The White Album Side 3
Side 3 of the White Album, continuing my attempt to answer exactly how great the Beatles were.
Why do this?
Well part of it was caused by some various posts on Hacker News regarding the Beatles that argued they were not actually great in and of themselves, but only great “for their time”, being great, influential or important for your time is definitely a thing, so the question is if that is indeed the case
This was one expression of a feeling that seemed prevalent, that the Beatles were perhaps not that good — in fact opinion seemed nearly split: either they were great or they sucked.
I had also recently been reading another long complaints thread about music listicles on Metafilter
as part of writing a re-imagining of the genre with Agent 9
which had the text
. I get that James Brown is more foundational, but is he better than Prince? Are they both worse than the Beatles, a band that I personally think the world would benefit from a 50 year moratorium on playing their songs? It’s all an exercise in “well, a fella could think that.”
So, critical faculties engaged I started writing a long series of articles to try to figure out the truth of the matter, and because of the way I felt the argument had to be made I decided to do reviews of all the Beatles albums that I would classify as “Modern” meaning albums that if you did not know anything about them and heard them now would not necessarily think huh, that had to have been made by some old time band about 55–60 years ago.
The reviews of the albums are to go through each song and rate it and maybe suggest someone who could do a nice version of the song nowadays, and here we are up to the White Album side 3. Let’s Go!
Birthday
They say it’s your birthday
Well, it’s my birthday too, yeah
They say it’s your birthday
We’re gonna have a good time
I’m glad it’s your birthday
Happy birthday to youOne, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight!
Yes, we’re goin’ to a party, party
Yes, we’re goin’ to a party, party
Yes, we’re goin’ to a party, partyI would like you to dance
(Birthday) Take a cha-cha-cha-chance
(Birthday) I would like you to dance
(Birthday) Dance, yeah, woo, come on (Come on)(Birthday) I would like you to dance
(Birthday) Take a cha-cha-cha-chance
(Birthday) I would like you to dance
Woo, dance! Dance!They say it’s your birthday
Well, it’s my birthday too, yeah
They say it’s your birthday
We’re gonna have a good time
I’m glad it’s your birthday
Happy birthday to you
I always hated this song, but then again I always hated the Happy Birthday to You song (which is the same melody used in the Italian birthday song so by extension I hate that), Joyeux anniversaire — the French birthday song is ok, although somewhat lachrymal — I do sort of like the Danish Birthday song but really only the beginning and the part where they do the whole picking out of instruments.
It may be that I just hate birthdays.
It does seem like a lot crap to go through to get some presents (which if you’re lucky one of them will be good — this luck however is highly dependent on your age) and some cake.
Who should cover this song, I honestly don’t know so I went to look up who has, and I have to say I hate every group that has covered this or at the very least hate this song for them — including and especially… Sammy Hagar!?!
So who would I choose.. Parquet Courts, maybe?
Yer Blues
Two, three…
Yes, I’m lonely
Want to die
Yes, I’m lonely
Want to die
If I ain’t dead already, woo
Girl, you know the reason whyIn the morning
Want to die
In the evening
Want to die
If I ain’t dead already, woo
Girl, you know the reason whyMy mother was of the sky
My father was of the earth
But I am of the universe
And you know what it’s worth
I’m lonely
Want to die
If I ain’t dead already, woo
Girl, you know the reason whyThe eagle picks my eye
The worm he licks my bones
I feel so suicidal
Just like Dylan’s Mr. Jones
Lonely
Want to die
If I ain’t dead already, woo
Girl, you know the reason whyBlack cloud crossed my mind
Blue mist round my soul
Feel so suicidal
Even hate my rock and roll
Want to die
Yeah, want to die
If I ain’t dead already, woo
Girl, you know the reason why
This song is pretty much to my taste, but I can’t help noting it has some real flaws. In fact maybe it isn’t that good.
Now this is not the usual take, the usual take is that it is one of the greats — example ranking
8. Yer Blues
This track sees Lennon take on the blues to deliver a song that stands tall among the greats he attempted to emulate (see: Sleepy John Estes, John Lee Hooker). The result is evidence that Lennon rarely did wrong — even when he himself half expected to.
