The Case for Creative Generosity

Tucked away in Paul McCartney’s recent book The Lyrics, deep in the first volume, is a surprising and little known story about the Beatles’ relationship with the Rolling Stones. It’s summer 1963 and Paul and John are on the Charing Cross Road, ogling guitars they cannot, just yet, afford. They hear a shout from a passing taxi. Keith Richards and Mick Jagger are leaning out of the window and they offer the lads from Liverpool a lift. In the cab the four young musicians chat about how things are going. The Stones, who’ve only recently signed a record deal, thanks largely to the Beatles recommending them to Decca, have a problem – they don’t have a song to release as their second single. Without a second thought, in an act of creative generosity counter to everything we’ve been led to believe about the rivalry between the Beatles and the Stones, Paul pipes up with a solution: there’s a tune on With the Beatles which will never make it as a single, because, well, it’s Ringo on vocals – why don’t they have that? And this is how ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’ becomes the Stones second single and their first big hit.