The Beatles (3 Album Review)
Albums: Please Please Me // Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band // Let It Be
Released: March 22nd, 1963 // June 1st, 1967 // May 8th, 1970
Length: 32 minutes 31 seconds // 39 minutes 55 seconds // 35 minutes 10 seconds
Let me start by saying this…
Accountability is a rare thing these days so, hand up, I missed the last two weeks. Life got busy, I didn’t plan well enough and so here we are on Week 7 and still only 4 reviews. To make up for that lost time and lost reviews, I come to you today with a special 3 album review so that we can get back on track. Let’s begin!
Last week, I traveled to Las Vegas for a work trip. It was my first time in the Sin City and I certainly hope it’s my last. It’s just not for me, but I certainly can see the appeal and why so many people love to go there. Anything goes. I did my best to try and hide in my hotel room when I wasn’t working, but then I was surprised by my boss with tickets to The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil so it appeared I would have to leave the nest and onto the Las Vegas strip. The horror!
Let me tell ya one thing, if I ever go back to Vegas, I will spend my time in as many shows as possible because holy mother of god this show was incredible. While I tried to snag a few photos to give some context, they simply don’t do it justice.
People were flying out of the air in every direction, flipping around and over other people, dancing perfectly in sync, all while the most famous and popular songs from The Beatles played. It was a show that made you smile, dance, and celebrate the incredible things that people can do.
Once the show ended and my brain cycled through which Beatles song would be stuck in my head next, I knew for sure that I would be writing about them next. Every two years or so I fall into a deep Beatles phase. They dominate my eardrums and I fall in love with different songs each time. This current Beatles phase has been no different.
I decided on these three albums because of the timeline. Please Please Me is their first studio album. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is right in the middle of their journey as a band, and Let It Be would be the last album ever recorded together by the band. I’ll start with overall thoughts on each album, and then my overall thoughts on listening as a whole, as well as a breakdown of my favorite songs/lyrics. Let’s dive in…
Please Please Me - Overall Thoughts
I don’t think The Beatles broke ground with this album musically (compared to what they did later), as you had a standard set up of a drummer (Ringo), lead guitar (George), bass & vocals (Paul), rhythm guitar & vocals (John). With that being said, what is so impressive to me about this album is that there isn’t a bad song on it. Truly, I don’t think there is a song on this album that if you played out loud someone would say that it’s objectively bad. Each song is simple, undeniably catchy, and the lyrics are about universal feelings of love and heartache. Given this came out in 1963, this must’ve blown people’s minds because of the completeness of this album. On top of that, you have four young men with the same haircut and the same black suit that allows you to pick your favorite Beatle. Initially my favorite was Ringo because I thought that made me different but it is without a doubt George now (we’ll get to that later). Paul and George were 20 and John and Ringo were 22 when they recorded this album. The command they had on each song is phenomenal. What I mean by that is these songs seem super polished, they follow a structure, and the album is within itself, with no song feeling like an outlier.
Lyrically, I don’t think it’s their most impressive work. That doesn’t mean it’s bad. Each song uses the word “love” in it and that’s really what all the songs are about. It’s either about falling in love with a girl, being awed by a girl, a girl breaking their heart, so on and so on. At the time, that’s what a long of mainstream songs were about so I can definitely see the appeal for Paul and John to lean into those themes. Ultimately, love and heartbreak are universal feelings so each song will continue to resonate even when listening today.
The biggest takeaway I had when listening to this album was that even early on with The Beatles, they produced some of the catchiest vocal melodies I’ve ever heard. The songs stick into my brain so easily, and when you pair that with simple lyrics to sing along to, you have hit after hit. Their vocal melodies never dimmed over the course of their 13 studio albums, and you’ll certainly hear it on this record.
