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2022 FBG, 172 to 1 Beatles Countdown 1-25 lists... And 173 to 1 Countdown from 1-64 lists! (2 Viewers)

Day Tripper is a simple rock song that would be easy for cover bands to pick up.   Cheap Trick has played it for over 40 years, part of the reason I have it ranked #2.    The Beatles were a big influence on CT.

otb_lifer describes Hey Bulldog perfectly.  Not many songs sounded like that in that era.  
 

I think I’m down to 6 left, I have a feeling 2-3 more come off today.

 
My official TOP 25 list submitted for this thread's ranking purposes January 18th:

14. She Loves You
18. Revolution
19. I Saw Her Standing There
20. I am The Walrus
22. Blackbird
24. All You Need is Love

My Unofficial 1-206 re-ranking completed mid-February (17 of the original 25 survived):

3 Dear Prudence
5 Rain
9 She Said She Said
11 Blackbird
13 Paperback Writer
17 She Loves You
24 I Am The Walrus
25 I'll Cry Instead

 
Last edited by a moderator:
My official TOP 25 list submitted for this thread's ranking purposes January 18th:

14. She Loves You
18. Revolution
20. I am The Walrus
22. Blackbird
24. All You Need is Love

My Unofficial 1-206 re-ranking completed mid-February (17 of the original 25 survived):

3 Dear Prudence
5 Rain
9 She Said She Said
11 Blackbird
13 Paperback Writer
17 She Loves You
24 I Am The Walrus
25 I'll Cry Instead
You've had six songs posted.  You left 19 off again. 

 
Day Tripper is a simple rock song that would be easy for cover bands to pick up.   Cheap Trick has played it for over 40 years, part of the reason I have it ranked #2.    The Beatles were a big influence on CT.

otb_lifer describes Hey Bulldog perfectly.  Not many songs sounded like that in that era.  
 

I think I’m down to 6 left, I have a feeling 2-3 more come off today.
I tried to learn the bass guitar for like a month many years ago. I did not have the will or the time to keep going and really practice. But I can tell you one thing. No matter how bad one might be at bass, or even if you're just picking it up for the first time, it is impossible NOT to try to play the Day Tripper riff. (Also Rockin' in the Free World which, by the way, is way easier). 

 
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One of the YT links after And Your Bird Can Sing is a guy talking about playing the signature riff. Apparently not long after it came out, a young Joe Walsh became obsessed with learning the guitar part and spent months working on it. 

It was only later - when he actually met Ringo - that he learned it was double-tracked on Revolver.

link

 
Seriously, the moment I first heard "Hey Bulldog" in early 2010 was life-changing.  I'd never heard it before, and I was flabbergasted to find that the Beatles had produced something funkier than "The Word" or "Lady Madonna".  Nothing warms my heart more than the prominence and recognition that this gem has rightly garnered in the ensuing years.  

 
Just passing time...I learned in the Led Zep thread that if you hold down shift and then hit return, it will single space to the next line when making a number list.  

1.
2.
3.    Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)  (119)
4.    
5.
6.     I am The Walrus  (33)
7.
8.     And I Love Her  (45)
9.     
10.
11.
12.   You Won't See Me  (71)
13.   
14.
15.   Happiness Is A Warm Gun  (39)
16.   For No One   (53)
17.   
18.   
19.   Rain  (42)
20.   I'm So Tired  (72)
21.   Things We Said Today (37)
22.   
23.
24.
25.

 
1.
2.  Things We Said Today (37)
3.  Hey Bulldog (30)
4.
5. I'll Be Back (87)
6.  For No One (53)
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.  No Reply (70)
12.  Ob-la-di Ob-la-da (50)
13.  Another Girl (145T)
14.  Because (107T)
15.  She's Leaving Home (63)
16.  Any Time At All (90)
17.  If I Fell (67)
18.  All My Loving (48)
19.  Lady Madonna (77)
20.  Drive My Car (62)
21.  Please Please Me (91)
22.  Savoy Truffle (80)
23.  I Want To Tell You (128)
24.  
25.  Glass Onion (86)

 
We Can Work It Out
2022 Ranking: 29
2022 Lists: 25
2022 Points: 262
Ranked Highest by: @Encyclopedia Brown (4) @Ted Lange as your Bartender (4) @Eephus (6) @worrierking(9) @Uruk-Hai (10) @Westerberg (10) @Dinsy Ejotuz (12) Daughter and Son1 (14) @Yankee23Fan (15) @MAC_32 (15)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 19/14/176

Getz:  Eleven more votes and 86 more points than 2019, and still dropped 11 slots from back then. Next tier from #30 Hey Bulldog, with 24 more points. The next three songs have 263, 264 and 265 points. So it was quite the battle for the #25 slot, which finished at 270 points.
First song to get 25 votes. Only six of them were in the Top 10.
I had this at #20, down five slots from 2019's #15.


Krista4

My 2019 ranking:  47

2019 write-up:

We Can Work It Out (single, 1965)

This whole thing was a bad idea.  Whose idea was this?  I don't mean the song; I mean ranking the songs.  Killing me.  

Anyway, love this song.  Always a big fan of songs where Paul and John each contributed significantly, and in this one George also made a major impact.  It's no surprise that Paul wrote the optimistic verses as he tried to work through his relationship with Jane Asher, a relationship that will also be at the heart of, and treated more negatively in, "You Won't See Me" and "I'm Looking Through You."  John contributed the more downbeat bridge, but it was George's idea to put the bridge in waltz time.  Nifty thought that raises the song to a whole new level.   As usual in these collaborative songs, the verses show their optimism in sunny major chords, while the bridge falls into a minor key to emphasize the pessimism.  Both Paul and John are in excellent voice on this song, but I think Paul's the standout with that pure vocal sound and those high harmonies; it's one of my favorite Beatles performances from him.  This was the first song in which the Beatles used the harmonium that would later show up more frequently, and I love the use of the volume pedal on it by whoever was playing it.  

This was a double-a-side single along with "Day Tripper," still to come, the first double-a-sided single released in the UK.  In the US, the popularity was tracked separately, with this song hitting #1 but "Day Tripper" only reaching #5.  Probably not at the level of Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields for "best double-a-single ever," but should be in the conversation. 

