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Post by Rob Allen on Oct 15, 2016 19:49:04 GMT -5
The misogynist and monogamist language of You Can't Do That earns it a place at the bottom of the Beatles' oeuvre in my mind.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Oct 15, 2016 20:16:59 GMT -5
Here's something that my girlfriend (who is also a Beatles fan) and I have discussed on occasion: what are the Top 3 worst Beatles' songs? The rules are that they have to be songs that the band officially released on Parlophone or Apple Records between 1962 and 1970; they have to have been penned by the band themselves (so, no covers); and you're not allowed to pick "Revolution 9", because that's not really a song, as such, it's closer to a piece of avant-garde art than music. My Top 3 Beatles' turkeys would probably be... "Ask Me Why" (B-side of "Please Please Me") - just a really nothingy tune and pretty forgettable overall. "She's A Woman" (B-side of "I Feel Fine") - Was quite a big tune at the time, but it's not aged well and the jerky, choppy guitar rhythm in the verses has always annoyed me. "Yes It Is" (B-side of "Ticket To Ride") - Comes on like an anemic rewrite of "This Boy", but with George's annoyingly 'whiny' volume pedal effect punctuating the lackluster melody. What are yours? I'll disagree with She's A Woman- it's a fine and distinctive song but to each their own My least favorites would be (off the top of me head) What Goes On- Ringo on vocals and recorded when the Beatles became enamored briefly with American country/western music Yeah, not a great song, but notable for being the only Beatles song to be credited to Lennon/McCartney/Starr. I'd love to know how much input Ringo actually had in it though. The Word-It's the lyrics that are piss poor. I think it's a Harrison tune. What's the word that the song is building mystery upon mystery upon. Why, the word is love. Good grief Yeah, I've always thought that this was a rather substandard tune as well. It was apparently an attempt to write a good song using only two chords. Trouble is, it's so boring that it really sounds like it only has two chords.  Still, lyrically the song is somewhat ahead of it's time in that it foreshadows and predicts the hippie generation's preoccupation with universal love two years later. Revolution # 9-really, how often do you really want to hear this. Credit for being experimental way back when but has no replay value You didn't read the rules, did you?  I actually quite like Revolution 9 within the context of the White Album. I would never choose to listen to it outside of that context though. |
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Post by Spike-X on Oct 15, 2016 20:53:10 GMT -5
The misogynist and monogamist language of You Can't Do That earns it a place at the bottom of the Beatles' oeuvre in my mind. That and Run For Your Life have a spot on my Misogyny's Greatest Hits playlist. |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Oct 15, 2016 21:07:34 GMT -5
OK if Revolution # 9 is disqualified (and yes, I saw Worst Beatles Songs and didn't bother reading the rest) I'll substitute it with Tell Me What You See, the most forgettable song they ever wrote
And given that, it's still better then so much that I hear among the current artists
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Post by Rob Allen on Oct 15, 2016 22:36:52 GMT -5
The misogynist and monogamist language of You Can't Do That earns it a place at the bottom of the Beatles' oeuvre in my mind. That and Run For Your Life have a spot on my Misogyny's Greatest Hits playlist. Yes! That's the other one I was trying to think of! |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Oct 16, 2016 7:46:08 GMT -5
The misogynist and monogamist language of You Can't Do That earns it a place at the bottom of the Beatles' oeuvre in my mind. That and Run For Your Life have a spot on my Misogyny's Greatest Hits playlist. Yes! That's the other one I was trying to think of! I was gonna say "Run For Your Life" in reply to Rob's comment too, but didn't for some reason. Really though, you have to see these sorts of songs both in the context of their times -- a time when it was OK for The Rolling Stones to put out a song like "Under My Thumb" or The Crystals to sing "He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)". You also have to view them understanding the lyrical abundance of casual violence towards women found in blues music, which rock 'n' roll had inherited to an extent from its blues roots. In all honesty though, songs like "Under My Thumb" and "Run For Your Life" are small fry compared to the rampant misogyny regularly found in modern hip hop. That's progress for ya, I guess! :rolleyes: OK if Revolution # 9 is disqualified (and yes, I saw Worst Beatles Songs and didn't bother reading the rest) I'll substitute it with Tell Me What You See, the most forgettable song they ever wrote And given that, it's still better then so much that I hear among the current artists Yeah, that's the thing, isn't it? Even a substandard Beatles song is better than most other artist's best music. |
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Post by berkley on Oct 16, 2016 19:37:51 GMT -5
I wouldn't say it's necessarily their worst song, but I Wanna Hold Your Hand is probably the one I like least of their big hits. I'm not a great fan of Love Me Do either, but I kind of give them a bit of a pass on that one since it was one of their very first songwriting efforts. And still sticking to their best-known material, Eight Days a Week, though I'd rank it pretty far ahead of the other two I mentioned, has never been a favourite of mine.
When I was small I used to think that You Know My Name (Come and Look Up my Number) was their worst song, not fully comprehending it was a comedy piece! It was the flip side to one of their 45s we had - Let It Be, I think?
