It’s time for more Arbitrary But Fun fun! Why? No good reason!
Today, it’s Arbitrary But Fun Beatles day — and it’s your chance to name the three worst songs written by John, Paul, and George (Ringo only wrote two, so he’s off the hook), as well as the three most underrated songs by each of ‘em. Beatles compositions only, please. No reaching for the low-hanging fruit of Some Time in New York City or Back to the Egg or Extra Texture. OK, here goes:
Bad
John:
“When I Get Home,â€? A Hard Day’s Night. OK, I know, I should give the guy a break — he wrote 10 of the 13 songs on that album, and at least six of them are brilliant. But “I’m gonna love her ‘til the cows come home?â€? Cripes. And a lousy middle eight, too.
“The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill,� The Beatles. Even if this song had Bonnie Bramlett on backups instead of Yoko, it would still suck.
“Because,� Abbey Road. Lennon noodling at the slowest pace possible. See, kids, heroin can be bad for you!
Paul:
“Love Me Do,� Please Please Me. A false start for a pretty good band. Let’s leave it at that.
“Hold Me Tight,� With the Beatles. A weak song, weakly sung. What’s to like?
“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,� Abbey Road. You know, Paul, we’re giving all your “music hall� compositions a pass here, because we think you’re a good sort of fellow. When you’re 64 and dancing with honey pie, your mother should know, or maybe you could tell Lady Madonna. We just nod and grit our teeth at that stuff. But when this song comes on, we actually scream, make him stop! make him stop! We understand you subjected the other three Beatles to hundreds of takes of this one. Bang bang, indeed.
George:
“Old Brown Shoe,� single. Pretty embarrassing, really. The funny thing is, though, that Ringo’s drumming on this is terrific.
“Only a Northern Song,� Yellow Submarine. All I can say is that I’m so glad they kept this one off Sgt. Pepper.
“The Inner Light,� single. Make him stop! Make him stop!
Underrated
John:
“I’ll Be Back,â€? A Hard Day’s Night. Three gorgeous little melodic lines in one song. It’s like an excess of canny pop songwritin’ — and yet it’s only two minutes and twenty seconds long!
“Yes It Is,â€? single. Everyone thinks Paul wrote all the weepy ballads. But some of the Beatles’ weepy ballads are John’s, and some of ‘em have seriously interesting melodies. Oh, yeah — the guy could sing, too. Check out the vocal control on those choruses.
“And Your Bird Can Sing,â€? Revolver. One of the best riffs in all of Beatledom. I have no idea why this one doesn’t get more airplay — and didn’t get much forty years ago either.
Paul:
“Things We Said Today,� A Hard Day’s Night. And Paul could write himself some seriously interesting melodies, too.
“For No One,� Revolver. See above. Plus that cool French horn solo! But that’s another topic altogether.
“Getting Better,� Sgt. Pepper. Oh, I expect to hear some howls for this one. But before you howl, go and listen to it again, this time with the bass turned up. That’s some great motherlovin’ bass-playin’ right there. Yes, there. What phrasing! Now aren’t you glad you listened closely? Told you.
George:
“Don’t Bother Me,� With the Beatles. I’ve never met anyone who liked this song, and apparently George didn’t think much of it either. I dunno. I think it kinda rocks.
“Long, Long, Long,� The Beatles. Overshadowed by that gently weeping guitar tune on side one, I suppose. But this is a pretty little thing, after all. Too bad about that stoned ending. See, kids, hallucinogens can be bad for you!
“I Me Mine,� Let It Be. Another song that never gets a hearing, for reasons that completely escape me.
Oh, and while you’re thinking about this Arbitrary But Fun game, I have here — for your listening pleasure or puzzlement — the three most underrated songs ever released by my old band Baby Opaque. Our entire oeuvre (all two records!) is now online, thanks to Michael Dean, Baby Opaque founder and world-famous impresario of the dark arts. Sure, everyone loves our cover of “Long Black Veilâ€?, largely because Ian MacKaye is in there singing backup. But there’s also “How Now Brown Maoâ€? from our smash debut EP, Pain, Fears, and Insects (1984), as well as the immortal “Cow Songâ€? and the controversial “Cold Damp Nightâ€? sequence from our triple-platinum LP, Fugue in Cow Minor (1985). They loved that one at the Budokan! But don’t ask me what the lyrics are about. The drummer doesn’t care about lyrics, you know.
Well, no, we didn’t actually play the Budokan. We played in a bunch of small clubs in Virginia and D.C., and that was about it. But I think it’s safe to say that we were one of the three most underrated post-punk thrash-glam death-dirge bands ever to come out of Charlottesville. And I admit to liking my weird drumming on “Brown Mao� after all these years: it’s the snare that comes so late in the bar as to make people think the song’s not in 4/4! But then, we didn’t fool all that many people, because we never played in front of all that many people. As one of Michael’s band posters once put it, “come and join the three or four people who will come and join us as we play our feel-bad rocknroll for you.�
Hope you’re all having an arbitrary but fun weekend!
79 Responses to “Arbitrary but Fun Sunday: Special Beatles Edition!”
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arbitrary indeed! maxwell’s silver hammer is one of my favourites, and one of the first to which i ever learned the chords. just about the least favourite of mine has to be ‘you know my name (look up the number).
Don’t own a single Beatles album/disc/tape, so I have no idea.
