A day in the life - Paul or John? | Page 13 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

mja6758 said 

Jolm VV Lemon said 
Oh man this is almost certainly Paul. The reason for the confusion is we hardly ever hear Paul at this range. Check out the inflections towards the end of the first E note, that almost jazzy waver he does that’s virtually signature to his vocal style. It even sounds artificially stretched as the vocal fades and the horns cadence. Also the hard edge we hear in John’s voice is totally absent. This is Paul; trust me folks–I’m good at this.

Oh, please, don’t go there… Have you read this thread? Arguing it’s definitely Paul is not the best way to say hello! This question has had more heated debate than any other on the forum.

Lol, I’m not worried about all that, I’m just saying it sounds borderline obvious (and not to insult anyone’s analytic ear) that it’s Paul. Even in the full mix it sounds like him, but even more so in the vocals-only track. You can even hear John’s signature vocal texture in some of the BACKGROUND vocal play on that track. We expect it to sound like John (I always assumed it was!), so it will and does to most, understandably. I’d even go so far as it sounds like Paul is IMITATING John’s sound, and very well (which would fit what we know about Paul, if you think about it).

The Emerick quote… convincing, sure. But as we know, history gets edited for various reasons: pride, human error, conspiracy (hey, it happens), etc. What if Geoff Emerick had a heated, perhaps extended, argument on the very subject with someone and thus had his pride entangled? Does that sound familiar? Is that at all unlikely considering his work? For all we know (and does this sound entirely unlike Paul?) the part actually was originally John, but Paul could have gone back and re-done it himself for whatever reason–perhaps solely to baffle fans half a century on, lol. Not that it’s likely but my point is that there are always possibilities. However: The recording is a primary source; music by the Beatles directly into our ears and minds–and to my extremely analytical ear this sounds unmistakably like Paul McCartney . I would wager a hell of a lot on it. As a matter of fact, if Paul went on record today that John Lennon had sung the vocal interlude from “A Day In The Life ” I would not believe him. Sounds crazy but he’s human too, albeit a very talented one. I read an interview with him not long ago in which he commented on the fallibility of history, noting that in viewing the first few minutes of a Beatles documentary he was able to count several errors, right off the bat. The recordings, however, do not lie.

By the way I found this thread doing a Google search on the subject, haha. It’s a high hit. There’s actually a video on YouTube which claims that Paul sang the entire thing which threw me for a loop. Hence the search.