The Beatles Bible 2015 Canon Poll - Results & Discussion | Page 5 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

As I discussed somewhere far above, I took the opportunity to try something I’ve never done before:  I rated each song quickly and impulsively, going for the immediate gut feeling.

Secondly, I liked the 1 to 10 gradation, because it allowed me to accord plenty of props to great songs by giving them a 9 or an 8 — thereby clearing the field for those unearthly gems that exclusively deserve a 10.  (I.e., not giving a 10 doesn’t mean the song is not fabulous — it just means it’s not impossibly heavenly, as the special 10s are.)  The most fun I had was in discovering — or rediscovering — those special 10 songs, which don’t require any more than a lightning-fast nanosecond to know:  like an epiphany.  Example, the second my eye read “Penny Lane ” my brain (and heart) said.  “Of course!  10.  Absolutely no question!”

For me to know a 10, I simply experience the utter lack of any hesitation.  If I came across a song I love, and think is fabulous, but my fingers hesitated even a split-second above the keyboard, I just knew it couldn’t be a 10.

I’m not going to list each one because I think most of these deserve to be in the mass of mediocre early songs, except the later ones which unless I say otherwise I still agree (meaning they are at the low end of the later stuff). Speaking of which we are really getting into some later-half stuff (I place the halfway mark at the middle of Rubber Soul – the better songs off it count in the 2nd half of their career, the lesser songs in the first half).  For the first time, I ranked several of these lower than the gang (most of the ones I don’t comment on specifically I ranked lower),

=187 (217)
Only A Northern Song – no way! this one should definitely be higher (see my recent post in this song’s topic!) +50

=181 (223) All Together Now – this should be higher, it’s a really fun, unique song with an awesome message for its time, at least in the states (“black, white, green, red, can I bring my friend to bed”) – the first song I feel belongs in the top 100

=178 (224) I Wanna Be Your Man – ok, my arm feels twisted as I type “I’m ok with it here” – but there goes another Ringo song. Wonder which Ringo song will chart highest? My money’s on Don’t Pass Me By , but there are a couple other possibilities.

=175 (225) Her Majesty – I rated it quite low :p
You Know My Name (Look Up the Number) – As cool as this one is, I just couldn’t justify giving it a higher rank and apparently neither could everyone else 😉

171 (229) Doctor Robert – I wonder how long before we see another Revolver song?

As far as Every Little Thing , let’s just say if @Starr Shine? comes to Ohio, I’m not going to give her my address! But she might like the high rating I gave Piggies , thanks in part to her drawing my attention to the song during the heated White Album song ranking competition topic (I forget exactly what that game was called).

EDIT: I guess it’s @Ahhh Girl who likes Every Little Thing . Even worse, as I know she’s in my hemisphere at least!

@Ron Nasty wrote: It’s the 28th where I yam! And I can only be where I yam! Sneaked out without a Herald! Or a Morris Minor!!!

What a nice early surprise to login on the 27th and find a new result set! I have no clue what a Herald or a Morris Minor is (a brand of fag maybe?), but thanks Ron 🙂 Of course I took so long to compose this that I fell asleep and now it’s after noon on the 28th where Ron is – and the 29th where some of you are!

After all that’s been said about covers, I went back and looked at my votes. Only 4 covers appeared in my approximately 75 7+ ranked songs, and only 5 covers appeared in the 80 1-4s. So my distribution was probably about the same, cover vs non-cover. A higher percentage of covers scored in the middle, I judged the bad originals more harshly than the worst covers, but the did pick really good songs to cover. I am familiar with all the original versions, if I wasn’t before I heard the Beatles version I sought out the original. I enjoy studying modern music & the more I know the more I enjoy listening, as opposed to those who listen purely for pleasure (and I don’t mean to say that either attitude is “better” or that my opinions are worth more than anyone else, just explaining why I took the time to find the original when I wasn’t familiar with it already).

As I ranked them I was thinking that it’s an extra hurdle to exceed the author’s version, where the author performed it. I agree that some, like Twist And Shout , are special because of their place in Beatles history, and deserve a high rank. I gave it a very undeserving 3 for some reason – whatever it was, your statements made me recoil in horror when I reviewed and saw what I had done (I now feel it should have been a 6-7). You may have noticed I have a tendency to over-analyze things sometimes, especilly after the fact!

The Beatles themselves wrote so many really tremendous songs that it’s difficult for even them to surpass their own stuff covering someone else. They picked really good songs to cover, and (again because of their sheer prolificity…prolificne-ne-ness…err, volume of work) they wrote a lot of mediocre songs. A mediocre Beatles song is as good as a good “anyone else” song 🙂 But we’re not judging them against others (barring covers, but they are still Beatles performing them). I’ll say that I required an extra-good interpretation of a cover to rate the same as an ordinary interpretation of their own song, and then shut up about it!

Unlike @Wigwam, I feel we’re into a section where there won’t be a lot of big surprises – expect the next 80 slots or so to be comprised of most of the rest of the early stuff and about a third of the later stuff.  So the top 100 will end up about 3/4 later stuff and 1/4 early stuff. I bet the discussion really heats up at about #100 🙂