hello Internet my name is Ayla Tesla Mabe here with Musora like a lot of people The
Beatles were the band that single-handedly inspired me to pick up the bass and the
guitar and become a songwriter and producer I've listened to and studied every era of
their mind-blowingly prolific seven years and seven months together as a band and I could go
on for hours with Beatles recommendations but I want to make the breadth of their work more
accessible and walk you through the four main eras of The Beatles thank you [Music]
it's been a hard day in the earliest era of The Beatles the rock and roll and R B influences
were clearly worn on their sleeves a lot of their earliest albums aimed to capture what
the band sounded like live and they clearly paid tribute to some of their American rock and roll
and Motown Heroes by covering songs by Chuck Berry the Marvelettes the donets the Miracles
and Barrett Strong all music editor Steve Martin earlwein once said of please please me the album
still sounds fresh serving as an effective encapsulation of the band's early influences
he remarked that the covers were impressive but the originals were astonishing and I honestly
think that this description sums up this whole first era perfectly the caliber of songwriting
even in the earliest stages of The Beatles from a bunch of young guys in their 20s is just absurd
and when I realized how young they were when they wrote these songs I knew I had to get into
songwriting immediately so that I could be even a fraction as good of a songwriter by the time I
hit my early 20s the albums that I'd consider being in this first era are please please me
that came out in 1963 with the Beatles that also came out in that year in 1963 and A Hard Day's
Night that came out in 1964. so the song that I think best captures this first era A Hard Day's
Night credited to Landon McCartney but written mostly by John though Paul also seems to remember
adding a few touches to the song Too the grit George Martin their producer knew that this
track would open both the album and the film that came up by the same name so they came up
with one of the most instantly recognizable and heavily analyzed song openings in pop history
the song is the perfect example of how the Beatles took the chord progressions
harmonies and feel of their rock and roll and R B influences but totally
reinterpreted them when I heard this music it wasn't enough for me to only
be able to listen to it I needed to pick up an instrument and learn how to do it when [Music]
so the magic of this first Beatles era is in the electrifying cohesiveness and Youthful love
and joy that I think comes through from every single song on every album of this time I hear
that in everything from the harmonies to the drum grooves to George Harrison's catchy and
singable guitar solos and I think that this song in particular has all of that in spades [Music]
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[Music]
the rootsy introspective influence of Bob Dylan and a certain special substance he
introduced them to is evident in this Beatles era their jangly 12-string guitar sound also
helped Define the sound of mid-60s rock and pop the albums that I'd consider to be in this era
are Beatles for sale which came out in 1964. health which came out in 1965 and Rubber Soul
which also came out in 1965 and Rubber Soul in particular I think best exemplifies this whole
era it's also the transition album that hints at the experimental era to come with some songs
beginning to use elements of Indian classical Melodies and instrumentation like the sitar
now the song that I think best encapsulates the essence of this era would be if I needed
someone written by George Harrison it's the penultimate track on Rubber Soul and it's one
of George's first great contributions to the Beatles and it's a song that I think perfectly
captured the character and set the standard of mid-60s pop and rock the influence of George's
growing love of the drones found in Indian classical ragas had a huge impact on the
sound of pop music at this time as well as the sound of the 12-string electric guitar which he
started to use prominently on a lot of tracks from this era to me meditative Raga like bass
lines like the one in this song are one of the defining sounds of the 60s Paul lays down this
repetitious drone-like bass line while the chords change around it and the partly mixolydian Harmony
also shows the emerging Indian classical influence on George's writing I can't even explain how much
I love this song it's easily one of my favorite Beatles songs ever and it always has been and it's
definitely one of the songs that really helped me know for sure that I wanted to be a musician
when I grew up and even if you don't want to be a professional musician I think songs like this can
really just be the soundtrack of your whole life and make you fall in love with music so much more
one more time to spend and I guess I'll be with you my friend [Music]
the chord progression and the melody in the middle eights of the song I
think really show the clear influence of folk music on all of the Beatles writing
you come some other day it might not have been like this but you see now I'm too much [Music]
in this era The Beatles bring the sound of India home get spiritual and the Psychedelic Summer of
Love Begins the sounds of Indian classical music and the spirituality of Hinduism had a profound
impact on the sound of the band upon George Harrison's return from his trip to India and this
era really brings that influence to the Forefront George helped to open their sonic palette to
include instruments like the sitar tambura dilruba and the Tabla and the band dabbled in another
certain psychedelic type of substance that led to a seismic avant-garde shift in their lyricism and
Studio experimentalism I think you might enjoy it open up your mind and you experience a new level
of Consciousness like we do because we are the Eagles this also had a lot to do with the fact
that they stopped playing live around this time too with revolver being the last album they'd
perform songs off of and so the rooftop concert they did at the very end of their time together
as a band The albums that I'd considered to be in this era are revolver which came out in 1966.
Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band which came out the following year in 1967 and Magical
Mystery Tour which also came out in 1967. all of these albums are drenched in the vibrant and at
times disorienting colors of psychedelia so the song that I feel best captures this era is Lucy
in the Sky with Diamonds off of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in the words of Rolling
Stone magazine the song is a lavish Lenin Daydream written in the decadent and colorful literary
style of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland as was typical for their compositions at this time
the song features almost impossibly catchy Hooks and pop sensibilities with abstract Vivid lyrics
and an avant-garde production style I think this song is literally the perfect example of all of
that Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds features a tempura lead guitar played through a Leslie
speaker and one of the most recognizable organ tones ever put to tape [Music] I almost can't
even find the words to express how important this musical period of The Beatles is to me it made me
realize that all I want to do is push myself to my limits as an artist but never the expense of
writing a song that will move and inspire people it helped me fall in love with being authentically
weird and embracing the absurdity and I found that a lot of Beatles fans feel the same way
about this era [Music] a group split up covers more ground all of the negative interpersonal
dynamics that had simmered under the surface for so long finally come to a head during the
final years of their time together as a band Paul becomes the driven leader simultaneously acting as
the motor that was pushing the band forward and as a controlling figure to other members of the
band George Harrison finally finds his footing as an extraordinary songwriter but this leads to
further tension when he's not given the space to truly embody that within the band The legendary
songwriting dynamic between Lennon and McCartney begins to fracture as their Musical and personal
values really start to diverge but as a result of all of this tension we get some of the most
eclectic and Boundary pushing music of the entire Beatles catalog so the albums that I consider to
be in this era are The White Album which came out in 1968 Abby Road which came out in 1969
and finally let it be which was released in 1970. these albums are wildly eclectic masterpieces in
their own right that feature some of the band's highest highs and lowest lows so the song that
I think best captures this era would be Dear Prudence off of The White Album it was written
during the band's 1968 trip to India inspired by a girl named Prudence who was on the trip with
them and became so secluded and detached from the world due to obsessive meditation the song
was written as an invitation for her to rejoin the outside world and the peaceful flow-like feel of
the song captures the essence of meditation and the Indian spirituality they had been exposed
to through the Maharishi dear prison this is the second song on The White Album and it opens with
a really beautiful finger-picked acoustic guitar intro immediately following the Straight Ahead
rocker Back in the USSR it's a pretty jarring song pairing and the intro to Deer Prudence even starts
with the airplane tape loop from Back in the USSR the song truly shows the fragmented nature of
the band through the fact that Ringo wasn't even present for the recording of it he had temporarily
left the group after a conflict with Paul this Paul criticized his drumming on Back in the USSR
and ironically enough Paul is the one who filled in on drums in this song and it might be one of
the best drum Parts in any song The Beatles ever recorded and while it isn't particularly fun to
read about conflict within a band that you love so dearly this era and this song in particular made
me fall in love with the idea that you could play more than one instrument you weren't confined to
playing that one instrument you considered as your main instrument and this is the song that really
inspired me to sit down in the drums and just play and it definitely is one of the songs that made
me fall back in love with playing the bass after playing the guitar exclusively for years [Music]
open up your eyes [Music]
I hope that this video gave you some new appreciation for one of my favorite bands
of all time even if you don't like them yourself I hope this helped you understand why everyone makes
such a big deal about the Beatles my greatest hope is that this video will suck you into the magnetic
and wildly inspiring musical Universe of their music and maybe it'll encourage you to pick up an
instrument or try your hand at writing songs just like their music did for me if you've never really
checked out the Beatles which of the four eras do you think you'll check out first and if you're
already a Beatles fan share your favorite Beatles songs or albums and let us know what made you
fall in love with them hope you enjoyed this video and we'll see you in the next one foreign [Music]