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band - Overall Thoughts
Jumping ahead just 4 short years and we have ourselves a completely different band. Literally. The four lads from Liverpool had all dabbled with LSD by now and the drug’s influence is quite evident on this album. Paul was the last Beatle to try LSD and once he did, he had an idea to create the fictitious band for which this album is named. The Beatles had stopped touring and performing live at this point, and one thing that I think this album does is give the feeling of an actual live concert. It has a lot of moving parts and different wacky sounds that can only be done in studio, so I tend to feel as if this album is the show or performance of the fictitious band. It has always been my favorite record by the band because it just feels so odd to me and I am so drawn to each song, even though I don’t think that it necessarily flows well as you listen from top to bottom.
Some songs don’t offer a whole lot to me in terms of the thinking department, I just find them fun. The songs that do make me think, make me think deeply. I can’t quite put my finger on the pulse of it because you can go from a song as slow, somber, and beautiful as “She’s Leaving Home” right into “Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!” which sounds like it’s right out of a carnival to then lead right into “Within You Without You” which is heavily influenced by George’s time in India. It certainly can feel like an overwhelming album at times, but it has never stopped me from listening because I feel like I always pick up something new each time I listen and I appreciate the groundbreaking style of recording that The Beatles pioneered on this album.
Plus, I mean come on, look at the outfits on the lads…
Courtesy of the Artist
Where do I get my hands on one of these fits?
Let It Be - Overall Thoughts
We now jump ahead 3 years to the final album ever recorded by The Beatles before they broke up. I think that’s extremely important context while listening because new things jumped out to me as I listened over and over. If you haven’t watched the documentary “Get Back” on Disney+ I highly recommend it. It is an all-access pass into the band writing and recording the album in just two weeks. You can see the tension between the bandmates, the arguments they had, but you can also see four geniuses at work coming together to pull beautiful songs out of thin air.
Knowing that this was their last album, one of the first things I began to notice was that the songs that are led by Paul sound a lot like the music Paul would go on to make. The same goes for John, as well as George. It’s quite amazing to listen to each individual’s approach to lyrics and musical sound. Paul is a bit more rock’n’roll, John is dark, somber, and a bit chaotic, while George is very introspective and critical of the material world. And Ringo, well Ringo’s just kind of there dealing with it all in silence. A true drummer.
Of the three albums I’m writing about, this was my least favorite. I say that because it feels very broken up, just like the band, and each song sort of stands alone in it’s own universe. What I appreciate about this album is that they wrote this in 2 weeks in order to perform live, so they moved away from their complicated recording process and got back more to their roots in Please Please Me. It’s funny to me to say this was my “least favorite” Beatles album because they never really made bad music. Their less popular songs are still quite good, but when you have “Let It Be” and “The Long And Winding Road” on an album you tend to gravitate towards just those songs. I did a quick run through of all their songs ever made and there are at minimum 60 songs by them that I love and would listen to anytime. I’m not sure there is another artist in the world that I can say the same for.
Overall Thoughts
I had so much fun listening to these three albums and feeling like I was experiencing the journey of The Beatles over their 7 year run. I felt the youthful energy and optimism on Please Please Me, I was transported to the world of Sgt. Pepper and the psychedelic Beatles, and then I was left with their final goodbye to the world in Let It Be. The fact that they continued to put hit after hit out while changing their sound and look and remain as popular as ever is a testament to how incredible these four men were together. Nowadays if a popular artist or band changes their style their fans get into an uproar about how that’s not the sound they fell in love with. Newsflash, people change, people grow, it’s no different for our beloved musicians.
I promised I’d get back to why I love George so much so let me start by recommending “George Harrison: Living in The Material World”. It is a documentary produced and co-directed by Martin Scorsese chronicling the life of George and it is wonderful. George was such an interesting man that accomplished so much as a Beatle, as well as on his own. While listening to these three albums, I really focused on the songs that he wrote and sang, as well as his guitar playing. He was thoughtful in what he wrote, passionate on the guitar, and hilarious as an individual. In the song breakdown below, I’ll share a little bit more about how George’s lyrics have inspired and changed me for the better.
