More on the Beatles

I had a friend who asked me about the connection between who the primary Beatles song writer on a song was and who did the vocal and whether McCartney's or Lennon's or Harrison's vocal was indicative that he was responsible for the primary songwriting.

That is absolutely correct about the lead singers indicating the primary song writer for any individual Beatles composition. Lennon and McCartney did try to write one song per album for Ringo. They did this for George I believe, on a couple of occasions but most of George's vocals were competent covers like Roll Over Beethoven until he began writing enough songs in about 1965 so that that was no longer necessary. George wrote a couple of songs and hits for Ringo, where Ringo got credit but it seems clear who wrote the song, like Octopus Garden and It Don't Come Easy, which was an excellent song and hit for Ringo in 1971. There Harrison and Starr shared writing credit but given the ubiquitous Youtube videos of George performing the song first, and arguably better with more of a Hare Krishna-bent, I think that Harrison was trying to help out his friend by letting him do the vocals.

Ringo sang the song at the Bangladesh Concert and clearly forgot the words halfway in, grinning the whole time. Lennon refused to attend/perform at Bangladesh since Yoko wasn't invited, so Harrison got Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan instead, arguably an upgrade. I don't think that George invited McCartney to play at all. From what I can discern, Harrison despised McCartney after 1968 and Let It Be the movie seems to indicate the early initiation of this dislike.

Returning to the initial point, something that buttresses my friend's belief about this is that Lennon himself said as much when asked about the song, Oh! Darling, on Abbey Road. Lennon felt that the song was particularly suited to his vocal talents and wanted to perform it but that since it was Paul's song, that wasn't really an option. Paul's version was pretty good but I think that Lennon might have exceeded it based on other covers of this time that he did and would do, later, on a cover album of rock and roll standards in the 70's.

Another thing that can tell you who was the primary song writer between Lennon and McCartney has to do with who plays lead guitar. With rare exceptions like Harrison's Tax Man, where McCartney played lead guitar, if McCartney plays lead guitar, then it is his song. Harrison always played lead guitar on what were primarily Lennon's compositions and almost always on his own composition or those for Ringo, and usually for McCartney as well. I think that McCartney ended up playing lead guitar around 20 times on Beatles songs and most of them were songs that he primarily wrote like Paperback Writer and Helter Skelter and probably Back in the USSR, although there are conflicting records on that one. McCartney could play multiple instruments, including drums, competently and is deemed to be an excellent bass guitarist and a very good guitar player and pianist. I have trouble comparing drumming but McCartney's drumming always sounded okay to me. On his first solo album, McCartney (surprising title), he played essentially everything himself so you can see where his ego was taking him and just how talented he was.

On some songs, it can be difficult to tell who is playing which instrument with respect to lead, rhythm and bass guitars. Where there are records of the line-ups, they can also be suspect at times. I spend time now and again trying to research such things. And Your Bird Can Sing has thrilling guitar work, most likely featuring both Harrison and McCartney. On She Said, She Said, Harrison played bass guitar and lead, I believe. McCartney believes that this was the only Beatles song not to feature him at all after a row led him to leave recording early one night. The way that Harrison's guitar repeats the tone of Lennon's vocals is amazing. The only unclear issue with this song is whether or not McCartney played bass guitar but it appears to have been Harrison, especially since McCartney himself doesn't believe that he played bass guitar on that track and McCartney is not usually one to deny himself credit.

Harrison's guitar work in general during the Revolver sessions was electrifying and made songs like Rain and Dr. Robert what they were but on the great Paperback Writer from those sessions, being a McCartney song, that is Paul blazing away almost heavy metal-like. It appears, although I have my doubts, that it was McCartney playing the great lead on Ticket to Ride, although I believe that song was closer to a true collaboration by Lennon/McCartney. Then the Beatles started Sgt. Pepper and Paul was orchestrating everything according to some, and Harrison ended up barely playing lead on the record at all and some dispute whether songs like Fixing a Hole are him or McCartney on lead. I think that Sgt. Pepper is where things started to break down and Paul was seen as trying to take over.

