# With A Little Help From My Friends - you prefer the Beatles, or Joe Cocker? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 18, 2015, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-you-prefer-the-beatles-or-joe-cocker/722820 "2015-06-18T02:36:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-you-prefer-the-beatles-or-joe-cocker/722820/61 "2015-06-22T20:12:04Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > Actually, the note about Paul liking Cocker’s version was from press when Cocker died. [Here’s an article](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2883993/Singer-Joe-Cocker-dies-age-70-battle-lung-cancer.html) with the quote I was thinking of: Thank you for that link. I have wondered for years if Paul likes Joe’s version of his song. Great to hear that he does. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-you-prefer-the-beatles-or-joe-cocker/722820/62 "2015-06-23T00:32:01Z")
> [@Dibbs](#): > > But I wasn’t talking about her, and I doubt you’re being serious.😛 You got me, Pam died last year. But Joe was a good guy. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-you-prefer-the-beatles-or-joe-cocker/722820/63 "2015-06-23T01:06:17Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > Joe Cocker overwrought? Isn’t that kind of the point? Good grief. I am amazed at how many votes the Beatles’ bland little version got. I mean. I like Ringo a lot, but come on. Go listen to both versions again and then vote. Yeah, I knew Cocker’s version first (especially–dating myself–the snippet used on _The Wonder Years_) and thought it was beautiful. When I heard the Beatles recording, I was stunned at how stupid and ugly it was. I don’t know, underdeveloped and sort of snickering? Ringo is adorable, and he’s adorable performing this song in concert now; but the original recording does not hold a candle to Cocker’s arrangement. I guess (considering they’re nearly tied atm) there are a lot of contrarians on the Dope today. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-you-prefer-the-beatles-or-joe-cocker/722820/64 "2015-06-23T01:07:56Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > Incredible. It’s so myopic to dis the beatles version of their own song. Did you same people like Sgt Pepper at all? It’s of a piece. Produced (by George Martin) and performed just as well, not an outlier, and done in the way its authors intended. With subtlety. It’s a very important song, being the only one announced and sung in the putative Pepper concert. > > Whenever I hear Joes version it sounds like he’s trying to squeeze something out that isn’t there. Ringo had plenty of soul. This was his greatest moment as a vocal Beatle too. Sheesh, where you guys been the last 45 years, in classic rock purgatory? I find much of the album pretty unimpressive, actually. :shrug: ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-you-prefer-the-beatles-or-joe-cocker/722820/65 "2015-06-23T02:51:44Z")
You know, I really do like Ringo. One of my favorite memories is a concert with Ringo and Friends at the Greek Theater. He’s charming. But really, **drad dog** , I can’t believe you really think “Ringo had plenty of soul.” He has lots of stuff but soul is not in there. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-you-prefer-the-beatles-or-joe-cocker/722820/66 "2015-06-23T03:40:20Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > You know, I really do like Ringo. One of my favorite memories is a concert with Ringo and Friends at the Greek Theater. He’s charming. But really, **drad dog** , I can’t believe you really think “Ringo had plenty of soul.” He has lots of stuff but soul is not in there. He is/was a musician, an artist. If youre saying he had no soul then you must have no use for him at all. Are you into Jam bands? ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-you-prefer-the-beatles-or-joe-cocker/722820/67 "2015-06-23T04:17:37Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > Somewhat recently I saw an interview with someone – I forget who it was – and they were talking about how Beatles were essentially studio musicians because they couldn’t play live. Not that they were incapable, of course, but every time they tried they were drowned out by the incessant cacophony of teenage girls screaming bloody murder. So they never really honed any stagecraft. (They have what, one live album, which is almost impossible to get because it sucks?) > > I believe it was in this same interview they talk about how the Joe Cocker version was played for Paul, who responded very positively to it. > > It could conceivably have been an interview with Paul himself, but I can’t remember who it was. Or I could have dreamed the whole thing for all I can remember. > I personally voted Joe Cocker, and it wasn’t even close. But I’m a jam-band kind of guy, having gone to countless Grateful Dead (until Jerry died) and Phish shows. Joe’s version is right in my wheelhouse, and the video of him doing the song at Woodstock is practically my nirvana. (The paradise, not the band.) The Beatles couldn’t hear themselves after the mania started. Before that they played hundreds of hours in Hamburg and England. They honed the crap out of their stagecraft. They became so popular that concerts became impossible, esp with the equipment of the day. But you wouldn’t know it by logging in here. I can’t recall Cocker-mania at the time. Must’ve been great, in your minds. Anyway that’s the Beatles reward for being great. No good art goes unsnarked. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-you-prefer-the-beatles-or-joe-cocker/722820/68 "2015-06-23T04:30:44Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I first became familiar with it in the Joe Cocker version, it was the title track to some TV show (was it _The Wonder Years_)? So this doesn’t hold true for me Same here. I remember it from the theme song to Wonder Years, and I remember disliking it, even feeling mildly uncomfortable. I have a hard time listening to Cocker’s version all the way through. When I heard the original version, I took to it immediately. I liked it. It felt understated but true, somehow. