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A Magical HISTORY Tour

A Magical HISTORY Tour

5th Edition

ARMANDO TRANQUILINO

Florida International University

All rights reserved. No part of this book may

be reproduced in any form or by any electronic

or mechanical means, including information

storage and retrieval systems, without permission

in writing from the publisher, except where

permitted by law.

Copyright © 2014, 2010 by Armando Tranquilino

Cover design by Olga Santiago

Cover Photographs: Beatles at JFK airport February 7, 1964/ Public Domain

Published by

Four Notes Publishing, Inc.

New York, NY 10004

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

He who sings scares away his woes.

- Cervantes

CONTENTS

Introduction 1

Prologue 3

Chapter 1: This Style We Call Rock & Roll 6

Chapter 2: Rock & Roll Pioneers 21

Chapter 3: John, Paul, George, and Ringo 41

Chapter 4: Please Please Me, With The Beatles 55

Chapter 5: A Hard Day’s Night, Beatles For Sale 73

Chapter 6: Help!, Rubber Soul 91

Chapter 7 Revolver 114

Chapter 8: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 131

Chapter 9: Magical Mystery Tour 151

Chapter 10: The Beatles “White Album,” Yellow Submarine 165

Chapter 11: Let It Be 199

Chapter 12: Abbey Road 210

Post-Beatle Years 237

Appendix List of Complete Albums and Songs 240

Bibliography “With A Little Help From My Friends” 245

1 The Beatles: A Magical History Tour

Introduction

The Beatles are arguably the most influential musical group in the history of popular music. They outgrew the boundaries of rock & roll by incorporating a great variety of musical styles, harmonies, song forms, and “new” tone colors, with practically each one of their records breaking new ground. From their pioneering music, studio techniques, videos, to their album covers, they were at the forefront of innovations that permanently changed the music industry, setting new standards of both commercial and artistic success in popular music to such a phenomenal degree that most pop/rock music trends and experiments, from the mid-sixties to the present, have some precedent on a Beatles album. They were also one of the first rock groups to write most of their own music, initiating the era of self-contained bands. From their early songs to their revolutionary studio masterpieces, the magic they cast touched listeners and musicians from essentially every genre of music, and as a result we can find covers of Beatles' songs in practically every musical style; a feat which is perhaps the greatest testament to their distinction, genuineness, and esteemed place in the history of popular music.

Style, Creativity, Originality, and the Past “It’s not where you take things from,

It’s where you take them to.” - Jean-Luc Godard

Although there are periods in the history of music dominated by a particular style, in fact stylistic development never ceases to be in flux, as musicians continually search and explore new means of expression. This stylistic evolution is often so gradual that it becomes practically impossible to chronologically determine at what point the “new” kind of music truly began. Thus, history is more accurately represented as a continuum of overlapping waves rather than as clear-cut divisions of time periods. And what constitutes a “new” style? What criteria do we use to describe something as “original?” Are purely original ideas or creations possible? Some will argue that there is no such thing as an original style, song, work of art, scientific idea, mathematical formula, etc., while others simply define originality as something that did not exist before, regardless of how many associations it shares with the past. Many highly innovative artists, whose legacy lasted the test of time, shared one characteristic: they were passionate students of the past who created their own original forms of expression after absorbing history (after all, one cannot learn from the future!).

To what extent the past serves as a springboard for future conceptions varies from artist to artist, but it’s worth noting that some of the greatest creative minds of all time, known for their blazing originality, such as Da Vinci, Cervantes, Einstein, Picasso, and Stravinsky, were self-proclaimed “thieves” who liberally borrowed and used ideas from others, and transformed them into their own new visions. The Beatles were no exception; in fact, they were master “thieves” and consummate originals. Compared to other rock

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bands of the early sixties, they “robbed” from multiple (and distinctly different) sources more than any other group. This characteristic was by no means due to lack of direction or creative laziness; on the contrary, it was a testament to their hunger for musical cultivation, multifaceted performance talent, and powerful imagination as songwriters. In truth, the degree to which an artist steals or uses the past as a model for their original works is ultimately insignificant since it is all part of the assimilation and immersion period which constitutes the input of the creative process. What matters is the output; what the artist produces. Another trait the Beatles shared with revolutionary artists like Picasso and Stravinsky was a pattern of continuous self-reinvention, as if exploration and discovery were the motivating factors behind their creative drive. They never rested their laurels on yesterday’s success, and when asked what their favorite project, album or song was, they would say, ‘the one we are working on right now.’

All artist’s roots and influences are most evident during the early years of his/her career before the individual voice has fully matured. In the early music of the Beatles, one hears a melting pot of styles and techniques: the Everly Brothers interlocked two-part harmonies, Little Richard's screams and wails, Chuck Berry's guitar licks, the late1950s- early1960s 'girl groups' vocal harmonies and call-and-response style, Buddy Holly's and Roy Orbison's song writing and singing approach, and Elvis' vocal nuances, to name a few. This propensity for wide-ranging eclecticism did not fade away after their early records; it essentially became a prominent stylistic trait, an attribute that set them apart from their contemporaries. Their middle period welcomes the influence of Bob Dylan, country and folk music, classical music instrumentation and arrangements, Indian Music, and the recording studio sound manipulations of their psychedelic period. The albums of their final period include full orchestral accompaniments, music concrete, and symphonic musical forms and medleys. Nonetheless, despite their stylistically broad palette, and even from their first recordings, we witness the imprint of personality; they always sounded like the Beatles.

Renowned American composer Aaron Copland said: “If you want to know about the Sixties, play the music of the Beatles.” Indeed, the Beatles and their music often played a catalytic role in the social and cultural transformations of that decade, at the forefront of which were issues of Racism and Civil Rights, Counterculture, Women’s Rights and Feminism, Sexual Liberation, Drugs, Family Structure, Fashion, and War and Peace, to name a few. This book traces their development, from their beginnings to their last recorded album, and offers a historical and critical analysis of their monumental contribution, not only in music but in Western culture as well. The first two chapters offer a general summary of the popular music and musicians that preceded the Beatles, namely the Blues, Country-Western, Rockabilly and the birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll in the 1950s. Beginning with chapter three, the paramount role of the Beatles in the revolutionary decade of the 1960s is thoroughly explored. While it is beyond the scope of this book to discuss every Beatles’ song thoroughly, specific songs have been selected and discussed in detail. The appendix includes a complete list of their albums and songs, including the Past Masters albums.

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Prologue

The ‘best’ decision…

At 10:00PM on Saturday, August 18, 1962, a live audience witnessed the Beatles perform, officially for the first time, as John, Paul, George, and Ringo. The event took place at Hulme Hall in Port Sunlight, a village on England’s Wirral Peninsula. Port Sunlight lies along the west bank of the River Mersey, across from Liverpool, a mere three miles away. The occasion was the Horticultural Society’s 17th annual show, an all- afternoon event that closed with an evening dance, of which the Beatles were the headliners, with the Fours Jays as the supporting act.

Brian Epstein, manager of both the Beatles and the Four Jays, had secured the gig: The Beatles would play between 60-80 minutes for £30 (approximately $50 by 1962 rates, and roughly equivalent to $400 by 2014 standards). Even though the Beatles had amassed a substantial amount of popularity by this time, the majority of the audience was unaware that just three days prior, on August 16th, the Beatles had fired their drummer of the last two years, Pete Best, and that this night was Ringo’s debut as his replacement and permanent member of the band. And surely no one could have imagined that this lineup, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, would become worldwide household names and the most influential popular rock music band of the twentieth century.

So, why was Pete Best, after playing with them for two years, sacked and replaced by Ringo? After all, along with Pete as their drummer, the band had attained a significant following and even secured an audition for a recording contract with EMI (Electric and Musical Industries), one of England’s major music companies. For years, the reason remained unclear as the Beatles and their personnel would either evade the question or offer vague responses. No explanations were publicly given, leaving a void that was soon filled with semi-truths, rumors and conspiracy theories, some of which included: “The other three Beatles, and specially Paul, was jealous of Pete’s good looks and the adulation he got from the audience,” “Pete refused to comb his hair forward into a Beatle fringe like the others,” “Brian Epstein didn’t like Pete,” “Pete was brooding and never

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smiled on stage, didn’t fit in with the others.” Pete Best himself added to the speculations by frequently stating, “They said my drumming wasn’t good enough, but the real reason is a mystery.”

Perhaps there was more than one factor for Pete Best’s dismissal from the band, but the predominant reason was his ability as a drummer. There is no denying that Pete had been a good enough drummer for the previous two years, as the band solidified their live performances in nightclubs and bars. But, as the band advanced, audiences grew, and recording contract auditions increased, so did their standards as musicians. For a while, the other three Beatles had felt that Pete’s drumming was somewhat lagging behind their playing, a fact that became more evident when another drummer filled in for him whenever he called in sick or could not make the gig, and especially when this other drummer was Ringo; by the time Pete Best was fired, Ringo had sat in for him a few times. Ringo met the Beatles in Hamburg in 1960, (almost two years before the August 18th performance at Hulme Hall) when Ringo’s current band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, played alternating sets with the Beatles at The Kaiserkeller club. Not only did John, Paul and George take an immediate liking to Ringo as a person, they also felt the band sounded tighter with him, and according to George Harrison, when Ringo sat in with them, it felt complete.

As time went on, John, Paul and George became more and more dissatisfied with Pete as drummer and team member, but kept him in, hoping things would improve. The convincing push to fire him happened soon after their first recording session with EMI on June 6, 1962. A few days prior, George Martin, EMI recording engineer and producer, had signed the Beatles to a one-year recording contract, with a three-year extension option, which would start the day of their first recording session. That evening they recorded four songs, “Besame Mucho,” “Love Me Do,” “PS I Love You” and “Ask Me Why,” from which two would be chosen for their first single release. After the session, George Martin told John, Paul, and George that he didn’t think Pete was a good enough drummer and told Brian Epstein that if the Beatles decided to keep Pete for live performances it was up to them, but as far as recordings were concerned, he would have to hire a session drummer. While Martin’s opinion proved to be the confirmation the Beatles needed about Pete’s replacement, they still didn’t mention a word to Pete, and kept him on board for the next couple of months, fulfilling gigs while Brian worked out the details of how not to violate the managerial contract, he had signed with all four Beatles, which secured them paid employment under his management.

By early August, Brian had the solution: he would offer Pete another position in a separate band, also managed by him. If Pete declined the offer, he would be in violation of the contract instead of Brian. John, Paul and George asked Brian to give Pete the bad news, and after their performance at The Cavern club on August 15, (what would be his last as a Beatle) Pete was told that Brian wanted to see him in his office the following morning. And so, it was on that Thursday morning, August 16, that Brian, embarrassed and nervous, delivered the news: “The boys and myself have decided that we don’t want you in the group any more, and Ringo is replacing you.” Pete was floored, and when he asked for a reason Brian explained that both, the boys, and George Martin, didn’t think he

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was a good enough drummer. Terribly shocked and upset, Pete declined Brian’s offer to join another group. He was especially hurt that John, Paul, and George never warned him or faced him about the entire situation. In retrospect, it makes sense why Pete’s shortcoming as a drummer was not initially disclosed by the Beatles or their personnel as the reason for his dismissal; it undoubtedly could have damaged his future career, of which Brian had an interest in, and they also had no need or desire to offend him publicly.

With all said and done, history has shown that the decision to bring Ringo in was indeed the ‘best’ one for the group, as he proved to be the final piece of the puzzle that led to the phenomenon known as The Beatles. George Harrison reminisced the pivotal choice in one of the verses of his post-Beatles song from 1973, “Living in the Material World,” making a clever use of a pun on the word “Richie,” which both indicates the arrival of Ringo (born Richard Starkey), and the financial rewards the band experienced from that point onward.

Met them all here in the material world John and Paul here in the material world

Though we started out quite poor We got Richie on a tour

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This style we call Rock & Roll

They [the Beatles] were doing things nobody was doing. I knew they were pointing the direction of where music had to go.

-Bob Dylan

Before the Beatles…

Rock & roll is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as: “A form of popular music arising from and incorporating a variety of musical styles, especially the blues, country music / rockabilly, and gospel. Originating in the United States in the 1950’s, it is characterized by electronically amplified instrumentation, a heavy accented beat, and a relatively simple phrase structure”. The term “popular music” in this case signifies music that is mass-produced and distributed via the mass media. Some dictionaries define rock and roll as synonymous with rock music; however, and more commonly, the term rock and roll is exclusively used to define the music of the 1950s and early 1960’s (Bill Haley, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, etc.). Starting in the early-to-mid 1960s Rock & Roll evolved into the various sub-genres of what is now simply called rock music. While aspects of what we now know as rock & roll can be found in blues and country music recordings of the 1920s and 1930s, the name “rock & roll,” as referring to a musical style, was coined in the early 1950s. In addition, the song which many credit as the first actual rock and roll record, (keep in mind that there is no absolute consensus on this), was recorded on March 5, 1951, in Memphis, Tennessee by Jackie Brenston and the Ike Turner band.

Titled “Rocket 88,” it is an up-tempo song featuring an aggressive saxophone solo coupled with a boogie-woogie pattern and a distorted, over-amplified electric guitar. These characteristics along with the song’s lyrics, which commemorate the automobile, have led many people to claim "Rocket 88” as the first true rock and roll song. Perhaps, anticipating the revolutionary and intuitive spirit the rock and roll, the distorted guitar sound was not premeditated, but the result of an accident. There are two differing stories regarding the guitar sound. One account states that the amplifier fell off the top of Turner’s car on the way to the recording studio in Memphis and to get some sound out of the speaker to get on with the recording session, producer Sam Phillips stuffed paper in

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the burst speaker cone, giving the sound a fuzz-like effect. However, in an interview given by Ike Turner years later he said that the amplifier was in his trunk and that rain may have caused the damage. "Rocket 88” became a number one hit on the R&B charts, generating enough profits to allow Sam Phillips to start his Sun Records studio and record label in 1952 which, a couple of years later, would launch Elvis Presley to fame.

INSTRUMENTATION

Rock & Roll bands from the 1950s typically consisted of between 4-6 players incorporating instruments from the list below.

- Saxophone (alto or tenor) - Electric Guitars (lead and rhythm) - Bass (acoustic or electric) - Piano (acoustic) - Drums

The specific instrumentation varied between bands. For example, Little Richard incorporated multiple saxophones, while Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis did not include any, and Bill Haley and the Comets added a steel guitar and a fiddle (from their Country & Western roots) to their lineup.

The Guitar takes the lead

The saxophone and/or the piano were typically the lead instrument in early rock & roll bands, but during the mid to late 1950s the guitar took over. While the presence of a piano/keyboard player remained in some rock bands of the 1960s, the saxophone practically disappeared from the scene.

Origins of the term “Rock & Roll”

The expression “to rock” is often used as a figure of speech meaning “to shake, to shock, or to stimulate,” and Black gospel singers in the American South often used the expression “rocking” to signify something equivalent to spiritual ecstasy. The word “roll” has been used as slang for sexual intercourse, as in “A roll in the hay.”

There are many references to “rockin” and “rollin” in the rhythm & blues songs and “race records” (the name used for records made by and for African Americans during the 1920s and 1930s, primarily consisting of blues, gospel music, and jazz). Subsequently, the term was used as a double entendre, presumably referring to dancing but with the veiled meaning of sex. Two popular examples from the late 1940s and early 1950s are the rhythm and blues songs “Good Rockin’ Tonight” by Roy Brown (a song which was

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subsequently covered by various artists, including Elvis Presley) and the big hit by the Dominoes, “Sixty Minute Man.”

Excerpt from “Good Rockin’ Tonight”

I’m gonna hold my baby as tight as I can. Tonight she’ll know I’m a mighty, mighty man. I heard the news, there’s good rockin’ tonight. I say, well, meet me in a hurry behind the barn, Don’t be afraid darling, I’ll do you no harm. Excerpt from “Sixty Minute Man”

If your man ain’t treating your right, come up and see ol’ Dan, I rock ‘em, roll ‘em all night long, I’m a sixty-minute man.

Alan Freed, a disc jockey from Cleveland, Ohio, who was undoubtedly familiar with the songs mentioned above, is credited with coining the phrase "rock and roll" as describing a style of music. In 1951, Freed witnessed a growing number of white teenagers purchasing rhythm & blues records, and soon after was prompted to create a radio show called “Alan Freed’s Moon Dog Rock and Roll House Party,” from where he began broadcasting this type of music, which he started calling “rock and roll,” largely as a way to conceal the rhythm & blues-Black American association from the prejudices of mainstream America during the 1950s. He also endorsed concerts, which he called “rock and roll revues,” that featured black artists playing to a racially mixed teenage audience. In 1954, Freed moved to New York City and began hosting the “Rock and Roll Party” show, which soon became the top popular music show in New York.

He hosted the show for four years but in the early 1960s Freed was indicted for accepting payola; the illegal practice of paying radio disc jockeys to get the certain songs played more often. He paid a fine and was released but was subsequently blacklisted by

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the music business and died a few years later at the age of 43. There are some who believe that the ruling white establishment, threatened by the rising popularity of rock and roll and by those who promoted it, had an invisible hand in the blacklisting of Freed, especially in light of the fact that other promoters and music business personnel who had also accepted payola, like Dick Clark, (who dealt with mostly white rock & rollers) had been allowed to pay their way out of it and break out fairly undamaged.

Precursors of Rock & Roll

Early rock and roll combined elements of pre-existing black and white American genres. These included the blues, gospel, jazz, folk, and country music. The mixture of the African American styles of the blues and gospel with the white styles of folk and country music became the foundation for rock & roll. One of the first distinct genres to fuse these black and white forms was the southern mid-fifties style known as Rockabilly, which is considered by many to be one of the earliest forms of rock and roll.

The propelling force and main ingredient of rock & roll (“the heart of rock & roll”) is the rhythm, which in this case it is basically a boogie-woogie blues rhythm with an accentuated backbeat which is almost always played on the snare drum. Rock & roll and boogie-woogie both have 4 beats to the bar and follow the 12-bar blues structure. One distinguishing difference that sets them apart is rock & roll's emphasis on the backbeat. In fact, early rock & roll music was sometimes referred to as backbeat music.

The Blues “The Blues is life, as we lived it then and as we live it today.”

-B.B. King

Robert Johnson

Blues is a style of music that originated in the United States communities of former African American slaves during the late 19th century. Blues music adopted and combined elements from African American secular songs, spirituals, praise songs, field hollers of the slaves, shouts, and chants. The improvisational nature, syncopated rhythms, earthy vocal delivery, blue notes (defined below) and the work-chant "call and response" (the technique in which a lead singer and a chorus alternate phrases),

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all derive from African musical traditions. Two common characteristics of African music are “repetition” and “polyrhythms.” Repetition of short melodic or rhythmic motives is one of the most recognizable ingredients in African music (In Western music short repeating patterns are sometimes called riffs). These motives are frequently combined with other repeating patterns to form complex polyrhythms (more than one rhythmic pattern going on at the same time).

The phrase the blues is a reference to having a fit of the blue devils, meaning 'down' spirits, depression, and sadness. In early blues the singer would voice his personal anguish in a free narrative style where the lyrics were typically about struggle and hardship, often relating the troubles of Black American society. But although blues music is typically associated with misery and oppression, it could also be humorous and “dirty.” In the oldest blues records one finds titles like “Get Off With Me”, “Keep Your Hands Off My Mojo,” and “My Daddy Rocks Me”, with gritty, realistic lyrics which were explicit rather than insinuated and at times overtly sexual, an aspect greatly contrasting with much of the popular music of the time. For example, "Down in the Alley" by Memphis Minnie, is about a prostitute having sex with men in an alley. This branch of joyful and “dirty” blues, while obviously not examples of the tragedy of black exploitation in America, perhaps represented a counterforce of happiness and pleasure, like that found in sex, an area of black life beyond the control of the ruling white class.

W.C. Handy (1873-1958) was the first musician to popularize the blues and became known as the “Father of the Blues.” There are various sub-genres of the Blues, from the Country blues (the earliest type, consisting of one man singing and playing guitar), to the Delta, Chicago, Jump, and Piedmont blues. One of the most outstanding Delta blues singer/guitarists of the 1930s was Mississippi native Robert Johnson (1911- 1938) whose expressive singing has been described by Eric Clapton as “the most powerful cry that I think you can find in the human voice.” And his polyrhythmic guitar playing was often superbly intricate, creating the impression that there were two guitarists playing instead of one. Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards once commented, “Robert Johnson was an orchestra all by himself.” Numerous artists, including The Rolling Stones, Cream, and Fleetwood Mac, have also recorded Johnson’s songs.

In Chicago during the 1940s, blues musicians started amplifying their instruments. This transition from acoustic to electric blues, which spread the music to a broader audience, became quite popular and led directly to the establishment of the blues-rock of the 1960s and 70s, led by both American and British musicians, such as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin.

Musical Elements of the Blues Style

The most common blues form follows the twelve-bar blues chord progression. The melodies commonly use a major scale in which the 3rd, 5th, 7th and sometimes the 6th note of the scale are treated quite freely; the notes are sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than the actual scale note and then slide up to the regular pitch level of the scale. These bent or altered tones are called blue notes. The singer applies a very casual style which

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sometimes falls somewhere between singing and speaking and includes shouting, falsetto, moaning and howling.

Starting in the early twentieth century, the AAB verse pattern became the standard for the lyrics; the first line (A) is repeated and was followed by a longer third line (B) that concludes the verse.

Don’t Throw Your Love On Me So Strong by T-Bone Walker (verse 1)

(A) Hey Baby, don’t throw your love on me so strong (A) Hey Baby, don’t throw your love on me so strong (B) Your love is like a faucet; you can turn it off or on

Blues singers usually accompanied themselves on the steel-string acoustic guitar and sometimes used a bottleneck to slide over the strings, producing a wailing sound; this effect became a “trademark” of the blues style. Another guitar player, someone playing the “harp” (harmonica), or someone playing the “bones” (percussion sticks) would sometimes accompany the singer.

Famous blues artists include John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Leadbelly, Robert Johnson, Sam “Lightning” Hopkins, T-Bone Walker, and Big Joe Turner.

Suggested Listening -THE BLUES

“House of the Rising Sun” by Leadbelly

“Cross Road Blues” by Robert Johnson

“Don’t Throw Your Love On Me So Strong” by T-Bone Walker

“Hoochie Coochie Man” by Muddy Waters

“It Serves Me Right to Suffer” by John Lee Hooker

“Shake, Rattle & Roll” by Big Joe Turner

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SOME DEFINITIONS AND A BIT OF MUSIC THEORY

Tonality and Harmony

The great majority of musical compositions throughout the world have one tone, or pitch, that appears to be the most important. This tone, knows as the tonic, is the tonal center (principal note of a key) to which all the other tones are related. The tonic, also known as the key center, is the first note (or degree) of a diatonic scale, the most frequently used note in a piece of music, and more importantly, it is often applied at formative structural points of the composition (i.e. at the beginning and end of melodic phrases, sections, movements, and/or the complete piece). In relation to the other tones of the scale, the tonic produces a sense of repose or completion like that of a comma or a period in language. Providing a sense of stability and/or resolution, the tonic serves as the anchor through which the other tones attain their relative function. Tonality can thus be identified as the arrangement the tones (both melodically and harmonically) in a hierarchical relation to the tonic. The phrase in the key of F major signifies a tonal piece with the note F as its tonal center and incorporating a major scale whose first note, or tonic, is F. Thus, the term “key” is synonymous with tonality.

The effect of tonality is to a significant extent the result of the nature of sound, specifically, the acoustic phenomenon known as the overtone (or harmonic) series. Every sound that we hear is the result of a physical vibration (of a string, reed, cymbal, vocal cord, car engine, etc.) that disturbs the air, producing sound waves, which can be heard (if they are within the range of human hearing) and felt (the low frequencies). Most natural (acoustic) sounds are not single vibrations, but composites of simultaneous sounds called overtones, harmonics, or partials. These harmonics do not appear in a random order, but in a hierarchical division, like what we find in tonality, where one tone is the center of gravity. The predominant tone of the overtone series (the center of gravity) is called the Fundamental Tone, and it is equivalent to the tonic of musical piece.

A diatonic scale (sometimes referred to in Western music as the natural or standard scale) consists of 8 notes divided into 5 whole-steps and 2 half-steps (the 8th

note is the same as the 1st, but an octave higher). Below is a diagram of the C major scale showing the notes with their corresponding letter name (C, D, E, etc.…), functional name (Tonic, Supertonic, Mediant, etc.…), and scale degree designated by roman numerals:

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Adding three or more notes above the scale notes creates Chords. Since diatonic chords have a total of three notes each, they are considered triads. Every scale degree (shown as black notes in the example below) can serve as the root of a chord.

Tonic Subdominant Dominant

As harmony, the tonic chord (built of the first scale degree) shares the same aspects of the tonic note in terms of stability and closure, while the rest of the chords tend to gravitate towards the tonic, either directly (V to I) or indirectly through other chords (II to V to I). On the opposite end of the spectrum, the chord with the greatest amount of tension or instability is the V chord (Dominant). If a composer wanted to end a musical phrase (or the entire piece for that matter) with the effect of a “question”, the V chord would be the harmony of choice. It is important to keep in mind that any functional effect (tension, release, etc.) produced by harmony is a result of the relationship between successive chords (a chord progression) within the context of a composition; a chord played by itself (independent of a composition) does not have context and thus lacks any functional meaning.

It is beyond the scope of this book to discuss the functional characteristics of all 7 diatonic tones and chords and other aspects of tonal harmony in general. Suffice it to say that the “tension and resolution” from the interaction of tones (both as melodies and harmonies) is a key factor of the dramatic effect and momentum created by a piece of music.

TWELVE-BAR BLUES

Twelve-bar blues refers to a musical pattern that incorporates a three- chord progression and is twelve bars (measures) in length. The three chords used are the Tonic (I) the Sub-dominant (IV) and the Dominant (V) of a key (as indicated in the diagram above). Serving as the harmonic foundation of blues music and over 90% of the rock and roll music from the late 1950s to the early 1960s, the twelve-bar blues pattern is also prevalent in many other forms of popular music.

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A bar, or measure, indicated by vertical lines (bar lines) on the musical staff, is a segment of time demarcated by a specific number of beats. In the twelve-bar blues pattern each bar contains four beats. Beats are the regular pulses (like the tick-tock of a mechanical clock) of a musical composition, and what musicians and listeners tend to tap their feet to when hearing music.

However, a piece of music doesn't present these beats with equal emphasis, instead, it regularly accents certain beats, creating groupings of strong and weak beats in the stream of pulses. For example, if these recurring accents happen once every three beats (1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, etc.), groupings of three beats (typical of Waltzes, for example) are formed. The grouping of strong and weak beats is called meter or time signature. Therefore, the number of beats per measure is determined by the metric accent of the music.

The diagram below demonstrates one of the most common chord changes of the twelve-bar blues (keep in mind that the chord changes in the twelve-bar blues might slightly vary between different songs). The roman numerals represent the three chords: I=Tonic, IV=Subdominant, V=Dominant. Notice the corresponding chord changes; measures 1-4 apply the Tonic chord (I), measures 5-6 the Subdominant (IV), etc.…)

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"Rock Around the Clock,” made famous by Bill Haley and his Comets, uses the twelve-bar blues progression. The example below displays the lyrics with the corresponding chord and bar changes:

BARS: 1 2 3 4

LYRICS: Put your glad rags on and join me hon' We'll have some fun when the clock strikes one.

