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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)

Don't Let Me Down made the hair on the back of my neck stand up just from the commercials for Get Back. Musically, it is so tight and loose at the same time, jaunty and thumping... and John's voice just wails.

Love John's vocals on Hide Your Love Away, too. I won't say he has the best voice of the Beatles; they have three legitimate frontmen/lead vocalists. But when John's voice is on, it is the most evocative of all of them. So much raw pathos, emotion stripped bare- like a caged animal gnawing his own leg off to get free.

The Long and Winding Road is why I love Paul so much. @Pip's Invitationsummed it up pretty well, it makes me melancholy, and I don't even know exactly why. But it is great.

 
I'm fascinated by the craft of songwriting even though I have no aptitude for it.  There are plenty of songs with catchy hooks that don't have much to say and plenty that I find lyrically interesting but just don't enjoy listening to.  Across the Universe is the latter, I recognize that they may be John's best lyrics but I just don't enjoy it. It's possible that Krista is right and it's a matter of the best possible version of this song simply not existing. 

 
@Getzlaf15 - after you post song #16, can you give an update on how folks are doing in the "Top 15" contest.  I think I've only had two of my predicted songs get called so far (Revolution and Come Together).   Certainly possible the next two songs will also be from my list, but even 11 out of 15 seems pretty good. 

I'm curious how that stacks up to the other entries.

 
fatguyinalittlecoat said:
@Getzlaf15 - after you post song #16, can you give an update on how folks are doing in the "Top 15" contest.  I think I've only had two of my predicted songs get called so far (Revolution and Come Together).   Certainly possible the next two songs will also be from my list, but even 11 out of 15 seems pretty good. 

I'm curious how that stacks up to the other entries.
Click to expand...
Here's the # of songs that hit in the Top 15, for each of the entries.  Six of the 13 entries had Revolution (#36), which I thought was interesting.

 

13

13

12

12

12

12

11

11

11

11

10

9

8

 
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I just read my write-up of "Across the Universe" for the first time, and I don't think it's a very compelling argument to convince @MAC_32 and others that it's phenomenal.  Oh well.

Man of Constant Sorrow was supposed to write an official write-up of it for all of us, but he never got to it.  :(  

 
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krista4 said:
I just read my write-up of "Across the Universe" for the first time, and I don't think it's a very compelling argument to convince @MAC_32 and others that it's phenomenal.  Oh well.

Man of Constant Sorrow was supposed to write an official write-up of it for all of us, but he never got to it.  :(  
Click to expand...
Which is the version I'm supposed to listen to?

 
krista4 said:
I just read my write-up of "Across the Universe" for the first time, and I don't think it's a very compelling argument to convince @MAC_32 and others that it's phenomenal.  Oh well.

Man of Constant Sorrow was supposed to write an official write-up of it for all of us, but he never got to it.  :(  
Click to expand...
This is easily the biggest mover of songs for me in the last 3 years.   The love professed for this song by you and others caused me to give it another good listen or two to see what I was missing.   I consider this to be one of the most beautiful songs ever written.  Somehow I feel happy and sad when listening.   Not sure how to explain it but this song hits me like few other songs.  

 
Getzlaf15 said:
Here's the # of songs that hit in the Top 15, for each of the entries.  Six of the 13 entries had Revolution (#36), which I thought was interesting.

 

13

13

12

12

12

12

11

11

11

11

10

9

8
Click to expand...
Revolution is one of the most culturally significant Beatles songs, so I guess we figured that would count for more than it did. 

 
Tomorrow Never Knows
2022 Ranking: 17
2022 Lists: 21
2022 Points: 382
Ranked Highest by: @DaVinci (1) @Pip's Invitation (1) @pecorino (1) @Eephus (1) @otb_lifer (1) @Ilov80s (2) @Dwayne Hoover (2) Craig (3) @FairWarning (3) @rockaction (6) @Ted Lange as your Bartender (6) Worth (8) @ProstheticRGK (8) @jamny (9) @wikkidpissah (10)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 29/8/135

Getz: FIVE 1st place votes!! Only THREE songs had more. NINE Top 3 votes!! Only FOUR songs had more. Moved up 12 slots in 2022, with 13 more voters and 247 more points.

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  45

2019 write-up:

Tomorrow Never Knows (Revolver, 1966)

There's so much to say about this song, about its production, the various innovations, that I'm sure I'll leave a lot of important stuff out.  I love this song.  It could be such a ####### mess, but it's not.  I love the drums, and the wah-wah-wah-wah bird-type sounds (more on that below). The spooky vocals, the tambour, tambourines, the dissonance.  The fact that it's all (almost) entirely one damn chord.  It's aural collage unlike anything produced before it.

John's lyrics were inspired by Timothy Leary's The Psychedelic Experience, his interpretation of the philosophy of the Tibetan Book of the Dead.  While he initially wanted to call the song "The Void," he was afraid that would not be understood by the fans at this time, so he adopted a Ringoism for the title instead.  To be honest, I don't pay attention to these lyrics, but maybe others connect with them on a much deeper level than I'm capable of.  

For me, this is all about the music, including how Ringo and Paul keep it all together with the chaos that's going on about them.   There are so many innovations in this song that I won't discuss in detail, such as the backward reverb guitar parts, but I'll mention a few.  John instructed that he wanted his voice to sound "like the Dalai chanting from a mountaintop," which led to Geoff Emerick's idea to channel John's vocal through a Leslie speaker after the first verse.  The effect was that haunting, distant sound that matches perfectly with the lyrics.  