Mr. krista:  "Pretty good single.  The lyrics are funny to me.  It’s about working it out, but it’s all about hectoring the other people into agreeing with your point of view.  And time will tell you that I’m right.  Those are really bad arguing tactics, Sir Paul.  I still think it’s a really good song; it just makes me laugh.  It’s a song about cooperation, but it’s so not."

Suggested cover:  Here we have it, my favorite cover of any Beatles song:  Stevie Wonder

2022 Supplement:  Oddly enough, Mr. krista seemed to have it right in 2019 analysis, as Paul has recently acknowledged the selfishness of the song, pointing out that “we can work it out” should have been the simple message without adding “try to see it my way”:  “…you can spread a good message: ‘We can work it out.’  If you wanted to say it in one line, it would be ‘Let’s not argue.’  If you wanted to say it in two lines:  ‘Let’s not argue / Listen to me.’  Obviously, that is quite selfish, but then so is the song.”

Paul recounts writing this immediately after an argument with Jane Asher, feeling that he could only work it out (see what I did there) while it was fresh in his mind.  Though he tried both to work out his feelings with the song and work out his relationship with Jane as the song optimistically predicted he could, they did break up soon thereafter.  One thing I’ve noticed in reading Paul’s words is how often he discusses Jane’s mother Margaret, and in discussing this song and the subsequent break-up, he has relayed that losing Jane led to losing Margaret, which was devastating to him as if he had lost a mother for the second time.  His affection for the Asher family, who let him live in their home and treated him fully as a son, and his wonder at seeing such a “posh” lifestyle that was miles from what he’d ever known before, make me think he might have loved being part of the family more than having strong affection for Jane, lovely as she was.

Please follow me for more armchair psychoanalysis of people I don’t know.

Guido Merkins

John and Paul were both complete songwriters.  Both could write words and music and both created many different styles of song.  Often the stereotype is that John writes songs that are moodier and Paul writes songs that are happy.  These are too simple to be true (John wrote Julia and Paul wrote Helter Skelter), however within these stereotypes, there is an element of truth.  They often worked best together when John put a little weight behind Paul’s sunnier outlook.  Sometimes they did this song by song.  Sometimes they did it within the same song. We Can Work It Out is perhaps the best example of this.

Paul wrote We Can Work It Out after a disagreement with Jane Asher saying “We can work it out, we can work it out” the very optimistic verse.  John wrote the impatient middle “life is very short and there’s no time…”  The most distinctive element of the song is the harmonium played by John and the waltz time during the middle, suggested by George.  Also I love the ying and the yang of the song, a trick the Beatles would use in the future on songs like A Day in the Life and Getting Better.  

Important to note that there was great disagreement over which would be the A side on this single, We Can Work It Out or Day Tripper.  Paul and George Martin wanting We Can Work It Out and John wanting Day Tripper.  The solution was a first for the Beatles, and maybe a first for anybody, a double A sided single.  This is something the Beatles would use several other times in the future to keep the peace between the very competitive John and Paul.

 
I am really surprised that of the top 28 songs, i will have 13 of them and 12 of my top 17.

1 - Michelle #82

2 - Yellow Submarine #85

3 - 

4 - Twist and Shout #57

5 - All You Need is Love #54

6 - 

7 - 

8 - 

9 - 

10 - 

11 - 

12 - 

13 - 

14 - All My Loving #48

15 - 

16 - 

17 - 

18 - I Should Have Known Better #93

19 - Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da #50

20 - She Loves You #38

21 - Roll Over Beethoven #150

22 - She’s Leaving Home #63

23 - Octopus’s Garden #79

24 - Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds #55

25 - 

 
Got To Get You Into My Life
2022 Ranking: 27
2022 Lists: 21
2022 Points: 264
Ranked Highest by: @jwb (1) @DocHolliday (3) @Dwayne Hoover (3) @Gr00vus (6) @Dr. Octopus (7) @DaVinci (9) @turnjose7 (11) @Just Win Baby (13) @ConstruxBoy (14) @MAC_32 (14) @Guido Merkins (15) @Uruk-Hai (15) 
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 20/13/167

JWB - #1. Got To Get You Into My Life – The perfect marriage between early and late Beatles. That Paul said it’s about weed makes it all the better.


Getz: Drops seven slots from 2019.

Krista4

My 2019 ranking:  61

2019 write-up:

Got To Get You Into My Life (Revolver, 1966)

There's Motown and there's Stax, and I'm Stax.  I love the horns, but they aren't Stax horns; with Memphis horns I'd rank it even higher.  The expansive jazzy feel of this song is phenomenal, though I wish they'd punched up the sound of the drums more in the mix.  I'm a huge fan of Paul's vocal throughout - he hits everything with extraordinary feeling - but I especially love the grittiness he gives to the chorus.  Geoff Emerick said that there was so much excitement for Paul's vocal that at one point during the recording John burst out of the control room to shout his encouragement.  George's guitar makes a brief but memorable appearance starting with the third chorus that punches everything up even more.  By the finish, the energy is off the charts. 

I always liked the lyrics to this and was disappointed to find that Paul wrote this as an ode to pot.  As an urgent plea to a lover, I like it better.

Mr. krista:  "Of course I like it.  It’s a big brassy Motown song, but still so British.  An American would never do the [singing] “I didn’t know what I would find theeere.”  Reminds me of all the good 70s theme songs.  Like Good Times.  Reminds me of the Good Times theme song.  Would be a great theme song for a comedy in the 70s that featured black people."

Suggested cover:  I didn't look for any others.   Earth, Wind & Fire

2022 Supplement:  As discussed elsewhere (I think?), the Beatles were introduced to pot by one of Bob Dylan’s entourage.  Paul expanded on the story in The Lyrics, saying that Dylan had disappeared into a back room of their hotel suite, and the Beatles thought he’d gone to the bathroom, until “Ringo came out of that back room, looking a bit strange.”  He told the others that Dylan had some weed (or whatever they called it then), and they asked him what it was like.  “Well, the ceiling is kind of moving; it’s sort of coming down.”  That was enough for the other Beatles to leap up eager to try it, too.  They were taking puffs, thinking it wasn’t working, so they just kept puffing and puffing and, “Suddenly, it was working.  And we were giggling, laughing at each other.  I remember George trying to get away, and I was sort of running after him, like a cartoon chase.” 

