The Album John Lennon Called The True Sound of The Beatles

released on November the 22nd 1963 with the Beatles has just celebrated its 60th anniversary but there was no media coverage or Deluxe anniversary box set for this their first million selling album I'm Andrew from paragram and in this video we'll discover how with the Beatles became their third biggest selling album in the UK in the 1960s why I love it and why it shouldn't be forgotten [Music] ask second or third generation Beatles fans today what their favorite or most played album is and you'd not be surprised to hear it being Abby Road The White Album revolver or indeed any of their other mid to late period albums but ask any first generation UK fan the same question and the answer you would get would be very different and it's likely that this album would be very near or at the top of their [Music] list this was an important album in my Beatles Journey as it was after the red and the blue albums the first original Beatles album I ever bought I bought it from a shop called Greece records from their listings in the back of the April 1980 issue of record collector magazine here it is a monocopy in very good condition and it cost me all of £2 plus 40 for postage when it arrived it turned out to my surprise to be a very decent looking well-looked after copy which many dealers today would grade as excellent plus but more importantly it played and sounded fantastic one thing I've noticed with the many original copies that have passed through my hands over the years is that no matter matter how beat up the vinyl looks it always sounds amazing I can clearly remember my excitement waiting for this album to come through the post back in 1980 so I can only imagine how excited Beatles fans were back in 1963 waiting for this album to drop 8 months after Please Please Me between the release of please pleas me in March 1963 and with the Beatles in November Beatle Mania had exploded in the UK and with The Beatles was the most anticipated record release not just of the year but of the decade so far and whilst their later albums May suit the modern ear better with the Beatles was for many John Lennon included the true sound of the Beatles due to the Beatles punishing schedule that year the album had been recorded in numerous sessions over an extended period from July the 18th to October the 23rd although recorded on the same twin track equipment as Please Please Me with the Beatles utilized overdubs and double tracking to a much greater degree in fact John Lennon later stated that they had double tracked themselves off the album its iconic cover had been taken by Robert Freeman on August the 22nd in a corridor at the palace Court hotel in the English Seaside town of Bournemouth with the Beatles began breaking records even before it was released by the second week in November sales of Beatles records in 1963 added up to More Than 3 million units and in the week before its release dis was reporting that advanced sales of with the Beatles were approaching 400,000 the biggest for any album in the history of British recording easily beating the previous record of 220,000 set by Elvis Presley's Blue Hawaii emi's Factory at Hayes was working overtime not just to fulfill those advanc orders but also those for the I Want to Hold Your Hand single which were fast approaching half a million such was the demand for this LP that emi's Rivals Deca and Pi were contracted to press up copies in early 1964 so great was the demand that the Beatles received silver discs for the album 4 days before its release at a presentation ceremony at Emi house on November the 18th unlike the please pleas Me album which was released without much of a Fanfare Emi made sure that no expense was spared in promoting this album not that it really needed any and the Press was supplied with preview copies long before it hit the shops now one thing you have to keep in mind when listening to this album today is that it was recorded and mixed specifically for his audience back in 1963 which was te teenagers with lowquality high energy mono record players stereo in 1963 in the UK at least was The Preserve of the older record buyer more specifically the Hi-Fi Enthusiast whose tastes lean towards classical opera or even Jazz but certainly not pop and it's this album's stereo mix which even on today's equipment is its Achilles heel it's mushy over compressed sound with the vocals in one channel and instruments in the other is a distracting and sometimes uncomfortable listen for modern ears with headphones especially and one can understand why it languishes at the lower end of fans favorite album lists but by stepping out of your comfort zone and experiencing this album in mono you begin to understand what the fuss was all about now reviewers of this album today I think tend to misunderstand or misread its content so to try and get closer to its Essence I thought it would be interesting to look at some genuine contemporary reviews lifted from my scrapbooks in fact I'm going to focus on two reviews which highlight the gap between the old and new guard of Journalism in Britain at that time one is by Peter Jones who was at that time a 33-year-old freelancer writing for the new record mirror a publication he'd become the editor of of in 1964 the other is by a 22-year-old female journalist named Jane Gaskill who was writing for the national newspaper The Daily Express now while an 11-year age difference wouldn't be seen as being significant in that profession today being 33 years old in 1963 was practically middle-aged and as you'll see the differences in language and opinions are clear 1963 Jane Gaskill opened her review with a highly accurate observation and an important question with the Beatles is going to be a huge Smash Hit whether or not it deserves to be teenagers Galore have ordered with the Beatles without even hearing it how excited will they be when they settle back to listen Peter Jones correctly observed that seven of the 14 tracks on the album were by Paul m