___

Eminem Reveals He Swapped

Songs With Dr. Dre In Order
To Get Their ‘Guns Blazing’
Collab
WONGO OKON
JANUARY 3, 2021

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After letting fans sit with his Music To Be

Murdered By – Side B deluxe album for a
few weeks, Eminem stopped by Shade 45 to
share some stories and inspiration behind
some of its songs. The discussion occurred
during a playback of the deluxe album and
when “Guns Blazing” with Dr. Dre and Sly
Paper came on, Eminem shared an
interesting story about how the song came
together.

That was actually a record

that I stole from Dre. Cause
he was sending me music
and he kept sending me sh*t
and every time he sends I’m
like, “Yo this one’s crazier
than the last one.” I don’t
even know which one is the
craziest one. He sends me
[“Guns Blazing”] with his
verse and hook and I was
like, “Yo, I gotta jump on this
sh*t.”

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The Detroit rapper then goes on to say that

the swap that occurred for “Guns Blazing”
was not the first time he and Dre traded
songs. “We actually traded a couple of times
cause I did a couple of other songs and I’m
like ‘Yo you can that one that I just sent you
if I can have that one,’ and we kinda
swapped a little bit,” he said. “It’s very
personal. That’s a very personal song.”

Other highlights from Eminem’s Shade 45

appearance included a breakdown of his
Snoop Dogg diss on “Zeus” and his thoughts
on cancel culture. You can hear Eminem
discuss “Guns Blazing” at the 15-minute
mark in the video above.

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The Best Beatles Songs,

Ranked
STEVEN HYDEN !
CULTURAL CRITIC

DECEMBER 14, 2020

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The Beatles broke up 50 years ago this year.

Which is strange, because they’re still one of
the most popular rock bands on the planet.
By now, the number of Beatlemaniacs who
weren’t alive when the band was together
likely outnumbers the fans who were. Even
in the context of classic rock, this is an
incredible phenomenon. The world keeps
turning round and round, and yet we remain
eternally stuck on The Fab Four.

The Beatles are so famous that their “hits”

extend well beyond the songs that were
technically released as singles. “Blackbird”
has been streamed nearly 200 million times
on Spotify, and it was never released as a
single or even played on the radio that
much. Neither was “Tomorrow Never
Knows.” Nor were “Drive My Car,” “Good
Day Sunshine,” or “The Fool On The Hill.”
Even their deep cuts are very well-known.
Virtually nothing about them is obscure.

This can make writing about The Beatles a

challenge, particularly if you’re foolish
enough to rank your favorite Beatles songs.
There is very little about them that is not
already overly familiar; there are also very
few Beatles songs that the public doesn’t
have passionate opinions about. We know
everything about The Beatles, and also
never tire of rehashing old Beatles
arguments.

With all of that in mind, here is my list of the

100 greatest Beatles songs. Keep in mind
that there are more than 100 great Beatles
songs, so I have definitely left off some
winners here. (I learned while writing this
that one of my best friends considers “Long,
Long, Long” a top-five Beatles tune, and it is
not here. I hope we are still friends after
this.) But I think I have most of the crucial
bases covered here. If you disagree, please
remember that I am neither a mod or a
rocker, but a mocker.

100. “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (Remas…

Let’s begin with the Beatles song that is

easiest to clown. Even The Beatles
themselves — Paul, the songwriter,
excepted, of course — hated this track,
mainly because Macca made them play it
over and over again during The White Album
sessions. (An extremely stoned John
Lennon famously came up with the song’s
distinctive mock-music hall piano lick as a
way to make fun of how corny it was.) And
yet … “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” is actually
pretty good! It’s catchy, harmless fun and
most likely the lamest song you’ve heard at
least 200 times. The point is that the
weakest of The Beatles is still pretty damn
strong. If this song is the floor, most artists
never manage to get above ground.

99. “Love Me Do”

Their first single, and a good example of

how The Beatles (from the very beginning!)
could write something so simple that a baby
could understand it upon first listen, while
also adding some unusual twist that made it
unique and even nonsensical. In the case of
“Love Me Do,” it’s the odd phrasing of the
chorus — what in the world does “love me
do” mean? The style of language apparently
is derived from Lewis Carroll, who will
eventually loom large in the band’s
psychedelic era, though it also points to the
tuneful nonsense that McCartney would
embrace full on during his post-Beatles, “Bip
Bop” period.

