Play with me (Jeff Beck) (LP 550 - 554)

Jeff Beck Group Rough and Ready (CD, Sony Music, 1971) ****

Jeff Beck Group Jeff Beck Group (CD, Sony Music, 1972) *** 

Jeff Beck Blow By Blow (CD, Sony Music, 1975) ***

Jeff Beck Wired (CD, Sony Music, 1976) ****

Jeff Beck with The Jan Hammer Group Live (CD, Sony Music, 1977) ****

Genre: British pop/ rock 

Places I remember: HMV East Croyden

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Situation (Rough and Ready); Blue Wind (Wired) 

Gear costume: Going Down (JBG); Freeway Jam (Blow By Blow)

Active compensatory factors: Having just read Rod Stewart's autobiography I have a different take on Jeff's peculiar personality. Is it the truth? Who knows, it's certainly Rod's version of the truth 

(see what I did there?). 

He's definitely a restless musician - never sticking with a bunch of musicians for very long. Woody and Roddy only lasted  for two albums (Truth and Beck-ola) and were gone for 1971's Rough and Ready. Then that band (including Max Middleton and Cozy Powell) only lasted for two albums, and so on.

This five album package in  the Original Album Classics series by Sony Music) certainly shows Jeff's ruthless methodology from 1971 to 1977.

That's not to mean the music suffers though. His guitar heroics are on display in a variety of settings over these five albums, and it's actually the period of his that I like the most. 

The second incarnation of Jeff Beck Group makes a much funkier, jazzier sound than the blues/ hard rock of the Rod Stewart version.

First 'solo' album, Blow By Blow, is an instrumental album (pesky lead singers are dispensed with from here onwards) and allows Beck to experiment with jazzier guitar styles. It's a transitional album from the rock of the Jeff Beck Group towards the full on jazz fusion sound of Wired and Live.

Max Middleton and Jan Hammer deserve special mentions - both hold their own on keyboards and are not overshadowed by Beck's guitar pyrotechnics. Instead they shine and create their own distinctive sounds to complement Beck.  

Beatle fans note: Blow By Blow and Wired are both superbly produced by George Martin.  

Where do they all belong? Truth and Beck-ola have their moments but haven't aged as well - I've gone for a cheapo best of (featuring Rod Stewart) compilation. It cherry picks the best moments from Rod and Ron's time with Jeff (and includes, of course, Hi Ho Silver Lining).

Stranger on the shore (Roger Williams) (LP 531)

Roger Williams Mr. Piano (Vinyl, Kapp Records, 1962) ** 

Genre: Easy listening

Places I remember: My dad's record collection.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles/ Gear costume: Niagara Theme 

Active compensatory factors: I continue to own this for nostalgic reasons - pure and simple. The record itself holds nothing for a child of the Beatles (aside from the George Martin track - keep reading).

There's the ridiculously bad portrait on the cover, the schmaltzy string arrangements that accompany the piano, and the very mannered playing style of Roger Williams (born Louis Weertz, on my birthday - October 1, in 1924). Sounds interesting? There are 50 available via discogs for around $2.00 each!

But, thanks to dad - here it is! That cover was always around (the purply stain on the back cover is instant nostalgia) and the song selection holds it firmly in place (Themes from Dr Kildare and Ben Casey are evidence of that).

The only slight point of interest is his version of George Martin's Niagara Theme (George's song was done by his own Orchestra and issued in 1965). But it's not a great tune, I'm sorry to report.

Where do they all belong? Mercifully, that's the last album in my Easy Listening section.

Come together (The Beatles) (LP 512 - 513)

The Beatles Abbey Road (Vinyl and CDs, Apple Records, 1969) ***** 

The Beatles Abbey Road - 3LP Anniversary Edition  (Vinyl and CDs, Apple Records, 1969) ***** 

Genre: Beatle pop/rock 

Places I remember: DJ Records; HMV Oxford St; The Warehouse; Kings Recording - Abu Dhabi

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Come Together

Gear costume: Everything else. It's the bloody Beatles! 

Active compensatory factors: It's a ritual I've had for the last 40 years: whenever moving house - first thing I do is set up my turntable, amp and speakers - select this album and turn up Come Together (and then let the album play out).

That means I've bought it a few times now!

