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The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl
  • Group name: the Beatles
  • Recording year: 1964, 1965
  • Release year: 1977
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Capitol Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics:
    • Scratched into side one of LP: 5 MAS – 1 – 11638 – G8XX#4
    • Scratched into side two of LP: 5 MAS – 2 – 11638 – G8#3ML
  • Buy it on Amazon: $96.00

The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I doubt that I’ve ever heard any of these recordings before, and the overwhelming majority of my Beatles experience is with their studio records.

Here are previous Beatles records that I’ve reviewed:

What I expected

Mid 1960s Beatles playing songs from their early and mid 1960s repertoire, with a lot of screaming fans.

What it was actually like

This was an incredibly fun listen, especially having heard so much about what Beatles concerts were like after they became famous – mainly the screaming. And yes, the record opened with screaming fans, and the screaming continued all the way through, and closed with screaming as well.

A lot of work was done to make it listenable, however, so although the audio quality was basically passable, I think it’s fair to assess that the screaming was more an enhancement – to convey the mood of the shows – than a detractor, and the extreme energy of the performance was palpable throughout. That said, I can totally understand why the Beatles wanted to stop touring after 1966.

Interestingly, so much time passed between when these songs were recorded in 1964 and 1965 and when the record was released in 1977 that the Beatles not only had time to mature musically into their middle- and late-eras, but they also were able to break up, become mired in legal squabbles and then reconcile somewhat. As for the screaming girl fans, assuming they were teenagers when attending these concerts (which would have made them roughly the same cohort as my parents), by 1977 many or most of them would have considered the Beatles to be hopelessly lame.

All the songs were quite consistently good, but I would probably consider my favorites to have been Twist and Shout and Help!. Besides more songs, the only thing that this record needed was video.

Grade

5/5: love it

Tug of War by Paul McCartney (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Tug of War
  • Artist name: Paul McCartney
  • Year: 1982
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics:
    • Scratched into side 1 of LP: PUSHING + PULLING SG AL 37462-1BA G G10
    • Scratched into side 2 of LP: PUSHING + PULLING SG BL 37462-1AE G
  • Buy it on Amazon: $37.99

Tug of War by Paul McCartney

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never heard this record, but I’ve reviewed a bunch of post-Beatles Faul McCartney records, and have not been impressed.

What I expected

Faul’s granny shit, perhaps updated to a 1980s new wave sound.

What it was actually like

There were not any good songs on this record, but the most interesting was The Pound Is Sinking. It was a tiny bit Oompa Loompa, and also a tiny bit rocksteady. I was not sure how to classify it, but I think I would listen to it again.

Another slightly Oompa Loompa song was Ballroom Dancing, which had a good tempo, but I hated the horns – and was that a clarinet? Get It was the most Oompa Loompa song, and the one that fit most acoustically into what Lennon would have described as Faul’s Granny shit.

And on the subject of Lennon, Here Today was a sad song about his death. It was not good musically – I especially did not like the violins – but it was the closest to what I would have expected McCartney to have written towards the end of the Beatles era.

What’s That You’re Doing? and Ebony and Ivory, both of which McCartney recorded with Stevie Wonder, were the two worst songs on the record. The former had a kind of techno-funk sound that anticipated hip hop (though hip hop already had existed by the early 1980s for a while), and the latter was incredibly stupid and would have been better as just elevator music with no lyrics. I was not sure if I had ever heard it before or if I’d just heard of it, but it was so forgettable that if I were to hear it again in an hour, I probably wouldn’t recognize it.

Some of these songs, by the way, sounded like they had autotuned vocals, even though I did not think that was a thing until the late 1990s, and Wanderlust was an example.

The title track Tug of War was completely devoid of anything interesting, but also not particularly bad, either, had a very produced sound, and went from acoustic folk rock to a much harder rock sound in the middle. I guess it sounded kind of McCartneyesque.

Be What You See also changed sounds in the middle, opening like an Enya song, then turning into some kind of rock-disco crap.

Take It Away was much more new wave and terribly reggae-influenced. Somebody Who Cares was soft rock, with flute.

Grade

2/5: bad, but I was able to listen to the whole thing

McCartney by Paul McCartney (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: McCartney
  • Artist name: Paul McCartney
  • Year: 1970
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Apple Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics:
    • Hole drilled through top right of album
    • Handwritten sticker on top right of album with radio cuts
    • Handwritten sticker on bottom left with M for classification
    • Scratched into side one of LP: “STAO-1-3363 214 LH/RL”
    • Scratched into side two of LP: “STAO-2-3363 213 LH”
  • Buy it on Amazon: $9.98

McCartney by Paul McCartney

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never listened to this record, but I have reviewed three by Wings, and did not like any of them.

What I expected

Faul’s granny shit.

What it was actually like

The first track, called The Lovely Linda, was all of 43 seconds long, and really seemed like just the idea for a song, rather than a song itself. To me, that was a microcosm for this whole record, which would have been written and recorded at a time when the Beatles were still together and when Faul could have gotten any song he wanted onto one of the group’s records, provided that it was good enough.

Much of this material, though, just would not have been good enough, and I suppose that, as much as the Beatles breakup, was the reason for it to have ended up on McCartney.

Teddy Boy was probably the worst song, and one that I could not imagine Lennon having been willing to co-write and -record. Its backing vocals were especially awful, but it was also just really bland as a folk rock song.

Kreen-Akrore also was essentially just some rubbish noise, and Singalong Junk was instrumental filler.

Momma Miss America, on the other hand, was also instrumental, but I considered it to have been the best song on record, with a great bass line. Most importantly, it was an interesting and bluesy song, and it might have made an awesome part of a great Beatles song.

Valentine Day had a pretty good electric guitar opening, and Oo You had pretty decent country rock or hard rock riff.

