Beatles question?!
Question:
Beatles question?
And a weird one too. I'm having a lot of trouble differentiating Paul's and John's voices. And I guess George's, too, because Ringo's is the only one that I can be sure of. So any thing that can help is appreciated! Thanks! :)
Answers: I have that trouble too, and I've been a Beatles fan for over 30 years. Now I watch their videos on YouTube just to see who's singing for sure. It's only John and Paul I have trouble with. George you can figure out by reading who wrote the songs on the album jackets. George sang the songs he wrote, but those songs that say Lennon/McCartney are hard to tell who is singing. But for sure, John sang Imagine and Paul sang Band on the Run. That much I know. I sometimes have that problem as well. I think John's voice sounds a bit more psychedelic, while Paul's voice is just plain singing, though it is good. I'm not too sure about George's. I got confused with his. You should check out their solo works to differentiate their voices. WHATS THE QUESTION??? Paul's has a mellower quality; I feel John's is higher in tension, slightly more Nasal...Paul almost always does the little "woo's" in the back-up singing..I love them both! Paul singing Yesterday, and John singing Norwegian Wood... Interesting question. George has the highest voice, a kind of quivery, quakey tone. John has the next highest voice, but his is stronger and more reedy than George. Then comes Paul, whose voice is in the middle range, neither very high or low, and he has kind of a smokey tonal quality. To sum it all up, George, John, and Paul are all tenors of varying degrees, and Ringo's voice is the only one that is bass, which has a lot of chest tones, while the other guys have more head tones. On most of the Beatles early stuff, John done the main vocals with Paul harmonising and George doing less; Ringo doing nothing much in the way of singing - staying mainly playing the drums. It was only later that Paul and John seemed to do more together; including the writing, which if you read up about the Beatles and their acrimonious split, caused many problems as to who wrote what/whose name should appear first etc.,
Rather than the Beatles, I've found you can hear George Harrison better on the few songs he done with The Travelling Willbury's, i.e. Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and others - good listening - even Tom Petty on his own!
If you download music through Limewire, try getting the album "Revolver" by the Beatles, it's good - but why really bother trying to differentiate between the voices - just appreciate the vocals and music for what it is and enjoy listening to it!
P.s. John and Paul do sound extremely similar, but it was usually Paul that hit the very high notes in the chorus' of early songs, so Paul has a higher tone or pitch, than John, George has a much "softer/quieter" tone and Ringo's voice is very "nasally" sounding and harsher than the others! See if that helps at all in sorting out one from the other! Paul was a "proper" type and so his singing is cleaner sounding to me. He enunciates more than the others. He also sings higher in the harmonies.
George was from a different part of town and so his singing is not as well enunciated as Paul or John. George sings the middle harmony parts.
John has a lower voice than the other 2 and sings lead more often I believe. His enunciation is in between the other 2.
Listen to:
Twist and Shout, If I Fell and I Should Have Known Better - That's John
I Saw Her Standing There, Can't Buy Me Love and All My Loving - That Paul
For George listen to Something, I Need You and Here Comes the Sun
These should give you a pretty good understanding of their voices sounds. I do have some problems differentiating between John and George's voices but Paul and Ringo are no problem for me. One way to tell for sure that John is singing is that his voice sounds quite nasal while George's doesn't. Paul has the prettiest voice in the group. It's higher than the others and not nasal. He sounds like he can hit the higher notes without straining as much. Some of the early albums actually said in the booklet who was singing what.
Have a look here, and see if it helps when you listen to them :~
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/list_of_bea...
This page has been {badly} updated since I last used it, and isn't as simple as it used to be :(