2Adult Child: You brought "If I Needed Someone" & I said generally, Live In Japan isn't good. The best Beatles did was Shea Stadium, esp. Paul with Ringo.

Oh okay, I've just never heard the phrase 'picnic wholly' before.

Their performance of 'Yesterday' in Japan is great I think.

I know coming from me this isn't unpredictable, but this is amazing. The first two songs are perfect, and the rest of them (despite 'Can't Have Him' sounding kinda just like 'For No One') are really good, and will probably grow on me. I don't know if it's your best album so far, I need to listen to it more, but as a writer it feels more expressive than your other records. It makes me jealous and it makes me wanna write better songs, which is my reaction to all my favorite music.

I'll buy it when I have money haha, I'm broke as sh*t right now. But trust me, your best stuff is definitely ahead of you (just in case you're unsure about the future). I can feel something bubbling (for lack of a better word) in the music which I sort of felt on Bridge but a lot more on this record. I hope all the other smileysmilers listen to this.

2Adult Child: The Live In Japan isn't picnic wholly. The Beatles wasn't good live band. But yes, not fan of "If I Needed Someone" either.

What does picnic wholly mean?

I think they were a better live band than a lot of people give them credit for, but by 1966 they were fed up with it and getting careless.

I mean, take this performance of 'Things We Said Today' from 1964:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFD3GT387uI

And this one of 'She Loves You', to me (along with 'Strawberry Fields Forever') their greatest song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoF-7VMMihA

Maybe it's just me, but there was such a magic when they were on. When they gave it, they gave it all. By 1966 they just weren't giving it.

https://youtu.be/fqD5Lds8_OQ?t=2m37s

For his 76th birthday, I choose my 76 favorite Mike vocals....

No, not really. But here are several of them:

'I Get Around'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wREBD2og5iY

'Kiss Me Baby'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzAHc0NrpS0

'California Girls'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmIsdMWzdaE

'That's Not Me' (my favorite)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqnUxq7JHZw

'Here Today'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8RcYKzRSXE

'Cabinessence' (probably his least favorite)
https://youtu.be/ZOAUroLJnRc?t=2m34s

'Meant For You'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbdiCiASn40

'Do It Again'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtLY9oLTGMg

'Big Sur' (Landlocked)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVamFiNw-rs

'All I Wanna Do'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO_LX-m74uw

'Don't Go Near The Water'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjZES3_SSYA

'All This Is That' (this little bit always got me)
https://youtu.be/MfeH44ZMtWM?t=2m4s

'Had To Phone Ya'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHHmLlR1y4U

'Airplane'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn-rkNKTaTc


Have a good birthday, Mike. We love you. Good night, my baby. Sleep tight, my baby.

'The Actor' by the Moody Blues. It just sounds like the dawn of time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29ihZ_TbFqY

'Passing By'

It's an amazing song but

I like the song.  Don't take the lyrics so seriously.  You think John was out looking for her with a real gun?  I never took it that way.  More like, you'll be dead to me "emotionally" - unless you decide to love me (unlikely by that point).  Looking back, it could have been about his crumbling marriage.  He had a tough time staying true, which is front and center in the lyrics of "Norwegian Wood" and "Girl".  I think it was another case of you're gonna lose that girl, help, nowhere man... most of Lennon's lyrics after the boy/girl period were the same - nobody loves me or so what if they do.  I believe he had a hard time living in a spotlight.  John's life was a whirl of feelings by 1965.  Wealth, women, and liquor (and other substances) did him in for the rest of his life.  There was another side of John, 'tho - love, real love.  Which is what he is promoting in "The Word" - he was always a dreamer, never really sure if he should be "Out" or "In", forgotten ("It's Only Love") or remembered ("In My Life").  In the end what we all want is love, the promise of love.  He expressed that very well from "If I fell" to "Grow Old With Me"-

I agree with all that 100% and always have but I never said that I took the lyrics seriously. I just needed a picture to post for that song and that's the one I found.

The opening of 'Soulful Old Man Sunshine'.

It's an amazing song but

What's with people voting song with Ringo lead 1st? Just because he's not Paul & John? So what?

That has absolutely nothing to do with why I voted for 'What Goes On'. I love Ringo to death and I have spent probably over 43 hours of my life verbally defending him from cynical people who don't and never could begin to attempt to understand what makes magic magic. The Beatles were 4 guys, as we all know (whether George Martin belongs in this equation is another conversation), and take any member out and it wouldn't have been The Beatles. Ringo might not have been John Bonham or Keith Moon but his drumming in it's way was just as creative and innovative, just more subtle. For some reason most people can't hear that, but it's easy if you try. But most importantly, Ringo was a Beatle. He was born one. He was the heart and beat of the Beatles.

