worst beatles song

But really, though, the Beatles? Can't we let them rest?

Or maybe 'Rocky Raccoon'.

'The Long and Winding Road'. *Sigh*. I'll never understand why people are scornful of this song. For some reason it gets lumped together with the mawkish tat of 'Let it Be' as an example of McCartney's unfettered sentimentality. How anyone can fail to be affected by the romance of the song's imagery, I'll never know. Bloody cynics. It's a simple trick I suppose, but its evocation of time passed and broken dreams and a journey that you didn't even realise you had taken until it was over and it's the end of the Beatles and the end of the 60s and I feel like one day I'll be that person ending up at her door again and Jesus that song spooks me.

I'm bored of being bored with the Beatles.

I also hate "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", which is pure stodge.

My own personal pick would probably end up being "Hello Goodbye". Painfully banal, inappropriately bouncy, and all-around Hell-On- Earth. I'd be a happy man if I never ever heard it again.

"The Long And Winding Road" is annoyingly produced, yes, but underneath that is a fantastic song. Any a capella arrangement of it that is sung well will prove this. Same with "Yesterday".

The worst? "I Want You" is pretty terrible, I think.

All right then, You Like Me Too Much is pretty awful, as are most of the original songs on Help! I might have voted for Help itself, but having recently heard Pete Wylie doing a slowed down stripped down version of it, I've seen the light. But Help! - I mean, if you'd bought Rubber Soul and got really excited, wouldn't that album have been a let down? You'd have assumed they were done for.

Worst? The Beatles didn't ever write anything that could be described as bad, so I'll plump for 'Piggies', which is.... actually, it is bad.

Harvey

Yeah?

Yeah.

With lyrics like that, you know it must be bad.

Horrible overdubs, yes. Try to hear the version in the 'Let it Be' film.

There are, of course, many dreadful Beatles songs. 'Piggies' is indeed a nasty little piece of work. Harrison also annoys me on 'Taxman' - great tune, lousy sentiments. Never understood how people put up with him whining about his fiscal affairs. I mean get a fucking grip, man.

I always think 'Help!' is underrated, Michael. But then it was the only early Beatles album I had when I was growing up, so maybe I'm biased. And you seem to be under the impression that it came out after Rubber Soul, which it didn't. I think it's a lot better than the preceding 'Beatles for Sale', anyway, which is largely an unhappy mix of dodgy rock and roll covers and Lennon's attempts to work Dylan through his system. 'Help!' is the P!O!P! choice, you might say. But yes, 'A Hard Day's Night' beats them both.

Other dire Beatles songs:

'Love me do' (chugga-chugga boo); 'Rocky Raccoon' (obviously); 'Ob-la-di-ob-la-da' (which, like 'Let it Be' even gets slagged off on its own album); 'Why don't we do it in the road?' (McCartney tries to get low down and dirty and just succeeds in making me feel sick); 'Dig it' (dreary dreary dreary), 'It's Only Love' (nice intro but made preposterous by the line "Just the sight of you makes nighttime bright... very bright"; 'It's All Too Much' (I can't even remember how this dirge goes. The House of Love covered it); 'All Together Now' (more bollocks from 'Yellow Submarine'); 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' (it's tuneless, it's weedily-produced, it annoys me with its very first line and I couldn't care less whether it's about drugs, Julian's scrawlings or the wider cosmos. It's shit.)

N. x

As for Lennon and McCartney's songs, I've spent so much of my life listening to them that I can just about find something worthwhile in them all. I would have gone for The Long and Winding Road, but the Anthology version (and Kevin Rowland's version) changed my mind about that. If pushed then, I'd have to go for Get Back - a pivotal song in that it marked the dramatic decline of McCartney's vocal range (no, really, it did) and suggests that had The Beatles carried on for much longer they'd have ended up as embarrassing lumpen 'rockers' (as evidenced by their pitiful solo careers).

Well, no, it's not, but it's nowhere near, say, Octopus's Garden in uselessness.

