The Beatles' Solo Careers Poll - Voting and General Discussion Thread

song kinda makes me think of kate bush five years before kate bush

I can't stress enough how delighted I am that people have come around on Yoko's stuff so much. I get really irritated when I read people slagging her off and all the implied and/or expressed racism, sexism and rockism that comes along with it.

I'm very much in the camp that feels that Yoko reinvigorated John, opened his mind and - most importantly - made him happy.

i wish, btw, that george had stuck by covers a bit more! his rendition of "If Not For You" is just so lovely.

I always wanted to hear a George version of Patience by G'n'R

many thanks to ppl who've posted Yoko piano-y ballads itt

here's another incredible one that should be high on everyone's ballot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLeZTKEVGVk

yep!!!

also maybe all of her songs on double fantasy are making my ballot

'Give Me Something' rules - New Wave Yoko at her finest.

"walking on thin ice" is the best song ever made by anyone let alone by someone who recorded with the beatles

Kiss Kiss Kiss made my ballot from Double Fantasy. Dirtbombs did a great cover of that.

and from Season of Glass:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULZrHWe3aZ0

finishing up lennon's discog today, how good is "old dirt road"?

I'd say it's pretty good. I didn't vote for it though. Nilsson sure liked it.

not sure whose version is better tbh

i'm not sure if i'm voting for it but it's a really nice moment on walls and bridges. def voting for "bless you" i think

"steel and glass" sure is "how do you sleep" but with the guitar riff transposed to to horns

"Bless You" is good. So much of that album ("What You Got") has this smoke-filled singles lounge vibe circa 1975.

I lamed out on Brainwashed, but am digging this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ytCkcYpxCQ

Wow,I had never heard Mrs.Lennon before but Alex Chilton sure did! It's a dead ringer for Holocaust, right?

Chilton acknowledged he lifted it iirc

Did not know that. Thanx.

lmao "secret friend" is like music made just for me

in 1980 paul mccartney invented balearic deep house

"junior's farm" fuckin' rocks

also i really fell in love with "deliver your children" tonight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMvtzQ8AYPs

what do you mean?
was thinking if I could do a ballot with a weighted top 10 and then the rest unweighted

but I guess artist polls perhaps don't work that way

"Your Way" by McCartney is a very charming little tune

I'm quite enjoying London Town. The ballads ostensibly written for or about children are spooky, while the adult ballads sound as if they were written for or about kids.

lol i think i'm finally done with wings and i just hit 100 tracks

Also: I realized that "With a Little Luck" is the let's-just-spoon-together soft early draft of "Press."

man "how do you sleep?" is such a meeeeeannn slow-burn of a song. marred only by the sense that at least as far as we get on record, the grievance is remarkably petty: you think his songs are kinda cheesy? well, okay, so do i sometimes, but idk if he should really lose any sleep over it...

even the real explanation is kinda silly. who gets their feelings hurt by a song like "too many people"

John Lennon.

i imagine it's possible that a paranoid/drugged-out lennon took macca's barbs as being far deeper than intended - the "piece of cake" suggesting he is a money-grubbing phony and not a Real Committed Activist And Artist. whereas paul was probably just eating cake that day and said "aha, now there's a song in that!"

also i finally got the playlist DL'ed on my phone and man it rules. so great to go from "how do you sleep?" to "love comes to everyone" to "i'll give you a ring."

huh, "ever present past!" this is nice!

listened through Brainwashed again recently, nice album, but the song that really stands out is the devastating "Stuck Inside a Cloud," which is finds George trying to reconcile his spirituality with his deteriorating physical health. i mean, the whole album tries to do that, but "Stuck Inside a Cloud" is the most effective.

huh, "ever present past!" this is nice!

― noel gallaghah's high flying burbbhrbhbbhbburbbb (Doctor Casino)

He plays every instrument too

paul was probably just eating cake that day and said "aha, now there's a song in that!"
haha idd

"Too Many People" is an ideal example of Addled Paul. Who else would get his wife to help him scream PIECE OF CAKE?

who gets their feelings hurt by a song like "too many people"

maybe he took it as another dig at Yoko. too many people in the studio, one too many

shiiiiit "mindtrain" rules

how have i not heard yoko's plastic ono band record? this is amazing!

ddue waht

shiiiiit "mindtrain" rules

number 1 yoko song on my ballot. as good as anything CAN ever did

“mindtrain” is huge

keep taking those mindtrains

the Ringo-John rhythm section is so good. probably not that far off from the "noisey tuneless" jams they reportedly did after hours while during the later Sgt. Pepper sessions. some of those were recorded and never released so that is prob something to look forward to...

i agree w Turrican in thinking Yoko was a revitalizing force particularly for John. her art background and Fluxus philosophy gave a structural foundation and a focus to John's more experimental tendencies. before they met, his home recordings were either beautiful ambient mellotron pieces or gaudy faux reggae almost meta-exotica (something that wouldn't really happen until the 90s). the latter is amusing to some but is also a window into completely indulgent, drunken belligerence.

a lot of '66/'67 home recordings were made by John and Ringo on 4 track after some wine or whatever, of them pretending to be at a cocktail lounge serving drinks and singing to guests. i suppose in its own way this was a way of parodying the "mindless consumer" culture of their parents, a well many of that generation would return to again and again (Nilsson's proto braggadocio hip hop "All My Life").

after Yoko joined the picture she had a tempering effect on him. she brought in generative writing/recording processes: the recording of "Revolution" was all about repetition, about droning on this one idea, using that feedback to create some new idea. Neu! is cool because they will just play one chord the whole song, and by repeating that one chord, they find variation in the chord, they can play it quieter, or softer, or louder, or ringing, or with arpeggios, etc. these things that have to be planned in advanced if it is more technically complex material (see Paul) can be improvised on the spot.

it is like meditating, by trying to focusing on one thing (nothing) we are flooded by spontaneously created worlds. all kinds of wonderful things are naturally generated out of necessity of continuing to perform, continuing to create. it is perhaps a different way of creating/experiencing art, a more futuristic, programmatic way. certainly it informed their viral/marketing strategy, the constant press conferences, the "War Is Over" memes, guest spots, live appearances, etc. it was like a livestream or something, just continuously producing (and based on real life) before they took their sabbatical for love of their child.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L5vvS1pOD4

has this ever been sampled? if not then someone get on it.

high on my ballot, dope song