98. “Why Don’t We Do It In The

Road?”

Why Don't We Do It In The …

My favorite Beatles LP — and one of my

favorite LPs by anybody — is The White
Album, which is an opinion that (1) seems to
be shared by most of my Beatles-loving
friends and (2) not shared by most of the
people whose Beatles books I have read.
The issue with The White Album comes
down to whether you appreciate or
disapprove of that LP’s excesses — was
The Beatles’ relaxation of their artistic
discipline a fascinating diversion or a bad
sign of things to come? Really, then, it boils
down to a question of whether they should
have put “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?”
— an uber-primitive coitus-blues performed
alone by McCartney — on the record. The
band that made Rubber Soul and Revolver
wouldn’t have even considered it. But if you
love Rubber Soul and Revolver, aren’t you
also interested in hearing the sorts of songs
that happened around the many
unimpeachable classics this band has
produced? If you are, the many detours on
The White Album will always be worthwhile.
It’s one of the great “lifestyle” albums, built
for total immersion. The loopy, horny energy
of “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?”
added considerably to The White Album
singularly magnetic atmosphere of
debauched, failed utopian anarchy.

97. “Everybody’s Got Something To

Hide Except For Me And My
Monkey”

The dishiest and all-around bitchiest Beatles

book is Here, There, And Everywhere by
Geoff Emerick, the legendary studio
engineer who worked on Sgt. Pepper,
Revolver, and Abbey Road, among other
albums. Apparently in his studio days he had
to keep his opinions to himself, because in
his book Emerick unloads his hot takes like
a man whose brain is positively scorched
from prolonged containment. As the book
title suggests, Emerick is definitely a Paul
guy, which means his thoughts on John
(jerk), Yoko (jerk), George (poor guitarist),
and Ringo (non-entity) tend to be withering,
unfair, and pretty funny. As for Beatles
songs, he especially hated this acidic John
rocker from The White Album, which is as
shrill and harsh as Sgt. Pepper (Emerick’s
baby) is lush and soothing. As for me, I think
it slaps.

96. “Don’t Bother Me”

Don't Bother Me (Remaster…

I never get sick of hearing Beatles songs,

and I especially never get sick of hearing
The Beatles story. I own about a dozen
books that rehash their career, and about a
half-dozen documentaries (including one
that is over eight hours long). Millions of you
dorks care about every iteration of a Marvel
comic — these guys are my superheroes,
and I remain forever interested in thinking
about their rise and fall. One of my favorite
subplots involves the dynamic between
Lennon/McCartney and George Harrison,
and how the latter was never invited to
participate in their collaboration. The years
of implicitly (or often explicitly) being treated
as a second-class citizen in The Beatles had
an incalculable psychological effect on
Harrison. (It’s why I excuse the extra disc of
jams on All Things Must Pass — the man
needed to put as much music on a record as
he wanted without anyone telling him no.)
Early on, however, Harrison pulled the
familiar trick of insisting that his unwitting
isolation was a deliberate choice, to the
point of making his songwriting debut on a
Beatles album, “Don’t Bother Me,” about that
very subject.

95. “Act Naturally”

In one of his final interviews, collected in the

indispensable book The Playboy Interviews
With John Lennon And Yoko Ono by David
Sheff, John remarked that The Beatles might
have still made it had it been him and Paul
and two other random guys. (“Let’s say, I
think it’s possible for John and Paul to have
created the same thing with two other guys.
It may not have been possible for George
and Ringo to have created it without John
and Paul. OK?”) While that Lennon quote is
true as far as it goes — John and Paul were
obviously the least dispensable — it
underrates the reliable “younger brother”
tension that George provided and the comic
relief that was endemic to Ringo. In what
other band does the drummer — who
otherwise rarely writes songs or acts as a
frontman — have such a clearly defined
persona? While everyone in The Beatles
was witty, Ringo always had the best sense
of humor about himself, particularly after
they became hugely famous. It made him
seem normal, in the same way that a point
guard who is 6-foot-4 suddenly seems short
on a basketball court. While “Act Naturally”
is a Buck Owens cover, it is the best
expression of Ringo’s unique “I can be self-
deprecating without looking pathetic or
otherwise sacrificing my dignity” charm.

