"Experimental" albums

[darkhorse]

What should we think about the albums that The Beatles released as solo artist NOT to be chart hits, but pieces of experimentation or... weird art? I recently got the "Wonderwall Music" CD as a Xmas gift (thanks, mum!) and I loved it. I know it wasn't representative of George's work, but the soundtrack music is lovely, and there are some tracks ("Ski-ing", "In The Park", "Wonderwall To Be Here", etc.) that are really worth hearing. Of course, it's hard to listen to it if you haven't watched the film, like me. A little help comes when you read some prior reviews about an album like that (like the one I found on the beathoven.com site, with whom I have no commercial relations at all! http://www.beatlelinks.net/ubb/smilies/images/icons/smile.gif)

But there are some people who still can't accept that as "standard" Beatle work. What must I think of albums that I haven't bought, like John & Yoko's "Two Virgins", "Life With Lions" or "Wedding Album", or even Paul's "Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest" or "Liverpool's Sound Collage". What about George's "Electronic Sounds". Some people even consider Ringo's "Sentimental Journey" and "Beacoups Of Blues" (I only have the latter) as experimental works!

Are all of them worth getting? Or are they just plain garbage? Please tell me, tell me, tell me the answer.


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"All the world is birthday cake,
so take a piece, but not too much"

[jtal909]

I don't know about the others, but I bought Two Virgins back in the day. I don't believe I got through the whole album once.

[This message has been edited by jtal909 (edited January 22, 2001 at 06:27 PM).]

[Tim]

Also odd and unlistenable:the two Zapple albums(Life With The Lions and Electronic Sounds).
The part of LWTL that freaks one out is the segment Baby's Heartbeat followed by Two Minutes Silence.
btw- http://www.beathoven.com is a great site(no fiscal interest,but Ian <webmaster> is a very good friend of mine http://www.beatlelinks.net/ubb/smilies/images/icons/smile.gif )


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Tim
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The Church Beatle will now pass among you,and no foreign coins please.

Caesar of TimBrent.net (http://www.timbrent.net)

[Harbidge]

I've got a copy of Life With The Lions, and it's just strange. I'm sure some people might have liked it, but the most un-nerving one is the baby's heart beat.

I've never listened to any of it apart from that.

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[StuSutcliffe]

I have all of the Lennon and all of the MCCartney "experimental" albums. I agree that the Lennon ones are practically unlistenable. While I do admire the experimentation aspects, they become rather grating on the nerves after a couple of minutes.

The McCartney albums on the other hand I've been pleasantly surprised by. The first two "ambient" albums are great!! While they aren't exactly tunes that you can hum ordance to, I'll often put those CD's on when I'm lying in bed or reading a book. They are very relaxing without ever becoming boring. Paul's latest, "Liverpool Sound Collage", is constructed in much the same way as the first two, but is a little too grating for my tastes. It is still very interesting to listen to (especially picking out tidbits from each of the Beatles), but the overall sound is more distorted than his other ambient albums. I'm sure that's what gives it more of an "alternative" edge but its not a relaxing listen like the other two.

What albums to buy are, of course, dependent on your individual tastes. My personal recommendations would be to definitely get "Rushes" and "Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest". Depending on your taste or your fanaticism for owning everything with the four Beatles together on it, I could also recommend "Liverpool Sound Collage". The Lennon ones I would only get if you are a completist,do heavy amounts of drugs, or have lots of excess money at your disposal. (Of course if you're doing drugs, you probably don't have lots of excess money left).

As for "Electronic Music" I've unfortunately never been able to hear it. "Sentimental Journey" is interesting because the musicians and arrangers he chose for the album are phenomenal, but his singing is horrible. I am a huge fan of Ringo as a solo artist, but his voice (at least at that time) was not well suited for those standards.

[bearkat77]

Expermenting with their music is what the Beatles did every time they entered the studio to record something. As far as solo efforts go, I do have some of the above mentioned LPs. Those being: Unfinished Music No. 1, Electronic Sounds, Sentimental Journey and Beaucoups Of Blues.
Out of these, I like Beaucoups Of Blues best. Ringo's voice is almost perfect for these songs. The others leave a lot to be desired.
In Paul's case, I don't have any of his "expermental" albums, but I do have a video of his "Standing Stone" oratio. It is pretty good, but really not the music I'm accustomed to hearing from him.

