Talk:The End (Beatles song)

Untitled
According to Ian MacDonald in the text Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties, Harrison's song "I Me Mine" was the last Beatles track to be recorded. Although it doesn't feature all four Beatles (John Lennon was not present for the session), it was recorded 2 April 1970, a full eight months after work ended on "The End." The last full recording session to feature all four Beatles was "Polythene Pam/She Cam In Through The Bathroom Window," recorded 30 July 1969. However, later work on "The End" in August 1969 constitutes the last session for which each Beatle was present. The wiki page for "The End" incorrectly states that it was the last song recorded by The Beatles. This title should refer to "I Me Mine," despite the fact that Lennon was not present. Havl

"And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make"

Is that true?

If it isn't, it should be.

There's some contradictory information here - can we get to the bottom of it?

From the The End article:

Additionally, there are three extended guitar solos performed in turn by Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and John Lennon, although it is not positively known when each one begins and finishes. Each had a distinctive style which McCartney felt reflected their personalities.

From the Abbey Road article:

as well as a blistering lead guitar solo from Harrison using several distinct guitar tones to create the effect of multiple guitarists playing.

What gives?MBlume 07:49, 13 April 2006 (UTC)


 * I hadn't given any thought to it before, but assuming the first of the above two passages is true, then to me it seems quite clear who is playing what. Once the solos break out after the initial chords, each Beatle, in the order named, plays two measures, three times: two by Paul, two by George, two by John, three times, for a total of 18 measures. That's just a guess on my part, but if you're listening for it, it would seem to be pretty straightforward. Richard K. Carson 22:13, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

If my hearing is good, I clearly Ringo going crazy with a long drum solo on Strawberry Fields Forever after all the other instruments faded out. Ringo's solo is even longer and crazier on Strawberry Take 7 on Anthology 2.--Secret Agent Man 02:54, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm totally acording to you. It's in fact a drum solo, muted some other sounds, like The End, that it was muted the bass and guitar. —Preceding unsigned comment added by TheOneBeatle (talk • contribs) 00:38, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

Drum and guitar solos
Hi,

The guitar solos are definitely taken by Paul, George and John in that order. I have never heard or read anywhere the suggestion that Clapton played a part of this session. This is supported by Mark Lewisohn's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. Furthermore, I doubt Macca would have allowed Clapton to take his place when the opportunity arose for him to play lead. Let's not forget Macca sometimes played lead instead of George (much to Harrison's annoyance).

Finally, with regards to Ringo's solo you may wish to refer to The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. According to Mark Lewisohn, the take in which Ringo performed his 'solo' originally had the bass and guitars playing along live. It was only in post production that the other instruments were muted giving the effect of a drum solo.

Hope this is of some use to you.

Cheers,

"Pepperstool 12:36, 24 July 2006 (UTC)".


 * Doesn't the solo sound just like Clapton, though? — Bob • (talk) • 00:14, July 24, 2007 (UTC)
 * About drums. Did somebady compared this from 'The End' and from some part 'A Saucerful of Secrets'? 194.187.72.73 (talk) 18:20, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Pepperstool's on the money. The Beatles were (notoriously) secretive. Even Musicologist Allan Pollack states in his critique of the Beatles catalog, that he wondered how the band kept the secret about Clapton's solo in "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" for such a long time. The "White Album" did not list any credit re Clapton's appearance on the album. The Clapton Secret may have been revealed during The Concert for Bangladesh, but guitarists already knew it. Which brings me to "The End" There has been much speculation about the "three" sets of solos. George did this one? or was it Paul? Wasn't that John? As a former lead guitarist, and part of a group of guitarists, we all heard this- First, there are only two distinctive guitar sounds [tones], (not as Allan Pollack suggests that were "multiple" guitar tones all done by Harrison). Secondly, none of the three of them had the technique to have played the bend (and the vibrato at the end of it) in measure 15-16. Listen to "The End" this way- the section is 18 measures long and starts about :54 in. Two measures- John Lennon, (with that electric twangy sound and passable technique- Four measures- Eric Clapton, (with that fat sweet distortion sound [the type of tone that sounds differently in different registers on the guitar's neck) and his steel-fingered technique X 3 times around. We all knew that "THE BEND' was Clapton's; and remember, Clapton had several contract disputes at that time and the Beatles would have tried to protect him and not list him in the credits on either album.Dcrasno (talk) 04:04, 25 September 2009 (UTC)


