The best musician Paul McCartney played with after The Beatles: “A musical monster”
There’s no sense in anyone trying to compete with what The Beatles did in such a short timeframe.
Countless artists have tried their best to at least match what they did in some capacity, but no matter how many times the latest musical craze sweeps across the world, they’re only following the playbook that the Fab Four started with. But for all of the accolades that the band have earned over the years, Paul McCartney knew that there were definitely some musicians who were much better than anything they ever did.
Because when you think about it, the band didn’t get together trying to rewrite Bach or anything. They were a bunch of scrappy kids who wanted the chance to make rock and roll, but once they started working with George Martin, they started to look at their music a little differently. Being the next Elvis Presley would have been interesting, but records like Revolver and Sgt Peppers were already a sign that rock and roll could move in a few different directions than the typical blues tropes.
Still, Macca was never going to be putting himself on the same level as the jazz greats by any means. The band may have had a healthy respect for all genres of music, but no one in their right mind thought that they were going to be competing with the likes of Louis Armstrong or Duke Ellington. That was a different level of skill that was far beyond pop music, but if there was anyone who could compete with that, it was Stevie Wonder.
Almost everyone who came out of Motown when Wonder was coming up knew what a hit record was supposed to sound like, but by the time he spread out in his later career, he wanted to go beyond the typical pop song. Talking Book and Music of My Mind definitely had some pop diamonds on them, but there were also a few chords that most would have sworn came off of a Miles Davis record had Wonder not been singing.
It wasn’t what everyone expected on the charts, but Wonder is one of the few people who managed to make the pop charts a lot more sophisticated. There are hardly any pop songs that have come out since ‘Sir Duke’ that have had such complex chords behind that kind of nasty groove, but with Wonder singing over the top, it seems like the most natural thing in the world, even when the band breaks out into the shout chorus midway through the tune.
And even with all the camaraderie The Beatles had, McCartney had to admit that working with Wonder was unlike anyone else, saying, “Out of all the ones I’ve worked with, it would be fellow Beatles. It would be John, who was pretty cool, and George and Ringo. And then I think Stevie Wonder. You gotta go to Stevie. He was just a musical monster. He’s fantastic.” But even with two legends on one track, that doesn’t always mean that the song is going to be good right off the bat.
‘Ebony and Ivory’ is still voted as one of the most annoying duets of all time, but if you look on that same record, a song like ‘What’s That You’re Doing’ is both of them operating at the peak of their powers. The whole thing is practically a jam between them half the time, but compared to their sentimental side, hearing Wonder improvise over the backing track feels like a cross between a jazz veteran and something that Jimi Hendrix would have played had he been born to play piano.
So while nothing in this world will ever recapture the way The Beatles made all of us feel, anyone that reminded McCartney of those old days has to be doing something right. Because even if the other Threetles aren’t by his side when he’s singing, there’s no chance that anyone could listen to Songs in the Key of Life and not think that Wonder is worthy enough to play with a Beatle.
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