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2022 FBG, 172 to 1 Beatles Countdown 1-25 lists... And 173 to 1 Countdown from 1-64 lists! (1 Viewer)

krista4 said:
They are high-school friends of mine, Rob a year ahead of me and Worth a year behind, so early-to-mid-50s.  Worth was a geek who was in band and loved all things Beatles while the rest of us were listening to Journey.  Turned out he was right.  I gave him a biography of John Lennon while we were in high school!  He makes his living these days as a musician and DJ and is cooler than all the rest of us now.  He's a huge music snob, but he introduced me to Big Star, so I forgive him.

Rob, on the other hand, was a football player, extremely good-looking, but friendly and funny and possibly the most popular guy in his class.  Went into coaching after college.  So more like that kind of dude, but he's very smart and knows a lot about a lot.  Apparently not enough about the Beatles.  :lol:  
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Is it possible Rob though it was the single version of Revolution? I don’t mean that as an insult, but you mentioned maybe he doesn’t know much about the Beatles possibly.

 
Dr. Octopus said:
Is it possible Rob though it was the single version of Revolution? I don’t mean that as an insult, but you mentioned maybe he doesn’t know much about the Beatles possibly.
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Unfortunately no.  In the list he submitted to me, he had "Number 9" instead of "Revolution 9," so even though he didn't get the title right, his intent was clear.  He had a lot from the White Album, so I think he must just love that record.

 
It’s All Too Much
2022 Ranking: 118
2022 Lists: 4
2022 Points: 25
Ranked Highest by: OTB_Lifer (8) Krista (Worth) (20) @Pip's Invitation (25) Krista (Rob) (25)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: NR

Getz comments:  Another with four votes NR in 2019. Worth takes over the Chalk lead.

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  91

2019 write-up:

It's All Too Much (Yellow Submarine, 1969)

Written by George based on realizations from an LSD trip and confirmed by meditation.  Grabs me from the get-go with that guitar sound; loses me by the end.  That droning chord with the fantastic guitar riffs. That basso continuo with all the instruments interlaid on top.  Those expansive drums and jubilant trumpets and clarinet.  Who needs good lyrics?  This song sounds like the best of a rock-psychadelia-Indian mishmosh to me for about four minutes but loses me in the rambling chaos of the last two minutes or so.    

There seems to be a spot of disagreement about who played lead guitar on this one, with all of John, Paul, and George being claimed at one point or another.  

Mr. krista:  "The bassline is really neat, but that flurry of notes sounds like pulses; this neat textural thing that Paul didn’t usually do. It’s a really trippy ####### song. It’s supposed to be.  It’s long and trance-like.  I like it a lot.  I like the horn overdubs.  I guess I like drones.  Have you ever said the same word over and over [narrator:  this goes one for a while] until it sounds different? That’s what I like about music like that.  It involves one on a pre-conscious level."

Suggested cover:  The Flaming Lips

2022 Supplement:  Maybe a smidge high on my list last time; while I do enjoy all the hullabaloo, as I mentioned then it should have been chopped by a third.  Then again, it might make sense for a song about LSD to sound like a too-long trip.  George later explained that the lines, “Show me that I’m everywhere, and get me home for tea,” described the experience of coming down from drugs. “You’d trip out, you see, on all this stuff, and then whoops! You’d just be back having your evening cup of tea!”  He also indicated that the screaming guitar intro (played by Paul) was meant to immediately indicate you’d be going on a trippy experience.  I think George did a great job balancing the ”trippy” with the spiritual in the lyrics, such as “the more I go inside,  the more there is to see,” or “floating down the stream of time, of life, to life, with me.”  With a little editing, this might have become one of his classic works with the Beatles.  If you, on the other hand, think it was too edited, there is an even longer version:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtuMhOeomrs

Guido Merkins

It’s no secret that the Beatles had almost no involvement with the Yellow Submarine movie.  They were contractually obligated to come up with 4 new songs for the film.  Typically, they would take songs they didn’t think much of (or maybe just John and Paul didn’t) and save them for the film. One of those was It’s All Too Much

It’s All Too Much was composed by George on an organ, a strange time in which George seemed to write all of his songs on a keyboard instrument (Blue Jay Way, Within You Without You.)  This song was meant to have a very Indian flavor, written mostly around one chord and very droning.  The lyrics seem to reflect George’s frustration with the drug scene.  George was pretty naive when it came to the drug scene thinking people were taking LSD to be spiritual awakened.  Finding out people were just using it to escape reality caused him to get away from taking LSD.

George and John both play guitar, Ringo on drums and Paul on bass.  George came to dislike the trumpets on the song.  I actually like the song, but it’s too long.  In this case, less would have been more.

 
Chalk Rankings Top 10. #118 = 55 pts. each Sponsored by: Huckleberry Pie
 

1 --Krista (Worth)---213.5

2 --Wrighteous Ray---197.5

3 --anarchy99---174.5

4 --Man Of Constant Sorrow---166

5 --Krista (Rob)---141.5

6 --DaVinci---137

7 --Krista (Sharon)---108.5

8 --Krista (Mom/Hub)---101

9 --OTB_Lifer---96

10 --BinkyTheDoormat---94.5

 
pecorino said:
A little (not so little) digression here. What are you doing this weekend? Nothing, you say? Here is a link to the full four-hour 10/31/94 Phish show during which they don the "musical costume" of the Beatles and perform the White Album in its entirety during set 2. If you don't care for the Phish and want to jump right to the Fab Four, the 1:23 mark is for you. No, sadly, I was not in attendance for this one. Enjoy, and welcome to Krista's mom! Live White Album Performance
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Warning: the drummer performs the “then you become naked” part of Revolution 9 literally. 

