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8.02pm
9 March 2017
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A poll.
[sp_show_poll id=”216″]
I’m going to guess John and Paul on guitar (Epiphone Casino) with George on bass (Fender Bass VI) but the guitars on Birthday are like the ahhhs in A Day In The Life , people are split between 2 things. I wonder what @Ron Nasty thinks about this.
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9.22am
26 January 2017
Offline I love this song, just a shame such cool riffs were wasted on such throwaway lyrics. Same goes with EGSTHEFMAMM.
I've been up on the mountain, and I've seen his wondrous grace,
I've sat there on the barstool and I've looked him in the face.
He seemed a little haggard, but it did not slow him down,
he was humming to the neon of the universal sound.
3.19pm
9 March 2017
Offline To be fair though, The Beatles came up with Birthday very quickly and took little time before committing it to tape. Also, i think the simplistic lyrics help you pay more attention to the instruments.
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3.38am
19 January 2017
Offline QuarryMan said
I love this song, just a shame such cool riffs were wasted on such throwaway lyrics. Same goes with EGSTHEFMAMM.
I personally love the lyrics on EGSTHEFMAMM, for me they have quite a lot of meaning considering the Maharishi and Yoko context behind the song.
Birthday ‘s lyrics are pretty throwaway and they do weaken the song imo. With that being said, I don’t think it’s a song that should be taken too seriously. It’s supposed to be a wacky rocker.
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4.46pm
27 February 2017
Offline QuarryMan said
I love this song, just a shame such cool riffs were wasted on such throwaway lyrics. Same goes with EGSTHEFMAMM.
I also love this song, just today while doing a little ranking I found out it’s in my top twenty of all Beatles songs. Although the lyrics don’t seem to have a deeper meaning, I quite enjoy them every time I listen to them because they always make me crack up. Not only their silliness, but also the fact that sentences like ‘I would like you to dance’, ‘We’re gonna have a good time’ or ‘Happy Birthday to you’ which one would expect to sound inviting and cheerful are screamed by Paul so that it suddenly has an aggressive note.
Back when I couldn’t understand English, I’ve always thought two people were accusing each other and arguing and the ‘yes, we’re going to a party, party’ with its roaring guitars sounded like an invitation to fight (I’ve even had the image of a bullfight in my head). When I found out years later that the song is called ‘Birthday ‘ and is actually about partying I couldn’t stop laughing because it doesn’t match the music at all in my opinion. To my mind, it’s as much a parody as Yer Blues is and that’s what I love about it. It’s great when lyrics are intelligent and have a message but simply funny lyrics once in a while are also a great thing.
Additionally, I love it how the first thing that comes after ‘They say it’s your Birthday ‘ isn’t ‘Well, happy birthday then’ but instead ‘It’s my birthday too, yeah’. That’s so cheeky.
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7.47am
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20 August 2013
Offline Excellent story, @Martha. Thanks for sharing it with us.
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1.55pm
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15 February 2015
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Listening to the remix of this and HOt damn, that BASS is TIGHT as Robert Plant’s trousers. 
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9.05am
2 December 2018
Offline “Birthday ” is superb!! In my opinion, it’s one of the Beatles’ most underrated songs
9.19am
15 November 2018
Offline It’s always annoying when a great song like birthday has frivolous lyrics and people write it off as a joke and refuse to take it seriously. IT’S A GREAT SONG. I don’t care what it’s about, it’s a great song.
(See also: Run For Your Life and Good Night )
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10.26am
20 June 2019
Offline I’ve always wondered if David Bowie’s “ch-ch-ch-changes” was inspired by “take a ch-ch-ch-chance” in Birthday … Just a coincidence? Too much of a stretch?
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15 February 2015
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Maybe a stretch, it’s not exactly the most difficult-to-come-up-with (ugh my brain forgot how to English eloquently) thingy ever. That having been said, I will never hear either song the same way again. Thanks @JoJoC 
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6.10am
11 September 2018
Offline Perhaps they were both inspired by Roger Daltrey’s stuttered vocals throughout My Generation. Or maybe, in The Beatles’ case, they couldn’t think of a suitable four-syllable word to rhyme with ‘dance’ and fit the rhythm.
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