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I have always had a sneaking suspicion that “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road” is a less than sly dig at the Stones.It sounds awfully like some of their tracks.Anybody else agree?
I always think of the Stones as sounding on the sloppy side. Good and sloppy, mind you. I think I hear what you mean. I remember reading that during the recording of the album, lots of fighting was going on between the Beatles. I think I read that this one was written, performed , and recorded entirely by Paul McCartney while the other Beatles were out of the studio.
What about “All You Need is Love”? This song makes me wonder if John Lennon’s talent wasn’t just a bit overrated. Other than the refrain, which is at least catchy, the lyrics are completely inane. Am I wrong? Am I missing something?
I agree with “Drive My Car” but I can’t decide if it is worse than the “Birthday” song. I hate that one so much that I don’t even know the exact title. (“They say it’s your birthday…”)
Amazingly enough, it’s “Birthday.”
I like most of the songs mentioned so far, but not R9. I’m surprised more people haven’t dredged up the embarassing '50s throwback “Yes It Is.” “Please don’t wear red tonight…” Please don’t play that song ever again.
The correct version of “The Long and Winding Road” is on disc 2 of Anthology 3. Much less saccharine and much more satisfying.
“Love Me Do”
Sorry, can’t abide it. At least their later bad stuff was interesting. “Love Me Do” is just as dull as dishwater.
My immediate thought was the last song on “Beatles for Sale”. I went to Amazon to see the listing, and the title doesn’t ring any bells, but I taped it off KLOS - Los Angeles on its “Seventh Day” show (playing entire albums straight on Sundays), and I remember being shocked at how it stood up off the album as a real let-down.
Amazon says it’s “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby”. I hope that’s what I’m talking about.
For me, I can do without ever hearing “Yesterday” again.
I can also do without “Piggies”, “Rock & Roll Music”, and “Bungalow Bill”.
Another vote for (against?) “Yesterday”. I never understood the appeal of that one. “She’s Leaving Home” and “Getting Better” also bug me to some extent.
All this thread did was make me want to listen to 'em. Even the bad stuff - all that I can think of, at least, was outlined here.
And I really hate “Bungalow Bill”.
Just goes to show that people have very different tastes. Even most of the bad stuff I still enjoy. I like “Piggies”, “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide”, “Drive My Car”, even “Please Don’t Wear Red Tonight” for the nice 3-part harmonies, but can understand why somebody else might not want to listen to them.
My least favorite is “Blue Jay Way”. I also don’t much care for “Only a Northern Song”, “Flying”, “Birthday” (just way overplayed), “Revolution #9”, “Your Mother Should Know”, and probably at least one more track off the Magical Mystery Tour album that I’m blocking out.
Having started this debate off I thought I’d chip in again with a few comments on the (mostly fascinating) replies.
It’s clear that most people can’t abide Revolution 9 and I would have to agree that it’s the hardest thing to listen to in the Beatles’ collection. But is it a song? I’d say it was more a sonic collage, an aural assault designed to disorient and disturb the listener. In those terms, it works.
Run for Your Life is another popular one and yep I have to agree that Lennon’s misogony jars today - even if he said it was just a throwaway. But it’s not a bad tune.
The other votes seem split between the over familiar (Yesterday) Ringo’s novelty songs (Octopus’s Garden) and McCartney schmaltz (yep, Long and Winding Road WAS Spector’s fault).
Finally, I’m surprised no one has picked the worst Lennon McCartney number of them all. It can be found on Anthology 2 if you’re interested and is the (deservedly) unreleased “If You’ve Got Troubles”. Described by Beatles chronicler par excellence Ian MacDonald as “the only unmitigated disaster in the Lennon-McCartney catalogue”, this vehicle for Ringo has a truly terrible lyric and vocal
Luckily the Fabs realised this and abandoned the song after one take
Having read the Abbey Road history, I always wanted to hear the unreleased recordings: “Not Guilty,” which underwent more than a hundred takes and “What’s the New Mary Jane?”
At the beginning of this year, thanks to Napster, I finally got the chance.
The boys were right not to release them.
“Not Guilty” was not bad, but not good either. “Mary Jane” was TERRIBLE! Tedious attempting-to-be-hip song that kind of reminded me of the verses from “Give Peace a Chance.”
Whew!
(That said, I was glad to hear them. I LOVE learning more about the creative process, how things get put together and discarded, and the element of chance that determines the final result. Makes me feel better about my own sonic and literary catastrophies.)
I must say it was the last song of theirs (which was subtitled on the screen) that I heard. We watched it in a theatre, there was a line ‘All Together now’ & we would all start to sing it but then they changed the language from english to chinese, etc, which I thought sucked cause I couldn’t follow it.
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! This is their best song, in my opinion. It always makes me smile every time I hear it. Yellow Submarine, though, lacks in creativity -
We all live in a yellow submariiiiiiiiiine yellow submariiiiiiiiiine, yellow submariiiiiiiiiiiiine. (repeat several times to get an idea of how anoying this song is.)Nowhere Man
And I am the walrus.
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*Originally posted by xanadu *
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But it’s a great drinking song! We all live in an orange tangerine…We all live in a can of Valvoline…We all live in a Playboy magazine…We all live in a jar of Vaseline…
I’d like to cast my vote for “You Know My Name, Look Up the Number” as well. The first time I heard it, I thought it was a joke, or maybe them just goofing around in the studio. It sounds like it was heavily influenced by drugs and Popeye cartoons…unless you don’t think that’s an impression of Bluto towards the end, too.
Was it a single, though? I’ve only heard it as part of a bbc special that was played on the radio.
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*Originally posted by Rilchiam *
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You’ve got a point, there! I’m gonna go try that out right now…
I don’t have it on me, but I had a Beatles book that said it was indeed a Stones parody. I’ve always taken it as parody - it’s hard to imagine they were serious when they came out with it.
This thread has given me a lot of food for thought. I like the Beatles, I grew up on them. I can’t say that I just simply hate any of their songs. Some I have at times felt were not up to Beatles snuff, but never to the point of hating them.
My feelings about various songs have changed over time. Generally speaking I have come to appreciate all of them in their own ways.
I think this is normal with music, sometimes it takes awhile to hear what’s so cool about a song, sometimes you realize that the song you used to like kind of sucks. IMHO none of the Beatles’ song (that I’ve heard) are absolute trash. Especially when compared to the trash that some other artists produce. That said, some of their songs are better than others.
To the person who hates magical mystery tour: At first I didn’t like it either, but now I like it a lot. Was I brain-washed? I don’t know.