Beatles from worst to first 2 (190-176)

190. I Wanna Be Your Man from With The Beatles

Here we find yet another lowly-ranked early Ringo song. It’s a little too trebly for my tastes. The story goes that it was written in an afternoon to give to the Rolling Stones for a single, while they (the Stones) sat in and watched, impressed with the Lennon/McCartney writing team. Neither version of the song is all that impressive, though, I have to say.

189. Blue Jay Way from Magical Mystery Tour

This song just doesn’t really work. It’s soooooo slowly paced and the vaguely psychedelic background effects don’t really go anywhere. It’s hard to think of it as anything more than plodding, which is not really the term you’d want to attach to a song. I do like the unintentional tension between the real lyric of “please don’t be long” and the misheard one of “please don’t belong.” But it’s one of the few Beatles songs that really has no ability to transcend its era. This is a song that could only have been recorded in the late 60s and it probably needs to stay there.

188. Love Me Do from Please Please Me

This was their first single, which is weird, since it’s probably among their worst songs. But everyone has to start somewhere, even The Beatles. I prefer the version on Please Please Me (with Andy White drumming) to the one on the first Past Masters disc (with Ringo), though it really has nothing to do with the percussion. I just think the vocals are a little tighter and John’s harmonica is better. Anyways… “Love, love me do, you know I love you, I’ll always be true, so pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease…love me do.” Yeah, that’s why it’s this far down.

187. Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey! from Beatles For Sale

Many of my lowest ranked songs are, like this one, covers of some of The Beatles’ heroes of early rock and roll. I guess I just think that they so quickly transcended their roots and were producing more complex, interesting, and good music almost immediately. Still, there’s something to be said for a solid cover of a blues classic. And while I don’t really enjoy this song that much personally, it’s a perfectly good cover of a perfectly good song. I just think virtually any Lennon/McCartney song is even better.

186. Slow Down from Past Masters, Vol 1

This song starts so promisingly. The swooping piano intro and the quickly moving beat lead into a great vocal performance by John, including a couple of great screams. It does get a little repetitive, but even with that, it would still have ranked quite a bit higher if not for the MAJOR demerits it receives for containing what is without a doubt the worst guitar solo in any Beatles song. I have no idea what happened here, but it’s just not even close to the beat and gets further and further away as it progresses. By the end, I’m convinced that George was just plucking random strings hoping for it to end.

185. For You Blue from Let It Be

George definitely gets the short shrift in my rankings, with a lot of his later blues-influenced songs not faring very well. It’s not that I think they’re terrible – it just isn’t really my thing. This song sounds basically identical for the entire track. You could start at any moment in the song and really have no way of telling. Except for John’s solo on the slide guitar, which is pretty cool.

184. What Goes On from Rubber Soul

I really want to like this song but every year I realize it’s not quite as good as I thought the year before. I love Ringo, but his singing just doesn’t really do it for me here. Beyond that, the guitar playing on this song just drives me nuts. It’s just a series of short notes. It sounds like perpetually aborted attempts to actually string something together. I just can’t deal with it. And it’s a shame because this could be a good song, if it had been produced differently, I think.

183. The Word from Rubber Soul

This song is the dividing line for me. I really feel like it should be higher, but I can’t really justify moving it ahead of any of the songs above it. That will be the case with virtually every song from here on. It’s ranked where it is because other songs are EVEN BETTER, not because it itself is bad. To put it another way: everything below here is a song I could probably do without. Everything above here is a song I actively enjoy, to some degree. “The Word” is one of the first hippie-oriented songs, about the power of the word: love. And I appreciate it for that. But for some reason I can’t quite define, I’ve just never enjoyed the tune. Maybe it’s the almost-falsetto voice. Or the not-quite-right arrangement. They were really great about incorporating all kinds of instruments and making it fit, but the harmonium feels a little misplaced here.

182. Savoy Truffle from The White Album

Yet another lowly place George song. The horn section adds a nice effect here, and like many White Album tracks, the musicianship is pretty strong – the drumming is good and the guitar solo is well done. Still, let’s face facts: it’s a song about candy. And it inexplicably is lacking in the driving bass beat that featured so prominently in a number of other songs from this era and which could have really helped the song rock out a little more.

181. A Taste Of Honey from Please Please Me

Paul sure did love these old fashioned songs. And this track shows he could croon with the best of them. That’s about it, though.

180. Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand from Past Masters, Vol 1

Not much to say here. It’s obviously got a great tune, since it’s just “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” and that’s enough to elevate it a little bit, but I can’t conceive of why I would ever choose to listen to this when I could just have the original. Well, novelty, I guess.

179. I Me Mine from Let It Be

Poor George, making his fourth appearance already. It’s weird because I actually prefer George’s first couple solo albums over any of the others, but he does pretty poorly with his Beatles songs. Part of it is that (as I’ve said) I could do with more of “I write soft, pretty songs” George and less of “I’m into the Blues” George. This one, despite having a more enjoyable sound than some of the others, runs into trouble with the lyrics: focusing on ego, existence, and all that stuff. Alan Pollack, who knows more about the Beatles’ songs than basically anyone in the world makes the following comment: “But here, in “I Me Mine”, I fear that George unwittingly traps himself in the pit of self righteousness, not only by his indiscriminite inclusion of “everyone” as his target, but by the essential scenario of the song in which an individual zealously condemns the entire community for being self-centered.” As a counterpoint, his solo album Living in the Material World has some songs along similar themes, but they’ve got a slightly less abrasive, preachy feel.

178. Matchbox from Past Masters, Vol 1

One of many Ringo cover tunes from the early years. It’s one of the better ones, but it still can’t really stand up to the work Lennon and McCartney were doing. The rockabilly beat elevates this a bit, but it’s really more of a placeholder than anything else.

177. Not A Second Time from With The Beatles

I’m a little conflicted on this song. At times it sounds like a close match to some of their weakest early efforts. At others, it seems to hint at the complexity to come. The instrumentation is unobtrustive, to the point of feeling a little lackluster, but maybe that’s the strength of the song – that John is trying to convince her (and himself) that he’s not going to stand for her nonsense any longer but just doesn’t have the willpower to make it stick. There’s an interesting (if somewhat esoteric) take on the song here.

176. Drive My Car from Rubber Soul

I suspect that this is one of the first songs where my low ranking will conflict with a substantial number of Beatles listeners. I don’t know – it just doesn’t do it for me. The “beep beep, beep beep yeah” thing is annoying. And, for some reason, I just can’t deal with Paul’s vocals. They sound atonal, almost grating. All that said, I love the bass, and the piano over the chorus is quite nice.

All entries:
Beatles from worst to first 11 (the top 10)
Beatles from worst to first 10 (30-11)
Beatles from worst to first 9 (50-31)
Beatles from worst to first: Interlude
Beatles from worst to first 8 (75-51)
Beatles from worst to first 7 (100-76)
Beatles from worst to first 6 (120-101)
Beatles from worst to first 5 (140-121)
Beatles from worst to first 4 (160-141)
Beatles from worst to first 3 (175-161)
Beatles from worst to first 2 (190-176)
Beatles from worst to first 1 (206-191)
Beatles from worst to first: Introduction