Rubber Revolver

When my interest in The Beatles was getting a big push last Summer with the Deconstructing The Beatles film series, I became painfully aware of how my vinyl collection was lacking for the band. I picked up a couple albums from Steve's collection, and that really ignited the spark that I needed to grab some more.

The last couple of years I've kind of taken up the position of only buying original pressings. However, lately I find that I'm relaxing that position a little bit, because for some records, who gives a fuck? There are some bands and albums where only an original pressing will do, but when I started thinking about picking up some vinyl for The Beatles, I found myself questioning if it really mattered. I'd heard that some of the newer vinyl pressings sound great, so I figured that I'd avoid the hunt and stress of finding a used copy in the condition that I'd want, and I'd just buy then new.

Rubber Soul is really where my appreciation for The Beatles starts to take off. I'm not sure what it is about this album, but they just seem to really push themselves forward with this record, and break away from the bubblegum smiley faced pop stars of their early years...got to be the drugs of the late 60's.

For me, Rubber Soul and Revolver go hand in hand, and when I first started getting into these albums, I couldn't decide which one I enjoyed more. It's still a tough call, but these days I tend to lean towards Revolver. The Beatles are really stepping up their game at this point.

Here in Portland, there is kind of a Thanksgiving tradition where some local musicians get together for a performance of Beatles songs. I'd been interested in going the past few years, but never committed to going. When my friend, Todd, told me that this was the 15th anniversary of them doing this Beatles show, and they were going to do the complete Revolver album, suddenly I was really interested in going...and the more I thought about it, the more excited I got about the prospect of checking out this show. Todd and I ended up going, and even with my high expectations, I was still blown away by how much fun this Beatles Night was. I'm going to have to make this an annual tradition.

Feels good to finally have a couple of quality Beatles records in the collection.