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In this thread I rank my favorite Beatles songs: 204-1. (6 Viewers)

simey said:
That is awesome. It was fun picking out a metal lunch box before every school year. This isn't nearly as cool as your lunchbox, but a friend gave me this a few years ago. I stash my prescription pills in it. 
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whoa, that is pristine - that is your's?  And it's in that shape now?  

awesome.  I have never seen that one.  

 
Binky The Doormat said:
whoa, that is pristine - that is your's?  And it's in that shape now?  

awesome.  I have never seen that one.  
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It is mine. It wasn't made decades ago. I've had it for about 6 years, but you can buy them new.  I don't know where my friend got it, but places sell them online.  

 
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wikkidpissah said:
ETA: McCartney was into avant-garde because, in mid 60s London, they threw the best parties
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And he had the sense not to get married to someone he didn't even like much and move to Hampsteadburghshiredom or whatever.

Henry Ford said:
Kinda this.  If anyone asks what Beatles song to put on next, 9 is never the answer. But it’s from the days when albums were albums and not collections of songs... if I could remove it from the album I wouldn’t. 
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Good description from both you and wikkid.  It's one of the downsides to listening to these over and over in isolation instead of in context.

 
Leroy Hoard said:
https://img0.etsystatic.com/000/0/6023948/il_570xN.350149332.jpg

Beat that Beatle freaks.
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Weird that Sly and the Family Stone would have that white family on their lunchbox.

Henry Ford said:
@krista4 since this is the only thread you read now, 

THE MOOCH IS ON CELEBRITY BIG BROTHER 
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Oh my.  This is a tough one.  Despite my love for horrible reality TV - by the way, did you see that Temptation Island is coming back??? - I'm not sure if I can do that one, even for The Mooch.  

 
krista4 said:
Weird that Sly and the Family Stone would have that white family on their lunchbox.

Oh my.  This is a tough one.  Despite my love for horrible reality TV - by the way, did you see that Temptation Island is coming back??? - I'm not sure if I can do that one, even for The Mooch.  
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Oh, yes, saw that yesterday.  Recording. 

 
I'm going to post another selection.  My intention is to post as many as I can as quickly as my schedule and the discussion here allow, so even though I've only done one a day so far, I don't expect this will be a 204-day endeavor.  I sure hope not.  But I can't commit to a particular number per day.

The next one I post is going to be a cover, and I figured I should say something about how I ranked the covers.  Instead of ranking them solely on how much I enjoy them, as I did the original songs, I've tiered these based on how good they are as a cover and then within those tiers based on how much I enjoy the songs.  This bottom tier of covers consists of those that I think were worse than the originals, and I don't understand why the Beatles covered them if they were going to make them worse.  

 
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202.  A Taste of Honey

Beatles version

I've always disliked this song just as a Beatles recording (without reference to what it covers), but in this instance it almost makes me angry how much worse they made it.  I feel like they made it almost unrecognizable, which is not bad in and of itself.   I'd rather have someone do that than note-by-note mimicry (hello, Weezer's Africa!), but in this case I feel that they fell far short with their version, not only compared to the original, but also compared to other covers just before and after theirs. 

The original is an instrumental, slow-paced, and used as a recurring theme in a Broadway show:  original.  The instrumental by Acker Bilk was out before the Beatles recording and is a lovely, fully formed song.  The version I'm most familiar with, and didn't realize for a long time was the same as the Beatles song(!), is the Herb Alpert version, which came out slightly after theirs.  I think his upbeat, Latin-jazzy version is a lot of fun, and overall I prefer the instrumentals of this one.  Inserting the words in has always sounded a little "Bill Murray sings Star Wars" to me.  However, you can do a decent vocal version of this; you just need to be Billy Dee Williams.

When I listen to these various versions, I feel like (though don't know) the Beatles were trying to most closely resemble the Acker Bilk version, which is languid and haunting.  To me, though, their attempt at haunting comes out as jarring instead.  Maybe their vocals just hadn't developed enough at this point, but it sounds like kids trying to do what they think "serious grown-ups" think would sound nefarious and spooky.  It's really only the double-tracking that gives it any depth at all.  I don't think they were ready for the complexity of this song, and I think it fails.  This one is an insta-skip for me.

