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

I got fed up of waiting.

(Apologies to abanana.)

So many to choose from

You not keen on this album then, Tom? I didn't use to be.

Up until the Love compilation I'd have said Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite, but ever since then I've liked that track a lot more (now it sounds like an actual psychedelic funfair carnival circus, as opposed to like a psychedelic funfair carnival circus 100 miles away and encased in ice).

I'm tempted to go for When I'm 64 through televisual theme over-exposure and it's slightly too jokey/hokey-Paul continuation of the loneliness themes established in Eleanor Rigby and For No One.

People voting for George are getting SB'd fast.

George Martin says leaving Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever off this was the worst decision of his career with The Beatles, pretty much. Anyone agree?

I don't remember why anymore but whatever MacDonald said about "Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite" got me to like it.

I can't vote for anything save "Within You Without You", sb away if you must. My admiration for it has gone up with the remasters, especially on the mono version where the laughing is higher in the mix. What did George think about the laughing?

Fixing A Hole.

Lovely Rita.

There are no bad songs on this glorious album, but "Good Morning, Good Morning" is the least good, so it gets my vote.

xp: u mad

Hongro's getting an SB for that too.

So's Iago. The coda of Rita might be the best thing on the album.

George Martin says leaving Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever off this was the worst decision of his career with The Beatles, pretty much. Anyone agree?

Leaving "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "This Boy", "She Loves You", "I'll Get You", "From Me To You" and "Thank You Girl" off "With The Beatles" (and replacing them with pointless cover versions that should never have been recorded) was much worse.

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: Paul on one side of the single and John on the other, so almost literally two sides of the same coin. So the concept of the single is perfect as it stands, and shoving the same tracks onto the album would only have diluted it.

I mean, at least the two forementioned songs would appear on "Magical Mystery Tour" in the US instead, and ultimately be included on the worldwide CD version 20 years later. Along with three other great non-EP tracks.

She's leaving home. the arrangement is horrible.

How good would Past masters 2 be if SFF and PL were on that?

I'm voting "Good Morning Good Morning", which I've always found difficult to love. It's the track where my attention is most likely to wander.

XXP Nothing wrong with a pre-rock era arrangement IMO although I am sure they could have done other interesting things with it too. Anyway, "She's Leaving Home" is a beautiful song and far from the worst here.

She's leaving home. the arrangement is horrible.

You mean the arrangement whereby the girl leaves home and runs off with a second hand car dealer?

I've never been terribly keen on Paul's pastiches of 20s and 30s songs, and he did a lot of them. When I'm 64 is irritating and gets my vote.

How good would Past masters 2 be if SFF and PL were on that?

Well, in that case, it would also have contained "All You Need Is Love", "Baby You're a Rich Man", "Hello Goodbye" and every single "Magical Mystery Tour" EP track. Which would have made it too long.

Oh good grief Geir.

What did George think about the laughing?

It was George's idea. (Harrison, that is)

.. after all the serious music, to lighten the mood.

Ah, right then. It's a beautiful touch that improves the song immensely.

George's track, once again, went up in appreciation over the years.

The Sonic Youth cover on "Knew my father" is fine. (Most of the rest are pointless)

There are no bad songs on this glorious album, but "Good Morning, Good Morning" is the least good, so it gets my vote.

Agree w/the first part, disagree w/the second. "Good Morning, Good Morning" has always been a favorite of mine. I know YOU won't agree, but listening to the mono remaster has really revealed some new things in all of these songs for me.

Anyway, of all the songs, the one that's always come closest to "meh" for me is "Mr. Kite" so . . .

I love Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father, esp. Frank Sidebottom's "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite" and, right, Sonic Youth's "Within You Without You."

this is my least favourite of the later period albums (bar let it be of course) - a revolver mkII, dressed up as a concept album (which it isn't - hardly any lyrical or musical themes going on here, unlike rubber soul as i soliloquised ont hat thread) - more bells and whistles and less good songs than its predecessor. i much prefer the recent easy star allstars version of the album where they actually manage to make good use of stuff like "within you without you", turning it from a tuneless mess into an awesome dub epic.

That said I can't really fault "Benefit" (FUN!), "Day In The Life" (Awesome!), "She's Leaving Home" (it's interesting lyric wise anyway), "64" (sang it at school, can't hate it), "Fixing A Hole", "Getting Better" - but the rest is either edging very close to the MOR ("A Little Help", although I think some of the wordplay is quite nice), useless psych-lite gumph ("LSD"), or retreads of things they did better on Revolver ("Dr Robert" wasn't very good, so why do another awkwardly plodsome character-song on "Lovely Rita"? And for that matter "Good Day Sunshine" and "Good Morning Good Morning" are both shite).

I think I'm going to vote for "Good Morning Good Morning", it's totally useless!

You're an idiot.

:-(

Also even though I can't blame the Beatles for it, "Mr. Kite" resulted in this awfulness:

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

Lovely Rita is is not a plodding character sketch - it's a joyous celebration of picking up women in uniform and getting high with them!

I voted Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, which I'm sure some people will think is a challop as well. I like the chorus and the verses, but I think that the shift from one to the other is very sudden and awkward. Additional reasons include feeling a little gyped by this song when I finally did drop acid.

These polls are just a steady reminder of how much I HATE Paul McCartney's songwriting/voice/etc. I had all these albums on tape with the Macca songs removed so I've actually forgotten how some of them go.

"Good Morning Good Morning" = don't know how this one goes, though that's a plus point when up against the likes of "When I'm 64"

GOOD MORNING GOOD MORNING GOOD MORNING = isn't that the one that goes I'VE GOT NOTHING TO SAY BUT IT'S OK and so on? Which is actually SCARY AS HELL when you've been actually tripping to the rest of the album.

Oh, the one with no tune? Other than the usual George Harrison one with no tune?

Though I think Getting Better is the one that really inspires my ire. (Except for that telling burst of sarcasm "can't get no worse")

This'll be easy – so many duds. "Within You, Without You," "When I'm Sixty-Four," "Fixing a Hole." I went with "Sixty-Four" because, for all its supposed charm and polish, it makes me want to eat babies.

The middle section of WYWY, when the sitar and strings accelerate against each other and the tabla really starts going for it too; fucking awesome.

I don't hear how this album is Revolver MKII AT ALL, Charlie; in terms of both texture and mood, this is vastly different.

OK I want to hate this record; I should hate it given its rote (and pernicious) position as the greatest this, that, or the other (not to mention its influence on decades of crappy self-expression). But life is rarely so neat and as it turns out, I adore the shit out of the thing (just like Citizen Kane, groan). What can I do? Every track gives me goosebumps and/or chokes me up even my pick for the worst song, "When I'm Sixty-Four" (never noticed Paul rolling his r's at the end of "your" in "grandchildren on your knee" - so cute!). And while I'll continue to pick on Paul, my absolute fave is "She's Leaving Home" which I now hear as one of the last glimpses of a Paul/John utopia.

Yeah, that's a very Scottish pronunciation of "on your knee"; I'd venture at Aberdeen area of Scotland too if I thought I knew wtf I was talking about. I've always been intrigued by it; I assume McCartney has some Scots heritage and is aiming to express that?

I wonder if anyone will vote for the title track. It seems too vestigial for anyone to truly hate (or love?).

And there's no option for the outgroove or do people hear that as part of "A Day in the Life?"

Irish heritage surely? Probably Ulster? (xp)

As I'm used to Pepper on CD I've always heard the outgroove as a coda to A Day In The Life.

voted for mr. kite, so annoying.

Nick, you've gotta remember the last time I really really listened closely to these albums (as opposed to delving into them on occasion) was 10 years ago as a sixth former. Working through those albums in my late teens, I was very disappointed by Peppers when I got to it, especially after Revolver which blew me away. Given this, I have a sneaking suspicion that my ear will be more willing to accept things like WYWY a little more now than it did at 17. I have only so far purchased the Abbey Road remaster so far, so I'm gonna wait till I can afford the new version of Peppers till I do this.

