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

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.