CHORDS: (I) ……………………………………………………………………………….

5 6 7 8

We're gonna rock around the clock tonight, We're gonna rock, rock, rock, 'till broad daylight

IV)…....................................................(I)………………………………..

9 10 11 12

We're gonna rock, gonna rock around the clock tonight.

(V)………………………………………..(I)…………………

Backbeats are beats 2 and 4 in a measure of 4 beats. For example, if you think of the children’s song “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” you will notice that it has four beats to the measure and each syllable is sung to each beat. The first syllable “Twin-” begins on beat 1, the second syllable, “-kle”, is sung on beat 2, and so on. The backbeats are the even numbered beats (indicated by an accent mark “>” below). One of the features of rock music is the prevalence of backbeats, primarily accentuated by the snare drum.

Twi -Kle Twin -Kle

1 2 3 4

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Boogie-Woogie is a style of piano-based blues that originated in the black communities of the southwest during the 1920s and became very popular in the late 1930s and early 1940s. It formed an important connection between the blues and country music, a fusion that was crucial to the development of rock and roll. Unlike the blues, which traditionally depicts sadness and sorrow, boogie-woogie is high spirited and associated with dancing. The piano style is characterized by a regular bass figure, played

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by the left hand (the bass register), which outlines each chord, while the right-hand plays trills and decorations. The pieces may consist of a solo piano composition or used to accompany singers. Boogie-woogie tunes are typically structured around the twelve-bar blues, although the style has been applied to popular songs like "Suwanee River" and hymns like "(Just a) Closer Walk with Thee."

The example below demonstrates a boogie-woogie bass line and the corresponding chords in the key of C. Notice that the chord changes follow the twelve-bar blues format. The “7” next to each roman numeral indicates that the original I-IV-V triads also include a note which is seven steps above the root note (the root note is the pitch upon which each chord is built).

Suggested Listening–BOOGIE WOOGIE

“Honky Tonk Train Blues” by Meade Lux Lewis

“Beat Me Daddy (Eight To The Bar)” by Will Bradley and his Orchestra

“Boogie Woogie Dream” by Albert Ammons & Pete Johnson

“Swanee River Boogie” by Albert Ammons

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Gospel “Blues are the songs of despair,

but gospel songs are the songs of hope.” -Mahalia Jackson

Mahalia Jackson

Another important rock & roll ancestor is the religious music called gospel. Characterized by intense emotions, complex harmonies, and a dominant vocal style, gospel music originates from Christian hymns and Negro Spirituals, expressing a belief in Christian life though praise and/or worship. When African Americans began migrating to big cities during the 1920s, they brought their uplifting spirituals with them, and it was in this new urban environment that their music developed into a more expressive style to which they applied the term gospel music.

Black gospel had roots in the "invisible church" of the late slave era and was a form that included hand clapping, call and response, rhythmic complexities, a persistent beat, melodic improvisation, and percussive accompaniments. All these stylist roots would find their way into rhythm and blues, many eventually into rock music itself. In the late 1940s Black music visionaries transformed elements of blues, gospel, and jump band jazz into the style known as rhythm and blues. This fusion later became the basis for rock's first era, classic rock and roll.

Paul Friedlander, Rock and Roll: A Social History.

Two prominent figures in the history of gospel music are songwriter and performer Thomas A. Dorsey (1899-1993) and singer Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972). Thomas A. Dorsey is credited with inventing the black gospel style of piano playing and considered by many the father of black gospel. Mahalia Jackson, whose career was largely developed by Dorsey, is considered one of the best gospel singers of all time. Sub- genres of gospel music include contemporary gospel, black gospel, Southern gospel, and modern gospel (commonly known as contemporary Christian music).

Suggested Listening-GOSPEL

“Turn Your Radio On” by Albert E. Brumley “Elijah Rock” covered by various artists.

“How I Got Over” and “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho” by Mahalia Jackson

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Country (a.k.a. Country & Western) and Folk Music

“Country music is three chords and the truth.” -Harlan Howard

Rock & Roll also has fundamental roots in white folk and country music. Originally called “hillbilly” music, country music evolved primarily out of the ballads, folk songs, and dance music of European immigrants, primarily from the British Isles. Many of the immigrants from Scotland, Ireland, England, and Germany settled in the Appalachian Mountains and the Southern United States. The Appalachian Mountains is a large mountain range extending from central Alabama to the island of Newfoundland.

Appalachian Mountains

The European immigrants that settled in the Southern Appalachian Mountains brought their Old-World instruments. These included the Irish fiddle, the Italian mandolin, the Spanish guitar, the African banjo, the German Dulcimer, and various types of zithers that led to the Appalachian dulcimer.

In the 1920s, Columbia Records started releasing records with “hillbilly” music. A pioneer of this style was Jimmie Rodgers (1897-1933), who combined hillbilly music with

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folk, blues, jazz, gospel, and pop music. His most successful pieces were the “Blue Yodel” songs: these were a series of thirteen songs that included his trademark yodel refrains and were structured on the 12-bar blues format. The lyrics tended to be gritty and cocky, often with an air of danger.

Blue Yodel No.1 “T for Texas” (sample verses)

T for Texas, T for Tennessee,

T for Texas, T for Tennessee

T for Thelma, the gal that made a wreck out of me

If you don't want me Mama, you sure don't have to stall

If you don't want me Mama, you sure don't have to stall

I can get more women, than a passenger train can haul

I'm gonna buy me a shotgun with a great long shiny barrel

I'm gonna buy me a shotgun with a great long shiny barrel

I'm gonna shoot that rounder that stole away my gal

The Great Depression of 1929 curtailed the number of records produced in the United States, and as a result, radio broadcasting became a popular source of entertainment. Radio programs started broadcasting “barn dance” shows. One of these shows, called the Grand Ole Opry, hit the airways in 1925 and would eventually become one of the longest running “barn shows” in broadcast history.

In the 1930s the drums and electric guitar began to be incorporated by hillbilly bands, and by the 1940s the term Hillbilly music was deemed degrading and thus replaced by the un-biased term country music.

Hank Williams

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Hank Williams (1923-53), who is considered by many as the father of modern country music, came to prominence during the post-World War II period. Born in severe poverty in Alabama, Williams was taught to play guitar by a Black street musician. During his youth he listened to and played with blues musicians, and by the age of sixteen had his own local radio show and started touring Alabama with the band he formed called the Drifting Cowboys. While success did come to Williams, it came at a high price; by the age of nineteen he was divorced, had become an alcoholic, and had been fired from the Grand Ole Opry for several failures to appear.

During his brief lifetime (Williams died on January 1, 1953, at the age of 29) he wrote and sang a multitude of songs, many of which became hits. His songs often dealt with heartbreak, sexual infidelity, and heavy drinking; themes that were not common in the songs played to white audiences (usually romantic fantasy tales). His band included acoustic and electric guitars, a fiddle, steel guitar and bass. The realistic-ordinary-man quality of his lyrics made the audience feel that he was one of them. During performances, his vocal delivery came across with an almost magical honesty that swept away the country music audience of the 1940s and early 1950s. Country music's growing commercial success and proliferation during the post-World War II years was largely due to the music of Hank Williams. Williams’ son, daughter, grandson, and granddaughters all became country singers.

Suggested Listening–COUNTRY WESTERN

“Freight Train Boogie” by the Delmore Brothers

“Pistol Packin’ Mama” by Al Dexter

“Cold Cold Heart” by Hank Williams

“Hey Good Lookin' ” by Hank Williams

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Rock & Roll Pioneers

Rock & Roll: Music for the neck downward -Keith Richards

Rock & Roll and Society in the 1950s

From politics, to society, and the arts, the seeds of the revolutionary 1960’s were planted during the 1950s. For the new generation of 1950s teenagers, ‘rock and roll’ represented a freshness they had not seen before. This new sound and spirit resonated with them, it symbolized freedom from the values of their parents, it embodied the future and something they could call ‘their own.’ Rock & Roll became their anthem of rebellion.

"To most adults, however, there was something unnerving about the music. To parents, many of whom were socialized by training in the military, the hierarchical structure of workplace and home, and the conformist societal climate, this music produced a frighteningly spontaneous and sensual reaction in their children. Their offspring reacted in an unauthorized manner. And adult antagonism toward rock music also reflected the inherent racism of the era. Having correctly perceived rock music as fundamentally Black in origin and nature, most white parents judged it bestial and subhuman.

-Paul Friedlander, Rock and Roll: A Social History

Rock and roll in the 1950s attacked, often indirectly, many of the institutions that helped to control young people…During the otherwise silent years of the Eisenhower administration's authoritarian attitudes, rock and roll's suggestive stage manner, guttural vocals, double entendre lyrics were seen as attackers of sexual decency and the stable family. Rock and roll fostered 'the separation of youth from parental control.

-Steve Chapple and Reebee Garofalo, Rock and Roll Is Here to Pay.

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During the 1950s many teenagers did not have to work to support their families. The Post World War II U.S. economy was strong, and teenagers found themselves with free time and disposable income. The proliferation of TV, the microwave, and other commodities during this decade allowed Americans to engage in leisure more than ever before. However, the 1950s were also fraught with political and social tensions. The arms race between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., coupled with the existence of the atomic bomb, created an ever-present anxiety. The “Cold War,” as this state of political and military tension between these two super-powers was called, produced a politically conservative climate in the U.S., together with a strong anti-communist sentiment, which bordered on paranoia by some government officials. As a result, many musicians, actors, and artists who had been involved with left-wing groups the previous years were accused of “un- American activities" by congressional committees and subsequently blacklisted. This historical period became known as the McCarthy era, after Joseph McCarthy, who served as a Republican U.S. senator from 1947 to 1957 and was at the forefront of this crusade.

Every ideology or political system, especially when it is controlling or dogmatic, breeds its own critics and opposition. One such anti-establishment example, which came to prominence during this decade, was the Beat Generation; a group of American writers who condemned uptight mainstream values, embraced risqué literature and poetry, experimented with drugs and 'free-love' alternatives. Nonetheless, during the 1950s, most of these movements remained on the periphery of society and did not affect the lives of most Americans until the following decade.

The U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision (1954), which mandated the end of racial segregation, helped to incite the civil rights movement. On the national level, the issue of racism began to boil, and in 1955 residents of Montgomery, Alabama, organized a successful boycott to desegregate the municipal bus system. One of the leading participants was the young Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

The Music: From crooners to rockers.

The three major record companies, RCA, Columbia, and Decca, together with film industry labels like Paramount and Capitol, had abandoned rhythm & blues and country music during World War II due to low profits. As a result, rhythm & blues and rock and roll were left to smaller and regional record companies called "indies,” some of the most prominent were Atlantic, Chess and Imperial Records.

In popular music, the 1950s witnessed the transition from the crooners (Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole) to the rockers (Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry). The Beatles were young teenagers when they were “blown-away” by the new sounds coming across the Atlantic. During this period two distinct generations materialized: mainly Black artists who had become popular prior to 1956; and the Elvis- dominated, white, country-rooted group who took the genre into its astonishing

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commercial success. The first generation of classic rockers (Fats Domino, Bill Haley, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard) rose to celebrity between 1953 and 1955, establishing rock and roll’s commercial success in popular music.

Rockabilly

Rockabilly is one of the first forms of rock and roll as a distinct style of music. The term ‘Rockabilly’ is an amalgamation of rock (from rock and roll) and hillbilly. The music is an up-tempo fusion of blues, hillbilly boogie, bluegrass music and country music, driven by a prominent backbeat. As Peter Guralnick writes, "Its rhythm was nervously up-tempo, accented on the offbeat, and propelled by a distinctively slapping bass.... The sound was further bolstered by generous use of echo, a homemade technique refined independently by Sam Phillips and Leonard Chess in Chicago with sewer pipes and bathroom acoustics."

Bill Haley (1925-1981) and His Comets

Originally a country artist, Haley transformed himself and his band into a powerful rock and roll group consisting of drums, bass, two electric guitars, steel guitar, piano, and tenor saxophone. In 1952, Bill Haley and the Comets released "Rock the Joint" on the Essex label, which is most likely the very first true rockabilly recording. Complete with slap bass and the first appearance of a guitar solo, “Rock the Joint” became the model for Haley’s biggest hit, "Rock Around The Clock." In 1953 they recorded "Crazy Man, Crazy," which became the first recognized rock and roll recording to appear on the national American musical charts, peaking at #15 on the Billboard Best Selling Singles pop chart. In 1955, “Rock Around the Clock” was included in a controversial film about teenage revolt called “Blackboard Jungle.” Starring Glenn Ford and Sidney Poitier, “Blackboard Jungle” was the first acclaimed film that associated popular music with the generation gap

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and adolescent rebellion. The film’s popularity propelled "Rock Around The Clock" to number one on the Billboard charts and made Haley the first major white rock & roll star.

Suggested Listening –Bill Haley and His Comets

“House of the Rising Sun” "Crazy Man, Crazy" “Rock Around Clock”

Carl Perkins (1932-1998)

Carl Perkins, born in Lake City, Tennessee, was another performer that defined the Rockabilly genre (he was called the "King of Rockabilly”). The song “Blue Suede Shoes", written by Perkins, is considered one of the top classics of the rockabilly style. “Blue Suede Shoes" was released in 1956 and was a huge success, becoming the first million-selling-triple-play crossover to go from the top of the country charts to those of rhythm and blues, and to those of pop music. George Harrison would later cite Carl Perkins as one of his original guitar heroes. Elvis Presley (Perkins, like Elvis, recorded for Sun Records) and The Beatles are among the artists that recorded Perkins’ songs. The Beatles recorded and released three Perkins songs: “Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby,“ sung by George, and “Matchbox” and “Honey Don’t,” sung by Ringo. The royalties Perkins received form the Beatles’ recordings of his songs, allowed him to buy his parents a farm.

Suggested Listening – Carl Perkins

“Blue Suede Shoes” “Gone, Gone, Gone”

“Honey Don’t” (covered by The Beatles and sung by Ringo).

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Elvis Presley (1935-1977)

“Nothing really affected me until Elvis.” - John Lennon

“I remember being with a friend of mine, we were going around the fairground, and I had a headache. Got back to his house and we put on Elvis’ “All Shook Up.” By the end of that record my headache was gone. I know this phenomenon; Elvis even gets rid of a headache!”

- Paul McCartney

Elvis Presley promoting the song/video for the song Jailhouse Rock.

Elvis Presley was a poor kid from Tupelo, Mississippi who became known as the “King of Rock and Roll.” His combination of good looks, charismatic presence, unrestrained and often provocative movements on stage, combined an energetic singing style filled with rhythm & blues (he was the first successful white rock and roller who fully integrated blues notes into his singing; compare him with Haley, Holly, Perkins, Orbison, and Lewis) made him extremely popular. He popularized rock and roll like no one before, and for many he still personifies the genre as “The King of Rock & Roll.”

In 1953, Elvis went to the Sun Records/Memphis Home Recording Service and recorded two songs. At around that time Marion Keisker, an assistant at Sun Records, remembers Sam Phillips, the owner of Sun, repeatedly saying that if he could find a white

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man who had the Negro sound and the Negro feel, he could make a billion dollars. In July of the following year, Elvis began an association with Sun records that would propel him to fame. One of the songs Elvis and his musicians recorded in that session was “That’s All Right", which became a classic example of the rockabilly style; bluesy and emotional singing combined with a country western accompaniment. The song went to #1 on the local country charts and earned Elvis an appearance on Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, where he only got a lukewarm reaction.

In 1955, country-artist manager and promoter Colonel Tom Parker signed Elvis to a management contract, and soon after convinced RCA Records to buy Presley from Sun Records. Elvis’ first RCA single release was “Heartbreak Hotel” which became his first #1 hit. In 1956 Elvis Presley appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show but the TV audience only sees him from the waist up because his hip movements (tame by today’s standards) were considered inappropriately brazen for a family show. Soon after, while performing “Hound Dog” on the The Milton Berle Show, he swayed his hips provocatively, setting off a barrage of criticism from the media accusing him of representing degenerate moral values. “Hound Dog” became the top selling record of the 1950s. By the end of 1956, Elvis had amassed five #1 hits and seven others in the top 20. That same year Elvis started making films and a couple of years later enlisted in the Army. Upon his return from the armed forces, he dedicated most of the 1960s to making second-rate Hollywood films. Many people feel that he never quite regained the rocker edge he had before 1958.

John Lennon claimed Elvis as his first and biggest inspiration: “It was Elvis who really got me buying records. I thought that early stuff of his was great. The Bill Haley era passed me by, in a way. When his records came on the wireless, my mother used to hear them, but they didn’t do anything for me. It was Elvis who got me hooked on beat music. When I heard Heartbreak Hotel, I thought ‘this is it’ and I started to grow sideboards and all that gear...” However, when Elvis died in 1977, Lennon sarcastically encapsulated his opinion on Elvis’ post-army commercial films and music, which he felt had none of the authenticity of his early rock & roll songs, by saying: “Elvis actually died in the Army."

Suggested Listening – Elvis Presley

“That’s All Right” "Hound Dog " “Don’t Be Cruel”

“Heartbreak Hotel” “Love Me Tender” “Jailhouse Rock”

“Too Much” “All Shook Up” “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”

“Return To Sender” “Crying in the Chapel” “Suspicious Minds”

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Buddy Holly (1936-1959) “Paul McCartney told me that Buddy had more influence on his early songwriting than any other singer.”

- Maria Elana Holly (Buddy’s widow)

There were two great singer-songwriter guitarists in the 1950’s, Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly. From an image standpoint, rather homely, geeky, and clean-cut with thick glasses, Holly was the total opposite of Elvis. However, his music and guitar playing justified any shortcomings in the appearance department. Holly, who was from Lubbock, Texas, came from a highly musical family. He began as a fan of country and bluegrass music, listening to artists like Hank Williams and bluegrass legends Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. Soon after discovering rock and roll and Elvis, he formed his own band The Crickets.

Holly was one of the early Beatles greatest influences. The name “The Crickets” was in John Lennon’s mind when he came up with the name “The Beatles”; a play on words on beetles and ‘Beat’ music. One of Holly's characteristics admired by the Beatles was that he wrote his own songs. His vocal style was a mix of southern twang with hiccups-like effects and subtle blue notes. His guitar style was aggressive and often included riffs, perhaps influenced by Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, while his lyrics frequently dealt with teenage relations and romance. His first hit was “That’ll Be the Day,” a song that the Beatles covered, and which also happens to be the earliest Beatles' recording on record. In two short years Holly produced a collection of songs that had a significant impact on rock generations that followed. In 1986 Holly was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In 1975, Paul McCartney, through his own publishing company, MPL Communications, purchased the Buddy Holly music catalog of approximately 40 songs.

Bye Bye Miss American Pie… In 1959 Holly’s life was cut short in a plane crash, which also killed Ritchie Valens of "La Bamba.” Holly was only 23 years old. In 1971 singer- songwriter Don McLean composed and released the song “American Pie,” (about “The day the music died”) dedicated to Buddy Holly.

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Suggested Listening – Buddy Holly

“Peggy Sue” “That’ll Be The Day” “Words of Love” “Not Fade Away”

Jerry Lee Lewis (b.1935)

Born to a poor religious family in Louisiana, Lewis originally intended to become a preacher but instead chose secular music and soon became known as “the Killer.” His piano playing was intentionally careless and full of an irreverence that became his modus operandi. At Sun Records in Memphis, Lewis recorded the song that sold a million copies, reached #1 on both the country and rhythm & blues charts and made him an international star. The song in question, “Whole Lot of Shakin’,” is classic Jerry Lee Lewis, with relentlessly hammered piano chords, shimmering glissandos, and an intense vocal delivery which at times includes Elvis-like nuances.

Lewis was one of the early influences on the Beatles, who, when they were still called The Quarry Men, covered a few Lewis’s songs. One of the wildest outlandish performers of the early rockers, he would play the piano with his feet, he would stand up while playing, leap over the piano, sit on it, his hair would fly in front of his face… Roy Orbison described him as the best raw performer in the history of rock and roll music. He became ‘rebellion’ personified.

Suggested Listening – Jerry Lee Lewis’

“Great Balls of Fire” "Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On"

“Breathless” “High School Confidential”

“Mean Woman Blues” “ Fools Like Me”

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Other Rock Pioneers

The rock and roll pioneers listed below, while influenced by Rockabilly, are generally not as representative of that genre as Haley, Perkins, Presley, and Holly.

Chuck Berry (b.1926) “If you tried to give rock and roll another

name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry’.” - John Lennon

Charles Edward Anderson Berry was undoubtedly the most influential guitar player of the classic rock and rollers. Considered the father-poet of classic rock and roll, he was the guitarist who initially influenced George Harrison and The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards more than any other. His song-opening guitar riff, heard in “Johnny B. Goode,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” and other songs, became “the”, classic rock and roll riff. His narrative lyrics had an unpretentious literacy unrivaled by his peers. One interesting feature of his singing style is the absence of blue notes.

Berry was born into a lower middle-class family in St. Louis, Missouri. He worked in an auto assembly line and as a janitor to support his family. He later acquired a degree in hairdressing and cosmetology, but his love was blues music, which he had been playing since his teens. He soon began to play gigs around the St. Louis area and became the first blues performer to effectively incorporate hillbilly (country) guitar riffs into his blues.

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In his 1987 autobiography, Chuck Berry: The Autobiography, he wrote: “Curiosity provoked me to lay a lot of country stuff on our predominantly black audience and some of our black audience began whispering ‘who is that black hillbilly at the Cosmo?’ (The Cosmopolitan: a popular club in St. Louis). After they laughed at me a few times, they began requesting the hillbilly stuff and enjoyed dancing to it.” His song “Maybellene” sold over a million copies and reached #1 on Billboard’s Rhythm and Blues chart. In 1956 his song “Roll Over Beethoven” reached #29 on the Billboard Top 100 chart. The Beatles, with Harrison singing, included, “Roll Over Beethoven” as part of their live concert repertoire for their early tours).

In 1969 Berry played in the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival, which also included Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band, which included Eric Clapton, Klauss Voorman, and Alan White (who later became the drummer for the band Yes). In 1972 Chuck Berry appeared with John Lennon on the popular television program “The Mike Douglas Show” where they performed “Johnny B. Goode and other classics.

Unlike other early rockers who faded during the 1970s (Elvis and Fats Domino embraced conformity in Vegas, Little Richard lost his focus and often hid behind childish pranks as drugs and alcohol took their toll, and Jerry Lee Lewis went back to country and playing oldies), Chuck Berry continued to rock and had a million-seller with “My Ding-a- Ling” in 1972.

Suggested Listening – Chuck Berry

“Maybellene” “Rock and Roll Music” “Johnny B. Goode”

“Roll Over Beethoven” “Sweet Little Sixteen” “No Particular Place To Go”

“Nadine” “My Ding-a-Ling”

“You Never Can Tell” (featured in the dance scene between Uma Thurman and John Travolta of the 1994 movie Pulp Fiction, directed by Quentin Tarantino)

“You Can’t Catch Me” (a song that would get John Lennon in trouble in 1969)

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Little Richard (b.1932)

“I could do Little Richard’s voice, which is a wild, hoarse, screaming thing, it’s like an out-of-body experience.”

- Paul McCartney

He was born Richard Wayne Penniman, the third of twelve children of a poor and religious family in Macon, Georgia. His boisterous, blaring singing voice earned him the nickname “War Hawk” by his family. His charismatic performing style and unique appearance made him popular and led him to appear on three rock and roll movies from 1956-57: Don’t Knock the Rock, The Girl Can’t Help It, and Mister Rock and Roll. He has always wanted to be hailed as the king of rock and roll, but he never achieved the number of top hits and level of popularity that Elvis did.

As a musician, Little Richard combined boogie-woogie piano with a heavy back beat and exaggerated, shouted, gospel-influenced vocals. Richard, along with Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis, is considered one of the top early rock piano pioneers. He first hit the pop charts in 1956 with the song “Tutti Frutti,” a twelve-bar blues boogie- woogie song with nonsense lyrics (“Tutti-Frutti, au rutti, a-wop-bop-a-loom-op a-lop-bam- boom!”). Many singers including the Beatles, especially Paul McCartney, imitated his screams and falsetto swoops. For numerous listeners of the late 1950s, Little Richard’s outlandish, loud, and wild manner personified and pioneered the rock and roll spirit. In 1966, Jimi Hendrix, who in 1964 was asked by Little Richard to join his band, said that he wanted to do with his guitar what Richard did with his voice.

Between the mid-60s and 70s Richard began drinking heavily and taking various drugs. He eventually left rock and roll and returned to evangelism, ultimately becoming a traveling bible salesman proclaiming, “I gave up rock and roll for the Rock of Ages. If God can save me, and old homosexual, he can save anybody.” Richards' life has had enough drama to rival any soap opera. He has gone back and forth between rock music and God, sometimes at odds with each other, sometimes conciliatory. Nonetheless, his boogie- woogie-based piano playing, and his vocal style became icons of the classic rock and roll period.

Suggested Listening – Little Richard

“Tutti-Frutti” “Good Golly, Miss Molly” “Long Tall Sally” “ Lucille”

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Roy Orbison (1936-1988)

“Roy Orbison was the only act that the Beatles did not want to follow.” -Ringo Starr

Roy Orbison had one of the most distinctive and expressive voices, with a three to four octave range to match, in rock and pop music. Like Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry, he was a guitarist and songwriter. Even though he wrote upbeat rockers like “Pretty Woman,” he is mainly known for early 1960s ballads, such as “Crying” and “In Dreams.” Following Elvis Presley’s fame, Orbison, just like Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis, went to Memphis to capture the Sun Records sound. Like Elvis, he was initially signed by Sun Records, but it was after signing with Monument Records a few years later that he had his first million-seller, the 1960 song “Only the Lonely.”

In 1963 Orbison went on tour to the United Kingdom and received top billing, as "The Big O,” along with the Beatles, who were becoming quite popular at the time. When Orbison arrived, he noticed Beatles’ ads everywhere and suspected that he might not be the main attraction. Never having heard of the Beatles he asked, “What’s a Beatle anyway?" to which John Lennon, who unbeknownst to Orbison was standing right next to him, replied “I am.” Over two decades later, in 1988, Orbison became part of the band The Traveling Wilburys, which included Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, and George Harrison. They recorded two albums, of which the first one, Traveling Wilburys Vol.1, won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Group in 1989.

