Surell

Ok, now I'll piss on the Beatles a little here and there but this is getting hateful.

Firstly, I don't think there can be much doubt that the Beatles were multi-instrumentalists (and pretty damn good ones at that) in the realm of Rock-oriented playing. Guitar, bass, drums, and other bluesy/keys based things were their forte; now, more orchestral sounds? Of course not. I don't think there are many Rock artists that play in their own orchestra- not Brian Wilson, not anyone from Radiohead (maybe Johnny Greenwood), and not even the godlike Beatles.

I also don't doubt the influence of George Martin on the group as well (along with Wilson's); he was the only one in the group with classical training, and brought a lot of those ideas in as early as Rubber Soul ("In My Life," for example). However, each song, with its creation by different members and their experiences at the time, is very distinct, like seeing Lennon's experimentation/sentimentality on "Norwegian Wood," "Lucy in the Sky...," or "Happiness is a Warm Gun" compared to McCartney's poppy nuggets "Penny Lane," "Rocky Rackoon," "When I'm 64," and so on into Harrison's more spiritual and contemplating rock or even Ringo's quirky little pieces - basically, the songs are too unique to each artist to be blown off as the fleshed out compositions of George Martin. That is, unless Martin is some uber-God of pop that just kept it under wraps for this long, which I wouldn't doubt but I don't think is too likely. Personally, I like more of Lennon's material outside of the group, and at that point he was getting his production from a progressively whacked out Phil Spector or his own muses (him and Yoko) and i don't know what else. McCartney even has "Ram," which is a really fun popfolk album thing. Harrison I still have to get into, and I like "Photograph," but my point remains.

Also, as for the Beach Boys being such great instrumentalists and Brian scrounging together "some studio musicians" to fill out parts, that's pretty much untrue. The Boys were only around for vocal arrangements at least by Pet Sounds, and if Brian had his way it would've stayed so. The musicians he was hiring were Phil Spector's best, most precise players, which explains the artful playing on their most hailed albums. Brian himself played piano and organ exactly one time for each instrument on "Pet Sounds," and the other members didn't put much more in.

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