1. All I’ve Got To Do – This is one of my very favorite songs of all times -but so are the rest on this list. I I love the opening chord, I love the I-ah-i-ah-iah stretched through five notes. I love the way the song is at odds for itself, it is all fragility, it is like Lennon doesn’t believe his own words. There isn’t really a chorus, it’s verse, bridge and Lennon humming his way out. On the bridge Lennon can’t seem to believe himself so he rushes the bridge: he is sinking in self doubt and crawling his way out of it. The back ground vocals, the aahs (just like the i-ah-i-ah-ahs) are sad. Why are they say? Why is it a sad song? Why is Lennon so uneasy. A perfect pop song. The sort of song the greatest rock band of the world might record. Off their second album.
2. You Won’t See Me – You don’t know it, but Sir Paul deserves everything he ever got because he could write a song as flat out brilliant as this. If you mix it so you’ve got just background vocals? It is a song in itself. Only other band this works so well with is the Beach Boys. Another lost love and one of the great heartbreakers, “The days are few and filled with tears,” Paulie tells the girl, he is not even begging for a reconciliation, just a moment, just a goodbye, “I won’t want to stay, I don’t have much to say…” And the song trails off in absolute misery.
3.You Can’t Do That – I love those early Lennon-y Lennon songs. Filled with jealousy, violence, a barely concealed rage verging on misogyny and a love that is welling up but can’t find a release.Two albums later, next to a song where he claims the word is love, Lennon would warn, “I’d rather see you dead little girl then to see you with another man”, and while, sure, it’s a Presley quote, John has the poor woman running for her life. On “You Can’t do That”, Lennon “Can’t hide my feelings I go out of my mind”: his jealousy is driving him insane. Another great, strange, fucked up masterpiece from the real king of pain.
4. Tell Me What You See – This song, a country strum off Help!, was one of the first I ever learnt to play. It is so simple, so pretty, such a deep felt and off center observation of a realized love. Macca of course.
5. I Need You – Harrison plays with the big boys on his best song to date and a completely Beatley number, certainly of For Sale/Help country Beatles: all acoustic guitars and loss. Great line (Joe Steinhardt coulda written it): “Please remember how I feel about you”.
6. I Want To Hold Your Hand – I never listen to this song, no one seems to cover it: it changed the world, changed my world. To me? More than “She Loves You” which belongs here as well. Everything is the rise of exuberance and they learned it from the Isley brothers (you go up and up and up), the rush of love is romantic though with the handclaps and the three voices mingling, also overjoyed. And that opening lick played three times… God, what a song.
7. Things We Said Today – The bad news: Paul can’t do this any more. The good news: at least he did it once. A remarkable lyric, sang in the now about a future where McCartney, with another girl maybe though he seems to be hedging, Macca is imagining a future where he remembers this moment. People misunderstand, and I blame Dylan for this, what a complex lyric is: Ira Gershwin’s “Our Love Is Here To Stay” is complicated feelings wrought raw and simple. So is this, by looking forward into the past he raises a question mark over the relationship and the “you say you will love me if I have to go…” he begins and ends in the far future.
8. I’ll Cry Instead – Another song I learnt when I learnt to play guitar. I worship this guy: listen to that rollicking riff that opens it. WTF. Is this genius? “If I could see you now, I’d try to make you sad some how.” PS Another great vocal performance, with Lennon in hiding but when he comes back he is gonna make women pay for his pain, breaking hearts all round the world: “Yes, I’m gonna break em in two….” Wait for it. “I’ll show you what you’re loving man can do”. Breathtaking, earth shattering.
9. Misery – A goof, a laugh, a send up, a giggle. Lennon laughing up his sleeve as he channels his inner Arthur Crudup.
10. Anna (Go To Him) – And finally a perfect cover of, him again again, Arthur Crudup. If “Misery” is a self-satire, “Anna” is a self portrait, a beautiful, rasping sweetness on the bridge… “Oh now, but every girl I’ve ever had, breaks my heart and leaves me sad. What am I? What am I to do?” and now after that height of feeling Lennon tumbles down octave by octave in a series of “ohs” till he lands back at Anna’s feet. “One more thing girl. You give back your ring to me and I will set you free, go with him…”