There’s a little to admire about “Hey Jude” but almost nothing to love. For a start, it’s far too long: the most obvious of criticisms, yes, but the last two or so minutes of the coda are pure baggage, the sound of a band imposing themselves just because they can. The song comes from the start of the Apple period, in fact it helped launch the boutique label: that may explain why they wanted to get something Big onto the market, but the length of “Hey Jude” just wastes its expertly constructed build-up. It’s also from the era when Paul McCartney was trying hard to persuade the Beatles back on the road – for a non-touring outfit to invent the lighters-out stadium ballad is ironic, if not cruel. McCartney’s excruciatingly well-drilled “Joo-joo-judy-jude” yowls as the coda starts give some hint of how lucky the world was that the other three resisted his plans.
Lop the end in half and the rest isn’t so bad. “Hey Jude” crystallises a lot of familiar Beatley themes – you’re not alone, you don’t have to be ashamed of needing help, some of that help is best found in a huge great singalong. The track has undeniable weight but I always feel a little sorry for Jude, who starts off getting an avuncular chat and ends up squeezed in the world’s biggest bear hug. The song is at its prettiest and most effective when it’s at its most conversational – “Hey Jude, you’ll do” – but that delicate balance of intimacy and inclusiveness doesn’t last. If you’re looking for a Beatles singalong, “Yellow Submarine” is catchier, funnier, less bludgeoning and more adaptable.
Score: 4
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That bloody tambourine can get lost too.
Also, before anyone calls me on it, factual inaccuracy alert: “Hey Jude” WASN’T the first single on Apple, but it was meant to be.
I prefer the Jose Ferrante version.
i prefer the anthony michael hall version.
their biggest hit (by far i think) in the states and when i was a kid at least well known as such, their towering unending monolith. very possibly their worst single with very possibly their best single on the flip, and in the states it was a double-a though a lopsided one i’m sure.
‘hey dude’>’hey jude’
Yes, not a double-A in the UK.
I suspect it’s not their worst single, unfortunately.
This is the classic song to do the “i prefer the [x] version” to, because so many people tried it.
It’s not in the same league as Yesterday as far as sheer numbers of cover versions goes, but it’s one of the half dozen Beatles tunes that was quickly assimilated into the popular song repertoire.
And it’s one of the more interesting cases to study, because of the length and structure of The Beatles version. (Also IMHO because the original’s so awful, for the reasons Tom points out.) What to DO with the lengthy coda was the challenge for arrangers. Some make light of it or fade it early to achieve “normal” pop song length, others (particular those doing instrumental covers) push it further than even McCartney does, beyond mere singalong Jam into the improvisational, making it the centrepiece of their cover.
Latest discovery to leave me gobsmacked: The Temptations’ version from ’69. Starts with a boogie woogie piano riff and scarcely gets any more reverent thereafter.
OK, but what was the first Apple single? If I were to take a guess, was it something early by Badfinger (then the Iveys?) Mary Hopkin? Jackie Lomax? Doris Troy? James Taylor?
But seriously, I think Tom is quite right about the context (i.e., the state of the Beatles at that moment) and I think the strain is quite evident in the performance–the occasional bit of backing vocal from John and George sounds as if both were utterly bored and vaguely going through the motions. The is also the story of the “White Album” that followed soon after–a few stunning gems and a lot of throwaway stuff from people who could no longer get along with each other. (And I’m not entirely taking John’s side against Paul–“Revolution #9” is mildly provocative but ultimately unlistenable.)
And, as with “Hello Goodbye,” the flip side (John’s side) was the much superior recording. Too bad we aren’t discussing “Revolution” instead–now that was a recording worth talking about. It was a double-A side here in the States, “Revolution” being an apt evocation of the zeitgeist here–and elsewhere, I assume. It was a rare show of fireworks in their late period, and it actually had something to say that was worth saying.
I still play “Revolution” for my own pleasure and enjoyment now and then, but not “Hey Jude”–though I’m more apt to hear the latter as background music in some public place these days. Too, too long and repetitive (not to mention a bit lugubrious)–but one must remember that such concerns don’t matter when you’ve smoked a lot of pot, and a lot of pot got smoked in those days. By my own admission, I can recall feeling that it was somehow really “heavy” when under said influence. And we ALL sang along, “na-na-na-na hey Jude!” Now I think that it paved the way for such self-indulgences as the fifteen-minute free-form drum solos that became mainstays of stadium rock–and one really has to be stoned to enjoy that–all of which seems, well, quite silly these days to everyone except certain middle-aged male academic rock-critics.
