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Overrated vs. Underrated songs
2 January 2010
6.54pm
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Sun Queen
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In your opinion, what are the most overrated (not necessarily songs you don't like, just think they're not as good as the majority believe) and the underrated (the underdogs which deserve more attention!) Beatles songs?

Overrated: 

I Should Have Known Better (Not that I don't like this song, because I do, I just don't find anything particularly extraordinary about it, and a lot of people seem to really love it; this one's over my head, I suppose)

In My Life (I may get bashed for this one, as it seems to be an all around favourite! But, I don't see the magic. It's a heartfelt song, but I find John's vocal lacking something- it's like he's dreadfully bored)

Penny Lane (Again, one I don't see the magic in. It's cute, I'll give it that, but I just can't buy into it)

Michelle (Good vocal, but just an all right song. I like it, but just get over it pretty easily)

All My Loving (I don't get why this one is so loved. The lyrics are lack-luster to me, and Paul's vocal again seems to be missing the feeling)

Underrated:

No Reply (I can always hear the passion in that one, it has o be one of my favourite Beatle songs)

Every Little Thing (Listen to the melody of the chorus, it's too good!)

Tell Me Why (Soul, soul, soul!)

You're Gonna Lose that Girl (There's something about this one that makes me swoon, so maybe it's just a girl thing, but I really adore it!)

I Me Mine (I think George's vocal is one of the most felt one's he's delivered)

Norwegian Wood (This song is well-known, but I think it should deserve even more attention! Has to be in my top 5 Beatle songs, there's something there that commands attention)

She's Leaving Home (This one always seems to be overlooked! It may be because the subject matter is very near and dear to me, but really, listen to those strings and Paul's sailing vocal!)

All Together Now (The joy! The togetherness! Yay!)

The following people thank Sun Queen for this post:

crazyyorkshireman

Tongue, lose thy light. Moon, take thy flight… see ya, George!

2 January 2010
8.39pm
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skye
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So then you would probably appreciate the literal version of Penny Lane :

I think the main difference is how much radio/tv play the songs get. I like Penny Lane but it is over played. I would swap In My Life for She's Leaving Home. I can understand if IML doesn't click for you but SLH has too much false drama for me.

I think Good Morning Good Morning is underrated.

Ad hoc, ad loc, and quid pro quo! So little time! So much to know!

2 January 2010
8.54pm
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SugarPlumFairy
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skye said:

I think Good Morning Good Morning is underrated.


So do I! Although it's only an opinion I've formed in the last few years. I think sonically (for want of a better word) it's the track on “Pepper” most closely related to “Revolver “.

I was going to say that Rain  is under-rated too, but I'm not sure it is anymore. At least not to the extent that it used to be almost the forgotten single. Perhaps people like me banging on for over twenty years about it's brilliance had some effect after all! Smile

3 January 2010
3.04am
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BeatleMark
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Overrated doesn't mean the song sucks, just maybe “overplayed”. 

Here in America we have this radio corporation called “Clear Channel Broadcasting”.  They have a philosophy of if people like certain songs and/or formats, then you must play those exact songs all the time.  In a nutshell, their radio stations play the same songs, every day.  Nothing different, but the same f*cking songs every day!  I am suprised nobody has gone “postal” and shot some Clear Channel big wigs over this. 

Anyway, back to the subject.  Overrated/overplayed….

Let It Be , Hey Jude , Get Back

Sunday's on the phone to Monday, Tuesday's on the phone to me.

3 January 2010
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mjb
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BeatleMark said:

Overrated doesn't mean the song sucks, just maybe “overplayed”. 


Exactly. I couldn't admit to ANY Beatle song being overated Surprised

"If we feel our heads starting to swell.....we just look at Ringo!"

4 January 2010
1.05am
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Sun Queen
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Oh, I know, I know, I didn't mean by any means the song sucked, I honestly can't say that any Beatles song sucks, and I highly doubt I ever will. What do people think about Ob La Di, Ob La Da? It seems to be another that a lot of people think are overrated/worse than people think, but I actually really like it. Especially the Anthology version, I like it better, anyone feel the same?

Tongue, lose thy light. Moon, take thy flight… see ya, George!