 * I think all of them were quite capable of playing the parts attributed to them, but my opinion doesn't matter and neither does yours: our opinions are original research and not allowed on Wikipedia. Meanwhile:
 * Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison have all commented on the three solos and how each one took a part and how they played in sequence. There's no reason not to believe them.
 * Clapton has never taken credit.
 * George Martin and the studio personnel have never mentioned Clapton.
 * In other words, the evidence is stacked way in favor of the way the article is now because quite simply, there is no reliable evidence that differs with it. &mdash; John Cardinal (talk) 04:22, 25 September 2009 (UTC)

i' ve jus added to the personal section that george played lead on the complete song, and the other two only during the solo, i mean the beginning during the love you section is him, and the end after the love you take... is pure harrison bluesy bending mastery, a bit like carry that weight. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.196.241.107 (talk) 14:11, 21 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Is it true that this is the only song in which all four Beatles play a solo? The Sanity Inspector (talk) 21:35, 4 October 2019 (UTC)

Ringo Starr's only drum solo for The Beatles?
What about Strawberry Fields Forever on the Anthology 2?  Hel pslo ose   18:06, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

What about "Octopus's Garden"? 67.163.138.44 (talk) 18:11, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

And Birthday? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.211.137.148 (talk) 14:52, 2 September 2009 (UTC)
 * There's a tambourine as well, so it's not a solo? Wrapped in Grey (talk) 14:31, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Plaque
What is the origin of the plaque featured in the article? —suzukaze (t・c) 04:16, 12 May 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
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2021
Local description: 2021 song by the Beatles ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.180.54.230 (talk) 15:34, 7 March 2021 (UTC)

"Gould" citation
"Gould terms these live studio takes "little character sketches" " -- Since this is the first mention in the article of Jonathan Gould or his book, he should be identified by more than just "Gould." Something like "Jonathan Gould, in his book [etc.], terms these live studio takes "little character sketches":" would be better. I know he's identified in the footnote, but this is just good practice. As it happened, when I saw the name Gould I went looking earlier in the article to find the (non-existent) earlier reference to him, for just this reason.JohnMason (talk) 18:53, 30 November 2021 (UTC)

Ringo Starr's only drum solo for The Beatles!
Hi User:Echoedmyron. Your revert was entirely correct, so but then I looked into it. Following is a really prolix tl;dr passage, but sometimes I just like to think out loud. Nobody has to read it and the Modern Drummer ref is sufficient I think.

OK, so, the solo on "The End" is Ringo's only drum solo with the Beatles. We can be sure of that, because we have a lot of sources saying it. Most are clearly unreliable, and one or two are marginally reliable if that. Except for Modern Drummer, which I think (think) is the #1 drum magazinr

But the big thing is, at least on the internet, there is not one source, reliable, unreliable, or even a one-person blog that contradicts this. There's nobody -- nobody (that I've found yet) -- who writes like "The End is often stated to be Ringo's only drum solo with the Beatles, but actually in song X..." Not even some guy on his personal blog. You can't technically by the laws of logic prove a negative (I think), but I mean, c'mon, we're not writing philosophy treatise here, and the internet has a whole lot of opinion writing.

As for our the belief on the facts of the matter (which would have to be backed by reliable sources), what is a Drum solo? That article says "A drum solo may be... of any length", which I suppose "any length" could be one bar or even one beat, but then Solo (music) says "a solo... is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung featuring a single performer", with Section (music) being all like "in music, a section is a complete, but not independent, musical idea. Types of sections include the introduction...", and then Introduction (music) has "introduction" as being" a passage or section which opens a movement or a separate piece, preceding the theme or lyrics. In popular music, this is often known as the song intro or just the intro..." which I think doesn't take a stand either way. So dead end here, maybe.

But then sites -- none necessarily reliable, but there are lot of them, and anyway this is matter of opinion where reliability is not in play so much as standing and importance -- usually imply that "drum solo" is a significant part; one uses Wipeout (instrumental) as an example. Anyway, going on the common meaning of the term "drum solo", it seems that people think it includes the one in "The End" but not the breaks or fills in "Sergeant Pepper" or Strawberry Fields Forever (on the Anthology 2) or Octopuses Garden or Birthday. Rightly or wrongly that seems to be the caseMaybe the "The End" solo is just enough longer than the others to make the difference, I don't know.

So then to say "one of the few" is kind of misleading. Like saying "Bill Clinton was one the few US Presidents named Clinton" or whatever. So I changed it and sourceed it to Modern Drummer which I figure is reliable enough. Herostratus (talk) 22:20, 27 August 2023 (UTC)