Public Domain Wabbits

Posted on February 25, 2025February 25, 2025 Tagged animation, bugs-bunny, cartoons, fiction, looney-tunes

Folks, did you know that there are actually a handful of Bugs Bunny cartoons that you can do whatever the hell you want with? It’s true, I’m not just a rambling madman out here. Not this time. There’s something called “The Public Domain” which is little understood by the layperson and violently attacked with intent to demolish by giant corporations which means that you can stream these cartoons to an audience, you can screw and chop them like your favorite Mike Jones song, you can do (almost) whatever you can think of!

This isn’t legal advice, by the way. You know you’re treading a real thin line here with these cartoons so don’t get too excited about making millions off of a cartoon from the 40’s with the blackface edited out from the end – Warner Bros. will sue the shit out of you if you step outta line. But you can legally stream these toons to a crowd and suffer no repercussions. Which is neat.

I’m gonna forgo the infamous “Censored 11” racist Warner Bros. cartoons here which are all public domain and which are all absolutely fucked. Don’t worry about those. Or like, don’t watch them anyway. They’re worrying regardless.

Why are these cartoons in the public domain, anyway?: United Artists did a huge boo-boo around 1970 that saw them just straight up forget to renew the copyright on a ton of their short films and cartoons. A lot of pre-1948 stuff in their back-catalog got lost by the wayside in this cock-up and all of these shorts were victims of the same fate. All’s the better for us, I say.

The Wabbit Who Came to Supper (1942)

A Friz Freleng classic that had a ton of airplay on Cartoon Network’s Looney Tunes blocks, Toonheads, and even later on Boomerang that has a really fun, wonky ass art style that showcases just how difficult it is to draw Bugs Bunny (and it is, trust me, it is).

The Jist of It :Elmer Fudd receives a letter from his Uncle Louie bequeathing him three million dollars, which is like 500 billion dollars in today money or something close, just as long as he doesn’t harm a hair on an animal’s head, ever again — ESPECIALLY rabbits. Bugs takes horrible advantage of this by moving into Elmer’s house and making a huge pain of himself until Elmer is driven into a homicidal rage over and over again. What a stinker.

Fun fact: This cartoon is the first time EVER that Bugs Bunny crossdresses so everyone thank Friz Freleng for being a pioneer in drag and giving the world it’s most popular drag queen ever.

Recommended?: Yep!

The Wacky Wabbit (1942)

Maybe the most famous Looney Tunes related thing amongst Gen Z and infamous for being annoying as fuck on the internet to everyone else comes straight out of this short: Big Chungus. I do believe the only people who ever reference it in this day and age are millennials trying, and failing, to seem hip and with it though. This is a Bob Clampett cartoon, so you know it’s out of control wild and ridiculous with a gag a minute and no regard for any kind of forward-moving story; which is exactly how I like my toons. This one became public domain exactly as the one above did, btw.

The Jist of It: Elmer Fudd is out in the lonesome west to mine for gold, and is also a completely different design than usual for some reason, so Bugs decides to just bedevil the shit out of him for no reason. I mean apparently Elmer is even out here trying to get gold for the war effort, so Bugs is really on a villainous streak in this one. It is SUPER funny, though, it’s a huge recommend for my part.

Fun Fact: According to perhaps apocryphal sources, after this cartoon was produced Chuck Jones, another famous animator of Termite Terrace, pushed to establish a rule that Bugs Bunny must always be provoked by an aggressor before he starts ruining their life for comedy. He can never be the one to start to shit, only to end it. Several directors, including Bob Clampett again, would ignore this edict at few times going forward.

Recommended?: Absolutely!

Fresh Hare (1942)

Another Friz Freleng short, this one is fairly infamous for having it’s ending removed in most all modern releases and airings, and for good reason. It goes full blackface, right at the end, for absolutely no reason except honkeys of the era couldn’t get enough being ghoulishly racist, even in their wacky wabbit cartoons. For shame, Friz. Still, the rest of the cartoon is a good time and the powers that be felt it was better to edit out the shameful closing gaff than toss the baby out with the racist bathwater on this one.

The Jist of It: Bugs Bunny is wanted for a variety of crimes in the great white north that include, but aren’t limited to: Resisting an officer, assault and battery, trespassing, disturbing the peace, miscellaneous misdemeanors, public nuisance, traffic violations, going through a boulevard stop, jaywalking, triple parking, and naturally, conduct unbecoming to a rabbit. Enter: Elmer Fudd, Professional Mounty to bring him in for his crimes. This goes about as well for the portly hunter as you would imagine.

Fun Fact: This is the final appearance of the heavier set Elmer Fudd design they were trying out with the last few cartoons. He came and went in 1942, for some reason or another. I guess they felt his standard design wasn’t cutting the mustard, but they were wrong about the blatant bigotry and they were wrong about that – Elmer’s standard design is still going strong 80 years later.

Recommended?: To be real, you can probably skip this one. It’s alright without the ending but its indefensible with it.

Case of the Missing Hare (1942)

Chuck Jones is sort’ve synonymous with some of the best Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck shorts ever made but he’s also known as the guy who really ran these characters into the ground in later years so he’s always been a mixed bag to me. Not to take away from his big successes though, he’s a massive talent and one of my favorite directors from Termite Terrace – and this cartoon is an incredible example of those successes. It’s so incredibly well constructed, funny, and imaginative that I can still find new things about it on my 500th viewing that I never saw before. If I can stop braying like a jackass at every gag and joke, anyway.

The Jist of It: A sleazy magician is going around nailing a poster up for his show all over the place and won’t stop covering a hole in a tree that Bugs is currently living in – pretty much his front door – with the paper. When the magician goes a step too far by pieing him in the face, of course you realize it meant war. While the magician tries his damndest to put on his magic show, Bugs continually screw it over and makes a fool of him in front of the crowd. Such a great play on a magician pulling a rabbit out of his hat.

Fun Fact: This is the first short in the Warner Bros. catalog to break away from using the more lush hand-painted Disney-esque background art that was emblematic of toons of the time to begin using more abstract, modern art style backgrounds that would come more and more to represent WB’s toons later in their run. Whether you find that an appealing change or not depends on your personal tastes, I’m personally kinda on the fence about it since I like it both ways.

Recommended?: I couldn’t recommend it higher, honestly. It’s always been one of my favorites.

Wackiki Wabbit (1943)

Isn’t it funny what’s in the public domain? This feels like one of the most well-known cartoons in the world, not just Bugs Bunny, not just Warner Bros., but all toons. How many times have you seen one of the gags in this cartoon repeated across other toons, live action, even just referenced by people? That gag is someone starving, usually on the ocean for days such as in this short, looking at their companion and having them transform in their haggard, starved vision into a big turkey leg or a sandwich? That originates right here! This is another Chuck Jones joint and continues his push into more abstract background art – this one’s honestly a wild work of art for that. There’s maybe a little bit of island racism in this one. A soussant.

The Jist of It: Two men have been lost at sea for days and just before resorting to attacking and eating one another they make landfall – and discover Bugs Bunny waiting for them. They spend the runtime trying to cook and eat him and he spends the runtime styling all over them and ruining their plans. He even strands them on the island, presumably for the rest of their lives, by boarding a cruise ship meant to rescue them at the end. Don’t cross him. That’s a lesson we should all learn.

Fun Fact: The two castaways look exactly like if you had made ridiculous caricatures of two guys you know to get a laugh out of your friends because that’s exactly what they are. They are loving(?) caricatures of famous storyboard artist and animators Michael Maltese and Tedd Pierce. Hopefully the two of them fared better than their animated counterparts.

Recommended?: Yeah, it’s a classic!

A Corny Concerto (1943)

Not JUST a Bugs Bunny cartoon, A Corny Concerto is a three-part parody by director Bob Clampett of the seminal Disney movie classic “Fantasia” that was done with a real screwball attitude and a stuck out tongue to ol’ Walt across the street at the competitor’s offices. It uses Johan Strauss’ music, artfully arranged and embellished by longtime Warner Bros. cartoons musical maestro Carl Stalling, to illustrate three thrilling tales – but for the purposes of this post we’ll just focus on the first of them, “Tales from the Vienna Woods” starring Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig. Huge shout out to the introduction and intermezzo bits with Elmer Fudd’s suit going haywire. So gd funny.