I'd be interested in what way you think the texture and mood of Peppers is so different from Revolver. I maintain Sgt Pepper's is a weaker version of Revolver, and I don't understand why it was this record that got lauded for so many years as this huge progressive step, when I'd consider the difference between Rubber Soul and Revolver much greater than that of Sgt Peppers, which for the most part sounds like a retread of a lot of previous ground. Some great tracks on here, but I find things like "Lovely Rita" and "Good Day Sunshine" to be really awkward-sounding - and I'm a McCartney fan(!)

Kevin OTM about "When I'm Sixty Four" - is it true Macca wrote this one several years prior to it being recorded?

he wrote it in 1935

I wonder if anyone will vote for the title track. It seems too vestigial for anyone to truly hate (or love?).

I love the hellllllll out of the title track and its reprise.

Like, that last little lick at the end of reprise almost brings me tears of joy.

this album as a whole irritates me -- too much preciousness, mostly -- but taken individually, i like most of the tracks. it's just the cumulative effect that makes it something i rarely listen to. the title track/reprise is the best bit, imo. contenders for worst (which in this case means most annoying) are "she's leaving home" (because i think the lyrics are sort of lame -- "fun is the one thing that money can't buy," ugh), "within you without you" (george at his most cottonheaded), maybe "good morning good morning," tho it's too slight to really be irksome.

taken individually, i like most of the tracks. it's just the cumulative effect that makes it something i rarely listen to.

Exactly.

It's strange, because even some of the tracks I'm not very fond of ("Within You Without You," "Good Morning," "Mr. Kite" especially) have amazing parts in them (the time signature is "Good Morning," the caliope - ?? -- circus bit in "Kite," etc.) making any of them impossible to write off. And yet, it's still nothing like my most-played Beatles LP. (I'm convinced it's one of the greatest LPs ever, though, for fans of amazing bass lines.) Anyway... "Within You Without You" is one I do tend to skip over, so I'll go with that.

Also "too slight to really be irksome" is exactly what irritates me about the album. There's a whole strain of 'art-pop' birthed by this album which demands a similar attention level.

Thing is, there's so much in the way of accolade heaped upong "OMG OMG SGT. PEPPER OMG BEST RECORD EVAH MADE" etc. contrasted with "NOT AS GOOD AS REVOLVER CHALLOPS" that I was actually quite surprised when I finally, as an adult, heard the album as a whole and realised how many good tracks were on it (and not just the obvious well known ones.) It's a record that is rather overwhelmed by its reputation.

Also, it's true that there's something good in even the bad songs (the "can't get no worse" on Getting Better, the harmonies on the "Isle of Wight" middle 8 of When I'm 64) that I can't bring myself to vote for them.

I might wimp out and vote for the title track which I have always found annoying.

There are no songs worth voting for here. "(Reprise)" by default I suppose.

The title track and "Day in the Life" are the best things on it

... it's the bits in between I'm less impressed by

There are no songs worth voting for here. "(Reprise)" by default I suppose.

I've always thought "(Reprise)" was one of the best tracks!

Went with "Getting Better". Nothing wrong with it per se, just nothing about it makes me want to listen to it unless I'm playing the album all the way through.

I do not understand the hate for "Good Morning, Good Morning." A crazy time signature, awesome saxophones, another great McCartney guitar solo . . . seriously, wtf?

The title track reprise on the new mono remaster is amazing, btw. Gives it a LOT more balls.

Fixing a Hole 4EVA!!!

Yeah, that's a very Scottish pronunciation of "on your knee"; I'd venture at Aberdeen area of Scotland too if I thought I knew wtf I was talking about. I've always been intrigued by it; I assume McCartney has some Scots heritage and is aiming to express that?

― Sickamous (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 24 September 2009 12:44 (29 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

You know, I played this yesterday, and the scots accent was something that struck me for the first time!

I wouldn't be surprised if that was an Ivor Cutlerism.

The Mono reinstates the guitar chicken noise!

The bit at the end of "Good Morning", cluck 1 is the chicken, cluck 2 is George's guitar where they slowed the tape of "reprise" and quickly sped it back to normal again for the rest of the song.

They didn't bother to do this with the Stereo LP version.

I wouldn't be surprised if that was an Ivor Cutlerism.

Ah! Could be!

"She's Leaving Home" without a second thought

shame on her!

i was going to say ivor cutler - were the beatles fans? i've always noticed the scots accent, but then my granny is from aberdeen/dundee/glasgow/ulster (moved around a bit in her life) so maybe that's why.

Yeah, Paul was, and he asked Ivor to be in the Magical Mystery Tour.

He was also on Parlophone, which helps.

were the beatles fans?

You've not seen "Magical Mystery Tour" then?

"Here, have you been impersonating me again, Mr. McCartney?"

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_24o5BqgMIK0/SNlrqGNIixI/AAAAAAAABUA/JjDMCEAk3EU/s400/MACCA.jpg

about the stereo/mono versions - can these be bought separately or do you have to get the box set?

Apparently they bonded over an unusual chord in Ivor's "I'm Going in a Field", which Macca was especially impressed with (xp)

i think you have to buy the mono as a box set, the stereo versions can be bought individually

Voted Within You, Without You because it is the only song that really doesn't fit in thematically or musically.

No, I don't think that Sgt. Pepper tells a story a la The Who's Tommy or something similar, but the songs definitely tie together in terms of theme and message.

I really don't get the comments about this album being a re-tread of Revolver, but then I buy all the hype...

xpost ah no, i need to see MMT. Love the album of course.

Also even though I can't blame the Beatles for it, "Mr. Kite" resulted in this awfulness:

It was the best part of Across the Universe, however:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59ahx9ckqIw

"I'm Going In A Field" - love that song - a good one to play the day poor mr cutler passed away.

voted "Good Morning"... so annoying. a song for alarm clocks doesn't belong in the middle of an album.

xxp: what the fuck is wrong with people?

i am very surprised that the title track didn't get a vote yet. it is one of the reasons why i never listen to this album. for me the dacapo really ruins the whole album. looking at the song list i just realised that the rest of it is quite good.

Hey! What am I, chopped liver?

sorry, i didn't read all your posts carefully. will you ever forgive me? that song is annoying as hell. in the beatles oeuvre it is only beaten by "the long and winding road", i think.

alex in manhattan's hit on something here - if anything the reason i don't get on so much with this album is its brashness - as someone mentioned upthread, the songs are good on their own, as a whole it's this loud brassy "GET OUT OF BED BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA LISTEN TO ME WAAAAAAAAA" affair, which I guess is what differentiates it from Revolver, which is much more mellow. It's the same reason I always skip the first track on Blur's "Great Escape", it's like this rude awakening I can do without, which I'm sure a lot of people enjoy.

It's the McCartney Smarm Offensive coupled with Lazy Lennon and Who Cares Harrison that bugs me

Revolver, which is much more mellow

Wait, what? Revolver was their most electric-guitary album up to that time, and in fact is MORE so than Pepper. In what way are Tomorrow Never Knows, She Said She Said, I Want To Tell You, And Your Bird Can Sing or Taxman "mellow"?

Yeah, how the hell is Revolver mellow? There is some serious noise on that thing.

I'd love to hear what your average Beatle teenybopper fan thought in 1966 when the needle finally got to Tomorrow Never Knows. I'm sure it was a priceless reaction. That song is mind-blowing.

i was thinking of things like i'm only sleeping, eleanor rigby etc. but you've got a point.

"Ooh, nice seagulls"

(xpost)

I'd love to hear what your average Beatle teenybopper fan thought in 1966 when the needle finally got to Tomorrow Never Knows. I'm sure it was a priceless reaction. That song is mind-blowing.

It came on when I was driving my mom somewhere a few years ago. She was an 18yr old suburban American girl in Catholic school in 1966. She was and still is very prudish. She kept saying how it was unlike anything she had ever heard or could have imagined. How it seemed like it came from a different planet. I should've asked her whether she liked it or not, but judging from the fact that she basically stopped following the Beatles after Revolver, I'm guessing it was just too weird and psychedlic for her and scared her off!

i basically love every song on this album and spent my teenage years being irritated by the challopsy types kate refers to. the late '90s was a bad time to say you preferred sgt pepper to pet sounds.