The drum sounds were also new to recording based on a couple of ideas.  Blatantly contravening EMI rules to keep microphones at least two feet from the drums, the microphones were put only a few inches away.  In addition, to dampen the ringing from the bass drum, a large sweater was stuffed in against the rear beater skin.  The results were these full, energetic drums heard on the record.  

As for the tape loops, these were originally from Paul, who was experimenting more with avant garde music at the time than the others, and who'd removed the erase-head from his home tape recorder, allowing additional sounds to be recorded each time the tape spooled through.  All the band members were given an assignment to make some tape loops and bring them back the studio, after which the group listened to the loops backward, forward, slowed down, sped up, any which way, until five were chosen, including the one that sounds like seagulls but is actually Paul laughing.  Then the loops were added to the track:  "Every tape machine in every studio was commandeered and every available EMI employee was given the task of holding a pencil or drinking glass to give the loops the proper tensioning.  In many instances, this meant they had to be standing out in the hallway, looking quite sheepish."  At the same time, in the control room Emerick and Martin "huddled over the console, raising and lowering faders to shouted instructions from John, Paul, George and Ringo.  (‘Let’s have that seagull sound now!’...)  With each fader carrying a different loop, the mixing desk acted like a synthesizer, and we played it like a musical instrument, too, carefully overdubbing textures to the prerecorded backing track."  As a result, the recorded version of this song could not possibly be re-produced.       

Mr. krista:  "The vocal thing that happens there is Lennon singing through a Leslie speaker, usually used with a Hammond organ, but Lennon sang vocals through it instead.  This happens all the time now.  But maybe never before this.  But still sounds so modern.  Sounds like it could have happened any time.  In terms of sound capture, this is an incredible record, and this is particularly an incredible track.  I doubt anyone had used multi-track recording quite like this.  There’s 24 tracks of wildly different sonic information with nothing to do with each other, but then assembled into a song that fits on the record…and it’s one chord!  There’s so much weirdness going on on that.  It’s so psychedelic."

Suggested cover:  Nah, that doesn't seem right for this one.  The genius is in the innovation and the one-time nature of the sound.

2022 Supplement:  The squillion paragraphs above leave me little to say that’s new, so check out Take 1, which was released in the Anthology series:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtmukKLZQUw   After hearing this played back, John asked that he be suspended from a rope in the middle of the room and given a push, and then he would sing into a mike below him while spinning ‘round.  This seems like the only idea for a special effect that the band DIDN’T use in this song! 

Paul was impressed with the final outcome of this song:  "Pretty stones, if you ask me! As time went on we had much more freedom. We had much longer to do things. But it actually spurred us on to do some new stuff, so the drum sound on this is, I love it!"  John, on the other hand, was characteristically unsatisfied with even this, one of my most brilliant works.  He had come to the song with a vision of hundreds of monks chanting, and when they didn’t do that, he never quite got the sounds he wanted:  “It was a little boring, and I really didn't like it.  I should have tried to get near my original idea, the monks singing. I realize now that was what I wanted.”

Guido Merkins

By 1966 the Beatles were ready to fully embrace the potential of the studio.  They had no plans to tour and therefore, didn’t care whether or not a song could be reproduced on stage.  To that end, the Revolver sessions began in 1966 with a song with the working title of Mark 1, a name that kind of sounds like an experimental model of a new song or something.  The song would eventually be given a throwaway Ringo-ism, Tomorrow Never Knows.

Revolver was a huge departure for the Beatles as a whole, but I can only imagine what the reaction was when listeners got to the last song on the album.  They must have been thinking “what on earth was that?”  Tomorrow Never Knows lyrics are from the Tibetan Book of the Dead and was written mostly on one chord, C major, with a slight change to B flat major on the word “dying” (it is not dying).  George Martin, to his credit, didn't scoff at this.  On the contrary, he thought it was interesting.

The first take of Tomorrow Never Knows could hardly be different from the finished version, and yet it is no less stunning.  John’s instruction was that he wanted to sound like the “Dali Lama singing on the highest mountain top, yet you can hear every word.”  Geoff Emerick thought putting John’s voice through a Leslie speaker would accomplish that, and it did.  That’s what you hear on Take 1 along with Ringo’s hypnotic beat and guitars also put through the Leslie speaker which achieves a sort of underwater sound.  You can hear take one on Anthology 2.

The final version was a series of tape loops, first suggested by Paul. Sounds of Paul laughing and sped up (the seagull sound), a mellotron on flute settings, an orchestral B flat major, and a sped up sitar.  The loops were fed into the recording desk, then the engineer “played” the faders on the desk like a synthesizer raising and lowering it at various points. George also played a tabla which was a background drone throughout.  John’s voice was treated by ADT, then switched over to the Leslie after the “solo.”  An out of tune honky tonk piano ends it all during the fade.

Tomorrow Never Knows still sounds like music of the future.  The hypnotic drum beat alone was a template for dance music for the next 40 years.  Any artist who uses samples or loops, in some way, are being influenced by Tomorrow Never Knows without even knowing it.  

It’s a brilliant piece of music and the Beatles at their most groundbreaking.

 
Getzlaf15 said:
Tomorrow Never Knows
2022 Ranking: 17
2022 Lists: 21
2022 Points: 382
Ranked Highest by: @DaVinci (1) @Pip's Invitation (1) @pecorino (1) @Eephus (1) @otb_lifer (1) @Ilov80s (2) @Dwayne Hoover (2) Craig (3) @FairWarning (3) @rockaction (6) @Ted Lange as your Bartender (6) Worth (8) @ProstheticRGK (8) @jamny (9) @wikkidpissah (10)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 29/8/135

Getz: FIVE 1st place votes!! Only THREE songs had more. NINE Top 3 votes!! Only FOUR songs had more. Moved up 12 slots in 2022, with 13 more voters and 247 more points.