The Jist of It: Porky Pig and his faithful, yet moronic, dog are hunting for Bugs Bunny specifically for some reason, as Porky holds a sign up which says “I’m hunting for that @!!*@ rabbit!!” Bugs tricks ’em and outplays ’em until after throwing a shotgun into a knothole and causing it to go off, all three think they’ve been shot and are now dying. But of course it’s revealed that Bugs is just wearing a bra and he slaps them and dances off – completed by falling on his ass. All of this is choreographed so closely to the music, and so perfectly, that it all feels like a wonderful operatic dance.

Fun Fact: This is one of three cartoons that Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig ever appeared in together during the classic era of Warner Bros. cartoons. Bugs cameod in “Porky Pig’s Feat”, which is one of my favorite cartoons ever AND is in the public domain, and Porky appeared in the Bugs Bunny toon Dumb Patrol. They also appeared together in a quick song and dance bit “Any War Bonds Today?” that was only released to by the US government during WWII, but I’m not sure that counts. It’s also super duper racist, unfortunately. Bugs and Porky have had a lot of interaction in the modern era though, where Bugs is somewhat protective of the little guy. Awww.

Recommended?: Hell yeah dude. If I ever do actually get off my lazy keister and make some classic cartoon videos or essays or whatever I’m for sure gonna call them “Corny Concerto” in honor of this short.

Falling Hare (1943)

Honestly, maybe Bob Clampett’s masterpiece as a director, in my personal opinion, Falling Hare is one of those rare cartoons where Bugs Bunny is on the losing side and getting the rough stuff instead of dishing it out. This is one I remember seeing constantly on Cartoon Network as a kid and I would never change the channel or turn on a game system when it was one, I was too busy laughing. And honestly, I’m still laughing every second of the runtime when I watch it to this day, it’s one of my top 10 all-time toons. To this day, whenever I catch myself about to do something stupid, I do my best Mel Blanc impression, and yell “WHAT AM I DO-ING?!”

The Jist of It: Bugs Bunny is hanging around an air force base during WWII, as you do, reading a nice book about hare power (can’t relate), when a gremlin shows up and starts making with the trouble. The entire exercise of the gremlin dunking on Bugs ends in a nosedive in a plane from 20,000 feet with some of the most hilarious wild-takes and gags ever put to film and a quick joke ending that never fails to make me laugh, even if the reference is dated as hell. That little gremlin is in short company being able to make a fool of Bugs like this, man. And boy, does he.

Fun Fact: There’s plenty of talk and supposition amongst movie historians, some folks who worked on the film, and those who knew the man himself that this particular cartoon was inspiration for Steven Spielberg and Joe Dante’s horror-comedy masterpiece of the 1980’s “Gremlins” and I for one totally believe it. As a huge fan of both, I’ve gotta.

Recommend?: I feel dumb that I added this section to all them because I’ve been so gung-ho about all but one, but HELL YES ABSOLUTELY watch this one. It’s so damn funny and the animation is wild and frantic and top notch. 10/10 tooning on this one, in my opinion.

So what did we learn today? Probably nothing besides some fun facts about some cartoons you can watch and share however you’d like. I would recommend looking up what being in the public domain means for shorts like this where the characters are still under copyright by a big scary heartless corporation cause I have absolutely no idea. I’m not lawyer, I’m an artist, which is barely a career these days I hear, so take everything I’ve said with a grain of salt.

But you can definitely get together with some of your friends and do a Bugs Bunny shorts marathon and have a great time for about two hours or something. Maybe rent out a theater! Hey, maybe I should rent out a theater and do that? Oh… yeah, I’m an artist and theaters cost money. Nevermind.

If you want some extra shorts to watch, there are actually quite a number of public domain Warner Bros. cartoon shorts and you can find the complete list right here on the convenient Looney Tunes wiki and all of them are available to watch, for free, on the Internet Archive with a quick search. Knock yourself out!

I love Bugs Bunny.

