Aug 262011
 

Picking up on what was most likely the most horrible feature ever proposed here in the halls… It’s like Dugout Chatter but laser focused and violent. It’s anathema to all that Rock Town Hall stands for. But the concept is simple. A question is posed. You answer it as quickly as possible with zero qualifications as if you had a… gun to the head. Ready?

Q: For you, what’s the most overrated Beatles song?

That is, what’s the Beatles song you know is good, that you’re not necessarily sick of hearing, yet you think to yourself whenever it comes on, You know what, this song is overrated.

I know there’s a gun to your head, but think about it: Your most overrated Beatles song should be a song that is by all accounts, even your own, actually a good (maybe even really good) song. It should be a song good enough that you once liked it—or still like it. It should be more than a great song that you’re simply sick of hearing. And finally, it should not be a song that you simply suggest is overrated because you hate Paul McCartney. In other words, don’t waste your opinion on “Michelle” or “Yesterday,” which I would argue are actually very good songs but songs that it is assumed we are too cool to have ever thought were anything but overrated.

Got me? My nomination for Most Overrated Beatles Song follows…after the jump.

A: “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”

I like “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” There are many things that are very cool about “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” such as the repeating break and the overall dried-out sludge of the song’s production. There are cool stories about “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” Any Beatles-loving songwriter owes it to him- or herself to try to write a song in the style of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” Add it up, however, and I don’t think “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is as great a song as its reputation.

If John and Paul had written the song it would have been considered merely a “very good,” even “cool,” album track. It’s slow. It goes on forever. No single lyric matches the song’s excellent title. If Clapton wasn’t called in to coax out double bends during the long fade—and if Clapton wasn’t mixed up in a love triangle with Yoko or Linda—I don’t think the song would rate as high in Beatles lore.

These are my opinions, and I’m sticking by them as I publicly state my public belief that “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is the Most Overrated Beatles Song.

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  156 Responses to “Gun to the Head: What’s the Most Overrated Beatles Song?”

  1. Simple, and I discussed it yesterday only to find myself as the receiving end of paroxysms of shock, horror, and dismay as a result:

    “Don’t Let Me Down”

    I’m not giving an inch.

  2. misterioso

    Beat me to the punch, there, tony–I was going to preempt you. Well played. (Though, of course, you are still nuts.)

  3. A lot of Beatles fans, myself included, love that song, but is it commonly rated as a GREAT Beatles song? I don’t think so. I am hoping we can focus on the commonly acknowledged heavy hitters, the songs that a Young Tonyola once felt compelled to nod along and agree with his local Breakfast with the Beatles jock that he was admiring a GREAT Beatles song.

  4. “All You Need is Love”

  5. misterioso

    Sorry, and you can press cop-out charges if you want, but I cannot think of a Beatle song that is widely thought to be great that I don’t think is great. I’m not going to get into angels-on-the-head-of-a-pin deliberations such as, “Well, I’m not sure ‘All You Need Is Love’ is quite as great as people think it is.” ‘Cause, even though it isn’t among my top faves of Beatle singles, it is still pretty great. So, I must thwart Mod’s egregious attempt to forestall the action of the healing balm spread by ladymisskirroyale in her poignant posting which said, in essence: Just Shut Up, even the Beatles’ lesser songs are pretty terrific, so get stuffed you wankers.

  6. misterioso

    That was written before I read Oats, by the way!

  7. Reviewers everywhere fell over themselves declaring “Don’t Let Me Down” to be a classic. Rolling Stone coozed over it. Tim Riley praised it to the skies in his Tell Me Why book.

    From Allmusic:

    “Don’t Let Me Down” was one of the Beatles’ most powerful love songs, used for the B-side of “Get Back,” and fairly popular on its own merit, reaching the Top 40 under its own steam. The principal composer for this outing was lead singer John Lennon, who delivered one of his most soulful vocals ever for the track: a vocal that conveyed soulful ecstasy and desperation.

    Nope, I never nodded along with “Don’t Let Me Down”. Never liked it.

  8. [Sound of gun firing.]

  9. saturnismine

    Hey Jude.

    Mod…did my comments about the second part of that song prompt this thread?

    I mean, the first part is great. We all love it.

    But the second part…who here among us listens to that and marvels at *anything* in it? Is there any aspect of of “Hey Jude’s” second half that is worthy of the grandiose accolades that song has received over the years?

    It’s way too long, and qualifies as an uncreative way to give a humble, unpretentious piano number — one that could give great pleasure on its own — an epic ending.

    Moreover, it gave birth to songs like “We Are the World” and Foreigner’s “I Wanna Know What Love Is.”

  10. misterioso

    I regret nothing…morituri te salutant.

  11. BigSteve

    “Something”

  12. saturnismine

    You twist in the wind, my friend…a voice in the wilderness you are.

    But to each his own.

    “Cooze” as a verb? Not bad, Tone, not bad.

  13. misterioso

    Ooops. That was in response to Mod’s gunplay.

  14. No, I read that comment as I was putting the finiishing touches on my piece. I did note the congruence of ideas, and the long fade on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is part of the problem for me. I can see how “Hey, Jude” would qualify under the “Most Overrated” banner. For years I dug McCartney’s scat-shouting during the fade – and the way the band sells the singalong chorus. I still do find that pretty amazing in its time, and the first part of the song still gets to me, but your honest answer regarding an acknowledged great Beatles tune is appreciated.

  15. saturnismine

    so…no gun firing for me?

