top ten beatle songs ever just love this song



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-08-17 23:22 by bv.

Id rate it as a fun, middle of the road, weird song.... little known tidbit- It was really for the benefit of Mrs Kite, but they rewrote at the last minute, to protect everyone involved.

The best bit is what Martin and Geoff Emerick did, cutting up those tapes of fairground calliopes to get that wash. Brilliant.

We should play it... eeer.... he should play it


ya sound just like your Mother

Great song from a great album

It's one of those tracks where the atmosphere provides great "visuals", in one of those rare instances where the production team was equally as important as the recording artist. Sgt. Pepper wouldn't have been as good--or experimentally groundbreaking--without it.

Top of the tree.

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Silver Dagger
Top of the tree.

It's affa good.

as bob dylan said, "turn that off!"

Recent Paul comments about playing KITE live here >>> [www.rollingstone.com]

Wot? You mean Dave Grohl plays drums too?



But who's going to sing lead when Paulvana tours?

Paul's bass process with the Beatles appears to have been different than Bill's. Paul says they did the basic track and then Paul laid down the bass later on his own. It seemed like the Stones did it the opposite way, with Charlie, Bill & Keith laying down the rhythm track and then Mick worked around it.

Benefit of Mr.Kite is a fantastic song.

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His Majesty

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Silver Dagger
Top of the tree.

It's affa good.

Let's be 'affing you.

Funfair music.
Circus music.

Trippy!
I always liked the album rendition.
I wish McC would stick to his own tunes.

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with sssoul
I wish McC would stick to his own tunes.

Are you suggesting that McC is lying when he says this, or that he shouldn't be playing Beatles, and only solo stuff?:

What made you want to revisit those particular songs?
Well, for instance, "Mr. Kite" is such a crazy, oddball song that I thought it would freshen up the set. Plus the fact that I'd never done it. None of us in the Beatles ever did that song [in concert]. And I have great memories of writing it with John. I read, occasionally, people say, "Oh, John wrote that one." I say, "Wait a minute, what was that afternoon I spent with him, then, looking at this poster?" He happened to have a poster in his living room at home. I was out at his house, and we just got this idea, because the poster said "Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite" – and then we put in, you know, "there will be a show tonight," and then it was like, "of course," then it had "Henry the Horse dances the waltz." You know, whatever. "The Hendersons, Pablo Fanques, somersets…" We said, "What was 'somersets'? It must have been an old-fashioned way of saying somersaults." The song just wrote itself. So, yeah, I was happy to kind of reclaim it as partially mine. But like I said, you've got to look what you're doing when you play that one.

Does it feel like you're coming full circle when you sing those words in front of these huge crowds after all those years?
You know, it's more a question of what a delight it is to finally play it. We played it when we recorded it – for instance, "Mr. Kite," when we recorded it, we laid down the track as a group, and then I put the bass on afterwards, as I often did in those days. So that gave me the opportunity to really think about the bassline and make it melodic. But, of course, if I'd have thought, like, "Tomorrow you're going to have to play this live," I don't think I'd have made it so complicated! "Day Tripper" was another one. I thought, "I just can't do it." It's like patting your head and rubbing your belly at the same time. It's not that easy to do. You've got to practice up on that. I goofed it a million times in rehearsal. Then, finally, I just thought, "OK, wait a minute, I'll do that . . ." And I worked out how I was going to do it. So it's great for me, reviewing the past, and just thinking, "This is cool." It's still up-to-date. The combination of all of that makes it quite a joy to do.

Didn't know Paul co-wrote the tune. Thanks for posting.

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24FPS
Paul's bass process with the Beatles appears to have been different than Bill's. Paul says they did the basic track and then Paul laid down the bass later on his own. It seemed like the Stones did it the opposite way, with Charlie, Bill & Keith laying down the rhythm track and then Mick worked around it.

Yeah, I was interested to read Paul's comments about that, just because of what Bill said below:

MUSICIAN MAGAZINE: "I'm thinking of EXILE ON MAIN STREET in particular, where you didn't play bass on almost half the album."

