Four Nice, Young Boys from Liverpool

And no, I'm not talking about Everton's Reserve back line or some random group of strikers who were never given a chance @ Liverpool under Rafael Benítez. I'm talking about The Beatles. Rolling Stone just released a list of the 100 Greatest Beatles Songs of all time. It's available in a fancy oversize issue w/ little fun facts about the songs (mostly just summary of the fun facts that we all learned in the Anthology series & the fun facts we learned growing up as members of the human ace). Here's the top 20:
1. "A Day in the Life"
2. "I Want to Hold Your Hand"
3. "Strawberry Fields Forever"
4. "Yesterday"
5. "In My Life"
6. "Something"
7. "Hey Jude"
8. "Let It Be"
9. "Come Together"
10. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
11. "A Hard Day's Night"
12. "Norwegian Wood"
13. "Revolution"
14. "She Loves You"
15. "Help"
16. "I Saw Her Standing There"
17. "Ticket to Ride"
18. "Tomorrow Never Knows"
19. "Lucy in he Sky w/ Diamonds"
20. "Please Please Me"A couple of the songs seem a bit high on the list & while "She Loves You" is historically important, I don't know if it's really that great of a song. Ditto that w/ "Please Please Me." A couple months ago, RS released an updated version of their 500 Greatest Songs of all time list on which the Beatles songs are placed in a different order: "A Day in the Life" is the 6th Beatles song on that list (after "Hey Jude," "Yesterday," "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," "Let it Be," & "In My Life." This contradiction seems to be raising some eyebrows in the Beatles fan/blogging community, but we must realize they used different critics & musicians to compose the lists so they were bound to differ.My real concern isn't in the slight differences but in the glaring omissions. As if a top 100 Beatles songs list isn't stupid enough considering that they only recorded about 200 originals in total (@ least 200 released on official Beatles records). It's an obvious money grab from RS sure to be followed up w/ yet another ridiculous compilation released before X-mas. Of the glaring omissions, "It's All Too Much," "Savoy Truffle," "Cry Baby Cry," & "Revolution #9" are the most glaring in my eyes. To suggest that "I Should Have Known Better" & "Ticket to Ride" are better than "#9" & "Savoy Truffle" is just sheer folly. Here's my Top 20 Beatles Songs: 1. "A Day in the Life"
2. "Helter Skelter"
3. "Revolution #9"
4. "Across the Universe"
5. "Tomorrow Never Knows"
6. "Strawberry Fields Forever"
7. "Rain"
8. The Abby Road Medley ("You Never Give Me Your Money" through "The End")
9. "She Said, She Said"
10. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
11. "Day Tripper"
12. "Come Together"
13. "Here, There, and Everywhere"
14. "Gotta Get You into My Life"
15. "Savoy Truffle"
16. "It's All too Much"
17. "Glass Onion"
18. "I Wanna Hold your Hand"
19. "Lucy in the Sky w/ Diamonds"
20. "Something"I know this list is no less problematic than the RS list, but that's OK... I'm really just interested in know what y'all's list would look like. Think about it for a few minutes & then let's see your top 20 Beatles songs in the comments section! John digs a sporran

WCP #14: Father's Day, Food, & The Beatles

Since Dan & I have 2 matches today, the family celebrated Father's Day yesterday by watching games (& Support Your Local Sheriff) & BBQing @ my parents' house. And we continued our attempt to eat our way though the Nations of the World Cup. We had huevos rancheros for breakfast (Mexico) & then enjoyed Shrimp on the Barby (Australia) & skewered Ground-Nut (peanut) & Coffee encrusted beef w/ baked yams. Grinding the peanuts w/o turning it into peanut butter was tricky, but then mixing in ground coffee, red pepper flakes & chili powder was easy (Western Africa: Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Cameroon, & Ghana). It turned out really well & everyone seemed to like it, but I think I just don't like steak much, which is fine, because after this experiment ends, I think i may need to revert to vegetarianism for a while again (other than for our vacation & during Celtic Fests). For dinner the night before, Stephanie brought Roast Duck w/ garlicky red-skin potatoes up to Nicola's for me (France). Along w/ England & USA, this mans we've covered 7 of he 32 countries so far. We may actually be able to do this.

For Father's Day, my parents got me World Cup 2010: An Indispensable Guide to Soccer & Geopolitics. The analysis is a bit biased & informal, but the chapters about history & politics are fascinating. There are also fun facts about each country. Plus, there is an inexplicable reference after each squad's analysis to the Beatles song that most closely represents the aforementioned squad. They aren't explained & quite often make no sense... I like it a lot. Of course, USA, England, & Brazil make sense.
*Mexico: "I Should Have Known Better"
*S. Africa: "When I Get Home"
*France: "Tell Me What You See"
*Uruguay: "Helter Skelter"
*Argentina: "come Together"
*Nigeria: "Please Please Me"
*S. Korea: "Don't Pass Me by"
*Greece: "Get Back"
*England: "Carry that weight"
*USA: "I Me Mine"
*Slovenia: "Nowhere Man"
*Algeria: "It's All too Much"
*Germany: "I'll Get You"
*Ghana: "Getting Better"
*Australia: "You Know What to Do"
*Serbia: "Slow Down"
*Netherlands: "W/ a Little Help from My Friends"
*Denmark: "I Feel Fine"
*Cameroon: "I've Got a Feeling"
*Japan: "All Together Now"
*Italy: "when I'm 64"
*Paraguay: "All I've got to Do"
*Slovakia: "You Know My Name"
*New Zealand: "I'm a Loser"
*Brazil: "Free as a Bird"
*Cote d'Ivore: "Run for Your Life"
*Portugal: "Let it Be"
*N. Korea: "Do You Want to Know a Secret"
*Spain: "We Can Work it Out"
*Switzerland: "I'm Only Sleeping"
*Chile: "Bad Boy"
*Honduras: "Help"

And now, your Visions o Ypsi Player of the Day. He led the Danes in their fight-back to be only the 10th team in World Cup history to record a come-from-behind victory. Bendtner feels he should get the award, but it goes to Matthew McConaughey... no, I mean Danish geriatric Dennis Rommedahl!A round of applause for all of the previous winners