The Beatles memorably covered the Motown classics “You Really Got a Hold On Me,” “Please Mr. Postman” and “Money,” but that doesn’t mean they fashioned themselves after Detroit’s hitmaking juggernaut.
Instead, as Paul McCartney said during a talk at the Liverpool Institute For Performing Arts, it was quite the opposite: The Beatles wanted to smash the Motown model.
“I mean, you’d hear like the Supremes and Motown, Diana Ross’ group, those records are very similar,” McCartney says. “‘Stop! In the Name of Love’ or ‘Baby Love,’ they’re all very similar things. We wanted to avoid that. So, I think that was one of the good things for us, because we just kept on going and never sort of did the same song twice.”
Of course, Motown wasn’t the only label chasing copycat hits. Still, as the Beatles began to feel their songwriting oats, they not only to aspired to a different kind of layered complexity, they craved it. Together with producer George Martin, they became restless musical explorers.
“We didn’t want to bore ourselves,” Paul McCartney admits. “A lot of people were doing records, they’d get a winning formula and so they’d repeat it. It’s probably their producer who makes them do it. But we always spotting that happening, and we’d go: ‘Don’t want to do that.'”
The Beatles records themselves bear that out. “So, if you listen a lot of Beatles stuff, the songs are completely different,” McCartney adds. “There’s ‘Eleanor Rigby,’ and then there’s ‘Octopus’s Garden.’ There’s ‘Strawberry Fields,’ and there’s ‘Penny Lane.’ They’re all quite different. And that was only because we would have gotten bored, if they were all the same.”
- Angell & Crane, “Himalayan Dial-Up” from ‘Angell & Crane’ (2024): Video Premiere - November 22, 2024
- Michael Attias, “Avrils” from ‘Quartet Music Vol. II- Kardamon Fall’ (2024): Streaming premiere - October 11, 2024
- Bryn Roberts, “Aloft” from ‘Aloft’ (2024): Video Premiere - September 20, 2024
The beatles were great, I was lucky enough to see them live in Balboa stadium in San Diego California in 1965
Paul had to have been experiencing an LSD flashback when answering this question… either that, or he had little understanding of what Motown was all about. To say that it all sounded similar, say ‘Baby Love’ (Supremes) and ‘Ball of Confusion’ (Temptations) is as ignorant a statement as I’ve heard in a long time. Methinks the cheese has finally slipped off of Sir Paul’s cracker…
“I mean, you’d hear like the Supremes and Motown, Diana Ross’ group, those records are very similar,” McCartney says. “‘Stop! In the Name of Love’ or ‘Baby Love,’ they’re all very similar things. We wanted to avoid that. So, I think that was one of the good things for us, because we just kept on going and never sort of did the same song twice.”
He wasn’t comparing the Supremes against the Temptations. He was comparing the Supremes to the Supremes and yes, many of those songs from “Diana Ross’ group” do have a similar sound. Each of those Motown groups had a sound particular to them (along with the overall Motown sound) that helped them sell records. So with the Beatles songs, they wanted to shuffle it up a bit as they grew as writers. Which would make sense since there were three prolific writers in the group (even if they didn’t use George’s stuff often) who had their own interests musically. If you think “Stop! In the Name of Love” or “Baby Love” is as different from each other as “Girl” is from “Nowhere Man” then maybe you need to listen to those songs again.
With bands and performers whose talent was rather thin, you (and Paul) might have a point – but the same could be said for most of the talent coming out of England. Sure, most of the material Edwin Starr cut was pretty one-dimensional, but the same could be said of Gerry & the Pacemakers, Cilla Black, or even the moptops themselves. I know the point that Macca was trying to make, but it was just stated rather dismissively. Frankly, I’d put the creative efforts of the Temptations and Four Tops right there with the Beatles; even though I think they were all eclipsed for a time (65-67) by the one-man creative force that was Brian Wilson. The problem with McCartney’s assessment is not only that it comes off as more than a little back-handed, but it’s not entirely accurate. The Beatles had a very distinctive sound in the studio and it didn’t start to branch-out in all sorts of different directions until Rubber Soul… truth be told.
I actually agree with you regarding the Temptations and the Four Tops (though I would disagree regarding Brian Wilson, but then I was never a fan of his music). But while he said “Motown” I believe McCartney meant, specifically in that statement, to use The Supremes as an example (and probably had in mind other groups whose records you really couldn’t tell apart). And while one could argue that The Beatles started out with a similar sound to their songs (you knew it was a Beatles song), it didn’t take long before that changed (and even their early records: you see growth from “Love Me Do” on, but those songs were pretty distinctive, whether it was the singer chosen, or the beat, or the instruments used. There was a reason Diana Ross sang all the songs in the Supremes: it sold records and “the committee” wasn’t going to take a chance on producing songs that might not sell). You can even see the variety in their tastes in the music they chose to cover (and I think the fact that they did cover some Motown indicates that they weren’t dismissive of it. It did influence them. The Beatles Second Album has many songs from Motown). So I think the instinct to branch out and experiment was there in the beginning (hell even during the Hamburg years) based on the material (both theirs and others) they used on each album. Eventually, they had the power of their insane popularity to insist on completely calling the shots creatively. Once they did, they took full advantage of it.