Paul, as he so often did, enjoyed the idea of masking an ode to pot as something else, something that wouldn’t get caught up by the censors.  (As an aside, it’s so quaint to think of “censors” objecting to “pot songs.”)  He made the song joyous, because that is how they viewed the drug at the time, before their experiences turned darker with other drugs, especially for John.  He’s described the song as “a rather sunny-day-in-the-garden type of experience.”  As much as the brass adds to this song, I think you can really hear what he describes more in this earlier take without brass, released in the Anthology series:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPHon-sZpr8    

Guido Merkins

Paul’s ode to pot, Got to Get You Into My Life is typical of Paul.  Not outward writing a song about drugs, like John would with Dr Robert, but masking it as a love song.  Got to Get You Into My Life shows that Paul loved Motown and was listening to their songs to get ideas for his own.

Got to Get You Into My Life announces itself right from the beginning as an R&B influenced number with the awesome horn section.  Some hints to the songs real muse are the lines “I was alone I took a ride” and “another road where maybe I could see another mind there.”

The best parts of the song is Paul’s growl during the lines “got to get you into my life” and the awesome horns throughout.  Ringo is super solid here, as usual and George Harrison’s huge guitar riff near the end of the song really brings the song to another level.  And Paul’s thumping bass make the Motown connection obvious.

There is a version of Got To Get You Into My Life on Anthology 2 that is interesting, but really different from the finished version.  Heavy harmonium and much slower.  In this case, they were correct to speed it up and go with the Motown treatment

This is one of the few songs that someone did a really good cover of, Earth Wind and Fire covered this for the Sgt Pepper Movie by the Bee Gees, one of the only redeeming parts of that horrendous film.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
We Can Work It Out
2022 Ranking: 29
2022 Lists: 25
2022 Points: 262
Ranked Highest by: @Encyclopedia Brown (4) @Ted Lange as your Bartender (4) @Eephus (6) @worrierking(9) @Uruk-Hai (10) @Westerberg (10) @Dinsy Ejotuz (12) Daughter and Son1 (14) @Yankee23Fan (15) @MAC_32 (15)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 19/14/176

Getz:  Eleven more votes and 86 more points than 2019, and still dropped 11 slots from back then. Next tier from #30 Hey Bulldog, with 24 more points. The next three songs have 263, 264 and 265 points. So it was quite the battle for the #25 slot, which finished at 270 points.
First song to get 25 votes. Only six of them were in the Top 10.
I had this at #20, down five slots from 2019's #15.


Krista4

My 2019 ranking:  47

2019 write-up:

We Can Work It Out (single, 1965)

This whole thing was a bad idea.  Whose idea was this?  I don't mean the song; I mean ranking the songs.  Killing me.  

Anyway, love this song.  Always a big fan of songs where Paul and John each contributed significantly, and in this one George also made a major impact.  It's no surprise that Paul wrote the optimistic verses as he tried to work through his relationship with Jane Asher, a relationship that will also be at the heart of, and treated more negatively in, "You Won't See Me" and "I'm Looking Through You."  John contributed the more downbeat bridge, but it was George's idea to put the bridge in waltz time.  Nifty thought that raises the song to a whole new level.   As usual in these collaborative songs, the verses show their optimism in sunny major chords, while the bridge falls into a minor key to emphasize the pessimism.  Both Paul and John are in excellent voice on this song, but I think Paul's the standout with that pure vocal sound and those high harmonies; it's one of my favorite Beatles performances from him.  This was the first song in which the Beatles used the harmonium that would later show up more frequently, and I love the use of the volume pedal on it by whoever was playing it.  

This was a double-a-side single along with "Day Tripper," still to come, the first double-a-sided single released in the UK.  In the US, the popularity was tracked separately, with this song hitting #1 but "Day Tripper" only reaching #5.  Probably not at the level of Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields for "best double-a-single ever," but should be in the conversation. 

Mr. krista:  "Pretty good single.  The lyrics are funny to me.  It’s about working it out, but it’s all about hectoring the other people into agreeing with your point of view.  And time will tell you that I’m right.  Those are really bad arguing tactics, Sir Paul.  I still think it’s a really good song; it just makes me laugh.  It’s a song about cooperation, but it’s so not."

Suggested cover:  Here we have it, my favorite cover of any Beatles song:  Stevie Wonder

2022 Supplement:  Oddly enough, Mr. krista seemed to have it right in 2019 analysis, as Paul has recently acknowledged the selfishness of the song, pointing out that “we can work it out” should have been the simple message without adding “try to see it my way”:  “…you can spread a good message: ‘We can work it out.’  If you wanted to say it in one line, it would be ‘Let’s not argue.’  If you wanted to say it in two lines:  ‘Let’s not argue / Listen to me.’  Obviously, that is quite selfish, but then so is the song.”

Paul recounts writing this immediately after an argument with Jane Asher, feeling that he could only work it out (see what I did there) while it was fresh in his mind.  Though he tried both to work out his feelings with the song and work out his relationship with Jane as the song optimistically predicted he could, they did break up soon thereafter.  One thing I’ve noticed in reading Paul’s words is how often he discusses Jane’s mother Margaret, and in discussing this song and the subsequent break-up, he has relayed that losing Jane led to losing Margaret, which was devastating to him as if he had lost a mother for the second time.  His affection for the Asher family, who let him live in their home and treated him fully as a son, and his wonder at seeing such a “posh” lifestyle that was miles from what he’d ever known before, make me think he might have loved being part of the family more than having strong affection for Jane, lovely as she was.

Please follow me for more armchair psychoanalysis of people I don’t know.

Guido Merkins

John and Paul were both complete songwriters.  Both could write words and music and both created many different styles of song.  Often the stereotype is that John writes songs that are moodier and Paul writes songs that are happy.  These are too simple to be true (John wrote Julia and Paul wrote Helter Skelter), however within these stereotypes, there is an element of truth.  They often worked best together when John put a little weight behind Paul’s sunnier outlook.  Sometimes they did this song by song.  Sometimes they did it within the same song. We Can Work It Out is perhaps the best example of this.

