# What's the best song off of "Revolver"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 22, 2010, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-revolver/554708 "2010-09-22T22:16:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-revolver/554708/41 "2010-09-26T14:48:20Z")
> [@Lilacs](#): > > > [@Ichbin\_Dubist](#): > > > > And I love playing “Love You To” on the banjo, so there. > > I think I need to hear this. (Seriously, my dad is in a bluegrass band.) > > This might just be the most awesome cover ever. You would have to come over to my house, though, as I have yet to convince any band or recording engineer to go along with this. I can also play a mean “Within You Without You” on the lap steel. Eons ago I was part of a project that covered every Beatles record , and for some reason I became the guy who learned all the sitar parts on guitar. And for some other reason I remember them. Hm, looks like the “Sgt. Pepper” poll got lost in a haze of Metallica and Weird Al. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-revolver/554708/42 "2010-09-26T19:45:12Z")
My wife is convinced that Father MacKenzie is in fact a serial killer, who murdered Elanor Rigby. It’s a… different interpretation of the song. ---
**Author:** ![Lilacs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Lilacs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lilacs)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-revolver/554708/43 "2010-09-26T23:28:55Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > > [@Lilacs](#): > > > > I think I need to hear this. (Seriously, my dad is in a bluegrass band.) > > > > This might just be the most awesome cover ever. > > I could point you to a banjo version of [Within You, Without You](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKYAOEa2I8g&feature=related), but you **don’t** need to hear that. (You also don’t need to hear banjoey [“Birthday”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUZi7NZbmGk&feature=related), [“Yesterday”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhudI9LMcSk&feature=related), [“Revolution No. 9”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IncUO_OCNs&feature=related), [“Helter Skelter”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7FJmWdLi60&feature=related), [“Imagine”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYyaVpeeXX0&feature=related), or [“The End”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku8T2QcZyk8&feature=related). So don’t click on them. Really. I’m warning you!) Thanks. My ears won’t recover soon. I will forward these to my dad, who will die. **Ichbin, Dubist** you are my new hero. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-revolver/554708/44 "2010-09-27T03:16:38Z")
None of the above. The scratch marks on the records between tracks sounded better. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-revolver/554708/45 "2010-09-27T03:34:08Z")
Aw, Clothy, was the outhouse door locked so you had to take a dump here instead? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-revolver/554708/46 "2010-09-27T04:52:25Z")
Could we get a mod to fix the title? I think it was supposed to read _“What’s the best song off of “Revolver” other than of course Eleanor Rigby which is hands down the best from that album if not the best of the Beatles career if not the best song of the 1960s and those who say otherwise are demonstrably wrong”._ Oh- I voted for Eleanor Rigby, btw. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-revolver/554708/47 "2010-09-27T06:55:37Z")
This is a tough one, because there are so many great songs. I picked “And your bird can sing” because of the great guitar. Taxman, Tomorrow Never Knows, She Said, She Said are all close. I have a soft spot for Yellow Submarine because it is fun and because my daughter “sang” it in sign language for an elementary school talent show, and she got to repeat it for the school board. I’m not a fan of Eleanor Rigby because I can hear in it the seeds of Paul’s later descent into treacle. I can see Eleanor and her loneliness, but Father Mckenzie? Really, he has a church no one comes to? Pish and tosh, sir. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-revolver/554708/48 "2010-09-27T08:43:29Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I’m not a fan of Eleanor Rigby because I can hear in it the seeds of Paul’s later descent into treacle. I can see Eleanor and her loneliness, but Father Mckenzie? Really, he has a church no one comes to? Pish and tosh, sir. Because he killed them all. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-revolver/554708/49 "2010-09-27T11:40:52Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > None of the above. The scratch marks on the records between tracks sounded better. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-revolver/554708/50 "2010-09-27T12:02:49Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > None of the above. The scratch marks on the records between tracks sounded better. **Clothahump** – you’ve been around long enough to understand the concept of threadshitting. If you don’t care for the topic of a thread, stay out of it, don’t come in and post your contempt. Don’t do this again. **twickster** , Cafe Society moderator ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-revolver/554708/51 "2010-09-27T12:18:36Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > > [@Voyager](#): > > > > I’m not a fan of Eleanor Rigby because I can hear in it the seeds of Paul’s later descent into treacle. I can see Eleanor and her loneliness, but Father Mckenzie? Really, he has a church no one comes to? Pish and tosh, sir. > > Because he killed them all. With a silver hammer? > [@Alessan](#): > > My wife is convinced that Father MacKenzie is in fact a serial killer, who murdered Elanor Rigby. It’s a… different interpretation of the song. Does it make the interpretation even more interesting when you think about how, when Paul first imagined the song, it was “Father McCartney”? _Ah, look at all the murdered people…_ ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-revolver/554708/52 "2010-09-27T15:14:58Z")
[This is the grave of Eleanor Rigby](http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1073/846564281_5ff8cbbff0.jpg)at St. Peter’s Church in Liverpool. Paul denied being familiar with the grave but admitted he may have “absorbed it” during his years growing up; he said he used several names while writing it as well as some placeholder (like “scrambled eggs” for _Yesterday_). While he and John shared songwriting credit for anything either wrote during this time his vanity has compelled him to say he wrote all of _Eleanor_, which is one of his favorite songs. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-revolver/554708/53 "2010-09-27T16:23:32Z")
For me this is easy, _Eleanor Rigby_. This is one of those “creepy” songs like “Sunny Came Home” that is too disturbing not to love ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-revolver/554708/54 "2010-09-27T16:30:09Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > > [@Alessan](#): > > > > Because he killed them all. > > With a silver hammer? > > > [@Alessan](#): > > > > My wife is convinced that Father MacKenzie is in fact a serial killer, who murdered Elanor Rigby. It’s a… different interpretation of the song. > > Does it make the interpretation even more interesting when you think about how, when Paul first imagined the song, it was “Father McCartney”? > _Ah, look at all the murdered people…_ Well, that was just about the time Paul died, wasn’t it? Yet another clue. Or, it could be read as a brilliant foreshadowing of the Catholic sex abuse scandal. That reading is a new one to me, and I thought I had heard them all. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-revolver/554708/55 "2010-09-27T16:48:25Z")
Try to imagine the lyrics as a VO from a Frank Miller graphic novel: _I wiped the dirt from my hands as I walked from her grave. No one was saved._ ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-revolver/554708/56 "2010-10-18T19:01:01Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I’m not a fan of Eleanor Rigby because I can hear in it the seeds of Paul’s later descent into treacle. I can see Eleanor and her loneliness, but Father Mckenzie? Really, he has a church no one comes to? Pish and tosh, sir. Paul didn’t _descend_ into treacle, the treaclyness was there all along, and it was one of the essential ingredients that made The Beatles great. If it were not for Paul sweetening the mix, John (let alone George and Ringo) would be a footnote in musical history, at best. (And, of course, the same goes for Paul without John’s acerbity.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-revolver/554708.md?page=2)