Click To Expand

sloganeerist:

merlin:

John calls this one “a throwaway,” but it’s categorically one of my favorite Beatles songs and has to be regarded as one of the quintessential inspirations for every power pop song since.

Final version (stereo):

“And Your Bird Can Sing”

↩

I have a strange relationship with this song, as it is probably my favorite Beatles moment outside of everything on Abbey Road. However, I ruined this song for myself with my own hubris. How? By trying to play it live in front of people. Who paid to hear me play.

In my old band the fight for who got to suggest a cover song was a tricky political battle. After performing a modestly awesome version of Badfinger’s No Matter What, I pushed for And Your Bird Can Sing.

And so we practiced. And practiced. Anyone who tells you this song isn’t all that difficult is probably a drummer. Because singing while playing the bassline was a bitch and a half. As was singing it period with perfect 2 part harmony in Paul’s upper range. Finally we got it to sound pretty great in practice. Which is to say, standing in a circle with perfect sound and no distractions.

In front of an audience, it fell apart in a grand manner - almost to the point to where we considered just stopping in the middle. We weren’t drunk. We just sucked. Bad. I remember apologizing for it onstage.

Now when I hear it, I just feel guilty about what we did to And Your Bird Can Sing that night. It was as if I built my own airship and then put my own dear mother in it and watched it burst into flames during its maiden voyage.

The moral for musicians is thus: If you really, really love a song, maybe the best thing you can do for it is to NOT cover it. I mean, if you can do an awesome version of a “just OK” song, you’re going to come out much better than if you shit all over one of the best songs ever written.