Yes, It's Another Beatles Thread: Mojo Top 101 Beatles Songs (Again)

[Queneau]

This is quite possibly one of the most embarrassing posts on this forum. I have never really listened to much of The Beatles, other than the standard best of kinds of stuff. Sure I love Eight Days a Week and Get Back but I was never massively fussed to explore further. However, I've had all of the albums sitting on my computer for some time and decided to give them a go last night. Fucking hell! This is where all the good stuff is. How have I never heard Rocky Raccoon or Taxman?

It currently feels like I have dug up a fuck load of treasure. I'm a loser.

What have I done to deserve such a fate
I realize I have left it too late

[daf]

Ooh exciting - please let us know the results of your explorations : eg. besties and worsties.

[lazyhour]

Rocky Raccoon is seen as a worstie by many, innit? I love it.

Where do people stand on Savoy Truffle?

[daf]

Love that one - great crunchy sax.

[The Masked Unit]

Rocky Raccoon is seen as a worstie by many, innit? I love it.

It was only in my top ten by the skin of its teeth really, but I do love it. Bungalow Bill occupies a very similar place in my heart.

[grassbath]

Rocky Raccoon is seen as a worstie by many, innit? I love it.

I think people are immediately put off by Paul's "comic" drawling at the beginning. With that removed, it's an absolutely gorgeous country ballad with some honestly brilliant lyrics.

[CaledonianGonzo]

some honestly brilliant lyrics.

It's forgivable as he was more or less making them up as he went along, but I find these just about the clunkiest couplets in pop:

His rival it seems had broken his dreams
By stealing the girl of his fancy
Her name was McGill and she called herself Lil
But everyone knew her as Nancy
Now she and her man who called himself Dan
Were in the next room at the hoe down

Why's everyone in Dakota calling themselves different things?  Eh, Macca?

[studpuppet]

When I was around 7 or 8 I found Revolver and Sgt Pepper in amongst my dad's Sinatra and Count Basie albums.
Puberty, love, drugs, work, home ownership, children and losing a parent have all altered how I feel about various songs during that time, such that my 101 best songs would be wildly different if you'd have asked me at age, 8, 18, 28, 38, or now (44). The older I get, the more amazed I am that previously unregarded songs become relevant, and that others I've passed in and out of love with (some more than once).
I still regularly listen to Revolver in its entirety, and the other day I heard a new bit of bass on one of the tracks that I'd never registered in the previous thirty-odd years. Not only is that an extraordinary shelf-life for an entire album, but to throw up things I've not heard before makes me giddily happy. Can't remember who said it, but the phenomenon of The Beatles is even more incredible when you consider that they can't cite The Beatles as one of their influences.

[Van Dammage]

101 - a song that many think is their worst.

97 - Another heavily hated song

Man, Mojo are edgy.

Eh?? since when? I always assumed people loved both of them.

[daf]

but to throw up things I've not heard before makes me giddily happy.

I always listen out for the extra twiddly bass riff at 1:14 into The Word and when what sounds like a backwards drum beat pops right out at 1:23 on She Said She Said  [nb](both heard best in the mono mixes)[/nb]

[newbridge]

As long as some are defending Rocky Raccoon, I'll add that I think Octopus's Garden is a great song.

The Beatles were uniformly mediocre lyricists though, it goes without saying. One of the reasons I (trendily) maintain that the Kinks were a better overall band.

[daf]

The Beatles were uniformly mediocre lyricists though

They do seem to have had an almost comical obsession with diamond rings in their early records.

[CaledonianGonzo]

The Beatles were uniformly mediocre lyricists though, it goes without saying. One of the reasons I (trendily) maintain that the Kinks were a better overall band.

I dunno if R. Davies ever wrote anything as subtle and unsparing as Eleanor Rigby, or as profound and moving as the end couplet of The End.

[MoonDust]

This is quite possibly one of the most embarrassing posts on this forum. I have never really listened to much of The Beatles, other than the standard best of kinds of stuff. Sure I love Eight Days a Week and Get Back but I was never massively fussed to explore further.

I was in a similar situation until last September when I listened to Revolver and was blown away. Since then I listened to Rubber Soul, Abbey Road, Help and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. I've heard the White Album but only once so I'll have to give that another listen. I like Back in the USSR and think Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, though not obviously one of their best songs, is still rather fun and I like it for that.

I also like the song medley on Abbey Road, particularly You Never Give Me Your Money and She Came in Through the Bathroom Window, and also Oh! Darling and Here Comes the Sun are other favourites off that album.

More Beatles please!

[newbridge]

I dunno if R. Davies ever wrote anything as subtle and unsparing as Eleanor Rigby, or as profound and moving as the end couplet of The End.

Eleanor Rigby has some of the least subtle lyrics ever written, it only works because of the beautiful melody.