This was an impressive feat and began a Halloween tradition for the band. After this show, While My Guitar Gently Weeps began making regular appearances in their set lists. 

 
krista4 said:
They are high-school friends of mine, Rob a year ahead of me and Worth a year behind, so early-to-mid-50s.  Worth was a geek who was in band and loved all things Beatles while the rest of us were listening to Journey.  Turned out he was right.  I gave him a biography of John Lennon while we were in high school!  He makes his living these days as a musician and DJ and is cooler than all the rest of us now.  He's a huge music snob, but he introduced me to Big Star, so I forgive him.

Rob, on the other hand, was a football player, extremely good-looking, but friendly and funny and possibly the most popular guy in his class.  Went into coaching after college.  So more like that kind of dude, but he's very smart and knows a lot about a lot.  Apparently not enough about the Beatles.  :lol:  
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Big Star and Revolution 9? Does not compute.

Unless we’re talking about this revolution: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L5ow6lSWHKA

 
Dr. Octopus said:
I don’t hate Rush. I’m one of the few people that don’t “love” or “hate” them. I’d like them a lot more if it wasn’t for the vocals.

Just playing to the crowd.
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saw them four consecutive tours in my late teens, 2112 was my favorite. I *think* the last project they did which interested me was Moving Pictures. just one of scores of 70s prog rock bands I flirted with briefly then left behind 40 years ago.

 
It's a very special day in Beatles history.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GEORGE!!!  🎂

George would have turned 79 today.  He had come to such a peaceful and happy place in his life before his death, and I wonder what he would have been doing now.  Working on music with Dhani?  Puttering around in his gardens, or racing cars?  Relishing his life with #1 Beatles Wife, Olivia?  Probably all of the above!

Here's a little bit I wrote in my solo Beatles thread about George's last years:

---INTERLUDE – George Harrison (February 25, 1943 – November 29, 2001)---

Despite his renewed musical excitement with The Traveling Wilburys, after their second album was released, George once again went into a quiet period in his music endeavors - in fact in most endeavors, musical or not.  He toured Japan with Eric Clapton in 1974 and released a live album from those dates, and he performed at benefit concerts sporadically and at Bob Dylan’s 30th Anniversary celebration that I previously linked.   And of course he came together with Paul and Ringo in 1994 to record the unreleased John-penned songs as part of the Anthology project.  He continued his work in movie production through his HandMade Films company, but it was shut down in 1991.  He ended up suing yet another former manager (and winning $11 million) for mismanagement of his funds, but on the other side he lost a legal dispute relating to his beloved home in Hawaii. 

More than anything else, he spent time with his family, particularly his son Dhani, to whom he was extraordinarily close.  George had taught Dhani to play guitar at a very young age, and they would regularly go into the studio to record together.  By the mid-90s, George was still writing and recording, but mostly for his own pleasure and to spend time with Dhani.  By all accounts, George was at a much more relaxed and happy place than he had ever been before. 

In March 1996, George traveled to India on a pilgrimage to the most sacred places in Vrindavan.  While there, he began a new album with Ravi Shankar, ultimately released as Chants Of India.  In May 1997, while Shankar was in NY, he and George taped the VH-1 special "George Harrison & Ravi Shankar:  Yin & Yang," in which he discussed his spiritual life and Shankar’s influence on it and performed four songs - “If You Belonged to Me” (from Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3); “All Things Must Pass”; “Prabhujee” (from Chants Of India); and a new song, “Any Road."  This would turn out to be George’s final public performance.

Shortly after the taping, George found a lump in his neck, which was removed but confirmed as throat cancer.  He underwent additional surgery for removal of lymph nodes and undertook radiation therapy.  Sadly, at the same time that George was facing these issues, he also lost two close friends – publicist Derek Taylor and George’s idol Carl Perkins – to throat cancer, as well as seeing Linda McCartney succumb to her bout with cancer.  On the positive side, at first George’s treatment seemed to be taking effect.  In early 1998, he declared that he had been deemed cancer-free, and he credited the “nodule” they’d found as a warning that he should give up smoking, which he did.  In 1999, he indicated that he was writing and recording new songs as well as beginning work on re-releases of the Concert For Bangladesh and, for its 30th anniversary, All Things Must Pass.

Around 3 a.m. on December 31, 1999, a paranoid schizophrenic man named Michael Abram, who had become obsessed with the Beatles and convinced they were “witches,” broke into George’s Friar Park estate while the family was sleeping.  When George went to investigate the sound of breaking glass, he found Abram holding a knife, and Abram immediately jumped on George and began stabbing him.  A long struggle ensued, during which Olivia, who had first phoned for help, grabbed a brass poker and repeatedly hit Abram in the head with it.  Abram turned to attack her in response, at which point George began to go on the offensive against Abram.  Turning once again to George, whom he had already stabbed several times, Abram then stabbed George deeply in the chest.  Olivia then hit Abram again in the head, this time with a lamp.  After about 20 minutes of the struggle, police arrived, subdued Abram, and began attending to George’s wounds.  George was treated at the hospital for dozens of stab wounds that included a punctured lung and a wound just next to a large blood vessel that, if hit, would have caused him to die in minutes.  My heroine Olivia was also treated for cuts and bruises, and both were released within a few days, lucky to be alive.

Though George recovered physically from the attack, his friends were convinced it took years off his life, when he was already in a vulnerable health position.  George had long been left “shell-shocked,” according to Olivia, by the death threats and intrusions caused by all the Beatles fame, which of course had shown to be a very real danger after John’s murder.  The trauma of this attack in his home was something he never fully recovered from.

George’s first reaction to the attack was to retreat, staying for three months at various friends’ homes in Barbados and Ireland, and visiting the most remote island in Fiji.  After a few months, he made his first public appearance at a Grand Prix in Australia.  He then returned to his music, working on both his new works and the re-issue of All Things Must Pass, the latter of which was released in November 2000. 

