Quora: Why didn’t The Beatles record ‘A World Without Love’?

(via Quora) Answered by Eli Matawaran

John Lennon thought the first line, “Please lock me away”, was laughable. And he added:

“I think it was resurrected from the past…I think he (Paul McCartney) had the whole song before the Beatles.”

Yes, McCartney had written it when he was only 16 and before the Beatles but it was an unfinished song.

Maybe Lennon didn’t realized it was unfinished because he had already rejected it based on the first few lines.

When McCartney moved into the London home of his then girlfriend Jane Asher, he shared a room with her brother Peter, a singer-guitarist…

Read more: https://www.quora.com/Why-didn-t-The-Beatles-record-A-World-Without-Love

Video of the Week: 10 Impossible Paul McCartney Vocal Lines

Video of the Week: Conspiracy Central Tackle the Paul is Dead Hoax

Quora: Why has Paul McCartney never performed ‘Oh! Darling’ live?

Answer by Peter Levy:

To record the vocal for this song, Paul went into the studio each day for a week and recorded exactly one take of the lead vocal. It’s such a strenuous song to sing that he couldn’t try two times in the same day.

He also said at the time (when he was in his mid-twenties) that he could have nailed the vocal five years earlier. So he’s had trouble with the vocal from the very start.

I think that’s why he didn’t sing it in concert – it’s too hard.

These days he has trouble with a lot of vocals that he used to easily perform in concert, so it’s fair to say that he never will perform “Oh! Darling,” unless he changes the arrangement so it fits his range.

Answer by Jay Snead:

t’s a killer song to sing the way it was sung on the album. This was really hard for Paul to record even when he was 27 and on the top of his game.

If he did it early in a set, it would ruin his voice for the rest of the show. if he sang it last, he might not have the voice to pull it off.

He has an enormous repertoire and can afford to leave Oh! Darling alone.

Answer by John Nowman:

Paul went into the studio every day – over days and days in order to get his vocals sounding hoarse, which is the effect he wanted and had to nail the vocals, when finally put down, quickly before his voice let him down due to strain and effort. Lennon had similar vocal problems with Twist and Shout early in their career, as the track was left until the end of the recording session, where he had to produce the vocals in one go to prevent damage to his his vocal chords, He did it in 1 and 1/2 takes, I believe. Listen to the track and see how hoarse his voice actually was after a full day recording vocals for the LP they were working on – at this moment early in their career time and money were not a luxury then. On Revolution Lennon lay on his back for hours prior to singing the vocals allowing fluid to enter his lungs for the right sound effect. Hope this helps.

Read more: (5) Why has Paul McCartney never performed Oh! Darling live? – Quora

Video of the Week: Paul McCartney Breaks Down His Most Iconic Songs

Video of the Week: The Endearing Wit of “Genius” Paul McCartney

I defy you not to love this treasure of a man, who displays fair comedic chops in addition to being the greatest pop songwriter of a generation. Some guys do indeed have it all.

Quora: What do you think of McCartney’s bass playing in Harrison’s “Something”? It seems to get mixed reviews.

(via (Quora) Answered by Jake Gerber, Musical Session Player

Put more succinctly : his playing is friggin BRILLIANT !!! I wish I was getting paid for this answer. In any event … I’ll commence with this. Anyone that doesn’t believe Paul put everything he had into Georges songs is mistaken. Paul took great pride in respect to everything he played. He upped the ante on three of George’s songs I can think of, two of which are on Abbey Road, the third on Revolver…

Paul’s playing on “ Something “ could be studied in a music theory class in university level. The first time you hear the song played through a proper playback system ( vinyl ) where you can actually hear the bass, you might think Paul was overplaying, there’s a lot of movement going on, and the songs a ballad which in popular music are rather restrained in respect to the bass lines, if indeed it even actually has a dedicated bass line per se…

Read more: https://www.quora.com/What-do-you-think-of-McCartneys-bass-playing-in-Harrisons-Something-It-seems-to-get-mixed-reviews

Video of the Week: Carpool Karaoke with Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney’s “Ram” Reconsidered

ram

(via CultureSonar) by Ken Hymes

In early 1971, with The Beatles involved in some bitter legal disputes with each other and with their own management, Paul McCartney recorded Ram with his wife Linda and three hired guns, guitarists David Spinozza and Hugh McCracken, and drummer Denny Seiwell. The album was eviscerated by critics on its release, with Jon Landau and Robert Christgau particularly vicious in their assault on both the album and McCartney’s general reputation relative to John Lennon. Some writers were grudgingly complimentary about McCartney’s sheer mastery of the craft of production, but almost no one could be heard to support the material itself.

There has certainly been a reappraisal, with some glimmering that Ram represents not a failure to live up to The Beatles (or to the expectations of Village Voice writers), but rather a beginning of something new. Perhaps AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine is correct that “in retrospect it looks like nothing so much as the first indie pop album, a record that celebrates small pleasures with big melodies.”

Read more: http://www.culturesonar.com/ram-paul-mccartney/

The Surprising Chord That Helped Make “Penny Lane” a Masterpiece

paul

by Scott Freiman

via CultureSonar

McCartney pulls off a difficult songwriting feat by placing the verses and the choruses in neighboring keys (the verses are in B and the choruses are in A). At the end of the song, McCartney writes a key change so that the final chorus is in B, bringing the song full circle. Yet, it’s in the verse that McCartney injects a magical chord that helps make “Penny Lane” a case study in great songwriting. I’ll let you in on McCartney’s secret in this video.

Read more: http://www.culturesonar.com/penny-lane/

Previous Older Entries

%d bloggers like this: