• I soaked up the music of The Beatles with my mother’s milk. When I was a kid, I used to love their early albums, especially A Hard Day`s Night and Rubber Soul. When I am listening to the Beatles these days it are mostly the albums from Sgt. Pepper onwards.

    First we learned to walk on water.

    Then we tried something harder.

    - Red Seven -

  • I was listening to Something the other day & was particularly struck by Paul's bass part. I had the pleasure of seeing him sing it last December. It was one of the most uplfiting moments ever. He started it on a ukulele & told us how George loved George Formby (which frankly meant nothing to the Australian audience).

  • One thing that I think is often overlooked when talking about Paul is what an incredible singer he is/was. He's such an iconic figure that people seem to hardly listen to what he actually did. I personally don't know many singer with a range going from Helter Skelter which would give any hard rock singer a run for his money, over song like I will or Here, There and Everywhere, to his cover of Long Tall Sally or Martha my Dear. The sheer power, flexibility and versatility of his voice is simply incredible. He really makes a beautiful sound.

  • One thing that I think is often overlooked when talking about Paul is what an incredible singer he is/was. He's such an iconic figure that people seem to hardly listen to what he actually did. I personally don't know many singer with a range going from Helter Skelter which would give any hard rock singer a run for his money, over song like I will or Here, There and Everywhere, to his cover of Long Tall Sally or Martha my Dear. The sheer power, flexibility and versatility of his voice is simply incredible. He really makes a beautiful sound.

    Agree. He is incredibly versatile and very convincing in all of his modes.


    And in response to your reply above, yes Paul has many other great bits. The bass on Rain, the acoustic guitar in Blackbird, the melody for the piccolo trumpet on Penny Lane...

  • I just heard Penny Lane on the radio while driving. Never fails to put me in a good mood and automatically makes me smile and sing along.

    I wish they would release the rare version with the final piccolo trumpet line over the last few seconds. I have it on vinyl on Rarities but I don't think it was released subsequently.

  • Particularly love Paul's guitar solo in Taxman - great bit.

    It's an astonishing piece of work. You may have spotted it gets cut up and backtracked during Tomorrow Never Knows (surely one of the most stunning songs of the 60s. Or ever) - thus giving the album a nicely bookended feel.

    Abandon all reason

  • I just heard Penny Lane on the radio while driving. Never fails to put me in a good mood and automatically makes me smile and sing along.

    If I ever had to do the near-impossible task of picking out just one Beatles track as a desert-island disc, this would be the one. For the reasons you said, plus how deceptively complex it is. Even for such a simple-sounding singalongy song, it goes in subtle unexpected directions.


    The piccolo trumpet solo is indeed sublime and I gather McCartney sang it to the player to show what he wanted. The piano track is 8 tracks mixed together, giving it that richness.


    And probably my favourite lyric ever: "And though she feels as if she's in a play, she is, anyway".

    Abandon all reason

  • We've had a "Genesis songs I'm afraid to admit I dislike" thread. As I said in that thread, no-one should ever have to be afraid to "admitting" disliking any song. As such, I wondered if given that so far in this thread we are fulsome in our praise and admiration of the Beatles, what are the ones where you think "That said, I'm not keen on...." - especially any that are generally regarded as sacred cows?


    For me, a couple of Harrison ones - While My Guitar Gently Weeps, which I find a bit tedious and quite pompous in the way some GH songs could be, and Here Comes The Sun, which I find a little twee and trebly and generally naff.


    Dare I revisit it, but also Walrus is quite underwhelming for me.

    Abandon all reason

  • Check out Yellow Matter Custard's version of WMGGW. I saw them perform a few years back. Fabulous!


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  • This one is quite surprising. Personally, I think [WMGGW] is probably George's best song ever and one of the Beatles' best.

    I don't think I could ever manage to rank all the songs on the White Album, but if I did...


    ..."While My Guitar Gently Weeps" would be at the top, but George's other tracks would be much lower.

    ...Most of Paul's tracks would be in the lower half, with "Honey Pie" at the bottom.

    ..."Revolution 9" would be somewhere in the top half, along with many of John's other tracks.


    For what it's worth, I consider the unlisted "Take Me Back" link to be a separate song, and thus count 31 tracks on the album.

    Little known fact: Before the crowbar was invented...


    ...crows simply drank at home.

  • ..."Revolution 9" would be somewhere in the top half, along with many of John's other tracks.

