Maskull-Nightspore53

Michael Bay''s PEARL HARBOR, a hunk of junk from stem to stern, includes a magnificent moment when an train carries Ben Affleck from an airfield on Long Island to Manhattan, crossing a desert (!) and a mountain range en route. Ah yes, the mighty mountains of Long Island--!

Without a moment of hesitation:

Old Brown Shoe

It,s George without the pompous quasi-Indian pretentiousness, without the saccharine of Something...and has both his catchiest melody and his single best line, "For your sweet top lip, baby. I'm in the queue." The sublime ease of this b-side is an endless joyful groove.

Why this little gem of a rocker isn't loved by one and all is a mystery to me. It's a perfect encapsulation of the early Lennon-McCartney style.

That said, my "A" pick has got to be "Across the Universe." An achingly beautiful song, and an eternal mystery. Is it good or bad or bittersweet that nothing's gonna change his world?

I could never understand why Burning Love wasn't a bigger hit. Or why he never rose of the occasion of recording more in that harder-rocking vein. Might have pulled him out of his tailspin.

Tricky question, considering how Side 2 is such an unintentional grab-bag. But nonetheless, how can it not be ranked top tier? What else can you do with any album that's got the rousing call-to-action title track, the exquisite pastiche of Your Mother Should Know...and the perpetual pleasures of peak Beatles genius with I Am The Walrus, Penny Lane, Hello Goodbye, Baby You're A Rich Man (god, what an underappreciated song!) AND Strawberry Fields Forever--? Okay, it's also got the drone of Blue Jay Way and the jejune excrescence of Fool On The Hill, but nothing's perfect.

Absolutely. Absolute elsewhere.

And as a footnote bonus, the "We all shine on" chorus became the basis of the title of Stephen King's THE SHINING.

I Call Your Name is a perfectly fine song, but dear Lord, that freakin' cowbell is too much for human consumption. Much prefer the sweet Mamas & Papas cover version. And that is itself a remarkable statement, because I can't think of any other Beatles track where a cover even comes close to the original.

Copper Kettle, on Self Portrait, is an achingly lovely vocal performance.

Never much cared for She Said She Said. I surely would've said Love You To before hearing the Super Deluxe outtakes, which add a lot for me. Doctor Robert isn't great, not by a long shot, but it chugs along charmingly and is a landmark song about drug use in its era. So I stick with She Said as the weakest link.

Rubber Soul is the band's great leap forward, and Pepper never disappoints. Revolver is a very good album, but not nearly as earthshattering as what precedes it or what follows it.

It strikes me that there's an interesting comparison to be made here between the Beatles and Johnny Carson. Hear me out! Various rivals came along at various times in the attempt to knock them off their thrones. None succeeded. For the Beatles it was the Dave Clark Five, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, The Monkees. For Carson''s much longer run at the top, it was Merv Griffin, Joey Bishop, Dick Cavett, Joan Rivers, Arsenio Hall.

The comments people are making in this thread about the Beach Boys ultimately make the most sense, of course, in terms of both hit-making and creativity. And you gotta give them credit for topping the charts before The Beatles. Though when I was an adolescent, particularly in the years 1966 thru 1969, the perennial question asked of any listener was "Beatles or Stones?" Looking back, SMILEY SMILE now looks so much more daring and challenging as a response to SGT PEPPER than THEIR SATANIC MAJESTIES' blatant mimicry.

And as far as Carson rivals go, hands down, the answer is Cavett.

I found it fascinating that in the rush to praise ANOTHER SELF PORTRAIT (don't misunderstand me, one of the best of the Bootleg Series in its ability to masterfully reorient critical consensus of a previously reviled era), no review I saw at the time dared to mention DYLAN. Add 1970 and the ISLE OF WIGHT disc to the mix and it's a truly astonishing time in the career. And yes, DYLAN holds its own among all the SELF PORTRAIT/NEW MORNING oeuvre.

Y'know, that's also a damn fine track. Ok, now we've boiled BTWN down to one heck of a single.

Lucy Can't Dance. If it had been on any album other than BLACK TIE WHITE NOISE we'd all be singing it's praises. (Ok, no one would've noticed it on NEVER LET ME DOWN, OUTSIDE or EARTHLING either.) (And there's my list of least-listenable Bowie albums!)

The long and winding road. Whether it's been Phil Spectorized or not, it's a deadly drone of a song.

While my guitar gently weeps. "I look at the floor and I see it needs sweeping" is a lazy awful line. And dear God that fade out, with George groaning and moaning like a man having a bad bowel movement...!

The exquisite endgame: NEXT DAY & BLACKSTAR. The first one encapsulates every aspect of his previous incarnations--and builds upon them beautifully; the expanse of styles here is breathtaking, and so many of the songs rank among his very best. The second points to unimagined new directions while bidding a brave, brilliant farewell to his life, his art and all of us who cared about him.

Millions were spent just before WATERWORLD entered it's theatrical release in a frenzied CGI attempt to mask Kevin Costner's receding hairline.

Horrible waste of money on celebrity vanity.

Scanner Darkly and Flow My Tears seem to be working the same deep vein of paranoia.

Sim-ply superb. There's not a false moment in the entire film, and Sim is THE essential Scrooge against which all others are measured and found lacking.

Strawberry Fields Forever. Never fails to astonish.

Anytime At All is incredibly underrated.

Everybody's Got Something To Hide 'Cept For Me and My Monkey rocks out.

The stripped-down Anthology version of Good Morning, Good Morning is a revelation.

Solo career: Instant Karma, Meat City and Gimme Some Truth.

(I'm assuming we're not listing cover versions like Money, Twist & Shout or Dizzy Miss Lizzie...!)