. Stereo was a novelty. But for punch, intensity, it was mono.
Still remember seeing them for the first time on Ed Sullivan in 1964.
A few Beatles titles, featuring Ringo on Vocals (surely not all of them):
Boys (obviously)
Matchbox (Something New, a US release 1964)
Act Naturally (Help! album)
I Wanna Be Your Man (With The Beatles)
A Little Help from my Friends (Sgt. Pepper)
Yellow Submarine (Revolver)
Don't Pass Me By (The Beatles (White album))
Octopus's Garden (Abbey Road)
It’s because you’re spoiled. Not in a bad way. You grew up when music was everywhere and it was already full of different types of music. Back then….well…we didn’t have anything like this!
You may not have had. I grew up from earliest memories with 78s, and radio, and "Andrews Sisters, "Les Paul and Mary Ford, Bing Crosby, Jimmy Durante, and that whole era. Then the first rock and roll hits in circa 1956-58. And the folk "Kingston Trio" were huge.
There were "The Ink Spots," "The Platters," and so much more.
The four of them were just kids when they wrote this and I believe it's evident in their music.This may be why young girls went crazy. Anything more sophisticated may have not have had the instant appeal. I say this as a woman who was 13 myself at the time
In the beginning, The Beatles didn't have egos. Anyone who felt their vocals fit a song was the lead in that song. However, as things progressed certain members had number one hits and felt the public liked a certain singers over another and the songs proved this fact to be true by their number one status on the charts. The band members started fighting over who's songs made the albums and who's songs were put out as singles for "hits. " It was so bad that they didn't even show up in the studios with one another to record a record or album. The producer had to schedule separate sessions for each member and melt the music together. And they broke up.
I think A hard Days Night was their most cohesive album and sgt pepper’s was the beginning of the end.
That's exaggerated, blown out of proportion.
The individual most responsible for that corrosive -- disintegrating -- behavior was McCartney.
"The Beatles" were visceral -- sound before all else. The sounds of the lyrics mattered more than the meaning.
Their first LP was #1 for some 30 weeks because they were ahead of the pack.
It was just the convention, how popular songs were made. They were kids just starting out in songwriting ~ in the beginning you can hear the Beatles & the Stones were far more confident with blues & soul covers than their own stuff.
George Martin was very cognizant to the Beach Boys vocals in 62, and suggested the Beatles try sharing vocals, not to mention Paul McCartney admitting later the Beatles nicking The Beach Boys vocal harmonc stylings.
BTW, Songs today are sung to the same age range, not to mention all of these Disney radio singers of yesteryear taking
today's music into an absolute Bubble gum pop realm,, even hip hop , an old genre at almost 40 years is filled with an even younger group of vocalists with an overly clean style and not my Cup of Tea, Beer, etc,,,.
I personally miss the days when the Vocalists didn't sound like the winner of America's got talent.
Excellent info! I bet the Beatles loved the glorious BB harmonies- like In My Room. Bet it inspired Because.
Syed: "Boys" is the B side of "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" by The Shirelles, a monster hit from 60/61. Now that's a track and a group you should react to. Great influence on the lads.
(Aside: "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" is written by Goffin and King of bondage fame 😁)
"Will You Still Love Me" was written by Gerry Goffin and Carol King. Yes, that Carol King. She says that was "her" first big hit.
It's true that the subject matter was limited, in keeping with the norms of the time which decreed pop songs were to be either about the ups and downs of teenage romance, or novelty records, mostly comedic, which had broader family appeal. The music had to be something you could dance to: either upbeat or suitable for the obligatory 'slow dance' at the end of the evening, or something to sit over your portable mono record player with your friends and dream to... Within those narrow parameters, the Beatles honed their craft of writing and musicianship, that formed the foundation for all their later experiments.
