The difference is the engineers, the production techniques, the genres, the arrangements, the choice of instruments, the range of themes explored, the cover art. Just about everything, really.
For me the peak McCartney era is 1968-1971 (from Lady Madonna through to everything recorded for RAM). He was prolific, stylistically limitless and basically untouchable (although I think John is right there with him on the double album; India really did him wonders). I agree though that 1965-1967 is clearly a period of incredible growth for Paul as a songwriter (I personally think John is still stronger on Help!, on Rubber Soul they're pretty even, and then in Revolver Paul jumps ahead).
IMHO McCartney was ALWAYS on a par with Lennon, and that was one of the Beatles’ very greatest strengths. I can think off the top of my head of And I Love Her and Things We Said Today from Hard Day’s Night….to name just two on one album…. McCartney’s songs on Revolver are excellent. So are Lennon’s. Which is why it’s probably their most consistently successful album. Tomorrow Never Knows isn’t ‘overwhelmed’ by Here There And Everywhere. Very different but equally superb.
Paul's early songs were every big as good as John's. John just seemed more prolific in those early days.
Depends on how you look at it. I find the differences between Revolver and Pepper to be far greater than the differences between RS and Revolver. Yesterday and Today illustrates how well all many 65-66 tunes fit together.
That doesn't change the fact that enormous differences exist between Rubber Soul & Revolver. If Tomorrow Never Knows was the last track on Rubber Soul it would have been far more shocking. By the time you arrive there on Revolver it feels like a culmination of all the experimental sounds heard earlier in the album, as well as on "Rain".
I guess we just have a different perspective. I think TNK is shocking regardless of album and I never felt like it was a culmination of things. It is quite brilliant and a good last track. But Taxman, Drive My Car, Girl, Here There and Everywhere, Yesterday, Eleanor Rigby, And Your Bird Can Sing, Rain, We Can Work It Out, Day Tripper - I could go on - but I find them to be not that dissimilar in approach.
He didn't seem more prolific, he was more prolific. But McCartney's stuff was always choice. Look at the 'A Hard Day's Night' album. Lennon dominates it but McCartney's tracks are terrific ( ' And I Love Her', ' ' Can't Buy Me Love' and ' Things We Said Today'). And! Speaking of ' Can't Buy Me Love' ...it's the Beatles first single which doesn't feature additional vocals. Just Paul wailing away.
I think of Revolver, Pepper and Abbey as 'clean' albums. (Not in a sexual context, strictly an artistic one.) I think of the White Album and Let it Be as 'dirty' albums. (Same.) And for whatever reason I prefer the clean ones.
And yet, the album was never considered their best universally even with all those Paul songs present until all territories were able to hear it with the 3 John songs that were missing from their versions. Therefore, it's another win for John Lennon lol
Let's see; on Revolver, Paul goes from chamber pop ("Eleanor Rigby", "For No One") to Beach Boys ("Here, There and Everywhere") to good-time pop ("Good Day Sunshine") to Motown ("Got to Get You Into My Life"). John starts with the lethargic "I'm Only Sleeping", moves onto the acid rock of "She Said She Said", future theme song to The Beatles cartoon "And Your Bird Can Sing" and "Doctor Robert" then ends with the acid nightmare that is "Tomorrow Never Knows".
And Paul's great songs on Revolver,"Eleanor Rigby" and "For No One", are snapshots of terrible loneliness and alienation. What a couple of fun guys!
I disagree. McCartney was great on singles but on albums he wasn't much of a match. Isolate his songs on With The Beatles, Beatles For Sale, Help! and it's not too impressive. A Hard Day's Night Paul is terrific. I don't think they're even on Rubber Soul - in fact that month of recording is the reverse of John and Paul at the 'Get Back' sessions with John being the prolific one. Paul wrote much of "Drive My Car" and "Michelle" which are famous and mostly loved (for some reason not by this forum much) but then his quality drops to half or most of "Wait", "You Won't See Me", "I'm Looking Through You" and "What Goes On" is old at that point. Would you take any of these Rubber Soul songs over Paul's Revolver songs? He massively improved for Revolver and that's why Revolver is above all the earlier albums. Cause Paul is money in 1966. Anyway, it's fun to pit them against each other, but I'm glad they were under The Beatles banner together.
