Rd 4 - 1 - Beatles - Sgt. Peppers v 2 - GD - American Beauty

[UncleEbinezer]

Rd 4 - 1 - Beatles - Sgt. Peppers v 2 - GD - American Beauty

[sls.stormyrider]

tough one.
must think

[WhatstheUse?]

Oh damn this one is tough. Gonna have to think about this....

[sls.stormyrider]

done thinking.
I love AB
but
Pepper is phenomenal

[WhatstheUse?]

done thinking.
I love AB
but
Pepper is phenomenal

came to the same conclusion.

[VDB]

Beatles = studio act
GDead = live act

That also helped the decision.

[McGrupp]

Beatles = studio act
GDead = live act

That also helped the decision.

yep

[twatts]

Beatles = studio act
GDead = live act

That also helped the decision.

Indeed...  Though The Beatles did make their chops on the road in Germany et al... 

Sorta brings us back to the Quincy Jones discussion in the Thriller thread - was the Beatles studio act in part to George Martin, and if GD had had a George Martin in their stable, would they have been able to produce a SPLHCB themselves??? 

That being said, my taste is for the GD live act over the Beatles live act (what little I've heard).  But isn't this about "Albums"

Terry

[sls.stormyrider]

your right in that George Martin was a genius, but the Beatles were heaavily involved in the process as well, especially Paul. During the Pepper sessions he would stay by himself all night to get the sound he wanted. The orchestral ending of A Day in the Life was Paul's idea, not Martins. Playing tapes backwards was actually discovered by John (he was so fucked up he put the tape on wrong one night when he got home), and they would all go home and make their own tape loops. There are some bootlegs out their with demo or paired down versions of the tunes - I would argue that almost all of them are great even before Martin did his magic.

I'll agree about the live act thing, except that the Beatles never took their best stuff on the road, so we'll never really know.

[rowjimmy]

I haven't lobbied much in this thread because I understand and can comfortably accept people choosing either record but don't give me that studio act vs live act bullshit. We're comparing two excellent albums here.

To dismiss the Grateful Dead because they're a ''live act" is to completely ignore the success they had in the studio in making this terrific album.

[VDB]

I haven't lobbied much in this thread because I understand and can comfortably accept people choosing either record but don't give me that studio act vs live act bullshit. We're comparing two excellent albums here.

To dismiss the Grateful Dead because they're a ''live act" is to completely ignore the success they had in the studio in making this terrific album.

Since I brought this up, let me clarify. I'm not dismissing the Dead's appearance in this fantasy bracket nor this record, nor dismissing on the other hand that the Beatles ever put on good live shows.

I think it's pretty inarguable that the Beatles took advantage of the flexibility of studio production and the range of possibilities there, more so than many artists (including GD). In and of itself, this does not a better record make, but in the case of Beatles vs. GD studio material, it helps to tip my preference to the Fab Four. And meanwhile, I'd rather go see a live show of GD tunes than Beatles songs.

Taking everything else out of the equation, in a vacuum I still prefer Pepper's as an album.

We're comparing two excellent albums here.

I think we all realize that and I haven't heard it argued otherwise. But we still have to vote...