Category: Uncategorized
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I’ve been listening to (and singing along with) Hey Jude for decades, but I have come to believe that I have gotten the some of the lyrics wrong. Well, one word, anyway. Here’s the verse in question: So let it out and let it in. Hey, Jude, begin.You’re waiting for someone to perform with.And don’t…
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One recent night at dinner, my wife asked me something to the effect of, “Is all you ever think about The Beatles?” I truthfully answered that, no, sometimes I think about sports. A choice My wife has commented before on what she would call my “obsession” with The Beatles, but it’s what happened the next…
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Here’s an opinion that some Beatles fans regard as unpopular: The Beatles broke up at exactly the right time. And here’s why I believe that to be true. The Beatles’ recording career lasted from mid-1962 to mid-1969 (with one Threatles session held in January 1970), though their breakup didn’t become public until April 1970. From…
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I can’t say enough good things about George Martin. I’m convinced that without him, we in the U.S. would never have heard of The Beatles. That’s what makes this so difficult. We’re going to review his 1998 compilation album In My Life, which contains 10 Beatles’ covers, most by well-known artists, and two Martin-penned tracks.…
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We’re up to the third in our series naming the Most Valuable Beatle for each album. First up was Please Please Me, then With The Beatles. This time, we’ll tackle: A Hard Day’s Night (1964) Songwriting: Famously, A Hard Day’s Night is the only album in The Beatles’ catalog made up entirely of Lennon &…
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The last two times I attended a Paul McCartney concert–in 2016 and 2025–the song that the audience seemed to enjoy the most was Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da. At both shows, Paul introduced the song by telling us that we were expected to participate. In 2016, he said, “I know you’ve been singing along. But at this point,…
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I’m no psychologist or sociologist, but it seems clear in any group larger than two, the members form separate alliances with and bear resentments towards each other that can work to the detriment of the larger collective. The Beatles were as susceptible to these types of pressure as any of us. So what were the…
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As a reminder, I’m choosing tracks from The Beatles’ U.K. albums that weren’t released as singles in their home country, but could have been. Help! (1965) The tile track and Ticket to Ride were both issued as singles. The strong temptation here is to choose Paul’s Yesterday, which has been covered by thousands of artists.…
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I recently picked up a copy of Chuck Klosterman’s book Football. The book is about “the cultural value of football”–U.S. football, that is–though Klosterman digresses into several other topics. One of those digressions concerns pop music. The GOATs Klosterman begins Chapter 4, “The Semantics of GOAT Herding,” this way: “If you believe, as I do,…
Off The Beatle Track 