George planned to return to the recording studio with Jeff Lynne in March 2001, but before that, his cancer returned, this time having spread to his lungs.  He had another surgery in the spring in which part of one lung was removed, and then traveled to Switzerland for treatment with one of Europe’s best cancer specialists.  While in Switzerland, he and Dhani continued to record new songs, and George worked hard to edit them because, knowing his time wasn’t long, he wanted them ready to put out if he died.  Ringo had his last visit with George during this trip to Switzerland.

George’s condition continued to deteriorate, with the cancer spreading to his brain.  He flew to New York for an experimental radiation treatment, and while there had his last visit from Paul, who said they it was as if the years had been “stripped back” to where George was like his baby brother again, that they held hands and laughed “just like nothing was going on” and said goodbye in a space of love and strength.  In fact, George moved in mid-November 2001 for his last days to a house leased by Paul in Los Angeles, where he died on November 29, with Olivia, Dhani, and a few friends surrounding him with chants and prayers – a moment that Olivia described as being of “profound beauty…he longed to be with God.”  His body was cremated within hours in a Hare Krishna service, and his ashes were scattered at the junction of India’s three most sacred rivers, Allahabad, and at the holy city of Benare, where George’s spiritual journey had begun. 
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Wait
2022 Ranking: 117
2022 Lists: 5
2022 Points: 25
Ranked Highest by: @ProstheticRGK (18) @Murph(20) @Encyclopedia Brown (21) @rockaction (21) @heckmanm (25)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 123T/1/8

Getz:  Our first song with five votes, but none above #18. Heckmann now on the board.

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  87

2019 write-up:

Wait (Rubber Soul, 1965)

Things are a bit of a crapshoot at this point.  I mean, these are all great songs.  Somehow when I did my original rankings into five tiers, this one ended up in the fourth tier.  I don't know why, and now I've placed it more in line with what I actually think.  Maybe because Rubber Soul is just so damn good, this one suffers in comparison - it's a little same-y, and I don't like the ending.   What I do love is the build of the instrumentation in each of the verses - the light tambourine building into the maracas and drums, the backward fill from Ringo at 0:11, the guitar adding in mimicry of the yelp, "Wait!".  That sonic build gives the song such a pleasing texture, and I think the rhythms of the song work as a further expression of the lyrics, as if they were the stop-and-start of a relationship.

The song was recorded for Help! but ultimately left off that album, but the exact provenance of this song is somewhat unknown.  For years most people credited it as solely or mostly a John song, but in the mid-90s Paul indicated that he thought this was his composition with little or no input from John, and that he wrote it in the Bahamas while hanging out with former child actor Brandon de Wilde.  To me, the insecurity of the verses sounds like John and the sunnier bridge like Paul.

Mr. krista:  "I like playing maracas instead of a high hat.  The first time I heard that was Sonic Youth and it sounded so good.  Now that I think about it, it’s the same beat. [Plays Sonic Youth song 'Bull in the Heather.']  Yes, it’s the same."

Suggested cover:  Wowza.  Bettye LaVette

2022 Supplement:  As I mentioned in 2019, this was left off the Help! Album, and looking back now it sounds to me like a good bridge between Help! and Rubber Soul.  “Wait” almost missed out on Rubber Soul, as it was the last song pulled out of the earlier sessions and added.  It has some of the simplicity in the lyrics that is more characteristic of the earlier record, but, due to the overdubs (such as maracas and tambourine) that were added when it was resurrected, it also shows the much fuller instrumentation that the band progressed toward on Rubber Soul and beyond.  The song starts in such a jarring but pleasing (to me) way, with John a capella for the first words until the downbeat, and then it takes a number of interesting twists and turns, from odd meter (six measures on the verses and five on the choruses) and unusual syncopation and key changes to the way the full instrumentation weaves in and out of the song.  I love how at the end of the chorus, all the instruments suddenly go quiet other than the tambourine.  Lots of little effects like that in this song make it a compelling listen even for the squillionth time. 

Guido Merkins

The Beatles were progressing quite nicely in early 1965.  But the next album would really be the biggest jump of their career up to this point (with an even bigger one in 1966.)  Rubber Soul was the Beatles leaving behind the lovable moptops forever.  It took only one month to create a masterpiece, but at the end of that one month, they only had 13 songs.  They needed one more.

If there is one song that sounds like it’s not such a leap forward, it’s Wait.  Not that it’s a bad song, but it sounds a bit like the Help album.  There’s a reason for that.  It was from the Help album.  Wait didn’t make it to the Help album, so being one song short on Rubber Soul, they resurrected Wait and added some overdubs and added it to the album.

The volume pedal guitar by George is straight from I Need You on the Help album and Yes It Is, the B side of the Ticket to Ride single, from the Help sessions.  Wait is one of the few songs that the Beatles wrote in a minor key.  Paul writing another song about Jane Asher telling her to “wait.”  The harmonies are also great on the song.  And I like the middle part a lot (I feel as though, you ought to know…”

Overall a good song, but compared to the others on this album, nothing spectacular.

 
Chalk Rankings Top 10. #117 = 56 pts. each Sponsored by: Huckleberry Pie
 

1 --Krista (Worth)---213.5

2 --Wrighteous Ray---197.5

3 --anarchy99---174.5

4 --Man Of Constant Sorrow---166

5 --Krista (Rob)---141.5

6 --DaVinci---137

7 --Encyclopedia Brown---125.5

8 --Krista (Sharon)---108.5

9 --Krista (Mom/Hub)---101

10 --ProsteticRKG---100

 
krista4 said:
"Wait" is the #1, 2, 3, and 4 favorite Beatles song of TannerBoyle/Reg Lllama of Brixton/Officer Pete Malloy/Orton to Olsen/the name I've forgotten that had Chico's bail bonds as the avatar/several other names.  Miss that guy around here.  But at least we still get to have PSF trolls.
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Clearly, he had good taste. This and his Pixies love.

