Having spent numerous hours within the studio with Ken Scott, few individuals are higher positioned to articulate the delicate emotional divide between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. His reflections reveal a pressure that sits proper on the centre of The Beatles (White Album), and arguably on the coronary heart of The Beatles themselves.
Ken places it superbly. He tends to love John’s recordings greater than Paul’s, nevertheless he prefers Paul’s songs general. At first look, that sounds contradictory, nevertheless it makes good sense while you unpack it.
Paul, in Ken’s view, was the stronger songwriter within the basic sense. His songs are sturdy, versatile, and generously written. They are often sung by virtually anybody and nonetheless work. They journey effectively. They invite reinterpretation. That universality is a part of their genius.
John’s songs, nevertheless, are one thing else totally. A lot of them really feel inseparable from John himself. The phrasing, the angle, the emotional edge, even the vulnerability, they’re deeply private and infrequently resist translation. You may sing them, nevertheless you can’t simply be them. That specificity is precisely what makes John’s recordings so compelling.
So whereas Paul’s compositions could win on craft and breadth, John’s performances usually win on influence and id. Ken’s perception captures that delicate stability completely. It’s not about selecting sides. It’s about recognising how two very totally different artistic forces mixed to make one thing far higher than both may have achieved alone.
That push and pull is etched into each groove of the White Album, and it’s why, a long time later, we’re nonetheless speaking about it.