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  45

2019 write-up:

Tomorrow Never Knows (Revolver, 1966)

There's so much to say about this song, about its production, the various innovations, that I'm sure I'll leave a lot of important stuff out.  I love this song.  It could be such a ####### mess, but it's not.  I love the drums, and the wah-wah-wah-wah bird-type sounds (more on that below). The spooky vocals, the tambour, tambourines, the dissonance.  The fact that it's all (almost) entirely one damn chord.  It's aural collage unlike anything produced before it.

John's lyrics were inspired by Timothy Leary's The Psychedelic Experience, his interpretation of the philosophy of the Tibetan Book of the Dead.  While he initially wanted to call the song "The Void," he was afraid that would not be understood by the fans at this time, so he adopted a Ringoism for the title instead.  To be honest, I don't pay attention to these lyrics, but maybe others connect with them on a much deeper level than I'm capable of.  

For me, this is all about the music, including how Ringo and Paul keep it all together with the chaos that's going on about them.   There are so many innovations in this song that I won't discuss in detail, such as the backward reverb guitar parts, but I'll mention a few.  John instructed that he wanted his voice to sound "like the Dalai chanting from a mountaintop," which led to Geoff Emerick's idea to channel John's vocal through a Leslie speaker after the first verse.  The effect was that haunting, distant sound that matches perfectly with the lyrics.  

The drum sounds were also new to recording based on a couple of ideas.  Blatantly contravening EMI rules to keep microphones at least two feet from the drums, the microphones were put only a few inches away.  In addition, to dampen the ringing from the bass drum, a large sweater was stuffed in against the rear beater skin.  The results were these full, energetic drums heard on the record.  

As for the tape loops, these were originally from Paul, who was experimenting more with avant garde music at the time than the others, and who'd removed the erase-head from his home tape recorder, allowing additional sounds to be recorded each time the tape spooled through.  All the band members were given an assignment to make some tape loops and bring them back the studio, after which the group listened to the loops backward, forward, slowed down, sped up, any which way, until five were chosen, including the one that sounds like seagulls but is actually Paul laughing.  Then the loops were added to the track:  "Every tape machine in every studio was commandeered and every available EMI employee was given the task of holding a pencil or drinking glass to give the loops the proper tensioning.  In many instances, this meant they had to be standing out in the hallway, looking quite sheepish."  At the same time, in the control room Emerick and Martin "huddled over the console, raising and lowering faders to shouted instructions from John, Paul, George and Ringo.  (‘Let’s have that seagull sound now!’...)  With each fader carrying a different loop, the mixing desk acted like a synthesizer, and we played it like a musical instrument, too, carefully overdubbing textures to the prerecorded backing track."  As a result, the recorded version of this song could not possibly be re-produced.       

Mr. krista:  "The vocal thing that happens there is Lennon singing through a Leslie speaker, usually used with a Hammond organ, but Lennon sang vocals through it instead.  This happens all the time now.  But maybe never before this.  But still sounds so modern.  Sounds like it could have happened any time.  In terms of sound capture, this is an incredible record, and this is particularly an incredible track.  I doubt anyone had used multi-track recording quite like this.  There’s 24 tracks of wildly different sonic information with nothing to do with each other, but then assembled into a song that fits on the record…and it’s one chord!  There’s so much weirdness going on on that.  It’s so psychedelic."

Suggested cover:  Nah, that doesn't seem right for this one.  The genius is in the innovation and the one-time nature of the sound.

2022 Supplement:  The squillion paragraphs above leave me little to say that’s new, so check out Take 1, which was released in the Anthology series:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtmukKLZQUw   After hearing this played back, John asked that he be suspended from a rope in the middle of the room and given a push, and then he would sing into a mike below him while spinning ‘round.  This seems like the only idea for a special effect that the band DIDN’T use in this song! 

Paul was impressed with the final outcome of this song:  "Pretty stones, if you ask me! As time went on we had much more freedom. We had much longer to do things. But it actually spurred us on to do some new stuff, so the drum sound on this is, I love it!"  John, on the other hand, was characteristically unsatisfied with even this, one of my most brilliant works.  He had come to the song with a vision of hundreds of monks chanting, and when they didn’t do that, he never quite got the sounds he wanted:  “It was a little boring, and I really didn't like it.  I should have tried to get near my original idea, the monks singing. I realize now that was what I wanted.”

Guido Merkins

By 1966 the Beatles were ready to fully embrace the potential of the studio.  They had no plans to tour and therefore, didn’t care whether or not a song could be reproduced on stage.  To that end, the Revolver sessions began in 1966 with a song with the working title of Mark 1, a name that kind of sounds like an experimental model of a new song or something.  The song would eventually be given a throwaway Ringo-ism, Tomorrow Never Knows.

Revolver was a huge departure for the Beatles as a whole, but I can only imagine what the reaction was when listeners got to the last song on the album.  They must have been thinking “what on earth was that?”  Tomorrow Never Knows lyrics are from the Tibetan Book of the Dead and was written mostly on one chord, C major, with a slight change to B flat major on the word “dying” (it is not dying).  George Martin, to his credit, didn't scoff at this.  On the contrary, he thought it was interesting.

