100 GREATEST BEATLES SONGS
Are you a day tripper or a wild honey pie? A fan of ‘Hey Bulldog’ or ‘Hey Jude’? Everyone has their favourite track by the Best Band Ever™, so we rounded up the usual rock suspects’ choices of Beatles songs they envy, cover or adore into a frankly fab Top 100. As chosen by Arcade Fire, Johnny Marr, Royal
Blood, Alt-J, Matt Bellamy, Jake Bugg, Dylan, Noel and Liam Gallagher, The Killers, St Vincent, The Cribs, Fat White Family, Palma Violets, The Vaccines and many, many more.
Even before The Beatles split, John was exploring solo options with Yoko, releasing three experimental albums and working on live performances together. These evolved into a pair of 1970 albums as Plastic Ono Band – one of John’s material and one of Yoko’s; the result of months of primal therapy sessions with Arthur Janov in London and LA that involved reliving traumatic life experiences. John’s made for a raw, personal album full of moments veering from headstrong political commentary (‘Working Class Hero’) to deeply harrowing refections on the loss of his mother (‘Mother’, ‘My Mummy’s Dead’).
Between the atheistic catalogue of non-belief that was ‘God’ – “I don’t believe in Beatles” he yelled at the climax of a list of cultural and spiritual forces he was denying – to the pure, simplistic emotion of ‘Love’, Lennon’s philosophy was never so starkly defned. Phil Spector was too busy to co-produce much of ‘John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band’, but his plush work on 1971’s ‘Imagine’ made it relative light relief, despite being home to the vicious ‘Gimme Some Truth’, a sly attack on Paul called ‘How Do You Sleep?’ and ‘Crippled Inside’, a comedy hoedown about a psyche so scarred that Janov called him “completely non-functional” (or, some claim, another dig at Paul). But the gorgeous ‘Jealous Guy’ and the idealistic title track, before it became a byword for corny hippy schmaltz, were intoxicating and ‘Imagine’ would become Lennon’s most adored solo album. Having released impassioned singles calling for social justice – ‘Give Peace A Chance’, ‘Power To The People’ – in 1971 John and Yoko moved to New York and threw themselves into the protest scene around Greenwich Village.
Cue an FBI fle and a politically charged third solo album – ‘Some Time In New York City’ – that was somewhat hobbled by Yoko’s songwriting and vocal involvement. ‘Angela’ stood out as a stirring, Stonesy orchestral country beauty. His mojo returned, however, for 1973’s ‘Mind Games’; the title track was one of his most ambitious and strident solo singles and the ’20s-infected ‘One Day (At A Time)’ and jubilant Soweto party tune ‘Bring On The Lucie (Freeda People)’ bucked John’s solo trend for rootsy fller. His 18-month ‘lost weekend’ separation from Yoko also inspired 1974’s funky and soulful ‘Walls And Bridges’, Lennon’s attempt at a Marvin Gaye boudoir record that included two of his most uplifting solo tracks in wry disco boogie ‘Whatever Gets You Thru The Night’ and ‘#9 Dream’, an airy gem that sounded like it was produced by the tooth fairy. Its epic, morose highpoint, ‘Nobody Loves You (When You’re Down And Out)’, was a ftting if pessimistic swansong for Lennon’s ’70s career.
A lawsuit from Chuck Berry over the rif to ‘Come Together’ led to the inconsequential album of classic covers ‘Rock ’N’ Roll’ in 1975 and Lennon, reunited with Yoko and father to young Sean, withdrew into a life of house husbandry in the Dakota Building. It’s rock’s biggest tragedy that Lennon was just re-emerging with some o his strongest solo material on 1980’s ‘Double Fantasy’ when he was gunned down at the age of 40.