As for the Phantom Beatles sound of the early 70s, it would have been either stodgy Rockism cf Get Back / I Want You / Don't Let Me Down, or the bland overcooked AOR sound of ELO. Probably both at once, in fact. Their mythological status is largely due to their splitting just as they were about to be overtaken, IMHO, indeed they probably were already falling off in 1969 (as David Stubbs accurately wrote recently in Uncut). Had the Beatles continued until, say, 1976, it might actually have been a good thing for us today, since they'd have made many more downright irrelevant, mediocre and unnecessary records than they did, therefore they'd be less of a holy grail and more widely denigrated, and they wouldn't be forced down your throat all the time as The Band Who Never Got Shit. Had the Beatles continued into the early 70s and shown their later true mediocre colours *as a group*, we could well have been spared the worst aspects of the mid- 90s.

Ian MacDonald rightly states in "Revolution In The Head" that during the 80s The Beatles were a museum piece. Certainly in post punk and synth Britain (1979 - 1982) the Beatles had almost been forgotten right across the various cultures and by 1984/5, interest in them was probably at an all time low. I reckon it all started to pick up again in June '87 when there was a piece on the 9 o clock news about McCartney celebrating "It was 20 years ago today.... After that there was the 1988/89 movement of indie bands recreating a more real 60's type sound again. One of the hard aspects about Lennon's death was that he never experienced the real acclaim that comes with 20-25 years hindsight --- during the 70s there were real proper books or in depth magazine articles (like Stubbs' Let It Be piece) giving the historical perspective on the Beatles --- he never saw in a proper context what The Beatles meant in the overall scheme of things.

I do recall "Love Me Do" being given a 20th-anniversary re-release with a fair amount of hoo-har in late '82 and barely charting. For some reason, I associate the mid-80s CD re-issue programme as kick- starting the Beatles' second coming.

Worst song? I don't really know the LPs, but "Get Back" is a crap single. I'd like to meekly add my support to the Resistance who are sticking up for "Long and Winding Road" in the face of hooting derision and name-calling.

As for the likelihood of The Beatles turning into stodgy rocker/ELO types - well, it actually happened with Free As A Bird and Real Love, which had Jeff Lynne's nauseating production sound all over it. McCartney's fault that because, feeling guilty over the way he'd treated Harrison during the Beatle years, he allowed him to bring his mate in, instead of George Martin. McCartney should have stood firm and treated Harrison like the junior, inferior talent he really is.

Harrison's an unpleasant sod, isn't he? I mean, no one likes being stabbed at Christmas, but all that drivel about his assailant 'basically getting off on a technicality', when he was clearly raving...

Er, I don't seem to be able to find any supporting evidence for that quote on the Web...

"Long, Long, Long" still very much to treasure of course, as is "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" in its way, despite its AOR / stadium rock-prefiguring song structure.

Who is he?

We've got a Beatles station in town, which I listen to constantly. The only time I ever switch the station is when this drivel comes on.

yellow submarine's no picnic either

Rocky Racoon sounds okay sped up

why do you hate fun, mr. blount?

*ducks*

Wild Honey Pie

doctor robert

regular honey pie, yeesh

paul's granny music indeed

across the universe

come together is a drag. wild honey pie is kinda great. doctor Robert just doesn't work properly as a song.honey pie is just fine. never understood why across the universe was so bad and hated - total melancholy for me. just emptiness and angst and existentialism. I actually love it.
I don't like Come Together or Back in the USSR or anything where they were just trying to do like really strutty rock songs. I always liked the silly Beatles. Piggies, Bungalow Bill, Maxwell. I loved those when I was first getting into them and it really hurt when I found out people more or less hate those.

Across the Universe?????????????????
man, in John's top 5 imo

Never understood the v widespread hate of wild honey pie, it's a minute long and it sounds weird and cool. I like regular honey pie but I get why one would pick that.