The first take of Tomorrow Never Knows could hardly be different from the finished version, and yet it is no less stunning.  John’s instruction was that he wanted to sound like the “Dali Lama singing on the highest mountain top, yet you can hear every word.”  Geoff Emerick thought putting John’s voice through a Leslie speaker would accomplish that, and it did.  That’s what you hear on Take 1 along with Ringo’s hypnotic beat and guitars also put through the Leslie speaker which achieves a sort of underwater sound.  You can hear take one on Anthology 2.

The final version was a series of tape loops, first suggested by Paul. Sounds of Paul laughing and sped up (the seagull sound), a mellotron on flute settings, an orchestral B flat major, and a sped up sitar.  The loops were fed into the recording desk, then the engineer “played” the faders on the desk like a synthesizer raising and lowering it at various points. George also played a tabla which was a background drone throughout.  John’s voice was treated by ADT, then switched over to the Leslie after the “solo.”  An out of tune honky tonk piano ends it all during the fade.

Tomorrow Never Knows still sounds like music of the future.  The hypnotic drum beat alone was a template for dance music for the next 40 years.  Any artist who uses samples or loops, in some way, are being influenced by Tomorrow Never Knows without even knowing it.  

It’s a brilliant piece of music and the Beatles at their most groundbreaking.
Click to expand...
My rank: 1

The word "revolutionary" is overused, but not in the case of this song. Not only did it bear no resemblance to anything you'd hear on the radio in 1966, it bore no resemblance to ANYTHING IN WESTERN MUSIC at the time. That they went from "She Loves You" to this in less than 3 years is one of the most unfathomable developments in music history. 

I can't begin to describe how the track was created, so I'll leave that to the writeups above. What I can say is that it has crazy sounds that I am still discovering with each new listen, and that, unlike with Revolution 9, they mesh together into a memorable tune. The whole thing is trance-like and dynamic at the same time, an extremely hard thing to pull off. And the drum sound and performance is one of my favorites on any song ever. 

Interesting that almost half of the people who bothered to rank this song had it in their top 3. Either you "get it" or you don't, I guess. 

Technically this and another song are my 1A and 1B, but I figured (correctly, as it turned out) that the other song would get more votes in this exercise, so I gave the top spot to this one. 

I have always assigned a lot of importance to the decision to make a track the last on an album, so that is where this was placed on my 90-minute cassette. 

 
I'll read the write up later, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised Tomorrow Never Knows is ranked vastly different than their other eastern influenced songs. Phenomenal track, just prefer a couple others.

 
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Pip's Invitation said:
My rank: 1

The word "revolutionary" is overused, but not in the case of this song. Not only did it bear no resemblance to anything you'd hear on the radio in 1966, it bore no resemblance to ANYTHING IN WESTERN MUSIC at the time. That they went from "She Loves You" to this in less than 3 years is one of the most unfathomable developments in music history. 

I can't begin to describe how the track was created, so I'll leave that to the writeups above. What I can say is that it has crazy sounds that I am still discovering with each new listen, and that, unlike with Revolution 9, they mesh together into a memorable tune. The whole thing is trance-like and dynamic at the same time, an extremely hard thing to pull off. And the drum sound and performance is one of my favorites on any song ever. 

Interesting that almost half of the people who bothered to rank this song had it in their top 3. Either you "get it" or you don't, I guess. 

Technically this and another song are my 1A and 1B, but I figured (correctly, as it turned out) that the other song would get more votes in this exercise, so I gave the top spot to this one. 

I have always assigned a lot of importance to the decision to make a track the last on an album, so that is where this was placed on my 90-minute cassette. 
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Many of the big Beatles songs have become a bit tiresome to me. They are obviously incredible songs, just overplayed (partly my fault).  Tomorrow Never Knows never wears on me. I could listen to that on repeat all day and be entranced. Mad Men including it a key point in an episode was just the absolute icing too. 

 
I figured TNK would be the most polarizing song in their catalog.  It may be the most influential song.  Setting Sun by The Chemical Brothers samples it.  House music samples from 55+ years ago is amazing.  Here is a  real good mash of the two songs  with live Beatles footage - https://youtu.be/SN7ASS1l1qs

 
Getzlaf15 said:
Tomorrow Never Knows
2022 Ranking: 17

Getz: FIVE 1st place votes!! Only THREE songs had more. NINE Top 3 votes!! Only FOUR songs had more. Moved up 12 slots in 2022, with 13 more voters and 247 more points.
Click to expand...


Amazing.  It was just outside of my top 25 again this year, but I'm happy to see all the love for this one.

FairWarning said:
I figured TNK would be the most polarizing song in their catalog.  It may be the most influential song.  Setting Sun by The Chemical Brothers samples it.  House music samples from 55+ years ago is amazing.  Here is a  real good mash of the two songs  with live Beatles footage - https://youtu.be/SN7ASS1l1qs
Click to expand...


That was fun.

 
Love the big time rankings for Tomorrow Never Knows. I had it at 15 and thought I would be way up there. Insane tune. 

 
Almost nailed it on Tomorrow Never Knows

3. Two of Us (41)

6. I Want You (She's So Heavy) (60)

7. Nowhere Man (28)

9. Any Time At All (90)

11. I've Got a Feeling (46)

12. Dig A Pony (88)

13. Happiness is a Warm Gun (39)

14. Ballad of John and Yoko (61)

15. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away (19)

16. Tomorrow Never Knows (17)

17. Good Morning Good Morning (113)

18. Don't Let Me Down (25)

20. Wait (117)

21. Yer Blues (82T)

22. Old Brown Shoe (147)

23.  Rain (42)

24. Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except For Me and My Monkey (96)

25. Taxman (22)

 
FairWarning said:
I figured TNK would be the most polarizing song in their catalog.
Click to expand...
As I've mentioned four or five hundred times, I was a casual until maybe four months. A fairly well versed casual back when we did the original thread in 2019, but nowhere near the current obsession. 

