“twice as good and four times as startling as Rubber Soul, with sound effects, Oriental drones, jazz bands, transcendentalist lyrics, all kinds of rhythmic and harmonic surprises, and a filter that made John Lennon sound like God singing through a foghorn.”
~Robert Christgau
….. Either way, its daring sonic adventures and consistently stunning songcraft set the standard for what pop/rock could achieve. Even after Sgt. Pepper, Revolver stands as the ultimate modern pop album and it’s still as emulated as it was upon its original release.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com)
July 21: The Beatles recorded Come Together in 1969
“It was a funky record – it’s one of my favorite Beatle tracks, or, one of my favourite Lennon tracks, let’s say that. It’s funky, it’s bluesy, and I’m singing it pretty well. I like the sound of the record. You can dance to it. I’d buy it!”
“The thing was created in the studio. It’s gobbledygook, Come Together was an expression that Leary had come up with for his attempt at being president or whatever he wanted to be, and he asked me to write a campaign song. I tried and tried, but I couldn’t come up with one. But I came up with this, Come Together, which would’ve been no good to him, you couldn’t have a campaign song like that, right?”
– John Lennon (Playboy, 1980)
“Come Together” is a song by The Beatles written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. The song is the opening track on the album Abbey Road, and was released as a double A-sided single with “Something”, their twenty-first single in the United Kingdom and twenty-sixth in the United States. The song reached the top of the charts in the US,and peaked at number four in the UK.
I really love the song, one of John’s masterpieces!
John Lennon: vocals, rhythm guitar, handclaps and tambourine
Paul McCartney: harmony vocals,electric piano and bass
George Harrison: lead guitar
Ringo Starr: drums, maracas
“The whole Beatles thing was just beyond comprehension. I was subconsciously crying out for help”.
– John Lennon (1980)
Help! is a song by the Beatles that served as the title song for both the 1965 film and its soundtrack album. It was also released as a single, and was number one for three weeks in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
Help! was mainly written by John Lennon, but credited to Lennon–McCartney.
“I seem to remember Dick Lester, Brian Epstein, Walter Shenson and ourselves sitting around, maybe Victor Spinetti was there, and thinking, What are we going to call this one? Somehow Help! came out. I didn’t suggest it; John might have suggested it or Dick Lester. It was one of them. John went home and thought about it and got the basis of it, then we had a writing session on it. We sat at his house and wrote it, so he obviously didn’t have that much of it. I would have to credit it to John for original inspiration 70-30. My main contribution is the countermelody to John.”
– Paul McCartney (Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now)
Definition of BEATLESQUE:
of, relating to, or suggestive of the musical style or technique of the Beatles – Websters Dictionary
There are songs by the members of the Beatles that were not used by them but that re-appeared on their solo albums. Songs that was written in the last days of The Beatles and discarded for some reason or another. A lot of songs suffered that faith, not just Lennon songs, but some of the best songs from George Harrison and Paul McCartney’s first albums as well. Some of John Lennon’s stuff from that area would not be out-of-place on a Beatle record (nor some of George or Paul’s songs for that matter).
Today we are looking at John Lennon’s solo output. I will pick his most Beatle-sounding songs, songs that would fit in on an album by the Fab-Four. Some from the last days of The Beatles, some from later albums. This isn’t supposed to be a best of John Lennon list (but maybe it is…), but his most “Beatles sounding” songs , as I said, songs that would have been good enough for a Beatles album.
Jealous Guy first appeared on John Lennon’s 1971 album Imagine.The song’s genesis came in India, after The Beatles attended a lecture by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi about a “son of the mother nature”. This inspired both Paul McCartney and John Lennon to write songs about the same subject. McCartney’s composition “Mother Nature’s Son” was selected for The Beatles (The White Album), while Lennon’s song “Child of Nature” was not. However, both were demoed at George Harrison’s Esher home in May 1968. The demo featured Lennon’s double-tracked vocal and playing an acoustic guitar. After that, Lennon continued to play it into the Get Back sessions. Eventually, the lyrics were scrapped and replaced by the now well known “Jealous Guy” lyrics for Imagine.
Three recordings of “Child of Nature” are currently known. The first is a demo of the song recorded at the home of George Harrison in May 1968. The second, on which George sings backing vocals, was recorded at Twickenham Film Studios on 2 January 1969. A third recording was made at Apple Studios on 24 January.
Although the songs where credited Lennon-McCartney / McCartney-Lennon, one of them usually contributed more than the other.
Many books, interviews, articles & not at least the artwork itself have helped us get a sense of who was the “mastermind” behind each song. Most of them where collaborations.. but usually one of them was more to “blame”.
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