Paul wrote We Can Work It Out after a disagreement with Jane Asher saying “We can work it out, we can work it out” the very optimistic verse.  John wrote the impatient middle “life is very short and there’s no time…”  The most distinctive element of the song is the harmonium played by John and the waltz time during the middle, suggested by George.  Also I love the ying and the yang of the song, a trick the Beatles would use in the future on songs like A Day in the Life and Getting Better.  

Important to note that there was great disagreement over which would be the A side on this single, We Can Work It Out or Day Tripper.  Paul and George Martin wanting We Can Work It Out and John wanting Day Tripper.  The solution was a first for the Beatles, and maybe a first for anybody, a double A sided single.  This is something the Beatles would use several other times in the future to keep the peace between the very competitive John and Paul.
Love your thoughts on Jane Asher & her family here @krista4. I used to think it was odd they invited their 17 year old daughters boyfriend into their townhouse - but apparently that was the fashion on the continent then (& has been for a long time.) 

Probably common knowledge for the many Beatles aficionados here but I only found out a few months ago Jane’s grandmother was George Martin’s oboe instructor (not a euphemism.)

Not my favorite Beatles hit - landed at #77 - but dang that Stevie version is something else!

 
My apologies.... I allowed a list to be changed that didn't affect any part of the countdown early on where someone had not had a song posted yet. My eye ball test failed here as it changed #28 and #27 and I just noticed as I was finished with the write up here.  With all the links, tagging and color changes, It just takes too long to redo at this point.  So I will post #28 pretty quickly after this one.
Good catch! And again, thanks for doing this, appreciate that it’s a lot of work.

 
We Can Work It Out
2022 Ranking: 29
2022 Lists: 25
2022 Points: 262
Ranked Highest by: @Encyclopedia Brown (4) @Ted Lange as your Bartender (4) @Eephus (6) @worrierking(9) @Uruk-Hai (10) @Westerberg (10) @Dinsy Ejotuz (12) Daughter and Son1 (14) @Yankee23Fan (15) @MAC_32 (15)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 19/14/176

Getz:  Eleven more votes and 86 more points than 2019, and still dropped 11 slots from back then. Next tier from #30 Hey Bulldog, with 24 more points. The next three songs have 263, 264 and 265 points. So it was quite the battle for the #25 slot, which finished at 270 points.
First song to get 25 votes. Only six of them were in the Top 10.
I had this at #20, down five slots from 2019's #15.


Krista4

My 2019 ranking:  47

2019 write-up:

We Can Work It Out (single, 1965)

This whole thing was a bad idea.  Whose idea was this?  I don't mean the song; I mean ranking the songs.  Killing me.  

Anyway, love this song.  Always a big fan of songs where Paul and John each contributed significantly, and in this one George also made a major impact.  It's no surprise that Paul wrote the optimistic verses as he tried to work through his relationship with Jane Asher, a relationship that will also be at the heart of, and treated more negatively in, "You Won't See Me" and "I'm Looking Through You."  John contributed the more downbeat bridge, but it was George's idea to put the bridge in waltz time.  Nifty thought that raises the song to a whole new level.   As usual in these collaborative songs, the verses show their optimism in sunny major chords, while the bridge falls into a minor key to emphasize the pessimism.  Both Paul and John are in excellent voice on this song, but I think Paul's the standout with that pure vocal sound and those high harmonies; it's one of my favorite Beatles performances from him.  This was the first song in which the Beatles used the harmonium that would later show up more frequently, and I love the use of the volume pedal on it by whoever was playing it.  

This was a double-a-side single along with "Day Tripper," still to come, the first double-a-sided single released in the UK.  In the US, the popularity was tracked separately, with this song hitting #1 but "Day Tripper" only reaching #5.  Probably not at the level of Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields for "best double-a-single ever," but should be in the conversation. 

Mr. krista:  "Pretty good single.  The lyrics are funny to me.  It’s about working it out, but it’s all about hectoring the other people into agreeing with your point of view.  And time will tell you that I’m right.  Those are really bad arguing tactics, Sir Paul.  I still think it’s a really good song; it just makes me laugh.  It’s a song about cooperation, but it’s so not."

Suggested cover:  Here we have it, my favorite cover of any Beatles song:  Stevie Wonder

2022 Supplement:  Oddly enough, Mr. krista seemed to have it right in 2019 analysis, as Paul has recently acknowledged the selfishness of the song, pointing out that “we can work it out” should have been the simple message without adding “try to see it my way”:  “…you can spread a good message: ‘We can work it out.’  If you wanted to say it in one line, it would be ‘Let’s not argue.’  If you wanted to say it in two lines:  ‘Let’s not argue / Listen to me.’  Obviously, that is quite selfish, but then so is the song.”

Paul recounts writing this immediately after an argument with Jane Asher, feeling that he could only work it out (see what I did there) while it was fresh in his mind.  Though he tried both to work out his feelings with the song and work out his relationship with Jane as the song optimistically predicted he could, they did break up soon thereafter.  One thing I’ve noticed in reading Paul’s words is how often he discusses Jane’s mother Margaret, and in discussing this song and the subsequent break-up, he has relayed that losing Jane led to losing Margaret, which was devastating to him as if he had lost a mother for the second time.  His affection for the Asher family, who let him live in their home and treated him fully as a son, and his wonder at seeing such a “posh” lifestyle that was miles from what he’d ever known before, make me think he might have loved being part of the family more than having strong affection for Jane, lovely as she was.

Please follow me for more armchair psychoanalysis of people I don’t know.

Guido Merkins

John and Paul were both complete songwriters.  Both could write words and music and both created many different styles of song.  Often the stereotype is that John writes songs that are moodier and Paul writes songs that are happy.  These are too simple to be true (John wrote Julia and Paul wrote Helter Skelter), however within these stereotypes, there is an element of truth.  They often worked best together when John put a little weight behind Paul’s sunnier outlook.  Sometimes they did this song by song.  Sometimes they did it within the same song. We Can Work It Out is perhaps the best example of this.

