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Worst Beatles Song
13 July 2019
11.48am
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Jenna L
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Ask Not what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country -John F Kennedy 

14 July 2019
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ziggysawdust
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It is a hard venture finding ‘worst Beatles songs’, not so hard on their various solo efforts or WINGS.

I listed ‘I need You’ because it doesn’t do well compared to George’s incredible progressive songwriting (well ‘progressive’ up until the mid 1970’s at least).

I Need You ‘ is as good as ‘The Night Before ‘, which I also list as probably in my top 20 all time least favourites. These songs to me, on an album filled with *brilliance* (You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away , Help , Yesterday , Ticket to Riot, You’re Going To Lose That Girl and I’ve Just Seen A Face ). I think Dizzy Miss Lizzy and these others really do show that the Help album, and it’s previous release ‘Beatles For Sale ‘ fell just short of ‘The Album Band The Beatles, and as countless others have said, the Beatles were touring and making appearances on radio and TV, taking time off, and knocking a few songs off in the studio at a far more quick pace than they should have: I do not target I NEED YOU especially here. But I do highlight than on Rubber Soul (the beginning of the clever Beatles as Lennon once said) Harrison delivers ‘If I Needed Someone ‘, the only track they really loved doing live, although their performances of this and Nowhere Man showed the technological duress they were under in reassembling these studio masterpieces to the screaming horror-show of fans….  I digress.

Harrison shines on both Rubber Soul and Revolver and we get ‘Taxman ‘ written one year ONLY after ‘Indeed You/You Like me to Much’ (but compare either of these Help tracks to say Ticket To Ride , Yesterday or even You’re Going To Lose That Girl and they do fall short—–ONE MAN’S OPINION!). Only a few months later, George would begin to get cynical and acerbic and to my mind ‘Think For Yourself ‘ is the same cynical or actually ‘awoken’ take on love and life as Love You Too (a brilliant cut).

So we get all these fabulous Harrison songs that ‘out-McCartney’ Paul, ‘If I Needed Someone ‘ is not Michelle but it is one of the most pop catchy tunes on Rubber Soul and they toured on it. And he then has fuzz/attack/cynicism on ‘Think For Yourself ‘, concluding his sudden upswing as a force to reckoned with on evolver with Taxman , I Want To Tell You and Love You Too….so I am not gunning for George. I just think Paul and John did the love song format must better on this same album that ‘I Need You ‘ appears on, and George would never be as musically aimless again.

I should say ‘The Night Before ‘ is just average, Dizzy Miss Lizzy lacks the punch that Money and Twist And Shout have (as did Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby and a poor non Lennon version of Honey Don’t .

 

Beatles For Sale was Martin’s least favourite (until along came Yoko and ‘The Tension Album’, but it’s actually Help I find the worst, with again a Lennon song ‘It’s Only Love ‘ being savaged by him later in interviews (and by me not in interviews), the ‘pleasant’ Act Naturally and of course ‘Tell Me What You See ‘ which is hardly on many people’s top 20, 30 or 50 singlists.

 

SO Maybe it is the album (four classics already cited notwithstanding, here the album isn’t ‘an album’ the way everything from Rubber Soul to The Beatles was. Still, I haven’t heard too much defence of George’s two songs, forgotten if not these concerts George played them on and where they were played remembering his life 

14 July 2019
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ziggysawdust
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So………(remembering that aside from Paul’s ‘old time granny music sh*t’ which I agree with Lennon on, there aren’t too many ‘worst songs’ (for me) in the latter collection. It’s not a controversial or even surprise reveal to double down on my dislike of Ob La Di Bla Da, Maxwell (which John told the press that McCartney had ‘enslaved’ George and Ringo with endless, torturous run throughs and takes while John was out of the game post car-accident with Yoko, April 1969)-and yes I know the lyric is ‘disturbing’, but I hate children-centric tunes and Maxwell is not what anybody would call a Beatles gem nor a latter Beatles ‘sound’, quite aside from the other 3 hating it.

I’m sure others probably like it, but I’m entitled to my own opinion.

“I am entitled to my own opinion’- Vila

“Yes but it’s the annoying assumption that you think *we’re* entitled to it as well that is so annoying”- Kerr Avon, “Blake’s 7”.

So with that in mind, I will trot out some others: ‘Honey Pie ‘, I cannot see how Beatles fans would not put this as some of their least favourites. Do you think George would even be playing that lead guitar on there? Absolutely not. I think Revolution 9 is a better entry in the White Album and that is saying something.

