Who Play Lead Guitar in " The End " by The Beatles?
What a great lead guitar question:
Question: I’m thinking it’s either George or Paul..
Answer: All three (John, Paul, George) took turns trading off on that solo. Even though George Harrison later stated he had no idea going in that Abbey Road was going to be their last album, they were all playing like it was time to wrap things up, but they wanted to go out with a bang, and show everyone why they were THE BEATLES!
Paul George and John did. they took turns going in that order 3x each. I read it in one of my Beatles books
I would think it would have been George.
Brad is right–George, John and Paul shared lead parts in that song, but not in that exact order.
All three (John, Paul & George) did.
The End also features the sound of McCartney, Harrison and Lennon sparring on lead guitars, taking it in turns to perform two-bar sequences over the "Love you, love you" backing vocals.
The idea for guitar solos was very spontaneous and everybody said, ‘Yes! Definitely’ – well, except for George, who was a little apprehensive at first. But he saw how excited John and Paul were so he went along with it. Truthfully, I think they rather liked the idea of playing together, not really trying to outdo one another per se, but engaging in some real musical bonding.
Yoko was about to go into the studio with John – this was commonplace by now – and he actually told her, ‘No, not now. Let me just do this. It’ll just take a minute.’ That surprised me a bit. Maybe he felt like he was returning to his roots with the boys – who knows?
The order was Paul first, then George, then John, and they went back and forth. They ran down their ideas a few times and before you knew it, they were ready to go. Their amps were lined up together and we recorded their parts on one track.
You could really see the joy in their faces as they played; it was like they were teenagers again. One take was all we needed. The musical telepathy between them was mind-boggling.
Geoff Emerick
actually john,george,and paul all played solos on the end!
in fact here are the guitars that they used on the end:
john:epiphone casino(sanded down)
paul:epiphone casino(with original sunburst finish)
george:either his red gibson les paul named "lucy"or his rosewood fender telecaster that was custom made for him by fender!
Colin