and John Lennon and one by George Harrison marking his debut on records as a composer the rest he noted somewhat predictably come from American R&B repertoire specially fancied by The Beatles he begins his review of the top side and it won't be long with John Fair hollering through the lead vocal good and loud very loud he says Jane gasal takes a different line and describes it as one of the gladdest you're coming home songs there's expectation of ecstatic reunion in every line lenon punches out she then describes all I've got to do as a sort of emotional breather while Jones States the obvious Jon takes a lot of it but Paul hovers harmonically in the background and says that it could be the answer to Brenda Le's that's all you got to do which happened to be her one and only million seller if you fancy judging that for yourself I put a link to that song in the description eyes Jones describes the album's standout song All My Loving as being quote maybe a trifle Ordinary by Beatles standards but compensated by some pungent lead guitar by George George's guitar also caught the ear of Miss Gaskill who says that his solo gives a riy distinction to this rather bluesy chant Jones describes don't bother me as being not a bad theme and takes the opportunity to show off he knows what claves are but Jane Gaskill isn't concerned with the percussion and seems to understand its meaning more and writes that it's a despairing sort of lyric he's lost the only girl for him everyone else can push off he's not interested the next track little child is one which lyrically at least doesn't sit easily with a modern audience and is one which everybody avoids discussing these days in his review Jones seems bored by it and again dismisses it as another Beatle's composition which swings well and heftily through the mid instrumental passage Ms Gaskill also pays little attention to his lyrical content commenting only that Paul lays down his guitar and plays piano Pio and John adds mouth organ bars at another mic her review of Till There Was You is short and to the point Paul sings this straight no gimmicks this is in contrast to Jones's review where he waxes lyrically about Paul's singing as a throaty appealing sort of delivery sort of a You'll Never Walk Alone Jerry style it comes off and John and George operate acoustic guitar intricate and complex behind I thought this is a standout track the difference between the reviews of this particular song for me really highlight the difference in their ages Till There Was You was the song which was supposed to appeal to an older generation the moms and dads if you like and it's kind of Illustrated here by our two reviewers one being 33 and the other 22 Jones writes that side one's closing track pleased Mr Postman is a gold dis performance for the Marvelettes though the Beatles have used it in their Liverpool Club days for a long time JN takes the lead duel tracked and there's a whole lot of action behind Ms gasal is more succinct writing simply because this track is repetitive and so hypnotic it grows on you flipping their LPS over Jones correctly points out the rollover Beethoven has been a fave with the boys since they German trips when they really had to Stamp Out a stolid beat which he predicts that specialist fans will probably not like as much as the Chuck Berry version Ms Gaskill describes it as a fascinating track the mercys side accent in action doing weird things with the master's name she manages to sum up her feelings about hold me tight in just six words which are fine fast urgy number from Paul Jones's more conservative describing it as pretty Lively Paul takes the vocal lead and again there's a heap of mitt pounding in the background mitt pounding might seem an odd way of saying hand claps but this type of middle-aged hip talk was common with many reviewers of pop music by men of a similar age which was more at home in the espresso bars of the late 1950s rather than the new mod age another example of this can be found in diss review of this album written by an anonymous reviewer who was probably around the same age as Jones just listen to this word salad he used to describe the album It's the usual unbeatable Beetle mixture rockus uninhibited vocalizing on top of a pounding beat and zinging guitar ristics with occasional changes in mood and feeling for the utmost contrast Before You Really Got a Hold on Me Jones tells readers to to listen out for George Martin The Boy's recording manager on slabs of pointed piano work it's a bluesy draggy piece with George featured with JN Jane Gaskill however is unconcerned with George Martin's contribution and tries to describe the feeling of the song and rates it as the most exciting track of the entire LP lyrics give a powerful picture of the love that isn't right but is too precious to give up for a moment she describes the next track I want to be your man as an energetic demand from Ringo with Hammond Organ chords by courtesy of lenon Jones on the other hand has by now fully warmed up and correctly identifies this as the Rolling Stones new single and reminds Ringo fans to remember his wildy boys and points out that Jon is on Hammond Organ a fact that is lifted from the album's sleeve notes Jones once again flaunts his pop picking credentials with Devil in Her Heart by saying that it features somewhat Changed lyrics from the Don's American hit and George takes the vocal lead an Nifty tribute to the US group Ms gasal finds it simply wistful medium pace better to dance to however it appears she's not a fan of not a second time and writes John sings with himself a routine it's over durge which was referenced to Roy oron's recent hit of the same name Jones too has little to say about it and again just paraphrases the sleeve note about JN being double tracked c not a second time was of course the song about which times journalist William man famously wrote about its aolian Cadence the meaning of which John and many others never really understood Jane Gaskill then turns her attention to the final track