I have a huge shit eating grin on my face every time I do it. Miraculously, every time I play it I feel like it's the first time.

When I began collecting Beatle albums in 1970 with the Hey Jude compilation, both Abbey Rd., and Let It Be were pretty much brand new, and soon to join Hey Jude on my wire record rack.

Of all the versions, I prefer my original vinyl edition. It still sounds incredible and while I applaud Giles Martin's efforts to keep them sonically current, I don't play that version (the outtakes record is great to hear all the same).

Plus: how cool is that cover? No band name - the four figures are iconic as they walk across the road a little along from the St John's Wood EMI studios. During the photo session, there would have been no doubt that John was in front, leading the way!

Where do they all belong? Their best album? So many contenders. I'm still a White Album, then Revolver, then Abbey Road kind of guy. Yes, Sgt Pepper is 4th! Crazy!! Breathtaking quality.

Roll up for the mystery tour (the Beatles ) (LP 463 - 464)

The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour (Vinyl and CD, Apple Records/ Parlophone , 1967) *****

The Beatles Yellow Submarine (Vinyl and CD, Apple Records/ Parlophone , 1969) ***

Genre: Beatles pop/rock 

Places I remember: Marbecks Records (YS); Real Groovy Records (MMT)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Strawberry Fields Forever remains peerless over 50 years later. That is extraordinary.

Gear costume: Penny Lane, All Together Now

Active compensatory factors: I always seem to link these two albums in my imagination. 

Both are not really bone fide Beatle albums as such - in that MMT was a double EP before the Americans expanded it into an album and YS is a film soundtrack (with side two given over to George Martin's instrumental score).

So why 5 stars for MMT you ask? Apart from being the bloody Beatles, the songs are pretty much all great classics, and the packaging is excellent with the colour supplement of stills from the film inside the covers.

I mean, it has Strawberry Fields Forever, I Am The Walrus, Penny Lane, Hello Goodbye, and All You Need Is Love on it, for goodness sake! Ridiculous.

YS retreads All You Need Is Love and Yellow Submarine but also has the wonderful side of George Martin's innocent sounding film score, which I just love to bits!

In fact it gets better and better with time. Go listen! Just see if I'm not right!

Where do they all belong? Slotted in between The White Album (a.k.a. The Beatles) and Let It Be/Abbey Road.

Love you to (The Beatles) (LP 358)

The Beatles Revolver (various copies on Vinyl and CD, Apple and Parlophone, 1966) *****

Genre: Beatles pop

Places I remember: Marbecks Records, Kings Recording (Abu Dhabi), The Warehouse and elsewhere since the early seventies

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Love You To




Gear costume:  Everything else!  

Active compensatory factors: A contender for best Beatle album, therefore often a contender for best album of all time, Revolver often fights it out with Sgt Pepper for those honours, The Beatles (a.k.a. the white album) is my all time fav from the fabs. Then there's Abbey Rd.

It's all subjective isn't it, relevant to how old you are, when you chanced upon these glorious albums, what you associate with listening to them and so on.

What is beyond subjectivity is how these songs STILL sound cutting edge. Chuck on Doctor Robert, or Taxman, or Love You To (sic), or I'm Only Sleeping, or Got To Get You Into My Life, and wind up the volume! 

See what I mean? George Martin's genius for a suitably exploratory sound landscape complements the brilliant songs, singing and playing.

Note well: I didn't even mention Tomorrow Never Knows in that revelatory song list above. Or Eleanor Rigby. Or Yellow Submarine.

Maybe it IS the best album of all time!


Where do they all belong? That heading comes from Eleanor Rigby btw. Capitol were still playing silly buggers in the U.S. with Beatle releases. That would finally end with their next release: Sgt Pepper.

Down to the water (America) (LP 255 - 256)

America Harbor (Vinyl- Warner Bros, 1977) **

America Perspective (Vinyl- Capitol, 1984) *

Genre:  American pop/rock

Places I remember:  Real Groovy Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: God Of The Sun (Harbor)




Gear costume:  Down To The Water (Harbor)

Active compensatory factors: From the mid seventies George Martin produced era of America, Harbor didn't contain any hit singles, so it tends to get forgotten about.

That's unfortunate, as it's also their last to feature Dan Peek, and therefore it continues the generally appealing America patented harmony work throughout.

