A Record a Week: The Beatles - 1962-1966

SIDE 1.
LOVE ME DO
PLEASE PLEASE ME
FROM ME TO YOU
SHE LOVES YOU
I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND
ALL MY LOVING
CAN'T BUY ME LOVE

SIDE 2.
A HARD DAY'S NIGHT
AND I LOVE HER
EIGHT DAYS A WEEK
I FEEL FINE
TICKET TO RIDE
YESTERDAY

SIDE 3.
HELP!
YOU'VE GOT TO HIDE YOUR LOVE AWAY
WE CAN WORK IT OUT
DAY TRIPPER
DRIVE MY CAR
NORWEGIAN WOOD

SIDE 4.
NOWHERE MAN
MICHELLE
IN MY LIFE
GIRL
PAPERBACK WRITER
ELEANOR RIGBY
YELLOW SUBMARINE

Have you ever been to a bar where the speakers are at opposite ends of the bar? If you find yourself in that situation, you are going to hope they play the early Beatles songs in mono, not stereo. For some reason, when they decided to remix things from mono to stereo, they panned everything left or right. So if you are sitting near one speaker and the other is far away, you are only going to hear drums and vocals, or guitar and bass (or some incomplete combination of instruments). When stereo came out, this technique was utilized to simulate live performances and how the band members stood on the stage. It wasn't until later that engineers realized that if they're sorting out pans, they shouldn't dial it all the way left or right, leaving at least a bit of the sound to the other side.

Anyhow, this album is a collection of sounds from the first half of the Beatles career. Spanning their fanatical simple rock through various types of ballads and into the early stages of their experimental music. As you listen through the album, you hear both the recording and creative writing processes evolve. Perhaps one enhanced the other. The invention of multi-tracking could have allowed the band to include things they had wanted to include on earlier songs, or perhaps the ability to do so expanded the way which they went about writing them.

I enjoy many of these songs in different ways, but the ending of side 2 onwards is where it really grabs my attention. Songs like 'Ticket to Ride', 'You've got to Hide Your Love Away'(Milton family sing-along), 'Day Tripper', 'Paperback Writer' and 'Eleanor Rigby' rank high amongst my all-time favourite Beatles tracks (Rigby is tops, in my books).

Well, looking forward, I think that marks the end of my Beatles vinyl collection. Next week, onto something new!