I so absolutely agree with “Love Me Do”- ick. Blech. Seriously phoning it in on that day…
John’s worst was “Woman”- too sappy. If he needed to apologize for screwing up to Yoko for whatever reason, he should have scribbled in a card, shelled out for some flowers and had done with it, instead of recording the stupid thing. Double blech and ick.
John’s worst was “Woman�- too sappy.
Very very sappy indeed, but Not a Beatle Composition, and so ineligible for this thread. Whew!
maxwell’s silver hammer is one of my favourites
I didn’t think this sentence could be uttered. But hey — that’s what makes it all arbitrary. And fun!
You are trolling, Berube.
I really like “Only a Northern Song”- and you are high if you don’t like Bungalo Bill. Higher than a freakin kite!
Whoever wrote the abhorrent “Run For Your Life”- that is just an evil song, the misogyny is more fitting of a Stones tune, but Jagger was usually much more casual about it. I just cannot listen to that song. Terrible.
PS, I hate “Please Please Me”- fingernails on a chalkboard!
And I will trade you “Honey Pie” for “Bungalo Bill” anytime!
I had to go check who had written most of these - you might take that as a proxy for my qualifications for weighing in. But my understanding is that participation is subject to individual will or judgment without restriction; contingent solely upon indivdual discretion … something like that.
Underrated: (I think that my judgment of the songs might be less arbitrary than my perception of the current “rating” of the song to determine if it is indeed “underrated”.)
Paul - Things We Said Today
John Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite …. overshadowed by others on the album.
Paul Back in the USSR ….Song is not really underrated, I just don’t think that most today do not appreciate what coming out with this song in the climate of 1968 represented.
Bad:
John - Run for Your Life … I know he has “apologized”, but so has Colin Powell.
Paul - Rocky Raccoon …. I will take Bungalow Bill over Rocky - neither represents a memorable part of the legacy.
George - Something … perhaps just over-listened-to by me.
I’ve always liked “Dear Prudence”. Not sure if it’s exactly underrated, though. And actually, I think “Hey Bulldog” is pretty good, and I don’t know if it was quite worthy of being relegated to Yellow Submarine. I also really like “Don’t Let Me Down”, but I’m not sure if that’s exactly underrated either. Actually, though, sometimes I think that the whole Let it Be album is written off prematurely, because of the awful post-break-up mix of it. The differences on Let It Be Naked are enough that the songs become better, and sometimes even great.
As for overrated…maybe “Penny Lane”? It’s borderline charming and awful all at once. And I absolutely abhor “Here Comes the Sun”. I always have, and I can’t say why. It just gets under my skin and makes my finger itch to change the song.
I gotta vote for all of Paul’s poetry. Blech!
George, who I so hate to diss because he was such a kind and wonderful person while he lived here in HI (in spite of an ugly dispute regarding beach access), deserves a special note for “I’ve got my mind set on you”.
While not a Beatles compisition and technically not applicable, I have it on good authority that our boys in Gitmo use it to great effect on suspected terrorists. Weird Al was right: that song is “just six words long”.
I think the only Beatles song I don’t like is “Your mother should know”.
“Paul - Rocky Raccoon …. I will take Bungalow Bill over Rocky - neither represents a memorable part of the legacy.”
Come on!
“Her name was McGill, and she called herself Lil, but everyone knew her as Nancy”…
How can you not like that?…
A lot of people dismiss Yellow Submarine as just a bit of kiddie pop but it is truly inspired nonsense. And that’s Donovan singing background.
Paul:
“Oh Darling!” which to my ears was Paul going “No! Really! I can so sing thee blues! Listen! I’m making my voice all rough and stuff!”
John:
“The Ballad of John & Yoko”. Honest and personal, but so what?
George:
“Blue Jay Way”. I listened to it on drugs, and it still made no sense.
Ringo:
“Act Naturally.” a one-liner.
I do have all of them on my iPod, however.
I’ve had a big hate on for “Obladi Oblada” for decades now, but that’s just me. I lerv “Penny Lane” because it’s the smuttiest song I ever heard on the radio. I also really go for the greatest song about handjobs ever, “Please Please Me”; between that one, “PS I Love You,” and “Misery” the boys seem to have pretty much bracketed the entire concept of hi-skool romance.
1. Love Me Do
2. Julia
3. I Me Mine
4. My Sweet Lord
5. Because
6. The entire Yellow Submarine album
If I understand the instructions correctly, you’re asking for 18 examples. I’m not up to that, but here are a few that come to mind:
George: I’ve always found “Within You, Without You” to be somewhat tedious. When listening to Sgt. Pepper, I would either skip it or wait impatiently for it to end. However, I do second “Long, Long, Long” as a good song, also “Piggies”.
Paul: “Michele” is rather sappy, with its French lyrics (well, one line is in French); it’s just too self-conciously “romantic” for me. “Sun King” I can also live without. I like “The Long and Winding Road”, which perhaps is not really underrated, but for a big orchestral production number it’s still good.
John: “Yer Blues”: not really a bad song, just too screechy for me to listen to comfortably. “Girl” I’m also not that fond of, mostly because of the chorus (”Oh girl, girl girl girl girl girl…”). On the plus side, I like the psychedelic numbers from Revolver: “She Said, She Said” and “Tomorrow Never Knows”.
“For No One” is absolutely kickass, and, yes, the french horn has a lot to do with pushing it over the top.
“I’ve Just Seen A Face” may be my favorite Beatles tune; it’s such a happy little song,
I like “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”, but I’ll trade it for “Oh Darling” off the same album.
