Topic: 10 best, 5 worst (Read 11181 times)

john.k.walker · « **on:** February 20, 2006, 07:11:39 AM »

Since it has always been my opinion that as much can be learned from failure as from success (not to mention how much more common is the former result in life -- in contrast with the nearly perfect Beatles' original catalog), I would like to see people's lists of their ten favorite ("best") group tracks, contrasted with the five worst. (Please restrict to actual songs (even if not self-authored), not "Revolution 9," "Wild Honey Pie," or any of the historical junk on the ANTHOLOGY series).

Mine:

10 BEST
1) "Across The Universe" (original LET IT BE album version)
2) "We Can Work It Out"
3) "Penny Lane"
4) "Norwegian Wood"
5) "Here Comes The Sun"
6) "Eleanor Rigby"
7) "Something"

"You've Got To Hide Your Love Away"
9) "Mother Nature's Son"
10) "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"

    5 WORST
1) "You Know My Name"  (makes even "What's The New Mary Jane" sound good by comparison)
2) "Little Child" (by the 1970's John actually forgot he wrote this turkey, wrongly attributing it to George)
3) "Til There Was You"  (Paul's elaborate explanation on his last tour about why they did this song doesn't make it any better)
4) "Mr. Moonlight" (at least the soap opera organ makes it funny)
5) "Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey" (unfortunately typical of the noticable decline in John's previously non-pareil songwriting that occurred in 1968/1969; thankfully, Paul's and George's increased and improved output compensated during the last two years of the Beatles's career.)

Indica · « **Reply #1 on:** February 20, 2006, 12:52:58 PM »

Just to mix the opinion thing up

Mr Moonlight - I have to agree about the organ solo - but the first 20 seconds of Lennon's vocal has the typical John twang - I love it.

Til There Was You - The Palladium version is outstanding. Harrison's guitar work and Mccartney's vocal (although nervous) blows me away.

Oh, and the sort of funk bass that comes in on the end of Everybody's Got Something to Hide is well .. funky

I don't think the Beatles were ever serious about 'You Know My Name' - I wouldn't class it as a song* even tho technically it is.

raxo · « **Reply #2 on:** February 20, 2006, 06:45:14 PM »

1 of your 5 worst is in my top-10 and another 1 in my top-30 ...

adamzero · « **Reply #3 on:** February 20, 2006, 09:32:36 PM »

Not in the Top Ten?  A Day in the Life; Come Together; Blackbird; Strawberry Fields Forever . . .

I think "Little Child" is catchy and of the period.  "Till There was You" is a great cover.  The Beatles did alot worse than Monkey.  YKMY (LUTN) is worth the "slaggers" (?) reference and Brian Jones sax.  Mr Moonlight is sub-par material, but the opening vocal is pretty great.

Mother Nature's Son is okay (especially on headphones where you can hear all the horns), but it's not the best Paul song on the White Album.

That's the great thing about the Beatles popularity and says something about their general high quality.  Most of us would probably agree on Dylan crap or Stones crap, but it's alot harder with the Beatles.

john.k.walker · « **Reply #4 on:** February 21, 2006, 06:26:45 AM »

The unedited version of YKNM on ANTHOLOGY with Jones' extended sax solo improves the track a little, but the "song" itself is still crap.  And yes, it's humorous, but L-McC proved many times that it was possible to be funny and tuneful.

For the record, and off the top of my head, my next ten best is heavily Lennon-oriented.  However, by Fab standards, I detest "Come Together," which epitomizes my comment about John's 1968 - '69 songwriting.:

11) "Ticket To Ride"
12) "A Day In The Life"
13) "Strawberry Fields Forever"
14) "Yesterday"  (I wish everyone could see the first real exposure I had to this song, in a tremendous TV movie called "The Morning After" about alcoholism with D. Van Dyke, who really is an alcoholic.  I think they played the actual 1965 original, but am not sure, having not seen the program in about 30 years.  Does anyone know?).
15) "Old Brown Shoe"
16) "You're Gonna Lose That Girl"
17) "Baby, You're A Rich Man"
18) "I've Just Seen A Face"
19) "For No One"
20) "Here, There, And Everywhere"

It's really not accurate to even label these sorts of lists as "opinion," which is a proper basis for argument -- just "taste" (which is not).

