About a month ago, my good friend Chris and I were strolling through Central Park. Since we're good boys, we made a pilgrimage to Strawberry Fields. Once we paid our respects to one of the greatest hippies ever, I mused that it would be difficult to whittle down my favorite Beatles songs to a top 10 list. A few days later, at a bar in Brooklyn, I told my homie and fellow blogsmith, Justin “Ticket to Ride!” Goldman about this thought I had. Two pints deep, copping a fluffy buzz, Justin did not hesitate to ask the bartender for a pen. “Let's do this right now,” he said, or something like that, and off we went. Within a few minutes, this is what we produced:
 |
| The napkin with the more handsome writing is, of course, mine. |
I was floored. I figured coming up with a top 10 Beatles list would be arduous, the musical equivalent of coming up with a top 10 list of favorite Simpsons episodes, which took weeks to research. But there it was—a list. A beer shit. I knew I might change my mind on the flight back home, but all in all, I figured it would stick.
Before I launch into my list, a few historical notes are in order. The Beatles have always been one of my favorite bands. I can thank mi hermanita, Carmen, for bringing them into my world. One of the sweeter memories I have from our childhood is listening to her play The Beatles: 1962-1966 over and over from her bedroom so many times that I began to memorize the songs. Because I wanted to be different, and because I didn't want her calling me “a copycat,” I bought their Blue Album and gravitated toward those songs. When I was seventeen and depressed, those songs comforted me a lot, especially Lennon's compositions. Although I don't listen to The Beatles as much as I did in my late teens or early twenties, I can still recite practically all of the 108 songs I own. And when I feel a malaise from being alive in this crazy world—like yesterday, for example—listening and singing or humming along to the Beatles more often than not still cheers me up.
In short, I can't and wouldn't want to imagine a world without their music.
But enough fluff, here's my top 10! And if you love these music lists, check out my homeboy's top 10 write-up.
I hope I passed the audition. : 0 )
10. Julia
Album: The White Album
Okay, so let me get this out of the way because it will inevitably merit discussion at some point in this post: John was my favorite Beatle. He was my favorite Beatle when I first fell in love with their music when I was a teenager, and he still is two decades later. (God, I'm getting old. That's great!) Whereas I can easily come up with a top 10 list of Paul McCartney songs that annoy me (“Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” would probably be my #1. And I know I'm in the minority here, but “Hey Jude” would be a top candidate as well), it's going to be hard for me to ever come up with a list of Lennon songs I outright dislike. He's my boy. Now that I think about it, I would wager that people rarely ever change their favorite Beatle. That's just my suspicion.
But anyway—Julia. What a song. I rarely ever listen to it. I'm rarely in the mood that the song requires from me, but I think it's John's most tender song. That counts for something in my book. And it's a song of such pure beauty. Fortunately for me, I could never relate to John losing his mother at such a young age, but knowing that he lost her when he was a teenager always made me empathize with his music even more.
For me, the main difference between Lennon and McCartney as composers is that Lennon was more forthright, honest, and far more willing to be vulnerable in his songwriting. When the Beatles were blowing up, John was the one who broke away from their lovey dovey boy-band material to write “Help!” And “Julia,” a homage to his dead mother, is another prime example of how he was consistently willing to play from the depths of his heart, to play from the pain to compose beauty.
Album: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
When we shared our handwritten lists, I remember Justin asked me why I picked this song. He told me it annoyed him, and I can see that. Plus, I just now spent a paragraph discussing how Lennon was more willing to write from the heart than McCartney, and then number nine on my list is a whimsical, not heartfelt song. Ay.
8. Day Tripper
Album: Yesterday and Today
What a surprise—another John Lennon song! “Day Tripper” makes my cut primarily because it has my favorite Beatles riff (“I Feel Fine” is a dandy one, too), which Lennon lifted from Roy Orbison's “Oh, Pretty Woman.” It's a playful ditty, and, on its sonic veneer, deceptively innocent; The Beatles wrote it in 1965, henceforth known as ABD (After meeting Bobby D), which means these mopped-haired mofos were up to their ass in weed. Paul acknowledged that the song is about drugs, which is probably why I like it so much (although that opening tambourine is quite delicious and perfect, no?)
7. Here, There and Everywhere
Album: Revolver
A few weeks ago, this song came up on random play from my iPod. Outside, the sun was setting. The sky was a soft, drab, comforting gray. I texted Justin: “If I ever did heroin, 'Here, There and Everywhere' is the one Beatles song I would listen to.”