on the album money the words of this are pretty outright the force builds up to a raw throated tension taught climax guaranteed to send any audience Half Crazy Mr Jones points out that money is something The Beatles are no longer short of and helpfully points out that the original single by Barrett Strong is now unobtainable in this country Tre he describes it as being John at his roughest and rarest on this R&B classic Paul and George do the answering bits and the whole thing is a roar up of the highest order big Brash bright and of course a big favorite in the boy stage program he finishes up by saying by the time you've read this feature the advance order for this album will probably have increased by another few thousand fantastic isn't it in fact by by the time these reviews were published Advance orders had increased from 250,000 to 400,000 Jane Gaskill ended her review by saying the Beatles have never previously recorded anything on this LP the fans will play it till it's transparent with the Beatles was released on Friday the 22nd of November 1963 8 months to the day after Please Please Me by the end of its first week in the shops with the Beatles had racked up sales of half a million but there were problems the day after its release the Daily Express began reporting that thousands of copies were being returned to the shops because they were faulty the issue seemed to Center on one track in particular rollover Beethoven which was skipping on a certain kind of record player however on November the 23rd new record mirror said that the report had been exaggerated and that the issue had only affected a small number of copies and that the fault has swiftly been rectified by Emi the same article also reported an unrelated incident which occurred backstage at the Manchester Apollo the show that was filmed for the well-known path news reel after which burglar had made off with George Harrison's guitar among other possessions belonging to the package cast the instrument was found intact later hanging from some railings near the theater by September 1965 with the Beatles had become the first million selling album in the UK since South Pacific in 1958 however once the Beatles had ceased touring and gained a new generation of fans sales of Wither Beatles slowed dramatically and the monor pressing was deleted in 1969 although the album was not released in America it was released with the same track listing in Canada under the title Beatle Mania with the Beatles however capital Did modify its cover art and used nine of its tracks for their album Meet The Beatles with the Beatles was also a huge seller in Australia although they went with this less stylish cover design the reason for that was down to a bizarre Australian Union ruling which forbade the use of imported photographic negatives for the production of local record sleeves now the only way to get around that was to create one by photographing an imported UK cover this had worked okay for please please me but they found that the generational loss of quality caused by copying Robert Freeman shot compromised the quality to such an extent that the results were deemed unusable it was then down to emi's in-house designer Andrew boore to come up with a suitable alternative which was this now the fans didn't seem to mind but John lenon certainly did he went mad when he saw it in Australia later the following year and threatened to contact emi's chairman sir Joseph Lockwood in London and quote have them all sacked if you'd like to know more about Meet The Beatles or the Canadian and Australian albums I'll put links to our videos about them in the description so what's the best way to listen to this album today well here now are my recommendations [Music] as I mentioned earlier I prefer to listen to this album in mono as enjoyable stereo versions are few and far between after its initial -1 cutting on October the 23rd 1963 this album was recut a further six times before the end of the month with all except the -2n being released the the initial -1 cutting was the most energetic and they had toned things down a bit by the time they cut the final -7 it was recut one final time in October 1981 for the 1982 mono reissues which if you can find it is perhaps the most refined of all the original cuts the 2014 mono is a fine- sounding pressing but is overpriced so I recommend getting hold of an original 1960s pressing after after all there are still plenty about and a vg+ or even a VG copy will still sound great an original uk1 1960s monor pressing can be had for as little as £15 on sites like discogs if mono is not your thing the 2009 stereo sounds better than the 1963 stereo but my favorite is Harry Moss's - 5-6 cut from the early 1980s which is most commonly found in the bc13 Box set although not as spontaneous as please please me or as accomplished in songwriting terms as A Hard Day's Night with the Beatles captured the Thrills and excitement of beatle Mania like no other album they made and while its high octane teenage energy is a million miles away from the maturity and polish of ABY road with the Beatles is an album which can truly lift you and transport you back to a simpler less complicated World which today is always welcome I really hope you enjoyed our look at this incredible album and that you'll join me next week for a look at this one which is also rather good and we'll be celebrating its 50th anniversary in the meantime why not check out our website paragram auctions.com for some Quality vintage sixd and Beatles Vinyl or support us by simply hitting the like button or better still subscribing but that's all for this one so I'll say bye for now and thanks for [Music] watching stop that simple naughty record type music stop it stop it stop it

Channel: Parlogram

Views: 340,467

Keywords: parlophone, the cavern, scrapbooks, emi, 1960s vinyl, polygram, parlogram auctions, mono, audiophile, vintage stereo, hi-fi

Id: BVruRnTUdV4

Length: 22min 22sec (1342 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 03 2023