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In this thread I rank my favorite post-Beatles Beatles songs: 291-1. (1 Viewer)

krista4 said:
I'd say John admitted the bold less eloquently than you characterized, but he openly regretted it.  He wasn't happy that he'd given it the "acceptable" sheen, though I'm sure he was happy to have a #3 hit.  John...full of contradictions and insecurity.  But did he speak to the people whom he wanted to reach in the way he wished to?  I'd argue that he admitted he didn't.  Yet somehow it became bigger than that, and perhaps, as you allude to, what was needed wasn't what he wanted to admit he had to do.  He'd had plenty of songs that were "just plain sedition" but they didn't reach the masses.  This did and still does.  There's magic in that.

Given that this was not for "you" (i.e., me), I'm perfectly comfortable that it still isn't.  I'd have had it ranked quite a bit lower if it weren't such a cultural touchstone.  It isn't for me, now.  If that means I don't "get it" somehow, I understand. And since it's a thread of my favorites, it's altogether fitting that someone who doesn't understand it doesn't appreciate it enough.

Edit to be clear:  I appreciated and loved your post.  You bring a perspective that I can never have and I value enormously.
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fair enough.

we can't know our eloquence. my god growing up was Willie Mays. he couldn't have known that, wouldn't have been impressed, mightn't have cared. and i didn't need him to. i didn't need him to hit .300. i didn't need him to hit 50 homers, triples&triples, steal bases, win Gold Gloves. i needed him to play with power, passion, purpose. and joy. i grew up around a lot of people who looked like him and, if i ever saw any of em do anything with joy, i wouldnta known what to do with that.

i just wanted to be free. life has always been relentlessly stoopit to me, people irredeemably ridiculous. i am not stoopit. i am not ridiculous. but i had to be a people, so i had to be. Say Hey Willie had 1000 more reasons than me to be stoopit & ridiculous and maybe he was. but when the ball came off a pitcher's hand, an opponent's bat, he could pound stoopit, chase down ridiculous, run past the obscenely rigged game we are forced to play and be free. if he could, maybe i could.

i have done what i could to outrun the ordinary, help loved ones feel special, help strangers see the difference. but i can't know my eloquence. Willie Mays didn't. John Lennon didn't. i might actually be embarrassed by what eloquence another might have found in me. in my retirement, i have found forums to express and caused many to feel that i'm stoopit & ridiculous. i hope also to have helped many to see past the stoopit & ridiculous in themselves, possibly to have a greater desire not to be stoopit & ridiculous. but i don't know. we never know. we just do. with power, passion, purpose when we can. and joy.

 
krista4 said:
That is fantastic.  I don't know how old she is, but @Shaft41 took his teenage daughter to see Paul last year, too!  She is a singer/musician who did an amazing version of "Let It Be" that we linked in the initial thread.  I can find it for you if you'd like.  :)  
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Sure - I would love to see it. 

 
wikkidpissah said:
fair enough.

we can't know our eloquence. my god growing up was Willie Mays. he couldn't have known that, wouldn't have been impressed, mightn't have cared. and i didn't need him to. i didn't need him to hit .300. i didn't need him to hit 50 homers, triples&triples, steal bases, win Gold Gloves. i needed him to play with power, passion, purpose. and joy. i grew up around a lot of people who looked like him and, if i ever saw any of em do anything with joy, i wouldnta known what to do with that.

i just wanted to be free. life has always been relentlessly stoopit to me, people irredeemably ridiculous. i am not stoopit. i am not ridiculous. but i had to be a people, so i had to be. Say Hey Willie had 1000 more reasons than me to be stoopit & ridiculous and maybe he was. but when the ball came off a pitcher's hand, an opponent's bat, he could pound stoopit, chase down ridiculous, run past the obscenely rigged game we are forced to play and be free. if he could, maybe i could.

