I am not that much into The Beatles (and don't know all their albums well enough to do this whole survivor), but still wanted to react to this top 10.
- I had expected less early material.
- Nothing from Abbey Road?
- This top 10 hardly represents the progressive or experimental side of this legendary group, apart from Day in the Life, Happiness and perhaps Walrus, although this one if more whimsical rather than progressive.
- If we talk ballads, I'd find Long and Winding Road, The Fool on the Hill, Eleanor Rigby or She's Leaving Home much better than Let in Be (nicer melodies).
- No(!) Harrison songs, while the man made many good ones. While My Guitar Gently Weeps or Here Comes the Sun, Something, Within You Without You.
- No Helter Skelter? Too heavy for Maiden fans? ;-)
-Me too
-We discussed this earlier: had the medley been included as one song it would have been my number one. I think a couple tracks were in the top 20 and the voting for this survivor has been really close the whole way through. One different voter would have made a difference.
- I prefer the progressive stuff too, but a top 10 without a few pop numbers wouldn't be very representative.
-Fool and Rigby are better than a few up there IMO
-George just isn't as good a songwriter as John and Paul. How many Janick or Davey songs make the Maiden top 10?
-The Shadow knows (it's not terrible, but it's more fun, not great)
I'm not sure if that's true. Have you heard these?
All Paul songs, all predate Helter Skelter.
As for the amount of pop songs, that's a bit surprising too and I would've opted for more from the later period. However, the old stuff is great too. It's easy to forget that at their core, Lennon and McCartney were great songwriters before anything else. The experimental stuff came later and only enhanced their songwriting, not the other way around. Even without all the experimental stuff, their songwriting was still really outstanding and they were really above other pop acts at the time. I Want To Hold Your Hand is a great song.
I wouldn't call Paul's stuff "soft" as a primary description. He was always much more grounded in the traditional pop style. Thus we hear what Lennon called Paul's "granny music" like When I'm 64. Lennon was much more based on 50's rock and blues. It's true that "hard" vs "soft" is a large aspect of the difference, but it's incidental to the deeper stylistic difference.
A great example is "The End" where Paul, John and George all trade off solos. It's a cycle of Paul-George-John that runs 3 times. Paul's licks are the most cleanly performed, while George incorporates some more blues into his lines. John's solos here are comparitively noisy: the most distorted, the least traditionally musical.
The ultimate difficulty for McCartney's stuff (obviously IMO) is that a reliance upon tradition even creates stuff that many people will find predictable or boring. While there's nothing wrong with this by itself, McCartney stood next to Lennon, and so his traditionalism seems more obvious. Think about "Silly Love Songs", a superb pop tune. Still a very traditional song, but removed from the Beatles it works. Can you imagine Lennon on that song?!?
It was in fact Lennon's criticism of McCartney's music as "silly love songs" that prompted McCartney to write his giant hit. The whole song was a response to John.
So Foro is very right in pointing out that Helter Skelter is a notable song. It's been widely cited as a block in the foundation of metal. It's also surprisingly non-traditional for Paul. It's reasonable to make the argument that it should have been top ten. I don't agree, but the argument is undeniably strong.
For instance, I'm pushing for "Hey Jude" at #1. It's always been my #1 Beatles song. But it's also another traditional pop song, at least until that long coda begins. I can understand why someone would say "bah" to such a preference, and vouch for more innovative songs. But the one thing about McCartney's old-fashioned style is that he's damn good at it, and in a song like Hey Jude it turns out superb.
I still put Hey Jude above it for both of those statements, but only just. Let It Be is #2 for that on my list.
Which of course is the point of a Survivor. No single opinion is right, but the consensus is interesting. I am sad to see Let It Be go, and was hoping for at least top 5.
Top Ten
1:
2:
3: 4: Happiness Is a Warm Gun
5: Ticket To Ride
6: Revolution
7: A Hard Day's Night
8: Let It Be
9: Day Tripper
10: I Want To Hold Your Hand
@SinisterMinisterX - Since you're the one who didn't vote for either of the tied songs, you get to break the tie. Just post which song gets eliminated. Though I already have an idea of what you'll pick.
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