Peter Goldstein writes:

>I've been a big Beatles fan since they first appeared on Ed Sullivan,
>and I'd rank "In My Life" somewhere around, oh, let's say, my 90th favorite
>Beatles song.  On a good day.  I've never met anyone who thought it was
>their best song (of course, there are lots of people I haven't met).
>So--if there is such a thing as a "classic," who gets to say so? Critics?
>Musicians? Average people?

A very good question given that the same group rated "Satisfaction" by
the Rolling Stones as the second best.  I searched for what must have been
their criteria given the top10 they picked.  Few were extroidinary from
the point of view of music, therefore I concluded that the words were an
important part of their thinking, that is, how well did the words reflect
some great insight into human emotions.  "In My Life" is actually a love
song as the second verse indicates:

There are places I'll remember all my life, though some have changed Some
forever, not for better, some have gone and some remain All these places
had their moments with lovers and friends I still can recall Some are dead
and some are living, in my life I've loved them all

But of all these friends and lovers, there is one compares with you And
these memories lose their meaning when I think of love as something new
I know I'll never lose affection for people and things that went before I
know I'll often stop and think about them, [but] in my life I love you more

And he hadn't even met Yoko yet, for whom he sacrificed these very things.

The Satisfaction number also expressed the feelings of America's youth
(perhaps the world's).  The curious thing there is that the American
yuppies were the most fortunate generation ever in human history.  One
wonders why they couldn't be satisfied, maybe it all came too easy.

The other songs also express dreams, emotions and reality.  But who knows.
Its not my favorite either.

Bill Pirkle