  16. pudman13

    Well, without any question whatsoever, the most overrated Beatles-related song is “Imagine.” But the most overrated song actually by the Beatles? I guess in order to answer this question we need to think in terms of both public popularity and critical acclaim. i.e. I can’t say “Long And Winding Road,” which was a #1 single, because a lot of people have criticized it over the years. I also can’t say “Free As a Bird,” which generally got good press even though it absolutely blows, because that’s not really a Beatles song imo. I’m looking at the big hits and though I think a few of the early ones are a bit weak, they’re hardly ones that today are considered among the band’s best songs (i.e. “From Me To You”), so that’s out. I think SGT. PEPPER is their most overrated album, for sure, but I do think “A Day In My Life” is brilliant so I’m not going to go there, and while I’m not a big fan of, say, “Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite,” it’s again not really so highly praised that it means much to call it overrated. Suddenly, I’m finding this really difficult—I actually like all of the classics. I think I have to go with “All You Need is Love,” which I like a lot musically but find pretty simple-minded.

  17. I love the second half of “Hey Jude” and marvel at all of it – the way it continues to build, the changes in sound as it progresses, and its mantra-like quality. It turns a very beautiful song into an epic masterpiece and I never tire of it. I’ll bet most listeners feel the same way. “Hey Jude” broke the three-minute barrier for singles forever. When it was first released, Top 40 stations tried fading it early only to get endless howls of protests from listeners, and it still spent nine weeks at #1 on the Billboard charts. It was the lengthiest #1 hit until 1993.

    You can join me on the desert island I’ve been deported to for my stand on “Don’t Let Me Down”.

  18. See my reply to your opinion on “Hey Jude”. You might be joining me in the wilderness.

  19. pudman13

    I agree with Tony about “Hey Jude.” If you listen to every song that came in its wake and tried the same thing, none of them even came close to it. It’s one of those things that should be boring (i.e. where’s the guitar solo?) but just plain isn’t, kind of like how Dylan can strech songs out to ten minutes with verse after verse and they work, but when anyone else does it I doze off.

  20. BigSteve

    I thought it was Like a Rolling Stone that broke the rule that radio singles had to be short. I was a top ten hit in the summer of ’65, and it was a shade over six minutes long. Hey Jude, three years later, may have broken the seven-minute barrier.

  21. To make this harder on everyone I wish I had found a way to rule out “All You Need Is Love,” but I did not and will not. Answer accepted! This is likely to be a popular one, I’m sure. Seriously, thanks for working through the thought process as transparently as you did. I hope all Townspeople take this question as seriously as we have.

  22. In the St. Louis radio market, the Top 40 stations always played an edited version of “Like A Rolling Stone” with the last couple of verses missing. I remember this very well as I never heard the full version until a few years later on FM.

  23. 2000 Man

    We reach on this one, for sure. I’ll toss the first part into the dumper with the second part. A greater cure for insomnia has never been found.

  24. “Day Tripper”: Sure, the guitar riff is cool, but the chorus is a big letdown, and the chord progression is too bloozy for my liking.

  25. bostonhistorian

    I don’t like the Beatles particularly, so there are far far far too many songs for me to consider. I’m paralyzed by choice.

  26. I’m gonna go with “Come Together.” I’ve never really enjoyed the song, and lyrically it always just felt like Lennon was trying to be “Lennon” on it. By that, I mean the imagery and word play never struck me as groovy as “I Am the Walrus,” “Strawberry Fields Forever,” and so on. He got lazy enough to crib from Chuck Berry on it, and the rest of it doesn’t feel any more original. I’ll still take it over Aerosmith’s cover of it, though.

  27. saturnismine

    As usual, you make good points, Tone. And as I said above, to each his own.

    I have no way of knowing this, but I suspect that by this point in time, more and more listeners who profess admiration for the entire song do turn it off once it reaches the second part, because of what was always there: repetition, repetition, repetition. We all know what’s coming. The orchestral buildup and Paul’s scats give it some extra mileage, but really, those are cheap tricks, aren’t they?

    I mean, at least Stairway to Heaven’s second part has a guitar solo and some lyrics and some good drum fills to keep us listening.

    Keep in mind, Tone, that all this criticism is coming from a guy who absolutely LOVES (and his made his share of) repetitive music in the mode of Spacemen 3. Even a dronehead like me finds the end of Hey Jude to be unimaginative and boring.

    Also, remember that my submission of Hey Jude is in response to a request for *highly rated* Beatles songs. Many would have Jude at the top of their list of best Beatle songs. It’s not that I think the song is a disaster. I think it’s quite good. I just don’t think it’s worthy of such a high rating.

    I’m also not really concerned with the barriers it broke.

    It could be the first song to feature the sound of a butter knife on a burnt piece of toast — and what an achievement that would be, no? — and it wouldn’t matter in the context of this thread.

    If anything, the fact that its breaking of the 3 minute mark is so freaking celebrated makes it all the more overrated.

    It’s long, but by *those particular means*? Then so what? A 7 minute song that makes you forget it’s 7 minutes is preferable to one that starts doing the same thing after 3 minutes or so.

  28. saturnismine

    2k: how do you feel about the end of “Can’t Always Get What You Want?”

  29. Are you good at fishing and do you like coconuts? Necessary things on the island we’re gonna share.

    I’ve never heard a person deliberately discontinue “Hey Jude” except in emergencies, then or now.

  30. saturnismine

    Oh…I see how it works: you disagree with me. Therefore, I might be alone in my opinion.

    O…kay.

