The Beatles Music

[sidney]

What is your ultimate favourite Beatles song?

Once I choose one, and put it down, I always think of another one I should have said instead. I have a Beatles playlist of all my favourites, and I'm constantly adding to it. Right now I'm all about the Esher demo of Revolution. I love it when they kind of scat the melody and they overlap their voices.

I've Just Seen A Face is really important to me because it was my first favourite. Even though there are better crafted songs, it was the one that brought me to the Beatles. It was actually because of the movie 'ACROSS THE UNIVERSE'. I loved when the actor did the "Mmmm.mmm.mmmm.mmmmmmmm..." From that point, I needed to know everything I could about them.


Have you seen the GET BACK documentary? I've watched it sooooo many times now. Every time I watch it, I find something new that I love. At one moment, George Harrison was playing 'Mamma You've Been On My Mind'. And I had to find it. He does such an amazing job with it. I have that on my playlist and sometimes I put it on repeat. It's a Dylan cover but Harrison does it so much better than Dylan. I admit Bob Dylan is an amazing songwriter, but I've never been a fan of how he sings.

[sidney]

I also love this song. I wish I had this song. I could only find it on YouTube. It's amazing though!

[HoudiniDerek]

I was always a big fan of HEY, JUDE and LET IT BE.

But I think my favorite is probably always going to be either I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND or LOVE ME DO.

[sidney]

haha!
Two contrasting eras for the Beatles.
Hey, Jude and Let It Be were done late in their time together, and the other two were done early. That's funny.

I love early Beatles a lot. I Want to Hold Your Hand is probably one of my favourite songs ever written and it's just so simple.
Fun facts - They are actually singing: "I can't hide!" But everyone thinks they're singing: "I Get High!" The first time they met Bob Dylan (whom they became HUGE fans of - his song writing inspired them) he asked if they were writing about doing drugs because he misheard the lyric, too!

Hey, Jude was actually written for Julian Lennon, according to Paul. It was right at the time John left Cynthia for Yoko, and Paul was visiting Julian and was inspired for the song. John was never a very good husband to Cynthia, though, and wasn't the greatest father, in my opinion, to Julian. I hate John sometimes when I think about him leaving his wife and son for another woman. But George had an affair with Ringo's wife. That was kind of horrible, too. Poor Ringo. I imagine Ringo was cheating, too, though. But your best friend's wife? That makes me hate George. John got Cynthia pregnant before The Beatles made it big. They had to hide his marriage at the beginning. He did 'the right thing' by marrying her, I guess, and wasn't truly in love until he met Yoko. Still... I wish he would have been better.

Let It Be has a lyric: "Mother Mary comes to me". I've always believed that to be religious, but actually Paul is referencing his mother who passed away when he was a young teenager. His mother's name was Mary. And the song was inspired by a dream he had about her. Both John's and Paul's mothers died when they were young. Paul's died of cancer and John's was hit by a car.

I don't have any cool facts about Love Me Do.

[amyk]

As you know from another thread, I'm not all that familiar with Beatles' songs, but I do know LET IT BE, and I always thought that was about Mary, the mother of Jesus. Also I did not know that those two had lost their mothers when they were young. That's pretty sad.

[Katia]

I'm not sure I can pick a favorite... and it might depend on the day.

I actually went on a "Beatles tour" when I was in Liverpool several years ago (I'm ashamed to say that it was my friend in England who I was visiting who had to ask me if I wanted to go to Liverpool.  It honestly didn't occur to me until he said it.  No idea what I was thinking, lol).  It was fun... we got to see the outside of Paul's and John's houses where they grew up (and I think Ringo's?), Strawberry Field (it has a cool gate).  We were supposed to go to the Cavern Club, too, but when we got there, someone had just had a medical emergency inside and they weren't letting anyone in, so we didn't get to see the inside of it.  (Would be cool to make my own longer tour of getting to see more stuff, though.)

Mar 15, 2023 14:13:41 GMT -5 sidney said:

Fun facts - They are actually singing: "I can't hide!" But everyone thinks they're singing: "I Get High!" The first time they met Bob Dylan (whom they became HUGE fans of - his song writing inspired them) he asked if they were writing about doing drugs because he misheard the lyric, too!

I've never actually thought that line was anything *but* "I can't hide"!

Mar 15, 2023 14:13:41 GMT -5 sidney said:

Hey, Jude was actually written for Julian Lennon, according to Paul. It was right at the time John left Cynthia for Yoko, and Paul was visiting Julian and was inspired for the song. John was never a very good husband to Cynthia, though, and wasn't the greatest father, in my opinion, to Julian. I hate John sometimes when I think about him leaving his wife and son for another woman. But George had an affair with Ringo's wife. That was kind of horrible, too. Poor Ringo. I imagine Ringo was cheating, too, though. But your best friend's wife? That makes me hate George. John got Cynthia pregnant before The Beatles made it big. They had to hide his marriage at the beginning. He did 'the right thing' by marrying her, I guess, and wasn't truly in love until he met Yoko. Still... I wish he would have been better.

