The music is timeless, obviously; otherwise we wouldn’t be talking about them today. For the price of fourteen CD packages—once available in a nifty box with a rolltop wooden cover, but now as a complete set in stereo, as well as a limited one in mono—you can get the whole picture, adhering more or less to the boys’ original intentions. But Americans of a certain vintage were introduced to the first half of the catalog via a slightly different context, and while the Beatles catalog has been standardized worldwide for decades now, some of us still hold a fondness for the way things used to be.
In the UK, singles and LPs were considered separate entities that should not be crossbred. But in the US, you don’t look a gift horse in the wallet. Capitol’s first LP starts off with the smash single “I Want To Hold Your Hand”, followed by its American B-side, “I Saw Her Standing There”, and “This Boy”, the British B-side. The rest of Meet The Beatles! consists of eight songs from the British With The Beatles LP, which had been released the previous November, and sports a nearly identical cover design.
Following the one-two-three punch at the start, side one concludes with “It Won’t Be Long”, “All I’ve Got To Do” and “All My Loving”. Right there we have six songs that could be considered among their greatest. Side two isn’t as strong, but does give the less dominant members their own spotlights—George sings the first song he wrote, “Don’t Bother Me”, and Ringo attacks “I Wanna Be Your Man”, previously offered to the Rolling Stones. Capitol was also wise to include Paul’s cabaret bit—“Till There Was You” from The Music Man—to appeal to the parents. “Little Child”, which is over before you know it, and “Hold Me Tight”, which seems to slow down unintentionally, are goofy but fun, and “Not A Second Time” provides a striking closer.
All together it’s still a very entertaining album, packaged in that iconic sleeve. And the liner notes are priceless. Forty years later it was a selling point in the limited Capitol Albums, Vol. 1 box set, and maintained its headline status ten years after that, when the “U.S. Albums” series finally made all the American versions purchasable digitally and physically. The rest of the empire may scoff, but this was how many of us met them.
The Beatles Meet The Beatles! (1964)—5
UK CD equivalent: Please Please Me/With The Beatles/Past Masters
I'm so glad (and why would I be surprised?) that you're starting with the Beatles. I watched their Ed Sullivan appearance on the housemother's television when I was a freshman in college, but it was my roommate who bought the "Meet the Beatles" album, which we both loved. I can remember singing along with the radio, especially in the French part, with "Michelle" while folding tiny baby clothes in the winter of '65-'66. I didn't know how much I'd miss hearing your collection until you went off to college yourself. (Now and then I still pity your poor roommate who had to listen to your dubbing every song onto tapes for my Christmas present.) Jump ahead a gazillion years, and I sat in an arena in Hartford in 2002, spellbound seeing Paul in person for the first time. It still amazes me that he was onstage for the whole concert, never taking a break. I loved it. Thanks for being there with me.
ReplyDeleteI just have to say that your mom is cool. And awesome. And that you are lucky to have such an awesome mom. But I think you know that.
ReplyDeleteGee, it was awfully hard to figure out the identity of the anonymous poster… 😊
ReplyDeleteI also think that it’s quite fitting that you started off your blog with this little album. It not only sparked a musical revolution, but also a cultural one. Who could have possibly predicted it at the time? It’s very difficult to convey that to people a couple of generations down.
An example is a movie called “Yesterday”. I haven’t seen it and don’t plan on it. The plot revolves around a guy who ends up in an alternate universe where the Beatles never existed. He steals their songs and becomes a big superstar. But it wasn’t just the songs that made them a phenomenon. It was their performances, their personalities, their charisma. One point that the film makers totally missed.
The other thing about the movie is that, apparently, the culture is otherwise unaltered. This makes even less sense. The film makers totally didn’t get how uptight post-World War II culture was. Hair styles. The intersection of The Beatles with the counterculture out of San Franciso mainstreamed it. They helped bring black music to the radio by covering it. I could go on, but you get the idea. It is not exaggerating to say that the world would be extremely different without them.
Back to the album, it was extremely smart of Capitol to devote the entire album to originals (except for that one example of granny music which shored up their image as nice, non-threatening boys). Nothing had ever been heard like those in the U.S.A.! The album does sag a bit in the middle of Side 2 with “Little Child” and “Hold Me Tight”, which even the guys admitted down the line were filler. “I Wanna Be Your Man” would be a throwaway, except that Ringo gives it such a delightfully goofy reading that it gets a pass.
Those three tracks, for me, would prevent me from giving it a 5 for strictly musical reasons. However, in terms of impact, it may be the biggest 5 ever. IMHO, it’s one of only three of the early Capitol albums that holds together musically as an album, as opposed to just a collection of random songs. It is a very good thing that Capitol brought it back, as long as they didn’t bring back Dexter’s botched mix!
Yeah, she's pretty cool.
DeleteThe Yesterday film is a nice way to kill two hours on a plane. I too was nervous, and there are plenty of holes, but what it does come down to is that the music is pretty incredible, even without the complete package, which only makes it that much better.
I do think Capitol was smart to choose predominantly original songs for the album, leaving the "leftover" covers for the Second Album. It took me a while to warm to that one because, again, there are a lot of covers.
As you might tell I am partial to a few of the Capitol albums. Because no matter the sequence, the music was that good. I maintain that the Beatles and Led Zeppelin are the only major artists who never put out a "bad" album.