i have done what i could to outrun the ordinary, help loved ones feel special, help strangers see the difference. but i can't know my eloquence. Willie Mays didn't. John Lennon didn't. i might actually be embarrassed by what eloquence another might have found in me. in my retirement, i have found forums to express and caused many to feel that i'm stoopit & ridiculous. i hope also to have helped many to see past the stoopit & ridiculous in themselves, possibly to have a greater desire not to be stoopit & ridiculous. but i don't know. we never know. we just do. with power, passion, purpose when we can. and joy.
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Tough love there that you wouldn't have known, because Willie Mays is a hero of mine.  In baseball, no greater hero, and overall very few.  We might just have different ideas of how one is deemed stoopit or ridiculous or how one makes their way out of it, if indeed they wish to.

 
krista4 said:
Also, do you have a favorite Beatle?  We have some Paul guys, some George guys, some John guys...OK, I'm as close as you get to a "Ringo guy."
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I love the big 3 but would probably pick Paul as my favorite because I really took to him when I started listening to the Beatles when I was a kid.  If I made a top 10 list I would probably have equal representation from John and Paul and possibly 1 or 2 from George (I would have to go through the exercise of trying to rank them)

 
krista4 said:
44.  Dear One (Thirty Three & 1/3, 1976)  Spotify  YouTube

(George #15)

Funny that Pip mentioned recently lyrics that could have come straight from Joni Mitchell.  George had attended some Mitchell concerts before writing this song, and inspired by her use of open tuning, used open A for the song, the only one he ever wrote using that.  The lyrics of the song are directed to Premavatar Paramahansa Yogananda, whom we all know as the author of Autobiography of a Yogi.  (I have known that for a total of three minutes.)

This song sounds as spiritual and devout to me as anything George ever wrote and performed.  I love the juxtaposition of the heavily gospel-inflected verses with an Indian tinge to them, with the bright, bouncy pop choruses.  The changes in tempo and key between the two are lovely, and George's vocal is sincere and longing.  The open A tuning results in a chiming guitar sound that I love.  George did a Paul-esque DIY on this one, playing all the instruments outside of that terrific organ part played on Billy Preston's Hammond (but not by Preston).  

Hmm, seems I don't have a lot to say here.  This song is magnificent.  There.
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This is different. It's a novel way for George to address his musical and spiritual interests. It doesn't really move the needle for me as a song, but as an exercise I find it fascinating. 

 
krista4 said:
43.  Junk (McCartney, 1970)  Spotify  YouTube

(Paul #19)

Given recent topics of conversation, I suppose it’s fitting that this one comes up now.  Paul wrote this song while the Beatles were at the Maharishi’s pad in India in 1968, but though presented for possible inclusion on The Beatles (white album) and Abbey Road, it was passed over both times.  Yet somehow “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road” made the cut.

The lyrics to this song, which describe discarded items for sale in a junk shop, kill me.  They’re poignant and heartbreaking in showing the hopefulness of a purchase – “sleeping bag for two” – that now had no use.  As Paul describes, it’s a “brokenhearted jubilee.”  The junk itself replying "why, why" is especially brutal, as if to say why bother trying to make something of this when it's all just going to end up sadly.

Motor cars, handle bars, bicycles for two
Broken hearted jubilee
Parachutes, army boots, sleeping bags for two
Sentimental jamboree

"Buy! Buy!" says the sign in the shop window
"Why? Why?" says the junk in the yard

Da, da, ya, da, da, da
Da, da, da
Da, da, ya, da, da, da
Da, da, da

Candle sticks, building bricks
Something old and new
Memories for you and me

"Buy! Buy!" says the sign in the shop window
"Why? Why?" says the junk in the yard

&

Paul’s delivery is wistful and affecting, and the melody strikes a perfect balance of gorgeous and sad, particularly on the “ya da da da” part in the bridge.  Glockenspiel alert!  In this instance, it’s a xylophone, but close enough.  I like the use of an instrument that I could see being in a junk shop, too.

OH had four songs that stood out as his favorites during our Paul listening sessions, and this is the second of them (along with “Waterfalls” ranked at my Paul #33) despite his refusal to sing along with “Singalong Junk.”  The other two will be in my Paul top ten.
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His vocal reminds me of how he sang parts of When I'm Sixty-Four. I kept expecting Vera, Chuck and Dave to appear. This is a nice little sentiment. 

