Paul is the Best, Duh

Just the other day I mentioned to someone that while John Lennon wrote a million great songs in The Beatles, anytime you hear anything "interesting" in one of his songs, the odds of it being because of Paul is about 90%. A great example is while John may have written Ticket to Ride, it was McCartney who got  hold of it and turned it into something more brilliant. From the song's episode of the A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs:

While “Ticket to Ride” is mostly — or possibly solely — John’s song, the record is very much Paul’s record.

Either way, though, the song is primarily John’s in the writing, but the arrangement is primarily McCartney’s work — and while Lennon would later claim that McCartney would always pay less attention to Lennon’s songs than to McCartney’s own, in this middle period of the group’s career most of their truly astounding work comes when  Lennon brings in the song but McCartney experiments with the arrangement and production. Over and over again we see McCartney taking control of a Lennon song in the studio and bringing out aspects of it that its composer either had not considered or had not had the musical vocabulary or patience to realise on his own.

It goes on to explain how it was Paul who came up with the song's iconic drumming and guitar line. In other words, pretty much what makes the song the song.

Listen to the whole thing here. You're welcome, people!

Episode 127: “Ticket to Ride” by the Beatles