Paul on Drums, George on Bass: 10 Great Beatles Instrument Swaps
With every single LP, the Beatles shed some creative skin. Decades later, it's still difficult to process their two-year leap from Revolver to Sgt. Pepper's to the White Album. The members also continuously expanded their own roles in the band: It's surprising how many classic Beatles songs feature Paul McCartney behind the drum kit, or John Lennon on lead guitar.
These small details are crucial in the Beatles' evolution: McCartney's one-man-band performance on White Album gem "Martha My Dear"; Lennon experimenting with an obscure keyboard, the Mellotron, on psychedelic daydream "Strawberry Fields Forever." (Without his introduction of that crucial instrument, who's to say King Crimson would have cemented the prog-rock movement on In the Court of the Crimson King?)
To honor the Fab Four's enduring free spirit, let's look back at 10 of the band's most intriguing instrumental switch-ups.
"Back in the U.S.S.R."
The White Album sessions were tense and scattered overall: Yoko Ono's presence in the studio became a distraction for everyone not named John; meanwhile, longtime engineer Geoff Emerick, frustrated by the band's squabbling, quit midway through. But the recording of McCartney's Beach Boys homage "Back in the U.S.S.R." was especially complicated since Ringo Starr had temporarily quit the group, leaving the remaining trio to pick up the slack. Both Harrison and Lennon overdubbed additional bass to flesh out a composite track; they also contributed extra drums, with McCartney's tense kit work mixed loudest amidst the "ooh-ohh" harmonies.
By: Ryan Reed
Source: Rolling Stone
