I’m finishing up my “Most Valuable Beatle” series with the Past Masters non album tracks compilation which I’m splitting up into disc 1 and disc 2 to make it easier to chew.

First a recap:

Please Please Me (John), With The Beatles (John), A Hard Day’s Night (John), Beatles For Sale (John), Help! (John), Rubber Soul (John), Revolver (Paul), Sgt. Pepper (Paul), Magical Mystery Tour (Paul), The White Album (John), Yellow Submarine (George), Abbey Road (Paul), and Let It Be (Paul.)

That adds up to a 7 to 5 lead for Lennon over McCartney (with 1 for Harrison) through the 13 studio albums (and yes, I know Magical Mystery Tour wasn’t originally released as an LP in the UK. I have to mention this every time otherwise I’ll get a comment about it.)

So why am I including the Past Masters compilation when it’s not a proper studio album? Because so many great Beatles songs were never included on their albums. It’s a hard concept for people to understand today, but The Beatles thought of their singles not as advertisements for their albums (how they are generally used today) but as their own separate entities.

The best example of this is when they released the “We Can Work It Out”/”Day Tripper” single on the same day (12/3/65) that they released Rubber Soul (which doesn’t include either of those songs.)

Now on with the track by track look at disc one of the Past Masters compilation. It will be a bit more difficult than the later albums I have been working on as the authorship of some of these early songs is a bit more murky. I’m primarily using The Beatles As Musicians: The Quarry Men Through Rubber Soul to check my work.

01. “Love Me Do” – Paul & John

My fellow blogger Marvin Marks wrote this song review of “Love Me Do” in August. According to Paul the song was co-written, but John actually gave Paul most of the credit for The Beatles first single. For my purposes here I’ll consider it a co-written track.

02. “From Me To You” – John & Paul

This is one they wrote together. I gave John top billing because he sang the lead vocal.

03. “Thank You Girl” – John & Paul

Another co-written track but again John is on the lead vocal. I must say this is one of my least favorite early Beatles songs. It’s cloying to the point of irritation.

04. “She Loves You” – John & Paul

Co-written. John & Paul both said Paul had the initial idea but John ended up singing the lead vocal.

05. “I’ll Get You” – John & Paul

I can’t find much hard evidence of who wrote this song but it’s likely co-written. It’s hard to even say who sings “lead” as it’s harmonized throughout although John’s voice cuts through more to my ears.

06. “I Want To Hold Your Hand” – John & Paul

Co-written. John sings lead.

07. “This Boy” – John & Paul

I believe this was co-written but it also seems to be more John’s song than Paul’s as he sings the lead. Of course much of what makes this a great track is the harmonies.

08. “Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand” / 09. “Sie Liebt Dich”

German versions of “I Want To Hold Your Hand” & “She Loves You.” They use the same instrumental backing tracks (which sound degraded in sound quality in comparison with the originals) with new vocals sung in a German translation.

10. “Long Tall Sally” – Paul

McCartney doing his Little Richard impression. Listening to it now, it rocks pretty hard in the new remastered Beatles In Stereo Box Set version.

11. “I Call Your Name” – John

I find this to be a pretty enjoyable early B-side. A Lennon original. It’s not a great song, but I like it.

12. “Slow Down” – John

This is a cover sung by John.

13. “Matchbox” – Ringo

A Carl Perkins tune sung by Ringo.

14. “I Feel Fine” – John

Lennon claimed that the song was his entirely but Harrison said it was more of a group effort. Regardless, I’ll chalk up this classic (which sounds like a big step forward when listening to this CD) as Lennon original.

15. “She’s A Woman” – Paul

Lennon says they were excited to use the words “turn me on” in this song which he says was the first reference to drugs (marijuana) in a Beatles song. They had first smoked marijuana just two months prior to the recording of this song.

16. “Bad Boy” -John

A pretty rockin’ cover sung by John.

17. “Yes It Is” – John

Apparently Lennon himself didn’t think much of this song but I think it’s a pretty sweet little tune. I love the subdued instrumental track too. Harrison’s use of the volume pedal really worked perfectly in setting the atmosphere.

18. “I’m Down” – Paul

This Paul original was his homage to the early rock n roll that had inspired The Beatles. I love the all out insanity of the performance on this recording. It’s one of the most “frantic” things The Beatles ever recorded. Maybe the most frantic. This is a song that should really be included in The Beatles Rock Band (it’s not, but should eventually be available as a download track.)

VERDICT: John.

While it’s clear that both John & Paul were essential to The Beatles early music as they wrote most of it together, it’s also clear from the amount of lead vocals that John took that he was seen as the “leader” of the band during these early years and he comes across as dominant in this compilation of non-album tracks.

This gives John an insurmountable 8 to 5 lead over Paul. I’ll be finishing up this series with Past Masters 2 with my next entry.

Mono Masters?

Disc one of the mono version of this compilation (Mono Masters) has the exact same track listing (disc two is a bit different.) I think in most cases the mono mixes of these early songs do sound better than the stereo mixes so I definitely recommend getting The Beatles In Mono Box Set (none of the CDs included in the mono box are available for individual purchase, only as a part of the box set.)

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