The Beatles’ albums ranked - submit your ranking

[Jennaonthebeach]

If you look at the music which occupied the charts, a great many people were listening to utter bilge

That's true of any age.

 

[danny la rouge]

Maybe it's a cultural difference. I grew up in the US.

I have a feeling that’s true. My family are from around Glasgow, a port city that a lot of jazz, blues, and other music was imported into. From what I’ve seen and read, despite them being “American imports”, the same records were not well distributed to white audiences in the US.

 

[Pickman's model]

That's true of any age.

Very much so. But pretty much every view of what people were listening to particularly in the sixties is seen through such rose-tinted specs that it's often forgotten. Spend a few days listening to the number ones of the sixties and seventies and people were buying utter dross while bands like the beatles, the animals, stones, jhe, cream and small faces - not to mention singers like elvis presley - were going.

 

[Jennaonthebeach]

Very much so. But pretty much every view of what people were listening to particularly in the sixties is seen through such rose-tinted specs that it's often forgotten

i couldn't agree with you more.

 

[Jennaonthebeach]

Maybe it's a cultural difference. I grew up in the US.

Well that would explain it. The history books make the claim that increasingly the majority of interest in blues, jazz, etc, in the late 50s, early 60s, came from Europe and it was only with the success of Europeans emulating American music forms, particularly the "British invasion", that those forms became mainstream again (if they ever had been mainstream in the US that is) from the mid 60s onwards.

Essentially while American kids were listening to their new favourite British, or British inspired beat group, they were actually listening to US music from 20 or 30 years before, but just didn't know it.

 

[seeformiles]

Let it bleed a superior title and better album

Different band so different rules but easily the best Stones LP by a country mile

 

[Magnus McGinty]

If you look at the music which occupied the charts, a great many people were listening to utter bilge

Just like nowadays.

 

[seeformiles]

Well that would explain it. The history books make the claim that increasingly the majority of interest in blues, jazz, etc, in the late 50s, early 60s, came from Europe and it was only with the success of Europeans emulating American music forms, particularly the "British invasion", that those forms became mainstream again (if they ever had been mainstream in the US that is) from the mid 60s onwards.

I think that, due to the haphazard way the musical cultural exchange took place btw UK and US, the “imitations” for want of a better word always led to something beautifully mutated that kept on going for many years.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

i couldn't agree with you more.

Pickman’s isn’t meant to be agreed with.

 

[seeformiles]

Yup. A big part of psychedelia is that nostalgia thing. Nostalgia for old music forms, nostalgia for childhood themes, nursery rhymes, nostalgia for a probably mythical innocence. All used as a contrast to modernity and knowing cynicism.

In the UK it was Victorian/Edwardiana but the US was pioneer cowboy stuff hence Grateful Dead. I found the UK stuff (apart from the extreme twee bits) much more interesting.

 

[danny la rouge]

Different band so different rules but easily the best Stones LP by a country mile

There is a Stones thread. But I remain unconvinced by their psychedelic period, and feel they regained their mojo from Let It Bleed to early 70s. Their height, in my opinion, pretty much corresponds to the Mick Taylor period, give or take. But they didn’t ever really manage a coherent album in the same way as Rubber Soul, say. Not that this diminishes their worth. Get Yer Ya Yas Out (by far my favourite album of theirs) demonstrates their strength was probably live.

 

[Jennaonthebeach]

I think that, due to the haphazard way the musical cultural exchange took place btw UK and US, the “imitations” for want of a better word always led to something beautifully mutated that kept on going for many years.

Well, they did start completely as imitations. Kids with their guitars (usually) were copying records note for note and trying to back engineer any sort of American guitar music they could get hold of. But as you say, it became a much more complex process in a very short amount of time, perhaps because of cultural differences, or limitations in musicianship, etc.