If any of y'all haven't heard the Esher Demos, check that shit out asap. May 1968 stoned four track acoustic demos of white album songs and outtakes (the version of Junk on there is better than the one on McCartney, and the demo of Mother Nature's Son made me appreciate the album version). Sweet vocal double tracking slipping in and out of place, little jokes, sounds, 30-ish songs

Ok, I'll take back by Wild Honey Pie vote (and though I don't think regular Honey Pie is that great, its placement in the sequence always pleases me)
Is Mr Moonlight a cover? I can't take that one at all

Come Together? Idgi. Incredible bass and drum intro, surrealist Poe-etic lyrics with a Chuck Berry steal, what's not to like?

it's got an iconic groove and semi-clever wording but I guess its adoption by the post-Weller Brtipop crowd in the mid-90s affected my opinion of it. just feels stodgy and solid and rote

You might wanna try listening to it for the first time again

mind = blown

i feel the same way as dog latin, i mean for one thing it's one of the only songs John ever ripped off, and everything about is so fucking wack - the bassline, the turgid pace, the embarrassing lyrics. whenever i hear it i think an ad for a car or a burger or whatever is about to start. i hate abbey road (save the george songs), feels like BEATLES: THE DISNEYLAND RIDE!

The lyrics are great v sly portraits of each beatle

it still sounds like slam poetry

Predates slam poetry by 2 decades so thats backwards

doctor robert is an insane choice, i'm sorry. it's dopey from a certain point of view but naming any of their mod-rocker tunes as 'worst' is ridic; it's so snappy and punchy and energetic and yet with some real lush detail put into it. i mean if you're going to pick some throwaway album track like that there are so many better picks.

So many suspect opinions in this thread. OG posters enthusiastically defending long and winding road for chrissakes.

Dr. Robert is great for the half-time middle right alone

"The Long and Winding Road" is great fuiud

yeah I think it's hammy and touching I'm all the right ways. I could see it being done really well by someone like Tom Waits or something.

*in, not I'm

i didnt realise i was posting here to be attacked!

dr robert, right, listen now- it sounds shit.

it has a shit sound.

there may be technical or literary reasons that this is ok for you.

its not ok for me.

They did so many shit songs it's hard to know where to start

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 July 2008 16:38 (eight years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I am much more of a Beatles fan than you are, but I appreciate your approach.

Pretty much anything off of With the Beatles...

I hate that early stuff most of all - with some notable exceptions, even I'm prepared to admit they could write a good song or two.

someone should start talking about how terrible yoko was (followed by 40 people defending yoko) to make this 2016 internet beatles opinion discussion complete.

or maybe just start a thread called *what's the big deal with the beatles? - also why do people even like pet sounds? - also yoko sucks!* and just let this year die the fiery death it deserves.

Not sure what you're expecting to read in a thread called worst beatles songs?

at least 50% of their tunes

no attack really! just goofing around, though it does seem so weird that "doctor robert" would jump out as bad/worst in their catalog. would never even occur to me to put it in the bottom third, to be honest.

right thats it im starting yr ban thread

my stock answer to this is always Get Back. it's not what i think is the actual worst beatles song, but it gets played on the radio so completely out of proportion to what it deserves. i also really hate paul's voice on it.

"Not sure what you're expecting to read in a thread called worst beatles songs?"

maybe something other than boring and typical internet beatles opinion. but this thread does had a long and proud 16 year history of boring and typical. i expect better from you people! make beatles hate new. that's my motto.

get back is kinda toothless for a "let's rock again!" song. and i hate Paul's habit of giving his characters really dumb names like 'Jojo' (though I love Ob La Di Ob La Da, fwiw).

what could possibly make for an exciting opinion on the Beatles at this point? .... "strawberry fields is shit"?

the section of side 2 of the White album that goes Piggies/Rocky Raccoon/Don't Pass Me By/Why Don't We Do It in the Road? is pretty hard going. I've come around to the idea that Don't Pass Me By is actually good and quite charming when listened to outside of that context, other three are irredeemable though, couldn't pick between them for the worst, the full horrible effect is more than the sum of its parts

i dig Don't Pass Me By, and i love that Ringo had been trying to get that on a Beatles album since he joined the band

make beatles hate new.