    I simply hate that track and it is one of the reason why I hate Yoko. She had nothing to do with the band break-up obviously, it is ludicrous to even consider that. They were simply drifting apart as people do, but somehow she managed to convince John, he could be something different or more than a pop-rock artist and as much as I love John, he clearly couldn't. Bear in mind at the time I even managed to listen twice to the B-Side of the Plastic Ono band Live in Toronto. This is how much I wanted to like his stuff. John has some really strong moments on the White Album, imo stronger than Paul's in general but that track is simply pretentious Nothing and the beginning of a Lennon I could have lived without: the, out of his league and unprepared, wannabe, vanguard artist, the self-styled and quite insincere working class hero, the politically and extremely glib and uncoherent engaged artist and so on. The White album, like any double album is imo a mixed bag but the remarkable feature of that album is John and Paul, stopped collaborating and competing. Without that competition and collaboration they started descending a bit into self-indulgence, and while in general I like John's songs better than Paul's on that album Revolution#9 is a clear example of that

  • I like the audacity of R9. Without wishing to be wilfully provocative, I find it easier listen to than WMGGW which I find a sombrerly over-earnest dirge. GH's songs on that album are generally poor. In his canon I think Something and Taxman are streets ahead of WMGGW.

    Abandon all reason

  • I like the audacity of R9.

    Just my opinion. but the only think bold about it, is slapping it on a Beatles album. It could have been titled Revolution#8 and have whole different sounds and atmosphere and it it would have been the same…...Equally audacious. It was basically John AND Yoko goofing around. That said, if you like listen to it it's quite OK but let's not kid ourselves into believing there's some sort of artistic merit to it. We would do no justice to one of the greatest songwriters ever.

  • Just my opinion. but the only think bold about it, is slapping it on a Beatles album. It could have been titled Revolution#8 and have whole different sounds and atmosphere and it it would have been the same…...Equally audacious. It was basically John AND Yoko goofing around. That said, if you like listen to it it's quite OK but let's not kid ourselves into believing there's some sort of artistic merit to it. We would do no justice to one of the greatest songwriters ever.

    In a way I think you've raised an interesting question about its artistic merit. Ian McDonald suggests it was an artistic achievement in being possibly the most commercially widely distributed piece of abstract art ever. It'd be interesting to know how many copies ever got past a single play. I disagree that appreciating it or arguing for its possible artistic merits takes anything away from appreciation of Lennon as a songwriter or does any injustice to his status as such. Indeed as a sound collage would we even count it as a 'song', rather think of its possible artistic merit in context of what you said, ie the boldness of slapping it on a Beatles album?


    I gather McCartney, lover of Stockhausen and musique concrete, and prime architect of the infamous Carnival of Light, was away and had no involvement in its creation, and wasn't too pleased to find it had been done and his name as usual co-credited.

    Abandon all reason


  • In a way I think you've raised an interesting question about its artistic merit. Ian McDonald suggests it was an artistic achievement in being possibly the most commercially widely distributed piece of abstract art ever. It'd be interesting to know how many copies ever got past a single play. I disagree that appreciating it or arguing for its possible artistic merits takes anything away from appreciation of Lennon as a songwriter or does any injustice to his status as such. Indeed as a sound collage would we even count it as a 'song', rather think of its possible artistic merit in context of what you said, ie the boldness of slapping it on a Beatles album?


    I gather McCartney, lover of Stockhausen and musique concrete, and prime architect of the infamous Carnival of Light, was away and had no involvement in its creation, and wasn't too pleased to find it had been done and his name as usual co-credited.

    By McDonald's criteria Yoko too is an abstract artist, she had her fair share of visibility, commercial distribution and exposure at that time with her….Music and her ...Art, but it was the 60' and by now we know for sure she is and always have been a con artist. Sure you can be abstract, when you know what you are doing, you master a medium and can allow yourself the luxury of going beyond that medium. That doesn't apply to Yoko though and alas to John either. I see that track as a massive exercise in self-indulgence. The Beatles were practically music gods and it was quite hard to say No to anything they wanted to do. Acknowledging it for anything different than what it is, namely one really off is imo doing John and his legacy a disservice but hey, I never said nobody can possibly like it. I would just object to taking it seriously.

    No, Paul wasn't pleased because I think he saw it for what it was , basically a travesty and also clearly Yoko making her mark on a Beatles album but as I said, any possibility of collaboration was gone be then. John fancying himself Stockhausen resented stuff like Martha my Dear and Obladi Oblada and even if he might have had a point, those too were self-indulgent, at least one of them knew where they came from and what they were about, without illusions of being something else or more than por-rock musicians

    In a way I think you've raised an interesting question about its artistic merit. Ian McDonald suggests it was an artistic achievement in being possibly the most commercially widely distributed piece of abstract art ever. It'd be interesting to know how many copies ever got past a single play. I disagree that appreciating it or arguing for its possible artistic merits takes anything away from appreciation of Lennon as a songwriter or does any injustice to his status as such. Indeed as a sound collage would we even count it as a 'song', rather think of its possible artistic merit in context of what you said, ie the boldness of slapping it on a Beatles album?


    I gather McCartney, lover of Stockhausen and musique concrete, and prime architect of the infamous Carnival of Light, was away and had no involvement in its creation, and wasn't too pleased to find it had been done and his name as usual co-credited.