    Now…more about this usage of the word “cooze” as a verb, please.

  31. saturnismine

    Do you really expect that people would turn it off in mixed company?

    do you know how people behave around other people?

    It looks like 2k will be joining us.

    And the mod also “understands how Hey Jude would qualify.”

    You, on the other hand, are all alone with “Don’t Let Me Down.”

    and your fantasy of me joining you on an island is beginning to make me uncomfortable.

  32. misterioso

    Unless “cooze” as a verb is used to refer to the act of making a no-look pass on the fast break, I’m not sure what it means.

  33. misterioso

    Oh, c’mon. That’s like blaming John Coltrane for Kenny G. Play fair.

  34. misterioso

    tony, my memory may be faulty, but I think Like a Rolling Stone was released to djs in a 2-sided version but the commercially available 45 was full length, with Gates of Eden as the b-side.

  35. saturnismine

    yeah…it was probably a cheap shot. But it works for me because I don’t think Hey Jude is John Coltrane.

    I will concede, however, think that Kenny G is “We are the World.”

  36. GREAT one! I’ve always felt like a schmuck for losing interest halfway through that song. Now I know I’m not alone.

  37. misterioso

    True, apparently there are other schmucks! Day Tripper is pretty much the acme of middle-period Beatles cool.

  38. Even as a 12 year old I heard this song as pap. I didn’t yet know that you could be “on something” when writing music, but if I did, I would have exclaimed a critique to that effect. As it is, and I love the message of the song, don’t get me wrong, but from Le Marseillaise through all the forced orchestral inclusions to the fade-out, I always thought they were trying too hard. I respect it as a product of the times, but that’s about it.

  39. saturnismine

    the more I think about it, the more certain I am that nobody on god’s green earth would *ever* turn off the second part of Hey Jude around you, seeing how vehemently you argue in its favor. Who would want to bring on *that* shitstorm?

  40. alexmagic

    The calling card on Day Tripper for me – the part I listen for any time I hear it – is the way they change up the “sooooo long” each pass through, especially the difference between the second and final time they hit it.

  41. saturnismine

    Yup. The cooze in the bridge of that song…it’s to *die* for!

  42. cliff sovinsanity

    “I Am The Walrus” for me, without a doubt. Silly ass mumblings of an acid head with silly ass whooo-ing. If this had been released by any other successful band at that time it would’ve been laughed at and mocked for years.
    I await your egg throwing…

  43. cliff sovinsanity

    Explain yourself Mr. Big

  44. I’m still down with the Walrus, especially in German True Stereo, but I can see how that (and “Come Together,” which konajinx, I believe, mentioned) would be a candidate. Anything in that vein that followed “Strawberry Fields Forever” was bound to disappoint.

  45. misterioso

    I am the eggman: egg #1, duly launched in your direction. A stinky, rotten egg. What an amazing song–an amazing sounding song, even if you upset by the obscurity of the words. Here’s a towel, clean yourself up.

  46. trigmogigmo

    I have to say, scrolling through my Beatles collection in iTunes, Mr. Mod’s choice of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is a pretty good one. The difficulty is reconciling “highly rated by consensus” with “not so highly rated by me”. There are songs I could easily skip past such as “Golden Slumbers” but they’re probably not highly rated. Perhaps most Beatles “hit singles” could be labeled objectively highly rated.

    OK, so here’s mine: “Revolution”. That distorted guitar with intro scream kills it for me, along with the screechy outro. I like “Revolution 1” a lot better despite the leaden pace and “oh shoobee do wop”‘s.

  47. cliff sovinsanity

    Walrus, didn’t end up on my top ten from the previous thread. So I don’t hate it. I just think Beatle-heads, especially John-lovers hold this song in way too much regard. If anything the song represents how vital George Martin was in the studio by allowing the Beatles to work out their creative ideas than fleshing the songs out on record.

  48. mockcarr

    Let It Be. Man, I really seem to have it out for that era suddenly. I bet a lot of people would have that in their top 10. It somehow merits two separate versions (album and single), and I like it well enough, but it’s gotten more credit than it deserves as far as I’m concerned. Maybe I can’t separate it from the twee image of Paul at that piano, or the somehow annoying falsetto octave thing he does. Maybe the boring bass part left to John, well, a lot of it just seems boring. There’s the guitar in the one version that’s pretty good, and I don’t knock anyone for liking the tune, I mean, it’s pretty damned melodic and is one of Paul’s less cringworthy lyrics. Hell, it probably even makes my top 80 or so, but there are literally dozens of Beatle songs I like better.

  49. Shoot, first you give some props to my “…Weeps” selection, then you put forth my favorite Beatles song (and second-favorite song in the history of recorded music) as your choice for Most Overrated. I think I need some space in this relationship.

  50. tonyola

    It’s your turn to relax now. I’m being vehement? I did have one person agree with me on “Don’t Let Me Down” just as one person has supported you without qualification on “Hey Jude”.

  51. tonyola

    Put me down as pro-“Walrus”, too. It’s a bizarre, extraordinary song. Goo goo ga joob.

  52. tonyola

    How shall I put this in an ostensibly family oriented blog? To cooze (predominately f.) is to become sexually aroused prior to the act itself to the point of becoming, shall we say, abundantly lubricated. It can also be used as a noun either as the lubrication itself or its point of origin.

  53. saturnismine

    It’s hard to infer tone, Tone.

    I was joking all the while…invoking what the mod calls RTH’s “pro wrestling” mode.

