The Ballad of John and Yoko - what if George and Ringo had played on it?

The Old Brown Shoe thread got me thinking about the A side, the Ballad of John and Yoko. Much like Shoe it's a fun, punchy Abbey Road era track.

You probably know the story that George and Ringo were away, and desperate to record the track, John and Paul made it without them. John was on lead guitar and Paul was on bass and drums.

While I really enjoy this song I can't help but feel it would have been improved if the others had played on it. The lead guitar and drums are a little basic for my liking - the guitar appears in random spurts during the verses, and in the bridge it's essentially a copy of the bass line. As usual Paul's drumming is alright but Ringo might have made it more distinctive.

It's a shame that they didn't wait for George and Ringo when they recorded this, being one of their rockier latter day songs.

 

Honestly, it's never been a favorite of mine and I'm not sure if George's guitar licks and Ringo's fills would have made that much of a difference.

 

I think it would have sounded remarkably similar to what we have.

 

It would have been better, but Old Brown Shoe is still the superior track.

 

I think it's fine as-is.

Ringo might've thrown in a drum fill, which the song works well without. And George might found something to gripe about...I'll play it if you want me to, or I won't play it...all in all, the song needs nothing else

 

If George and Ringo were on TBOJ&Y, then John would not have felt guilty and thus would not have allowed George to automatically get the B-side (with "Old Brown Shoe").

 

Probably wouldn't sound a whole lot different.

I kind of like the dashed-off, snapshot quality Lennon seemed to be going for with it, whether that was out of necessity or not.

 

Good point. But maybe they would have put Shoe on Abbey Road instead?

 

Scraaaaaaaaaape.

 

Love it the way it is. A great minimal rocker!. Love Paul's drumming on it.

 

I like it the way it is. As far as I know, it's the only song ever released that features just John and Paul.

 

Yeah they could have toured like half the Who

 

IMO it would have lost it's charm, the sparseness is what makes the song unique.

 

What if John and Cynthia never split up and the song was instead about the challenges of marriage and household chores?

Hanging 'round the homestead with Cynthia
Julian dropped crumbs on the floor
Cynthia said
you go up to bed
He marched upstairs and slammed the damn door
Christ! You know it ain't easy
You know how hard it can be
Cynthia and Johnny
And little Julian makes three!

Saving up our pennys for a rainy day
Washing all our clothes on Saturday
Last night the wife said
Pick up some rye bread
some mustard and a dozen lemon scones
THINK!

George would have done slightly different guitar fills. Maybe. If allowed. Ringo would have gone "rum tum tum" instead of "tum tum tum". But yeah...not much different...John calls the shots. It's fine as is, and a nice little Lennon/McCartney moment alone caught on tape.

 

I don't see it being much different. A fun track overall but not a "single" to me.

 

I personally loved it as a single as it just rocked! But I hated when the video was on Music Scene (or one of those Network music shows) and they censored out each time Lennon sang Christ. *

* this is not a religious post. It's about network censorship

 

Had a lovely day out in Brighton
Now I'm back home with the wife and the kid
Cynthia said
Let's go off to bed
Said good night to the boy then we did

 

The bridge:

Having to get married back in 63
Living in insincerity
Last night the wife said "oh boy you are dead!
And don't take nothing with you but Yoko...think!"

 

Got pissed off at George and McCartney
Smacked Cynthia square in the teat
Got in the Bentley
Then dropped LSD
Then puked my lunch all over the seat
CHRIST!

 

George was supposed to get the A-Side, but when he got cross about not sharing his digestive biccies, he got pushed to the B-Side.

 

If I recall correctly, George sarcastically commented that he would have been miffed to be left out if it had been called "The Ballad of Johan and Yoko and George", but as it wasn't he didn't care.

 

Actually, I just heard Ringo has agreed per Paul's request to finally go back into the studio and dub a new drum part over Paul's original.

No one knows the status of John's similar request to George...

 

I've always loved this song -- before I knew it was just John and Paul, when I thought it was all four of them. I can't think of a lot of dance-y, uptempo songs that John wrote besides this one. It's great.

 

Hmmm. Interesting possibility.