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Worst Beatles Song
12 March 2015
12.11am
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meanmistermustard
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If you dont like songs then skip them, why bother putting yourself thru minutes of boredom and annoyance? As said before i’ll happily skip a small handful of tracks like Mr Moonlight , Bungalow Bill, Good Night and Hold Me Tight  unless listening to their complete albums. 

Oh, also need to add ‘A Taste Of Honey ‘ to those. Listening to the BBC sessions and hearing John sound utterly bored on that is funny.

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12 March 2015
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@StarrisonSubmarine Sorry if I offended you at all. (And I do listen to their songs on shuffle quite frequently, actually, I just prefer it in order.)

Apples of friendship from me as well apple01heart  :)

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17 March 2015
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Michelle . I absolutely loathe that song, especially its placement on Rubber Soul

17 March 2015
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NotABeatlesRelatedUsername said
Michelle . I absolutely loathe that song, especially its placement on Rubber Soul

beatlemaniacs_02_gif

Forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit” (“Perhaps one day it will be a pleasure to look back on even this”; Virgil, The Aeneid, Book 1, line 203, where Aeneas says this to his men after the shipwreck that put them on the shores of Africa)

17 March 2015
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NotABeatlesRelatedUsername said
Michelle . I absolutely loathe that song, especially its placement on Rubber Soul

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17 March 2015
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StarrisonSubmarine said

My simple philosophy with music is if you don’t like it, don’t listen to it. Be it an artist, an album or one individual song. Most of my favourite songs are in their own 15 hour playlist so I can just hit play and enjoy. Because of this I think of the songs individually, not the albums flow. Maybe I should dig out my LP and play it. Less temptation to skip then. 

I too have “no problem” skipping songs.  Even The Beatles are entitled to a stinker!  They are after all Human.  two-virgins

  Screen-Shot-2022-10-04-at-7.52.07-PM.png   BEATLES Music gives me Eargasms!  apple01

24 March 2015
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chrisredditch said
Rain – Its a mess with the bass suffocating a poor melody. It’s one of those rare Beatle songs that now sounds dated.

Saying that, people do like it so it’s just my opinion.

The melody of Rain is actually poor, but I think a great song can have a poor melody. After all Lennon is typically “horizontal” in his melody writing. So, for instance, I Am The Walrus  also has a poor melody but I consider it a masterpiece, from a thorough point of view. What I find “dated” in Rain is its production. Not my favourite Beatle song.

Back to the original topic, here are some songs to choose from: Revolution 9 What’s The New Mary Jane , Wild Honey Pie Dig It , Why Dont We Do It In the Road? 
Maybe they’re not real “songs”, but rather collection of noises or excerpts.
So the worst “real” song is probably If You’ve Got Trouble .
The worst cover is Mr. Moonlight.
And the worst officially released original song is… dunno.

24 March 2015
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mccannon said

chrisredditch said
Rain – Its a mess with the bass suffocating a poor melody. It’s one of those rare Beatle songs that now sounds dated.

Saying that, people do like it so it’s just my opinion.

The melody of Rain is actually poor, but I think a great song can have a poor melody. After all Lennon is typically “horizontal” in his melody writing. So, for instance, I Am The Walrus  also has a poor melody but I consider it a masterpiece, from a thorough point of view. What I find “dated” in Rain is its production. Not my favourite Beatle song.

Back to the original topic, here are some songs to choose from: Revolution 9 What’s The New Mary Jane , Wild Honey Pie Dig It , Why Dont We Do It In the Road? 
Maybe they’re not real “songs”, but rather collection of noises or excerpts.
So the worst “real” song is probably If You’ve Got Trouble .
The worst cover is Mr. Moonlight.
And the worst officially released original song is… dunno.

I Am The Walrus is plainly genius. There’s a lot more going on in that song than a police siren :)

The Beatles are English - They have influences from all over - but they are English

24 March 2015
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‘Why Don’t We Do It In The Road’ is definitely a song even tho it doesn’t have a conventional song layout (intro, verses, chorus, bridge, solo etc) and i’d same the same for ‘What’s The New Mary Jane ‘. ‘Wild Honey Pie ‘ could be anything and ‘Dig It ‘ is an excerpt of a 12 minute jam so god knows what you call that (most say “crap” but i like it a lot in its 50 second edit form. It begins to annoy in its 4 minute edit). 

I suppose it depends on how you (general tense) define a song to be.

Revolution 9 ‘ on the other hand is a sound collage not a song so it irks me when folk list it as the Beatles worst song. Its like saying a carrot is the worst type of apple.