My Favorite Songs/Lyrics
Please Please Me
“I Saw Her Standing There”
Hard not to get up and dance to the first track on the album. As classic as you can get, what more could I possibly add?
“Misery”
I love the vocal melody of this song as well as the harmonies of John and Paul. You can hear so early on the powerhouse of this duo.
“Ask Me Why”
This won’t be the last time I say this, but another beautiful vocal melody. The coming together of the singing, the drawn out “I love you-woo-woo-woo”, and the hard stop of all instruments feels like the work of a older musicians, not 20 year olds.
“Do You Want To Know A Secret”
This is George’s only song on this album and I may be biased but it is my favorite. I love the way the guitar jumps to each note after he sings “do you want to know a secret?”.
I am purposely excluding “Twist And Shout” and “Love Me Do” because those are the mega-hits of the album and I want it to be known that they are copouts for saying favorite songs. Of course they are, they’re phenomenal songs.
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” / “With A Little Help From My Friends”
I’m including these two together given the design of the album. The songs bleed into each other and it was a hell of a way to start an album.
Ringo really shines in “With A Little Help From My Friends” and the song always evokes a feeling of gratefulness within me for the friends that I have and the support that they give me.
“Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”
John says that a drawing by his son Julian was the inspiration for this song and not LSD. Mhm. Ok, John.
What I love about the lyrics in this song is the opening “picture yourself” and then the description of things that are out of a fairy tale. If you close your eyes and let your imagination run wild, this song can make you picture the things Lennon is singing about and allows you to come to your own conclusion on what Lucy looks like in the sky.
“Within You Without You”
Listening wise, this is not one of my favorites on the album. However, George’s lyrics struck me quite hard and helped me in a way I didn’t think possible.
He sings “And life flows on within you and without you”. I thought long and hard about this, and I kept coming back to the simple fact that is this lyric. You are alive and life is flowing within you. You experience everything, the good and the bad, the emotional and the physical. And when you die, life will continue to flow on without you. Babies will be born and new flowers will grow. Life will continue on. As someone who has extreme anxiety about death and struggles with big existential ideas, this lyric helped me to not feel so alone. It reminded me that life is within me and I have to experience it, and to not be sad that life will continue on without me.
“A Day In The Life”
This is a song that makes me incredibly sad. The tone of Lennon’s singing and the overall tone of the song is “rather sad”.
The lyric that has always stuck with me is “He blew his mind out in a car. He didn’t notice that the lights had changed.” Man. It just hits me so deeply, thinking about this in so many aspects of life. Giving up when things will change just a few seconds later, or have even changed and you are too blind to see them. As sad as it is, this song has helped me to think more optimistically even when I’m at low points.
Let It Be
“Two Of Us”
This song makes me smile. I imagine a couple living their years together traveling around and making their journey back home. I think it’s a pleasant way to start the album and one I will probably play when I train back home.
“Across The Universe”
NASA transmitted this song to a star 431 light years away from Earth. I think that’s pretty cool.
“I Me Mine”
Another George classic! I think George is pretty clear about his message here and it still feels relevant today. There is not a lot of “we” and “us”, people unfortunately think about themselves above all and we are left with a world that is all about “I”, “me”, and “mine”.
His singing sounds like he’s in sorrow and it helps to deliver the message and how much it means to him to see more community in the world
“Let It Be”
Seriously, what can I say about this song? It’s a masterpiece.
The guitar solo sends me away, to where? I’m not entirely sure but I always feel happily lost when listening.
“Get Back”
The last song on the last Beatles album and they nailed it. It’s rock, it’s upbeat, and it feels like you could put it on any of their albums and it would fit. It feels like a perfect send off.
As we wrap up Week 7, I would love to hear your favorite Beatles songs or any stories you have of times their songs have made an impact in your life. They are one of the best bands of all time for a reason, and it was a pleasure to dig deep in 3 pieces of their work and share with you. See you next week!
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