 
@wikkidpissah, understanding (as far as I can) the meaning of "Imagine" at the time, I'm wondering what your thoughts are on its position at this point in history...I would add more words to what I'm asking but they'd be presumptuous.  

For instance, I have friends in their 30s/40s who adore it, but I'm not sure they understand.  What do you think about its constantly being an anthem at this point for people who didn't live or might not understand it?  Is this a good thing or a corruption of intent?  I mean this on both a micro and a macro level.  Does it detract from or enhance its legacy, in other words?

 
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krista4 said:
@wikkidpissah, understanding (as far as I can) the meaning of "Imagine" at the time, I'm wondering what your thoughts are on its position at this point in history...I would add more words to what I'm asking but they'd be presumptuous.  

For instance, I have friends in their 30s/40s who adore it, but I'm not sure they understand.  What do you think about its constantly being an anthem at this point for people who didn't live or might not understand it?  Is this a good thing or a corruption of intent?  I mean this on both a micro and a macro level.  Does it detract from or enhance its legacy, in other words?
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If Imagine is indeed a document, it doesn't really matter. My whole life i been aware that the Declaration of Independence is as warmly & firmly embraced by polygamist militias as by me (and is likewise held up as Exhibit 1A  in the case of The People v Patrician Hypocrisy) and that Jesus Christ is most fervently worshipped by folks even He would have trouble forgiving. In other works of art which have become documents, Guernica is two completely different things to the original anti-fascists and Antifa.

In music, even, the most successful rock album of all time, Dark Side of the Moon, was almost unanimously considered a sellout by its fans at the time and The Who's Tommy was thought the culmination of their career but is seen as nothing more now than the closing chapter of their juvenilia.

I did not have an address the entire time Imagine was on the charts. I took shelter & succor in Christian communes, sex cults, hobo camps that had had a fire burning since the Depression and backstage at experimental theaters during its eminence. The madding flux of which i was a part was seen as a natural progression in the Perfectibility of Man, the primary Romantic notion of the Enlightenment philosophers, and the spaceshot of an entirely different kind of exploration. Lennon's polemic was thought a charming capture of the moment and promise of the possible, but so was the "To boldly go..." speech at the beginning of Star Trek. It sought no opposition and received none because today was a stop on the way to tomorrow and what the hell.

If it is embraced today, i could easily see it being done by lazyheaded treehuggers and it doesnt matter. The current backlash matters just as little, on a par with blaming millenials on Fred Rogers. It will be here for the next bunch to feel about it what it will. That is the plight of even the best documents. Fully aware that a free market provides a mechanized society's best solutions, i still imagine no possessions. It warms the void. The important thing to me is that the first thing Lennon asked us to imagine was "no heaven", announcing that we might soon reach a point where we no longer needed the Ultimate Carrot dangled in front us to act our best (thereby also discarding the Ultimate Stick bringing up our rear). A few years before, I'd spent several hours locked up by nuns in the jet nether of the stairwell closet of my school for asking the same question (so i would better know the borders of life without salvation). We are being led back into those closets by new regimes of Puritans, new cartels of control. We will be forced to imagine f'real again and now we have something to hum, if even to only "imagine no muddy mixes".

 
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krista4 said:
42.  Imagine (Imagine, 1971)  Spotify  YouTube

(John #10)

:shrug:  

I love John's sweet and tender vocal.  I love the piano riff but not how muddy the piano sounds.  I love that this song is inspiring to so many people.

I don't love the lyrics.
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This is where it belongs, imho. 

I don't like the lyrics either. I live near Woodstock NY, maybe 10 miles from Big Pink, and it's still a little hippie-dippy here at times. While I lean a little left, I really don't like that over-the-top hippie vibe at all. And this song is one of the big "gee, can't we all just share?" anthems. Yea, no possessions... Sorry, but I like my hot tub. 

 
krista4 said:
I don't know where I'm going tomorrow.  I figured we'd have two days of hand-wringing over "Imagine" that would prevent me from choosing any "next song" because it would be a song you say is better than Imagine (total misread of the thread, of course).  I'm surprised to see that thus far wikkid is the only one standing up for it.

