From the UK albums..
Please Please Me: Toss up between Ask Me Why and Misery, Ill go with Ask Me Why, its such a clever song, for such a young writer. Unusual time signature, Its has some Jazzy leanings (which I always like) and even though its in a major key it keeps leaning towards towards its relative minor, verses seem to have 3 different variants........and I love the line "I Love You...Cos You Tell Me Things I Want To Know" very selfish but very true it has to be said
I believe its primarily Johns song, its musically very mature for an inexperienced songwriter.
With the Beatles: 4 contenders here, Not A Second Time, All Ive Gotta Do, more unusual complex writing ala Ask Me Why, brilliant songs, as is All My Loving, which is more straightforward in terms of a great pop song. But I have to go with It Wont Be Long. Such a powerful, smack you in the face blockbuster of a song, Johns superb vocal. Shouldve been a single.
A Hard Day's Night: Very difficult, getting harder to pick one...I Should Have Known Better. just brilliant songwriting, flowing with seamless harmonies, they were on fire at this stage, loving every minute, If I Fell and Ill Be Back are personal favourites, as is And I Love Her, but narrowly lose out. I love this whole album
Beatles For Sale: This is one of my favourite albums, it evokes such great memories of the Christmas my big brother got it. Absolutely love Eight Days A Week and Im A Loser, also Baby's In Black but I have to go with No Reply, moody sad and poignant, but the main reason is that middle 8, If I were you, Id realize That I etc. this section of harmonising makes the hairs on my neck stand up
It has such power, Brilliant songwriting and performance.
Help!: You've Got to Hide Your Love Away and the title track, cant decide really, Ill go with Help. Purely for its impact, both songs have masterful songwriting. Help also has great harmonies. Well not really harmonies but answering background vocals by Paul and George.
Rubber Soul: 3 contenders for me, Norwegian Wood, In My Life and Girl. Im gonna go with Norwegian Wood. I love songs containing poetic lyrics and song titles that suggest a fleeting moment and evoke a feeling within a situation. We all know the story behind the song, John tells a story, a simple story of going back to someone's flat, but oddities emerge, he notices there are no chairs, they don't make love, he sleeps in the bath, but they discuss, "talked until two" whilst drinking her wine.
Its a magical story that John weaves, we know the basics but gaps in the narrative leave us to imagine the situation. Some of us have been in a similar situation.
And then that final line "Isnt it good......…..Norwegian Wood"
Why mention the wood ? Maybe in his memory, (semi lucid memory with the wine), the pine wood featured strongly.
Sorry, meandering thoughts.
Revolver: John and Pauls songs getting more and more different. Paul the melodic conformist songsmith, John the more experimental unconformist. She Said She Said is my pick. Again a song born from another situation which rang profoundly on John, Peter Fonda's insistence that he knew what it was like to be dead. Probably from an LSD trip. But John magically turned it into a surreal piece of music with differing time signatures, and like Norwegian Wood the listener had no idea what he was singing about upon release, but when we did it revealed how observant and perceptive John was.
Other strong contenders, For No One, Michelle, Tomorrow Never Knows.
Sgt. Pepper: Where do you start ? A Day In The Life, has to be, got to be. A Tour de Force. Brilliant, inventive, creative and graceful. I do like George's contribution though. But...."4000 Holes in Blackburn Lancashire". Who else could put those words in a such a wonderful song ? John being surreal again.
White Album: Im gonna go with Dear Prudence, another Lennon mystery, who was she, why wouldn't she come out to play. We all now know but another instance of oblique storytelling, gets me every time, powerfully and wonderfully sung. It builds and builds until the tension is lifted with the fading gentility it starts with.
Abbey Road: The Medley. I love it, a very fitting epilog to their years of sublime creativity, as reached by none other. It just sings from the start with Pauls You Never Give Me Your Money and takes us through a kaleidoscope of uplifting joy. Ill never get sick of it, Im so glad they finished with this. Marvelous production as well from George Martin. Its still sounds so fresh like they did it last week ! The 50th edition portrays this wonder even more. Thank you Giles.
Let It Be: Some wonderful songs on here, songs that would make another bands career, Look at the rooftop performance for proof of that. For me Pauls title track wins it. Ive always loved it in a similar way that I love Hey Jude or Fool On The Hill. Pauls gift for melody coming to the fore once again. Paul had taken over the band now in terms of musical direction and output, Johns head seemed to be filled with a Japanese 'artist' and his contribution to LIB was limited, I do love his Across The Universe though.
Great thread, Ive enjoyed reading and contributing to it. Thank you Meanie
