prosopis
Arizona Chupacabra
The nurses where I work know that if they have a two syllable name I will be singing this using their name. They just love it!!Getzlaf15 said:Dear Prudence
2022 Ranking: 34
2022 Lists: 20
2022 Points: 226
Ranked Highest by: Alex(4) @shuke (4) @Westerberg(5) @ProstheticRGK (6) @Pip's Invitation (8) @MAC_32 (9) @prosopis (10) @FairWarning (11) @turnjose7 (15)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 26/10/149
Getz comments: 15 more points than #35, so we enter a new tier that contains the next five songs separated by 12 points. Slides down eight slots from 2019.
Krista4
My 2019 ranking: 18
2019 write-up:
Dear Prudence (White Album, 1968)
The award for Biggest Jump in the Rankings goes to "Dear Prudence." This is a song that I used to turn off when it came on; I was convinced that I couldn't stand it. Would have been in Tier 5 were it not for forcing myself to listen to it over and over, and now it lands in the top 20! WTG Prudence!
Prudence herself was Mia Farrow's crazy little sister, who was at the Maharishi's ashram at the same time as the lads in 1968. According to John, Prudence "seemed to go slightly barmy, meditating too long, and couldn't come out of the little hut that we were living in. They selected me and George to try and bring her out because she would trust us. ... She'd been locked in for three weeks and wouldn't come out, trying to reach God quicker than anybody else." Others described Prudence as being in a near-catatonic state, and the Maharishi provided her a full-time nurse. While the song didn't lure her out - she didn't hear it until the album was released - Prudence did finally emerge from her state and spend some time with John and George, who told her that the song had been written about her.
Ringo alert! This is my highest ranked song with no Ringo, having been recorded while he'd temporarily quit the band. That's Paul on drums, and, unlike on "Back in the U.S.S.R.," I think Paul acquits himself quite nicely here, especially on the fills and in the last verse when he goes nutso playing every pattern known to man. Paul also played, in addition to the usual bass, piano and flugelhorn. Because if you're Paul McCartney and see a flugelhorn lying around, naturally you can play it.
John puts the finger-picking style he learned at the ashram from Donovan to great use here; I love how the song begins and ends with that delicate circling guitar line over Paul's soft one-note bass and tambourine. Though it starts quietly and delicately, the song picks up incredible intensity, first by filling out the bass part and adding the drums in the first verse. Though the second verse tracks the same melody with a continuation of that meandering double-tracked guitar line and John's double-tracked vocals, it adds a delicious descending bass line, then gorgeous high falsetto harmonies, and then George's low guitar chords to continue the build. It's when Paul's descending bass starts providing those harmonies to John's guitar that this song gets exciting for me. From that second verse we head into the bridge, which features George adding a more prominent lead vocal part and our first non-John vocals, with swelling harmonies provided by, among others, Mal Evans and Jackie Lomax (recently signed to the Apple label). Rounding back out of the bridge, the intensity continues to build as George's guitar now distinctly winds around John's vocal, and Paul adds a series of slightly jarring downward arpeggios on piano; then handclaps and loud tambourines and double-tracked guitar and Paul's inexplicable drum solo and whirling high-pitched piano notes and gigantic glissando and things seem slightly out of control until...resolution. This song has what must be the most satisfying resolution of any in the Beatles catalogue - John extends out the vocal lines while each of the instruments first briefly falls into a standard pattern instead of the preceding madness, and then each fades away, bringing us back to the beginning and leaving us with just John's finger-picking guitar.
I find everything about this song mesmerizing.
Mr. krista: "I like it a lot. Surprisingly heavy. I didn’t think I liked it. Love the Indian guitar sound with slight distortion coupled with the finger-picked part. The drums sound kind of blowed out and heavy. You could put a song like that on a Flaming Lips record and it would not be at all out of place."
Suggested cover: If you're not going to be able to capture it, and you're not, might as well go really different: Siouxshie and the Banshees
2022 Supplement:
Dear Prudence,
You fell just shy of my top 25 in 2022 after a surprise appearance at #18 in 2019. It’s not you; it’s me. I still value your contributions, but other songs have really stepped up their game in the ensuing years, some even going so far as to have three-part documentaries made about them. Ultimately it’s that kind of initiative and determination that I’m looking for in a song. Hope to see you again in 2025.
Warmest regards,
k4
Guido Merkins
In Rishikesh, there was a young lady who would not come out of her hut because she was always meditating. Prudence Farrow, Mia Farrow’s sister, was that young lady and John would always try and make her come out. That experience caused him to write Dear Prudence wanting her to “come out and play.”
The joy of Back in the USSR fades into the dreamier Dear Prudence on the White Album. Love the lyrics like “the sun is up, the sky is blue, its beautiful and so are you” and “see the sunny skies” and “you’re a part of everything.”
John used the Donovan fingerpicking style for this song. Interestingly, Paul played drums on this song and Back in the USSR because Ringo left the group for 3 days. Paul does an outstanding job on Dear Prudence, especially near the end when we get the drum fills and George playing a counter melody on guitar.
John always claimed that he wrote the most miserable songs in the world in Rishikesh, and while Yer Blues and Sexy Sadie and Bungalow Bill are not happy songs, Dear Prudence has a childlike quality about it and is a happy song. It’s one of my favorites on the album.
Yeah, that's one that's sunk for me the past few years. I think I had it higher in 2019 because of the Otis cover, which really isn't that good but is hilarious to me.
