11 thoughts on “62: The Music and Artistry of Beatle Paul”

  1. Great show!! Isn’t it so great to have those isolated tracks? Wow! Well done. Informative, insightful and you both agreed! (Hey, I don’t mind when you disagree)…

    How about a show on “Where are they now?”. The Beatles had some key folks in their inner circle… but where are they? What did they contribute? What happened when they left the inner circle? I’m thinking of Jimmy Nichol, Magic Alex, Murray the K, Klaus Voormann, etc.

    Keep up the great podcast!

  2. Great show!! Isn’t it so great to have those isolated tracks? Wow! Well done. Informative, insightful and you both agreed! (Hey, I don’t mind when you disagree)…

    How about a show on “Where are they now?”. The Beatles had some key folks in their inner circle… but where are they? What did they contribute? What happened when they left the inner circle? I’m thinking of Jimmy Nichol, Magic Alex, Murray the K, Klaus Voormann, etc.

    Keep up the great podcast!

  3. Great episode,keep them coming! Would love to hear a programme dedicated to George’s seventies output.Just a thought!

  4. Great episode,keep them coming! Would love to hear a programme dedicated to George’s seventies output.Just a thought!

  5. Back to top form boys after imo some hiccups with the Grunge & Monkees casts – my top 10 Paul Beatles would be And I Love Her, What You’re Doing, You Won’t See Me, For No One, Hey Jude, I Will, Birthday, Mother Nature’s Son, Oh Darling & the Golden Slumbers medley. No accounting for personal taste eh? Thank God we all like different things (to a degree).

  6. Back to top form boys after imo some hiccups with the Grunge & Monkees casts – my top 10 Paul Beatles would be And I Love Her, What You’re Doing, You Won’t See Me, For No One, Hey Jude, I Will, Birthday, Mother Nature’s Son, Oh Darling & the Golden Slumbers medley. No accounting for personal taste eh? Thank God we all like different things (to a degree).

  7. One other song that George created the guitar lick was Ticket To Ride. In an interview in the 90’s (Musician?), George mentioned being shown the song and then grabbing his 12 string Rickenbacker and coming up with the signature lick.

    Great episode, examining Paul’s evolution during the Beatle years as musician, songwriter, and driving force in the band.

  8. One other song that George created the guitar lick was Ticket To Ride. In an interview in the 90’s (Musician?), George mentioned being shown the song and then grabbing his 12 string Rickenbacker and coming up with the signature lick.

    Great episode, examining Paul’s evolution during the Beatle years as musician, songwriter, and driving force in the band.

  9. This was a wonderful program.

    You two give me more Beatles-related pleasure than anything since The Beatles themselves.

    Rick

  10. This was a wonderful program.

    You two give me more Beatles-related pleasure than anything since The Beatles themselves.

    Rick

  11. Paul was driving force in the Beatles. He was the “hit maker”, had the most versatile voice, was the “ideas man”, had the vision and intelligence, and the most imaginative and original, not only in the Beatles, but in music. To diminish his output after the Beatles is the same as saying the Beatles would never be as great as they were in the sixties. His gifts and originality have remained just as sharp as they ever were. The problem through the years is that the musical culture and landscape have changed to fit each generation and the quality thereof diminished. Pop music has disintegrated to nothingness. New generations demanding their uniqueness yet dependent on artists with little talent to lead the way is why Paul McCartney’s talent seemed lesser after the Beatles. Those who don’t see this are really missing the mark. The other Beatles not being a part of his music is redundant. He was the same. I loved the Beatles– John had a charismatic voice, George was special, as was Ringo, but without McCartney, you had very little. He was the big talent. Then and after. Just my thoughts.

  12. Paul was driving force in the Beatles. He was the “hit maker”, had the most versatile voice, was the “ideas man”, had the vision and intelligence, and the most imaginative and original, not only in the Beatles, but in music. To diminish his output after the Beatles is the same as saying the Beatles would never be as great as they were in the sixties. His gifts and originality have remained just as sharp as they ever were. The problem through the years is that the musical culture and landscape have changed to fit each generation and the quality thereof diminished. Pop music has disintegrated to nothingness. New generations demanding their uniqueness yet dependent on artists with little talent to lead the way is why Paul McCartney’s talent seemed lesser after the Beatles. Those who don’t see this are really missing the mark. The other Beatles not being a part of his music is redundant. He was the same. I loved the Beatles– John had a charismatic voice, George was special, as was Ringo, but without McCartney, you had very little. He was the big talent. Then and after. Just my thoughts.

  13. Love your guys’ show. I’m a recent discoverer of it, having listened to others that don’t measure up.

    GREAT topic for a show here. I’ve always wanted someone to address McCartney’s dominance in the studio and how he’d ‘dictate’ to the others what to play (not my choice of terms). I’m a musician as well and I can TOTALLY see Paul coming in and saying “I have an idea for this song and I want it to go like this”. I mean- WHO the heck would challenge his judgement? The fact that George constantly whined about that is ridiculous and tells more about George (and John when he’d do it) than Paul.