    Sorry I played too rough.

    If you really want to keep score, I also have ladymiss on my side. She was the one who brought up HJ in the first place.

  54. tonyola

    I’ve gotten tired of it too. I actually prefer the version on Let It Be…Naked (Is that an amazingly stupid name for a Beatles album or what? I’m looking at you, Sir Paul.) because all of Phil Spector’s orchestral goop has been left off. Yeah, let’s call it overrated.

  55. saturnismine

    It really is too easy to get under your skin, Tone.

  56. tonyola

    Here’s a mirror.

  57. saturnismine

    We reach, tone.

  58. saturnismine

    They really should have called it “Get Back,” since not only was it in keeping with the original “Get Back” concept, but they were also “getting back” to it by releasing the “naked” versions.

    and yeah, like the second part of Hey Jude, I no longer feel the need to keep listening when i hear the opening strains of LiB.

  59. tonyola

    That’s interesting and Wiki agrees with you:

    “The promotional copies released to disc jockeys on July 15 had the first two verses and two refrains on one side, while the rest of the song was put on the other. Deejays who wanted to play the whole song would simply flip the vinyl over.[30][31] While many radio stations were reluctant to play the song in its entirety, public demand eventually forced them to air the full song.”

    I guess the St. Louis stations didn’t let themselves be pressured.

  60. saturnismine

    awww…so grumpy!

    Again, I’m sorry I’m playing too rough, Tone.

    You don’t see the humor in the notion that nobody would turn off the second part of HJ in your presence bc of the way you’re posting here?

    I thought it was a clever turn, a nice piece of irony.

    ah well….

    See my nice posts below, where we, like, agree on stuff.

    That could be fun, too, couldn’t it?

  61. BigSteve

    Well, keep in mind that I’m really not into the Beatles, esp the later stuff, and I dislike pretty much everything on Abbey Road except Mr Mustard/Polythene Pam/Bathroom Window.

    But I’ve always thought there was no there there on Something. Nice little guitar hook, semi-interesting chord pattern, but really bad lyrics, a blah lead vocal, and the whole thing is smeared with a syrupy string arrangement.

    It might have worked with a more modest approach, but it sounds labored and over-produced. Please make those soggy drum fills stop!

  62. BigSteve

    Put me down as anti-Hey Jude. Both halves.

  63. misterioso

    [spoken with thick French accent] Inexplicable!

  64. tonyola

    When I was a kid, a buddy and I stopped in a record store in St. Petersburg, Florida on a school outing in spring 1970. This would have been before Let It Be was released. There in the racks in the Beatles section was an album called The Silver Album Of the World’s Greatest. Since there was no wrapping on the record, we could look at the label, and I realize now what we were holding was one of the original Get Back bootlegs.

    http://www.beatlesource.com/bs/mains/audio/GetBack/comp2/comp2.html

  65. misterioso

    tony, it is such a freakin’ stupid name that I feel guilty for listening to it, but in fact I much prefer it to Let It Be….Clothed, as it were. There are little, geeky Beatle things about it that irk me (such as the way they fixed Lennon’s vocal flub on the Worst Song Ever, “Don’t Let Me Down”–I mean, are we naked or clothed, already?), but mostly it’s just the damn album title. And, yes, I blame Paul, too.

  66. cliff sovinsanity

    I like the drum parts. It’s one of Ringo’s more understated performances.
    I guess people like Something because George wasn’t writing very good songs for the last few albums, and with Abbey Road he wrote 2 of the best, along with Here Comes The Sun. Interestingly, HCTS has not been brought up in the last 2 Beatle threads.

  67. They should have called that digitally gussied-up version of a stripped down mess Let It Alone, Already! That was such a blatant cash grab by Paul, Ringo, and all remaining representatives of the Fab Four. I love the Beatles above all other artists, but haven’t they gotten enough attention for the stuff they deemed worthy of releasing? Unless they’re going to release the full 118-minute version of “Helter Skelter,” I wish they’d leave me alone with new ways to spend my money on stuff I’ve owned forever.

  68. This is a song, like the Guess Who’s “These Eyes,” that andyr would tell you requires focusing on the bass line. I can attest that that technique has gotten the man through a lot of questionable songs, and it did wonders for my enjoyment of “These Eyes.” I’m down with “Something.” I think it’s one of Harrison’s best songs, if not his best.

  69. Hi all,

    Late again!

    I keep a copy of Past Masters in the car. Hey Jude is on that CD. I like to listen to it with the brats. I encourage them to figure out the harmonies. It keeps things interesting.

    I always hit the “next” button as soon as the second half of “Hey Jude” kicks in. It’s a totally blasphemous move. But there it is.

    E. Pluribus

  70. saturnismine

    still keeping score, Tone?

  71. tonyola

    I’ve never seen the much-rumoured 27-minute-long version of “Helter Skelter” even as a bootleg or downloadable file. If it sounds like the noodling-around ending of the released version, I can’t imagine it being very good, but I’d like to hear it at least once. Supposedly, Sir Paul has been sitting on the only known copy.

  72. tonyola

    For the record, I really really hate being called Tone. I had a boss who would say ridiculous things like “Can I interface with you this aft, Tone”? That meant he wanted to talk to me later in the day. Tony is already a shortened name – no need to shorten it further.

    As for “score”, I just knew you’d pick at me about this. I saw it coming a mile off. Just to be a crank, I’m only allowing you half-points for the few posters who said they dislike the entire song, because you said you like the first half. Nyah.

