Real Best of the Beatles 2

Q Magazine Real Best Series May 2012 

Last post we listed 10 Beatles tracks, 5 selected by Q magazine with a reply to each from me, which represent the “real best” of The Beatles – excluding the obvious tracks; so more Past Masters than All Time Greats. Rob Fitzpatrick, the Q journalist involved, also commented that “no one has ever made better tracks” even 42 years later and that “the Beatles have been instilling the idea of progressive cultural creativity since 1962.” As this blog also believes that we felt we should reply with our own ten tracks. This is part two; 5xQ 5xFred.

Our next remastered track is from 1964, in which “youngblood” Paul  transmit’s his happiness at being RSA actress Jane Asher’s partner by imagining what he might be saying to her in ten years. Q think that this is “a minor chord lament that explodes into major-chord life” 1 minute in. McCartney, who wrote the song on the yacht Happy Days in the Caribbean, said it was “future nostalgic” about Things We Said Today ;  

The Real Best of the Beatles

Q Magazine May 2012

Q Magazine’s current issue looks at many artists and picks their “real” best tracks, which vary slightly with each artist.  In the case of the Beatles, whom they describe as “the only group in the history of pop music who are actually better than everyone says they are” they’ve decided to pick under-rated works; so nothing from hits CD 1.  Selected by journalist Rob Fitzpatrick, who says that there is “no such thing as a Beatles obscurity” (Richie Unterberger might disagree & Dehra Dun anyone?) there are 10 Beatles tracks in all. So I’m going to alternate his 10 with my 10 (although he has nicked a couple I would have  chosen) half this week, half next.

The World looks fine when the Rain drops on the Fab Four, Q’s choice of best track and the B-side of Paperback Writer. I remember first seeing the record in a shop in Arnhem whilst, yep, standing in the rain. Rob says “Rain marks the moment when popular music threw itself over the drug pop precipice” but he is an English music journalist; Rain is the first thing the Beatles did after Tomorrow Never Knows and is their finest B-side. 

Some kind of happiness is measured out in Hey Bulldog, the last track that all four Beatles jammed on together live in the studio (Feb 68). I remember seeing it in Yellow Submarine back then and being baffled when it wasn’t in the US release. Made up between them in just four hours whilst they were bored with the slow process of filming the Lady Madonna video (they are actually playing Hey Bulldog) this just rocks; joyfully  

Best 10 Remastered Tracks (2010)

Remasters Series (1)

As part of reviewing the Remasters (YouTube playlist here), I am going to pick the ten tracks I think benefit most from Remastering; lets call them the most interesting rather than the absolute best. I might enter into the Mono v Stereo debate but I am a stereo boy, having been given a Philips Stereo Player and Sgt Peppers for my 16th birthday, but there are some discussions out there. I will try and pick one track per album, which might mean more than ten tracks but… So do we start with 1-2-3-4, or Boys (which benefitted from the Capitol Remasters), the larynx-busting first take of Twist and Shout, or Please Please Me itself as it is less known in the US and still disputed as being The Beatles first UK number 1. No, it is I Saw Her Standing There as we have a good Mono Remaster video; at last the Beatles live show! 1-2-3-4;