August 26, 2015

Guitar World's "Beatles' 10 Greatest Guitar Moments" slights George Harrison.

#1 — something you may forget is even a song — is a back-and-forth among 3 Beatles. #2 isn't a Beatle at all. And #3 is Paul (on a song written by George):
According to Geoff Emerick, Harrison struggled for two hours to craft a solo before producer George Martin suggested he let McCartney give it a try. McCartney’s solo, Emerick says, “was so good that George Martin had me fly it in again during the song’s fadeout.” Portions of it, played backward, were also applied to the Revolver track “Tomorrow Never Knows.”

Apparently, Harrison didn’t feel slighted. At the time of making Revolver, he was ambivalent about his musical ambitions and pondering Indian mysticism, to which he would eventually convert.

“In those days,” he said, “for me to be allowed to do my one song on the album, it was like, ‘Great. I don’t care who plays what. This is my big chance.’ I was pleased to have him play that bit on ‘Taxman.’ If you notice, he did like a little Indian bit on it for me.”

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Can't respect a top 10 list of influential beatles songs featuring the guitar that doesn't include "i feel fine."

Shane said...

Thank you for this post. The older I get the more I appreciate George in every aspect. That said, a fact is a fact and McCartney, even as delusional and self-promoting as he has been for 35 years now, if not more, nailed "Taxman." Its no slight to George; they were a group and a group picks up for each other. You may as well have said Clapton dissed George when George brought him in on "Gently Weeps." Its just not true.

There will never be any consensus on anything with the Beatles. The Beatles Bible had someone commenting "That Means a Lot" was their favorite song ever. Its each his own.

Based on your post, I expected not one reference to George in any of the top ten, which would have been something.

A subscriber and many year learner, thanks. Shane

jr565 said...

Yeah, McCartney played the solo. And nailed it. They play it twice in the song it's so good.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

It was just last night that I heard for the first time the song "Be My Yoko Ono" by Barenaked Ladies. It was during the The Big Bang Theory episode entitled "The Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem."

Pretty good song.

Don't recall any greatest guitar moment, though.

No matter.

SteveR said...

@Shane I agree with you.

These posts always result in musical experts that point out all the various things that make the Beatles not great so I expect, we'll get a full dose.

LarryK said...

Yes, "I Feel Fine" should have made the list - John Lennon thought it was the first rock song to include feedback.

I also think John's guitar on "All My Loving" deserved a spot. His excellent guitar work propels an otherwise pure pop tune and transforms it into something rock-ier, which makes it an important step in their transition from Mop-Tops to rock stars.

Kirk Parker said...

Eric,

Now that you've met the BNL's, try their "Go Home". Lyrics a bit NSFW if your HR people know any history...

Alex said...

McCartney had another greet solo on "Good Morning, Good Morning".