I like John better, but Paul’s music tends to be my favorite. Does that make me shallow?
“Baby You’re a Rich Man” b/c it’s my younger brother’s favorite and he’d actually sing all of it (in addition to Down syndrome, he has oral motor apraxia, so he loses vocab and verbal ability most of the time)
Overrated? “Michelle”. Perhaps overplayed is a better termSame, but I really never need to hear that song again in my life. Same goes for “Yesterday”.
“Revolution #9″ b/c it’s nothing but pompous tripe. “Good Night”–ugh. The second half of the second half of The White Album is pretty stinky–had it been edited down to a single record, it would probably rivaled Sgt. Pepper.
“The Word”–yucky.
“I’m a Loser” is sort of it’s own category for me, b/c I didn’t really like the song till I learned how to play it on the guitar. I love playing it, but I can’t sing it b/c Lennon hits that last low note, and unless I’m getting laryngitis, I can’t get close.
Hmmm. Ones I don’t like?
Paul:
Michelle
John:
Run For Your Life
Girl
Revolution 9
Baby You’re a Rich Man
George:
Only a Northern Song
Who actually should be counted as having written “What Goes On”? Because I don’t like that one either.
(From this list you wouldn’t know that I am still in love with John Lennon, despite never having been alive at the same time as him.)
However, I would like to note that hating “Because”? HERESY. HERESY HERESY. How can you possibly hate that beautiful gorgeous harmony?
I love every song on Revolver. It’s my favorite Beatles album and quite possibly my favorite album full stop. I think the whole thing is underrated and underexposed.
I looooove “Yes It Is,” too. Oh God. That might be the most beautiful Beatles song.
Rubber Soul is my least favorite, as you can tell from the above.
Hey drummer man, how do you like the drums on “Tomorrow Never Knows” and “She Said She Said”?
The only Beatles song that I like is “Across the Universe”, mainly because most people don’t know it. Or they think it’s by Fiona Apple.
I can’t stand… well, anything on the “#1″ compilation. All those songs have been overplayed, IMO.
Very bad: John, “Run For Your Life”. Psychotic stalker creepiness. The kid from “No Reply” is now older but has learned nothing about women.
Bad: Paul, “Your Mother Should Know”. You can see the champagne bubbles.
Underrated By Those Here: George, “Only A Northern Song”. Yes, it’s a throwaway, but, hell, it’s _supposed to be a joke_ …
“Revolution #9″.
Don’t care who wrote it, just a waste of an otherwise decent album. It’s one thing to write a horrible song, it’s another to inflict it on a paying customer for 20 minutes.
Worst:
Honey Pie
Michelle
Yesterday
(not a big Paul fan)
Best:
another vote for pretty much all of “Revolver”
Things We Said Today
and a special mention for Got to Get You into My Life, even though I’ve already covered it under the umbrella of Revolver
I’m not Beatles-centric enough to have an opinion, but to stray off topic a bit, this is fun: Beatles vs. White Stripes
I like “Girl” for that part where John sucks in his breath through his teeth on the chorus. Very sexy.
Meet the other guy who likes “Don’t Bother Me”. Snark before snark was snarky. Unique in that it’s the only song credited to George and John.
Michelle, Yesterday, and Maxwell’s Silver Hammer. Those are the worst. I’ll have to think about the most underrated.
I’ve always had a special loathing for “Twist and Shout” (too many school dances), “Michelle”, “In My Life,” and sadly, “Here Comes the Sun” (overplayed, or maybe just too tinny for me). Hard to say what constitutes an underrated Beatles song…but as far as lesser-played ones, I am partial to “Two of Us”, “Baby You’re a Rich Man,” and “I’m Only Sleeping”. And sap that I am, I especially love “Golden Slumbers” / “Carry that weight,” and just about everything on Revolver.
Aside from Here Comes the Sun and Michelle (which others have already identified) I don’t know who wrote what and I’m too lazy to look it up. But great thread and now I know what I’ll be listening to for the rest of the evening…
Sorry. I’m Gen-X. Beatles? Soooooooo before my time.
Special mention for “Girl”; listen to the chorus for “Tit, tit, tit, tit, tit, tit, tit!” Even gangster rap doesn’t have that much tit, lol (and yes, it was on purpose)
“Run For Your Life” is everything the haters say it is, but John himself slagged it off as an album filler back in the days of the “Lennon Remembers” interviews for Rolling Stone where he went through a bunch of songs and said whether they were John, Paul or both. He pointed out he simply built it around a line he stole wholesale from an Elvis Presley song — the first one, in fact, “I’d rather see you dead little girl, than to be with another man.” I can’t remember the original song except that this line was the last line in the verse rather than the first.
For an interesting contrast, scare up the “This Bird Has Flown” 40th anniversary tribute album to “Rubber Soul,” where the Cowboy Junkies do a really languid yet hostile version, thereby paying back the misogyny with, well, whatever the converse concept is called.
As to the original question:
John — worst, RFYL; most underrated, “It’s Only Love” or “I Don’t Wanna Spoil the Party”
Paul — worst, “All Together Now”; most underrated, “I’m Looking Through You”
George — worst, “It’s All Too Much”; most underrated after “Long Long Long,” “Think For Yourself”
Keeping in mind that I don’t even dislike the songs I listed as worst all that much, and that the fact that “It’s All Too Much” really was all too much at over six minutes, and that George, with his dry sense of humor, probably meant to do that.
