[drmilktruck]

EC introduces the Rolling Stone Top 100 Beatles Songs:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/li...songs-20110919

[Flynnski]

Cool
...

[The Marlin]

I love Elvis Costello. Spike and King of America are among my favourite all time albums.

The Beatles are pretty good too. They might just catch on!

Marlin

[fletch]

The Beatles were a fabulous group. For those of us who can remember the beginnings, it wasn't just the music, it was everything! The clothes, the boots, the hairstyles. Everything was very British, which was strange because the world had been looking at the USA when this phenomenon snuck up on us.
Our big brothers with their ducktail haircuts, tractor tread shoes and short sleeve check shirts with the collars turned up became totally naff in an instant.
You've got to remember that rock n roll was in the doldrums, too. Elvis had had his eighteen months of glory and gone into the army, never to be seen in the same way again. Buddy Holly was dead. The wonderful black rockers were having their terrific tunes recorded by milquetoast performers like PAt Boone! And the music producers were foisting an army of teen idol 'Bobbies' on the world.
Along came the Beatles. They could REALLY rock. They could croon. They wrote their own songs. They were versatile enough to write bossa nova, cha cha, and waltz time hits along with the flat out four-four.

The guitar based band had already existed, but usually with a front man. Now a generation of spotty faced kids with cheap electric guitars could bash away in their garages and come out in a couple of months to become neighbourhood celebrities. It was all far more democratic than backing a local singer and never having a say in what was done.

I'm rambling, forgive me, but I was there.... And it was bloody fantastic!

[NickGretsch]

Well put Fletch

following on from OP:
An ok written article but to be quite honest am not that enamoured with Elvis Costello or his views of the Beatles top 100 songs. Am I alone? and left wondering why.

Would rather go out a buy a well researched book on the mop tops

Don't mean this to be a 'putdown' on OP and no offence intended.

[gabbo]

I quite enjoyed that. Not sure completely agree with the order, but it was a good read for me considering I am a lifelong Beatles fan and also really like Costello.

I, like many others, wouldn't have begun playing guitar if it weren't for the Beatles. So I owe them a lot.

[telespank]

I'm still working my way through it. I love how each song has the story of the writing and recording. I'm listening to each song as I go.

Thanks for sharing, drmilktruck.

[NickGretsch]

Hey I feel like a complete idiot, I only read that preface thing that Costello wrote and mistakenly thought that was it...doh!!!!

Only after reading the later post(thank you) I realised there's a brilliant breakdown on those 100 songs.

[MTurner]

Originally Posted by gabbo

Not sure completely agree with the order...

I am quite sure I DISagree with the order. But hey, everybody's entitled to their opinion.

[NickGretsch]

Don't think the order really matters really as they are a 100 great songs

Am listening to their early songs, something I haven't done for years. And what's so refreshing is it's simplicity and great arrangements. Theres space and everything has room to do its thing. Something sadly lacking in a lot of current material which sounds overblown, overproduced.

[JRS11]

I used to love him but I am boycotting him for the rest of his career. I won't comment on why because it would get political. Personally I believe there are more than 100 great Beatle's songs.

[drmilktruck]

Originally Posted by NickGretsch

Don't think the order really matters really as they are a 100 great songs

Am listening to their early songs, something I haven't done for years. And what's so refreshing is it's simplicity and great arrangements. Theres space and everything has room to do its thing. Something sadly lacking in a lot of current material which sounds overblown, overproduced.

I've always preferred the pre-Sgt Pepper Beatles.

[JRS11]

I also liked the pre- SP albums, but I also loved the white album and Abbey Road, I guess for me SP was just wonderful at the time but does not have the staying power of even their first two LP's.

[Crippled Lion]

Beatles' LP that holds up best after all these years; Revolver.

[JRS11]

Originally Posted by Crippled Lion

Beatles' LP that holds up best after all these years; Revolver.

and rubber soul

[Tony65x55]

and all the rest of them...

[Crooner]

Let's face it... they never released an album that wasn’t fantastic. Surely, it's interesting to choose 100 particular songs due to their significance, as there are, indeed, some Beatles tunes that serve as key watermarks in their insane musical growth, but the exuberance and sheer joy of their earliest stuff is every bit as vital as the Ultimate Swan Song, "Abbey Road." I've always thought it a shame ("I have always thought that it's a cri-i-i-i-i-ime") that Let It Be was released last, as AR really was their last album and they knew it. It's the perfect finale to the greatest single catalogue of genius any band will ever produce.

I recently saw a multimedia lecture on the birth of Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane (with a brief touch upon A Day In The Life) given by a guy named Scott Freiman. He travels around giving presentations on nearly all the Beatles albums. His website is:

http://beatleslectures.com/index.html

It was fascinating stuff, especially getting to hear John's first demos of Strawberry Fields while filming How I Won The War. The main thing I took away from the lecture, however, was not info on any particular songs, but the genius, madness, talent and X-factor mojo that made each Beatles album and endeavor so special and so vital.
So if someone wants to pick the 100 most significant Beatles songs, that's fine. That doesn't discount all the others that have indelibly imprinted themselves in our hearts and minds, just as they will feel like coming home for the first time to each new generation that discovers the four lads, and so on, and so on.

Like I've always said... to dislike Sinatra is a sign of possibly questionable taste. To dislike the Beatles is serious character flaw.

[Crippled Lion]

Amen, Crooner!

[PacRat]

To me the Beatles will always be number 1, they did so many things so good and when you try to take it all in it's just mind boggling. Some complain that their music is so basic and some think of them as old school . . . but they did all this at a time when it was all new. The tours, the fans, the records just never had been done to the degree that they did it. I find it funny, years ago we would include a few Beatles tunes to an audience who were not acquainted with them and their music. They would come up and comment on these great tunes and ask if we wrote em . . . it just goes to show their music and subject matter is timeless.

[MoonshineCalbilly]

Thanks man, great read!