Still the Greatest: The Essential Songs of The Beatles' Solo Careers

by Andrew Grant Jackson

As recommended by USA Today and excerpted on Rolling Stone.com!

More than forty years after breaking up, The Beatles remain the biggest-selling and most influential group in the history of popular music. Fans endlessly replay their songs, craving more, while thousands of cover versions of their songs have been recorded and performed. Band biographies, pop music histories, song books, and academic titles on the Fab Four clutter shelves. But never has there been a definitive guide to the finest songs of The Beatles after they called it quits.

Still the Greatest is a love song to the songwriting and recording achievements of Paul, John, George, and Ringo after each struck out on his own. In this creative history, Jackson selects the best songs in each solo career and organizes them into fantasy albums they might have formed had the legendary group stayed together. This romp through the post–Beatles history of each artist delves into the circumstances behind the composition, recording, and reception of each work, offering a refreshing take on how spectacular much of The Beatles’ second act truly is.

Jackson assesses the more than seventy albums and nine hundred songs the four collectively released, selecting the crème de la crème of their output. Still the Greatest brims with facts (release dates, writing and performing credits, and information about production techniques) and insightful analyses of the music and lyrics. In telling the stories behind the songs, Jackson recounts the remarkable influence the Post Fab Four continued to have long after the big split. Both a handy reference and an engrossing cover-to-cover read, Still the Greatest is an invaluable companion for those who thought it all ended with the 1970 album Let It Be.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography, Pop Culture

378 pages, Paperback

First published July 16, 2012

About the author

ANDREW GRANT JACKSON is the author of 1973: Rock at the Crossroads, 1965: The Most Revolutionary Year in Music, Still the Greatest: The Essential Songs of the Beatles’ Solo Careers, Where’s Ringo? and Where’s Elvis?

He has written for Rolling Stone, Slate, Yahoo!,PopMatters, and Please Kill Me. He directed and co-wrote the feature film The Discontents starring Perry King and Amy Madigan. He lives in Los Angeles.

Jackson's websites:
www.facebook.com/1973book
www.facebook.com/1965book
www.facebook.com/solobeatlebook
https://www.facebook.com/whereselvisbook
www.1965book.com
www.solobeatles.com

Praise for 1973: Rock at the Crossroads

“Jackson's book paints a vivid portrait of the year through the lens of popular music ― mostly rock, but also country and hip-hop … His analysis of sexuality and rock music is particularly interesting ... Jackson also proves to have a real talent for evoking the places that made 1973 such a consequential year in music.” ―NPR

“A comprehensive account of the year of 1973 and its legendary music and momentous social change.” ―Rolling Stone

“It’s the excellent―and frequently hilarious―saga of a moment when the whole sprawling pageant of pop music was one great big band on the run.” ―Rob Sheffield, author of Dreaming the Beatles

Praise for 1965: The Most Revolutionary Year in Music

“Jackson has a better ear than a lot of music writers, and one of the best parts of this book is his many casual citings of songs that echo others: Marvin Gaye’s first million-selling single, “I’ll Be Doggone,” builds on a riff used in the Searchers’ “Needles and Pins,” one also pinched by the Byrds for “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better” … A lot of the best insights come from writers who show us the familiar through fresh eyes, as Jackson does when he returns us to a year when a lot of us were young and poor and not as happy as we thought we were, yet there was always a great song on the radio.”
-- Washington Post

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hmm. The jury is out on this one. I just started it with high hopes, but I'm a little disappointed already. First, he writes about Linda and Yoko, specifically how Yoko dragged John into heroin addiction while Linda saved Paul from his alcoholic stupor. He continues on to say that Paul was attracted to Linda's maternal instincts, etc. etc., "and then Paul knocked her up." Nicely put. Then, reading a bit further, as he's discussing Beaucoups of Blues, he references The Jordonaires, who backed up Elvis, starting with Heartbreak Hotel. Except, correct me here, Elvis sang solo on that particular song. I don't know, those kind of easy mistakes bug me and make me doubt the veracity of the rest of the information presented. We shall see if it gets any better. He does have some interesting insights so I hope it doesn't disappoint overall.

[Pascal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the best piece of literature on the Fab Four I've read in my nine years of obsession with the Beatles. It sheds a light on the often-overlooked post-breakup era with just the right amount of biographical and cultural background detail.
This well-summarized glance at the solo Beatles' lives would be interesting enough on it's own, but in this book, it is interwoven with a description of hypothetical post-Let it Be Beatles albums compiled of the greatest solo songs.