There were, alas, worms in the Apple from the very inception. So sad, because the whole project had the potential for being great.
And you’re right again, Tom. I wasn’t the worst–that one’s yet to come.
Of course, Hey Jude does have the great moment where John hits completely the wrong note and mumbles ‘fuckin’ hell’…
And I doubt very much that it’s coincidence that Hey Jude is exactly 1 second longer than Macarthur Park, which had recently come out and was the longest single ever released at the time…
‘Hey Jude’ had the Granny Smiths label but Parlophone made them give it a Parlophone number, the
bluebig meanies.Hence there was no ‘Apple 1’.
Apple 2 was Mary Hopkin’s “Those Were The Days”, 3 was Jackie Lomax’s “Sour Milk Sea”, 4 was the Black Dyke Mills Band with “Thingumybob” (sic). After that it all got a bit mad…
i heart mary hopkin!! also i heart the lovely green apple!! that is all i have to contribute here
except to note that there is a ptee-style joke to be made out of “black dyke mills band” but LUCKILY I AM NOT PTEE
I suppose there’s not too much point to chiming in with a defense of “Hey Jude” here – y’all have heard it all before, and perhaps there’s something to the project of trying to thoroughly articulate an often-expressed irritation with a sacred cow. But really, come on, “Hey Jude” is lovely. It got picked up by so many others not because of the singalong but because of two things essential to any lounge act/Piano Man type:
1) it’s really, really easy to play and sing at the same time (see also “Imagine”)
2) the melody is absolutely fantastic. Gliding, sweet, tender, and very enjoyable to sing. Certainly it’s among McCartney’s best in this regard.
#1 probably has little bearing on whether it’s a good song or not, but I feel like #2 counts for a lot, especially as in this recording McCartney delivers it perfectly. It would be easy – especially for Paul McCartney, to really ham up the sentiment of this song, as perhaps he does in the singalong section. But for the real meat of the song, he sells it in an IMO very convincing way. It just sounds like he really cares about Jude.
And, really, I do think it’s unfair to hate on any song for what it might have inspired. Bad drum solos and singalong jams of the future aside, the merits of this singalong jam are really quite considerable. If you really like “Yellow Submarine”‘s better, that’s fine, but placed on the overall scale of such things, I say this beats “All Around The World” – but I imagine we’ll find out when you reach that taut little ditty!
Doctor Casino,
I never said I “hated” “Hey Jude”–it is simply that, in retrospect, I realize that it isn’t all that some of us thought it was in 1968. I don’t think it has aged well. It might have aged better if it hadn’t droned on repetitively at the for four minutes at the end.
And, as Tom said, it certainly wasn’t the worst Beatles number 1–but it certainly wasn’t the best. Then, on the other hand, it was surely far, far better than most of McCartney’s post-Beatles work. The other three were there to offer some sort of checks and balances on Paul’s excesses.
P.S. The final sentence in my previous post should have read “It [not “I”] wasn’t the worst–that one’s yet to come.”
If it wasn’t for the fade it would have scored higher, definitely. The version I have on the CDs I made at the start of the project cuts off at about 4’30” and listening to that I found myself warming to the song. But the long version was the single version here, so there it is.
And I don’t think I’m giving a huge amount away if I say that, even though I don’t mark a song until I finish a review, “All Around The World” will almost certainly get less than this does.
The single that actually broke “Hey Jude”‘s ‘longest #1’ record in the UK though was “I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” by Meat Loaf.
The “Yellow Sub” comment is partly based on the (second-hand) empirical evidence of football terrace chants, where it beats “Hey Jude” comfortably! (But also see my Eleanor Rigby review for why I think YS is better too.)
“Hey Jude” remains popular on the (now largely proverbial) terraces, though, though as far as I know only the la-la singalong bit. As in: “la la la LALALA laaa, LALALA laaa, Ci-ty” etc etc.
This was one of the five singles my parent bought I believe, and I was allowed to play with it on the old dansette as a kid. Therefore
a) I always believed Revolution was the A-side (it was clearly better)
b) In my neophyte scratching days, Hey Jude got a lot of needle abuse.
Am I right in thinking that Hey Jude is a song for/about Julia(n) Lennon? And as a Macca composition it then takes on a wee bit of snide?
