Quote:
Originally Posted by The Ice Plant
I understand that. But when you think of Ringo's image within The Beatles, "his" (or Buck Owens') lyrics in Act Naturally fit that image perfectly.
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Act Naturally was not only a good song for Ringo's vocal talents but the Beatle's cover of the Buck Owens song is a showcase for their skills at playing country & western music.
Act Naturally originally appeared as the B-Side 45 rpm single of
Yesterday, another unusual Beatles' song in which Paul McCartney sings a somber ballad accompanied only by his acoustic guitar and a string quartet. None of the other Beatles were involved in the writing or the recording of
Yesterday & producer George Martin gave some thought to releasing
Yesterday as a Paul McCartney solo single.
From my perspective the Beatles' cover trumps the Buck Owens original for a number of reasons. Ringo's plaintive vocal is more inspired that Buck Owens and Ringo's smooth phrasing of the lyrics is a lot less awkward than Buck's sing-song phrasing that lags behind the tempo at times. George Harrison improves the original by adding some twangy Carl Perkins inspired double-tracked guitar licks. Paul & Ringo's pumped up backbeat and Ringo's innovative stick tapping punches up the mid-tempo original by the Buckaroos. The Beatles version of
Act Naturally sounds like a rootsy rockabilly version recorded at Sun Records and the Beatles version sounds more authentically country than the Buckaroo's trademark Bakersfield sound.
Compare to the 1965 Beatles version to 1963 Buck Owens & the Buckaroos original recording of
Act Naturally.
As it turned out Buck Owens loved the Beatles cover and he re-recorded
Act Naturally as a duet with Ringo in 1988. It's interesting how each of the Beatles had hit & miss musical careers following the breakup in 1970 but they all were brilliant musicians during the years they played collectively as the Beatles. I'm convinced that Gram Parker & Roger McGuinn had nothing on the Beatles & if they would have chosen to do so, the Beatles could have made a better country rock album than
Sweetheart of the Rodeo,which came out 3 years after the Beatles release of
Act Naturally.
McGuinn has said that hearing the Beatles 1965 version of
Act Naturally inspired him to move the Byrds in a more countrified direction. You can hear the country music influence creeping into the Byrds' psychedelic sound on the song Time Between, which was recorded in late 1966, two years prior to Gram Parsons' entry into the Byrds.