388 - The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night Soundtrack

I had a bit of fun trying to do my review of this album. I've been mostly reliant on Rhapsody for listening to the albums on the Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums list. Alas, The Beatles don't have any of their studio albums available on Rhapsody. YouTube was a bust. I even couldn't get my P2P options to find copies. I had to completely change gears.

So, today, I pulled out the vinyl copy of A Hard Day's Night that I got from my dad that he bought as a youth in the 60's. And you could tell it was well-listened to because the vinyl is still shiny but sounded a bit scratchy from a large needle that had previously cruised the grooves.

The album fulfilled two memories and expectations that I had: 1) the songs on the album were fun and catchy and 2) it really is a let-down that there are instrumental tracks instead of 100% Beatles. I do, however, have to say that the instrumental sections (particularly the instrumental version of "A Hard Day's Night") weren't quite as boring as I recall from my youth.

Songs I knew I liked: All of the Beatles tracks on the album.

Songs I didn't know but now like: The pop-jazzy sound of the instrumental "A Hard Day's Night"

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: The other instrumental tracks

Matthew: Quick Summary

Having the New Testament start with Matthew now makes perfect sense to me. Of the four Gospels, Matthew does the most to point out quotes from the Old Testament and how Jesus satisfied many prophesies. Previously, while reading Matthew, these OT quotes didn't have much of an impact. Now that I've actually read those quotes in context, when I came upon them in Matthew, the poignancy (and sometimes lack of poignancy, IMO) jumped out to me where previously I was unaffected.

Mark: Quick Summary

Where Matthew started with Jesus's genealogy and spent his Gospel recounting out Jesus's life and words fulfilled Old Testament prophesy, Mark's version is more action-packed. Mark skipped all of those "begats" and jumped right into a quick intro of John the Baptist and Jesus's baptism. Then BOOM! Jesus's ministry then kicks into gear. In this Gospel there were a lot of times that Jesus told people he healed or ministered to that he wanted them to keep what he did a secret. There also seemed to be more questioning of Jesus about who he was - Was he a prophet? Was he Elijah? Was he the Messiah?