4 Great Beatles Songs You Might Not Be Familar With

Today the Beatles have taken their place amongst the glittering canon of eternal genii – regularly touted alongside Shakespeare, Wilde, Turner, Constable and Cannon and Ball and so on as the pinnacle of all creative endeavour (at least in Britain). There’s no doubt they were pretty fucking good – by whatever criteria you judge popular music. They were enormous sellers, studio innovators, stellar songwriters, great musicians, superb vocalists and fashion leaders who revolutionised popular culture. But – as we’re only 40 years out from their heyday – it’s maybe a little bit soon to be comparing them to Shakespeare.

All that aside, it’s easy to feel the weight of their achievements and also easy to switch off when you hear mention of their name. Actually, once you get past their singles and the most famous tracks of their most popular albums, their body of work includes some relatively unknown gems that, unless you’re anal, you might be unaware of. They’re worth checking out.

1. Old Brown Shoe (1969, Past Masters Vol 2)
   In Beatles hagiography, “the quiet one” was always overshadowed by his bandmates until a late flourishing from ’68 onwards brought him somewhere near to parity. In fact, given the stuff he banged out on All Things Must Pass, the Beatles would have had a far better swansong than they got – Let It Be and Abbey Road both lacking the oomph and zing of their heyday. That a song as good as this got tossed away as a B-side when the Beatles were churning out cack like Maxwell’s Silver Hammer shows just how far out of kilter their egos were at this stage.      

   In Harrison’s unique style, this song has perhaps his best guitar solo, some brilliantly integral bass/guitar work and the wry idiosyncracy that coloured his work throughout the band’s career. Plumply recording and brimming with invention, it hints at what the Beatles’ last year should have been.
    

2. No Reply (1964, Beatles for Sale)
   The eager impatience of the early Beatlemania years was already losing its lustre for the boys by ’64. Whilst revelling in the adulation, the constant demands of publicity and touring were making themselves felt and a certain weariness begins to make itself felt in Lennon’s work through ’64 and ’65. No Reply is one of the first creative fruits of this new mood.      

   A strummed, thoughtful little number, livened up by a scintillating middle eight, it achieves the ideal Lennonian balance of form and feeling: matching a hurt, accusatory lyric with palpable disbelief in the delivery. With the band confidently swinging around a mild latin rhythm, and supercharging with pushed notes and scorching harmonies this is a crucial reminder that even in the ‘simple’ early years, the Beatles were almost over the horizon.
    

3. All I’ve Gotta Do (1963, With The Beatles)
   Another early track that showcases the band’s ability to carry surprising emotional weight for 4 young lads this track is built around a unique stop/start rhythmical structure and a stark production that lets the vocal really bring the words home.    

   Sparsely produced and reliant on a wire-taut performance All I’ve Gotta Do has a mood of its own that’s way out of kilter with the popular image of the Beatles at this time. The down-at-heel feel of the song goes some way to bely the cocky belligerence of the lyrics – the theme of possessiveness was one that was never far from the surface with the demanding Lennon and in this song he found an early peak in his lyric writing.
    

4. Flying (1967, Magical Mystery Tour)
   Magical Mystery Tour is a bit of a curate’s egg of an album. Released in the slipstream of Sgt. Pepper, the soundtrack to the Beatles’ first big misguided career moment (the film of the same name) and – breaking Beatles tradition – salted with singles, it is never spoken of in the hushed reverential tones reserved for Revolver or The White Album. Aside from the Big Singles (Hello Goodbye, I Am The Walrus, Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane and All You Need Is Love – which clearly form the basis of a weak album) the original material isn’t that great. Blue Jay Way and Your Mother Should Know rarely trouble any ‘best songs ever’ lists.      

   Despite that, the album does contain this nugget. The only song credited to all 4 Beatles – and the only instrumental in their catalogue – you can hear the germs of everything from Beck to The Beta Band and even hip-hop in this happily stoned groove.  Throw in a scary coda of tape loops that Primal Scream are still aping on every third song they record and you’ve got a minor classic on your hands.

I stopped this list at 4 because I’ve got a life (*cough*) but if you’re only familiar with The Beatles through their well-known singles and latter albums then basically get yourself to a shop or whatever it is you kids do to get your music these days. Oh – and get a haircut.