Delete The Beatles

Welcome to a new feature at Sixties Music Secrets. Here’s the drill: What if you could travel back in time and completely remove one song from The Beatles incredible repertoire. Yep, eliminate any trace, history or evidence of one Beatle song, as if it never existed.Forever removed from our collective culture and memory!
What Beatle song would YOU choose AND WHY?

To get things started, we offer up our first choice of which Beatle song should be forever banished from Beatledom and Beatle history. Our choice: From The White Album, “The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill”

Why? Because the melody sounds like a child’s nursery rhyme, Lennon tries so hard to make a lyrical point, but misses his mark

Lastly the highest crime of all. “Bungalow Bill” is the first Beatle record to feature someone other than John, Paul, George and Ringo singing on it. And that someone is Yoko Ono….Or as we like to refer to her “Yoko OH NO”

But now most importantly; WHAT’S YOUR PICK? and why?

Let ‘Em rip!

23 Comments

  1. Honestly, I’m surprised that no one has mentioned this yet: You Know My Name (Look Up The Number). I’m sorry if you somehow like this one, but I just plain don’t get it. It’s discordant and loud and random and highly unpleasant to listen to. I’ve only listened to it once in my life and all I could think was… Not A Second Time. (get the reference?) Another choice would be Revolution 9, as its creepy non-musical mishmash of noises is really just a waste of space on the White Album (and a big waste, too; it’s a really long song!) No offense, Geoff Emerick, but I’ll pass.

    • Hey Jamie,
      First, it’s great to have you join in the conversation and share your opinion, particularly on this topic! With “Delete The Beatles, we continue to be surprised and entertained with readers selections ! In that regard, You raise a GREAT point and we agree, how can it be that NO ONE has mentioned your two selections? We may have an answer, at least as far as we’re concerned ! Throughout The Beatles incredible and diverse catalog of songs, there are fair songs, good ones, great ones and INCREDIBLE ones! Then there are “You know my name” and “Revolution #9 , with the later being completely void of anything musical. Bottom line, we believe most readers wrote those two songs off so long ago, they are beyond any kind of recognition. But, we get your point, when you look at the writer credit Ir does say Lennon / McCartney ( by the way, we loved your play on “Not a second time ) Thanx Jamie for your astute contribution and helping us perfect our list of “Bad Beatle Songs” While we’re here we think we’ll throw in “Why don’t we do it in the road” sorry if that’s one of YOUR FAVES?
      Thanx again Jamie and we hope you continue to include SMS as one of your regular on-line destinations!
      Rick

  2. “Delete the Beatles”? Here I thought I accidentally tripped into the recent”Hunh?” thread, but alas, I didn’t: this is #actually a different and intended thread of it’s own. That said…HUNH??? I thought this was a friendly place, not a place to pick fights, lol. That said…I get it: so I’ll reluctantly weigh in with tongue firmly planted in cheekiness. I guess I’d have to go with any one of the Beatles’ songs that seemed best suited to be played just after recess in Kindergarten, where we all put our heads down on our tables for ten minutes and closed our eyes to compose ourselves…a la O Bla Di O Bla Da. I give it the JackBoot! Yes I Do! I envision some adolescent, “Where the Wild Things Are” marching procession/conga-line among pre-schoolers at recess, to the buck-toothed drone of this dirge. Let’s start with that one, shall we? It’s not at all any kind of definition of what any thoughtful Beatles fan would use to help clarify the Beatle Footprint. Hey: you asked! lol. Cheers, L’ANdru

    • Hey ” L’ANdru
      Great to have you on board…..And you’re right SMS is a friendly place! We certainly don’t encourage fights but, we do encourage aggressive healthy debates and creative arguments!
      Now! About your pick of “O Bla Di O Bla Da” You’re in fine company, We know of at least one other person who would totally agree with you,….John Lennon! YUP, John hated that song! In fact he refused to record it until one day when he drunkingly stumbled into the studio, sat down at the piano and hammered down that classic opening piano intro to the song, stood up and said “You want to record this song?…..There’s your recording” and took off! Paul George and Ringo finished the track including John’s impromptu introduction!…
      Cheers Backatcha!
      Rick

  3. Happiness is a warm gun…. Never liked it! Maybe because of the way in which john was tsken from us!!!
    the woof

  4. I know this is under the wire but my week long prolonged meditations of beatle songa I MIGHT DELETE from my play lis would be “Happiness is a Warm Gun” really never liked it to begin with but psychologically karmac if i consider the way john left us!!! And “Helter Skelter” made perhaps indelible in our collective consciouness by manso (charlie)!!!
    Thanx
    the wood

    • Hey Ron Wood. Yes, we completely agree. The horrible irony of Lennon’s “Happiness is a Warm Gun” is just too much to take…..”It’s Outta Here”…….And Helter Xkelter is simply not McCartney’s best work, let alone the Charles Manson association! So, it’s outta here as well!
      Thanx Wood, EXCELLANT bad choices…
      Rick

  5. wow…I was going to post up a lennon song he sang with yoko [she CANNOT AND SHOULD NOT BE GIVEN A MIC. TO SING INTO!!!] BUT I THAOUGHT THE SONG WAS FROM A LENNON ALBUM…SO NOT A GOOD ANSWER!! I AM GOING TO PONDER THIS AND GET BACK!

    the wood

    • Hey Wood, just so we’re clear,
      According to paragraph nine of the Rules, Covenents and By-Laws of Sixties Music Secrets
      No recording of any kind featuring the Asian distraction known as Yoko Ono ( or Oh No! ) shall ever be deemed or considered as a Beatle recording! ! ! ! ! ! !
      Thanx for sparing us !!!!
      Love,
      SMS…
      P.S. Management reserves the right to immedidiately do whatever the heck they want, if such a recording should appear!

