The White Album Side 2
Here we are again, continuing my ongoing attempt to categorize the quality of the set of albums that I term the Modern Beatles — those albums that are not obviously old — that is to say if you did not know the songs and recognize the voices you might think it were a song by some more modern artist.
The reason for this is to try to determine just how good the Beatles were, you know everybody always talks about how great the Beatles were but hardly anyone ever does anything about it — like describe what makes them good, what things will last and so forth.
I don’t much listen to the Beatles much anymore, I went through a period in high school when I would listen to them many times a day, but then at some point stopped. And so I approached the project in a somewhat sideways process — instead of just arguing for why they were good or not I decided to go through their albums and review them, but only the “modern” ones. After which I assumed I would have enough data to make a real argument as to their quality.
The reason for the modern is a couple of discussions on Hacker News that asserted the Beatles were not that good, intrinsically, but just good for their time, for example the following
As they seemed to think the Beatles were old sounding I decided to take the albums out of the equation which I found to sound old.
So, the usual preamble established, on to evaluating the songs of the album entitled only “The Beatles”
Martha My Dear
Martha, my dear
Though I spend my days in conversation
Please, remember me
Martha, my love
Don’t forget me
Martha, my dear
Hold your head up, you silly girl
Look what you’ve done
When you find yourself in the thick of it
Help yourself to a bit of what is all around you
Silly girl
Take a good look around you
Take a good look, you’re bound to see
That you and me were meant to be for each other
Silly girl
Hold your hand out, you silly girl
See what you’ve done
When you find yourself in the thick of it
Help yourself to a bit of what is all around you
Silly girl
Martha, my dear
You have always been my inspiration
Please, be good to me
Martha, my love
Don’t forget me
Martha, my dear
At this point of course I’m used to it, but this is such a weird rock and roll song, especially for its time.
The two groups that might have done something like this at the time — The Who, and they would have been extremely sarcastic about the square old slightly misogynistic workaholic fuddy-duddy who really does seem to maybe love his wife, as far as he can, and the Kinks — and I’m not sure what they would have done with it.
As is often the case it sounds old fashioned, because it is the whole Nostalgic for a Britain that is vanished and gone kick that The Beatles often get on, but whereas most nostalgic groups will varnish over the distasteful elements of the rosy-tinted past The Beatles show it without highlighting it, it is more like reportage in the mind of a person that does not exactly think the Beatles are that good but probably does not detest them either.
Really I think Paul McCartney really liked to imagine himself a nice common sort of bloke having a happy, not especially interesting life, with a nice sensible middle-class job, sometime in between the two world wars. Perhaps as a solicitor in a charming little village.
Who should cover this song. It has been covered by several artists.
Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass covered it, which I guess really helped bring out its dorky side and made it sound awful.
None of the other bands that covered it really should have I think, Phish and World Party are sort of interesting but it just feels like no…
I think maybe Father John Misty. But it is hard for me to really think of a song where the singer could completely slip into the character who is calling Martha a silly girl without sounding like a real jerk. Because just about everyone would tend to highlight that aspect of the song. I think Misty would be a jerk in the song.
Maybe The Divine Comedy?
But actually I think maybe the easiest way to achieve the result of a song where the singer is sort of a demeaning but affectionate jerk, of a minor enough jerkitude that one can overlook it, to the object of their affection is for the character calling Martha silly girl to be a lesbian.
I would like the song to be sung by Benee (who may or may not be a lesbian, I don’t know, I just mean the character in the song should be)
Do I like this song, no, but it has some catchy bits.
I’m So Tired
I’m so tired, I haven’t slept a wink
I’m so tired, my mind is on the blink
I wonder, should I get up
And fix myself a drink?
No, no, no
I’m so tired, I don’t know what to do
I’m so tired, my mind is set on you
I wonder, should I call you?
But I know what you would do
You’d say I’m putting you on
But it’s no joke, it’s doing me harm
You know I can’t sleep, I can’t stop my brain
You know it’s three weeks, I’m going insane
You know I’d give you everything I’ve got
For a little peace of mind
I’m so tired, I’m feeling so upset
Although I’m so tired, I’ll have another cigarette
And curse Sir Walter Raleigh
He was such a stupid git
You’d say I’m putting you on
But it’s no joke, it’s doing me harm
You know I can’t sleep, I can’t stop my brain
You know it’s three weeks, I’m going insane!
