this guy gets it. I don’t especially like Paul, but greatly respect his ability and contribution to the band. I believe that, particularly towards the end, he was really trying to keep everyone together and was paying a heavy emotional toll for doing so. John was the cool one but seems to have been a bit of a mess and pretty unpleasant around the breakup thru when he was taken from us. Probably just a phase but we’ll never know. George was in a difficult position being the best at his instrument within the band and wrote really good songs that had to go head-to-head with the Lennon/McCartney powerhouse. Outside the band, he was not an axeman of note like Clapton, Hendrix, etc, perhaps unfairly. That he went into ELO-style adult contemporary stylings is I guess the route that made sense for him, but I’m not really feeling those vibes, soothing though they may be. Ringo seems like the one I’d actually like to hang out with. Possibly the most charismatic, or second to Paul, who had the gift of looks on his side.
Favorite album:
the US release of Rubber Soul. The UK release, which was the global CD issue and hence the standard digital version, is too upbeat. Drive My Car is an awesome tune, but my Rubber Soul is a sustained somber mood. There are personal reasons for this choice. But Abbey Road is pretty damned incredible all the way around, too.
George’s early solo stuff is astounding – it’s bonkers to think that the Beatles rejected so many of these songs. But I agree that when he started working with Jeff Lynne his sound became ELO-esque (everything Jeff Lynne produces inevitably has that sound) and it’s not really my thing.
One of my other favorite Beatles solo albums is Ringo. There’s several tracks on there that are virtual Beatles reunions and it’s solid start-to-finish. From everything I’ve read, while George and Paul and John all started to hate each other for various reasons, they all adored Ringo, and he played peacemaker a lot of the time.
Paul gets a lot of crap for writing silly pop songs, but he wrote and sung the hell out of Helter Skelter, Oh! Darling, and Live & Let Die, too, and his electronica experiments as The Fireman are deeply weird. He might be The Nice Beatle but when he wants to rock or freak out he’s pretty capable.
I love this clip, especially for how confused and annoyed Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne look while Prince is tearing the roof off the place… and behind him, Dhani Harrison is in pure bliss.
