I have read the entire thread over the last 7 days, and I want to thank you all. Getsmart, Switching Yard, Someotherguy, faulconsnowjob, and others,
great stuff.
I have done an analysis of sorts on the Beatles music by counting the number of chords for each original Beatles song. My observation was that “She
Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand” are songs that are completely unique and have something special even today, and although called
“bubble-gum” by George Martin, are fairly complicated and can be difficult to play (and everyone is too scared to cover early Beatles
songs—because the Beatles did them best). The number of chords is definitely not related to quality, many #1’s often being simpler than average,
but it is a concrete measure that reveal some aspects of composition.
I used the UltimateGuitar.com website, choosing the transcription version with the most 5 star ratings. I used a complete list of Beatles’ songs
using the UK release date (the USA lagged the UK in the early years) and a list on Wikipedia “List_of_songs_recorded_by_the_Beatles” which
attributes primary and secondary authorship as well as the singer/singer(s) of the song. This has some error as Nowhere Man (Rubber Soul) is shown as
being sung by John Lennon, although watching the 1966 Munich concert, John, Paul and George are loving singing it together (the verses do only have
John singing). Lennon-McCartney songs written for other artists were excluded.
Overall for 184 songs, I counted an average of 7.34 chords per song. The myth of 3 or 4-chord Beatles songs is strongly dismissed. It is very possible
that the transcriptions, which are supplied by internet users, have errors, but these errors are likely to be randomly distributed among songs. I
found a reference to a professional study on the internet (Harry Klassen and Piet Schreuders: KS (1977)), and they reported a mean of 8.24 chords per
song for 46 songs in the early period up to 1964 (only original Beatles songs). My numbers were 7.28 chords per song up to end of 1964, a difference
with KS of one chord per song. Overall, KS found 9 chords per song for the entire Beatles catalog while I found 7.34, so that chords on the later
Beatles songs may be slightly more uncounted on UltimateGuitar as compared to KS. This makes sense to me, as who is going to bother to put much effort
into the rubbish songs and song fragments that occur on the later Beatle albums, particularly the White album. (George Martin has stated that the
White Album should NOT have been a DOUBLE album – but the doubles won). As an example, the article stated that “You Never Give Me Your Money”
from Abbey Road had the most chords (20+) whereas I got 12, still among the highest in my list. I also excluded inversions, which relate to a changed
order from high to low, as these still reflect the same underlying notes, and are often more important for piano, rather than guitar (notice how the
piano comes to the fore after 1966).
Here is my little contribution to this group: Beatle Original Song Output (singles are included but only album titles listed apart from “Love Me
Do”).
YEAR______ALBUM_______#SONGS____AVG_#_CHORDS___AVG_#_SINGERS
1962 Love Me Do____________1_______4.00__________2.00
1963 PleasePleaseMe/With___21_______7.24__________1.57
1964 HDNight/For Sale______24_______7.46__________1.33
1965 Help!/Rubber Soul_____30________7.27__________1.31
1966 Revolver______________16________5.88__________1.00
1967 Sgt.P LHCB/MMT_______23_______7.26__________1.04
1968 “White album”________32_______7.78___________1.03
1969 Abbey Road___________25_______8.36__________1.24
1970 Let It Be_____________12_______6.42__________1.33
TOTAL___________________185_______7.34__________1.23
Three noticeable things stand out. First, Revolver jumps out as the least complicated of any Beatles album, by far (1962’s Love Me Do is just one
song). Second, the harmonies come to a grinding halt with, again, Revolver, and only reappear on Abbey Road. Third, 1966 is the least productive
year.
George Martin in a 1971 interview said that Rubber Soul was “the last of the non-fabricated albums” meaning that Revolver was the first fabricated
album. He also said that Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane (1967) was “when the two of them [John and Paul] became very separated in my mind”, talking
about November of 1966 when SF, When I’m 64, and PL was recorded. Notice that George Martin really only likes Beatles songs released after 1966
(with “Tomorrow Never Knows” from Revolver and anything he put strings on being exceptions).
I have always been baffled over the names of the albums Rubber Soul and particularly Revolver. Revolver has the common usage, particularly in western
movies, of a gun (anti-love). Also I believe Revolver was a relatively weak Beatles album with only “Eleanor Rigby”, and “Here, There, and
Everywhere” making great song lists. It also includes the only notable political song ever done by the Beatles: “Taxman”.
So what explains the simplified (and, perhaps for the Beatles, ordinary) music on Revolver? Also, the lack of joint work. I think that the Beatles
machine was getting too much for the original PM. There is a 1964 David Frost interview with PM (youtube), which clearly shows the sweetness and
gentleness so lacking in Faul, where PM is asked about his future. He talks about “doing another movie”, "then retire, write songs for other
people".
