What the Beatles Teach Us About Creativity

The most revealing measure of the Beatles is that the further we move away from their era, the larger their achievement appears. The Apple Music “Beatles Essentials” playlist has 50 songs, which is not enough to include “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” “Girl” or even “I Saw Her Standing There.”

And while the music is steeped in the mystery and mythology that surrounds all great art, the Beatles themselves were open and candid about their songwriting process and their recordings.

Musicians can take inspiration and guidance from how John Lennon and Paul McCartney helped improve each other’s songs, how George Harrison brought non-Western musical influences to rock and roll, and how Ringo Starr kept the music and the band together for the band with his unique and vital drumming style.

But as a writer and a video producer, I often think about the Beatles’ approach to songwriting and performing when I’m developing ideas, when I’m writing a story, and, especially, when I’m collaborating with team members and clients. Here’s what I’ve learned from John, Paul, George and Ringo:

1. Ideas are everywhere, so keep your ears open

Paul used to commute from London to John’s suburban home in Weybridge for songwriting sessions. He got a good idea from his driver one day. Here’s how he told the story in The Beatles Anthology 1:

I usually drove myself there, but the chauffeur drove me out that day and I said, ‘How’ve you been?’ — ‘Oh, working hard,’ he said, ‘working eight days a week.’ I had never heard anyone use that expression, so when I arrived at John’s house I said, ‘Hey, this fella just said, “eight days a week”.’ John said, ‘Right — “Ooh I need your love, babe…” and we wrote it. We were always quick to write. We would write on the spot. I would show up, looking for some sort of inspiration; I’d either get it there, with John, or I’d hear someone say something.*

*There’s another version of the story where Paul says he first heard the phrase from Ringo.

2. You don’t need a title to get started

“Yesterday” was named the best song of the 20th century in a BBC poll and it holds the Guinness record for most-covered song, with more than 2,200 versions. But the lyric came last. For the many months that Paul tinkered with the song, he used the placeholder lyrics, “Scrambled eggs/Oh my baby how I love your legs/Not as much as I love scrambled eggs.”

3. Find a mentor

Producer George Martin had the ideal background to mentor the Beatles: he was a classically trained musician, and he produced comedy records. He also shared a working class background with the band. From the beginning, Martin encouraged John and Paul to write their own songs, unusual for bands at the time. He also resisted the label’s request to choose a single lead singer. Essentially, he recognized the Beatles’ talent, believed in them, and created a space for them to grow as songwriters and musicians. Mentors matter.

4. Go to Frankfurt

Not literally. But to learn your craft, you need to go somewhere where you can work at it all the time and get paid, even if you barely make enough to survive and have to move far from home.

In Frankfurt, Germany, between 1960 and 1962, the Beatles played 281 marathon gigs on the Reeperbahn, Europe’s liveliest red light district. They arrived from Liverpool young (George was only 17) and dead broke (they slept in a windowless room and shared their bathroom with the adult movie theater next store). There, playing four-and-a-half hours a night on weekdays and six hours on weekends for sailors on leave as their boss yelled “Mach shau” (“make a show”), the Beatles became working musicians,and learned the thousands of little tricks and shortcuts and strategies you need to make a living at anything. They also got cool haircuts and a sense of style.

“I might have been born in Liverpool, but I grew up in Hamburg,” John later said.

5. Make it special

The originality and freshness of the Beatles’ work is striking. The melodies and harmonies, the arragements, the recording techniques. They treat each song as an opportunity to create something new. Even the covers they churned out early in their career to keep the lights on have remarkable energy. They played the hell out everything they recorded.

“No matter what kind of pressure they were under as live performers, they always came up with a fresh idea; they were never content to use a cliché, but always gave me something slightly different,” George Martin said. “Each song was a jewel on its own, and I used to bless them for that.”*

*From “John Lennon: The Life” by Philip Norman

6. Nothing inspires like competition

Competition can bring out the best in you. It did for The Beatles. In 1965, for the first time, the group had legitimate rivals. Bob Dylan released some of his best work (“Highway 61 Revisited” and “Bringing It All Back Home”), the Rolling Stones made “Satisfaction,” Smokey Robinson and the Miracles had “The Tracks of My Tears,” and Otis Redding, the Temptations, the Kinks, the Byrds, the Beach Boys and many others were doing era-defining work.

The Beatles responded with “Rubber Soul” (December 1965) and “Revolver” (August 1966), their midcareer peak with songs like “Norwegian Wood,” “Eleanor Rigby,” “In My Life,” “Here, There and Everywhere” and “Tomorrow Never Knows.”

7. The work should determine the length

“Hey Jude” is seven minutes and 11 second long.

The record company and even the song’s composer Paul McCartney were concerned that “Hey Jude” was too long for radio stations to play. “They will if it’s us,” John responded. He was right. The song turned out to be the band’s biggest hit.

8. Use your scraps

When the Beatles started work on “Abbey Road,” they were short on songs, showing up with about half a record. So George Martin encouraged John and Paul to bring in the dozens of fragments and unfinished songs he knew they both had in notebooks and desk drawers. The medley they created from these scraps — . “You Never Give Me Your Money,” “Sun King,” “Mean Mr. Mustard,” “Polythene Pam,” “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window,” “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry That Weight,” and “The End” — become the heart of one of the best and most distinctive Beatles albums. The lesson: Don’t throw away anything.*

*This article began as notes that I assembled for a talk that never happened.

9. Don’t forget that it’s supposed to be fun

Joy and generosity of spirit is everywhere around the Beatles, on the recordings, the live performances, the movies and even the banter at press conferences. The Beatles loved what they did and they invited everyone to join the fun. That didn’t mean the songs couldn’t be bitter, mordant, or even gloomy. John was one of the world’s most successful cynics; his note to Paul after hearing a demo of “Yellow Submarine” is priceless: “Disgusting!! See me.” Much of the Beatles’ best work springs from dark places, but they never lose their sense of humor or their sense of wonder.

10. Friendship is the soul of collaboration

Friendship — with all its shadings of kinship and love and competition — is the engine at the heart of any successful creative partnership. “Part of the secret collaboration was that we liked each other,” Paul says.” We liked singing at each other. He’d sing something and I’d say ‘Yeah,’ and trade off on that. He’d say, ‘Nowhere land,’ and I’d say, ‘For nobody.’ It was a two-way thing.”*

That’s the atmosphere that creativity needs to flourish. And the friendships forged there endure, as the Beatles’ friendships with each other would outlast the breakup of the band, the personal feuds and the lawsuits. You can go it alone — as the Beatles would after 1969 with significant and underrated accomplishments — but you can go farther and have more fun together.

*From “Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now” by Barry Miles