Pot-Luck Sound: John, Paul, George, and Ringo

I’d like to see if I could build off Oats’ All Things Must Slide piece from the other day, which pondered the roots and significance of George Harrison’s signature slide guitar style. It was discussed in the thread that Harrison’s contribution to what we call a “Beatles-esque” sound wasn’t even used until Harrison’s solo career. Some made mention of what songs in Harrison’s work with the Beatles may have pointed toward this sound. I got to thinking, What exactly was Harrison’s most significant, most representative, signature contribution to the Beatles sound, and for that matter, what do I most consider the single, signature musical contribution of each John, Paul, and Ringo? In other words, if George Martin called the boys together for a pot-luck dinner, what would be the one musical dish that each Beatle would bring?

Before you answer, it’s very important that you read on!

Now I’ve been thinking about my answers, but before I share what might be the “right” ones, I’m curious to know what you think. Before you share, however, let’s get a few things straight. Veterans of the Halls of Rock know my feelings on the importance of clear, evolving guidelines, so let’s get a few rules in order:

• For purposes of discussion, we will not concern ourselves with issues of Look, emotional characteristics (eg, “The Serious One”, “The Cute One”), and other nonmusical Rock Superhero elements.
• We won’t get too hung up with defining the term “Beatles-esque” or whether this sound we know when we hear it is more accurately “Beatle-esque.”
• We will resist breaking it down by era; we must choose one representative musical dish.
• We will do our best to respect the right of others to be “right” and only list one set of musical dishes per comment.

As always we reserve the right to tighten up the initial guidelines, but most importantly, have fun with this. Impress each other. What was the Main Ingredient each member of The Beatles brought to the sound we call Beatles-esque?