The only musician that Paul McCartney worried might be better than The Beatles: “Definitely hotter”
The rise and rise of The Beatles was not a linear affair.
There have been periods of pressure and waning over the years. Nevertheless, Paul McCartney has always remained assured that they will forever be the cream that rises to pop culture’s top. In fact, you’ll find few bigger fans of the band in the world than good old Macca, and that’s saying something.
This confidence was invaluable to the group as they cut their teeth. When things were getting heavy for the band, his cheery disposition saw them through, as is evidenced by this poem he wrote in Blackbird Singing: “Sadness isn’t sadness. It’s happiness in a black jacket. Tears are not tears. They’re balls of laughter dipped in salt. Death is not death. It’s life that’s jumped off a tall cliff.”
When death threats were befalling them, and the fear of pushing forward with risky experimentation hung in the air, that aura of hallmark cheeriness helped to fortify their artistic vision. In truth, what did they really have to worry about? With 21 number ones, more records sold than anyone else, and more critical acclaim than anyone in history to boot, there can’t have been too many times when their confidence faltered.
However, they arose in a generation where luminaries were plentiful. They revered peers like Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys and Harry Nilsson. Yet, there was always a sense within the band that they could beat anyone on their day. But they were also only human, were there ever points when they failed to believe their own hype?
“Everyone has those moments, don’t they? Am I as good as people say I am? Were we as good as people say we were? As soon as I start thinking it, I tell myself I’m just being bloody daft,” McCartney mused.
“I could sit here and try convincing you that The Beatles weren’t really that good. And you’d be sitting there, telling me that we were really fabulous,” he told Uncut. “It would be a bullshit conversation. The jury’s in, and I don’t think there’s any argument.”
With humility patently belied as a falsehood simply through undeniable evidence, he continued, “Basically, The Beatles were a shit hot band. We were very, very good. We were…” However, you might also factor in the odd asterisk, like Keith Richards claiming, “Musically, The Beatles had a lovely sound and great songs,” he told the Radio Times. “But the live thing? They were never quite there.”
Further evidencing the fact that flying to the top was not without a stop of turbulence, you can also factor in accounts from those in their camp. “During 1966, The Beatles were having a bit of a setback,” George Martin said, “It wasn’t generally known that their general popularity seemed to be a little bit on the wane. Brian Epstein was very worried about it indeed.”
Noticing these trends were important for the band. In fact, keeping a firm eye on the competition was one of their finest facets. And one renowned live artist and rock ‘n’ roll pioneer really could give McCartney the jitters on this front. “Ok, stack us up against James Brown, record for record, he’s definitely hotter because he’s James Brown,” McCartney conceded when it comes to the explosive Mr Dynamite.
The ‘Get Up Offa That Thing’ star caused everyone to up their game. As John Cooper Clarke put it, he wiped the floor with everyone as though his peers were no more than proverbial mops. But it was largely on stage where his star shone, and McCartney drew comfort from that.
“He didn’t do the stuff we did,” the Beatle continues. “He’s James Brown, and he’s sodding fantastic. We can all agree on that. But there’s something else to The Beatles. Look, we did a lot of good music. You look at Revolver or Rubber Soul, they are decent efforts by any standards.”
He continued, “If they’re not good, then has anyone ever been any good? Because, if they’re not good, then no one has ever really been that good. It’s when you get to the question of whether The Beatles were about more than music. When you get to what The Beatles came to,” he concludes.
Indeed, while Brown might have lit up the zeitgeist, the necessary live wire that hit the ready and waiting bulb, The Beatles transmuted this furore in weird and wonderful ways, giving the era a new identity and spirit that still lives on in music today.
How did James Brown inspire the British Invasion bands?
It was Brown’s role to ensure that these new luminaries were kept honest along the way. His influence injected a solid dose of searing spirit into the new brand of rock ‘n’ roll being brought over to the States by booming British Invasion bands, as is evidenced by a tale Mick Jagger would rather forget.
It was a feverish day in showbusiness on October 28th, 1964, after James Brown departed the stage on The T.A.M.I Show. He had just delivered one of the greatest televised performances in rock ‘n’ roll history at that tender point, and a bewildered Rolling Stones, waiting in the wings, took note.
In fact, apparently, Mick Jagger was almost too scared to leave his dressing room. It took Marvin Gaye to go in there and say, “Just go out there and do your best,” to encourage Jagger to take the stage and bust his own moves, but thereafter, he knew he had to up his game. The whole movement did. Brown’s energy was more raw and vibrant than anything they had seen on British soil, so if they were going to ‘invade’ the US, then they had to be able to compete with that.
George Harrison called him “absolutely brilliant”, and it was clear that this reverence lit a fire under the Fab Four and all their contemporaries as they looked to match Mr Dynamite in any way they could… perhaps even by differentiating their style beyond a point of comparison and initiating a new advancement in rock ‘n’ roll songwriting.
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