No Ringo? I’ve always maintained that he was the most talented Beatle because he wrote the fewest bad songs. In any case:
Underrated:
John: I second Michael’s “And Your Bird Can Sing”, on Revolver
Paul: “I Will”, The Beatles. The clipetty-clops could be cloying, but I’ve always found them pretty charming. Alternatively, “Two Of Us” from Let It Be, but I’m not sure that’s underrated.
George: “It’s All To Much”, Yellow Submarine.
Overrated:
Pretty much everything on The Beatles that’s isn’t underrated is overrated, except for the buried “leg!” and “foot!” exclamations after the “let the children lend a hand” bits in “Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da”
Paul’s worst song was unquestionably “We’re So Sorry/Uncle Albert.” John’s was “Glass Onion.” I respect you as an academic and stixman extraordinaire, Bérubé, but these are incontrovertable facts.
Good to see you here, Michael.
“Wild Honey Pie” off the white album is, in my opinion, the worst song ever written. It is not merely the worst beatles tune, but in fact the most horrifying thing ever recorded by any artist. Note that I am not referring here to “Honey Pie” (not a great song either) but to its wild counterpart. I mean, were they sitting around one day when all of a sudden someone said, “Hey, lets make horrible cacaphonous noises will screaming ‘honey pie,’ record the whole thing, and put it on an album for mass consumption.” I love the beatles, but DAMN that song is awful.
Love the thread by the way, it isn’t often that I have a constructive avenue through which to vent about “Wild Honey Pie.”
Hmmm, I should’ve had yet another category for “most overplayed.” Because I think it’s all but impossible to listen to songs like “Yesterday” anymore. Jamie was just playing his Love CD today — the one George and Giles Martin remixed for Cirque du Soleil — and I was genuinely surprised to find that “Yesterday” is actually 30 percent less schmaltzy than, say, “Long and Winding Road,” 40 percent less annoying than “Lady Madonna,” and the actual complete opposite of the grating and screaming “Oh, Darling.” It’s really pretty restrained. But I’d avoided it for about 25 years and consigned it to the Truly Regrettable bin.
Likewise with “Here Comes the Sun.” That’s a gorgeous little tune, and the hand-claps in the instrumental section are actually quite inventive and difficult. But I can sympathize with people who just can’t stand to hear it anymore. And yeah, the #1 collection is like a Cavalcade of the Overplayed.
Random and arbitrary responses: “The Ballad of John and Yoko” is honest etc. — and also threadbare and self-indulgent. It’s up there on my Musts to Avoid, but Jamie likes it. And yes, RJ, John was mailing it in on “Glass Onion.” Oh, but that reminds me! “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey” — way, way underrated. “Run for Your Life” is indeed very creepy. And so are “You Can’t Do That” and “No Reply.” What can we say? The guy had abandonment issues. But “Girl” (and “It’s Only Love”) are just gossamer melodies.
How can anyone hate “Please Please Me”? How?
And yow, the drumming on “Tomorrow Never Knows” is brilliant. “She Said She Said” is almost brilliant. And check out the nifty footwork on the bass drum in “What Goes On”!
“Twist and Shout” is Not a Beatles Composition. They had some time to fill on the end of one album and chose that song after a five-minute confab over cigarettes, or so I am given to understand. They almost got sued over it, too.
Oh, and this whole thread? Heretics!
XI. Thou Shalt Not Trash-Talk The Beatles.
:P
Only three Beatles songs I can stand to listen to at all anymore:
“You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away”
“Paperback Writer”
“Hello Goodbye”
The rest are either so overplayed they don’t even register, or so overepraised they’re infuriating.
i agree on For No One. always been one of my favorites and no one else seems to ever even heard of it!
How can anyone trash the beatles? Or worse, not know anything by them??? I am 19 and know their music by heart….my brain is exploding
Good to know, Chan. I’ll substitute “Birthday” *shudder*.
Totally loathe “Hey Jude”, especially the last three minutes which repeats over and over and over and over and…
“Wild Honey Pie� off the white album is, in my opinion, the worst song ever written.
WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT THAT SONG IS AWESOME
If you don’t like “Wild Honey Pie,” you don’t like late-period Beatles.
there is only one useless beatles song-’The Long & Winding Road’ We hates it, yes we do!
I’m not going to break it down by whose singing, but just go for the Beatles as a group, and I’m trying to pick ones people haven’t mentioned yet:
3 Worst:
It’s Only Love - now, I adore the tune to this song, but the lyrics are so bad they make my head hurt - “I get high when I see you go by / my oh my / when you sigh my, my insides just fly / butterflies”
Bungalow Bill - it’s a tough choice which is worse, this or Rocky Raccoon, but at least Rocky Raccoon doesn’t have a chorus of children. God, I hate choruses of children.
Birthday - Now, this is a nice enough song, and I realize we’re not going for the “most over-played” vote but. my god. The radio played this every day as I was getting ready for school and If I never have to hear this song again, it will be way, way too late.
3 Favorites:
And Your Bird Can Sing - I have to agree with those who have mentioned it.
I’ll Follow The Sun - an early number, so plainly produced that the melody and sentiment just shine
Martha My Dear - fun, sweet, catchy, it would be horrible if it were overplayed but luckily I only hear it when *I* want to
Also, while it’s not one of my favorites, I have to stick up for Old Brown Shoe. The opening line ought to at least get it out of the bottom of the pile: “I want a love that’s right but what’s right is only half of what’s wrong / I want a short-haired girl who sometimes wears it twice as long”.
