Favourite Beatles Song Megathread

[Damon 10]

'Across The Universe' anyone?

 

That song never really registered with me, then I heard it on the Liverpool Nativity that was on telly before Christmas. What a beauty. In fact I'm getting a lump in my throat just thinking about it.

[not wanted 10]

Help.

Ticket to Ride

Tomorrow never knows

Norwegian Wood

And your Bird Can Sing

[drinkingman 10]

All You Need Is Love

Help!

Get Back

In My Life

Hey Bulldog

 

That's what I think this morning, it'll all change tomorrow.

 

BTW, Does anyone else agree that the "Love" album is an amazing way to revisit the fab four?

[JenC 10]

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Something

A Day in the Life

Fool on the Hill

Here Comes the Sun

 

No particular order apart from While my Guitar Gently Weeps - that'd definitly be at the top. Not sure if Fool on the Hill should be on the list but there were too many that could have gone there, I just chose one.

[beckelina 10]

I've Just Seen a Face (Falling)

I Will

Norwegian Wood

Something

Long and Winding Road.

 

I think, anyway.

[Ousetunes 10]

1 - She Loves You

 

For sheer excitement and the 'yeah yeah yeahs' of (the true beginning of) Beatlemania. Written on the back of a bus ticket whilst on tour (supporting Helen Shapiro, can you imagine that?), She Loves You contains all the ingredients of a true 50/50 Lennon/McCartney collaboration. Ringo's Gene Krupa toms, George's Gretsch guitar & the vocal performance make this one power-house performance. Lennon's vocal, mainly in unison with McCartney's really gets the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. And it was George Martin's suggestion that it begin with the chorus. It wouldn't have worked without it!

 

2 - The Long And Winding Road

 

McCartney could be one soppy fella, but he also knew that the Beatles' days were numbered. Whilst shooting (what was initially The Beatles') Get Back (sessions) he recorded this, on piano with Ringo on drums. John added one of the most technically flawed basslines in recorded history (missed notes, unfinished glissandos, bum-notes) but it was at this point, only a demo. However, it captured McCartney's solemn had-enough-of-it-all mood perfectly and his vocal is beautiful. The song in its naked form is almost painful.

 

The melody is, in my opinion, the finest Sir Paul ever wrote (and to consider he was only 27). After the release of Abbey Road, it was Phil Spector who had the task of making the Get Back tapes - now rechristened Let It Be - into something. He added strings to The Long and Winding Road and a choir and this was when McCartney finally snapped. The fact is, that TLAWR always appears in McCartney tours and demo recording aside, the melody and haunting vocal leaves one amazed that McCartney could bring this to the table when John was writing stuff like Dig A Pony.

 

3 - The Inner Light

 

George's contribution to the Beatles will always be overlooked. His influence to western music and its borrowing from eastern music is even more undervalued. We had the sitar on Norwegian Wood and the next minute every other group wanted one on their records. But George's interest wasn't a passing one and in The Inner Light, (b-side to Lady Madonna) one begins to see why.

 

Written in one key (or pedal-tone) and probably written on a harmonium, The Inner Light features George's voice at its purest. The tabla in the background gives the song a further ethnic feel (as it should, the backing was recorded in EMI's Bombay studio whilst working on the soundtrack to the film Wonderwall) and one can almost smell the joss-stick burning in the background. It is based on a section of Lao-Tse's Taoist holy book, the Tao Te Ching (a section of which itself appeared in I Ching [Lamps of Fire] a copy of which Harrison had received off Cambridge Sanskrit scholar Juan Mascaro): 'Without going out of your door, you can know the ways of heaven..the farther one travels, the less one know'.

 

It seems to capture George at the time just prior to the real falling apart of the Beatles. George seems to have found peace (and if not here, he certainly found God on Long, Long, Long). It was also his last foray into Indian music on a Beatles record. Paul and John sing one line at the very end of the song (Do all without doing), the only other Beatle contribution to the song.

 

4 And Your Bird Can Sing

 

Revolver found the Beatles at their collective height. It would be the last time the Beatles performed THIS GOOD as a group, together. Lennon's And Your Bird Can Sing finds all four musicians pulling the SAME direction and playing to their strengths. The dual-riffing guitars has always been an area of great contention. It could be Paul and George, Paul and John or George and John (it is not one guitarist as it is too tricky to be played by one guitarist. It could be double-tracked but there are differences in the tones and styles of playing. I reckon McCartney to be in there somewhere).

 

The song began with George playing his Rickenbacker 12-string, probably the first time in a while he had picked the instrument up (although it did make appearances on tour in which he used it on his own If I Needed Someone). I have a strange theory as to the genesis of this song and believe it began life as a demo/jam with George playing his Ricky 12 mimicking the Byrds' Roger McGuinn. Thus, it might have been And Your Byrd Can Sing? (Listen to the version on Anthology 2.) But I digress. The song has a swagger about it and is again, influenced by eastern sounds (it's another pedal-tone offering written mainly in one key. Paul did the same with Got To Get You Into My Life, also on Revolver. Both songs are in E major and pretty much stay there). We've got those guitars, Paul's driving bass and Ringo's tight drumming. Lennon's vocal, with Paul's harmony makes AYBCS a magnificent track. This (Revolver) is where Oasis were constantly heading, but it's a place where no other group has reached.

 

5 For No-One

 

Haunting, disturbing and yet, beautiful. McCartney's For No-One (also off Revolver) is another piece of magnificent song-writing. It is sparse and it feels cold. It's a song which never settles and which has no final ending. Further, that the chord at the end has the effect of a question mark as if to ask: What next?. Lambasted at times for his poor lyrics, the subject matter in For No-One is McCartney's finest lyrical contribution to the Beatles output. This is Eleanor Rigby, only better (though just as bleak). It's grey but there's a ray of sunlight coming in through dusty windows.

 

Even the instrumental break is bleak. Alan Civil contributed horn to the piece but it only emphasises the loneliness of the whole scene.

'And in her eyes you see nothing, no sign of love behind the tears cried for no-one'. And the song's not even two minutes long!

[Damon 10]

Was waiting for your essay Ousetunes. Nice one mister!

[Tarquin 10]

Always good to see Ousetunes opinion of the Fab four:thumbsup:

[Ousetunes 10]

Thanks guys.

 

I could talk for hours!

 

Incidentally, Revolution In The Head is an absolute must for anybody interested in the music of the Beatles. Read this, and The Beatles At Abbey Road (George Martin) and you'll never hear the Beatles in the same way again.

 

A question: On which Beatles single can you hear the swear word "f*in hell" perfectly audible?

[Tarquin 10]

Thanks guys.

 

I could talk for hours!

 

Incidentally, Revolution In The Head is an absolute must for anybody interested in the music of the Beatles. Read this, and The Beatles At Abbey Road (George Martin) and you'll never hear the Beatles in the same way again.

 

A question: On which Beatles' single can you hear the swear word "f*in hell" perfectly audible?

 

 

Will have to have a read of those books,Cheers.

[not wanted 10]

I have trouble keeping it at 5 but just for shear pleasure and The Beatles at the very top of their form Revolver is by far and away their best album

[JenC 10]

Thanks guys.

 

I could talk for hours!

 

Incidentally, Revolution In The Head is an absolute must for anybody interested in the music of the Beatles. Read this, and The Beatles At Abbey Road (George Martin) and you'll never hear the Beatles in the same way again.

 

A question: On which Beatles single can you hear the swear word "f*in hell" perfectly audible?

 

Hey Jude right?