Readers recommend: solo Beatles songs – results

Jon Dennis

Thursday, 21 Jun 2012

# George Harrison

Competition between Beatles members survived even their split, as this week's playlist shows

What if the Beatles had got back together? Our playlist this week might answer that question, as it's a distillation of your nominations over the last week of favourite tracks from the solo Beatles' oeuvre, a task we urged you to undertake to mark Sir Paul McCartney's 70th birthday.

Hear the solo songs in the context of the other three's work does add an interesting dimension, though the idea of compiling a "lost Beatles album" from the best of their solo stuff is not new, of course. RR commenter freewoolly lists the songs on Everest, a 70s bootleg that took its name from the working title of the album that became Abbey Road.

The posthumously released Nobody Told Me showcases the John Lennon wit in his bemusement at modernity, the influences of Dylan in the vocal delivery and of rock'n'roll in the arrangement. Roll!

The ex-Beatles always played close attention to one another's solo output, the competition between them surviving their split. One of the things that drove Lennon to return to the studio in 1980 was Coming Up, described by BeltwayBandit as "about the funkiest thing Paul has come up with", and drawing our attention to the "phenomenal" bass.

Next up is What Is Life, from George Harrison's Phil Spector-produced All Things Must Pass (if it had been a single LP and not a triple, it might have been the best Beatles solo album). "Always loved that riff," says RR nominator magicman. Impossible not to.

Look at Me, from the confessional 1970 John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, is described by helenf888 as a "very simple, fragile song from John". Such self-questioning moments touch the listener, and would be extraordinary from any artist. They gave Beatles albums enormous depth and are central to Lennon's appeal. Also, as RR commenter nobuts reminds us, it's catchy.

A Beatles album needs a dash of strangeness, of course. magicman provides some context to 1979's The Broadcast, a track admired by David Bowie. It consists of quotes from books selected at random from the library at Lympne Castle in Kent, where the track was recorded, and read by the castle's plummy-voiced owners over a stately orchestral backing.

Amazingly, Ringo was briefly the most commercially successful ex-Beatle, thanks largely to the success of It Don't Come Easy, a superior Harrison song with Klaus "Paul's replacement in the Beatles" Voorman on bass and Badfinger on backing vocals. Every Beatles album needs a track for Ringo to sing, and I don't think you'd skip this one.

"Play loud" instructed the label on Instant Karma, a track that defined Lennon's post-Beatles sound – Spector's wall of sound, Elvis slapback vocal reverb – and was written, recorded and released in the space of a week. A lifetime in our digital world, of course, but in 1970 that was as "instant" as it could be. Plus, as Slademan notes, there's a "great video with Yoko in the background blindfolded and knitting!"

Robbo100 pays tribute to the Brian Wilson-esque Ram On's "haunting and beautiful melody", pointing out that Paul Ramon was a pseudonym used by the pre-fame Macca.

RR commenter Severin unearths Far East Man, what he describes as "a rather soulful piece of Krishna consciousness". Co-written by Ron Wood, it features a strong vocal performance from the still underrated Quiet One from his Dark Horse album.

Lennon recorded I'm Losing You with Cheap Trick before ditching the recording in favour of the one that appeared on Double Fantasy. But Robbo100 likes the Cheap Trick take, which he says "transforms and sort of Cold Turkifies the bland Double Fantasy version". Beatles biographer Philip Norman recently remarked on the Fabs' ability to "each become each other", and Paul McCartney does a bit of Cold Turkification himself on Let Me Roll It.

Lennon didn't have a monopoly on messages of peace and love, but in any case, it's the "slide guitars (twin attack)" that magicman praises on Harrison's Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth).

There are many treasures among Paul McCartney's solo work, none greater than Maybe I'm Amazed, a song that would have graced any Beatles album. "A love song with a difference," says RR commenter freewoolly, while for severin the song, from McCartney's 1970 debut solo release, is "a contender for his best … love songs rarely sound this real". Perhaps that's because of what michelley describes as "the note of desperation by a songwriter who oft gets accused of facile emotion".

Here's the playlist: