The Beatles are known for their catchy song writing, Paul McCartney’s melodic bass lines and their vocal harmonies. Occasionally I’ve heard Ringo’s drumming described as unique and he’s explained this as being because he is left handed but plays a right handed drum set. This causes him to come off the toms differently than a right handed drummer. Of course, the Beatles (John and Paul) insisted on working out a unique drum beat to each of their songs just as each song had a unique chord structure and lyric. You can play just the drum beat to a Beatle song without hearing any of the other tracks and still be able to identify the song.
What is rarely mentioned is the uniqueness John Lennon’s sense of rhythm brought to the Beatles music. It’s not just that he developed a different strum for each song such as Eight Days A Week, Norwegian Wood, This Boy, All My Loving, etc., etc., etc., but that many of his songs had unique time signatures and changed time signatures within the song. Songs such as She Said She Said, I Dig A Pony, Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey, Happiness Is A Warm Gun, etc., etc., etc. John never just strummed along to a song but like Ringo’s beat, he drove the rhythm of the song and gave it a defining element. Each of the elements of a Beatle song, the drumbeat, the rhythm guitar strum, the lead guitar sound, fills and solos, the melody line and the intricate vocal harmonies were all defining elements. Nothing in the arrangements were extraneous or redundant or expendable. Each element worked as a different colored thread weaving around the other threads to create a beautiful tapestry that has been described many times as being more than the sum of its parts.
When I was a kid and sucked up in the fervor of young Beatlemania, I feared that one day, when I was a grownup, that I would look back at the music of the Beatles (and others) and realize my parents, teachers and most other adults at the time, were right; the music of the Beatles wasn’t really very good. Now I’m at the age when I realize I’m probably not going to grow up if I haven’t done so by now. In fact, I’m much more likely to die than change my mind or tastes by this point and knowing what I know now about music and life I find that I’m much more amazed and impressed by the music of my youth than I ever was. As the old saying goes; they just don’t make ‘em like that any more.
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