Mr. krista:  "Yeah I don't like it."  

 
krista4 said:
202.  A Taste of Honey

Beatles version

I've always disliked this song just as a Beatles recording (without reference to what it covers), but in this instance it almost makes me angry how much worse they made it.  I feel like they made it almost unrecognizable, which is not bad in and of itself.   I'd rather have someone do that than note-by-note mimicry (hello, Weezer's Africa!), but in this case I feel that they fell far short with their version, not only compared to the original, but also compared to other covers just before and after theirs. 

The original is an instrumental, slow-paced, and used as a recurring theme in a Broadway show:  original.  The instrumental by Acker Bilk was out before the Beatles recording and is a lovely, fully formed song.  The version I'm most familiar with, and didn't realize for a long time was the same as the Beatles song(!), is the Herb Alpert version, which came out slightly after theirs.  I think his upbeat, Latin-jazzy version is a lot of fun, and overall I prefer the instrumentals of this one.  Inserting the words in has always sounded a little "Bill Murray sings Star Wars" to me.  However, you can do a decent vocal version of this; you just need to be Billy Dee Williams.

When I listen to these various versions, I feel like (though don't know) the Beatles were trying to most closely resemble the Acker Bilk version, which is languid and haunting.  To me, though, their attempt at haunting comes out as jarring instead.  Maybe their vocals just hadn't developed enough at this point, but it sounds like kids trying to do what they think "serious grown-ups" think would sound nefarious and spooky.  It's really only the double-tracking that gives it any depth at all.  I don't think they were ready for the complexity of this song, and I think it fails.  This one is an insta-skip for me.

Mr. krista:  "Yeah I don't like it."  
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deliciously pathetic

ETA: da-dootin-doo!

 
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no way, it's long gone.  I can't remember if I kept that one for 1 or 2 years.  Getting a new lunchbox was a big part of the "back to school" shopping.  New set of clothes, school supplies ...lunchbox!! 

I see they are $500 and up on ebay.  

 
Neat Spotify Beatles hole I've gone down since A Taste Of Honey was nominated for 202. I remembered it, and had to hear it again to see if deserves the bottom of the oeuvre of The Beatles. Didn't mind the song, but there are probably 200 other Beatles songs I don't mind.

Oh, and I love Michelle, @AAABatteries. :pokey: . I have no idea why. I get the criticism of it. I just dig it.  

Listening to Rubber Soul right now. I didn't know Spotify had the rights to these albums. 

Brava! 

 
Loving this thread, Krista. Two small suggestions: 

1. Can you post each song in the OP after you’ve announced  it, so as the thread goes on we can look at all the picks made so far? 

2. As you make each pick, can you add it to the title of the thread? 

Tia and thanks again for doing this. 

 
krista4 said:
203.  Revolution 9

Beatles version

Feel like I'm going a bit chalky here with these first (or last) two, but rest assured that the full list will be aggravatingly un-chalky.  I really want to like this and am a more natural audience for it than most people, as I'm interested in sound collages and in musique concrète.  Wait, is this where we should start talking about Yoko?  Maybe I'll save more Yoko discussion for when we get to Ballad of John and Yoko or something else, but here's a preview:  I think Yoko is supremely talented.  There, I said it.  And I'm not sure I can name another song where her influence is so directly felt.  But in my opinion this just...doesn't work.  I like some of the sounds, but it's too much of a mishmosh of ideas.  Even this type of work needs a structure - or maybe better put, a logic - and cohesion, and this doesn't have it.  And good lord, it's too long.  At three minutes I might listen to it when it comes on, but at 8+, that's a big nope.

It's interesting to me that Paul was doing so much more work in the avant-garde realm at this time, and yet this composition by John was the one to make the album.  Maybe that's why Paul didn't want it on there.  I know he's said that he (Paul) didn't think his avant-garde work was worthy of their albums, and I doubt he thought John's was either.

Lennon thought he was painting a picture of revolution and spent more time on this song than any other, though I'm not sure if he was pleased with the result since he said later that he mistakenly painted a picture of anti-revolution.  I've read that there is a humor in the way it's constructed, and certainly John was known to have a fantastic sense of humor and has said the "number nine" part at the beginning is in there because he just found the way it was said hilarious.  Unfortunately Charles Manson heard a lot he liked in this composition and was inspired by it; I guess the "revolution" idea got through to someone.  So there are plenty of people - some of them presumably not mass murderers - who "understand" this work better than I do.  I'd be interested in hearing from someone who likes this one as to what you like about it.  I'm open to learning on this.  When it comes down to it, I'm glad they tried this, even though I don't like it.