The synths are a tad off putting on a couple of the tracks, and a few of the songs are sub par America, so, all up, it's not their best work before the fragmentation started.

Speaking of which: Perspective. Oh dear. The eighties have a lot to answer for - drum machines, synths (eek) and that tinny production (clearly NOT by Sir George).  

Not a total waste - those vocals! But approach with caution!

Where do they all belong? Diminishing returns after the golden early seventies, sad to say.

You like me too much (The Beatles) (LP 209 - 212)

The Beatles Help! (Vinyl + CDs - parlophone, 1965) *****
The Beatles Help! (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (Vinyl - Apple, 1965) ***
The Beatles The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl (Vinyl - EMI, 1977) ****
The Beatles Live At The Hollywood Bowl (CD - Apple, 2018) ****

Genre: Beatles pop  

Places I remember: Variety of places, tracking backwards from 2018: JB HiFi (Mt Albert); Marbecks Records; Capitol Help! from Noel Forth; the various UK versions of Help! have come from Kings Recording (Abu Dhabi), The Warehouse (Hastings), and DJ Records (Otahuhu)   

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: I've Just Seen A Face (Macca did this during his Auckland gig recently and my smile broke world records!)




Gear costume:  Highlights aplenty: Yesterday, Act Naturally, Help!, Ticket To Ride, I Need You, I could go on!

Active compensatory factors: What a year 1965 was: the fabs toured the UK, as well as the USA for a second time, and Europe; recorded two albums - Help! and Rubber Soul; Ringo found space to marry Maureen Cox; they shot the Help! movie in a variety of locations, released some non album singles, did a number of TV appearances, got their MBEs, John published another book, and generally they continued to conquer the known universe. Lazy layabouts! 

I've wrapped these four albums together because together they present the studio/live distinctions, and the Help! to Rubber Soul progression.

The live albums are great! Amazingly, even though they probably couldn't hear too much over the screams, the Fabs rip through their programme with gusto boys, with gusto. Turns out, when you could hear them, they were a great live band as well as everything else; take a listen to the way Ringo attacks Boys and Paul gives it plenty of welly in Long Tall Sally frinstance. 

The 2018 version includes four extra tracks that the album didn't have room for and Giles Martin's take on things benefits sonically from 2018 technology that his dad didn't have in 1977, but not by much.  Bravo George! 

However great they were live, it's to the studio they would repair to after that tour and Help! shows them transitioning from Mop Tops to studio wizards - a process that would continue later in 1965 with the Rubber Soul sessions.

Help!, in its UK iteration, is a classic in any one's definition, and the US version is the best of the alternative Capitol albums (perversely and strangely, my version is on Apple) as it doesn't cherry pick other Beatle product. Instead it includes non-Beatle instrumental material from the film amongst the seven Help! tracks.

Where do they all belong? Rubber Soul man, Rubber Soul.

George Martin is a tall man. He is also a musician with short hair (John Lennon) (LP 186)

The George Martin Orchestra Off The Beatle Track (Vinyl- Charly Records, originally released 1963) **

Genre: Easy Listening 

Places I remember: Second hand shop in Keswick (UK). Jacky and I were on a brief holiday touring the Lake District at the time.  

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Can't Buy Me Love has a great 1960s jazzy cool feel.




Gear costume: All My Loving 

Active compensatory factors: This copy is a re-release via Charly Records. The original album appeared on Parlophone (of course) and is now a rarity as it didn't sell much in 1964 even though every Beatle related product sold like hot cakes.

One of the reasons for the lack of popularity is that it sounded like easy listening, even in 1964. The arrangements by George are fine but the Beatle excitement is well and truly absent.

It's nice to have though, if only for John Lennon's snappy liner notes: George Martin has a great habit of matching unlikely instruments together (like a jews harp and a twelve stringed finger).

Where do they all belong? George would repeat the trick of compiling instrumental versions of Beatle songs but this, his first attempt, is the only one I own.

Love of the loved (The Beatles) (LP 62)

The Beatles Birth of a Legend (Vinyl - Music World, 1983) *

Genre: Beatle pop

Places I remember: Marbecks Records.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Money.




Gear costume: Three Cool Cats.

Active compensatory factors: The Beatles have a unique place in our hearts, culture and consciousness. Not too many bands/artists have their audition tapes out there on vinyl like this.