 

[Jennaonthebeach]

In the UK it was Victorian/Edwardiana but the US was pioneer cowboy stuff hence Grateful Dead. I found the UK stuff (apart from the extreme twee bits) much more interesting.

not evenly. Many bands of that era were definitely singing about their parents' generation.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

There is a Stones thread. But I remain unconvinced by their psychedelic period, and feel they regained their mojo from Let It Bleed to early 70s. Their height, in my opinion, pretty much corresponds to Mick Taylor period, give or take. But they didn’t ever really manage a coherent album in the same way as Rubber Soul, say. Not that this diminishes their worth. Get Yer Ya Yas Out (by far my favourite album of theirs) demonstrates their strength was probably live.

Their Satanic Majesties Request was a mess. I’ve got it on now to remind me.

 

[seeformiles]

There is a Stones thread. But I remain unconvinced by their psychedelic period, and feel they regained their mojo from Let It Bleed to early 70s. Their height, in my opinion, pretty much corresponds to Mick Taylor period, give or take. But they didn’t ever really manage a coherent album in the same way as Rubber Soul, say. Not that this diminishes their worth. Get Yer Ya Yas Out (by far my favourite album of theirs) demonstrates their strength was probably live.

They were always following what the fabs did and flawed, though Satanic Majesties is, it’s still a good album. Their shoddiness live around 1969 is appalling at times but Altamont (despite what went on) remains a very tight performance- probably down to Mick Taylor.

 

[Jennaonthebeach]

Pickman’s isn’t meant to be agreed with.

Shut him up though, didn't it?

 

[seeformiles]

Shut him up though, didn't it?

Not sure the relative merits of Beatles vs Stones is his strong point tbh

 

[Jennaonthebeach]

Not sure the relative merits of Beatles vs Stones is his strong point tbh

that wouldn't stop him!

 

[savoloysam]

I've never listened to any beatles album while tripping, you'd lose the nuances

You have to take LSD for sgt peppers otherwise you're missing out on a ride in a newspaper taxi.

 

[Jennaonthebeach]

You have to take LSD for sgt peppers otherwise you're missing out on a ride in a newspaper taxi.

Last time i did that i was covered in newsprint.

 

[Pickman's model]

Shut him up though, didn't it?

Getting off the bus and going home is what shut me up, tbh

 

[SpookyFrank]

If you look at the music which occupied the charts, a great many people were listening to utter bilge

It's actually spelled 'Acker Bilk'.

 

[Orang Utan]

I am intrigued by what Lennon might have done if he hadn’t been killed. The last thing he did was the most interesting thing he’d done - playing guitar on Yoko Ono’s Walking On Thin Ice. Imagine (lol) what else he could have done living and working in New York during the late (electronic) disco/no wave era - we could have seen him working with the likes of Arthur Russell, Patti Smith, ESG, Talking Heads personnel, Sly & Robbie etc. He could even have done a Rapture!

 

[ouirdeaux]

I am intrigued by what Lennon might have done hadn’t he been killed.

I'm not, because if there's anything more tedious than 'Imagine', I don't want to know.

 

[savoloysam]

I'm not, because if there's anything more tedious than 'Imagine', I don't want to know.

That's because you don't have any imagination.

 

[Orang Utan]

I'm not, because if there's anything more tedious than 'Imagine', I don't want to know.

Not sure when that was, but it was his work with Ono that was interesting not his other stuff

 

[Hollis]

1. Magical Mystery Tour
2. Revolver
3. Sgt. Pepper
4. Rubber Soul
5. Abbey Road
6. Let it Be
7. White Album

 

[Hilldweller]

The new Super Deluxe version of The White Album has been an absolute revelation to me for the earlier versions of songs on it

 

[danny la rouge]

The new Super Deluxe version of The White Album has been an absolute revelation to me for the earlier versions of songs on it

I’ve not heard it. This is the “Esher Tapes”, right?

 

[Hilldweller]

I’ve not heard it. This is the “Esher Tapes”, right?

I think so