Paul McCartney On Drums & Lead Guitar For The Beatles
By Marvin Marks on May 10, 2009 in Features
Paul McCartney wrote and sang lead vocals on about half of The Beatles songs (“Hey Jude,” “Let It Be,” “Helter Skelter,” “Yesterday,” & “Eleanor Rigby” to name just five of the many classics he wrote & sang lead on.) McCartney was also the bassist for the band and in my opinion he wrote (and played) some of the best bass lines in pop/rock history as a member of The Beatles.
Most Beatles fans know that much, but what some may not know is that he also played the drums (in place of Ringo Starr) and the lead guitar (in place of George Harrison) on a number of songs.
Paul On Drums:
“Back In The USSR,” “Dear Prudence,” “The Ballad Of John & Yoko,” “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?,” & “Wild Honey Pie.” Four of those songs are from The White Album, Ringo left the band for a short period of time during the recording of The White Album and Paul took over the drums while he was gone.
Paul also often gave instruction to Ringo on how to play the drum parts. A good example of that is the drum part in “Ticket To Ride.”
Paul On Lead Guitar
“Taxman,” “Good Morning Good Morning,” “Another Girl,” & “And Your Bird Can Sing” (Lennon played the other lead part.)
“The End” – George, John, & Paul all took turns playing the lead part.
I’m not actually sure if this is a complete listing of songs Paul played the drums and lead guitar on. Leave a comment if you know of any others I have missed.
Not Paul, But Eric
And then there’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” which Eric Clapton actually played lead on (Clapton was a friend of George’s and was invited to play the lead part on the song – which was written by Harrison.)
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Paul also played lead on “Drive My Car”.
Aaron | Jul 8, 2009 | Reply
Oh and “Helter Skelter”.
Aaron | Jul 8, 2009 | Reply
Ah yes, good ones Aaron
Marvin Marks | Jul 8, 2009 | Reply
he also played rhythm guitar in “two of us”
bryan | Jul 8, 2009 | Reply
“ticket to ride”, “drive my car”,”taxman” and “good morning, good morning”
June | Sep 6, 2009 | Reply
There is dispute about whether the leads in And Your Bird Cans Sing are Paul and John, or Paul and George. Paul also played lead in Fixing a Hole. I would say the lead lines in Got to Get you into my Life sound like Paul’s playing of the period.
David | Nov 19, 2009 | Reply
Paul played all of the instruments (except for the brass section) in “Martha My Dear”, this means drums and lead guitar also. He also played all of the instruments in “Mother Nature’s Son”.
Funzi159 | Feb 12, 2010 | Reply
Here’s an out of nowhere one – didn’t Paul play the drums on “You Know My Name, Look Up The Number”?
And who was on sax – anyone?
Robert | Feb 19, 2010 | Reply
Robert – I don’t know if Paul played drums on that one, but I am pretty sure that it was Brian Jones (The Rolling Stones) on the sax.
Marvin Marks | Feb 20, 2010 | Reply
he played the guitar for blackbird
cut | Jun 1, 2010 | Reply
Yes cut… he played acoustic guitar on a number of tracks — “Yesterday” and “Mother Nature’s Son” for two more examples that jump out at me — that is worth mentioning too – although it’s not what I meant by “lead guitar.”
Marvin Marks | Jun 1, 2010 | Reply
I believe that it was Brian Jones of the Stones on Sax…….
Marty Colligan | Aug 13, 2010 | Reply
Wait, but when Sir Paul performs songs like “Drive My Car” and “Helter Skelter” live, he always plays bass. And if he played lead on those two, then why does he go back and perform them on bass?
Ben | Dec 14, 2010 | Reply
Ben – As I’m sure you are aware — you can only play one instrument at a time. Paul usually sticks with the bass when he’s playing live – regardless of what he played on the original recordings (on some of his solo recordings he played all of the instruments) except when he plays piano.
Marvin Marks | Dec 14, 2010 | Reply
George played the lead guitar on And Your Bird Can Sing all alone. He overdubbed the guitars and played it twice.
fernando | Dec 17, 2010 | Reply
Paul played lead guitar on “Another Girl”. Incidentally, Paul played his first lead guitar on another HELP song, “A Ticket to Ride”.
Tommy G | Dec 18, 2010 | Reply
Oh, “The Night Before”,also from HELP, has Paul playing lead guitar.
Tommy G | Dec 18, 2010 | Reply
Blackbird.
Lee | Dec 18, 2010 | Reply
Completely agree with you about Paul having written some of the best basslines ever. He was a good lead guitarist too. However, numerous sources such as Rolling Stone have declared that it was Paul and George who performed the dual guitar solo on “And Your Bird Can Sing,” not Paul and John.
Mona | Jan 30, 2011 | Reply
I need some evidence for your assertion about “And Your Bird Can Sing.” I’m 99 percent sure that Lewisohn cites George and John as the lead guitarists on it. I’ll look it up and get back to you.
Jake | Jul 4, 2011 | Reply
Sir Paul has always been a very individual drummer is most excellent has his own sound and has been around!
albghy | Aug 9, 2011 | Reply
According to Lewisohn’s book, Ringo drummed on Why Don’t We Do It In The Road and John and George played lead on And Your Bird Can Sing.
Amadeus | Aug 9, 2011 | Reply
John Lennon – lead vocal, rhythm guitar, handclaps
Paul McCartney – harmony vocal, bass, lead guitar, handclaps
George Harrison – harmony vocal, lead guitar, handclaps
Ringo Starr – drums, tambourine, handclaps
Personnel per The Beatles Bible.[6]
(For AND YOUR BIRD CAN SING.) I also heard only Paul and Ringo were part of the session that included WHY DON’T WE DO IT IN THE ROAD. John said he liked that tune and wished he were a part of it.
Wayde | Aug 31, 2011 | Reply
I think it is so cool that at various times throughout their career, the Beatles were able to put aside petty jealousies (see John Lennon’s Playboy interview) and allow their bandmates to take each other’s roles. McCartney playing lead guitar on Harrison’s (the LEAD guitarist’s) first bonafide hit; Lennon playing bass on McCartney’s (the BASSIST’S) last number 1 song by the group; (Also played the solo on another McCartney number 1 for the Beatles, “Get Back”). As a side note I thought I read somewhere that it was McCartney’s solo guitar on “Hey Bulldog”, but I could be wrong. It sure sounds like his guitar work, even if it was Harrison. McCartney may have suggested the pattern to Ringo on “Ticket to Ride”, but there’s not another drummer on earth (including McCartney) that could’ve pulled off the exquisite stutter-step phrasing and keep-em-waititng ’til is hurts lag-timing that is pure Ringo. As a complete aside, I hear Paul’s drumming style totally in “Birthday” although – doubt he could pull off the metronome-like quality of the 16th-note 8-bar drum “solo”.
pchflyer | Sep 27, 2011 | Reply
Sax on ‘You know my name’ is the late Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones. Lead on ‘Taxman’ IS George.
Justin Case | Dec 7, 2011 | Reply
It’s well known that the guitar solo on Taxman was by Paul. However I’m surprised about the dispute over who played lead on “And Your Bird…” Lewisohn’s book does say George and John, and likely listened to the session tapes of that song and there might’ve been some indication in between song chat, as to who had a guitar in their hand.
It’s funny how, even the people who were actually there can’t get the answers right.
Amadeus | Dec 13, 2011 | Reply
I think Paul also played lead guitar on “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (the song).
Lonedrone | Jan 2, 2012 | Reply