Mr. krista's thoughts:  "My problem with this is that I think that sound collages and tape art…I’m very interested in that stuff.  Glenn Gould’s are some of the best things I’ve ever listened to.  And it’s clearly artful in the way they’ve done it, but they’re long, immersive, complicated things that need to be perfect in order to work well.  It can’t be a montage where you could take any part of it and replace it and it would be the same thing.  It still needs to function in the same way as music does. Stuck in the midst of a record like this with pop songs, it’s flung at you.  And it doesn’t draw you in.  If anyone is interested in this, then Steve Reich, or Glenn Gould’s The Idea of North are really good places to start, and you can then go back to this and see what Yoko was on about.  But it’s a lot less artful than the best of collage art.  I feel like my aesthetic is much more sympathetic to something like that, and yet I don’t like it."

Suggested cover version:  Alarm Will Sound  I thought this would be a hard one to find a cover of, but there are a shocking number of cover versions.  People be cray.  But holy hell, these people performed it live.  Though I still don't enjoy the song, this is worth a viewing just for the ballsiness of it.  Impressive.
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Probably the finest Beatles cover band I’ve seen (many times) called The Fab Faux did the entire White Album live last time I saw them in Ann Arbor. It was very cray cray and fantastic to see and hear live.

Look them up on YouTube. They are incredible. If they come to your town on tour go see them. You won’t be disappointed.

 
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timschochet said:
Loving this thread, Krista. Two small suggestions: 

1. Can you post each song in the OP after you’ve announced  it, so as the thread goes on we can look at all the picks made so far? 

2. As you make each pick, can you add it to the title of the thread? 

Tia and thanks again for doing this. 
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Krista, could you also change the title to the Beatles/lunchbox thread?

 
DaVinci said:
Krista, could you also change the title to the Beatles/lunchbox thread?
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I'm surprised that anyone can even remember theirs. I know I had one, and I'm sure it was pretty cool (Mom's a cool woman) but I have no idea what it was. 

Probably Sesame Street or the Muppets, as that is what I was into.  

But yeah, the lunchboxes have been totally bonus talk. They're awesome.   

 
I bought a new car a couple weeks ago that comes with three months of Sirius/XM, so it's been nothing but the Beatles channel during that time, so I can't wait to follow along with this list.  I couldn't believe it when I heard Revolution #9 come on a couple of days ago.  

 
timschochet said:
Loving this thread, Krista. Two small suggestions: 

1. Can you post each song in the OP after you’ve announced  it, so as the thread goes on we can look at all the picks made so far? 

2. As you make each pick, can you add it to the title of the thread? 

Tia and thanks again for doing this. 
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Will do.

BroncoFreak_2K3 said:
Probably the finest Beatles cover band I’ve seen (many times) called The Fab Faux did the entire White Album live last time I saw them in Ann Arbor. It was very cray cray and fantastic to see and hear live.

Look them up on YouTube. They are incredible. If they come to your town on tour go see them. You won’t be disappointed.
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Will do.

BobbyLayne said:
@krista4 I apologize if I missed this...

Could you edit one of the page one posts to include ranked songs?

  :link:
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Will do.

Shaft41 said:
I bought a new car a couple weeks ago that comes with three months of Sirius/XM, so it's been nothing but the Beatles channel during that time, so I can't wait to follow along with this list.  I couldn't believe it when I heard Revolution #9 come on a couple of days ago.  
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I heard this come on there yesterday and was shocked!

Peanuts and Muppets lunchboxes here, btw.

 
My gripe is that I dont have a spotify subscription so I have to play random songs to get to the one linked. Link youtube imo. But its your thread so really just do whatever you want

 
AcerFC said:
My gripe is that I dont have a spotify subscription so I have to play random songs to get to the one linked. Link youtube imo. But its your thread so really just do whatever you want
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It might be different now, but 12-18 months ago when I would try to find Beatles on Youtube, Paul's people(?) had done a great job of taking them down as soon as people put them up.  That's why I went with Spotify, though again maybe they're more lax now.  You can find them on Youtube if so?

Getzlaf15 said:
"Monday Morning Demands" is the title of my Krista Spotify list.
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:lmao:    We''re out of the honeymoon phase.

I've updated the first post to include the countdown list.  I also updated the second post to show at which spot each song was taken, so that you can see which ones remain to be ranked.

 
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Paul and John have had their turns at the bottom of the rankings; next up...George (Ringo will follow soon).

201.  Piggies

Beatles version

I expect some people will like this, and that's a-ok.  I hate everything about it:  the lyrics, the snorts, the harpsichord, the nasally vocal.  OK, maybe I don't hate the harpsichord - in fact, I quite like the way it's used in a non-standard fashion to give a little bluesy feel in the bridge.  And I don't hate the strings.  Maybe I could kind of like this as a baroque piece, but...the snorts.  I can't take the snorts, which by the way were John's doing.  Probably 30 spots higher without the snorts.  "Oh, but it's social commentary!"  Great.  That doesn't mean it gets away with being dreck.  

Fun fact:  George's mum came up with the line, "What they need is a damn good whacking."  I think I might've liked to hang with George's mom.  Not-so-fun fact:  this was another inspirational song for Charles Manson, who thought the "piggies" represented white people in the impending race wars - hence the "death to pigs" written at the scene of one (or more?) of the murders, as they hoped it would incite a race war.

Mr. krista:  "It’s dumb.  I could hear Ray Davies listening to that, and thinking 'WTF?  That’s what they did?  We are better – I knew it!  We’ve been better this whole time!'  That sounds like the Kinks ####### around on a Village Green outtake."

Suggested cover:  Phish  A nice jaunty harpsichord, and no snorts.

 
krista4 said:
Mr. krista:  "It’s dumb.  I could hear Ray Davies listening to that, and thinking 'WTF?  That’s what they did?  We are better – I knew it!  We’ve been better this whole time!'  That sounds like the Kinks ####### around on a Village Green outtake."
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They might have been...

 
krista4 said:
Paul and John have had their turns at the bottom of the rankings; next up...George (Ringo will follow soon).

201.  Piggies

Beatles version

I expect some people will like this, and that's a-ok.  I hate everything about it:  the lyrics, the snorts, the harpsichord, the nasally vocal.  OK, maybe I don't hate the harpsichord - in fact, I quite like the way it's used in a non-standard fashion to give a little bluesy feel in the bridge.  And I don't hate the strings.  Maybe I could kind of like this as a baroque piece, but...the snorts.  I can't take the snorts, which by the way were John's doing.  Probably 30 spots higher without the snorts.  "Oh, but it's social commentary!"  Great.  That doesn't mean it gets away with being dreck.  

Fun fact:  George's mum came up with the line, "What they need is a damn good whacking."  I think I might've liked to hang with George's mom.  Not-so-fun fact:  this was another inspirational song for Charles Manson, who thought the "piggies" represented white people in the impending race wars - hence the "death to pigs" written at the scene of one (or more?) of the murders, as they hoped it would incite a race war.

Mr. krista:  "It’s dumb.  I could hear Ray Davies listening to that, and thinking 'WTF?  That’s what they did?  We are better – I knew it!  We’ve been better this whole time!'  That sounds like the Kinks ####### around on a Village Green outtake."

Suggested cover:  Phish  A nice jaunty harpsichord, and no snorts.
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I've always been blessed with the utter inability to take anything completely seriously for extended periods of time. If the late 60s had a curse, it's that the amazingly great & awful things happening rendered humor either too silly or profound.

It's hard calling someone a "pig", necessary though it was at the time. The trick of both neutering the term by juvenilizing it and heightening the wallow aspects over the political was great jokewriting and i heard it also as a subtle dig at the number of music hall singalongs Paul put on this record. Though yours is a valid placement (the concept remains strong in this one), i'd have to rate this higher than at least all the clangclang early-career album filler.

 
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Gr00vus said:
@krista4 - you'll signal us at the point you actually like the songs you're posting, right?
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I feel like when you’re ranking something in the bottom 1-2%, you’ll need to have some criticisms of it.  We’re still in the realm of “songs I turn off when they come on,” but we’ll be out of that fairly soon.

@wikkidpissah, loved your perspective on this one.  It’s of its time in a way that’s more interesting to me based on your comments.

 
AcerFC said:
My gripe is that I dont have a spotify subscription so I have to play random songs to get to the one linked. Link youtube imo. But its your thread so really just do whatever you want
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I have to admit YouTube is my go to since its the easiest and I often find the comments section and sometimes awful videos very amusing. 

 
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