Suggested Listening – Roy Orbison

“Oh, Pretty Woman” “Only The Lonely” “In Dreams”

“Crying” “Domino” “You Got It”

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Rock ‘n’ Roll pioneers classified by instrument

PIANO

Johnnie Johnson Fats Domino

Huey “Piano” Smith Little Richard

Jerry Lee Lewis

GUITAR

Bo Diddley Bill Haley

Chuck Berry Buddy Holly Roy Orbison

Eddie Cochran

Instrumental Groups & Performers

Duane Eddy (“Twang Guitar”) Johnny and the Hurricanes

The Ventures The Shadows

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The Girl Groups

Powerful pressure from a combination of religious and secular leaders, governmental officials, and major-label interests within the music industry had combined to hasten the demise of fifties rock. The major record labels and their Los Angeles-based movie-industry counterparts (ABC- Paramount, MGM, and Capitol) had strong self-interest in seeing rock and roll and doo-wop fall; not illogical, given that they owned only a relatively small piece of that action. For a brief moment in the mid- and late 1950s, classic rockers had wrestled artistic control away from the music-business establishment. They had written a majority of their hits, cut them with their own bands, and were responsible for the overall artistic interpretation. However, by the early sixties, the "music estab- lishment" had reasserted its control over the process. According to this new model, recording artists had relinquished their power and returned to the early 1950s role of song interpreters. The process now reverted to the pre-rock, assembly-line model, in which songs were crafted by office-based professionals, recorded by seasoned studio musicians, and produced by major-label or big inde- pendent producers.

-Paul Friedlander, Rock and Roll: A Social History

The Ronettes

It was from this sterile environment that the so-called teen idols evolved. Prominent teen idols of the time included Frankie Avalon, Fabian, and Paul Anka. Their music and image were everything that classic rock was not; they were pleasingly dressed, childlike young men who sang music with a faint trace of a beat, lush strings, and romantically safe lyrics. Another example of the spirit of the times was the song that started a countrywide dance craze in the summer of 1960, Chubby Checker’s cover of Hank Ballard's "The Twist.” During this period, all-female groups also became popular. Known as the girl groups, their music pursued a similar blueprint to that of the teen idols but with more sophisticated vocals arrangements. The Beatles were considerably influenced by the music of the 'Girl Groups,” by their two and three-part harmonies.

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Suggested Listening- Girl Groups

"Da Doo Ron Ron” - the Crystals "One Fine Day"- the Chiffons

"Be My Baby"- the Ronettes "Chains" - the Cookies

"Leader of the Pack" - the Shangri- Las "Will You Love Me Tomorrow"- the Shirelles

Phil Spector (1939) and the Wall of Sound

Phil Spector posing with a mixing board

Phil Spector (b.1939) was directly involved in the songwriting and production of many of these late 50s-early 60s groups and is considered the pioneer of the girl group sound. At the age of nineteen, Spector moved from Los Angeles to New York and wrote “Spanish Harlem" and "Stand by Me" for Ben E. King. Four years later he was a millionaire, having produced hits by artists such as the Crystals, and the Ronettes. From 1968-1974 Spector was married to one of the girl group girls: Veronica “Ronnie” Bennett, lead singer of the Ronettes. In 1969, he was directly involved in the last album released by the Beatles, Let it Be, given credit as producer, and throughout the 1970s produced solo songs and albums by John Lennon and George Harrison. In 2009 Spector was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison for murdering the actress, Lana Clarkson. Spector claimed that the death was an “accidental suicide,” but the jury was not convinced.

Spector is also known as the creator of the "Wall of Sound,” which is a layered production style present on many of his hit songs. He constructed this sound using a tree- track tape machine in which he would first record a multitude of instruments on track 1

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(sometimes as many as three to five rhythm guitarists, two or three pianos, two electric basses, a horn section of two trumpets, two tenor saxophones, and two trombones, a drum kit, and additional percussion instruments), and subsequently record the vocals on track 2, and finally the strings on track 3. The three tracks would then be mixed down, with a great amount of reverberation, to a one-track (monophonic) mix. His Wall of Sound technique influenced a great deal of musicians and producers and was also one of the early examples of multi-track recording*.

“You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” a 1964 song performed by The Righteous Brothers, and produced and co-written by Spector, is a classic example of the “Wall of Sound” technique. The Righteous Brothers was one of the supporting acts for the Beatles’ first American tour during August and September of 1964. The song became a number one hit in the United States and the United Kingdom in 1965 and it is credited by the performing rights organization Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) as the song with most U.S. airplay in the twentieth century.

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1950s-Selected Historical Highlights

1950

The Cold War, which began in 1945, continues throughout the 1950s.

The Korean War Begins.

Harry Truman, the President of the United States, orders the construction of the Hydrogen Bomb.

Music: The Fender Esquire guitar released (the first mass-produced electric solid-body guitar) / Mahalia Jackson becomes the first to perform Gospel music at Carnegie Hall / the 45rpm single is introduced.

1951

Color Television Introduced.

Rock & Roll debuts.

Music: Fender Precision Bass produced / Alan Freed becomes the first white DJ to play Rhythm & Blues for a primarily white audience / The first musical synthesizer (the RCA Electronic Music Synthesizer) is created.

1952

Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

The Tappan Company creates the first in-home microwave.

The Immigration and Naturalization Act rids racial and ethnic barriers for U.S. citizenship.

Music: John Cage performs “4’ 33” (a composition consisting entirely of silence with the objective of focusing the audience’s attention to ambient sounds).

The Gibson Les Paul electric guitar is introduced.

1953

Dwight D. Eisenhower (former five-star general) becomes U.S. President.

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(1953 continued)

DNA discovered.

Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin and Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev die on the same day, March 5.

Music: Elvis records his first songs / Radio Liberty (U.S. Funded) begins broadcasting to Russia.

1954

Segregation Ruled Illegal in the U.S. (Brown vs. Board of Education).

The words “under God” are added to the United State Pledge of Allegiance.

Music: Elvis releases his first single “That’s All Right” / the Fender Stratocaster guitar is introduced / Mahalia Jackson became the first gospel singer with her own TV show.

1955

McDonald’s Corporation Founded.

Warsaw Pact Signed.

Rosa Parks spurs Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Music: “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley and His Comets is re-released with a controversial teenage rebellion film “Blackboard Jungle” /Chuck Berry / Bo Diddley / Little Richard, Fats Domino, all have hit records / Congress passes law banning payola.

1956

Hungarian Revolution.

The Computer Hard Disk is invented by IBM.

Music: "Heartbreak Hotel" becomes Elvis Presley's first number one hit single / Elvis Presley shakes his hips on The Ed Sullivan’s Show but the TV audience only sees him from the waist up/ “Blue Suede Shoes” by Carl Perkins becomes the first million selling- triple-play crossover / “Forbidden Planet” becomes the first movie with a completely electronic music soundtrack, composed by Bebe and Louis Barron.

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1957

U.S. Civil Rights Act (voting rights for African Americans).

Dr. Seuss publishes “The Cat in the Hat.”

Soviet Union launches the Space Age with Sputnik Satellite.

Music: TV show American Bandstand, hosted by Dick Clark, debuts / The Musical “West Side Story” premieres.

1958:

NASA is founded.

The Integrated Circuit (the microchip) was invented, allowing computers to be faster, desktop size and more affordable.

The Peace Symbol is created (for a committee against nuclear war).

Music: The song “Maybe” by The Chantels opens the door for the commercial feasibility of ‘girl groups’ by becoming the first to cross over into the mainstream / The Country Music Association is formed to promote country music in the U.S. / Stereo Records debut / The Grammy Awards are established / Gibson introduces the Flying V and the double- necked guitar.

The Flying V

1959

Fidel Castro takes power of Cuba.

The U.S. Civil Rights Commission releases the first report detailing racial discrimination in the United States.

The first two U.S. soldiers are killed in South Vietnam (July 8). They were the first of the 58, 217 Americans who would die over the following sixteen years in the Vietnam war.

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(1959 continued)

Allen Kaprow stages the first happening (NYC).

Naked Lunch, the controversial novel by William S. Burroughs, is published.

The Guggenheim Museum, the first U.S. art museum dedicated to non-objective art, opens. The museum’s building, which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, became one of the 20th century's most renowned architectural landmarks.

Alaska and Hawaii become states.

Music:

Motown Records, the first African American owned record label of great success, is formed by Berry Gordy in Detroit, Michigan

Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper die in a plane crash on February 3, 1959, a day that became known as “the day the music died” through Don McLean’s song “American Pie.”

Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky co-found the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York City

Miles Davis began recording Kind of Blue (the best-selling jazz album of all time)

John Coltrane records Giant Steps

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) sponsors the first Grammy Award ceremony.

Jimi Hendrix gets his first electric guitar(below), a white Supro Ozark, bought for him by his father in the Myers Music Shop in Seattle, Washington. Hendrix was 16 years old.

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John, Paul, George, and Ringo

The guitar is all right John, but you’ll never make a living with it. - John’s Aunt Mimi

1940 July 7: Ringo Starr [Richard Starkey] born in Liverpool

Ringo was born on July 7, 1940 (making him the oldest Beatle) on 9 Madryn Street in Liverpool as Richard Starkey. World War II was in full swing, and times were tough economically, but, according to Ringo, at least they always had sugar since his dad worked at a bakery. His mother used to tease him by saying: “It was because you were born that World War II started.” His parents, Richard, and Elsie Starkey (born Gleave) (1914-1987) had separated by the time he was three years old and soon after Elsie married Harry Graves (1907-1994), who is credited with arousing Ringo’s interest in music. Ringo probably had the roughest childhood of all the Beatles, raised in a very poor inner-city neighborhood called Dingle, going through two serious illnesses as a child, spending a total of three years in hospitals and consequently falling behind in school. At 6 years old his appendix burst, forcing him to stay in the hospital for 1 year, and at 13 years old a cold turned into pleurisy, which obligated him to spend 2 years in a sanatorium.

After Ringo's last visit to the hospital, at age 15, he could barely read and write (He never finished school), and it was at around this time that his stepfather Harry bought him his first drum-kit on credit. Young Ritchie, like the other Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison, soon got caught up in Liverpool's Skiffle frenzy (Skiffle music, popular in the postwar Britain of the 1950s, was a mix of folk-country-blues music in which many of the instruments were homemade or improvised: washboards for percussion, guitars made from cigar boxes, tea chests used for standup basses, jugs,

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comb and paper, etc.) After starting his own group with Eddie Miles called The Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group in 1957, Ritchie joined The Raving Texans in 1959, a quartet, which played while Rory Storm sang. It was during this time his name changed, acquiring the nickname Ringo because of the rings he wore, and because it sounded "cow boyish.” He also changed his last name to Starr so that his drum solos could be billed as "Starr Time.” Ringo met the Beatles in Hamburg in October 1960 while he was drumming for Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. Sometimes described as the “Funny and Happy-Go-Lucky Beatle,” Ringo, while not as prolific a songwriter as John, Paul, or George, was a crucial member of the group from both a musical and an interpersonal point.

October 9: John Winston Lennon born in Liverpool

John, the founding leader of the band, has been described with a large array of adjectives: Intellectual, Angry, Witty, Insecure, Bastard, Avant-Garde, Surrealistic, Literate, Sarcastic, Pacifist, Wild, the “Smart Beatle,” to name a few. One thing is certain; John Lennon was an artistic, multi-faceted and complex person. He was attracted to alternate forms of consciousness and loved to play with words, a passion that was exalted by his quick wit and sharp articulation. During his teenage years, he developed severe myopia and was forced to wear glasses to see clearly. During the early BeatIe days, out of concern for looking “un-cool,” he refused to wear glasses in public, but in 1967 he donned the round “granny” glasses, which would later become his trademark. John said that due to his poor and blurred vision the ‘surreal’ was reality or normal for him. In 1964 a collection of his writings and drawings, often surreal and humorous, were published in a book punningly titled, “In His Own Write.”

John Winston Lennon was born on October 9, 1940, at Oxford Street Maternity Hospital, in Liverpool, England, to Alfred (“Freddie”) Lennon (1912-1976), and Julia Lennon [born Stanley] (1914-1958). Contrary to popular belief, there was no Nazi aerial bombardment in Liverpool that day. Liverpool, a coastal town with a major transatlantic shipping harbor, manufacturing facilities, and home to the Naval Headquarters for the North-Western Approaches, was one of Great Britain’s main ports and thus, a chief target for Hitler’s air force. John’s aunt Mimi Smith’s (born Mary Elizabeth Stanley) (1906-1991), recollection of being “literally terrified” as she ran to the hospital evading shrapnel and ducking into doorways to see the baby that her sister had just delivered, was mistakenly assumed to have been in reference to October 9th, the day John was born, when according to the records of the Liverpool Watch Committee, as well as the local evening newspaper, “Liverpool Echo,” there was no bombing of Liverpool on that day. Aunt Mimi’s memory was more than likely in reference to October 10th, when air raids were reported in the October 11th edition of the newspaper. Inspired by wartime patriotism, Julia gave John the middle name Winston after Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

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Both of John’s parents had some musical experience, though neither pursued it seriously. Julia has been described as a frivolous, free-spirited attractive redhead who was often the fun of the party. Her sister Mimi on the other hand, was practical, down-to- earth, and dependable, if somewhat stern at times. During the first five years of his life, John lived with his mother in Liverpool. His father was a merchant seaman who would only see his son every now and then for a few days at a time before he was away at sea again on another mission. By 1942, Freddie’s absenteeism from Julia and John’s life started to take its toll, and it wasn’t long before Julia started courting other men. In the summer of 1946, Freddie took a leave of absence from his job and returned to Liverpool to spend some time with his son. It was during this trip that he asked Julia and Mimi if he could take John for few days to the seaside city of Blackpool, but as Freddie admitted years later, “intending never to come back.” After the days turned into weeks, Julia arrived unexpectedly in Blackpool to bring John back to Liverpool, but by this point Freddie had convinced John to stay with him and move to New Zealand, where he told him, they would start a new life full of adventure. It was at this meeting that the five-year old John was insensitively asked by his parents to choose between them. Freddie Lennon recalls: “He had to decide whether to stay with me or go with her. He said me. Julia asked again, but John still said me. Julia went out of the door and was about to go up the street when John ran after her. That was the last I saw or heard of him till I was told he’d become a Beatle.”

John returned home with his mother, but it wasn’t long before Julia decided she was unable to properly raise her son and placed him under Mimi’s care at 251 Menlove Avenue (a.k.a. Mendips), where he lived throughout his childhood and adolescence. After having lost his father, he was now also losing his mother. Although John lived apart from his mother, he kept in contact with her through regular visits, and it was during these random visits that Julia introduced her son to an interest in music by teaching him how to play the banjo. On the night of July 15th, 1958, while crossing the street after leaving Mimi’s house, Julia was struck and killed by a car driven by a drunken off-duty police officer. John had lost his mother for a second time, this time for good. The emotional scar from this tragedy remained with him throughout his life and for a long time it made him deeply angry. John’s first wife Cynthia recalled that when she met John (that same year) he walked around with eyes that said, “kill.”

His mother’s death became one of the factors that strengthened his friendship with Paul McCartney, who had lost his own mother to an operation for breast cancer when he was 14, in 1956. Years later John honored his mother in the songs "Julia," "My Mummy's Dead" and "Mother," and by naming his firstborn son, Julian, after her. Aunt Mimi was able to get him accepted into the Liverpool College of Art by showing them some of his drawings, and it was there that he met his future wife, Cynthia Powell. However, John steadily grew to hate the conformity of art school and, like many young men of his age, became increasingly interested in Rock & Roll music and American singers like Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, and Buddy Holly. Eventually, in the late 1950s, John formed his

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own skiffle group called The Quarry Men, which, after a few personnel and band name changes, became The Beatles.

1942 June 18: James Paul McCartney born in Liverpool

Paul was born at Walton Hospital, located in the northern part of Liverpool near his teenage home, where his mother, Mary Patricia McCartney (born Mohan) (1909-1956), had worked as a nurse, and where his brother, Michael McCartney, was born a year later. Paul was a chubby kid who remembers his brother taunting him by calling him fatty. Like the other Beatles, he was from a working-class family. His father, Jim (1902-1976), was a cotton salesman, a professional trumpet player, an amateur pianist, the leader of a jazz band, and the one who gave the young Paul a significant grounding in music. Aside from her duties as a nurse, Mary was also a midwife, and while money was tight in the McCartney household, it was nonetheless one of peace and happiness. Paul: “I had a very nice family who I could always talk to about problems.”

During the late 1920s, Paul’s father had his own dancehall band called Jim Mac’s Jazz Band, and one of Paul’s earliest childhood memories is of lying on the floor listening to his dad play the piano. When Paul was 9 years old, Jim connected a set of earphone speakers from the downstairs console to the boys’ bedroom upstairs, allowing Paul and Michael to place the earphones under their pillows and fall asleep to the sounds of music, typically from the radio station selected by Jim, the BBC Light Programme, a light music, and entertainment station. Paul’s first musical instrument was a trumpet that his father had given him on his 14th birthday. Paul: “You couldn’t sing with a trumpet stuck to your mouth. If you had aspirations in the singing line, it had to be something like a guitar, so I asked me dad if he would mind, and he said no. So, I went into town and swapped it for a guitar.”

Paul, having easily passed through his early school years, enrolled in the prestigious Liverpool Institute. Unlike John, Paul was a good student who was very polite and diplomatic and, according to his teachers and friends, always had a very polished charm. It was while preparing in school for a career as an English teacher that Paul started slicking his hair back and dressing like a rocker. When Paul was 14, he bought his very first record; Gene Vincent’s 1956 Rockabilly hit, “Be-Bop-A-Lula,” a song that, like “Blue Suede Shoes” and “Heartbreak Hotel” before it, became a sensation to Liverpool teens during the mid-1950s. On October 31, 1956, Paul’s mother Mary died of an embolism after an operation to prevent the spread of breast cancer. Mary was 47 years old. She had been diagnosed with breast cancer a few weeks before but had kept the news from her sons. One of her last words were spoken to her sister-in law, “I would have liked to have seen the boys growing up.” Soon after his mother’s death, Paul made a

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remark that seemed cold and heartless, telling his dad, “What are we going to do without her money?” However, Paul spent many nights sobbing quietly in his bedroom, and his brother Michael believes Paul turned to his guitar and music to deal with his grief. “Paul was more affected by Mum’s death than any of us imagined. His very character seemed to change and for a while he seemed like a hermit. The guitar became an obsession.... It took over his whole life,” Michael said. Ten years after his mother’s death, during the period when the Beatles were at the brink of breaking up as a band, Paul had a dream about her which later became the basis for his 1969 heartfelt gospel ballad “Let it Be” (When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, Let it Be).

To the fans Paul became known as the “Cute Beatle,” a nickname he took as a double-edged sword; while his ego was tickled, he wanted first and foremost to be respected as a musician. And to many, he became the ‘musician’s Beatle,’ highly adept at playing the guitar, the bass, the piano/keyboards, various wind instruments, and the drums, not to mention his vocal prowess and songwriting talent.

1943 February 25: George Harrison born in Liverpool

The youngest of the Beatles, George was the only Beatle not deprived of both his biological parents. His dad, Harold Hargreaves Harrison (1909-1978) was a bus driver and his mother Louise Harrison (born Louise French) (1910-1970), was a shop assistant in Liverpool. Between them they would have four children, three boys and one girl, with George the youngest of the siblings. Louise, along with her husband Harold, also offered ballroom-dancing lessons at the bus conductor's club. Louise fully supported George's interest in music and bought him his first guitar. At first the family lived in a four-room house in a working-class neighborhood. There was only one heater for the entire house, which got very cold in the winter, and the toilet was located outdoors, however, their home was a happy one always filled with music.

George attended the Liverpool Institute, a "smart school,” but was regarded as a poor student, and contemporaries described him as someone who would "sit alone in the corner.” One day, when George was between 12 and 13, he was quietly riding his bicycle when he overheard Elvis Presley's “Heartbreak Hotel” from a nearby radio, and, from that moment on, Rock & Roll forever captivated him. It was during this time, at the Liverpool Institute, that George met and became friends with Paul McCartney, who shared the same bus route to the school. Unlike Paul, George did not fare very well in school; instead of paying attention to his teachers, George would often spend his time drawing guitars. While John and Paul were mainly chord players, George could not only play chords but solos as well. At the height of the Beatles' popularity, he was often characterized as the "Quiet Beatle,” noted for his introspective manner and his growing

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interest in Hinduism. However, many of his friends say that, when given the chance, and when he felt that the conversation was worthy, George could talk like there was no tomorrow.

1957 July 6: Paul McCartney and John Lennon meet for the first time

at the Woolton Parish Church Garden Fete in Liverpool

In the summer of 1957, Ivan Vaughan, a friend of both John and Paul’s, invited Paul to see a performance by John and his skiffle band The Quarry Men, which was taking place in the garden of St. Peter’s Church in Woolton Village of Liverpool. The band consisted of John and several of his school friends. After hearing a couple of songs by The Quarrymen, one of the things that immediately impressed Paul was seeing John making up words ‘on the spot’ for some of the songs he had either forgotten or never learned completely. During a break Ivan introduced Paul to John and the rest of the band. At first, John, who was typically wary of strangers, was cold and a bit distant. It was during this break that Paul instantly got everyone’s attention when he started playing guitar and singing Eddie Cochran’s “Twenty Flight Rock.” Paul later said that what had impressed John the most was that he knew all the lyrics to the song, which was not an easy task considering the rapid-fire tongue- twisting syllables of the song’s lyrics.

“I remember coming into the fete and seeing all the sideshows. And also hearing all this great music wafting in from this little Tannoy system. It was John and the band. I remember I was amazed and thought, 'Oh great’ because I was obviously into the music. I remember John singing a song called Come Go with Me. He'd heard it on the radio. He didn't really know the verses, but he knew the chorus. The rest he just made up himself. I just thought, 'Well, he looks good, he's singing well, and he seems like a great lead singer to me.' Of course, he had his glasses off, so he really looked suave. I remember John was good. He was really the only outstanding member, all the rest kind of slipped away.”

Paul McCartney, 1995 Record Collector

John thought twice about inviting Paul to join his band, considering the ‘double edged sword’ ramifications; while Paul would undoubtably make the band stronger, he could also be seen as a musical equal to John, something that John was not too eager to accept. Thankfully, John opted to put his ego aside for the sake of the band, and thus one of the greatest song writing teams of the twentieth century was born.

Paul’s debut with The Quarrymen took place on October 18, at the New Clubmoor Hall in Norris Green, Liverpool. He played lead guitar and was so nervous that he bungled his solo on the instrumental hit “Guitar Boogie” by Arthur Smith. Paul recalls: “For my first gig, I was given a guitar solo on Guitar Boogie. I could play it easily in rehearsal so they elected that I should do it as my solo. Things were going fine, but when the moment came in the performance, I got sticky fingers; I thought, ‘What am I doing here?’ I

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was just too frightened; it was too big a moment with everyone looking at the guitar player. I couldn’t do it. That’s why George was brought in.”

1958 February: George Harrison joins The Quarrymen

Paul knew George from school. They were only 8 months apart in age and would take the same bus to school, and it was in one of those bus rides that they started sharing their love for music and becoming close friends. When John and Paul decided that they needed a lead guitar player for their band, Paul suggested George, stressing that he could play the Bill Justis instrumental piece “Raunchy” perfectly. At first, John was reluctant to accept George because of his age (John was 17 and Harrison was barely 15, a “vast” difference at that age). Nonetheless, once George took out his guitar and played “Raunchy” John was sold.

June: The Quarrymen record “That’ll Be the Day” and “In Spite of All the Danger” at P.F Phillips Professional Tape and Disk Record Service in Liverpool.

July 15: Julia Lennon, John’s mother, is struck and killed by a car driven by an off-duty drunken police officer as she was crossing the street.

1959 August 29: The Casbah Coffee Club opens, and The Quarrymen

perform on opening night.

In 1959, Mona Best, Pete Best’s mother (Pete Best would soon become the Beatles’ first official drummer) converted the cellar of her Victorian mansion at 8 Hayman’s Green in Liverpool, into the Casbah Coffee Club, a social club for teenagers which would include live bands. The band slated to perform on opening night was the Les Stewart Quartet, which consisted of Les Stewart, Ken Brown, Geoff Skinner, and George Harrison. However, just a few days before opening night, Les Stewart and Ken Brown got into an argument, ending in Stewart’s refusal to play. Ken Brown, hoping not to cancel the Casbah’s opening night, asked George Harrison if he knew anyone else. George told Stewart he had two mates that were not bad; their names were John Lennon and Paul McCartney. From their August debut through the month of October, The Quarrymen, whose line-up now consisted of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ken Brown, rocked the Casbah a total of seven times.

October: The Quarrymen change their name to Johnny and the Moondogs.

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1960 The first big year for The Beatles

In 1960, The Beatles were booked for their first extensive tour (England, Scotland, Germany). In Hamburg, Germany, where they played for a span of over 2 years at the Indra, Kaiserkeller, Top Ten, and the Star clubs in the Reeperbahn district (a seedy area full of topless bars and prostitutes), and often for over 5 hours each night, seven days a week, the Beatles’ sound was solidified.

January: Stuart Sutcliffe, a friend of John’s from Liverpool College of Art, joins the band at John’s request, even though he was not a musician. Stuart, an artist, was convinced by the others to use the money he had won in an art contest to buy a bass, instead of the art supplies he wanted. He used to play with his back to the audience so that other musicians in the crowd couldn’t tell that he didn’t play the bass very well. “Many places required a 5-piece band, and it was better to have a bass player that couldn’t play than to have no player at all,” said George.

May: Alan Williams becomes their first manager, and shortly thereafter they changed their name from Johnny and the Moondogs to Long John and the Silver Beetles.

August-November: Pete Best, Hamburg, Astrid Kirchherr, “The Beatles”

The Silver Beetles were asked to play in Hamburg, Germany, but on the condition that they include a drummer. On the night of August 6, they went to the Casbah where they saw the band The Blackjacks performing. The group’s drummer was Pete Best, Mona’s son. Knowing that The Blackjacks were on the verge of breaking up the Beatles asked Pete to join them for their gigs in Hamburg. Pete became interested and agreed to audition for them on the following day. George recalled-“Alan Williams offered the gig to us, ‘But,’ he said, ‘the fellow [in Hamburg] wants a five-piece.’ We needed another person since there were only three of us and Stuart. We were excited, but we thought, ‘Paul isn’t really the drummer. Where do we get one from?’ Then I remembered a guy I’d met who’d been given a drum set for Christmas. His name was Pete Best; the Casbah Club was his basement.” John would say years later that a key factor in asking Pete to join the group was simply because he owned a complete drum set (not common for working class kids). It was during this period that the band changed its name again, this time to the Beatles, a name that John Lennon came up with as a play on words with the word ‘beetles’ (Insect names, like Buddy Holly and The Crickets, were popular at the time) but spelled with an “a” to form the word ‘Beat’ as in Beat Music.

On August 16, the Beatles embarked on their first tour of Hamburg, Germany. Their lineup now consisted of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Sutcliffe, and Best. From

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their first performance on August 17, through their last on November 28, they played almost every single night of each month; 48 consecutive nights at the Indra Club and 56 nights at the Kaiserkeller, for a total of over 200 hours. “It was Hamburg that did it. That’s where we really developed. To get the Germans going and keep it up for twelve hours at a time we really had to hammer. We would never have developed as much if we’d stayed at home. We had to try anything that came into our heads in Hamburg. There was nobody to copy from. We played what we liked best, and the Germans liked it as long as it was loud,” John recalled in 1967. On November 21st, after discovering that he was 17(underage), the German authorities deported George back to England. And on November 30th, Paul and Pete were also deported after being arrested on suspicion of arson (they had attached a condom to the wall with a nail and set it afire). By December, all the Beatles, except for Stuart, had returned to Liverpool. Stuart had remained in Hamburg with Astrid Kirchherr, his new German girlfriend. Astrid was a photographer who took some of the earliest pictures of the Beatles and is also credited with fashioning their now famous hairstyle.

1961 February 9: The Beatles perform at the Cavern Club in Liverpool,

ultimately becoming the club’s regular lunchtime act.

Between February 9th and March 24th, the Beatles gave 14 lunchtime performances at the Cavern Club before returning to Hamburg in March for their second German trip.

April-July: The Beatles perform in the Top Ten Club located on Reeperbahn Street in Hamburg’s St. Pauli district, also known as its red-light district. This would be the Beatles’ longest stint in Hamburg, during which they performed a total of 92 nights at the Top Ten Club. In June they recorded various songs as the Beat Brothers, backing up singer Tony Sheridan. In July, Stuart quits the Beatles and Paul becomes their bass player after John and George refused to even consider the role.

July-December: Back to The Cavern, the Beatle Hairdo, Brian Epstein

The Beatles return to Liverpool in July and begin a long residency at the Cavern Club. On September 30th, John and Paul traveled to Paris for a short holiday and while there ran into Jurgen Vollmer, a friend from Hamburg who had moved to the French capital to study photography. Vollmer wore his hair brushed forward across the forehead, in a style Astrid Kirchherr had persuaded Stuart Sutcliffe to wear. Paul McCartney recalled: “He had his hair Mod-style. We said, ‘Would you do our hair like yours?’ We’re on holiday- what the hell! He said, ‘No Boys, no. I like you as Rocker; you look great.’ But we begged him enough, so he said, ‘all right.’ We sat down in his hotel room, and he just got it- the ‘Beatle’ haircut! When we got back to Liverpool it was all, “Eh, your hair’s gone funny.’ – No, this is the new style.’ We nearly tried to change it back, but it wouldn’t go, it kept flapping forward. And that just caught on. It was like Mo’s out of the Three Stooges.

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It fell forward in a fringe. But it was great for us because we never had to style it or anything- wash it, towel it, turn upside down and give it a shake, and that was it. Everyone thought we had started it, so it became ‘the Beatle hairdo’.”

November 9: Brian Epstein (1934-1967) and his assistant Alistair Taylor see the Beatles perform at the Cavern. He would later say that he was impressed by their on- stage personalities and charm as much as by their music. Epstein was the head of NEMS (North End Music Stores) Enterprises, a management company in Liverpool and owned a local record shop.

December 9: Brian Epstein becomes their manager and convinces the Beatles polish their image (much to John’s disdain, who wanted to keep their rocker leather jackets instead of suits and ties) to improve their chances of attaining a recording contract and of gaining mass appeal. The only one who had some reservations about accepting Brian as their manager was Paul, but the final decision rested with John. In a 1970 interview for Rolling Stone by Jann S. Wenner, John said of his choice: “It was assessment. I make a lot of mistakes, character-wise, but now and then I make a good one…and Brian was one.”

December 13: Mike Smith, the A&R executive of Decca records, who had been invited by Brian Epstein, sees The Beatles perform at the Cavern. Smith was favorably impressed by the band, and in particular, the crowd’s amazing reaction to their show. He agrees to audition them in London on New Year’s Day.

1962 January 1: The Beatles audition for Decca records in London.

An audition on the first day of the year, a dubious day that precludes any New Year's Eve celebration, forced the Beatles to leave Liverpool before nightfall on December 31, to check into their London Hotel as early as possible and get some much- needed rest before the big day. They were driven by Neil Aspinall, an old school friend of George Harrison who was by now their road manager, in an old Commer van packed with their musical equipment. The crammed and icy cold trip took between nine and ten hours, and by the time the Beatles arrived at their hotel, tired and ill-tempered, they decided to unwind by roaming the streets of the London's West End and 'downing' a few drinks along the way. They went to bed very late and arrived late the next morning for their 11:00am audition, making Brian “froth at the mouth with anger,” according to Pete Best.

Most of their audition songs were selected by Brian, who believed that the best way to showcase the band was by having them play their arrangements of standards instead of their originals (out of the fifteen songs they played only three were original Lennon-McCartney composition, “Hello Little Girl,” “Like Dreamers Do,” and “Love of the Loved).” John Lennon knew that their performance that day felt short of what they were

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capable of doing, and later told a friend that their style was restrained by too many “pretty” songs;” “We should have rocked like mad in there and shown what we're like when we're roused.” Nonetheless, they left Decca Studios believing they had passed the audition, especially after Decca's Artist and Repertoire (A&R) manager Mike Smith told them “Can't see any problems-you should record.”

January 5: The record label Polydor releases the single “My Bonnie”/ “The Saints” by Tony Sheridan with the Beatles (who labeled themselves as “the Beat Brothers” for the occasion) as backup group.

Multiple Rejections… but they never gave up.

February 1: One month to the day of their audition date, Decca’s representative Dick Rowe told Brian Epstein the bad news: “The people at Decca didn't like their sound, and guitar groups are on their way out. Besides, they sound too much like the Shadows.” Decca was not the only record label that rejected The Beatles, in fact, they were initially turned down by all four of Great Britain's major labels: HMV, Decca, Phillips, and Pye. Dick Rowe infamously became known as “The man who turned down The Beatles.” Rowe later regained some credibility when, in May 1963, a little bit over a year after his rejection of The Beatles, and under the advice of George Harrison, he signed the Rolling Stones to a recording contract with Decca.

February 13: Brian Epstein meets and persuades George Martin (b.1926), a producer at EMI (Electric and Musical Industries), to listen to the demo the Beatles had recorded for their Decca audition. Martin was not too impressed by their sound but believed they had potential and commented positively on George’s guitar playing and signaled Paul as a potential band leader. However, Martin made no decision, only that he would like to see the Beatles in person.

April 10: Stuart Sutcliffe dies of a brain hemorrhage in Hamburg. Months before his death, he had been kicked in the head during a fight in which Lennon was also involved. Stuart’s death was another traumatic death in the life of John Lennon, who recalled: “I looked up to Stu, I depended on him to tell me the truth...Stu would tell me if something was good, and I'd believe him.” Stuart was 21. On April 11th, a day after Stuart’s death, John, Paul, and Pete flew to Hamburg to begin their third German residency and first at the Star-Club. George and Brian Epstein arrived the following day. The Beatles spent the following seven weeks performing at the club and would return to the Star-Club two more times by the end of 1962.

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June 6: George Martin signs The Beatles to Parlophone Records.

Almost four months had passed since Epstein’s meeting with George Martin. While Martin had made positive remarks about the Beatles during that initial meeting, he had made no attempt to contact Epstein. It wasn’t until Sid Coleman, a music publisher for Ardmore & Beechwood (a subsidiary of EMI), threatened Martin with sending Epstein to EMI rival Phillips if the Parlophone chance failed, that a second meeting was arranged. On May 9, Epstein met with Martin at EMI studios (a.k.a Abbey Road Studios), where Martin offered the Beatles a tentative recording contract (which could be finalized upon seeing them in person) and scheduled a recording audition for June 6.

The Beatles started their EMI session on June 6 at 7pm with “Besame Mucho” (“Kiss Me a Lot”), a bolero written in 1940 by Mexican composer Consuelo Velazquez and ran through a list of covers and originals songs, including “Love Me Do,” “P.S. I Love You,” and “Ask Me Why.” Soon after the audition ended at 10:00pm, George Martin and engineer Norman Smith sat down with the Beatles and ran down a long list of critiques and suggestions of all the things that needed improvement. After Martin was finished, he asked the Beatles if they had any questions or if there was anything they didn’t like. After a few seconds of silence, Harrison retorted: “Well for a start, I don’t like your tie.” Martin gazed sternly at Harrison for a moment, then, after noticing a little grin developing on Harrison’s face, suddenly flashed a smile from ear to ear. Harrison’s response broke the ice and soon after the Beatles’ witty humor began to flow, making both Martin and Smith laugh to the point of tears.

According to Martin and Smith, while they did feel that the band had ample talent to develop, their sense of humor and charismatic personalities also had a lot to do with Martin’s decision to sign them; the only exception was Pete Best who, according to Martin, did not say a word throughout the audition. More importantly, Martin felt that Pete was not a good enough drummer and told the other three Beatles and Brian Epstein that as far as recordings at EMI studios were concerned, Martin would use a session drummer instead of Pete. Martin’s assessment of Pete’s drumming was highly respected by the other three Beatles, and it became the final confirmation of a feeling they were harboring regarding Pete’s band membership.

George Martin, on behalf of EMI’s Parlophone label, offered Epstein a one-year contract deal with three one-year options. “The Beatles signed up to receive 1d (one old penny/0.417 new pence) per double sided single-split between the four Beatles plus Epstein!” –from Northern Songs by Southhall and Perry

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Pete is out, Ringo is in “Pete was a good drummer,

Ringo was a good Beatle.” -John Lennon

August 16: Pete Best was told by Brian Epstein that he was being fired from the band, and replaced by Ringo Starr, because the other three Beatles and George Martin felt that his drumming was not good enough. Pete himself didn’t buy the “bad drummer” bit and believed they had fired him for other reasons unbeknownst to him.

There is no denying that Pete’s below-standard drumming was the key reason for his dismissal from the band, but, according to numerous accounts, by the time he was fired, John, Paul and George were recognizing that Pete wasn’t blending in with the band and bonding with them as a team player; Pete refused to comb his hair forward in a Beatle fringe, started calling in sick for numerous performances, and would rarely hang out with them after their gigs. But would the Beatles have kept him if George Martin had not criticized his drumming? We will never know, but more than likely Pete’s days with the band were numbered by the time Martin delivered the final blow. John Lennon’s statement, “Pete was a good drummer, Ringo was a good Beatle,” is both revealing and an attempt to save-face for Pete. But on a New York radio phone- in show in 1971, John Lennon got right to the point:

Caller: How come you suddenly threw Pete Best out of the group? John: Because he couldn’t play very well. Caller: Is that why? John: Why else?

August 18: Ringo Starr makes his debut as the Beatles new drummer, performing on the After Show Dance of the Horticultural Society’s 17th Annual Show that took place at Hulme Hall in Port Sunlight, a village on England’s Wirral Peninsula.

August 23: John marries his longtime girlfriend Cynthia Powell after he finds out she is pregnant with his baby. Once the Beatles became famous John’s marriage was kept secret from the public to preserve the image of ‘four single and available men’ for their female fans.

September 4: Recording of “How Do You Do It” and “Love Me Do” at E.M.I. Studios. “How Do You Do It,” written by Mitch Murray, was the song George Martin selected as a possible first single release for the Beatles, after hearing their original songs and not being impressed at all. The Beatles agreed and recorded the song but told Martin they still preferred performing their own material and favored their original song “Love Me Do” for their first release. After recording “Love Me Do,” George Martin was still not

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satisfied with the drumming (by Ringo this time) and decided to hire a session drummer for the next scheduled session.

September 11: They record “Love Me Do” again, this time with session drummer Andy White instead of Ringo, who played the tambourine. They also recorded “Please Please Me,” and “P.S. I Love You” at E.M.I. Studios. The “Love Me Do” recording with Andy White on drums and Ringo on tambourine would end up in the Beatles’ first album Please Please Me. The “Love Me Do” recording with Ringo drumming (recorded on September 4th) was used for their first single release.

October 5: FIRST RECORD RELEASE

Their first single “Love Me Do” is released. It only reaches to #17 in the United Kingdom charts, but it was the icebreaker they needed to attain respect in the record business. “Love Me Do,’ written mostly by Paul a few years before, features John on Harmonica and harmony vocal, with Paul on lead vocals. For the B-side they used “P.S. I Love You.” “Love Me Do” reached the number spot on the U.S. charts when it was released in 1964, two years after the British release.

“An early song written by Paul, the lyrics of ‘Love Me Do’ were as basic as could be, with most words consisting of only one syllable and ‘love’ being repeated 21 times.’ I love you forever so please love me’. That was the entire message. What set it apart from the teen love songs of the time was a gospel- blues tinge to the singing- a feeling which was heightened by John’s harmonica and the slightly mournful close harmonizing.”

-Steve Turner, A Hard Day’s Write

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Please Please Me With The Beatles

We thought that if we lasted for two to three years, that would be fantastic.

– Ringo Starr

First Number One Hit!

November 26: The Beatles record “Please Please Me” at EMI Studios. Lennon said that Roy Orbison’s 1960 hit “Only the Lonely” was the inspiration for this song. When the Beatles first played it in the studio for George Martin, it was a mid-tempo ballad “a la Orbison.” Martin suggested that they speed it up and add vocal harmony, which they did. It was immediately obvious to Martin that they had finally struck gold; after they were done recording Martin told them, “Congratulations gentlemen. You’ve just made your first number one;” he was right.

1963 January 11: The single “Please Please Me” / “Ask Me Why” is released by

Parlophone.

“Please Please Me” hits #1 in the British charts. This is the first song that fully demonstrates the genius of Lennon and McCartney, incorporating stylistic ideas that eventually became their trademark:

a) Beautifully shaped melodies sung by powerful and highly distinct voices

b) Imaginative harmonies

c) High-energy /driving beat

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d) A flawless and commanding instrumental performance coupled with a creative and sophisticated arrangement

e) Clever title / lyrics.

John and Paul on “Please Please Me”

JOHN 1963: "Our recording manager (George Martin) thought our arrangement was fussy, so we tried to make it simpler. We were getting tired though, and just couldn't seem to get it right. In the following weeks, we went over it again and again. We changed the tempo a little, we altered the words slightly, and we went over the idea of featuring the harmonica just as we'd done on 'Love Me Do.' By the time the session came around, we were so happy with the result, we couldn't get it recorded fast enough."

JOHN 1980: " 'Please Please Me' is my song completely. It was my attempt at writing a Roy Orbison song, would you believe it? I wrote it in the bedroom in my house at Menlove Avenue, which was my auntie's place. I heard Roy Orbison doing 'Only the Lonely' or something. That's where that came from. And also, I was always intrigued by the words of 'Please Lend Your Ears To My Pleas,' a Bing Crosby song. I was always intrigued by the double use of the word 'please.' So, it was a combination of Bing Crosby and Roy Orbison."

PAUL 1988: "It's very Roy Orbison when you slow it down. George Martin up-tempo'd it. He thought it was too much of a dirge, and probably too like Orbison. So, he cleverly speeded us up... and we put in the little scaled riff at the beginning, which was very catchy.

A synthesis of their early influences

The Beatles were influenced by artists of many different styles, which included blues, country, rockabilly, folk music, skiffle, jazz, musicals, classical, and rock & roll. As is typical with all artists, these influences are most obvious in the early works. Their first number hit, “Please Please Me,” displays some of these influences: The opening verse of the song is like the Everly Brothers “tight and interwoven” two-part harmonies. These verses are rounded off by a new verse that is reminiscent of the Isley Brothers (Twist and Shout) in its call & response (“come on”) style. The middle contrasting verse, known as the bridge or the middle eight, (“I don’t want to sound complaining”) loosens the intensity of the repeated single-note bass line of the verses as McCartney plays a walking bass line under Lennon’s lead vocal, which is backed by “aahs” and echoes (”in my heart”) similar to the Girl Groups of the 1950s and early 60s (The Shirelles, The Ronettes, The Supremes, etc.). These influences are listed along with the lyrics in the example on page 58.

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Popular Song Structure

The structure (or Form) of a song is divided into distinct sections. The most common sections are listed and defined below:

Intro: This section is obviously the first thing you hear. However, some songs don’t have an introduction; they either start with the chorus or the first verse. An effective intro sets up the song’s mood and creates suspense. Intros vary in length but in popular music they tend to be around four measures long.

Verse: This section generally corresponds with a poetic stanza. The principal function of the verse is that of an exposition- the listener is introduced to the characters (if any). The verse also sets the emotional tone and contains the plot and details of the story that lead to the refrain or chorus. The verses typically repeat with the same music but with different lyrics.

Chous: This is the section that contains the ‘Hook’ or the catchy part of the song. Lyrically the Chorus sums up the idea and emotion of a song. An effective chorus is easy to remember and captivating, both lyrically and musically. Choruses repeat the same music and the same lyric. Songs do not always include a chorus as a distinct section; instead, they have a short phrase at the end of each verse, always repeating the same music and lyrics. These short “chorus” like lines at the end of the verse are referred to as the refrain (the terms chorus and refrain are sometimes used interchangeably by musicians).

Bridge (or Middle Eight): As the term ‘bridge’ implies, this section links two parts of a song. However, the bridge of a song is not merely a connecting one; it also functions as a contrasting section that offers a new perspective from the rest the song. An effective bridge introduces new material while at the same time staying within the context of the song and linking the other parts. The term middle-eight, more common in the United Kingdom, is synonymous with bridge.

Other secondary sections of a song include the Pre-Chorus, and the Coda (or Outro). The term Instrumental solo is at times used to identify a discrete section of the song, but in most cases, it is simply the music of the verse with an instrumental solo (almost always a guitar solo with the Beatles) instead of singing.

There are no rules regarding how the above sections are organized and which are incorporated or omitted. Music is an art form, and ultimately it is the songwriter’s sole discretion that determines the structure of the song.

erse Last night I said these words to my girl (Everly Brothers)

I know you never even try girl Come on, come on, come on, come on (Isley Brothers)

Come on, come on, come on. come on Please please me. oh yeah like I please you (Roy Orbison)

erse You don't need me to show the way love (Everly Brothers)

Why do I always have to say love? Come on, come on. come on. come on (Isley Brothers)

Come on, come on, come on. come on Please please me, oh yeah like I please you (Roy Orbison)

ridge I don't want to sound complaining (1950s Girl Groups)

But you know there's always rain in my heart I do all the pleasin' with you

It's so hard to reason with you Oh yeah why do you make me blue

erse Last night I said these words to my girl (same as above ve rses) I know you never even try girl

Come on, come on, come on, come on Come on, come on, come on. come on Please please me. oh yeah like I please you

oda Oh yeah like I please you

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The song “Please Please Me” is an example of a song with no chorus but a refrain instead; the line ‘Please please me, oh yeah like I please you’ at the end of each verse. The structure of the song (Intro/Verse/Verse/Bridge/Verse/Coda) follows one of the traditional pop song formats.

Song Form Lyrics Influences

V

V

B

V

C Oh yeah like I please you

February 11: Please Please Me (The album) is recorded in a single day.

Following the success of the single “Please Please Me” the Beatles recorded their first album, which they also titled Please Please Me, in a single day. It happened in three sessions totaling 9 hours and 45 minutes (10:00am-1:00pm, 2:30-6:00pm, and 7:30-10:45pm). On this day they recorded 10 out of the 14 songs in the album; the other four, “Love Me Do,” “Please Please Me,” “P.S. I Love You,” and “Ask Me Why,” had been previously recorded. By about 10:30 pm the Beatles recorded their final song for the evening “Twist and Shout.” They left this blaring rocker for the end because they

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knew that Lennon’s voice, which by now was almost gone, would not survive another song. He basically screamed his way through the song, but it resulted in a roaring performance. The album was recorded in two-track tape, with the instrumentation on one track and vocals on the other; this technique gave the recording engineer more control over the overall balance on the final quarter-inch tape mixdown.

March 22: Please Please Me album released by Parlophone

(Album release dates pertain to the United Kingdom. U.S. release dates will be indicated).

TRACK LISTING (All songs written by McCartney/Lennon, except where indicated).

Title Lead Vocals Length

Side one

1. "I Saw Her Standing There" McCartney 2:57

2. "Misery" Lennon with McCartney 1:50

3. "Anna (Go to Him)" (Arthur Alexander) Lennon 2:57

4. "Chains" (Gerry Goffin, Carole King) Harrison 2:26

5. "Boys" (Luther Dixon, Wes Farrell) Starr 2:27

6. "Ask Me Why" Lennon 2:27

7. "Please Please Me" Lennon with McCartney 2:03

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Side two

1. "Love Me Do" McCartney and Lennon 2:22

2. "P.S. I Love You" McCartney 2:05

3. "Baby It's You" (Mack David, Barney Williams, Lennon 2:38 Burt Bacharach)

4. "Do You Want to Know a Secret" Harrison 1:59

5. "A Taste of Honey" (Bobby Scott, Ric Marlow) McCartney 2:05

6. "There's a Place" Lennon and McCartney 1:52

7. "Twist and Shout" (Phil Medley, Bert Russell) Lennon 2:33

PERSONEL

The Beatles

John Lennon: lead, and harmony vocals; rhythm and acoustic guitars; harmonica and

hand claps

Paul McCartney: lead, and harmony vocals; bass guitar and hand claps

George Harrison: lead, harmony vocals; lead and acoustic guitars; hand claps

Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine, maracas, hand claps and lead vocals on "Boys"

Additional musician

Andy White: drums on "Love Me Do" (version 2) and "P.S. I Love You"

Production

George Martin: additional arrangements, producer and mixer; piano on

"Misery" and celesta on "Baby It's You"

Norman Smith: engineer and mixer

Angus McBean: cover photograph (in the stairwell inside EMI’s London

headquarters in Manchester Square.)

Please, Please Me, their debut album, hits number one in the charts and stays there for 29 weeks. The album opens with “I Saw Her Standing There,” a McCartney- led rocker that sets the tone for the entire album with the raw, exhilarating, and youthful carnal energy of a live performance. The excitement is palpable even before the song’s first notes; Paul’s exuberant “One, Two, Three, Four!” count-off instantly captures the listener’s attention and fills it with anticipation for that first downbeat. Out of the fourteen songs in the album (fourteen was the standard in the early Beatles albums) eight are Lennon-McCartney originals and the other six are covers.

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The eclectic propensity of The Beatles is already evident in this first album.

Straight forward rock and roll: “I Saw Her Standing There,” “Twist and Shout,” “Boys”

Rich harmonies and schmaltzy chords: “Ask Me Why,” “Do You Want To Know A Secret”

Rumba rhythms: “P.S. I Love You”

Waltz: “A Taste Of Honey”

Songwriter Credits on Record Label

The album Please Please Me is the only Beatles record to list the songwriter credits as McCartney–Lennon. On their subsequent albums, due to Lennon’s persuasion that “it sounded better with his name first,” it was changed to Lennon- McCartney.

E.M.I., Capitol Records, Vee Jay Records

As had happened with “Love Me Do,” when E.M.I. sent the recording of “Please Please Me” to Capitol Records, the E.M.I. owned American label, they refused to release it, believing it would not sell in the U.S. Epstein then proposed the song to the Gary, Indiana based label, Vee Jay, which released the single in February of 1963. The record had very little success. The album was also rejected by Capitol Records and released by Vee Jay, titled Introducing…The Beatles. Largely due to the lackluster sales of the singles, Vee Jay did not promote the album properly, and it also flopped. It wasn’t until 1964, after “I Want To Hold Your Hand” had hit #1 in the U.S., that “Please Please Me” reached the top five in America.

April 11: “From Me to You”/ “Thank You Girl” single released

“From Me to You” and “She Loves You” become their 2nd and 3rd Number 1 hits respectively. John and Paul wrote “From Me To You” in February while traveling during a tour with Helen Shapiro. The title was taken from a column in the New Musical Express magazine called “From You to Us.” In “From Me to You” the Beatles introduced the falsetto “Whooo” which they had heard Little Richard and The Four Seasons, a New York group whose song “Big Girls Don’t Cry” was going up the U.K. charts, do in many of their songs. The “whooos,” sung while shaking their heads rapidly from side to side, always got a wild response from the audience and became a Beatles trademark in the early years. The Beatles used it again in their next single “She Loves You.”

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“From Me To You” and Modulation

“I remember being very pleased with the middle-eight because there was a strange chord in it, and it went into a minor: ‘I’ve got arms that long to hold you…’ We thought that was a very big step,” Paul on “From Me To You.” The technique Paul was referring to is known as a modulation, which means a change of key in the music. When this happens, a shift is typically noticeable in the music, the amount of change depends on how the modulation is achieved and the context in which it takes place, but there is usually an increase in emotion or a surprising effect, as if something new has just happened. In “From Me To You” the strange chord Paul is referring to is simply a G minor chord, however, the ‘strange’ quality is a result of the context in which the chord is played: in the key of C Major (The key of “From Me To You”), playing a G minor chord sounds strikingly colorful because it is not one of the seven diatonic chords of C (refer back to chapter 1, p.9). The G minor chord however is one of the seven diatonic chords of the key of F major, the key that the song’s bridge modulates to. By the end of the bridge the song modulates back to C major. The Beatles were so pleased with this particular effect that they used the same type of modulation in a song written soon after, “I Want To Hold Your Hand.”

“From Me To You” – chords, lyrics, and song form

Intro C Am C Am

Da da da, da da da da da Da da da, da da da da da

Verse 1

C Am C G7

If there's anything that you want, If there's anything I can do,

F7 Am C G7 C

Just call on me and I'll send it along with love from me to you

Verse 2 (Same Chords as Verse 1)

I got everything that you want, like a heart that's oh, so true,

Just call on me and I'll send it along with love from me to you.

Bridge (Modulation)

Gm C7 F

I got arms that long to hold you and keep you by my side.

D7 G G+

I got lips that long to kiss you, and keep you satisfied.

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(Repeat Verse 1, Instrumental solo, Bridge, Verse and Coda)

August 23: “She Loves You”/ “I’ll Get You” single released

The “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!” phrase in the song “She Loves You” also became a Beatles

trademark. In fact, in Southeast Asia, Beatles music was for a time known as “yeah, yeah, yeah music.” Paul’s dad, contemptuous of verbal ‘Americanisms,’ like “yeah,” had suggested using “yes, yes, yes” instead because it sounded more dignified (It’s a good thing Paul stuck to his original idea!).

October 13: BEATLEMANIA is born!

Beatlemania: (as defined in the Oxford Dictionary) extreme enthusiasm for the Beatles, as manifested in the frenzied behavior of their fans in the 1960s…girls screaming their heads off for the moptops from Liverpool.

On October 13, 1963, the Beatles perform on the popular British variety show Val Parnell’s Sunday Night at the London Palladium before a television audience of around 15 million viewers. This is the point when biographers and Beatles scholars site as the beginning of the Beatles phenomenal popularity, coined as “Beatlemania” in the English newspaper The Daily Mirror.

“To many, the hysteria known as Beatlemania, with its peculiar empowerment of young women, remains a significant event in the first stirrings of the gender revolution. Female fans had gone mad for Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Valentino, and even Franz Liszt in the past. But the world had seen nothing before--nor has it since--to rival the pandemonium that greeted the Fab Four everywhere they went.”

- Steven D. Stark, Meet The Beatles: A Cultural History of the Band that Shook Youth, Gender, and the World. (2006)

November 4:

The Beatles appear at the Royal Command Performance, performing for the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret, and Lord Snowdon. Before performing “Twist and Shout,” John Lennon plays with the crowd by saying, “For our last number, I’d like to ask your help. Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands, and the rest of you, if you’ll just rattle your jewelry?” The audience laughed and applauded, the Queen smiled and waved back, Paul counted off the song “1-2-3” and the Beatles closed the show with a rousing interpretation of “Twist and Shout.”