Also Hey Jude is clearly responsible for Imagine in my book, maybe Lennon trying to get his own back vis a vis the piss easy plinky-plonker.
i think it is written to julian lennon’s SON!! it is dynastic encouragement even unto the third pop generation: “take a sad song and make it better” = even tho yr dad (ie julian) is going to be a RUBBISH POP STAR you in yr turn will possibly not be so bad
Yes, it was addressed to Julian, and I think even Lennon was prepared to take it at face value, so why shouldn’t we?
I agree with the points about the second half of the song. Someone once described it as “a three-minute song with a four-minute fadeout” which sums it up (maybe someone with a stopwatch can establish whether T Rex’s “Hot Love” has similar proportions!) Sadly the point about the stadium ballad was emphasised at Live 8 when the end-of-show singalong dispensed with any of the song and just cut to the “na-na-na’s”. Now if only “Let It Be” had worked at Live Aid…
(Obscurity corner: “Sour Milk Sea”, the George Harrison song released as Apple 3 – referred to above – was later the name of a band which recruited a young Freddie Bulsara (aka Mercury) in 1970.)
The monster fade-out in “Hot Love” I think is awesome and I look forward to explaining why!
I was going to mention the Julian Lennon connection. I’ve heard this, too, but the “you have found her, go out and get her” and “let her under your skin” do seem odd bits of advice to a five-year-old whose Mum and Dad are splitting for well-publicized reasons.
I’ve also heard Macca say in an interview that he wrote the song as sort of a self-affirmation in pursuing Linda Eastman. (But if he were really attempting to succour Julian and Cynthia, is it fair to ask what ever happened to Jane Asher? Hmmmm…..)
As to the snide, well the tripe-slinging between those two surely had a long, occasionally amusing, and generally embarassing history post-split, inspiring:
Too Many People (Macca)
How Do You Sleep (Lennon)–invective par excellence!
Silly Love Songs (Macca)
Anyone care to add more?
Lennon eventually gave us “Working Class Hero” and “Imagine” among others. McCartney eventually gave us “Hands Across the Water” and “High High High.”
Maybe it was really George who came out of the fray the most intact?
Macca’s towering post-Beatles achievement is the “reggae bit” in Live And Let Die, which is the single greatest pop moment any post-Beatle put to tape and one of the most startling and life-affirming incidents in 70s pop!
I think you’re mixing up the “reggae bit” in Live And Let Die with the moment when Jack Nitzsche’s strings surge into Ringo’s “Photograph.”
Ringo of course being the one who came out most intact. Thomas the Tank Engine and Barbara Bach…who could truly ask for more?
I’ve always understood that the song was for Julian Lennon. I met him once over fish n’ chips – nice bloke. Didn’t ask him about this though. He was pushing ” Valotte” at the time.
But with some of Macca’s contributions around this time I think that he knew it was over and was looking to write the Beatles swan song. Long & Winding Road particularily. And this would be typical of Macca’s modus operendi as the music hall master ( aka Sgt Pepper ) , it’s a reoccurring theme for him. The big closing number which he was able to realize on Abbey Road.
I think a lot of the same criticism levied ” All You Need Is Love ” can be applied to the long fade/sing along . Shooting for mass appeal and trying to send a message of encouragement to the world. And on that level it obviously works, hence its popularity.
It might be considered Paul’s more “realistic” response to John’s “All You Need Is Love.” Certainly the long fadeout suggests the end of something, as does the promo film they did where whatever passers-by they could drag in from the streets of Twickenham crowd around the band, and finally obscure them altogether.
(But if he were really attempting to succour Julian and Cynthia, is it fair to ask what ever happened to Jane Asher? Hmmmm…..)
Ask “I’m Looking Through You,” I think…
As for Jude – I hope my comments didn’t come off as particularly hostile to Tom or Doc Mod, as I love these discussions in general! And, for the record, I also love “All Around the World,” although that one is squarely in guilty pleasure territory, whereas I really do think “Hey Jude” is good.
And “Hi Hi Hi” for that matter, so perhaps I’m just coming at this from a whole different musical ballgame.
Tripe-slinging between these two […] Anyone care to add more?
“Dear Friend” on Wild Life is Macca’s response to “How Do You Sleep,” I think. And of course he has a (slightly schmaltzy) John eulogy song on Tug of War, “Here Today.”
As for Julian – I get the impression Macca visited Julian, started thinking about what a bummer of a situation that was, started writing a song about him (purportedly originally titled “Hey Jules”), and found he could hammer words into it better if he abandoned the little kid. At least the guy knows where his strengths are, eh?
