Not an ounce of fat on it really!

It’s always good to be back home after a couple of weeks going stir - crazy in the studio which (dear reader) is where I’ve been hiding for the last while. Meeting new musicians when I’m working, I’m always being asked about my Rickenbacker guitar. Oh, you must be a Beatle fan…and following with (alarming regularity)….er.. so what’s your favourite tune? I really hate being asked that because I never know what to say! I seem to go through periods of liking the early stuff and then switching to the later or middle periods without thinking about it. The real answer is that I just love them all really, but it’s on a sliding scale. It does beg the question though, what songs do fans NOT like? I tend to think that they are all kind of classic in their own way. Even the weaker ones - if there is such a thing! I’ve discussed in detail before the boys choices for B sides and how strong they were, so it’s quite difficult to pick one out that I’m not too fond of. “What You’re Doing” for example isn’t a favourite, but even with that there is musical growth in evidence in the drum part…not quite ‘Ticket to Ride’, but leading the way with a drum riff in any case. Chains or From Me To You are good examples of tracks I might fast forward if I’m listening, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like them…I just can’t really be bothered with them sometimes, if you know what I mean? There doesn’t seem to be much of a surprise in them anymore. What I mean by that is that although I’m familiar with every track, some still catch you unawares and sort of take you by surprise, don’t you think? And some tracks have other reasons for forwarding. For example, I can’t really listen to It’s All Too Much because it’s not that great sound wise to my headphone ears.

It is yet another measure of the band being bigger, collectively, than each of the individuals that you can probably find lots of examples of songs you’d avoid listening to. In fact in some cases, for some people even whole albums bite the dust! Whilst I appreciate Yoko for what she is (and isn’t) for example, I find most of her material unappetising. Lots of the material that she recorded with John remains only slightly interesting BECAUSE of John’s involvement. I am not really a big Yoko chap though and some of the same could be levelled at the rest of boys’ solo work. Paul’s work remains pretty strong, but he has had his moments. Strange thing with Paul’s stuff is that I tend not to like it on first hearing and then it slowly infects you until you do like it. But, I didn’t really like Paul’s last album that much and thought that Chaos was his strongest release since Flaming Pie (which is a McCartney classic in my opinion). John’s stuff was up and down. Genius doesn’t cover some of the earlier material he put out though. Plastic Ono Band is flawless and is just raw bottled fire, but Sometime in NY City has moments of raised eyebrows all round. George and Ringo have much more to forward on when listening. Although I have to say a lot of George’s work has got better over the years to my ears. Maybe that just reflects me growing up and understanding the songs a little better? Ringo has only made one pretty good album…although I’m sure many Rich fans would disagree. Again though, sometimes I just want to listen to them in the BBC phase! Isn’t that the great thing with this band? That you CAN do that!

What songs do you never listen to or avoid? I would love to hear what everyone thinks on this.