This was my first favorite album as a child and I will vote for the song that said the least to me then, though I did grow fond of it later: 'Within You Without You'.

the late '90s was a bad time to say you preferred sgt pepper to pet sounds.

i definitely prefer it to pet sounds, i'm just not supersold on either of them. (not least because i directly blame them for latter-day flaming lips and animal collective and all that twee sparkly indie-psyche stuff.)

I can't believe some people here are actually asshole enough to register a vote to have somebody banned from the site just for disagreeing about which song is least favorite on a record. But looking at recent Suggest Bans, it turns out yes, some people are actually asshole enough.

Name names!

No. I just wanted to register my disgust and hit the "Suggest This Is Maybe Why Mods Sometimes Don't Like To Deal With This Bullshit" button.

"I'd love to hear what your average Beatle teenybopper fan thought in 1966 when the needle finally got to Tomorrow Never Knows. I'm sure it was a priceless reaction. That song is mind-blowing."

"Oh dear, they've gone a bit weird! It must be drugs! I'll put Herman's Hermits on next."

Awww. People up thread said they were going to be sb'ing over this. High stakes!

Anyway, I'm voting "She's Leaving Home."

I can't believe some people here are actually asshole enough to register a vote to have somebody banned from the site just for disagreeing about which song is least favorite on a record. But looking at recent Suggest Bans, it turns out yes, some people are actually asshole enough.

Yes, this is ludicrous and a bit pathetic. It reminds me of that Peep Show episode where everyone keeps threatening to section everyone else.

Anyway, I voted for Sixy-Four. SB away if you like.

Oh, Dog Latin, didn't know that Easy Stars album existed! Thanks for the heads up, DLing it now.

Song for song, I do think Revolver is richer and punchier, but I do see why the comparison happens - if you strip away a few dozen overdubs and the cover art, there are a lot of sonic similarities - I mean let's say "Taxman" and "Good Morning Good Morning" changed places. "Taxman" would seem a little too worldly and pedestrian to be on Sgt. Pepper's but I don't think anyone would have noticed GMGM as out of place on Revolver - same charging guitar attack, same crisp sound. Or swap "Getting Better" for "Got To Get You Into My Life." Or "With A Little Help..." for "Yellow Submarine." If you really started juggling things around you could probably get "Rain" and "Strawberry Fields" together on this record and "Paperback Writer" with "Penny Lane" on Revolver

This was just a very, very fertile period for them and they didn't switch sounds as dramatically as the art, costumes, hair etc. would suggest. Paul in particular is the bridge, as certainly John was going a litle more wild with the possibilities available. The really massively "studio" tracks here (A Day In The Life, Mr. Kite) are mainly John's and I don't think they could slot onto Revolver whatsoever.

Oh! Right! Worst song. Um...I'll get back to you in the morning. I really like this record and have a lot of comfort food affection for it - if there's anything to the "concept album" hype it's that I don't relate to it as a "collection of songs" where cherry-picking feels natural, as I do most of the previous ones and the White Album..

Echoing what someone said above, Within You Without You is the track that separates the 8 year olds from the grown ups. I hated it *so* much as a child...its presence on the album offended me. These days, got no problem with it, especially in mono.

And now it seems like such a great way to start the "weirder" 2nd side. Along the lines of that, Benefit of Mr. Kite probably makes more sense when you think of it as a side-ender. It was always interesting as a child going from the circus music of Kite and then flipping the album over and hitting the brick wall of Harrison's sitars (which made a briefer and friendlier appearance in Getting Better, so we were warned). After all that Indian seriousness, When I'm 64 seems a little less fluffy. When I was a kid, it was a totally essential palate-cleanser.

Lovely Rita: the wierdo ending doesn't get enough love. Is there another Beatles song that combines a pop hook w/a noise breakdown in the same way? The opening of Lovely Rita gives me chills like no other Beatles track.

Anyway, I have to go with She's Leaving Home, though it is better (less draggy) on the mono album.

pop hook w/a noise breakdown

There's a great bootleg of "Paperback writer" that doesn't fade out and ends in a 'falling over' way, they really should have kept it.

Fixing a Hole. Apart from the title track and coda, McCartney's stuff on here really treads a thin line between charming and irritating.

I really like Fixing a Hole. It's Macca's equivalent to I'm Only Sleeping, similarly cocooned and narcotic.

I like Fixing A Hole too, and I'm sure that's largely due to reading somewhere that Lennon finally gave McCartney his due as a songwriter, describing it as "real head music" or something like that.

I think that "Within You Without You" is probably the song I'd be least likely to play apart from the rest of the album, but I agree that in the context of the record, it works really well. Compared with the colorful psychedelia of the first side, it sounds kind of harsh and challenging. And it's so long! It feels longer than it is ...

It feels longer than it is ...

You said it, brother

it's funny how, for the Beatles in 1967, a song that went past the 5 minute mark must've seemed sooooooo epic. Within You and Day in the Life are probably the first ones?

I really like how "Within You Without You" and "When I'm Sixty Four" fit with each other conceptually (the impermanence of existence "life flows on within you and without you", "losing my hair, many years from now"), but are worlds apart stylistically.

Cliche but voted reprise. I really like all the songs on this album, there is just something about it that stops me liking the album itself, like the pacing is all wrong or something.

The thing I never got about this album, or as much what people think and say about it- it's really quite conservative in subject matter and sound in places (or at least compared to MMT-EP) and not the '67 hippie free love technicolour thing it has always been discribed as.

Can't vote for reprise, the beat is too good.

the conservatism is an interesting point. certainly compared to what else came out in '67, sgt. pepper's is nowhere near as striking as, say, revolver is compared to the rest of what came out in '66. as i was saying on the revolver thread, it's really mindboggling what happened in the space of 12 months there. revolver really appeared at the crest of a wave, but by the time sgt. pepper's came out the wave was crashing everywhere.

I loooved Within You, Without You when I was 8.

otoh, there's no doubting the cultural impact sgt. pepper's had. i'm sure there are a zillion stories like this, but my dad says he was taking a roadtrip the week it came out, driving for 3 or 4 days, and everywhere they went there was always some station playing it, the full album, over and over.

Sixty-Four gets on my tits even though I feel bad hating on Paul at his most sentimental.

penny lane & strawberry fields replacing two of the weaker trackes here might keep this from being my least favorite.

i basically skip tracks 6-9 - even tho i don't particualry hate WYWY, so any of those I could vote for.

a vote for Rita is madness.

might have kept

first LP I ever properly listened to and loved - at age 9 (1972). and the place where I heard it (downtown Plymouth, Montserrat) is now buried under 15-20 feet of volcanic mud!

the title track and reprise are probably the least essential for me now (which may be why the LP has also fallen off a little over time) - hard to pick which to vote foragainst because the sonic groove of the reprise counterbalances the richness of the opener. "Good Morning Good Morning" was always the odd one out, but it's strange enough to be interesting (though not according to Lennon himself). "Lucy In The Sky..." always one of the more famous cuts has taken some flak over the years especially because of the (lack of creative craft in the) change to the chorus, but I still like it and feel it includes a (the?) stellar example of the lost art of pretty arpeggio'd chord change intros ("Stairway To Heaven" is another - is there a thread on that theme?). "Lovely Rita" might be my side 2 fave even over "A Day In The Life".

as for comparisons with Revolver, I like at least 3 songs here as much as or better than anything on Revolver and personally consider them the pinnacle of Beatles LP tracks (besides one-off peaks like "In My Life" or "Julia"). ...and they're all in a row: "Getting Better", "Fixing a Hole" and "She's Leaving Home" (2 of which it took me time to rate, I've always loved "Fixing A Hole" possibly my fave McCartney song ever) so, best 3 song run on a Beatles album? (not sure, I haven't checked for competition - maybe last 3 on Revolver comes closest?)

