The Beatles (Later Years) - An Artist Deep-Dive

In 1966, The Beatles played their last official concert and holed up in the studio for the remainder of their musical career. The result? Some of the most genius and groundbreaking recordings that the world had heard and likely ever will. But as the 60s came to a close, relations within the group began to erode until personal and creative differences between the members became irreconcilable. In this podcast, we cover the last five years of The Beatles' career, from the recording of Revolver to the release of Let It Be.

[@augustosolari7721]

You should consider relistening to Yellow Submarine's George Harrison track "It's too much". 7 Minutes of psychodelic brilliance!!!

[@cremetangerine82]

Great podcast guys! This is one of the best primers for their music. More corrections/clarifications/comments: - The “Paperback Writer”/“Rain” single was the first with new engineer Geoff Emerick, who is credited with the richer bass sound. - I like “Yellow Submarine”, the sound effects are top-notch. This along with a few songs (“Hello Goodbye”, “All Together Now”, “Octopus’s Garden”) seem to be geared towards their pre-pubescent fan base. - “Revolver” is my favorite, and I would eagerly want Giles Martin to do a box set like he did for “SPLHCB”, “The White Album”, and “Abbey Road”. - I do consider “SPLHCB” to be a concept album as the Beatles portraying a musical hall group performing for an audience (addressed in three songs). - I really dislike the heavy-handed instrumentation of “She’s Leaving Home”. It was composed by Mike Leander because George Martin was temporarily unavailable. Otherwise, the song is amazingly empathetic towards the parents of the runaway since it was written by two twenty-somethings. - “Magical Mystery Tour” has an ugly ass album cover, such a letdown after “SPLHCB”. - Paul’s “death” was on 9 November 1966 (“Wednesday morning at 5 o’clock as the day begins”), coincidentally the same day John met Yoko! - Paul was always interested in the avant-garde, the tape loops of “Tomorrow Never Knows” is his inspiration. - I’m definitely on “The White Album works as a double album” and doesn’t need to be whittled down to a single LP. It’s my second favorite after “Revolver”. - The “Yellow Submarine” album is saved by “Hey Bulldog”. I would give a re-listen to “It’s All Too Much”, it’s a fantastic psychedelic rock tune. - Any possibility of watching the new documentary on the “Get Back” January 1969 sessions? It does revise the “worst time ever and all the Beatles hated each other” narrative that has been repeated for decades. - Mark Lewisohn (currently writing a three-volume biography of them) has written that the Beatles never envisioned ”Abbey Road” to be the last album for the band. They wanted a pallate cleanser after some of the fractious nature of “Get Back” and the return of George Martin and Geoff Emerick. - Paul’s bass work on “Something” is sublime, and it’s wonderful he brought his A++ game to a George song after years of neglect. My third favorite album is “Abbey Road”. - Hard disagree on the Beatles becoming a rock band with “Abbey Road”; they always were a rock band, but loved to experiment with so many other popular music strains (blues, country, R&B, etc.). - “Come Together” is a perfect album opener, Paul bass is funky af! - Like “She’s Leaving Home”, the orchestra on “The Long and Winding Road” is so overbearing and I do prefer the “naked” version better.

[@derekvega8703]

It would be great to see you guys do an artist deep-dive on David Bowie.

[@finnmikkelsen7062]

great vid!!! listened all the way through listening to the album and then your thoughts (took me basically all day). was shocked to hear the come together hate Lul. I would definitely put abbey road at the top, followed by sgt. peppers and then revolver. the white album is a very interesting listen, I just think there're a few complete throwaway tracks (wild honey pie, Revolution 9, Martha my dear, savoy truffle). I will say though that helter skelter into long long long is fucking brilliant. one of the coolest sections of an album.

[@bherrin67]

Great job on the Beatles deep dive, guys. Throughly enjoyed it!! Thanks for putting this together.

[@samstevenson5328]

It's funny how you mentioned the song "Happiness is a Warm Gun" reminds you of "Paranoid Android" by Radiohead because the piano line near the beginning of the song "Sexy Sadie" are the same notes played in "Karma Police" when Thom sings "This is what you get" Just to show you how much Radiohead marveled at the song craft of The Beatles.

[@I_can_do_20_push-ups]

Man Revolver is just one of those perfect records. Hit after hit after hit.