4 January 2010
2.30am
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BeatleMark
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Alissa said:Oh, I know, I know, I didn't mean by any means the song sucked, I honestly can't say that any Beatles song sucks, and I highly doubt I ever will. What do people think about Ob La Di, Ob La Da? It seems to be another that a lot of people think are overrated/worse than people think, but I actually really like it. Especially the Anthology version, I like it better, anyone feel the same?


Ob La Di, Ob La Da was a fun song, I thought.  Recording it wasn't fun.  Geoff Emerick's book tells of a late night recording “bitch” session between the Beatles arguing over how to record this song. 

Here in Amercia there was this t.v. show in the early '90s that had this song as it's opening theme. 

P.S.  By the way you sound Alissa, I'd take you any day over Yoko!  :-P

Sunday's on the phone to Monday, Tuesday's on the phone to me.

4 January 2010
4.29am
8tracktgdesk
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Underrated: Abbey Road album, Sgt Pepper , Revolver , Sir George Martin, Geoff Emerick, Norman Smith, all the studio equipment that made the albums possible , all the people  who worked at Abbey Road from  1931 to the last seventies, The TG desk,  Abbey Road echo chambers. The Studer four track  tape machine,  Altec Compressors, Fairchild  limiters, all the vacuum  tubes that amplified the Beatles Sound, Trident Studios,   Olympic  Studios,  Regent Studios,   EMI  Hayes,  The people who built the addition off the main hallway, which  became Studio Two. The staff of Engineers and technicians  in the white coats. All the  Abbey  Road speakers  and Microphones which  where highly abused, Tape operators  in room 2a and 2b who heard the sound but never saw the performance…

Overrated: Most  of the  White Album , Let  It Be (Phil Spector B.S.),  With The Beatles , most of the songs done to Mono only, Apple Corp.   Yellow Submarine   album. the moog synthesizer  on Abbey Road , The Get Back sessions on the roof

John Senchak (Beatlogist)  john@antihotmail.com


4 January 2010
6.30pm
Day Tripper
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in my eyes, the White Album is overrated. There are a lot of great numbers on it, but the other half is simply not good.

Underrated:

Babys in Black

You Cant Do That

She Said She Said

Dr. Robert

Everybody Got Something To Hide …

You've Got To Hide Your Love Away

I Saw Here Standing There

I've Just Seen A Face

There's A Place

Don't Bother Me

5 January 2010
2.29am
Alex
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For overrated I would say Come Together , I never understood why it is so liked

Undearrated I would say

For No One

Girl

I'm A Loser

18 January 2010
1.09am
luke67
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I think that the Sgt Pepper album is overrated. A Day In The Life is one of the best songs ever recorded, by any artist, but i think there are some weaker songs on the album, ie when i'm 64, Lovely Rita . I just think the beatles had better albums, revolver and Abbey Road particularly, and the fact that many people think Sgt Pepper to be the greatest album ever made is possibly a bit far fetched.

In terms of underrated i really think 'Run For Your Life ' even though john himself said he hated it. I just think it captures john's sometimes harsher and meaner personality that was obviously there, and we have to embrace it aswell as the pacifist he was later in life.

It goes well with jealous guy, which is also one of my favourite songs.

Finally, i think George harrison's songs before the White Album  are underrated,  like Love You To and i need to tell you. Think For Yourself is one of my favourites on Rubber Soul  and  I think taxman is a brilliantly clever song, however, i believe it has got what it deserves in terms of playtime and attention. Within You Without You is massively underrated, as some people don't think it is good at all. Cough george martin cough.

Finally, i'm new on here so can anyone help me as to why i can't get an image for my avatar. It says i have one uploaded but doesn't put it as my image?

18 January 2010
2.25am
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Sun Queen
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luke67 said:

Finally, i'm new on here so can anyone help me as to why i can't get an image for my avatar. It says i have one uploaded but doesn't put it as my image?


Welcome, welcome! (I love all of George's early stuff too- especially Love You To )

You probably didn't update your profile; theirs a button the bottom you have to press, or you have to refresh it after, the directions are all there, give that a go!

Tongue, lose thy light. Moon, take thy flight… see ya, George!

19 January 2010
10.12pm
iCaramba
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Overrrated ~ Well, I'm not a fan of “Yellow Submarine ” like some of you above have said, but I don't think it's generally rated that high anyway. I suppose the only song I can think of that I think is kind of silly but everyone else seems to love is “Drive My Car .”