 

I have a bit to say about my very favourites and my very least Favourites, and will do in a future post, ‘the future still looks good’

14 July 2019
9.54pm
Tangerine
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See that’s where I disagree.  I think Help ! is a great album.  The biggest fault with it is that it concludes with Dizzy Miss Lizzy instead of Yesterday , but the songs itself are actually all good.

The Night Before is one of my favorites from the album, I fail to see how comparing I Need You to this is an insult. 

It’s Only Love is beautiful, and John is notorious at this point for hating on songs of his that are actually very good.

Tell Me What You See may not be a stand out track but it does have a very nice riff I’ve always been fond of.

As for I Need You vs You Like Me Too Much , I think it’s telling which one they chose to put in the movie.  I Need You is a much much better song than You Like Me Too Much .

My Help ! ranking btw:

15 July 2019
2.34am
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The Hole Got Fixed
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ziggysawdust said

So with that in mind, I will trot out some others: ‘Honey Pie ‘, I cannot see how Beatles fans would not put this as some of their least favourites. Do you think George would even be playing that lead guitar on there? Absolutely not. I think Revolution 9 is a better entry in the White Album and that is saying something.

I like Honey Pie . Not my favourite, not in my top 50, but I do enjoy it. 
I don’t think George would even be playing that lead guitar – I know it’s John (lol I re-read that article not 15 minutes ago coincidentally before reading this post) but everyone in the Beatles LOVED the solo.

John played a brilliant solo on Honey Pie – sounded like Django Reinhardt or something. It was one of them where you just close your eyes and happen to hit all the right notes… sounded like a little jazz solo.         – George Harrison , 1987
 

Revolution 9 isn’t my cup of tea but I know it’s got covert prestige.

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15 July 2019
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Timothy
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Honey Pie is classic Paul. I sing along with the instrumental version quite regularly. 

1.The Beatles 2.Sgt. Pepper 3.Abbey Road 4.Magical Mystery Tour 5.Rubber Soul 6.Revolver 7.Help! 8.Let It Be
9.A Hard Day’s Night 10.Please Please Me 11.Beatles For Sale 12.With The Beatles 13.Yellow Submarine

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15 July 2019
1.51pm
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50yearslate
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Omg, this abuse of Help is killing me. There’s only one song on Help I don’t completely love and that’s Act Naturally — which is still a good song.

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16 July 2019
6.28am
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kurwabobrze
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Only A Northern Song is my least favorite Beatles song

16 July 2019
5.09pm
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Shamrock Womlbs
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"I Need You by George Harrison"

16 July 2019
6.11pm
joshthenesnerd
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My least favourite track is Maxwell’s silver Nightmare  -err I mean hammer…

I just feel like TOO much effort was put into it. and in the end, it feels like a slog to me.

 

Sorry Paully

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17 July 2019
7.58pm
ziggysawdust
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To all that responded to me not being thrilled with half of the songs on Help : I think it’s a matter of personal choices and preferences, I find Act Naturally , I Need You , even Dizzy Miss Lizzy to be *better* than many of the other bands’ offerings of the period as the fabs are my all time favourite band. BUT Rubber Soul in comparison to Help is an amazingly better album (I obviously think Ticket To Ride , Help (itself), Yesterday (uber-obviously), You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away , You’re Going To Lose That Girl & I’ve Just Seen A Face are classics which compared to many albums by other bands at the time and of all time, makes Help a great album just on that.

But Rubber Soul is virtually faultless and it’s the beginning (though some may not agree) of the ‘clever Beatles’ as John referenced, the beginning of THE ALBUM as an entire body of work, and coincidentally it is also the album that inspired Brian Wilson to create Pet Sounds. A non-Beatles fan was with me once and I was playing side two of Help and he said ‘what is this elevator music crap’, not that I’d agree on that, but the track list doesn’t compare overall when compared with Rubber Soul , Revolver and Pepper (and Abbey Road and arguably The White Album ).

So if you do like Act Naturally , or Dizzy Miss Lizzy or You Like Me Too Much , then I applaud you, I *wish* I liked these, I love the Beatles and know their songs backwards (especially the backwards parts), but I find both Help and Beatles For Sale to be weaker albums than the next three at least. Your opinion may differ and that’s fine.

