Worst Beatles song on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

I remember lying on the floor looking at the gatefold and fooling around with the cut-out inserts when I was six or seven. By then I already knew about the Beatles from their Saturday morning cartoon. My 1967 vote for worst song would have been "Mr. Kite," which kind of creeped me out. My favorites were probably "Lucy" and "Getting Better."

http://eil.com/Gallery/159484b.jpg

man, I guess I need to seek out the mono version of Pepper.

re: GM, GM - I dig Lennon's stark early take here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gqv6qkANXG4

the sparse recording reinforces the suburban hellishness of the song imho

fwiw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoBR_SxXoTU

Everybody else sees the background pulsating in that cover, right?

Right?

I can't believe 20 people voted for "Within You Without You". fuck all 20 of you. just kidding peace and love xoxo Ringo

"When I'm Sixty Four" is definitely the rightful winner here but I admit it's kinda cute that the generation that grew up with the Beatles now keeps quoting it. so maybe I'll say "Fixing a Hole", which I'd say is totally the "oh I forgot about that one" on here

also can I say the way the reprise was sampled on Paul's Boutique is so fucking brilliant. anyway, that's all I have to say about Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Heard Lovely Rita on the radio the other day and it sounded terrible: plodding, repetitive. Had to turn it off.

Every song has at least one goosebump moment, like the intro to Lucy, or “where it will go…” from Fixing a Hole, or the drums in the reprise, or Paul’s section in Day on the Life… but apart from Day I never want to listen to the songs all the way through, let alone the whole record. It’s just a bit.. boring?

Arguably White Album is full of songs that are just as indulgent and lacking in swing, but they just *work* in some ineffable way that these songs don’t.

I’ve only listened to the super deluxe version on Spotify but it seems like a lot of the goosebumpy reverb is missing?

As with most people, "When I'm Sixty-Four." It's clever, mostly in the pejorative sense of that word.

I probably part company with most people, though, in counting "Fixing a Hole" and "Mr. Kite" as my other two least favourite. Everything else I'm good with (although tired of "Lucy").

I was wrong about the Harrisong.

A while ago I was walking past a bus stop and a man hanging out there said, "Hey, what's your favorite Beatles song?" and I said the first thing that popped into my head, which was "With a Little Help from My Friends." Sort of surprised myself with that one.

i think richard goldstein was on to something when he suggested there's only one real beatles song on this album -- the last one. all the pastiche that leads up to it is just bookended prelude. i mean, that's sort of obvious but also obscured by time. but it's so audacious it makes all of it work better for me somehow.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/arts/music/archives-beatles-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-review.html

I know that Joe Cocker's "With a Little Help" cover is impressive, but for me it misses what's truly great about the song: its mix of friendliness and plaintivness, which needs Ringo's small Ringo voice.

I just hate Joe Cocker and think the original is about a million times better in every conceivable way

The only problem with Within You Without You is that it's an inferior sequel to Love You To.

Still, my shocking challops here is that all the songs on Sgt Pepper are good songs.

Joe Cocker's version is OK only in the correct context, as theme song to The Wonder Years, it is entirely unacceptable out of that context.

xp

This is true, plus there's a singlemindedness of purpose on Sgt. Pepper that WYWY kind of disrupts. Revolver is much more eclectic and Love You To works well in that context.

That NYT review is pretty brilliant, I find it hard to argue with (except that WYWY is at least in part satire, and I think many of the songs are arch rather than earnest).

and now that I think about it, the anecdotes usually received with solemn amazement that Lennon cribbed his lyrics from a kid’s drawing, the Radio Times and an old poster are pretty frank admissions that he was phoning it in.

“Love You To” is spiky; “Within You, Without You” is cinematic. Different approaches.

lol c@al

pepper has been probably my favorite beatles album for a couple of years now, i used to kinda hate it for basically the same reasons i love it now. it's like 'Beatles: The Musical', it's emotionally manipulative and corny.

it has the richly saturated color pallette that none of their other records have, too. in that regard the difference between pepper and the other toy shops & lollipops psych records of the time is like the difference between disney and walter lantz.

if anything i'm more partial to Oldies Station Beatles these days

when they all sing “do you believe in a love at first sight” in “walhfmf” i levitate a little, so wonderful

how did A Day in the Life get any votes here, let alone more than the title track reprise?

dogs voting

I vividly remember "Fixing a Hole" explaining psychedelic experience to me when I first heard it, aged about 8 or 9.

Note that the hole stops his mind from wandering, rather than allowing it to roam further.

It’s curious to me how little Fixing a Hole gets mentioned – by myself includesd. It’s not a showy song but it’s absolutely one of my favourites on the album, and one of McCartney’s best lyrics, unusually personal, particularly for the period. I’m out without my headphones and now I’m eager to get home and play it.

Note that the hole *stops* his mind from wandering, rather than allowing it to roam further.

He's obsessed with this hole, so fixing it will free him from his obsession and allow his mind to drift off elsewhere.

"Fixing a hole where the rain gets in" vs. "Rain, I don't mind."

It's the rain that stops his mind from wandering.

Raining on him through the hole, evidently.

it really doesn't matter if you're wrong you're right

"good morning good morning" has a great bridge but the rest of it is mostly irritating imo

well, John hated it too.

ha well john usually had the worst beatles opinions of anyone, but a broke clock etc.

IIRC, Lennon wrote it in annoyance after hearing a cereal commercial. It's supposed to be irritating.

That said, there are no bad songs on this album, Beatles or otherwise.

yes, it is successfully irritating but again, the bridge is good, and the solo is freaky enough.

xps Yeah "Fixing A Hole" definitely feels underrated. I love the harpsichord, and the vocal melody and performance feels like the most soulful thing on the album to me.

My least favorite track is easily "Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite" because I have a personal aversion to circus music.

the chords are very cool in that one, tho

My brain tut-tuts their "read shit off of things" like Mr. Kite or Savoy Truffle.

But gotta admit, those are some of my favorites.

yeah, I can't think of any songs I dislike, but the album has a few that I never want to hear again ("With a Little Help...," "When I'm 64") and others in which I've no interest ("Fixing a Hole," "Mr. Kite," "She's Leaving Home").

As someone who grew up on the Muppets (and whose wife loves Coronation Street), I have to defend "When I'm 64."

Even though Lennon and Ringo admitted that they gave up on the narrative concept after two songs, aurally the entire album feels conceptually bound together. Except for a few songs, I rarely listen to any of these on their own - they all seem to benefit immensely when heard together as an album.

I know it became fashionable to knock Pepper - not without good reason thanks to Rolling Stone constantly hyping it as some insurmountable achievement in pop culture - but I always thought it was a great album regardless.

Listened to it last night (1986 Capitol Vinyl), great album indeed.

The narrative aspect is a bit of a red herring, but I think the songs are of a piece thematically. The are all songs about different aspects of day-to-day British life seen through the same winking mod/hippie lens.

I know it became fashionable to knock Pepper - not without good reason

For instance having Lovely Rita, Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite, Good Morning Good Morning and When I'm 64 on it.