If only I had six or eight Ringo songs left I could tease you all with the idea I might love them more than John's most revered song (or at least the one I thought was most revered).
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I mean if this was the most "iconic" solo Beatles song thread it should be much  higher (I'm not longer going to acknowledge the wrong way to approach higher/lower  :P ) but this is your list. I love the song but realize not everyone is into the simplistic message and it also suffers from over-exposure. 

 
wikkidpissah said:
If Imagine is indeed a document, it doesn't really matter. My whole life i been aware that the Declaration of Independence is as warmly & firmly embraced by polygamist militias as by me (and is likewise held up as Exhibit 1A  in the case of The People v Patrician Hypocrisy) and that Jesus Christ is most fervently worshipped by folks even He would have trouble forgiving. In other works of art which have become documents, Guernica is two completely different things to the original anti-fascists and Antifa.

In music, even, the most successful rock album of all time, Dark Side of the Moon, was almost unanimously considered a sellout by its fans at the time and The Who's Tommy was thought the culmination of their career but is seen as nothing more now than the closing chapter of their juvenilia.

I did not have an address the entire time Imagine was on the charts. I took shelter & succor in Christian communes, sex cults, hobo camps that had had a fire burning since the Depression and backstage at experimental theaters during its eminence. The madding flux of which i was a part was seen as a natural progression in the Perfectibility of Man, the primary Romantic notion of the Enlightenment philosophers, and the spaceshot of an entirely different kind of exploration. Lennon's polemic was thought a charming capture of the moment and promise of the possible, but so was the "To boldly go..." speech at the beginning of Star Trek. It sought no opposition and received none because today was a stop on the way to tomorrow and what the hell.

If it is embraced today, i could easily see it being done by lazyheaded treehuggers and it doesnt matter. The current backlash matters just as little, on a par with blaming millenials on Fred Rogers. It will be here for the next bunch to feel about it what it will. That is the plight of even the best documents. Fully aware that a free market provides a mechanized society's best solutions, i still imagine no possessions. It warms the void. The important thing to me is that the first thing Lennon asked us to imagine was "no heaven", announcing that we might soon reach a point where we no longer needed the Ultimate Carrot dangled in front us to act our best (thereby also discarding the Ultimate Stick bringing up our rear). A few years before, I'd spent several hours locked up by nuns in the jet nether of the stairwell closet of my school for asking the same question. We are being led back into those closets by new regimes of Puritans, new cartels of control. We will be forced to imagine f'real again and now we have something to hum, if even to only "imagine no muddy mixes".
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https://twitter.com/MachinePix/status/1326606803967356930

 
jwb said:
This is where it belongs, imho. 

I don't like the lyrics either. I live near Woodstock NY, maybe 10 miles from Big Pink, and it's still a little hippie-dippy here at times. While I lean a little left, I really don't like that over-the-top hippie vibe at all. And this song is one of the big "gee, can't we all just share?" anthems. Yea, no possessions... Sorry, but I like my hot tub. 
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In another life I'd be waving my hippie freak flag, but instead I'm a corporate lawyer who sticks his head in the sand and pretends the world is full of "peace and love" only to pop out and see it's quite the opposite (especially the current climate).

This song is surely idealistic and over-simplified but just like movies and TV shows, music is a great escape and what's wrong with pretending we could all  live life like that and be happy to do so?

The same with "silly love songs" - what's wrong with that, I need to know..."

 
I had mentioned earlier in the thread that "Imagine" wouldn't probably be in my top 25 John songs, much less top 25 solo Beatle songs.  And that's coming from a guy who puts John's solo work in a clear 3rd place behind Paul and George for my enjoyment.  I know that part of my apathy toward the song is over-exposure; It's the Tom Brady or Duke basketball of solo Beatle songs.  But I also know a bigger part is I can't connect with the lyrics.  While I understand that much of the sentiment was of its 1971ness, and naturally things have changed and evolved where any song meant for a time won't resonate 50 years later nearly the same way.  I mean, I haven't rammed on anytime lately either.  

