Over the last few years The Beatles have really leaned into the trend of bleeding their archives dry. You could say this has always been a part of their post-breakup catalog but they've shown more restraint than many of their competitors even if this only amounts to little more than not shoving unwanted bonus tracks on CD reissues. But that all changed in 2017 when the Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: 50th Anniversary Edition was released. As if to prove that this was no mere one off, a deluxe box for The White Album followed in '18 and then Abbey Road a year later. Then came Let It Be in 2021 and then they went out of sequence with Revolver a year after that.
As expected, Beatles' fans who are flush with cash aren't satisfied. The majority have been clamouring for a Rubber Soul set to come out but so far to no avail. Some have also noticed that a gap has been left: the post-Pepper period that covered the rest of '67 and the early part of '68 prior to their departure for India where they went to study Transcendental Meditation. The wilderness between the triumph of Pepper and the spooky, initial-signs-of-the-coming-break-up White Album — an interesting period to be sure but not their most creatively fruitful.
I will admit that I have considered purchasing the Pepper, White Album and Revolver box sets, though the hefty price tags and suspicion that I won't listen to them much has so far prevented me from doing so. Had I ended up picking all of them up, I could see myself getting the Abbey Road set as well, even if its current status as the consensus best Beatles' album ever baffles me. I don't think I would've been tempted at all by Let It Be but at least I can see why there'd be some interest, especially after Peter Jackson's Get Back docu-series. But a box set covering a handful of cast offs used primarily for the soundtracks to Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine? A hard pass from me — even if money was no object.
Of course, this is The Beatles we're talking about so this period isn't without its high spots with John Lennon's "I Am the Walrus" being the clear stand out. "The Fool on the Hill" is probably Paul McCartney's best track from this mini era but in truth there isn't much else to highly recommend. "Magical Mystery Tour" is fine if unremarkable. Tracks like "Baby You're a Rich Man" and "Your Mother Should Know" are under-written (Ian MacDonald described the former as having "a stoned sloppiness" to it which is hard to disagree with). "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)" is good fun but utterly pointless. George Harrison's "It's All Too Much" combines some terrific acid rock with his usual grumpiness but it goes on for way too long. (Still, it's accurately titled) Do I even need to bring up bloody "All Together Now"?
As for "Hello, Goodbye", it is the first Beatles' hit that no one ever needed. You may like it but what does it add to their discography? If it didn't exist, would anyone miss it? The very fact that I'm now tempted to come to its defense with a "there's nothing wrong with it" is revealing in and of itself: apologizing for a so-so number from just about any other act is one thing but the Fabs never needed anyone to say their records were just okay prior to this one. McCartney sings it well but, again, this is the sort of observation that wouldn't need to be made had I been discussing, say, "All My Loving" or "Eleanor Rigby" instead. Beyond its almost innate ability to lodge its way into my head and then squat there indefinitely, I am indifferent.
Still, even when they were loafing about, The Beatles were always fascinating and "Hello, Goodbye" is no exception. Just who is contradicting McCartney so much? One option is that it's about his fraught relationship with the actress Jane Asher. While the positive side of their romance is said to have inspired "And I Love Her" and "Here, There and Everywhere", the tumultuousness of their time together brought on much more pessimistic works such as "I'm Looking Through You", "You Won't See Me" and "For No One". Strangely, 1967 seems to have brought an end to McCartney's cycle of songs about her but "Hello, Goodbye" might be an exception. By this point, Macca was the only unmarried Beatle and its likely he was beginning to tire of singlehood. Asher was as committed to her career choices as his nibs was and so domesticity was never going to be easy. Not unlike "I'm Looking Through You" and "You Won't See Me", there's a sense that McCartney is unable to communicate, that she is simply there to shoot down every one of his ideas.
That said, Macca could just as easily have been describing his loggerheads with longtime songwriting partner and close friend John Lennon. Only a few months' earlier, the "cute one" had been recording a song with the line "it's getting better all the time" while the so-called "smart one" (more like 'smart-ass one', am I right?) would come in with the rejoinder of "it couldn't get much worse". "Getting Better" comes from the Pepper sessions when things were rosy between the two but by the end of the year some troubles had begun to set in. Chiefly, the death of manager Brian Epstein at the end of that August left The Beatles with a hole that they'd never be able to fill. (For a group with a seemingly unlimited supply of 'fifth Beatles', it's rather fitting that so many within their camp were irreplaceable) Lennon would later complain bitterly about McCartney trying to take over the group but who else was going to do it at the time? With all this in mind, it's not inconceivable that John would have provided a stinging opposition to just about anything Paul suggested, even if just for the sake of it.
Score: 5
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