He writes:
Compare it to Abbey Road, The White Album, Revolver or Rubber Soul.
Fixing a Hole is filler, She's Leaving Home is dreary, Within You Without You is unnecessary, Lovely Rita sounds like it was cobbled together out of other Beatles songs, and did we really need two versions of the title track?
The definition of a classic album that is not classic.
What do people think of this album? Classic or overrated?
For the record, I think it's a classic.
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10 comments:
I reckon there's a special category - shit songs on perfect albums. the albums are still classic, but there just happens to be a lousy song on it. I'd love a series like that.
Sgt Peppers is classic. Within or Without you is kinda dumb - but necessary. Everything else is perfect in its place.
"What Goes On" is the lame-O Ringo song on Rubber Soul.
"Bones" and "Sulk" are the sameish forgettable songs on The Bends
And Abbey Road is a silly, overproduced album with a few good songs on it... It is definitely not in the classic category (except in the sense that all Beatles albums are classic). It definitely definitely doesn't belong there if Sgt Pepper is kicked out.
Definitely a classic. I agree Within You Without You is not great, but the rest are fantastic.
And I think Abbey Road is well done.
Wow soooo cool, I made it to my favourite blog!
To be fair, I've played Abbey Road (which I love), The White Album, Revolver and Rubber Soul hundreds of times, but I don't think I've ever listened to Sgt. Peppers all the way through. So it never grew on me.
Maybe I got turned off by listening to it as a kid and being disappointed. Whatever. Let Pablo decide.
Also, I realise it's not my position to vent on your blog.
One more thing, Mikey, how can an album be perfect if it has a shit song on it? What would you call an album with all perfect songs on it?
You're welcome to vent on here - especially if it produces a post!
I actually think that Revolver has more duds on it than any of the other Beatles' albums we've been talking about. I've never liked 'Taxman', 'Dr Robert' or 'Yellow Submarine'. The rest of it is spectacular though. Perhaps that is an example of shit songs on a perfect album?
Classic. I have to agree with Mikey that you can have shit songs on perfect albums. It's about the flow of the songs -- since Sgt. Pepper is really a story, not just an album. And now I'm going to go listen to it.
Oh, and Der: Taxman? Seriously? It's both classic AND catchy. What's not to love?
I don't know, I can't put my finger on it. I guess being catchy does a song no favours if you find it annoying to begin with.
So I was thinking about what Mikey said, and I think the first Velvet Underground is a classic, with one shit song on it (There She Goes Again), even still it's perfect.
On the other hand, Highway 61 Revisited has no shit songs on it, but is equally classic. What gives?
Maybe once an album has reached a certain level of greatness in our minds, we become unable to say "this would be a classic if not for that one song".
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