Paul doing "Aaahhh" on "Lovely Rita" I reckon.
But I'll never hear anyone but John when I listen to the "Aaahhh" on "A Day In The Life"
The best closure of a Beatles album since the barnstorming Twist And Shout,
A Day In The Life must rank as their most truly awesome (in the real sense of the word) track.
Within You Without You is more profound, but is lumbered with George's saturnine vocal and a ponderous vibe whereas ADITL simply soars.
A Little Help From My Friends was easily Ringo's finest moment to date, and
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds is the definitive Pepper track for me - absolute genius with its hallucinatory merry-go-round melody. I love
Getting Better and
Fixing A Hole equally - they both have the bright and shiny rainbow coloured stamp of the album about them and I always think of them as sister tracks somehow - two sides of the same coin.
Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite! nails the Victorian carnival fairground atmosphere perfectly (largely thanks to George Martin of course - and not for the first time).
The only tracks I don't much care for on side one are the opening theme (but then again it's only really a warm up/scene setter - I prefer the reprise on side two which is much snappier and rockier) and
She's Leaving Home which never fits with the rest of the album for me I'm afraid. Too slushy and old fashioned in a way, and at the same time puncturing the dreaminess of the Pepper bubble with its flat, forlorn, humdrum message. That harp promised so much before we were jolted awake into that bleak workaday morning. You can almost hear the milk float and the drizzle above dad's snoring. Too dreary, I want to fall back into the dreams please! Never much cared for it myself though I know it's a highlight for many fans. By comparison
When I'm Sixty Four at least has a jaunty mischievous feel to it which I personally find hard to dislike. And who couldn't love
Lovely Rita with that spangly guitaaahhh aaahhhhr intro and the cheeky comb and paper?
Good Morning Good Morning is another one of the album's few weak spots for me; I can take it or leave it to be honest - perhaps the nearest thing to a filler on this wonderful recording.
How about that LP cover then? Talk about a visual and aural collage....here they went again, blazing trails and setting trends. Fantastic album all round of course...but a sort of psychedelic vaudevillian time capsule which perfectly preserved the zeitgeist of the summer of love in amber- and has consequently dated much more obviously than Revolver, which refuses to be pinned down or categorised.
You've got to hand it to Paul, he had the chutzpah to remould the Beatles as an alter ego travelling sideshow band and the result was an unassailable triumph with John, Ringo, and a strangely subdued George on board.
Paul was the only one who didn't suit a moustache though.