#128 – Baby You’re A Rich Man with guest James C., host of The Oasis Podcast

They say there’s no rest for the wicked, but throughout the 60s, there was often no rest for the Beatles. As soon as work was done on the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, they began working on more songs with an eye towards the recently-contracted-Yellow Submarine film. Inspired by an acid-fuled evening spent at the 14 Hour Technicolor Dream and his immersion into the hippy scene of ’67, John began working on a song called “One of the Beautiful People.” At some point, he paired with a song fragment Paul had, possibly inspired by their want for manager Brian Epstein to start enjoying himself and some of the money they’d all made, and “Baby, You’re A Rich Man” was born. One of the coolest grooves the Beatles (especially Ringo) ever laid to tape, the tune bounces from detached, light-hearted falsetto to a boisterous, joyous chant of the chorus, all held together with a musical equivalent of a mosquito in flight, John’s performance on the clavoiline (possibly played with an orange?), an instrument that was lying around Olympic Sound Studios, the studio the band was recording in on that evening. It’s an absolute jam of a track, and incredibly fun, but the track maybe hiding that fact that the song itself is maybe lacking a bit in substance.

Joining us this week is our old pal James C., host of The Oasis Podcast. He recently undertook the ill-advised task of ranking the entire catalogue of Oasis, as well as the Gallagher bros post-Oasis work. We wanted to compare notes on how we each went about our rankings, and what we took from it. Of course, I’m always up to talk about Oasis, as they’re one of my other favorite bands. We touch on all kinds of things like musical and emotional growth (or lack thereof), memories triggered by music, and the difference between American and British podcast guests. Check out his brilliant Oasis Podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts about Oasis!

Trigger Warning: in regards to a long-held rumor about a lyrical variation on this song supposedly sung by John about Brian Epstein, we do discuss the cultural differences between the F-word, and the word is mentioned in that conversation, but purely in a contextual sense. If you’d rather skip this discussion, it starts at an hour and 3 minutes in, and lasts for about 6 minutes, feel free to skip ahead, and know that in no way do we condone or support hate speech or language of that type.

What do you think? Too high? Too low? Or just right? Let us know in the comments on Facebook, Instagram @rankingthebeatles, or Twitter @rankingbeatles! Be sure to visit rankingthebeatles.com! Wanna show your support? Buy Us A Coffee!