Gah. Had to vote 'Lovely Rita', but my reasoning is totally ass. It's not the music...the opening 'oohs' are awesome, the coda is great, musically it's terrific...but lyrically it's just a little too Benny Hill for me. And this is me at my most desperate to find something I dislike about any of these songs.

'64' has way too much nostalgia for me to hate...saccharine yes, but I kind of love the sentiment anyway...'Good Morning' is rad, I don't see how it could qualify for badness...'Kite' was fascinating to me as a little 'un, I wanted to GO to that place!! And I love it more now, especially seeing the poster Lennon got the lyrics from. I love that it was a real thing.

Sorry Rita. And nothing personal against Paul. :(

That was HARD!!! I'm not sure Beatles polls should be this traumatic.

Wasn't this the album that Towshend had a fit over, saying it wasn't 'rock' if you had to mix all the stuff in a studio?

when i'm 64.

These polls are just a steady reminder of how much I HATE Paul McCartney's songwriting/voice/etc

otm

I loooved Within You, Without You when I was 8.

OTM! There were two tracks on this album that I would play over and over and over to the point of driving the rest of my family insane; "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" and "Within You, Without You".

Composition

The song is sung by a young man to his lover, and is about his plans of growing old together with her. Although the theme is aging, it was one of the first songs McCartney wrote, when he was sixteen.[1] The Beatles used it in the early days as a song they could play when the amplifiers broke down or the electricity went off.[4][5] Both George Martin and Mark Lewisohn speculated that McCartney may have thought of the song when recording began for Sgt. Pepper in December 1966 because his father turned 64 earlier that year.[4][5]

Lennon said of the song, "Paul wrote it in the Cavern days. We just stuck a few more words on it like 'grandchildren on your knee' and 'Vera, Chuck and Dave' ... this was just one that was quite a hit with us."[6] In his 1980 interview for Playboy he said, "I would never even dream of writing a song like that."[2]

I don't hate Ringo, I really don't (I stuck up for "What Goes On"!!!) ... but A Little Help is so flat, deadpan and rote that I can't believe I'm the first one to bring up this POS.

I feel bad about voting for 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds' because the verses are so beautiful, but I just can't get over the clunking chorus. They could've done much better there.

It's a marvellous album, it'll be grand to rediscover it. 'Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!' is the one that does it for me. Something about provincial Victoriana strikes a deep chord that I only barely understand. When I was in Brighton I walked around the front & pier literally in tears I found it all so overwhelming. That the Beatles could channel that and all their other stuff is just remarkable.

I voted "Mr. Kite" just because the song sounds incredibly silly to me as a loutish American; every time I hear or think about it, I imagine the benefit being ruined by monster trucks rolling back and forth over poor waltzing Henry the Horse.

Nick, you've gotta remember the last time I really really listened closely to these albums (as opposed to delving into them on occasion) was 10 years ago as a sixth former. Working through those albums in my late teens, I was very disappointed by Peppers when I got to it, especially after Revolver which blew me away. Given this, I have a sneaking suspicion that my ear will be more willing to accept things like WYWY a little more now than it did at 17. I have only so far purchased the Abbey Road remaster so far, so I'm gonna wait till I can afford the new version of Peppers till I do this.

I'd be interested in what way you think the texture and mood of Peppers is so different from Revolver. I maintain Sgt Pepper's is a weaker version of Revolver, and I don't understand why it was this record that got lauded for so many years as this huge progressive step, when I'd consider the difference between Rubber Soul and Revolver much greater than that of Sgt Peppers, which for the most part sounds like a retread of a lot of previous ground. Some great tracks on here, but I find things like "Lovely Rita" and "Good Day Sunshine" to be really awkward-sounding - and I'm a McCartney fan(!)

How've I got to remember that you've not listened to these albums in ten years when you're positing theories and speculations about them as if you've been listening to them heavily since the remasters came out (which is why these threads exist, clearly)? I have no idea when you last listened to these records.

As for the differences between Revolver and Peppers, well...

Revolver, to me, tied in with Day Tripper, We Can Work It Out, Paperback Writer, Rain, and Rubber Soul, shows a constant growth and development in the band's sound over a period of about 18 months, a development that starts with Wait, moves through the big groundbreaks of Drive My Car and Norwegian Wood, and eventually into the disparate, emotionally uncomfortable experiments of Revolver (John experimenting with psychosis and psychedelia, Paul experimenting with genre and story-telling).

Revolver is a very dark, anguished, guitar-led record; George spitting spite and self on Taxman, Paul ruminating on isolation and death in Rigby and For No One, and Lennon... well, losing his mind on She Said She Said and losing EVERYTHING on Tomorrow Never Knows. Yes, there are pop moments (Good Day Sunshine), and soul moments (GTGYIML), and tired moments of psychedelic ennui (I'm Only Sleeping), and Indian moments (Love You Too), but the tone and texture that dominates the record is of electric guitars; the experiments are the band "bouncing down", running tapes backwards, using bass and drums in ways they hadn't before (as predicated on Rain, fucking hell that bassline, fuck me, and those drums too), running guitar lines over each other and through each other (And Your Bird Can Sing! She Said She Said!).

Strawberry Fields, as a bridge between Revolver and Pepper, moves the experiments in a very different way, one that calls massively on George Martin's orchestral and musicological nous. There's barely any guitar on SFF, for instance; just the dappled notes in the first minute and then the awesome right-channel mini-riff/solo towards the end, that plays off with the strings. There's FUCKLOADS of guitar on revolver.

Pepper is the band experimenting by, at Paul's suggestion, pretending to not be The Beatles anymore, and thus opening up the possibilities of the sounds they can make; so you end up with the fairground psychedelia, the Victoriana, the multi-perspective ballads, the huge orchestral swells on A Day In The Life (consider the climax of Revolver, to which Harrison is key Tomorrow Never Knows relies on his backwards guitars, loops, etcetera; he plays tambourine and nothing else on A Day In The Life [and only has one song on Pepper anyway]). Revolver is John & George's album; Pepper is Paul's, only Paul has split with Asher and got over his loneliness fear (turning it into a charming[ish] joke on 64), meaning that Pepper is a much happier album than Revolver.

Even John's tracks on Pepper, bar Lucy, are mimics of Paul - Good Morning Good Morning is him mocking Good Day Sunshine by having the happy sunny animals eat each other. In fact the most John song on Pepper, and the only thing that could fit on Revolver, is Paul's aping John for once on Fixing A Hole. Only it has none of the true darkness of John's previous work on Revolver, because Paul just can't do that.

Texturally Pepper doesn't rely on guitar except the title tracks, and the solo in Good Morning Good Morning. That Paul plays the solo on GMGM and Taxman doesn't make them similar (there's fuck-all other guitar in GMGM practically); in fact, it points at how much he's taking over the band and steering it away from Revolver territory because George has always had an inferiority complex next to Paul, Ringo's Ringo, and John's losing his mind and mellowing beyond caring as a result. Pepper relies on Paul's basslines, on piano, on cellos, on tape loops, on vocal effects (what could be guitar on Rita replaced by voices, for instance), the Leslie cabinet, all that stuff going on in Lucy, trumpets (brass in general, so important here), the orchestra in A Day In The Life. The coda of Rita is amazing, and it's just piano, bass, a bit of drums, and voices, voices, voices.

And this upbeatness, this total shift in arrangements, in tone, in lyrical steer, this McCartney-taking-over sense, is why Within You Without You is so essential; MacDonald was right for once when he described it as Pepper's moral heart. It's George's protest, protest at being shoved out of the album (Geoff Emerick is more important to Pepper than George is), protest at Paul taking over, protest at the band splitting up. And acceptance of the band splitting up.

How many x-posts have I got then.

Being the person chosen to sing "Good Morning, Good Morning" during a recent Beatles: Rock Band night made me appreciate it 1,000x more. The pacing is just so interesting!

Voted WY/WY. Even with the remasters I just can't embrace it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrxRAvnU1FQ

Incredible how this album is often called the "greatest rock and roll album ever" when IT'S NOT EVEN ROCK AND ROLL.

scik mouthy that is probably my favourite post ever of yours

crazy good analysis there Nick

My SB'ing threats earlier were jokes, btw, people; I don't think I've ever SB'ed anyone deliberately. Maybe Geir, once.