[daf]

I like Back in the USSR

One of the few songs that Paul drums on  [nb](the others are Dear Prudence and The Ballad of John and Yoko)[/nb]

Interesting to compare their styles as, despite the wisecracks, it shows what a nuanced and inventive drummer Ringo was in contrast to Paul's more regular 'meat and potatoes' technique.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Eleanor Rigby has some of the least subtle lyrics ever written, it only works because of the beautiful melody.

This expert disagrees


Edit:  Coo.  Over 4 years ago that was.

[MoonDust]

One of the few songs that Paul drums on  [nb](the others are Dear Prudence and The Ballad of John and Yoko)[/nb]

Interesting to compare their styles as, despite the wisecracks, it shows what a nuanced and inventive drummer Ringo was in contrast to Paul's more regular 'meat and potatoes' technique.

Ah I didn't know that. Which is the Revolver song that Ringo sings on? Is it Dear Prudence too?[nb]Beatles amateur alert[/nb]

Edit: Nevermind. It's Yellow Submarine. I was getting mixed up with George Harrison, and it wasn't even Dear Prudence, which of course isn't even on Revolver!

[CaledonianGonzo]

[studpuppet]

Eleanor Rigby has some of the least subtle lyrics ever written...

Personally, I think you're confusing 'least subtle' with 'simple' on this one. At the end of the day words and the music come together to form a very vivid overall picture.

Much as I love the Kinks, I'd have trouble naming more than about 2-3 of their studio albums, and only one (Village Green Preservation Society) that I'd listen to from beginning to end, as clever as some of the lyrics might be.

[CaledonianGonzo]

(the others are Dear Prudence and The Ballad of John and Yoko)

Also Why Don't We Do It In The Road, no?

And maybe one or two others.  I wanna say mibbe Wild Honey Pie....(?)

[daf]

There's some conflicting accounts concerning the occupant of the WDWDITR drumstool.

John :

That's Paul. He even recorded it by himself in another room. That's how it was getting in those days. We came in and he'd made the whole record. Him drumming. Him playing the piano. Him singing.

[nb]1980 playboy interview[/nb]

Paul :

There's only one incident I can think of that John has mentioned publicly. It was when I went off with Ringo and did 'Why Don't We Do It in the Road'. It wasn't a deliberate thing. John and George were tied up finishing something and me and Ringo were free, just hanging around, so I said to Ringo, 'Let's go and do this.

[nb]1981 Hunter Davies conversation[/nb]

It is the quintessence of meat and potatoes though -  so it could well be Paul drumming on it.

Wild Honey Pie is indeed Paul - and you could also have Mother Nature's Son if you count knee-slapping as drumming.

[newbridge]

Personally, I think you're confusing 'least subtle' with 'simple' on this one. At the end of the day words and the music come together to form a very vivid overall picture.

Much as I love the Kinks, I'd have trouble naming more than about 2-3 of their studio albums, and only one (Village Green Preservation Society) that I'd listen to from beginning to end, as clever as some of the lyrics might be.

I'm not sure you actually love the Kinks then. Their studio output up until the mid-70s was impeccable.

The lyrics to Eleanor Rigby are something a depressed teenager might write, which isn't to say they don't work in the song itself.

[Rolf Lundgren]

He did and it was. It was the atonal lo fi most influential pioneering tits.

I may be misremembering it due to NUFF dark and stormys and ting, but at one point he also seemed to be claiming co authorship of Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite.

He said the same on the Sunday night when I was there. I think he says it in a very matter-of-fact way because it doesn't matter much to him but it's the kind of things fans obsess over. I'm inclined to believe him since he doesn't really need to exaggerate which songs he was involved in writing.

He did Temporary Secretary that night as well and sounded great. I do like Beatles songs that most fans and the Beatles themselves dislike. Things like the aforementioned 'Hello Goodbye', 'And Your Bird Can Sing', 'Good Morning Good Morning', 'If You've Got Troubles' and 'Don't Pass Me By'.

[wosl]

The shine was taken off [Revolution 9] for me once I'd heard John Cage's 'Rozart Mix' from 1965. Lennon's take on it is great, but it's still effectively just a cover version. 

That would be like saying "Yesterday" is effectively a cover of "Blowin' in the Wind" because it's somebody singing a series of verses to an acoustic guitar with the same line tagged onto the end of each.
If you'd never heard folk music before, they'd sound the same.

Cage's piece is very stop/start with harsh edits and an awful lot of it is speeded up, so it sounds like you're listening to a tape simply being fast-forwarded for the most part. "Revolution 9" flows in and out with moments of build, tension and reoccurring themes that I can really get into. I couldn't get into Cage's effort. If Lennon was influenced by that (and everything The Beatles did, or anybody else did for that matter, was influenced by something or other) then he well and truly bettered it. [...]

