Beatle LP Collection #2

Here's a Beatle album cover pop quiz: Which of the two albums below is titled Let It Be? The first album titled Introducing . . . The Beatles or second album titled Let It Be?




I'll give you a moment to decide . . . need a little help? . . . here's a hint, the correct album has the words Let It Be printed in white across the top . . .

That's right! It's the second album!! Very good!! Pretty easy, huh?

So you can probably imagine my surprise when the one person who got it wrong was the same person who sold me the album on eBay!

After winning the Let It Be album, I had to wait and wait for it to arrive all while the seller was giving me some line about not being able to get to the post office because her car was in the shop - now that's a likely story, isn't it?!

My suspicions were starting to rise . . .

When the package finally did arrive, I was more than put out when I pulled out not the Let It Be album that I had won, but an Introducing . . . The Beatles album instead!!

Hey, what gives???

(I actually wrote 'What gives?' in my email to the seller!)

The lady was pretty quick to respond to my polite yet stern email. Her exact words were, "I guess you can tell I don't know anything about music or albums. They all look alike to me."

They all look alike????? I don't fault her for being musically disinclined, but she can read, can't she? One album says Let It Be and the other says Introducing . . . The Beatles. How hard can it be?

Shesh!

To her credit, she let me keep the Introducing . . . album she sent by mistake. I later found out why - it's a counterfeit album that Vee-Jay records released in the fall of 1964. It was in the stores for only a few months.

One thing that made it such a rip-off was the fact that even though the record advertised stereophonic sound (the equivalent of HD surround sound of the 60's), it was produced in monophonic sound instead (the equivalent of something less than HD surround sound of the 60's).

Bad, Vee-Jay, bad!

Oh, well! Her loss - my gain! Now I have two additions to my Beatles LP collection!

National "Start A Random Collection" Day

You may remember when I celebrated National "Throw Out Your Random, Worthless Collection That Does Nothing But Clutter Your Office and Take Up Space" Day by tossing out my foreignly bottled Coke can collection because of nappy coke juice leaking out of the cans.

Ever since then I've been trying to figure out how I would replace the random collection void in my life. I was kinda hoping that Aunt B from NoCal would have by now given me her collection of vinyl Beatle records.

For some reason though, the phrase, "Don't hold your breath!" keeps coming to mind. So, I decided that I would build my own collection of Beatles LP's via Ebay - which requires far more effort and money than if you're favorite aunt-in-law would just give you her collection already!

I started with Something New (bottom left), which was stolen with permission from my dad's very short stack of LP's.


I then picked up Meet The Beatles (top left), Abbey Road (too right) and Magical Mystery Tour (bottom right) when I strolled past a LP shop near South Street in Philadelphia - which is a very cool pedestrian street if you're ever in that area, by the way.

My latest addition is the Help! album (top left) - which ranks as one of my favorites in the Beatle library.


Kelly noticed that it didn't seem right to have an empty spot next to the Help! album. Hmmmm, guess I'll have to buy something to put there!

Anyway, here's to random collections that nobody fully appreciates but yourself!

Tate-lemania!

I was floored by how floored some guy at the grocery store was that an 11-month old would be wearing a Beatles t-shirt (thanks to a really nice cousin in NoCal).

"Are you really Beatle fans?"

I gave him a look as if to say, "Uh . . . who isn't?"

He proceeded to talk about the Beatles like they were some obscure be-boop group from the 60's that no one had ever heard of.

"I was one of their biggest fans growing up. I even had tickets to see them in Toronto . . . but I didn't go because I got strep throat."

Strep throat, huh? You couldn't fight through strep throat to see the Beatles? Some fan you are!

I told him my aunt-in-law saw them at Candlestick with an air of authority as if I had actually been there myself. It had the intended affect.

"Wow! The Beatles in San Francisco?"

"Yep, 1966. It was great."

"Well, it's was sure nice talking to you."

"Anytime at all."

This video's for you, Aunt B!

(Update: I changed the video because I finally found one that was actually from the concert at Candlestick . . . still can't find Aunt B in the crowd shots, though.)

QOTW: A Song In My Head

Despite having so much in common, Kelly and I couldn't be more different when it comes to music.

A discussion we had today will give you a good idea what I mean: Kelly's first few albums she purchased after gaining musical consciousness were Spies Like Us (funny movie but stupid song - even if Sir Paul wrote it!), WHAM! and Julian Lennon. She would eventually go on to purchase her own pair of MC Hammer pants, so that makes her a fan even if she never bought one of his albums!



I recently gave Kelly's dad (who grew up listening to great music in the 60's & 70's) a hard time about totally dropping the ball in teaching his daughters appropriate music appreciation.

I, however, was brought into musical consciousness by the sounds of the Fab Four, The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix - those whom, I should say, have made a much more lasting impression on the musical landscape! My self-taught music appreciation progressed from there through each decade.



I still think the best music has already been written back in the 60's.

Here are my top picks from each decade.

1965 - Help! by The Beatles



1979 - My Sharona by The Knack (Racy lyrics but great guitar solo)



1987 - With or Without You by U2 (Pretty much tied with Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For)



1991 - Mysterious Ways by U2 (My all-time favorite Rock & Roll song!)



2000's - Zzzzzzz . . . (Oh pa-lease! I'm not even crazy about anything U2 has put out lately!)

OK, I'm sure you're all shaking your heads at my picks. Fine, then! Tell me where I'm wrong!
__________________________________________________

"Which decade has the best music?"

Total votes: 25

1980's: 9 votes, 36%

1970's: 8 votes, 32%

1960's: 5 votes, 20%

1990's: 2 votes, 8%

2000's: 1 vote, 4%

QOTW Results

My question this past week was prompted by a trip to our local Target.

While walking through the baby section I found my new favorite t-shirt for Tate.

It's a Beatles t-shirt for babies!! Ha!

I was also surprised to see t-shirts for The Rolling Stones - which got me thinking, "I wonder which t-shirts they sell more of: The Beatles or The Rolling Stones?"

Hence my question.

Quite frankly, I'm not too surprised The Beatles won my Question of the Week! I think they're much more indearing and their music was by far much more innovative.

To me, The Rolling Stones seem to have a sound they stuck with, albeit a good sound. What separated The Beatles was they practically had a new distinctive sound with each new album. For instance, compare Sgt. Pepper's to Help! or The White Album to Hard Day's Night.

And that's why Tate will be a big fan of theirs as well. He'll have a unique sound all his own as well! Plus, he'll just appreciate really good Rock N' Roll!

Here are the results from this week's Question of the Week:

"The Beatles or the Rolling Stones?"

Total: 15 votes

I've Got a Feeling (The Beatles): 10 votes, 66%

Start Me Up! (The Rolling Stones): 1 vote, 6%

Neither, they're both old!: 4 votes, 26%

(PS: For those of you who think The Beatles and The Rolling Stones are too old to matter and therefore don't know otherwise, I've Got a Feeling and Start Me Up! are songs by each group.)