Talk:The Beatles

Is there a list of instruments that each member played? I have been looking all over for one and haven't found any yet. HELP, I'm interested! User: ClareS

"....the band was on the verge of splitting by the release of [/The White Album]?, with many tracks recorded by the band members individually." This was not the way I remember it described in a biography I read of John Lennon, or in a book I skimmed through which had the lyrics in English on one page and in Spanish on the opposite page, with bits of trivia scattered throughout. Each of those said that by that time, most of the tracks were recorded with two of the four, and none of them with only Lennon and McCartney. The biography said that Lennon and McCartney did record together, along with George and Ringo, when Eric Clapton came in to perform lead guitar for "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"--the other Beatles weren't taking the song seriously, and Harrison brought Clapton in so they'd shape up. (Clapton performed a similar trick for The Cream's "Badge.") This avoidance of each other was continued through the rest of the recording, but by the time of Abbey Road it was done by each member recording his part individually and the bits being tracked together at the end. Anyway I would just put all this in the main entry except I can't find those two books to verify (I read them in 1994). If someone else can (or can verify by some other source), then by all means go ahead. --KQ

What was the quote John Lennon's about Jesus? I'm pretty sure it was "bigger than Jesus," not "more popular." I can't track it down, however.... -- PaulDrye

It was "more popular" but a paper wrote "Lennon says Beatles bigger than Jesus".Ericd 00:07 Sep 7, 2002 (UCT)

Taken way the hell out of context, I might add. -- goatasaur

Wouldn't you think calling the disciples thick and ordinary would be more offensive? I guess I'll never understand what sets fundamentalists off. Kingturtle 22:37 Apr 17, 2003 (UTC)

The full quote is:
Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that, I'm right and will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus Christ now. I don't know which will go first, rock n roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. Its them twisting it that ruins it for me. (London Evening Standard, March 4, 1966) GWO

"Also note: The early Beatles albums were originally released as monaural recordings. They were later remastered as artificial stereo with vocals on one side and music on the other side, much to the disgust of fans. The CD's of those early albums restored the original mono."

--None of mine did, including Sgt Pepper's and Abbey Road; I had them all except Beatles for Sale and The Yellow Submarine, but I bought them in the early 90s so the mastering on them may have changed. It wasn't obvious when listening to them on a small CD player, but it was on one with the speakers on separate sides of the room. I'm not sure I felt disgust so much as incomprehension.

Listening to "Baby you can drive my car" off Rubber Soul now, I hear Paul, rhythm guitar, the bass, and the drum set and tambourines (but not the cowbell) on the left, and John, George, piano, a cowbell, and lead guitar on the right. Oh, and the bass is on the right too, but not nearly as loudly as on the left.

Rubber Soul was recorded in stereo, and I don't count it as an early album

"I'm looking through you" has rhythm guitar, Paul's lower registers on vocals, drums, tambourines, and bass on the left; Paul's higher registers and John are on the right, as well as the handclaps and lead guitar; the bass is there too but not loudly. So but since maybe you don't consider Rubber Soul an early album (and certainly no one thinks Sgt. Pepper's and Abbey Road are), I've put on Please Please Me. I'm seeing the same thing there but to a much lesser extent; it's still the case that it's in artificial stereo: the lower registers are on the left; the higher are on the right, though it's not as dramatic as on the other, with certain instruments only being on one side. I think that statement about restoration to mono should be greatly qualified. That is, it is the case that at least some early printings of the CDs had the grievously artificial stereo, and that after complaint it was reduced to a moderately bad stereo. Maybe that's what you meant all along? --KQ

I can't speak for other countries, but the UK CDs are now actual, genuine mono. Maybe elsewhere they still use the reprocessed masters GWO

Do you consider Help! an early one? "It's Only Love" has the bass on the left but not the right and the lead guitar on the right but not the left. I'm not trying to be difficult, I'm just trying to understand. Maybe I should leave the revision of it in your hands; I'm becoming a bit confused about how to phrase it both accurately and concisely. --Koyaanis Qatsi

The Beatles were not digitally remastered as in was made for a lot of late seventies/early eighty record that were in fact totally remixed (and sometime did not sound really better than the ealy ones IMHO). The main reason is that there is not much to remix on a album like Sgt Peppers the premaster tapes 3 or 4 tracks not more even if the Beatles (and George Martin) did a lot of takes they assembled it with re-recording and cut and paste there is no way back possible on this work. It's to notice that the analogue studio recorder evolved very fast from 3/4 tracks to 24/48 in the 1970s in relationship with the developpement of hi-fi market and the trend of the bands to record albums with more and more studio work.