I'll even forgive him for disparaging Jane's Addiction.

 
krista4 said:
He flew to New York for an experimental radiation treatment, and while there had his last visit from Paul, who said they it was as if the years had been “stripped back” to where George was like his baby brother again, that they held hands and laughed “just like nothing was going on” and said goodbye in a space of love and strength.  In fact, George moved in mid-November 2001 for his last days to a house leased by Paul in Los Angeles
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I remember reading about this long ago. What a beautiful conclusion to their friendship.

Ringo recalls his last time with George

:cry:

that’s love, man 

 
56 songs in and the Fab 3 have had a total of zero listed so far.

Wonder who goes first amongst the three of us?  I have no clue.  Guido's was the 3rd list in. Haven't looked at his in a month. And I don't know who picked the next song until I score it and post it.

26 people left to have their first song listed.  I'm putting the over/under at the 80th song listed (#93 on the countdown) as to when all will have one of their songs posted.

 
rockaction said:
Think that was the artist formerly known as Higgs, who is not Tanner. McJose was a furry weasel thing holding a plastic pumpkin. 

Neither here nor there, really. 
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Ah yes, though McJose did have a shamrock at one time, too.  I definitely would not mix up Higgs and Tanner.  :)  I'm gonna send him a note to tell him we miss him.

 
Getzlaf15 said:
26 people left to have their first song listed.  
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I was wondering this.

Speaking of Fab 3, I deemed a group of us working on a deal at work this week the Beatles, and I nominated the financial analyst to be Ringo because he's doing all the hard work in the background keeping this #### together.  No word yet on which of the others I get to be, though I'm too surly on this transaction to be Paul.

 
krista4 said:
Ah yes, though McJose did have a shamrock at one time, too.  I definitely would not mix up Higgs and Tanner.  :)  I'm gonna send him a note to tell him we miss him.
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Very cool. Tell him his arch political cross-examining, hifalutin word using enemy says hello. 

 
krista4 said:
I was wondering this.

Speaking of Fab 3, I deemed a group of us working on a deal at work this week the Beatles, and I nominated the financial analyst to be Ringo because he's doing all the hard work in the background keeping this #### together.  No word yet on which of the others I get to be, though I'm too surly on this transaction to be Paul.
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Actually I'm doing my job plus most of the jobs of the other three, so maybe I'm Paul after all.

 
Pip's Invitation said:
Warning: the drummer performs the “then you become naked” part of Revolution 9 literally. 

This was an impressive feat and began a Halloween tradition for the band. After this show, While My Guitar Gently Weeps began making regular appearances in their set lists. 
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Yes indeed; for folks wanting a different kind of rabbit hole...In the intervening 27 years, the Halloween costume has included Quadrophenia, Loaded (Velvet Underground), Remain in Light, Dark Side of the Moon*, Exile on Main Street, Waiting for Columbus (Little Feat), and more recently the band used it as a device to roll out an entirely new album (four such instances.) Anyway, and since I don't want to hijack this awesome Beatles' thread, they've never done the Sgt Peppers album but they often cover A Day in the Life and they do it quite well. The eventual #1?

 
krista4 said:
I was wondering this.
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46 --yankee23fan---0

47 --WorrieKing---0

48 --WhoKnew---0

49 --Westerberg---0

50 --turnjose7---0

51 --Tom Hagen---0

52 --shuke---0

53 --Shaft41(Son1)---0

54 --pecorino---0

55 --landryshat---0

56 --Krista4---0

57 --Krista (Doug)---0

58 --jamny---0

59 --Iluv80s---0

60 --Guido Merkins---0

61 --Gr00vus---0

62 --Getzlaf15---0

63 --fatguyinalttlecoat---0

64 --falguy---0

65 --ekbeats---0

66 --DwayneHoover---0

67 --Dr Octupus---0

68 --DocHoliday---0

69 --Devin's Dad---0

70 --Devin---0

71 --Bobby Layne---0

Top 10 Least Chalk

When you have a song from your 1-25 list that is posted, I will assign a score to that song and keep a running total on who is "most" and "least" chalky. Song ranked #172 will get one point. Song ranked #1 will get 172 points. All of this is for fun and means nothing

 
Getzlaf15 said:
56 songs in and the Fab 3 have had a total of zero listed so far.

Wonder who goes first amongst the three of us?  I have no clue.  Guido's was the 3rd list in. Haven't looked at his in a month. And I don't know who picked the next song until I score it and post it.

26 people left to have their first song listed.  I'm putting the over/under at the 80th song listed (#93 on the countdown) as to when all will have one of their songs posted.
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I had a feeling the Reprise was coming soon, and then there it was today. I figured most people wouldn't want to burn a slot in their Top 25 for such a short song, but I have no regrets.

 
Getzlaf15 said:
Wait
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This song reminds me of an egg shaker. One of my longtime friends has some bongos, a tambourine, and a plastic egg that shakes like a maraca.  She would have parties, and music was always playing, and people would always dance, and then she starts throwing instruments to people to play. I have shook the egg to this song many times.  I haven't seen her in almost 3 years, but I'll be seeing her the weekend of March 11th. We'll have to break out the instruments. 

 
Getzlaf15 said:
Love Me Do
2022 Ranking: 120
2022 Lists: 3
2022 Points: 24
Ranked Highest by: @prosopis (17) Shaft41 (Daughter) (18) Shaft41 (Son2) (19)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: NR

Getz:  Two enter here with their first songs. Kind of shocked there are still 29 voters that have not appeared. Cool, quirky video above.

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  103

2019 write-up:

Love Me Do (Please Please Me, 1962)

It's hard to put this song, which was part of their audition for George Martin and became their first hit single - the one that started it all! - in the bottom half, but setting sentimentality aside, this isn't one of their top-half-of-the-countdown efforts.  Love love love the harmonica, and the vocals are sweet. but the song is sooooo simple.  The lyrics are simple and repetitive (Paul wrote most of this when he was 15 or 16); the guitar part is simple; the drums are simple (though apparently not simple enough to save Pete Best from getting fired after the audition).  The harmonica saves it, along with Paul's charming "love me do" at the end of each line - Paul singing that bit was George Martin's idea so that John could focus on the harmonica part there instead of switching back and forth.  Worst of all, of course, is that Ringo is not on the album version of the song - George Martin went to his grave knowing I had never forgiven him for substituting Andy White in this session (discussed previously with respect to "P.S. I Love You").  Or maybe not.

