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Beatles Session Musicians Who?

A dozen or so of us were hashing over old Beatle’s songs last week and it was amazing how many folks had heard that so-and-so played on this song and so-and-so on another. Outside of the obvious and well-documented contributions of an Eric Clapton or Billy Preston, there seemed to be little proof to the pudding regarding others. All this leads me to this question:

Does anyone know of an authoritative source which lists “who played what” on individual songs? I realize that the list may not be complete and “London Symphony” may have to suffice for some background stuff – but you get the picture. I do not want to believe, for example, that George did not appear at all on Blue Jay Way and I’d like to have some proof! ;(
4yanx

Showing 2 responses by timrhu

timrhu
2,779 posts
 
The most interesting trivial fact for me concerns "The End" from Abbey Road. For years I wondered who plays the guitar solo on "The End" as it's obviously three distinct instruments. Paul, George and John, in that order, perform the guitar solos one bar at a time on "The End." It blew me away to find out which Beatle played which part.
For a while you're gonna consult this book when listening to the fab four. Enjoy your read.
timrhu
2,779 posts
 
"BEATLESONGS" by William J. Dowlding is a fascinating read if you want to know who played or sang what. This book provides a complete profile of every Beatles song ever written. From the back cover, "Beatlesongs nails down dates, places, participants and other intriguing facts."
I actually took a college course titled 'History of the Beatles," where we used this book as a reference. What a hoot that was.
But to answer your question about "Blue Jay Way," George play organ and does double racked lead vocals and backing vocals, according to "Beatlesongs."
George Martin plays keyboards on several tracks and other members of the entourage play incidental instruments. I'm telling you it's fascinating.
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