How The Beatles Made "Paperback Writer"

today's video is short and sweet just like paperback writer one of my top 10 Beatles songs that exemplifies how good they were at telling a story with music and oh my god this song has such a killer bass performance Paul McCartney is seriously one of the best bassist in the world this is the story of paperback writer [Music] [Music] John Lennon refers to paperback rider as a son of DayTripper saying it's a rock and roll song with a guitar lick on a fuzzy loud guitar and it's not just the guitar that receives some fuzz or inventive recording a speaker was used as a microphone in front of a bass amp and later mastered using the Abbey Road Studios automated transient overload control that is just a mouthful of technical stuff I just can't pretend to understand but engineer Jeff Emmerich explains saying paperback writer was the first time the bass sound had been heard in all its excitement for a start Paul played a different bass a Rickenbacker then we boosted it further by using a loudspeaker as a microphone we positioned it directly in front of the bass speaker and the moving diaphragm of the second speaker made the electrical current so aside from Paul's incredible bass melody this recording technique was crucial in making his bass sing also is it just me or should Paul never not play his iconic Hoffner bass it's so him but I let it slide because the Rickenbacker sounds amazing on this song musically Paul says he was attempting to write a song around a single chord with sympathetic harmonies likely inspired by Indian music which to me as a musician it's not necessarily easy less chords can sometimes feel like you have less melodic mobility but of course this is the Beatles and Paul's bass work and vocal melodies seem to blend in such a way that it never gets monotonous or sound too droning it's just groovy lyrically well of course it's self-explanatory a young person wants to write books for a publisher but thematically is where Paul McCartney's lyrics shine there's for some reason a long-standing debate on who is the better lyric writer Paul or John I think that's crazy they're both fantastic albeit very different lyricists that's like comparing TS Eliot to Robert Frost both have their talents but in the case of the Beatles John and Paul would write together Paul says the story just came to him after reading a Daily Mail article about wannabe authors and even reminisces about writing it in front of John Lennon at his house in Weybridge and before I read it to you can I just say this is a really great quote very telling how great friends the two are the more Paul says you knew the minute you got their cup of tea and Utes I'm right so it was always good if you had a theme I had a thought for a song and somehow it was to do with the Daily Mail so there might have been an article in the mail that morning about people writing paperbacks penguin paperbacks was what I really thought of the archetypal paperback I arrived that way Birds untold John I had this idea of trying to write off to a publishers to become a paperback writer and I said I think it should be written like a letter I took a bit of paper out and I said it should be something like dear sir or madam as the case may be and I proceeded to write it just like a letter in front of him occasionally rhyming it and John as I recall just sat there and said oh that's it uh-huh yeah I remember him his amused smile saying yes that's it that'll do quite a nice moment hmm I've done right I've done well and then we went upstairs and put the melody to it John and I sat down and finished it all up but it was tilted towards me the original idea was mine I know for the last couple of Beatles episodes we've been discussing their slight rivalry but it's quotes like this that keep me coming back to them where else in music do you get to see a friendship like this it makes you wonder if therein lies the magic of their songs two extremely talented songwriting partners not just trying to write well together but perhaps to best each other challenge each other and maybe even cheer for one another as you know my first album is out everywhere Spotify iTunes Apple music but I'd love for you to listen to some secret acoustic versions of songs I'm gonna have on my second album this one is called til never [Music] should I call you mine the hands of my watch should be tried and our glass should be turned on inside for you to lever this mine [Music] shudders never cast the light my son in the sky in the night and feels like there's no way inside however [Music] [Music] [Music] running late maybe never never comes my way and still through enlist years away because forever [Music] to the sea [Music] [Music] [Music] if you enjoy these videos and want to support the channel please consider becoming a patron my videos will always be free and this is a great way to help me make them better for you check out my debut album the Holly Hobbs on Spotify and Apple music and click 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Channel: James Maharaj

Views: 123,180

Keywords: The Beatles, Paperback Writer

Id: sMUqBUXolqg

Length: 7min 7sec (427 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 16 2019