Yes, audition tapes. This album collects 12 of the 15 songs from the ultimately failed Decca audition (the other three, the only three Lennon/McCartney songs: Love of the Loved, Like Dreamers Do, Hello Little Girl appeared on singles elsewhere on this blog).

Bottom line - listening to this in total, I can understand why Decca didn't sign them and how only George Martin's punt saved the band.

Yes, the cover is atrocious - a painted version of the Ringoless Beatles (Pete Best was the drummer before Ringo) blesses this budget record. And yes, this is one for collectors/ obsessives, hence the one star rating, but call me crazy - I really like it!

Especially the 'comedy' numbers like, cha cha boom, Besame Mucho.

Interestingly, George is heavily represented as a vocalist and has some of the best moments here (Three Cool Cats, Crying Waiting Hoping, The Sheik of Araby, Take Good Care of My Baby).

Paul has the cheesiest moments (September in the Rain, Besame Mucho, Sure to Fall, Till There Was You -I've never liked this one).

John only has a few rockers that hint at his greatness (Memphis, Money).

Therein lies the essential 'problem' here - no clear dominant vocalist for a producer to focus on. And the variety of styles on display is confusing.

Beatle fun and harmonies are hinted at in these songs, but really, you would have to have been a real visionary to see these blokes changing world history!  

Where do they all belong? Only five of these songs made it to Anthology 1 but if you want context - that's the place to go!

Sidebar - I noticed online that a mint copy (like mine) goes for around $50 now. Nice!

People who jump waterfalls sometimes can make mistakes (Paul McCartney) #275 - 279

Paul McCartney Coming Up/ Paul McCartney and Wings Coming Up (Live); Lunch Box/ Odd Sox (Parlophone, NZP 3577, 1980)

Paul McCartney Waterfalls/ Check My Machine (Parlophone, NZP 3579, 1980)

Paul McCartney Ebony And Ivory/ Rainclouds; Ebony And Ivory (Solo version) (Parlophone 12", MPL 1, 1982)

Paul McCartney Take It Away/ I'll Give You A Ring (Parlophone, NZP 3584, 1982)

Paul McCartney Take It Away/ I'll Give You A Ring; Dress Me Up As A Robber (Parlophone 12", MPL 2, 1982)

By 1980 Wings were history. The Japanese tour and McCartney II saw to that. One of my least favourite Macca periods of all. Coming Up is a shocker and no attempts at revisionism can disguise that. It proves that he's human amid all the new fangled technology.

Having said that, I do like Waterfalls. An old school ballad. The lyrics are tosh (a castle needs a tower? Oh please!) but it doesn't matter in this context. The melody is a great one and papers over the cracks.

There was a minor Macca renaissance in 1982 (following John's 1980 murder) when the Tug Of War album contained some top material like Take It Away, starring Ringo AND George Martin. Even so we still had to put up with facile dreek like Ebony and Ivory!  


Hidden gems: Zilch (the dearth of interesting B sides reinforces my contention that this was a dire period on the whole).

Here I stand with my arms open wide (Billy J. Kramer) #192 - 193

Billy J. Kramer with The Dakotas I'll Keep You Satisfied/ I Know (Parlophone, R 5073, 1963)

Billy J. Kramer with The Dakotas From A Window/ Little Children (EMI, BRIT 12, 1964)

John and Paul never really gave anything great away. Most (all?) of their gifts to people like Peter and Gordon, Cilla, The Fourmost and so on were things they didn't use in The Beatles. They'd moved on apace.

Billy, born William Ashton, had Brian Epstein for a manager, songs written for him by Paul mainly (John's contributed, among other things, the J to Kramer's name), and George Martin as producer. Hits were guaranteed!

These two A sides are very much in the Mersey beat tradition. Today they sound pretty twee, especially McCartney's From A Window, the last song L and M given to Billy. Paul's lyrics are pretty naff too, it has to be said. As I indicated - they weren't about to give away GOOD stuff.

BTW - the From a Window single is a re-release as you can guess from the EMI label and issue number. I'd guess it was part of a re-release programme in the late seventies as I'm pretty sure I picked it up while working at Marbecks during my holidays. 

