JOHN, PAUL & GEORGE’S GUITAR REVOLUTION
FOR BEATLES FANS, 1970 WAS A particularly heavy year — one in which we watched one of our most beloved bands fall apart, and witnessed the rebirth of each Beatle as a solo artist. The chronology itself is crazy. A slew of Beatles-related albums were released in the space of that single year, starting with Ringo Starr’s solo debut, Sentimental Journey, in March. Then came Paul McCartney’s self-titled debut LP in April, along with a press release making it more or less clear that the Beatles were finished.
The stage was set for the May release of the Beatles’ final album, though penultimate rercording, Let It Be: a troubled and uneven set of tracks culled from sessions in 1969 that hadn’t gone well. It was the soundtrack album for a film of the same title, which chronicled the tragedy of a great band falling apart, while also giving us a last look at that Beatles magic, resplendent even in dysfunction.
John Lennon called [Let It Be] “the shittiest load of badly recorded shit with a lousy feeling to it ever”
Ringo was quickly back in the fray with a country record, Beau-coups of Blues, released in September and drawing on the talents of some of Nashville’s greatest guitarists and other session players. More guitar grandeur came in November when George Harrison’s epic triple album, All Things Must Pass, came out; and the year closed with John Lennon’s stunning solo debut album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, a stark swansong to the Sixties that also charted a bold course forward into Lennon’s solo career. For more about these albums — and several others — check out “Man We Was Busy” on page 59.
As the Beatles faced the challenges and excitement of new solo careers, Harrison, Lennon and McCartney would each build on the groundbreaking guitar legacy they had forged together over the course of the Beatles’ career. So many of their most revolutionary rock guitar innovations were collectively wrought. “I Feel Fine” from 1964 became the first rock record to feature the creative deployment of guitar feedback, when the A string on McCartney’s legendary 1963 Hofner 500/1 violin bass triggered a transductive loop between Lennon’s Gibson J-150 E electro-acoustic guitar and his Vox amp.
The gloriously multitracked guitar harmonies on 1966’s “And Your Bird Can Sing” from Revolver were a collective effort between Paul and George. And to create the pioneering backwards guitar solo on “I’m Only Sleeping” from the same album, Harrison spent hours with engineers Geoff Emerick and Phil McDonald. Then George and Paul worked extensively with the engineers on the harmonized backwards outro.
Feedback and backwards tape tracks — not to mention a
