The Fake Internet Court of Australia
GOD ONLY KNOWS (Beach Boys) v YESTERDAY (Beatles) [2022] - Judgement
H3080/1
Could you please have a look at this?
- Name Withheld.
https://twitter.com/RockNRoLL_85/status/1576006033319034882
Is “God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys a better song than “Yesterday” by The Beatles?
- @RockNRoLL_85 via Twitter, 1st Oct 2022.
Sometimes it is brought to this fake internet court's attention that there needs to be objective decisions made for subjective questions. While the general principle that "people like what they like" is a good one and as a result, this fake internet court does not want to impose its will upon people's likes and dislikes, the question posed is asking for an opinion of quality and not preference. As a self-appointed judge of a fake internet court, not only do I have the jurisdiction to make a definitive ruling on this but it would be churlish of me not to.
We shall examine the two songs from a technical perspective as well as making a purely subjective judgement on this subject. The unsaid puzzle that lies at the heart of the problem is an existential one; namely, can art actually be 'better' than other art?
Discovery:
"God Only Knows" is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1966 album Pet Sounds. The Beach Boys if they didn't invent the Surf Rock movement of the 1960s, are at least one of the genre's brightest lights.
"God Only Knows" was written by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher and I guess that you could call it as almost a Baroque-style love song, which is strange given the kinds of songs which were on the radio at the time; which probably helped to add to its memorability. As is the want of people to superlatise everything, I found one review of this song which called it "one of the greatest songs ever written and on the Beach Boys' finest record".
I have no idea what key that this is supposed to be written in. I think that in some parts, the closest that it ever gets to a I chord of E major and in other parts, the closest that it gets to a I chord is A major. This is very confusing if you're trying to do any serious analysis on it; as the tonal centre of the song is rather weak (if indeed it has one at all).
Second to this, I suspect that all of the chords have been inverted. Assuming that one of the tonal centres is E major, then we should expect to find at least one E major triad with its bass note in the root. I do not think that we get that at all. I suspect that what we get are 6/4 triads. Thirdly, the song employs multiple contrapuntal vocal lines and a brass section; both of which add to the bigness of the sound.
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"Yesterday" on the other hand is the second last song on the album Help! by the Beatles. Outside of this particular question, the Beatles have been frequently put on lists as contenders for the greatest band of all time.
"Yesterday" opens with F7, moving to Em7, then A7 and Dm. If you're going to try and do any kind of technical analysis, then this probably has Dm as the I chord; which is where the structure is trying to return to. The second part of the song starts Em7, then A, Dm, B♭, before resolving back to F major. This is a classic bait-and-switch from McCartney who very obviously wrote this even through it is credited as Lennon/McCartney.
Suddenly, it's not half the trick it used to be. We can now resolve the tonic key. Now "Yesterday" comes easily. What we have here is a song with tonic key of F major; with the added bonus of a string section and Paul McCartney playing chords as though the song was in G but with his guitar tuned down a whole step.
The addition of a string section which happens in a lot of pop music, just like the brass section in "God Only Knows" add to the bigness of the sound because it is employed as a tonal drone.
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These are the facts as this court sees them: These two songs being different in character, are by proof of their longevity, memorable. They are also technically brilliant; which is arguably one of the reasons why they have both been remembered as fondly as they are. Having said that, not being technically brilliant is not an impedance to being memorable and neither is being technically brilliant an indicator that a song will be memorable. Music which survives and is remembered is ultimately because people like it.
Neither of these songs rock particularly hard and in fact it is very difficult to argue that "Yesterday" for instance, is a rock song at all. It is a guitar song which is being played with string accompaniment. This is important as this hints at what both of these songs are in fact trying to do.
By employing relatively weak tonal centres, both "God Only Knows" and "Yesterday" are trying to establish a general feeling of ambiguity and more importantly, the fragility of life, love and loss. If this is in fact a point of the songs, then we're closer to arriving at which is 'better'.
Judgement:
Objectively this court can not make any other ruling than "God Only Knows" is technically a better song. Whilst it is true that McCartney does throw us a fake I chord, it is Wilson who gives a song without a centre. As far as trying to establish the fragility and vulnerability of the singer, then this level of musical doubt, is brilliant.
However, since this court is trying to make an objective decision for a subjective question then "Yesterday" will have to win. The reason for this is that if we harken back to that general principle that "people like what they like", then we have to employ a general test. This court suspects that if both of these songs were being played on a jukebox or by a band at a pub, or being played at a party at someone's house, then it is "Yesterday" which will be sung by more people. Yes it will be sung loudly and badly and flat and with less sense of melody but that is the point of the 'pop' in a pop song. 'Pop' means that it is popular and while being popular is not necessarily a measure of which is 'better', this court has to imagine that the man on the Croydon omnibus, the lady on the Bondi tram, Joe Bloggs and Betty Brown from Sydney Town, would all arrive at this conclusion.
This court hereby decides that "Yesterday" is better than "God Only Knows" but that people are still free to like what they like.
- ROLLO75 J
(this case will be reported in FILR as H3080/1 - Ed)
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