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March 29, 2024, 12:52:54 PM

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Abbey Road 50th

Started by biggytitbo, August 11, 2019, 12:05:24 AM

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Replies From View

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on September 29, 2019, 05:39:35 PM
That's the only good bit, it's very Wendy Carlos. I listened to MSH for the first time in ages yesterday and it really does encapsulate the very worst aspects of McCartney's songwriting: glib, smug, annoying, facile. Even Ringo didn't like it, and he never has a bad word to say about anything Beatles-related.

I agree that a fully Fabbed-up version of Come and Get It would've been infinitely preferable in that slot. What was Paul thinking? Madness.

It wasn't just a crappy song; Paul drove them all nuts doing about a billion takes of it as well.  He could be very self-absorbed and oblivious to group feeling when it came to his own material.

If Maxwell's Silver Hammer was by any other group I would never ever willingly listen to it

Replies From View

Quote from: Monsieur Verdoux on September 29, 2019, 07:07:24 PM
If Maxwell's Silver Hammer was by any other group I would never ever willingly listen to it

Should have given it to Badfinger and kept Come and Get It, really.


It says a lot when the song sung by Ringo is not the nadir of any given Beatles record.  Maxwell is pretty much a typical Ringo-song sung by the wrong Beatle and placed far too early in the album, isn't it.  But it also would have needed burying in the sprawling, 4-sided White Album to not leave the kind of stink it does.

NJ Uncut

Quote from: Replies From View on September 29, 2019, 07:04:33 PM
It wasn't just a crappy song; Paul drove them all nuts doing about a billion takes of it as well.  He could be very self-absorbed and oblivious to group feeling when it came to his own material.

Oh, Macca

QuoteWe put together quite a nice album, and the only arguments were about things like me spending three days on Maxwell's Silver Hammer. I remember George saying, 'You've taken three days, it's only a song.' – 'Yeah, but I want to get it right. I've got some thoughts on this one.'

*sticks on Take 21*

Replies From View

The strings-only versions of Something and Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight are sublime, by the way.  Particularly at the start of each piece, as they are building up.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Replies From View on September 29, 2019, 07:04:33 PM
It wasn't just a crappy song; Paul drove them all nuts doing about a billion takes of it as well.  He could be very self-absorbed and oblivious to group feeling when it came to his own material.

Exactly, and that's even weirder than Paul thinking it was worth recording in the first place. Just the sheer amount of time he took to perfect a crap song, while, as you say, being seemingly oblivious to the fact that his bandmates hated every minute of the process. I love Macca, he's a genius, but that suggests an almost David Brent-esque lack of self-awareness.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Replies From View on September 29, 2019, 07:25:08 PM
The strings-only versions of Something and Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight are sublime, by the way.  Particularly at the start of each piece, as they are building up.

They are. George Martin was such a brilliant producer and arranger. I sometimes feel that he doesn't get enough credit. That sounds silly, I know, he's George Martin, but I suppose it's easy to take him for granted sometimes.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Monsieur Verdoux on September 29, 2019, 07:07:24 PM
If Maxwell's Silver Hammer was by any other group I would never ever willingly listen to it

Paul would never admit this, but it sounds like a badly botched attempt at writing a witty, Ray Davies-esque music hall number. You can imagine him listening to The Kinks and thinking, "Easy, I can do that."

The key difference between MSH and everything Davies ever wrote in the singalong music hall vein is that Davies' songs were, by and large, sharp pieces of social satire. They were character studies with depth and pathos (like Eleanor Rigby, in fact). They had a point. MSH is vacuous crap.

A good, catchy pop song doesn't really need to mean anything on a deeper level, of course it doesn't, but MSH is just a nuisance.

DrGreggles

Macca seemed to be on a 'look at me, I can do every music style' mission in 68/69.
Yes, he could, but it doesn't mean he was good at all of them.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

I can do a song like those ska lads! Piece of piss, la!


Replies From View

Quote from: DrGreggles on September 29, 2019, 08:40:58 PM
Macca seemed to be on a 'look at me, I can do every music style' mission in 68/69.
Yes, he could, but it doesn't mean he was good at all of them.

This is a point that MacDonald makes in Revolution in the Head, under the Helter Skelter entry.  I agree with it.