John was a huge dick to Cynthia.  Like, abusive and everything.  And apparently Cynthia found out about him and Yoko because she was away on a trip or something... came home and there were John and Yoko in John and Cynthia's house, IIRC Yoko was even in Cynthia's bathrobe.  "Oh, hi!" says John.  I felt so bad for Cynthia.  I mean, they married young, because she was pregnant, I think?  But still, that was no reason for him to treat her like trash.  She was the one who stuck by him and all his BS, and Yoko was the one who got all the love songs.  (Apparently John tried to say that Paul wrote Hey, Jude about him...)

(And Eric Clapton stole George's wife, but apparently George didn't hold it against him and they were still friends, lol.  Possibly because, as you said, he was messing around with Maureen Starr at that point...)

Mar 15, 2023 3:51:31 GMT -5 sidney said:

I also love this song. I wish I had this song. I could only find it on YouTube. It's amazing though!

Haha, that's great.

[HoudiniDerek]

I'm definitely eclectic in my music, which is probably why I love different eras of the music.

"I Want to Hold Your Hand" is just fun. It's upbeat.

I didn't know the story behind "Hey, Jude," but I had heard the one about "Let It Be."

[sidney]

I'd love to go on a Beatles tour. I probably won't get a chance though. I'm not much of a traveller. When I was younger, I got to go to LA and see the Chinese Theatre and put my hands in Marilyn Monroe's handprints on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I got to walk the Universal Studios lots where the ATeam and other shows/movies filmed and see the shark from Jaws. That was pretty cool.

The Eric Clapton and George Harrison still being friends after Patty Boyd marrying both of them is so strange. I was watching an interview and George so non-chalantly says they shared a wife, and I was kind of creeped out. But it is cool that some of the most beautiful love songs in existence was written for her. Something was written for her and it's such a beautiful song. Paul considers it George's best composition. I think Here Comes the Sun is his best. I play the guitar but I'm not that great, and I've been trying forever to try to play Here Comes the Sun. I'm hopeful that someday I'll be able to. It's really the only Beatles song that I aspire to play.

I'm actually impressed with the construction of all their songs, even the older more simplistic ones. They didn't even know how to read/write music and had only the training that George Martin, their producer would provide, and they did such amazing things. You ever really listen to Because? It's incredible. And they did it together. There was no computer editing. It was them. (and loops of their voices to make it sound fuller.) But sometimes I listen to the version without any music and I just can't get over their ability to harmonize.

I've read a few biographies about them when they were young, and there's more than a few stories of them being quite the jerks. Making their girlfriends change their hair, for example. Or cheating. There's some cute little stories, too. Little George and Paul idolized John. A LOT. John was the boss of them, totally. (There's a part in the Get Back documentary which has a recorded conversation between Paul and John where Paul actually says John has always been the boss and then he says, kind of insecurely, that he is the second boss. And at the time they are in their late 20s, so I'm positive John was the boss the entire time.) Little George used to follow John and Cynthia around town during their dates and annoy John 'cause he wanted to be alone with her.

[Katia]

Mar 16, 2023 9:42:36 GMT -5 HoudiniDerek said:

I'm definitely eclectic in my music, which is probably why I love different eras of the music.

I am, too... I used to listen to Pandora Radio at work while filing, and my coworkers would make fun of me.  Not only because I listen to my parents' music (Beatles, Eagles, Queen, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, etc.), but also because in one day they might hear the Beatles, Flogging Molly, Vivaldi, Skinny Puppy, CCR, Daft Punk, etc.

Mar 16, 2023 9:52:17 GMT -5 sidney said:

I'd love to go on a Beatles tour. I probably won't get a chance though. I'm not much of a traveller. When I was younger, I got to go to LA and see the Chinese Theatre and put my hands in Marilyn Monroe's handprints on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I got to walk the Universal Studios lots where the ATeam and other shows/movies filmed and see the shark from Jaws. That was pretty cool.

I'm not much of a traveler either, unfortunately-- due to circumstances, not desire (I really really would love to live/travel all over the world).  This trip was actually one to Scotland with my dance school, but of course I couldn't be in the UK and not visit my friend in England.

Mar 16, 2023 9:52:17 GMT -5 sidney said:

I've read a few biographies about them when they were young, and there's more than a few stories of them being quite the jerks. Making their girlfriends change their hair, for example. Or cheating. There's some cute little stories, too. Little George and Paul idolized John. A LOT. John was the boss of them, totally. (There's a part in the Get Back documentary which has a recorded conversation between Paul and John where Paul actually says John has always been the boss and then he says, kind of insecurely, that he is the second boss. And at the time they are in their late 20s, so I'm positive John was the boss the entire time.) Little George used to follow John and Cynthia around town during their dates and annoy John 'cause he wanted to be alone with her.

Oh yeah.  And unfortunately, Cynthia wasn't the only one John was a jerk to.  Reading about him in his younger days, it makes me hope that older John was a true reformation.