The song rose to 17th on the UK charts; the rumor was that this was in part because Brian Epstein bought 10,000 copies himself for his record store, but both Epstein and John denied this was true.  This song is exciting to me mostly because of what it led to, rather than what it is.  And due to that harmonica.   

Fun John fact:  the harmonica John played on this was allegedly shoplifted by him during their Hamburg days.

Fun Paul fact:  Paul didn't ever play this song in his solo shows, thinking it was too "little," until the mid-2010s, when he started doing it at the request of, among others...David Bowie.  

Mr. krista:  "Great harmonica.  I like that beat, so slow, plodding, and heavy.  That’s about it.  About the sixth best of seven songs so far."

Suggested cover:  David Bowie & Jeff Beck (starts ~4:26)

2022 Supplement:  The harmonica here still does it for me, and I’d probably move it up in the rankings a wee bit this time.  Legend has it that Delbert McClinton, with Bruce Channel’s band at the time, taught John the bluesy harmonica when the Beatles opened for Channel in 1962 (Channel had a hit with the harmonica-laden “Hey Baby”:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik9dxkKriV0 ), but it’s unclear if this actually happened.  John had had harmonicas since he was a child and was already playing it on several numbers before they met McClinton.  John has described their early use of harmonica as a “trick” they put into their numbers, until the “trick” had been played out and become, to John, “embarrassing.”  Given that John did not yet have a harmonica brace (pictures from the time show him always holding the harmonica in his hands), it’s believed that he did not play guitar on this track.

As discussed in 2019, there have been three versions of this song published with three different drummers.  Ringo’s style is so distinctive, and Alan White is obviously a great drummer in his own right.  Pete Best is Pete Best, and you can hear in these versions why the Beatles went away from him.  He seems like a lovely man, though.

Paul attributes the inspiration for this song, the first recording with the “Lennon - McCartney” name ever to be published (though actually this single said “McCartney - Lennon”), to their love of the Everly Brothers, and you can hear that influence in the harmonies of this song.  Paul says that they’d never seen anyone like the Everlys “just two guys, two good-looking guys,” and he and John idolized them.  Then Buddy Holly came along and blew them away even more, a guy who wrote, sang and played guitar. 

This song was written at 20 Forthlin Road, Paul’s home from 1955-1965, up a garden path under a mountain ash tree.  This is where John and Paul wrote many of their songs when they were teenagers.  Paul says of the song:  “John came up with this riff, the little harmonica riff.  It’s so simple.  There’s nothing to it; it’s a will-o’-the-wisp song.  But there’s a terrific sense of longing in the bridge which, combined with that harmonica, touches the soul in some way.”

Guido Merkins

So by 1962 the Beatles were on the verge of stardom.  They had been signed to a recording contract and George Martin was looking for a song for them to record that would be a smash hit.  In comes a song called How Do You Do It, which Martin was convinced would be a big hit.  The Beatles recorded a version of it and do a good job with it.  But the Beatles wanted to record their own song and How Do You Do It didn’t fit how they saw themselves, as a little R&B combo.  So they wanted to release Love Me Do instead and told George Martin this.

Now you have to put this in context.  The Beatles were not yet THE BEATLES.  They were an unknown band from Liverpool where nothing good ever comes from and they have the gaul to make demands on their producer who, held their future literally in his hands.  However, to George Martin’s everlasting credit, he decided to go with Love Me Do, even though he knew it wasn’t the huge hit he was looking for.  Love Me Do reached #17 in the British charts, so his instincts were right that it was a good record.  It would be the last Beatles record for a long time that didn’t go to #1.

Love Me Do had been written a few years before by both John and Paul.  It’s most distinguishing feature with John’s harmonica which led to George Martin having to change the arrangement of the song in the middle of the session.  John usually sang the part “love me do, whoa, love me do”, but for this session he couldn’t both play the harmonica and sing this part, so Martin gave that part to Paul.  If you listen to the single version, you can still hear the wobble in Paul’s voice.

Which brings us to the question of the two versions that are out there.  The album version is Andy White on drums with the single version being the version with Ringo on drums.  George Martin, being unhappy with Pete Best, gets a session drummer and the Beatles bring in Ringo.  Martin, who had no idea if Ringo is up for the job, hands Ringo a tambourine and has Andy White on the drum kit.  You can tell which version is which by the tambourine on the Andy White version.  There is also a version of Love Me Do on Anthology 1 with Pete Best on drums.  If you still doubt that Ringo was better than Pete, go listen to this recording.  Ringo is far superior.

Another aside on this song, Mick Jagger felt sick when he heard Love Me Do because the Stones wanted to put a record in the British charts with a bluesy harmonica, but as usual, the Stones were slightly behind the Beatles.
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Very simple but sets the foundation for their approach that changed music forever. Until I got the entire catalog on CD, I had no idea that the album and single versions were different, or that Andy White existed. There was a black and white promo video for this that MTV would play frequently in its "Closet Classics" segment. 

 
Getzlaf15 said:
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
2022 Ranking: 119
2022 Lists: 2
2022 Points: 25
Ranked Highest by: @simey (3) @Man of Constant Sorrow (24)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 61/4/49

Getz:  Quite the tumble here losing half the voters and points from 2019.

