Daily Jam - I'm Only Sleeping

While i hold firm in my conviction that "A Day in the Life" is the best Beatles song, "Revolver" is probably the best Beatles album.  Here's a track from it.  Listen to "I'm Only Sleeping" below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Junk

I watched the McCartney documentary a few weeks ago, and it's made me go back and check out a lot of the artist's post-Beatles work.  One song i've always liked is the sweet and melancholy "Junk" from the first solo record.  Listen to it below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - God

"God" is probably my favorite John Lennon song.  The lyric, "The dream is over," just sticks with me.  Listen below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Here, There and Everywhere

Here's a classic from The Beatles.  Listen to "Here, There and Everywhere" below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Simply Shady

Here's a little George Harrison on a Wednesday morning.  Listen to "Simply Shady" below, our Daily Jam.

Medicine

LA band Medicine have gone through many changes and lineups over the last 30+ years, and they're back again with a new album of "appreciations, interpretations, and ruminations."  Or, you know, a covers record.  Take a listen to the band's noisy, garage rock version of The Beatles' "Tell Me Why" below and get the "On the Bed" LP here.

Daily Jam - A Day in the Life

I’m going to do my very best not to come off deliberately and irritatingly contrarian here. It’s probably going to take some effort, but here we go. The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is an overrated album. There. I said it. Now let’s let that sink in for just a second or two. Okay. Have you recovered? Please allow me to explain.

I’m not saying the Sgt. Pepper’s is a bad album. Far from it. It’s a great album, and along with The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, it began to show what pop music was capable of being…art. But it’s certainly not The Beatles’ best album, a point of contention that we could honestly argue about all day long (though I’ve probably got to go with either The White Album or Revolver). What makes Sgt. Pepper’s overrated is the fact that out of the thirteen tracks on the album, not one of them compares to the ultimate pop loveliness of album closer “A Day in the Life,” the song I consider to be inarguably the best thing The Beatles ever recorded.

“A Day in the Life” is sweet, and melancholy, and a little odd, and in so many ways it feels like the culmination of everything The Beatles were, including their past and future. The Lennon parts sound like perfect Lennon parts. The McCartney parts are the purest McCartney. There’s a Harrison spirituality that encompasses the whole thing. And Ringo keeps the beat of course. Nothing else the band ever wrote or recorded lives up to “A Day in the Life.” Nothing even comes close. I could be congenial and say that that’s just my humble opinion…but I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s a fact. If your opinion differs, I’m sorry, but you’re wrong. (I will be happy to field arguments as to what The Beatles’ second best song is though. It’s “Eleanor Rigby” by the way.)

Now, if only I could figure out how to put the song’s closing, sustained piano chord into text form.

I love that sound.

Check the track out below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Help!

Like i do every year, i've waited until the last possible second to wrap a million Christmas presents.  I put it off all week, so today i will suffer for it.  Anyway, here's folk singer Mary McCaslin and her cover of The Beatles' "Help!"  Check it out below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Little Lamb Dragonfly

Sometimes i don't think i give Paul McCartney the credit he deserves.  It's probably due to an innate and subconscious aversion to "boomer music" (the inner punk in me as it were), but the man really is a wonderful songwriter.  And why by a contrarian anyway?  So here's Sir Paul with "Little Lamb Dragonfly," our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - I Call Your Name

Like a crazy person, i got up well before dawn this morning, masked up, and went out for Record Store Day.  And i spent way too much money.  Like i always do.  Anyway, here's some music from The Mamas & The Papas.  Listen to "I Call Your Name" below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - You've Got to Hide Your Love Away

It's amazing to me how many covers of Beatles songs there are out there, particularly very early on while the band was still putting music out.  Here's '60s folk group The Silkie taking on "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - For No One

"Revolver" is the best Beatles album.  I won't be taking any questions at this time.  Here's "For Nor One," our Daily Jam.

For some reason, this post (along with several others) from back in March was deleted in err by Blogger.  They have reinstated it, but i'm having to repost it.

Daily Jam - Michelle

One thing i dig is a random Beatles cover.  And they are literally everywhere to be found, recorded by thousands of different artists in just as many genres or styles over the last 55 years.  Here's Latin and jazz percussionist Willie Bobo's instrumental take on "Michelle," our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam (Covers Week) - Eleanor Rigby

A George Duke produced record from 1969 full of jazz vocal pop as performed Asian girl group The Third Wave.  The group's bouncy and kind of trippy cover of The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" (the 2nd best Beatles song), is a fun and engaging track, and kind of entrancing.  I could listen to this all day.  Check it out below, our Daily (Cover) Jam...

Daily Bowie (Cover Week) - Across the Universe by David Bowie

It's been a long night...sick kids...a trip to the emergency room for our two-week-old...and all of the stress that that entails.  And now it's almost 3AM, and i'm as wired as can be and surfing the web and posting about music (as usual).  Anyway, that's where my mind is at right now, and i figured i'd go ahead and end this Daily Bowie Cover Week with an actual cover performed by Bowie himself.  So, here's Bowie's take on The Beatles' classic "Across the Universe" from 1975's "Young Americans."  Good night everybody.  Here's hoping i get some sleep soon.

The Flaming Lips - Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

The Flaming Lips always seem to pull off interesting and fantastic covers of whatever and whomever they try to tackle.  Yesterday, the band released into the ether, a faithful(ish) yet very Lips-sounding version of The Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" because of course they did.  Listen below and have the happiest of New Years!