  6. Hey Jim Gorman,
    First we’d like to say “We’re with you on this one. For us, whenever George made one of his rare contributions to a Beatle record it was always outstanding with the exception of your choice of “Only a Northern Song” and the dreary “Blue Jay Way” from Magical Mystery Tour.
    Meanwhile, a little insight that YOU likely already know. “Northern Songs LTD is a music publishing company that was formed early on between a local U.K. Music publisher Dick James and The Beatles.
    With that in mind, study the lyrics and you can see how George is actually poking fun at Beatle songs
    A sweet slice of self deprecating Beatle humor by George

    Thank you James, always a treat when you join us, come back soon!

  7. Alright . . . with all due respect to George Harrison, I’ll vote for “Only a Northern Song” I have no idea what to make of this song, and I am pretty sure nobody else does either.

    • I’m with you on this song Jim . It doesn’t cut it and I to don’t really know what to make of it and the melody is just BORING !! yes I said it again like I said about I Want To Hold Your Hand . Groovy and far out.

  8. One of the songs that always bored me ( yes I know it was a real big hit at one point ) was ” I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND ” It was sooo repetitious with the “I want to hold your hand” and “I can’t hide” in the song that I wanted to tear my hair out , yet so many people (girls especially I would say ) went bonkers over it . Why ??? Until this day I don’t know why girls would faint and scream when they sang that .

    • Mr. Is…WHOA! Are you actually saying that the song that broke and established them in the U.S.A. Is boring?
      We’re speechless ( now there’s a first ) Not sure what to say about this earth shaking revelation!
      So, we’ll share a story about “I Want To Hold Your Hand”
      As you may know, Bob Dylan was a huge Beatle fan. One of the reasons why involves “I Want To Hold Your Hand”
      As the story goes, when Dylan first heard the song, he believed when they got to the part ( that annoys you ) where they sing “I can’t hide, I can’t hide” Dylan thought they were singing… I get high, I get high”

      Dylan thought, He’ll if these Guy’s are bold enough to sing about getting high, THEY GOTTA BE GOOD!
      “From the mouths of babes”
      Thanx Mr. Is, your post will keep us thinking all week!
      Rick

  9. “And Your Bird Can Sing” on the Anthology album to me seemed a mishmash of lyrics and no real Beatles sound. It was said that John called it a “horror” and I can see why.

    • Hey Jules… Whoa! “And Your Bitd Can Sing”?
      Well, your honor, we have to beg you to parden this selection
      What about that incredible guitar duet that opens the song and features George, Paul and Eric Clapton?
      Not doing it for ya?
      I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree on this one….
      Hmmmmm and Thanx Jules

  10. OK, Rick, I’ll jump in…I guess I would go WAY back and choose “A Taste of Honey” from “Introducing The Beatles” I remember the excitement created by the early Beatles songs (“Please, Please Me” “I Saw Her Standing There”) and for some reason this song just seemed so out of place. Lacking in the energy associated with The Beatles of 63/64. It sounded OLD to me then, it sounds OLD to me now. I’m with you on “Bungalow Bill” too. It’ll be interesting to read the selections of other Beatle fans. Carry on…

    • Hey Jimmy, I’m with you re: “A Taste Of Honey! All I can think is “What were they thinking?
      However I do recall reading an article where the writer just threw them a bunch of Q’s and A’s
      There was one question when the interviewer asked why they recorded “Till There Was You”? Paul responded by saying “We always like to throw one in for the Mum’s and Dad’s…
      Perhaps that’s in the mix with “A Taste Of Honey”
      But, were with you! Throw it on the wood pile and Go Figure.
      Thanx Jimmy, always great to see you show up here at SMS…
      Rick

      • Well, OK..I guess. I mean, if you don’t like the song, then blame the author of it, not the Beatles. To clarify…are we to select one Beatles song that we would see deleted utterly, or are we to select a poor choice of song as the Beatles covered it? Touche 🙂

        • Hey Andrew!
          Great to see you here at SMS!……So, to clarify the question “If YOU could pick one Beatle record to completely eliminate and delete from their incredible body of work ( no matter who wrote it ) which song would it be ?
          For us, we’d like to travel back in time and make “The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill” disappear forever !
          Hope that clears up any confusion! Meanwhile and most importantly….What’s your pick to banish from Beatledom?….AND WHY?
          Rick

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