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-you-prefer-the-beatles-or-joe-cocker/722820/69 "2015-06-23T04:38:06Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > You know, I really do like Ringo. One of my favorite memories is a concert with Ringo and Friends at the Greek Theater. He’s charming. But really, **drad dog** , I can’t believe you really think “Ringo had plenty of soul.” He has lots of stuff but soul is not in there. I agree with **drad dog** here. Ringo had plenty of soul in his drumming. Cat can swing and just has inventive, musical, original drum parts. One of my favorite drummers. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-you-prefer-the-beatles-or-joe-cocker/722820/70 "2015-06-23T04:47:19Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I agree with **drad dog** here. Ringo had plenty of soul in his drumming. Cat can swing and just has inventive, musical, original drum parts. One of my favorite drummers. Ringo had fantastic “soul” in that band, the way i see it, not only by powering the most popular music ever made, but just as a personality, singer, and the most popular one. He was the epitomy of scouse. He had a much tougher early life than any of them or any of the stones for that matter. He paid the dues to make a subtle version of a song. He didn’t need to spaz, and squeeze it out beyond what the music or chords call for, like someone we know. Cockers version is an abortion. “The Wonder Years”?!?!?! ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-you-prefer-the-beatles-or-joe-cocker/722820/71 "2015-06-23T04:53:41Z")
I’m a huge Beatles fan and I knew their version before Cocker’s. I’m pretty sure that I heard it before Cocker even did his version. I voted for Cocker. There’s just no contest as far as I’m concerned. The Beatles were unbelievably talented, and like just about everything else they did, this song was magic. But what Cocker did with it was amazing. Maybe we should also do a poll for She Came in Through the Bathroom Window. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-you-prefer-the-beatles-or-joe-cocker/722820/72 "2015-06-23T06:20:37Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > Cockers version is an abortion. I get that you have strong feelings, but your hyperbole makes it easy to dismiss everything you write, even the points that might otherwise be compelling. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-you-prefer-the-beatles-or-joe-cocker/722820/73 "2015-06-23T11:40:48Z")
Cocker’s version, absolutely no contest for me. I like a lot of Beatles covers more than the original recording, but that one really takes the original and shows what it can be. Every musician on that record is putting in quite a performance. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-you-prefer-the-beatles-or-joe-cocker/722820/74 "2015-06-23T11:47:57Z")
Every musician on that record has turned the emoting up to 11, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-you-prefer-the-beatles-or-joe-cocker/722820/75 "2015-06-23T12:29:05Z")
I think some of you have a very different idea of soul than I have. Just being an artist or a musician does not give one soul in my eyes. In fact, the difference between Ringo and Joe Cocker gives a fairly good illustration of soul, in my opinion. I enjoy Ringo for what he is. But Cocker has soul. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-you-prefer-the-beatles-or-joe-cocker/722820/76 "2015-06-23T15:54:42Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Every musician on that record has turned the emoting up to 11, anyway. Ehh, it might be 8 or 9 vs. the Beatles’ 1.5, but they have some dynamics and turn it up and down. It starts quieter and more reserved than the original. 11 is something like second half of [Bridge Over Troubled Water](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmO5J05z3PY). ---
**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:** [June 23, 2015, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-you-prefer-the-beatles-or-joe-cocker/722820/77 "2015-06-23T16:16:24Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > that one really takes the original and shows what it can be. Every musician on that record is putting in quite a performance. …which would have been totally inappropriate as just the second song on the _Sgt. Pepper_ album. The Billy Shears 😉 version works just fine in the context of that album, which is how it was meant to be heard. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-you-prefer-the-beatles-or-joe-cocker/722820/78 "2015-06-23T16:37:36Z")
Honestly, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard the Beatles’ original version. And I really only know the Joe Cocker version because of _The Wonder Years_. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2015, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-you-prefer-the-beatles-or-joe-cocker/722820/79 "2015-06-24T05:06:33Z")
Once I figured out that Cocker’s was the Wonder Years version, I went with that. The Beatles version is just corny sounding, and very dated sounding. I mean, I can even appreciate Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” but I don’t see how I can appreciate The Beatles version here. ---
**Author:** ![Precambrianmollusc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/precambrianmollusc/32/63_2.png) [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2015, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-you-prefer-the-beatles-or-joe-cocker/722820/80 "2015-06-24T05:20:30Z")
Mr Cockers version ( The a Wedding Presents version is fun as well ) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-you-prefer-the-beatles-or-joe-cocker/722820.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-you-prefer-the-beatles-or-joe-cocker/722820.md?page=5)