The author's authentic joy in fantasizing about these what if-albums is so compelling that it was hard for me to put the book down for its entire length. The sections on each song are not only stylistically pleasant to read, but also full of neat little anecdotes, background information as well as witty little jokes every now and then. It's so refreshing to see the solo Beatles' songs in such a different light and it's an even greater joy to listen to the fantasy albums the author fabricated via my own playlist on Spotify (although you will definitely need additional songs to the ones that are on Spotify - they don't have the B-sides and stuff like that).

I can't recommend this book enough to any Beatles fan who isn't too jaded to have a little fun with a little make believe-speculation. It's also great for anyone who could never really get a grasp on the enormous musical output of the solo Beatles. You definitely don't need to know every Ringo album to be able to enjoy this book. (As a matter of fact, I barely knew any Ringo solo songs myself before reading this book, but shhh...)

[Jeff Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author sets out to catalogue the best of the Beatles solo work through biography interwoven with song interpretations. This works nicely - the biography sections are just the right amount of information to give context for the music and how it related to the relationships in the ex-Beatles lives at the time. It also gives you an idea of why they were so much better together than they were apart. As a solo artist a lot of John’s stuff bounced between raw and angry or “hippies will save the world” naiveté. Beyond “Maybe I’m Amazed”, Paul’s solo work can be a bit sugary and thin. Hearing the solo stuff you can really see why they did for each other when working together - that meeting somewhere in the middle was exactly what they both needed (and I think is what started to happen naturally after a few years). George started off strong - and in fact may have the best post-Beatles output - but faded fast. You can see how limiting him to 2 songs/album drove him to be focused and selective while still in the group (by Abbey Road it could be argued his 2 songs were the best on the album, and “My Sweet Lord” and “What is Life” are as good as any of their solo work).

I think where Jackson pushes it a bit is in his proposed “extra Beatles albums”, and how many songs he decides to include. The idea of putting together their best solo work a is an interesting one, and I enjoyed most of the notes he had on both the meaning and making of the songs. But I think he may have been better served narrowing it down a bit when it came to the actual albums. There were just too many pedestrian songs - it leaned a little too much towards the “super fan/can do no wrong” perspective. The 8 proposed albums (of 14 songs) between 1970 - 1980 could have been narrowed to 4 or 5 (of ~10 songs) to better effect. It was a bit of a cop out that almost ALL of the songs from the stronger solo works (Plastic Ono Band, Imagine, All Things Must Pass, Band on the Run) were included. And yet - I can’t deny I found a few gems in there. In particular, the demo of “My Brave Face”. The version McCartney released I never cared for - sort of sappy & overproduced. But in the demo Costello’s voice is much higher in the mix, and it almost gives you goosebumps because it sounds like it could be a lost tape from 1964 with McCartney & Lennon doing harmonies. And I had forgotten all about “All Those Years Ago”, Harrison’s Lennon tribute from 1981 that I enjoyed at the time but hadn’t listened to in 30 years (and, as I mentioned, I forget existed). There were a few others too, and I guess the ones that worked for me will be different than the ones that others discover, which is a decent argument for over-inclusion.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yuck. Substandard, non-objective Beatle writing here. Jackson adds way too much opinion on the most well-chronicled band ever. It's impossible to be objective about them, but some of the side comments he makes are borderline inappropriate. There is some solid, infrequent analyzation going on, but picking and choosing solo Beatle albums, especially the early ones, is rough going as it is. Including too much Beatles intro before each 'solo' break down takes away from providing good - and needed - research on the actual songs themselves. Ian McDonald's Revolution In the Head would have been a good template to follow. He zeroed in on each song, deviating from this modus operandi only occasionally, always with great results. Jackson misses a golden opportunity to do the same here, instead settling for lazy, sensationalist conjecture that digs into John, Paul, George, and Ringo's songs in mediocre fashion.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is conducted on an unusual but compelling premise, and that is seeking to create a solid compilation of the solo Beatles recordings that follows the same rules as the Red and Blue Albums that serve to provide the biggest hits of when the Beatles were together. And in selecting these songs, the author manages also to talk about the solo careers of the Beatles, and the music that they made and also how the songs of the solo Beatles are often highly self-referential to others in ways that serves to be compelling. The book also points out how it is that the balance of creativity can be served in dividing up various eras. The author, it must be admitted, has a higher opinion of the worth of John Lennon songs and a lower opinion of the value of Paul McCartney songs than I do, but is also quite savvy at picking out obscure gems in the Beatles' solo work that is worth checking out. This book turned me on to an obscure but excellent Ringo solo track in "Free Drinks" and the idea of making an official Beatles' solo compilation set sounds like an amazing idea. Someone needs to do this.

