Week 19 - Listen to all 12 (actually 13!) major studio albums released by The Beatles

As a massive fan of The Beatles, this challenge was something I was looking forward to more than some of the others! All I needed was an excuse to listen to them all one after another and my 32 County Road Trip conveniently needed a first rate soundtrack! I came across some things on the way around too that made me think The Beatles were meant to come along for the spin!

I only had a rough plan drawn up for the trip so I thought it would be remiss of me to start with anything other than Magical Mystery Tour!

I've gone through various periods of listening to the 4 Liverpool lads including a complete overdose in Leaving Cert year (I'm looking at you Johnny Morris) when we probably should have been spending more quality time with textbooks!

I think my dad was the reason I first got into The Beatles. He had a load of Beatles records in his collection and I really got hooked when the complete Beatles back catalogue arrived in the house in the form of a pretty great birthday present! They might have been his albums but I was the one who was intent on wearing them out!

Instead of reviewing all the albums I'm just gonna put together a top 5 of both albums and songs. Everyone has their own personal favourites and reasoning behind them so these are mine!...

Songs

1. A Day The Life (Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club)
There's something about this song that gets me every time. It's a song of epic proportions with drama at every turn. Not only No.1 on my Beatles list but No.1 on my all time list. It's a bit of a patchwork quilt of styles but stitched together perfectly! The way the 2 chords of piano comes in at the very end and puts a full stop on the entire Sgt. Peppers album is absolutely sublime.

2. While My Guitar Gently Weeps (The White Album)
What an intro. Four minutes and forty six seconds of brilliance. Written by George Harrison too with a solo from Eric Clapton thrown in for good measure!

3. Helter Skelter (The White Album)
I may have to come clean and say that Bono and U2 are partly reponsible for this one. I heard U2's version of this somehow before I heard The Beatles original. U2's version is great but McCartney's attempt to create the rawest, edgiest and dirtiest Beatles sound to that point really works.

4. Come Together (Abbey Road)
This was actually the last song all four of the Beatles recorded together in the same room and each of them provide pieces of individual brilliance that make it the perfect opening track for Abbey Road, one of my very favourite Beatles albums.

5. Tomorrow Never Knows (Revolver)
This song was so far ahead of its time. LSD played a major part in creating something that, for me, is today as fresh and imaginative as it was when it arrived on Revolver nearly 50 years ago in 1966.


The above is my own take on what is an almost impossible exercise! I know I mentioned that I'd put together a list of albums too but I think I've done pretty well to narrow down the songs to just 5 so leave that one with me!

K.