[@DavidG-rg5bz]

Your complete Beatles deep-dive was really great!! Keep up the good work! (How about a Slowdive deep-dive?)

[@SoYouWantToBeAnImagineer]

I'm really glad you guys appreciate Magical Mystery Tour so much. I too think it's definitely their most under-rated album. The front side is a weird acid trip concept album in its own right, while the back half is a collection of some of their best singles from that era. It's definitely not as "complete" as Sgt. Pepper, but I actually think it has one of the best ratios of really strong tracks to filler out of any of their discography.

[@turtleisasturtledoes6707]

I look at it this way. You blindfold yourself and throw a dart at the globe. Find the nearest populated area to where ever that dart landed. Go there find a random person of any age (over say 10) and they could probably name (if not sing) you five Beatles Songs they love. No other band has came close to accomplishing what they did. Part of it was timing. Most of it was brilliance. It is not often that art is created that almost everyone loves. If you don't like at least one Beatles song you don't like music.

[@tylerdurden5555555]

Incredible analysis guys.. Great work. Abbey Road is also my favourite album!

[@AllMediaReviewsPodcast]

great episode! I love the latter/later Beatles! I am with Jake on how I rank the albums a bit as I came to love and consider Abbey Road their greatest work. The 2nd Side Suite is a masterpiece. Although I'm surprised you guys didn't include more about "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight," which is a highlight of the whole suite. It was actually having a bootleg video of Dream Theater with their singer Charlie Dominici perform those 2 pieces live that got me motivated to get back into the Beatles after dismissing them for many years. I was a fan as a kid though, and the 1st Vinyl I ever bought was Sgt Peppers. That and then Mike Portnoy's prog supergroup Transatlantic playing the entire Suite within their most Abbey Road-like piece "Suite: Charlotte Pike" back in 2001. And getting to see local Minnesota band Collective Unconscious perform the whole record live twice in the last 15 years. I wanted to mention a couple of tracks I also was suprised you guys didn't include: "Blue Jay Way" from Magical Mystery Tour. I have very sad/melancholy memories of hearing this on a rainy day at a cafe. Or 1 evening in a cold Minnesota winter, sitting in a cafe, and it getting late 1 weeknight evening. "Got to Get You Into My Life" from Revolver. I love the horn section on this 1. "Rocky Raccoon" and "Bungalo Bill" 2 of the story/fable tracks off The White album I've always enjoyed. "Piggies" as well I would include. "A Day in the Life" may be favorite Beatles tune. It's perfect, and an epic and arguably prog. Sgt Peppers in a lot of ways was the 1st concept album and got music listeners and musicians to think about THE ALBUM rather than the song(s). It also in that way is 1 of the earliest progressive rock albums. I also would love to hear your take on perspective of The Beatles and their contemporaries at the time. Not only The Stones, but especially THE BEACH BOYS and the jousting that went on. I wrote a thing in my blog a few years ago analzying just the release dates between Beatles and Beach Boys releases in the mid 60's. edit: here allmediareviews.blogspot.com/2011/12/beach-boys-vs-beatles-note.html Also THE MONKEES. Micky Dolenz and Michael Nesmith were actually in the studio when The Beatles were recording Sgt Peppers. Lennon called Micky "Monkee Man"..and "The Last Train to Clarksville" does resemble "Taxman" although it's a great tune. That and the fact The Monkees were actually an idea about making a TV show that was a cross between A Hard Day's Night and The Marx Brothers. Also the fact The White Album was actually released on the exact same day in October of 1968 as The Monkees film soundtrack album "Head."

[@goldwaterproductions]

Can you guys do a podcast on Brian wilsons masterpieces pet sounds and smile and the whole story surrounding that? I know it may seem weird to suggest a podcast like that but idk I would just love to hear your guys take on that whole thing

[@samstevenson5328]

Wild Honey Pie has to be one of the worst Beatles songs IMO

[@Aubry92]

While I get why Sgt. Pepper is so revered, in some ways I just don't get what people really see in some of those songs other than that it fits super well in the "variety show" appeal of the album. Certainly their most cohesive and some of the strongest production in their catalog, but I really feel like I'd be lying to myself if I said that I'd like to go back to "Mr. Kite" or "Sixty-Four" for reasons other than curiosity. I'm Team Jake on Abbey Road though: absolutely their best without question, just as much a band experience as it is an album one. Runners-up for me include Revolver, Beatles for Sale, and Magical Mystery Tour. But yeah, great overview, guys. The Beatles are always such a fascinating band to talk about. While they challenged themselves more and more in such a short amount of time, though, I like to go back to "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in just how important of a puzzle piece they were to influencing pop music from there onward.

