The Beatles – 1962-1966 (1973)

I know it's kind of a cliche, but I do think The Beatles are the most important and the best band of all times. There's a good reason for this claim. Almost all of the bands and artists out there mention The Beatles as their idol. Almost every band out there has been influenced by The Beatles. I already understood the significance of The Beatles from my parents even though they weren't really listening to their songs that much when I was a kid. Like many other people in the early 90's, I started my exploration of many bands via their compilation CD. That's why my first Beatle-albums were this red compilation of the years 1962-2966 and the blue one of the years 1967-1970. With a band like The Beatles, this approach, may actually be a wrong turn, because most of their best songs are not on their compilations. I only learned this many years later.



Most of The Beatles compilations have the songs that sold most single copies. These songs were the ones that were played most on the radio, because they were published as singles. Today it's probably difficult to understand the power of a single in those days, but back then it really meant that you had to have a single for it to be played on the radio. In my personal opinion, the best songs by The Beatles are on their albums. This compilation album includes many early hits that were never released on any of their albums.

For a long time I felt like the early Beatles was just too happy and too simple for my taste, but as I've grown older and have listened to more different types of music, I have started to appreciate these early songs more. It's clear that the sound this Liverpool band came up with was back in the day something completely new and they started the whole idea of a modern pop band that explored new sounds and musical twists. In addition to their innovative way of making music, they were really phenomenal musicians. Especially their vocal harmonies are amazing. And one thing that isn't mentioned that often, Paul McCartney's bass playing is just phenomenal. He came up with lots of melodic bass lines that really introduced a new way of playing the bass in a pop band.

The album starts with the early hit songs that must have sounded amazing in small clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg where the Beatles started their career. These album versions are quite clean from what I imagine they were on those clubs, but there's still some raw power in these songs. John Lennon's raspy vocals and Ringo's wild drumming sound just very original and recognisable. Many people badmouth Ringo's drumming, but I really like it. It has a very distinctive sound. you can immediately recognise Ringo's drumming. It sounds authentic and I really like the fact that he's using lots of toms.

The end half of the album already shows some experimental approaches into The Beatles latter era. Rubber Soul and Revolver were already exploring new sounds and even though the songs on this album are mainly the most straightforward pop hits, you can hear the experimental sound in some of those songs, such as Eleanor Rigby, which by the way, is one of my all time favourite songs. The album ends in one of the worst songs by the Beatles. I never liked Yellow Submarine, because that's a reason why so many people who don't really know the Beatles views them as something like a children's band. To those kinds of people I say, listen to the full albums instead of the compilations. Otherwise you don't really know what this band was about.

The Beatles weren't just groundbreaking in their music. You could also say that they invented the modern concept of a music video. By the end of the time frame of this album, The Beatles became tired of touring when people came to their concerts to see them, but not to listen to them. People were screaming so loudly, that no-one could even hear anything. That's when they started to send these video greetings to TV shows instead of playing live. One early example is this video of Paperback Writer.

I will return to The Beatles so many times in my other posts that I think this is enough about this album, but I just have to say that there probably isn't any other band in the world that would have had such a great influence on me as a musician than The Beatles.

Album on Spotify.