Rolling Stone's entry number one hundred and seventy-three of their The 250 Greatest Guitarists of All Time article begins: "Paul McCartney is a legend for so many things – songwriter, singer, bassist, Beatle – it's easy to overlook his six-string virtuosity." The entry on the star-studded list continues on to cover McCartney's work on some of the Fab Four's most prolific guitarwork, but truly, the coverage could have ended there, couldn't it? After all, McCartney's historic relationship with the guitar is wholly defined by this dynamic above all else.
The Origin Story
At the risk of retreading the same old discussion that pervades the wide, public cultural conversation to which we just alluded, Paul McCartney's true legacy lays foremost with the bass guitar. McCartney's story with instruments will most certainly last through the lens of his Hofner. Though of course, a less prominent yet equally as enduring legend is that of his work with six strings. "Paul was the bass player because no one else wanted to be," is as much of a lasting tenet of Beatles mythology as "'Helter Skelter' was the first heavy metal song," or, you know, that one about Yoko. It's through nuggets of myth like Paul's skills on guitar that the Beatles canon becomes all the more compelling.
The Secret Sauce
Though perhaps slightly overplayed, there is truth to Paul's prolific guitar playing (and here we go again). There would be no "Taxman" or "Blackbird" were it not for Paul's unique eye on guitar. Paul's quiet, folksy fingerpicking and bold, rock guitar heroism worked in equal parts to elevate him to that sweet spot level of if-you-know-you-know of Beatles fandom. But would it be an overstatement to say that McCartney is recognized for his reputation as being one degree separated from the instrument first rather than his work with the instrument firsthand? That McCartney's true legend with the guitar lays with how much he wasn't seen with it?
Our Call
In the way that Wayne Gretzky is celebrated for not only his leading position in NHL career points but also for his simultaneous second-place position only counting his career assists, Paul McCartney is a legend of the guitar. Paul McCartney lands among the pantheon of great musicians in ways he wasn't even clocked in for. As the colossal myth of the Beatles looms ever greater on pop culture even five decades past the band's dissolution and beyond, so do the many companion mythologies held so dearly by the band's dedicated students, biographers, and prophets. Paul's guitar playing informs us quite a bit about the Beatles. At the same time, Paul's guitar playing paints a portrait of the unending scope of mythology. Music is not just what made it to the proverbial wax but what its listeners decide it is after the fact. The historic footnote of Paul McCartney's skill on guitar has taken on a life of its own, and while it's certain to forever take up finite space in conversations of what many consider history's greatest musical act, for it, we're eternally grateful.