You know I’d give you everything I’ve got
For a little peace of mind
[Outro]
I’d give you everything I’ve got
For a little peace of mind
I’d give you everything I’ve got
For a little peace of mind
(Monsieur, monsieur, monsieur)
(How about another one?)
I love this song — it is extremely to my taste. As well as being to my taste I think it is a great song.
But still, it’s another song that is a bit weird. Most bands making this song would try to make it about trying to get laid, being extremely horny. And I guess it may be, but it just doesn’t sound like it. Frankly, I don’t ever think there has been any Beatles song, even the ones ostensibly about sex, that has sounded like these guys wanted some sex!
For all the snark that Led Zeppelin’s Lemon Song has ever engendered at least you felt this was sung by someone seriously intent on engendering.
I mean it just does not sound like Lennon wants to see this woman to have sex with her, because I guess Lennon, like the rest of the Beatles are actually mature, as I’ve pointed out in others of these reviews, and he really misses the woman because he values her company — not just because he is in need of sufficient worship of his phallus by a willing receptacle, which would by the obvious vibe if the Rolling Stones had done this song.
I wonder if the Epstein years drained the ability to sound sexually charged out of them, all those high pitched Little Richie type yells McCartney could do and you never feel really like if this guy doesn’t get laid soon something is going to burst.
They really do sound like hand holding is good enough, Miss. Which I mean, was not the case, but that is what they sound like.
This is really one of the things I like about this song, is the fact that in the end I have a hard time thinking anyone doing it and not increasing the erotic charge.
That said if it were to be covered I’d like to see an increase of the erotic charge.
That said, I’d like to see Anderson .Paak do something to this song. He doesn’t have to increase the erotic charge, hey, he probably find something else just as good.
Perhaps it’s me that lacks imagination. But I believe Paak has sufficient musical imagination for any task put to him, so whatever he did with this I think would be probably as great as the original and maybe unexpected.
Blackbird
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life, you were only waiting
For this moment to arise
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life, you were only waiting
For this moment to be free
Blackbird fly
Blackbird fly
Into the light
Of a dark, black night
Blackbird fly
Blackbird fly
Into the light
Of a dark, black night
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life, you were only waiting
For this moment to arise
You were only waiting
For this moment to arise
You were only waiting
For this moment to arise
So evidently this is about racism and its assumed hopeful end in that time during the 60s and especially American racism
Blackbirds are of course often used as symbolizing black people, but McCartney is so abstract you would be excused for not picking up on it (although I believe Charley Manson did, so perhaps I am also somewhat obtuse).
To me it was always some nice poetic imagery that never connected to race in anyway, indeed what it always reminded me of was the poem by Wallace Stevens
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
I
Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.II
I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds.III
The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.
It was a small part of the pantomime.IV
A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a blackbird
Are one.V
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.VI
Icicles filled the long window
With barbaric glass.
The shadow of the blackbird
Crossed it, to and fro.
The mood
Traced in the shadow
An indecipherable cause.VII
O thin men of Haddam,
Why do you imagine golden birds?
Do you not see how the blackbird
Walks around the feet
Of the women about you?VIII
I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.IX
When the blackbird flew out of sight,
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.X
At the sight of blackbirds
Flying in a green light,
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.XI
He rode over Connecticut
In a glass coach.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of his equipage
For blackbirds.XII
The river is moving.
The blackbird must be flying.XIII
It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbird sat
In the cedar-limbs.
Even back when I actively disliked Stevens I had to say I found at least half of this poem worthwhile, later I have learned to not dislike him and the poem has improved by another 30%.
And funny enough I thought this poem was about Blackness in America, well no, that’s inaccurate — I felt a memetic tugging of the meaning of the poem towards blackness in America, despite much of the poem really just being about blackness. and I guess others did too, or at least were caused to make answers in which that was the assumption.
I guess I should write about that elsewhere as we’re getting off subject, but even so I never picked up on the Blackbird in the song was about blackness — and the song is somehow a bit bleak in the lyrics — for example
Blackbird fly
Into the light
Of a dark, black night
Does not sound like McCartney’s usual I’m going to be cheerful about this if it kills me!
I guess we know which cover, does that shut up the whole “all their songs sound old and out of date” canard? And I guess the cover brings the song back to be explicitly about blackness. Nice.
Piggies
Have you seen the little piggies crawling in the dirt?
And for all the little piggies, life is getting worse
Always having dirt to play around in
Have you seen the bigger piggies in their starched white shirts?
You will find the bigger piggies stirring up the dirt
Always have clean shirts to play around in
In their sties with all their backing
They don’t care what goes on around
In their life, there’s something lacking
What they need’s a damn good whacking!