This song is exquisite. Paul's double-layered vocals feel dreamy, and the backing vocals provide a soothing backdrop along with the bare guitar chords. “Here, There and Everywhere” feels genuinely sorrowful, melancholy and mysteriously uplifting at the same time; that's what makes it stand out for me. There's something enchanting about this song. Score one for Paul.
6. And I Love Her
6. And I Love Her
Album: A Hard Day’s Night
Now score two for Paul!
This is the part of my post where I start rationalizing my selections by saying, This is one of my favorite songs to sing along to. Well, this is one of my favorite songs to sing along to—well, at least in the privacy of my car. I wouldn't ever want to sing this song in front of people because I suspect I'd get a little emotional. I am weird like that, but this song is just so gorgeous, so perfect it can make me cry listening to it. (I got this trait from my dad.) And the acoustic solo—so simple but so goddamn perfect. Not one word, not one note you would want to change from this gem.
5. I Want You (She's So Heavy)
Album: Abbey Road
Here's the first of my three selections from Abbey Road. John wrote this song about Yoko, shortly after she began to sink her claws in him. (For many, many years, I was not resentful of Yoko and the ridiculous claims that she was partly responsible for the break-up of the band. But after I watched this clip of her singing like an attention-seeking banshee, I firmly slid her over to My Shit List. Bill Burr is spot-on with his analysis.) Musically, it's one of The Beatles' more progressive songs. Back when I used to play bass guitar, I tried to play the tablature to this song, and goddamn it's a difficult, intricate line; it's a prime, prime example of Paul's virtuoso playing—Exhibit A or B of how he revolutionized the instrument for rock 'n' roll.
From an emotional standpoint, I love the mounting despair, peaking with Lennon's primal Yoko-like scream during the third verse. And then the looping three-minute outro with mounting white noise: fuck me. Still sometimes just sucks me in, man. Though I've never played Abbey Road on vinyl, what an astounding way to end Side 1. It has to be one of the greatest end-of-Side-One songs in rock history.
4. Yesterday
Album: Help!
The world's most covered song? Probably. My favorite McCartney song? Probably.
Like many of my favorite songs, this one is oozing with melancholia. Although the song doesn't feel like McCartney was thinking of someone specific, the sense of loss he conveys feels genuine.
And score one for the power of dreaming! Like Keith Richards' riff for “I Can't Get No (Satisfaction),” “Yesterday” was a melody that McCartney awoke with.
3. Across the Universe
Album: Let It Be
If The Jesus came back, slinging a six string, I think he might have written this song.
According to Wikipedia, music critic Richie Unterberger said “Across the Universe” was "one of the group's most delicate and cosmic ballads.” What a succinct way to describe this song—a cosmic ballad. The 5th Beatle, George Martin, did a masterful job recording this song. Lennon's vocals sound spacey, and the opening guitar notes sound like a sitar. Although Lennon was unhappy with the recording of the song, in particular the usage of strings, I think it added the feel-good-cosmic feel that makes this song stand out. I think it would have been a good but unspectacular ballad if the production were sparser.
Along with “I Am the Walrus,” this song has some of my favorite Lennon lyrics. In particular, the lyrics, Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my open mind /
Possessing and caressing me are so quintessentially John. To me, the song feels like it could have been his credo, especially the chorus, Nothing's gonna change my world. And when I listen to this song, despite all the ugliness happening out there in the world and being deposited in the Interwebs, the chorus feels like my declaration, too.
2. Because
Album: Abbey Road
I've always been a sucker for a resoundingly sad and beautiful song. “Because” is both. It feels like it acknowledges both the overwhelming beauty and pain that comes with being alive in this world. When I first listened to Lennon sing Because the sky is blue, it makes me cry, I felt a window open. The words, the tone he sung it in made me immediately understand, and it was the first time I can remember any person conveying that feeling.
1. Here Comes the Sun
Album: Abbey Road
Originally, this was my #2 song on this list. But once I reframed it as if I were asking myself, if you had time to listen to only one more Beatles song, which one would it be?, this George Harrison song sprouted to the top. I wasn't much of a fan of this song when I was younger, but the older I get, the more beautiful and astounding this song seems to become for me.
In reading up about these songs, I discovered that in 2008 NASA transmitted "Across the Universe" in the direction of the star Polaris, using a gigantic antenna outside Madrid, Spain. Although I love that song, I wish they would have transmitted this one instead. If any alien life form picked up the signal, I think this song would be a great example of what beauty we humans are capable of.
Honorable Mentions:
Drive My Car
I'm Only Sleeping (Take One) - from The Beatles Anthology, Vol. 1
Dear Prudence
Michelle
In My Life
Do You Want to Know a Secret?
Back in the U.S.S.R.
No comments:
Post a Comment