– – Jeff

Superman (1956) and “Hard Edge” Art

Posted on January 19, 2025 Tagged art, artist, drawing, painting

Hey folks,

I thought I’d take the time to talk a little bit about the genesis of this particular piece and how I went about making it because just looking at it doesn’t really portray the 40 hour struggle I went through and I’m nothing if not a big ol’ whiner so sttttraaappp in. For real though, I find this kinda thing interesting so hopefully you do too! I’ll use this as an opportunity to talk about my process on what I call “hard edge” art, as well.

I can’t really take credit for the concept of a 1952 Superman film starring Cary Grant as Superman and Yul Brynner as Lex Luthor, that was the brainchild of longtime supporter and often commissioner SquidLudwig, who came to me near the end of last year with this genuine diamond of an idea and knew exactly how much it was going to take from both of us to create from the ground up. His support and patronage has kept me going more often than he even knows so a huge thank you to him right out of the gate before we even start to talk a little bit more in-depth about the piece.

Now for those that don’t know, if you see a piece of art that is all flat colors and hard edges then I’ve made that art using nothing but Adobe Illustrator’s pen tool. And for those that don’t know how that pen tool is used (a blessed people) it’s used entirely with the mouse and you basically click points to create a continuous line – and connect the first and last to make a flat shape. You can obviously do more with it than that, but that’s how it’s done, with a mouse, and that’s how I’ve created almost every piece of art for M-Class Podcast for the last 8 years. What the fuck is wrong with me? I wouldn’t even know where to start. Looks good though, don’t it?

*A more obvious example of the flat shapes of color that interlock to make the image. Also just a fun joke.*

I used to call this type of art “color field” but that didn’t feel super descriptive, also meant something else, and was stupid. So now I call it “hard edge” because that’s for sure not taken for anything else, right? Well, it basically means that there is no rendering in this type of art – every color is completely standalone and has a hard edge against the next – no mixing, period. This creates either the illusion of mixing colors and representative light or the exact opposite which can also be pretty sick visually.

You can see the different hard edged fields of a single color a lot better when you zoom in on Luthor/Brynner’s face – some of them are actually quite large to showcase the planes of the face where light only hits in on direction, but most are incredibly small to give the impression of detail and light and shadow. You can also see at this level of magnification that I’ve done a lot less rendering on the city in the background and it looks a little bit more cartoony and less real but c’maaahhhhnnnn. That city took me a dozen hours easy as it is you want me to make it REALISTIC? You gotta be dicking my dick.

This becomes more difficult and time consuming the smaller the person is in the image but thankfully sizing is completely free in vector format so I can work large and size down. This does have it’s drawbacks though – I’ve learned that translating very intricate, detailed hard edge work from large to small ends up making the smaller character look really, really muddy and over-complex, so there’s a balancing act to it that’s necessary to maintain a cool looking art. Is anyone still reading this? Is this interesting?

This entire process is, as you could imagine, unbelievably time consuming. You could also imagine that maybe I’ve been trying to phase this out of my workflow a little bit to save my carpal tunneled ass wrist some torture; and you would be right. I’ve been attempting to create something as good utilizing standard art software like Photoshop or Clip Studio Plus (whenever I can pry myself away from work to make the full switchover.) This has had some successes and many failures.

*Me, Screamin’, 2024. Please don’t compare this piece to any memes. Thank you.*

I’ve found that using pastel brush equivalents in art software makes for an extremely fun and easy way to blend colors and render but it also does a decent job at more hard edge style art. It’s not 1-to-1 and has a different vibe, but it’s definitely the closest I’ve gotten to working. It almost comes off like a ‘sketch’ for what the regular Illustrator pen tool pieces look like, which is not the vibe I’m going for exactly, but IS a vibe I really fuck with so I’ve done a few pieces like this now. But I do imagine the pastel brush is just gonna be rendered fun pieces for the most part – it’s not a replacement.

Eagle-eyed viewers by now may have realized that this is just taking cel-shading to the nth level, above and beyond what most people do with it, and you wouldn’t be wrong at all. For those not dweebs: cel-shading is cartoon style style lighting of a piece, usually a character, with one or two colors of shadow and a light source – pretty much exactly what you see on cartoons past the Hanna-Barbera era and most all anime.