Oh, and of course it’s the first number one with swearing on it – John drops his guitar during the final verse and is clearly heard yelling “Oh…fucking hell!” in the background.
my understanding is originally written for julian as ‘chin up lad’ encouragement, reworked by neccessity into pop context (though seemingly ‘oi kid don’t let yr parents’ divorce get you down’ would seemingly be a marketable message, esp at this point judging by whichever/whenever song tom carmodized re: divorce rates earlier)(this has been tapped in movies obv and kiddie selfhelp books no doubt but are there any big hit songs aimed at this?), with john then thinking it applied to his end of the situation (understandably w/ ‘you have found her/go out and git r (done)’). question for the sunshine boys: how immediate was the backlash to john+yoko? i always think of it as primarily post-bag-ins/two virgins and amping up post-breakup, yet he’s clearly feeling heat by this point i guess. and is ‘we love you’:’all you need is love’::’you can’t always get what you want’:’hey jude’ (probably not)?
I have always ‘read’ the fade as Paul’s – possible – response to, and emulation of, minimalism (eg ‘droning on repetitively’, as Doctor Mod puts its above). The Beatles/Epstein/Velvet Underground connection is well known, as is Macca’s cutting edge/avant-garde credentials (this is, after all, the man who played an Albert Ayler rec to a horrified George Martin at a dinner party – it doesn’t seem that much a stretch for McCartney to also be aware of LaMonte Young.)
i think the public backlash was pretty immediate — i seem to recall in shout! there’s a description of gangs psychotic girlfans staking out abbey road (philip norman’s attitude to yoko is not much more elevated, mind you)
i could look it up even but it would mean going four feet across the room!!
My only problem w/that reading Ward is that it’s Macca who disrupts the transcendent drone effects with his bloody shouting about judy-judy-judy.
Unless maybe he knew about LaMonte Young AND HATED HIM!
lamonte young meets cary grant!
My only problem w/that reading Ward is that it’s Macca who disrupts the transcendent drone effects with his bloody shouting about judy-judy-judy.
But that’s the genius, right? The tension between a boy schooled on Little Richard and a man looking up to Young? (Not that I know who LaMonte Young is, mind you.) I infinitely prefer this type of thing to “All You Need Is Love”‘s turgid, wheezy repetition (where, again, McCartney is trying to interject some sort of liveliness with his “All together now!”s and so forth). The whole world can sit on a hill, sing “na na na” and buy itself a Coke, but to keep it from just being one long, dreamy, listless smoke-out there needs to be somebody leaping around on speed, inflaming the passions.
Well, I’m going to cast a lonely vote for thoroughly enjoying the long fade-out. Paul’s vocal interjections, Ringo’s drum fills, the sound of George’s rhythm guitar and the way he strums it, the slow build of the orchestration – all of these together hold my interest for the entire length of the “Na-na” part.
And I’ll say I think this is an excellent record. As several have pointed out, Paul’s initial inspiration for the lyric was his feeling of empathy for Julian, a feeling that was expressed, in Tom’s words, as “you’re not alone, you don’t have to be ashamed of needing help.” Paul quickly realized that these ideas applied to himself, vis a vis his situation with Linda and the Beatles. What I hear him saying is: I’ve found the love of my life and I’m going to summon the courage to choose that love – something real and lasting – over the glamour of life as a Beatle. John said essentially the same thing – less appealingly, to my ears – over the length of “Plastic Ono Band.” (This similarity in ideas and emotions must be why John always cited “Hey Jude” as one of his favorites of Paul’s songs.)
The beauty of the long fade is exactly the thing that Tom dislikes, if I’m reading him right – the bliss of the “Na-na’s” contrasted with Paul’s screaming vocals, with the two fighting it over a long haul. To me, all of this is essential to expressing the message of the lyrics – true love isn’t easy to find, or keep, it’s rough and painful breaking free of all the barriers standing between you and it, but it’s wonderful if you can find it and get it. In my opinion, that contrast – pain and bliss, struggle and release – IS the song, and it needs to last every bit as long as it does in this record. Finding and keeping love is a grown-up’s job, I think is one message of this song, and I hear that in Paul’s voice – it’s the first record where he sounds like a man, not a boy. He didn’t always live up to the standard he set here, and other lesser artists may have used his approach to regrettable ends (which I don’t hold him responsible for, any more than Buddy Holly is responsible for Bobby Vee); however, neither of those factors lessen his achievement here. I read in the Village Voice several years ago, in an essay about over- and under-rated singles, that you wouldn’t listen to “Hey Jude” if you knew the world was ending tonight. Well – yeah, I would.
blount asked : for the sunshine boys: how immediate was the backlash to john+yoko?