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[Tim]

At least the two Ringo LPs(I don't count them as experimental much as milking a then current trend) are listenable,unlike Two Virigns and Electronic Sounds(for which GH was sued as he appearantly silvered out someone's name who plkayed most of the Moog on it).


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Tim
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The Church Beatle will now pass among you,and no foreign coins please.

Caesar of TimBrent.net (http://www.timbrent.net)

[darkhorse]

I don't think Ringo's album are experimental either. I just said some people do. I have "Beacoups Of Blues" and I think it is a perfectly listenable album. I just wanted to know what is inside John and Paul's albums. And how seriously must we take them against their *serious* (pop) work. P.S.: I didn't know George was sued for "Electronic Sounds". The poor guy has spent a lot of time in court. http://www.beatlelinks.net/ubb/smilies/images/icons/wink.gif

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"All the world is birthday cake,
so take a piece, but not too much"

[jtal909]

I have listened to Standing Stone a few times as background music.

[StuSutcliffe]

I would definitely rate the Fireman albums above Standing Stone. It undoubtedly took a lot more work to create Standing Stone, but its just a matter of personal taste. I think maybe my problem is I'm comparing the works to their relative genres. Standing Stone doesn't hold up side by side with Mozart and Vivaldi, while I don't have any real basis in my own mind to compare the other records to. I'm totally aware that its a completely unfair basis for comparison, but thats a testament to how great McCartney is that he merits such prejudicies from me.

[darkhorse]

OK. Paul's albums are OK if you use them as background music. George's "Electronic Sound" is unlistenable. John & Yoko's "Unfinished Music" trilogy is a piece of garbage. Thank you for your advices and reviews.

The strange thing is that, here in Chile, albums like, for instance John's "Mind Games" or "Walls And Bridges" or George's "Cloud Nine" or "33 1/3" are very hard to find. But those weird sound compilations are always there for you to buy them.

But I don't have a big quantity of money, and I'm not into drugs. So I won't buy them. And I'll ask myself later WHERE am I going to get those other albums ("standard pop" albums), because it's hard for me. (You know I'm 18, so I don't actually EARN money) http://www.beatlelinks.net/ubb/smilies/images/icons/frown.gif


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"All the world is birthday cake,
so take a piece, but not too much"

[jtal909]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Tahoma, Arial, Sans-Serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by darkhorse:
But those weird sound compilations are always there for you to buy them.
[/B]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

that's because nobody is buying them

[darkhorse]

Music buyers are smarter than what you may think, aren't they?

But why do those albums receive a delicate treatment (remastering, reissuing, excellent CD packaging bonus tracks, etc) when the traditional albums are not always available, and really DO need some artwork and restoring? (And I'm now talking about The Beatles catalogue, which is poorly packaged and desperately needs some remastering or remixing work!)

[jtal909]

Weren't they all remastered/mixed when they came out on cd?

[darkhorse]

Yes, but technology has improved. Can you note the differences between those CDs and the "Yellow Submarine Songtrack" and "1" versions? They all sound brighter! Plus, the packaging of the actual CDs is very poor. That's my complaint: they do the best remastering, remixing and packaging work with the worst albums, and the best are sold out with two-page booklets that say nothing inside them.

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"All the world is birthday cake,
so take a piece, but not too much"

[SleepyHead]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Tahoma, Arial, Sans-Serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Tim:
Also odd and unlistenable:the two Zapple albums(Life With The Lions and Electronic Sounds).
The part of LWTL that freaks one out is the segment Baby's Heartbeat followed by Two Minutes Silence.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Doesn't freak one out if one's actually lost a child... kinda makes me wish we had recorded ours...

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http://images.honesty.com/cgi-bin/honesty-image/13400140/bearkat77banner.jpg] (http://bearkat77.www9.50megs.com)
Bearkat77's Tribute to John Lennon (http://bearkatjl.50megs.com)

[Tim]

Sleepy,
I hadn't thought of that part of it, never having been a parent or anything like that.


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Tim
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http://members.tripod.co.uk/seltaeb/fmty.jpg

[joe]

we got the point with #9 was 2 virgins necessary?