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  101

2019 write-up:

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967)

Nobody panic.  This is just a ranking for the reprise, not the version that opens the record.  Actually I like some aspects of this better than the other:  the energy is higher; the playing is tighter; and I love that charging drumbeat, Paul's count-in and John's little "bye" or "goodbye" at 0:04 during that count-in, and George's guitar riffs.  They sound like they're having a blast on this one, and apparently they were, as Geoff Emerick described it:  "Everybody was really upbeat that day, and it shows.  The vibe was fantastic...I could feel the excitement building from the very first moment...  The Beatles played the whole thing live, just two guitars, bass, and drums with just a single keyboard overdub.  Ringo was pounding the hell out of his drums...  In fact, everyone was playing full-out."

The idea to have a reprise actually came from Neil Aspinall, who suggested that the master of ceremonies from the intro should come back in at the end to close the album (which this song doesn't, but it does lead into the A Day in the Life finale).  John responded to the idea with "Nobody likes a smart-####, Neil," which translated from Lennon-speak meant he was on-board with the idea.  The only reason this isn't higher is because it seems like more of a snippet than a fully formed song, at 80 seconds long with just a repeated chorus, and I want to give other deserving full songs a spot in the top 100 instead.    

Mr. krista:  "Seemed like a passing reprise.  Probably should have been another one at the beginning of the second side.  Nobody thinks of records anymore, though.  As soon as I heard that beat, I thought of the Beastie Boys song."

Suggested cover:  I'll wait to post covers with the other version.

2022 Supplement:  I should have mentioned Paul’s excellent count-in. 

This was the last song recorded for the album, and the band had very little time to devote to it as Paul was going to be flying out to reunite with Jane Asher less than 48 hours later.  The group therefore did an overnight session, ending at 6 a.m. after approximately 11 hours of work on the song.  Since this was a last-minute addition, they couldn’t get Studio Two, which they’d used for the rest of the album, as whatever band had booked it refused to cede it to The Beatles.  (I’d love to know which dickmittens those were and what their finished product sounded like.)  Instead, they were booked into the gigantic Studio One, which the engineers then had to reconfigure to try to give it a close feel and reduce the reverb.  According to Emerick, they first had to “gather up all the available tall screens and build a kind of hut, thus creating a smaller room within a room. Then I asked Mal and Neil to set up the drums and amplifiers very near one another so that there would be minimal delay on the signal that would inevitably spill between the mics, and I arranged The Beatles themselves in a semicircle so they could all see one another.”  The effect of all of this was as I mentioned in my original write-up, which is that in these close quarters the Beatles were able to soak up each other’s energies to give an exciting, rocking performance.

 A couple of other interesting takes of the rhythm section (Take 9 was the final):

Take 5, with some wackier guitar parts over Paul’s guide vocal:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln76b4cTpMQ

Take 8, with Paul musing over the new speakers installed all over the walls of the studio:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu_I99DsGVg

Guido Merkins

The Sgt Pepper album was set up to be a fictional band performing a show.  They were attempting what would be known later as a concept album, but the concept was pretty loose.  John, specifically, in later years, said that “the concept worked because we said it worked, but it never got past the Sgt Pepper track and the reprise at the end of the album.”  John was fully into his Beatles bashing at the point, especially anything done by Paul, but in a way he is correct.  The songs really aren’t related much except for being tied together by the two Sgt Pepper songs.

In the case of the Reprise, it is sort of a “we hope you have enjoyed the show” at the end of the album.  It is a much tighter, more rock and roll oriented performance than the opening Sgt Pepper song.  I love Ringo’s drumming, especially during the intro.  I love John saying “bye” right in the intro.  I love the lead guitar throughout by John and George.  The other cool part is Paul’s background screaming in the outro which is heard very faintly on the stereo, but more prominently on the mono.  The song then goes straight into A Day in the Life.
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I always loved how this was deployed, and the guitars buzzing at the beginning. And I agree with Simey that it's the perfect lead-in to A Day in the Life. Its hard for me to rate it on its own because it's so short and I always saw it as an extension of the other Sgt Pepper song. 

To continue today's Phish theme, they copped this approach on their third album, A Picture of Nectar. About halfway through the album is a song called Tweezer, which became one of their major jam songs, and the record ends with Tweezer Reprise, a shorter and harder-rocking piece with some of the same elements. I doubt they come up with that without having this as an example. In concert, Tweezer Reprise is usually performed as the final encore in shows where Tweezer has appeared -- such as at this officially released show that I attended, where it closed out the encore after While My Guitar Gently Weeps -- but sometimes they appear without each other. On rare occasions Tweezer Reprise has appeared more than once in the same show. 

 
Pip's Invitation said:
Very simple but sets the foundation for their approach that changed music forever. Until I got the entire catalog on CD, I had no idea that the album and single versions were different, or that Andy White existed. There was a black and white promo video for this that MTV would play frequently in its "Closet Classics" segment. 
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The more I listen to the first 4, the more I appreciate them, the number of favorites I grow fond of expands. Not to the point of eclipsing their more fully formed compositions that were to come..but that’s beside the point.

_______________
 

nobody:

ABSOLUTELY NO ONE:

BL:

My current ranking of the canon based a crude rating system I developed while ranking 1-204 (bc I left out Free As A Bird & Real Love😞

Tier 1: Revolver, Rubber Soul    
Tier 2: Let It Be… Naked, A Hard Day’s Night, SPLHCB, Abbey Road    

Tier 3: Help!, The Beatles (aka TWA), Please Please Me

Tier 4: Magical Mystery Tour (USA LP not UK double EP), Beatles For Sale, With The Beatles

contractually obligated Tier 5: Yellow Submarine 

by release:

Please Please Me   9th   89.79

With The Beatles   12th 68.21

A Hard Day's Night   4th   107.85

Beatles For Sale   11th   72.14

Help!   7th   101.14

Rubber Soul   2nd   128.14

Revolver   1st   140.36

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band    5th   102.54

Magical Mystery Tour   10th   75.83

The Beatles (aka the White Album)   8th   90.90

Yellow Submarine   13th   63.17

Abbey Road   6th   101.50

Let It Be   3rd   113.92

 
Getzlaf15 said:
It’s All Too Much
2022 Ranking: 118
2022 Lists: 4
2022 Points: 25
Ranked Highest by: OTB_Lifer (8) Krista (Worth) (20) @Pip's Invitation (25) Krista (Rob) (25)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: NR

Getz comments:  Another with four votes NR in 2019. Worth takes over the Chalk lead.

