Paul McCartney Pinpointed “Very Important” Aspect of The Beatles That Made Them So Good: “We Grabbed the Accident”

Ever since The Beatles’ infamous 1970 breakup, the world has been conducting a decades-long postmortem in an attempt to figure out what made the Fab Four tick. What magical force turned a ragtag skiffle group into the kings of Beatlemania? What about their music, songwriting, chemistry, or gear made them so special?

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Paul McCartney once argued that it had nothing to do with their talents or resources or even luck. It had more to do with the fact that the band never shied away from a flub. On the contrary, The Beatles actually leaned into these errors and mishaps to find something new and unique. “We never ignored an accident,” he explained.

Even more importantly, the band’s producer, George Martin, (almost) always encouraged the group to lean into the wacky and weird. The Beatles would find something to expand upon, and Martin would provide the technical know-how necessary to do it. McCartney highlighted two songs featuring these ‘happy accident’ moments, both from very different Beatles eras, despite only being two years apart.

The Accidents Behind “I Feel Fine” and “I’m Only Sleeping”

One of the first times The Beatles’ ears perked up to a studio malfunction was during the making of “I Feel Fine”, which they released as a standalone single in November 1964. John Lennon was playing an acoustic-electric guitar at the time, which was prone to feedback if left plugged in and leaning against an amp. Lennon did just that, causing the guitar to whine and drone.

George Martin, the “technical grownup,” per McCartney, explained to the band that what they were hearing was feedback. When The Beatles asked him if they could include that in the track, Martin devised a plan to have McCartney pluck a note that would cause Lennon’s guitar to feed back. Then, they would splice that drone onto the beginning of the tape, which is what we hear on the record today.

Two years later, the band was working on Revolver when a tape op accidentally loaded the tape backward. The result was a discordant, trippy sound that immediately caught the band’s attention. Once again, the band consulted Martin to see how they could purposefully manipulate the malfunction to their advantage. They came up with a new arrangement that would allow the band to produce their desired effect in reverse, which resulted in the making of “I’m Only Sleeping”.

Therein lay The Beatles’ true power, according to McCartney. “We grabbed the accident. I think, you know, anyone else, I’m not sure would have grabbed it. I think they might go, ‘Oh, silly tape-op.’ And he’d go, ‘Oops, sorry.’ But we loved that. It was so great.”

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