More Beatles

Over at Pandagon, there's a nice little thread going about the most underrated and overrated of John, Paul and George's songs.  I left a short comment at the very beginning of the comment thread, but now that I've been reading it for a few days, I feel like I have more to say.  I'm not going to re-comment there, so I thought I'd move my part of the discussion over here.  This is my comment there, in case you don't go read all the comments (although, do go read the post if you're at all interested in the topic):

I’ve always liked “Dear Prudence”. Not sure if it’s exactly underrated, though. And actually, I think “Hey Bulldog” is pretty good, and I don’t know if it was quite worthy of being relegated to Yellow Submarine. I also really like “Don’t Let Me Down”, but I’m not sure if that’s exactly underrated either. Actually, though, sometimes I think that the whole Let it Be album is written off prematurely, because of the awful post-break-up mix of it. The differences on Let It Be Naked are enough that the songs become better, and sometimes even great.

As for overrated…maybe “Penny Lane”? It’s borderline charming and awful all at once. And I absolutely abhor “Here Comes the Sun”. I always have, and I can’t say why. It just gets under my skin and makes my finger itch to change the song.

First off, the notion of overrated and underrated for Beatles songs are hard for me to figure out, because most of the songs that I don't like by the Beatles I can still listen to.  It's not that I don't like them, per se, but that I like them less than the other Beatles songs.  Also, so many Beatles songs are, in seems to me, properly rated in the scheme of things that it's thus hard to think of songs over and under that line.  For instance, you can be sick of "Yesterday" all you want, but it's still an amazing song, and I can't think that it's overrated.  Same with "Hey Jude" "Let It Be" "A Day in the Life" "Strawberry Fields" "She Loves You" and like, 50 other songs.  Those songs rule.  Not overrated, not underrated.  Properly rated and respected.

That said, I totally agree with Berube on "I Me Mine" which I love love love, "Yes it Is", and "For No One" as underrateds.  Also agree with "The Inner Light" and "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" as bad songs.  Relatively.  But thinking about it today (and listening to the Beatles all afternoon at my desk) has led to some new additions.

I really like "Dig a Pony".  It may be a really strange song, but it's something I love listening to every time it comes on.  And man, you never hear anybody talking about the genius of "Dig a Pony", do you?  Also, "Martha my Dear", which someone mentions in the comments of Pandagon--I almost put that song in my comment over there, but I was afraid of getting long-winded.  But "Martha my Dear" gets stuck in my head all the time.  I mean, ALL THE TIME.  I know Paul's singing to his sheepdog, but whatever.  I still think it's a good song.  Other people mentioned "Something" as well, but I'm not clear on whether or not that's an underrated song.  I love it too, and I think I've talked about it before, but I am very fond of most of George's later songs.  What else?  I actually adore "Across the Universe", even the Rufus Wainwright and Fiona Apple versions.  Sometimes I listen to all three versions in a row.  I think I just like singing the Jai Guru Deva parts really loud.  No, I really like the song.  But like I said in my Pandagon comment, a lot of the stuff that was "Let It Be" era was discounted.  It's like the forgotten album.

As for bad/overrated, I'm having a hard time thinking of songs.  I want to say "Revolution" except that half of the time, I think it's genius.  On the whole, I consider The White Album to be the most unever, with super highs and really pathetic lows.  "Honey Pie" IS awful.  But "Happiness is a Warm Gun" is brilliant.  "Piggies" is miserable, but "Julia" is luminous.  And of course, "Dear Prudence" and "Martha my Dear" are on the album.  Oh, but so is John and Yoko's crappy other "Revolution" song.  So you know, high highs and low low lows.  Some of the later early pop songs are terrible, but I'm having trouble coming up with names; I'll re-edit and post names when I hear the songs later.  I'm not going to mention any of the songs Ringo sings.  I pretty much hate those wholesale.  It's mean, but I just can't take them.  They make my ears bleed.  Poor Ringo, such a likeable fellow but a simply uninspired singer.  I suppose I think that some of Sgt. Pepper's is a little overrated, but actually, now that I think about it, one of the only Ringo songs I can halfway stand is on that album--"With a Little Help From My Friends".  It's just too bad that Cocker's version is more palatable.

Anyone else?  (Dad, I know you've got something to say on this topic, so I expect to see some opining here from you at some point.)

Additions:  Okay, "Run for your life" is dreadful.  It's not only boring, but pretty scary, lyrics-wise.  More as I hear them.

Comments

[Dadmo]

I will be back to opine but I need some time to think about it and I want to do some listening...Agree on Ringo completely...I do like "I wanna be your man" and "With A Little Help from My Friends" however. "Strawberry Fields Forever" has always been one of my favorite songs. Some of my other faves. "You cant do that" (John's vocal strong!). I'll be back for more commenting