One of the best songwriting teams in history is John Lennon and Paul McCartney. When these two decided to make music their home, it forever altered. The Beatles’ influence on music is still very much felt today, and it doesn’t appear to be diminishing either.
A plethora of positives accompanied their ability to work in unison. These can be found in most of the band’s discography. Having said that, there was a drawback. First, because their writing collaboration came first, other band members—most notably George Harrison—often felt left out. The famous quote from Bob Dylan goes, “Who wouldn’t get stuck behind those guys?”
The other drawback was that tension within the band increased as John Lennon and McCartney’s writing partnership, upon which the band was essentially built, began to stray creatively. They didn’t always please each other’s work. However, the label desired association with the duo because their records sold better upon release.
Listeners can discern this in several distinct tracks. Lennon, for example, was infamously intolerant of the song “Hello, Goodbye.” McCartney gave the song a profound psychological significance. However, Lennon scoffed at it and called it a blatant attempt to score a hit.
He remarked, “That’s another McCartney. Doesn’t it smell a mile away?”.. an endeavour to compose a single. It wasn’t a particularly good piece. My piano performance at the end, which we all improvised in the studio, was the best part.
However, the sentiment reciprocated, as McCartney ultimately decided not to heavily participate in a number of songs because he didn’t like them. Some of the songs he mentioned as his least favorite Beatles tracks emerged because McCartney believed they had received rushed treatment or associated with bad memories.
He detested a few songs in particular, including “Revolution 9,” which was so divisive on the White Album that the singer attempted to have it removed from the record. McCartney has never publicly expressed his dislike for the song. However, numerous unofficial reports confirm that he was never a fan.
In his book Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles, engineer Geoff Emerick stated, “Paul simply didn’t see it as Beatles music, and he certainly didn’t agree that it was the direction that The Beatles should go in.”
John Lennon, on the other hand, regarded the song as one of his best creations. An arthouse masterpiece that used technology to convey his most genuine emotions. “Revolution 9 was an unconscious picture of what I actually think will happen when it happens. Just like a drawing of a revolution,” he said to Rolling Stone in 1970.
Having a reputation for being a creative band has its drawbacks. The Beatles were free to experiment with a variety of fresh ideas in their music that thrilled both their listeners and themselves as performers. But because there was so much material available to them, it was difficult to decide what to draw from, which also caused friction within the band.
