Jeez Louise!!!! "transfat97" at the risk of sounding "like a guy" your avatar should win a forum trophy!! (me clapping)
i promise to go out and find something Toronto is diverse enough to provide this in 2023 i have been to a few late 20th century affairs, at least for string quartets
all 4 sides are a perfect time capsule for late 1968, as Pepper is for 1967 thank goodness every day for these two musical masterpieces (and others) by these lads
i was 3 when i first heard the nightmare on headphones in 1969, i made enough of a fuss that mom turned off the record and said something like she's not sure what John thinks he is trying to do (more an Elvis and Macca fan) it's a lovely little 4th-side of music until THAT not having this kind of song on side 2 kept the lovely little side intact, Don't Pass Me By doesn't quite cut it things have improved for me with R9 since then, forwards and backwards
Taking each Beatle album in turn, if I was to pick the track that is the most significant, the one that sets an artistic tone, a 'keystone', possibly the one of most cultural significance, the pin that holds it together, then my list would look like this (excluding MMT and Yellow Submarine albums) : 1. Please Please Me 2. All My Loving 3. A Hard Day's Night 4. No Reply 5. Ticket to Ride 6. Drive My Car 7. Tomorrow Never Knows 8. A Day in the Life 9. Revolution 9 10. Come Together 11. Let it Be (or Get Back, I'm conflicted here)
I've always wondered how it would have performed if it had been a single. An 8-minute sound collage. Would it have been their first flop single, or would the radio have played it just because it was the Beatles? I think it's brilliantly constructed, but the general taste of most top 40 fans doesn't go quite that "far out" even in the highly experimental year of 1968. For all their groundbreaking innovations, the Beatles were still all about trying to stay at #1 with their singles. Even if it had been a moderate hit, I don't think it would have gone #1. The world will never know.
This is an interesting idea, and I agree with your choices on a lot of these songs. I would probably put Norwegian Wood as the defining song on Rubber Soul, or maybe Nowhere Man, or some other of John's "introspective" pieces. Abbey Road is an album of two minds. The tour-de-force medley on side 2 is a defining feature of the album, and one loved by many (not everyone, of course). I like Come Together as representative of side 1, but I would add You Never Give Me Your Money to represent side 2. If there can be only one track, then you have to take your pick (which you did!) The White Album is the hardest album to pick a "keystone" for, precisely because it's so long-winded and all over the place. These are things that people who adore it, actually love about it. So I think you need a song that is itself eclectic to represent the eclecticism, so to that end, I nominate Happiness is a Warm Gun, which has at least four moods in one song. Another argument could be made, that an acoustic song like Blackbird actually best represents the "back-to-basics" approach of the album. However I don't totally disagree with Revolution 9 either, because ultimately the album feels very exploratory, and that is the most ambitious piece on it.
Nice list. I would put "Money (That's What I Want) on With the Beatles and while they were not a garage rock band it's arguable their cover actually influenced many garage rock bands to cover this song. Mind you the Beatles hard rocking version was recorded in July 1963. Beatles for Sale I would put either "I'm A Loser" what a concept mixing The Beatles and Bob Dylan which is what The Byrds basically did the next year or "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party" early country rock song in which The Byrds also have acknowledged influenced them as well. I would put "Norwegian Wood" (Sitar) on Rubber Soul which was an important element for psychedelic rock. For The White Album it has to be "Helter Skelter" for multiple genres, but I can see what you're saying about "Revolution #9" which has to be one of most daring tracks on a rock album by a commercial band. I would put the Abbey Road Medley's which is either a progressive rock epic or a rock epic that is 16 minutes long with multiple segues into each other and reprisals from previous sections.
Finally someone refers to it properly as a "track". "Work", "music piece", "recording", anything but "song". Rev.9 is not a song.