For ranking purposes TNK was well outside my Top 25 (86th  :bag: ) and 19th in my 1-206 reranking a month later. So yeah, slight understatement to say I've fallen in love with it. By far the wildest swing in either direction.

It's amazing, especially within the context of the Revolver sessions.. 

 
On today's date in 1964, the Beatles received the award for "Show Business Personalities of 1963" from consortium of old white guys inaptly named "Variety Club of Great Britain."   I selected this tidbit for today due to this adorable video of part of the ceremony (skip about a minute in to get to the action), where George and John get the big laughs starting five minutes in.  Amusingly, the award was presented to them by Harold Wilson, who would later get a presumably not complimentary shout-out in "Taxman."

 
6 You've Got to Hide Your Love Away (19)

7 The Long and Winding Road (23)

10 And Your Bird Can Sing (31)

17 If I Needed Someone (76)

18 All You Need is Love (54)

19 Don't Let Me Down (25)

20 Things We Said Today (37)

21 I Want To Hold Your Hand (21)

22 Revolution (36)

23 And I Love Her (45)

24 Hey Bulldog (30)

I'm pleasantly surprised my #12 song hasn't been listed yet. I didn't realize other people love it as much as I do.

 
Ticket To Ride The Ed Sullivan Show September 12th 1965
2022 Ranking: 16
2022 Lists: 26
2022 Points: 387
Ranked Highest by: @Uruk-Hai (1) @Murph (2) @Encyclopedia Brown (3) Holly (5) @DocHolliday (5) @Getzlaf15 (6) @landrys hat (6) OH Dad (7) @heckmanm (7) @Eephus (7) @Dennis Castro (8) @Ted Lange as your Bartender (8)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 12/18/253

Getz comments: I had this at #2 in 2019, #6 in 2022. The John and Paul harmonies are killer. This was on five Top 15 lists and just missed. @Encyclopedia Brown become the first to have all of his Top 10 posted.

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  16

2019 write-up:

Ticket To Ride (Help!, 1965)

IT'S A RINGO SHOWCASE BINGO!  I'm not surprised at anyone guessing this as my #1 or in my top 10, what with it being A RINGO SHOWCASE! and all.  It missed out only because there are so many ####### great Beatles songs.

John described this song as one of the first heavy-metal songs, and he took credit for all but the drum parts on it, while Paul saw it as more of a 60/40 collaboration favoring John.  I don't know who's correct, though with Paul contributing not only the drum arrangement but the bass, backing vocals, and the guitar solos, he certainly contributed significantly even if not in the songwriting.  And I don't know that I'd call it "heavy metal," but the drums, the guitars and the overall fullness of the sound were certainly heavy for the time.  I just know it's in my top 16 for being A RINGO SHOWCASE!

I don't want to downplay all the other great stuff going on in this RINGO SHOWCASE!  There's some great guitar work by Paul on this song in the solos on the bridges and especially in the fade-out, and I love Ringo's shimmering tambourine that ends the solo on the bridge.  I love John's cold, dry vocal, and Paul adds some amazing harmonies that fittingly lack the sweetness of earlier works; there's a little "ahhhh" that John does ~2:30-2:31 that ####### melts me.  The coda at the end is marvelous, bringing in a new element in double-time with the "my baby don't care" line that hadn't been heard before.  But what makes it A RINGO SHOWCASE! starts at the very beginning, with a short fill and then that crazy syncopated drum pattern that fills the verses.  His overdubbed tambourine on the second and fourth beats serves to enhance how unusual the drumbeats are. Then in the bridge, the drums switch to a standard beat and Ringo utilizes the hi-hat for the first time, with a double-time tambourine also by Ringo in an overdub (actually coming in one beat early on the first bridge but not the second), offering a dramatic contrast to the syncopated verses.  And - again with the fills - Ringo has a series of fills in which he never plays the same fill twice!  Truly (all together now) A RINGO SHOWCASE!

Mr. krista:  "I love how seamlessly he goes right to that hi-hat.  If you watch the YouTube, you can see how boring and dumb that song would be otherwise. Watching reminds me of how everybody I know writes a drum or bass part, but he made something interesting in service of the song.  He came up with a beat that was uniquely him and also makes the song.  It’s not the same song without that beat, and it’s very instructive.  You have to listen to a lot of rock to see the standard way, but when something deviates from that, it’s like describing a void – they didn’t do xyz.  I love that song.  It’s one of the main reasons why Ringo is the best, a fantastic drummer."  (Obviously he knows this is A RINGO SHOWCASE!)

Suggested cover:  Take a heavy song and make it heavier?  Nice!  Hüsker Dü

2022 Supplement:  I still marvel that this song was recorded in early 1965; in fact, it was the first song that the boys laid down in their recording sessions for Help!.  To my ear, it still sounds fresh today.  It’s easy to forget how unbelievably heavy this song was in 1965 compared to what else was out there at the time. And even the little bits like the fade-out that introduces a new lyric to the song were groundbreaking.  I’m flabbergasted that they were able to perform this song live!

Paul tells a sweet story of how he and John used to like to hitchhike, and one time John got £100 as a birthday gift from his uncle, so he and Paul set off for Spain by way of Paris.  But once they got to Paris, they felt like they’d taken in and learned so much that they could write novels just from their one week there, so they never made it to Spain.  The phrase, “She’s got a ticket to ride” referenced these trips together, but it also specifically referred to Ryde on the Isle of Wight, where Paul’s cousin and her husband were running a pub.  Paul and John would hitchhike down to Ryde and wrote the song as a memory of this and their other trips together.