  73. saturnismine

    That one’s not such a fun listen. I think I have it on a hard drive somewhere.

    If I can hunt it down, which won’t be ’til Tuesday (seriously) I’ll send it to the mod and he can post it here.

  74. misterioso

    Bro, unless your name is Paul McCartney, I don’t think you have this.

  75. If you dig that up, sat, please send it to me at mrmoderator [at] rocktownhall [dot] com. That bad boy will require a lot of space, but it’s something I’ve been wanting to hear since I first read about it. I will make sure to share it with the Hall. You don’t have a German True Stereo version by any chance, do you? Thanks!

  76. saturnismine

    so…not only are you still keeping score, you’re keeping score by your own rules…”nyah?”

    Well played, Mr. Ola, well played.

  77. hrrundivbakshi

    Geez, you two. Get a room — the sexual tension is starting to bug me.

  78. misterioso

    No offense, of course.

  79. tonyola

    Hi, sailor. New in town? Come join us.

  80. hrrundivbakshi

    “I’m Only Sleeping” — enough with the blather about the revolutionary backwards guitar solo. It’s a good song, but it’s not all that.

    “Let It Be” — what mockcarr said.

    “Hey Jude” — the outchorus is too long and too in love with the smell of Sir Paul’s farts.

    “Mr. Kite” — leaving aside my personal issues with the song, I’m so sick and tired of all the production lore about this song. Oh my God! BBC library tapes of calliopes! Cut into pieces! Thrown into the air and reassembled! No wonder they sound like a jumbled mess!

    “Yer Blues” — Oh, MAN. Listen to how depressed and angry John sounds. That makes this a great song… right?

  81. “The Most Overrated Song…” connotes ONE selection. Come on, man, choose one!

    Good call on “I’m Only Sleeping.” I really like that song, but the older and more mature I get the harder it is to feel is speaks to me. Roll out of bed, already!

    (I’m just giving you a hard time, although I don’t think “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite” and “Yer Blues” are considered GREAT enough Beatles songs to be considered “overrated,” are they?)

  82. trigmogigmo

    Well, to be fair (to your love of “Revolution”, that is), I certainly don’t dislike the song. We are talking degrees of “ratedness”. It’s just that those parts I mentioned bug me and so my own star rating for it is probably lower than what most people give it. And I would say that “… Weeps” is more overrated because it starts with all that high-rated Clapton backstory baggage etc.

    Was it Nike “Just Do It” or Apple “Think Different” that used “Revolution” in a tv ad? It was effective and in your face, as I recall.

  83. It was one of these two titans of marketing. I would have thought Nike, but now that you mention it, maybe it was Apple.

    You know I’m kidding with you about our need for space. I’ve enjoyed hearing everyone’s takes on overrated Beatles songs in this thread. It’s nowhere near as groundbreaking a thread as HVB’s Worst of the Beatles thread (no joke), but people have done a great job of avoiding substituting songs that they’re merely sick of hearing – or using the thread as an opportunity to bash McCartney.

  84. 2000 Man

    Actually, I’m okay with it. It’s the beginning with the choir that bugs me. It’s about as Rock N Roll as Frankie Yankovich. I’ve got a version where the beginning is just that horn, and then it still has the choir at the end, but at least its and end you can shake your ass to (not that I can shake my ass). Anyway, I think it’s a song that starts out iffy and redeems itself okay.

  85. This is easy. The most overrated Beatles song, by a country mile, is…

    I Want To Hold Your Hand.

    According to Acclaimedmusic.net, which aggregates critical ratings, this is the third most critically acclaimed Beatles song of all time (behind only Strawberry Fields and A Day In The Life) and the 23rd most critically acclaimed song of all time (for all artists). Number one on the all time list is L.A.R.S. by Dylan.

    I grant you that this song has tons of historical significance, but it’s really a pretty stupid song. She Loves You is way better (and it is overrated too, at 103 on the all-time list).

  86. 2000 Man

    I can get behind that one. I was pretty young when I found out what knickers were, and I couldn’t believe what that naughty girl did!

  87. 2000 Man

    What about the awesome German single, Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand / Sie Liebt Dich?

    That’s pretty awesome, huh?

  88. BigSteve

    Until I noticed people calling you tony here, I thought it was ton-yola instead of tony-ola. I still think of you as Mr. Yola.

  89. saturnismine

    “not that there’s anything wrong with that….”

    : D

  90. tonyola

    As implied by others, my name is Tony. The nickname ‘tonyola” was given to me back in college by a now-late good friend and prime instigator of mayhem, who gave everyone in our circle unusual nicknames. I suppose he got the idea from the Johnny Ola character in The Godfather. I’ve used it ever since as a stage name and online name in his memory.

  91. “Birthday”. OK, Paul, we get it. You want all of the royalties, not just most of them.

    and “Hey Jude” gets dull.

  92. ladymisskirroyale

    Poignant or not, I love you guys.

  93. ladymisskirroyale

    This is when I realized that Hey Jude is my least favorite Beatles song: My father continues to sing in a local classical music chorus at the age of 76. Last year his chorus had a “British Invasion” concert that had me cringing, but being a dutiful daughter I thought I’d go. They did Britten, they did some Vaughn Williams, they did Queen (!), U2 (never mind that they are Irish and I already got cussed out by a neighbor when I accidently referred to his Irish self as British) AND the Beatles. The chorus had a sing along (!) and a poll of which Beatles song should be sung by the chorus and the audience. Eleanor Rigby – no big deal. I voted for Octopus’s Garden but that went nowhere (as with the likes of you). All You Need Is Love – fine and dandy. But there is no good sing along for Hey Jude. Everyone started in fine form, managed the shift to the second portion but then got stuck at the “Better, better, ahhhh!” part. It just dwindled. No one knew what to do. No scatting, no jiving, just some failed attempts at reintroducing the chorus and some embarrassed giggles and shrugs. THAT is not the Beatles! The Beatles created songs to be hummed and sung. Even little kids sing Why Don’t We Do It In the Road?

