#107: Old Brown Shoe

By far the most puzzling inclusion on the Red and Blue albums–seriously, how did this George Harrison-penned b-side make it onto a Beatles best-of?–“Old Brown Shoe” is an all-around enigma. When George was coming into his own as a writer with masterpieces like “Here Comes the Sun” and “Isn’t It a Pity,” he composed this oddball track, even recording a demo on the same day as “Something” and “All Things Must Pass.” And yet, as readers of this countdown know, I have an inherent bias towards George tracks, and so “Old Brown Shoe” has long been one of my random favorites.

This song is full of such bizarre non sequiturs that I don’t really see any issues with these lines. Practically every lyric seems like it was strung together to maintain the rhythm and rhyme structure that it actually kind of works in the song’s favor. Even a line like “For your sweet top lip I’m in the queue” doesn’t drive me crazy like it would otherwise. My favorite lyric is the second line, “I want a short-haired girl who sometimes wears it twice as long,” a way more interesting duality than anything offered up in “Hello Goodbye.” And so totally relatable, am I right?

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You guys, I literally made this exact same reference but with Anna Kendrick back in my “For You Blue” write-up. Come on, people, hold me accountable.
#107: Old Brown Shoe