*A decent example of whatever it is I was talking about.*

And you can kinda see in her jacket that if I really, really put my mind to it I could replicate this style just utilizing standard cel-shading. But there is one big roadblock: too hard for baby. I have a shaky caffiene addict hand and the inability to make sharp corners with standard brushes that has annoyed the shit out of my since I first started trying to draw digitally. I am working on this though. I consider this the absolute way forward for not having to rely on Adobe for anything anymore – there aren’t any real Illustrator replacements or stand-ins out there at all that focus on making vectors with a pen tool in the same way (that I know of.)

So in the end, what exactly was this blog post about? I don’t know.

Thanks for reading!
– Jeff

The Beatles Listen-Thru 2024

Posted on January 10, 2025 Tagged beatles, john-lennon, music, paul-mccartney, the-beatles

I realized recently that even though I’m a huge fan of The Beatles (though I wouldn’t mention it in mixed company considering how frothingly angry people get when you listen to one of the most popular bands in history) I actually haven’t listened to all of their music. I had spent a lifetime listening to Singles, A-Sides, and B-Sides but there was a world of album tracks I’d never experienced before.

So I decided during the last few months of 2024 that I was going to listen through every one of their original albums (no re-releases or deluxe editions, what am I, a psycho?) and rate every song, and every album, based entirely on how I felt about them at the time I was listening. No re-do’s, no caveats, no excuses, no nothin’. Raw, real, and uncut like television shows used to say all the time while still being heavily edited to take out swear words.

I based my ratings on a scale of 1 to 10 and made definitive meanings for each rating that I used everywhere in my life – this is a great rubric for M-Class Podcast episode ratings btw – so here’s that:

1 – Shit. 2 – Terrible. 3 – Bad. 4 – Eh… 5 – Mid. 6 – Ok. 7 – Good. 8 – Great. 9 – Excellent. 10 – Masterpiece.

Here’s the fruits of that effort, as un-edited as the day I typed them into Google Docs – but with pictures for visual interest, I guess:

Please, Please Me (1963)

I Saw Her Standing There — 5/10 a good middle to start.
Misery — 7/10
Anna (Go to Him) — 1/10 wtf is this
Chains — 5/10
Boys — 6/10
Ask Me Why — 4/10
Please Please Me — 6/10
Love Me Do — 7/10 (gets stuck in my head a lot)
P.S. I Love You — 3/10
Baby It’s You — 3/10
Do You Want to Know a Secret — 6/10
A Taste of Honey — 2/10 this sucks
There’s a Place — 3/10 what’s with the fucking harmonica all the time
Twist and Shout — 10/10 I fucking love this song

Overall Score: 4/10. I was genuinely surprised by how much I liked the song Misery and how much I disliked so much of the rest of the album besides Love Me Do and all-time-banger Twist & Shout.

With the Beatles (1963)

It Won’t Be Long — 7/10 neat guitar/ bass riff
All I’ve Got to Do — 5/10, weird progression, I really dig the faster parts less so the rest
All My Loving — 7/10
Don’t Bother Me — 5/10
Little Child — 2/10 creepy as hell too
Til There Was You – 5/10 w/e
Please Mr. Postman – 9/10 best version of this song imo
Roll Over Beethoven – 6/10 it’s no Chuck Berry
Hold Me Tight – 4/10
You Really Got a Hold On Me – 8/10
I Wanna Be Your Man – 3/10
Devil in her Heart – 5/10
Not a Second Time – 5/10
Money (That’s What I Want) -7/10

Overall Score: 5/10 – This early Beatles stuff sounds straight out of the 1950’s, which I guess makes sense given that it’s 63 and they’re still mimicking their musical idols like Elvis and Chuck Berry. It works very well sometimes but for the most part it just seems too boring and derivative. It’s hard to believe some people PREFER early Beatles over their amazing later stuff.

