The Beatles

[Mark]

Who here likes them? I started listening to them back in January when I bought the "1" CD with their #1's.

A few months later I started buying their albums on CD, beginning with Abbey Road. Then I got the White Album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Let It Be, and Magical Mystery Tour. I haven't got the others yet.

My favorite songs so far are:

-Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
-With a Little Help from My Friends
-Sgt. Pepper's... (Reprise)
-Flying
-Blue Jay Way
-A Day In the Life
-Mother Nature's Son
-Hey Jude
-Ticket to Ride
-Taxman
-Good Day Sunshine
-Here Comes the Sun
-Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End
-Let It Be
-The Long and Winding Road
-What Goes On
-Good Night

and many others!

[ymymeatemup]

Well, that gives us two things in common, Mark. I've been listening to the Beatles since I was a little kid. I used to drive my family members crazy because it was the only thing I ever wanted to talk about. Looks like you've got the mid-to-late period covered pretty well. "A Hard Day's Night" is perhaps the best from the early period.

[Mark]

I purposely bought their albums only from the middle to the end of their days as a band so far just so I could have a good start, because I have a thing for highly ambitious and very well-done albums. Next up is their earlier stuff. My local Wal-Mart has Help!, With the Beatles, and Beatles for Sale in stock. I'll be picking one of them next time.

[Mark]

Hey Bob, are there any restored Beatles albums on CDs that you know of? Comparing the "1" album with the same songs on the actual albums, the songs on "1" sound amplified and a little better. I think these album CDs have been out since the late 80s and nothing has been done to them since.

How about the Capitol sets? Are they 'restored'? The CDs I own sound great anyway, but they could be even better.

[ymymeatemup]

You're right about the late '80s CDs. At the time those came out, they sounded better than most of the other CDs from that era, but in the ensuing years a lot of 'remastered' CDs have come out. So far, the regular Beatles CDs haven't gotten this treatment, only specialized releases like "1," "Yellow Submarine Songtrack," "Let It Be Naked," etc. I haven't heard the Capitol sets yet, but I do know that they're remastered. Keep in mind, though, that the Capitol CDs are altered in the same way as the original Capitol releases, with added reverb on a lot of the songs. It's really noticeable on "I Feel Fine" and "She's A Woman."

[Mark]

Bob,

I found this on YouTube this morning. It's "Revolution 9" played backwards that someone posted. I read somewhere that the Beatles admitted to intentionally putting some segments of the track on the album backwards, and when played backwards from the album version, you'll hear subliminal messages that I think are real. What do you think? youtube.com/watch?v=PG0wksBzKSc

This is even creepier than the normal version. I always loved "Revolution 9."

[ymymeatemup]

I've got a program that reverses CD tracks, so that was one of the first ones I tried. I've even got a version in which I superimposed the backwards version onto the forwards version, so you hear both "number nine" and "turn me on dead man" at the same time. That's definitely the most convincing of the backwards 'clues' on the Beatles records IMO. But I think it's still coincidental. It may be that John & Yoko listened to it backwards and liked the coincidence, but there would be no way to deliberately make a phrase turn into something else backwards. You can even 'do it yourself' with that phrase. I once recorded my voice imitating the 'number nine-na, number nine-na...' and when I played it backwards I still got the 'turn me on dead man' effect.

[Mark]

It's kind of funny how it adds clues to Paul's obviously-false old death rumor. McCartney has nine letters in the name... number 9, and then of course, reverse that. This rumor is so fun!

And Yoko's voice is so strikingly clear when played both ways. On the album, it sounds like "and then you become naked." In reverse, it's the totally creepy "Satan look at me!"

*gets chills all over*

[imnotallenhoskins]

They were good before John became commie scum.

[imnotallenhoskins]

^^^^ Thanks mostly to Yoko Ono.

[ymymeatemup]

I don't see how communism affected the Beatles' music whatsoever. And aside from "Revolution 9," Yoko had a minimal effect on their music at best.

[imnotallenhoskins]

If ever there was a God-hating degenerate, it was Aleister Crowley ...

33° Mason, Aleister Crowley would definitely get some votes in the "most wicked man who ever lived contest" and is the clear cut favorite for the title of "The Father of Modern Satanism". Crowley's wicked life and his intimate association with Freemasonry are both well known.

Crowley himself was terribly decadent. A happily heroin-addicted, bisexual Satan worshiper, he asked people to call him "The Beast 666." Crowley believed that he was literally the antimessiah of the apocalypse.

During the first World War, Crowley transferred his activities to America. The press proclaimed him "the wickedest man in the world." He also spent time in Italy, but was expelled because Italian authorities accused his disciples of sacrificing human infants in occult rituals. According to one source, Crowley resided in the Abbey of Thelema near Cefalu Sicily, and revived ancient Dionysian ceremonies. During a 1921 ritual, he induced a he-goat to copulate with his mistress, then slit the animal's throat at the moment of orgasm. -SOURCE

The Beatles apparently took Crowley's teaching very serious — Beatle John Lennon, in an interview, says the "whole idea of the Beatles" was — Crowley's infamous "do what thou wilt":

"The whole Beatle idea was to do what you want, right? To take your own responsibility, do what you want and try not to harm other people, right? DO WHAT THOU WILST, as long as it doesn't hurt somebody. . ." ("The Playboy Interviews with John Lennon and Yoko Ono", by David Sheff and G. Barry Golson, p. 61)

[imnotallenhoskins]

Testifying before the House Select Committee on Crime, popular family enter-tainer Art Linkletter, who lost a child to drug abuse, referred to the Beatles as the "leading missionaries of the acid society" (Crime in America- Illicit and Dangerous Drugs, October 1969).

[imnotallenhoskins]

Media researcher Brian Key observed: "The Beatles became the super drug culture prophets of all time" (Key, Media Sexploitation, 1976, p. 136).

[Mark]

Bob, do you have the full 8 minute version of "Dig It?" I've been looking everywhere for it. Itunes doesn't have any Beatles songs, it doesn't show up on Limewire, and the only place I can listen to it is here: youtube.com/watch?v=yddmU1eYq0U . I love the "come OOOOOOOOOOON!" belt at the beginning.