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

I would have a tough time picking a worst song on this album let alone a bad song. If you remove one song the whole album falls apart, like a game of Jenga! But if I am forced to choose, Good Morning Good Morning because of the rooster sound.

I like GMGM in context: Lennon bored out of his mind in suburbia doing massive amounts of acid by himself.

It kind of sets up A Day in the Life, too.

I don't get the hatred against "Mr. Kite". I see it as one of the highlights of this album, crowded with strange and weird noises and just the perfect Music Hall/Vaudeville feel that really fits so well into the entire album concept. One of the best Lennon songs ever.

Lovely Rita is one of the best songs in here. Anyone voting Lovely Rita gets a SB from me and I never give SB.

― Moka, Thursday, September 24, 2009 10:12 PM (Yesterday)

These threads bring out the worst in people!

She's Leaving Home is boring. Admit it.

She's Leaving Home makes me cry.

Not sure that I agree with George Martin. "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" stand apart from the Sgt Pepper concept, being site-specific and personally autobiographical

From what I understand this is because the album was going to be based on their childhoods of growing up in Liverpool, and "When I'm 64" was brought out before "Penny Lane" was even finished because it was a tune they used to do when they were first starting out. Whether they could have kept up this theme over the length of an album (especially in the midst of ego-destroying drug binges) is another matter, but had the single tracks ended up on the album, perhaps a number of the character songs ("Lucy", "Mr. Kite", "Rita") would have been left off. Possibly more introspective songs would have taken their places.

kinda :( that anyone would hate on the title track or the reprise. the drums and guitars, so damn hot

"when i'm sixty four" is the worse for me; should have left it w/the rest of the rejects, paul!

She's Leaving Home makes me cry.

― VegemiteGrrrl, Friday, September 25, 2009

If you've ever had a sibling run away even briefly, and this was something that was like epidemic in the 1960s into the 1970s, it is indeed sad

Fixing A Hole.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekRrnlP4pYE

xxpost....or if you've moved continents :(

although I know they were at one point intended to be on the record, in no way do I think penny lane or strawberry fields fit in with the rest of the album, and don't belong there.

Is there a thread somewhere on "how would you sequence Sgt. Pepper with PL/SF added and two songs subtracted?" I think I'll be playing around with that this weekend while riding the train...

Switch SFF in for LSD, and PL in for 64; sorted.

Yeah, but really, they'd have written a whole bunch of themed songs instead, and possibly made the least interesting album of their career!

Sixty Four, easily. It's just too silly for me, I can't listen to it anymore (and this is a rarity when it comes to The Beatles). Either SFF or Penny Lane would be great substitutions, but I'm perfectly okay with Rita kicking in after Within You Without you. Which is how I'm listening to the album already.

If you're going to pick a McCartney offense I think Lovely Rita is by far and away more offensive than When I'm 64. 64 is one of my favorite songs ever and while Rita actually doesn't bother me it's got too much OTT 'LOOK AT ME I'M SILLY' McCartney energy, particularly in the way he sings the line "Give us a wink and make me think of yoooouu". OTOH the ending freakout of that song is very strange and really kind of makes up for the rest of it.

Yeah, but really, they'd have written a whole bunch of themed songs instead, and possibly made the least interesting album of their career!

― Mark G, Friday, September 25, 2009 3:01 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

I get the feeling that "A Day in the Life" was a bit of a continuation of this though, which is perhaps the most interesting song they've ever recorded.

Brilliant album. This and MMT are the pinnacle IMO. Thought 64 but then ran that song through my head and no longer want to. Actually, of course! Getting Better. Still a good song, but my reasoning is much the same as EZ Snappin's. It's the least brilliant thing here IMO.

@Adam, I like Rita way better because of the lush arrangement, the 'aaahss', and the ~ admitted, silly but also charming ~ piano interlude. So much going on in that song sonically.

Why is 64 one of your favorite songs ever?

The stabbing and clear guitar on Getting Better alone will always make me a stan of that song

64 is pleasant enough but it represents the side of the Beatles that I find the least interesting of all. Even the singalong children's songs they did have more interesting things going on in them than Paul's 30s pastiches.

Some people needs to get away from this idea that music is about rebellion. I find trying to link together different generations' musical taste a good thing rather than a bad one. One of the best things about Paul McCartney is his ability to seek out music by older generations, and it is also part of his personality and background because he was the only Beatles who grew up in a family where the parents were heavily into music too (adding a touch of Music Hall and Vaudeville to the 50s rock'n'roll that otherwise dominated what the others were into).

He is more interesting when he manages to combine his Music Hall influence with more modern pop elements though, like in "Penny Lane", "Fixing a Hole" and "Your Mother Should Know". Those are better song than his plain 30s pastiches are.

Some people need to get away from the idea that it's OK to say things in sweepingly objectivist terms.

This thread is actually giving me a lot more insights into the workings of Geir's tastes and their formation than it is about the work of the Beatles.

Interesting, even if not what I clicked the thread for.

I kind of agree with Geir's second paragraph there. Not the first though.

Yeah. The music hall influence is obv. integral to the Beatles (and the English psychedelic sound in general). But the straight pastiches are a bit pointless.

I like 64 cos it's really sweet - its a silly song you can sing to a girl you are trying to woo - and also with the most stripped-down arrangement on Sgt. Pepper it comes across as the most subtle thing on the album. I like how they sneaked in the "We shall scrimp and save" and "wasting away" lines they're silly and really kind of bitter but don't bring down the joy of the song very much.