I doubt this is possible.

"strawberry fields is shit"

see, that's the boring stuff i'm talking about. not exciting at all. there is soooo much beatles fan-trolling on the internet. it's a thing. being anti-beatles is very au courant. which is fine. it's a reaction against countless reissues and rock god worship and holy writs and all that. i get it. i think it's even healthy for young people to deny thy beatle dad and all that. but it's still boring. but honest and well-written critiques about WHY strawberry fields is shit are always a good thing to me. those i would read.

but i take it all back. i don't know why i would expect more from you guys. it's just a fun shit thread. it's all good.

make something that people have been doing for decades new

i have reviewed a complete list of their catalog and i think i can say from a long life on beatles threads and such that these are the only legitimate choices for "worst song." you can post that one of these is the worst song and i will nod approvingly while also recognizing it as a boring opinion. if you pick a different beatles song, that is sort of interesting, but also sort of just challopsing and you are under obligation to provide minimum 200 words making your case, more if the song is some two-minute background album track that nobody ever notices and that you never even have to hear if you don't want to. doing this offers the slim possibility that it will be a good, non-boring post given the constraints of a worst song thread about a very good band where nearly all the songs are pretty good. your other option is to identify previously-unrecognized or particularly well-worded and cutting reasons why these are so bad and hated. fwiw i love most of those at some level and i have probably slightly underrepresented mccartney though i tried to include all his twee granny songs.

"12-Bar Original"
"Act Naturally"
"All Together Now"
"All You Need Is Love"
"Ask Me Why"
"Baby, You're a Rich Man"
"The Ballad of John and Yoko"
"Carnival of Light"
"Christmas Time (Is Here Again)"
"The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill"
"Dig a Pony"
"Dig It"
"Drive My Car"
"Flying"
"Free as a Bird"
"Hello, Goodbye"
"Honey Don't"
"Honey Pie"
"I Me Mine"
"If You've Got Trouble"
"I've Got a Feeling"
"Lady Madonna"
"Little Child"
"Let It Be"
"Mr. Moonlight"
"Nowhere Man"
"Piggies"
"P.S. I Love You"
"Real Love"
"Revolution 1"
"Rocky Raccoon"
"Run for Your Life"
"A Taste of Honey"
"Tell Me What You See"
"The Long and Winding Road"
"Wait"
"What Goes On"
"When I Get Home"
"When I'm Sixty-Four"
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
"Why Don't We Do It in the Road?"
"Wild Honey Pie"
"The Word"
"You Can't Do That"
"Your Mother Should Know"

I like quite a few of those tracks!

you've heard Carnival of Light?? do tell!

i like nearly all of those tracks! some quite well! just yknow, trying to separate out the canon of 'bad beatles songs' from novelty challops picks or w/e so we can get down to brass tacks

do people dislike The Word?

as far as Rubber Soul songs go, The Word is fine. i had never listened to the record all the way thru until 4 years ago, and i was shocked by the petty misogyny running throughout a lot of it. also it sounded remarkably staid/not the huge leap forward it's always talked about as. i've always loved Revolver and idk why it took so long for me to get around to Rubber Soul but it's p crap besides Girl, Norwegian Wood, and I'm Looking Through You.

i dislike the word

if you focus on the harmony that they use when they sing "the WOOOOOOOORD", and how it's repeated, and how bad it is, and how it appears over and over again, it is a contender for the very worst beatles song

dr casino i notice Get Back is missing from that list, and i don't understand why it's not included.

that is a legitimate oversight, it should be there.

thank you. not saying it really is the worst, but when applying the overexposure formula,

overexposure = (1/songQuality) * radioPopularity

get back is off the charts

(I usually skip "Doctor Robert" too. I like the middle eight, though.)

make beatles hate new.

Ringo should have been burned as a warlock for being left-handed!