Picture “The Beatles” in your mind – what do you see? There's the logo, four mop-top lads in suits, screaming girls mobbing airport runways... and Paul McCartney plucking away at his Hofner violin bass guitar.
Obviously, though, generational talent that he is, McCartney is and always has been a mean guitarist as well. Even before the world's most famous rock group went their separate ways, McCartney had already put to vinyl an enviable catalog of six-string greatness.
PAUL McCARTNEY: A great thing about Liverpool, Newcastle, Glasgow and the provinces, is that they all have places with famous names, and the first gig with The Quarry Men was on Broadway – in Liverpool. (We made our first record in a little demo studio in Kensington, Liverpool.)
For my first gig, I was given a guitar solo on Guitar Boogie. I could play it easily in rehearsal so they elected that I should do it as my solo. Things were going fine, but when the moment came in the performance I got sticky fingers; I thought, ‘What am I doing here?’ I was just too frightened; it was too big a moment with everyone looking at the guitar player. I couldn’t do it. (I never played a solo again until a few years ago.) That’s why George was brought in.
I knew George from the bus. Before I went to live in Allerton, I lived in Speke. We lived on an estate which they used to call the Trading Estate. (I understand now that they were trying to move industry there to provide jobs, but then we didn’t ever consider why it was called a trading estate.)
George was a bus stop away. I would get on the bus for school and he would get on the stop after. So, being close to each other in age, we talked – although I tended to talk down to him, because he was a year younger.
(I know now that that was a failing I had all the way through the Beatle years. If you’ve known a guy when he’s 13 and you’re 14, it’s hard to think of him as grown-up. I still think of George as a young kid. I still think of Ringo as a very old person because he is two years older. He was the grown-up in the group: when he came to us he had a beard, he had a car and he had a suit. What more proof do you need of grown-upmanship?)
I told John and the other Quarry Men about this guy at school called George: ‘He is a real good guitar player, so if you’re thinking of guitar – this is your boy.’ They said, ‘OK, let’s hear him, then.’
George could play Raunchy so well it really sounded like the record. We were all on the top of an empty bus one night and I said, ‘Go on, George.’ He got his guitar out and sure enough he could play it, and everyone agreed, ‘You’re in. You’ve done it.’
It was rather like me knowing the words to Twenty Flight Rock. With George it was: ‘He’s a bit young, but by God he can play Raunchy well.’ George was like our professional guitarist from then. Later, John did play some Chuck Berry-style solos, but he gave over the solo chair to George and became known as rhythm guitarist.
- This excerpt is taken from The Beatles Anthology 25th Anniversary Edition, published by Chronicle Books.
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