07. Everything but the beatles
Lots of complicated and unoriginal thoughts, largely about Paul McCartney.
As a teenager, my extended family was convinced that I was deeply into The Beatles, which was confusing to me at the time since I broadly had the listening profile of a recently-divorced Brooklyn man. Incidentally, I was also the kind of incredibly oppositional young human who dug further into my vague belief that The Beatles were overplayed and overhyped every time I was made to unwrap another coffee table book that would collect dust under my bed.
Call it karmic justice, but I’m rapidly approaching 30 and I’m surrounded (surrounded!) by people who earnestly love and appreciate The Beatles. I guess I’m one of them now, which is something that happened in fits and starts and mostly without my consent— I still don’t think The Beatles as a group were that good, but I also have many, many more developed opinions about The Beatles as individual people than I initially signed up for. I think Paul McCartney seems brilliant and exhausting in equal measure and I would never, ever want to work with him ever. George is probably my favorite and also a textbook passive-aggressive youngest child. John is this meme and in my head is inextricably and forever linked with this cursed image. Ringo obviously seems like the best one even though he’s got limited musical creativity, plus I really like his dedication to Microsoft paint. I think that anyone who wants to talk about Yoko Ono in the context of The Beatles’ breakup should shut up and just not do that instead. I blinked and watched all nine hours of Get Back.
My back-door route into being a Beatles enjoyer started with the indie rock enthusiast to All Things Must Pass pipeline, and then really just spiraled from there. Because here’s the thing, ultimately: I think the Beatles were musically better separately than they were together, and I also think that every group who’s ever covered the Beatles did it better than they did. Both of these beliefs are centered around the fact that Paul McCartney is obviously both a genius and a control freak, and that his musical ouvre is a some sort of Russian roulette inverse bell curve that looks like this:
The big secret I’m trying to get off my chest here is that I’m obsessed with Wings. I own every single one of their albums on vinyl and I paid real money for all of them. The song Love Is Strange functions for me like an auditory antidepressant. I think Wonderful Christmastime is the only listenable Christmas song, even though I know that opinion is objectively wrong and should probably land me in jail. It’s all very embarrassing. The heart wants what the heart wants and the heart wants lesbian grandma.
TLDR: The Beatles are best when they’re only Beatles-adjacent. Here are twenty songs either performed (separately) by Paul McCartney, John Lennon, or George Harrison, or songs written by them and performed by other people:
07.1 Dear Prudence, The Five Stairsteps (1970)
Dear Prudence might be the closest thing I have to a favorite Beatles track, but I like it best when The Beatles aren’t singing it. The Five Stairsteps were able to cover this song largely because they were signed to Dark Horse, which was founded by George Harrison— they were signed to the label in the first place because they were friends with Billy Preston and Billy Preston was, of course, actually the fifth Beatle.
07.2 Hey Jude, The Overton Berry Trio & The Black On White Affair
07.3 Day Tripper, Lee Moses (1984)
I stumbled across this song last week after I included another track, also a cover, by Lee Moses in my newsletter 05. Lately, pt. I.
07.4 Let It Be, Bill Withers (1971)
This is probably the most “obvious” cover on the playlist, since it’s easily the best Beatles cover full stop. I think the key to a great cover is when the artist really takes the existing vibe and fucks with it completely. The addition of the hammond organ and the clapping take this song from sad to celebratory— that’s a massive improvement on the original imo, since I used up the full extent of my bummer tolerance during the aforementioned depressed indie man years.
07.5 I’ve Got A Feeling, Billy Preston (1970)
Billy Preston is my favorite Beatle.
07.6 Arrow Through Me, Wings (1979)
Unfortunately, without even a hint of sarcasm, I think this is one of the funkiest songs ever written and performed. But so does that YouTube commenter, so at least we have each other.
07.7 We Can Work It Out, Stevie Wonder (1970)
Does anyone else in the roughly 20-30 y/o age bracket feel like they’ve just finished watching Mulan? Asking for a friend.
07.8 Blackbird, Billy Preston (1972)
I’m just so charmed by him. On a very loosely-related note, did you know that Stephen Stills got the line “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with” from Billy Preston? Also he was closeted for almost his entire life and I’m sure these two things were definitely entirely unrelated.
07.9 Let ‘Em In, Billy Paul (1976)
So Billy Paul does something truly phenomenal here, which is to take a goofy song loosely about Paul McCartney throwing a houseparty and turn it into a legitimately moving protest song.
07.10 Whatever Gets You Thru The Night, John Lennon (1974)
Unironically, John Lennon and I have a similar life philosophy. Our opinions do seem to differ on the liberal usage of alto saxophone.
07.11 Bring On The Lucie (Freda People), John Lennon (1973)
07.12 Apple Scruffs, George Harrison (1970)
As I’ve already mentioned, All Things Must Pass is a favorite of mine and came into my life during a time of immense work-related burnout and a resulting miniature identity crisis, so you can see why George and I have bonded. I have a massive, slightly-sinister poster of him in my office slash spare bedroom, and I’m certain it scares our houseguests because they’ve told me so to my face.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to present the music video for George Harrison’s Crackerbox Palace without comment.
07.13 Ram On, Paul McCartney & Linda McCartney (1971)
RAM is truly Paul McCartney at his most vaudeville, which I hate. Unfortunately it also has these occasional moments of absolutely piercing brilliance that keep me coming back.
07.14 Love Is Strange, Wings (1971)
This is one of The Covers, for me. The Mickey & Sylvia original is also fantastic, but very different— you probably know it from Dirty Dancing. There’s also a much more sedated, quiet version by Exuma, who I also love. But the Wings version is my favorite and sounds, to me, exactly like a good day feels.
07.15 Here Comes The Sun, Richie Havens (1972)
TIL Richie Havens has Blackfoot heritage and his great-grandfather and great uncle were in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, which is what brought his family to settle in New York City. He’s also, of course, the dude who opened Woodstock and vamped for three hours while a bunch of the headliners were stuck in traffic. He’s got such a way with covers, and this is one that I think improves so, so much on the original.
07.16 Dear Prudence, Gábor Szabó (1969)
07.17 Dear Prudence, Ramsey Lewis (1968)
07.18 Cry Baby Cry, Ramsey Lewis (1968)
07.19 Things We Said Today, The Sandpipers (1966)
This is also the group behind Guantanamera, which just makes me think of this SNL sketch.
07.19 Every Little Thing, Yes (1969)
Sorry to end on a weird one. I love this song in its entirety and I have no notes.
Anyway, I feel better now that that’s all out in the open. Happy friday to all the freaks out there. Back to better content next week.
xoxo em