Guitar Tricks Insider December Issue | Page 21

CLASSIC CORNER Most of The Beatles’ arrangements are amazing because everybody can sing every little bit. Everything is so perfect. Nothing is a throwaway. I have the melody to “Drive My Car” as a necklace because I like the song very much. To me they are probably the best song writers of this century. I picked that one because I like the idea “Baby You Can Drive My Car.” The song has such an up atmosphere to it. It’s just so alive. It doesn’t have a deep meaning like some Beatles songs do. A lot of them are a matter of the time and they were writing songs that seemed to say let’s be happy and easy. It was that kind of time. Musicians always reflect what’s going on in the world and we know how different today is in comparison to the 60s when they started off. They have a very special sense for melodies that are accessible to everybody even though they are not so simple. And with The Beatles everything that is recorded is memorable. Most people can even sing the bass line, or a fill, or something in the string section, or the horn part. Everything is so easy to remember. The whole song is that way. They stop singing and something else happens and it all blends in and it’s perfectly done. You never had a feeling there is a gap, so to speak. Now we go into an instrumental break and you wonder. With them the songs are very short and just right. My favorites are like “Yesterday” to “I Am the Walrus.” I like the weirder stuff they’ve done, as well. “Baby You Can Drive My Car” by Paul McCartney in Quebec DECEMBER SPECIAL DIGITAL EDITION GUITAR TRICKS INSIDER 21