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  91

2019 write-up:

It's All Too Much (Yellow Submarine, 1969)

Written by George based on realizations from an LSD trip and confirmed by meditation.  Grabs me from the get-go with that guitar sound; loses me by the end.  That droning chord with the fantastic guitar riffs. That basso continuo with all the instruments interlaid on top.  Those expansive drums and jubilant trumpets and clarinet.  Who needs good lyrics?  This song sounds like the best of a rock-psychadelia-Indian mishmosh to me for about four minutes but loses me in the rambling chaos of the last two minutes or so.    

There seems to be a spot of disagreement about who played lead guitar on this one, with all of John, Paul, and George being claimed at one point or another.  

Mr. krista:  "The bassline is really neat, but that flurry of notes sounds like pulses; this neat textural thing that Paul didn’t usually do. It’s a really trippy ####### song. It’s supposed to be.  It’s long and trance-like.  I like it a lot.  I like the horn overdubs.  I guess I like drones.  Have you ever said the same word over and over [narrator:  this goes one for a while] until it sounds different? That’s what I like about music like that.  It involves one on a pre-conscious level."

Suggested cover:  The Flaming Lips

2022 Supplement:  Maybe a smidge high on my list last time; while I do enjoy all the hullabaloo, as I mentioned then it should have been chopped by a third.  Then again, it might make sense for a song about LSD to sound like a too-long trip.  George later explained that the lines, “Show me that I’m everywhere, and get me home for tea,” described the experience of coming down from drugs. “You’d trip out, you see, on all this stuff, and then whoops! You’d just be back having your evening cup of tea!”  He also indicated that the screaming guitar intro (played by Paul) was meant to immediately indicate you’d be going on a trippy experience.  I think George did a great job balancing the ”trippy” with the spiritual in the lyrics, such as “the more I go inside,  the more there is to see,” or “floating down the stream of time, of life, to life, with me.”  With a little editing, this might have become one of his classic works with the Beatles.  If you, on the other hand, think it was too edited, there is an even longer version:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtuMhOeomrs

Guido Merkins

It’s no secret that the Beatles had almost no involvement with the Yellow Submarine movie.  They were contractually obligated to come up with 4 new songs for the film.  Typically, they would take songs they didn’t think much of (or maybe just John and Paul didn’t) and save them for the film. One of those was It’s All Too Much

It’s All Too Much was composed by George on an organ, a strange time in which George seemed to write all of his songs on a keyboard instrument (Blue Jay Way, Within You Without You.)  This song was meant to have a very Indian flavor, written mostly around one chord and very droning.  The lyrics seem to reflect George’s frustration with the drug scene.  George was pretty naive when it came to the drug scene thinking people were taking LSD to be spiritual awakened.  Finding out people were just using it to escape reality caused him to get away from taking LSD.

George and John both play guitar, Ringo on drums and Paul on bass.  George came to dislike the trumpets on the song.  I actually like the song, but it’s too long.  In this case, less would have been more.
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My rank: 25

I went back and forth over whether to end my list with this or the song that wound up at 26, but in the end I felt I had to give the tiebreaker to George. It was the longest song to make my 90-minute tape and I love every second of it. I have always thought it was cool as hell, and I learn something new from it every time, helped in part because it never got overplayed on the radio.

The opening chords are positively Hendrixian, and the organ that comes right in lets you know you're going for a crazy carousel ride. The drums and percussion are epic -- it's A RINGO SHOWCASE! The arrangement is totally kitchen sink, but in the best way possible -- every random bit seems like it has a purpose. Even the trumpets. George's lyrics are marvelously philosophical. The last two minutes may annoy some, but they drive the point home for me. Each "too much" is every bit as essential as each "na" in Hey Jude. It's George's way of conveying the burdens and disappointments he feels. An underappreciated masterpiece. 

 
krista4 said:
I definitely would not mix up Higgs and Tanner.
Click to expand...
You'd be surprised. You might like Higgs were he to have a new incarnation. Never underestimate an individual's potential for growth and how circumstances change us. I happened to talk with Higgs and got to know him, and can vouchsafe that he's a good guy and that most of us would like him were we to get to know him.  

 
The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
2022 Ranking: 116
2022 Lists: 2
2022 Points: 26
Ranked Highest by: Krista (Rob) (11) OTB_Lifer (15)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: NR

Getz comments:  Five of the next six songs were not rated in 2019.

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  178

2019 write-up:

The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill (White Album, 1968)

What I love:  the Ennio Morricone feel at the beginning, Yoko's dissonance, John's vocal, the way it leads into While My Guitar Gently Weeps.  What I don't, at all:  the singalong.  Unlike my view of Savoy Truffle, I do find this one funny.  It makes me smile to listen to it, until it starts to drive me mad with that chorus.  John wrote this one based on an experience in India, about "a guy in Maharishi's meditation camp who took a short break to go shoot a few poor tigers, and then came back to commune with God. There used to be a character called Jungle Jim and I combined him with Buffalo Bill. It's a sort of teenage social-comment song and a bit of a joke."  I like the joke. 

Fun fact:  Yoko singing "Not when he looked so fierce..." was the first lead vocal from a woman on a Beatles record.

Mr. krista:  "I prefer this to Rocky Raccoon.  You can pick Yoko out of those background vocals. Did Bungalow Bill ever get back to us on what he killed?  Or was it just the Beatles’ self-respect?”"

Suggested covers:  Dawn Kinnard/Ron Sexsmith - I'm not 100% sold on this, but (1) I love Ron Sexsmith, and (2) I like the switch to an off-key female for the lead singer.  For some serious inventiveness, check out the version by Deerhoof.