“And Your Bird Can Sing” - way under-rated. That twin-guitar line is exquisite, and the parallel third sound predates the Allman Brothers by a few years.
Michael, you’re right - “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide …” is an overlooked gem. Here’s one that was almost another gem: The riff on “Hey Bulldog” is greatand the track starts out strong, but ultimately fizzles out. Guess that’s why it wound up on the “Yellow Submarine” soundtrack.
As for “Please Please Me” - love it. And a light went on when I learned that John wrote it as a slow, dramatic Roy Orbison number - it was supposed to build up to an emotional climax at the end, sort of like “Crying” I guess. They speeded it up in the studio. That makes complete sense.
And thanks for giving Ringo his props. Not only is “Tomorrow Never Knows” a great drum part, so’s “Strawberry Fields Forever.” Somebody (can’t remember who) pointed out that you can hear a Ringo drum track by itself and pick out the song 9 times out of 10. Not too many drummers you can say that about …
Hey! Something I’m kind of an expert on, for once!
Underrated John songs:
I love love LOVE “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey”, even though I cannot for the life of me figure out the rhythm until after the first verse is over. Don’t know why I love it so, but I do.
“Hey Bulldog” That riff is just evil.
“Rain”. Gawd I love that song.
And I’m going to cheat and throw in another: “I’m Only Sleeping”. I’m so glad someone out there shared my appreciation of sleep, and hatred of being woken, besides the cats.
Underrated Paul songs:
“I’m Looking Through You”
“Lovely Rita”
“She Came In Through The Bathroom Window”; Joe Cocker was right–that song, though squished in the middle of a medley, really moves.
Underrated George songs:
“It’s All Too Much” and
“Only a Northern Song”
“I Me Mine”, which is criminally short.
Most underrated Beatles song of all time: “Eine Kleine Middle Klasse Musik” by the Rutles. Ha!
Oh and on the blaspheming side of things (since the button below says I must): I can’t get enough of the remix of “Drive My Car/The Word/What You’re Doing” off the new Love album. Once my brain got over it and stopped screaming, of course.
Ones I always skip:
John:
“Don’t Let Me Down”, though I think it’s just the opening that puts me off. If I make myself listen to it I quite get into it by the end. It’s like my relationship with cornbread. I always think I don’t like it, but if I take a bite I find I do. Every time.
Paul:
Can’t think of any for Paul. Not any that I dislike enough to skip over, anyway.
George:
“Old Brown Shoe”
“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” I just can’t deal with it. Too long, too maudlin.
I used to have a hard time with “Within You Without You” but then I took up belly-dancing.
I guess it’s a measure of their much-lauded greatness that I went through all my albums and could only find 3 songs I regularly skip.
You might be able to tell my favorite Beatles stuff is from the psychedelic-colorful-richly-layered period. The early stuff is way too ordinary for me (to the point where I don’t have anything before Beatles For Sale) and the later stuff gets a little bleak (though of course I have all the late stuff). My tastes are probably something to do with seeing Yellow Submarine on TV when I was a kid; and the almost mythic significance it took on in those days before the VCR, when you had to luck out and catch it once a year.
On a semi-related note, this year in the garden we had four of the giant Globemaster alliums planted in a group. If you don’t know what they look like, they’re like giant firework/lollipop flowers about 10″ across, all just about the same height. They got named, of course, John Paul George and Ringo (Ringo was the short one).
As for Berubé’s problems with “Yesterday”, all I can say about it is that it used to be on the 40-minute repeat tape they played over and over every single damned day I worked my one and only retail job back in the day, and it is the ONLY song from that playlist I can hear, even now, without screaming.
So, yes, I have to disagree with the missy who wrote this.
Maxwell’s silver hammer is the shit. Musically and lyrically. I get the feeling that paul wrote the song knowing full well he’d sound like a moron and I admire that. But no seriously, a song about murderous hammering??? SAWEEEET!
SECOND… michelle, because, and yesterday are jolly good. maybe its because I was a madrigal musician on the side for a few years, and I seem to like something that can turn into a Chicago symphony number.
Revolver stuff is fantastic. I guess I agree with most of the peeps above.
A very underrated song: “Rain” Wonderful psychedelia; the band was *definitely high on drugs when they did that one. And it has Ringo’s best drumming — just play the song to any *drummer* and ask them what they think.
“Yer Blues” is also underrated, severely.
And, for George, “Savoy Truffle”, one of my favourite songs, especially for the instrumentation, including the use of saxophones like a horn section.
Anyone here heard the Pixies version of “Wild Honey Pie”?
It’s a trip.
k, everyone here is right and wrong. most, if not all beatles songs mentioned are really good. very few beatles numbers can be considered bad. perhaps in relation to other beatle songs, but even the tripest, most shallow, least imaginative of their songs outweigh 99% of all other pop music since.
tho personally i am of the mind that as a whole phenom, the beatles are over-rated, in that they only rode the crest of pop music change, and were not the agents of change themselves.
that being said, who ever said (and there were many) that revolution #9 was crap is right.
however, other things like wild honey pie and the other goofy stuff (mainly off the white album) was inspired nuttiness; the very flippancy of the pointlessness of the lyrics or simple melodies were, i believe, statements about creating music. or as groucho turned to the camera and said in animal crackers, “they can’t all be gems, folks.”
