Rolling Stone's new "The Beatles: 100 Greatest Songs" is not a bad publication to get ahold of, but the 100 rated songs isn't really that big a deal. Any Beatle fan who worked up a list of 100, even 10 Beatle songs would probably come up with something different. (C'mon. "She Loves You" didn't break the top 10?)
The book, which follows up their recent and more general "500 Greatest Songs" collection, is adorned with very nice Beatles photos, some of them rare. We wish there was a quote about each song from one of the Beatles, but the writeups do contain some historical information. In the sidebar items, the selections of John Lennon and Paul McCartney's favorite songs aren't really lists, but too short collections of Rolling Stone interview quotes.
However, the features on George Harrison's best guitar moments and Ringo Starr's best drumming moments (by Springsteen drummer Max Weinberg) pay overdue tribute to the two members of the band who often take second place in discussions about the group and shouldn't. (But how can anyone omit "And Your Bird Can Sing" from one of George's best guitar moments?)
And "The Best Beatles Cover Songs" only barely touches the subject. Where are "Kansas City" and "You Really Got a Hold on Me" along with the covers from "Live at the BBC" like "Clarabella" and "Soldier of Love"?
That's what keeps the Beatles discussion going here and elsewhere on the internet. Everyone has an opinion. And Rolling Stone's "The Beatles: 100 Greatest Songs" will certainly help inspire more talk of every little thing.
And you know that can't be bad.
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Comments
I did buy the special issue and you're correct -- don't buy it for the "list." It was interesting enough for the $10, but there were only a couple of things that I didn't know before -- and I always consider those tidbits "suspect." LOL
I also ordered the Deepak Chopra magazine online that you profiled yesterday. The George Harrison portion might be small, but of course, it's George and I have to have it! That was $14.95 online with free shipping by the way.
Thanks, Bruce. Glad the Chopra article was helpful, too.
Agreed, Steve. But "Rain" isn't on Weinberg's mostly uninspired list. Ridiculous!
Yeah, I think that shows some of that stuff was put together just to have "content." That's what debate here is for. :)
Don't buy it? Really? That's a bit much. Anyway, I did buy it. I enjoyed it cover to cover, and I've read more than my fair share of Beatle books. But I guess that's all subjective, right?
I said don't buy it JUST for the list of 100 greatest Beatle songs because everyone has an opinion on those and yours may vary. I know mine does.
I thought it was good, though it could have been really good with a few additions. The writeups should have been longer and more substantive, and I, too, would have appreciated more quotes from the Beatles about each of the songs. Also, I can't believe Paul's phenomenal bass playing doesn't get a single mention in the magazine (maybe they think people know that but the omission seemed odd to me). I would have liked a feature called "Paul's Best Lesser Known Bass Lines."
Some of the song choices were questionable (for example, the list includes Lennon's mediocre song "Any Time at All" and omits McCartney's "I'm Looking through You" and "I Will. That makes no sense!). But like you say, any list is going to be subjective. And I did enjoy the photos.
Hi Steve - I agree 100% with what you wrote. Put a handful of Beatles fans together and you'll get very different lists. If I wrote up my own personal lists, the contents would vary from week to week or month to month. :-)
I bought this mag on Friday when it came out, but have been so busy I'm just getting to read it now. (Although I did glance through the song selections last Friday.) I immediately noticed a minor error that maybe you could alert RS to. On page 22's write-up for "Something", in the first paragraph, it says that "Old Brown Shoe" eventually became the B-side of "Let It Be". Which is wrong, of course, since it was the B-side of "The Ballad Of John And Yoko".
MikeE
I've been reading it for the past week and it's a good issue from my point of view. I know there are a couple of other 100 Best Beatles songs lists out there, yet I do prefer the Here There and Everywhere book. Though I do have to say about the Best Cover Songs section; why is "Words of Love" on there instead of "Roll Over Beethoven"?
P.S. I wonder if they'll make a VH1 special out of this. That would be something....
About the book I mentioned, it's the one by Stephen Spignesi and Michael Lewis, not the one by Geoff Emerick. Just to clarify some things, that's all....
About the book I mentioned, it's the one by Stephen Spignesi and Michael Lewis, not the one by Geoff Emerick. Just to clarify some things, that's all....
"Why didn't Roll Over Beethoven" make the list?" Um, because Roll Over Beethoven is one of the Beatles' most lackluster covers ever. George doesn't have a strong enough voice to carry that song. And it's a wimpy version.
Absolutely right, Steve, about "And Your Bird Can Sing." AMAZING guitar on that. Possibly his finest rock guitar solo ever (at least as a Beatle-- I'd rank his biting slide lead on John's "How Do You Sleep?" as perhaps his finest solo ever).
With a body of work of approx. 220 songs (not counting BBC/Anthology sets), a top 100 list gives each song slightly less than a 50/50 chance of being selected. Steve, I agree that lists like these provide much fuel for debate. Debate about the list is free, but unless there are enough rare photos that I haven't seen before to justify parting with ten bucks, I won't be buying this one. I guess I'm getting picky in my old age...
Can you buy this issue in the usual magazine retailers, or only online?
Assuming you're in the U.S., yes. Border's, Barnes & Noble ...it's even being carried in supermarkets.
Wait, so it's US only? What the hell is that? The band were from the UK for crying out loud. Oh well.
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