I remember it as being pretty quick and pretty negative. Although Macca was spending a lot of time with Linda he didn’t run into the heat as John & Yoko. There’s a few reasons for this , even prior to Two Virgins ; there was a drug bust for pot ( at Hendix’s old house in London ) and Yoko was named on John’s uncontested divorce from Cynthia as an adultress. And there was also a miscarriage but I am not sure if that made it to the press.
Also the weirdness of the upcoming ” The Beatles” album ( aka The White Album )shocked a lot of people and they tended to think that this was Yoko’s avante garde reputation. So indirectly , she got fingered for that, too.
So there was enough going on to feed the flames of anti – John + yoko – ism.
Blount :
there was a country song : D-I-V-O-R-C-E that was a hit….
” Our little kind’s only six years old ” etc
Apparently Lennon assumed the song was a message to *him* telling him to pursue Yoko, which I rather suspect tells you a lot about his state of mind at the time. Oddly enough, Leigh & Clayson (in their book “The Walrus Was Ringo” speculate that Paul might have been contemplating an affair with Cynthia Lennon.
It’s clear that Lennon liked the song though, and I think that’s what distinguishes this from a lot of the White Album material – as a recording it’s very much an ensemble work that they were all committed to; that’s probably why it was the first Beatles track recorded on 8-track, which required them to go to an independent studio as there wasn’t one available at Abbey Road. I can hear how much care’s gone into the band’s own arrangement, which certainly contrasts with a lot of the album (and a lot more so with the stuff they did in the second half of 1967). I might even go so far as to give the first three minutes an 8…
…But then there is that outro. Apparently “nah” is the 25th most frequently-ocurring word in Beatles lyrics. In Mark Lewisohn’s Chronicle he suggests that had there been such things at the time, they could have saved the long version for a 12″ single, I give the finished article a 6. Ironically enough, by the time this hit the shelves Ringo had actually stormed out on the band, though of course that wasn’t made public at the time.
Of course, I’d make ‘Revolution’ an 8, but that’s sadly not the question. I’ll be back with more trivia later.
I was discussing this debate with my sister last night, and she made an interesting observation. She thought one factor in the great popularity of “Hey Jude” was its giving the fans exactly what they wanted: an affirmation that the Beatles would go on. There had been so much negative publicity, and rumors of intra-group strife were running amok. No matter how any of us felt about the drugs, Yoko, the Maharishi, or any other thing that seemed distressing in the context of the 60s (all of which would hardly raise an eyebrow these days), it was too painful to think of life without the Beatles. I doubt that any other pop/rock performers have ever burned so deeply into the public cultural consciousness. (It is probably not coincidental that Elvis staged his big comeback concert less than three months later.) Considering that “Hey Jude” was actually performed live on television, it seemed to give the lie to the rumors and allayed our fear of loss for the time being.
But such was not to be. In retrospect, it’s amazing they stayed together as long as they did after this and turned out an extraordinary album like Abbey Road before it was all over.
I’d give “Revolution” a 9.
wwolfe: thanks for that excellent post – I still don’t agree, but that perspective hadn’t occurred to me and it’s certainly a reason someone could like the fade.
I’m going completely off-message here.
Could not care less about the song. LOVE the coda.
Everyone loves to pick on Mccartney because A/he can be a jerk; B/he’s not the holy St John what was murdered tragically and yes, we can ALL remember exactly where we were when we heard the news just like President Kennedy being killed and now John’s one of the greatest Britons of all time rather than a very important rock star with a great voice who wrote some great songs and some arrant rubbish too. Just like his partner.
But:
In the late 60s, McCartney was at the peak of his vocal powers. Go back to ‘Got to Get You Into My Life’ and listen to the soul shouting at the end. Then listen again to ‘Hey Jude’. Not the la-las, but McCartney’s improvising. It’s random, it’s chaotic, it’s packed with passion. Just like great soul singing should be.
Couldn’t agree less! It sounds to me like a really self-conscious attempt to do a bit of soul singing by someone who’s confusing ‘soul’ with ‘shouting’ (like 90% of rock singers ever I grant you).