2022 Supplement:  Continued listening did not make me think more fondly of this one over the past three years; in fact, I’d probably drop it down 20ish slots.  Many years later, Paul said it’s one of his favorite on the White Album and claimed this as an animal rights song on behalf of John, saying that it made him realize John felt the same way he (Paul) did, even though John wasn’t an animal activist.  Ehhhhh, I dunno. 

What did the inspiration for the song, Richard Cooke III, think of all this?  I don’t think he was terribly pleased, but his experiences with the maharishi and the Beatles did make him give up hunting and become a wildlife photographer instead, working for many years for National Geographic.  He had at first been very excited about killing the tiger, but quickly he began to feel guilty and scheduled a meeting with the mararishi, and John and Paul happened to be nearby.  The maharishi was horrified at the act, and Cooke said he’d never kill an animal again.  He’s described his time with the Beatles as being generally good, and that everyone was very nice to him other than John (who was aloof), but that they had little in common.  Nevertheless, his mother Nancy (who might also have been named Magill or Lil), who is also referenced in the song, remained friends with George until his death.

In case you don’t have a root canal scheduled for a while and need a substitute, here’s an earlier take of this song:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI6QgHR058g

Guido Merkins

In Rishikesh, India the Beatles came across quite a few characters.  One such person was a man who came to commune with God, yet went out every now and then to shoot tigers.  Jungle Jim and Buffalo Bill were combined as only John could to come up with Bungalow Bill.  John meant the song as a social commentary.  The man probably left the commune having no idea he had inspired a new Beatles song

The recording is done in a very very loose, sing a long kind of way, maybe almost as a precursor to Give Peace A Chance.  It is most notable, however, for the first and only appearance of Yoko Ono on a Beatles record on the line “not when he looked so fierce.”  

As much as John hated Obla Di Obla Da, this one isn’t much better and in fact, is worse because it doesn’t have the goofy charm of the Paul song.  John sounds like he’s trying to say something important, but it comes across as lightweight.  Paul is trying to be lightweight so you can just relax and take it for what it is.

 
Getzlaf15 said:
The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
2022 Ranking: 116
2022 Lists: 2
2022 Points: 26
Ranked Highest by: Krista (Rob) (11) OTB_Lifer (15)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: NR

Getz comments:  Five of the next six songs were not rated in 2019.

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  178

2019 write-up:

The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill (White Album, 1968)

What I love:  the Ennio Morricone feel at the beginning, Yoko's dissonance, John's vocal, the way it leads into While My Guitar Gently Weeps.  What I don't, at all:  the singalong.  Unlike my view of Savoy Truffle, I do find this one funny.  It makes me smile to listen to it, until it starts to drive me mad with that chorus.  John wrote this one based on an experience in India, about "a guy in Maharishi's meditation camp who took a short break to go shoot a few poor tigers, and then came back to commune with God. There used to be a character called Jungle Jim and I combined him with Buffalo Bill. It's a sort of teenage social-comment song and a bit of a joke."  I like the joke. 

Fun fact:  Yoko singing "Not when he looked so fierce..." was the first lead vocal from a woman on a Beatles record.

Mr. krista:  "I prefer this to Rocky Raccoon.  You can pick Yoko out of those background vocals. Did Bungalow Bill ever get back to us on what he killed?  Or was it just the Beatles’ self-respect?”"

Suggested covers:  Dawn Kinnard/Ron Sexsmith - I'm not 100% sold on this, but (1) I love Ron Sexsmith, and (2) I like the switch to an off-key female for the lead singer.  For some serious inventiveness, check out the version by Deerhoof.

2022 Supplement:  Continued listening did not make me think more fondly of this one over the past three years; in fact, I’d probably drop it down 20ish slots.  Many years later, Paul said it’s one of his favorite on the White Album and claimed this as an animal rights song on behalf of John, saying that it made him realize John felt the same way he (Paul) did, even though John wasn’t an animal activist.  Ehhhhh, I dunno. 

What did the inspiration for the song, Richard Cooke III, think of all this?  I don’t think he was terribly pleased, but his experiences with the maharishi and the Beatles did make him give up hunting and become a wildlife photographer instead, working for many years for National Geographic.  He had at first been very excited about killing the tiger, but quickly he began to feel guilty and scheduled a meeting with the mararishi, and John and Paul happened to be nearby.  The maharishi was horrified at the act, and Cooke said he’d never kill an animal again.  He’s described his time with the Beatles as being generally good, and that everyone was very nice to him other than John (who was aloof), but that they had little in common.  Nevertheless, his mother Nancy (who might also have been named Magill or Lil), who is also referenced in the song, remained friends with George until his death.

In case you don’t have a root canal scheduled for a while and need a substitute, here’s an earlier take of this song:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI6QgHR058g

Guido Merkins

In Rishikesh, India the Beatles came across quite a few characters.  One such person was a man who came to commune with God, yet went out every now and then to shoot tigers.  Jungle Jim and Buffalo Bill were combined as only John could to come up with Bungalow Bill.  John meant the song as a social commentary.  The man probably left the commune having no idea he had inspired a new Beatles song

The recording is done in a very very loose, sing a long kind of way, maybe almost as a precursor to Give Peace A Chance.  It is most notable, however, for the first and only appearance of Yoko Ono on a Beatles record on the line “not when he looked so fierce.”  

As much as John hated Obla Di Obla Da, this one isn’t much better and in fact, is worse because it doesn’t have the goofy charm of the Paul song.  John sounds like he’s trying to say something important, but it comes across as lightweight.  Paul is trying to be lightweight so you can just relax and take it for what it is.
Click to expand...
@otb_lifer knows his jams, so I'm curious what's appealing about this track. I love listening to the start of white, but cant get more than a few seconds into this beforw hitting next.

 
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