Best and worst from each album | Page 4 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

vonbontee said:

OK, here we go. You'll note that when it comes to the “worsts”, I can rarely bring myself to condemn the entire song – it's usually just a minor detail or two that I wish was different.

PPM – Best: “I Saw Her Standing There “. “Please Please Me ” itself is probably the better song, and “Twist And Shout ” the more intense performance. But there's just something extra-musically (and instantly) thrilling about hearing that “One, two, three, FAW!” and instantly recognizing the beginning to a great song, great album, great career! It begins here. Plus it ROCKS! Worst: “Love Me Do “. I don't often complain about lyrics, and idiotic lyrics don't necessarily make a song bad. But they do make “Love Me Do ” the 14th-best song here. (And t's still no less than enjoyable, thanks mostly to John's harmonica)

WTB – Best: “It Won't Be Long”: Another electrifying album-opener, one that jumps right out of the gate and makes even better use of the word “yeah” than “She Loves You “. Worst: “Roll Over Beethoven “. Of all the Beatles, George's singing style was the least suited for rock n' roll shouting, so he was the wrong Beatle to sing this one. Plus he messes up the guitar intro (intentionally or not.)

AHDN – Best: “If I Fell “. Those J&P harmonies!  Worst: “Can't Buy Me Love”. I dunno, I guess I just find this one kinda bland and overplayed. 12-Bar construction isn't much to speak of. Best thing about the song is the partially-erased guitar solo and the “No no no…no!” (Maybe a self-conscious reversal of their already-iconic “Yeah, yeah yeah!”)

BFS – Best: “Baby's In Black”. Those J&P harmonies, part 2! Worst: “Words Of Love “. Those handclaps on every bar irritate me. Silly reason to call a song “worst”, I know, but that's the way it is.

Help ! – Best: “You've Got To Hide Your love Away”. One of John's best-ever vocals. Worst: “You Like Me Too Much “. Just bland.

RS – Best: So hard to choose! There's five or six that could conceivably be my favourite on any given day. But on this date (December 8th) picking anything other than “In My Life ” just won't do. Worst: “Run For Your Life ” pretty easily (tho I don't dislike it.)

R – Best: Another monster with a half-dozen candidates for first place. I'll say “Tomorrow Never Knows “. Worst: “Good Day Sunshine “. I dunno, it just kinda feels like a half-song to me sometimes. And I don't like the key change near the end – a trick that rarely impresses me.

SPLHCB – Best: First, a confession: “A Day In The Life ” is not my favourite; I usually rank “Lucy” higher. But again, just for today, anything other than “ADITL” is unthinkable. Worst: Title cut, just because it violates my sense of “pop-song symmetry.” it's got a verse, then the refrain, then a kind of bridge, then a second verse, then…the song ends! and fades into the next track, when I really wanted to hear that refrain a second time. I know, it's a clever trick to confound my expectations like that, and that's admirable, but that's speaking intellectually – almost subconsciously, I find myself missing that sense of musical “closure”. (If that makes any sense at all…)

MMT – Best: “Strawberry Fields Forever “. A triumph for all involved! Worst: “Your Mother Should Know “. For the most part, I think Paul's “granny s**t” is just fine, but this one really isn't anything special. The instrumental bits meander and I miss the technicolour trippiness that the rest of the album wallows in.

TB 1 – Best: “Dear Prudence “. Just beautiful. Worst: “Wild Honey Pie “. Especially on a double album where there's plenty of room for them, these types of brief what-the-hell throwaway oddities are fine with me. But some of Paul's dubbed vocal tracks come too close to minstrelry for my comfort.

TB 2 – Best: “Helter Skelter “. What a racket! No WAY did this invent heavy metal-as-we-know-it, and as a onetime headbanger, I know of what I speak! Metal relies on precision and control, not the type of staggering, flailing, leaking disarray that “Helter Skelter ” is built on. Worst: “Revolution 1 “. Nothing really wrong with it (well, maybe the horns. and the shoo-be-doo-wahs), and I like the weird electronic noises and sonic flaws. But really, when it comes to “Revolution ” it's all about the SINGLE.

YS – Best: Well, in the past I would've said “It's All Too Much”, which we all know is great. But ever since I heard the original unedited (and unreleased) full version of this song, I can't fully enjoy the shorter one. So it's “Hey Bulldog “, 'cause it rocks so joyously with that bass and piano and that John & Paul banter at song's end, sounded like they were having fun! Worst: “All Together Now “. Fun but an obvious throwaway. (But this isn't even a real album; and I confess that I've never played George Martin's side more than a half-dozen times in my life)

LIB (yeah, not AR!) – Easiest choices of any album. Best is “Across The Universe ” and worst is “The Long & Winding Road”, that is all.

AR – Best: The medley (or medleys) is unstoppable, too full of razzle-dazzle highlights, peaks and valleys, to be ignored. (For individual tracks, I'd probably go for “Here Comes The Sun ”  or “She's So Heavy”.) Worst: “Oh! Darling “. Great song, nowhere near bad…but the too-insistent staccato arpeggios during the bridge always irritate me somewhat; if they were less distorted and played less rigidly and allowed to ring a bit, they'd sound better to my finicky ears. And was that repetition of the bridge even necessary, for that matter?)

PM 1 – Best: “I Want To Hold Your Hand “. “She Loves You ” may be more iconic, the Little Richard covers (and imitations) may be more rocking, but no song conveys Beatlemania (or my imagined version of it) better than “Hand”. Those reverberating microtones resulting from that shared “I can't HIIIIIIDE!” can still give me chills me if I'm in the right mood. Worst: “Thank You Girl ” and “I'll Get You” are both pretty weak early b-sides but I'll have to say “Matchbox ” – it's my least favourite Ringo track, and the only one in which I can't detect any personality. He just sounds bored, for whatever reason.

PM 2 – Best: Damn, on a song-for-song basis, this just might be the finest Beatles album in existence! Half the songs here could be my favourite on any given day, and the other half could be my second-favourite. For the moment, I'm gonna say “We Can Work It Out ” – how can a single song encompass such optimism and despair both? Beats me. Worst: There's no song here that I even come close to disliking. But, as with my remarks on “It's All Too Much”, I can no longer fully enjoy “You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)” in the edited version found here, since I know what the full-length unedited one is like. So, that's the worst.

(Wow, wrote a lot more than I ever intended…good thing it was a really slow day here at work)