[@nightmarestudios703]

You also forgot the roof top concert where they preformed most of the let it be album live in the late 60s on the roof top of either Apple corp or Abbey Road studios.

[@grimmcalypso396]

1.)White Album 2.)Magical Mystery Tour 3.)Revolver 4.)Sgt.Pepper 5.)Abbey Road

[@keithwilson1554]

The Beatles deliberately did Childrens Songs eg: Yellow Submarine, Octopuses Garden

[@jnagarya519]

"The Beatles" solidified themselves at the top in 1965 -- see "Shea Stadium" concert -- before "Rubber Soul".

[@mynameisfuzzy1]

I gotta say, I love the new podcast format. We may get content less frequently than before, but it is always very high quality. Keep it up, gentlemen! I think Beck would make a great artist to do a Deep-Dive on, as he has spanned so many different styles.

[@jnagarya519]

Paul asked George Martin to produce "Abbey Road," and Martin agreed -- if Paul would let Martin produce.

[@jnagarya519]

Listen to McCartney's "Let Me Roll It," compare it to the minimalist "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". It is McCartney, even in the vocal, doing Lennon.

[@alonsorojas7885]

1- Abbey Road 2- Revolver 3- The White Album 4- Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band 5- Rubber Soul 6- Magical Mistery Tour 7- Beatles for Sale 8- Help! 9- Let it Be 10- A Hard Days Night 11- With The Beatles 12- Please Please Me 13- Yellow Submarine

[@jnagarya519]

When first released, the local FM station played "The Beatles" (aka "White Album") straight through, with no commercials, every night for two weeks. Except before and after, and those weekends, when they played all sorts of other "Beatles". It's impossible to convey the massive impact "The Beatles" had. And their music was worth it.

[@jnagarya519]

"The Beatles" were all along a rock band. But not only. After them "rock" splintered into -- pretentious word "genre"/marketing labels -- to the point that every band was claiming to be their own "genre". Worse, the efforts to combine rock with classical -- which are antithetical -- produced fatuous bloat. All efforts to "equal" "The Beatles" which never happened.

[@FiveMinuteMusicReviews]

+Velocities In Music I found two books on the Beatles' songwriting process. "All The Songs: The Story Behind Every Beatles Release" and "Revolution in The Head". And here is a website that lists the "primary songwriter" for each Beatles song. Very interesting stuff. www.myrsten.nu/worldnet/beatlesongs.htm

[@redcaravan5158]

Howdy guys. I think for me the album I come back to the most is Revolver. But in saying that...I do love them all and find it hard to choose my favourite. For example I was listening to Magical Mystery Tour in the car today and I thought it was perfection!!!I can attach every Beatles album to an early memory. For example Beatles for sale and Hard days night reminds me of a family holiday because dad had a cassette that he would play in the car that had both those albums on it. A simple memory...but a lasting memory!I remember going through dads records and stumbling across THE WHITE ALBUM and seeing just how many songs were on it and being so excited about. I would listen to it over and over and over....Dad's vinyls for With the Beatles and Beatles for sale had these strange alternative Australian covers...infact I thought Beatles for sale for a live album when I was a kid because of the cover.I'd also just sit and look at the Sgt Pepper cover.So yeah...they're just so good and I'm currently going through a big big big Beatles phase!!So thanks for the podcast. I'm loving it.

[@jnagarya519]

"Get Back" was to be pre-overdubbing and the like -- it had been John who lead them into that "studio tricks" period.

[@yourlowness]

Loved both parts of this. Shared a lot of your thoughts and even finished some of your thoughts before you said them. That being said, how in the fuck could you not mention You Never Give Me Your Money?.......Hands down one of the top 10 overall songs in the catalogue. Didn't want to drop that f bomb but it was the only word that conveyed my feelings.

[@mediumdensity6850]

Pair of you have tin ears -not appreciating the wonder that is Yellow Submarine is a very grave sin.

[@jnagarya519]

The Abbey Road "medley" is a pastishe of song fragments. There's a bootleg of it with the separate parts before being tied together.

[@kilgoretrout3966]

You sorta miss the mark on the White Album. Its like a bag of surprises...or a loot crate.