Guido Merkins

In an interview, John claimed that Ticket To Ride was the first heavy metal song.  I’ve always thought that was a bit overstated, but there is no doubt, Ticket to Ride is a heavy record for 1965.  Totally different than anything else going on.

Great lead guitar by Paul. Also love the intro which is, I think, on a 12 string.  Also, a very unusual drum pattern, suggested by Paul, but of course, totally Ringo.  Part of it slightly behind the beat, which gives it a swing. My other favorite part is the ending.  The Beatles did this quite often in their career where they kind of do something totally different at the end that gives it a lift.  Almost doing a totally different song within the song (Hello Goodbye is similar).  Very very unique.  McCartney’s harmony throughout is also cool and once again, John and Paul are doing this thing where it’s sometimes difficult to tell who is singing lead.  I also love the difference between the verses and bridge (“don’t know why she’s rising so high”), especially the way the drums change, then lead flourish by Paul and back into the verses.  

If you go watch the movie Help, notice the sequence of them skiing set to Ticket To Ride.  This part of the film is like 15 years ahead of it’s time…fast cuts, out of focus, Beatles clowning….yep, it’s a music video before that thing had even been invented.  Once again, pushing the boundaries set to a Beatles soundtrack.

 
These four have 13 of the last 15 songs....

 

66 --falguy---12

67 --Ilov80s---12

68 --Just Win Baby---12

69 --BobbyLayne---12

 
# of Songs to Have Appeared in the Top 25 to Date (10 songs have been posted)

1 --Gr00vus---7

2 --DocHolliday---7

3 --ProsteticRKG---6

4 --Oliver Humanzee(Dad)---6

5 --BobbyLayne---6

6 --Heckmanm---6

7 --WorrierKing---6

8 --FairWarning---6

9 --Krista (TJ/Slug)---5

10 --Krista (Doug)---5

11 --DaVinci---5

12 --Krista (TJ/Holly)---5

13 --Krista4---5

14 --shuke---5

15 --WhoKnew---5

16 --Eephus---5

17 --falguy---4

18 --Tom Hagen---4

19 --ekbeats---4

20 --OTB_Lifer---4

21 --Dr. Octopus---4

22 --pecorino---4

23 --Shaft41(Son2)---4

24 --Westerberg---4

25 --Dennis Castro---4

26 --Uruk-Hai---4

27 --jwb---4

28 --murph---4

29 --Ted Lange as your Bartender---4

30 --Shaft41(Daughter)---3

31 --Krista (TJ/Alex)---3

32 --yankee23fan---3

33 --Wrighteous Ray(Hub)---3

34 --Lardonastick---3

35 --Shaft41(Son1)---3

36 --prosopis---3

37 --Oliver Humanzee---3

38 --turnjose7---3

39 --jamny---3

40 --Pip's Invitation---3

41 --wikkidpissah---3

42 --John Maddens Lunchbox---3

43 --Just Win Baby---3

44 --Encyclopedia Brown---3

45 --landryshat---3

46 --rockaction---3

47 --Krista (TJ/Michael)---2

48 --Dinsy Ejotuz---2

49 --AAABatteries---2

50 --Wrighteous Ray---2

51 --BinkyTheDoormat---2

52 --fatguyinalttlecoat---2

53 --ConstruxBoy---2

54 --Krista (Rob)---2

55 --ManOfSteelhead---2

56 --Man Of Constant Sorrow---2

57 --Simey---2

58 --zamboni---2

59 --Dwayne Hoover---2

60 --Ilov80s---2

61 --PIK 95---2

62 --Getzlaf15---2

63 --Neal Cassady---1

64 --Krista (Sharon)---1

65 --anarchy99---1

66 --Alex P Keaton---1

67 --Mac32---1

68 --Krista (Craig)---1

69 --Krista (Worth)---1

70 --Guido Merkins---1

71 --Shaft41---0

 
Getzlaf15 said:
Ticket To Ride The Ed Sullivan Show September 12th 1965
2022 Ranking: 16
Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  16

IT'S A RINGO SHOWCASE BINGO! 
Click to expand...


:lol:   Nicely done.

I'm mildly pleased to have eight of my top 11 still standing going into the top 15.

1.

2.  Across the Universe (18)

3.

4.

5.  And Your Bird Can Sing (31)

6.  Rain (42)

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.  For No One (53)

13.  All My Loving (48)

14.

15.  Two of Us (41)

16.  She Loves You (38)

17.  Nowhere Man (28)

18.  Ticket to Ride (16)

19.  Don’t Let Me Down (25)

20.  Helter Skelter (35)

21.  And I Love Her (45)

22.  I Want To Hold Your Hand (22)

23.

24.  I’ve Got A Feeling (46)

25.  Taxman (22)

 
8 left....

1.--Hey Bulldog(30)

2.--

3.--

4.--

5.--Get Back(26)

6.--Ticket To Ride(16)

7.--Day Tripper(32)

8.--

9.--I Feel Fine(51)

10.--I Want To Hold Your Hand(21)

11.--

12.--Rain(42)

13.--She Loves You(38)

14.--Things We Said Today(37)

15.--I Should Have Known Better(93)

16.--Mother Nature's Son(104)

17.--I Saw Her Standing There(43)

18.--

19.--Hello Goodbye(56)

20.--We Can Work it Out(29)

21.--Helter Skelter(35)

22.--

23.--Paperback Writer(47)

24.--Two Of Us(41)

25.--

 
Top 15 Contest Songs listed that didn't make Top 15...

