YESTERDAY AND TODAY

Baby butchering Beatles really shocked the masses when this hit the stands in 1966. It was a joke for The Beatles but the industry did not see the funny side of it. Such was the massive impact that the seismic shock waves sent shudders through main music corporations who pulled the cover as soon as they could and replaced it with a hastily manufactured alternative, actually pasting a poorly designed cover over the offensive image. However, the cover, and the story behind it, makes this a definitive collector's rarity and it is worth grabbing if you see it for that reason. Perhaps the image is tame by today's standards but it was not often in the 60s you would see images of decapitated babies, and meat dangling over the Beatles like the remains of toddlers in the war zone, or is it the music industry critics being churned up in the meat grinder. Nevertheless, the statement was made and it has since become one of the iconic images of Beatles folklore.

The music is not as special as it is a rehashed compilation from "Rubber Soul" and "Revolver" in essence, and they are good songs. There are some great tracks as always, the car anthem, Drive My Car, the nomad anthem, Nowhere Man, and Paul's ballad of a time gone by, Yesterday. And Your Bird Can Sing is a raucous jangly riffy thing I always liked, and I enjoy the heart pounding We Can Work It Out. The riff of Day Tripper was as good as it got back in the 60s and overall all the songs work well together on this compilation. It deserves 3 stars for the music but the original cover makes this a priceless artifact.