John Paul & George's Guitar Revolution

Fifty years ago, amid the Beatles’ noxious breakup, John Lennon and Paul McCartney took six-string matters into their own hands just as George Harrison was reinventing himself as a slide guitar deity. Below, Guitar World drops in on 1970, a truly unique year in Beatles history.

- Alan Di Perna

For Beatles fans, 1970 was a particularly heavy year — one in which we watched one of our most beloved bands fall apart, and witnessed the rebirth of each Beatle as a solo artist. The chronology itself is crazy. A slew of Beatles-related albums were released in the space of that single year, starting with Ringo Starr’s solo debut, Sentimental Journey, in March. Then came Paul McCartney’s self-titled debut LP in April, along with a press release making it more or less clear that the Beatles were finished.

Ringo was quickly back in the fray with a country record, Beaucoups of Blues, released in September and drawing on the talents of some of Nashville’s greatest guitarists and other session players. More guitar grandeur came in November when George Harrison’s epic triple album, All Things Must Pass, came out; and the year closed with John Lennon’s stunning solo debut album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, a stark swansong to the Sixties that also charted a bold course forward into Lennon’s solo career. For more about these albums — and several others — check out “Man We Was Busy” on page 59.

As the Beatles faced the challenges and excitement of new solo careers, Harrison, Lennon and McCartney would each build on the groundbreaking guitar legacy they had forged together over the course of the Beatles’ career. So many of their most revolutionary rock guitar innovations were collectively wrought. “I Feel Fine” from 1964 became the first rock record to feature the creative deployment of guitar feedback, when the A string on McCartney’s legendary 1963 Hofner 500/1 violin bass triggered a transductive loop between Lennon’s Gibson J-150 E electro-acoustic guitar and his Vox amp.