And this fits well with my personal experience of the song. It’s great.. but.. the flaws.
The first flaw is it references another song by another artist that is existing at the same time, and not in some clever way by taking a musical snippet from it, or reversing some lyrics, but by just referencing the character and the artist who made the song, as well as putting an interpretation on that character that doesn’t actually seem correct.
Really — was the problem of Mr. Jones that he was suicidal? Or was Mr. Jones suicidal because of his stress of not understanding what was going on. I don’t think so, and if he was I guess it makes Dylan seem more mean-spirited than he normally is.
We could maybe assume that this flaw is not that big of one, obviously The Ballad of a Thin Man has lasted in popular culture relatively well, it’s not quite as bad as if Lennon is referencing Bowie’s The Laughing Gnome, but still it is annoying lyrically and especially if you were a later generation listening to the song you might think “who, what?”, if the greatness of a work of art is its ability to last across generation this line is a detriment.
Also lyrically I would say the song is reaching for something you often see in the sixties, due to Dylan’s influence, that for want of a better term I will call “Poetic Depth”. Dylan really introduced this property to Rock and Roll music where listening to it you think it could function as poetry, and by that I don’t mean just a line or two (that you could always get) but the whole song.
With lines like
My mother was of the sky
My father was of the earth
But I am of the universe
And you know what it’s worth
it seems like a clear reach for poetic depth, which I think is a quality that Lennon as a song writer might generally reach at lines but not sustain across a whole song, this also worsens the song — especially given knowledge of its time frame and the much more poetic offerings around, and the reference to Dylan which cannot help but call to mind a much better lyricist to those who know who he’s referencing.
So yes, mentioning Dylan in your song is probably a mistake whether or not anyone knows who he is.
This song for me, someone who really likes the song, trying to evaluate it dispassionately seems like a song that is almost great, annoyingly almost great.
Obviously the Dirty Mac already covered it, but that seems sort of to go against the spirit of finding a cover band in the context of these articles
So, who do I want? La Luz
Mother Nature’s Son
Born a poor young country boy
Mother Nature’s son
All day long, I’m sitting, singing songs
For everyoneSit beside a mountain stream
See her waters rise
Listen to the pretty sound of music
As she fliesDo-do-do-do-do-do
Do-do-do-do
Do-do-do-do
Do-do-do-do, do-doFind me in my field of grass
Mother Nature’s son
Swaying daisies, sing a lazy song
Beneath the sunDo-do-do-do-do-do
Do-do-do-do-do
Do-do-do-do
Do-do-do-do-do
Mmm, do-do-do-do-do
Yeah-yeah-yeahMmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh
Mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm
Mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm, lullabyOoh-ah, Mother Nature’s son
There’s also been a feeling for me that the narrator of this song, the Mother Nature’s son themselves, seems a bit simple.
It’sa variation of the kindhearted simpleton
with extra dimensions of being preternaturally musically gifted (a McCartney, if you will) , and loving nature
But I guess I’m getting sort of off-track here, I like this song but it just doesn’t really seem to fit with, well, everything else here— without this song this disc would be:
Birthday, Yer Blues, Everybody’s got something to hide.., Sexy Sadie, Helter Skelter..
That just seems to work better. But also the pastoral idyll it paints just doesn’t seem to fit with the Beatles as a general rule, the sound really goes down to the quote from the earlier article delineating the idea of the Beatles old sounds and their new
half of these songs sound like Oasis, the other half like every other band that has ever existed.
Well here’s a song that sounds sort of like a band that existed, somewhere…
Who should cover this song, I guess it’s a cop-out but I think it would go really great with Love on a Farm-Boy’s Wages — so XTC.
Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey
Come on, come on, come on, come on
Come on, it’s such a joy, come on, it’s such a joy
Come on, let’s take it easy, come on let’s take it easyTake it easy
Take it easy
Everybody’s got something to hide
Except for me and my monkey
Woo!The deeper you go, the higher you fly
The higher you fly, the deeper you go
So come on, come on
Come on, it’s such a joy, come on, it’s such a joy
Come on, let’s make it easy, come on, let’s take it easyTake it easy
Take it easy
Everybody’s got something to hide
Except for me and my monkey, yeah
Oh!Your inside is out when your outside is in
Your outside is in when your inside is out
So come on (Woo!), come on (Woo!)
