My Beatles-enjoying history and favorite songs Sep 22 '05 (Updated Sep 25 '05)    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in Music The Dirtchamber Sessions, Vol. 1 by The Prodigy From $11 Jersey Boys [Original Broadway Cast Recording] by Original Broadway Cast From $8 The Bottom Line Another instance of finding out what I think from writing. I was 13-14 at the height of "Beatlemania," and unimpressed with "I Want to Hold Your Hand," and puzzled more than bemused by the screaming teeny-boppers. I don't think that the insult "bubble-gum music" had yet been invented (I think in reference to the Monkees, who were a sanitized travesty of the Beatles later on). I'd like to say that I was more into the Miracles and Otis Redding (as I was once I got away), but in rural southern Minnesota, there was no chance of hearing soul music—even in its popular Motown guise— on the airwaves. The alternative to the Beatles was the Rolling Stones, and they were more interesting in the early daze of the "British invasion." The very funny movie directed by Richard Lester, "A Hard Day's Night," making fun of the Beatles' celebrity and hysterical fans, I guess I could say, charmed me, and they began to produce some songs that appealed to me ("Can't Buy Me Love" was still, arguably "bubble-gum," but had a certain flair, and I enjoyed the title "Eight Days a Week"). Richard Lester's second Beatles movie, "Help!", was burdened with a silly plot, but John Lennon's sarcasm appealed to my adolescent alienation. And "Yesterday" prefigured what was/is for me the first important Beatles' album, "Rubber Soul." "Nowhere Man," of course, again appealed to the adolescent alienation and small-town ennui. "Drive My Car" was still bubble-gum, but chewable, while "Michele" was/is hauntingly beautiful. From "Revolver," "Eleanor Rigby" appealed to proto-intellectuals like me with grounding in classic music, "Yellow Submarine" entertained most everyone. I found "Doctor Robert" grating, but enjoyed "I'm Only Sleeping" for reasons I don't understand. "Good Day Sunshine" had drive and enjoyable harmonies (like those produced by the Mamas and the Papas). Then there was The concept album, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," which I purchased the day it came out. "A Day in the Life" was ambitious, and I don't think that at the time I considered it pretentious. The tinkley "With a Little Help from My Friends" appealed to me, and even without ever having done any nonprescription drugs, I enjoyed "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "Lovely Rita," and even "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite." "Fixing a Hole" was filler and not at all filling. If not with the previous two mega-selling albums, with "Sgt. Pepper's," the Beatles were a part of the culture that even highbrows paid attention to. I was in college when people were playing "Revolution" backward (how can one do that with DVDs?) and speculating about whether Paul McCartney was dead. My tolerance for bubble-gum music must have increased, because I found "Obladi, Oblada," "Me and My Monkey," and "Piggies" infectious (in the good way). "Why Don't We Do It in the Road" was titillating and guaranteed to upset our elders (which the "youth generation" loved to do). My favorites were the melancholy "Cry, Baby, Cry" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." The animated movie "Yellow Submarine" was a come-down from the two Richard Lester ones, but included the "love generation" anthem "All You Need Is Love." Although more miscellaneous than "Sgt. Pepper's," "Magical Mystery Tour" included many of the best (do I mean my favorite?) Beatles song, including recycling "All You Need Is Love." I liked the title track, "Fool on the Hill," the Dadaist "I am the Walrus (Goo-goo Goo-joob)", "Strawberry Fields Forever" (with its baroque trumpet), and "Penny Lane" (who is still in my dreams, though not very often). At the time, I loved "Abbey Road," but I don't think it has held up very well (and speculation that Paul had died back then has faded long ago, despite the supposed "signal" of his being barefoot striding across the crosswalk on the cover). Without replaying it, there are many tracks I can't hear in my mind. Those that are still occupying memory cells are the silly songs "Octopus's Garden" and "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," along with the enduring archetypal Beatles masterpieces "Come Together" and "Here Comes the Sun." "Let It Be" had more forgettable tracks, along with three memorable ones: "Let It Be," "Get Back," and "The Long and Winding Road" (a melancholy one in which no one is doin' it). I've split my list of ten favorites into upbeat and downbeat (with "Hey Jude" and "Let It Be" on the borderline between these categorizations). Optimistic "We Can Work It Out" (well, at least we'll try! or they will) (5) "Good Day, Sunshine" (one of the cheeriest Beatles numbers that particularly appeals to me in an unusually overcast month, the coldest September on record here) (3) "Here Comes the Sun" (more of my longing for the sun to reappear! Witten by George Harrison, it sounds less cheery than "Good Day, Sunshine," but optimistic) (1) "All You Need Is Love (Love Is All You Need, Love Is All You Need)" (Gee, I'd like to believe that. It sounds good, but I don't think I ever believed it) (2)"(Get By) With a Little Help From My Friends" is more consistent with my life experience than "All You Need Is Love" (4) "Penny Lane" (a really exuberant number, as triumphalist, really, as "All You Need is Love") In the Borderland "Hey, Jude" (slower and much longer than any other Beatles single, I consider this still optimistic, but less certain and certainly less triumphalist than the previous two songs on my list: color it "haunting" and "striving") "Something" (another George Harrison song, which is a mellow tribute to someone who attracts the singer "like no other" and despite its slow pace is not melancholy, but is not all that bright-sounding, either, and, as the music gets louder, the lyrics elaborate on "I don't know" without verging on the pessimism of the songs in the second set (below)) "Let It Be (There Will Be an Answer)" (the words of wisdom, rising from a piano joined by a church-like chorus, are optimistic;there is something funereal about the music undercutting the optimism of the lyrics, though thre is also something triumphalist about the music; like "We Can Work It Out" this seems more hope than announcement of success(ful reconciliation or receiving whatever the answer is) Darker favorites (5)"Nowhere Man" pities grown-ups. Alas those of us who liked the song when it was new and we are young rebels find it difficult to evade being regarded as old fogies, whether or not we actually grew up. (4) "Michele" is quite beautiful, pure, and simple. I know it very well. I think I still like it. I admire it, but don't particularly want to hear it, though. (3) "The Long and Winding Road": the lyrics are hopeful that the song's recipient will "lead me to your door" but the sound(Paull McCartney's tune) is more resigned about this hope and the general yearning in John Lennon's lyrics will not being fulfilled (2) "Yesterday" ("all my troubles seemed so far away" is a gentle tear-jerker and I like tear-jerkers—they often make me feel cheerier than upbeat cheerful tunes. However, I am happier now than I was when the song was new and I was young...) (1) "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (I'm a bit surprised that I have two George Harrison songs on my top-10+3, and one in the top spot, since John Lennon was "my favorite Beatle" back when everyone had to have one. I've always liked the sound, with the heavily-orchestrated opening, and did not attend to the lyrics until today and was surprised to find that the regret that is palpable seems to be about a prostitute the singer would have liked to love/redeem. BTW, the recording of it seems more than a little muddy with tinny tambourines, though it is not from early in the Fab Four's recording career.) Runners-up: Eleanor Rigby, Strawberry Fields, Across the Universe (Nothing's Going to Change My World), The Fool on the Hill, LSD, You've Got to Hide Your Love Away, Ticket to Ride, Get Back, Obladi, Oblada (a silly song: sometimes I can't even account for my own taste! "Octopus's Garden" would also exemplify this, and was not even written by any of the Beatles) This is a contribution to Alexdg1's favorite Beatles song writeoff. Writing it has surprised me that George Harrison wrote not only my favorite Beatles song, but three of my top-twenty.

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