Beatles For Sale starts off almost like a Lennon solo album (and arguably A Hard Days Night *is* the closest you’d get to a Lennon solo album with most of the tracks being his vocal), but Beatles For Sale has Honey Don’t (dreadful with Ringo, great with Lennon) & Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby , two lacklustre tracks by anyone’s standards, while all of John’s songs, especially I’m A Loser , Baby’s In Black and No Reply are GOLD.  

18 July 2019
9.33am
glazball
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I don’t get the hate for Honey Pie .  I do get that some people don’t like the 1920’s sound, but it’s unfair to take it out on a well-written song like Honey Pie .  It’s a great piece of work by any musical standard.  Plus, the 2018 Mix from the 50th Anniversary release really brings the amazing production to the forefront.  Try listening to all the instrumentation with some good headphones.

Likewise, I don’t get the hate for Maxwell’s Silver Hammer .  As a huge lover of Moog (and other early analog) synthesizers, I really enjoy it.  (Because is sometimes my favorite Beatles track, alternating with SFF).  Maybe the demented lyrics aren’t for everyone I suppose, but they make the song great to me.  I have to wonder if some people just see it as the weakest track on Abbey Road , so follow through by saying it’s one of the Beatles’ WORST SONGS EVER.

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18 July 2019
9.56pm
joshthenesnerd
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(I think I missed the original post about Honey Pie in this thread, so I will have to scroll up later)

Glazball, I think I might know some people’s reasoning for disliking Honey Pie . a lot of people don’t like Honey Pie just because it’s a very sweet sounding romance song, and a lot of people don’t enjoy paul’s sweeter romantic stuff. like Ob-la-di Ob-la-da, I Will or Lovely Rita

 

now, I really love paul’s romantic tunes like those ones but mostly because it makes me feel sweet while listening. but a lot of people don’t enjoy that kind of thing.

i guess i should set up a signature soon? maybe?

19 July 2019
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Timothy
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kurwabobrze said
Only A Northern Song is my least favorite Beatles song

  

Probably mine too, if I really had to choose.

1.The Beatles 2.Sgt. Pepper 3.Abbey Road 4.Magical Mystery Tour 5.Rubber Soul 6.Revolver 7.Help! 8.Let It Be
9.A Hard Day’s Night 10.Please Please Me 11.Beatles For Sale 12.With The Beatles 13.Yellow Submarine

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19 July 2019
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Only A Northern Song is my favorite new song on Yellow Submarine .

19 July 2019
10.53pm
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ThatWeirdBeatlesGirl
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Whenever I’m in a sentimental mood (jazz pub not intended) I can get into Paul’s stuff, more or less. I used to dislike a lot of Paul’s sappy stuff, but I now developed a liking for most of it. Paul’s mock “jazz” scatting does make me cringe a bit, and Maxwell isn’t my favorite, although I can somewhat stand it, I Will has a lot of personal meaning for me, and I adore Lovely Rita just for John’s weird noises and the strange sounding guitar work. 

Only A Northern Song is a pretty strange song, but for Yellow Submarine it’s Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. mccartney-shrug_01_gif

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20 July 2019
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Kaniffee said
Only A Northern Song is my favorite new song on Yellow Submarine .

  

It grows on you if you let it, as many of George’s tracks do – especially solo. I like the anthology thing, whatever it was they gave us, as it’s very basic in its instrumentation.

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20 July 2019
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Don’t know…A Taste Of Honey ? Besame Mucho ? Los Paranoias?

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20 July 2019
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joshthenesnerd
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Expert Textpert said
Don’t know…A Taste Of Honey ? Besame Mucho ? Los Paranoias?

  

I love A Taste Of Honey , but John called it a “waste of money” because it really wasn’t in their style so I can see why John and others dislike it. but I think it’s an alright song. I haven’t really given Los paranoias a good listen, however, I should at some point. but, I love Besame Mucho . it’s a fun romantic rocker with a bit of classical guitar thrown in for the guitar hook.  I’m very curious, textpert, why do dislike it?

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21 July 2019
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meanmistermustard
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‘Los Paranoias’ is ok on first listen as it’s Beatles but quickly becomes dreadful in whatever length it’s in. It should be remembered tho that it was never meant to be heard by us nor was it an actual song as it was an in-joke jam by Paul and John who I doubt would have remembered it the next day, so to call it the worst Beatles song is very harsh. 

A Taste Of Honey ‘ is just plain boring where every time I hear it George and John sound just as bored as am I.

I wonder if I could come up with a 14-track worst Beatles song album…

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