(Credits: Far Out / Alamy / Hufvudstadsbladet)
Sat 14 June 2025 18:00, UK
It is impossible to denounce the credentials of Quincy Jones. Throughout his life, the legendary songwriter and producer played a part in everything from jazz to funk and Michael Jackson to Aretha Franklin. He had his fingers in so many pies it must have been difficult to keep track, and he seemed to embrace artists of all styles and sensibilities through his work. This made it all the more strange when, in 2018, he ripped into one of the most universally beloved bands of all time, The Beatles.
Although Jones never got the chance to work alongside The Beatles during their initial journey towards global domination, their two worlds certainly intersected at points. After all, the Fab Four took a significant level of influence from the American R&B and soul sounds that Jones played a colossal role in popularising. Nevertheless, Jones remained a jazz aficionado at heart, and the disparate worlds of jazz and rock rarely see eye to eye. With jazz elitists often viewing rock as a lesser art form, and rock obsessives seeing jazz as self-aggrandising.
It is this vast difference in sensibility which seems to have driven the divide between Jones and The Beatles. Bizarrely, though, it took until 2018 for Jones to publicly espouse his disapproval of the iconic outfit. During an interview with The New Yorker that year, the producer said he thought The Beatles were “the worst musicians in the world,” when he first encountered them back in the 1960s.
“They were no-playing motherfuckers,” he explained. “Paul was the worst bass player I ever heard. And Ringo? Don’t even talk about it.” Jones arranged a track for Starr’s first solo album, Sentimental Journey, in 1970, but he didn’t seem to have positive memories about the experience. “I remember once we were in the studio with George Martin, and Ringo had taken three hours for a four-bar thing he was trying to fix on a song,” he remembered. “He couldn’t get it.”
Although Jones did go on to claim that Starr was still a “great guy”, his scathing comments about The Beatles were pretty uncalled for, particularly as far as Paul McCartney was concerned. McCartney, like virtually every musician of that era, has always maintained a deep-rooted appreciation for Jones, and so his comments in that 2018 interview cut deep. Nevertheless, Macca handled them with his usual brand of honesty and humour.
A few months after Jones gave those harsh comments about the ‘Mop Tops’, McCartney was asked about the incident in an interview with GQ. Prefacing his comments, the former Beatle affirmed, “I love this guy,” before declaring, “He’s totally out of his tree.” As the songwriter went on to explain, Jones phoned him shortly after The New Yorker published the article, apologising for his comments. “I’d only heard about it, and I’d thought, I’m not sure if it’s true,” McCartney remembered. “The joke is, I love Quincy, even after this.”
According to the bassist, Jones claimed, “‘Paul, I didn’t really say that thing. I don’t know what happened, man, I never said that. You know I love you guys.’” This seemed to clear the air between the two well enough, and Macca laughingly retorted, “I said, ‘If you had said that, you know what I would have said? Fuck you, Quincy Jones!’ And he laughed. I said, ‘You know I would say to that: Fuck you, Quincy Jones, you fucking crazy motherfucker!’ So, actually, we just had a laugh.”
Jones and McCartney didn’t seem to have much of a spat over the comments, but the ‘Let It Be’ songwriter did reflect on why Jones might have denounced the rock-centric sounds of The Beatles. “I don’t think I’m the worst bass player he’s ever heard,” he argued. “Or maybe he’s never heard bad bass players. He’s talking all of this jazz and musicianship, and he’s an arranger and stuff.”
Seemingly, it all comes down to that battle between jazz and rock. “This is like Buddy Rich saying Ringo couldn’t drum,” McCartney shared. “Because, coming from Buddy Rich’s sensibility, Ringo can’t drum. But coming from our sensibility, Buddy Rich is a load of shit.”
Thankfully, McCartney’s understanding of Jones’ jazz viewpoint prevented the pair from properly falling out with each other. When Jones sadly passed away in 2024, at the age of 91, Macca paid heartfelt tribute, calling the iconic producer “supremely talented” and sharing, “I felt privileged to have known him for many years”.
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