Since my daughter and her singing was brought up again last night, she considered doing "Imagine" as a performance song a few times in the past few years.  She's a Beatles fan, but frankly, she's probably most aware of its import in the cultural zeitgeist from years of watching "American Idol" and other such singing competition shows, where she's heard it performed nearly as many times as your friendly neighborhood Jason Mraz song.  But when she started singing and playing it, she couldn't do it, because she didn't like the lyrics.  We're raising our children in a Christian home and she told us there was no way she could sing a song that starts with imagining there's no heaven.  I completely understood and agreed with her (and, incidentally, that was the point where "Let It Be" was raised as a possibility) and was proud of her for wanting to do a song she personally connected with.  

I'm a sucker for a song with a good melody and a prominent piano arrangement.  That's why I like this song as much as I do.  But, even for an unabashed melody-over-lyrics guy, just going with the tune is a bridge too far.  

 
I woke up around 3, as I do, and found myself really irritated with this thread.  Not with anyone or with any posts, but overall.  I’ve written up 250 songs and dozens of albums, so burnout might have been inevitable.

Just now I read the second half of this page of the thread and feel better again.  Fabulous discussion, guys.   :thanks:

 
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Dr. Octopus said:
In another life I'd be waving my hippie freak flag, but instead I'm a corporate lawyer who sticks his head in the sand and pretends the world is full of "peace and love" only to pop out and see it's quite the opposite (especially the current climate).

This song is surely idealistic and over-simplified but just like movies and TV shows, music is a great escape and what's wrong with pretending we could all  live life like that and be happy to do so?

The same with "silly love songs" - what's wrong with that, I need to know..."
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Imagine will ALWAYS rank high with me.

Long time ago when I was young and out on my own on Christmas eve I was listening to the local radio station which had changed its format to Christmas tunes.  It was approaching midnight and they were actually going to sign off for the night since it was a small ski town in the mountains.

My buddy was DJing and the last song he put on for the night was Imagine...

Cold temperatures, snow falling, dark lonely night, searching for something...

Hit the PERFECT tone.

 
Shaft41 said:
She's a Beatles fan, but frankly, she's probably most aware of its import in the cultural zeitgeist from years of watching "American Idol" and other such singing competition shows, where she's heard it performed nearly as many times as your friendly neighborhood Jason Mraz song.  But when she started singing and playing it, she couldn't do it, because she didn't like the lyrics.  We're raising our children in a Christian home and she told us there was no way she could sing a song that starts with imagining there's no heaven. 
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Mr. Carlson explains

 
one last note on Imagine (unless responses cause me to make more) - i dont see as much advocacy in it as y'all do. what it is advocating, if anything, is sticking one's head out dey shell, inventorying everything they've been told for bull#### and the whole wide world for possibilities. one is not essentially good until they know how bad they can be (even if they never actually are so); one does not truly love until one knows how to exist without love.

John Lennon and i have one thing in common - we were born knowing absolutely everything. that didn't make us singular - i'd guess 5% of the population is like that. what made us singular is that we spent our lives unlearning everything. it was the only way for us to allow anything else in. John had to make room for a cute li'l neighbor boy with an uncanny sense of melody who measured life by how many times it patted him on the head; for a laconic starebot for whom clouds went in one ear and notes came out the other; for a maddeningly uncomplicated dood who knew the beat of everything; for a strange lady from a distant land who could convince him black was white by force of will; and, finally, for the miracle of life from the beginning, which he couldnt do the decade before even if he hadnt been busy changing the world. John Lennon didn't die prematurely. He knew how when he died, which 99.99999999999999% of us don't. I hope to be able to say the same. Imagine that.

