How Paperback Writer Changed The Beatles' Sound Forever

I still think it's one of the greatest guitar riffs ever recorded. And the bass part is just stellar. All-in-all, it's a tour-de-force for Paul.

Paperback Writer/ Rain is one of the Beatles best songs ever released as a single. It was the turning point in their career. It still sounds just as fresh as it did 57 years ago.

The Rubber Soul-Revolver albums were significant, not only for the creative engineering and phenomenal musical development but for what we (as teenagers at the time) were looking for in radio/pop tunes. We didn't even realize it at the time but we were hearing something that was hard to even imagine. All these years later, it's joyous to rediscover these innovations and nuances from 1965-6

I will never get tired of this song, along with the B side, Rain. The fact that they were able to reproduce Paperback Writer live is insane. Those overlapping harmonies, and Paul's great bass lines.

I remember hearing the flip side "Rain" for the first time at age 14 and thinking, "What is going on with that BASS part?!" It was the coolest bass line I'd ever heard!

I've had this 45-single in my collection since I was a 15 year-old in 1966, and this video further bolsters my belief that the reason music was so good in the '70s was because The Beatles had set the artistic bar so high in the '60s.

I remember first hearing this coming out of the car radio speaker while my dad was driving. I was a super Beatles freak 10 year old and those unmistakable vocals pouring out alone at the very beginning acapella just shot right through me. Was popular at the time for DJs to talk through instrumental intros to songs but they couldn’t do it here. Mind blowing to a young man

The whole sound of that intro riff is just so JUICY !

And here we are discussing another fantastic Beatles song almost 60 years later. They are the giants' shoulders all modern rock music is standing on. In 60 years on, they will still be relevant.

The reason people are still analyzing The Beatles’ music is because it’s still hard to believe that these four young people could’ve accomplished everything that they did. People STILL want to know how the hell they did it. And with all due respect to this video, which was very interesting, I don’t think we’ll ever get an adequate explanation. We can discuss recording techniques, and the Beatles’ influences, and all the little mistakes that were left in. But in the end, The Beatles created a magic that just can’t be explained, really.

I think Paperback Writer is one of their best songs It is one song I can listen to over and over again. And never grow tired of hearing it.

The Beatles provided more happiness to humanity than anything that came before. That phenomenon may never be topped. I will die a happy person because I was nine years old when they first appeared on Sullivan. The constant joy their music produced is indescribable.

Seeing this channel pop up with a new upload is always a pleasant surprise. Such soothing and interesting videos on the best band there ever was.

I was 12 years old when I heard this for the first time on my transistor radio. Even at that age I knew I was listening to something innovative and unprecedented, and it blew me away. I am so happy I grew up with the Beatles… such an amazing journey.

Paperback Writer and Rain is IMO the greatest single released by The Beatles. It sounded so different to anything they had done before that time and really showcases their incredible talents as musicians. After all, Rain was the first recording by anyone to include a backwards tape section near the fade out at the end. It was very innovative for the time and i would go as far as to say had Paperback Writer and Rain been included on the Revolver album it would have made what was a great album even more greater.

I think the sonic explorations of Rain are stunning. Yes, John often voiced his enthusiasm about tacking a reversed vocal at the end, but the real magic was in pairing a speeded up main vocal to the slowed down tape of the rhythm track. This gave the song a subtle surreal ambiance, and the technique would be used again in Strawberry Fields Forever.

Paperback Writer was the first Beatles song my dad liked very much. Maybe he liked other before, but this was the first one he told me so. He asked me who was singing and was surprised to know it was The Beatles. He thought it sounded like our Marujada, a folk group from Brazil. " Really Beautiful", he said. Next the radio played "Rain" and he said. " Don't tell it is the Beatles again". Well, I said it was indeed The Beatles. He was fasicinated too. And said it was like Folia de Reis, a kind of folk songs we have in my city. Then he said he has discovered he should listen more to The Beatles. But the Beatles song that touched him even more...Strawberry Fields Forever.

I don't want to "unhear" anything that is present in a Beatles recording. Nothing you can eke out of the depths of a genius-driven recording of their's does anything but make me scurry and fire up my turntable!

The bass line in Paperback is just incredible. Just imagine. These two songs released on same 45. And then think about what’s being released as “music” today.

I enjoyed this song as soon as I first heard it in 1966 on the radio then on 45's and LP records.