Who was the leader ot the Beatles?

[txteach]

I just read an old life magazine from 1970 about the Beatles and they credit McCartney as being the leader and lead singer of the Beatles. I greatly dispute this assumption. One beautiful thing about the group was that 3 out of 4 were soo talented that no one part was dominate. No one except Ringo was expendable. I felt John and Paul equally shared most of the singing with George supporting them with a song or two an album. Am I wrong to think of the Beatles as being equals and not 3 sabordinates to one dominating member?

[toys2cool]

I've always thought it was McCartney as well,but I'm not that into the Beatles

[JPkempo]

Lennon and McCartney both and that is what riped the group apart.

[huedell]

In the start it was more John because he had the biggest mouth,
most cutting personality and fought over the Beatles direction with Paul---but
by the end of the band's run John was tired of "The Beatles" and gave
Paul much more free reign just by laying low--- and it was at this point that Paul
was the leader---unfortunately Paul eventually got on everyone's nerves so much
it ripped the group apart-----that's how I'd chart "the leader" thing in in the Beatles

[Mikey]

Ringo

[megocrazy]

You found me. Actually it was me that was the leader of the Beatles from the shadows. I had to stop when Yoko came along because she was so annoying. And that was the start of the end.

[grayhank]

There's far too many logistics to point the finger at any one member. John and Paul were definitely equals because all of their songs were credited as "Lennon & McCartney" regardless of who actually wrote them. There was one song credited as "Lennon, McCartney & Starkey (Ringo) "What Goes On". And I believe only one song credited to all four members "Flying". Ringo only wrote two other songs "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus' Garden" throughout their entire catalog.

George was only alloted 1 to 3 songs per album. The most he ever wrote for any one album was 4 songs on the "White Album". This was an ever increasing point of dissention for him in particular. Especially during the "White Album" recordings when his song "Not Guilty" was scrapped in favor of John's recorded gibberish of "Revolution 9". This is even evident at the beginning of "Revolution 9" where you hear George Martin apologizing to Harrison for his song being scrapped. Martin says "Yes I know all about it George and I'm sorry".

Certainly Brian Epstein and George Martin had a lot to say about what the Fab Four were doing. So they could also be considered "leaders" to some extent. When Epstien died, it was Paul who tried to pull the band together for the very unsuccessful "Magical Mystery Tour" film.

It was also about this point in time where John met Yoko. Not only was she constantly present at all times even in the recording studio but she started giving input as to what should or shouldn't be done, much to the dismay of the other three. You can see this documented tension in the "Let It Be" movie. The movie was filmed a couple of years before being released and prior to the recording of "Abbey Road". Abbey Road was actually the last album the Beatles recorded together as a group, even though "Let It Be" came afterwards.

All the songs and film footage from Let It Be were put aside by the Beatles and handed off to Phil Spectre to try and piece together an album. When McCartney heard the end result he was quite displeased by what Spectre had done to his songs and didn't want the album released. The other three no longer cared about any of it and gave the thumbs up to have the album released anyway. McCartney quit.

It's interesting that after John and George passed away, that McCartney went back to the "Let It Be" masters and had the album done his way. This album was released a couple of years ago in the form of "Let It Be...Naked". A much better version than the previously released Spectre mess. It appears that McCartney always kept this notion in the back of his mind and was just waiting for the opportunity to go back and correct it.

[huedell]

the definition of "leader" is something to consider in the context of this thread

[Bionic Joe]

IMHO John and Paul were the driving forse of the band, John at first was the main mouth piece for the band but as time went by Paul got his two cents in as did George, but John and Paul had the most say on what went on

[kingdom warrior]

John was the Leader of the group....he was the one who spoke up the most for the group in the early years. Paul just flowed with it. Later on when John was disillusioned with the whole Beatle thing. Paul began to run it and John resented it.Which eventually lead to the dimise of the group.

As for Ringo being expendable not true.Ringo Starr was one of the Best drummers in Liverpool he was a pro playing for Rory Storm and the hurricanes one the best groups in Liverpool the other three with Pete best and Stuart Sutcliff were a bum group that nobody wanted.


If you ever heard Pete best's drumming on the early demos he was horrible and that's why George Martin was not going to use him on the records

[Bo8a_Fett]

Colonel McBeetle of the fifth foot beetle fusiliers was the leader.....proberly...

[The Bat]

Without a dought John Lennon!! The competition between the two...made Paul rise to the occassion. Without John...Paul's Bubblegum...writing songs like "Coming up".

[monkey tennis]

Elementary penguin singing Hare Krishna.

I don't know.
But I know John was the Walrus.

or was he the Egg Man..?

Oompa, oompa, stick it up your joompa


Maybe the leader was Spike Milligan

[Mikey]

The real leader pulling all the strings was Leggy



m

[huedell]

Oh my! Its SLUGWORTH!^^^^^^