With the sad passing of George I started thinking of his songs with the Beatles. I'm curious if anyone knows how they wrote and worked out their material? Did John and Paul write lyrics and chord progressions? Did George develop chords progressions and leads to their lyrics? Did any song develop after an intro or hook was created? John and Paul take credit for penning the bulk of the Beatle material, but what was George's and Ringo's role? Was there an agreement that allowed George only two songs per album?
I'm just reflecting in my mind all of those wonderful songs they left for all of us to enjoy.
How did the Beates collaborate to write their material?
This question could lead to a LONG answer... but I'll try to give you my impressions as the short version:
Basically, George wrote almost all of his Beatle compositions on his own. John and Paul wrote as collaborators; on the earlier songs, that often meant true "collaboration"; later on, it became more of each guy writing the tunes he generally sang lead on, with the "other" guy giving suggestions or lending a bridge or lyric fill.
By the "White Album", John and Paul were writing as almost separate entities, although still listing their credits as "Lennon/McCartney".
George, as I understand it, almost always worked on his own. Now of course he, like the other guys, would benefit from the instrumental and "arrangemental" suggestions of the other three Beatles, as well as those from George Martin, when it came time to record in the studio. But the original writing was done mostly on his own.
I think there was sort of an "unspoken agreement" that John and Paul would get the lion's share of album space, while George would only get his one or two songs per album. (Ringo would maybe get his one song per album, but it was usually written by someone else). The precedent of Lennon/McCartney domination stemmed from the early days of the band, when they WERE the de facto song writers of the Beatles, before George began his writing career.
That "agreement" became less satisfactory to George as time went by, and as he became a progressively better songsmith. It seems to have been his principal reason for dissatisfaction with the band... After the breakup of the Beatles, George released "All Things Must Pass" as a TRIPLE album; it obviously reflected the massive backlog of material he had accumulated during the last years of the Beatles...
But irrespective of "who wrote what", there was a certain synergy among the four of them, that combined to produce such amazing music!
Gene
Basically, George wrote almost all of his Beatle compositions on his own. John and Paul wrote as collaborators; on the earlier songs, that often meant true "collaboration"; later on, it became more of each guy writing the tunes he generally sang lead on, with the "other" guy giving suggestions or lending a bridge or lyric fill.
By the "White Album", John and Paul were writing as almost separate entities, although still listing their credits as "Lennon/McCartney".
George, as I understand it, almost always worked on his own. Now of course he, like the other guys, would benefit from the instrumental and "arrangemental" suggestions of the other three Beatles, as well as those from George Martin, when it came time to record in the studio. But the original writing was done mostly on his own.
I think there was sort of an "unspoken agreement" that John and Paul would get the lion's share of album space, while George would only get his one or two songs per album. (Ringo would maybe get his one song per album, but it was usually written by someone else). The precedent of Lennon/McCartney domination stemmed from the early days of the band, when they WERE the de facto song writers of the Beatles, before George began his writing career.
That "agreement" became less satisfactory to George as time went by, and as he became a progressively better songsmith. It seems to have been his principal reason for dissatisfaction with the band... After the breakup of the Beatles, George released "All Things Must Pass" as a TRIPLE album; it obviously reflected the massive backlog of material he had accumulated during the last years of the Beatles...
But irrespective of "who wrote what", there was a certain synergy among the four of them, that combined to produce such amazing music!
Gene
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musicfan37
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corey
As has been stated above, I read somewhere as well that John and Paul had a "deal" where even if if was totally a "John song" or a "Paul song" that it would always be listed as "Lennon/McCartney", even though they weren't really much of a team in the later years. I also think it was John and Paul who always created a song for Ringo on each record...although, I'm sure George had stuff as well, naturally.