“He could make the band jump”: the song Tom Petty said had the best rhythm guitar playing
Most guitarists probably feel demoted when they hear they must play rhythm. Even though some of the greatest artists in the world honed their craft pumping out the riffs, it’s impossible not to get a little bit envious when the lead guitarist takes the lead and steals away the spotlight every time he starts playing. Tom Petty never had that kind of problem when working in the Heartbreakers, and when he started learning the ways of rhythm guitar, he knew that one Beatles song contained everything that a rhythm guitarist needed to know.
At the same time, there’s been debate as to whether or not John Lennon was considered a good guitarist in the first place. As much as people liked his songwriting style, Lennon never considered himself one of the best in the world, and listening to a lot of his lead playing, it’s far more simplistic compared to what George Harrison would do later when he broke out the slide guitar.
Then again, it’s not about playing everything perfectly in rock and roll. It’s about having the right attitude behind everything you play, and in terms of aggression, Lennon was among the best in the group’s early days. Looking back on how Lennon drives ‘All My Loving’ with those triplets or plays that bluesy lead on ‘Get Back’, he always played off of Ringo Starr in exactly the right way, usually putting in the exact right fill to make the band come alive at the right time.
That wasn’t far from what Petty was looking for, either. He had seen himself first as a bass player when working in the band Mudcrutch. Still, when he got the opportunity to move over to rhythm guitar in the Heartbreakers, he took to listening to what Lennon was doing whenever he worked out a part on those early Beatles classics.
Whereas most people flock to the group’s later experiments as the moment where they sounded the best, Petty always had a soft spot for ‘And I Love Her’ off of A Hard Day’s Night. Although the track belongs to Paul McCartney, the heartland rocker knew that the main draw of the tune was all in the way that Lennon played his rhythm part against the changes.
Although Petty worked off of artists like Bo Diddley when making some of his tunes, he knew that every guitarist could take a few lessons from what Lennon was doing here, telling Rolling Stone, “If you ever want to see some great rhythm-guitar playing, check out in A Hard Day’s Night when they do ‘And I Love Her’. He could really make a band just kind of surge and jump.”
Because if Lennon had been removed from the entire song, the tune would still hold up, but all of the momentum would have been lost. All of the signature moments in the piece are covered by McCartney’s vocal performance and that sweet classical-style solo from George Harrison, but Lennon’s signature guitar line is so expertly hidden he may as well be a magician, complete with the right pulse to give the song the breath it needs.
While Petty would eventually strike up his greatest friendship with Harrison as his fellow Wilbury, the whole reason why some of those Beatles tracks work so well is because of what Lennon brought to the table. For as much as he didn’t care for his own style of playing, no one else could have served that role in the Fab Four any better if they tried.
