Ranking The Beatles

McCartney's ability to craft the most capitvating, simple, and gorgeous melodies never fails to amaze. Conceived (we think/he tells us) as a song of encouragement and support for the civil rights movement, in full swing by 1968, "Blackbird" has become one of Paul's signature songs. It was the title of his poetry collection. It's one of the most tattoo'd Beatle lyrics and imagery. It's one of his best, ...

One of the best things about the White Album is seeing so many different sides of each Beatle. To close out the first disc, we get a rare glimpse of the really vulnerable and sensitive John, a side we really haven't seen laid bare prior to this. It's a gorgeous track, lead by an almost hypnotic finger picking pattern, with a single note, bare lead vocal practically forcing you to listen to what he's singing about. Of course Julia w...

Ever seen an artist create a global smash hit from the moment of inception through each and every moment of rehearsal and refinement to recording, live premier, and continued real time performances 60 years later? With "Get Back," now you have. Pulling this out of the ether during the 1969 Twickenham sessions, this seedling turns into a fantastic performance by the lads, brought to its' full potential with assistance ...

Maybe it's just me, but I've got a real sweet spot for when, in the midst of all the chaos of exploding into the world's biggest band and becoming the greatest songwriters alive, the Beatles blow off steam by pulling out a song from their garage band days. "Slow Down," written by New Orleanian Larry Williams (protege to Little Richard and Lloyd Price) was recorded during the sessions for the A Hard Day's N...

Did you guys know the Beatles did drugs? IT'S RIGHT THERE IN THE TITLE, MAN, LSDDDDDDDD! Inspired by a drawing done by his son Julian, John's "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is arguably the most psychedelic of Beatles psychedelic songs. But that trippiness overshadows brilliantly musical performances and inventive production. It's one of the high points of The Beatles and George Martin (and his team) being on ...

**Disclaimer: First show of the new year, and yeah, I know, I blew it, but I own up to it! The integrity of the list remains!**

The fabs sure loved writing songs about their relationships on vacation. As we discussed one of Paul's recently ("For No One"), now it's John's turn. John's ode to infidelity and arson turned into one of the most sublime sonic moments in their catalogue, as well as one of the most influential. George's now...

What do George Harrison and Big Worm from the movie Friday have in common? Messing with their money is like messing with their emotions. But Big Perm, I mean Big Worm, doesn't write banging rock tunes about it. George's "Taxman," the lead off track on Revolver, finds the guitarist squaring off against the greedy hand of the man for taking 98% (NINETY EIGHT) percent of the Beatles income, income they'd actually (unlike so many milli...

Everyone knows that couple...everytime you go on holiday, they seem to get into a fight about SOMETHING. Then everyone's walking on eggshells, trying not to be awkward, not picking sides, just wanting to enjoy their nice vacation, but instead having to deal with someone else's drama.

That seems to be a continuing theme with Paul McCartney and Jane Asher on vacation, only when those fights happen, Paul tends to wander off and pen c...

Note: PLS LISTEN BEFORE LIGHTING YOUR TORCHES AND GATHERING YOUR PITCHFORKS!

Written as a way to show sympathy and encouragement to young Julian Lennon in the face of his parents' divorce, "Hey Jude" is obviously one of the high water marks of modern popular music. It's a brilliantly composed song with a powerhouse vocal from Paul, showcasing his ability to go from the sweetest, most emotive and sensitive places to an absolute beas...

John came into the Get Back project only one fully formed new song, "All I Want Is You," later re-named as "Dig A Pony." After a possibly initial ambivalent reaction, the band tightened it up as the first song recorded in their own Apple Studios. It eventually found it's true home on the rooftop of Apple on a cold January day, where the band nailed it in one rock solid take. The song lumbers and moves in weird ways, almost like a g...

Thousands of words have been written about Bob Dylan's influence on the Beatles. Despite all those words, one need look no further than "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" from the Help! album. Taking the folk trademark of heavily strummed 6 and 12 string acoustic and nylon string guitars, minimal instrumentation, the song finds John delivering (up to this point) one of his most introspective lyrics with a brilliantly intimate and ...

Upon rejoining the band following his departure in the Get Back sessions, George pulled his more serious material, most of which would end up on All Things Must Pass. Along with his blusey and lightweight "For You Blue," he also brought in a stomping little piano song he wrote during the sessions, "Old Brown Shoe." It wouldn't find a home for a few months until the band needed a b-side to "The Ballad of John & Yoko," and even t...

As a songwriter, I could never imagine at this point in my life, putting out song a wrote at 16 or 17. I don't ever want anyone to hear that. But then again, I'm not the Beatles, who were able to resurrect one of the earliest songs in their repertoire, from well before they were even The Beatles. Though the song was in their early setlists for a long time, it never found a home on a Beatles record, even after taking a shot ...

Though the Lennon & McCartney songwriting team found it harder and harder to truly write songs together from scratch as they got busier and busier, with "Baby's In Black," they were able to get "nose-to-nose" and write something truly different from what was expected at the time. A 3/4 time waltz with a melancholy lyric (possibly inspired by Astrid Kirchherr's mourning for Stu Sutcliffe), the first s...

In many ways, Paul McCartney is the ultimate storyteller. He's got an unparalleled ability to craft characters and a situations that are so vivid, you can't easily tell when he's hiding his own feelings and life stories in them. So when we writes a song where he's totally upfront about a situation, no story, no characters, you can bet it's something important to him. And that's what he's doing with "...

The journey of "No Reply" is a curious one. A song John seemed to not think much of, and originally offered to another Brian Epstein-managed artist, it also was possibly slated to be the final song recorded for A Hard Day's Night. If not for Ringo's tonsillitis, who knows what would've happened with it. After spending some time with it though, and working it into a bit more interesting arrangement, it turned o...

After spending a year and half out firmly planted in psychedelia, The Beatles returned to Earth at the beginning of 1968 with "Lady Madonna," a Paul-penned tune that pays tribute to the strength of women, a topic he mines throughout his career. The song also serves an homage to New Orleans' piano legend and rock and roll trail blazer Fats Domino, and marks maybe the first time the band created their own intentional th...

There seems to be somewhat of a misconception of The Beatles having a really big "Indian period." In reality, there's only 3 songs that really fit that bill, and the 3rd a final one, "The Inner Light," may be the most open hearted and enlightened one. After being inspired/challenged by a scholar he met on the David Frost show, George took lyrics from the Tao Te Ching and created a gorgous song that found it&...

The longest titled song in the Beatles' catalogue is also one that maybe flies a bit below the radar. Buried on side 3 of the White album, "Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me and My Monkey" is one of the heaviest rockers in the back half of their career. Inspired by the Maharishi, and also possibly by a growing drug issue, John leads the band through a frantic and hard tune with lyrics that maybe don'...