The Beatles Bible 2015 Canon Poll | Page 2 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Well, I did it, and it helped clarify a few things about how I felt about the Beatles canon.

Going through the voting process was an interesting experience.  Generally speaking, I don’t like to rate phenomena that 1) have so many things to rate (songs, movies, whatever), and 2) have so many excellent exemplars it makes it nearly impossible for me to choose.

Or so I thought.  I found I wasn’t as disabled or frustrated as I thought I might be, having to choose from so many impossibly excellent choices. 

And I noticed an interesting thing happening to me psychologically.  I told myself beforehand to reserve a “9” for songs that are basically “the best” of the bunch, the “cream of the crop” — while a “10” would be even more staggeringly, amazingly, impossibly better than that. 

With that in mind, I only gave a 10 to a song if I had an immediate, overwhelming certitude the INSTANT I saw the title.  If my mind hestitated even for a split-second — I would realize that “it’s not really a 10 — it’s a 9!”

This helped me separate the wheat from the chaff — or more accurately, the diamonds from the rubies.  For example, the instant I saw “Penny Lane ” I just knew — that’s a 10.  But “Things We Said Today ” I hesitated for a nano-second with my finger on the trigger — therefore, a 9.  I was ruthless.  I only gave tens to songs I had ZERO HESITATION about.

Beyond that (or below that), I had to use a more conventional thought process of actually grading degrees.  But once I had passed the hurdle of the sound barrier of the stratospheric nines and the transcendent tens, I could think more clearly in the earthly orbit of just “good” songs.

P.S.:  My tastes are a bit eclectic.  For example, songs like “All Together Now ” and “Wild Honey Pie ” are 10s for me, while “For You Blue ” and “Across The Universe ” while great, didn’t even merit a 9 (I realize that the vast majority of Beatle Biblers would blanch at such a thought…).