This book is almost 300 pages long and is divided into twelve best-of albums of the Beatles' solo output from 1970 to 2011, including what the author considers to be the best solo songs of the Beatles. And admittedly, having listened to these, some of these are amazing hidden gems that deserve to be a lot better known. The author divides the Beatles careers into the following years, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1980. 1985, 1989, 1997, 2005, and 2011, slowing down as the Beatles dwindled in their creativity and in their numbers. It is striking to see that these songs include massive hits, B-sides that deserve to be better known, as well as strong album tracks and in one case a bootleg that has never been officially released. The author has dug deep into the Beatles' solo work to craft albums that any fan of the band would be more than happy to have in their collections as presenting a strong document of a body of work that deserves to be better known and appreciated. The first eight chapters include work by the four Beatles' solo work, including the material up to Lennon's posthumous Milk & Honey album, while the ninth album includes pieces from the Traveling Wilburys, and there is even a selection from an experimental group, Fireman, that McCartney was a part of, showing a very diverse collection of strong songs.

One of the more shrewd insights that the author has on the solo work of the Beatles' is that the Beatles' in their approach to music are far closer to rappers than they are to the pop singers of generations past. The Beatles' as a whole appear to be made up of very sensitive people, and so the deep and painful personal lives of the artists, and their legal trouble as well as their beefs with each other are continually coming up in their works, to say nothing of their songs about their long-ago come up. These elements, and others, including an occasional name-dropping about their taste for elite culture, demonstrate that the Beatles served as the sorts of rock stars that rappers often emulate, perhaps even unknowingly. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a substantial number of songs about their come-up and beefs about each other and others make up a sizable portion of these songs, where all four Beatles are represented. Somehow, despite it all, the author makes the compelling observation that the Beatles, for all of their foibles, were still compelling artists as solo artists who have the grounds for some epic compilations going into the 2010's, which is still selling Paul McCartney's career short given his 3 top 40 hits in that decade and his work including New, Egypt Station, and McCartney III.

[Sean McGurr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Early this year (2014), I took a MOOC on the Beatles through Coursera. It was fantastic. I learned about the early days of the Fab Four in Liverpool and Germany, the phenomena of Beatlemania in the early 60s, the studio years, and the eventual end of the Beatles. But it stopped there. My own personal knowledge of the post-Beatles years is limited. I have a John Lennon greatest hits album, but don't own any solo albums by the Beatles. This book covers the post Beatles years in detail, imagining 12 additional Beatles album from 1970-2011 made up of the best songs on the Beatles solo albums. Along the way, I learned a great deal, not just about these songs (each chapter focuses on 10-12 songs that would be on the album, who wrote them, what they might mean, their historical significance), but specifically about the relationships between the details. I had no idea about how much McCartney and the others fought, Lennon's interior battles, Harrison feeling so slighted as a songwriter, or even Ringo's contributions. The book assumes some familiarity with the songs, which I don't have, but after reading this, I'm going to explore the post-Beatles output.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really should be 2.5 stars, but I can’t bring myself to round up.

This book gets an “A” for effort, but is not good. It reads like a series of blog posts, with occasional profundity (the succinct entry on “Jealous Guy” is one of the better assessments of Lennon’s admitted domestic violence that I’ve read), but more often it comes across like an college undergraduate term paper, complete with references to now dated celebrities and technologies.

It’s just so unfortunate, as this kind of book - one that analyzes the solo output of the ex-Beatles, but together and year-by-year - is sorely needed. But this ain’t it.

There are so many factual errors in this book that I actually lost count of them.

[Len or Len · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! Fun read for anyone who wants to take a deep dive into the Beatles’ solo careers.

[Nick Hansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mainly for hardcore fans. Lots of interesting tidbits I didn’t know about, though the structure is sometimes confusing.

[Harriett Milnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was enjoyable, but I had two problems with it. First I should explain the set up. Andrew has made "albums" of the Beatles' solo careers, using the parameters for the 12 Beatles albums: 14 songs per album, retaining the Revolver balance of 5 Lennon tunes, 5 McCartney tunes, 2 or 3 Harrison, and 1 Starr, whenever possible. If one of the Beatles had no release in a particular year, "some tunes from the previous year's release are used the following year." Andrew has made 12 albums, which he calls The Beatles Albums That Should Have Been, 1970 - 2011. For each album he gives some Beatles history for that year/era.

The first problem I had with the book is that on the first album, I was familiar with 8 of the songs: I could hum them to myself. Six of the songs I was not at all sure of. For the next album, 1971, there were only 6 songs I knew. For the third album, I only knew 3 of the songs. At this point I started skipping through and reading the snippets of Beatles history.

