I noticed lots of people are mentioning the Beatles. If anyone's interested in taking their interest to the next level, consider "The Beatles: Anthology".
There are 3 volumes, each containing 2 CDs and tons of text and pictures. My own favorite is Volume 2. It was around '65 when John Lennon noticed that they were making lots of 'royalty pennies' as that wonderful Canuck says. Legend has it that he turned to Paul McCartney and said, "Right! Let's write a *swimming pool* then!" Sure, they knew how to write fun songs. So did Herman's Hermits. By 1965, these guys had the skiffle sound buttoned down entirely. Most bands would have hammered it to death, then been abandoned for "lack of growth". To me, the skiffle sound is not what makes the Beatles. It's about change. It's about texture. After they wrote tons of albums, they started adding new ingredients. John wrote "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" as a freakin' waltz. If you listen to the early albums in sequence, there's no precident either for "Yesterday". It completely came out of left field. (The Anthology Video interview about "Yesterday" fleshes this out quite a bit.) Like Joni's "Harlem In Havana", it sprang up by immaculate conception on its own, fully realized. If you marvel at "Strawberry Fields, Forever", you need to buy Anthology, Volume 2. You *need* it. George Martin did something (ha!) really amazing when he revealed for us, the demo, then successive layers, adding to our appreciation of the track without ever "deconstructing" it too far. While it's forever associated with 1967, the summer of love, Strawberry Fields was recorded (according to the liner notes of "The Beatles: Anthology, Volume 2") in November of 1966. It's a long way, and lots of musical growth, from "Chains" to "Strawberry Fields". Thank you, boys. You rock. Lama Standing firmly committed, on this election eve, to conventional wisdom :)