    As you guys said, Paul WANTED to ALWAYS be a Beatle. I don’t think Paul ever thought “oh, this will make me look better than the other three” by doing things like “Yesterday” or “Eleanor Rigby”, etc. He’d always wanted them to be The Four-headed Monster. I just think that he was trying new stuff all the time and the other’s egos (especially after drugs)couldn’t deal with it. Granted, Paul did some crap (as, again George and John are always quick to point out).

    Also, it’s interesting to note in the demo that you play of “Yesterday”, where Paul’s got his acoustic detuned a full step, you hear George go “What key is it in?” Paul explains that he’s playing it in G “But it will be in F FOR YOU”. That tells me that, at least in the beginning, Paul was viewing this as something that the other guys would be playing on. Why would he be showing it to them and discussing how the others’d play it? If he was the ego maniac everyone said he was (regarding this tune especially) then he’d have just gone in and recorded it on his own without the others even being there. By the way GREAT to hear the stringless version here.

    I think maybe that it was George Martin that said “Hey, this is more a solo thing” (as he’s mentioned). If anything, the others should be a bit miffed at GM for suggesting something like that that would feature someone else. And yet… they played it on Ed Sullivan, they played it on the Blackpool show, and they played it (rather crappily) on the 66 tour.

    One more thing – You always hear people refer to the “Let it Be” scene where Paul is explaining what he wants in the guitar break for “I’ve Gotta Feeling”. In that scene George is playing the line terribly. Paul is trying to explain that he wants a continuous note coming down. Now, I’ve never thought that it was the ‘big row’ everyone said that it was (even under oath apparently). In fact, Paul tries to smooth it over so as not to upset George. Watch the scene closely. He’s not being nasty in any way to George, he’s just saying what he’d like to get on HIS song. Paul said what he said and now it’s all this…
    Anyway, just seems that “Us being sidemen for Paul” is WAY the heck overblown. Gotta wonder – if acid hadn’t come in and f’d up John’s ego and (possibly George’s) if they’d have that same attitude.
    Rambled on, sorry.

  14. Love your guys’ show. I’m a recent discoverer of it, having listened to others that don’t measure up.

    GREAT topic for a show here. I’ve always wanted someone to address McCartney’s dominance in the studio and how he’d ‘dictate’ to the others what to play (not my choice of terms). I’m a musician as well and I can TOTALLY see Paul coming in and saying “I have an idea for this song and I want it to go like this”. I mean- WHO the heck would challenge his judgement? The fact that George constantly whined about that is ridiculous and tells more about George (and John when he’d do it) than Paul.

    As you guys said, Paul WANTED to ALWAYS be a Beatle. I don’t think Paul ever thought “oh, this will make me look better than the other three” by doing things like “Yesterday” or “Eleanor Rigby”, etc. He’d always wanted them to be The Four-headed Monster. I just think that he was trying new stuff all the time and the other’s egos (especially after drugs)couldn’t deal with it. Granted, Paul did some crap (as, again George and John are always quick to point out).

    Also, it’s interesting to note in the demo that you play of “Yesterday”, where Paul’s got his acoustic detuned a full step, you hear George go “What key is it in?” Paul explains that he’s playing it in G “But it will be in F FOR YOU”. That tells me that, at least in the beginning, Paul was viewing this as something that the other guys would be playing on. Why would he be showing it to them and discussing how the others’d play it? If he was the ego maniac everyone said he was (regarding this tune especially) then he’d have just gone in and recorded it on his own without the others even being there. By the way GREAT to hear the stringless version here.

    I think maybe that it was George Martin that said “Hey, this is more a solo thing” (as he’s mentioned). If anything, the others should be a bit miffed at GM for suggesting something like that that would feature someone else. And yet… they played it on Ed Sullivan, they played it on the Blackpool show, and they played it (rather crappily) on the 66 tour.

    One more thing – You always hear people refer to the “Let it Be” scene where Paul is explaining what he wants in the guitar break for “I’ve Gotta Feeling”. In that scene George is playing the line terribly. Paul is trying to explain that he wants a continuous note coming down. Now, I’ve never thought that it was the ‘big row’ everyone said that it was (even under oath apparently). In fact, Paul tries to smooth it over so as not to upset George. Watch the scene closely. He’s not being nasty in any way to George, he’s just saying what he’d like to get on HIS song. Paul said what he said and now it’s all this…
    Anyway, just seems that “Us being sidemen for Paul” is WAY the heck overblown. Gotta wonder – if acid hadn’t come in and f’d up John’s ego and (possibly George’s) if they’d have that same attitude.
    Rambled on, sorry.

  15. This was a great episode. I mostly agree with your choices for top McCartney songs, but I”d add ‘Blackbird’.

  16. This was a great episode. I mostly agree with your choices for top McCartney songs, but I”d add ‘Blackbird’.

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