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Country Western Beatles
19 February 2015
11.13pm
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4or5Magicians
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Well considering the Beatles early application to the BBC described them as “Not as rock-y as most, more country and western with a tendency to play music” I think their country/western influence can’t really be disputed.

What I love about that general era of music is there was a lot of overlapping stylistic influences between blues, country, and rock artists. Anything that sounds kind of bluesy could fit into any of those categories depending on who was performing it. The Beatles were inspired by musicians who had similar influences and that kind of melded with their regional influences into something great.

I’m not sure where I was going with this, so I’ll punctuate overlapping influences with an example of a prominent country star performing what has been described an early rock song.

Then I’ll link to George Harrison rocking out some country/blues and the previously mentioned famous country star using the same bluesy intro and another famous country singer providing the rest of George’s song a-hard-days-night-george-10

I might be veering into off topic, but I just noticed in the Jimmie Rodgers song I linked to that the “I’d rather drink muddy water” verse was also used by the Grateful Dead in some early versions of “I Know You Rider” (11-08-1970 is one of my favorite versions, even with the tape glitch partway through.) I guess the Dead are a great example of genre-bending as well and they did cover Beatles tunes a lot, so there’s that.

 

Anyway, getting back to The Beatles (wait for it), I’ve always thought that Get Back sounded particularly country influenced. Like Johnny Cash’s “Walk the Line” had to have been at least a partial influence at least.

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georgiewood, ewe2
13 January 2016
6.59am
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Ahhh Girl
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Sure To Fall (In Love With You) from the BBC albums. It isn’t quite as country as Carl’s original, but it is still very C&W.

5 February 2016
5.50pm
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Ahhh Girl
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Slightly related to the topic — Bluegrass covers!

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Necko, pepperland
5 February 2016
8.52pm
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Necko
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Ahhh Girl said
Slightly related to the topic — Bluegrass covers!

 It’s inevitable and I love it. 

I'm Necko.  I'm like Ringo except I wear necklaces.

I'm also ewe2 on weekends.

Most likely to post things that make you go hmm... 2015, 2016, 2017. 

5 February 2016
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ewe2
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Love Me Do is incredibly country! I think it was always a factor, lurking and peeping out from time to time. Long, Long, Long has an unmistakeable country waltz rhythm for example, and country rhythms abound even if not reflected in chords or lyrics. And if Love Me Do is country, you have to suspect even a cover like Please Mr Postman, it’s hardly a Motown stomp is it. Thank You Girl is more obvious, but I’ll Get You is sneakier.

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I'm like Necko only I'm a bassist ukulele guitar synthesizer kazoo penguin and also everyone. Or is everyone me? Now I'm a confused bassist ukulele guitar synthesizer kazoo penguin everyone who is definitely not @Joe.  This has been true for 2016 & 2017 Sig-Badge.png but I may have to get more specific in the future.

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11 April 2017
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Ahhh Girl
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Does In Spite Of All The Danger belong in this list? What do you think?

11 April 2017
7.06pm
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georgiewood
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Ahhh Girl said
Does In Spite Of All The Danger belong in this list? What do you think?  

To my ear, it sounds like a primitive amalgam of blue grass and doo-wop.  Befitting a McCartney/Harrison composition. a-hard-days-night-paul-10ahdn_george_01

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Ahhh Girl

I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, 'The Beatles did'.
Kurt Vonnegut, Timequake, 1997

3 September 2017
9.33pm
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I am late to this post since I just discovered it. But these songs make me think of them going back to their origins as a skiffle band, The Quarrymen.

4 September 2017
6.44pm
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georgiewood said

Ahhh Girl said
Crippled Inside sounds to me like it fits this category.

Was all of Crippled Inside a slam against Paul?  When I was listening, I was thinking John was even singing it in an exaggerated country style to mock Paul, who could fall into country cadence and twang at the drop of a Stetson.  I’ll bet Paul can do a great American accent, BTW.  

A few years ago some female American newscaster (forgot her name) recounted how she and some other “elites” were on a plane trip to a Caribbean vacation and McCartney happened to be on board and he happened to be wearing black.  When they got off the plane, a Japanese reporter addressed him as “Johnny Cash”, and without skipping a beat, Paul pretended to be Johnny Cash, affecting his Southern drawl, to the delight of the other passengers.

I also wanted to add that while there are a few C&W-ish Beatles songs, the one that most sticks in my mind is “I’ve Just Seen A Face “.  Remember that the great country guitarist, Chet Atkins, put out a whole album of Beatles covers, called “Picking on the Beatles”.

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16 September 2018
7.59pm
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Happy With You from Egypt Station has a country tinge to it.

17 September 2018
3.04pm
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Mr.Bellamy84
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Not a huge fan of country myself. That being said, I think every song where John is playing his harmonica has to be a bit influenced by the genre.

Did she understand it when they said
That a man must break his back
To earn his day of leisure?
Will she still believe it when he's dead

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