A Hard Days Night (1964)

A Hard Days Night — 7/10
I Should Have Known Better – 4/10 honestly kind of annoying
If I Fell – 6/10 very 1950’s Frankie Valli
I’m Happy Just to Dance With You – 6/10
And I Love Her – 5/10
Tell Me Why – 8/10 this one actually sounds different! Wow! I dig it
Can’t Buy Me Love — 7/10
Anytime At All – 6/10
I’ll Cry Instead – 4/10 the turn toward good songs was nice while it lasted
Things We Said Today – 5/10 bog standard
When I Get Home – 6/10 some nice rhyme schemes
You Can’t Do That – 5/10
I’ll Be Back – 5/10

Overall Score: 5/10 – Genuinely better than the previous two albums as a whole, imo, but they’re still being held back by their adherence to trying to sound like their musical influences and less like themselves. The last albums did have higher highs but this one had a much better middle ground, though if I had to choose one to re-listen to it would be the first for Twist & Shout.

Beatles for Sale (1964)

No Reply — 6/10
I’m a Loser — 6/10
Baby’s in Black — 5/10
Rock and Roll Music — 5/10
I’ll Follow the Sun — 8/10 this is like early Beatles writing a late Beatles song. Would’ve been better by the later lads
Mr. Moonlight — 5/10
Kansas City/ Hey Hey Hey — 9/10 wow! SUPER good cover work, very up my alley
Eight Days a Week — 7/10
Words of Love — 4/10
Honey Don’t — 4/10 I guess?? what the fuck
Every Little Thing — 3/10
I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party — 5/10
What You’re Doing — 5/10
Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby — 6/10 except the guitar break which was 7

Overall Score: 6/10 – Started off pretty middle of the road then got pretty damn good in the middle and then fwoooooosh right down the toilet. I’ll Follow The Sun is a really good one I’ve never heard before, which was the point of this whole exercise

Help! (1965)

Help! — 7/10
The Night Before — 4/10
You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away — 6/10
I Need You — 5/10
Another Girl — 4/10
You’re Going to Lose That Girl — 6/10
Ticket to Ride – 9/10 love this song
Act Naturally — 5/10 what is with Ringo and country music anyway
It’s Only Love — 5/10 it was short
You Like Me Too Much — 4/10 kind of annoying
Tell Me What You See — 5/10
I’ve Just Seen a Face — 4/10 weird mismatch of vocals and music that feels off
Yesterday — 10/10 maybe it’s lame or cliche but I love this song. Feels like a MUCH later Beatles song
Dizzy Miss Lizzy — 6/10 the repeated riff is kind of annoying but I dig the song overall

Overall Score: 6/10 – Man I was tracking a direct uphill curve in quality until all the duds landed on this album. Thankfully Ticket to Ride and Yesterday are there for amazing singles (even if they sound like they should be four albums apart).

Rubber Soul (1965)

Drive My Car — 8/10
Norwegian Wood – 9/10 oh so THIS is the album they stop being the “early Beatles” on
You Won’t See Me — 8/10
Nowhere Man — 7/10
Think for Yourself — 5/10 damnit we were on a real roll there
The Word — 5/10 this is an early 90’s R&B girl group song. En Vogue should be singing this
Michelle — 4/10 “Eh…” fits this perfectly for me
What Goes On — 5/10 again with Ringo and the country
Girl — 7/10 honesty kinda silly but in a dumb fun way
I’m Looking Through You – 5/10 kind of annoying again but nice vocals
In My Life – 10/10 it just takes me away, wild harpsichord solo too lol
Wait — 7/10
If I Needed Someone — 6/10
Run For Your Life — 5/10 wow this one is fucked, sure hope it’s a narrative song of some kind but knowing Lennon… it’s mid as a song tho.

Overall Score: 7/10 – This is the record where The Beatles took their first big step into becoming the eclectic weirdos who kill it with every genre they fuck around in that I love. Unfortunately they do not kill it on every track but the high number of bangers makes up for it. Thank god too I was about to throw in the fucking towel for this listen through.