Everywhere there’s lots of piggies living piggy lives
You can see them out for dinner with their piggy wives
Clutching forks and knives to eat their bacon
One more time
I know everybody thinks that Lennon was the sarcastic guy who could say some mean things but Harrison wrote this song and Taxman. There is a tendency for people who do a lot of work on their own spirituality and whatnot who luck into being able to make lots of money from a creative pursuit that does not require a lot of integration with the needs of others to think that they are better than everyone else (I mean really, he only had to deal with Lennon and McCartney, he wasn’t an employee at a big company, he didn’t have to sell real estate etc. etc. That is very little interaction with others to get your stuff done and earn your daily bread — look at all those greedy bastards out there mucking around trying to get ahead in life, I’m going back to my mansion and play my guitar!)
It’s sort of cringey.
Who should do the cover?
Drake and Kendrick Lamar, let’s get some peace here!
Rocky Raccoon
Now somewhere in the black mining hills of Dakota
There lived a young boy named Rocky Raccoon
And one day his woman ran off with another guy
Hit young Rocky in the eye
Rocky didn’t like that
He said, “I’m gonna get that boy”
So one day he walked into town
Booked himself a room in the local saloon
And Rocky Raccoon checked into his room
Only to find Gideon’s Bible
Rocky had come equipped with a gun
To shoot off the legs of his rival
His rival, it seems, had broken his dreams
By stealing the girl of his fancy
Her name was Magill, and she called herself Lil
But everyone knew her as Nancy
Now, she and her man, who called himself Dan
Were in the next room at the hoe-down
Rocky burst in, and grinning a grin
He said, “Danny boy, this is a showdown”
But Daniel was hot, he drew first and shot
And Rocky collapsed in the corner, aaah
Dan, dan, dan, dan-dan
Dan, dan, dan, dan-dan
Dan, dan, dan, dan-dan
Dan, dan, dooroo-do-do
Do-do-do, dooroo-do-do
Do-dooroo-do-do, do-do
Do-do-do, dooroo-do-do
Do-dooroo-do-do, do-do
Now, the doctor came in, stinking of gin
And proceeded to lie on the table
He said, “Rocky, you met your match”
And Rocky said, “Doc, it’s only a scratch
And I’ll be better, I’ll be better, Doc, as soon as I am able”
Now, Rocky Raccoon, he fell back in his room
Only to find Gideon’s Bible (Oh, dou-dou-dou)
Gideon checked out, and he left it, no doubt (Oooh Rocky, oooh)
To help with good Rocky’s revival, aah
Yeah, yeah
Do-do-do, dooroo-do-do
Do-dooroo-do-do, do-do
Do-do-do, dooroo-do-do
Do-dooroo-do-do, do-do
Do-do-do, dooroo-do-do
Do-dooroo-do-do, do-do
Do-do-do, dooroo-do-do
Do-dooroo-do-do, do-do
Do-do-do, dooroo-do-do
Do-dooroo-do-do, do-do
C’mon, Rocky boy
Do-do-do, dooroo-do-do
C’mon, Rocky boy
Do-do-do, dooroo-do-do
Do-dooroo-do-do, do-do
Yeah, c’mon, let’s Rocky it!
Another cringey song that I’ve always loved but really, in a modern context Lennon’s attempted black mining hills of Dakota accent can be somewhat annoying. Lucky he doesn’t commit to it wholeheartedly, so whatever.
Who should do it — Lil Nas X.
Don’t Pass Me By
I listen for your footsteps coming up the drive
Listen for your footsteps, but they don’t arrive
Waiting for your knock, dear, on my old front door
I don’t hear it — does it mean you don’t love me any more?
I hear the clock a’ticking on the mantel shelf
See the hands a’moving, but I’m by myself
I wonder where you are tonight, and why I’m by myself
I don’t see you, does it mean you don’t love me any more?
Don’t pass me by, don’t make me cry, don’t make me blue
’Cause you know, darling, I love only you
You’ll never know it hurt me so, how I hate to see you go
Don’t pass me by
Don’t make me cry
I’m sorry that I doubted you, I was so unfair
You were in a car crash, and you lost your hair
You said that you would be late, about an hour or two
I said that’s alright, I’m waiting here, just waiting to hear from you
Don’t pass me by, don’t make me cry, don’t make me blue
’Cause you know, darling, I love only you
You’ll never know it hurt me so, I’ll hate to see you go
Don’t pass me by
Don’t make me cry
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight
Don’t pass me by, don’t make me cry, don’t make me blue
’Cause you know, darling, I love only you
You’ll never know it hurt me so, I’ll hate to see you go
Don’t pass me by
Don’t make me cry
This song always struck me as related to I’m So Tired somehow, which I suppose thematically it is.