Paul has said (IIRC) that they initially just wrote more of the sorts of songs that got the best reaction from their audiences in the clubs and pubs and dancehalls in and around Liverpool. And being lusty young heterosexual men, a big part of that was the response of the girls in the audience. They loved the power their song-writing and performing gave them to attract the ladies! Yes, it was all very simple and basic, but at that point in time, it simply hadn't occurred to anyone that popular music (ie as opposed to classical/'serious' music, which was for old people) could be about anything deep and meaningful, or display more sophisticated artistry/ poetry. it was just something that the record companies cranked out, that kept people entertained, a completely disposable art form.
Amidst all this same-ness however, the Beatles actually created a completely original sound, a combination of the extremely varied musical inspirations of each member, from childhood on. (Mark Lewisohn is good on tracing these, if you want to read up more about it.) Their long sessions (seven hours or more per night, seven days a week, for months at a time) as house band in Hamburg nightclub/bars meant they had to be constantly finding new material, something different to keep the crowd entertained, and to make them stand out from other bands who only did the same stock repertoire of covers of current American popular music. Their boss at one of the clubs used to yell at them if he saw the audience's attention flagging, and people making for the exit, to "Mak Show!!" (rhymes with 'how'). This is one reason they had so many different styles - anything to make people sit up and listen, or to bring people in off the street. The whole aim of the operation as far as management was concerned was to sell more drinks, and the house band was the main ingredient that could achieve this end, or fail to.. thus the Beatles noses were kept to the grindstone. Back home in Liverpool between those Hamburg stints, they were similarly playing virtually every night of every week, and regular lunchtime session too, eg at the Cavern. This was the University in which they learnt the basics of their trade, before they broke into the big-time, to national and then international acclaim.
The next album or two are going to drive you slowly nuts, Syed, as they take their time to discover the further aesthetic and philosophical possibilities of music and song-writing, which doesn't really happen until Rubber Soul, under the influence of Dylan and the good friend he introduced them to, Marijuana... Sorry about the essay, but hopefully these bits of context help make these apparently simple early Beatles offerings a bit more interesting for you. Your observations are perceptive and forgiving, as always. 🙂
It was all about girls.
@@Hartlor_Tayley It was about getting laid. See the Lennon interview with Tom Snyder.
I think first was with the harmony singing was the freestyle groups from the streets mostly black guys also Italians , The Four Seasons were very early I believe, But my Mum born 1919 told me she liked a a group called the Ink Spots who did close harmony stuff in her younger days,, The origins, street a capello I would guess, The Beatles and Beach Boys were fans of such and Motown styles,
The mixing was done the way it to make it compatible with the playback equipment of the day... Mono turntables and ridiculously big console stereos. Headphones were hardly ever used at home.
On this marathon journey of yours, don’t skip Past Master Vol 1 and 2. It’s a collection of their singles, almost all of which were not on albums. Best to listen to 1 before Rubber Soul and 2 after Let It Be.
If you’ve heard Yellow Submarine, you’ve heard Ringo
the harmonies were typical in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The Beach Boys combined the singing harmonies and surf music of Jan and Dean with guitar riffs of Chuck Berry. The Beatles were also harmonizing about the same time and were inspired by Motown and the girl groups produced by Phil Spector. Even The Who were singing harmonies in middle 1960s and one member of The Who commented in an interview how by the 1970s "yeah we don't seem to sing together all that much anymore like we used to in the early days." By the 1970s 2 or 3 part harmonies had died out and guitar rock was popular. The human voice was to the late 50s and 60s what electric guitars were to the late 60s and 70s or what drum machines were to the 80s and 90s. Think of the change from Elvis and Roy Orbison to Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page to Phil Collins.
The Beach Boys did not debut with Pet Sounds in 1966. They debuted in 62 with Surfin' Safari.
I paid three dollars to watch them lip synch a couple of songs at an AF base theater in 1962, lol. They had just hit the charts with that album . The Shirelles, Gene Pitney, and Martha and the Vandellas were there too. I was 13.
The first LP I bought was "Surfin' USA," as a new release.