Had it not been for the song Within You Without You, on which only Harrison performed with Indian musicians, and no other Beatles, Harrison would have barely featured on Sgt. Pepper at all. However, because that side two opening song was so long and haunting and integral to the feeling/meaning of Sgt. Pepper, it was not as noticeable as it might have been that George wasn't getting many chops. Harrison was shuffled aside a bit and his songs were put on the Magical Mystery Tour EP and Yellow Submarine, which was half new songs and half album soundtrack and which were less prestigious than full albums in England. As an aside, I have all of the Beatles British  EPs on CD with all of the original album sleeves and artwork and that EP collection is well worth owning.

When the White Album and Abbey Road came, Harrison had moved away from Indian music and started producing guitar-based compositions again and the results are thrilling, especially on some of the Lennon compositions. Harrison came up with most of the riffs for Lennon and deserves much more credit for many of the songs' successes. Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and my Monkey has scorching lead guitar as does Yer Blues. Harrison's guitar work just screams and makes songs like Come Together and I Want You So Bad (She's So Heavy). You Never Give Me Your Money is another amazing song of the type the Beatles had, not a single but as good as any single. "1,2,3,4,5,6,7, all good children go to heaven...." On Octopus's Garden, Harrison adds a twangy country guitar to Ringo's languid lyrics saving things. His guitar work on The End is sublime. To give Paul his due, he plays lead guitar on Helter Skelter which is both great and scorching. Harrison does play guitar on Helter Skelter and has some thrilling riffs but it is background. For lack of a better term, Paul's leads on Paperback Writer and Helter Skelter have a throbbing quality that Harrison's lack. Harrison's guitar is more melodic and twangy but I cannot always tell which is which, which shows that they both could be excellent. Everyone seems to agree that Eric Clapton played lead on While My Guitar Gently Weeps but the style in which he plays it is so close to George's that I would have loved to have heard George have a take on it. George's acoustic version was not chosen for the album but is equally haunting with extra verses.

Another rule of thumb that I have for remembering who wrote certain songs is that if the song is really bad, then Paul wrote it. Of course, there aren't many. Paul wrote When I'm Sixy-Four, Your Mother Should Know, Honey Pie and Maxwell's Silver Hammer, four pretty dreadful outings by Beatle standards. John and George would probably not have  pushed for such offbeat mediocre songs being included. On the other hand, many of the most melodic and beautiful Beatles songs are by Paul, including Hey Jude, Let it Be, Yesterday and the Long and Winding Road, among others less well-known like For No One and Here, There and Everywhere from Revolver. Surprising to many, George wrote Here Comes the Sun, as well as Something, which I believe is the Beatles second most covered song after Yesterday.

Back to the guitar playing, with a couple of exceptions, any "thrilling" leads are played by Harrison or McCartney. Lennon did not seem particularly interested in the guitar but he had a couple of moments on the White Album. Dear Prudence has beautiful acoustic guitar work by Lennon, in a style that he learned in India from the Scottish singer and pop star, Donovan, primarily now known for Season of the Witch as well as for the amazing song, Atlantis, featured in the movie Goodfellas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AUEjzVQwKo

Here and there people argue about whether a certain guitar part might be Lennon but for the most part the four had pretty clear duties and only Harrison and McCartney had much overlap. The way that I perceive it, as do many, is that towards the end, there were essentially three working groups. There was a McCartney group; a Lennon group and a Harrison group and they often featured similar line-ups. As things played out, this meant that Lennon either skipped entirely many Harrison compositions or was only marginally involved after 1966. Strangely enough, the reverse was not true as Harrison was essential to almost every Lennon song and plays lead on virtually all of them. The Ballad of John and Yoko is one that I can think of that didn't feature Harrison or Ringo at all but this was in many ways barely a Beatles song at all and fits in better with the solo works like Cold Turkey and Instant Karma by Lennon and Yoko. This may simply be due to Lennon being a lesser musician on the guitar and piano and not as needed on the McCartney and Harrison tunes as McCartney and Harrison were needed on the Lennon and Harrison songs.

