George Harrison was usually the man responsible, especially in the early days, for the guitar solos in Beatles songs. He was no innovator, but a player easy to adore on account of his tone and tendency to restate what were always formidable melodies—thanks to John Lennon and Paul McCartney—in his solos.
Those melodies gave the Beatles a formidable leg up as a band, and Harrison the guitarist understood what a good thing was and utilized it.By his own admission, Harrison didn’t practice much, adding that he would have been much better if he did.
The longer one listens to the Beatles, the more one appreciates McCartney, who apparently could have done anything he wished musically between the years of 1963 and 1969.
McCartney, though, was both consummate and daring, the way that Mozart was, or Charlie Parker. It may be his most salient musical quality when he was at his best. He didn’t play much lead guitar with the Beatles, but when he did, it was always dynamic—startling, even.
McCartney has five key moments as a Beatles lead guitar player, with one of them somewhat muted by dint of having two other lead guitar players join him, which is what happens with the long medley of Abbey Road. We get nine guitar solos, with McCartney, Harrison and Lennon, in that order, taking three guitar solos each, the solos having a length of about two bars.
McCartney sets up his bandmates. He’s the distributor, the point guard. Miles Davis was a master of not so much laying out, but almost laying out while also playing at a high level that seemed to make it easier for others to be at their best.
That’s the McCartney of the long medley. He doesn’t need the splashy moment. Harrison and Lennon are better suited to do their respective things here, in this context, with everything that implies and conveys. Someone had to take charge of the guitar section of the medley, and kick it off, and that somebody was McCartney.
“Taxman” was the George Harrison song that sufficiently impressed Lennon and McCartney, and producer George Martin, that it was placed at the start of Revolver. Beginning and ending Beatles records was a big deal. Here was Harrison’s breakthrough moment in the band, but it’s McCartney who plays the solo on the song. Harrison wouldn’t have been able to. Not this solo. - Read the full article at Bestclassicbands.