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In Their Own Words

Songs from the album Please Please Me and the singles “From Me To You” and “She Loves You.”

I SAW HER STANDING THERE (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "That's Paul doing his usual job of producing what George Martin used to call a 'potboiler.' I helped with a couple of the lyrics."

PAUL 1988: "I wrote it with John. We sagged off school and wrote it on guitars. I remember I had the lyrics, 'Just seventeen/Never been a beauty queen,' which John... it was one of the first times he ever went, 'What? Must change that!' And it became, 'you know what I mean.'"

PLEASE PLEASE ME (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1963: "Our recording manager (George Martin) thought our arrangement was fussy, so we tried to make it simpler. We were getting tired though, and just couldn't seem to get it right. In the following weeks we went over it again and again. We changed the tempo a little, we altered the words slightly, and we went over the idea of featuring the harmonica just as we'd done on 'Love Me Do.' By the time the session came around we were so happy with the result, we couldn't get it recorded fast enough."

JOHN 1980: "'Please Please Me' is my song completely. It was my attempt at writing a Roy Orbison song, would you believe it? I wrote it in the bedroom in my house at Menlove Avenue, which was my auntie's place. I heard Roy Orbison doing 'Only the Lonely' or something. That's where that came from. And also, I was always intrigued by the words of 'Please Lend Your Ears to My Pleas,' a Bing Crosby song. I was always intrigued by the double use of the word 'please.' So, it was a combination of Bing Crosby and Roy Orbison."

PAUL 1988: "It's very Roy Orbison when you slow it down. George Martin up-tempo'd it. He thought it was too much of a dirge, and probably too like Orbison. So, he cleverly speeded us up... and we put in the little scaled riff at the beginning, which was very catchy.

LOVE ME DO (Lennon/McCartney)

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JOHN 1972: "Paul wrote the main structure of this when he was sixteen, or even earlier. I think I had something to do with the middle."

PAUL 1984: "'Love Me Do' ...the first song we recorded, like, for real. First serious audition. I was very nervous, I remember. John was supposed to sing the lead, but they changed their minds and asked me to sing lead at the last minute, because they wanted John to play harmonica. Until then, we hadn't rehearsed with a harmonica; George Martin started arranging it on the spot. It was very nerve-wracking."

DO YOU WANT TO KNOW A SECRET (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "Well, I can't say I wrote it 'for' George. My mother was always... she was a good comedienne and a singer. Not professional, but she used to get up in pubs and things like that. She had a good voice. She could do Kay Starr. She used to do this little tune when I was one or two years old... she was still living with me then. The tune was from a Disney movie: (sings) 'Do you want to know a secret? Promise not to tell? You are standing by a wishing well.' So, I had this sort of thing in my head, and I wrote it and just gave it to George to sing. I thought it would be a good vehicle for him, because it had only three notes and he wasn't the best singer in the world. He has improved a lot since then; but in those days, his ability was very poor."

GEORGE 1994: "'Do You Want To Know A Secret' was my song on the album. I didn't like the vocal on it. I didn't know how to sing.

TWIST AND SHOUT (Medley/Russell)

JOHN 1963: "I always hate singing the song, 'Twist And Shout' when there's a colored artist on the bill with us. It doesn't seem right, you know. I feel sort of embarrassed... It makes me curl up. I always feel they could do the song much better than me."

PAUL 1988: "There's a power in John's voice there that certainly hasn't been equaled since. And I know exactly why-- It's because he worked his bollocks off that day. We left 'Twist And Shout' until the very last thing because we knew there was one take."

FROM ME TO YOU (Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL 1964: "'From Me To You.' It could be done as an old Ragtime tune... especially the middle-eight. And so, we're not writing the tunes in any particular idiom. In five

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years’ time, we may arrange the tunes differently. (jokingly) But we'll probably write the same old rubbish!!"

JOHN 1980: "We were writing it in a car, I think... and I think the first line was mine. I mean, I know it was mine. (hums the melody) And then after that we just took it from there. We were just writing the next single. It was far bluesier than that when we wrote it. The notes, today... you could rearrange it pretty funky."

SHE LOVES YOU (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1963: "We wrote that two days before we recorded it, actually."

JOHN 1964: "We arrange them in the studio normally, you know. We get a basic idea, because you write a song, and you get a sound in your head that you think it's gonna sound like. And it usually turns out different, you know. We've given up trying to plan it too much before we go in. None of us can read music. Our A&R man (George Martin) can read music, so sometimes he'll say 'That note's just... it doesn't work, you know. You can't have it.' And we have to go into detail with the piano and everything and work it out and say 'It DOES work. You know, we're singing it. It works.' And sometimes he's right, sometimes he's wrong, you know. (giggling) But it usually all works out in the end."

ON SONGWRITING (DURING THE 'PLEASE PLEASE ME' PERIOD)

JOHN 1963: "All the better songs that we have written-- the ones that anybody wants to hear-- those were co-written. Sometimes half the words are written by me, and he'll finish them off. We go along a word each, practically."

ON RECORDING THE 'PLEASE PLEASE ME' ALBUM

JOHN 1963: "We sang for twelve hours nonstop. Waiting to hear the LP played back was one of our most worrying experiences. We're perfectionists. If it had come out any old way, we'd have wanted to do it all over again. As it happens, we're very happy with the result."

JOHN 1976: "That record tried to capture us live and was the nearest thing to what we might have sounded like to the audiences in Hamburg and Liverpool. You don't get that live atmosphere of the crowd stomping on the beat with you, but it's the nearest you can get to knowing what we sounded like before we became the 'clever' Beatles."

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November 22: With the Beatles album released by Parlophone. (Later this same day, John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas).

TRACK LISTING (All songs written by Lennon/McCartney/, except where indicated).

Title Lead vocals Length

Side one

1. "It Won't Be Long" Lennon 2:13

2. "All I've Got to Do" Lennon 2:04

3. "All My Loving" McCartney 2:09

4. "Don't Bother Me" (George Harrison) Harrison 2:29

5. "Little Child" Lennon and McCartney 1:48

6. "Till There Was You" (Meredith Willson) McCartney 2:16

7. "Please Mister Postman" (Dobbins, Garrett,

Gorman, Holland, Bateman) Lennon 2:36

Side two

1. "Roll Over Beethoven" (Chuck Berry) Harrison 2:47

2. "Hold Me Tight" McCartney 2:32

3. "You Really Got a Hold on Me"

(Smokey Robinson) Lennon with Harrison 3:02

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4. "I Wanna Be Your Man" Starr 1:59

5. "Devil in Her Heart" (Richard Drapkin) Harrison 2:27

6. "Not a Second Time" Lennon 2:08

7. "Money" (Janie Bradford, Berry Gordy) Lennon 2:47

PERSONEL

The Beatles

John Lennon: lead, and harmony vocals; rhythm and acoustic guitars; harmonica and

handclaps; nylon-string acoustic guitar on "Till There Was You;” Hammond organ on "I

Wanna Be Your Man;" and tambourine on "Don't Bother Me."

Paul McCartney: lead, and harmony vocals; bass guitar and handclaps; piano on

"Little Child;" and claves on "Don't Bother Me."

George Harrison: lead, and harmony vocals; lead and acoustic guitars; handclaps;

nylon-string acoustic guitar on "Till There Was You."

Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine, maracas, handclaps; lead vocals on

"I Wanna Be Your Man;" and Arabian loose-skin bongo on "Till There

Was You" and "Don't Bother Me."

Production

George Martin – arrangements, producer and mixer; piano on "You Really Got a

Hold on Me", "Money (That´s What I Want)" and "Not A Second Time"

Norman Smith – engineer and mixer

Robert Freeman – cover photograph

The success of Please Please Me launched the Beatles into the “big leagues,” changing their lives forever. While obviously enjoying the power and position that fame and money brought, their daily responsibilities massively increased. Between the countless interviews, television and radio spots, touring, recording sessions and performances, they barely had enough time to write new material. Nonetheless, during any available spare time, on tour buses, cars, hotel rooms, and even dressing rooms, they managed to compose new songs for their second album, With the Beatles, as well as a flow of number 1 hits. It is commonly said that a band’s sophomore album, especially after a successful first release, not only has a lot to live up to but can also be pivotal to a group’s long-lasting success. With the Beatles remained in the top position on the British charts for 21 weeks, succeeding Please Please Me in the number one spot, both albums keeping the Beatles on the top of the album charts for 51 consecutive weeks.

69 The Beatles: A Magical History Tour

With the Beatles marks the beginning of the Beatles’ and George Martin’s exploration with recording studio techniques and musical arrangement innovations; most of the songs include double-tracked lead vocals, and several of them incorporate the piano, organ, and Latin percussion instruments. The album includes eight original compositions and six covers. Of the eight original compositions, George Harrison’s first released song, “Don’t Bother Me,” is one of them. The bulk of the album consists of the energetic rhythm and blues-laced rock songs that were the heart and soul of their live club performances. The cover picture also marks the beginning of their artistic album covers, which would become one of their trademarks. Robert Freeman took the photograph after the Beatles had asked him to achieve the same black and white shadow effect that Astrid Kirchherr had accomplished in her photos of the group in Germany. Henceforth, Robert Freeman became the Beatles’ official album cover photographer and remained in that position through their 1965 album Rubber Soul.

It was around the time of With The Beatles that George Martin began to realize that the Beatles were not merely good musician/songwriters, but actually great. “When I first met them, they really couldn’t write a decent song. ‘Love Me Do’ was the best they could give me. They blossomed as songwriters in way that is breathtaking,” he recalled years later.

November 29: “I Want to Hold Your Hand” / “This Boy” single released by Parlophone

This single is released in the U.S. in December of the same year, and it becomes their first number one hit in America. The Beatles did not want to travel to America without first having a number one hit there; they had seen many English bands travel to America without a hit record and flop. Now with “I Want To Hold Your Hand” in the number one spot they were ready, and their plan paid off big-time!

In Their Own Words

Songs from the album With The Beatles and the singles “I Want To Hold Your Hand”/ “This Boy.”

IT WON'T BE LONG (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "'It Won’t Be Long' is mine. It was my attempt at writing another single. It never quite made it. That was the one where the guy in the 'London Times' wrote about the 'Aeolian cadences of the chords’, which started the whole intellectual bit about the Beatles."

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PAUL circa-1994: "We'd spot the double meaning... In 'It won't BE LONG till I BELONG to you' it was that same trip."

ALL MY LOVING (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "'All My Loving' is Paul, I regret to say. Because it's a damn fine piece of work. But I play a pretty mean guitar in back."

PAUL 1988: "I think that was the first song where I wrote the words without the tune. I wrote the words on the tour bus during our tour with Roy Orbison. We did a lot of writing then."

DON'T BOTHER ME (Harrison)

GEORGE 1980: "The first song that I wrote... as an exercise to see if I could write a song. I wrote it in a hotel in Bournemouth, England, where we were playing a summer season in 1963. I was sick in bed... maybe that's why it turned out to be 'Don't Bother Me.' I don't think it's a particularly good song... It mightn't even be a song at all, but at least it showed me that all I needed to do was keep on writing, and then maybe eventually I would write something good."

PLEASE MR. POSTMAN (Dobbin/Garrett/Garman/Brianbert)

PAUL 1984: "Influenced by the Marvelettes, who did the original version. We got it from our fans, who would write 'Please Mr. Postman' on the back of the envelopes. 'Posty, posty, don't be slow, be like the Beatles and go, man, go!' That sort of stuff."

I WANNA BE YOUR MAN (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1972: "Both of us wrote it, but mainly Paul. I helped him finish it."

PAUL 1984: "I wrote it for Ringo to do on one of the early albums. But we ended up giving it to the Stones. We met Mick and Keith in a taxi one day in Charing Cross Road and Mick said, 'Have you got any songs?' So, we said, 'Well, we just happen to have one with us!' I think George had been instrumental in getting them their first record contract. We suggested them to Decca, 'cuz Decca had blown it by refusing us, so they had tried to save face by asking George, 'Know any other groups?' He said, 'Well, there is this group called the Stones.' So that's how they got their first contract. Anyway, John and I gave them maybe not their first record, but I think the first they got on the charts

71 The Beatles: A Magical History Tour

with. They don't tell anybody about it these days; they prefer to be more ethnic. But you and I know the real truth."

I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND (Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL 1964: "Let's see, we were told we had to get down to it. So, we found this house when we were walking along one day. We knew we had to really get this song going, so we got down in the basement of this disused house and there was an old piano. It wasn't disused; it was rooms to let. We found this old piano and started banging away. There was a little old organ too. So, we were having this informal jam and we started banging away. Suddenly a little bit came to us, the catch line. So, we started working on it from there. We got our pens and paper out and just wrote down the lyrics. Eventually, we had some sort of a song, so we played it for our recording manager, and he seemed to like it. We recorded it the next day."

JOHN 1980: "We wrote a lot of stuff together, one on one, eyeball to eyeball. Like in 'I Want To Hold Your Hand,' I remember when we got the chord that made the song. We were in Jane Asher's house, downstairs in the cellar playing on the piano at the same time. And we had, 'Oh you-u-u/ got that something...' And Paul hits this chord, and I turn to him and say, 'That's it!' I said, 'Do that again!' In those days, we really used to absolutely write like that-- both playing into each other's noses."

THIS BOY (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "Just my attempt at writing one of those three-part harmony Smokey Robinson songs. Nothing in the lyrics... just a sound and a harmony. There was a period when I thought I didn't write melodies... that Paul wrote those and I just wrote straight, shouting rock 'n roll. But of course, when I think of some of my own songs-- 'In My Life,' or some of the early stuff-- 'This Boy,' I was writing melody with the best of them."

ON SONGWRITING (DURING THE 'WITH THE BEATLES' PERIOD)

PAUL 1963: "If an idea does pop in your mind, then you do sit down and say, 'Let's do it.' If there are no ideas and say we've been told we've got a recording date in about two days’ time, then you got to sit down and sort of slug it out. You normally get just a little idea which doesn't seem bad, and you go on and it builds up from there. It varies every time."

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ON RECORDING (DURING THE 'WITH THE BEATLES' PERIOD)

PAUL 1963: "Lots of people have asked us what we enjoyed best... concerts, television, or recording. We like doing stage shows because it's great to hear an audience enjoying themselves. But the thing we like best is going into the recording studio to make new records. What we like to hear most is one of our songs taking shape in a recording studio, and then listening to the tapes afterwards to hear how it all worked out."

JOHN 1964 "We always record them exactly as we can play them. Even if we do put things on top, the basic thing on a record we do live. We play and sing at the same time on the record, so if we can't do it there, we don't do it."

GEORGE 1977: "It was enjoyable. We'd get into doing harmonies and this and that... What we'd do would be work out most of the basic track on one track, get all the balance and everything set, all the instruments. Then we'd do all the vocals, or overdub. If there was guitar, lines would come in on the second verse and piano in the middle eight with shakers and tambourines. We'd line up and get all the sounds right and do it in a take, and then do all the vocal harmonies over."

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A Hard Day’s Night Beatles For Sale

American reporter to the Beatles: “How did you find America?” Lennon: “Turned left at Greenland”

1964 January: The album Meet The Beatles (roughly the equivalent of With The

Beatles) is released by Capitol Records (EMI’s American affiliate). The album stays in the number one spot for 11 weeks. On January 29th the Beatles begin the recording sessions for their next album, A Hard Day’s Night.

February 7: The Beatles land at JFK Airport in New York, and The British Invasion begins. Soon after their arrival fans surrounded the Plaza Hotel, where the Beatles were staying. Once inside their hotel room they were interviewed by Murray the K, a New York DJ at “WINS Radio” (Murray the K became known as the 5th Beatle for his early promotion of the Beatles). Murray the K took song requests from the Beatles themselves; one of the songs they requested was Marvin Gaye’s “Pride and Joy.”

February 9: The Beatles perform on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and are watched by a record-setting 74 million people (23,240,000 households, according to A.C. Nielsen). They perform five songs, “All My Loving,” “Till There Was You” (from the musical The Music Man), “She Loves You,” “I Saw Her Standing There,” and “I Want To Hold Your Hand.”

March 20: “Can’t Buy Me Love”/“You Can’t Do That” single released by Parlophone

April 27: John Lennon’s first book, In His Own Write, is published.

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June–November: The Beatles embark on their first world tour.

July 6: A Hard Day’s Night: The film premieres in London on July 6, 1964. Directed by the Richard Lester, the film is a fantasy version of Beatlemania from the inside.

July 10: “A Hard Day’s Night”/ “Things We Said Today” single, and A Hard Day’s Night album are released by Parlophone.

TRACK LISTING (All songs written by Lennon / McCartney).

Title Lead Vocals Length

Side one

1. "A Hard Day's Night" Lennon and McCartney 2:34

2. "I Should Have Known Better" Lennon 2:46

3. "If I Fell" Lennon and McCartney 2:24

4. "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You" Harrison 1:59

5. "And I Love Her" McCartney 2:33

6. "Tell Me Why" Lennon 2:12

7. "Can't Buy Me Love" McCartney 2:14

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Side two

1. "Any Time at All" Lennon 2:15

2. "I'll Cry Instead" Lennon 1:49

3. "Things We Said Today" McCartney 2:40

4. "When I Get Home" Lennon 2:20

5. "You Can't Do That" Lennon 2:39

6. "I'll Be Back" Lennon 2:20

PERSONEL

The Beatles

John Lennon: lead, and harmony vocals; rhythm and acoustic guitars;

harmonica; lead guitar on "You Can't Do That;” piano on "Things We Said

Today;" and tambourine.

Paul McCartney: lead, and harmony vocals; bass guitar and piano; acoustic

guitar on "I'll Be Back.”

George Harrison: lead guitar (six- and 12-string); acoustic and Spanish guitars;

background vocals; lead vocals on "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You;”

harmony vocal on "Things We Said Today;" and claves on "And I Love Her."

Ringo Starr: drums; cowbell; maracas; and tambourine

Additional musicians and Production

George Martin: piano and production

Norman Smith: engineer

Robert Freeman: cover photograph

A Hard Day’s Night is the first Beatles’ album to consist of solely original songs (no covers) and the only album of only Lennon/McCartney compositions (none by Harrison or Starr). It was a significant departure from the previous two albums; the music becomes more adventurous, and John’s lyrics become more honest and darker. George Martin called it the beginning of the second era in Beatles music. A noteworthy technical advance paralleled this artistic evolution: the recording industry’s move to four-track recording. They also released an EP (extended play singles) with four songs: “Long Tall Sally,” “I Call Your Name,” “Slow Down,” and “Matchbox.”

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The first 6 months of 1964 included significant landmarks in the career of the Beatles: American T.V. Debut (Sullivan), EP release, Hard Days’ Night release (album and film).

“A Hard Day’s Night” (The song)

The opening chord is a unique chord that has stirred a lot of discussion and speculation as to exactly what notes it includes and how it was played. This chord also closes the song (rounding out the song’s structure very effectively), but this time played in an arpeggio (playing the notes of the chord individually) that fades out.

John and Paul wrote “A Hard Day’s Night” in one day, after being asked by the producers of the film for a title track. It was one of the last songs recorded for the album. The title was one of Ringo’s malapropisms. A malapropism is a conscious misuse of language, often poetically, for the purposes of stressing a point. After one of their long recording sessions, Ringo once quipped, “It’s been a hard day’s night.” John, who loved language and word play, didn’t forget the phrase, and used it for the title of the song. Paul’s middle 8 section (“When I’m home…”) particularly works well as it provides contrast to John’s verses: it begins in a minor key (John’s verses are all in Major) and the shape of the melody is wide and fluid (John’s is primarily built on one single tone).

“A Hard Day’s Night” is not a teenage love song; rather, it is about a long day at work (“I’ve been working like a dog, I should be sleeping like a log”) and the anticipation of getting home to your beloved (“But when I get home to you, I'll find the things that you do, Will make me feel alright”).

“If I Fell”: A tour de force of close harmony singing. John opens the song with an introductory phrase (Listen to the descending chord progression and key changes in this opening phrase) and is joined by Paul in harmony for the verses. Paul sings the lead part and John takes the harmony vocal, which in this song is at a lower register from the melody. John, making a point that his lyrics are not about teenage love anymore, makes a reference to the song “I Want To Hold Your Hand” with the line, “Love is more than just holding hands.”

“And I Love Her” (a ballad by Paul) features Acoustic guitar and subtle Latin percussion. John called it Paul’s first “Yesterday.” The Beatles employ a modulation in this song, but this time it does not modulate back to the original key, as it did in “From Me To You,” and “I Want To Hold your Hand,” instead, it modulates up a half-step (it happens right at the start of the guitar solo), giving the song an unexpected “lift” and producing a fresh change that avoids predictability. Clever songwriting!

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In Their Own Words

Songs from the album A Hard Day’s Night.

A HARD DAY'S NIGHT (Lennon/McCartney)

RINGO 1964: "We went to do a job, and we'd worked all day and we happened to work all night. I came up still thinking it was day I suppose, and I said, 'It's been a hard day...' and I looked around and saw it was dark, so I said, '...night!' So, we came to 'A Hard Day's Night.'"

JOHN 1980: "I was going home in the car and Dick Lester suggested the title, 'Hard Day's Night' from something Ringo had said. I had used it in 'In His Own Write,' but it was an off-the-cuff remark by Ringo. You know, one of those malapropisms. A Ringo- ism, where he said it not to be funny... just said it. So, Dick Lester said, 'We are going to use that title.' And the next morning I brought in the song... 'cuz there was a little competition between Paul and I as to who got the A-side-- who got the hits. If you notice, in the early days the majority of the singles, in the movies and everything, were mine... in the early period I'm dominating the group. The only reason he sang on 'A Hard Day's Night' was because I couldn't reach the notes. (sings) 'When I'm home/ everything seems to be right/ when I'm home...' --which is what we'd do sometimes. One of us couldn't reach a note but he wanted a different sound, so he'd get the other to do the harmony."

PAUL circa-1994: "The title was Ringo's. We'd almost finished making the film, and this fun bit arrived that we'd not known about before, which was naming the film. So, we were sitting around at Twickenham studios having a little brainstorming session... and we said, 'Well, there was something Ringo said the other day.' And he said after a concert, 'Phew, it's been a hard day's night.'"

IF I FELL (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "That was my first attempt at a ballad proper. That was the precursor to 'In My Life.' It has the same chord sequences as 'In My Life' --D and B minor and E minor, those kinds of things. And it's semi-autobiographical, but not consciously. It shows that I wrote sentimental love ballads-- silly love songs-- way back when."

PAUL 1984: "This was our close-harmony period. We did a few songs... 'This Boy,' 'If I Fell,' 'Yes It Is' ...in the same vein, which were kind of like the Fourmost-- an English vocal group, only not really."

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AND I LOVE HER (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "'And I Love Her' is Paul again. I consider it his first 'Yesterday.' You know, the big ballad in 'A Hard Day's Night.'

PAUL 1984: "It's just a love song. It wasn't for anyone. Having the title start in mid- sentence, I thought that was clever. Well, Perry Como did 'And I Love You So' many years later. Tried to nick the idea. I like that... it was a nice tune, that one. I still like it."

CAN'T BUY ME LOVE (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "That's Paul completely. Maybe I had something to do with the chorus, but I don't know. I always considered it his song.”

PAUL 1984: "We recorded it in France, as I recall. Went over to the Odeon in Paris. Recorded it over there. Felt proud because Ella Fitzgerald recorded it, too, though we didn't realize what it meant that she was doing it."

THINGS WE SAID TODAY (Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL circa-1994: "I wrote 'Things We Said Today' on acoustic (guitar). It was a slightly nostalgic thing already, a future nostalgia: we'll remember the things we said today, sometime in the future, so the song projects itself into the future and then is nostalgic about the moment we're living now, which is quite a good trick."

YOU CAN'T DO THAT (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1964: "I'd find it a drag to play rhythm all the time, so I always work myself out something interesting to play. The best example I can think of is like I did on 'You Can't Do That.' There really isn't a lead guitarist and a rhythm guitarist on that, because I feel the rhythm guitarist role sounds too thin for records. Anyway, it drove me potty to play chunk-chunk rhythm all the time. I never play anything as lead guitarist that George couldn't do better. But I like playing lead sometimes, so I do it."

I'LL BE BACK (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "'I'll Be Back' is me completely. My variation of the chords in a Del Shannon song."

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PAUL circa-1994: "'I'll Be Back' was co-written, but it was largely John's idea."

ON SONGWRITING (DURING THE 'HARD DAY'S NIGHT' PERIOD)

PAUL 1964: "Sometimes maybe he (John) will write a whole song himself, or I will, but we always say that we've both written it. Sometimes the lyric does come first, sometimes the tune-- sometimes both together. Sometimes he'll do one line, sometimes I'll do one line. It's very varied."

JOHN 1964: "Paul and I enjoyed writing the music for the film, but there were times when we honestly thought we'd never get time to write all the material. We managed to get a couple finished while we were in Paris, and three more completed in America soaking up sun on Miami Beach.”

PAUL 1996: "Most of the songs that John and I wrote together were kinda pulled out of thin air. That was the thing about John and me that I still marvel at... because we had been 16-year-olds together. By the time we got around to 'A Hard Day's Night,' we sort of expected that we sat down together to write a song and have a little bit of fun-- simply because we were used to doing it. That was how we did what we did."

ON RECORDING (DURING THE 'HARD DAY'S NIGHT' PERIOD)

PAUL 1964: "These recent session in the studio have shown us one thing. It doesn't get any easier. Already we've got the 'knockers' saying that we can't get to number one again and that we must be running out of ideas. That's where the pressure comes in. The fans are marvelous, but some of the others make it clear they'd like it if we had a flop. We worry much more now, and it seems that with every hit it gets that bit tougher. But we're pretty pleased with the material we've got out of it all... even if we finished one of the songs literally as we were getting ready to make a recording of it."

PAUL circa-1994: "Normally John and I would go in the studio, sit down with the guys and say, 'Right, what are we going to do?' I'd say to John, 'Do you want to do that one of yours or shall we do this one of mine? Which shall we play 'em first?' We'd show it to the band over the course of twenty minutes, possibly half an hour. Ringo would stand around with a pair of drumsticks that he might tap on a seat or a packing case. John and I would sit with our two guitars. George would bring his guitar and see what chords we were doing and figure out what he could do. George Martin would sit down with us and then we would separate, go to each instrument, and come out ready to fight. And within the next hour we would have done it-- we would have decided how we were going to play the song. If for some reason it needed to be mixed quickly, we would go upstairs to the control room, but we often left it up to them and just went home. But as things went on, we might go up to the control room more often."

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November 27: “I Feel Fine”/“She’s a Woman” single released by Parlophone

December 4: Beatles for Sale released by Parlophone

TRACK LISTING (All songs written by Lennon / McCartney, except where indicated).

