George don't like Sgt Pepper !  | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

bewareofchairs said 

As for Sgt. Pepper , I think the answer is a combination of the two. The less involvement he had in the songs, the more boring of an experience it was for him, which I think is why he generally tended to prefer John’s songs. At the same time though, I personally agree with him that several songs on Sgt. Pepper are average (for the Beatles). For what it’s worth, he did love She’s Leaving Home , A Day In The Life and Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds .

THANK YOU!!!  Finally, someone else on these boards who agrees with me on this sentiment!    And for me, it’s largely because of Paul’s songs (and, alas, 8 of the 13 were his).  To use my baseball analogy again, it’s the only Beatles album (Yellow Submarine notwithstanding) to which I feel he did NOT contribute at least one bona fide home run of a song.  The title track and its reprise are doubles at the most; the rest are mere base hits.  I really wish “Only A Northern Song ” had ended up on the album instead of either “Getting Better ,” “Fixing a Hole,” “She’s Leaving Home ,” or “Lovely Rita ” (with “Penny Lane ” and “Strawberry Fields Forever ” replacing 2 of the others).

I feel around this time is when John and Paul started subconsciously ganging up on George songwriting-wise, and seeing his songs no longer as a means of filling out an album when they themselves didn’t have enough songs, but more as a lip service for the group’s albums, not unlike Ringo’s vocal spots. 

parlance said 
Funny, I feel the opposite – that the more “average” songs on the album were John’s.

parlance

It definitely seems as though John was running low on inspiration during this period, considering a) this was the first album for which he didn’t match (if not exceed) Paul’s number of songs contributed, and b) that the songs he DID ultimately contribute were all inspired by rather mundane things, be it a couple of newspaper headlines (“A Day In The Life “), a vintage circus poster seen in a shop (“Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!”), a breakfast cereal commercial (“Good Morning, Good Morning”), or a picture drawn by his son (“Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds “).  Still, I feel the group did a far better job at ‘dressing up’ John’s songs than they did Paul’s.

Inner Light said

I think George’s songs were always a struggle for him regarding album space. That would never have changed. The Lennon/McCartney team were a proven success and fans expected to hear songs by that song writing team. (If it’s not broke, don’t fix it)

Granted, by ’66, the Lennon/McCartney ‘team’ was largely a façade, since both of them were almost exclusively writing on their own by then (with only occasional input from one another).  But I do think early on John and Paul were grateful for George’s songwriting contributions.  After all, they would’ve been much harder pressed to have filled out Help !, Rubber Soul and Revolver without them, since they didn’t have any other songs in the can at the time of each of those albums’ respective sessions.  But when the group exclusively became a studio act in late ’66, and Paul suddenly became more prolific in his songwriting (which has continued to this day), along with his and John’s egos getting in the way, George’s contributions to each of the group’s albums began looking more and more like mere lip service.  George’s early status as the #3 man in the group didn’t help either, despite the fact that, by the time the group started recording the White Album , he had become almost as prolific and as capable a songwriter as both John and Paul.  Really, at that point, the group hierarchy should’ve been completely thrown out (especially since Paul had pretty much fully usurped John as the group’s de facto leader by then) and John, Paul and George should’ve all been on the exact same level.

‘Only A Northern Song ‘ would have been a nice fit for the album’s psychedelic theme but I do like ‘Within You’ more. I think George was trying to say that Northern Songs was ripping them off and since they did not own their own songs had no choice back then.

I personally otherwise find no reason “Northern Song” AND “Within You” couldn’t have both ended up on Sgt. Pepper , especially considering Paul’s lesser contributions.  The most schizophrenic thing about the album for me is how psychedelic both John’s and George’s songs are, and how decidedly UNpsychedelic Paul’s songs are (his guitar lines on the title track and its reprise being the only remotely trippy-sounding things on his songs).  “With A Little Help From My Friends ” and “When I’m Sixty-Four ” are both simple Music Hall throwbacks; “She’s Leaving Home ” is like a more maudlin attempted companion piece to “Eleanor Rigby ;” “Getting Better ,” “Fixing A Hole ” and “Lovely Rita ” are all standard second-tier Paul songs, à la “What You’re Doing ,” “Tell Me What You See ,” “Rocky Raccoon ,” etc.