WYMAN: "Acutally, there were only four cuts that I wasn't on. Out of 20 tracks. Mick made a mistake with the credits on two of the cuts..."

MUSICIAN: "What happened with the other four?"

WYMAN: "...when Keith would suddenly get inspiration for a song on a day we weren't recording, like he did with `Happy,' he'd just record it then and there with whoever was around...I can never overdub, because you've got to get that rhythm track down with bass and drums together. So I'm at a disadvantage in that my instrument has to be present to build the foundation whether I'm there to play it or not. Yet if someone has filled in for me, I can't change it or overdub it later on. Often when that happens I shift over to another instrument like keyboards or synthesizer."

(The interview was in a collection of undated interviews, but it's circa Tattoo You since that was the new thing under discussion.)

It's ineresting enough, nice tune. But I remember a Lou Reed interview from 1989, where he really disses it. He and the interviewer were talking about the Sgt. Pepper album, and Lou just thinks Revolver is better, and says, "I mean, Mr. Kite? What the f*&k is that?" Lou then talks about how great Bob Dylan's new album (Down in the Groove) was. He says that no one can turn a phrase like Dylan, citing the new song "90 miles an Hour down a Dead End Street" as an example. But Lou apparently hadn't read the credits, cuz that was someone else's tune that Bob had covered. Oops.

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carlorossi

I remember a Lou Reed interview from 1989, where he really disses it. He and the interviewer were talking about the Sgt. Pepper album, and Lou just thinks Revolver is better, and says, "I mean, Mr. Kite? What the f*&k is that?"

Couldn't agree more. The worst track on a vastly overrated album.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2013-08-18 02:39 by tatters.

Best solo by George.

Being a Lennon-song from his middle-era (66-67) It's one of his weakest....

Mr Kite is great, and I love listening to it, even at 42. It was one of the first Beatle songs I ever heard, and I also think McCartney has every right to perform it as he is the last credible Beatle alive, the last curator of the Beatles legacy.

When you consider how George Harrison, on a solo tour in 1974, destroyed In My Life, one of Lennon's tunes, then you could also argue that McCartney has more of a right to sing Lennon tunes.

With regards Uncle Albert: likewise, that's a great tune, and one that I've loved since hearing it as a theme tune to an Only Fools & Horses' episode. The trouble is how do you reproduce such an imaginative tune live ? Ram is, however, one of the best McCartney solo albums ever.

It's mad in a Lennon kind of way (I have serious reservations about Paul "remembering" cowriting songs for the first time nearly 50 years after the fact), but it's not rock and roll - I certainly wouldn't trade anything off of Beggars Banquet for it.

I think Lennon's contributions to Pepper were at two ends of a spectrum. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds and A Day in the Life are easily the best tracks on the album, and among the most famous Beatles tracks ever. But, Mr. Kite and Good Morning are both fairly insubstantial (although I agree that the use of the carnival poster is brilliant).

In Barry Miles' book on McCartney, Paul says that Mr. Kite was written together (and that book came out almost 15 years ago).

Pablo Fanque was apparently Britain's first black circus impressario, quite an esteemed position to have during tough Victorian times.

[en.wikipedia.org]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-08-19 19:07 by Silver Dagger.

A sound collage, and a good recording rather than a 'great' song (though it is quite a hummable tune).

I tend to think it was a Lennon idea presented to McCartney when McCartney arrived at Lennon's house (after all, it is Lennon who bought the poster in the store near Sevenoaks where they were filming the promotional film for 'SFF.'). McCartney in his typical way then proceeded to help Lennon write the song (probably he did that a lot with Lennon, whatever Lennon thought of the process).

As far as the album 'Sgt. Pepper' (with respect to some comments on this thread of it being overrated or not rock and roll)...I have to laugh. It was massive selling lp and had impact (whether it 'rocked' or not). I mean, it still has great songs on it that transcend rock and roll ('ADITL,' 'LITSWD,' 'FAH,' 'WYWO,' 'GB,' 'SLH,' the title track...and yes, 'Mr. Kite').

I won't comment on anything else released by others in 1967...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2013-08-19 17:09 by nightskyman.