Title Lead Vocals Length

Side one

1. "No Reply" Lennon 2:15

2. "I'm a Loser" Lennon 2:31

3. "Baby's in Black" Lennon and McCartney 2:02

4. "Rock and Roll Music" (Chuck Berry) Lennon 2:32

5. "I'll Follow the Sun" McCartney 1:46

6. "Mr. Moonlight" (Roy Lee Johnson) Lennon 2:33

7. "Kansas City/Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey" (Jerry Leiber

and Mike Stoller & Richard Penniman) McCartney 2:33

Side two

1. "Eight Days a Week" Lennon and McCartney 2:44

2. "Words of Love" (Buddy Holly) McCartney and Lennon 2:12

3. "Honey Don't" (Carl Perkins) Starr 2:55

4. "Every Little Thing" Lennon and McCartney 2:01

5. "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party" Lennon and McCartney 2:33

6. "What You're Doing" McCartney 2:30

7. "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby"(Carl Perkins) Harrison 2:23

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PERSONEL

The Beatles

John Lennon: lead and harmony vocals; rhythm and acoustic guitars; harmonica;

piano; tambourine; handclaps.

Paul McCartney: lead and harmony vocals; acoustic guitar; bass; piano; Hammond

organ; handclaps.

George Harrison: harmony vocals; lead and acoustic guitars; African drum;

handclaps; lead vocal on "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby.”

Ringo Starr: drums; tambourine; timpani; packing case; bongos; lead vocal on

"Honey Don't."

Additional musicians and production

George Martin: piano and producer.

Norman Smith: engineer

Robert Freeman – cover photograph (taken in London’s Hyde Park)

BEATLES FOR SALE also hits number one on the charts. During this period, the Beatles were tired, and fame was beginning to take its toll.

“Of course, at first, we all thought we wanted the fame, but very shortly thereafter, we began to think twice… After the initial excitement had worn off, I, for one, became depressed. Is this all we have to look forward to in life? Being chased around by a crowd of hooting lunatics from one crappy hotel room to another?”

-George Harrison

Even though fatigue was evident in their faces on the Beatles for Sale album cover, the album contains several gems. The single released before the album, “I Feel Fine,” is a cheerful upbeat rocker that opens with feedback from John’s guitar, a fact that he was very proud of. John said, “I defy anybody to find a record-unless it’s some old blues record in 1922- that uses feedback that way. I claim it for the Beatles, before Hendrix, before the Who, before anybody.”

Bob Dylan, Country/Folk Music, and Marijuana.

The B-side of “I Feel Fine” is the song “She’s A Woman,” which some people believe it to be the Beatles first veiled reference to drugs (Marijuana in particular). Bob Dylan is credited with introducing the Beatles to marijuana. The Beatles were often searching for new ideas and discoveries, and drugs seemed, at the time, one road to this other reality.

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She's A Woman

My love don't give me presents.

I know that she's no peasant,

Only ever has to give me love forever and forever,

My love don't give me presents,

Turn me on when I get lonely, People tell me that she's only Foolin',

I know she isn't.

She don't give the boys the eye,

She hates to see me cry,

She is happy just to hear me say

That I will never leave her.

She don't give the boys the eye,

She will never make me jealous, Gives me all her time as well as lovin',

Don't ask me why.

She's a woman who understands.

She's a woman who loves her man.

One of the songs from Beatles for Sale, “Eight Days A Week,” became the Beatles seventh number one hit in the U.S. There are two different accounts regarding the origin of the song’s title. One version credits the title as another one of Ringo’s malapropisms when complaining about their extremely busy schedule during 1964. The second explanation states that McCartney got the idea from a chauffeur who once drove him to Lennon’s house for a songwriting session. When McCartney asked the driver how he was doing, the chauffer said, “I’ve been working eight days a week.” When McCartney arrived at Lennon’s house he announced, “I’ve got the title!”

“Eight Days a Week” also made history as the first pop song ever to begin with a fade in. It was also cleverly placed as the first song of side 2 of the record; when the listener turned the record over to side 2 it would seem as if the band had never stopped playing.

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Lennon’s Dylan Period

Beatles for Sale marked the beginning of what, years later, John would refer to as his Dylan period. Before the Beatles left for their France performances in January of 1964, Paul McCartney had purchased Freewheelin’, Bob Dylan’s 1963 album. Soon after arriving at their Paris hotel, they started listening to the album and were immediately enraptured by it. “And for the rest of our three weeks in Paris we didn’t stop playing it,” John remembered. They were blown away with the twenty-two-year-old American folksinger’s style, and especially with his expressive and poetic use of words. Dylan’s influence was most evident in Lennon who was by far the most articulate of the Beatles. However, it wasn’t only Dylan’s command of language that inspired John, but more so, the socially conscious and the self-expressive spirit. “I’d started thinking about my own emotions…Instead of projecting myself into a situation, I would try to express what I felt about myself,” John recalled. Consequently, John’s lyrics started becoming more realistic, introspective, diverse, and philosophical. This was the beginning of John’s straightforward and self-reflective excursion, a characteristic that became the essence of his music. A case in point is the John’s song “I’m A Loser,” a very Dylanesque song lyrically, musically, and in its vocal delivery.

Below are two song samples from Freewheelin’:

A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall Blowin’ in the Wind Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son? How many years can a Mountain exist

And what did you see, my darling young one? Before it’s washed to the sea?

I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it How many years can some people exist

I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it Before they’re allowed to be free?

I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin' How many times can a man turn his head

I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin' Pretending he just doesn’t see?

I saw a white ladder all covered with water The answer my friend is blowin’ in the wind

I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken The answer is blowin’ in the wind I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children

And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard

It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

In the summer of 1964 Lennon completed “I’m a Loser,” the first product of his ‘Dylan Period’. The song was recorded on August 14, 1964; the same day they recorded “Mr. Moonlight” and “Leave My Kitten Alone.” The arrangement features a George Harrison guitar solo in the style of Carl Perkins, and a walking bass in the chorus (one of Paul’s arrangement contributions).

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“Notice the folk and country influence. The verses offer Lennon’s cynical portrayal of romance as a war of possession and deceit. His sensibility is on his sleeve when he says: “I’m A Loser”/ and I’m not what I appear to be” This revelation and cry for help would later re-emerge in Lennon’s “Help!” and “Nowhere Man”

-Mark Hertsgaard - A Day In A Life.

I’M A LOSER

I'm a loser, I'm a loser

and I'm not what I appear to be

Of all the love I have won or have lost

there is one love I should never have crossed

She was a girl in a million, my friend

I should have known she would win in the end

I'm a loser, and I lost someone who's near to me

I'm a loser, and I'm not what I appear to be

Although I laugh and I act like a clown

Beneath this mask I am wearing a frown

My tears are falling like rain from the sky

Is it for her or myself that I cry

I'm a loser, and I lost someone who's near to me

I'm a loser, and I'm not what I appear to be

What have I done to deserve such a fate

I realize I have left it too late

And so it's true, pride comes before a fall

I'm telling you so that you won't lose all

I'm a loser, and I lost someone who's near to me

I'm a loser, and I'm not what I appear to be

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In Their Own Words

Songs from the album Beatles For Sale, and the singles “I Feel Fine” / “She’s a Woman”

NO REPLY (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "That's my song. That's the one where Dick James the publisher said, 'That's the first complete song you've written that resolves itself,' you know, with a complete story. It was sort of my version of 'Silhouettes.' (sings) 'Silhouettes, silhouettes, silhouettes...' I had that image of walking down the street and seeing her silhouetted in the window and not answering the phone, although I never called a girl on the phone in my life. Because phones weren't part of the English child's life."

PAUL circa-1994: "We wrote 'No Reply' together but from a strong original idea of his. I think he pretty much had that one, but as usual, if he didn't have a third verse and the middle-eight, then he'd play it to me pretty much formed. Then we'd shove a bit in the middle, or I'd throw in an idea."

I'M A LOSER (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "That's me in my Dylan period. Part of me suspects I'm a loser, and part of me thinks I'm God almighty." (laughs)

PAUL circa-1994: "We used to listen to a lot of country and western songs, and they were all about sadness and 'I lost my truck' so it was quite acceptable to sing 'I'm a loser.' You really didn't think about it at the time, it's only later you'd think, God! That was pretty brave of John. 'I'm a Loser' was very much John's song and there may have been a dabble or two from me."

BABY'S IN BLACK (Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL circa-1994: "We wanted to write something a little bit darker, bluesy... It was very much co-written, and we both sang it. Sometimes the harmony that I was writing in sympathy to John's melody would take over and become a stronger melody... When people wrote out the music score, they would ask, 'Which one is the melody?' because it was co-written that you could actually take either. We rather liked this one."

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I'LL FOLLOW THE SUN (Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL 1988: "I wrote that in my front parlour in Forthlin Road. I was about 16. There was a few from then-- 'Thinking of Linking,' ever heard of that one? So 'I'll Follow The Sun' was one of those very early ones. I seem to remember writing it just after I'd had the flu... I remember standing in the parlor looking out through lace curtains of the window and writing that one. We had this hard R&B image in Liverpool, so I think songs like 'I'll Follow The Sun,' ballads like that, got pushed back to later."

KANSAS CITY/HEY, HEY, HEY, HEY! (Lieber/Stoller/Penniman)

PAUL 1984: "It requires a great deal of nerve to just jump up and scream like an idiot, you know? Anyway, I would often fall a little bit short, not have that little kick, that soul, and it would be John who would go, 'Come on! You can sing it better than that, man! Come on, come on! Really throw it!' All right, John, OK... He was certainly the one I looked up to, most definitely."

PAUL 1985: "John used to egg me on. He used to say, 'Come on, Paul, knock the shit out of 'Kansas City,' just when the engineers thought they had a vocal they could handle."

EIGHT DAYS A WEEK (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1972: "Both of us wrote it. I think we wrote this when we were trying to write the title song for 'Help!' because there was at one time the thought of calling the film, 'Eight Arms to Hold You.'"

JOHN 1980: "Eight Days A Week' was never a good song. We struggled to record it and struggled to make it into a song. It was his (Paul's) initial effort, but I think we both worked on it. I'm not sure. But it was lousy anyway."

PAUL 1984: "Yeah, he (Ringo) said it as though he were an overworked chauffeur: (in heavy accent) 'Eight days a week.' (Laughter) When we heard it, we said, 'Really? Bing! Got it!'" (Laughs)

EVERY LITTLE THING (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "'Every Little Thing' is his song. Maybe I threw in something."

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PAUL circa-1994: "'Every Little Thing,' like most of the stuff I did, was my attempt at the next single... but it became an album filler rather than the great almighty single. It didn't have quite what was required."

I FEEL FINE (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1972: "This was the first time feedback was used on a record. It's right at the beginning."

PAUL circa-1994: "John had a semi-acoustic Gibson guitar. It had a pick-up on it so it could be amplified... We were just about to walk away to listen to a take when John leaned his guitar against the amp. I can still see him doing it... and it went, 'Nnnnnnwahhhhh!" And we went, 'What's that? Voodoo!' 'No, it's feedback.' Wow, it's a great sound!' George Martin was there so we said, 'Can we have that on the record?' 'Well, I suppose we could, we could edit it on the front.' It was a found object-- an accident caused by leaning the guitar against the amp. The song itself was more John's than mine. We sat down and co-wrote it with John's original idea. John sang it, I'm on harmonies."

SHE'S A WOMAN (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "That's Paul with some contribution from me on lines, probably. We put in the words 'turns me on.' We were so excited to say 'turn me on' --you know, about marijuana and all that... using it as an expression."

PAUL circa-1994: "This was my attempt at a bluesy thing... instead of doing a Little Richard song, whom I admire greatly, I would use the (vocal) style I would have used for that but put it in one of my own songs."

ON THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE US AND UK RELEASES

GEORGE 1977: "We put all the songs together into an album form-- I'm talking about English albums now, because in the states we found later that for every two albums we had, they (Capitol) would make three... because we put fourteen tracks on an album and we'd also have singles that weren't included on albums in those days. They'd put the singles on, take off a bunch of tracks, change all the running order, and then they'd make new packages... just awful packages."

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ON RECORDING AT EMI'S ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS

PAUL 1988: "Whenever the 'red light' was on... that was it, we had to go, that was our signal. Now it's very relaxed. I've got my own studio now and we hardly ever put the light on. These days you go to a recording studio, and you tend to see other groups, other musicians, because that's what the industry is now... that's where the money is. But then you'd see Sir Tyrone Guthrie, Barenboim. There'd be a lot of 'acting.' You'd see classical sessions going on in 'number one.' We were always asked to turn down because a classical piano was being recorded in 'number one' and they could hear us."

ON SONGWRITING (DURING THE 'BEATLES FOR SALE' PERIOD)

PAUL circa-1994: "We would normally be rung a couple of weeks before the recording session and they'd say, 'We're recording in a month's time, and you've got a week off before the recordings to write some stuff.' You'd say, 'Oh, great, fabulous.' So, I'd go out to John's every day for the week, and the rest of the time was just time off. We always wrote a song a day, whatever happened we always wrote a song a day... Mostly it was me getting out of London, to John's rather nice, comfortable Weybridge house near the golf course. I'd often wake him up, so I'd be coming in a little fresher than he was, but after a coffee or a cup of tea he woke up and we nearly always went up to his little music room he'd built at the top of the house... So, John and I would sit down, and by then it might be one or two o'clock, and by four or five o'clock we'd be done. Three hours is about right-- you start to fray at the edges after that. But that's good too because you think, 'We've got to get this done!'"

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Discussion Assignments for Class Projects

The discussion topics below are designed for student assignments or projects in a class setting. It will offer the students a platform on which to contribute their own ideas and reflections on the materials studied. There are a total four discussions, arranged chronologically throughout the book.

Discussion Format and Topic Assignment

Each Discussion contains 4 topics. To enhance and diversify the discussions, each student will be assigned one of the four topics. The topic designation will be determined by the first letter the student’s last name.

For example, if your last name is Martin, your topic will be Topic 3, which covers all last names that start with the letters M through P.

Last names starting with the letters A-C Topic 1

Last names starting with the letters D-L Topic 2

Last names starting with the letters M-P Topic 3

Last names starting with the letters Q-Z Topic 4

Topics for Discussion I

Now that you have read about and listened to musical examples from The Precursors of Rock and Roll (Chapter 1), Rock & Roll Pioneers (Chapter 2) and the Beatles from their childhood through their first four albums, Please Please Me, With The Beatles, A Hard Day’s Night, & Beatles For Sale (Chapters 3-5):

Topic 1:

If you had to pick one, which Rock and Roll pioneer or groups mentioned in Chapters 1-2 had the greatest influence on the Beatles’ early musical style? In what way? (…) Be as specific as possible by including direct influences of musical, songwriting and singing characteristics, as well as performance styles discussed in Chapters 1-2.

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Topic 2:

Based on the information in the Prologue and Chapter 3, comment on Pete Best’s dismissal from the Beatles. What were the principal reasons? How was it handled (from both ethical and practical points)? If you were Pete Best, and knew you were being fired from the group, what things would you have changed from the way the firing was conducted?

Topics 3:

Based on the individuals discussed in Chapters 3-5, in your opinion who was the most significant person (if you had to narrow it down to one) that contributed to the Beatles’ enormous success, without whom they would have possibly not had massive worldwide success? Why and how was it accomplished? Give specific reasons discussed in Chapters 3-5 that justify your choice.

Topics 4:

Even though the songwriting credits of songs by John and Paul are listed as Lennon- McCartney, the songs were hardly a 50/50 collaboration, and in some cases a song was pretty much completely written by one of them, with the other one contributing very little. CLUE: The lead singer of a particular song is usually the main writer (you can find the lead vocalist of each song in the track listing of each album, included the corresponding chapter). Based on the information in Chapters 3-5, and in your opinion, what are the individual strengths and weaknesses of John and Paul as songwriters on their first four albums? Which one progressed/changed the most from their first to their fourth album, and in what (specific) way? Also include the Beatles comments listed on In Their Own Words at the end of each chapter as part of your discussion.

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Help! Rubber Soul

When you're drowning, you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,' you just scream.

-John Lennon

With the conquering of America, number one singles and albums, and a successful film debut, 1964 was a hard year to follow for the Beatles. However, 1965 was the year the Beatles began to transform themselves into progressive artists of popular music. The first significant event for the Beatles in1965 was the marriage of Ringo to his girlfriend from the cavern days Maureen Cox, which now placed the Beatles as two married (John and Ringo) and two singles (Paul and George). They would produce two albums in 1965; Their first, released in August, was titled Help!, the second album was titled Rubber Soul, and was released in December, right on time for the holidays.

1965

February 11: Ringo marries Maureen Cox, making him (after John) the second Beatle to marry.

February-May: Recording sessions for the album Help! begin, and shooting commences in the Bahamas for the Beatles’ second film Help! (Provisionally entitled “Eight Arms To Hold You”). Released in July and directed by Richard Lester, Help! is a tongue-in-cheek cartoonish comedy in the style the James Bond spy films that were in vogue at the time. While the film Help! was not as clever as A Hard Day’s Night the music on the corresponding album was a definite step forward. During the filming

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George noticed a sitar on the set and played it for the first time, marking the beginning of his life-long love of Indian music and religion.

April 9: “Ticket to Ride”/ “Yes It Is” single released by Parlophone

July: Lennon’s second book, A Spaniard in the Works, is published.

July 23: “Help”/ “I’m Down” single released by Parlophone

July 29: The movie Help! premieres at the London Pavilion

August 6: Help! album released by Parlophone

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TRACK LISTING (All songs written by McCartney/Lennon, except where indicated).

Title Lead Vocals Length

Side one

1. "Help!" Lennon 2:18

2. "The Night Before" McCartney 2:33

3. "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" Lennon 2:08

4. "I Need You" (George Harrison) Harrison 2:28

5. "Another Girl" McCartney 2:05

6. "You're Going to Lose That Girl" Lennon 2:17

7. "Ticket to Ride" Lennon 3:10

Side two

1. "Act Naturally" (Johnny Russell, Voni Morrison) Starr 2:29

2. "It's Only Love" Lennon 1:54

3. "You Like Me Too Much" (Harrison) Harrison 2:35

4. "Tell Me What You See" McCartney 2:36

5. "I've Just Seen a Face" McCartney 2:04

6. "Yesterday" McCartney 2:03

7. "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" (Larry Williams) Lennon 2:53

PERSONEL

The Beatles

John Lennon: lead and harmony vocals; rhythm and acoustic guitars; electric

piano and Hammond organ; percussion

Paul McCartney: lead and harmony vocals; lead, acoustic and bass guitars;

electric and acoustic piano; guiro

George Harrison: lead and harmony vocals; lead, rhythm and acoustic guitars;

percussion

Ringo Starr: lead vocals and harmony vocals; drums and percussion

Additional musicians and production

George Martin: piano and production (String Quartet on "Yesterday": arranged

by Martin in association with McCartney.

John Scott: flutes on "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away"

Norman Smith: engineer / Robert Freeman: cover photograph

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Help!, the Beatles 5th album, contains 12 original songs and two covers. For the first time not all the songs were about some sort of personal relationship or romantic love. While the lyrics continue to develop and mature during this period, (Bob Dylan had inspired them to take their lyrics more seriously), this album marks the beginning of an experimental, eclectic, and innovative approach which continues through their last album and becomes a big part of their legacy. For example, half of the songs in Help! feature an instrument not previously used by the band; John plays electric piano in “The Night Before” and in “You Like Me Too Much," George plays pedal guitar on “I Need You,” the song “Yesterday” solely consists of an acoustic guitar, a string quartet and voice, and a guest musician plays the flute on “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away.” For all practical purposes, the Beatles had “made-it” in 1964, and they now had the freedom to compose whatever music they desired without too much consideration for commercial success.

“We’ll never get to that stage of releasing rubbish because we know people will buy it”

-Paul McCartney, 1965

John’s “cry for help”

“Help!” (the song) recorded April, 13, 1965 EMI Studios.

The song “Help!” is one of the first in which the lyrics were as important as the music. Following in the steps of “I’m A Loser,” John digs deeper inward in “Help!” and looks back to a simpler (pre-fame) time when he was younger, confident, and happy. The song is replete with un- teenybopper phrases, like “I’m not so self-assured” and “My independence seems to vanish in the haze,” which show John honestly sharing his personal feelings. “I needed the help. The song was about me” he said. While the music is upbeat and in the same vein as most of their songs of the time, the words were a departure: a cry for help. In fact, the original version of “Help” was at a much slower tempo than their final version, projecting a contemplative nostalgia; John was eventually convinced to speed up the tempo to make the song more radio friendly. The English rock band Deep Purple, who covered the song “Help” on their 1968 debut album Shades of Deep Purple, kept John’s original tempo. John was overweight, drinking too much, bored with his wife and home life and the absurdities of Beatlemania (He would later refer to this time as his “Fat Elvis” period). The subject matter of the lyrics was not of the pop single variety but instead it was expressed in universal terms and combined with a catchy tune, making the song highly accessible.

The music is a mix of pop, country, and folk influences, featuring John’s 12-string guitar, George’s fingerpicking licks, a tambourine that boosts the choruses, and backing vocals that uniquely anticipate the lead vocal (a McCartney contribution), a technique that adds emphasis to the meaning of the words.

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“You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away”

This was John “a la Bob Dylan,” right down to the raspy voice. John originally thought of adding a harmonica solo at the end, which was common in Dylan's work, but feeling the Harmonica would be overkill on the Dylan allusion, the Beatles opted for a flute solo; flutist Johnnie Scott was hired to play two overdubbed flute solos—one on a concert flute and one an octave lower on an alto flute. Scott became the first guest musician to record on a Beatles song. The most recent Dylan album at the time was the acoustic Another Side of Bob Dylan. Dylan’s music influenced John towards a more personal style of writing.

“Tony Bramwell suggests that it was written for Brian Epstein, warning him to keep his homosexual relationships (which, at the time, were illegal in Britain) from public view. It was also rumored that it referred to a secret affair John was having.” -Steve Turner, A Hard Day’s Write

“Ticket To Ride” (recorded February 15, 1965, at EMI Studios)

John called this song, “one of the earliest heavy metal records made. “While it might sound light by present standards, “Ticket To Ride” is one of the first pop songs that features a driving guitar riff supported by a heavy drum beat (of particular interest is the syncopation of the drum pattern). A similar song from the previous year that comes to mind is the Kinks’ “You Really Got Me.” “Ticket To Ride” had been released as a single in April of 1965 and had already topped the charts by the time the film came out.

“Yesterday” (recorded June 1965 at EMI Studios)

Performed over seven million times in the 20th century alone, “Yesterday” has the most cover versions of any song ever written. The song remains popular today with more than 3,000 recorded cover versions. After the Beatles broke up, Paul has included “Yesterday” in most of his solo concert tours throughout the world.

Genesis of the song

Paul woke up one morning with the tune in his head. There was a piano next to the bed and he went straight to it and started working it out. The melody had come to his mind so complete that, at first, he thought he was just remembering an old tune written by somebody else. He came up with the provisional title “Scrambled Eggs,” and began singing ‘Scrambled eggs, Oh baby how I love your legs,’ just to get a feel for the vocal. For days he went around playing the song for people and asking them if they had ever heard the tune before. “Eventually it became like handing something to the police. I thought that if no one claimed it after a few weeks then I would have it,” Paul said.

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By this point, John and Paul were writing more and more by themselves; a trend that would soon become the norm. Even though “Yesterday” was written exclusively by Paul, the songwriting credits list Lennon-McCartney, as stipulated by their contract; they both had agreed that, regardless of who wrote a certain percentage of the song, all their songs would credit both equally. This is also the first Beatles song that features only one of them in the recording, consisting solely of Paul singing and playing the acoustic guitar, accompanied by a string quartet (2 violins, 1 viola, and 1 cello). The string arrangement was done by George Martin, who as well as being their producer, was trained as a classical composer and arranger. At first, the Beatles were slightly embarrassed by using classical strings, feeling it wasn’t Rock & Roll. John later said that it was a “beautiful” song but argued that the lyrics were un-resolved. However, some people believe that the strength of the lyric lies in this vagueness. The song simply expresses a very common sentiment: someone longing to retreat to a time when things were better.

In Their Own Words

Songs from the album Help!

HELP! (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "The whole Beatle thing was just beyond comprehension. When 'Help' came out, I was actually crying out for help. Most people think it's just a fast rock & roll song. I didn't realize it at the time; I just wrote the song because I was commissioned to write it for the movie. But later, I knew I really was crying out for help. So, it was my fat Elvis period. You see the movie: He is very fat, very insecure, and he's completely lost himself. And I am singing about when I was so much younger and all the rest, looking back at how easy it was. Now I may be very positive... yes, yes... but I also go through deep depressions where I would like to jump out the window, you know. It becomes easier to deal with as I get older; I don't know whether you learn control or, when you grow up, you calm down a little. Anyway, I was fat and depressed, and I was crying out for help."

THE NIGHT BEFORE (Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL circa-1994: "I would say that's mainly mine. I don't think John had alot to do with that."

YOU'VE GOT TO HIDE YOUR LOVE AWAY (Lennon/McCartney)

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JOHN 1971: "It's one of those that you sort of sing a bit sadly to yourself, 'Here I stand/Head in hand.' I started thinking about my own emotions. I don't know when exactly it started, like 'I'm A Loser' or 'Hide Your Love Away,' or those kind of things. Instead of projecting myself into a situation I would just try to express what I felt about myself, which I had done in me, books. I think it was Dylan helped me realize that-- I had a sort of professional songwriter's attitude to writing Pop songs, but to express myself I would write 'Spaniard in The Works' or 'In His Own Write' --the personal stories, which were expressive of my personal emotions. I'd have a separate 'songwriting' John Lennon who wrote songs for the sort of meat market, and I didn't consider them, the lyrics or anything, to have any depth at all. Then I started being me about the songs... not writing them objectively, but subjectively."

JOHN 1980: "That's me in my Dylan period again. I am like a chameleon... influenced by whatever is going on. If Elvis can do it, I can do it. If the Everly Brothers can do it, me and Paul can. Same with Dylan."

TICKET TO RIDE (Lennon/McCartney)

GEORGE 1965: "We are always worried with each record. With 'Ticket To Ride' we were even more worried. There's bound to be a time when we come in at 19 (on the charts). But this 'number one' business doesn't seem to stop-- great while it lasts-- but now we'll have to start all over again and people will start predicting funny things for the next one."

JOHN 1970: "It's a heavy record, and the drums are heavy too. That's why I like it."

JOHN 1980: "That was one of the earliest heavy-metal records made. Paul's contribution was the way Ringo played the drums."

PAUL circa-1994: "I think the interesting thing is the crazy ending-- instead of ending like the previous verse, we changed the tempo. We picked up one of the lines, 'My baby don't care,' but completely altered the melody. We almost invented the idea of a new bit of a song on the fade-out with this song... It was quite radical at the time."

IT'S ONLY LOVE (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1972: "That's the one song I really hate of mine. Terrible lyric."

I'VE JUST SEEN A FACE (Lennon/McCartney)

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PAUL circa-1994: "I think of this as totally by me. It was slightly country and western from my point of view. It was faster, though. It was a strange up-tempo thing. I was quite pleased with it. The lyric works. It keeps dragging you forward... it keeps pulling you to the next line. There's an insistent quality about it."

