This year marks the 40th anniversary of Let It Be, the album that while recorded prior to Abbey Road, is considered [technically speaking] The Beatles' swansong. To herald this milestone, the folks at Rolling Stone are set to release a special commemorative issue chronicling the 100 Greatest Songs of the group's illustrious career. Rolling Stone has leaked to the press what landed in the top ten of that list, and posted its results on their official website.
The selection includes George Harrison's "Something" at Number 6 [the second-most covered Beatles song in history,] Paul McCartney's "Yesterday" at Number 4 [originally titled "Scrambled Eggs", and cited as the most covered song in the Beatles catalog] as well as John Lennon's autobiographical tomes "In My Life" and "Strawberry Fields Forever", coming in at Number 5 and 3, respectively.
In choosing the closing track from Sgt. Pepper as the best Beatles song of all time, Rolling Stone observes: "The ultimate Lennon-McCartney collaboration, "A Day in the Life" wasn't recognized as the band's masterwork until the Eighties, after Lennon's death. It pairs lyrics inspired by the newspapers and Lennon's own life with McCartney's idea to have classical musicians perform what producer George Martin called an "orchestral orgasm."
Point taken, and certainly among other fans and critics, Rolling Stone's list will be the topic of much debate [which is probably their intent from the beginning, as it allows the magazine to maintain a semblance of relevance in a rapidly-changing cultural landscape], but what criteria did Rolling Stone use to determine a track's greatness, especially as it relates to The Beatles' legacy? I would agree with a track like "Strawberry Fields", as aesthetically is it one of Lennon's best songs [and being the band's prescient dip into the psychedelic pool, as it were,] and I guess knowing such tidbits as "Let It Be" charted in the Top Ten of both the pop and black music charts in 1970 [according to Billboard,] would qualify that song for such exalted status.
Still, I think some major Beatles songs [which I'm sure are part of the larger 100 annotation] are better suited to be included in the upper echelon of Top Ten of all time, so here are my personal picks in ascending order:
Number Ten: "She's A Woman" - The flip side to the Beatles' "I Feel Fine" 45 [remember those?] is a slice of early rockabilly with McCartney offering up his best Jerry Lee Lewis-inspired crooning ever, as well as some very pithy lyrics outlining the dynamics of his relationship: "She will never make me jealous/Gives me all her time as well as lovin'/Don't ask me why/She's a woman who understands/She's a woman who loves her man."
Number Nine: "If I Needed Someone" - From an album that brought us such cherished ballads as "In My Life" and "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" comes Rubber Soul's most under-appreciated track, written not by Lennon or McCartney, but George Harrison. The seeming ambiguity of the lyrics camouflages the apprehensiveness of the singer to give in to love, while the band's harmonies and descending guitar licks make this a love song with teeth.
Number Eight: "Penny Lane" - Come now, Rolling Stone.....I'm sure this charted somewhere on your list, but if ever a Beatles tune was "top ten" it's this marvelous tale of a day in the life of a typical British town. References to the neighborhood barber shop, a local banker being teased by kids on his block, and a nurse "selling poppies from a tray" in front of a local shelter bring to life Paul McCartney's look at post-war provincial English life, and was one of the group's earliest forays into orchestral enhancement of their music.
Number Seven: "Dear Prudence" - Following The White Album's tongue-in-cheek Beach Boys homage, "Back In The USSR" [which opens Side One] we hear the haunting arpeggio of "Dear Prudence" which shifts both the color and mood of the record instantly. I wont tell you how old I was at the time, but when I first heard McCartney's wistful plea for a reclusive girl to reengage with life, its beauty took my breath away.
Number Six: "Paperback Writer" - The A-side to my Number One pick is on what many would consider the best Beatles 45 ever released [and I'd be hard pressed to disagree.] Another fine example of McCartney's penchant for storytelling, this tune has a fledgling writer pitching his manuscript to a prospective publisher - McCartney deftly has one of its characters modeled after the protagonist, essentially making it a story within a story. And the call and response of the song's verse and chorus are killer!
Number Five: "Only A Northern Song" - I believed then, and do to this day, that George Harrison wrote the real psychedelic gems in the Beatles' canon, and I offer up this nugget from the soundtrack to the animated classic Yellow Submarine as proof. From the stately organ intro, to McCartney's frenetic trumpet filigrees to Harrison's subversive lyricism ["It doesn't really matter what chords I play/what words I say, or time of day it is"] this tune is purported to be Harrison's response to Lennon/McCartney's assessment of his songwriting.
Number Four: "Across The Universe" - During the sessions for this album, captured on film in the 1970 documentary of the same name, we can see Lennon's growing frustration over the band's imminent implosion. And yet somehow, he was able deliver this wistful paean to mindfulness, which celebrates life's miracles and counters negative energy with the chant "Jai guru de va om/Nothing's gonna change my world." Producer Phil Spector's addition of an angelic choir serves to underscore this tune's transcendent vibe.
Number Three: "Ticket To Ride" - "I think I'm going to be sad, I think it's today" sings Lennon on this plaintive tale of lost love, featured on the soundtrack to Help! - and while that disc is better known for the Lennon-penned title track, there's an understated quality to this piece, heightened by Ringo Starr's iconoclastic drumming style, and the interplay between the chorus and Lennon's clever middle-eight provides a striking contrast.
Number Two: "Tomorrow Never Knows" - Whether Lennon or McCartney ever acknowledged it publicly, Harrison's spiritual leanings and fascination with Eastern music clearly influenced them, as this closing track from Revolver proves: the instrumentation was built around an Indian modal scale, Harrison plays the sitar, and Lennon's lyrics were cribbed from Timothy Leary's adaptation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead: "Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream..." And who can forget Ringo's daringly offbeat drum pattern?
Number One: "Rain" - Yes, this is the most coveted Beatles 45, period - never appearing on a proper album release until Past Masters, Vol. II came out in 1988. It is arguably the most representative example of what made the band so unique: Ringo's startling drum intro, McCartney's stunning bass playing and Lennon's reverse-engineered guitar [not to mention his skewered lyricism: "When the sun shines, they'll slip into the shade/And sip their lemonade/Rain....I don't mind."] plus the false ending make this tune a rightful classic.
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