Anyone here obsessed with writing Beatles-quality songs?

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actually :

The beginning of this song was based on 2 stories John Lennon read in the Daily Mail newspaper: Guinness heir Tara Browne dying when he smashed his lotus into a parked van, and an article in the UK Daily Express in early 1967 which told of how the Blackburn Roads Surveyor had counted 4000 holes in the roads of Blackburn and commented that the volume of material needed to fill them in was enough to fill the Albert Hall. Lennon took some liberties with the Tara Browne story - he changed it so he "Blew his mind out in the car."
John Lennon stated this regarding the article about Tara Browne: "I didn't copy the accident. Tara didn't blow his mind out. But it was in my mind when I was writing that verse." At the time, Paul didn't realize the reference was to Tara. He thought it was about a "stoned politician." The article regarding the "4000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire" was taken from the UK Daily Express, January 17, 1967 in a column called "Far And Near."
John's friend Terry Doran was the one who completed John's line "Now they know how many holes it takes to fill..." Terry told him "fill the Albert Hall, John."
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John Lennon stated this regarding the article about Tara Browne: "I didn't copy the accident. Tara didn't blow his mind out. But it was in my mind when I was writing that verse.
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That quote came from the Beatles official biography by Hunter Davies. It's a superb book.

Anyway, the paragraphs that precede it are equally illuminating;


Almost the same sort of lifted inspiration caused what many people thought was their best song on the Sergeant Pepper LP, 'A Day In The Life'.
This was the one banned by the BBC on the grounds that it contained references to drugs - 'I'd love to turn you on.' Even John himself is quite pleased with this song.
Most of the words of the first section, the verses which begin with 'I read the news today, oh boy', came from genuine pieces of news which John was reading the day he wrote the song.
'I was writing the song with the Daily Mail propped up in front of me on the piano. I had it open at their News in Brief, or Far and Near, whatever they call it. There was a paragraph about 4,000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire, being discovered. There was still one word missing in that verse when we came to record. I knew the line had to go "Now they know how many holes it takes to ... something, the Albert Hall." It was a nonsense verse really, but for some reason I couldn't think of the verb. What did the holes do to the Albert Hall?
'It was Terry who said "fill" the Albert Hall. And that was it. Perhaps I was looking for that word all the time, but couldn't put my tongue on it. Other people don't necessarily give you a word or a line, they just throw in the word you're looking for anyway.'
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In that book "Revolution in the head" by Ian McDonald, his article on 'A day in the life' is one of the best I've ever read. It sure drives Tim Reilly's one from "Tell me why" into deep space imo.
 
It would be good if more people tried to write Beatles quality songs, rather than trying to write...well I can't think of anything specific...but rather than songs that suck
 
Does anyone actually try to write songs that suck ? Isn't that a by product of individual or group taste ?
 
ez_willis said:
some people, in fact MOST people don't have to TRY to write songs that suck.
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That's because they don't have military training




to the original premise of the thread, what exactly is a beatles quality song?
 
Bristol Posse said:
to the original premise of the thread, what exactly is a beatles quality song?
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Only A Northern Song...that was an attempt at a pretty shitty song...and I think it turned out pretty good.
 
Monkey Allen said:
Only A Northern Song...that was an attempt at a pretty shitty song...and I think it turned out pretty good.
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It's a great song, written for Pepper and summarilly rejected. I think the point Harrison was making in a Dylanesque way was that he was in Lennon and McCartney's shadow, even though he'd just had three songs on Revolver and also that he was finding real meaning in life beyond the Beatles as he'd just been to India so his songs were only "Northern songs" (a great play on words as it was the name of their publishing company). George being ironic. Even then it was good !
Funnilly enough, in Johnny Rotten's brilliant autobiography "No Irish, no Blacks, no dogs", he says that when the Pistols were recording their album, he wanted the songs to be unlistenable. And thinking about it, you'd be hard pushed to find too many comparable examples of deliberately created crap than Lou Reed's "Metal machine music". If you've heard one minute of it, you've heard all 64. Really !
 
Monkey Allen said:
Only A Northern Song...that was an attempt at a pretty shitty song...and I think it turned out pretty good.
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Actually its one of my favorite Beatles songs, but yeah, it was a tongue and cheek song that really wasn't supposed to be "good". But ended up being one of their best numbers. Sucked that it got rejected for Sgt. Pepper's, would have been the best song on the album if it was included.
 
"You Know My Name (Look Up The Number), issued as the b-side of "Let It Be", is my favourite 'lesser known' Beatles song. Would have been a Number 1 for The Stones if they'd have done it!
 
Seafroggys said:
Sucked that it got rejected for Sgt. Pepper's, would have been the best song on the album if it was included.
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I've felt for years that in terms of the psychedelic sound of the song, it beat most of the songs on Pepper. In terms of songs that didn't make it to Pepper for whatever reason, it's in exalted company {Strawberry Fields, Penny Lane}. Mind you, I still think the album is good as it is. I feel that about the English versions {the original versions ! :D} of all their 60s output [and Let it be].
"You know my name" has the Stones' Brian Jones playing sax on it. Both bands appeared on each others' stuff, interestingly.
 
The opening groove in You Know My Name is actually pretty sick. The rest of the song is, well, avant garde if you will. Its good for what it is, its not a "bad" song. But to quote my guitarist, "it is what it is." Its not a typical song I'd listen to when I want to enjoy music. Aside from the first 30 seconds or so, which are pretty badass.
 
I enjoyed the Beatles and to a certain extent still do. I considered the work they did between 1965 up to Sgt Pepper to have been their best period. I kind of lost interest when Pepper hit the shelves. I was and still am an avid folk/rock fan and that's why I gravitated more towards Dylan and Simon & Garfunkle in the 60's and later into the blues which is an avenue the Beatles never excelled in.

That said I consider the best work of the Beatles to be of extremely high caliber in craft. But I don't believe for an instant that the Beatles writing abilities to be beyond reach. I maintain that Simon & Dylan penned work that influenced the Beatles, such as Lennon's Hide Your Love Away (which is my favorite Lennon song). Its interesting that when the Beatles did Norwegian Wood Dylan countered with 4th Time Around and more or less gave the Fab 4 a lesson on how to write a song about contra ban. The Beatles began a pop artists, and matured into something deeper but the pop core of their beginnings were never far from the surface.

As for musicianship as the 60's drew to and end it was becoming clear that the players of the late British Invasion were soon to eclipse the Beatles in playing skills if even if the Beatles never surrendered the crown of having perhaps the best arrangers and production of the time.
 
Speaking of Beatle quality material, has anyone ever listened to the Rutles ? They were in a 'spoof of the Beatle story' movie called "All you need is cash" {it has cameos from George Harrison, Paul Simon, Ronnie Wood and Mick Jagger} in the late 70s. Anyway, the music from the movie was written by a guy called Neil Innes who was in the Bonzo dog doo dah band, contemporaries of the Beats {they're in Magical mystery tour}. They are very deliberate attempts to sound Beatlesque but in my opinion, they are stunningly brilliant and utterly hilarious if you dig the Beatles. They deliberately draw on many Beatle songs and they cover every stage of the Beats' career. For me, they stand on their own as great songs and would've done, even if I'd never heard the Beatles' stuff.

http://www.rutles.org/
 
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