DrGreggles

I should read that.
I like things that agree with me.

kalowski

I've listened to the remastered tracks - not got round to the outtakes yet.
It really is sublime. No one does backing vocals like the Fab Four. Big Star probably came smugly out of a recording session proud of their work, stuck Abbey Road on and thought "That's how to do it MN"

Maxwell's Silver Hammer is fucking dreadful.

a duncandisorderly

Quote from: SteveDave on September 29, 2019, 04:49:52 PM
]I was sat next to Gem from Heavy Stereo and Beady Eye which was a personal highlight.

a lad I went to school with was the other guitarist in heavy stereo. he & his brother had been 'two lost sons' before that, & afterwards worked with soho ('hippychick').

here he is (pete downing, that is) on the red sg:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o25BpPmqOU

SteveDave

Quote from: Satchmo Distel on September 29, 2019, 05:02:25 PM
I'm up for spoilers

The biggest *gasp* from the theatre was when Mark found out who Mean Mr Mustard was, the house where he was born, the house where he lived (when the articles about his divorce were published in 1967), when he died and his last will and testament. He also came up with a theory as to why John wrote the song in India in 1968 when the story appeared in newspapers in 1967- John must've wrapped "something" up in newspaper to take it over and when it was unwrapped the story was there. The stories from various papers mention him shaving in the dark and making his wife (who he gave just £1 in housekeeping in 1966) being made to listen to the radio in the dark saying "It's the radio, what are you meant to look at?" He was a Scottish man.

The tape that was mentioned in the Grauniad wasn't played in full due to "various reasons" but we did get a clip of Lennon talking about "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" as that had been published in a book in the 70s.

There are more but I'm meant to be working.

studpuppet


NJ Uncut

"Each song sounded the same"?

And she likes the "variety" of Ariana de Large

Okay love, it is a fair cop - you had me going there!!

Mean Mr Mustard's origins are already in the public domain in Spain (4.8.19). Don't click if you wish to avoid the spoiler:

https://www.elcorreogallego.es/tendencias/el-correo2/ecg/miserable-senor-mustard-genio-john-lennon/idEdicion-2019-08-04/idNoticia-1196877

Cardenio I

I go to the Galician press for all my Beatles exclusives so I'm well across this.

massive bereavement

I seem to recall some drama series on the BBC back in the 90s (might have been "Buddha of Suburbia", an episode of which I was forced to sit through at a chum's house) and there's a scene where one guy asks his friend "What's your favourite album to make love to?" and the friend replies "Abbey Road".

Imagine having a fuck to "Maxwell's Silver Hammer".

SteveDave


greenman

Macca invented female ejaculation though the bathroom window.

studpuppet

"She's so HEEAAAVVYY!!!"

massive bereavement

Gooooollllllddddden showers fill your mouth.

Rich Uncle Skeleton

Only way to go is to wait til "The End" finishes then start fucking at a furious pace to try and head off "Her Majesty".

NJ Uncut

Quote from: Rich Uncle Skeleton on October 02, 2019, 06:25:24 PM
Only way to go is to wait til "The End" finishes then start fucking at a furious pace to try and head off "Her Majesty".

Been experimenting with taking out Maxwell totally and lobbing Her Maj in there instead

Doesn't really work, at all to be honest, but it isn't "worse"

wosl

#116
Quote from: Replies From View on September 29, 2019, 07:08:30 PM
It says a lot when the song sung by Ringo is not the nadir of any given Beatles record.

Yellow Submarine isn't the worst track on Revolver (I'd say it's a toss-up between Dr Robert and Love You To), nor is With A Little Help the worst on Sgt. Pepper (which doesn't really have a 'worst', so, equal worst there, if you like).  Good Night and Don't Pass Me By are both better than Rocky Raccoon on The White Album (although not by a great deal, in the case of Don't Pass Me By).


Edit: It's Good-space-Night!

DrGreggles

I'm not sure that Don't Pass Me By is better than anything.

That said, I did 'homage' it in the lyrics to one of my first songs:
"Remember when we went to the fair?
You were on the dodgems and you lost your hair."


I don't write songs any more...

wosl

Well it's certainly no worse than Rocky Raccoon.  Split nadir, then.  Piggies is pretty bloody awful as well.  Three-way tie for nadir on White.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Love You To is great, it's hypnotic, but I agree that Yellow Submarine is a more enjoyable song than the monotonous Dr Robert. It sounds like they had a laugh doing Yellow Submarine, it's full of fun Goony sound effects and daft voices, whereas Dr Robert sounds like a tossed-off afterthought: Fabs by numbers.

With A Little Help From My Friends is undoubtedly the best Ringo-sung tune, it's a good song, and his vocal on Good Night is rather lovely. Don't Pass Me By is so unhinged, I find it really charming and funny.

Actually, most Ringo-fronted numbers are pretty good, aren't they? Act Naturally and What Goes On are very catchy, Boys is great fun, a Cavern banger, and even the throwaway "This'll do for the Stones" I Wanna Be Your Man has a certain proto-punk energy.

None of these songs are the best things about their respective albums, that much is obvious, but they're sometimes better than songs fronted by the other three.