I remember hearing Harrison say how put off he was by the notion of pretending to be another band on Pepper. After they decided to quit touring and "be Beatles" 24/7, taking the artifice up a notch and becoming this other thing must of seemed like a step backwards.

I always thought Good Morning Good Morning was mimicking a TV commercial for corn flakes, thus it is meta-annoying, and the song reflects John's excessive and depressed TV watching at the time...the food chain bit of progressively larger animals devouring each other at the end is one of the great bits of Pop Art in any medium!

My SB'ing threats earlier were jokes, btw, people; I don't think I've ever SB'ed anyone deliberately. Maybe Geir, once.

― Sickamous (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, September 24, 2009 8:18 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

I actually regret voting for Lovely Rita, should have chosen Fixing a Hole. oh well, no offense taken Sickamous!

the food chain bit of progressively larger animals devouring each other at the end is one of the great bits of Pop Art in any medium!

also something I never registered until someone pointed it out in one of the remaster reviews. weird.

Incredible how this album is often called the "greatest rock and roll album ever" when IT'S NOT EVEN ROCK AND ROLL.

― Jazzbo, Thursday, September 24, 2009 4:00 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

You are Jim Derogatis and I claim my etc. etc.

How've I got to remember that you've not listened to these albums in ten years when you're positing theories and speculations about them as if you've been listening to them heavily since the remasters came out (which is why these threads exist, clearly)? I have no idea when you last listened to these records.

Haha, sorry, "You've got to remember" wasn't meant literally! I wish I could be listening to all these remasters, but y'know - broke! I can only afford the Abbey Road one which I had to buy at bloody Sainsbo's now that EVERY SINGLE record shop in Hitchin has closed down. But yeah, sorry for coming across like you ought to know what I'm up to. I post covertly from work, so I can't always check my sentences and this backfires on me a lot.

xxpost, great analysis Nick. You've been giving up a lot of gold with these remasters discussions, but that was...hahah...FAB.

Brilliant post though Sicko, and a point well proved - I never really saw Revolver as such a big guitar album before, but that's because the important tracks for me (the ones that I associate the album with anyway) are the least "rock" ones - "I'm Only Sleeping", "Eleanor Rigby", "For No One", "Here There And Everywhere", "Tomorrow Never Knows", hell even "Yellow Sub" - but you're right in that only half of that album points towards Peppers, whereas the rest, for better or worse, is good old fashioned rock.

I'm going with "When I'm sixty-four"

another reason people shouldn't be voting for "64":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCc33KtP0ng

(although I doubt very much that's the real video)

Nick, since Stylus closed down, do you write anywhere on the regular?

ah, it samples "the end" as well - i never noticed that!

It's a lot harder to pick out truly bad songs on "Sgt. Peppers" than on "Revolver". I'm sure there are people out there with valid reasons for preferring "Revolver" but I'm not one of them. This thing is pretty consistently great. If I had to pick a worst track, I'd be tempted to go for "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" - it kind of grates and the lyrics are borderline inane.

You guys...

Would you believe in a love at first sight?
Yes I'm certain that it happens all the time.
What do you see when you turn out the light?
I can't tell you, but I know it's mine.

I def think this is actually one of their weaker albums, and while it hadn't really registered with me before Nick's pointing out McCartney's predominance and the distinct lack of guitars/rock tropes is probably part of that. They have way better psych material than what's here, and better non-rock material on the later albums - a lot of this is pretty blah.

shasta: that lyric is the joint

ok I've always known Sounds of Science samples The End, but I never noticed When I'm 64 till just now!

And Nick I feel the opposite re: LSD's verse-chorus. Lennon's "oooh we've taken drugs" delivery and childish psychedelic lyrics in the verses really bug me, but the chorus is just so big and glorious!

xpost I can't tell you but I know it's mine?

How can that not be great? A world where that's not a great line is bizarroworld to me.

Re the "Revolver" discussion upthread, one must bear in mind that the definitions of "rock" have indeed changed. Today, I would define the guitar tracks on "Revolver" as powerpop rather than rock: Strong melodic/diatonic songs, lots of vocal harmonies, jangly/fuzzy guitars etc. There are no Marshalls (well, maybe because it was 1966) and few of the songs are particularly bluesy. As such, part of The White Album (and a few tracks from "Let It Be" and "Abbey Road") are probably much closer to what would be defined as rock rather than pop today. But for 1966, those guitars were pretty fuzzy and amplified, and "Revolver" "rocks" more than most albums that were around by 1966.

Bizarroworld is Wet Wet Wet's version, where Marti Pellow sings it with a cheeky wink and a chuckle, as if the previous line was 'What do you see when you turn on the light?'

er, I feel the opposite to ISMAEL wrt LSD xpost.

^ suggest ban

sort of fell in love with this aged 17 when the radio did this "it was 15 years ago today..." (sic) bit, and they played virtually all of side 1. I sat there on the carpet and out rolled these treacly melodies, crystal sounds, loopy wurlitzers. And we teenagers weren't supposed to like it coz it was all punk for us mate. Sgt Pepper was establishment even then.
So all this trashing of the legendary album turned out to be pretty irelevent. Why knock pepper off its perch? To purge the music of all that studio "bullshit", or so that revolver will eventually take its place in everyone's list? Neither LP is exactly back to basics. That came later, a little less rapturously, for the beatles.
SPLHCB is still charming, like kids at play. Is there a low point? Maybe if you compare the opening track with its fabulous reprise, you might drop the opener, but that would sort of spoil the effect of the whole thing.
When I first bought the record, I disliked WYWY, but it hypnotised me somehow with its filthy eastern ways and now I can't imagine the album without it.
If I had to choose anything it would be When I'm 64 for the crimes of being twee and insincere.

So all this trashing of the legendary album turned out to be pretty irelevent. Why knock pepper off its perch?

I would say two reasons.

1. It got praised to such a degree in the early 70s that there just had to be a backclash. I mean, it was almost seen as objectively the best album ever, and there was almost no way that anyone could possibly argue against it. This had to lead to a backclash

2. Punk. "Sgt. Pepper" was pretty much the beginning of prog. Punk was a protest against all things prog, and once prog values became less important (which was the more visible long term effect of punk, although arguably prog may as well have been killed by AOR), "Sgt. Pepper" also felt relevant. It was a huge influence on virtually everything that happened until 1976, and then, it hasn't influenced one tenth as much music after that.

and once prog values became less important (which was the more visible long term effect of punk, although arguably prog may as well have been killed by AOR), "Sgt. Pepper" also felt relevant.

Also felt LESS relevant, I mean.

I've always considered The Beatles to be a 'pop' band or at least a 'not weddded to one genre' band rather than a 'rock' band. The fact that psychedelia to them was about stuff like Revolution Number Nine or Day in the Life or For the Benefit of Mister Kite than "traditional" psychedelic music actually rings truer to my experiences.

just want to debate the "guitar-ness" of this record...

GUYS there is TONS of guitar on this record. u def???????

my only preference is that "good morning" with the horrible brass arrangement be left off in favor of the ROCKING version on Anthology 2.

Samuel: nah, I'm retired fully from writing.

Voted Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds because it's fucking shit.

I always thought prog was killed off by their album cover art.

I've always considered The Beatles to be a 'pop' band or at least a 'not weddded to one genre' band rather than a 'rock' band.

The pop vs. rock thinking started later.

If there was pop in 1967, then Engelbert Humperdinck and Petula Clark were pop, in which case The Beatles were obviously rock.

And, I mean, I say that as an outspoken fan of POP rather than rock. Only in the sense that The Beatles later came to be define as the most classic of POP bands. This was not the case in 1967 though.

I really like the beatlemania-era Beatles on the cover

in which case The Beatles were obviously rock.

