The Beatles - The Red Rose Speedway (1972)

The sessions for the Beatles' next album would be instantaneous, unlike others in the past. No one had any prior plans, Hunky Dory and John Lennon and David Bowie's solo albums had been successful, and they each had enough leftover songs from past sessions to use on another album. So, as usual, the Beatles decided to soldier on and create another masterpiece. Due to most of the songs already being written beforehand, recording would go much faster than Hunky Dory did, and the album was finished in the span of about two months. Compared to Hunky Dory, the sound of the album was more all over the place, with a mix of glam and blues rock and even some vaudeville. But overall, they were louder than they had been before, something they knew fans would be interested in.

The resulting album, The Red Rose Speedway, was released on May 12, 1972. It was clear from release that fans didn't immediately take to it as much as they had with their previous three albums. It scored generally positive, but the lack of new songs was apparent, with some critics even going as far as saying that more than half of the album was filler. Those same critics would point out some high points, such as Paul McCartney's "Uncle Albert" medley or Bowie's "Quicksand". And because the Beatles barely wrote any new material, its relative failure really didn't come as a blow for them. It meant that they had to keep looking for a new sound that would wow their fans. And that sound would come much sooner than they had any reason to think.

Due to how the album cover looked, few people realized that, unlike the other three Beatles whose pictures were taken for the album, Bowie's picture was taken from the Hunky Dory sessions the year before. This was due to Bowie undergoing a complete makeover in appearance following the end of recording. The reason for this makeover was to serve as inspiration for Bowie's next project, one that would transform the band forever.

THE BEATLES - THE RED ROSE SPEEDWAY
Released: 12 May 1972
Genre: Glam rock, pop rock, baroque pop, psychedelic pop, art pop
Producer: The Beatles, George Martin, Ken Scott

Side A
Back Off, Boogaloo
New York City
Dear Boy
Crippled Inside
Kooks
It's So Hard
The Queen Bitch

Side B
Tragedy
Quicksand
Love
Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey
Suffragette City
The Back Seat of My Car

Track list sources:

Tracks are from Red Rose Speedway (Archive Collection), Some Time in New York City, Ram, Imagine, Hunky Dory, Photograph: The Very Best of Ringo Starr, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, and Ziggy Stardust.

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