Paul wrote We Can Work It Out after a disagreement with Jane Asher saying “We can work it out, we can work it out” the very optimistic verse.  John wrote the impatient middle “life is very short and there’s no time…”  The most distinctive element of the song is the harmonium played by John and the waltz time during the middle, suggested by George.  Also I love the ying and the yang of the song, a trick the Beatles would use in the future on songs like A Day in the Life and Getting Better.  

Important to note that there was great disagreement over which would be the A side on this single, We Can Work It Out or Day Tripper.  Paul and George Martin wanting We Can Work It Out and John wanting Day Tripper.  The solution was a first for the Beatles, and maybe a first for anybody, a double A sided single.  This is something the Beatles would use several other times in the future to keep the peace between the very competitive John and Paul.
I always look at We Can Work It Out as the perfect distillation of what the Beatles were as a band.

The song has a little bit of Paul, a little bit of John, it sounds kind of like the latter part of their early days, but also clearly reflects where they were headed musically.

If an alien landed on earth and said you have just three minutes to explain this whole Beatles thing to me, this is the song I’d play.

 
My apologies.... I allowed a list to be changed that didn't affect any part of the countdown early on where someone had not had a song posted yet. My eye ball test failed here as it changed #28 and #27 and I just noticed as I was finished with the write up here.  With all the links, tagging and color changes, It just takes too long to redo at this point.  So I will post #28 pretty quickly after this one.


Got To Get You Into My Life
2022 Ranking: 27
2022 Lists: 21
2022 Points: 264
Ranked Highest by: @jwb (1) @DocHolliday (3) @Dwayne Hoover (3) @Gr00vus (6) @Dr. Octopus (7) @DaVinci (9) @turnjose7 (11) @Just Win Baby (13) @ConstruxBoy (14) @MAC_32 (14) @Guido Merkins (15) @Uruk-Hai (15) 
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 20/13/167

JWB - #1. Got To Get You Into My Life – The perfect marriage between early and late Beatles. That Paul said it’s about weed makes it all the better.


Getz: Drops seven slots from 2019.

Krista4

My 2019 ranking:  61

2019 write-up:

Got To Get You Into My Life (Revolver, 1966)

There's Motown and there's Stax, and I'm Stax.  I love the horns, but they aren't Stax horns; with Memphis horns I'd rank it even higher.  The expansive jazzy feel of this song is phenomenal, though I wish they'd punched up the sound of the drums more in the mix.  I'm a huge fan of Paul's vocal throughout - he hits everything with extraordinary feeling - but I especially love the grittiness he gives to the chorus.  Geoff Emerick said that there was so much excitement for Paul's vocal that at one point during the recording John burst out of the control room to shout his encouragement.  George's guitar makes a brief but memorable appearance starting with the third chorus that punches everything up even more.  By the finish, the energy is off the charts. 

I always liked the lyrics to this and was disappointed to find that Paul wrote this as an ode to pot.  As an urgent plea to a lover, I like it better.

Mr. krista:  "Of course I like it.  It’s a big brassy Motown song, but still so British.  An American would never do the [singing] “I didn’t know what I would find theeere.”  Reminds me of all the good 70s theme songs.  Like Good Times.  Reminds me of the Good Times theme song.  Would be a great theme song for a comedy in the 70s that featured black people."

Suggested cover:  I didn't look for any others.   Earth, Wind & Fire

2022 Supplement:  As discussed elsewhere (I think?), the Beatles were introduced to pot by one of Bob Dylan’s entourage.  Paul expanded on the story in The Lyrics, saying that Dylan had disappeared into a back room of their hotel suite, and the Beatles thought he’d gone to the bathroom, until “Ringo came out of that back room, looking a bit strange.”  He told the others that Dylan had some weed (or whatever they called it then), and they asked him what it was like.  “Well, the ceiling is kind of moving; it’s sort of coming down.”  That was enough for the other Beatles to leap up eager to try it, too.  They were taking puffs, thinking it wasn’t working, so they just kept puffing and puffing and, “Suddenly, it was working.  And we were giggling, laughing at each other.  I remember George trying to get away, and I was sort of running after him, like a cartoon chase.” 

Paul, as he so often did, enjoyed the idea of masking an ode to pot as something else, something that wouldn’t get caught up by the censors.  (As an aside, it’s so quaint to think of “censors” objecting to “pot songs.”)  He made the song joyous, because that is how they viewed the drug at the time, before their experiences turned darker with other drugs, especially for John.  He’s described the song as “a rather sunny-day-in-the-garden type of experience.”  As much as the brass adds to this song, I think you can really hear what he describes more in this earlier take without brass, released in the Anthology series:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPHon-sZpr8    

Guido Merkins

Paul’s ode to pot, Got to Get You Into My Life is typical of Paul.  Not outward writing a song about drugs, like John would with Dr Robert, but masking it as a love song.  Got to Get You Into My Life shows that Paul loved Motown and was listening to their songs to get ideas for his own.

Got to Get You Into My Life announces itself right from the beginning as an R&B influenced number with the awesome horn section.  Some hints to the songs real muse are the lines “I was alone I took a ride” and “another road where maybe I could see another mind there.”

The best parts of the song is Paul’s growl during the lines “got to get you into my life” and the awesome horns throughout.  Ringo is super solid here, as usual and George Harrison’s huge guitar riff near the end of the song really brings the song to another level.  And Paul’s thumping bass make the Motown connection obvious.

There is a version of Got To Get You Into My Life on Anthology 2 that is interesting, but really different from the finished version.  Heavy harmonium and much slower.  In this case, they were correct to speed it up and go with the Motown treatment

This is one of the few songs that someone did a really good cover of, Earth Wind and Fire covered this for the Sgt Pepper Movie by the Bee Gees, one of the only redeeming parts of that horrendous film.
This is Paul's best song IMO

 
Nowhere Man
2022 Ranking: 28
2022 Lists: 21
2022 Points: 263
Ranked Highest by: @Encyclopedia Brown (2) @landrys hat (3) @Guido Merkins (5) @Murph (7) @ekbeats (7) @zamboni (9) @Alex P Keaton (10) @Westerberg (11) @turnjose7 (13) @simey (14) @wikkidpissah (14) @FairWarning (14) @krista4 (17)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 31/10/124

Getz: Moves up three slots from 2019. Many Top 15 votes...


Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  13

2019 write-up:

Nowhere Man (Rubber Soul, 1965)

John was struggling to come up with a new song, battling ennui and isolation in the London suburbs.  After several hours of frustration, he decided to lie down, and while he did, "Nowhere Man" came to him.  Though the song was a reflection of some despondency in his own life, John adopted a more Paul-like approach, writing it as if talking about an allegorical character.  (And in fact this song was used in Yellow Submarine as a song about sad but charming little Jeremy Hillary Boob.)  

The three-part harmonies in this song are incredible, not just in the notes they sing, but because their dreamy presentation does such an amazing job of on the one hand vivifying the melancholy lyrics, but on the other also weaving into the song as if to tell John he's not alone.  Paul's high harmonies at the end are especially chilling.  These lyrics are astonishingly good, summoning universal feelings of isolation and loneliness, but with hopeful notes as well (e.g., "the world is at your command").  It's almost like John is having a conversation with himself, emphasizing the downbeat lyrics of the verses in a downward motion of notes, but then bucking himself up on the bridges with brighter vocals and reminders that everyone goes through this and it will get better - not unlike what Paul was saying to Julian in "Hey Jude."  John's vocal is particularly sweet and vulnerable, making it one of my favorites; my favorite part is the hopefulness when he sings that line, "the world is at your command."  Every Beatle is phenomenal in support of the song's feel.  George's little fills are perfectly on-time supplements, and he and John support the lyrics well on their terrific double-tracked guitar solo that spirals down through the chords evoking the loneliness, but then ends with that hopeful high harmonic played by George to flow into the next verse.  George's work on this song is so distractingly excellent that I only recently started noticing Paul's bass line, and now I find it impossible not to focus on it; I'm convinced it's one of his best.

Mr. krista:  "Paul’s part at the end - that’s the best.  I love how the chime-y 12-string sounds like The Byrds if The Byrds were really good. Love how George Harrison really owned that sound. Particularly great lyrics.  That would have been an incredible band name – it says a lot without really saying anything.  Like I love the band Police Teeth…I don’t know what it means."

Suggested cover:  Low

2022 Supplement:  I can’t imagine being a person who could be trying to write a song, lie down, and then find “Nowhere Man” pop out from, ummmmm, nowhere:  “I remember I was just going through this paranoia trying to write something and nothing would come out so I just lay down and tried to not write and then this came out, the whole thing came out in one gulp.”

I also can’t imagine how the Beatles managed to sing this one live.  How can you do the harmonies like that through all the screaming?  Just another example of what an incredible live band they were.  Enjoy this version of the nearly isolated vocals on this track:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUTOhJcqL90  What the hell does Paul do at the end of this song?  It’s beyond fantastic.

Guido Merkins

I think it’s safe to say that Rubber Soul represents the height of John Lennon’s creativity as a Beatle for sure.  Similar to In My Life, John was struggling to come up with something good and when he let it go, the whole of Nowhere Man came to him.  Lyrics, melody, etc.  

My experience with Nowhere Man makes it impossible to grade fairly. My mom was one of those screaming Beatles teenagers.  When I became old enough to recognize music, I realized my mom listened to the Beatles quite a bit.  I had experience with the early stuff.  A Hard Day’s Night, Help, She Loves You, I Want to Hold Your Hand….that era.  I guess I thought that’s all there was.

Then came into my life the ‘Red” Greatest Hits album.  The A side of that cassette plus half of the B side were all songs I was familiar with.  However, when it came to the stuff starting with the Rubber Soul material, I was unfamiliar.  Out of that material, the one that most knocked me out was Nowhere Man.  It’s hard to explain why.  I identified with the lyrics.  I loved the sound, especially the strange sounding guitars and the solo with that ringing sound at the end.  And I loved the vocals.  The lead vocal with that sound which sounded different to me at the time (I don’t know that I had learned about John’s vocal sound) and the harmonies.  I didn’t know at the time that those guitars were drenched in treble and that ringing sound was something called a harmonic.  I hadn’t recognized the uniqueness of John as a lead singer yet or realized how good the Beatles were as harmonizers.  The whole thing just struck me as something different and special and, at the time, it was difficult to imagine that this was the same band that had done She Loves You or Love Me Do.  It just sounded so different.

When I got older and became a musician myself I realized why my ear was drawn to the line “Making all his nowhere plans for nobody…”  In the key of E, going from F#m to Am is INCREDIBLY unique and underscores again John’s quirkiness as a songwriter.  Someone who was trained would never do that, but John was just looking for a sound….and he got it.

 
I always look at We Can Work It Out as the perfect distillation of what the Beatles were as a band.

The song has a little bit of Paul, a little bit of John, it sounds kind of like the latter part of their early days, but also clearly reflects where they were headed musically.

If an alien landed on earth and said you have just three minutes to explain this whole Beatles thing to me, this is the song I’d play.


Love these thoughts.  I can't decide if I agree or if I'd argue for "A Day in the Life" (or something else, if I took more than 15 seconds to respond to this).  The latter might not incorporate the "early" as much as this one, though.

 
Top 10 Least Chalk

62 --Lardonastick---993

63 --DocHolliday---985

64 --Krista (TJ/Slug)---917

65 --Just Win Baby---903

66 --Tom Hagen---902

67 --pecorino---848

68 --Wrighteous Ray---844.5

69 --falguy---815

70 --Krista (TJ/Holly)---806

71 --Bobby Layne---782

 
Chalk Rankings Top 15. #27 = 146 pts. each Sponsored by: Homes For Clowns

1 --ManOfSteelhead---2185.5

2 --Krista (Worth)---2042.5

3 --Guido Merkins---2037

4 --FairWarning---1919

5 --Krista (Craig)---1894

6 --anarchy99---1879

7 --Encyclopedia Brown---1864.5

8 --Dwayne Hoover---1856.5

9 --ConstruxBoy---1818

10 --Shaft41(Son1)---1782

11 --Man Of Constant Sorrow---1768.5

12 --Oliver Humanzee---1759.5

13 --Getzlaf15---1744

14 --Shaft41---1742

15 --Krista (Sharon)---1739.5

 
Love these thoughts.  I can't decide if I agree or if I'd argue for "A Day in the Life" (or something else, if I took more than 15 seconds to respond to this).  The latter might not incorporate the "early" as much as this one, though.
Day in the Life is a better song for sure, but it’s just so unique, not just for the Beatles, but for music in general.  Hard to extrapolate anything further from it apart from just appreciating it for what it is.