My vinyls of the Beatles are mainly stereo. There were buyed in middle seventies at this time all the Beatles records sold in France were stereo. In fact most of the vinyl were issued in mono version and stereo version please have look at http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/kirkland/266/btls/uk/uklp.htm It was before "stereo compatible" records I mean stereo records that could also be played in mono (if someone know much about stereo compatible vs stereo incomptaible vinyl can he write an article this question is still a bit obscure for me). I never heard a original mono LP (or maybe twenty years ago on a poor turntable. Some experts say there is a significative the mono record and the stereo record played in mono. I can't say more about it as I don't what was exactly done to issue the 2 versions. Some say the mono is much better, I have no personnal advice about it. Ericd 18:39 Sep 7, 2002 (UTC)

The first four albums ("Please Please Me", "With The Beatles", "A Hard Days Night", and "Rubber Soul") were all originally mixed in mono. Stereo phonographs were not common in England at the time. The "stereo" mixes of these first four were created very quickly from the original mono mixes, as an after thought, for the US audience primarily (possibly other countries too). After these first four albums, the Beatles mixed each album in stereo first - then created an easy mono mix for mono releases.

The CDs of the first four albums, released by Capital/EMI, are all mono, because the CDs are modeled after the original UK versions of each album - which are the albums the way the Beatles intended them to be. (Aside from being fake stereo, the American releases had mixed up track listings, alternate titles, etc). For this reason, Capital has never officially released the first four albums in stereo on CD. There are japanese bootlegs of the first four albums out there - that look and sound official - that include the original US fake stereo mix. But, so far, Capital/EMI has not realsed them that way. jazz77

This article doesn't mention much about the actual music and why it was such a popular and critical success. A few comments on the Beatles' charismatic nature (particularly on television), "Beatlemania", their innovative videoclips would be good. Not to mention, of course, their catchy early material (compare "Please Please Me" to other stuff in the pop charts at the time) and the musical experimentation (particularly their use of non-conventional rock instruments and studio trickery with the help of George Martin) of their later works. What do people think?

Add it all in. :-) --KQ

I changed the following sentence: "(a largely accidental echo of later boy bands in which members were selected for their ability to project a particular personality and image),"
1: any "echo" of something that comes later will be entirely accidental, not largely so.
2: you can't "echo" something that comes later, only something that came before.

I added some paragraphs in an attempt to explain the cultural and musical significance of the Beatles. If someone thinks I am giving too much credit to them for some of the changes that I attributed to them, they can offer a correction, but I felt like the Beatles had a great significance that needed some exposition.

No, from my (admittedly historical, I wasn't there at the time) perspective, I think you make some good points. However, they were by no means the first self-contained rock band. Perhaps their example established it as the norm, though. --Robert Merkel

I'm fairly sure they were initially "The Silver Beetles". I'm not sure if the change in spelling coincided with the shortening of the name. I also heard it was one of Lennon's quirks. Tarquin

Why must we link to the Monkees? -Tubby

---

According to the "Anthology".. the guys say they were originally "The Be(a/e)tles" (named after the Crickets, etc). They had to change it for a gig - John wanted "Long John and the Silver Be(e/a)tles".. The others didn't like it, so they shortened it to just Silver Be(e/a)tles - then there's a quote about "doing anything for a gig", which gives the impression that they weren't using the name exclusively. I've heard other variations on the name for that time period too.. I forget what they were at the moment. Good question about the Monkees... it would make sense to link the Beatles from the Monkees page, but not the other way around - since the Monkees were a copy of the Beatles. -- jazz77

It should be possible to mention the Monkees somewhere in the "Influences" section. Then we can delete the odd-looking "see also" at the end of the article. --Camembert

Yes please. Also, I've heard it said that John had a dream in which a man on a flaming pie told him to put the 'a' in Beetles. He woke up and insisted. -Tubby

that was a joke story John told to reporters... Yoko thought it actually

happened. The other Beatles didn't. -jazz77

Rock and roll was called beat music in England at the time, thus Crickets>beat music>Beatles. Probably went over Yoko's head. Ortolan88

There already is a link to the monkees in the body, so i'm nixing the see also link. Good riddance. -Tubby

Yellow Submarine (animated film, artwork by Peter Max, featuring songs by the Beatles but with dialogue voiced by actors)

The Beatles themselves do appear at the end of the film, and look quite unhappy about it. Even Ringo looks a bit glum. 'ey, I've a hole in me pocket. KQ

IMHO there is 2 major weak points in this article : - no reference to Brian Epstein death, - the word "Beatlemania" doesn't appear in the article. Ericd

"Born from a four-headed billy goat"? Peeps? The nonsense some people write! Arno 07:21 Feb 25, 2003 (UTC)