Revolver (1966)

Taxman — 5/10 the most terrifying monster known to any millionaire
Eleanor Rigby — 10/10 beautiful, but makes me deeply sad
I’m Only Sleeping — 9/10 my theme song
Love to You — 4/10
Here, There, and Everywhere — 9/10
Yellow Submarine — 8/10, the sound effects are annoying sometimes but I’ve got a soft spot for this song
She Said She Said — 7/10
Good Day Sunshine — 8/10
And Your Bird Can Sing — 9/10 I’d never heard this one before! I love it
For No One — 8/10 god damn tho
Doctor Robert — 6/10
I Want To Tell You — 6/10 really like the chorus
Got To Get You Into My Life — 9/10
Tomorrow Never Knows — 7/10

Overall Score: 9/10 – Alright, I completely understand how this is a lot of people’s favorite Beatles album and it’s so highly rated. Absolute bangers, weird experimental stuff, genuinely heart wrenching lyrics here and there, this album is a few dump tracks away from being a no-skip masterpiece.

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band — 9/10
With a Little Help From My Friends — 8/10
Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds — 7/10
Getting Better — 9/10
Fixing a Hole — 8/10
She’s Leaving Home — 7/10
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! — 7/10
Within You Without You — 6/10
When I’m Sixty Four — 7/10 one of McCartney’s “grandma songs” but my favorite of them
Lovely Rita — 7/10
Good Morning Good Morning — 7/10
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band – Reprise — 9/10 the extra rock instrumentation is so nice
A Day in the Life — 10/10

Overall Score: 9/10 – this is in contention for my personal favorite album and has far less boring bloat than Revolver imo but doesn’t maintain the same level of quality overall. A Day in the Life might be the objectively best Beatles song and always makes me feel melancholy and distant in a really good way.

Magical Mystery Tour (1967)

Magical Mystery Tour — 4/10 repetitive but sorta catchy?
The Fool on the Hill — 9/10 I’d never heard this either! So damn charming, love the instrumentation
Flying — 8/10 really chill and strange
Blue Jay Way — 8/10 threatening, also sounds kinda like a spooky Mario level?
Your Mother Should Know — 7/10 lol ur mama knows
I Am The Walrus — 8/10 Goo goo g’joob
Hello, Goodbye — 8/10 if any Beatles song was ever overplayed it was this one lol
Strawberry Fields Forever — 10/10
Penny Lane — 10/10
Baby, You’re a Rich Man — 5/10 this sounds like an early 80’s soft rock song wtf
All You Need is Love — 8/10

Overall Score 9/10 – A solid album with some incredible bangers on it with only a couple songs dragging it down a bit. Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane both have this bittersweet nostalgia in them that grips onto you and has you overlay your own nostalgic places overtop of them that’s unparalleled. I can’t choose which is my favorite.

The White Album (1968)

Back in the U.S.S.R — 8/10 always liked this tune, kind of a throwback tho
Dear Prudence — 7/10, sounds so much like folk rock of the mid-70’s but in 68
Glass Onion — 8/10 “remember these other songs we did? Fuck you, then.”
Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da — 9/10 I know a lot of people hate this song cause it’s so sickeningly sweet, that’s pretty much exactly why I love it
Wild Honey Pie — 4/10 this sucks but it was short
The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill — 7/10 do the Beatles lawyers know Tame Impala lifted this for eight different songs?
While My Guitar Gently Weeps — 9/10
Happiness is a Warm Gun — 8/10 this is where ELO lifted their entire steez from
Martha My Dear — 7/10 just a lovely little tune
I’m So Tired — 8/10 great representation of being exhausted by something pissing you off
Blackbird — 9/10
Piggies — 6/10 fun but I feel like I’m too removed from the context of this diss track
Rocky Raccoon — 9/10 damnit alright, you got me Beatles, you fucks, I ended up loving it
Don’t Pass Me By — 6/10
Why Don’t We Do It In The Road? — 7/10
I Will — 8/10
Julia — 7/10
Birthday — 7/10 like a really high quality birthday e-card song
Yer Blues — 8/10 very bluesy, VERY direct
Mother Nature’s Son — 6/10 really nice musically but feels like filler
Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey — 7/10 lol
Sexy Sadie — 7/10
Helter Skelter — 10/10 if I was Manson I’d name my killing spree after this great song too
Long Long Long — 8/10 real chill and ethereal
Revolution 1 — 8/10 I prefer the fucked up version with way too much reverb
Honey Pie — 6/10 schmaltzy
Savoy Truffle — 8/10 Night Courts
Cry Baby Cry — 7/10
Revolution 9 — this isn’t really a song, so fuck if I know
Good Night — 7/10

Overall Score: 8/10 – Very consistently good to great with very few less than stellar songs to drag it down, the album is still missing those bunch of absolute bangers that the last few albums had. Still solid but feels bloated overall.

