1967-1970 (Blue Album) - Beatles (The) (CD 1993)

Here we have another compilation of some of the best work from the Beatles. This two-disc set is the companion of another collection that covers the Beatles from 1962-1966. This one reveals the band in it's shaggier days from 1967-1970, and contains a lot of songs that either rely heavily on orchestration or serpentine, heavy blues.

The Beatles, in my opinion, were nothing less than the greatest rock band of all time. I'm amazed at how good this music still sounds and the impact it has had on bands for the last 30 years or so. What we have here are songs from a period of time from 1967's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to 1970's Let it Be. If there's any complaint I have about this disc, it's that cramming three years worth of Beatles songs on two discs is a tough thing to do. Of course, plenty of good songs were left out of the collection.

On the whole, though, there are enough great tracks here to keep your ears busy for quite some time. Here's a list of the tracks:

Disc 1

1. Strawberry Fields Forever
2. Penny Lane
3. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
4. With A Little Help From My Friends
5. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
6. Day In The Life, A
7. All You Need Is Love
8. I Am The Walrus
9. Hello, Goodbye
10. Fool On The Hill, The
11. Magical Mystery Tour
12. Lady Madonna
13. Hey Jude
14. Revolution


Disc 2

1. Back In The U.S.S.R.
2. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
3. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
4. Get Back
5. Don't Let Me Down
6. Ballad Of John And Yoko, The
7. Old Brown Shoe
8. Here Comes The Sun
9. Come Together
10. Something
11. Octopus's Garden
12. Let It Be
13. Across The Universe
14. Long And Winding Road, The

As you can see, we've got a bunch of well-known tracks here that helped establish the Beatles as a truly creative and inventive band. While I love earlier stuff from the Beatles, the songs here are often light-years ahead of the songs the band recorded when it was younger. Take, for example, "Strawberry Fields Forever," which is one of the most incredible songs ever recorded. You've got all sorts of studio trickery there as well as a lot of orchestration.

On that tune, by the way, the first half is fairly simple while the second is just dripping with orchestration. Those two halves came from different recording sessions, and the latter half was recorded at a faster tempo. The solution? Slow that part of the song down so it would "sync up" with the first half. The effect is incredible -- the vocals just kind of drag, adding to the dream-like atmosphere created by the tune. Amazing!

Another thing worth noting is that a lot of these tunes fall into a couple of categories -- those with orchestration, and those like "Come Together" and "Get Back" that are heavily blues-based. It's all great stuff, but those categories hold up pretty well throughout the disc. Of course, you've got the hard-driving "Revolution" and "Back in the U.S.S.R." (a fantastic Beach Boys parody) tossed in here for good measure. However, I enjoy the extensive use of blues and orchestration on the disc .

All in all, one listen to this will remind one of why the Beatles were so huge then and remain popular today. Musically, it doesn't get much better than this.