Music Babble

Hot take: "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is boring, badly badly overrated schlock, maybe the worst popular Beatles song. I don't really like the rest of the album that much, either. I got into the late Beatles albums (and pre-Pet Sounds albums! They had Shut Down, vol. 1 -- the compilation -- in ace condition) primarily from my parents' vinyl, and I'm reminded of two things more than the music: first, that there was a skip in "Piggies" that caused 1.8sec of solo harpsichord to repeat over and over again in an actually not unpleasing loop; second, I couldn't get to the end of side one because the needle would build up a truly impressive dust bunny (which actually is largely a function not of the dust but of the static attracting that dust).

"Revolution 1" and "9" are ok as album tracks but the former just makes me want to go listen to the single version. "Helter Skelter" legit rocks, harder than the Who ever were. For a time I was really into the Siouxsie and the Banshees' version. Even when I was into it I knew it wasn't as good as the Beatles'.



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Further in "awesome covers of canonical '60s acts, but this time from a 1968 album produced by Bill Wyman. We all know this song, one of the finest they ever did IMO



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Toooootally different vibe, with the piano-led little gentle groove, intelligible lyrics, little instrumental break.

Back to the white album: (properly lowercase, as the album is The Beatles. One thing Pugeye used to do (I recently talked to him when I was invited to have an affair by a literal GILF, literal G and literal ILF. I don't think he's coming back.) that drove me batty was to capitalize the article of a proper noun in the middle of a sentence, like when talking about The Beatles. I don't know why I have such a visceral enraged reaction; it's proper New York Times style, given the band's logo. Does anyone have an opinion on this matter?

One great thing about the white album is that given its nature, everyone has their own favorites, but this is in a social setting, where 17-year-old nerds can read George Starostin and geek out to how awesome "Bungalow Bill" is (it really is, btw) and how "Good Night" and "Honey Pie" are two of the most enjoyable songs on the album.

But geeking out in a social setting doesn't equate to being actually enjoyable as music. Just as we all have our likes, we all have our dislikes, and I, for one, don't want to have to hear ####ing "Gently Weeps" every time I want to eat some honey pie (that sounds dirty).

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Uh, this isn't going to be practicable for all the albums I'm familiar with. Do you have any particular questions about the following?

Any of the Bowie
Singles Going Steady
Mr. Tambourine Man