YESTERDAY (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1966: "'Yesterday' is Paul completely on his own, really. We just helped finishing off the ribbons 'round it, you know -- tying it up."

PAUL 1968: "I just started playing it and this tune came, 'cuz that's what happens. They just, sort of-- they COME, you know. It just came and I couldn't think of any words to it, so originally it was just, 'Scrambled Egg.' It was called 'Scrambled Egg' for a couple of months, until I thought of 'Yesterday.' And that's it. True story."

JOHN 1980: "Paul wrote the lyrics to 'Yesterday.' Although the lyrics don't resolve into any sense, they're good lines. They certainly work, you know what I mean? They're good-- but if you read the whole song, it doesn't say anything; you don't know what happened. She left and he wishes it were yesterday-- that much you get-- but it doesn't really resolve. So, mine didn't used to either. I have had so much accolade for 'Yesterday.' That's Paul's song, and Paul's baby. Well done. Beautiful-- and I never wished I'd written it."

PAUL 1984: "It fell out of bed. I had a piano by my bedside and I... must have dreamed it, because I tumbled out of bed and put my hands on the piano keys, and I had a tune in my head. It was just all there, a complete thing. I couldn't believe it. It came too easy. In fact, I didn't believe I'd written it. I thought maybe I'd heard it before, it was some other tune, and I went around for weeks playing the chords of the song for people, asking them, 'Is this like something? I think I've written it.' And people would say, 'No, it's not like anything else, but it's good.'"

PAUL 1986: "The hits are always the ones you thought wouldn't be hits, like 'Yesterday' or 'Mull Of Kintyre.' I didn't want to put them out. We didn't put 'Yesterday' out in England, it was only here (America) that it was a single. We didn't think it was going to be a good idea... so it's crazy how it goes."

PAUL 1988: "We didn't think it fitted our image. In fact, it was one of our most successful songs."

ON SONGWRITING (DURING THE 'HELP!' PERIOD)

PAUL 1965: "We just write songs, and they are fitted into the film. That's what we did

last time. We're not like other songwriters who get suggestions from certain lines in a

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movie script. Often, we write the tunes first, without having a title. We'll get that later."

PAUL circa-1994: "John would often have the melody and the lyrics to one verse, and the trickiest thing is making any more of it. The second verse is nearly always the killer because you've often said it all in the first verse, but by pushing yourself you can get a second verse better than your first. It's always more difficult because you mustn't repeat yourself-- you've got to take the idea somewhere else, but it must have the same meter and the same melody. That was often where he or I needed help. There tended to be four verses in our songs, one chorus that repeated endlessly, and a middle-eight. So, if it was John's idea, generally I would come in at the second verse. The first verse was always good to finish with-- it was like, 'Remember what I told you at the beginning of this song? I'm going to reiterate it now.' That was always a good little trick."

SHEA STADIUM

The Beatles walking towards the stage,

set up on Shea Stadium’s baseball field.

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August 15: The first concert of their third US visit took place in New York’s Shea

Stadium in front of about 56,000 people. Two thousand security men and high wire fences were used to keep the crowd in control. Even though VOX (the amplifier manufacturer) had made 100-watt amplifiers especially for the event (tame by today’s standards) and their vocals were routed through the stadium’s PA system, the band was still barely heard.

August 27: The King of the 1950s meets the Kings of the 1960s.

On this day the Beatles got a chance to meet one of their all-time idols, Elvis Presley. During the meeting Elvis spent most of the time sitting on his couch playing a Fender electric bass and looking bored. He had his television on with the sound off. Lennon later said that the meeting was anti-climactic. A few years later Elvis met Richard Nixon at the White House and told him that he would collaborate with his administration in “cleaning the country” of drugs and disruptive influences, like the Beatles. Presley, who wrote Nixon a six-page letter requesting a visit with the President and suggesting that he be made a “Federal Agent-at-Large” in the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, initiated the meeting. Years later Ringo said, “That’s very sad to me, that he felt so threatened, that he thought that we were bad for the American youth.”

October-November: Recording sessions for Rubber Soul

October 26: The Beatles are awarded MBEs: The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V). John Lennon later said, “we deserve ours for not killing people.”

December 3: “We Can Work it Out” / “Day Tripper” single released by Parlophone

The songs “We Can Work It Out” and “Day Tripper” were released the same day as the Rubber Soul album. On the two-sided singles, The Beatles would designate side A to the song they believed had the greater commercial appeal. In the case of these two songs, it was a tie, so they decided to release both as A sided, making it a ‘double A sided single.’

“We Can Work It Out”

In October of 1965, Paul’s girlfriend Jane Asher joined an acting company that meant that she would be busy and traveling quite often, a fact that would increasingly

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become a burden in their relationship. As in “We Can Work It Out,” the strain in their relationship would find its way in several Paul’s songs of the period. The verses were mainly written by Paul, and the bridge (middle eight) by John. Paul pleads with his girl to see things his way because he feels that he’s right and she’s wrong, all conveyed within an underlying positive message: ‘We Can Work It Out.’ “You’ve got Paul writing We can work it out,” said John. “Real optimistic, and me, impatient, (with) Life is very short, and there’s no time for fussing and fighting my friend.” As with many of the Beatles’ songs inspired by personal events, the lyrics of “We Can Work It Out” were written in general and universal terms, allowing for interpretation on different levels.

“Day Tripper”

In the summer of 1965, John and George had been unsuspectingly given LSD by a London dentist who slipped it into their coffee. By the fall of 1965, they had all smoked pot and, except for Paul, had tried LSD. As with many musicians and artists of the mid-sixties, the drug experience would play a large role in their music, especially during the psychedelic phase of 1967-69. The title ‘Day Tripper’ was typical play on words by John. “Day trippers are people who go on a day trip, right? Usually on a ferryboat or something, but (the song) was kind of…you’re just a weekend hippie. Get it?” said John. The opening guitar riff of this song (like the ones in the songs “Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones, and “Smoke on the Water” by Deep Purple) became a standard ‘must’ for most beginning rock guitar players.

December 3: Rubber Soul album released by Parlophone

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TRACK LISTING (All songs written by McCartney/Lennon, except where indicated).

Title Lead Vocals Length

Side one

1. "Drive My Car" McCartney/Lennon 2:25

2. "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" Lennon 2:01

3. "You Won’t See Me" McCartney 3:18

4. "Nowhere Man” Lennon 2:40

5. "Think For Yourself" (Harrison) Harrison 2:16

6. "The Word" Lennon 2:41

7. "Michelle" McCartney 2:40

Side two

1. "What Goes On" (Lennon/McCartney/Starr) Starr 2:47

2. "Girl" Lennon 2:30

3. "I’m Looking Through You" McCartney 2:23

4. "In My Life" Lennon 2:24

5. "Wait” Lennon/McCartney 2:12

6. "If I Needed Someone" (Harrison) Harrison 2:20

7. "Run For Your Life" Lennon 2:18

PERSONEL

The Beatles

John Lennon: vocals, rhythm and acoustic guitars (6 and 12 string),

harmonium, tambourine, maracas and cowbell

Paul McCartney: vocals, electric and acoustic bass guitar, guitar and piano

George Harrison: vocals, lead, rhythm guitar and acoustic and bass guitars, 12-

string electric guitar, sitar

Ringo Starr: vocals, drums, tambourine, maracas and Hammond organ

Additional musicians and production

George Martin: producer; piano on "In My Life" and harmonium on "The

Word”

Norman Smith: engineer

Mal Evans: hammond organ on "You Won’t See Me"

Robert Freeman: cover photograph

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Rubber Soul marked major point of transition and transformation for the band. If Help! had been a significant leap forward from the previous album, Rubber Soul was a giant step. As well as being pivotal for the Beatles, this album also raised the bar in popular music worldwide. The deliberately distorted cover photograph suggests the mind-altering drugs that were now in vogue, and hints at the psychedelic period to come (even though this was not a psychedelic album, the next album Revolver contains the first psychedelic song the Beatles recorded, “Tomorrow Never Knows”). John Lennon, who was a bad drunk, once said that he always needed a drug to survive.

“They were getting more and more interested in unusual sounds. They were trying out new instruments and always coming to me and saying, ‘what ideas have you got for this [song].’ Rubber Soul was an indication of the way things were going to go.”- George Martin on making the Rubber Soul album. This album was an entity itself, not just built around single releases. It includes the standard 14 songs, with the song writing credits divided as follows: 11 by Lennon-McCartney, 2 by Harrison, and one by Lennon- McCartney-Starr, “What Goes On” (giving Ringo his first credit as a composer). On this album the lyrics and the music continued to progress and break new ground, the playing had matured, the arrangements were sophisticated, the vocals were confident and dazzling, and the sound was fuller and tighter.

Paul McCartney’s New Bass

One factor to their new sound in Rubber Soul was due to Paul’s new bass guitar. He switched to a Rickenbacker bass, which produced a more distinct and clearer sound.

Rickenbacker Bass Model 4001 C64

With Rubber Soul the Beatles continued exploring new sounds

- Paul plays his bass through a fuzz box on the Harrison song “Think For Yourself”

-George plays the Sitar on “Norwegian Wood”

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Their producer George Martin played the Harmonium on the song “The Word.” A Harmonium is a reed organ resembling a pipe organ with a timbre similar to the Accordion.

The Harmonium

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On the song “In My Life,” George Martin played back the piano solo at double- speed, slightly changing the tone color, and producing a baroque-like effect. This was the first time that the Beatles experimented with recording techniques.

New perspective in the songs’ lyrics

One striking characteristic in Rubber Soul is the subject matter of most of the lyrics. Eight out of the fourteen total songs (57% of the album) are either angry or antagonistic towards women, or present women in positions of power. This was quite a twist from their previous albums.

“Drive My Car” Woman: Baby you can drive my car, and baby I’ll love you

“Norwegian Wood” I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me.

“You Won’t See Me” When I call you up, your line's engaged I have had enough, so act your age

“Think For Yourself” Think for yourself 'Cause I won't be there with you

“What Goes On” I met you in the morning, waiting for the tides of time But now the tide is turning, I can see that I was blind

“Girl” She's the kind of girl who puts you down When friends are there, you feel a fool.

“I’m looking Through You” I'm looking through you, where did you go I thought I knew you, what did I know

“Run For Your Life” Well I'd rather see you dead, little girl Than to be with another man

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SELECTED SONGS FROM RUBBER SOUL

“Drive My Car”

This album opener immediately impresses the ear with its driving riff and tight performance. On one of the recording sessions in October of 1965, Paul had come in with the lyrics ‘I can give you golden rings, I can give you anything, Baby I love you.’ John immediately dismissed them as “crap” and together they came up with ‘Baby, you can drive my car,’ which gave it a sexual edge and rise to the ‘Beep beep, beep beep, yeah!’ of the background vocals. In these lyrics, it is the woman who is in control and telling the man, ‘Baby, you can drive my car.’ She agrees to give him some love if he drives her car, a reversal of the characteristic mid-sixties gender roles.

“Norwegian Wood (This bird has flown)” (‘Bird’ is British slang for ‘girl’)

By 1965, John was not happy in his marriage. He had been unfaithful to Cynthia many times and told her so in 1968. Mainly written by John, this song is about one of his affairs and, as in “Drive My Car,” the woman is in control of the situation; ‘I once had a girl, or should I say she once had me.’ John wrote the song while on vacation with Cynthia in the Swiss Alps. He was later joined by George Martin who recalled, “It was one of John’s indiscretions. I remember we were sitting at the veranda outside our hotel rooms and John was playing his guitar and working out the text. He felt that Cynthia had tricked him into marrying her.” The Dylan influence was still evident in this song, and, as a response to Lennon’s “borrowing” of his style, Dylan himself later wrote a song titled ‘Fourth Time Around’ (which appears on the album Blonde on Blonde) which hints at “Norwegian Wood.”

Indian Music

“Norwegian Wood” introduces George playing the sitar, making it the first pop song to use an Indian instrument. From the moment that George heard Indian music he said that if sounded very familiar to him. He took sitar lessons with India’s most famous sitar player, Ravi Shankar. Indian music opened a door for George that would profoundly change his life; he became highly influenced by Transcendental Meditation and became a Hindu for the rest of his life.

After “Norwegian Wood,” many sixties’ bands started using the sitar (one of the most famous examples is the song “Paint it Black” by the Rolling Stones), and the sound of the sitar itself acquired an association with the psychedelic / hippie phase that followed.

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“Michelle” Like “Yesterday,” this McCartney ballad became a classic. Paul wrote this song

at his girlfriend Jane Asher’s house. Initially he used lines like “goodnight sweetheart,” and “hello my dear,” which later became “Michelle ma belle” (Michelle my beautiful). He asked Jan Vaughan, the wife of an old friend, to help him with the French words. “Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble” (These are words that go together well). She was the one that came up with the name Michelle and Lennon is credited with the ‘I Love You’ part of the song. “Michelle” is the only romantic love song in Rubber Soul. Like “Yesterday,” Paul usually includes “Michelle” in his solo concerts; one of his most distinguished performances was during the 2010 appearance at the White House, where he dedicated the song to First Lady Michelle Obama.

“Girl” John said that the “Girl” in question was a figure from a dream. It was the ideal

woman that he still had not met. “I always had this dream of this particular woman coming into my life,” he said. “I knew it wouldn’t be someone buying Beatles’ records. I was hoping for a woman who could give me what I get from a man intellectually. I wanted someone I could be myself with.” The woman described in this song seems to have two sides to her; on the hand, she promises him the world and is so desirable that he is addicted to her, on the other, she heartlessly ridicules him publicly.

Girl

Is there anybody going to listen to my story,

All about the girl who came to stay?

She's the kind of girl you want so much It makes you sorry,

Still, you don't regret a single day, Ah girl, Girl

When I think of all the times I've tried so hard to leave her,

She will turn to me and start to cry.

And she promises the earth to me, and I believe her,

After all this times I don't know why, Ah, girl, Girl

She's the kind of girl who puts you down

when friends are there, you feel a fool (tit, tit, tit, tit,………….)

When you say she's looking good she acts as if it's understood

She's cool, cool, cool, cool, Girl, Girl

Was she told when she was young that pain would lead to pleasure?

Did she understand it when they said

that a man must break his back to earn his day of leisure?

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Will she still believe it when he's dead? Ah girl, Girl

However, when talking about this song to Rolling Stone magazine in 1970, John said that the verse which asks whether she had been taught that pain would lead to pleasure and that a man must break his back to earn a day of leisure, was reference to, “the Catholic/Christian concept – be tortured and then it will be alright.” Around the time of writing “Girl” he was reading about religion, a subject that interested him until his death. In March of 1966, 3 months after the release of Rubber Soul, John was interviewed by Maureen Cleave of The Evening Standard. He made the infamous remark that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ to the youth of England. It was taken completely out of context by the religious fanatics, especially the residents of the southern bible-belt of the United States, and many radio stations started denouncing the Beatles as anti-Christ, and in some cases started Beatles’ Album Burning campaigns.

“In My Life”

Of all four Beatles, John was by far the most autobiographical one in his writing. With In My Life, he felt that he had finally made the breakthrough that his British friend and author Kenneth Allsop had suggested to him in 1964, when he told John to focus on his own interior life. The song plays a heartfelt tribute to former “friends and lovers” while acknowledging a present love. Elliot Mintz, the press representative that was hired by Yoko Ono after John’s death to help her make an inventory of all John’s personal possessions, remembers seeing the first handwritten draft of the song. “He had already told me how the song was written and that he considered it to be a turning point in his writing and, just as he had described to me, the song went on at great length and included lots of place names including Penny Lane.”

In My Life

There are places I'll remember

All my life though some have changed

Some forever not for better

Some have gone and some remain

All these places have their moments

With lovers and friends I still can recall

Some are dead and some are living

In my life I've loved them all

But of all these friends and lovers

There is no one compares with you

And these memories lose their meaning

When I think of love as something new

Though I know I'll never lose affection

For people and things that went before

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I know I'll often stop and think about them

In my life I love you more

Though I know I'll never lose affection

For people and things that went before

I know I'll often stop and think about them

In my life I love you more

In my life I love you more

In this song George Martin recorded the piano solo with the tape running at half the normal speed. Once the speed of the tape is brought back to normal, the piano solo sounds at twice the speed. This process changes the sound quality of the piano (the Timbre or Tone Color) making it reminiscent of a baroque harpsichord. This was the first of many recording studio experiments that the Beatles would incorporate.

The Beatles were already influencing and being influenced by the revolutionary spirit of the mid-to-late sixties. Ideas of women’s liberation, civil rights, sexual liberation, etc., would all find their way in their songs starting with Rubber Soul. The world was rapidly changing, and the Beatles were at the forefront.

December: The Beatles’ final British tour

Songs from Rubber Soul and the single “We Can Work it Out” / “Day In Their Own Words tripper”

DRIVE MY CAR (Lennon/McCartney)

GEORGE 1977: "If Paul had written a song, he'd learn all the parts and then come in the studio and say, 'Do this.' He'd never give you the opportunity to come out with something. But on 'Drive My Car' I just played the line, which is really like a lick off 'Respect,' you know, the Otis Redding version. And I played the line on the guitar and Paul laid that with me on the bass. We laid that track down like that. We played the lead part later on top of it."

PAUL circa-1994: "This is one of the songs where John and I came nearest to having a dry session. The lyrics I brought in were something to do with golden rings, which are always fatal (to songwriting). 'Rings' is fatal anyway, 'rings' always rhymes with things, and I knew it was a bad idea. I came in and I said, 'These aren't good lyrics but it's a

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good tune.' Well, we tried, and John couldn't think of anything, and we tried, and eventually it was, 'Oh let's leave it, let's get off this one.' 'No, no. We can do it; we can do it.' So, we had a break... then we came back to it, and somehow it became 'drive- my-car' instead of 'gol-den-rings,' and then it was wonderful-- because this nice tongue- in-cheek idea came."

NORWEGIAN WOOD (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "'Norwegian Wood' is my song completely. It was about an affair I was having. I was very careful and paranoid because I didn't want my wife, Cyn, to know that there really was something going on outside of the household. I'd always had some kind of affairs going on, so I was trying to be sophisticated in writing about an affair... but in such a smoke-screen way that you couldn't tell. But I can't remember any specific woman it had to do with."

PAUL 1985: "It was me who decided in 'Norwegian Wood' that the house should burn down... not that it's any big deal."

YOU WON'T SEE ME (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "Paul."

NOWHERE MAN (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "I'd spent five hours that morning trying to write a song that was meaningful and good, and I finally gave up and lay down. Then 'Nowhere Man' came, words and music... the whole damn thing, as I lay down. So, letting it go is what the whole game is. You put your finger on it, it slips away, right? You know, you turn the lights on, and the cockroaches run away. You can never grasp them."

PAUL 1984: "That was John after a night out, with dawn coming up. I think at that point in his life, he was a bit wondering where he was going."

THINK FOR YOURSELF (Harrison)

GEORGE 1980: "'Think For Yourself' must be written about somebody from the sound of it-- but all this time later I don't quite recall who inspired that tune. Probably the government."

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THE WORD (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "'The Word' was written together (with Paul), but it's mainly mine. You read the words; it's all about getting smart. It's love. It's a love and peace thing. The word is 'love,' right?"

MICHELLE (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1966: "Paul has had this idea about writing a bit with some other language, with French in it. And he just sort of had a bit of a verse, and a couple of words, and the idea. I think he had some other name or something. He used to talk Double-Dutch French, you see, just to sing the bit. (Imitates singing mock-French) He just brought it along and just sort of started fiddling around trying to get a middle-eight. We pinched a little bit from somewhere and stuck it in the middle-eight, and off we went.

PAUL 1977: "'Michelle' was like a joke French tune for when you go to a party or something. That's all it was. And then after a while you say, 'Well, that's quite a good tune. Let's put some real words to it.'"

JOHN 1980: "He and I were staying somewhere, and he walked in and hummed the first few bars, with the words, and he says, 'Where do I go from here?' I had been listening to (blues singer) Nina Simone. I think it was 'I Put A Spell On You.' There was a line in it that went, 'I love you, I love you.' That's what made me think of the middle- eight for 'Michelle.' So, my contributions to Paul's songs were always to add a little bluesy edge to them. Otherwise, 'Michelle' is a straight ballad, right? He provided a lightness, an optimism, while I would always go for the sadness, the discords, the bluesy notes."

PAUL 1988: "I'll never forget putting the bass line in 'Michelle' because it was a kind of Bizet thing. It really turned the song around. You could do that with bass. It was very exciting."

GIRL (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "That's me, writing about this dream girl, the one that hadn't come yet. It was Yoko."

PAUL circa-1994: "It was John's original idea, but it was very much co-written. I remember writing 'the pain and pleasure,' and 'a man must break his back.' ...It was

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amusing to see if we could get a naughty word on the record. The Beach Boys had a song out where they'd done 'la la la la' and we loved the innocence of that and wanted to copy it but not use the same phrase. So, we were looking around for another phrase- - 'dit dit dit dit,' which we decided to change it in our waggishness to 'tit tit tit tit.' And it gave us a laugh. It was good to get some light relief in the middle of this real big career that we were forging. If we could put in something that was a little bit subversive, then we would. George Martin would say, 'Was that dit-dit or tit-tit you were singing?' 'Oh! dit-dit George, but it does sound a bit like that, doesn't it?' Then we'd get in the car and break down laughing."

I'M LOOKING THROUGH YOU (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "Paul. He must have had an argument with Jane Asher."

PAUL circa-1994: "As is one's wont in relationships, you will from time to time argue or not see eye to eye on things, and a couple of the songs around this period were that kind of thing... I would write it out in a song and then I've got rid of the emotion. I don't hold grudges so that gets rid of that little bit of emotional baggage... I think it's my song totally. I don't remember any of John's assistance."

IN MY LIFE (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "It was the first song I wrote that was consciously about my life. (Sings) 'There are places I'll remember/ all my life though some have changed...' Before, we were just writing songs a la Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly -- pop songs with no more thought to them than that. The words were almost irrelevant. 'In My Life' started out as a bus journey from my house at 250 Menlove Avenue to town, mentioning every place I could remember. I wrote it all down and it was ridiculous... it was the most boring sort of 'What I Did On My Holiday's Bus Trip' song and it wasn't working at all. But then I laid back and these lyrics started coming to me about the places I remember. Paul helped with the middle-eight. It was, I think, my first real major piece of work. Up till then it had all been sort of glib and throwaway. And that was the first time I consciously put my literary part of myself into the lyric."

PAUL 1984: "I think I wrote the tune to that; that's the one we slightly dispute. John either forgot or didn't think I wrote the tune. I remember he had the words, like a poem... sort of about faces he remembered. I recall going off for half an hour and sitting with a Mellotron he had, writing the tune... which was Miracles inspired, as I remember. In fact, a lot of stuff was then."

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WE CAN WORK IT OUT (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "Paul did the first half, I did the middle-eight. But you've got Paul writing, 'We can work it out/ We can work it out' real optimistic, you know. And me, impatient, 'Life is very short and there's no time/ for fussing and fighting, my friend.'"

PAUL circa-1994: "I wrote it as more of an up-tempo thing, country and western. I had the basic idea, the title, had a couple of verses... then I took it to John to finish it off and we wrote the middle together, which is nice-- 'Life is very short/ And there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend.' Then it was George Harrison's idea to put the middle into waltz time, like a German waltz... The lyrics might have been personal. It is often a good way to talk to someone or to work your thoughts out. It saves you going to a psychiatrist, you allow yourself to say what you might not say in person."

DAY TRIPPER (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "That's mine. Including the guitar lick, the guitar break, and the whole bit. It's just a rock & roll song. Day-trippers are people who go on a day trip, right? Usually on a ferryboat or something. But it was kind of-- you know, you're just a weekend hippie. Get it?"

ON RECORDING (DURING THE RUBBER SOUL PERIOD)

JOHN 1968: "We got involved completely in ourselves then. I think it was 'Rubber Soul' when we did all our own numbers. Something just happened. We controlled it a bit. Whatever it was we were putting over, we just tried to control it a bit."

JOHN 1971: "We were just getting better, technically and musically, that's all. Finally, we took over the studio. In the early days we had to take what we were given-- we didn't know how you can get more bass. We were learning the technique on 'Rubber Soul.' We were more precise about making the album, that's all. And we took over the cover and everything."

PAUL 1988: "We'd started to learn what was involved (in the control room), and it was all so fascinating being allowed to do it. As we got more power, they started to let us sit there during a mix.

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Revolver

Listen To The Color Of Your Dreams - John Lennon

“Hair, Drugs, and Rock and Roll were the three major attributes that defined the emerging youth culture of the mid-sixties. Two of these-the maturing sensibility of rock music and the move to personal freedom symbolized by long hair-wouldn’t have happened without the Beatles. The third- the ubiquitous use of drugs-the Beatles wouldn’t have happened without.”

- Steven D. Stark, Meet The Beatles

“The Beatles were more brilliant than they realized and it [their success] would have happened without drugs.”

-George Martin

1966

January 21: Harrison marries Pattie Boyd

April-June: Recording sessions for Revolver

For the Beatles, 1966 was the year they would stop touring and become a studio band. The music would be arranged in the studio for the recording, with no consideration as to whether the songs could be performed live. In essence, the Beatles became recording artists rather than performers and the recording studio became an ‘instrument.’

1966 was also the year George Harrison married Patti Boyd (A few years later Patti would leave George for Eric Clapton. The song “Layla” was written by Clapton

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about him and Patti during this period). The year’s first significant event, however, was not an album or a concert but a photo session. Capitol Records, the Beatles American label, would compile songs from the original British releases for their American albums. Instead of 14 songs they would only include 12 per album, the order and selected songs were different from their U.K. counterparts, and as far as the album covers (except in the case of With the Beatles (English) and Meet the Beatles (USA)) up until Rubber Soul the Capitol album covers differed from their Parlophone equivalent.

Capitol was ready to release their ninth Beatles release, Yesterday and Today, which included songs from the albums Help, Rubber Soul, Revolver and their last single Day Tripper and We Can Work It Out. Brian Epstein hired an Australian photographer, Robert Whitaker, to shoot the cover. Whitaker, who was often surrealistic and experimental, put the Beatles in butcher’s coats holding dismembered plastic dolls and slabs of raw meat. Capitol Records objected to the cover, calling it tasteless and offensive. Paul and John insisted on keeping the cover. The album was initially released with what became known as the “butcher cover” but was quickly withdrawn after complaints from dealers. The original releases are now a collector’s item.

June 10: “Paperback Writer”/ “Rain” single released

“Nowhere Man,” from Rubber Soul, had been the Beatles first song to depart from the theme of love (“Help!” is not about love per-se but it does mention a significant “loved” one in the line ‘I know that I just need you like I’ve never done before’). Now they released their first single that was not about love, “Paperback Writer.” Mainly a McCartney composition, the original motivation for the song’s non-love content was from a comment made by McCartney’s Aunt Lil, who asked him why where all the songs they wrote about love, and couldn’t they write about something else. McCartney took on the challenge and ended up writing a song about a novelist begging a publisher to take on his book, with the lyrics are written in the form of a letter, “Dear Sir or Madam” … Of note in the recording is the somewhat hidden French children’s song “Frère Jacques,” heard over the third verse in the background vocals by John and George.

