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

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I feel bad now.

Alba, Monday, 28 September 2009 21:14 (fourteen years ago) link

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

should probably be practising shorthand (country matters), Monday, 28 September 2009 21:18 (fourteen years ago) link

I'll say!

young depardieu looming out of void in hour of profound triumph (Le Bateau Ivre), Monday, 28 September 2009 21:37 (fourteen years ago) link

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'

should probably be practising shorthand (country matters), Monday, 28 September 2009 21:41 (fourteen years ago) link

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.

Ismael Klata, Monday, 28 September 2009 21:44 (fourteen years ago) link

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

should probably be practising shorthand (country matters), Monday, 28 September 2009 21:45 (fourteen years ago) link

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?

iago g., Monday, 28 September 2009 21:50 (fourteen years ago) link

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

should probably be practising shorthand (country matters), Monday, 28 September 2009 21:52 (fourteen years ago) link

'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 :(

should probably be practising shorthand (country matters), Monday, 28 September 2009 21:53 (fourteen years ago) link

two years pass...

She's Leaving Home is boring

Poliopolice, Friday, 20 April 2012 18:31 (eleven years ago) link

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!

America's Mobile, Friday, 20 April 2012 19:04 (eleven years ago) link

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

nostormo, Friday, 20 April 2012 19:06 (eleven years ago) link

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.

pplains, Friday, 20 April 2012 19:30 (eleven years ago) link

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

OTM!

The GeirBot (Geir Hongro), Friday, 20 April 2012 21:44 (eleven years ago) link

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

Träumerei, Friday, 20 April 2012 21:55 (eleven years ago) link

Good Morning, Good Morning is kinda weak too

Poliopolice, Friday, 20 April 2012 22:01 (eleven years ago) link

^^^ Crazy talk

i love the large auns pictures! (Phil D.), Friday, 20 April 2012 23:36 (eleven years ago) link

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.

Doctor Casino, Saturday, 21 April 2012 00:13 (eleven years ago) link

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.

Träumerei, Saturday, 21 April 2012 00:54 (eleven years ago) link

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.

pplains, Saturday, 21 April 2012 00:55 (eleven years ago) link

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.

Doctor Casino, Saturday, 21 April 2012 01:08 (eleven years ago) link

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

Poliopolice, Saturday, 21 April 2012 01:30 (eleven years ago) link

THIS version of Good Morning Good Morning does not suck

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

piscesx, Saturday, 21 April 2012 01:33 (eleven years ago) link

just saying

piscesx, Saturday, 21 April 2012 01:33 (eleven years ago) link

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

aluminum rivets must not be proud of their plastic bosses (Jon Lewis), Saturday, 21 April 2012 01:36 (eleven years ago) link

Expressing an opinion that others disagree with = trolling

WTF

Poliopolice, Saturday, 21 April 2012 01:43 (eleven years ago) link

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.

aluminum rivets must not be proud of their plastic bosses (Jon Lewis), Saturday, 21 April 2012 01:46 (eleven years ago) link

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.

Doctor Casino, Saturday, 21 April 2012 02:10 (eleven years ago) link

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 wish to incorporate disco into my small business (chap), Saturday, 21 April 2012 02:15 (eleven years ago) link

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.

piscesx, Saturday, 21 April 2012 02:16 (eleven years ago) link

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.

bentelec, Saturday, 21 April 2012 02:22 (eleven years ago) link

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

Doctor Casino, Saturday, 21 April 2012 03:51 (eleven years ago) link

go to the show, hope she goes

bendy, Saturday, 21 April 2012 06:10 (eleven years ago) link

everything is closed, it's like a ruin

fruitsbs (beachville), Saturday, 21 April 2012 10:34 (eleven years ago) link

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.

fruitsbs (beachville), Saturday, 21 April 2012 10:40 (eleven years ago) link

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.

i love the large auns pictures! (Phil D.), Saturday, 21 April 2012 11:42 (eleven years ago) link

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.

Waterloo? Oh, we've sunsetted that. (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Saturday, 21 April 2012 12:16 (eleven years ago) link

> 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.

Lee626, Saturday, 21 April 2012 21:29 (eleven years ago) link

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

Moodles, Saturday, 21 April 2012 22:23 (eleven years ago) link

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

Brad C., Saturday, 21 April 2012 23:13 (eleven years ago) link

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

Darin, Sunday, 22 April 2012 02:57 (eleven years ago) link

fwiw

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

pplains, Sunday, 22 April 2012 03:05 (eleven years ago) link

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

Right?

pplains, Sunday, 22 April 2012 03:07 (eleven years ago) link

ten years pass...

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

frogbs, Saturday, 19 November 2022 05:18 (one year ago) link

"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

frogbs, Saturday, 19 November 2022 05:32 (one year ago) link

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

frogbs, Saturday, 19 November 2022 05:38 (one year ago) link

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

fetter, Saturday, 19 November 2022 08:37 (one year ago) link

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?

Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 19 November 2022 11:45 (one year ago) link

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").

clemenza, Saturday, 19 November 2022 17:52 (one year ago) link

I was wrong about the Harrisong.

Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 19 November 2022 18:10 (one year ago) link


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