The Beatles Split Was A Good Thing
A Playlist to Illustrate How John, Paul, George and Ringo Moved On In Brilliant Ways
I was born in 1957 and the Beatles were a band I grew up with , enjoying their music and films like “Help” and “A Hard Day's Night” portraying them as four Scouse Scallies who were talented and funny.
The music was excellent and they were always pushing boundaries but like many stars at the time they were expected to become mainstream entertainers, but they didn’t do that.
John split with his wife Cynthia and took up with Avant Garde artist , musician and writer Yoko Ono , and this plus issues with management with the likes of Allen Klein and the financial fiasco that was Apple led to their inevitable split to the despair of their fans, but they had been making music for eight years or so , plus solo work and films and TV so it didn’t bode well.
They were no longer a touring band , and to be honest a lot of their music would have been difficult in the sixties to perform on stage.
So here is a playlist of eight songs which show that while the band’s career was complete , the individual members still had a lot of great music in them.
Again we have a YouTube playlist of the songs that you can listen to here, but we will lead it in with George Harrison’s “Awaiting On You All” which is an absolutely gorgeous song.
Here we go
You wouldn't have put Ringo down as a singer (in fact a lot of people don’t rate him as a drummer either) ,He’s sung on “Yellow Submarine” , “When I’m Sixty Four” and “Octopus’s Garden” but they were generally novelty songs.
However he has released quite a few albums and two of the songs which really impressed me were
“Photograph”
And
“It Don’t Come Easy”
Both perfectly suited to the deep Scouse drawl of his voice and both , rightly so, big hit singles. I do not think they would have been released today , but nevertheless in my opinion they are both absolutely brilliant records.
Most of the Beatles songs were Lennon / McCartney compositions with George Harrison getting the odd look in. Lennon’s relationship with Yoko Ono spurred him on to some incredible songs , completely solo and with the Plastic Ono band. I could have gone for obvious ones but have chosen a couple of favourites one of which I can actually play.
“Working Class Hero” a scathing indictment about life and how we are treated by “our betters” , which usually means being ground down until our soul and self are destroyed. This song never loses its power and is just Lennon and his acoustic guitar.
“Gimme Some Truth” is powerful and electric and it just doesn’t let up, again a scathing attack on the political and powerful who we are supposed to respect with a brilliant driving riff.
George’s song writing in the Beatles had been very limited , despite the quality of such songs as “Something” , “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and “It’s All Too Much”, but his first release post Beatles was the triple album “All Things Must Pass”. He obviously had a lot of songs stored up and had a massive hit with “My Sweet Lord” though got hit with a plagiarism rap by the owners of the Chiffons “He’s So Fine”, though this was the equivalent of comparing the Sistine Chapel with a new build front room ceiling.
While “All Things Must Pass” is full of gems I will choose these two.
“Awaiting on You All” , simply one of my favourite songs ever.
“What Is Life?” the “B” side of “My Sweet Lord” with a gorgeous descending guitar riff.
McCartney is probably the most successful ex Beatle with a lot of solo stuff and his work with Wings. I have chosen two Wings songs to leave you with.
“Venus and Mars/Rock Show” the opener from the “Venus and Mars” album.
And
“Jet” from the excellent “Band On The Run”
These are not necessarily my favourites but I do like them a lot.
So there you go eight good reasons for enjoying post Beatles music , that would never have happened had they stayed together
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