Flying

Richard Furnstein: Hey man, get in the car and let's do drugs. Oh wild, look at that bird flying backwards. Do they usually do that? These organ hits are perfectly in time with the streetlights racing by. Whoops, we just drove off a bridge, luckily gravity is really slow in this world. The ocean is miles away from us. I'm being engulfed by clouds!

Robert Bunter: You've got a really good point there. We're tripping gently through Pepperland on this track, with psychedelic tape loops and mellotrons and boring music. If memory serves, this is the only Beatles song credited to all four members. I'd like to quote the late Nicholas Schaffner on this one: "Although few would file it under the Beatles' Great Works, 'Flying' has received more radio exposure than all but a handful of their songs. For countless disc jockeys soon discovered in this ethereal, infectious theme an ideal way to fill up those awkward odd moments before the hourly news: because there were no words, it didn't seem rude to chatter at the same time, or to phase it out mid-song."

I have to call bullshit on that one - probably Nicholas heard it once on the air and decided it was a permanent trend. But, I wish that it were true. I would love to listen to a radio station that plays trippy Beatles music before the hourly news.

Richard Furnstein: This song proves that Ringo is the LOUDEST Beatle. George Martin should have told Normal Smith to get Ringo to step away from the mic a bit. Maybe that would be the job of the Abbey Road tea boy. Either way, how is gentle George Harrison supposed to compete with that bellowing monster?