94. “The Ballad Of John And Yoko”

On this track, John and Paul really proved

that they could’ve been The Beatles by
themselves. They knocked out this topical
single when Ringo was filming The Magic
Christian and George was on holiday, and
the result is bright, punchy, and surprisingly
fun given that The Ballad Of John and Paul
had long since turned into a dreary dirge by
this point. (The ups and downs of the John
and Paul friendship, without question, is the
top subplot of the Beatles story that we’ll be
revisiting on this list time and again.)

93. “Julia”

My first favorite Beatle was John Lennon, as

it should be for anybody who becomes a
Beatles fan during their teen years. He’s the
rebellious one, as we all know, and also the
Beatle must hung up on his parents. Though
“Julia,” like “The Ballad Of John And Yoko,”
is so specific to Lennon’s own life that it
doesn’t slot comfortably as a Beatles track.
On “Julia,” he sings a love song to the ghost
of his dead mother, emoting with such naked
vulnerability that it’s almost uncomfortable to
hear. Contrast “Julia” with “Let It Be,”
inspired by McCartney’s own vision of
seeing his late mother in a dream, and it’s
obvious how far Lennon was straying from
writing approachable pop anthems by the
end of the ’60s. While he was physically still
in the band, he had already moved forward
emotionally and intellectually with his solo
career.

92. “Got To Get You Into My Life”

John Lennon loved this song, perhaps

because he interpreted it as a Paul
McCartney “acid” song, which shows that
even The Beatles read way too much into
Beatles songs.

91. “Lady Madonna”

The Beatles - Lady Madonna

My current favorite Beatle is Paul

McCartney, as it should be for anybody who
is still a Beatles fan in their 40s. He’s the
reliable one, the survivor, the Beatle who
figured out how to depend upon craft once
his youthful energy and inspiration made
their natural exit. That McCartney is still
putting out albums regularly as he nears the
age of 80, in spite of having absolutely zero
artistic or financial imperative, speaks to his
confounding work ethic. But he had that in
The Beatles, too, essentially putting the
band on his back and carrying them through
their final years. In the case of “Lady
Madonna,” this is precisely the sort of “hit”
single that McCartney could will himself to
write during this period. I would never argue
that this is an outstanding Beatles song, but
I have heard it at least a thousand times and
it’s always likable. You could almost take it
for granted, but to me “Lady Madonna” is a
testament to the “doin’ work” side of
McCartney’s artistry. He had a job to do, and
he did it well.

90. “Hello Goodbye”

In that Playboy interview, “Hello Goodbye” is

one of about 47 Beatles songs that John
Lennon refers to as “a piece of garbage.”
But this, again, is more “doin’ work”-mode
McCartney, and one of the better examples
of him working in a proto-kiddie music style.
Anyone inclined to roll their eyes at “Hello
Goodbye” hasn’t spent enough time with
“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.”

89. “Eight Days A Week”

The Beatles - Eight Days A …

Another “piece of garbage” in Lennon’s

estimation, and I kind of see what he means.
On some days, “Eight Days A Week” can be
a little cloying. But I don’t blame the song for
that; I blame my own crappy mode on that
particular day. In fact, “Eight Days A Week”
is a good barometer for determining whether
you’re a hopeless crank — if that ringing
guitar intro and the infectious handclaps on
the chorus fail to lift your spirits, consult a
doctor immediately.

88. “You Can’t Do That”

One of the least comprehensible factoids

about The Beatles’ career is that John
Lennon didn’t like the sound of his voice.
This was among the driver of their studio
innovations; Lennon was always game to
transform his vocals into something strange
and alien. But Lennon, obviously, was in fact
a tremendous singer, and more often than
not his vocals elevate pretty good songs to
new heights. That’s certainly true of “You
Can’t Do That,” a southern American soul
pastiche that showcases the harder, more
rock ‘n’ roll timbres of the younger Lennon
style. (The backing vocals by McCartney
and Harrison are also excellent.)

87. “I Should Have Known Better”

The Beatles - I Should Hav…

Of the early (pre-Rubber Soul) albums, A

Hard Day’s Night is the best. It’s also
dominated by John, who took the lead on
the band’s first release to not feature any
covers. On “I Should Have Known Better,”
his early fascination with Bob Dylan isPrivacy
also