In 1976, I was given the Beatles 1967-70, the “Beatles Blue” double album for Christmas. I think it was the most important Christmas gift I ever received.
I felt like I was a Beatles fan pretty much all my life, from the time I heard “She Loves You”, the only Beatles record we had growing up, and generally discovered the Beatles in mass media. But, by the time I got the Blue album, I think I knew no more than 10 Beatles songs. So double blue was the largest single dose of musical greatness I had ever experienced. I’m not sure anything has ever topped it.
By the way, the year before I received this record, I was given a book about the Beatles that was lavishly illustrated and went through the career album by album. I read and re-read it and lived by it. So I knew a lot about the Beatles, but had little access to the music, certainly not the songs on this set. I had only heard Elton John’s version of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, for example. Did I know much besides “Here Come the Sun”, “Let it Be” and “Hey Jude”? It’s easy to take this record, and therefore the bulk of the Beatles career, which is to forget what original and compelling songwriters they were, almost unparalleled in pop music. And how I can’t live without John’s voice or Paul’s voice: I can’t choose; I won’t choose. And how extraordinary the arrangements and the production are, wonderfully underscoring how good a drummer Ringo actually was and how seamlessly the horns, strings, and “additional percussion” co-exist with the guitar-guitar-bass-drums combo.
This record was an excellent foundation for the music-consuming and novelty-seeking journey I was about to embark on, as I began to purchase records more aggressively, make and exchange mixtapes, and connected with more like-minded musical souls. We relished punk and new wave, Kate Bush, Roxy Music, Bowie, and Brian Eno, and that was all brilliant, but the Beatles were alway there for me, providing context for all that was new. Today, double blue sounded like my favourite record once again.
And I haven’t even discussed double red.
