I grew up listening to the Beatles and Band on the Run. My brother played Wings and my sister had the single Hey Jude with Revolution as the B-side. Even as a little kid I marvelled at how intense the guitars on Revolution were. It felt like they were jumping out of the speakers.
For a long time I favoured the later stuff, like Abbey Road and the White Album. The White Album is incredible but patchy. Probably the album I reach for the most is kinda not an official album but a collection of singles and B-sides called Hey Jude. It has Rain, Old Brown Shoe (I LOVE that song!) Revolution, etc. And it opens with Can't Buy Me Love, which really does just leap out of the speakers and into your ears.
Now I just love 'em all. As I get older I appreciate more and more how good they were. One thing which stands out is the sounds - nobody sounds as good as the Beatles. No, they weren't all polished and shiny. They were warts and all and had more personality in one note than any of their contemporaries. And so much energy.
Re. Oh Darlin' - Geoff Emerick tells of how Paul would come into the studio before the rest of them for a few weeks so he could try more takes of the vocal for Oh Darlin'. He did take after take to try to get what he wanted. And it still sounds relatively spontaneous.
As much as I like the Stones I still can't quite get past Mick's silly "southern drawl". Oh well, it's worked for him for almost 60 years now! And it's funny how the Stones were marketed as tough, street-wise guys you wouldn't want you sister dating because they were actually all relatively well-off middle class white guys from respectable parts of London. Whereas the Beatles were marketed as pop idols and they were rather rough around the edges.
My uncle toured from London through Amsterdam and all of Australasia with the Beatles in 1964. He was there in the hotel rooms when the thousands of girls were screaming outside. He interviewed them several times a day for international radio and even got to interview Aunt Mimi on the plane to Hong Kong! If you were a Beatles fan back then and got a signed photo of the group it's quite possible that it was actually my uncle Bob or Mal Evans who signed it. The Beatles were, um, preoccupied.