Ticket To Ride (16) 5 times
Taxman (22) twice
With A Little Help From My Friends (44) once
Revolution (36) 6 times
She Loves You (38) twice
We Can Work It Out (29) once
Get Back (26) four times
Can't Buy Me Love (49) once
Don't Let Me Down (25) once
Come Together (20) 4 times
Across The Universe (18) 4 times
Dear Prudence (34) once
Penny Lane (24) twice
I Saw Her Standing There (43) once
I Want To Hold Your Hand (21) four times
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away (19) three times
Paperback Writer (47) twice
All My Loving (48) once
I Am The Walrus (33) once
The Long And Winding Road (23) once
Nowhere Man (28) once
 

 
Getzlaf15 said:
Here's the # of songs that hit in the Top 15, for each of the entries.  Six of the 13 entries had Revolution (#36), which I thought was interesting.

 

13

13

12

12

12

12

11

11

11

11

10

9

8
Click to expand...
With having to send in lists at the #50 pole, I was expecting most of the lists to be in the 8-9 right range.  To have 10 of the 13 lists with 11 right or higher is pretty darn good.  Well done!

 
Was interested to see where "Tomorrow Never Knows" went. I figured it might be top ten if people were hearing the same pop innovation that I was. Remarkable sonic feat in the studio. No doubt that it takes the drone that John Cale was to use to so much effect in the Velvet Undergound, only the Beatles mixed it with pop, whereas the Velvets used that drone with dirty, sparsely riffed rhythm and blues and frat rock to create their sonic landscapes. (I'm thinking of "I"m Waiting For The Man" and "Sister Ray," among others.)

Just interesting all around. 

 
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Getzlaf15 said:
If you go watch the movie Help, notice the sequence of them skiing set to Ticket To Ride.  This part of the film is like 15 years ahead of it’s time…fast cuts, out of focus, Beatles clowning….yep, it’s a musi
Click to expand...
Whenever I hear "The Beatles" this what immediately comes to mind. 

 
A Hard Day’s Night (live)
2022 Ranking: 15
2022 Lists: 29
2022 Points: 403
Ranked Highest by: @rockaction (1) @Wrighteous Ray(hub)(1) Worth (1) @Uruk-Hai (2) @Eephus (2) @Dennis Castro (4) @Getzlaf15 (4) Doug (5) @whoknew (6) @AAABatteries (6) @ConstruxBoy(6)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 21/13/165

Getz: EIGHT Top 6 votes. And then 21 votes between #11 and #25. Moves up six slots from 2019, with 16 more voters and 238 more points. I had it at #6 in 2019, and moved it up to #4 in 2022. For me, this and Help! Are the two signature Beatles songs. Turn it up every time.

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  30

2019 write-up:

A Hard Day's Night (A Hard Day's Night, 1964)

John and rock music don't start off any better in the rankings today than they did yesterday.  I was hoping Mr. krista would take this as one of his two guest write-ups, because he loves this song even more than I do.  Alas, he decided to challenge himself instead.  When I asked him why he has this one so high on his list, he said only, "That chord."  Is this the second most iconic and well-loved chord in the Beatles catalog?  You know which one is first.  

The title comes from a Ringo-ism, of course:  "I used to, while I was saying one thing, have another thing come into my brain and move down fast.  Once when we were working all day and then into the night, I came out thinking it was still day and said, 'It's been a hard day,' and looked around and noticing it was dark, I said '...'s night!"  Each Beatle tells the story a little differently, but all agree that it was a brilliant Ringo-ism.  Once it was selected as the title of their next film, John set about to write a song around it, which he completed in the space of that same evening.

A few days later, the Beatles went into the studio to record the song, which they accomplished in only three hours of session time, but not without some issues.  First, they had to deal with an unwelcome guest in that Richard Lester, the director of the film, showed up and tried to direct the recording as well.  While the group mostly ignored his constant, odd suggestions ("Tell them I need it more cinematic!"), he was responsible for the fade-out after requesting a "dreamy" segue into the movie's first scene.  That fade-out riff, alternately major and minor chords, is a perfect counterpoint to the blast start of the song.  Another issue during the recording was that George had a lot of trouble with the guitar solo, and who could blame him since he was expected to play it immediately after being introduced to it.  Eventually the solution was found:  George would play the guitar solo at half tempo while George Martin simultaneously paralleled the notes on an upright piano.  Despite his initial troubles with the solo, George's work on the song turned out beautifully, especially the jangly parts during the fade-out.

Back to That Chord.  George Martin always wanted something to hook you in immediately at the beginning of an album, such as the count-ins on the first songs of Please Please Me and Revolver, and this album was no different:  "In those days, the beginnings and endings of songs were things I tended to organize.  We needed something striking, to be a sudden jerk into the song.  It was by chance that John struck the right one.  We knew it when we heard it."  Music nerds can join plenty of debates about exactly what that chord is, though it's never been settled.  To me the technical specifications of the chord are unimportant; all I care about is that it brilliantly bursts the song open as a harbinger of all that's to come.

The vocals on the song might seem simple on the surface, but I love the rise and fall, with Paul chipping in high harmonies on the verses and then taking over the lead on the bridge since he could hit the high notes that John couldn't reach.  The change into the minor chord on that bridge helps Paul's vocal attain an aggressiveness that matches John's vocal on the verses.  And lest I forget Ringo, he seems to attack the drums with an especially high level of excitement on this track, and the open hi-hat work keeps everything fiercely rocking.  

This song is so great I didn't even have to mention all the cowbell!