 
41.  Put It There (Flowers In The Dirt, 1989)  Spotify  YouTube

(Paul #18)

Paul wrote this song as a tribute to his dad.  According to Paul, like many Liverpudlians his dad had all kinds of little phrases that didn't mean much to Paul as a kid but took on extra weight as he matured.  One of those was "Put it there, if it weighs a ton," which was said before shaking hands as an expression of friendship.  Another of Paul's dad's phrases was, "Because there's no hair on a seagull's chest," which probably would have been trickier to make into a song.  Wait, we're talking about Paul here...I expect "Hairless Seagull's Chest" to show up on McCartney III.

The song is musically fairly simple and employs a lot of standard Paul bits - knee percussion, counterpuntal bass line, a major chord progression that sounds like "Blackbird."  The strings are an unexpected and lovely touch.  This is one of Paul's favorites, and he admits to getting choked up when he sings his dad's phrase.  It's not just a melodically beautiful song, but the warmth it imbues is magnificent.

OH:  "I also liked this song when it was called Blackbird.  What a beautiful, simple song.  That chord progression is ancient, as old as music, Bach, Greensleeves…but it just sounds like one of your best songs.  The lyrics are forthright, simple but totally honest.  It’s a full idea that begins how it should begin and ends when the idea is over.  The instrumentation is no more than is necessary.  There was never a time I was thinking about the production, or how guitar-playing was good, or the percussion…I was just enjoying a song.  I just encountered the music on its own terms.  It’s a great song."

 
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wikkidpissah said:
fair enough.

we can't know our eloquence. my god growing up was Willie Mays. he couldn't have known that, wouldn't have been impressed, mightn't have cared. and i didn't need him to. i didn't need him to hit .300. i didn't need him to hit 50 homers, triples&triples, steal bases, win Gold Gloves. i needed him to play with power, passion, purpose. and joy. i grew up around a lot of people who looked like him and, if i ever saw any of em do anything with joy, i wouldnta known what to do with that.

i just wanted to be free. life has always been relentlessly stoopit to me, people irredeemably ridiculous. i am not stoopit. i am not ridiculous. but i had to be a people, so i had to be. Say Hey Willie had 1000 more reasons than me to be stoopit & ridiculous and maybe he was. but when the ball came off a pitcher's hand, an opponent's bat, he could pound stoopit, chase down ridiculous, run past the obscenely rigged game we are forced to play and be free. if he could, maybe i could.

i have done what i could to outrun the ordinary, help loved ones feel special, help strangers see the difference. but i can't know my eloquence. Willie Mays didn't. John Lennon didn't. i might actually be embarrassed by what eloquence another might have found in me. in my retirement, i have found forums to express and caused many to feel that i'm stoopit & ridiculous. i hope also to have helped many to see past the stoopit & ridiculous in themselves, possibly to have a greater desire not to be stoopit & ridiculous. but i don't know. we never know. we just do. with power, passion, purpose when we can. and joy.
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That's me and Earl Cambell.

Just run **** over yer ###!!!

 
Dr. Octopus said:
In another life I'd be waving my hippie freak flag, but instead I'm a corporate lawyer who sticks his head in the sand and pretends the world is full of "peace and love" only to pop out and see it's quite the opposite (especially the current climate).

This song is surely idealistic and over-simplified but just like movies and TV shows, music is a great escape and what's wrong with pretending we could all  live life like that and be happy to do so?

The same with "silly love songs" - what's wrong with that, I need to know..."
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Wait...

Another lawyer?!?!?!?

Christ!!!!

😁

 
Another thing... 

When wikkid was wondering on Flacco's junk, I recalled my name for him as a Balt Defense fantasy owner that lost points every time he threw an INT leading to the opposition scoring... 

Flaccid! 

 
BobbyLayne said:
My friend Aaron is talented multi instrumentalist  who usually has a regular gig in broadway pit orchestras (non-Covid times.) I’ve heard him answer more than once when a stranger asks “are you a musician” with “nope. I’m a drummer.”
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Reminds me of a John Kruk quote (paraphrasing) "Lady, I'm not an athlete, I'm a ballplayer" when a mother scolded him for smoking and saying as an athlete he should set a better example for the children

 
---INTERLUDE – Wings – Back To The Egg (1979)---

It’s been so long since I wrote an ---INTERLUDE---, I’m not sure I remember how these things go.  I talk about an album or something?

