5 Weirdest Beatles Songs

Some of The Beatles‘ songs are just plain weird. For example, one Beatles song is less than a minute long. Another is basically one line repeated over and over for several minutes.

The Beatles on a roof — The Beatles | Michael Ochs Archives / Handout

5. ‘Revolution 9’

“Revolution 9” might seem totally random. The book Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon includes an interview from 1968. In it, someone asked John if “Revolution 9” is about death.

“It’s about death,” he said. “Well, listen to it on another day. In the sun. Outside. And see if it’s about death then. It’s about everything. I mean, it’s not specifically about anything. It’s a set of sounds like walking down the street is a set of sounds. And I just captured a moment of time, put it on disc, and it’s about that.”

Subsequently, John was asked if the track was about revolution. “Yeah, you know,” he replied. “It was maybe to do with the sounds of a revolution, y’know? There was some shooting, and there was some babies crying, and there was some peace … so that’s the sort of vague story behind it. But apart from that, it’s just a set of sounds.”

4. ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’

The Beatles wrote made a lot of silly children’s songs, like “Yellow Submarine” and “Octopus’s Garden.” They also had a dark side, as exemplified by “Run for Your Life” and “Yer Blues.” In “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,” those two sides converged, creating one of the strangest moments in the Fab Four’s catalog. Only Paul McCartney would’ve thought to make a murder ballad that’s also a jocular vaudeville track.

3. ‘Wild Honey Pie’

If “Wild Honey Pie” came out in 2010 instead of 1968, it would’ve been called trolling. It has obnoxious singing, obnoxious riffs, and it’s part of an album some fans find obnoxiously long. “Wild Honey Pie” doesn’t seem to have much of a point, except to be strange. For Paul, sometimes that was enough.

2. ‘You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)’

Like many of the best Monty Python skits, “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)” straddles the line between surrealism and comedy. The tune resembles The Beatles’ “Christmas Time (Is Here Again)” because it’s essentially one line repeated over and over. However, “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)” has more energy and musical variety, so it’s actually worth your time.

1. ‘A Day in the Life’

During a 1968 Rolling Stone interview, John said he was proud of “A Day in the Life.” “It was a real groove, the whole scene on that one,” he said. “Paul sang half of it and I sang half.

“I needed a middle eight for it, but that would have been forcing it,” he added. “All the rest had come out smooth, flowing, no trouble, and to write a middle eight would have been to write a middle eight, but instead Paul already had one there. It’s a bit of 2001, you know.”

The fact that The Beatles drew inspiration from 2001: A Space Odyssey shows how weird they could be.

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