  94. trigmogigmo

    I know you were kidding. I spent some time thinking about HVB’s thread, but his damn rules were too strict and I couldn’t come up with 10 songs that met the criteria. I should have complained over there! Most of the songs that met my “truly suck” criteria tended to be solo-esque tunes that probably failed HVB’s multi-player criteria.

  95. I can totally relate, Bostonhistorian.

    Although I like the Beatles more now than when I used to, I still only own 3 of their albums and I rarely feel the need to play them. I don’t have a decent frame of reference for what is overrated but I’ve never liked Something and I could happily live out my days without hearing Hey Jude again. And Don’t Let Me Down and Dig A Pony are probably in my top ten Beatles songs.

    How about I Am The Walrus? C plus material at best. Is that considered one of the greats?

  96. Oops! Apparently the “Walrus” issue was already covered below. Just trying to catch up after a day of overly hyped evacuation activities.

  97. I can get behind this choice. I’ve never really liked this one that much.

  98. misterioso

    Folks, just to show that I am not upset about the rain of Beatle negativity, which I otherwise find bizarre and leads me to question the humanity of many of you, I want to point out that Zardoz is on Fox Movie Channel tonight at 10:00.

  99. misterioso

    Mod, perhaps you’ve moved on from the I’m Only Sleeping division to the When I’m 64 bracket?

  100. misterioso

    Yer Blues is great because of Lennon’s voice, the guitars, and the whole compressed sound is fantastic. Geez, man, try to screen out the backstory already. I’ve read too many Beatle books, too, but is that their fault?

  101. machinery

    A day in the life.

    So many stories of how it was conceived, the article in the paper, the misconstrued lyrics (oh all those holes) and the sticking the two parts of the song together, etc, etc … ad nauseum.

    Overrated, IMO.

  102. machinery

    Oh, and waaayyy too Broadway, too.

  103. plasticsun

    All you East Coasters are asleep but I’ll put my rare two cents into the conversation. Gun to the head my immediate response is Strawberry Fields Forever. I’m not saying it’s a bad song – no it’s actually pretty cool. But is it one of the greatest Beatles songs ever? It’s usually in the Top 10 right? No, Musically it may sound psychedelic and “adventurous” but that hides the fact that the song often plods away turgidly and Lennon’s lyrics are simply clever nonsense. This song is overrated.

  104. jeangray

    “We are the World” is better than Kenny G.

  105. And should not Hey Jude have to answer for leading to Atlantis by Donovan? The sins of the father and all…

  106. This used to be one of their songs that bugged me the most because I thought it was hugely overrated. But I’m warming up to it.

  107. mockcarr

    Nah, I think this one has too much historic meaning to be overrated. It launched the Beatles in the US, I can’t separate the quality of the song from it’s impact. It’s like blaming a freshman in college for not writing his senior thesis already.

  108. mockcarr

    I thought about this one, but I think there are way too many good points about it to qualify. Awesome drumming, great vocal delivery contrast, big mess at the end. Perhaps overrated, but not the MOST.

  109. Strawberry Fields. Those lyrics were never finished. Gets all it’s respect from the backstory and time period it evokes. I like this genre of song but even L.S.D. is a better representative.

    I love every second of Hey Jude.

    Damn, I saw the Zardoz post too late.

  110. tonyola

    I can’t let this one go by without comment. No, I don’t think “A Day in the Life” is overrated. I think it’s a superb song regardless of the back story. Without it, Sgt. Pepper’s would have been predominately charming Paulish fluff-pop. However, “A Day in the Life” at the end provides a dark mood shift that anchors the entire album and makes it profoundly unforgettable. There are few musical moments so utterly final as that crashing and decaying E-chord at the very end.

    I remember that “A Day in the Life” got some brief and limited airplay on AM radio in the weeks before Sgt. Pepper’s was officially released on June 1, 1967. It was then referred to as “A Day in the Life Of”. I suppose it might have been a teaser or sneak preview by Capitol/EMI. Otherwise, the song was never released as a single except as a B-side in 1978 and never made it alone onto the charts. Rolling Stone briefly mentions the pre-release airplay in their Illustrated History of Rock and Roll. Anyone else remember this?

  111. misterioso

    Tony, I agree 100%. And referring to it as “waaayyy too Broadway” (machinery’s comment) suggests, to me, a total failure to grasp the song–or a misapprehension that any song that creates “drama” is “Broadway.” Anyway.

    I cannot help but think–though of course I mostly have no idea of people’s ages here–that the younger Townspeople are more likely to have had the Beatles shoved down their throats and beaten over their heads. I can understand how that might affect one’s response to them and their being “overrated.” I was pretty young when the Beatles broke up, but my musical tastes were formed in a pre-classic rock radio era. It’s not as if I never heard the Beatles, obviously. They were common enough on AOR FM stations I grew up listening to. But I feel, somehow, that it was different from the embalming effect that classic rock radio has. I would have to think this through a lot more than I can manage right now.