Um, okay but 'For the Benefit of Mr Kite' is not a rock song. It's probably not even a pop song until they become "the most classic of pop bands". By my standards, the Beatles do have some excellent rock songs. me and Charlie M<anson, fwiw, agree on 'Helter Skelter', for example, but anything even from Revolver on is likely to have at least a halfway heteroclite collection of songs on it that were little like (the collection in its entirety) many other acts out there, or at least mega-huge ones. This has not entirely changed today.

"rock" is a red herring phrase introduced to this discussion by Geir.

I really don't care about genres that much anyway; they're useful sometimes and obfuscatory at others.

particularly do not care about genres as defined by geir

I also believe, since they are essentially descriptive, that epithets and genres are mutable over time. Case in point: it never fails to amuse me how many little kids I know now are really into the once terribly rebellious Ramones. What was 'unthinkable' 'race music' in the 50's sounds almost quaint, now, and yet it is unmistakably 'rock' and often quite good at that.

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

Agree with George Martin that leaving Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields off of this album was a really bad decision, if I could play god I'd remove 'mr. kite' and 'when im 64' and substitute them by Penny and Strawberry fields, not because I think they're bad songs but because they do seem to ruin the overall 'concept' sound they were trying to achieve here.

Fwiw, I once decided Lovely Rita was my fave on this, but I can't help thinking, now, that I really like the whole album as an album.

I like the whole album too, but imo the individual songs seem sorta slight when you isolate them

but I don't wanna be SB'd for voting Rita! :(

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.

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Within You Without You
Fixing a Hole
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

Damn that vote split.

getting better will not finish second-bottom

I don't consider waterloo, quick one or eight miles high in the same league. waterloo sunset's one of my favorite songs, but it's basically just a really pretty pop song. eight miles high is pretty trippy for its day, but it's nowhere as menacing as the end of DITL.

These are the threads that finally give my third sb to a certain hongro. i'm sure he'll settle for a bronze though, the reward is the same.

I think that Buffalo Springfield's "Broken Arrow" was largely a response to "Day In The Life" ...

xpost Geir is inoffensive and people need to stop obsessively bullying him.

Geir is inoffensive

you need to check the "Ringo Starr: Luckiest Man Alive?" thread

Yeah, I guess what I'm saying is... why bother w/ him? You're just perpetuating it.

Dude has annoyed me enough times that I felt like Sb'ing. A lot of people, myself most probably included, have got sb'ed for less. I guess mentioning it was the mistake.

I unashamedly love this album. As has been said upthread, this is probably the most 'Paul' album, but I don't think that's a bad thing. He's responsible for some awful twee crap at times, but not here. I really like 'When I'm 64' and 'She's Leaving Home'. As for the weakest track, well... I don't think there's anything *really* bad on this album, but 'Within You, Without You' is a bit meandering, and 'Good Morning, Good Morning' is a bit jarring, but the worst one (and I can't believe no one else has gone for this) is 'With A Little Help From My Friends'. Ringo should never sing. I might be haunted/influenced by the Wet Wet Wet version, though.

Oh, and I'd never noticed that weird rolling 'r' thing in "Grandchildren on your knee" until I read this thread.

X-post First off, I happen to rate Roy Wood very highly for both his rocking psych-pop (Fire Brigade, Night of Fear) and his trippy whimsical tunes (Flowers in the Rain, The Girl Outside). Obviously in hindsight the Move pale enormously in terms of influence, importance, and admittedly even innovation to the Beatles but I don't know, I guess I just consider them one of the sharpest British bands making records in the late 1960s. An awe-inspiring run of singles really.

And of course I love those tunes mentioned by the Kinks and the Who and the Byrds but none sound so singular and massive as Day in the Life to me. I was more or less trying to imagine if those bands were all like, "HOLY SHIT" or rather, "Whatever, artsy bullshit, etc." I guess maybe I just need to get some sleep...

Also, I realize Wilson was the Beatles main competition, I guess I'm just not as interested in his reaction to it for whatever reason. My timeline may be wrong but I thought Smile had been scrapped and Wilson had really lost touch by the time Pepper came out. (But maybe it was WHEN Pepper came out...)

definitely not With a Little Help from My Friends

'with a little help from my friends' is one of my favorite songs on here, definitely my favorite ringo-sung tune

Also, I realize Wilson was the Beatles main competition, I guess I'm just not as interested in his reaction to it for whatever reason. My timeline may be wrong but I thought Smile had been scrapped and Wilson had really lost touch by the time Pepper came out. (But maybe it was WHEN Pepper came out...)

There a notorious moment when Wilson was riding in the car with (damn, I forget who now), and they hear Strawberry Fields for the first time. Brian pulled over and wept, just saying "they beat me to it".

^Does anybody really do that? You'd think hearing a great new song on the radio would make you want to drive faster & rock the neighborhood.

Depends on the music I guess.

I can only remember doing that once, when in a thick fog, early morning, not another car in sight. Laura Veirs' 'Through December' came on and I was just baffled and speechless from the very first notes on. It hit home hard and I had to park the car right there and then.

also, need it be mentioned that Brian Wilson is a weird dude?

Depends on the music I guess.

I can only remember doing that once, when in a thick fog, early morning, not another car in sight. Laura Veirs' 'Through December' came on and I was just baffled and speechless from the very first notes on. It hit home hard and I had to park the car right there and then.

― young depardieu looming out of void in hour of profound triumph (Le Bateau Ivre), Saturday, September 26, 2009 4:15 PM (23 minutes ago)

you guys most likely aren't one of the handful of genius pop-rock composers vying for immortality when that song comes on the radio, just guessin'

What gave it away?

I meant to reference Josefa's comment about who would pull over when they first heard SFF...Brian Wilson would!

I was so awed that I pulled over once too - not to weep, I just needed not to be doing anything else for those few minutes. I wish I could remember what song it was.

I've heard that said of "When A Man Loves A Woman" (Percy Sledge), probably mentioned in Guralnick's Sweet Soul Music, but not sure who was the driver moved/gobsmacked enough to pull over.

Maybe the tears welling in Brian Wilson's eyes made it difficult to drive.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Compared w/ "Tomorrow Never Knows" esp., "Lucy in the Sky w/ Diamonds" is a fairly rote paean to LSD imo. Still pretty awesome, mind, but I think it is the weakest spot. It took me about five days to make this decision.

Voted Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds because it's fucking shit.

― Alba, Thursday, September 24, 2009 9:34 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^^ this

Lucy In The Sky has an awesome bassline throughout, and Lennon's vocals come close to defining classic .. also the three drum hits before the chorus are ass kicking every time. So yeah, sure, fucking shit.. You got it.

"lucy in the sky" is not actually a "paean to LSD," as lennon said about a million times.

i always thought the rather thumping, obvious chorus of that song was a real letdown after the dreamy, evocative verses.

me too. sounds like they had an stray annoying mccartney chorus lying about and decided to plaster it on.

Yeah, cos Lennon would never write an annoying lyric.

Yeah George Martin always said the chorus was a letdown after hearing the verses too.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

wau, title track hate! I don't ever listen to it independently of the rest of the album, but it + the reprise are what I look forward to when I do.

confused as to how getting better managed pretty much the same number as day in the life o_O

disgusted by how many people voted for She's Leaving Home which is the best song on the record.

yeah, something smells fishy...is it me or are the results not seeming to reflect the comments that precede them? hmmm......

Moodles post upthread about "64" deserves an OTM.

disgusted by how many people voted for She's Leaving Home which is the best song on the record.

^^^^^^^

confused as to how getting better managed pretty much the same number as day in the life o_O

listening tip: listen to "Getting Better" on headphones

disgusted by how many people voted for She's Leaving Home which is the best song on the record.

^^^^^^^

― iatee, Monday, September 28, 2009 3:21 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

Happy that "Within You Without You" didn't come first/last. (And happy about the several folks upthread who like that song now but didn't before.) Nick's right, that instrumental middle section is awes.

Still, 20 votes is too high!

I can understand people voting for "When I'm 64", which is really nothing special. But those voting for "She's Leaving Home" haven't really understood anything at all.

Haven't understood anything at all of what? You're perpetually insane melody-fascism?

in other pepper news, lucy in the sky, r.i.p.