 
We Can Work It Out
2022 Ranking: 29
2022 Lists: 25
2022 Points: 262
Ranked Highest by: @Encyclopedia Brown (4) @Ted Lange as your Bartender (4) @Eephus (6) @worrierking(9) @Uruk-Hai (10) @Westerberg (10) @Dinsy Ejotuz (12) Daughter and Son1 (14) @Yankee23Fan (15) @MAC_32 (15)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 19/14/176

Getz:  Eleven more votes and 86 more points than 2019, and still dropped 11 slots from back then. Next tier from #30 Hey Bulldog, with 24 more points. The next three songs have 263, 264 and 265 points. So it was quite the battle for the #25 slot, which finished at 270 points.
First song to get 25 votes. Only six of them were in the Top 10.
I had this at #20, down five slots from 2019's #15.


Krista4

My 2019 ranking:  47

2019 write-up:

We Can Work It Out (single, 1965)

This whole thing was a bad idea.  Whose idea was this?  I don't mean the song; I mean ranking the songs.  Killing me.  

Anyway, love this song.  Always a big fan of songs where Paul and John each contributed significantly, and in this one George also made a major impact.  It's no surprise that Paul wrote the optimistic verses as he tried to work through his relationship with Jane Asher, a relationship that will also be at the heart of, and treated more negatively in, "You Won't See Me" and "I'm Looking Through You."  John contributed the more downbeat bridge, but it was George's idea to put the bridge in waltz time.  Nifty thought that raises the song to a whole new level.   As usual in these collaborative songs, the verses show their optimism in sunny major chords, while the bridge falls into a minor key to emphasize the pessimism.  Both Paul and John are in excellent voice on this song, but I think Paul's the standout with that pure vocal sound and those high harmonies; it's one of my favorite Beatles performances from him.  This was the first song in which the Beatles used the harmonium that would later show up more frequently, and I love the use of the volume pedal on it by whoever was playing it.  

This was a double-a-side single along with "Day Tripper," still to come, the first double-a-sided single released in the UK.  In the US, the popularity was tracked separately, with this song hitting #1 but "Day Tripper" only reaching #5.  Probably not at the level of Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields for "best double-a-single ever," but should be in the conversation. 

Mr. krista:  "Pretty good single.  The lyrics are funny to me.  It’s about working it out, but it’s all about hectoring the other people into agreeing with your point of view.  And time will tell you that I’m right.  Those are really bad arguing tactics, Sir Paul.  I still think it’s a really good song; it just makes me laugh.  It’s a song about cooperation, but it’s so not."

Suggested cover:  Here we have it, my favorite cover of any Beatles song:  Stevie Wonder

2022 Supplement:  Oddly enough, Mr. krista seemed to have it right in 2019 analysis, as Paul has recently acknowledged the selfishness of the song, pointing out that “we can work it out” should have been the simple message without adding “try to see it my way”:  “…you can spread a good message: ‘We can work it out.’  If you wanted to say it in one line, it would be ‘Let’s not argue.’  If you wanted to say it in two lines:  ‘Let’s not argue / Listen to me.’  Obviously, that is quite selfish, but then so is the song.”

Paul recounts writing this immediately after an argument with Jane Asher, feeling that he could only work it out (see what I did there) while it was fresh in his mind.  Though he tried both to work out his feelings with the song and work out his relationship with Jane as the song optimistically predicted he could, they did break up soon thereafter.  One thing I’ve noticed in reading Paul’s words is how often he discusses Jane’s mother Margaret, and in discussing this song and the subsequent break-up, he has relayed that losing Jane led to losing Margaret, which was devastating to him as if he had lost a mother for the second time.  His affection for the Asher family, who let him live in their home and treated him fully as a son, and his wonder at seeing such a “posh” lifestyle that was miles from what he’d ever known before, make me think he might have loved being part of the family more than having strong affection for Jane, lovely as she was.

Please follow me for more armchair psychoanalysis of people I don’t know.

Guido Merkins

John and Paul were both complete songwriters.  Both could write words and music and both created many different styles of song.  Often the stereotype is that John writes songs that are moodier and Paul writes songs that are happy.  These are too simple to be true (John wrote Julia and Paul wrote Helter Skelter), however within these stereotypes, there is an element of truth.  They often worked best together when John put a little weight behind Paul’s sunnier outlook.  Sometimes they did this song by song.  Sometimes they did it within the same song. We Can Work It Out is perhaps the best example of this.

Paul wrote We Can Work It Out after a disagreement with Jane Asher saying “We can work it out, we can work it out” the very optimistic verse.  John wrote the impatient middle “life is very short and there’s no time…”  The most distinctive element of the song is the harmonium played by John and the waltz time during the middle, suggested by George.  Also I love the ying and the yang of the song, a trick the Beatles would use in the future on songs like A Day in the Life and Getting Better.  

Important to note that there was great disagreement over which would be the A side on this single, We Can Work It Out or Day Tripper.  Paul and George Martin wanting We Can Work It Out and John wanting Day Tripper.  The solution was a first for the Beatles, and maybe a first for anybody, a double A sided single.  This is something the Beatles would use several other times in the future to keep the peace between the very competitive John and Paul.
Mrs APK hates this song because of the lyrics.  Her observation about the lyrics is the same as mr krista — except it enrages her.  Not sure why.  Probably subconsciously involves me.  Hahaha.