I'd have to think a lot longer and look through the album tracks in depth to come up with three I really think are bad, though.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Oct 16, 2016 19:53:45 GMT -5
I wouldn't say it's necessarily their worst song, but I Wanna Hold Your Hand is probably the one I like least of their big hits. I'm not a great fan of Love Me Do either, but I kind of give them a bit of a pass on that one since it was one of their very first songwriting efforts. And still sticking to their best-known material, Eight Days a Week, though I'd rank it pretty far ahead of the other two I mentioned, has never been a favourite of mine. When I was small I used to think that You Know My Name (Come and Look Up my Number) was their worst song, not fully comprehending it was a comedy piece! It was the flip side to one of their 45s we had - Let It Be, I think? I'd have to think a lot longer and look through the album tracks in depth to come up with three I really think are bad, though. I don't know how old you are, but to be fair, with the very earliest of the Beatles songs, you need to judge it for what it was competing against in the pop market. It was very exciting and fresh to hear when it came out. Obviously millions and millions of listeners agreed You Know My Name(Look Up The Number) was such a wonky comedy song. From what I read, it was years in the making, a Beatles member would be in the studio on his own and add a little bit to the song. It continued to grow and grow as time passed by. Finally put on the flip side of a 45 as you stated but that was an edited version. A longer version is on the Anthology collection or somewhere else. There's probably bits of it that was never released |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Oct 16, 2016 20:30:38 GMT -5
Berkley's comment about I Want To Hold Your Hand got me curious so I did a quick google.
It was released in the USA on the last week of December 1963
The number 1 song then, the #1 song for 4 weeks in a row, was The Singing Nun doing Dominique. It's not a bad song, but listening to the radio and hearing it in heavy rotation for over a month, yeah, I'd be very excited over this new Beatles song
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Oct 16, 2016 23:16:02 GMT -5
I love the cracked quirkiness of "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)". It's very much influenced by the UK comedy band The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, who, incidentally, appeared in the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour film. John and Paul were both big fans of the Bonzo's surreal blend of trad jazz, pop and utterly bonkers comedy. "You Know My Name" is definitely cut from the same cloth as many of the Bonzo's zaniest songs. That's Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones playing sax on it too.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2016 10:55:54 GMT -5
Here's something that my girlfriend (who is also a Beatles fan) and I have discussed on occasion: what are the Top 3 worst Beatles' songs? The rules are that they have to be songs that the band officially released on Parlophone or Apple Records between 1962 and 1970; they have to have been penned by the band themselves (so, no covers); and you're not allowed to pick "Revolution 9", because that's not really a song, as such, it's closer to a piece of avant-garde art than music. My Top 3 Beatles' turkeys would probably be... "Ask Me Why" (B-side of "Please Please Me") - just a really nothingy tune and pretty forgettable overall. "She's A Woman" (B-side of "I Feel Fine") - Was quite a big tune at the time, but it's not aged well and the jerky, choppy guitar rhythm in the verses has always annoyed me. "Yes It Is" (B-side of "Ticket To Ride") - Comes on like an anemic rewrite of "This Boy", but with George's annoyingly 'whiny' volume pedal effect punctuating the lackluster melody. What are yours? I have very little memory of "She's A Woman" and "Yes It Is" ... but, my oldest brother always tells me that "Yes It Is ... is his worst Beatles Song of All-Time. I know and I have listened to "Ask Me Why" and we both agree that this song is truly a Junk Song that they put together in a hurry and we both agree that's it's no good at all. So that song is my worst Beatles song of all time. BTW, that's the only one that I know of Confessor. |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Oct 18, 2016 0:03:05 GMT -5
Saw on my library's website an audiobook entitles "When They Were Boy-the true story of the Beatles rise to the top" by Larry Kane.
I've been building up an audiobook library and this would be a keeper for sure. 12 CDS running close to 15 hours. The audiobook is copyrighted 2013. It's on loan right now and will probably get my turn at it by the end of the month
Anyone hear of it?
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Oct 18, 2016 7:40:51 GMT -5
Saw on my library's website an audiobook entitles "When They Were Boy-the true story of the Beatles rise to the top" by Larry Kane.I've been building up an audiobook library and this would be a keeper for sure. 12 CDS running close to 15 hours. The audiobook is copyrighted 2013. It's on loan right now and will probably get my turn at it by the end of the month Anyone hear of it? Never heard of that one, Ish. You'll have to let me know if it's any good. |
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Post by berkley on Oct 19, 2016 0:28:12 GMT -5
I love the cracked quirkiness of "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)". It's very much influenced by the UK comedy band The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, who, incidentally, appeared in the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour film. John and Paul were both big fans of the Bonzo's surreal blend of trad jazz, pop and utterly bonkers comedy. "You Know My Name" is definitely cut from the same cloth as many of the Bonzo's zaniest songs. That's Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones playing sax on it too. Yeah, I see it that way now as well. I'll have to break down and get those Anthology sets one of these days to hear the longer version Ish mentioned. Haven't heard much by the Bonzo Band, will have to look out for them too. |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Oct 19, 2016 2:41:38 GMT -5
The past few years I've been downloading a great deal of CDs I find in my city's libraries. Many are based on recommendations or write-ups, some just look interesting when I look at the front and back cover. They sit around on computer a long time until I get a chance to listen. When I do, I don't look up any info on it, I just play it.
So I'm listening to this recording,which is live, from a band called 801. Had no idea when it was recorded either until now when I look at wikipedia. Interesting. Not many people do covers of The Beatles Tomorrow Never Knows. Still prefer the original though
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Still, lyrically the song is somewhat ahead of it's time in that it foreshadows and predicts the hippie generation's preoccupation with universal love two years later.
I actually quite like Revolution 9 within the context of the White Album. I would never choose to listen to it outside of that context though.