Thus, the second problem. I found I didn't want to know some of the history, about John's drug problems, and various marital problems, and John and Paul's arguments. I was unaware of many of these things and I really don't need to know or want to know. Sort of gossipy.

However, he gives a lot of information, and tells about you tube videos. It was a library book for me and I pulled the bookmark.

[Rosebud · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book might contain a lot of detail that might be "too much" for the casual Beatles fan. It is really a history of their individual lives after the Beatles broke up. One of the most shocking parts was how George and his wife fought off the intruder who stabbed George 40 times and nearly killed them both. George's wife later relayed the story that George was coaching her on how to beat the guy with a poker and how after hitting him several times with an antique brass lamp, she finally was able to knock him out. The intruder was acquitted of attempted murder on an insanity plea. The trauma to Harrison's body was thought to have contributed to the return of cancer and his eventual death.

The book describes their individual career ups and downs, as well as their personal challenges, tragedies, and triumphs. It also chronicles their infighting, petty arguments, and eventual reconciliations that they each loved each other and cherished their brotherhood that started when they were just young Liverpudlians. Luckily, they were able to do this before the untimely murder of John and the early death of George to cancer.

[David Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still the Greatest: The Essential Songs of the Beatles' Solo Careers by Andrew Grant Jackson (Scarecrow Press Inc. 2012) (700.92) is an excellent overview of the music which the former members of the Beatles made individually both before and after the dissolution of the group. I personally had no idea (a) that Ringo Starr was so prolific and so popular as a solo artist; (b) that each of the Beatles had such great individual success as an artist; and (c) that the Beatles as individual performers had such an incredible number of number one hits in the UK and the USA after the band had been dissolved. My favorite quote from the book was George Harrison's response in 1989 to Paul McCartney's suggestion that the three remaining Beatles get back together: "As far as I'm concerned, there won't be a Beatles reunion as long as John Lennon remains dead." (p. 216). My rating: 7.5/10, finished 7/24/13.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great fun, building on the Beatles party game question, "What solo songs would have made Beatles albums if the group had stayed together?" Adhering to an internal (but well-reasoned) set of rules, Jackson goes year by year through the Fabs' solo careers, assembling albums (for we called them that in the Old Days, you know) of the best and most interesting solo material. Jackson has a good ear, and is good about explaining quickly why he thinks a certain song belongs on the list above certain others, and what makes each unique. You might not agree with everything (No "Say Say Say"?) but Jackson almost always has a reason why he made his choices. It's all in good fun, and will likely have you listening to some of those deep cuts in your collection, or racing over to iTunes to download one you've never heard of.

[Dan Dinello · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable read for Beatles' fans: while I disagreed with ranking of many of his choices, I discovered lots of good Beatles' music, as well as other artists songs. The author did very good research and provided lots of fascinating personal/social context for the songs. The book helped me come up with a new 20-song album of solo songs. The book clued me into a 4-CD John Lennon Anthology album that's got some fascinating music, such as his recording "I'm Losing You" with Cheap Trick & his version of a song given to Ringo "I'm the Greatest." A very late George Harrison song - "Fish in the Sand" - is one of his best. Paul McCartney - depressed after a Beatles' recording session that broke down in arguments - finds Steve Miller in the recording studio & plays drums, bass & backing vocals on a track "My Dark Hour" that later Miller records as "Fly Like an Eagle."

[Du · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd probably add half a star. I had high expectations for this book. The idea of how would Beatles albums post 1971 be created from the solo albums crafted is a very interesting book idea. The writing is a bit pedestrian but it is worth the read. The first section of each chapter walks you through reality of the solo Beatle lives. I had hoped it would be a fiction about how each album was crafted. The song by song breakdown is a good tool, and the summary at the end of the book about the way songs were selected and how greatest hits albums would be culled was fun as well.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe I didn't like this book as much as, for example, "Revolution in the Head," because I don't like the Beatles' solo material as much as the 1962-1970 Beatles canon. I think the author oversells a lot of these songs, which were for the most part pedestrian by the standards the Beatles had set. On the other hand, there's plenty of juicy background about the post-Fab four, much of it showing that they were indeed just human. The music Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr recorded as solo artists demonstrated that the Beatles were greater than the sum of the parts.

[Patrick Macke · Rating 5 out of 5]

super fun read that imagines the great Beatles albums that would have been if you combined solo tracks by the fabs over the years

[Pocosnoopy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent what might have been analysis of the post Beatles musical output and how that work would have looked as hypothetical Beatles albums.