From Pepper to Let It Be, Blue Album charts Beatles' last years......

Although my taste in music tends to go more toward the classical end of the spectrum, I do like a little bit of everything. Oh, all right, there are genres, such as hip-hop and anything that smacks of disco), that I don't like, but I do like some pop/rock acts, including Elton John, Billy Joel, Carly Simon, many doo-wop and early rock 'n' roll groups (The Platters, Del Shannon, Richie Valens, Bobby Darin), and even folk/country singers like John Denver and Johnny Cash.

But if you asked me which rock group I listen to with any frequency, I'd answer very quickly and with heartfelt conviction: The Beatles.

Now, because I was only seven years old in 1970 -- the year the Fab Four went their separate ways -- and I was more interested in cartoons, toys, and avoiding girls, I barely knew they existed. My older sister Vicky, 13 years my senior, did have a collection of Beatles 45s and cassettes, but she'd listen to those with her girlfriends and cousins in her bedroom, an inner sanctum that I had no "security clearance" to enter, so I had very little exposure to the Lads from Liverpool before the famous breakup of one of rock's seminal groups.

It wasn't until I was in high school that I was caught up in my own private bit of Beatlemania. First, I saw the loopy animated feature film The Yellow Submarine on the then-independent station WCIX, then I was fascinated by the melody and lyrics of Hey Jude (CD 1, Track 13). Little by little I began to listen to more and more Beatles songs; by the end of my senior year at South Miami High I was familiar with most of their pre-Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band songs (I Want to Hold Your Hand, Michelle, She Loves You, We Can Work It Out and Yesterday.).

As was the case with The Beatles/1962-1966, I first heard the "blue" set The Beatles/1967-1970 when I was the Entertainment Editor of South Miami High's student newspaper, The Serpent's Tale. It was the spring of 1983, and we -- especially the graduating seniors -- were spending longer hours after school to get the last two monthly issues done, and on the two occasions when we had to work at the printer's -- late at night and surviving on pizza and coffee -- we listened to a lot of music to keep alert and motivated.

One of my closest friends on the staff, Francisco Calderon, knew that I was a Beatles fan but didn't own any of their records, so he took his cassettes of both the Red (1962-1966) and Blue (1967-1970) compilation albums. And so, as we worked on putting the newspaper's pages together and did the not-so-glamorous chores of cropping photos, proofreading, and pasting the copy onto the layouts, we'd be jamming to such songs as Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane,The Fool on the Hill, Hello,Goodbye, Something, Let It Be, and The Long and Winding Road.

The Beatles/1967-1970 is a 28-song collection of hits from the second half of The Beatles' eight-year reign as rock's top act. This is, obviously, the period where the Fab Four broke from their "innocent" bubble gum pop songs and experimented with different styles and edgier tones to their music and lyrics. Yes, there are still gentle "Paul" songs such as Penny Lane ( CD 1,Track 2), Let It Be (CD 2, Track 12), and The Long and Winding Road (CD 2, Track 14), but there are edgier and more irony laden "John" songs, including Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds (CD 1, Track 5), Revolution (CD 1, Track 14), and The Ballad of John and Yoko (CD 2, Track 6).

In addition, there are songs written for Ringo (With a Little Help From My Friends (CD 1,Track 4) and by George, including one of my favorite songs of all time, Something (CD 2, Track 10).

Although there are a few tracks I don't listen to much (see list below), this two-disc set is definitely one of my favorite non-classical albums. It appeals to both the music lover and sentimentalist in me; I love listening to the songs for their own sake, but I also like the memories of the times in which I first heard The Beatles/1967-1970...when my friends and I were still young, the world lay at our feet, and the future seemed full of hope and possibilities.....

Fool on the Hill
(Lennon-McCartney
Day after day alone on the hill,
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still,
But nobody wants to know him,
They can see that he’s just a fool,
And he never gives an answer,
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down,
And the eyes in his head,
See the world spinning around......
(c)1967 Northern Songs


Hey Jude
(Lennon-McCartney)
Hey Jude, don’t make it bad.
Take a sad song and make it better.
Remember to let her into your heart,
Then you can start to make it better.

Hey Jude, don’t be afraid.
You were made to go out and get her.
The minute you let her under your skin,
Then you begin to make it better....
(c)1968 Northern Songs

Something
(Harrison)
Something in the way she moves
Attracts me like no other lover
Something in the way she woos me

I don’t want to leave her now
You know I believe her now
(c) 1969 Northern Songs





The Beatles/1967-1970: Track List

* = Reviewer's Choice
CD 1:

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

CD 2:
1. Back in the USSR
2. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
3. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da*
4. Get Back*
5. Don't Let Me Down
6. The Ballad of John and Yoko*
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. The Long and Winding Road*