The Beatles UK singles: A sides v B Sides

For me, this single began the real transformation of the Beatles.

Before the Revolver recordings, every single original (non-cover) Beatles song (50 or so) was about a personal love relationship except for:
*There's A Place (pretty interpersonal for the time)
*Nowhere Man (credited as the "first")
Maybe:
*Help (still kind of "needing somebody")
*She Loves You (it is about love, yes and a personal relationship, yes - just not the singer's relationship)

Then starting with this single and Revolver, they released 16 songs.
Only 4 were personal relationship songs (For No One, Here There & Everywhere, I Want to Tell You and Got To Get You Into My Life - and the latter is a drug song disguised as a love song).
Overnight, the ratio was flipped - nothing gradual.

Therefore, this single is for me the Wizard of Oz moment from black & white to colour.

Rain is the better song - Paperback Writer was the better choice as a commercial single.

As an 80's generation Beatles' fan, it is amazing to me how "hidden" Rain was until the CDs were released. Didn't even know it existed until I bought Hey Jude on vinyl.

 

Rain............










I don't mind....

 

So the Beatles are to blame for the start of the loudness wars?

 

well they are both singing the same notes throughout much of the verse - so cant be called a harmony there - more a doubling

I love the Anthology out takes of this one btw - can really hear the two singing together well

 

Rain is one of my favorite Beatles songs
......and I continue choosing the John sides.

 

How do you then explain that it was Paul whose experiments with tape loops at home gave John the impetus to use them on Beatles tracks?

The real balance of power and innovation between John and Paul is a lot more complex than people try and make out

 

What aren't The Beatles responsible for?

On that note - the promos produced for these songs are revolutionary. The Wizard Of Oz analogy is appropriate here - vibrant colour videos that (like the songs) have a modern feel to them and were certainly way ahead of the times.

 

I love both songs. Paul mentions that "Rain" was actually a co write.

" I don't think "Rain" was just John's. We sat down and wrote it together. It was John's vocal and feel on the song, but what gave it it's character was collaboration."
He talks about collaborations amd then says " On "Rain", I remember we couldn't get a backing track and we decided to play it fast and slow it down, which is why its so 'goo goo goo' and ploddy.We had to play it fast and accurately, but I don't think that was John's idea. I don't remember whose it was, but it was very collaboarative." (Beatles Anthology book.)

"Rain was a co-effort with the leaning slightly towards John. I don'think he brought the original idea, just when we sat down to write, he kicked it off. The most interesting thing about it wasn't the writing, which was tilted 70-30 to John, but the recording of it." (Many Years From Now)

Paul says "Paperback Writer" was written together also.

 

You know, as much as I love the psychedelic period stuff, i do think some of it sounds just putrid, no matter if mono or stereo. You didn't have this sound nearly as much with Norman Smith, but once Emerick comes into the picture, the sound got a little weird. Like they didn't set their recording equipment up properly. You know what i mean?

 

Well we can agree here.

 

This is another very tough decision. Both of these songs were major breakthroughs (again), one was very heavy for the time and the other was one of the first psychedelic songs, and neither were about love.

I think that Paperback Writer was the better choice as an A-Side, seeing as it has the more commercial melody, lovely backing vocals and a great rhythm. It is still a powerful song in my opinion, and the bass line (as on Rain) is fantastic, and can be heard very clearly. These songs really show where they were heading on Revolver, seeing as they show the massive change in lyrical content and musical and production ideas (Emerick was an important part of this change).

Rain is arguably even more of a breakthrough seeing as there had been harder rock songs before (as has been mentioned, Ticket to Ride, You Really Got Me), whereas psychedelica was in its infancy. This song was a major leap in studio recording for them, especially John's ground breaking (for pop music) backwards vocals. Paul's bass part is a classic, and, as Ringo has said, the drumming is absolutely fantastic, arguably Ringo's best ever performance.

I have to go with Rain, because even though Paperback Writer is great and deserved to be the A-Side, Rain is even more of a breakthrough and an even better song. In my opinion it is one of the all time classic psychedelic songs.

 

Everything was a co-write according to Paul nowadays. John doesn't seem to have had an idea in his head. Ask him about A Hard Day's Night.

 

I've seen comments like this also lobbed at 'Revolver' in general. While I may not totally agree, I can see why they could be heard that way. For me, the use of ADT that began on these sessions also gave the recordings a very unnatural, processed sound. I'm not surprised that Paul McCartney thought the album sounded out of tune when listening to it before release! (Though there may have been other facors involved there...)

 

Well, we weren't there and he was, so I'm willing to give Paul the benefit of the doubt that the song was 70-30. That's still almost 3/4 credit to John. It's not like Paul is saying he was the majority writer of the song.
Most people think "Michelle" is strictly Paul's baby , but John wrote the middle eight. That doesn't take anything away from Paul, it just..adds John.

 

Paperback Writer/Rain was the first Beatles single I bought with my own money as a 9 year old. Just two months prior I got Yesterday and Today for Christmas. Between the album and the 45 what a great batch of singles. I probably played both sides of the single equally but in the end Rain won out. I liked the line "Slipped into the shade to drink their lemonade." I also thought the drums sounded really cool. Even I figured out at age 9 to play the end backwards on Rain.

 

And i don't like the sound of the Rubber Soul remix at all. It sounds quite phasey at times. I would say it's my system, but most of the stuff i'm listening to on it doesn't have that phasey sound.

I like the original mix much better, although the bouncedowns seem to have already affected the quality a bit by then.

Revolver, the first one with Emerick, sounds awful, as much as i love it.

Especially She Said, She Said!

 

"shudders" It sounds awful enough at it is. Both mono and stereo. By the time of the White Album they sounded good again though. I guess they went a little easier on some production things by then.

 

I don't know. I never get/got tired of "Rain" or "Paperback Writer". I couldn't wait to buy the 45. You must have had a better transistor radio than I did when we were kids because everything sounded about the same to me sonically coming through that little speaker: Distorted, with no bottom.

I know you mentioned liking the Fab's things through Rubber Soul more, but as much as I like ALL of their things I like from Rain/ Paperback Writer through the White Album the most.Different strokes.

That's the amazing thing about the Beatles and Elvis and a select few others, huh? They have distinctly different sounding era's . We can dip into "Sun" Elvis, "Elvis Is Back" Elvis or "Moody Blue" Elvis and they are all great, but all different. Almost like different guys. Same with the Beatles.

 

I found Paperback Writer almost laughable- silly words, bad Beach Boys impression, and harsh guitars all distorted. If it wasn't for the bass, I'd have considered it a bit of a failure. I've never understood the acclaim this single garnered at the time. I remember seeing them do it on Top Of The Pops and being almost embarrassed. But I was only 10 (that week, in fact- was my birthday!)

 

Paul does credit John with 20% on Here There and Everywhere, which surprised me. I reckon John's bit must have been the 'refrain' or intro, the sort of thing he was known for.

 

Paperback Writer b/w Rain is hands down one of the greatest singles of all time.

I find it surprising Rain was, according to McCartney, more of a collaboration between them, as I had always heard it was all John with some technical contributions from George Martin (backwards effect, etc.).

We Can Work It Out/Daytripper was an amazing single as well, and truly deserved the Double A-Side listing/marketing, but it needed a heavier, more pumping follow-up. And what a B-side...Rain is truly the unsung Lennon classic (along with Don't Let Me Down, I think these are his most underrated, yet greatest, compositions).