Something strange about Paul's voice... | Fab forum

A while back my friend and I were rambling on about how great we think The Beatles are in every way, when I suggested something I think is interesting. 

It seems to me that I can't imagine the young Paul-- at all-- singing songs like Oh Darling!, I've Got a Feeling, Get Back… his real rocker songs, without his beard. 
Likewise, I can't picture the bearded scruffy Paul from the late 60's singing And I Love Her, Hold Me Tight, I Want to Hold Your Hand… even Honey Pie. 

In contrast, I can imagine John for instance singing any song at any period in time. 

Am I crazy? Has anyone else thought something similar?

unknown said
It's like that with me, too, though it has nothing to do with his looks, just how his voice sounds. When they recorded Helter Skelter and Oh! Darling Paul didn't have a beard. Paul's voice seemed to have gotten deeper on The White Album, so I think that's why. I don't think he could have sang Helter Skelter or I've Got A Feeling the same if he had written them before he had.

Wow, I never thought of it that way. That makes a lot more sense, ha ha. I guess I just associated his looks with the matter because to me they represent the different phases of his voice-- in spite of the fact that he recorded a few of those songs without a beard. How did you find that out, anyways? I never knew that.

Funny Paper said
I Me Mine, thanks for that video.

It certainly should lay to rest the notion that Paul's voice in early years was so different from the later Why Don't We Do It In The Road/Oh Darling days that he couldn't have done it back then.  Paul's voice here is amazing.

However, there is a "but" here.  While it's likely that, if the Paul in this video were sat down and asked to do Why Don't We Do It In The Road or Oh Darling, and while he could probably muster approximately the same verve and style, I have a hunch he wouldn't have been able to think of it -- yet.  I.e., this video shows his potential vocal-wise, but not necessarily style-wise.  And singing is as much about style as it is talent.

P.S.:  Who's playing the piano in the background?

P.P.S.:  Does anyone else notice how rather diffident the audience seems to be?  Almost bored!

 

The video is definitely a mime. In other words, they weren't actually playing; it was a video with a prerecorded track played over it. The piano was part of this track. However, this wasn't done for the purpose of fooling the audience (as we tend to do nowadays…), but instead to make filming the music video easier. 
That being said, the audience was probably drafted. 

As for your input, thanks. The fellow Beatles' fans that have posted her have answered a question I've been pondering for a nearly embarrassing amount of time! 

You're saying that you believe Paul hasn't necessarily developed his full vocal style yet, correct? As in his vocals haven't matured enough for him to say: "Hey, I think it'd be great to lay this vocal down just like this," and go on to sing Why Don't We Do It In The Road?
 

Funny Paper said
DBTC, ah, so they were "lip-synching".

As for Paul's voice, it's just a guess, but I'd say that the later singing may not have occurred to him at the time, just because no one around him was really doing stuff like that.  As time went along throughout the 60s, all the pop musicians evolved and there was a lot of cross-pollinating influences among bands and individual musicians.  This would also apply to electric guitar playing.  While a Jimmy Page, for example, may well have been capable of doing 10 years before what he did in his heyday, his mind just wasn't "ready" to do it -- and part of that mental evolution is dependent on surrounding influences from others, etc.

 

Right, ha ha. Sorry for sounding like a know-it-all if that's how I came across.

Do you have any examples vocally of who might have influenced Paul? Maybe Roger Daltrey? I was thinking Robert Plant, but remembered Helter Skelter was before Led Zeppelin surfaced big time. I'm no expert on 60's music at all.