The original (pre-ANTHOLOGY) Beatles' studio catalog of (by my count) 212 tracks truly is about 98% good-to-excellent, which is why it was such a propitious (if ugly) occurrence that they broke up when they did.  And everyone interested should also survey the approx. 20 Lennon-McCartney given to others and not on group releases (all but 3 by Paul, which is why the group's 1963 and 1964 are so heavily skewed to John, even though the two were equally prolific during that period); ditto George's "Badge" (the Cream track heard frequently) and great "Sour Milk Sea" by Jackie Lomax (excluding the Beatles' demo version from ANTHOLOGY 3 irritated me no end).

ma_tt2 · « **Reply #5 on:** February 21, 2006, 07:05:18 AM »

Hmm looks like I'll be the first to make my own 10 best and 5 worst beside john.k.walker

10 Best:

1. Something
2. A Day In The Life
3. Revolution 1
4. Let It Be
5. She Loves You
6. Happiness Is A Warm Gun
7. Hey Bulldog
8. Here, There and Everywhere
9. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
10. Its All Too Much

Keep in mind this is just a list of the moment.

5 Worst (the hard part)

1. Little Child
2. Dizzy Miss Lizzy
3. Devil In Her Heart
4. A Taste Of Honey
5. The Word (IMO Rubber Soul would have been perfect without this)

john.k.walker · « **Reply #6 on:** February 21, 2006, 05:06:53 PM »

"Dizzy Miss Lizzy" (the weakest of their three Larry Williams covers) was my next choice for the worst list; it really drags down the UK "Help!" album, just as you mentioned that "The Word" does with RUBBER SOUL (as also does "Wait," which was actually a "Help!" outtake). A while back I posted my fantasy slight rearrangement of The Beatles's album tracklists, which included selectively combining the UK and US RUBBER SOUL variations.

I also don't like "Rock 'N' Roll Music," just because I have never thought it was much of a song. (Berry's original and the Beach Boys's 1976 hit cover doesn't impress me either.) I wish The Beatles had done more Buddy Holly covers than just "Words of Love" (along with their BBC "Crying, Waiting, Hoping"), as well as some Everly Brothers ones (such as the BBC "So How Come"). And although he was a great guy, and I'm happy he benefitted financially, I don't much care for Carl Perkins' three songs in The Beatle's catalog either. (On the other hand, George's and Ringo's appearance on Carl's cable special, performing these songs, was tremendous.) Obviously, "Blue Suede Shoes," which is on John's LIVE PEACE IN TORONTO album, was his best song....

BTW, back in the 1980's Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues (my #2 all-time favorite group) said on Scott Muni's radio show that "Hey Bulldog" was his #1 favorite Beatles track.

Also, George's quote reminds me of how Hawkeye Pierce responded to Col. Flagg's statement that he had "written permission to die" in his spying activities: "If we had more people like you, we'd have less people like you."

raxo · « **Reply #7 on:** February 21, 2006, 08:48:30 PM »

Quote from: john.k.walker

The unedited version of YKNM on ANTHOLOGY with Jones' extended sax solo improves the track a little, but the "song" itself is still crap.  And yes, it's humorous, but L-McC proved many times that it was possible to be funny and tuneful.

For the record, and off the top of my head, my next ten best is heavily Lennon-oriented.  However, by Fab standards, I detest "Come Together," which epitomizes my comment about John's 1968 - '69 songwriting.:

11) "Ticket To Ride"
12) "A Day In The Life"
13) "Strawberry Fields Forever"
14) "Yesterday"  (I wish everyone could see the first real exposure I had to this song, in a tremendous TV movie called "The Morning After" about alcoholism with D. Van Dyke, who really is an alcoholic.  I think they played the actual 1965 original, but am not sure, having not seen the program in about 30 years.  Does anyone know?).
15) "Old Brown Shoe"
16) "You're Gonna Lose That Girl"
17) "Baby, You're A Rich Man"
18) "I've Just Seen A Face"
19) "For No One"
20) "Here, There, And Everywhere"

It's really not accurate to even label these sorts of lists as "opinion," which is a proper basis for argument -- just "taste" (which is not).

The original (pre-ANTHOLOGY) Beatles' studio catalog of (by my count) 212 tracks truly is about 98% good-to-excellent, which is why it was such a propitious (if ugly) occurrence that they broke up when they did.  And everyone interested should also survey the approx. 20 Lennon-McCartney given to others and not on group releases (all but 3 by Paul, which is why the group's 1963 and 1964 are so heavily skewed to John, even though the two were equally prolific during that period); ditto George's "Badge" (the Cream track heard frequently) and great "Sour Milk Sea" by Jackie Lomax (excluding the Beatles' demo version from ANTHOLOGY 3 irritated me no end).

