It’s quite fitting that “Good Morning, Good Morning” is followed on the ranking by my response any time someone says that to me…”I’m So Tired.” This is one of those songs that really displays why the White Album is the Beatles’ best album while being pound-for-pound their worst. Individually, I’d consider “I’m So Tired” solid, maybe even intriguing, but not outstanding. In the context of the controlled chaos that is the White Album, though, it works perfectly.

John’s cool, hazy vocal delivery perfectly suits his hesitant lyrics during the verses, but like any bout of restlessness, the chorus packs a passionate punch. The song is probably best known for directly dissing Sir Walter Raleigh (“he was such a stupid git”), the man who helped spread tobacco use in Britain and therefore contributed to John Lennon’s insomnia (because of the nicotine, you see). Man, I wish I could blame all my problems on historical figures. Damn you, William Shakespeare; you ended sentences with prepositions and now I do that after. Hey Jonas Salk, you invented the polio vaccine and made it financially not viable for me to pursue my dream of developing a designer line of expensive status symbol crutches. And Abigail Adams, you know what you did.

Don’t even look at me.

 

I have to highlight a particular 10-second stretch of “I’m So Tired” that I especially love, starting at 15 seconds in. The guitar jolts that underscore the line “I wonder should I get up and fix myself a drink” tease an immediate energy boost, but appropriately drift into gentle strums as John cries out, “No, no, no!” Immediately after that he delivers the title in a drowsy yawn–maybe not quite a golden Beatles moment but I dig it.