What's the best?

tennis_nick · Post by **tennis_nick** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 12:14 am

My favorite middle eight comes from No Reply, best harmonies ever, IMO, and VERY well written

shamustwin · Post by **shamustwin** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 4:52 am

No Reply....whew, great song, J&P blend so well, and extra kudos to Macca for SCREAMING those harmonies. You try it!

Paul W. - perfectly put.

studiotwosession · Post by **studiotwosession** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 3:39 pm

I do have to say that while I might not list Revolver as my fave LP by them, I certainly have to say it has the best guitar song they, or anyone, ever did. And Your Mo' Fo' Bird Can F-in Sing.

That's not the real title. But it should be.

jojo99 · Post by **jojo99** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 5:35 pm

My jaw dropped when I first heard the alternate Anthology version of "Bird"..how cool is it to discover that two versions of one of your favorite songs exist? (I wish George Martin didn't use the laughing vocal take on top of it, though, having heard it with regular vocals on that Beatle link someone posted awhile back.) I wonder why the Beatles decided not to go with that alternate version? Both are great, but did they feel the electric 12-string sound was becoming cliche? George stopped using that guitar so abruptly...did they feel the Byrds were making a career out of that sound so the Beatles should drop it? (Kind of like how Squire postulated that Entwistle may have stopped using a Rick bass with a pick due to Yes's exploitation of that sound). I think it'd be cool if someone would splice the two 'Bird' versions together, ala Strawberry Fields, or do some mixing mish-mash on them ala 'Love'--the alternate version has some great drum fills, and the album version has that incredible bassline. Although Lennon seems to have poo-poo'd this song later in his career as a knockoff, to me it is the epitome of effortless Beatle magic-- memorable guitar lick, inimitable bass, great Paul harmonies, cryptic lyrics-- overall the tune makes a driving, purposeful statement and then bows out as abruptly as it starts. It really is possibly the most underrated Beatle song ever-- it's downright exhilarating, Beatle joy-joy abounds..

elysrand · Post by **elysrand** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 5:46 pm

My jaw just dropped at your incredibly well-informed worldview of Chris Squire and his commentary on The Ent (as treelike as JRR may have intimated). Can you steer me to these references in the online sources? I am intrigued and would like to learn more of this.

Thank you for bringing new insights to my less than fully informed mind of the doings of Lord Squire

studiotwosession · Post by **studiotwosession** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 6:46 am

I'd say perhaps they thought that the earlier version of Bird sounded too much like Bryd. Lennon used to like to keep the origins and meaning of many of his songs subtle.

On a side note, someone told me that Crosby is on record as saying he first told Harrison about Ravi S.

jojo99 · Post by **jojo99** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 5:53 pm

I don't know about online sources, but I've read Squire's Entwistle musings in at least a couple of music magazines that are probably long since defunct (although I think he mentioned this again in an interview from a year ago or so in one of the Bass magazines). I do remember an Entwistle interview from probably a decade ago, and they asked him that very question...he didn't really answer it directly, but he said he had to stop playing the Rick because the neck became badly warped (Since he pioneered the use of roundwounds, maybe he was the first person ever to experience tail lift?) But an even more interesting question to me is: Did Jimi Hendrix buy his Rick bass after he saw/heard Squire playing his? Squire has recounted his Hendrix meeting a number of times, and he said Hendrix was impressed with his bass sound, and came to Squire backstage to ask about it. I wonder if there's any documentation pinpointing when exactly Hendrix got his bass-- that would certainly be a proud feather for Chris Squire's hat if it were the case.