Back To The Egg was the final Wings studio album, and as I mentioned in my write-up for London Town, it featured a new lineup of musicians due to the sudden departures of Jimmy McCulloch and Joe English.  Though new additions Laurence Juber and Steve Holley were credible musicians, the band never gelled into that same Wings-ian magic of the earlier iterations, and soon Paul was off on his own playing around with McCartney II instead.

For the first time since George Martin produced “Live And Let Die,” Paul brought in an outside producer for this album, Chris Thomas, who had done some production work and played keyboards on certain of the White Album songs.  After this work with the Beatles and a drop-in playing Moog on All Things Must Pass, Thomas had moved on to work with, among others, Pink Floyd, Badfinger, and most notably the Sex Pistols.  The latter work is what attracted Paul to the collaboration, as Paul was seeking to expand into a more New Wave or Punk direction with some of his songs.  I’ll leave it to you to judge whether he was successful.

How did critics like the album, you ask?  Well, one called it “the sorriest grab bag of dreck in recent memory,” while another referred to Paul as being “on a treadmill of banality.”  There were some exceptions to the critical drubbing, but overall this was not well-received.  An exception would be the instrumental “Rockestra Theme,” featuring John Bonham, Pete Townshend, David Gilmour, John Paul Jones, and a host of other big names, which won the Grammy for Best Instrumental.  The public, on the other hand, was still on board, and the record reached #8 in the US and went Platinum.  Over time, however, fans seem generally to have forgotten this album, which is probably best for everyone.

One thing I think we can all agree on is that the cover art for this album is spectacular in the way only something truly awful can be.

Track listing:

  1. Reception
  2. Getting Closer
  3. We're Open Tonight
  4. Spin It On
  5. Again and Again and Again
  6. Old Siam, Sir
  7. Arrow Through Me
  8. Rockestra Theme
  9. To You
  10. After the Ball / Million Miles
  11. Winter Rose / Love Awake
  12. The Broadcast
  13. So Glad to See You Here
  14. Baby's Request
 
40.  Wings - Getting Closer (Back To The Egg, 1979)  Spotify  YouTube

(Paul #17)

My salamander!  Oh salamander, my salamander!

Paul wrote this one several years before Back To The Egg as a slower-tempo song, but brushed it off and updated it with a tougher uptempo sound for the album.  It was the only mildly successful single from the record, reaching #20 on the US charts.  You guys know I love power pop, and this is a top-shelf, bright and lively example of the genre.  New drummer Steve Holley holds it together with some energetic playing that complements Paul's driving bass and the aggressive guitars well.  The star of this show for me is Paul's vocal performance, particularly the shouty parts on the extended outro that forms my favorite part of the song.  This sounds very much like a Squeeze song, which is A-OK with me.  Elvis Costello has said this is one of his favorite works from Paul.  Paul?  Declan?  Could I make a suggestion?  Please perform this one together sometime!

 
That was (finally) the last ---INTERLUDE---, as it's the last album to have a song show up on the countdown.  No selections from Paul's 1986 album Press To Play?  Nope.  Morton sighs in relief.  Since I'm not selecting any of its songs, I'm not even going to ---INTERLUDE--- it.  Also because I am lazy.  If pressed hard to choose, I'd select "Stranglehold," "Footprints," and "Angry" as the best of a sorry lot.  That is not a suggestion that you should actually listen to any of these songs, however.

Instead please enjoy some OH comments on certain tracks (some were also already presented in the "suites and medleys" ---INTERLUDE---):

Talk More Talk

Growing up, you’d think quicksand would be a bigger part of your adult life, but I don’t think I’ve even seen quicksand in real life.  I disagree with Paul McCartney that we should talk more.  I think less talk is more important.

Press

That song was so long.  Did that not make the cut for a Kenny Loggins record?  Or the Karate Kid soundtrack?

