It is all about the space.

C (I) – em (III) – am (VI) [Can’t Buy Me Love]
G (I) – B (III#) – em (VI) [You Can’t Do That]
G (I) – bm (III) – C (IV) [I Feel Fine]
A (I) – c#m (III) – F# (VI#) [She’s A Woman]

After a string of singles that pretty much steer clear of blues changes and scales (Please Please Me, From Me to You, She Loves You, I Want to Hold Your Hand), it seems like they were getting back to their Cavern/Hamburg era rock-and-blues thing, but counterbalancing the bluesy parts with their own kind of chord changes for contrast.

In addition (to address the riff playing mentioned elsewhere) , John plays the intro, then George takes over when John begins to sing (himself switching to rhythm). They do the same after the “solo” in the middle.

For the record, I Feel Fine is pretty simple to play. And Ringo’s far too good a drummer not to have been able to knock it off.

A great debate here, part of which unfortunately cannot be resolved with the limited information we have.

The Beatles have this huge catalog of songs, and like any group with such a breadth of songs, other musicians occasionally sat in. Some partnerships were made obvious such as the participation of Billy Preston. Others apparently are state secrets which is stupid.

I saw Bernard Purdie lecture live and he mentioned there were several drummers on Beatles records. Now for some reason, the suggestion that Ringo did not play on X record developed into an attitude of “That is a horrible thing, clearly Ringo was incompetent if he did not play on X record” or some such hangups. You can tell me exactly what the hangup is because I never understood it, all I know is that it is there. So Bernard played a tune or two, Paul played a tune or two, maybe someone else did. SO WHAT?

Tthere is nothing left but to leave this plea: HEY PAUL AND RINGO, DARNIT WOULD YOU JUST PUBLISH WHO PLAYED ON DRUMS? There is no shame here for Ringo. Just surviving through John and Paul and the Beatles makes this laid back drummer a superman of a human being.

I liken this situation to that created by Jimmy Page. Have you ever heard him say, “Yea I copied Taurus into my own song”? One of the richest, most renowned guitarists, yet his ego is colossal and the words cannot come out of his mouth that, heck, he was actually influenced by another musician? The only contention is that he refuses to admit it. He can make the whole darn “Stairway” contention go away with a handful of words, but he will not do it.

Henley and Frey as well. They studied the Flying Burrito Brothers intensely, and completely copied their style, but created more pop hits that would make money. Do I ever hear these guys talking about their influences? No its always, “Me me me me me.”

Here is an example of what TO DO: The Beach Boys. While songs were flowing out of Brian faster than humanly possible, the group was on the road touring. They did not have the time nor the energy to be on the recordings as well, so the “Clique” recorded many of them. This is public knowledge. Does anyone revile the Beach Boys for this? No and you hear Al Jardine readily talk about it. Now they are not great musicians, and they clearly did not practice enough. BTW I am a great fan so take the criticism as being loving and respectful of what they did do, okay?

To the guy above who swears “I Feel Fine” is Bernard Purdie, yes, total dittos here. You can hear Purdie’s style a mile a way, its ridiculous on how individualistic he is. Listen to “The House That Jack Built” by Aretha, and it screams Purdie, even though there are no actual credits available.

To non-musicians: Just about any drummer can quickly learn any part that is laid out for them. It is far easier than learning a piano part or guitar part. Most likely it would be no big deal for Ringo to learn a part once someone else composed it. So this is not an issue of “Did Ringo have the ability to play this?.” Ringo is fairly limited in his style but Purdie studied a world of styles, was fluent in all of them, and could immediately apply them. Purdie would immediately hear a unique rhythm in a song and be able to lay it down as such. He is the kind of guy to fulfill a vision of John and Paul that rock drummers simply could not create. The compositions of the mid to late 60’s were far out of their realm. While criticized for not having “proof” Purdie’s claims in general make perfect sense given the skills and the people involved.

The Beatles themselves created this pseudo-disrespect for Ringo that would not otherwise exist. CLEAR IT UP PAUL AND RINGO. It is about time.