Is the Beatles 1962-66 (the 'red' alb) the only record of theirs that you need?

Oh no way, RockSci. It's a very considered opinion. I own all their albums, plus the Anthologies, etc. etc. I'm think my posts probably come off canonically rockist at times, but this is one case where I break from it. Again, 1) it's very Lennon dominated (whom I prefer - see I'm a rockist!), 2) the lyrics are very self-aware, clever ("If I were you /I'd realize that I / Love you more /Than any other guy"; "oh dear what can I do / baby's in black and I'm feeling blue"; all of "I'm a Loser").

"I'll Follow the Sun" just kills me with the "oh well the time has come / and so my love I must go" middle eight part or whatever it's called. "Eight Days A Week" might be my favorite early pop hit of theirs, plus more lyrical fun - "eight days a week". The covers are great: "Mr Moonlight"?! Where in the heck did they find that song? Two Carl Perkins tunes? See, they were totally on top of their game, becoming aware of themselves and their ability, having new experiences; and they made a half brilliant, introspective record, and half rollicking fun.

Plus "What You're Doing" invents The Byrds!

Ringo's hanging from the chandelier and he's got a little song he'd like to sing!

their entire career would have been better as a four-song EP. and i *still* wouldn't listen to it.

Per Custos's question: One is the only Beatles album you need in your car

"You've Got the Hide Your Love Away" is a GREAT song.

I credit all their records, although I've never been able to sustain much enthusiasm for anything post-Magical Mystery Tour.

or just replace it with the Doodles Weaver version, which is completely and utterly CLASSIC

Point by point, then. I prefer pre-psych Beatles to post-psych, but Revolver is still their best, as perfect as any album I've ever heard. The idea that Beatles For Sale, their worst studio album, is all you need is laughable beyond laughter; "Mr. Moonlight" is the worst thing they ever recorded, the covers sound tired generally, the whole thing feels exhausted, which continues into Help! (see title track), and then Rubber Soul figures out what to do with that exhaustion. I don't know how much the Beatles took from Velvets but I know the Stones did--Jagger once told an interviewer that "Stray Cat Blues" was a straight VU rip. I like "Eleanor Rigby" fine but I have a hard time liking it anywhere but after "Taxman" and before "I'm Only Sleeping." Dave Q's non-Beatles Beatles pantheon, I kiss you.

Who else here is an eternal sucker for "Hello Goodbye"?

(y'know what i like about this thread? there is nothing even vaguely approaching a consensus).

I genuinely envy Matos his earnestness--I just need to listen to Revolver again (strong memories of loving "And Your Bird Can Sing" coming to the fore) to come to the same conclusions, I bet.

I guess I should probably have recommended Past Masters because where else can you find "We Can Work It Out" (yum), etc.?

I guess listening to the Beatles records as I am now--and Matos is right, Revolver is incredible--reminds me of a few things. That it isn't "just music" than I'm listening to, ever, since something about the band's elephant status gets in the way--no matter how much I admire and enjoy the music, there is a part of my brain for which it remains...anaesthetic.

It's 2 AM and I hope that makes some sense because I'll be sleeping when/if anyone chooses to respond to it.

Time for bed.

My earnestness, as you kindly referred to it, is a little bewildering to some people, for whom classic rock is the Enemy even when they like some or much of it. (Or more accurately, classic rock thinking, not quite the same as rockism but in the same ballpark.) My critical training (which means something very different than what I was going to call it, "musical training," before I realized that folx like Dan and Jody Beth would probably and rightfully object to the phrase) is odd because the great crux of anti-'60s thought, postpunk/indie and/or punk-as-ideology, mostly passed me by: to grossly oversimplify how it worked, I started w/the Rolling Stone canon and then got into hip-hop, dance music, and pop. I never quite had the "yes, yes, people have been talking about them for fucking ever and GOD am I sick of hearing about it" thing illustrated for me until I was in my early 20s and working in restaurants w/surly cooks. (I, too, was a surly cook, a job I really miss sometimes.) Obviously that's not quite the position you're staking here, but it's a prevalent attitude that comes into how we address the Beatles these days, especially on places like this board. And I don't know, there's probably something wrong with me on that level--I still get excited about the Beatles or Hendrix or whatever institutions I care enough about, in part maybe because it's amazing to me that artistically they haven't shrunk but grown, with "influence" having fuckall to do with it. Maybe that's because I didn't really start hearing them a lot till I was 12 and got into them in a big way. I don't think I'm hearing status, I think I'm hearing music. Maybe I'm kidding myself, but if I am, I prefer it, because I'm enjoying myself a lot more this way.

I wonder whether the time has now come to write about the Beatles on CoM.

Anthology 1 - Well, my favourite bit here is the Morecambe and Wise Show guest appearance. Interesting historically but you could hardly ever replay it for pleasure (5)
Anthology 2 - please can we get rid of the filler backing tracks and put on "Carnival Of Light" please? Otherwise, pretty damn faultless; the multiple takes of "Strawberry Fields" are particularly spellbinding (9)
Anthology 3 - "What's The New Mary Jane" if that's the sort of thing you dig; Macca does "Come And Get It"; Harrison does "Guitar Gently Weeps" solo and medievally (with an ear cocked to Richard Thompson?) and it destroys me. Therefore (9).

Oh, and don't forget Live At The Hollywood Bowl, a number one album in '77, appropriately; the screams become feedback and drown the band out/turn them into the Jesus & Mary Chain (9).

stuff like yesterday makes me ask the following q: Paul McC= why?!

they couldn't do strings from what I've heard so far.

I think "Tomorrow Never Knows" is overrated.

I hope not ameteurist.

They loom large in his legend.