Pretty Little Head

Why was he singing like that?  Why was he making fake-o new wave songs?  Like you’re a legit weirdo, man, you don’t have to affect weird.  Just do your thing.  You’re right, it was like Tears for The Human League.  So lame.  Impossibly lame.  Nobody remembers this record at all.  It’s the most forgettable piece of ####.  I say that having heard 60% of it.  I haven’t heard a musical instrument yet.  I bet all these guitars had no heads on them, they were just necks.  How do you tune those?  Or I bet there’s a lot of kee-tars.

Move Over Busker

I’ve moved over right when he asked.  It’s super-muddy sounding.  They spent all their time making guitars sound like robots, and robots sound like keyboards, and keyboards sound like outer space.  Instead of just putting mics on.  But Paul McCartney is the best musician on the planet and he clearly wanted to do this...this…almost music.

 
39.  Out The Blue (Mind Games, 1973)  Spotify  YouTube

(John #9)

Never let it be said that John couldn't write a ballad as well as Paul.  Errrrr, a half a ballad, at least, since this gentle acoustic love song turns first into a gospel number replete with pedal steel, bouncing piano, and a full choir, and then a more aggressive blues-inflected piece with more prominent piano and an edgier vocal.  I absolutely love every one of the twists and turns in this song as it builds, and throughout John's vocal remains steadily affecting, from the tenderest parts to the most powerful.  One minor quibble is a couple of lyrics that aren't to John's usual standard ("like a UFO you came to me"), but it's easy to ignore those in the context of such a stunning love song, John's best in my opinion.  

I like to pretend it's not about Yoko.  It's totally about Yoko.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
krista4 said:
I will be posting a Spotify playlist at the end.  I have a full 291+-song playlist that I'll complete, and I could also do individual playlist by Beatle if anyone wants them (I know the Ringo one will be in high demand).

At the moment I have the current playlist (minus the top 44) randomizing, and I think I like a lot of other songs more than "It Don't Come Easy."  :lol:   
Click to expand...
I forgot to comment on this.

Greeat! 👍

It will be very helpful to me in catching all the songs. Lately, I've been posting on my phone in various places, so I've not really be able to listen to all the songs. Sorry.

Did enjoy the most recent one ... even the UFO line, as it fits in well with the Paul album cover right above it.

Coincidence?

or

Synchronicity?  :tinfoilhat:

 
krista4 said:
39.  Out The Blue (Mind Games, 1973)  Spotify  YouTube

(John #9)

Never let it be said that John couldn't write a ballad as well as Paul.  Errrrr, a half a ballad, at least, since this gentle acoustic love song turns first into a gospel number replete with pedal steel, bouncing piano, and a full choir, and then a more aggressive blues-inflected piece with more prominent piano and an edgier vocal.  I absolutely love every one of the twists and turns in this song as it builds, and throughout John's vocal remains steadily affecting, from the tenderest parts to the most powerful.  One minor quibble is a couple of lyrics that aren't to John's usual standard ("like a UFO you came to me"), but it's easy to ignore those in the context of such a stunning love song, John's best in my opinion.  

I like to pretend it's not about Yoko.  It's totally about Yoko.
Click to expand...
Sweet song

 
Binky The Doormat said:
Rustoleum said:
wikkidpissah said:
isn't Colonel the most exalted possible status in the Bluegrass State? do we need to KY in front of it (insert "behind" joke here)?
Click to expand...
Anybody that can shoot the three is probably more exalted in KY. My 19 year old son is a Colonel.
Click to expand...
afros aren't required ...but it can "heighten" your status as a colonel.
Click to expand...
I don't remember why it came up, but a few months ago my stepmother told me she had saved my little Kentucky Colonels nightshirt that I wore every night when I was a tiny person, and she sent it to me.  I'd thought maybe I could wear it now as a t-shirt, but...I dunno.  Didn't realize how little I was; must have been around 5-7 years old when I wore this.  I haven't yet had the courage to try it on and see if I could do it.

 
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