Ultimate Record Collection: The Beatles, 1965-1970
As we join the Beatles in the latest Ultimate Record Collection, it is the start of 1965, and Beatlemania is cresting. You can tell because there are still seemingly dozens of new singles, Eps, US album variations, and key personal appearances appearing in our definitive timeline. On the covers of their records they appear under umbrellas, joining hands, and on stage. But which is the truest representation of the group?
Perhaps it’s the tired eyes of the 1964 Beatles For Sale group, on an EP which appears at the start of the year which tells the truest story. The narrative of the first part of this publication was how the group’s releases took them to the top. In this second part, it’s all about maintaining their musical peak while managing a retreat from the spotlight and reclaim ownership of their own lives. Except, as the poet Philip Larkin observed once they were at the top, The Beatles “could not get down.”
They couldn’t completely escape, but the group could certainly evolve. By the time they decided to quit touring – unbelievably not until August 1966 – their studio work was already audacious in its innovations. As you can read in the new writing here about every album – in fact, every track – the music which followed reflected the consequences of that decision. It brought us the glorious Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and the profoundly original self-titled White Album. On the other, it slowed their output down, and served to remind them how much they relished playing live – they just needed to find a new way to do it.
Sometimes, even The Beatles’ hands were forced. As they looked forward to a period of relative relaxation in the wake of Sgt Pepper, they were still committed to provide new music for not one, but two film projects which would extend some of the Pepper magic. Even if it spread them thin, both Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine showed what may be the group’s absolutely unique ability: to write outstanding new music against the most alarming of deadlines.
As the magazine closes, the Beatles are evolving as individuals to the point where the group can no longer comfortably contain them. It’s a testament to their later-period recordings that they can still summon breathtaking originality even when there’s only two of them in the room – as with “The Ballad Of John And Yoko” – or, as with their final Christmas recordings – when there are none at all.
The last release we cover here is a compilation of their Fanclub-only singles, under the punning title of From Then To You. It’s a reminder that even with Brian Epstein dead, and the group disbanded, the music, and their spontaneous, joyful outlook would live on.
Enjoy the magazine.