I quite like it, although probably the most interesting thing is of course the British vocabulary, the sort of archaic note of the clock on the mantel shelf, which again most rockers would never have thought to consider the clock as being on the ‘mantel shelf’, too much specificity there.
Who would I like to hear do this song, I like the song quite a bit so someone who won’t mess with it much, that sounds a bit old fashioned maybe.
Nathaniel Rateliff And The Night Sweats
Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?
Why don’t we d-do it in the road? Mm
Why don’t we do it in the road? Ah
Why don’t we do it in the road? Mm
Why don’t we do it in the road? Mm
No one will be watching us
Why don’t we do it in the road?
Why don’t we do it in the road?
Why don’t we do it in the road?
Why don’t we do it in the road?
Why don’t we do it in the road?
No one will be watching us
Why don’t we do it in the road?
Why don’t we do it in the road?
Why don’t we do it in the road?
Why don’t we d-do it, do it in the road?
Why don’t we do it in the road?
No one will be watching us
Why don’t we do it in the road?
I have always hated this song! When I was younger I just found it gross of course, the old out of shape hippies having sex in the road — disgusting!
That said if I listen to it nowadays I hate it even more. It really does fall into the problem of The Beatles not really sounding too urgent about sex, why don’t we have sex in the road!!? It’s a rhetorical question of course — I’m not really interested.
Who should do it, someone who sounds like they might like to do it in the road.
Doja Cat? Someone with a high sex drive, or at least a noticeable one.
I Will
Who knows how long I’ve loved you?
You know I love you still
Will I wait a lonely lifetime?
If you want me to, I will
For if I ever saw you
I didn’t catch your name
But it never really mattered
I will always feel the same
Love you forever and forever
Love you with all my heart
Love you whenever we’re together
Love you when we’re apart
And when at last, I find you
Your song will fill the air
Sing it loud so I can hear you
Make it easy to be near you
For the things you do endear you to me
Oh, you know, I will
I will
This is another one of those lovely songs that I don’t much care for. I think it is probably pretty decent, but not anything to write home about.
Lyrically reminds me of Do I love you, Indeed I do.
Who should do a cover. Someone wispy.
Hazlett, hell he sort of sounds like it
Julia
Half of what I say is meaningless
But I say it just to reach you, Julia
Julia, Julia
Ocean child calls me
So I sing a song of love, Julia
Julia, seashell eyes
Windy smile calls me
So I sing a song of love, Julia
Her hair of floating sky is shimmering
Glimmering in the sun
Julia, Julia
Morning moon, touch me
So I sing a song of love, Julia
When I cannot sing my heart
I can only speak my mind, Julia
Julia, sleeping sand
Silent cloud, touch me
So I sing a song of love, Julia
Hmm hmm hmm
Calls me
So I sing a song of love for Julia
[Outro]
Julia, Julia
The same thing I said about the previous song, applies to this one. It is very nice. It fits well in a playlist if you need some down comfort space for that part of the playlist when people need to calm down a bit.
You know what this reminds me of, this comment by Agent 18
The thing is most music they put in the little table jukes suck for the intended purpose.
I mean a lot of Rock and Roll is just not suitable eating breakfast at a cafe music, hell lots of it should not be played when eating any kind of food. There is some rock music that you could consider listening to at a roadhouse while eating barbecue and sizing up the bikers you’re going to get in a fight with later but most of the time it is better left alone.
But this place had a great selection of music for eating in a cafe, Mel Torme, Billie Holiday, even Odetta — and of course Tony Bennett, singing I Wanna Be Around which is great to be drinking coffee to while looking out on the empty street on a Sunday Morning, coming down.
That is a very pertinent comment, just as I was listening here to I will and Julia together I realized that yes, this is good music to relax to. The Beatles often made music to relax too.
Relaxing music is different than music to get really stoned and trip out to, because those are very tiring and get you totally amped up even though you are ostensibly doing nothing but lying in a beanbag chair. You are on an epic killing monsters in space or something similar. These songs have all the psychoactive demands of a dandelion blown apart in a soft summer breeze.
That’s nice, because there are very few people who can actually do that kind of music anymore.
Who should cover it — maybe Belle and Sebastian.