Also, a major part of the impact of Revolution 9 happens via context.  Yes, by the mid-to-late sixties there existed a welter of modernist experimental precedent, and Revolution 9 is a probable parody piece (although done earnestly enough to operate on the dividing line between send-up and homage, and so give genuine fans of music concrete pieces and the like the option of getting something from a listen), but as Ian MacDonald suggests in Revolution In The Head, it's the idea of creating a bit of head-fuck dislocation on a major release by yer pop group par excellence that's probably the guiding principle (it's been given a job to do contextually - create the ultimate pop album veer-off into left-field - and 'has' to sound the way it does in order to do that, and it's a little beside the point to consider what it is and how good or bad it is outside the bounds of that remit).

What the Beatles are doing with Revolution 9 is somewhat in line with what Marcel Duchamp did with his ready-mades; inciting a shift in thinking by playing with preconceptions and 'natural orders' (Duchamp's provocations had more of a nihilist base, obviously; the Beatles' gesture is more constructively creative, and is a part of that sixties holistic consciousness-altering vibe).  So Revolution 9 is a piece of conceptual art-like provocation, but one that had far bigger impact potential than Cage's zen silences or Yves Klein's Monotone Symphony, because of the reach of the Beatles' fame and influence.  The Darmstadt School or American avant-garde guys could shock to a degree, but the blast waves would be contained within the bounds of their chin-stroking bailiwick, and even had they attempted something as 'rule-breaking' as a Revolution 9 ploy (Stimmung comes to a close, and Stockhausen and co. break out washboards and kazoos to cap things off with a skiffle pastiche), it would never have had the same WTF? value, because hardly anyone outside of the listenerships of WDR or The Third Programme would've been exposed to it.

[daf]

'If You've Got Troubles'

'Ah, Rock on . . . anybody!'

[23 Daves]

'And Your Bird Can Sing',

Who the hell is saying they don't like that one? Because I've got a bone to pick with them!

'Don't Pass Me By'.

Oh, I'll agree with the critics, that one is rot.

Regarding The Kinks, Ray Davies penned some fantastic lyrics, but they frequently had a sour, sardonic or depressive edge. Lennon, of course, frequently fulfilled that role in The Beatles as well, but they always had McCartney to present a less pessimistic world view where need be. The Beatles were obviously blessed with two world-class songwriters (and one pretty damn good one) with noticeably different personalities, so they were able to stretch themselves into a lot of different areas.

That said, do I prefer "Celluloid Heroes" to "Eleanor Rigby"? I think I probably do.

[Crabwalk]

Here's some more data for your countdown, Serge:

1: Tomorrow Never Knows.
Couldn't believe my ears when I first heard this at 15. Someone made that in 1966?

2. She Loves You.
It's the Beatles song really, isn't it? A totally unified melodic assault. The final 'yeah yeah yeahs...' I'd have screamed and fainted too if I'd ever heard that live.

3. Here Comes the Sun.
It's easy to overlook this. But incredible covers by the likes of Nina Simone have shown why it's become such a glorious standard. It's the moog on the original that really elevates it for me, and the way that the arpeggios shift and expand each time during the 'sun sun sun' section. Glorious George.

4. You Never Give Me Your Money
It's kind of here to represent the whole Abbey Road Medley. It's a four and a half minute medley itself really. I find the first two minutes very sad, as Paul's recriminations begin, but then the 'one sweet dream' section starts and the sadness drifts into defiance and pride. I think.

5. Norwegian Wood
I love the sourness of the lyrics, against the incredible warmth of the music. Just massively evocative.

6. Julia
My favourite of all the Beatles' solo acoustic songs. So haunting, pretty, peculiar and of course intensely personal from John.

7. She Said She Said
Revolver is my favourite Beatles album and this typifies why, really. Has all the melody and punch of the early stuff, but with a more ambitious, time-signature-shifting structure and enigmatic lyrics.

8. I Want You (She's So Heavy)
It's the coda really isn't it? Bluesy Beatles is definitely not my favourite Beatles, generally. But the groove here works to highlight John's descent into obsession (and addiction)? Love the moog washes in this too towards the end. It all gets 'so heavy'. Ahem.

9. Penny Lane
I have no problem with nostalgia and sentimentality when its as sweet and airy as this. So many lovely little production touches, with the horns and bells and percussion all beautifully arranged. It also has a, what, triple key change?

10. In My Life
My nan did her best to ruin this for me by selfishly having it played at her funeral. Hard to listen to ever since.

Move over Ian MacDonald.

[Rolf Lundgren]

Who the hell is saying they don't like that one? Because I've got a bone to pick with them!

Lennon himself. Called it one of his 'throwaways'.

[SteveDave]

One of the few songs that Paul drums on  [nb](the others are Dear Prudence and The Ballad of John and Yoko)[/nb]

Interesting to compare their styles as, despite the wisecracks, it shows what a nuanced and inventive drummer Ringo was in contrast to Paul's more regular 'meat and potatoes' technique.

Paul, George & John drum on Back In The USSR according to Ken Scott. And also according to Mark Lewisohn's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions book there are 3 bass guitar parts played by all 3.