Hidden gem: sorry - you came to the wrong place. Neither are Lennon/ McCartney songs. The Satisfied video clip does have the wonderful Brian Matthews though - still going strong on the equally wonderful BBC Radio 2.

I'm feelin' blue, wish I knew how you do it to me but I haven't a clue (Gerry and The Pacemakers) #119

Gerry And The Pacemakers How Do You Do It?/ Away From You (Columbia, DNZ 10292, 1963)

The song that George Martin famously told the Beatles was a guaranteed #1 but they turned him down - they didn't think it fitted them (a glance at all those rhymes in the title helps explain why). Instead Martin produced this version by Gerry and his band and, yep, it went to number 1!

Amazing that this song, their first single, sets out the stall so completely for Gerry Marsden and crew. The cheeky chappy bouncy persona is set from the off with both the distinctive Gerry lilt and the Pacemaker beat firmly in place.

Gerry and co were rivals of the Beatles in the very early days but couldn't hack the pace as Lennon/McCartney continued to innovate and while Gerry subsequently had further hits he couldn't replicate the creative trails that the fabs blazed. Sadly the band was as sexy as a bag of salt and vinegar crisps and there was always the distinctly unhip band name to contend with as well.

Hidden gem: The B side is also a snappy little pop song, a little rhythmic gem like Besame Mucho - written by Gerry and bass player Les Chadwick. Unfortunately those rhymes again cause some queasy moments - you/blue/knew, side/cried - eek!

You look tired love, let me turn down the light (Cilla Black) #72

Cilla Black Step Inside Love/ I Couldn't Take My Eyes Off You (Parlophone R 5674,  1968)

Dear old Cilla. Just goes to show how minimal talent can be parleyed into a lifetime career in entertainment. I bet the Brits call her a national treasure or some such tosh.

Don't get me wrong - I love the original girl made good idea of Cilla but not the media construct she has been for the last...what..forty or so years, I guess.

If you said, "Cilla Black" to someone and asked them to name one song - Step Inside Love would be it. Actually I'm struggling to think of another one.

Lennon and McCartney knew what they were about when they gave this to her. No way were they EVER going to record this themselves. Dear old George Martin produces and it screams hit without any trouble in the quality stakes.

Hidden gem: Well, no but the B side gives an idea of future directions for our Cilla.

 

Look at him working (The Beatles)

Being old skool means watching DVDs rather than downloads. I bought a BBC documentary on George Martin a few months ago and finally gave it a spin a few nights ago.

It was great. The inevitable Beatles sections were skillfully integrated with the bio details, having his wife present and being interviewed by Giles, his son, were excellent decisions. The judicious Beatle stories avoided all the well known stories and instead centred on a few tracks like Eleanor Rigby. As time goes by nothing in the Beatles canon is really obscure but it was nice to hear him credit the violin sweeps in ER to both McCartney and the Psycho composer Bernard Herrmann (yes composer of Psycho would have been better, I agree) and GM nil.

It helps, of course, that the man’s a gentleman from a bygone era (a father figure to us all definitely), but the documentary is not a hagiography. Old George is definitely human! He can be curmudgeonly and resentful at times – the pay rate he received while he and the Beatles were making musical and social history was derisive, and he is presented smilingly by Giles as a highly competitive individual. His well practised comment that Let It Be should be listed as ‘produced by George Martin, over produced by Phil Spector’ is said with a wry smile still.

The surprises for me were the early years of abject poverty when his parents lived in London (George the cockney deliberately changed his accent to sound like the posh BBC one) and the extent of his pre and post Beatles work. I knew about the comedy records with the Goons but not that Macca knew them so well. I also knew about producing America and UFO but not Jeff Beck’s Blow By Blow. The clip of Cilla belting out Alfie with Burt Bacharach was fantastic too. The girl has serious pipes!

The documentary made me wonder what else I’ve missed by him actually.

Minor moan - I did find myself wishing there was more footage of GM with the 2012 model Ringo and the 2012 model Macca. The obvious affection between them is special and we won’t have the great man around forever so we kinda need to gorge on the relationship while we can.

And that's the 7 o'clock edition of the news (Simon and Garfunkel)

Gregarious in his seventies music blog recently wrote about the Tom Clay song What The World Needs Now/ Abraham, Martin and John and wondered aloud if it was the most emotionally charged song of all time.