I think that "Drive My Car", "Michelle", "You Won't See Me" and and "I'm Looking Through You" are all great. You have to bear in mind too that "In My Life" is one of the rare contested Lennon/McCartney songs ("Eleanor Rigby" was the other major one). Paul insists that he wrote the melody for that. John was not able to respond, so in fairness, I'll call it a draw. But that still tips the scales enough for me to consider them pretty even on Rubber Soul, which is one of the reasons that I love that album so much (and personally prefer it to Revolver).
Okay, let's go: Please Please Me: a draw. With The Beatles: Clear victory for John. A Hard Day's Night: Clear victory for John. For Sale: Small victory for John. Help!: No victory for anybody, but could've been two great singles for both. Rubber Soul: Clear victory for John, but I love Drive My Car. Revolver: a draw, Ringo sings the most popular tune. Sgt. Pepper: Clear victory for Paul. Magical Mystery Tour: Small victory for Paul. The clean sheet album: a great battle with no winner. Let it Be: John is a looser. Abbey Road: Clear victory for Paul. Final score without the singles: 4 victories for John, for 4 Paul: and four draws.
It was a co-write, created by combining two unfinished songs (the verse from Lennon and the chorus from McCartney). Discussed earlier in this thread.
Interesting. I've always read it attributed 100% to Paul, but new info is always considered and welcomed (and I skipped about 28 pages of this thread; sorry). Anyhow, my favorite John song on Revolver is I'm Only Sleeping. I like it, but I don't think that even that holds a candle to most of what he wrote for Rubber Soul. Very obviously IMHO and all that.
Robert Rodriguez, who wrote a book on Revolver, seems to put it forth as the peak of the Beatles as a four-way collaboration. (I only say this because I heard him say so on a podcast, haven’t read the book.) I think it’s pretty even, and a pretty remarkable outburst of creativity in so many interesting directions. For me the standouts are: Taxman Eleanor Rigby I’m Only Sleeping Love You To Here, There and Everywhere She Said She Said And Your Bird Can Sing For No One Got to Get You into My Life Tomorrow Never Knows (I like all the other song too, but these 10 are essential!) So that’s 4 each for John and Paul and 2 for George, very even! I seem to agree with Mr. Rodriguez, then. I recently read someone on some thread here say eclecticism was the Beatles’ superpower. Well said. Revolver has that in spades. Even though it’s not my personal favourite, I can see it as a sort of peak, in terms of “edgy-ness” and boundary-pushing. I totally understand why many people love it, and think it’s their best work.
In the 1967 interview transcribed here, the two of them discuss writing the song, and John says it was "two separate songs" put together. He says Paul came in with the chorus, and they combined it with another song that he (John) had already been working on which comprised the verse melody. Paul is there and agrees with this recollection. In a 1975 interview John elaborated: "I was always trying to write THE song about Liverpool. In My Life started that way, it began as just a travelogue, y'know, on my left, the local palais, on the right, the bus station, just garbage, and then I did "in the town where I was born" and went on about sailing away to sea, like people do in Liverpool, but it never went anywhere, we ended up using it somewhere else, but then I stopped trying to be literal and out came Strawberry fields!" After they had combined the two songs, Paul apparently wrote more of the remaining lyrics than John, because in the 1980 Playboy interview John characterized the song as "Paul's baby" and said he "helped with the lyrics." And in the 90s (Many Years From Now book) Paul mistakenly recalled that he'd written all the music (verse and chorus) by himself. This erroneous recollection is probably a large part of the reason many folks have the misconception that it was a Paul song rather than a cowrite. But it's a cowrite, with John responsible for the memorable opening lines and the verse melody, as well as other unspecified lyrics in the remainder of the song.
