Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

"Don't Pass Me By" is probably my least favorite Beatles song.

As for underrated I'm gonna go with Harrison's "Long Long Long." It's a beautiful song and Ringo has some great fills in there.

Nice observations for the 1st post, Mike - welcome to the forum!
Speaking of the White album - apart from "Cry baby cry", my favorites are "Helter Skelter", "While my guitar..." and... don't tell me i'm crazy, i know it... yep, Rev #9...

Yes Mike! "Long, Long, Long". GORGEOUS. Arguably the most beautiful Beatles song (I think "In My Life" is the actual best) Fascinating choices here; very intrigued to see "I should have known better" listed as a favourite. This to me, is a very predictible chord progression (Especially for a band known for their non predictible chord progressions!) that you can kind of learn the song without listening to the recording; you just know what chord is coming next. Just one guys opinion, however. (I still think it's a good song) George's tone on Octopus' garden is to me scrumptious. "Yellow Submarine" does deserve kudos from the standpoint of arrangement. Two I really never cared for were "Maxwell's silver hammer", and "P.S. I love you". Once again though, I still think that they are good pieces of music. And to Kent, "No Reply", and "I'll be back". Doesn't get any better! Folk rock getting invented right there. I suppose desert island albums would be, of course, Rubber Soul & Revolver! Christian

I always found "You Never Give Me Your Money" to be pretty underrated. What a strong track! Lots of cool shifts and just cool parts overall.

Maybe a bit off topic here but kind of related - instead of the best or worst unreleased songs, how about the best or worst that they might have recorded but never did? I'm thinking here of course about lots of the material on All Things Must Pass, especially the title track. Some of this could have (even more) golden with all the boys coming together to add their input during the recording process.

And what about other solo material that was in genesis in those late Beatle days but never got tackled by the group as a whole?

Mr. Moonlight is one of my favorites, Lennon never sang better, as is You Know My Name, their parody song. I also like What Goes On, it rocks. There is a lot of filler on the White Album that should have either been finished or left off and many candidates for the worst. Goodnight is really depressing. Long Long Long sounds like a bad demo and is also very depressing. Revolution #9? terrible. I think the White album although the majority of stuff is great is the Beatles most unfocused and worst produced album, much more so that let It be which I really like. Octopuses Garden is also kind of lame although I still like it.

Like many, it is hard to name a single favorite, but my vote goes to THE NIGHT BEFORE. Paul's 'Little Richard' delivery on that is sheer perfection.

Most of my least favorites (and most skipped) tend to be covers recorded after A Hard Day's Night. Not that they're bad, or not spirited, but they tend to be outclassed by the originals that they sit next to. No Reply, I'm a Loser, Baby's in Black, I'll Follow the Sun, Eight Days A Week, What You're Doing, I Don't Want to Spoil the Party and Every Little Thing are so much more *interesting* as songs than the covers. Dizzy Miss Lizzy and Bad Boy are the same... they're good covers, but they don't do anything that special for me.

Many of their unreleased songs or songs they gave away would have made great additions to the official Beatles catalog. Bad to Me, Love of the Loved, I'll Keep You Satisfied, A World Without Love, Woman, Step Inside Love, Sour Milk Sea, Come and Get it... all of those songs would have been great album tracks or singles or B-sides. But especially Sour Milk Sea! As I mentioned in another thread around here, I think SMS is one of George's best Beatles era songs. (After Here Comes the Sun, Something, and While Me Guitar Gently Weeps of course)

I'm with Brammy and Brian.....

No Reply is a great little song and Yellow Submarine - erk!! (IMO)

I happen to like What Goes On. My nomination for worst Beatles song is:

"Come Together." Absolutely horrible in my opinion. The lyrics are a mess, and musically I think it just isn't very good either. Oh well, we can all agree to disagree.

I always thought that "Flying" was just a piece of simplistic filler that should have been replaced with a 'real' song.

Steve- "The Night Before" I think is Paul's finest Beatle vocal. Great choice! Benjamin- I thought I was alone on "Come together"; I know what John was trying to do, but the Fabs didn't have quite the right kind of chops I think to pull it off "Swampy & maybe a little CCR". A little more time on it, and it would have been better. Excellent idea, and a very unique song, but it's almost better done funkier by Aerosmith (Actually, I think the perfect "Together" would be somewhere between the two). Paul's bass is a bit too muddy, and out of tune a bit as well. Never a big fave of mine, the song does stand alone, a novel approach that just didn't quite hit the mark the right way. Man, we're tough on our Fabs, but we love 'em!! Thanks, Christian

I love both Come together and The Night Before, very different songs but each at his best. The lyrics may seem convoluted in Come Together but there is or was definitely a message in that song and the playing was excellent and very clean. Just my opinion (and I respect Aerosmith a lot) but I think they completely butchered Come Together, especially with that plinky bass sound.

With apologies to Ringo "If you got trouble"( who seems to top the worst Beatles song list in this threat) Who played that lead lick anyway?

>>Some of this could have (even more) golden with all the boys coming together to add their input during the recording process. <<

More than anything else, the genius of that band was the musical synthesis of whoever's song by the remaining three. So much of their solo work would have been raised several notches if the other had just played on the takes.

Per Octopus' Garden, the backing vocals through bubbling water effect (were they singing through fans?) I love. And, while Ringo didn't write many tunes, it is lyrically a more poetic child's kind of song than Yellow Submarine.

Best (and perhaps most underrated) middle 8 Lennon ever wrote is in Don't Let Me Down, which may be an equally underrated song.

Paul's best Beatles vocal is, hands down, Oh Darling.

The drumming on Come Together is as inventive and cool as Ringo ever did, and he did a lot of it.