That's nicely said Adam. I'll try to listen to it later on with those words in mind. Though I think I'd never sing it to a girl I want to woo :-)

hah yeah i guess not i just re-read the lyrics!

It's OK if you are 63.

Some people needs to get away from this idea that music is about rebellion

Not all music is about rebellion, but some of it is, and some of that rebellion-centric music is very, very good.

Not that this has anything to do with the discussion at hand, I just wanted to disagree with you.

I think Paul's crime wouldn't be that he's 'not about rebellion' but that he's often TRYING SO HARD to be pleasing/entertaining and that sometimes grates on the people he is trying to entertain. Not all music is about pleasing/entertaining an audience.

As a general principle, though, it's the best there is.

There's a fine line between "pleasing" and "pandering"; the big disagreement here is over where that line is drawn.

Lucy because I'm sick of it, the end.

AA :(

lol when we do this for XTC we will be best buddies again tho :)

[video]

― Adam Bruneau, Friday, September 25, 2009 3:52 AM (9 hours ago)

Ms. Pac Man's Leaving Home...pathetic!

To me, the pastiche quality and retro song forms are a big part of what this album is about. It's really a kind of intergenerational dialogue as well as a look at quotidian life from a psychedelic perspective. Unlike a lot of music of the time which had a kind of Us vs. Them mentality, Paul McCartney finds a way to speak to the older generation in an accepting tone, while throwing in this subtle critique of them as well.

This is where the universal appeal of the album comes from: on the one hand it has lots of nice songs that invite in the non-hip rather than antagonize and alienate them, but if you do happen to see yourself as "cool", you can listen to Sgt. Pepper with the sense that you really know what it's about.

So on 64, you get this sweet song with lots of sentimental qualities, but at the same time you can aprehend the large degree of irony that goes into a line like "We shall scrimp and save" as sung by one of the most successful pop stars of all time.

Likewise, Lovely Rita can be seen as this cute song about a fling in swinging London or it could be taken as a sort of deflating of authority figures as personified by the meter maid who represents power manifested at its most trivial level.

She's Leaving Home is maybe the apex of this strategy as it truly portrays both sides of tthe story in a very sympathetic manner. We experience the grief of the parents at losing their daughter, but much of their inner thoughts and rationalizations come across as extremely selfish. Likewise, we can congratulate the girl for gaining her freedom, but she has selfish motivations too: she just wants to have "fun". The divide between parents and child neatly encapsulates the kind of issues that were building up at the time, but it doesn't give either side an easy answer.

By the way, is that a bong-hit in the Rita coda?

XP- Martin, according to his book about the album, regrets not using Strawberry Fields OR Penny Lane as an A-side and Sixty-Four as the B-side as opposed to releasing a double A-side, which he believed split the vote and ended the Beatles' streak of #1's.

I like most of these songs and agree that it's mostly McCartney's album, with Lennon becoming more and more disinterested. I mean, John's lyrics on Good Morning basically sum up where he's at. And though the best song is A Day in the Life, I feel its mind-blowing production is mainly due to Macca and Martin.

To me Revolver is superior as are a number of their other albums but it's still a fine Beatles' record with perhaps their crowning achievement on it. I mean, I wonder what Davies or Townshend or Wood or McGuinn and Crosby thought when they first heard Day in the Life. To me, it seems so advanced and beyond what most of the competition could even imagine. I don't know, maybe I'm being hyperbolic...

Anyway, I'm voting for George's tuneless, meandering dirge as the worst and as stated above, it really does make five minutes feel like ten or twenty...

I don't even think of these guys as the competition any more (Wood?) - if there's one thing the whole remasters hype has nailed, it's in making the Beatles seem totally sui generis

Like Revolver, I love this one unresevedly and decline to vote. Only had time to skim Skic's major post but can tell it's a good'un; look forward to reading it (and the thread) in full later.

the real competition was Brian Wilson, gimme a fucking break

I disagree about A Day in the Life. The production could have been left off entirely and it still would have been the best track. It has you right from the way John sings the first line. Actually when you think about it ADITL and the early SFF demos kind of sound the safe. Acoustic, introspective, with similar chords and all..

by production i mean orchestra. That's a damn fine backing track performance. Mystical, even.

POLL RESULTS

When I'm Sixty-Four
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
Good Morning Good Morning
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Within You Without You
Fixing a Hole
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
With a Little Help from My Friends
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Lovely Rita
She's Leaving Home
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
Getting Better
A Day in the Life

"I wonder what Davies or Townshend or Wood or McGuinn and Crosby thought when they first heard Day in the Life. To me, it seems so advanced and beyond what most of the competition could even imagine."

Consider these:

"Waterloo Sunset" is a song released as a single by The Kinks in 1967, and featured on their album Something Else by the Kinks. [released in May 1967, before Pepper]

"A Quick One, While He's Away" is a 1966 medley written by Pete Townshend and recorded by The Who for their album A Quick One.

"Eight Miles High" is a song written by Gene Clark, Jim McGuinn, and David Crosby, first released as a single in March 1966 by the rock band The Byrds.

Regarding Roy Wood (I take it he's the Wood you're thinking of): I agree that "Night of Fear" and "I Can Hear the Grass Grow" don't compare especially well.