I admit, though, that this is a bit of a blindspot for me – cf. Small Faces review, upcoming Joe Cocker write-up, god forbid the Charlatans ever get to #1 etc etc.
I remember seeing this in Minchella’s in south shields (look for it, it’s still there) and the effect seemed to be “Look! The beatles, after getting a bit strange, are back! and they look like the beatles again!)
(i.e. PMac had shaved his tache off.)
I’m with Tom re this odd soul claim – it’s not at all random, and not at all passionate. I’m rarely convinced by claims of genuine passion for studio recordings anyway. It’s all chatting with the musicians and engineers and producer, then yelling into the mic. Paul McCartney seems less plausible than almost anyone for claims of passion and randomness and chaos, to be honest. Possibly more plausible than, say, the Pet Shop Boys, but less so than about 95% of pop stars ever.
I also don’t at all think that is what soul is about – this was a major part of what I was saying in my old Al Green article here. I hear very little chaos and randomness in any soul records – there is the odd moment of thoughtlessness, like Otis’s ludicrous and notorious live “Sock it to her tenderly” moment, but that’s just a dumb improvised misstep in an otherwise thoroughly rehearsed and controlled set.
I don’t think I’d have given Hey Dude as much as 4, personally – goes from ‘pleasant but don’t care’ to tedious even before the decline into the singalong.
o come now martin – ‘hey dude’ is very probably kula shaker’s best single!
somewhat echoing wwolfe and mark gamon i’m voting coda>songproper – chop them in half and you’re left with a dull ‘let it be’ precursor and an epic/bizarre powerballad take on ‘flying’ – it might still be garbage worth no more than a 4 but it’d be alot more fun.
I think the thing about McCartney is that he’s hugely talented and is very good at a lot of things (in the musical field I mean) but he’s not always reliable in deciding how to use it. Hence his singing on that outro is, in its own right, fine – but it’s not in the right place here. ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’ is far better, because it’s a more apposite use of the technique.
Oh, and on a semi-pedantic point, they didn’t exactly play ‘Hey Jude’ live on TV – David Frost turned up at what we’d now call the video shoot and faked it.
Which reminds me that I promised more trivia – how’s about the fact that George Martin was paid £25 for the orchestral arrangement, and this massive sum of money required special authorisation from EMI? And one of the string players refused to sing along on that coda, even with the promise of a double fee. And as has been suggested before, Jimmy Webb didn’t think it a coincidence that this is a second longer than ‘McArthur Park’ [on the original 45 – the stereo mix is actually slightly shorter].
Is this now the most-commented post, aside from Mike Sarne spam?
What a strange bunch of contributions.
I’ve read it all now.
Actually, Hey Jude was the Beatles biggest selling single anywhere and lots of people adored it – and still do if you go to any concert from Robbie Williams to Macca himself where the refrain gets picked up. Someone did it at our wedding and it was fantastic.
What is loud and clear from all the above is the animosity Paul draws. Have you guys read any of the books about the Beatles – the people who actually worked with them?
It’s quite clear that some of you think spouting left wing politics whilst high guarantees you credibility in perpetuity, but seriously, apart from being fans, have you guys ever trying performing a Lennon song? Jeez – one note melodies sung with passion (or is that just shouting?) and collage lyrics that don’t make much sense. You get bored very very quickly.
the Beatles won 17 Ivor Novello awards for songwriting. They were all Paul songs.
Good for you if you are stuck in your teenage rebellion years and really think John was some kind of saint, but I know you’d be an arse to have a pint with! I was in Liverpool recently for work and found myself, to my amusement, in Menlove Avenue where Mimi lived. It’s like a flipping country estate. Working Class Hero my foot. You poor, deluded fools.
Hey Jude is genius from first to last. Revolution is Eddie Cochran slowed down with very distorted guitars and a painfully of the time lyric. It’s embarrassing to listen to now.
Get over it…the Walrus was Paul. Or…oh dear…would admitting that mean you have to completely re-evaluate your entire life as a rebel?
ha ha
PS I actually love John’s stuff but in 100 years time I know whose songs they’ll be singing.
Des if you dug around a tiny bit on the site you’d see that Paul’s songs have tended to do very well here – “Eleanor Rigby” is one of two singles to have got 10/10. I personally don’t see the need to treat liking the Beatles as a schoolyard “ooh ooh I’m in HIS gang” fight.
i’m in klaus voorman’s gang