Underrated ~

1) “I'll Be Back” – No one ever puts this little beauty on their list of favorites, but the bittersweetness and vulnerability are just irresistible!

2) “If I Fell ” – I know it's usually accorded a decent rank in the canon, but not nearly high enough, imho. The harmony is devastatingly beautiful! (I know people who've tried to sing John's part and say that it's extremely difficult.)

20 January 2010
10.53am
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skye
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iCaramba said:

Overrrated ~ Well, I'm not a fan of “Yellow Submarine ” like some of you above have said, but I don't think it's generally rated that high anyway. I suppose the only song I can think of that I think is kind of silly but everyone else seems to love is “Drive My Car .”

Underrated ~

1) “I'll Be Back” – No one ever puts this little beauty on their list of favorites, but the bittersweetness and vulnerability are just irresistible!

2) “If I Fell ” – I know it's usually accorded a decent rank in the canon, but not nearly high enough, imho. The harmony is devastatingly beautiful! (I know people who've tried to sing John's part and say that it's extremely difficult.)


Drive My Car isn't silly – I've known people like that. This girl in my driver's ed class dropped the class the first week because she planned to be chauffeured for the rest of her life. I suppose she signed up for the class just to make that statement. Which is silly…

But yes, 100% on I'll Be Back and If I Fell .

Ad hoc, ad loc, and quid pro quo! So little time! So much to know!

21 January 2010
3.26pm
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mjb
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Paul has been kicking off his concerts with Drive My Car for ages now, but I think it's a lot weaker a song than previous openers.  I always loved Hello Goodbye …..

"If we feel our heads starting to swell.....we just look at Ringo!"

21 January 2010
6.50pm
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Sun Queen
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iCaramba said:

Overrrated ~ Well, I'm not a fan of “Yellow Submarine ” like some of you above have said, but I don't think it's generally rated that high anyway. I suppose the only song I can think of that I think is kind of silly but everyone else seems to love is “Drive My Car .”

Underrated ~

1) “I'll Be Back” – No one ever puts this little beauty on their list of favorites, but the bittersweetness and vulnerability are just irresistible!

2) “If I Fell ” – I know it's usually accorded a decent rank in the canon, but not nearly high enough, imho. The harmony is devastatingly beautiful! (I know people who've tried to sing John's part and say that it's extremely difficult.)


I'm a singer myself, and find the John harmony simple enough (I am a contralto/mezzo-soprano though, so I sing low enough already :P) but it truly is a beautiful harmony. The most difficult is easily the line, for example, “If I trust…”, very low!

I'm not an enormous fan of Drive My Car either, it just seems to much to be a destined hit; purely written for the charts, missing that little Paul/John/Beatles in general oomph.

Tongue, lose thy light. Moon, take thy flight… see ya, George!

22 January 2010
10.15am
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Joe
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That's an interesting comment. Drive My Car wasn't a single in either the US or UK, and Lennon and McCartney had real trouble writing it.They knew it was a good tune but couldn't come up with any decent words at first. I don't think they were trying to write a single, but they certainly tried to make it better than a filler album track.

https://www.beatlesbible.com/s…..ve-my-car/

I really like it. It's got a great riff, and the harmonies (eg “You can do something in between”) work well.

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22 January 2010
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mjb
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To me it's a strange song to pick to open with.  Normally an artist kicks off with something really big and Drive My Car is just an album track that has never appeared on a Beatle compilation or Greatest Hits and it wasn't covered on Anthology….. I'm not saying it's a bad song (it isn't!) but my point was he could choice something 'bigger'.

"If we feel our heads starting to swell.....we just look at Ringo!"

24 January 2010
4.33pm
iCaramba
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Yeah, I suppose that's why I thought of it. I mean, musically, it's a good song… Paul can make it rock… but I just always feel silly singing along with it. Not crazy about the lyrics. The beep beep mm beep beep makes it sound like a novelty song, imo.

25 January 2010
12.17am
Dalkalopagus
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Overrated:

Penny Lane

Michelle

Yellow Submarine

Underrated:

Maxwells Silver Hammer

Ob la di Ob la da

Cry Baby Cry

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