George's Songs | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Don't let the thread title fool you, this is very much about John Lennon .  It seems pretty apparent from what we know from Beatle history, and most especially since Peter Jackson released the Get Back footage, that John did not contribute much when it came to George's songs.  Meanwhile, for all of George's anger towards Paul, Paul often made solid musical contributions to them.  The question is why?

I think Paul, being a good bandmate, and the best musician in the Beatles, and a workaholic, would of course contribute musical ideas to George's songs.  The question is why didn't John?  The obvious reason would be lack of interest.  John had a vested interest in helping Paul with his songs, especially with the lyrics, because anything Paul writes has his name on it.  He might be less inclined to jump into a George song.  Maybe he didn't feel it was his place, and would wait for direction from the songwriter.  He did play the dobro on For You Blue , for instance, but reportedly this was George's suggestion.

Another reason might be ability.  Maybe John is not as creative when it comes to helping other people out with their songs musically.  And while there are examples of John making lyric suggestions to George, he isn't going to jump right in on it because George isn't his writing partner.  So why should he?  And lyrics would be John's strength.  Plus maybe George brought in his lyrics more completed.  By the time he started writing a lot, most of them were probably doing this.  And maybe it's just because John is famously lazy.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to rip on John here, he's my favorite Beatle.  But it's still very clear that Paul is the best musician of the four, and that he has the best work ethic.  John seems to need to be driven by an intense interest if he is going to help out on someone else's song.  He did this with Paul, and with Yoko too.  He was obviously very driven in those cases.