Come on, it’s such a joy, come on, it’s such a joy
Come on, let’s make it easy, come on, let’s make it easyMake it easy (Woo!)
Make it easy (Woo!)
Everybody’s got something to hide
Except for me and my monkey
Hey!
Yeah!Come on, come on, come on, come on
This song is the sort of thing that is normally to my taste, and I can’t stand it. Why, not sure why, it is thematically linked in my mind with Why don’t we do it in the road, but that’s not really it. Maybe it’s all the hippy-ness, the outside is in and the inside is out stuff, panto-depth.
But following the idea that things that are not to your taste that you like are probably pretty good
It follows that things that are to your taste that you can’t stand might not be very good.
That said this definitely falls into the whole modern sounding bucket —
it sounds extremely modern, but who should do a cover.
I think someone funky and hard at the same time, somebody with a handle on the psychedelic. Fantastic Negrito
Maybe I will learn to like this song after all.
Sexy Sadie
Sexy Sadie, what have you done?
You made a fool of everyone
You made a fool of everyone
Sexy Sadie, oh, what have you done?Sexy Sadie, you broke the rules
You laid it down for all to see
You laid it down for all to see
Sexy Sadie, oh, you broke the rulesOne sunny day, the world was waiting for a lover (Sexy Sadie)
She came along to turn on everyone
Sexy Sadie, the greatest of them all (Sexy Sadie, she’s the greatest)
(Waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waaaaw)Sexy Sadie, how did you know?
The world was waiting just for you
The world was waiting just for you (Waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waw)
Sexy Sadie, oh, how did you know? (Waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waaaw)Sexy Sadie, you’ll get yours yet
However big you think you are
However big you think you are (Waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waw-waw)
Sexy Sadie, oh, you’ll get yours yetWe gave her everything we owned just to sit at her table
(Sexy Sadie)
Just a smile would lighten everything
Sexy Sadie, she’s the latest and the greatest of them allOoh woo
She made a fool of everyone
Sexy Sadie
However big you think you are
Sexy Sadie
Breaking the rules is a very rock and roll thing to do, but The Beatles don’t seem to appreciate it. Neither would I or most people, this goes back to the McCartney is a nice guy article
There is something very rock and roll about being an asshole.
Anecdotes abound of Rock Stars being assholes, and let’s be honest — if you were to live in a world for any length of time with Beatles level of fame you would probably be an asshole
Essentially the Maharishi was an asshole and Lennon didn’t appreciate it and wrote a great song taking him down, the revenge of an artist.
Probably that’s why I like this song so much. Although it also feels that Lennon still appreciates Sexy Sady for all that.
As for who should do it, someone who can talk shit but also maybe like who they’re talking shit about.
I suggest Lady Gaga, with someone else (her choice). Of course because of the way things work it would probably flip the meaning of the song, if a woman sings it but especially Lady Gaga she would become the Sexy Sady of the narrative, an interesting twist.
This has been your Illuminati Ganga authorized Pierre Menard moment of the day.
Helter Skelter
When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide,
Where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride,
Till I get to the bottom, and I see you again,
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!But do you, don’t you, want me to love you?
I’m coming down fast, but I’m miles above you.Tell me, tell me, tell me,
Come on, tell me the answer.
Well, you may be a lover,
But you ain’t no dancer.Now Helter Skelter,
Helter Skelter,
Helter Skelter,
Yeah!Well will you, won’t you want me to make you?
I’m coming down fast, but don’t let me break you.
Tell me, tell me, tell me the answer.
You may be a lover,
But you ain’t no dancer.Look out! Helter Skelter,
Helter Skelter,
Helter Skelter, ooh.Look out! ’Cause here she comes!
When I get to the bottom
I go back to the top of the slide,
And I stop and I turn and I go for a ride,
And I get to the bottom, and I see you again,
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!Well, do you, don’t you want me to make you?
I’m coming down fast, but don’t let me break you.
Tell me, tell me, tell me the answer.
