"The Beatles were multi-instrumentalists who played almost every instrument themselves?" Get a grip on some facts. John Lennon was still playing banjo chords well into their recording career. George Martin and Brian Epstein seriously considered replacing the Beatles as instrumentalists for their recordings at the time Beatle George and Paul were knifing Pete Best in the back. Right till the end of the Sixties, GEORGE MARTIN composed whole missing passages of songs, made the song 'A Day in the Life' out of two messes of songs by John & Paul; made their first big hit 'Please Please Me' -- all the Beatles had to do was follow the template. George Harrison almost mastered sitar. But just compare drummer for drummer: Dennis Wilson was the multi-instrumentalist and brilliant composer; Ringo almost talentless in every other department, as he shows trying to sing and write songs to this day. Yes, the moptops were great for merchandising Beatle toys, just like Capitol had done with Bozo the Clown before them. Brian Wilson used some session musicians to fill in while the group was out touring -- something the Beatles did once every summer, I think, and only the lucrative markets around the world: stuff their home town, Liverpool. Even London -- that was just a place they puttered around most of the year, rubbing shoulders with other fashion plates and politicians. Then they would go in to the studio with fragments of songs roughed out -- none could write music let alone arrange it -- for Martin to fix up. They lived cosseting themselves in palatial estates, adopted by the upper crust as pets and media favourites.
|