The Beatles. Still the Most Exciting Thing That Ever Happened to Us?

I feel like they do a Beatles Top 10 every other week, but this list by Rolling Stone isn't terrible, with a few exceptions:

- There's a foreword by Elvis Costello, who repeats why The Beatles were the greatest: 

Lennon, McCartney and Harrison had stunningly high standards as writers. Imagine releasing a song like "Ask Me Why" or "Things We Said Today" as a B side. They made such fantastic records as "Paperback Writer" b/w "Rain" or "Penny Lane" b/w "Strawberry Fields Forever" and only put them out as singles. These records were events, and not just advance notice of an album. Then they started to really grow up: simple love lyrics to adult stories like "Norwegian Wood," which spoke of the sour side of love, and on to bigger ideas than you would expect to find in catchy pop lyrics.

First of all yes, Elvis is obviously parroting what I said 3 years ago:

Meanwhile, from 1963 – mid 1966 the Beatles, while completely changing modern culture as we know it, put out 7 full-length albums, several EPs, 13 singles (6 of which the A side (and plenty of time both sides, actually) wasn't on albums at all) and, just for kicks, were in two movies (one of which is an actual classic.) I will not even bore you with blatherings about the amazing quality of all of this material. All that work in just about 3 years…and yet when several months passed after Revolver with no music coming out from the fellas, the public was ready to pack it in. “Oh well, they had their day, they’re over.” While there are many people that still would still love the old records, the general mood was “time to move on.” Of course the public was soon hit with Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane and then Sgt Pepper, and that was it for any “they’re done” talk.

- Two George songs is one too many.  Something belongs on it, but While My Guitar Gently Weeps doesn't.  And I love the song, but camon.

- Come Together remains the one Beatles classic I still don't understand why it's a "classic"; it's a shitty, shitty gobbled together piece of nonsense that makes one wonder what steaming piles of shit John Lennon would have assaulted us with had he ever been privy to ProTools.  Ugh.

- We've all heard Yesterday so many times we can't stand it and wanna puke every time we hear it, but when you watch an orchestra play it via McCartney's doc you're reminded of it's incredible, otherworldness melody.  Also, it  rather ironically offers one of rock's greatest "fuck you" moments, via:

Iris Caldwell remembered an interesting incident in connection with the song. She had broken up with Paul in March 1963 after a silly argument over her dogs and, when he later called up to speak to Iris, her mother told Paul that her daughter didn't want to speak to him because he had no feelings. Two and a half years later, on Sunday August 1, 1965, Paul was scheduled to sing 'Yesterday' on a live television programme, Blackpool Night Out. During that week, he phoned Mrs Caldwell and said: "You know that you said that I had no feelings? Watch the telly on Sunday and then tell me that I've got no feelings."

Zing! See that tv performance HERE.