[@Adyman182]

Mentions I Want to Tell You, plays Taxman. lol

[@samstevenson5328]

Awesome review guys!! Love what you guys do! My top 5 have to be... 1. Abbey Road 2. Sgt. Pepper 3. Magical Mystery Tour 4. Revolver 5. The Beatles (White Album)

[@kristybush6949]

Abbey road was their real last album let it be was record before hand and released as a complied record. Abbey road was the proper ending.

[@rustyshepperd]

As a lifelong Beatles fan, my favorite Album changes depending on my life at the time and how I'm feeling. I could name my least favorite much easier than my favorite.

[@mrs.featherbottom5901]

Rusty Shepperd which album is our favorite in which moods? Can you share? :)

[@Akchun21]

Revolver #1. All Beatles giving it their best as one unit.

[@fragstainz8668]

My Top 5 would be: 1) The White Album 2) Revolver 3) Rubber Soul 4) Abbey Road 5) Sgt Pepper

[@coryjoe_c]

I've enjoyed this Beatles talk, definitely got me back listening to them again!

[@buenogoodlive]

You should do a deep dive on Nirvana or Sublime..I'm a big fan of 90s stuff but any deep dive you guys do I find very interesting and informative! Never skip one.

[@buenogoodlive]

Or Beck

[@_keegs]

can you please do a deep-dive into Pink Floyd or Oasis!

[@engineeredaccess6026]

If dan harmon did music

[@itistime467]

Beatles

[@FiveMinuteMusicReviews]

Hey guys - can you recommend a book or documentary that focuses on the Beatles' songwriting process? For example, who wrote each song, how they collaborated, etc.

[@velocitiesinmusic]

+Five Minute Music Reviews I don't know of any documentaries that do that, but there are several books along those lines. If you do a quick search on Google or Amazon for Beatles song-by-song books, you'll find a lot of options.

[@LightPrecursor63]

R

[@kenillla]

could you guys maybe make a soundfile to download of your podcast? hate having youtube running while listening to you guys on my ipod. thanks,

[@velocitiesinmusic]

+Frågadenaa If you subscribe to the podcast via the iTunes Store or a smartphone app, it should download each episode to your device/computer. Let us know if that will work for you or not. Thanks!

[@kenillla]

+Velocities In Music found your podcast via your website, but can't seem to find you on itunes or the apple podcast app.

[@blah148]

Another great one. Thanks so much

[@nightmarestudios703]

You forgot The Beatles in the 1990s. In the 1990s, Paul, George, and Ringo finished up two unreleased John Lennon demos and released them as singles under the Beatles name.

[@nightmarestudios703]

Now that I finished listening to the podcast, here are my favorites. 1. Abbey Road/Magical Mystery Tour. Abbey Road is perfect, especially with George's guitar on almost all of the songs. Magical Mystery Tour is also home to my favorite Beatles songs (Strawberry Fields Forever and I am the Walrus) but I have not heard the whole album yet so I will rank this when I do get the album. 2. Sgt. Peppers - Home to a ton of great songs (Sgt. peppers lonely hearts club band, With a little help from my friends, A day in the life, basically the whole album) it is an album never to disappoint. Within You Without You is in my top 10 Beatles songs and my top 25 songs as of 2016. The eastern music on this track is just one big adventure. Although this is one of the best albums in history, it is not THE best. I find it to be a bit overrated. 3. Revolver - Just as good as Sgt. peppers but although had I be placed below it because of how dull it can be at sometimes (Dr. Robert). But listen to .....

[@jamesgreenldn]

Great, thanks for the Beatles deep dive. I was wondering are you fans of David Bowie? if so I think he would be a good artist to do a deep dive into, as he recently passed plus he has such a huge back catalogue.. you could do the 70's years?

[@velocitiesinmusic]

+james green We are huge David Bowie fans. A deep-dive of his work would be great, but as you mentioned it would be quite extensive. We'd probably have to break it into more than two parts!

[@zetetick395]

+Velocities In Music +Velocities In Music Might I also suggest - for the wonderfully rich evoloution of sound throughout his career - Tom Waits. - I'd love to hear your appraisal of his output overall :) Cheers!