One interesting thing that is beginning to happen is that Starr is beginning to see his reputation as a drummer rise as time goes on. First off, he seems to be a decent sort and long-lived. Although Starr, Lennon and Harrison all had children who had a lot of musical talent, only Starr's son, Zak made it relatively big, being the drummer for Oasis for a while. The other thing is that there is a movement now to view Starr and Harrison in particular as having served the group's songs rather than their own purposes the way that so many groups did it in the 70's and later with drummers and lead guitarists being "heroes", and playing long extended solos on their instruments.

The Beatles' solo recording reputations in general during the 70's are up for re-evaluation. At the time their solo work was sometimes seen as lack-luster. Viewed now in the light where we see that virtually no solo artist can maintain high quality output compared to the group from which he emerged, it seems very, very good. Where is Mick Jagger's or Keith Richards' or Pete Townsend's acclaimed string of solo works? Robert Plant and Jimmy Page have done little better as soloists, nor have the former members of Pink Floyd. Paul Simon is a better comparison but I would rather listen to Paul McCartney's solo work or Harrison's or Lennon's. Every critic agrees that there were three great solo albums, and several more enjoyable ones by former Beatles, even a couple by Ringo; find me three great solo albums, or even only the three enjoyable ones, if that is too hard, by ex-members of any other former famous group.

Up to the point of Lennon's death, I see no diminution in the talent, or in the quality of the various songs written by the big three. Had the Beatles lasted until 1980, they would have been every bit as successful in the 70's as they had been in the 60's and you can tell this by putting together mix tapes of compilation albums. A 1971-72 era Beatles album might have had songs like Maybe I'm Amazed, Mother, It Don't Come Easy, Isn't it a Pity, My Sweet Lord, Imagine, Well, Well, Well, Uncle Admiral Albert Halsley, Wah Wah, etc. 1973-74 would have had Give Me Peace on Earth, Jet, Band on the Run, Hi HI Hi, Mind Games and some of the well-regarded Lennon work that did not go out or do well as singles. In 1979, both McCartney and Harrison put out pretty good albums and Lennon was working on several very good songs that came out on John and Yoko's Double Fantasy and Lennon's Milk and Honey, which should have been one album of only Lennon. There were light songs by all three; religious songs, anti-war and political songs. None of that really changed but as they were now solo artists, it became much more of a burden to fill 10 to 14 song slots alone without diminution in quality. I will say that I only view one post-Beatles solo work as fully standing up to the Beatles work on its own and that is of course, All Things Must Pass, George Harrison's thrilling and sprawling triple album released in 1970 just months after Let It Be. You want top singles? Take three and the number one hit, My Sweet Lord. You want mindful introspection about life? It is here.  Ballads? There are beautiful ones like Apple Scruffs. Fancy guitar work and drumming? It's here. You want extended guitar jams that were then becoming the rage? You find them  on the third record. Two full sides of interesting and thrilling guitar work (some might argue meaningless) by Harrison, Clapton and others. Signature sound? Harrison's new-found bottle guitar sound similar to that in the song, Something, is All Things Must Pass's trademark as is the Phil Spector/Harrison Wall of Sound production. A triple album going number one and platinum was unheard of. One interesting thing is that it is easy to find this record on vinyl in good condition. My theory is that the album box was so large that it made the record a bit harder to take out and put back because you can't just slide the album back in the normal way you do even with double albums. Here you got a box and since it is a bit of a hassle to deal with, I usually listen to this one on CD.

The Beatles changed my life and the way that I view the world. It is funny because when I was coming of age, the Beatles were relatively unpopular, for the Beatles, only of course. None of my friends listened to the Beatles. It was all Boston and Led Zepplin and the Who and and ACDC, and disco and punk were big. They never used to play the Beatles on classic rock and then somehow the Beatles got more popular again in society a relative way. For me, it was the cheesy movie, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band that featured Steve Martin and a variety of other talent. I liked the song Come Together by Aerosmith so I bought the 8-track and then quickly bought the original album and the Blue and White compilation albums and began making my own cassettes and taking my cassette player to school and showing my Christian classmates how great the Beatles were. Many kids from my generation were unaware that Paul McCartney had even been a Beatle. Why would he need to have been? He still was about the biggest thing going. I was a big Paul McCartney and Wigs fan in the 70s, together with the Beatles also. Harrison's and Lennon's great music of the 70s came right after the break-up when I was too young to appreciate it as it came out.