    I cannot say I remember airplay of the song when it was released as I was not a sentient being yet, assuming I am one now; which I seriously wonder about.

    To all others on the east coast, stay safe.

  112. BigSteve

    I was a senior in high school when the Beatles broke up, and I had already been fed up with them for a couple of years. My view that they’re over-rated is not generational, since I was the right age to be a Beatles fan, which I was at the beginning. In the long run I just prefer the Stones (Who Kinks etc.).

    And no I don’t remember Day in the Life being on the radio.

  113. BigSteve, I think you had to live in the correct zip code to fully dig the Beatles. Oh, I’m sorry, that’s what they say about the movie Garden State.

  114. machinery

    As a general rule, I dislike any song that I feel would fit better on the broadway stage. C’mon! You can’t imagine some actor singing “woke up, got out of bed, ran a comb across my head” while acting out that part??? And that final note is the most over-used note in the history of ROCK. For that alone, this song MUST be overrated.

  115. machinery, were you dragged out to a lot of musicals when you were a kid? I have to give you credit for being very consistent in your bias toward dramatic pop songs.

  116. machinery

    And you don’t need to “grasp” as song. It’s a song.

  117. machinery

    Mr. Mod, the funny thing is how much I was raised as a kid around musicals in Saturday morning TV movies– Oliver, West Side Story, Oklahoma, The music man … and can sing most of these in my sleep.

  118. Misterioso, WE REACH!

  119. Remind me not to sleep near you!

  120. tonyola

    “You can’t imagine some actor singing “woke up, got out of bed, ran a comb across my head” while acting out that part???”

    So that makes Jim Morrison “Broadway” for singing “Well, I woke up this morning, I got myself a beer”?

    “And that final note is the most over-used note in the history of ROCK.”

    That’s hilarious. Almost as inanely funny as the Broadway remark. From Amadeus:

    “Emperor Joseph II: And there are simply too many notes, that’s all. Just cut a few and it will be perfect.

    Mozart: Which few did you have in mind, Majesty?”

    Perhaps the Beatles should have played the final chord as an E-flat instead of E?

  121. BigSteve

    I agree with machinery about the final note. The swirl of strings before the big E is pretty cool, but I’m not clear on what was supposed to be resolved or finalized with the sustained note. The final line of lyrics is “I’d love to turn you on,” right? Then the swirl, then …. why the big E? It’s a stunt, and in the LP era it was just drowned out by a bunch of surface noise after a few seconds anyway.

  122. saturnismine

    none taken, sir.

    i don’t have it.

    but i have heard a very long version of Helter Skelter, and am certain that I did have it at one time.

    it’s tedious.

    sadly, the person with whom I last listened to it (and who burned it for me as a gift) is dead now.

  123. Mac, you hate Instant Karma and A Day in the Life??!!?

    Let me put on my curly long haired wig, a stripped shirt 3 sizes too small for me with the sleeves cut off and ask:

    Whooooooooooooo Are You??????

  124. If it hasn’t been written already, a day will come when a Beatles historian writes an entire book about that closing note.

    So it is written, so let it be done!

  125. No worries, people. I have a copy of the extended version of Helter Skelter. It’s stunning and it actually goes on for about two months. I’ll post it as soon as I retrieve it from the storage locker where I keep it along with the buffaloes from the ’73 ZZ Top tour, and the physician’s report listing the contents of Rod Stewart’s stomach on that night that he passed out in the mid-70s.

  126. tonyola

    Don’t forget the film of the on-stage “gross-out” contest between Frank Zappa and Alice Cooper – where Alice stomped on baby chicks followed by Frank eating shit.

  127. saturnismine

    Yes, and I’ve got the $100 bill that Keith Richards rolled up and used to snort his father’s ashes. It’s somewhere in my wallet…just give me a second….oh darn, I could’ve sworn I had it.

    To be clear, the 27 minute version Mr. Ola mentioned and that I thought I had is apparently the “holy grail” of Beatle tracks filed under “yet-to-be-bootlegged-but-in-the-abbey-road-vaults.”

    Thus misterioso’s contention that to have heard it, I’d have to be Paul.

    Despite insinuations that I am the Walrus, who, as John told us, “was Paul,” I am not Paul.

    So it would seem, I realize, highly unlikely if not impossible for me to have heard the 27 minute Helter Skelter. And by dint, it would be lame of me to claim i had it, only to backpedal.

    But that’s what I’m doing. Sorry about that.

    I know that what I heard was long, and kind of terrible, very sounded much like the 4plus minute version released on Anthology: lots of meandering.

    After a lazy google search, it seems likelier that it wasn’t theee 27 minute version, but it might have been one of the other versions they recorded on 18, June, 1968, the day of the 27 minute version.

    Apparently, there was
    a 12 minute version as well, which provided all of the source material for the 4 minute version on anthology. Those 12 minutes are widely bootlegged.

    Were it not for the mismanagement of my files, I’d be sending it to Mr. Mod instead of writing this post.

    And it really is kind of lame of me to have lost it, b/c is was a gift from somebody who’s gone now. I should’ve handled his generosity with better care.

    I throw myself at the mercy of the RockTownHall.

    And I hope everybody survived Irene okay, too.

  128. saturnismine

    Yeah, I was a fan of Yer Blues (the RTH archives have arguing vehemently on its behalf) long before I knew any of the backstory. It just sounds sinister. And the middle section has a nice groove.

  129. saturnismine

    I like A Day in the Life.