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24 March 2015
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meanmistermustard said
‘Why Don’t We Do It In The Road’ is definitely a song even tho it doesn’t have a conventional song layout (intro, verses, chorus, bridge, solo etc) and i’d same the same for ‘What’s The New Mary Jane ‘. ‘Wild Honey Pie ‘ could be anything and ‘Dig It ‘ is an excerpt of a 12 minute jam so god knows what you call that (most say “crap” but i like it a lot in its 50 second edit form. It begins to annoy in its 4 minute edit). 

I suppose it depends on how you (general tense) define a song to be.

Revolution 9 ‘ on the other hand is a sound collage not a song so it irks me when folk list it as the Beatles worst song. Its like saying a carrot is the worst type of apple.

You are right, Why Don’t We Do It In The Road? and What’s The New Mary Jane are definitely “songs” although they sound to me like jokes: it seems like Lennon and McCartney tried to do deliberately the worst they could, each with his own peculiarity. So the latter is their worst song, the former is their worst released song (imho, of course). I think when the Beatles put their effort in writing a true “song”, well structured and conceived as something that they wanted to release, as something that had a meaning in its entirety, they never really failed except maybe for If You’ve Got Trouble (that they meant to release on Help !).
In the bad songs list, I would add 12-Bar Original and You Know What To Do.

24 March 2015
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meanmistermustard said
‘Why Don’t We Do It In The Road’ is definitely a song even tho it doesn’t have a conventional song layout (intro, verses, chorus, bridge, solo etc) and i’d same the same for ‘What’s The New Mary Jane ‘. ‘Wild Honey Pie ‘ could be anything and ‘Dig It ‘ is an excerpt of a 12 minute jam so god knows what you call that (most say “crap” but i like it a lot in its 50 second edit form. It begins to annoy in its 4 minute edit). 

I suppose it depends on how you (general tense) define a song to be.

Revolution 9 ‘ on the other hand is a sound collage not a song so it irks me when folk list it as the Beatles worst song. Its like saying a carrot is the worst type of apple.

chrisredditch said

mccannon said

chrisredditch said
Rain – Its a mess with the bass suffocating a poor melody. It’s one of those rare Beatle songs that now sounds dated.

Saying that, people do like it so it’s just my opinion.

The melody of Rain is actually poor, but I think a great song can have a poor melody. After all Lennon is typically “horizontal” in his melody writing. So, for instance, I Am The Walrus  also has a poor melody but I consider it a masterpiece, from a thorough point of view. What I find “dated” in Rain is its production. Not my favourite Beatle song.

Back to the original topic, here are some songs to choose from: Revolution 9 What’s The New Mary Jane , Wild Honey Pie Dig It , Why Dont We Do It In the Road? 
Maybe they’re not real “songs”, but rather collection of noises or excerpts.
So the worst “real” song is probably If You’ve Got Trouble .
The worst cover is Mr. Moonlight.
And the worst officially released original song is… dunno.

I Am The Walrus is plainly genius. There’s a lot more going on in that song than a police siren :)

Yes I agree. I Am The Walrus is one of the peaks of Lennon’s creativity and genius.

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24 March 2015
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NotABeatlesRelatedUsername said
Michelle . I absolutely loathe that song, especially its placement on Rubber Soul

Awww, I always liked Michelle ; it’s so sweet.  I even like the French part. I’m afraid that probably exposes me as a music simpleton.  a-hard-days-night-george-9

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5 July 2015
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Having recently listened through the Beatles’ (and then John’s) entire catalog from beginning to end, I looked into this topic out of pure curiosity to see if others felt similarly about those very few Beatles tunes that I’ve always felt are stinkers.  I’ve been reading this site for months (and finally registered today, love it here!) as well as searching on google for “worst Beatles songs.”

It’s truly amazing some of the stuff you read.  Of course Revolution 9 turns up everywhere, which I get but don’t agree with, but also a lot of good (even great) songs like Yellow Submarine , Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da and The Long And Winding Road .  They simply don’t belong on a worst songs list.  Or more accurately, I don’t think they qualify as “bad songs” but many people include those and others because they “never really liked it” or consider them overrated.

Well if I may, after thinking about this for days now, I’d like to suggest what I consider the only “bad” songs the Beatles ever released.  “Bad” meaning: not pleasureable to listen, amateurishly written, or poorly performed or some combination thereof.  For all the complaining I’ve seen of Mr Moonlight , when I listen to it as objectively as I can, I can’t find any reason to call it “bad.”  And in their entire catalog, I can only think of 3 songs that to my ears are just not good.

