I’m a humongous Beatles fan and you’ll see my fanboy essay below.
The ‘Glowing Up Gay’ angle is that the group effectively reinvented multiple times during their career.
I needed at least twenty-five years to reinvent myself (yikes!) because of the circumstances and decisions I made. But I did evolve and am a better person, friend and partner. You could almost say that “I Should Have Known Better” and asked for “Help!” when I was younger. Now, things are “Getting Better” and I no longer experience “A Hard Day’s Night!” 😊
Plus, who doesn’t love talking about The Beatles?
I can’t get enough about how they worked together as a team and literally changed the course of music. Music defines me and I’m damn proud of that – singing (badly) and listening makes me happy, reading about it and memorizing trivia flexes my nerdy side and dancing (also badly) feeds my kinesthetic side – I love grooving to it!
I have a theory about why the Beatles were the most successful act of the 20th century.
There have been endless publications about the individual talents of Lennon and McCartney and the collaboration (sometimes competition) between them that propelled the band to create music that was sonically different and culturally relevant. They rose to prominence at just the right time, a self-contained unit that leveraged the sounds and influences of the past and their peers, while simultaneously acting as cultural icons. I can’t say enough about how impressive their consistently excellent output was during their recording careers, 1963-1969. Some people have favorite eras (1962-64 – Beatlemania; 1965-66 Folk Influences & Power Pop; 1967-69 – Psychedelic, Experimental) but for me, I love specific albums, each representing a stage in their career. And the amazing gift they brought to the world was that once a level was achieved, they restarted, reinventing their music about every 18 months and pushing themselves to not repeat their previous successes. Each of the four albums that I highlight have a leader: IMHO, John owns A Hard Day’s Night and Rubber Soul, while Paul assumes control on Sargent Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road.
Here’s how I see it, based on their British albums release dates:
Please Please Me
March 1963
With the Beatles
November 1963
A Hard Day’s Night
July 1964
A Hard Day’s Night
If you watch the movie documentary, you learn that they bankrolled the movie for the rights to the soundtrack – that’s where the money was! Of course the movie is charming and wonderful and received an Oscar nomination for Best Original screenplay. The Beatles’ first two albums were a combination of covers and Lennon-McCartney (plus one Harrison) originals and for the third one, John and Paul solidified their songwriting chops with thirteen songs that included rock and love songs. Most of the songs are still boy-girl romance, some happy, some sad. I love the variety of styles that they incorporated – from the pure pop of “I Should Have Known Better” to the Bossa Nova flair of “And I Love Her” and the Wilson Pickett-influenced “You Can’t Do That.”
Beatles for Sale
December 1964
Help!
August 1965
Rubber Soul
December 1965
Rubber Soul
How good was their songwriting in late 1965? In addition to the historic album (I’ll share why it represented a sea change in the music industry), they also released a Double A single – Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out. The reason why the album works is because it was conceived as a complete package – no singles, it embodied one complete style, merging rock, folk, Indian (sitar) and classical music. That’s How they changed the rules – until that point, selling singles is what drove the business. What fascinates me is that the Beatles were under pressure to deliver an album by Christmas and they did it They became great songwriters with A Hard Day’s Night – I believe they became professional songwriters with Rubber Soul. I love how they are clearly showcasing their influences: Harrison’s “If I Needed Someone” sounds like the Byrds and Lennon’s “Nowhere Man” was influenced by (and likely a dig at) Bob Dylan. Don’t forget that John’s emotional vulnerability is beautifully on display with “Girl” and “In My Life.”
Revolver
August 1966
Sargent Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
May 1967
Sargent Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
We all know the history of Sargent Pepper’s – they stopped touring and focused their efforts in the studio, developing new recording techniques and sounds – anything to be different, push boundaries. Fun Fact: The Beatles and Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys influenced each other from 1965 through 1967 – Wilson loved Rubber Soul and sought to best it with Pet Sounds. And after hearing Pet Sounds, The Beatles pushed the envelope further with Sargent Pepper’s. Finally, Brian Wilson tried to one-up the Fab Four with the album Smile, but the pressure became too great and he suffered a nervous breakdown. SMILE was finally unearthed and released in its entirety in 2004. Sargent Pepper’s usually lands #1 on the top Rock Albums of all time (including Rolling Stone), and I believe it’s because of its cultural importance, a statement album during the Summer of Love. Personally, it’s not my favorite Beatles album. For a rock band it’s dripping in orchestral arrangements – George Martin plays a major role in helping The Beatles move on from their rock roots. In both Revolver and Sargent Pepper’s, the differences between a ‘John song’ and ‘Paul song’ become even more apparent. I’m not saying that they didn’t influence and help-support each other (they did), but each of them were developing their own unique styles that would frame their musical output in the 1970’s – John was mostly rock with performance art influences and Paul was more pop that was inspired by classical music.
Magical Mystery Tour
November 1967
The White Album
November 1968
Yellow Submarine
January 1969
Abbey Road
September 1969
Abbey Road
Get Back (recorded mostly during 1968 and shelved), Yellow Submarine (January 1969) and Abbey Road (September 1969) – an album that has been theorized– did John own side one and Paul side two? Is there a “Paul is Dead” note on the VW Beetle? The story behind the making of this album is that The Beatles, knowing that their time as a band was winding down, reached out to George Martin to help them make one final “proper” album. He agreed to it, with the condition that he was truly in control of the production and that “they boys” (yes, that was what he called them) commit to working together (i.e., not fighting or bickering). While Rubber Soul will always be my favorite album – Power Pop music is my jam – I consider Abbey Road their finest one. There’s a sense of fun, love and optimism that was missing as The Beatles became more experimental and pursued individual interests. The strength of each member’s contributions shined through: John penned the swamp-rock influenced “Come Together” and the heavy metal opus “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” and Paul and George Martin combined a concoction of smaller songs to create both Side Two melodies. George matched the quality of John and Paul’s output with “Something” (released as an A side single) and “Here Comes the Sun.” And don’t forget that Ringo wrote his second song, “Octopuses’ Garden” and recorded his first (and only 😊) drum solo for the band on The End. I view this album as a band at the height of their creative powers, coming together to create a coda that cemented their musical legends and defined the 1960’s.
Peter Leahy
A self-proclaimed “ideas guy,” I’ve worked in marketing for over twenty-five years. After years of sadness, emptiness and self-loathing, I finally came out of the closet in 2013 and reinvented myself. Now happily married to my husband for over two years, we live in California with our Chihuahua Felicia, the queen of our household.
