Read the rest of the OP.
Yesterday was written by Paul McCartney and credited to McCartney/Lennon***
I think that nowadays there’s enough information readily available online and in books that most people who really care have a pretty good idea who contributed what to the Beatles (for example, that it was Paul who played the guitar solo in “Taxman”). And so it’s only the ignorant who dismiss any of the four as untalented or unimportant to the group’s success.
For instance, many people used to dismiss Paul as “the cute one,” the safe, sappy singer of silly love songs, while John was “the smart one,” the clever, edgy, adventurous one who was the brains behind the group. Or they thought that four untrained lads from Liverpool couldn’t have come up with stuff that good on their own, and it was really George Martin and/or some other highly-educated grown-ups who were the brains behind the band. And I think that Paul had a chip on his shoulder for awhile about such beliefs.
That scruffy young man, Claudio (RIP), is the subject of an upcoming documentary. Here (in the meantime) is an article by a Boston-area writer/musician about that guy’s background. Strange stuff.
That’s a fantastical and well-written article. Thanks.
Yeah but who really did “Wild Honey Pie”?
McCartney said of this song: "We were in an experimental mode, and so I said, ‘Can I just make something up?’ I started off with the guitar and did a multitracking experiment in the control room or maybe in the little room next door. It was very home-made; it wasn’t a big production at all. I just made up this short piece and I multitracked a harmony to that, and a harmony to that, and a harmony to that, and built it up sculpturally with a lot of vibrato on the [guitar] strings, really pulling the strings madly. Hence, ‘Wild Honey Pie’, which was a reference to the other song I had written called Honey Pie.
Terrific article — thank you.
Another exegesis of a fan dangerously, erroneously thinking a songwriter is writing to him is the song “Stan,” by Eminem (and Dido). Just throwin’ that out there.
I’m sure at that point in their careers that that was a rhetorical question. Every two notes he laid next to each other was a million bucks. I used to be a huge Beatles fan, but I had to refresh myself on “Wild Honey Pie”. The question should have been, “how much more filler do we need for this album?”
A great many of the so-called Lennon McCartney compositions were actually written by only one of the two. AIUI, they had made an agreement to share song writing credits on all of the songs that they recorded.
Correct.
That’s funny because the song was actually written solely by Paul Stanley and unlike “Beth”, Criss did not have a writing credit and only sang on the track.
I don’t think Criss (or Stanley) would have cared much about the comparison as it was deliberate to imitate Stewart’s sound at the time , while the lyrics were mainly inspired by “Brandy” by Looking Glass.
FTR Criss does not play guitar … or even the piano.
Right, but you do see the awkwardness of the situation, right? The details might be garbled as it was admittedly 3rd hand. Plus, no one cares about publishing. Elvis never wrote a single song, but someone can say they enjoy an “Elvis song”.
Yes, I was gonna say this too.
Of course, I’m just pointing out that in a thread about crediting the correct songwriter your anecdote credits the wrong artist as well as the wrong KISS member.
FTR, everyone cares about publishing …. especially Paul McCartney!
Technically, I didn’t credit any Kiss member. In the anecdote, the girlfriend mistakenly assumed that the record was performed by Rod Stewart and expressed it embarrassingly within earshot to the actual performer. It was admittedly tangentially related to the topic but an amusing bit of cringe.