Were the Beatles better before or after Sgt. Pepper?

Let me clarify that question, okay?

I've read some comments from various
rock critics (Tim Riley for one) that
the Beatles reached their absolute
peak as a rock group when they made
Revolver in 1966. Jimmy Guterman, who
wrote a book called "The Best Rock 'n'
Roll Records of All Time" in 1992, claimed
that Sgt. Pepper was "a pretentious mess
and a bad influence on rock and roll in
general, although I do enjoy its audacity
and its inside jokes.". The same author
said that Please Please Me was the Beatles'
best album, ranked at number #13 in a list
of 100 rock albums (Guterman's number #1
pick was Rod Stewart's Every Picture Tells
a Story). Sorry to digress. I've also read
somewhere that John Lennon himself claimed that
the Beatles were at their very best in Hamburg
and at the Cavern before Brian Epstein cleaned
them up a bit. As for me, I generally like
everything the moptops recorded, give or take
a few songs. Here's my top ten fave Beatle
albums.

[1] Revolver
[2] Rubber Soul
[3] Help!
[4] The Beatles(White Album)
[5] Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
[6] Abbey Road
[7] A Hard Day's Night
[8] With the Beatles
[9] Beatles for Sale
[10] Yellow Submarine (my first Beatle album,
when I was only 7y/o!)

I love the Past Masters CDs, of course. The
other albums are good, too.

So, now I'd like to know if any of you Beatle
fans out there think they were better before
or after Sgt. Pepper, or that you don't care
either way? Thoughts? Opinions? Anyone?

I like them before and after. I have gotten a little tired of Sgt. Pepper itself, though. I think that Abbey Road is a superior record, and I think that Rubber Soul is pure genius.

Yeah, I agree. Rubber Soul is a work of
genius. Three of the songs are among my
absolute favorites; Nowhere Man, Norwegian
Wood and In My Life. Three of Lennon's best.
Abbey Road is the slickest sounding of all
the albums, it's reportedly George Martin's
favorite. Two of George Harrison's best
songs, Somewhere and Here Comes the Sun, are
on it. As for Sgt. Pepper, it's an excellent
album as opposed to a great one. It's not the
best "concept album", however. Not that crazy
about the idea of a whole album being a so-called
concept. Sounds too much like a pre-packaged
corperate "product" to me. But I love Pepper,
still.

Well I will try to explain,hope to be clear enough.
Every Beatles 'period' it's an important 'period',
none period can't exist without the others.
For example 'Rubber Soul' can't exist without
'Beatles for sale' and 'Revolver' withoout 'Rubber soul'.
I mean that all 'periods' (and albums by the way)are in a perfect line of a perfect evolution of a 'Fab' band. [img]graemlins/smile2.gif[/img]

[size="1"][ May 27, 2003, 01:58 AM: Message Edited By: chaitanya ][/size]

I love the Beatles all through 1960-1970, well when Ringo first joined that is in 1962 to 1970. I love it all, although I do agree Sgt. Pepper is at their greatest peak, along with Revolver. Rubber Soul is my favorite album though. But I'd say those three are my top favorites. I love Please Please Me to Abbey Road/Let It Be. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] * [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] *
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[img]graemlins/flower1.gif[/img]

Originally Posted By ghfan1965:
I like them before and after. I have gotten a little tired of Sgt. Pepper itself, though. I think that Abbey Road is a superior record, and I think that Rubber Soul is pure genius.

<font size="2" face="Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif">Abbey Road is the best! I was just listening to it.

Guess that's very true. Every album does
illustrate a musical evolution of sorts.
Revolver was definately designed to top
Rubber Soul. One could say that Pepper
was sorta made to top everything that
the Beatles recorded before. It was a
dramatic break from what they had done
before it. That includes the image, too.
The Beatles posing on the Pepper cover
certainly looked differant then the
innocent moptops they had been (represented
by the wax statues standing nearby). But
you're right that every Beatle album was a
progression their musical growth.

I like them before and after as well. I like them best right in the middle actually, between '65-'67. My fav. album is definately Revolver but i also love the later stuff off the White Album and Abbey Road. Sgt. Pepper used to be my fav. album but it's dropped down to third or something. I'll always have a special place for Pepper though cuz that's what really got me hooked on the beatles. When I was about 12 I really listened to it for the first time and I loved it!

I can't really say that the Beatles were ever at their peak. By that I mean, they were constantly growing and setting new standards for themselves and others. Sure, at times they faltered, but everyone does, at some point or another. I think they rocked their hardest in the early years and looked deeply into their souls in their later years. At different times, different parts of their careers appeal to me. Would they have ever reached their peak? My guess is yes, but I don't know when that would be.

I'd say they were better after Sgt. Pepper, but I don't see it as any "point" that before it music was better of worse. Of course it changed lot, but still.

I love the Beatles always, but have hard time choosing a before & after, the before songs were new, exciting and fresh, all my favorite Beatle songs are on both ends of the spectrum, I will say this, my favorite albums are in this order "Rubber Soul", "Revolver", "Abbey Road", but they do not necessarily contain all my favorite songs by the Beatles [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

I like them both before and after, but I think my favorite Beatles songs came around the time of Rubber Soul and after... I'm not as big a fan of the early stuff as I am the later - the early stuff sounds more similar than the later songs do. What I mean is, the later songs are very much different from one song to the next, whereas the earlier stuff is more just the three minute pop song format.

I think the Beatles really came into their own after they stopped touring... When they started doing the music they couldn't reproduce live...

I've never been able to rank their albums and say "oh, this one is my favorite." I love them all, and at different times I get in the mood to listen to different albums. What makes the Beatles so special is that they connect with their fans on different levels. What may be the best to one person may be not so great to another.

I like best their job after Sgt.Pepper (which is not the big deal, at least to me) but their early years were good too.

They just were differents before and after that album.

Sgt Pepper was a definate departure, but I don't think it's necessarily the best, I'm not the biggest fan of it anyway. Rubber Soul is my absolute favourite album and it comes before the supposed monumental Pepper. Then again I also love the White Album, so I'll just have to be a fence sitter and say that the Beatles remained strnf throughout their entire recording career!

I think Sgt. Pepper was kind of the peak of grandiose, ornate music that they could make like with all the effects and production on it. Before, they were building up to that point of Sgt. Pepper and afterwards they somewhat went back to the simpler music. So, in my opinion, they were good before and after Sgt. Pepper, although I don't listen to Pepper that much anymore. My favorite albums would have to be Revolver and Abbey Road, one album before and the other way after Sgt. Pepper.

[size="1"][ May 27, 2003, 03:12 PM: Message Edited By: Hari Krishna ][/size]

I agree with the statement that they never really reached their peak, because they were always reinventing their sound. That is what made them such a great band.

I really prefer the period before Sgt. Pepper, but I don't think any album could be regarded as the Beatles' "peak." They were always reinventing themselves, and their "best work" is all a matter of personal taste.

To me, the Rubber Soul & Revolver tunes hold up much better individually than the Sgt. Pepper ones, and everything after Sgt. Pepper feels a bit disjointed. But others might say the White Album or Abbey Road blow the earlier albums away. [img]graemlins/shakehead3.gif[/img]

I think they really improved during the movie
A Hard Days Night there music really improved and Songwriting too. I love all there Albums starting with the Music of A Hard Days Night up until Abbey Road !!! I not really keen on the Please Please Me album or the With The Beatles its just ok but they really improved in 1964 during Beatlemania!!!

Before.