[@aidenferry23]

1. Abbey Road 2. Sgt. Pepper 3. The White Album 4. Revolver

[@erikjasek9921]

so glad to be reaffirmed that abbey road is their best record. I thought I was the only one. I felt like I had to say revolver or sgt pepper was my favorite because those two are the unanimous favorites. Abbey Road - Revolver - White album - Sgt pepper - Magical mystery tour.

[@mj127871]

Amazing video, hard to pick a top 3 but I think it would be sgt peppers/abbey road on 1, followed by revolver and magical mystery tour

[@evedonnelly102]

Something you never mentioned about Yellow Submarine: it sounds soooo bad on vinyl.

[@rondonvalante1496]

Just found this series and I love it. I honestly think overall my favorite band is the Beatles or ween

[@DannyWonder]

1. Abbey Road 2. MMT 3. Revolver

[@vavedern8860]

You guys should do a review for Showbiz by: Muse. Its one of my personal favorites and it got me through a lot of rough times and I would love to hear what you think of it! Anyway, love your channel! Keep it up!

[@vavedern8860]

Just found out you guys stopped doing reviews, but it still would be cool if you could do deep-dive for Muse or talk about Showbiz. Love you guys, keep it up!

[@jnagarya519]

The last several "Beatles" singles -- "Let it Be" and "Long and Winding Road" -- sound tired.

[@TheOrlly]

idk if the beatles were that groundbreaking. look at what they were releasing compared to other people. 66 they release revolver and dylan's released blonde on blonde. 67 they release sgt pepper and frank zappa and beafheart make their debuts. not to mention VU. their later records have far more competition (which record do u think is more groundbreaking, troutmask replica or abbey road?) compared to what the beatles were making these artists are far more groundbreaking. perhaps they were groundbreaking in the context of pop rock music, but it's hard for me to believe that they made 'the most genius and groundbreaking records the world had ever heard.' during and prior to their later period there's the avant garde and free jazz movements (ayler, taylor, coltrane, cherry), groundbreaking modern classical composers experimenting with tonality and improvisation (boulez, cage, many more as im not too versed in this genre), the classical minimalist, early electronic and noise music from the 20s... im a fan of the beatles myself. revolver would fit snuggly into my top 50 all time, however these 4 boys weren't all that insane.

[@velocitiesinmusic]

+TheOrlly That's a fair point, and I would certainly agree that Trout Mask Replica was a more groundbreaking album when you're looking at it side-by-side with Abbey Road all these years later (this is Tom-- I also clearly like TMR waaaaaay more than Abbey Road, even though Jake would disagree with me). However, Captain Beefheart also didn't have nearly the audience that The Beatles did. The Beatles weren't necessarily the first people to do a lot of the things they did, but I think they were in a position to bring the mainstream pop/rock audience with them.I think Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Sgt. Pepper were a lot more groundbreaking than their later albums because, as you point out, by the late 60s you have other artists doing more experimental things. These albums were more experimental in studio approach than they were in songwriting, and in the later 60s while even more artists were filling the psychedelic space, The Beatles reverted back to focusing more on songwriting quality. So stylistically they may not have been doing anything special by that point, but what they were doing with their songwriting was huge. The White Album and Abbey Road fit more variety onto them than anything Captain Beefheart, The Who, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, etc. were doing at the time (although maybe not Zappa or The Velvet Underground).I guess what I mean is that you could take any single Beatles album and find someone who did something similar at around the same time, and maybe even better. But what I find amazing about The Beatles is the change they went through from Please Please Me to Abbey Road, and I think what they achieved with the big picture of their work isn't matched by any other artists of that time.

[@drdickphd]

Thank you guys for this great deep dive and introduction to The Beatles. I'm 18 years old and didn't grow up on The Beatles so believe it or not I have never actually listened to a Beatles record straight through before, partially because their discography seemed a bit daunting and vast to me as an outsider. But I always had the intention of getting around to them at some point. You guys have been extremely helpful in teaching me some of the background history and significance of their whole discography and its evolution. Now I have a great basis of knowledge to go off of, so thanks once again! Also, I would love to see deep dives in the future for bands like Radiohead, Pixies, Velvet Underground, and Pink Floyd. Keep up the great work guys!

[@drdickphd]

Also thanks for introducing me to Nick Drake. He has now become one of my favorite artists and Pink Moon easily makes it into my top 10 favorite albums!

[@velocitiesinmusic]

+Kyle Dick That's great to hear, thanks for listening and thanks for sharing!