That being said, 'What Goes On' is just the worst song on the album in my opinion. I only said sorry to Ringo because 1. I feel bad it's his song I'm throwing off the bridge first and 2. just in case he reads this forum as a guest. I don't want him bumbling round his house going "Oh, even Beach Boys fans hate me".

Anyway, there are a few songs that could go off immediately but I'll somewhat randomly choose Wait.

You should randomly choose 'What Goes On'

I think Carl and Dennis could've and would've forgiven him easily if he'd lived and mellowed out later on but whether Brian truly could've is a different story. Brian would've probably needed an answer he could never get.

There's a new documentary out called I Am Not Your Negro based on writings by author James Baldwin, about the history of black America and what's changed since the civil rights movement. I don't know where you can see it (or for how much longer), I saw it at an independent theatre. If you can see it though, you should, because it's the most powerful thing I've ever seen about race. And regardless of whether or not you're racist or feel "I already understand" (which I vaguely would've felt before seeing this), I think it's an important thing to see. Because seeing it will make you realize you don't understand because if you did then you wouldn't say something like that. You can never have too much empathy.

And it's just a good documentary, sh*t.

There are very few Beatles songs that I hate.
Run For Your Life is one of them.
Cringe worthy lyrics that ruin this album for me

They're not the least sexist lyrics ever but they ruin the whole album for you?

This is gonna be hard.

But despite how great of a song it is, it kinda just is the worst song on the album.



Sorry Ringo

I always had the impression (for some reason I don't know) that only Paul really listened to the Beach Boys, or on his own anyway. John has that one quote about 'The Little Girl I Once Knew' but that's the only time I recall him mentioning The Beach Boys/Brian Wilson (besides that telephone call in 1966, and that one night in the 1970s when John met Brian dozens of times). This is just my opinion but I think John, while recognizing to an extent Brian's talent, was sort of turned off by their image ("very clean" in the words of Paul). John's second son Sean is a huge Beach Boys fan and I've always wondered if Sean could've really gotten John to see their greatness, because Sean's really smart and woulda coulda been able to say it in a way John would've understood I think, woulda really got it. At least enough to get past the image.

I was watching The Beatles Anthology movie the other day (the extras disc) and Paul, George and Ringo were sitting around in a table in 1994 talking about their (Beatles collectively) influences in 66/67 and George brought up Pet Sounds which sort of surprised me. He said it in a way that made it sound like he was very fond of it. Maybe I just heard it that way.

I wish Paul would talk more about Pet Sounds and the effect it had on him. Every time he's talked about it he's had the greatest things to say but he rarely talks about it ever. His speech inducting Brian into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame is moving:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYR327oEdY8

I got a strange feeling when I saw this. I hope he's at peace now wherever he is. The records he played were all that much better cause he played on them.

Brian & Lyle c. 1967

That said, Adult Child asked me about Top 5 Beatles & I listed "Help" among them. So, "Help" should be winner.

That was an interesting list, I forgot to mention.

It was the first Beatles single longer than 3 minutes, and the first one with Paul playing lead guitar. Ian MacDonald called it "psychologically deeper than anything The Beatles had recorded before." John Lennon called it "one of the earliest heavy metal records....pretty phucking heavy for then." But none of these things have anything to do with why I'm choosing it; I'm choosing it because it still sounds just as exciting as when I first heard it as a kid, even more than the other two choices.



I just got a ticket to ride myself, I'm heading over to Rubber Soul. I will see you all there.

That would be You've Got To Hide Your Love Away I think.. The scene in Buckingham Palace?

Right song, but they're in the Beatle house.

I may change my vote to Yesterday too. Once you get past the hype,the melody is nice but it is rather boring. Also, it's not really a Beatle song since Paul is solo on it.

Once you get past the hype, it's actually just as good as it's said to be. It's just such a mammothly popular song that it's hard to listen to it anymore for what it is. It's like listening to the Smithsonian.
My vote (hopefully someones seen the movie):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygi4mOuuevU

Mike's vocal on 'I Do'. It's easy to forget (at least for me) how perfect his voice was and how it crystalizes (for someone who wasn't there) the optimism of the Beach Boys pre-seriousness/drugs/mental illness/Rock & Roll Hall of Fame speeches, back when everything must've been perfect (from the outside at least). All those banal (for me anyways) songs about cars and whatnot are all worth it for the fact that frequently they came up with a song that captured the innocence and beauty of young love so completely and every time you listen to those songs they hold you down and fill you up with stars from a fantasy that feels realer than reality.

If only he hadn't gone bald.

I loved what you had so far, to be honest. I hope you reconsider!

I did reconsider and I am gonna try again. Thank you for those kind words, Father.

So if anyone does their own version of it now, I'll sue them.

No, but really, if anyone wants to try it of course they can and if you wanna add to the version I'm trying lemmy know!

Hey, I was gonna do the 'Transcendental Meditation' track but I can't come up with something that I like so that songs free for anyone now I guess.