The 500 - #307 - A Hard Day's Night - The Beatles

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: # 307

Album Title: A Hard Day's Night

Artist: The Beatles

Genre: Pop-Rock, Rock, Beat

Recorded: EMI, London, UK & Pathe Marconi, Paris, France

Released: July, 1964

My age at release: Not Yet Born

How familiar was I with it before this week: Very

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, 263 (Moving up 44 places)

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: And I Love Her

A Hard Day's Night was the third record by The Beatles. It was released in England at the height of Beatlemania on July 10, 1964, exactly one year and a day before I was born. It was released two weeks earlier in the U.S., with a slightly different track listing (including four instrumentals).

Album cover for the US release

There is a part of me that wishes I could have experienced Beatlemania – that wild period of anything goes and “I’m all right, Jack” that gripped the Western world between 1963 and 1966. It was a cultural upheaval and music revolution of a kind that might never happen again.

In the mid-90s, my beer league hockey team won the unlikely chance of playing at the renowned Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Before taking on our competitors we were given a guided tour by a local historian who shared fascinating stories about the famous building.

The iconic Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Ontario

At a loading area at the back of the building the guide told us about the first time The Beatles played in the arena in 1964. It was where the group had been shuttled in a heavy-duty police van for protection. Earlier in the week, their limousine had been set upon by hundreds of female devotees who, seemingly against the laws of physics, managed to claw their fingers into the seams of the doors and rip them open. The four pop idols had their shirts torn from their bodies before escaping with the help of police.

On the day they made their Gardens debut, 4,000 police officers and Mounties were assigned to clear a five-block area around the arena for 12 hours.

A Hard Day's Night became a milestone in the Beatles’ compendium of hits. In contrast with their first two releases, it contained songs exclusively written by the Fab Four  – mainly John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Its issue coincided with the opening in movie theatres of a musical-comedy film by the same name, in which they starred.

My favourite bit of trivia about the film is that it features a young Phil Collins as an uncredited extra. Collins would go on to become the drummer and eventually the singer for one of my favourite bands, Genesis. He would also enjoy a massively successful solo career. I remain a little frustrated that there are no records from Genesis or Collins on The 500 list. I think The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway or Selling England By The Pound have the artistic merit and Collins' No Jacket Required was a monster hit with smash singles that dominated the chart for most of 1985. Oh well -- as podcaster Josh Adam Meyers often says "we just accept the list....even when it's butt cheeks."

There are still seven more Beatles records on The 500 list, but we won't get to the next one until #53, Meet The Beatles. That's nearly five years I have to think of more things to say about the four Lads from Liverpool. No prob, mates.

The 500 - #392 - Let It Be - The Beatles

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 392

Album Title: Let It Be
Artist: The Beatles
Genre:  Rock
Recorded: 1968-1970 Apple, EMI, Twickenham Studios
Released: May, 1970
My age at release: 4
How familiar was I with it before this week: Very
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: Two of Us 

Let It Be Album Cover - The Beatles (1970)

It is a testament to a band's greatness that a record forged in frustration, resentment, addiction, skepticism and even abandonment would find its way to The 500 Greatest Albums list. Such is the case with Let It Be, the twelfth and final studio release from The Beatles.  

In 1969, the glue that had kept the four Liverpool lads together for the previous nine years was beginning to come undone. Each member was now married, or in a relationship. They were exhausted from touring and, by 1967, had resigned themselves to be a "studio-only" band. Ringo and John were both battling addictions -- heroin for John and a combination of alcohol and cocaine for Ringo. 

Ringo with first wife, Maureen Cox  and
John with second wife, Yoko Ono (1969)

George had "left" the group, not formerly but certainly mentally and emotionally. A visit to the United States and time spent with Bob Dylan had helped him realize that music could be created communally. This was in contrast to the domineering style of Lennon and McCartney, who controlled most of the songwriting and the group's creative direction.

Harrison and Dylan (1968)

Additionally, the band had been rudderless since the suicide of their manager, Brian Epstein, two years earlier. Despite Paul's objection, Lennon had convinced the band to hire Allen Klein, who came with a tough, but dubious, reputation.

Allen Klein (center) signing The Beatles

In a final bid to help the band members bond again, Paul proposed that a film crew document their rehearsals and song-writing sessions. It was his hope that this would revive the positive energy of live performances without the tedium of touring. The experiment was short-lived and the experience was filled with acrimony. Harrison's suggestions were, again, ignored. Consequently, much of the material he wrote later appeared on his first solo album, All Things Must Pass (#433 on The 500 List). Clearly, this demonstrated that there was quality in Harrison's work.

Interestingly, many of the song ideas work-shopped by Lennon and McCartney would also appear on their solo efforts. It was clear that all of the members were in Beatle-break-up-mode. Lennon, deep in heroin addiction, was always flanked by his partner, Yoko Ono -- who is often blamed (unfairly) with breaking up The Beatles. Lennon was a shell of his former self and prone to loud arguments -- most often with Harrison.

John and Yoko (1969)

Ringo, who at the height of his addiction, consumed a staggering 16 bottles of wine a day. He was kept buoyant by what his former wife, Maureen, described as "mountains of cocaine". Ringo was unable to perform when drunk and unmotivated to perform when sober (which was seldom). It was a poorly kept secret that McCartney recorded some drum tracks himself. Ringo, also mired in addiction, pretended not to notice.

An uncompromising schedule and long hours in the studio began to take its toll on the four lads. It became apparent to filmmakers that they were documenting a band falling apart. The picture below, taken during these sessions and later parodied in an episode of The Simpsons, captured their emotional exhaustion.

The Beatles would not officially dissolve for another year due to financial obligations. The recordings from these sessions, and their live performance on the rooftop of Apple Studios, eventually found their way to sound engineer Phil Spector who overhauled the songs, adding his own orchestrations.

As Lennon put it: 

"Phil was given the shittiest load of badly recorded shit, with a lousy feeling to it, and he made something of it."

Despite all of this, the record was a commercial hit, going to number one on the charts. However, critical reviews were mixed in 1970 but over time it has been acclaimed and several songs have become Beatles' classics. In 2003, McCartney remastered the record and released it under the moniker Let It Be...Naked. This alternative mix removed Spector's embellishments and captured, according to McCartney, "the stripped-down aesthetic" intended by the group.

Let it Be...Naked album cover (2003)

As a teenager, I owned a copy of the original LP on vinyl and was unaware of the backstory behind it. I knew it was their last release and, like many, blamed Yoko for the group's dissolution. It was easy to make her a scapegoat without understanding that group dynamics are complex, particularly when creative frustrations and addictions are involved. 

I had a tough time deciding what to put on my Spotify "The 500 Playlist". In the end, I settled on Two of Us because of a lyric that always makes me think of my wife. 

"The two of us have memories, longer than the road that stretches out ahead."

Like all great poetry, it is a line that resonates with me, creating powerful and conflicting emotions. I wistfully reflect on 34 years with a beautiful lady who adores me, while being reminded that we'll share a limited time on the road ahead.