The Beatles Essays (1480 words) - The Beatles, John Lennon, Music

The Beatles When people hear the name "The Beatles" most people think of lead singer, John Lennon. However, the role of Paul McCartney is often overlooked. It was McCartney, not Lennon who was the driving force behind the Beatles. John Lennon and Paul McCartney were in many bands together before the forming of the Beatles. In 1962, along with Ringo Starr1 and George Harrison, they formed the rock group known as "The Beatles". The group featured a modern rock that was new and popular during the period with John and Paul composing and doing the leads on most of the songs. They were backed by George on rhythm and bass guitar and Ringo on drums. George and Ringo also assisted on backing vocals. When they first began playing, the main influence inside the band was John Lennon, who had an uncanny ability to compose songs at a moments notice with an inspiration that others missed. He pushed the members of the band during their touring years and was able to achieve the best possible results from the group. The band began playing in a Music Hall style that is very effective for the audiences but was lacking on their albums. Together with Paul, John began to evolve the band. As the years began to pass, the band was obviously beginning to grow musically. They had moved from simple lyrics like "Love me Do" to harshly aware reflections of life in their home country in "Eleanor Rigby"2. There were attempts, some more successful than others, to incorporate the other Beatles into the idea stage. George Harrison made this leap successfully with such tracks as "I want to tell you", "TAXMAN", and the psychedelic "Love you to". Ringo was featured in the humorous "Yellow Submarine" As the group matured, their creativity began to rely more on the effects and manipulations that they were able to produce in the studio. The Beatles agreed to end their touring career after an American tour of large halls that they failed to fill. It was around this time, that John Lennon began to search for himself. He began using any means that he thought might help him connect. This era was marked by the Beatles visits to the Maharashi Mahesh Yogi, and the beginning of heavy drug use 3. As Lennon began to use LSD in greater and greater quanti-ties4, the other Beatles began to have more and more influence in the production of the albums. Lennon began to become almost reclusive, and often delayed recording sessions.By the time that they were recording Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967, Lennon would simply propose songs and themes, and McCartney was left to execute the plans and tie together whims. They began to make demands of the crew:Beatles songs were quite simple in the early days, you couldn't play around with them too much. But by 1967 we were building sound pictures and my [George Martin] role had changed- it was to interpret the pictures and determine how best to get them down on tape. Paul was fine-he could express what he wanted, the sounds he wa nted to have. But John...would make whooshing sounds and try to describe what only he could only hear in his head, saying he wanted a song to 'sound like an orange'.5 As soon as the Sgt. Pepper album was underway, Paul McCartney came up with the idea of actually creating a band and preforming the songs as that band. They took the Idea from there and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band came into existence, never to see the outside of studio 2 at Abbey Road. They spent nearly a year recording various tracks for the album and John's state of mind was steadily declining. In 1969 when they issued Abbey Road it was no longer difficult to distinguish between the writings of Paul and John . John was producing works like "I want you (she's so heavy)" which had the lyrics: I want you so bad it's driving me mad She's so heavy6 And the more musical and thoughtful work of McCartney, such as "Golden Slumbers" which was almost a lullaby: Once there was a way to get back homeward Once there was a way to get back home Sleep pretty darling do not cry And I will sing a lullaby Golden slumbers fill your eyes Smiles awake you when you rise Sleep pretty darling do not cry And I will sing a lullaby7 The writing of the material on The Beatles8 seemed more balanced as Lennon began writing more cogent