Ian Leslie: evaluation

Transcript context

…The 1968 Beatles version is called “Child of Nature,” written by John. It later becomes “Jealous Guy” on John’s Imagine album. Do you think it would have been better as a Beatles’ song? I think everything would be better as a Beatles’ song because I think that when they played together, there was just this magic thing that happened. I think there’s just no question that with Ringo, George, and Paul, it would’ve sounded better. I’m really glad he turned it into “Jealous Guy.” “Child of Nature” is just a really terrible song. It obviously has this pretty melody, but it’s so awkwardly gawkish and sentimental. “Jealous Guy” is just John at his best in that he was just able to tell the truth in a way that’s very simple. Sometimes, he can write these incredibly surreal, baroque, complicated word pictures, like “I Am the Walrus.” Other times, he could just say, “I’m just a jealous guy” and make the words fit the melody in such a perfect way that it goes straight to your heart. He always bypasses the music altogether. So, “Jealous Guy” is one of his greatest solo songs. This is a very important question, and I think we maybe disagree on this. If I think of “Junk” written by Paul in ’68, but of course, it appears on the McCartney album in what, 1970? George’s “Isn’t It a Pity,” which Paul kept off Beatles albums — I think they’re better on the solo albums. I actually think it was efficient that the Beatles split up when they did. I’m glad they did. I didn’t think that as a kid, but I feel we got more first-quality output and that they would’ve been getting in each other’s way, say, in the ’70 through ’74, ’75 period. Do you disagree?…

Stored transcript either side of the excerpt. The highlighted words are the published quote; the surrounding text is unedited source, never generated.