The model they were hoping to smash wasn’t just the Motown model, but in some respects the record business in general, which could be very generic and only concerned with making hits. The fact that The Beatles wrote a lot of their own material, which was not often seen in pop music when they came on the scene, and they produced albums in which all the songs were listenable, not just excuses to put the singles on and get the kids to buy more vinyl indicates a level of independence that would help lead them to albums such as Rubber Soul and on. How easy would it have been for them to just keep churning out versions of “She Loves You” for the duration of what would be a very short career cause they would end up like a Gerry and the Pacemakers or Herman’s Hermits when people got bored with them?
To be fair to The Supremes and other stars like them, I don’t think they were as interested in creative control as The Beatles were as early in their career. The Supremes debuted in 1959 (Barry Gordy chose Ross as the lead singer of the group–that’s how things were done) when the old recording industry ways were still going on. The Beatles had the luck of hitting it big in a time when things were changing. They helped change attitudes.
Sorry, I went off in history land there. But basically, I really don’t think the statement was meant as negatively as people might take it, especially when you consider the situation at the time. Though who knows how well McCartney is remembering things. He’s the one who said, back when he was like 21 when Beatle-mania started, that he and John would probably become songwriters (for a tin-pan alley sort of situation) once the band was no longer popular. Which they thought would happen in a matter of a few years. At the time he thought he would eventually be cranking out the same “copycat” hits (as the story terms it) that he says the Supremes had. So who knows?
Yeah, because Help sounds EXACTLY like With the Beatles. Hahahaha. Also, the Temptations and the Four Tops didn’t even write their own songs – so I’ll just assume that you have no idea what you are talking about. They had a team of songwriters who were trying repeatedly to make songs that sounded the same. Paul McCartney is right about this. And while I am going to see Brian Wilson later this week, he was also never really in the same league as the Beatles.
When the Temptations and Tops were signed by Barry Gordy, who’d already established a reputation for micromanagement of his artists, they were assigned William “Smokey” Robinson, the team of Holland-Dozier-Holland, and other Motown songwriters so that they could concentrate on perfecing their studio and stage performances – it had nothing whatsoever to do with keeping loyal to some kind of formula… so your ‘logic’ escapes me. And as for Brian Wilson not being in the same league with the Beatles, I find myself in total agreement with you – oddly enough. Whereas the moptops had each other, (quality songwriters all), and a classically-trained musician for a producer, Wilson had… essentially… himself; probably why each of the Fabs, and George Martin as well, has gone on record to speak admiringly of Wilson and his work. If you go back and read my original response in this thread, my objection to Sir Paul’s comments had less to do with the relative merits of each of these performers, rather the off-handed dismissal of a type of music, Motown, that each of the young Beatles loved for a uniqueness that couldn’t be found in British pop of the day. Pretty hypocritical in hindsight, wouldn’t you agree?
What chemicals are you ingesting? You must have read a different article than the one above.
The “Ball of Confusion” sound came much later; and Laura’s correct re; comparing “Supremes to the Supremes”, though the songs of the “Baby Love” era did share many similarities, song-wise and production-wise, even between different groups.
Listen to That Boy and then Yes it is. Even John said it was an attempt to redo the song. The especially listen to Lady Madonna and a song called Bad Penny Blues. The latter is not the Beatles but it is nearly identical. Paul was once quoted as calling the Beatles ‘Plagiarist Extraordinaires. That’s not to say they weren’t talented
I am listening to Bad Penny Blues now on utube. It is quite interesting. But the opening only vaguely sounds a little similar, and certainly not the melody, only the instruments and the speed. Maybe paul heard it in 1956 but musically there is no real comparison to Lady Madonna. inspiration maybe, but not “nearly identical.” Maybe George Martin had heard that song as well. As producer he was a big influence on their sound.
And Paul meant ‘Plagiarist Extraordinaire’ in a similar inspirational way. Nearly all music is based on what the artist absorbs from other influences. Mozart was influenced by his contemporaries as well. Paul & the other Beatles were influenced by the music they heard at the time as well as what they heard growing up, and their parents music, etc.
It is taking your influences and reinterpreting them which is the basis for creativity.
Paul misspoke. He would have been correct to say; “We did every song twice, and then moved on”.
I’d rather hear Motown than 95% of the Beatles crap any day. But then I’d rather listen to Stax & other soul music, than either Motown or the Beatles, While John & Paul were writing & performing little nursery rhyme kiddie songs like “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”, “Can’t Buy Me Love, or “She Loves You” among other garbage, (which all sounded alike BTW), Southern Soul artists & writers were coming up with such earthy, adult gems as “Pain In My Heart”, “The Dark End Of The Street”, “You Don’t Miss Your Water”, “Keep On Pushin'”, “That’s How Strong My Love Is”, & many, many other classic gems. The odd thing is that most of these soul artists were the Beatles contemporaries in age, but wrote & sang much more maturely, instead of sounding like a teen garage band with decent production. The Beatles have got to be the most overrated pop band ever.
That only makes sense if you’re restricting yourself to the first two years of the Beatles’ output.
Certainly you don’t mean “Sgt Peppers”. That’s nothing but a pathetic mishmash of embarrassingly juvenile psychedelica, British music hall trappiings & overblown arrangements. The most overrated album by the most overrated band ever. it’s also now severely dated,
Shish MarkM – McCartney states JJ as the best bass player of all time!