 
Nowhere Man
2022 Ranking: 28
2022 Lists: 21
2022 Points: 263
Ranked Highest by: @Encyclopedia Brown (2) @landrys hat (3) @Guido Merkins (5) @Murph (7) @ekbeats (7) @zamboni (9) @Alex P Keaton (10) @Westerberg (11) @turnjose7 (13) @simey (14) @wikkidpissah (14) @FairWarning (14) @krista4 (17)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 31/10/124

Getz: Moves up three slots from 2019. Many Top 15 votes...


Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  13

2019 write-up:

Nowhere Man (Rubber Soul, 1965)

John was struggling to come up with a new song, battling ennui and isolation in the London suburbs.  After several hours of frustration, he decided to lie down, and while he did, "Nowhere Man" came to him.  Though the song was a reflection of some despondency in his own life, John adopted a more Paul-like approach, writing it as if talking about an allegorical character.  (And in fact this song was used in Yellow Submarine as a song about sad but charming little Jeremy Hillary Boob.)  

The three-part harmonies in this song are incredible, not just in the notes they sing, but because their dreamy presentation does such an amazing job of on the one hand vivifying the melancholy lyrics, but on the other also weaving into the song as if to tell John he's not alone.  Paul's high harmonies at the end are especially chilling.  These lyrics are astonishingly good, summoning universal feelings of isolation and loneliness, but with hopeful notes as well (e.g., "the world is at your command").  It's almost like John is having a conversation with himself, emphasizing the downbeat lyrics of the verses in a downward motion of notes, but then bucking himself up on the bridges with brighter vocals and reminders that everyone goes through this and it will get better - not unlike what Paul was saying to Julian in "Hey Jude."  John's vocal is particularly sweet and vulnerable, making it one of my favorites; my favorite part is the hopefulness when he sings that line, "the world is at your command."  Every Beatle is phenomenal in support of the song's feel.  George's little fills are perfectly on-time supplements, and he and John support the lyrics well on their terrific double-tracked guitar solo that spirals down through the chords evoking the loneliness, but then ends with that hopeful high harmonic played by George to flow into the next verse.  George's work on this song is so distractingly excellent that I only recently started noticing Paul's bass line, and now I find it impossible not to focus on it; I'm convinced it's one of his best.

Mr. krista:  "Paul’s part at the end - that’s the best.  I love how the chime-y 12-string sounds like The Byrds if The Byrds were really good. Love how George Harrison really owned that sound. Particularly great lyrics.  That would have been an incredible band name – it says a lot without really saying anything.  Like I love the band Police Teeth…I don’t know what it means."

Suggested cover:  Low

2022 Supplement:  I can’t imagine being a person who could be trying to write a song, lie down, and then find “Nowhere Man” pop out from, ummmmm, nowhere:  “I remember I was just going through this paranoia trying to write something and nothing would come out so I just lay down and tried to not write and then this came out, the whole thing came out in one gulp.”

I also can’t imagine how the Beatles managed to sing this one live.  How can you do the harmonies like that through all the screaming?  Just another example of what an incredible live band they were.  Enjoy this version of the nearly isolated vocals on this track:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUTOhJcqL90  What the hell does Paul do at the end of this song?  It’s beyond fantastic.

Guido Merkins

I think it’s safe to say that Rubber Soul represents the height of John Lennon’s creativity as a Beatle for sure.  Similar to In My Life, John was struggling to come up with something good and when he let it go, the whole of Nowhere Man came to him.  Lyrics, melody, etc.  

My experience with Nowhere Man makes it impossible to grade fairly. My mom was one of those screaming Beatles teenagers.  When I became old enough to recognize music, I realized my mom listened to the Beatles quite a bit.  I had experience with the early stuff.  A Hard Day’s Night, Help, She Loves You, I Want to Hold Your Hand….that era.  I guess I thought that’s all there was.

Then came into my life the ‘Red” Greatest Hits album.  The A side of that cassette plus half of the B side were all songs I was familiar with.  However, when it came to the stuff starting with the Rubber Soul material, I was unfamiliar.  Out of that material, the one that most knocked me out was Nowhere Man.  It’s hard to explain why.  I identified with the lyrics.  I loved the sound, especially the strange sounding guitars and the solo with that ringing sound at the end.  And I loved the vocals.  The lead vocal with that sound which sounded different to me at the time (I don’t know that I had learned about John’s vocal sound) and the harmonies.  I didn’t know at the time that those guitars were drenched in treble and that ringing sound was something called a harmonic.  I hadn’t recognized the uniqueness of John as a lead singer yet or realized how good the Beatles were as harmonizers.  The whole thing just struck me as something different and special and, at the time, it was difficult to imagine that this was the same band that had done She Loves You or Love Me Do.  It just sounded so different.

When I got older and became a musician myself I realized why my ear was drawn to the line “Making all his nowhere plans for nobody…”  In the key of E, going from F#m to Am is INCREDIBLY unique and underscores again John’s quirkiness as a songwriter.  Someone who was trained would never do that, but John was just looking for a sound….and he got it.
This song was on my playlist for two years as a consultant, traveling all over the place, gone from home 3-4 nights per week.  It was a pretty miserable existence at times.  This song would pop up and I would think “is this me?  Am I becoming nowhere man?”  Much like the movie Lost In Translation, the song still hits me today and almost takes me back in time to how I felt in the moment.

 
GTGYIML never worked for me - and i realize i'm one of the few non weed smokers/lovers on this bored, so the subject matter is kinda goofy - nod squad granny Macca. 

:shrug:

"ok - what if it were about blow, instead, Mr. Speed Freak?"

errr ... we already did AYBCS 

❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️

 
Only #28 for Nowhere Man?  :penalty:

Probably the harmony of all harmonies.
My goodness it is a fantastic song.  I have always loved it and that is due to the harmonies.  Only ranking 25 songs was really tough at the time and listening to songs like this that I had to leave off is painful. 

 
Top 10 Least Chalk

62 --Lardonastick---993

63 --DocHolliday---985

64 --Krista (TJ/Slug)---917

65 --Just Win Baby---903

66 --Tom Hagen---902

67 --pecorino---848

68 --Wrighteous Ray---844.5

69 --falguy---815

70 --Krista (TJ/Holly)---806

71 --Bobby Layne---782
:flex:

 

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