“you know the name, look up the number” one of my personal favs. “why don’t we do it in the road,” another. i love the throw-aways.
i don’t think you can separate any of the songs on the second side of abbey road. to my mind, it’s a great example of a concept half-an-album. also, her majesty is another example of the beatles throw-away goofiness that is still miles ahead of most pop music today. it’s just a joke, kids, don’t take it so seriously.
also, whoever mentioned “act naturally” for ringo should know that it was a cover of a buck owens classic, and so couldn’t really count as a beatles song.
that being said, watching roger wateers on live earth last night reminds me how great pink floyd was. why don’t you do an arbitrary but fun sunday edition about floyd?
Bad:
You better run for your life — nuff said by others
Michelle — Stupid, moronic 10 word song even if you do know French
Blue Jay Way — Fine George, you’re buddy Eric was late to see you because he was screwing your wife. That doesn’t mean you have to write about it, being late isn’t interesting.
Dishonorable Mention:
John’s — Baby You’re A Rich Man — listen again to what they actually sing during the last chorus. Homophobic and Anti-Semitic.
Underrated:
Something — compare the Beatles version to the most execrable song ever recorded, Frank Sinatra’s cover, and you will instantly see why understanding the idiom is everything in a performance.
Happiness is a Warm Gun — John at the very bottom of a depressive episode
Maxwell’s Silver Hammer — Paul finally nails existentialism and absurdity better than Satre and doesn’t realize it, but manages to rub his mastery of it into George and John by making them perform this nihilistic masterpiece a hundred times: they hate it and are secretly jealous that they didn’t come up with it. None of the four realize that Paul making them perform it zillions of times is the perfect Sisphysis enactment.
They didn’t write it, but Mr Moonlight is the worst thing they ever recorded.
Most underrated: ‘wait’ and ‘think for yourself’, both from Rubber Soul.
I didn’t rate these songs myself, and still don’t, if we’re talking about the Beatles’ recordings of them. But when I heard the versions on Rubber Folk, they were completely different. Cara Dillon singing ‘wait’ is going to be played at my funeral.
I’m really surprised no one has mentioned “Tax Man” so far. Not only the worst Beatles song ever, one of the worst songs ever, period.
It’s hard for me to react to the Beatles the way I might to artists newer to me because they were the first crack in the priggish wall I had erected as an arrogant reactionary child-nerd against rock in general.
Well, Jesus Christ Superstar, being endorsed by nuns, was the first crack really; the framing of Jesus as being persecuted essentially by the Nixon Administration was really subversive. (So was the whole Mary Magdalene as girlfriend bit). And I could read the words of the songs on the album holder, so I actually understood them. When you are 90 percent deaf these things make a big difference.
Basically I tell people I grew up under a rock on Mars.
But one day, I was already in high school and back in Florida, so this must have been 1981 or ‘82, one of my sisters borrowed the “Love Songs” album from the base library. I’m sure most of y’all are dying of sugar overdose already just imagining. But then she played it, and I kept running into the room saying “Hey, I know that tune!” From elevator music mainly, or perhaps Sesame Street; my parents never tuned in to the rock stations. So I knew them in their softest forms, and hearing the originals was a total revelation to me. That and the fact that they’d written half the elevator music I’d ever heard.
After that I started to try and listen to more of the rock my other sister was always trying to interest me in (she’s even deafer than me, but she turned it way up on the headphones). And at Caltech I learned I could listen to music much better stoned. (Still later–that once I learned to do that, and then listend to the same familiar music not stoned, that I could then hear a lot more…) But being so damn deaf makes me very conservative about music; once something appeals to me I like to hear it over and over to get stuff I probably missed the other 87 times, and when you do that eventually it wears tracks in your mind and you can’t really hear it at all.
So I went for the Beatles first, and didn’t branch out much. My eventual considered opinion was that Abbey Road was the greatest overall album, and The White Album was packed full of goodies as well as weird nasty crap.
Later when I lived with Natasha, she adored the Beatles uncritically (she was born in 1952 and came by that kind of fandom honestly, as Douglas Adams for instance had). So we got a lot of these albums as CDs and listened to them on frequent long road trips.
The night I took her to the hospital for the last time, we had Revolver in the CD changer, and I listened with new ears while I drove to Tomales in the middle of the night to find her daughter (Natasha’s only legal next of kin; the hospital needed her for authorizations and stuff). I think that was the first time the words of “And Your Bird Can Sing” came through to me. (We had a green canary named Dimitri that she adored. “…and your bird is green; you won’t see me; you won’t see me…”) That kind of sarcastic/ironic reading of the familiar words went on as she was dying over the next few days, and when I drove down to the funeral home in Petaluma to make arrangements it’s a wonder I didn’t get into a wreck because the tears were blinding me all down the 101. “You’re Gonna Lose That Girl”;”Ticket to Ride (”she’s got a ticket to ride, and she don’t care…my baby don’t care…”) and on and on like that.
It was basically a good thing for me, under the circumstances, since I didn’t actually get into an accident.
So I really can’t put them on a shelf and say, “this one sucks; this one is great…” It’s all too charged with mythic biographical significance. I do kind of feel they were limited in various ways and not the mystic gurus I once thought they were–but you know, a lot of white bourgeois kids like me had that impression too.
“Run For Your Life” is just plain evil, of course. I knew that the first time I heard it. No amount of anointing of John Lennon by Spider Robinson could cleanse that one.
