This is another album that is all over the place with no symmetry in the songs. But I like that. I like being surprised by each different sounding song and I will say right off this may be my favourite Beatles album yet!
Where do I start with this album?
How about the interesting back story? “The album was written and recorded during a period of turmoil for the group, after visiting the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India and having a particularly productive songwriting session in early 1968. Returning to the studio, the group recorded from May to October 1968, only to have conflict and dissent drive the group members apart. Ringo Starr quit the band for a brief time, leaving Paul McCartney to play drums on two tracks. Many of the songs were “solo” recordings, or at least by less than the full group, as each individual member began to explore his own talent.”
This was such an upbeat album and while I hated the last two songs; the annoying grating Revolution 9 and the weird 50s sounding Good Night ballad, the rest of the album really stuck with me.
I loved the opening song Back in the USSR, It had an almost White Stripes-esque quality to it and was so different from their other two albums I listened to.
I couldn’t stand Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, I thought it belonged on a toddler’s cartoon more than anywhere else.
You HAVE to read the back story to Story of Bungalow Bill. You can find it here. When I saw that Yoko Ono was on this I thought there might be some interesting back story to it and is there ever, Hint: Ashram in India and tiger hunting.
Birthday was a fun song that I intend to rock out to on my birthday this year.
My first introduction to the Beatles was Across the Universe and a lot of the songs from the movie came from this album. That being said, the songs were fantastic in both versions. A little different, but the lyrics and the feel came across the same; Dear Prudence, Guitar Gently Weeps, Happiness is a Warm Gun, Helter Skelter. I did like the A the U version of Why Don’t We Do It in the Road better than the original as that singers husky voice rocks this song.
I could go on and on about how much I loved this album and intend to buy it for the car.
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