1. If You’ve Got Trouble – Perhaps it’s unfair to include this Anthology track, but I just have to because it is just so bad.  A very clumsy song that was luckily left behind.

2. Getting Better – I love Sgt. Pepper , but Fixing A Hole is not my favorite and She’s Leaving Home is still slowly but surely growing on me.  Getting Better , however, is not getting better.  There is an ever-present unchanging note that repeats throughout most of the song which is just ugly.  I was surprised this song didn’t come up more.

3. Blue Jay Way – This song seems like an afterthought, a non-attempt, and just a poorly written song all around.  I have nothing but love for George’s other titles, and I usually like experimental/psychedelic/weird tracks but this one just isn’t very listenable.  It’s length also doesn’t help.  It’s almost like he was bored to death while writing it… oh wait, he was… and it shows.

5 July 2015
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I’m with you on ‘Revolution 9 ‘ @glazball; its not a song and therefore shouldn’t be judged alongside the rest of the catalogue by the same conditions.

Never saw the appeal of ‘If You’ve Got Trouble ‘; Ringo sings it like he’s wondering why on earth he’s been given such garbage.

Blue Jay Way ‘ i detested for a long time until i latched on to Ringo’s drumming, thats what saves it for me. Same goes for ‘Hello, Goodbye ‘.

 

And welcome to the forum. Nice that you took the fall and joined us. apple01

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It’s got to be after @Beatlebug’s bedtime by now, so it is safe to agree that Blue Jay Way is a Loser. Long, Long, Long falls into the same category for me–if it was 15 seconds, it would still be too long.

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5 July 2015
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It is not after my bedtime (yet– I’ve got about 20 minutes to go), thank you very much, but that is beside the point. The point is I never cared for Blue Jay Way either– what makes you think I did? The fact that I’m a Fiendish Thingy?– but if you say Long, Long, Long is a loser, well, all I can say is I’m sorry, mate, and sorrowfully shake my head at all the beauty that you can’t hope to see. 

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Silly Girl said
It is not after my bedtime (yet– I’ve got about 20 minutes to go), thank you very much, but that is beside the point. The point is I never cared for Blue Jay Way either– what makes you think I did? 

Because , you know: George.

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Thanks for the welcome MMM!  I feel like I already know you and several others just from reading comments on all the songs, albums and people here.  Just starting to make my way into the forums.  Been a rabid Beatles fan for half my 40 years now, but only recently got the courage to jump in and chat about them!

I’m no expert like some of you here, but I’m also not a casual fan either.  I’m certainly in the “Beatles Could Do No Wrong and Everything They Touched Is Gold” camp, though I am starting to lift the blinders just a little bit.  Even the songs I mentioned above I listen to when they come on.  I don’t hate them.  And I’ll cleanse my palate soon and try giving Blue Jay Way another chance.

There’s no Beatles song I’ll ever skip.  It’s comical to read heated commenters/bloggers trying to knock down every possible song.  However, I can’t imagine the White Album without Wild Honey Pie or Rev 9.  Sure I think Doctor Robert is pretty lame and am a bit burnt out on Yellow Submarine , but Revolver is still one of my favorite albums.  Many people seem to dislike Maxwell’s Silver Hammer , which I personally love (and assumed everyone did).  How could we have Abbey Road without it??  Insanity!  Same goes for Her Majesty .  Any time I get to listen to any Beatles is a joy, plain and simple.  Their catalog is basically impeccable and there’s something to be gleaned from every track.  (I say track, instead of song, to include Revolution 9 !)

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georgiewood put it 

Silly Girl retorted  
It is not after my bedtime (yet– I’ve got about 20 minutes to go), thank you very much, but that is beside the point. The point is I never cared for Blue Jay Way either– what makes you think I did? 

Because , you know: George.

Ah, ah, jumping to conclusions, are we? Not good. *shakes head teacher-ish-ly* 

Just because I love George to tiny little bits doesn’t mean I like every single song he ever wrote, you know. (Only most of them.) BJW I find a bit of a bore, but I’ll suffer through it for Ringo’s sake– his drumming there is just topping— and, okay, fine, I admit it, for George’s sake too. a-hard-days-night-george-9 

I still stand by what I said about Long, Long, Long though. a-hard-days-night-john-3

Silly Girl said the last time this thread cropped up 

<snip>

I will be leaving this particular thread because I don’t think there is a worst Beatles’ song– if I try to pick one out, I immediately find a redeeming feature!

<trim> 

a-hard-days-night-ringo-8 That. 

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There are very few songs I’ll skip, but Revolution 9 comes to mind…

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