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[jens]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Tahoma, Arial, Sans-Serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by darkhorse:
Plus, the packaging of the actual CDs is very poor. That's my complaint: they do the best remastering, remixing and packaging work with the worst albums, and the best are sold out with two-page booklets that say nothing inside them.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's true! I hate the Rubber Soul booklet (really UGLY photographs)! I also hate the Abbey Road, the Let It Be, the MMT and the Revolver booklet... :)
The Magical Mystery Tour-LP was originally released with a "24-page full color picture book". Where is this book when you buy the CD?!
EMI didn't do a good job at all when they released the CD's!

[Tim]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Tahoma, Arial, Sans-Serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by jens:
That's true! I hate the Rubber Soul booklet (really UGLY photographs)! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The RS booklet pics were originally on the back of the vinyl LP sleeve.



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Tim
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http://members.tripod.co.uk/seltaeb/fmty.jpg

[darkhorse]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Tahoma, Arial, Sans-Serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by joe:
we got the point with #9 was 2 virgins necessary?
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That was the whole point about me opening this topic. Were those albums NECESSARY at all? http://www.beatlelinks.net/ubb/smilies/images/icons/confused.gif


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"It's all within yourself
No-one else can make you change."

[jtal909]

Not to the general public they weren't.

[darkhorse]

To whom, then?

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"It's all within yourself
No-one else can make you change."

[joe]

all of ringo's albums were experimental.although i have most of his albums, they wouldn't be on top of my list to buy as cd's.

sorry ringo

favorite ringo line: i've got blisters on me fingers!

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[darkhorse]

He did some good work. He wrote some good songs. His work is pretty reccomendable. Basically, I don't agree with you (sorry). http://www.beatlelinks.net/ubb/smilies/images/icons/smile.gif

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"The future still looks good..."

[jtal909]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Tahoma, Arial, Sans-Serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by joe:
all of ringo's albums were experimental.although i have most of his albums, they wouldn't be on top of my list to buy as cd's.

sorry ringo

that's kind of funny...

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[joe]

don't pick on ringo,rather have pete best?
each contributed in their own way the mystic that was the beatles.

their gonna make a big star out of me.

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[StuSutcliffe]

I'd actually go as far as to say that a lot of Ringo's solo works are on par with the others' post-Beatle outputs. Its completely unfair to refer to them as being "experimental". Ringo has had many of the best writers and musicians in the business working on his solo albums (John, Paul, George, Elton John, the Band, Randy Newman, Brian Wilson, etc. etc.) and the quality shows. Just because the general record buying public seems to have forgotten that Ringo was a best selling solo artist in the 70's and has virtually ignored some of his excellent recent work, doesn't mean that he is any less legitimate of a singer, songwriter, or musician.

[bearkat77]

Couldn't have said it better myself, Stu.

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Bearkat77's Beatlemaniac Page (http://bearkat77.www9.50megs.com)

[jtal909]

....it was a joke. We dig Ringo!

[mindgames]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Tahoma, Arial, Sans-Serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by darkhorse:
That was the whole point about me opening this topic. Were those albums NECESSARY at all? http://www.beatlelinks.net/ubb/smilies/images/icons/confused.gif


<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

They were artistically ambitous. "Rubber Soul" and "Revolver" were also "experimental" in their own way. It's just the ones we are talking about didn't catch on in the mainstream.



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This week, the Beatles' greatest hits album, "1", is at number thirteen on the USA album charts.

[joe]

was any of yoko's not experi-mental?
ringo, it was only a joko,o no!

o my my

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[darkhorse]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Tahoma, Arial, Sans-Serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by StuSutcliffe:
I'd actually go as far as to say that a lot of Ringo's solo works are on par with the others' post-Beatle outputs. Its completely unfair to refer to them as being "experimental<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

It's good we can agree, because I've never said that. I only mentioned "Beacoups Of Blues" and "Sentimental Journey" as "experimental" albums because even Ringo himself thought about them as being experimental. He called his sixth studio album "Ringo The 4th", counting out the first two above mentioned, as they were out of the style he was trying to put out on record, and they were no more than experiments... Things that weren't intended to sell well, but to do new things in the studio. And about his singing/songwriting/drumming, we both have the very same opinion... http://www.beatlelinks.net/ubb/smilies/images/icons/smile.gif



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"Win or lose it, into the soul
Love is long, love is long"

[Ian Iachimoe]

Has anyone noticed that Paul samples "The Broadcast" from Back To The Egg, on Straw berries Oceans Ships Forest ?

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In Love all of life's contradictions dissolve and disappear