Quincy Jones's scandalous remarks about The Beatles – and how Paul McCartney responded
Quincy Jones was never one to shy away from voicing his opinion, whether on presidential candidate Donald Trump or on his friend and collaborator Michael Jackson.
Arguably the most notorious example was when the late producer gave an interview with New York Magazine in 2018, and shared his first impression of “no-playing motherf***ers”... The Beatles.
“They were the worst musicians in the world,” he said. “Paul [MCCartney] was the worst bass player I ever heard.”
He reserved particular venom for drummer Ringo Starr, with whom he recalled recording the song “Love is a Many Splendoured Thing” for Starr’s 1970 debut solo album, Sentimental Journey.
“Ringo had taken three hours for a four-bar thing he was trying to fix on a song. He couldn’t get it,” Jones said.
“We said, ‘Mate, why don’t you get some lager and lime, some shepherd’s pie, and take an hour-and-a-half and relax a little bit.”
While Starr went away, Jones claimed that he snuck English jazz drummer Ronnie Verrell into the studio: “[He] came in for 15 minutes and tore it up. Ringo comes back and says [to George Martin], can you play it back for me one more time?
“So George did, and Ringo says: ‘That didn’t sound so bad,’” Jones remembered. “And I said: ‘Yeah, motherf***er, because it ain’t you.’ Great guy, though.”
Source: Independant
