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My iPod #38: The Beatles – And Your Bird Can Sing

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1966 was a good year for England. The football team won the World Cup, Tony Adams was born, and The Beatles unveiled their seventh album to the world. Except for the USA, who wouldn’t hear the album in its original form until the remastered CD in 1987.

Revolver. My favourite album by The Beatles. One of my favourite albums by any band.

Where can I start? I think that everything I would say about it has been said by almost every reviewer there is. I’ll leave it to you lot to find out what they say.

Upon seeing the Beatles light in 2009, I went on any site where I could download their whole discography. ‘Revolver’ was one of their first albums I downloaded, and then I didn’t know what to think of it. I’ve said many times that it takes a few listens to appreciate each song individually, resulting in an accumulated appreciation for the album as a whole. This was another of those times.

I think the fact that the songs were so short was something that made the album seem really quick to me. I would be listening to a song, and then it would finish and it was onto the next one. It was hard to get into something when the last chord faded out before your ears.

‘And Your Bird Can Sing’ was one example. Barely over two minutes, it’s one of the shortest songs.

Listening to it again and again though, I finally understood why the song was so sick. Sick is good. Now, it’s come to a point that when I see the cover, I either think of the fake countdown at the beginning of ‘Taxman’ or the introduction of this song.

It’s actually one of the more ‘basic?’ pieces of the album. A straight-forward rocker written by Lennon, with dual-guitar solos by both George Harrison AND Paul McCartney, Ringo doing his stuff on the drums. It;s just a really cheerful song, with hubris at its finest in the lyrics:

‘You tell me that you’ve heard every sound there is
And your bird can swing, but you can’t hear me
You can’t hear- MEEEEEEE.’

It’s just a huge ‘You suck. I’m great’ message. It’s brilliant. It’s everything you want musically and lyrically, and it’s only done in a short amount of time.

Then ‘For No One’ starts. Then you need to get the tissues. For drying your eyes.

It was clear that the band was a world away from their mop-top mania stage and had already embraced their dive into the unknown. That’s why they’re so great you know? They changed their sound on every album and they still sounded good! JESUS.

Revolver forever.

Until next time.

Jamie.

My iPod #37: Beastie Boys – And Me

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2012 was a sad year for all Beastie Boys fans. Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch passed away with salivary gland cancer, since then the hip-hop trio have gone on hiatus but it is hard to imagine that Ad-Rock and Mike D could perform under the ‘Beastie Boys’ moniker without that trademark low and raspy vocal.

I liked Beastie Boys, but I had never listened to any of their albums. It sounds bad that I only decided to after MCA’s death, and as I type I do feel quite shitty for not listening to one earlier.

Upon release the album received mostly positive reviews. The majority of them mentioning how the trio were branching out with their sound, gaining influence from an eclectic range of genres and successfully stepping forward in progress from previous releases. This is understandable, compare this album with their debut ‘Licensed to Ill’ for example.

‘And Me’ was one of the songs that caught my attention upon my first listen. To my knowledge, it was the first time that Beastie Boys had ever had such a calm and mellow vibe in a song. No one raps, it’s just Ad-Rock (though I am not sure) singing accompanied by synthesizers and a steady drum beat. I had never heard something like that by them before.

Sure the song is a bit repetitive, the melody is the same for every verse. Maybe it’s because they’re better at rapping, but I don’t know. It’s a very under rated song, so listen to it and see what you think about it.

Until next time.

Jamie.