But by the way, there's cowbell.

Mr. krista:  "Cowbell on the bridge.  That’s a universal indication of party down, but this time it’s a universal indication to get back to work.  Dig that ditch, dig it out.  Great bridge. "Hard day’s night" is like a line in a Wallace Stevens poem.  Like, 'It was evening all afternoon.'"

Suggested cover:  There are few guarantees in life, but here's one:  if Otis has recorded a cover, that's the one I'm going to post.

2022 Supplement:  Paul has said that the Ringo-ism in this title was an apt description for the craziness of the lads’ lives at this time.  They were still so young – mostly early 20s – but already world famous.  Though later they got worn down by the screaming and the lack of privacy, at this point, they still found it very exciting:  “We’d been hoping beyond hope that people would ask us for an autograph.  I practised.  We all practised.”  Buying their parents a house, getting a nice guitar, to be young, rich and famous in a way that had been beyond their dreams, was still exciting, but they were all “knackered,” so Paul found this title phrase to be a perfect summation of their state of being at the time.

At the same time, this record showed their songwriting going in a more adult direction, more experimental, using, as Paul said, “a certain amount of jiggery-pokery.”  I was just about to deem this a “Paul-ism” but googled and found that it is actually a real term!  Well will you look at that!  Anyway, a component of this jiggery-pokery was to have George play the guitar solo a little too fast, and then George Martin would slow it down in the recording.  It was one of the first forays of the Beatles into the kind of technical creativity that they would show in later albums. 

By the way, Paul claims that he still doesn’t know what that opening chord is.

Guido Merkins

Rock and Roll has many mysteries.  What are the lyrics to Louie Louie?  Who’s so vain? One of the greatest ones, however, is this:  What chord begins A Hard Day’s Night?  It has been a question for years.  George claimed it was an Fadd9, but he wasn’t sure of Paul’s bass note.  In this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwfH9oAiPH0 it is suggested that Paul is playing a D on the bass and John is playing a Dsus4.  The result is pretty close, but I still think George Martin put something with the piano on top of all of that.  In any event, it’s the most famous, yet the most disputed chord in rock and roll.

As far as the rest of the song, the story goes that Ringo, after putting in a hard day’s work said “It’s been a hard day….” but noticing it was now night time added “...’s night.”  The other 3 Beatles fell about laughing, but thought it was a good title for the movie.  So now, they had a write a song called A Hard Day’s Night

The song is probably mostly John’s, but Paul sings the middle “when I’m home….” because John couldn’t hit those notes.  The song, especially with the opening chord, was a perfect way to begin the movie with the chaos of the Beatles running away from a crowd to start the movie.  My favorite parts are the intro, the solo (George on 12 string and George Martin on piano) and the outro (George on 12 string.)  Also, Paul tends to give everything a lift that he comes in the middle and sings on and this might be the first example.

 
These six have 12 of the final 14 songs:
 

63 --Neal Cassady---13

64 --Lardonastick---13

65 --Simey---13

66 --falguy---13

67 --Just Win Baby---13

68 --BobbyLayne---13

 
It's largely the chord. It's the most talked about chord in rock history for what would normally be a part of a song not protected by copyright or credit if it weren't so. damn. there. It's instantly recognizable. Everybody would write a song with a chord intro like that if they could. 

It was my number one because of the chord, its mystery, and the overall freak out song that comes after the chord. 

But when I get home to you 
And all the things you do 
You make me feel oh yeah (okay and alright slurred together)

 
These five only have 1 or 2 songs left to be posted:

 

anarchy99---24

ManOfSteelhead---24

FairWarning---23

Krista (Worth)---23

Encyclopedia Brown---23

 
"I was just about to deem this a “Paul-ism” but googled and found that it is actually a real term!  Well will you look at that!" - krista4

Indeed it is. Jiggery-pokery is a double dactyl. I think there's actually a book by Anthony Hecht and John Hollander, two famous modern American poets, called Jiggery Pokery. 

And indeed there is. Memory is serving me correctly. I love Hecht's poetry. In fact, his Collected Later Poems sits at my tableside to my computer and I referenced it last night in a PM to somebody. 

The dedication in the book? Funny you should ask. To his wife: 

Oh my most dear
I know the live imprint of that smile of gratitude
Know it more perfectly than any book
It brims upon the world a mood of love 
A mode of gladness without stint
That I may be worthy of that look...

 
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Guess The Final Order Of The Top 15 Contest (after song #15)

Pip's Invitation-1

landrys hat - 1

falguy-1

Heckmanm-1

Tom Hagen-0

ekbeats -0

BobbyLayne-0

Simey-0

fatguyinalittlecoat-0

Shaft41 -0

Binky The Doormat-0

lardonastick-0

Murph-0

5 = exact guess, 3 = one off either way, 1 = guess made Top 15

 
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Tomorrow Never Knows is one of the most interesting Beatles songs. It is like an acid trip in musical form.

Ticket to Ride - Great song. I can't help but associate this song with The Carpenters. That isn't a bad thing in my world.

A Hard Days Night - Another great song. I agree with everyone that commented on the opening chord. 

 
Getzlaf15 said:
"Hard day’s night" is like a line in a Wallace Stevens poem.  Like, 'It was evening all afternoon.'"
Click to expand...
While we're on poetry, it seems, I'd just like to point out that Wallace Stevens is noted for being from (not born, but residing) in Hartford, CT, one of the few creative souls ever to pass through an area that was formed because the Massachusetts Bay Colony was thought to be full of backsliders. Connecticut was the purer form of Puritanism for the religious settlers. 

Woof! 

 
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