This makes the lack of production in 1966 interesting. Some of the lower production may be due to Rubber Soul coming out late 1965 (transfer 6 songs
from 1965 to 1966, and get 24, 24, 22, 23 for 1963-1967). Perhaps, some of their better songs were being held back (so they could get paid for them in
a new record deal).
The decline in production wasn’t due to more touring commitments, as 1966 was a typical year. They were a hard working band – the number of
concert dates right up until 1966 is as much as any band ever did, and touring was relentless (you can check every concert date on Wikipedia).
Perhaps Paul was busy writing songs for other people. The Wikipedia page “Lennon-McCartney” lists zero songs for 1966 given to other artists, and
zero unreleased songs for 1966. However, there are two other outputs from 1966: Peter [Asher, brother of Jane] & Gordon’s “Woman” Paul is
credited as “Bernard Webb” (it sounds like a PM song), and McCartney is listed as composing most of the music soundtrack for the 1966 film “The
Family Way” by the George Martin Orchestra. This is 25 minutes of music, soundtrack released January 1967. Movie: 7.6 out of 10 imdb.com. The song
that goes “….Everyone knows it’s Windy!” (Windy) by the Associations is on the trailer. The soundtrack, which is on youtube, is completely
classical music, but you can hear echoes of Penny Lane in the first movement. Strangely, it was originally attributed to George Martin (he may well be
one of the ghost writers for the music of subsequent Beatles songs, knowing all their tricks.)
On December 18, 1966 a news article states that PM attended the film premier with Jane Asher who starred in the film (no pictures), and he sounds like
Faul, talking about “if I you have the gift you should write music, blah, blah, blah,” whereas in his David Frost interview PM had been more than
humble, talking about his songs as rubbish.
In any case, my little study demonstrates that 1966 was atypical due to the lack of vocal harmonies, complex chord arrangements, and amount of
production. The vocal harmonies didn’t come back until 1969. Was revolver was a gun to the original Beatles heads to keep producing, and they seem
to have run out of songs or were on strike? Also, was there a revolving door of new talent introduced on this album as a test run before the
elimination of the original Beatles? It seems clear that Paul wanted out, and he got his wish.
[Aside, the UK album titles are revealing. First they wanted to be loved and pleased, then later the audience are “with” them. Then the Beatles
are working like crazy, and later that year the Beatles are “for sale” (yikes, the buyers may have only been interested in the brand, not the
employees!). Then they are asking for HELP! This leads to (a) rubber soul and then a revolver (either a gun or a door?). After that comes an entirely
new band run by (Billy) Sargant Pepper and a magical mystery tour designed to confuse. Then there is no title (blank like many of those songs), then
an album named after their studio and we must Let it Be (All Things Must Pass would have been a better title, George wanting out which he got in
1970).]
To get back on thread topic, what are the motivations for murder of PM? I believe it wasn’t just about the money, it was about the drug experiment,
which ultimately failed (Bands like Rush in the 1970s had to hide their “___” use).
Some possible facts from a local psychic whom I asked a few questions. She says to not expect everything to be 100% correct, but she is fairly
confident of the dates:
PM never took “___” and, at most, smoked a bit of weed. He never did “___”, and would not!
The car crash is a cover story, as PM never had a fatal car crash.
He died in captivity from a combination of factors so that a unique cause of death is difficult to determine, starvation may be as accurate as
anything. Masons, CIA, Royal Family (not the MIs), non-humans were all involved. The location was some sort of non-human place/vessel.
Original Beatle Death Dates:
Beatle____DEATH__________MURDERED?_____LAST PUBLIC APPEARANCE
Paul______October, 1966_______Yes__________September, 1966
John______August, 1967_______Yes__________September, 1966
George____October, 1970______Yes__________September, 1970
Ringo_____December 1969__Not Really_______November, 1968
Comments: Paul and John appear to be consistent with earlier postings on the group, although where John was for almost a year (studio?) would be a
mystery. Ringo, no idea, but something ambiguous in his death. George seems the least likely to be a double (Normal Mailer was quoted after 1980
saying that George is the only one that can sort out Beatle history as Faul “rewrote history constantly” and Ringo “just doesn’t know”) but
he certainly did not remain the silent one. Perhaps Feorge’s role was to bring some credibility to the scam as the Fohns were nutty and without
humor, and Faul an egotistical a-hole that turned off many. George seems to have disappeared before the release of All Things Must Pass (recorded 26
May – 10 October 1970). Perhaps the Feorge Harrison venture was getting all the musical help at that point.
I remember the Mariharishi (who had been wronged by Fohn) was asked about the Beatles, and he described them as Angels and talked about how the NYC
crime rate went to zero when they played Ed Sullivan. What this thread has taught me: the evil exists.
RIP PJRG