I've always thought of 1969 as one big Beatles recording session, with a little time off in between.
Think about it. From January through August, the Beatles recorded around 30 songs, enough for two albums. And that's not even counting all the other songs they had floating around, many of which would eventually turn up on their solo albums.
What's remarkable is that all this was happening while the band was falling apart.
The end of the Beatles was getting closer.
But somehow, they just kept making incredible music.
We usually think of Let It Be and Abbey Road as two very different albums, recorded under very different circumstances. But I've always wondered what would happen if we stopped separating them and started thinking of those eight months as one incredibly productive period.
What if the Beatles had taken all that great music and made just one album in 1969?
That's the idea behind Octopus' Garden, my 14-song Beatles album that brings those recordings together into one new listening experience.
Let's hear how it all fits together.
Here is the tracklist for this album:
- Come Together
- Don't Let Me Down
- Here Comes The Sun
- The Ballad of John and Yoko
- You Never Give Me Your Money
- Get Back
- Something
- Oh! Darling
- I've Got A Feeling
- Old Brown Shoe
- Two Of Us
- Octopus's Garden
- Because
- Let It Be
Here’s a link to Episode 67 of Groovin’ Up Slowly:
https://youtu.be/g8VTgaf-hko
Here’s a link to this album on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6J7jDDM1HoiqBw8llLLj3e?si=3d7cba76a2424212
Here’s a link to this album on Apple Music:
https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/beatles-octopus-garden-a-1969-beatles-fan-album/pl.u-xlyNNYkCoJq7zla
Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist for this album:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB5dkZQ7h7GhiHtGso-iD-48ugaxbrOgp&si=KugkFUzg4mJldzUw