I feel bad now.

and in further news, i possibly should have listened to 'getting better' again before voting

I'll say!

well tbh thinking about it, it's between 'getting better', 'fixing a hole', 'she's leaving home', and 'when i'm 64' sheerly by dint of being *slightly* less brilliant than the other tracks...fucked if i know which one i'd choose out of those 4

lucy in the sky with diamonds is a fucking superb piece of music, and the chorus is GREAT, especially in the OH MY GOD AMAZING FADEOUT which is one of the best things the beatles ever did, the way those sitar chimes ring out over the infinitely repeated refrain is just godlike

it chills my marrow to see 9 individual music-loving people vote for 'lovely rita'

Today I've been loving 'Good Morning Good Morning' and the reprise. It's odd that such a record should have a forgotten corner, but that's what they feel like.

au contraire, the record's post-64 speed to the finish is and always has been joyous

t chills my marrow to see 9 individual music-loving people vote for 'lovely rita'

― should probably be practising shorthand (country matters)

But tell us, how do you really feel?

well there's not SUCH a big difference between any of the songs on this record (except LSD, WYWY, GMGM and Day In The Life being maybe a bit better than the others) so a bit of subjectivity is allowed for i guess

'lovely rita' really wants to please you tho, it's not the best thing here but it really wants you to like it, more than any other song here, it just wants to be your friend, how can you vote for it :(

She's Leaving Home is boring

After 25 years, I feel like I finally 'get' this album. I always thought it had good songs on it but thought it was 'overrated'—man, was I wrong. It is really just 100% nuance and beauty in the production, thematically brilliant, great songwriting, everything!

except "day in a life" - everything is boring here

I finally "got" it too when I listened to the mono version.

I can't explain why, but instead of it being this overrated checkpoint from b/w to color, it just naturally sounded more like Revolver II.

It is really just 100% nuance and beauty in the production, thematically brilliant, great songwriting, everything!

OTM!

I listened to it twice today. There are no worst songs.

Good Morning, Good Morning is kinda weak too

^^^ Crazy talk

I really consider myself lucky to have been introduced to this via my parents' battered vinyl copy - stereo, but still, the first time I heard the old 80s CD issue I seriously did a double take. It's a completely different album and not a third as good, seriously. Can't imagine liking it the way I do if that's the way I'd heard it most of the time.

What blocked me from liking it for a while was the sleepiness of the middle songs - the energy of the opening just seemed to fade to nothing. Now those songs seem like the key to its magic. They're what create a sense of depth.

It's also nice house painting music. "Fixing a Hole" made sprucing up my grandparents' basement this morning seem romantic.

Good Morning, Good Morning is kinda weak too

Just the animals alone coming in natural order ending with a chicken that sounds like the first note of the reprise, get the hell out of here troll.

Unfortunately this is an album I played the HELL out of for a very specific window of time at around age 16, so basically when I hear it I involuntarily hear the dungeon rattles and smell the market streets of a lightweight and addictive MUD I was hooked on at the time.

Even John Lennon thought Good Morning, Good Morning sucked. Best song: Fixing a Hole.

THIS version of Good Morning Good Morning does not suck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJmo3LiP3Zs

just saying

GM, GM might be my favorite song on the album. I'm not even counter-trolling.

Expressing an opinion that others disagree with = trolling

WTF

Eh, just busting yr balls a bit.

I just fkin love the guitar, and the crazy abrasive sound of the horns, and yes the animal sounds.

Don't get hating on GM,GM at all, the solo is searing, the drumming is spot-on, and Lennon's multitracked, queasy, weird, "I'VE GOT nothing to say but it's o.k" is so perfect.

Don't like: 64, Lovely Rita, GM, GM.

Not crazy about: Lucy, Within You Without You.

Everything else is various shades of fantastic

HIDDEN GEM: Fixing a Hole

i've still never heard of Meet The Wife outside of the context of GM GM. i don't even know if it was a real TV show.

Macca is so great on GM, GM. Sure, the bass, but as the Doctor points out: that guitar break! I love his stupid flashy leads sometimes.

Meet The Wife (starring Thora Hird) was real! That is...all I know about it.

go to the show, hope she goes

everything is closed, it's like a ruin

As a kid, my least favorites were Lucy and She's Leaving Home. A lot of people don't like Leaving because it's cloying or boring or slow, but for me it was straight traumatic, like I could imagine the girl's mother crying and all.

The guitar fill on GM, GM after "it's time for tea and 'Meet the Wife'" is 1,000x greater on the mono version than the stereo. I really do consider the mono the definitive version of this record and have zero interest in the stereo anymore.

OTM re: that fill. Sounds like it's double-tracked on the mono. Who knew such a seemingly minor addition could add exponentially to the song's power.

> As a kid, my least favorites were Lucy and She's Leaving Home. A lot of people don't like Leaving because it's cloying or boring or slow, but for me it was straight traumatic

This was actually the one I most identified with as a teen because I fantasized about running away with my gf at the time

I need to hear the mono version ("You haven't heard Sgt. Pepper until you've heard it in mono" - John Lennon). I know "She's Leaving Home" is in a different key and speed - wonder why it was changed on the stereo mix.

Is there a way to buy a new copy of the mono CD outside of the mono box set?

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.

have always adored “mr kite” and surprised ppl hate it lol

I love "Lovely Rita" — just the sound of the vocals is totally classic.

and McCartney's loopy bass playing! what's not to love.

Yeah I love all of those tracks except When I'm 64, and even then the song does fit into the album's general world.

And Tyler's right, one thing I've really grown to appreciate is Paul's bass-playing on Beatle records, especially on Pepper.

FWIW, with "Good Morning Good Morning," I always thought it was a great lead-in to the finale. It's got a buried anger that feels like it's going to erupt as Lennon details the tedium of everyday rituals, like he's itching for something more out of life.

I dig "Rita" too. "Took her home, I nearly made it / Sitting on the sofa with a sister or two" - Paul's gentle ribaldry is an underrated aspect of his songwriting.

"When I'm Sixty-Four" is cute. Cool piece of trivia: Paul McCartney ended up turning 64 himself a few years ago!

no way

And yet he wrote the song when he was 14, wikipedia tells me. That strain of old-timey songs of Paul's (64, Honey Pie, You Gave Me The Answer etc) has been a constant throughout his career, interesting to see it was there right from the beginning

At least Paul made it to 64. Fuck cancer and psycho fans.

all songs about different aspects of day-to-day British life seen through the same winking mod/hippie lens.

Yep, and “Rita,” “Good Morning,” and “Mr. Kite” all end with, “By the way, I’m observing this while baked”: “Rita”’s reverb-drenched coda, the animals at the end of “Good Morning,” the randomly-cut-up organ in “Mr. Kite.”

I’m not an audiophile but listening to a clean vinyl copy of this on my parents decent stereo with really good headphones was an immersive experience for 8 year old me. Nothing since has sounded as good as that record did then.

I used to listen to my dad's copy on my GE foldout record player. I would immerse myself in the lyrics printed inside the gatefold cover as though they were a holy text.

Ringo sounds so awesome on much of this album.

I love the proto-Roy Wood overdriven horns in “good morning good morning”

proto-Roy Wood yes!

Ringo sounds so awesome on much of this album.

― lets hear some blues on those synths (brimstead), T

Particulary on "A Day in the Life" while John goes ayyyyyyyyyyy-ahhhh

Enjoying a really nice headphone listen to this album r/n, prompted by this revive. For the first time I'm really noticing the stereo (it's my mom's old 60s copy that I grew up with, but I don't know if I've ever done the attentive headphone thing before), which can be pretty distracting in some places!

In my mind the album has a kind of unifying blanket of psychey haze, but it doesn't always. Some parts, like the verses in Lucy, feel oddly almost empty versus the versions in my head! If you can't also hear the stuff that's not there, I get how it could hit your ears as plodding. Good Morning Good Morning has WAY less punch this way, with the chorus just being this thing that happens rather than this enveloping wall of multitasked GOOD MORNINGS ringing out like electrified church bells. OTOH, being able to hear the seams between everything just makes it MORE trippy and unsettling that the lead guitar parts all over the album keep popping up out of the ground for a couple seconds before disappearing again...

