And the drumming on "She Said She Said" is sublime. "A Day in the Life," too.

True—that album kicks all kinds of ass.

Plus…those basslines! Solo or Beatles, they always rule.

You are right. No more guilt! Paul was awesome, and we shouldn't feel ashamed. Lennon had just as much dreck, and his solo career was shit, and I love them both.

That would be awesome, indeed! Instead, we got an out of tune Zeppelin chugging through "Whole Lotta Love."

I will, for sure! For some reason, I haven't dived into Geoff's stuff yet. I love "Revolution in the Head" so much, though. I like listening to the songs and picking out the corresponding entries. He does some great musicology on their stuff—and he doesn't sugarcoat anything. You'd be hard pressed to find someone with…

Totally true, Cookie. Martin was the absolute perfect producer for what they were doing. Lightning in a fucking bottle.

I fucking love the drums on "Big Sky." I'm inclined to agree..and also to throw in "Waterloo Sunset" as possibly better than any Beatles cut, even though I know that's not on "Village Green."

Very true, Cookie. Nothing like a little heavy handed Jeff Lynne production to take the joy out of something—not that the song was that great to begin with, of course.

Yes…I forgot about that one! That one works very well together. And the way they sing "Two of Us" still sounds like a solid partnership — even if it really wasn't at that point.

Ha, oh my god. The visuals of Lennon and McCartney shaking their asses…

You are so right. It goes down much easier. Also, though, and I may be reading my own psychology into it, but "Good Night" still seems kinda creepy to me based on what preceeded it!

So true—it's the only avant garde piece that millions and millions of people have heard—gotta get points for that. And to paraphrase Ian MacDonald—Revolution 9 might be boring in spots or baffling, but the son of a bitch is sinister, and it helps make the back end of The White Album pretty unsettling.

Yep…that song doesn't work as well without that contrasting middle 8 from John.

I also like the story of the line "the movement you need is on your shoulder" from "Hey Jude." Paul dismissed it as a throwaway line, just something to fill the space while he thought of something better. But John said it was a great lyric as it stood and that Paul shouldn't change it. Every time Paul plays that song,…

This is true. They wrote together, face to face, for the early singles ("She Loves You," "I Want to Hold Your Hand,"), and that pretty much ended as they got into "Hard Day's Night" (which was dominated by Lennon).

That's very true—the great thing about both Lennon and McCartney, though, is that, most of the time for those horn-type solos (thinking also of the breaks in "Penny Lane,") Paul would sing the parts out and George Martin would make sense of them and write them out. I love that.

Yes! The whole of "We Are The Village Green Preservation Society" is a lyrical masterpiece, something The Beatles could never quite achieve.

So true. There has never been a more perfect musical partnership.

LENNON: "Happiness is a Warm Gun." No one else could have written a song like that.
McCARTNEY: "Penny Lane." So beautiful and brilliant that it fucking hurts, and it captures its time like nothing else ever has.