As cool as their musical output may be, and some of it is decidedly cool, the Beatles were just such .. gimps. The bowl haircuts, the bad clothes, the wholesomeness, apart from Lennon's recalcitrance - you'd rather party with the Stones or Led Zeppelin, wouldn't you? While Lennon was lying in bed with Yoko, Keith was eating Mars Bars in interesting places and Jimmy Page and the lads were worshipping the devil. I'd certainly pick, well, almost anything over lying in bed with Yoko. Which leads me to my chief ideological difference with the Beatles - they seemed to care what everyone else thought of them. No likely self-doubt or analysis for the Stones - while they rode like the Horsemen of the Apocalypse through the seedy underbelly of the world, the Beatles trod respectfully on the Abbey Road crosswalk. Keith would have jaywalked.
And while the Beatles increasingly experimented with recording techniques and created a vast sonic pastiche, the Stones relied on their trusted formula of live instruments.
Philosophical differences aside, the song may as well be called, to quote REM, New Adventures in Stereo. Jangly guitars, and a bouncy bassline, along with drumming that is almost jazzy, albeit with a harder edge that would make true jazz aficianado sneer over his single malt, combine to bring about strange time changes. In addition, Lennon's legato, adenoidal vocals and Harrison's almost sitar-like lead guitar lend a spacy feel. And all this in a song about the weather. Maybe it's true that some of the greats could sing the phonebook and make it great.
But not the weather. The song, bar the rhythm section, and who would have thought that I'd ever admit an appreciation for Paul McCartney, leaves me cold. And it's not just my philosophical difference with the Beatles that is leading to this assessment, because a listen to the other songs on this list has given me a new appreciation for a lot of their other work (Sgt Peppers has always been a favourite of mine, and I wouldn't argue with it's inclusion, almost in totality, on this list, which is something I could only say about London Calling and, maybe, Exile on Mail Street). This song feels like a concerted attempt to use whatever studio tools and techniques were available to disguise a weak song with typically obtuse lyrics.
Verdict: Get an umbrella
Tomorrow: The Staple Singers - Respect Yourself
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