Manogirl: how much would you hate me if I say that having watched the first 2 seasons of Battlestar Galactica, I have this fantasy of the Colonial Fleet finally finding Earth, in our own era, and after we adopt their technology and make huge fleets of battlestars to defend Sol and fan out in dozens of colonies, naval ships returning to home port at Sol would adopt the custom of playing “Here Comes the Sun” on the ship’s loudspeakers? If it became the anthem of the Terran/Colonial society?
I do have a special, modern not inherited from my naivest days, love for “Love You Too” for its Hindu sound. (Presumably at least that part, if not the whole song, is George?) That was my favorite track before Natasha died, and I’ve never learned the words at all, so it isn’t as haunted for me as lots of the old standbys became.
Is there someplace I can see the words?
And speaking of words, how many of you have heard the tracks of “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You” they recorded in German? They’re on Past Masters. “Komm gibt mir deine Hand!”
But I particularly love the rendering of “She Loves You.”
“…sie lieb dich! Ja! Ja! Ja!”
The Beatles swore they’d never record in German again after that…
All right, deep dark secret time.
I hate the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. This has truly been my deepest darkest secret since I was 12.
One of friends told me that it is mandatory that you like one or the other.
I am so ashamed. Is there a 12 step program for The I hate 60s rock in general, and find Baby Boomers over glorifying everything annoying, because dammit Shawshank Redemption should have one the Oscar, and not stupid the stupid narcissistic navel gazing Babyboomer flick Forrest Gump?
Sign me up if there is. And yeah, I am still bitter about Shawshank Redemption losing.
Um, isn’t Stephen King about as Boomer as they come?
Let’s not forget that “Run for Your Life” is catchy as all hell. It’s got skiffle cheer, an ambivalent blues undertow , a killer hook, and as tight and polished a lyric as any mid-period Beatles song. It’s got none of the weaselly subtlety of “Every Breath You Take” and a better melody than “The One I Love”. It’s more over-the-top than either.
Did John apologize for the song because he was an angry misogynist when he wrote it, or did he apologize for it because his personal and political radicalism had taken him to a place where that sort of joke wasn’t funny anymore to him? We are talking his and Yoko’s 1970s by that point, no?
Speaking of John and Yoko, “The Ballad of” punches me in the gut every time. It’s personal and honest but with a sense of proportion: it evokes the guy’s emotional state with that same crisp succinctness (see “tight and polished” above) but it’s not exhibitionist or overindulgent. It’s funny, it’s fun, it’s light on its feet and it’s built atop a heck of a bass hook.
Not still smarting over the way that weird, weird Yoko broke up the one-dimensionally cheery, obscurantist beat combo that made “Sgt. Pepper”, are we?
“Ballad of John and Yoko” was one of those tunes I knew as peppy, treacly elevator music. When I finally listened to the original the contrast between its dark foreshadowing of Lennon’s own assasination and the bubble-gum version I’d always known blew my mind.
One can grow up remarkably sheltered, repressed, and ignant in this country, but one pays a price…
Oh, “I’ll Follow the Sun” is definitely underrated. Thanks, Shauna. Ditto for “Rain.” Ringo said it was the best drumming he’d ever done, and that’s probably true — the guy was much more versatile than people give him credit for, anyway. I mean, imagine that you’re a drummer and your band gives you material ranging from “I Saw Her Standing There” to “Ticket to Ride” (great drumming there too) to “Come Together.”
Which reminds me:
You love it because of that rhythmic head-fake, Thalia. At least I do. Which reminds me:
RJ, one of my future ABF posts here will deal with great riffs that fizzle out. I’ve been meaning to do this for some time, by way of noting that the Stones, who basically wrote their songs around riffs, are especially distinguished in this category. “Satisfaction” is the locus classicus, but “Monkey Man” is an even better example.
And I’m sorry, but “Think for Yourself” sux. The lyrics are annoying, the song is thin, and god only knows what the hell Ringo is doing. Only Paul’s fuzz bass holds that thing together.
Not still smarting over the way that weird, weird Yoko broke up the one-dimensionally cheery, obscurantist beat combo that made “Sgt. Pepper�, are we?
This can’t possibly be directed at me. Anyone else smarting? Anyone else think the Beatles were one-dimensional and cheery (and obscurantist too) before John and Yoko became an item in ‘68?
Anyone else think the Beatles were one-dimensional and cheery (and obscurantist too) before John and Yoko became an item in ‘68?
Not me. I’m a big Yoko fan, but the group that recorded “She Said She Said,” “Rain,” “Tomorrow Never Knows,” “I’m a Loser,” “Help,” “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” etc. was hardly one-dimensional and cheery.
As for obscurantism, I don’t know how big a movement that was among mid-twentieth century Liverpool pop groups. But an obscurantist would never say “We’re bigger than Jesus now” - would they??
Can someone clear up for me whether or not Michael Jackson owns the rights to every Beatles song?
I haven’t bought any Beatles CDs because I wasn’t sure who’s getting the proceeds, and my audio tapes from the early 90s are wearing out….
“sin’t Stephen King as boomer as they come?
yes, probably, but since I don’t normally read Stephen King, I couldn’t really discuss his boomer status with any authority.
My point is that Forrest Gump frustrated it me with it’s “boomer navel gazing” and Shawshank Redemption didn’t have that quality.
waitaminit, Shawshank hasn’t won any awards?! that’s just not right.