You may be a lover,
But you ain’t no dancer.Look out! Helter Skelter,
Helter Skelter,
Helter Skelter, ooh.(Shout, ad lib:)
Look out!
Helter Skelter!
She’s coming down fast!
Yes, she is.
This is one of my favorite songs and frankly about the whole I like classic rock but don’t like the Beatles (from the earlier referenced HN thread), what the hell is up with that? I understand tastes vary and about taste there can be no argument, but there are definitely a few songs — like this one or Yer Blues that should definitely fit in with the tastes of someone who liked the harder bands from the 60s and 70s.
This actually makes me think of my mother, who disliked Elton John, she didn’t dislike his music but had an aversion to his looks, and so if she heard an Elton John song that she liked if you told her it was Elton John she would dislike it. This is similar to the whole I don’t like the art of people whose morals I find contradict mine, the most popular form of communication regarding art of the present day (from all sides, in case you think this only applies to your specific opponents in the morality debate).
So what I’m getting at is if there are people who don’t like any Beatles song it seems most probable to me that they don’t like any song they learn is by the Beatles, the range of styles and the fact that the Beatles were each very different types of musicians makes other explanations strange.
Who should do a cover of this song. Well I don’t know off hand but there is this part from an article that Agent 77 wrote that makes me giggle whenever I read it
Whenever U2 holds a party, there is a chill out room, and in that room monopolizing a couch and tediously going on about various incidents from their career is Bono. On and on. Over and over. It is rumored that this is due to a curse laid about the singer that he must always ruminate on boring things from his past until someone shouts “Give us a song, will ye”
Fortunately nobody has yet been so dim.
Remember how that one time Bono shouted “This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles — We’re stealing it back!” Only to play a very poor cover of the song — One time he was chilling out in Atlanta and I had to listen to him go on for about 45 minutes about how they stole the Helter Skelter song back and McCartney sent him a thank you letter (which is probably true, niceness can make people do weird things) but I was man enough not to shout shut up and play us a song, because I had a great premonition that he would play the Helter Skelter cover again.
from:
I don’t have the deep-seated aversion to U2 that some people do, like Agent 77, and while that cover is not that great it isn’t quite so unlistenable as it is made out to be in the text above, but there is something very irritating about the whole stealing it back — U2 has at times been great but have the ego of artists who are invariably great, and they have varied too much in quality to be allowed those egos. That, in summation, is everybody’s U2 problem.
Normally you’d pick someone metal to cover Helter Skelter, and lots of bands with metal associations have covered the band, but often they go heavier, and what I really would want to bring out is not the rock but the roll of the song. Helter Skelter has great rhythm, also many metal bands when they get all high pitched can’t really handle it.
Who I’d like to do it?
I’d say The Detroit Cobras — but Rachel Nagy died a couple years ago and that’s really the voice I wanted. So unless either Heaven or Hell graces us with a bootleg we’ll have to look elsewhere.
Maybe Shovels and Rope
Ah shit, turns out they been doing it live — need better recordings of these shows though
Long Long Long
It’s been a long, long, long time
How could I ever have lost you
When I loved you?It took a long, long, long time
Now I’m so happy I found you
How I love youSo many tears I was searching
So many tears I was wasting, oh, ohNow I can see you, be you
How can I ever misplace you?
How I want you
Oh, I love you
You know that I need you
Oh, I love you
I dislike this song.
The
half of these songs sound like Oasis, the other half like every other band that has ever existed.
quote is pithy but sort of wrong, or not exactly accurate, many songs sounds like a weird amalgamation of several bands at the same time, this song is one of those. It sounds like those dreamy formless spiritually pure white pseudo-hippie bands of the 90s— which in some ways the Beatles were the blueprint for, psychedelic because that labels tends to cling to anything formless and flowing. But then it has those drums above the song.
When I say I dislike the song I’m wrong also, the song is great as Playlist filler.
I’ve discussed this in the past, playlist fillter is the connecting point between songs. That is to say you construct a playlist as a thematic whole with a correct playing order, at some points you want to mark a movement between two songs, and this song is just really good for marking those movements.
Of course it is 3 minutes long and I would prefer my filler tracks be a bit less, but in the right situation I suppose I would think this was a fine solution to moving between otherwise incompatible songs.