It's a tear jerker – there is no doubt and the song cleverly manipulates our emotions with its collection of sound bites from the assassinations and speeches by the three Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King, most notably Edward Kennedy's moving eulogy for Bobby.

On the plus side, I have always liked the way the ambiguous Hal David line – 'we don't need another mountain' and King's metaphoric 'I have been to the mountaintop' juxtapose.

But on the whole it's a form of middle of the road song married to sound bites shtick that doesn't really hold water. It becomes too manipulative and the little kid's bookending of the song (I don't know what segaration is) becomes cloying and redundant after repeat listens.

So what else is out there that provokes real/raw emotions in a less contrived way? And, yes, I know, we're heading into deeply subjective territory here.

Here are some other contenders:

Simon and Garfunkel's Silent Night/Seven O'Clock News is top of my list (in under two minutes we have a slow build under the hymn of the anodyne newsreader telling us about death and violence in a sixties world where Lenny Bruce has just died but where Martin Luther King is still alive. Chilling! A simple idea – not overdone and leaves us thinking rather than manipulating an emotional response like the Clay contrivance. We also get the trivialising of the news thrown in for good measure).

 

There are a few more that spring to mind as second equals:

Jim Croce Alabama Rain (probably only emotion for me as I associate the song with my maternal grandmother - like I said - it's highly subjective what works the emotions).

June Tabor And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda (I've posted on this before – a sober and unsentimental song about the ANZACs during World War 1)

Bob Dylan Idiot Wind (pretty sure I've posted on this amazingly vitriolic song before too – try the live Rolling Thunder Revue version on Hard Rain for extra venom)

Bruce Springsteen 41 Shots (you can get killed just for living in your American skin is the harrowing message from Scooter, a.k.a. The Boss).

And what about the Fabs you ask? Try George Martin's Pepperland track for The Beatles Yellow Submarine (it conjures up perfect childlike, and somehow, psychedelic swirls of emotion).

The only thing you done was yesterday, since you're gone you're just another day (Winston O'Boogie)

Imagine you had four sons. Imagine they were called (eldest to youngest): Richard, John, James and George.

Of course, you would love them all equally. But as they grew up they would develop distinctive personalities.

Richard would become Ritchie and, later, because he wore loads of rings he would get the nickname of Ringo. As the first and second children, Ringo and John would form a close bond.

James, as the third child would try to make his mark by being different to the other three (if they wore shoes on a hot day, he'll take his off sort of thing) and he'd eventually ask that you call him by his middle name - Paul. Paul would remain the precociously annoying third child for much of his life.

George as the youngest would take his time to carve out his niche.

You would love them all but at various times you would have your favourites.

I love all of the Beatles but John is number one. George is number two.

Paul? Never my favourite Beatle.

I can remember having big arguments at school with the Paul is better than John brigade. The guys were probably trying to wind me up. It worked. John ruled. Paul didn't.

With the benefit of hindsight I stick by my position.

Paul's career as a musician falls into four distinct, productive periods.

   Pre-Beatles 1957 to 1962 (5 years) - being a sponge and learning stuff so this doesn't really count.
1 Beatles - 1963 - 1969 (7 years)
2 Paul is solo part 1 - 1970 (1 year)
3 Wings - 1971 - 1979 (9 years)
4 Paul is solo part 2 - 1980 - 2011 (31 years)

If I was to rank these in quality it would be:

7 years as a Beatle in the sixties
9 years in Wings in the seventies
1 year solo in 1970
31 years solo since 1980

That's quite a decline!!

Basically since 1980 he has fallen comparatively short in the quality and consistency stakes.

How is it he could be unbelievably superb for 7 years, pretty damn good some of the time with Wings (although there are plenty of shonky Ebony and Ivory and Broad Street moments) but then consistently poor for 31 years.

The Fireman? Please.

The only bright spots in that 31 year lack lustre period are Tug of War (1980) Flowers in the Dirt (1989). And they are wildly inconsistent within themselves.

Why?

The answers according to me:

John Lennon (Macca's most successful partner post Lennon was Elvis Costello on Flowers in the Dirt);

youthful energy, ignorance (the freedom and bravery of youth);

George Martin (Tug Of war benefits from his expertise).

But yet...but yet...I still love Macca. He was a bloody Beatle when all is said and done.