On Thursday, July 8, 2021 at 5:33:57 PM UTC-4, cuppajoe2go wrote:
On Thursday, July 8, 2021 at 5:31:32 AM UTC-7, Norbert K wrote:
1. "Ticket to Ride." The culmination of four years of writing all day and gigging all night. I chose this song to represent the entire body of work through late 1964. There are *many* other candidates. This is a formulaic pop sng created by a
craftsman (John Lennon in this case) at the peak of his form. This was as far as two electric guitars, bass, drums, and a hook line could take them. From here on out the boys were in uncharted territory.
2. "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away." Lennon making the kind of deeply personal statement previously reserved for his prose-poetry meanderings (In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works) for the first time on a Beatles record.
3. "Yesterday." Paul McCartney sticks to the formula but takes it to another level and beyond a teenage audience.
4. "Nowhere Man." Lennon applies his newfound lyrical voice to a melodic rocker.
5. "Norwegian Wood." Lennon penned blues for the sexual revolution in which he wakes up and finds that the *girl* has gone.
6. "Michelle." McCartney tries out his high school French over a stunning cafe-inspired melody.
7. "Eleanor Rigby." The darkest, and therefore my favorite, Paul McCartney song.
8. "Strawberry Fields Forever." Groundbreaking, impressionistic Lennon lyrics that inspired what producer George Martin referred to as the "song picture" recording process of the Sgt. Pepper sessions and set the course for the album-oriented music
industry of the next thirty years.
9. "Hey Jude." McCartney keeps us singing along for seven minutes and eleven seconds.
10. "Something." Sadly, none of us will ever know what this list would look like had George Harrison been a few years older. Working in the shadow of Lennon and McCartney had to be a somewhat less-than-nurturing environment for a fledgling songwriter,
if not downright intimidating. Years of fighting for his place on Beatles albums vindicated him in the end, however. "Something" has been covered more than any other Beatles song with the exception of "Yesterday."
Well, that's my list, and I'm sticking to it. Compiling it was challenging. Defending it is futile, as glaring omissions are unavoidable when one is asked to choose only ten songs from the greatest catalog in pop music history. Criticism of art in
any form is a thankless task at best, , especially for an artist, and here, at the end of my labors I find myself wondering if my agreed fee will be adequate compensation for the anguish of the past twenty-four hours. If not, then perhaps you, the reader,
may afford me one compensation.
The next time you find yourself tempted to equate Oasis with the Beatles, refer to this list.
-- Steve Earle
Great read.
I think so, too. Glad you liked it. It is indeed a challenge to try to pick ten favorite Beatles songs.
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