Curious, your 10-20 best are nearer to my top-10 ... obviously without some ones like Old Brown Shoe (one of their weakest ones for me).

It seems that John and Paul liked You Know My Name (Look Up My Number) ... John wanted it for a single and Paul said what he said about it: probably his favourite one. What a world this one!

zipp · « **Reply #8 on:** February 21, 2006, 11:13:26 PM »

Everybody's Trying to be My Baby
Maggie Mae
Mister Moonlight
Run For Your Life
You Know My Name

Mean_Mr_Mustard · « **Reply #9 on:** February 22, 2006, 02:57:25 PM »

10 best:

1. Nowhere Man
2. Sexy Sadie
3. She Said She Said
4. Baby You're A Rich Man
5. Inner Light
6. I'll Cry Instead
7. I'm A Loser
8. Hey Bulldog
9. It Won't Be Long
10. I Don't Want To Spoil The Party

5 Worst:

1. Till There Was You
2. She's Leaving Home
3. Hey Jude
4. Eleanor Rigby
5. Helter Skelter

I'm not saying I dont like those songs, they are just my least favorite.

ma_tt2 · « **Reply #10 on:** February 22, 2006, 04:34:09 PM »

Your 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th worst ones are all in my top 20.

Mairi · « **Reply #11 on:** February 22, 2006, 04:38:34 PM »

Yeah, same with me! I guess everyone has different tastes though, You know, I HATE I Am The Walrus!

Kevin · « **Reply #12 on:** February 22, 2006, 04:51:58 PM »

Quote from: ma_tt2

Your 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th worst ones are all in my top 20.

Ditto.

Kevin · « **Reply #13 on:** February 22, 2006, 04:52:35 PM »

Quote from: Mairi

You know, I HATE I Am The Walrus!

Go to your room!!!!

Kevin · « **Reply #14 on:** February 22, 2006, 05:08:40 PM »

I'll just do my bottom five

1. Michelle
2. Good Morning Good Morning
3. Octopuses Garden
4. Baby's in Black
5. Till There was you

« **Reply #15 on:** February 28, 2006, 12:42:21 AM »

Hi, this is my first posting on this comprehensive forum, very interesting posts on this thread I have to say, and this list may contain no surprises, but here goes:

Top ten (very difficult(!) and in no order of importance):

1. Tomorrow Never Knows
2. I'm Only Sleeping
3. The Long And Winding Road
4. Strawberry Fields
5. Happiness is a Warm Gun
6. Got to Get You into My Life
7. It's All Too Much
8. A Day in the Life
9. Across the Universe
10. Getting Better

*whew* that was hard and that list constantly changes as well, part of the beauty of being a lifelong fan of the best band that ever was!

Five worst:

1. Act Naturally
2. Don't Bother Me
3. Dizzy Miss Lizzy
4. Run For Your Life
5. Honey Pie

Whoever said that Lennon's songs began to suffer circa 1968?

? I think his songs on the White Album are among the best he ever wrote, and it is really only on 'Let it Be' that his output suffered, there are gems of his on 'Abbey Road'!!! His songwriting began to lapse after 'Imagine' and not before IMO.

ma_tt2 · « **Reply #16 on:** February 28, 2006, 02:35:32 AM »

Your 2nd and 5th worst would probably fit in my top 30 best. And I agree about Lennon's songwriting not suffering until after Imagine.

raxo · « **Reply #17 on:** February 28, 2006, 04:25:40 PM »

Very welcome to the forums, ziggysawdust. I'm sure you're going to enjoy them.

1969 and 1970 were not good years for John, when we're talking about songwriting ... some good songs, yep, ... but a lot of (more) mediocre ones too. Always ups and downs for everybody ... not only for Paul!

hannah999 · « **Reply #18 on:** February 28, 2006, 05:35:48 PM »

top 10
1. run for your life
2. hey bulldog
3. tell me what you see
4. for no one
5. i am the waulrus
6. eight days a week
7. blackbird
8. here comes the sun
9. the word
10. everyones got something to hide except from me and my monkey

worst 5
1. rocky racoon (that song annoys me sooo much!)
2. michelle
3. octupus's garden
4. help
5. get back

ma_tt2 · « **Reply #19 on:** March 01, 2006, 05:44:53 AM »

A lot of surprises in both those lists hannah999.

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