Hot as Sun and Glasses, which may actually have been one song, had one of those Caribbean sounds to it that I do not understand.

Junk was the most old timey song – but only until Man We Was Lonely, which was old timey and also Oompa Loompa: Faul’s granny shit to the max.

I actually recognized Maybe I’m Amazed, and considered it to have been closest to the Beatles’ quality and style, but I would probably have hated it as a Beatles song – unless it had been reworked under the influence of Lennon (and maybe even Harrison) and turned into something awesome.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

Rock ‘n’ Roll Music by the Beatles (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Rock ‘n’ Roll Music
  • Group name: the Beatles
  • Year: 1976
  • Number of discs: two
  • Label: Capitol Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics:
    • Hole drilled through top right of album
    • “SKBO – 1 – 11537 – F9 #5” scratched into side 1 of LP
    • “SKBO – 2 – 11537 – F9” scratched into side 2 of LP
    • “SKBO – 3 – 11537 – F2” scratched into side 3 of LP
    • “SKBO – 4 – 11537 – F9 #6” scratched into side 4 of LP
  • Buy it on Amazon: $49.95

Rock 'n' Roll Music by the Beatles

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’m familiar with all of these songs because they’re all previously released Beatles songs, but I’ve never known about the existence of this compilation. Nor would it have occurred to me to group these songs together as a “Rock ‘n’ Roll” compilation.

Here are previous Beatles records that I’ve reviewed:

What I expected

28 Beatles rock ‘n’ roll songs.

What it was actually like

I had a huge amount of fun listening to this. I’m not normally a big fan of compilations, especially when it’s a group that made great records and I can just listen to each of them according to what I want, but this compilation was very solid.

Side 1

Best: Twist and Shout

This recording is legendary, and it’s no accident that it got used in a legendary movie scene (for my generation, at least).

Honorable mention: I Saw Her Standing There, because it’s the first song on the first Beatles record, so I listen to it more than almost any other, and I always want to remark that Paul is a dirty old man for coming onto a seventeen year old girl!

Worst: You Can’t Do That

This would be a lot of bands’ best song, but it’s one of the worst of the early Beatles era – just not a catchy tune at all, and while it sounds exactly like them, it completely lacks their energy and personality.

Side 2

Best: Rock and Roll Music

Did you know that Albert Einstein, a Tasmanian apple farmer, invented rock and roll music as a byproduct of putting bubbles into beer via splitting an atom? There was a whole documentary about it.

Honorable mention: Roll Over Beethoven

Worst: Slow Down

Side 3

Best: Drive My Car

Honorable mention: Revolution

Worst: I’m Down

I don’t think they were trying to do surf rock or mimic the Beach Boys, but that’s what the guitar sounds like, and it’s just never worked for me.

Side 4

Best: Taxman

It was strange hearing this in the middle of a record instead of at the beginning, and I expected Eleanor Rigby to follow.

Worst: Helter Skelter

This song is rubbish.

Honorable mention: Back in the U.S.S.R.

Grade

5/5: love it

Studio Sessions Volume One by The Beatles (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Studio Sessions Volume One
  • Group name: The Beatles
  • Year: 1973 (according to this source)
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Contra Band Music
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics:
    • Sticker on back: “William H. Butler III”[1]

Studio Sessions Volume One by The Beatles

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’m not familiar with this record at all, but like MORE get back session, it appears to be a bootleg that came from the collection of a certain William H. Butler III.

There’s a track list printed in the lower left corner, with the additional text: “UNRELEASED STUDIO SESSIONS.”

The first side of the LP says: “STUDIO SESSIONS / JOHN, PAUL, GEORGE & RINGO / A / VOLUME ONE.”

The SECOND side of the LP says: “STUDIO SESSIONS / JOHN, PAUL, GEORGE & RINGO / B / VOLUME ONE.”

What I expected

Based on the track list, my guess is that these recordings were done around 1962-1964 (though this source has them recorded in two sessions on 24 May 1963 and 24 June 1963). My hope is that they will be release quality material, but alternate versions that I have never heard before. Realistically, though, I assume they will be more like the MORE get back session, that were lower quality demos.

What it was actually like

Listening to this was really cool, particularly because I strongly prefer the early Beatles era to the late Beatles era (though middle Beatles still of course remains the best Beatles). The audio quality was not very good, but it wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t follow along. Piano seemed to be missing in a lot of places, as was a lot of the percussion, particularly the cymbals. Somehow the music just didn’t seem to pop like it does on their records.

The track list was also slightly out of order: Do You Want to Know a Secret was printed first on the album, but was actually the sixth track. And “Please Me” was a typo on the album (it should have been Please Please Me).

Several of the songs sounded relatively quite close to their release versions, like Till There Was You and From Me To You. Misery was also pretty close, but not as tight as I’m used to hearing. Do You Want to Know a Secret sounded well rehearsed.

You Really Got a Hold on Me, which is one of my favorite songs, was slower than the release version and more acoustic. Roll Over Beethoven was also more acoustic, but had the same tempo as the release – without the clapping.

Money was pretty rough, and I could almost hear the percussion and guitar work coming together with the vocals. Love Me Do was slow and the vocal harmonies had not come together yet. Please Please Me‘s guitar part was not there yet, and the harmonica needed a lot of work. Kansas City was a bit too slow.

Long Tall Sally was not on a canonical Beatles release, but it was part of Past Masters. The audio for the vocal part of this version was not good, which is such a shame because Paul’s voice is so crucial to the Beatles’ take on the song.

And I never even knew that the Beatles recorded a version of Hippy Hippy Shake is not a song that I knew, but here is a version that’s pretty similar to what I just heard.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

References

References
↑1 This is just like the sticker on the back of MORE get back session.