    Its theatrical qualities, the ones machinery struggles to make the rest of you see, are clear to me.

    I wouldn’t call it “broadway,” though. It’s not glitzy. It’s just a narrative set to music.

    And this doesn’t ruin it for me.

    It IS a highly rated song, but it’s probably not capable of doing all the things critics have claimed for it over the years.

    So maybe it is overrated. But then, any song of such grand gesture whose reception validates that gesture must be.

    I personally find it to be, intrinsically, a great listen. I continue to listen, with headphones, even, more and more closely as the years go by, not less. I don’t lift the needle or change the station if it comes on.

  130. Hey Reverse Rocky, would you mind if I used that same storage locker to keep the remaining half of the ham sandwich Mama Cass was eating when she chocked?

  131. Great defense! Also, do any of you Supernerds, shit, I mean Superfans have a copy of Lennon and Hendrix jamming on Day Tripper. I’ve heard it a couple of times. The quality of the recording and and playing is below both of their standards, but I’m still surprised it doesn’t get more attention like the Million Dollar Quartet. And I know this is not a falsely implanted repressed memory.

  132. No big deal. Just say that you were stoned at the time. Most of us would nod and think to ourselves “been there, done that”.

  133. misterioso

    Oats, I do reach: you have to reach to get the best apples, unless you don’t mind settling for low-hanging fruit or the stuff on the ground. If I may use an extended metaphor.

  134. misterioso

    I agree, sat. “Theatrical” or “dramatic” does not equate to “Broadway” (in a pejorative sense).

    chickenfrank, there is a Hendrix Day Tripper on the Radio One cd which was long rumored to feature Lennon but my recollection is that this is that Lennon’s presence on it remains more urban legend than reality.

  135. saturnismine

    Thanks.

    Nothing worse than the moment when you realize you’ve dragged the old folder to the spot where the new folder is (instead of the other way around) and have clicked “replace,” without thinking clearly.

    When I was re-locating from Philly to Savannah last year, there was a LOT of that crap going on because i was in such a hurry.

  136. misterioso

    No worries. I fully expect that when and if it ever surfaces, it will not be very interesting, although I think the (released) version is tremendous. But the Beatles were not the kind of band to sustain 27 minutes of soloing or whatever. Leave that crap to, I dunno, Deep Purple.

  137. machinery

    One’s way to sloppy. The other’s way too produced. Call me Goldilocks.

  138. “Reverse Rocky”? That’s very hurtful….

    And of course I have the remains of that sandwich. I keep it on a shelf right in between all of the heartfelt, soulful XTC songs and the emperor’s new clothes.

  139. You are forgiven, sat. Now does anyone have the alternate take of the final note in “A Day in the Life”?

  140. saturnismine

    Regarding the final note, I don’t know how anyone can be critical of it.

    What the hell else are they supposed to do after that gigantic orchestral swirl?

    See the Rutles joke answer to that question at the end of
    “Cheese and Onions.”

    Any serious suggestions?

  141. Misterioso, thanks for the Day Tripper info. I guess I should have realized that by now; when you consider how little attention that big a ROCK summit received. Damn you, pre-internet memories! The stuff with Tony Sheridan is real though, right?

  142. hrrundivbakshi

    Sat, I think something based on the final 20 seconds or so of this would have been appropriate:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWyMIJZGebA

    More seriously: I have no problem with the Big Note. My problem is that they turn it into a circus trick. Five or 10 seconds of Big Note would have been puh-lenty.

  143. misterioso

    Well, depends on what you mean by real

  144. shawnkilroy

    it would seem that i have saddled you with something ugly, and for that i am sorry.
    i think you have access to enough ammo to come up with a hurtful nickname for me to share with the bullies of the hall.

  145. saturnismine

    Wait…

    were they supposed to fade it?

    I mean, after striking that chord, isn’t it best to let it ring out and record it until the meters drop?

    It’s the last note of the song, after all.

    Like any last note, you let it go ’til silence.

    Or are you talking about the buildup leading to it?

  146. saturnismine

    What am I missing here?

  147. shawnkilroy

    Let It Be.
    this thread is so long, i didn’t read any of it.
    so if you’ve already had this argument, i don’t know what to say.
    I think Let It Be is on par with a lot of Wings crapola.
    I think it gets undue attention because it is a depressing song that The Beatles named their depressing last album after.
    I wasn’t born till late in 73, so i can’t say for sure, but I’ve always suspected that Let It Be was a good phrase to sum up the disappointment that the 60s ended, Vietnam wasn’t over, The Beatles were breaking up, Jimi, Jim, and Janis were dead, etc.

  148. No worries. It still cracks me up.

  149. tonyola

    Paul wrote “Let It Be” at the end of 1968. Jimi, Janis, and Jim were still alive, and Manson and Altamont hadn’t happened yet. Paul said the song was inspired by a dream about his mother, who had died when he was 14.

  150. shawnkilroy

    perhaps, but i was referring to it’s overrated-ness and staying power, not it’s origins.

  151. jeangray

    The version of “Strawberry Fields Forever” on Anthology #2 is way more Rawkin’. Ringo’s drums have never sounded more thunderous.

  152. jeangray

    The Christian overtones of “Let It Be” have always creeped me out.

  153. “Let it Be”, for the endless repetition of the phrase “Let it Be” throughout the song. It feels like it was temporary filler lyrics that Paul was too lazy to replace. The song is also such blatantly musical me-tooism for the ‘God Rock’ phenomena that was going on at that time.

  154. Dig it, Matt Busby!

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