Max twice. I just prefer the master takes. But it's an interesting musical journey.

I have it all in heavy rotation in iTunes along with the rest of my Beatles collection -- bootlegs and all.

Never. But I wouldn't be without them.

What he said.

Interesting question, interesting answers. I would say probably 8-12 times (including the "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love" b-sides, or course), but probably not at all since about 2001. There was a time when I enjoyed and appreciated everything the Beatles ever did (I even sat through the entire "Anthology" video set three or four times), but as fascinating as I find their journey through the sixties, I just don't like their music enough to want to revisit it right now, mostly because it continues to be played to death.

Also, let's face it--the blind worship of the Beatles annoys me. As much as I've enjoyed the Beatles over the years, how could I not find them to be overrated? Certainly their solo output tends to bore me. I'm not a baby boomer, and something tells me I'm never going to fully understand why their music is considered to be so much more brilliant than any other music being made during the same era--something the compulsive Beatlemaniacs insist to be true.

Once, right after the last volume came out.

I made a "best of" CD from them that I sometimes play in the car, but I've probably only listened to them all the way through three times. I'm always saying I'm going to listen to them back-to-back again but I never seem to get around to it.

2 or 3 times for me, and that hasnt been for a few years. I actually think they would've been better served to release just a 3 or 4 CD box set, instead of six CD's over three volumes. I prefer whole takes of songs, not snippets, or takes where the performer makes mistakes during the recording.

Jeff

I'm not a baby boomer either, nor am I a compulsive Beatlemania, and as far as solo years, there are a series of highlights but nothing substaining for me...that said, I still think the group itself, although played to death, managed to create a body of sustained work reflective of growthand adventure, yet maintained a firm footing in popularity. I can not think of another band that has come close. When one looks at each dynamic of the band - it is possible to point to an artist who executed that dynamic better - but not as a complete package...once again, the whole being more than the sum of the parts.

As far an the Anthology; I recently re-listened to them...but it was the first time in a long time (other than 3 - that always stood up as a solid release to me).

Once. I listen to Let It Be...Naked and Love much more.

I'm with you on that count. "Love" is such a refreshing (and fun) take on the catalog. I've had it in A or B rotation since the day it came out.

Now that I've got the CD singles of "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love", there's less reason for me to go back to 1 and 2. But I can see myself listening to 3 for "Not Guilty".

Interesting, because I listened to Let It Be...Naked a few times and shrugged. It's not bad, but hardly the revelation I thought it would be.

Never bought Love.

I don't think these collections should be judged like other albums are judged. For most, the number of times you listen to the whole thing all the way through is some kind of indication of the staying power of the disc/album. This is material that was never intended to function as an album. It's a collection of odds and ends, random discarded pieces, from arguably the most important rock group ever, if not the greatest. They are fascinating pieces, insights into the way the group worked in the studio. Some of the pieces are great listening on their own. But they don't really make a very good listening experience, beginning to end. They're not supposed to. They're historical documents. They're essential as such.

I wrote the previous post before I went to work and I was thinking about it all through work...it struck me that while I can appreciate the Beatles, perhaps my non-baby boomer status is the very reason that their music doesn't hold any particular personal meaning for me. I do recall the one time I tried LSD, back in college in 1988 or 1989, I didn't really enjoy it (and definitely didn't take enough of it to experience any life-altering hallucinations) but I made a point of listening to a recently purchased cassette copy of the White Album that afternoon...becoming one of the few personal memories that a Beatles song will bring back to me. Of course, by 1988 the Beatles and their music were so omnipresent that I really couldn't tell you where I was or what I was doing the first time I ever heard, say for example, "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds", which is probably why relatively obscure Beatle cuts like "Long, Long, Long" and "Cry, Baby Cry" tend to take me back to a certain point in my life and provoke me in a way that "Hey Jude" never will.

Once a year I listen to the entire Beatles' catalog (group and solo) from start to finish in order of release; the only exception I make is bumping a remake of McCartney's The Family Way by Carl Aubut before the first Anthology so that all three Anthologies are played back to back.

Once a year?!?!? And when you're finished, you have to turn right around and start at the beginning again because it's a brand new year, right?!?!?

It only feels that way when I hit Rotogravure.

Seriously, it takes a good month and a half to two months.

We promise not to tell...you skip over Electronic Sound and The Wedding Album, right? C'mon, you can tell us.

Well...

Abbey Road may be playing in another room when Electronic Sound is going...

and I tried the same trick with Live Peace In Toronto in one room while The Wedding Album played in another, but that led to a complaint from the wife about being "surrounded by Yoko" during the second half of Live Peace....

I am thinking about laying off the 3 "experimental" Lennon, 2 "experimental" Harrison, 5 "classical" McCartney, and 93 "live" Ringo 'All-Starr' albums in the future to reclaim a day or two of my life...

Two or three times, I think. A chronological journey through a band's music is always interesting, even moreso in the Beatles' case since their evolution happened in such a short stretch of time.

Nope. And I haven't watched the DVD set straight thru either. One other thing I need to do someday.