1 - Beatles (The) > Reviews > Newsflash The Beatles are broke

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Average
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Average
Value for Money

Advantages:	Brings together a lot of their better stuff
Disadvantages:	It is all on the othe albums just a money scam

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Hey did you know that Yoko, Paul, George and Ringo are all broke?

Yes it is true so they have decided to release yet another ‘Beatles’ Greatest Hits album, just in case we have missed any of the previous ones that have been produced in the past.

This new album is very different from the rest, it is unique, it has all 27 number 1 hits the Beatles had from both sides of the Atlantic. I am sure most of you will find that these are all also on the Red and the Blue albums.

Will it work? Of course it will! Everyone loves the Beatles, but for those who don’t they are merely just acting against them, like people who smoke when they see a no smoking sign.

On listening to this album one finds that the Beatles, like many great bands started their careers with a strange single that sounds nothing like any of their other work. For those who can remember 1962 and ‘Love Me Do’ may have suggested that the Beatles actually covered some terrible tracks ‘How Do You Do What You Do To Me’ is a fine example of them leaving the song writing to some dead man in a studio somewhere.

However, within minute’s reality shifts and we are treated to an explosion of pop, ‘From Me To You’, ‘She Loves You’ and ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ all of these songs were from 1963 and with the exception of ‘From Me To You’ they blew the roof of popular music.

There are many fans out there that favour ‘The Blue Album’ over ‘The Red Album’, they are truly missing out, as ‘The Red Album’ is crammed with all the ‘Beatles’ earlier work, full of white rushes of guitar and melody that still sounds like nothing else today!

Then around about 1965 everyone else from ‘The Rolling Stones’ to ‘The Who’ learnt to do what the ‘Beatles’ did, the ‘Beatles by this time were bored. This was clearly evident in the insulting ease in which Lennon and McCartney produced exceptional songs such as ‘We Can Work It Out’ and ‘Help’.

The ‘Beatles’ spent most of 1967 as an album band with the exception of ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ (not featured) and All You Need Is Love (featured). After this the world noticed that the ‘Beatles’ had grown beards, were in their late 20’s and preferred the company of foreign women. The fine singles from around this time were ‘Hey Jude’ ‘Get Back’ and ‘Something’ (a non number 1 featured as George Harrison was in the Beatles you know!) All of these songs are different in styles and proved at this time the Beatles were directionless.

It was as though the three writers from the Beatles were flexing their creative muscles through pastiche and stylistic experiment. The end, typically for the ‘Beatles’, was a false one in the form of old songs ‘Let It Be’ and ‘The Long & Winding Road’. 30 years on there was a genuinely false ending, where a solo demo, sang by a dead man was crooned at by his former colleagues, but that does not really count.

Owning or even just hearing 1 may be inessential; nut more than ‘Sgt Pepper’ or ‘Revolver’, these singles prove to the world that it was the ‘Beatles’ who changed everything. In eight years the normal time it takes to make a great rock band album or two, the ‘Beatles’ changed their music almost on an hourly basis. It was as if the ‘Beatles’ got a blindfold and covered the eyes of pop and spun it around so fast that it and no one else knew where it was!

At a time when so much rock music in Britain was stagnant or eating it’s own past, it is salutary to hear how people once made music that actually looked to the future.

All in all 1 is a great album from the ‘Beatles’ as it brings together a lot of their better work, but was it really essential for another?