"No one's more surprised than I am that The Beatles made it. Maybe Yoko."
— John Lennon in Time, "Rock's Angry Men," 1971
"Play, quit, repeat. That's been the secret."
— Paul McCartney in Rockstar, "Are The Beatles Dead?, 1973
fan memories of favorite beatles albums
Last Words (1974)
"I've actually owned two copies of Last Words. My girlfriend took my first copy when we split, so I bought it again and practically wore the grooves off that one, too. I remember what a big deal it was that they recorded this after what almost happened to Lennon and the whole thing in Seattle.
I bought it again on CD in the 80s, and now I've got it uploaded to the Cloud. And, get this, I bought the 40th anniversary edition on vinyl when it came out. So, how much do I like it? Like that."
~~ Patrick K. Baldwin, New York, New York
Art by Pablo Lobato, Album by Lynda Karr, Effect by Nate Gualtieri
And the Band Plays On (1970)
"I remember that Band Plays On was the first of the Beatles albums I bought at college. It was insane, really, because these guys talked like they hated each other, then they made this phenomenal vintage records style album that blew me away. My friends all thought Everest was better but, for me, it was always Band Plays On. Period."
~~ Gail Honeycutt, El Paso, Texas
Imagine Another Day (1972)
"Imagine Another Day is absolutely the best use of vinyl since Rubber Soul even if it's just as jarring sometimes as A Doll's House. It's like no other album anyone has ever made. It's that good. I don't know how they pulled it off with Nixon's FBI doing what it did to them all. Maybe they got inspired when Hunter Thompson showed up, but I don't question magic."
~~ Peter Washington, Los Angeles, California
"We all quit. We just never all quit for good at the same time."
— Ringo Starr interviewed for "Woodstock" documentary, 1969