‘Flying’: The the most unnecessary entry in The Beatles’ catalogue
Anyone first getting into a band’s music needs a good place to start. The road to loving Nirvana is always going to go well when putting on ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, and there’s hardly any Queen fan who wouldn’t show someone ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ to their friends if they want instant appreciation of the magic the band could pull off in their prime. But when it comes to The Beatles, there are some places where you can almost go wrong.
The Fab Four have written the book on what catchy songs are supposed to sound like, and when going through some of their greatest tunes, it’s hard to pick one that says it all for them. ‘A Day in the Life’ is their acknowledged masterpiece by many, but who’s to say that something like ‘Hey Jude’ or even deep cuts like ‘Dear Prudence’ don’t do a better job at roping in new listeners than the critical consensus?
Granted, not all Beatles songs are created equal, and there are many moments where Fab fans tend to “forget” playing certain songs for their friends. It can either be the B-sides that were forgotten for a reason or the odd experiment that didn’t work out. But, when it comes to both the best and the worst of what the band had to offer, one only needs to look at their exploratory period when making Magical Mystery Tour.
Does that mean that the project is bad? Absolutely not. Any album that has tunes like ‘I Am the Walrus’ or ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ couldn’t even be considered mediocre by any stretch of the imagination, but in terms of the EP that was originally created to go along with the movie of the same name, ‘Flying’ is the one moment that feels the least necessary in the group’s catalogue.
Then again, it’s hard to bring myself to say that it’s downright terrible. The whole tune is based off a snippet of a 12-bar-blues style jam that they were working on, and it does at least have the distinction of being one of the only tracks that featured every single member as co-writers. However, the main melody hardly goes anywhere, and judging by the fact that it’s only played for a few minutes before slowly fizzling out, it makes it one of the most forgettable parts of their catalogue, even if it does have some fantastic sound effects towards the end.
Even Paul McCartney seemed to think that the song didn’t have what it took to be a proper Beatles track, saying, “The only thing to warrant it as a song is basically the melody, otherwise it’s just a nice 12-bar backing thing. It’s played on the Mellotron, on a trombone setting. It’s credited to all four, which is how you would credit a non-song.”
And while most people would single out a track like ‘Revolution 9’ as the absolute nadir of the band’s core studio albums, even that one serves more of a purpose. It may not have anything to do with what the band was working on and feels more like a John Lennon solo outing that happened to land on a Fab Four album, but it’s far more interesting to experience than the band sounding like they are coasting by on easy mode.
Nevertheless, this does get points for being the only proper “interlude” track to be included on a Beatles release, but that hardly does it any favours when stacked against every other song they have written. The Fab Four have made some fine records that will last in relevance and influence for hundreds of years, but there’s no point in returning to this tune unless someone has under their belt almost every other Beatles song.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Beatles Newsletter
All the latest stories about The Beatles from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.