2020 Beatles Bible Bracket Challenge | Page 16 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

I’ll think my answers and write something tomorrow.

sir walter raleigh said
Strawberry Fields Forever vs Here Comes The Sun (woah)

This one is for the ages. George’s songwriting abilities can’t be denied on Abbey Road , and Here Comes The Sun might be the best song he did with the Beatles. The difference with Strawberry Fields Forever is pretty wide. Not only is the latter more daring, more cutting edge, more insightful, but it is also a worst composition. This is the genius of it. Here Comes The Sun sounds like it was a good composition even when it was solely an acoustic song, and only adding a few strings and keyboards, plus drums, just slightly enhanced how good it was. John’s vision was such during the late 60s that he and the rest of the band knew that if they put their minds to it they could accomplish anything. Have you ever heard early demos of Strawberry Fields Forever ? It had a pretty rough start, it wasn’t nearly as good. That is why I have to give it the win: because not only it combines sounds in a mind-blowing way so the song ends up being ten times better than the original acoustic version, but it also did it in a year were this wasn’t common and the Beatles had everything against them considering the passing of Brian Epstein, their usage of drugs and the amount of competition that started to appear. How they still came out ahead is beyond me. Here Comes The Sun sounds like the result of years of experience, but Strawberry Fields Forever sounds like the inception.

sir walter raleigh said
Twist And Shout vs Norwegian Wood

I think it’s pretty easy to see why Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) will have the edge. It just gives us a peak at Lennon sharpening his pen, as well as the musical ambition of the band when it came to emulate particular sounds. Twist And Shout is a classic, and one of the best in its genre, but not only is it a cover, but it is still sonically monotonous, considering the instrumentation, and the lyrics are dumbed down for dancing parties of early 1960s. I’m sure it had a lot of impact at the moment, but Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) is more personal, it belongs to a better album and it’s a step forward in every sense of the word.

sir walter raleigh said
Dear Prudence vs. She Said She Said

This is a hard one for me, this two are probably in my top five and I hate to see either go. But if I’m being honest, as much as I admire the capability of the band to really innovate and manufacture sounds as hard as walls just using the instruments they’d been using for quite some time in She Said She Said , Dear Prudence is just simply better. It comes down ultimately to the way the song progresses. Dear Prudence is told like a good book, it has an introduction were we get to know the primary leitmotivs and ambience, a middle-part were we get to see how it evolves into new sounds, particularly the “round round” vocals, as well as the re-introduction, and finally a conclusion that really steps up to shake all of the instruments, vocal harmonies, sound effects and gives them all a proper conclusion. She Said She Said is superb, but Dear Prudence is just, technically speaking, the perfect song. You can’t really compete with that.

sir walter raleigh said
Glass Onion vs While My Guitar Gently Weeps

On one hand we get John’s witty lyricism and referential epitaph, on the other we get George’s realized lines of interestingly serious statements. Well, to me, While My Guitar Gently Weeps is fooling a lot of people into thinking all of those disjointed, unfocused lines have a meaning, when the truth is he’s punching above his weight, he’s not really doing anything new, he’s not conveying emotions as well as he could. I just think it comes off forced and it’s very bloated. Glass Onion has its issues, but at least is not so goddamn pretentious. It’s just straight and to the point, with a more than decent melody and lyric progression, it doesn’t try to last longer than it should. Glass Onion is the definition of self-awareness, While My Guitar Gently Weeps is precisely the opposite. I really don’t want neither to go any further than this round because this aren’t even the White Album songs we should be talking about, but I’m not gonna vote for While My Guitar Gently Weeps . I think it’s overrated, and there are at least a dozen better songs that could take its place, including Glass Onion , which is at least funnier.