The Beatles‘ love songs are untouchable. While talking with a 1990s rock star, Ringo Starr revealed the album where The Beatles started writing songs about love that were more cosmic. The album in question was a huge upgrade from the boy band that gave us “Love Me Do” and “Please Please Me.”
Ringo Starr discussed The Beatles’ love songs with Dave Grohl from Nirvana
In a 2019 Rolling Stone article, Ringo and Dave Grohl interviewed each other. Grohl made an observation about The Beatles. “Love has always been a theme with The Beatles,” he said. “At the beginning.”
Ringo concurred, noting that The Beatles initially wrote love songs directed at girls, such as “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
Grohl asked Ringo when the love in The Beatles’ music became more spiritual and universal. “Probably ’round about ’67, going into the Revolver album,” Ringo replied. “I mean, you know, we were growing up, we were changing, we were smoking dope! And things unclouded, and I think that made big changes and we were used to being in the studio, we knew how to do that.”
Why ‘Revolver’ was a turning point for The Beatles
Contrary to Ringo’s comment, Revolver came out in 1966, not 1967. Two of the most sophisticated tracks from Revolver are the raga rock songs “Love You To” and “Tomorrow Never Knows.” Both of those tracks blur the line between Eastern-style spirituality and feelings of love.
While Revolver still includes more traditional love songs such as “Good Day Sunshine” and “Here, There and Everywhere,” the record still represents a maturation of The Beatles’ songwriting from the “She Loves You” days. It also has some of the group’s most innovative instrumentals.
Paul McCartney once explained why he’s written so many love songs
During a 2020 interview with NPR, a reporter reminded Paul McCartney that The Beatles wrote many songs about love, including “All My Loving,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” and “All You Need Is Love.” The reporter asked Paul if love was the only subject worthy of songs. “I think what you said last, there, is the truth,” Paul responded.
“I’ve sometimes tried to write protest songs — if something’s happening in the news that is so ridiculous, it needs there to be a song about it — but I don’t think I’m very good at that,” he said.
John Lennon was more famous for his protest songs than Paul was. Most of Paul’s protest songs, such as the Irish nationalist anthem “Give Ireland Back to the Irish” and the environmentalist track “Despite Repeated Warnings” came out after The Beatles broke up.
Paul gave fans insight into his approach to songwriting. “I think I’ve generally tried to be optimistic and helpful, like a Beatles song of mine, ‘Blackbird’: I’m trying to say, ‘Take these broken wings and learn to fly,’” he said. “That’s much more my bag. But I am still trying to figure it out. Isn’t everyone?”
The Beatles knew how to write love songs and they eventually started writing love songs to the universe.