But, I'm also noticing lots of specific sonic details that I'm loving! The reverb/decay on virtually everything. Some of the string arrangement on She's Leaving Home (especially under "waiting to keep the appointment she made"). The way Fixing A Hole could almost already be a Ram song, and A Day In The Life, at the beginning, could basically be a John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band song. Everything Ringo does for Getting Better. The charming little guitar part that sneaks into When I'm Sixty-Four in like the last thirty seconds. Lots of the bass parts. Just how good the album-concluding tone is as it sits there, becomes less about the hugeness of its arrival, and becomes, briefly, a womblike ambient wash...

Great album, no bad songs, but She's Leaving Home for "worst."

crazy talk, She's Leaving Home is the 2nd best track on the album after A Day in the Life!

^ that’s what I tend to think too. The only question is would it have been better had George Martin done the strings instead of Mike Leander.

Lovely Rita is a decent enough song, but the production, arrangement and performance elevate it so far above it's compositional worth it's ridiculous. The layered harmonies.. Parts of this song are aural bliss. There's really no need for it to sound this good, and I honestly think it's one of their best recordings.

I should add it's basically a skiffled-up George Formby song

When I'm Sixty Four is some Mr. Bean bullshit

I’ll be honest, “Within You Without You” is the one I’m most tempted to skip.

i am biased towards that one because sonic youth did the cover. takes all sorts...

Which one is the most Qanon song?

A Day In The Life clearly, it's all about getting redpilled in order to see through the fake news

of course it is possible that Mr. Kite is describing the antics that occur in the dungeon below Comet Pizza

Title track is Qanon bc it’s like the entire Beatles have been replaced by a simulacrum band

Crowley at the top of the pyramid

Which one is the most Qanon song?

― Lord Pickles (Boring, Maryland), Wednesday, 7 December 2022 20:50 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

That would be the one where the singer says that everyone is blind and only he can see reality, quotes the bible, fingerpointingly accuses his date of being "one of them", and sounds like a member of a dangerous cult ("With our love, we could save the world, if they only knew")

Seductive music, but damn the lyrics are sanctimonious garbage. For all it's Mr Bean dinkiness, When Im 64 is at least based in closely-observed real life.

Also the best song.

I just listened to "Within You Without You" and realized I'd completely forgotten it and what I thought was "Within You Without You" was probably "The Inner Light" and even though I played 5 minutes ago I've forgotten it again.

Within You Without You is one of those songs that I'm glad is on the album but don't actually want to hear much. File with Black Angel's Death Song, Aumgn etc.

As for the worst song, I don't think there are any bad songs but yes, When I'm 64 is the throwaway one here. Not a huge fan of Paul's old-time songs.

I don't know, WYWY kind of sums up what I think about this album, it's extremely well arranged and produced but, as a song, it's just not really up to snuff.

Harrisongs annoy me so I’ll say he was the Q Beatle

This thread took a fucking bizarre turn.

context:

Absolutely shrieking over QAnon discovering the Beatles pic.twitter.com/nBn9L9VRz1

— LeiHouse Of Horror IV (@leilaclaire) December 7, 2022

Revolution #9 has got to be the most Q Anon, right? Illusionary patterns and whatnot.

surely it's the song about how paul was dead

The walrus was Q

Burnett, Gentry, Verdon & Diller

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYrsuNh0DPA

when i was young i used to think the worst cut was "She's Leaving Home." but i've grown to really like that one. these days i'd be inclined to pick "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," really just because i think the chorus is a bit of a dud ... wait, didn't i start a thread about that? anyway, crazy that so many people could vote "Within You Without You," which is not only a contender for best Beatles song but also maybe the greatest song of all time, for me!

were there any 60s bands that made sudden detours into psychedelia that actually worked? like the beatles did get there eventually but only a few of the best beatles psych songs are on sgt. pepper's

the who (armenia)
zombies
not a fan of sf sorrow but lots of other ppl are

i guess odessey & oracle is more baroque or something

sgt pepper is like ‘beatles: the musical’, i used to not like that about it and now that’s what i like about it. she’s leaving home is like the most emotionally manipulative song on it probably.

it’s funny i was just thinking of how much i love ‘defecting gray’ but never liked any of sf sorrow even a little, idg what ppl see in that record

the great thing about sudden detours into psych is they don’t have to “work”, there are lots of fascinating trainwrecks, as a style it lends itself well to crazy ambition and colorful missteps.

there are probably also lots of bands that only had one good psych song, like ‘smashed blocked’

there’s also a litany of 50’s holdover acts who made sudden detours into psych, notably del shannon, and those can be more fun to dig up than the 60s bands

also, a few months ago i had a weird dream that the monkees, not the beatles, had recorded sgt. pepper. but you could still hear john and paul singing backup (to like, mickey dolenz) on the chorus of lucy in the sky with diamonds. and there might have been some conspiracy (in the dream) about like, the beatles having had more involvement in it than just being uncredited backup singers on one or two songs.

oh yeah odessy & oracle counts enough there we go

"Hung Up On a Dream" definitely does at least!

"I stood astounded, staring hard/ At men with flowers resting in their hair"

i would respect sgt. pepper's a lot more if it was a fascinating trainwreck

I would say I respect it but I don't like it very much.

I'm just going to come out and say that to me it's wild that some people genuinely don't like the Beatles. I mean, it's not that I don't believe them, it's just my point of view can't comprehend not liking them at all or any of their songs, unless it's based in some sort of associative reasoning

also, a few months ago i had a weird dream that the monkees, not the beatles, had recorded sgt. pepper. but you could still hear john and paul singing backup (to like, mickey dolenz) on the chorus of lucy in the sky with diamonds. and there might have been some conspiracy (in the dream) about like, the beatles having had more involvement in it than just being uncredited backup singers on one or two songs.

This sounds like "Porpoise song"

crazy that so many people could vote "Within You Without You,"

They don't know, they can't see

are you one of them

never liked any of sf sorrow even a little, idg what ppl see in that record

It's the most depressing rock album made up til that time.

For a band that was supposedly manning the barricades against psychedelia, the handful of Kinks records that flirt with the style do so very effectively: "Rainy Day in June", "Fancy", "Lazy Old Sun", "Wicked Annabella".

...on top of pioneering "raga-rock" with "See My Friends".

First album I chose to listen to repeatedly from the parents collection. That Within You Without You was my fav prob says a lot about what a weird 8 year old I was, and drone fandom was inevitable. Thanks George for making my future tinnitus bearable. I liked She's Leaving Home because it provided insight into moody teenagers. Lovely Rita's orgasmic coda was way spookier than Mr Kite.

A guest on the My Favourite Beatles Song podcast recently chose Lovely Rita and gave me a new appreciation for it. It's a podcast I recommend generally – other really good ones have been on Rocky Raccoon and Wait (as chosen by Eggpod's Chris Shaw.

xps to DL i think it’s more how some ppl don’t like fart jokes

*more like

:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYrsuNh0DPA

#onethreadwithinthread

Heh, almost posted "third time's the charm" or something like that

Lovely Rita's orgasmic coda was way spookier than Mr Kite.

Yeah I've always found that jazzyfunky outro subtly spooky, something even truer of the Magical Mystery Tour coda, neither of which seems to get mentioned much. Just these random moody gear changes that come and go without explanation.

were there any 60s bands that made sudden detours into psychedelia that actually worked?

In my book, basically all of them.

Now all I need is to find Gwen Verdon thread and a Phyllis Diller one.

I feel like I have posted before that the fizzing brightness of the opening chords on "Getting Better" feels like being insanely high.

something even truer of the Magical Mystery Tour coda

OK, Rita is one of my top Beatles songs, and the outro is a big part of that. But the title track from Magical Mystery Tour has always been a bit of an eye-roller for me, so I never even noticed the coda before you mentioned it!

“Magical Mystery Tour” has a lot going on, but it is the point where the bit starts to go a little too far for me.