Revolver: John Lennon Vs. Paul McCartney
By BrainFace on Aug 17, 2009 in Features
John Lennon won the Rubber Soul battle and is now up 6-0 in my continuing series on who contributed more to each Beatles album, John Lennon or Paul McCartney. But it should be noted that at least half of those battles were very, very close so this hasn’t really been as much of a landslide as it seems like it has been.
Now I’m up to 1966′s Revolver which to many Beatles fans is the greatest album of all time.
01. “Taxman”
Paul gets some big assists on this George Harrison song for the great propulsive bass line and the Jimi Hendrix/Indian music inspired guitar solo. But John helped out too, he apparently helped George with a few of the lyrics.
02. “Eleanor Rigby” – Paul
One of Paul’s true masterpieces. He did get a little bit of help with some of the lyrics (although he had the main idea down on his own) from John, Ringo, and a friend named Pete Shotton.
03. “I’m Only Sleeping” – John
Another great bass line by Paul. George Harrison’s backwards guitar solos are also a big part of what makes this song memorable.
04. “Love You To”
The first Indian song by The Beatles and as far as I know the first song by any western popular music group to play a song in a non western style. This was George’s song. The only Beatle besides George to heard on the recording is Ringo who played the tambourine.
05. “Here, There, and Everywhere” – Paul
Brilliant song. In a 1972 interview, Lennon said it was one of his favorite Beatles tracks. McCartney and Beatles producer George Martin have made similar statements.
06. “Yellow Submarine” – Paul
Paul wrote it, Ringo sang it.
07. “She Said She Said” – John
George played the bass on this one (Paul’s not on it, apparently due to a fight.) Great lyrics inspired by an encounter John had with Peter Fonda while on LSD.
08. “Good Day Sunshine” – Paul
Definitely Paul’s song. A great opener for side 2 of the LP.
09. “And Your Bird Can Sing” – John
Lennon later dismissed this song (during the time when he was being very dismissive a lot of what The Beatles did) but I think it’s brilliant. The dual guitar riff which really makes the song sparkle was played by George & Paul.
10. “For No One” – Paul
Criminally underrated. It’s perfect.
11. “Doctor Robert” – John
If there’s a “filler” song on Revolver, it’s probably “Doctor Robert” which is more a statement of how great Revolver is than something negative about this song because I think rocks (great guitar riffs) and I love the lyrics (which include many drug references.)
12. “I Want to Tell You”
George’s 3rd song on the album. I’ve always enjoyed the sort of “off kilter” sound of this tune. The bass really pushes this song forward, so another assist for Paul.
13. “Got to Get You into My Life” – Paul
Paul’s love song to marijuana. Brilliant just like all of Paul’s songs on this album (McCartney also wrote & recorded “Penny Lane” and “Paperback Writer” in 1966. He was clearly on a roll.)
14. “Tomorrow Never Knows” – John
One of the (if not the) most groundbreaking song The Beatles ever did. It was John’s idea and the lyrics were his (taken primarily from Timothy Leary’s book The Psychedelic Experience which was itself based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead.) But the other Beatles deserve a lot of credit for this as well. George brought the Indian instruments which helped give the song it’s unique sound, and it was also his Indian music influence that had John trying to write a song on one chord in the first place. It was Paul who brought in the tape loops (which are an essential part of the song’s surreal sound.) And Ringo’s drumming speaks for itself.
VERDICT: Paul
Paul wrote 6 songs on Revolver to John’s 5 (George wrote 3.) Paul was also more instrumental (with his bass lines and ideas like the tape loops on “Tomorrow Never Knows”) to the songs of John & George than John was to the songs of Paul & George.
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It’s amazing how many great songs Paul was writing in this period… just one after the other.
TheRoboticMushroom | Aug 21, 2009 | Reply
I love both. But with John’s and Paul’s solo stuff, I love Paul’s stuff much better than John’s.
Together they were a love affair!
Lilly | Aug 21, 2009 | Reply
I think of my favorite songs, 90% are Lennon, well here are my favorites, A Day in the Life, Come Together, In My Life, Across the Universe, And Your Bird Can Sing, Because, Dear Prudence, Cry Baby Cry, Dig a Pony, Don’t Let Me Down, Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me and My Monkey, Fixing a Hole, For the Benefit of Mr. Kite, Golden Slumbers/You Never Give Me Your Money, Girl, Free As a Bird, Happiness is a Warm Gun, She Said She Said, Help, I Am The Walrus, I Got a Feeling, I Want You, I Me Mine, Oh Darling, Old Brown Shoe, Sexy Sadie, She Came in Through the Bathroom Window, Something, Strawberry Field Forever, Sun King, The Fool On the Hill, The Long and Winding Road, Tomorrow Never Knows, Two of Us, We Can Work It Out, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Yesterday, You Know My Name/Look Up the Number, You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away, Norwegian Wood….. Mostly Lennon, but some Paul and George.
matt | May 9, 2010 | Reply
Yellow Submarine is often credited just to Paul (even based on John’s recollections). But Paul, in a 1967 interview (which was only a year after the song was written) said that John wrote the melody for the verses. This is also cited in John Winn’s That Magic Feeling. Just wanted to add this often-overlooked fact.
Nate | Aug 28, 2010 | Reply
Nate – can you provide a link to that 1967 interview? I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard that before and I’ve read about 800 books about The Beatles (slight exaggeration.)
Marvin Marks | Aug 28, 2010 | Reply
Matt – your math is way off! You have a lot more than 10% McCartney in that list.
I count 41 songs on your list
11 McCartney songs (that’s over 25%)
Yes you do seem to be a bit more of a Lennon lover, but you underestimate your love of Paul. I see this quite frequently from people who place John above Paul. … there seems to be a thing of not giving Paul the credit he deserves for the amazing songs he wrote.
Marvin Marks | Aug 28, 2010 | Reply
I believe DR. ROBERT contained some lyrical contributions from McCartney.
Barry | Feb 21, 2011 | Reply
Too bad half your information is wrong or incomplete, but that seems to be typical of your writing. Paul plays bass on She Said She Said. He sings the melismatic ending part of I Want to Tell You. John Lennon did not write any lyrics for Eleanor Rigby. He also wrote Ringo’s drum part on Tomorrow Never Knows and the best part of Doctor Robert is his harmony vocal.
matt | Mar 27, 2011 | Reply
Matt – I appreciate your comment but I don’t really think you can say the things that you’ve said are necessarily facts. There’s some disagreement about some of these things. BrainFace is a huge Beatles fan and I know that he sourced all of this information from respected Beatles historians.
Marvin Marks | Mar 27, 2011 | Reply