Yellow Submarine (1969)

Yellow Submarine — 8/10 just like I gave it last time
Only a Northern Song — 4/10 a little too dissonant for me
All Together Now — 5/10
Hey Bulldog — 10/10 one of my favorite Beatles songs, period. Bouncy as all hell
It’s All Too Much — 9/10 weirdly modern? Really dig it but it’s definitely overlong
All You Need is Love — 8/10 again, just like last time
Pepperland — Not by The Beatles apparently
Sea of Time — same
Sea of Holes — yep
Sea of Monsters — you know it
March of the Meanies — uh-huh
Pepperland Laid Waste — righto
Yellow Submarine in Pepperland — they’re all by George Martin

Overall Score: 5/10 – So much repackaged from other albums but the saving grace is for sure Hey Bulldog (a massive favorite of mine) and It’s All Too Much a song I’d never heard before and ended up loving. Overall feels real cash-grabby though.

Abbey Road (1969)

Come Together – 9/10 massive earworm
Something – 8/10
Maxwell’s Silver Hammer – 7/10 it’s a song about a serial killer who uses a hammer, c’mon
Oh! Darling – 8/10
Octopus’ Garden – 7/10 it’s a sweet song tbh
I Want You (She’s So Heavy) – 10/10
Here Comes The Sun – 9/10 so lovely
Because – 7/10 weird n fun
You Never Give Me Your Money – 7/10
Sun King – 5/10 barely a song
Mean Mr. Mustard – 6/10 nice beat
Polythene Pam – 6/10
She Came In Through The Bathroom Window – 8/10
Golden Slumbers – 7/10
Carry That Weight – 7/10 kind of a reprise
The End – 6/10 (last 15 seconds rules tho)
Her Majesty – 7/10 just a little ditty

Overall Score: 8/10 – Talk about a fucking front-loaded album, dude. The first half of this album is nothing but banger after banger and some of the best music The Beatles ever made and then it just Peter’s off from Sun King onward. I remember this being a point better and don’t know why.

Let it Be (1970)

Two of Us – 9/10 that kinda painful nostalgia
Dig a Pony – 7/10
Across the Universe – 10/10
I Me Mine – 8/10
Dig It – 1/10 what the fuck is this
Let it Be – 10/10 maybe the most overplayed Beatles song but for really good reason.
Maggie Mae – 6/10 cute.
I’ve Got a Feeling – 10/10 one of my favorites
One After 909 – 8/10 bouncy and bluesy, VERY Blues Brothers a decade early
The Long and Winding Road – 9/10 wistful
For You Blue – 7/10 they don’t even sound that into it lol
Get Back – 8/10 weird that it’s a transphobic song that gets the trans woman’s pronouns correct the whole time lol

Overall Score: 9/10 – Going out with a bang, for sure. Some of the best songs in their entire history mixed with some still-pretty good tunes though the album itself is really short so something like Dig It sticks out like a sore thumb in the middle of all these genre-defining tracks. Seriously what the fuck IS that song?

My final thoughts: I was like 99% certain this exercise was gonna make me lose my interest in The Beatles for at LEAST a little while but it honestly introduced me for a bunch of great new songs by them I’d never heard before and has firmly entrenched me even further as a fan. Shame about the lads themselves and their personal lives and whatnot but they definitely knew how to make some damn good tunes across a bunch of genres.

I’m actually kind of interested in doing this with other bands I’ve always loved but haven’t done the deepest dive into just yet – starting with Talking Heads. That’s for sure gonna be my next little fun side-project like this.

Was this interesting to anyone else? No.

— Jeff