…one of my future ABF posts here will deal with great riffs that fizzle out
Sounds like fun! ‘Cuz can’t you hear us knocking for some more boomer navel gazing. .. well, some of us*.
*Not to disagree with robienne on the well-deserved place of the Gumpster for such things as the most heavy-handed and gratuitous use of “boomer” music ever (such as the oh-so-subtle use of Fortunate Son) … which is saying something**.
**Insufferable musical n00b that I am, I am usually a pretty easy mark. For instance I actually liked some of the ways Big Chill used the music. I found the many flaws in that film to be mostly elsewhere.
Agree about Love Me Do, but must point out that it was a John song.
Bad George:
Within Without You
Bad John:
Run for Your Life
Baby’s in Black
Bad Paul:
Too extensive to enumerate, but For No One and Got to Get You Into My Life sure diminish the momentum of their otherwise greatest album. And Obla-di-Obla-da —
criminy!
Underrrated John:
Rain
I Dig a Pony
Across the Universe
Underrated Paul:
I’ll Follow the Sun
She’s a Woman
I’m Looking Through You
I won’t break these down by composer but:
bad:
Sun King - wtf is this trash doing on Abbey Road. totally out of place
The Long and Winding Road - so sappy i can barely stand it. Paul pretty much invented lame, cheesy 70’s super-lite pop with this one.
Get Back - again i just feel like with some of tracks from this same period they lost alot of the rawness, the edge that made other songs great…sounds like coasting.
good/underrated:
I’ve Just Seen A Face - gorgeous Paul melody, lyrics more mature than they should have been. wonderful
Getting Better - the crystallization of everything great about Sgt. Peppers, in my opinion. somehow psychedelic and rocking at the same time.
You’ll Know What To Do - as far as I know never made it past demo stage, but a really nice mid-tempo melody from very early George. would have been a keeper with full production. george was better later, but not by as much as most believe…
I’m not that good at the overrated ones, but I can think of some underrated songs:
Paul: The Night Before, from Help! No one mentions this and I love it. I didn’t even remember its existence until my children started listening to it.
George: I agree with you, Michael, about Don’t Bother Me. Now you’ve met someone else who thinks its terrific.
John: That’s tough. Not many of his songs are underrated. I’ll go with Godmonkey’s suggestion of Rain. The Grateful Dead did an awesome version of this in concert in Boston in 1993 or 1994.
I’m somewhat of an authority, since I share Paul’s bday (but not year). That was worth a few social points in 1967. My absolute favorite Beatles song is In My Life, from the Rubber Soul album. Judy Collins, of whom I am not generally a fan, did a sweet version. The version that was used in the TV show Providence was even better - it had a good bit of grit and regret overlaying the sweetness. Sorry I don’t know who recorded it. Rain is also very underrated. In high school, a friend of a friend played and sang a simple rendition that is stuck in my mind forever. I wonder what became of her.
Only a Northern Song
You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)
It’s All Too Much and the rest of Yellow Submarine
Yellow Submarine is just awful. The only reason their aren’t dozens of hidden gems of Beatles songs in the vaults is because all the odds and sods were thrown onto Yellow Submarine, and ANYTHING worthwhile, even a bar or a phrase, was then pasted together for Abbey Road.
We know everything The Boys laid down or wrote, and all the brilliant stuff (and a lot of crap) is known. There are no hidden songs on the caliber of “Michelle” or “Yesterday” or “While My Guitar…” laying about.
Do you like all music written by genius?
It’s like saying you don’t like Beethoven. That’s cool, and fine and all. You don’t have to like it.
But can you say that he wasn’t brilliant and one of the best at what he did, ever?
Beatles are the same. You can hate them, but damned if they weren’t brilliant.
Monkey Man is perfect I tell you- perfect.
“Got to Get You Into My Life” is actually underrated. Just look at all the different angles they are playing on that album. It is just another piece of the perfect Revolver pie.
I do note the backlash against the hippi-ish songs that kids like- I think this is people growing out of their child-of-boomers phase. Remember how we all loved “Rocky Raccoon” and “Bungalo Bill” and “Yellow Submarine” and “Ob la di Ob la da” and “Octopus’ Garden”? I think those songs are still OK, most of us are just in a different place now.
[…] Other Worthwhile Reads: I am staggeringly late on this stuff thanks to the spate of One Day in Your Life posts over the weekend, but it’s still worth a look. Pandagon is one of my favorite current-events blogs, although they usually dip into the subject of music on the weekends. The blog contributors (and its typical readers) are younger than I am, but every now and then they hit a music topic of interest to the elderly. On Sunday, they were kicking around the worst and best songs written by John, Paul, and George (”Ringo only wrote two, so he’s off the hook”). Lots of love for Revolver and not as much as you’d think for Sgt. Pepper–and a surprising number of people who claim either not to know anything about the Beatles at all, or to actively dislike them. […]
Someone who thinks Run for Your Life is pure evil: tell us what you think of Alison. Or I Can See For Miles. A hell of a lot of rock and roll is by and for angry and immature boys.
[…] This week’s pick was inspired by a recent post on Pandagon, wherein “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Billâ€? was chosen as one of the three worst Beatles songs penned by John Lennon, My Retro Boyfriend ™. Naturally, I disagree. Wholeheartedly. […]
[…] This week’s pick was inspired by a recent post on Pandagon, wherein “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Billâ€? was chosen as one of the three worst Beatles songs penned by John Lennon, My Retro Boyfriend ™. Naturally, I disagree. Wholeheartedly. […]