New Bass Sound

One new feature, which stands out in the recording of both “Paperback Writer” and “Rain”, is the prominent bass sound. Paul’s new Rickenbacker bass was now recorded and mixed more upfront and clearer, like the American recordings by Otis Redding and Wilson Picket. Compared to his Hoffner bass the Rickenbacker had a more stable and resonant response over its entire register, especially in the high notes, making it beneficial for virtuoso playing and more effective for melodic lines. For Revolver and the subsequent album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, McCartney started recording his bass after all the other instruments had been recorded,

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thus allowing him to try different ‘feels’ for the song before deciding on the final version and to use the bass more prominently in the arrangement.

It's all in the mind…

“Rain” was the first Beatles song to deal with metaphysics and transcendental states of consciousness. It’s not only a song about “people moaning because…they don’t like the weather” John said. On another level, it’s about the need to develop a state of mind in which we transcend both the good and the bad. He feels that, just like we can look at the rain as something positive, instead of negative, we should be able to rise above our circumstances.

Backwards Recording

“Rain” includes the first example of backwards recording. In search of new sonorities, John recorded his voice and then played the tape backwards; this is how it appears at the end of the piece. The first example of a backwards guitar solo appears in another Lennon song, “I’m Only Sleeping.” The Beatles continued to explore new recording techniques throughout all their following albums except in Let It Be, where they purposely wanted a raw, back-to-basics, sound.

Rough Gigs in Asia

June 30-July 2: Japanese debut at the Nippon Budokan (Martial Arts Hall).

Some Japanese nationalists considered the Budokan sacred territory (the building was a national shrine to Japan's war casualties) and were offended that a rock & roll band was performing there, even threatening the Beatles with death if they went on with the show. Press agent Tony Barrow knew about the threats but did not tell the Beatles, who did not realize the armed guards surrounding the stage where there to protect them. In the years after the Beatles performance the Nippon Budokan Hall has become one of Japan's main rock music venues.

July 4: Afternoon and evening performances at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium in Manila, Philippines.

The Beatles were so exhausted upon their arrival at Manila that they slept late the next morning. Philippines' first lady Imelda Marcos (wife of Dictator Ferdinand Marcos) had organized a lunch reception for the children of top army officers and had invited (and expected) the Beatles to attend. The Beatles were still asleep when government officials came knocking on their doors. Brian Epstein claimed they had not

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been told about the reception and prohibited the officials from further harassment towards the Beatles. This deeply offended the first lady, and, consequently, the Beatles were refused room service, they were spat at on the way to the plane, their entourage was provoked and pushed around, and their flight was delayed as Brian Epstein and Mal Evans had to get off the plane and deal with passport and tax problems created by the government at the last moment. George Harrison concisely expressed his feelings: “The only way I'd ever return to the Philippines would be to drop an atom bomb on it.”

The Beatles’ song list for their Asian Mini-Tour concerts:

1. Rock and Roll Music 7. Yesterday 2. She's a Woman 8. I Wanna Be Your Man 3. If I Needed Someone 9. Nowhere Man 4. Day Tripper 10. Paperback Writer 5. Baby's in Black 11. I'm Down 6. I Feel Fine 12. Mr. Moonlight

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TRACK LISTING (All songs written by McCartney/Lennon, except where indicated).

Title Lead Vocals Length

Side one

1. "Taxman" (George Harrison) Harrison 2:39

2. "Eleanor Rigby" McCartney 2:08

3. "I'm Only Sleeping" Lennon 3:02

4. "Love You To" (Harrison) Harrison 3:01

5. "Here, There and Everywhere" McCartney 2:26

6. "Yellow Submarine" Starr 2:40

7. "She Said She Said" Lennon 2:37

Side two

1. "Good Day Sunshine" McCartney 2:10

2. "And Your Bird Can Sing" Lennon 2:02

3. "For No One" McCartney 2:01

4. "Doctor Robert" Lennon 2:15

5. "I Want to Tell You" (Harrison) Harrison 2:30

6. "Got to Get You into My Life" McCartney 2:31

7. "Tomorrow Never Knows" Lennon 2:57

PERSONEL

The Beatles

John Lennon: vocals; rhythm and acoustic guitars

Paul McCartney: vocals; bass guitar; lead, rhythm guitar and acoustic guitars;

piano; Clavichord on “For No One”

George Harrison: vocals; lead, rhythm guitar and acoustic guitars; bass guitar

on ("She Said, She Said"); and other instruments.

Ringo Starr: vocals; drums; tambourine; and maracas

Additional musicians and production

Anil Bhagwat: tabla on "Love You To"

Alan Civil: French horn on "For No One"

Brian Jones: background noises on "Yellow Submarine"

Donovan: background vocals on "Yellow Submarine"

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Geoff Emerick: recording and mixing engineer; samples of the marching band

on "Yellow Submarine"

George Martin: producer; piano on "Good Day Sunshine" and "Tomorrow

Never Knows;” Hammond organ on "Got to Get You into My Life;” samples of

the marching band on "Yellow Submarine"

Mal Evans: bass drum and background vocals on "Yellow Submarine"

Marianne Faithfull, Neil Aspinall, Pattie Boyd: background vocals on "Yellow

Submarine"

Session musicians: four violins, two violas and two cellos on "Eleanor Rigby;”

Brass section on "Got to Get You into My Life:” orchestrated and conducted by

George Martin

The Cover The Album cover was illustrated by Klaus Voorman, a German bassist and one

of the Beatles’ friends from their Hamburg days. Voorman’s illustration included photographs by Robert Whitaker, the photographer who took the infamous “butcher cover” for the album Yesterday and Today.

Revolver is considered by many to be the best rock album ever recorded. It was originally called Abracadabra, until the Beatles found out that another band had already used the name. The name Revolver is a pun that is both a handgun as well as something that revolves, as in the revolving motion of a record on a turntable. It marks the new era of the Beatles as recording artists rather than performers. The tendency towards eclecticism and experimentation of their previous albums intensified with Revolver, and album that includes a broad spectrum of songs that range from children’s sing-alongs to electronic-psychedelic experiments. The topics of the songs were also quite varied; taxation, drug-pushing doctors, sleep, Tibetan Buddhism, submarines, love. Between April and June, the Beatles were having the time of their lives inside the recording studio. The sessions would often extend into the early morning hours, something that had never been done at Abbey Road Studios.

Influenced by the hippy movement and the underground scene in America, the avant-garde scene in Britain, and psychedelic drugs, the Beatles’ creativity and imagination flourished. Their new recording engineer, Geoff Emerick, who had taken over Norman Smith’s job when the latter became a producer, was younger than the Beatles and more than happy to experiment along with them. The Beatles would often tell him to ‘break the rules’ of recording and try something new. However, regardless of the amount of innovation and experimentation, the Beatles ability to make their songs accessible (largely due to their memorable melodies) is still present. “One cannot say that our basic music approach has changed, but there is one thing about our new LP,

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there won’t be many people copying our ideas. The sound is harder to emulate, although we still have the same lousy voices!” John Lennon, 1966.

The Psychedelic Period

The imagery and free association in the lyrics, the experimentation with recording techniques, the manipulation of sounds, the new instruments, and the mood changes all qualify Revolver as one of the first psychedelic albums.

Selected songs from Revolver

“Taxman” The opening song of the album, “Taxman,” was by far George’s best composition

to date. Now the wealthy Beatles found themselves in a new tax bracket (they were paying 95% of their money to the government). George writes the first Beatles’ protest song.

Taxman

Let me tell you how it will be

There's one for you, nineteen for me

'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman

Should five per cent appear too small

Be thankful I don't take it all

'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah I'm the taxman

If you drive a car, I'll tax the street,

If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat.

If you get too cold I'll tax the heat,

If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet.

Don't ask me what I want it for (Ha ha Mister Wilson*)

If you don't want to pay some more (Ha ha Mister Heath**)

'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman

Now my advice for those who die

Declare the pennies on your eyes

'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman

And you're working for no one but me.

* Harold Wilson-UK Prime Minister (1964-70, 1974-76)

**Edward Heath-UK Conservative Party Leader 1965-75)

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“Eleanor Rigby”

Following in the footsteps of “Yesterday,” “Eleanor Rigby” consists of Paul’s voice and orchestral strings (in this case a double quartet and no guitar). The masterful and driving string arrangement was done by George Martin, who was probably inspired by composer Bernard Herrmann’s score for the film Fahrenheit 451 and by Antonio Vivaldi’s violin concerto “Winter” from The Four Seasons. Death is not a common subject in popular music, and when employed it is typically presented euphemistically or treated as a joke. With “Eleanor Rigby” The Beatles looked at loneliness and death straight in the eyes and created a masterpiece and one of their best examples in which lyrics and music seamlessly complement each other. Lyrically it is also one of their most complete and poetic songs.

“The face that the heroine ‘keeps in a jar by the door’ (to mask the despair inadmissible by English middle-class etiquette) remains the most memorable image in The Beatles’ output. Yet the lyric’s televisual vividness (‘Look at him working’) is never gratuitous, being consistently at the service of the song’s relentless despondency. Eleanor Rigby dies alone because she was unable to tell anyone how she felt. McKenzie’s sermon won’t be heard – not that he cares very much about his parishioners – because religious faith has perished along with communal spirit (‘No one was saved’). Often represented as purveyors of escapist fantasy, The Beatles were, at their best, more poignantly realistic about their society than any other popular artists of their time.”

Ian McDonald, Revolution in the Head

Eleanor Rigby

Ah, look at all the lonely people

Ah, look at all the lonely people

Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been

Lives in a dream

Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door

Who is it for?

All the lonely people

Where do they all come from?

All the lonely people

Where do they all belong ?

Father McKenzie writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear

No one comes near.

Look at him working. Darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there

What does he care?

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All the lonely people

Where do they all come from?

All the lonely people

Where do they all belong?

Eleanor Rigby died in the church and was buried along with her name

Nobody came

Father McKenzie wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave

No one was saved

All the lonely people

Where do they all come from?

All the lonely people

Where do they all belong?

“Here, There and Everywhere”

“Here, There and Everywhere,” one of Paul’s classic love songs, was written at a time when things were looking good between him and Jane Asher. Both Paul and John considered this as one of their favorite Beatles’ songs. Paul had been listening to the album Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys and was impressed with their vocal arrangements and musical inventiveness. He later credited Pet Sounds as a major influence in the conception of the next album by the Beatles, Sgt.Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

“She Said She Said”

She said "I know what it's like to be dead.

I know what it is to be sad"

And she's making me feel like I've never been born.

I said "Who put all those things in your head?

Things that make me feel that I'm mad

And you're making me feel like I've never been born."

She said "you don't understand what I said"

I said "No, no, no, you're wrong"

When I was a boy everything was right

Everything was right

I said "Even though you know what you know

I know that I'm ready to leave

'Cause you're making me feel like I've never been born."

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She said "you don't understand what I said"

I said "No, no, no, you're wrong"

When I was a boy everything was right

Everything was right

I said "Even though you know what you know

I know that I'm ready to leave

'Cause you're making me feel like I've never been born."

She said , she said "I know what it's like to be dead"

("I know what it's like to be dead") I know what it is to be sad...

This rocker was written by John and inspired by a conversation he had with actor Peter Fonda in August of 1965 in Beverly Hills, California during an LSD trip. Below is an article written by Fonda for Rolling Stone Magazine about the meeting.

“I finally made my way past the kids and the guards. Paul and George were on the back patio, and the

helicopters were patrolling overhead. They were sitting at a table under an umbrella in a rather comical

attempt at privacy. Soon afterwards we dropped acid and began tripping for what would prove to be all

night and most of the next day; all of us, including the original Byrds, eventually ended up inside a huge,

empty, sunken tub in the bathroom, babbling our minds away.

I had the privilege of listening to the four of them sing, play around and scheme about what they would

compose and achieve. They were so enthusiastic, so full of fun. John was the wittiest and most astute. I

enjoyed just hearing him speak and there were no pretensions in his manner. He just sat around, laying out

lines of poetry and thinking – an amazing mind. He talked a lot, yet he still seemed so private. It was a thoroughly tripped-out atmosphere because they kept finding girls hiding under tables and so forth: one

snuck into the poolroom through a window while an acid-fired Ringo was shooting pool with the wrong

end of the cue. "Wrong end?" he’d say. "So, what fuckin’ difference does it make?”

-Peter Fonda

“Tomorrow Never Knows”

This is the last song on the album, but it was the first one recorded. Like “A Hard Day’s Night,” the title was one of Ringo’s malapropisms. This song, mainly a Lennon composition, is also the first psychedelic song the Beatles recorded. He adapted lines from Timothy Leary’s book The Psychedelic Experience which was a poetic interpretation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Leary, known as the high priest of LSD, had spent time in the Himalayas studying Tibetan Budhism. His teacher was Lama Govinda. “I would ask Lama Govinda questions,” said Leary, “and then I tried to

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translate what he said into something useful for people. Book of the Dead really means ‘Book Of The Dying’ but it’s your ego rather than your body which is dying. The concept of Buddhism is of the void and of reaching the void – that is what John captured in the song.”

Recording, Instrumentation, and Music

John told George Martin that he wanted to sound like the Dalai Lama singing from a mountaintop. It would have been vastly expensive and most impractical to fly John to a Tibetan mountain, so recording engineer Geoff Emerick came up with the imaginative idea of connecting John’s microphone through a Leslie Speaker (Leslie Speakers were used for organs, and included a rotating speaker inside the cabinet which produced a type of wavering effect (or vibrato) to the sound) which gave John’s recorded voice a dreamy and distant effect. They also made extensive use of the tape loops that Paul had previously recorded at his home. Some of the most audible loops sound like seagulls (actually Paul’s laughter played backwards and sped up). There are also loops of orchestral music and incidental noises. The drums have been compressed and the recording of the guitar solo was played backwards.

The song is built completely around one chord, C major, with a secondary chord (B flat) intermittently juxtaposed against the C drone. This ‘One Chord’ structure was undoubtedly an influence of Indian music (which commonly uses a single note drone throughout the entire piece). The song begins with the sound of the sitar, and once the bass and drums kick in, it’s hard to not to get hooked or spellbound by the engaging groove.

Tomorrow Never Knows

Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream

It is not dying, It is not dying

Lay down all thought Surrender to the void

It is shining, It is shining

That you may see The meaning of within

It is being, It is being

That love is all And love is everyone

It is knowing, It is knowing

That ignorance and hate May mourn the dead

It is believing, It is believing

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But listen to the color of your dreams

It is not living, It is not living

Or play the game existence to the end

Of the beginning, Of the beginning

In Their Own Words

Songs from Revolver and the single “Paperback Writer”/ “Rain”

TAXMAN (Harrison)

GEORGE 1980: "'Taxman' was when I first realized that even though we had started earning money, we were giving most of it away in taxes. It was and still is typical."

JOHN 1980: "I remember the day he (George) called to ask for help on 'Taxman,' one of his first songs. I threw in a few one-liners to help the song along because that's what he asked for. He came to me because he couldn't go to Paul. Paul wouldn't have helped him at that period. I didn't want to do it. I just sort of bit my tongue and said OK. It had been John and Paul for so long, he'd been left out because he hadn't been a songwriter up until then."

GEORGE 1987: "I was pleased to have Paul play that bit [guitar solo] on 'Taxman.' If you notice, he did like a little Indian bit on it for me."

ELEANOR RIGBY (Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL 1966: "I was sitting at the piano when I thought of it. The first few bars just came to me, and I got this name in my head... Daisy Hawkins picks up the rice in the church. I don't know why. I couldn't think of much more, so I put it away for a day. Then the name Father McCartney came to me, and all the lonely people. But I thought that people would think it was supposed to be about my dad sitting knitting his socks. Dad's a happy lad. So, I went through the telephone book, and I got the name McKenzie. I was in Bristol when I decided Daisy Hawkins wasn't a good name. I walked 'round looking at the shops, and I saw the name Rigby. Then I took the song down to John's house in Weybridge. We sat around, laughing, got stoned and finished it off."

JOHN 1980: "Paul's baby, and I helped with the education of the child... The violin backing was Paul's idea. Jane Asher had turned him on to Vivaldi, and it was very good."

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PAUL 1984: "I got the name Rigby from a shop in Bristol. I was wandering round Bristol one day and saw a shop called Rigby. And I think Eleanor was from Eleanor Bron, the actress we worked with in the film 'Help!' But I just liked the name. I was looking for a name that sounded natural. Eleanor Rigby sounded natural."

I'M ONLY SLEEPING (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "It's got backwards guitars... that's me dreaming my life away."

LOVE YOU TO (Harrison)

GEORGE 1980: "'Love You To' was one of the first tunes I wrote for sitar. 'Norwegian Wood was an accident as far as the sitar part was concerned, but this was the first song where I consciously tried to use the sitar and tabla on the basic track. I overdubbed the guitars and vocals later."

HERE THERE AND EVERYWHERE (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "That's Paul's song completely, I believe. And one of my favorite songs of the Beatles."

PAUL 1984: "I wrote that by John's pool one day. When we were working together, sometimes he came in to see me. But mainly, I went out to see him."

YELLOW SUBMARINE (Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL 1966: "It's a happy place, that's all. You know, it was just... We were trying to write a children's song. That was the basic idea. And there's nothing more to be read into it than there is in the lyrics of any children's song."

JOHN 1980: "'Yellow Submarine' is Paul's baby. Donovan helped with the lyrics. I helped with the lyrics too. We virtually made the track come alive in the studio but based on Paul's inspiration. Paul's idea. Paul's title... written for Ringo."

PAUL 1984: "I wrote that in bed one night. As a kid's story. And then we thought it would be good for Ringo to do."

PAUL circa-1994: "I was lying in bed in the Asher's garret, and there's a nice twilight zone just as you're drifting into sleep and as you wake from it-- I always find it quite a

127 The Beatles: A Magical History Tour

comfortable zone. I remember thinking that a children's song would be quite a good idea... I was thinking of it as a song for Ringo, which it eventually turned out to be, so I wrote it as not too rangey (wide range between the low and high notes) in the vocal. I just made up a little tune in my head, then started making a story-- sort of an ancient mariner, telling the young kids where he'd lived. It was pretty much my song as I recall... I think John helped out. The lyrics got more and more obscure as it goes on, but the chorus, melody and verses are mine."

SHE SAID SHE SAID (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "That's mine. It's an interesting track. The guitars are great on it. That was written after an acid trip in L.A. during a break in the Beatles tour where we were having fun with the Byrds and lots of girls. Peter Fonda came in when we were on acid and he kept coming up to me and sitting next to me and whispering, 'I know what it's like to be dead.' He was describing an acid trip he'd been on. We didn't 'want' to hear about that. We were on an acid trip and the sun was shining and the girls were dancing, and the whole thing was beautiful and Sixties, and this guy-- who I really didn't know-- he hadn't made 'Easy Rider' or anything... kept coming over, wearing shades, saying, 'I know what it's like to be dead,' and we kept leaving him because he was so boring! And I used it for the song, but I changed it to 'she' instead of 'he.' It was scary... I don't want to know what it's like to be dead!"

GOOD DAY SUNSHINE (Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL 1984: "Wrote that out at John's one day... the sun was shining. Influenced by the Lovin' Spoonful."

AND YOUR BIRD CAN SING (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1972: "Another horror."

GEORGE 1987: "I think it was Paul and me, or maybe John and me, playing (guitar) in harmony-- quite a complicated little line that goes through the middle-eight."

FOR NO ONE (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1972: "Another of his I really liked."

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PAUL 1984: "I wrote that on a skiing holiday in Switzerland. In a hired chalet amongst the snow."

PAUL circa-1994: "I suspect it was about another argument. I don't have easy relationships with women, I never have. I talk too much truth."

DOCTOR ROBERT (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "Another of mine. Mainly about drugs and pills. It was about me. I was the one that carried all the pills on tour... later the roadies did it. We just kept them in our pockets, loose, in case of trouble."

GOT TO GET YOU INTO MY LIFE (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1968: "We were doing our Tamla Motown bit. You see, we're influenced by whatever's going. Even if we're not influenced, we're all going that way at a certain time."

JOHN 1980: "Paul. I think that was one of his best songs, too, because the lyrics are good, and I didn't write them. You see? When I say that he could write lyrics if he took the effort-- here's an example."

PAUL 1984: "That's mine-- I wrote it. It was the first one we used brass on, I think. One of the first times we used soul trumpets."

TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1968: "'Tomorrow Never Knows' ...I didn't know what I was saying, and you just find out later. I know that when there are some lyrics I dig, I know that somewhere people will be looking at them."

JOHN 1968: "Often the backing I think of early-on never comes off. With 'Tomorrow Never Knows' I'd imagined in my head that in the background you would hear thousands of monks chanting. That was impractical, of course, and we did something different. It was a bit of a drag, and I didn't really like it. I should have tried to get near my original idea, the monks singing. I realize now that was what I wanted."

JOHN 1972 "This was my first psychedelic song."

129 The Beatles: A Magical History Tour

JOHN 1980 "That's me in my 'Tibetan Book of the Dead' period. I took one of Ringo's malapropisms as the title, to sort of take the edge off the heavy philosophical lyrics."

PAUL 1984: "That was one of Ringo's malapropisms. John wrote the lyrics from Timothy Leary's version of the 'Tibetan Book of the Dead.' It was a kind of Bible for all the psychedelic freaks. that was an LSD song. Probably the only one. People always thought 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' was, but it actually 'wasn't' meant to say LSD."

PAPERBACK WRITER (Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL circa-1994: "I arrived at Weybridge and told John I had this idea of trying to write off to a publisher to become a paperback writer, and I said, 'I think it should be written like a letter.' I took a bit of paper out and I said it should be something like, 'Dear Sir or Madam, as the case may be...' and I proceeded to write it just like a letter in front of him, occasionally rhyming it... And then we went upstairs and put the melody to it. John and I sat down and finished it all up, but it was tilted towards me-- the original idea was mine. I had no music, but it's just a little bluesy song, not a lot of melody. Then I had the idea to do the harmonies, and we arranged that in the studio."

RAIN (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1966: "After we'd done the session on that particular song-- it ended at about four or five in the morning-- I went home with a tape to see what else you could do with it. And I was sort of very tired, you know, not knowing what I was doing, and I just happened to put it on my own tape recorder, and it came out backwards. And I liked it better. So that's how it happened."

RINGO 1984: "My favorite piece of me is what I did on 'Rain.' I think I just played amazing. I was into the snare and hi-hat. I think it was the first time I used the trick of starting a break by hitting the hi-hat first instead of going directly to a drum off the hi- hat. I think it's the best out of all the records I've ever made. 'Rain' blows me away. It's out in left field. I know me and I know my playing... and then there's 'Rain.'"

ON SONGWRITING (DURING THE REVOLVER PERIOD)

JOHN 1966: "Sometimes they say, 'Now you must write,' and now we write. But it doesn't come some days. We sit there for days just talking to each other, messing 'round not doing anything."

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GEORGE 1966: "John and Paul's standard of writing has bettered over the years, so it's very hard for me to come straight to the top, on par with them. They gave me an awful lot of encouragement. Their reaction has been very good. If it hadn't, I think I would have just crawled away."

PAUL 1966: "I don't know whether poets think they have to experience things to write about them, but I can tell you our songs are nearly all imagination-- ninety percent imagination. I don't think Beethoven was in a really wicked mood all the time."

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Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Oh, I get it. You don’t want to be cute anymore. -Bob Dylan, upon hearing

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The end of Touring and the beginning of the Studio Years

August 29: The Beatles play at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park for their final concert before a paying audience.

The Beatles gave their final live concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California. Paul McCartney had asked Tony Barrow to tape the concert, but the tape ran out halfway through the last song, “Long Tall Sally.”

The following is a 2006 account from the San Francisco newspaper the Oroville Register:

What occurred at Candlestick Park exactly 40 years ago — on Aug. 29, 1966 — had nothing to do with Willie Mays or the San Francisco Giants. Rather, it was the occasion of the final full-length concert performed by the Beatles as the band concluded its last tour — a 14-city tour of America. It was essentially the end of the “Beatlemania” that had begun when the group first came to America in February of 1964 and continued for the next 21/2 years.

John, Paul, George and Ringo had grown tired of their image as teen idol “moptops.” By mid-1966, the gap between them as live, on-stage performers and as more sophisticated composers and studio artists had grown far too wide for their liking. The novelty had worn off. Fans would scream hysterically regardless of how well they played, and they had become virtual prisoners of their hotel rooms while on

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tour. Having played their next-to-last concert the night before at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, the Liverpool lads had only one more obligation to perform live as they flew north to the Bay Area.

It was a full moon on that Monday night in late August, and not surprisingly, cold and windy. The Beatles arrived at Candlestick in an armored car amid heavy security that numbered 200 strong. Inside, the park was only slightly more than half-full, with nearly 25,000 fans who had paid between $3.80 and $7 for a ticket. Not everyone on the premises, however, was thrilled with the Beatles’ appearance. More than a dozen protesters marched outside the park carrying signs that were aimed at the Beatles and comments that had been made recently by John Lennon. The outspoken Lennon had told an interviewer months earlier that Christianity was on the decline and that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ. None of that seemed to matter to the fans inside. The show began at 8 p.m., and the crowd greeted opening acts the Cyrkle (”Red Rubber Ball” and “Turn Down Day”), the Remains and the Ronettes, led by Ronnie Spector, wife of Phil Spector.

Finally, in the face of the hysteria and pandemonium that had become all too familiar, the Fab Four took the stage at 9:27 p.m. Located just behind second base on the field, the stage was 5 feet high and surrounded by a 6-foot high wire fence. The band kicked off their set with “She’s a Woman” as the enthusiasm reached a fever pitch. As the San Mateo Times reported the following day, the Beatles “… sang and strummed while their fans shrieked, cried and groaned, wept, yelled, shouted, and did everything but listen.” Throughout the concert, about a half-dozen young fans rushed onto the field in an attempt to get to the stage. Security set about tackling them one by one to avoid further incident. Realizing the significance of the event, Lennon had brought a camera on stage, and between songs, both he and McCartney took photos of members of the band.

The group performed a total of only 10 songs, which included popular hits such as “Day Tripper” and “Yesterday.” They concluded the show with Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally,” climbed back into the waiting armored car, and were out of the park by 10 p.m. The Beatles were paid roughly $90,000 for their efforts. On the plane leaving San Francisco that night, George Harrison told reporters facetiously: “Well, that’s it. I’m not a Beatle anymore.” The fact is, though Harrison and his mates were stepping away from live performances, they were just embarking on their most creative, innovative, and influential period.

November 9: Lennon meets Yoko Ono at London’s Indica Gallery

John Lennon first met Yoko when he visited an art exhibition at the Indica Gallery. John became intrigued by one of Yoko’s exhibits called “Ceiling Painting” which invited the viewer to climb a white ladder, where at the top a magnifying glass, attached by a chain, hangs from a frame on the ceiling. The viewer uses the magnifying glass to discover a block letter “instruction” beneath the framed sheet of glass- it said “YES.”

December: Recoding Sessions for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band begin.

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1967

February 17: “Strawberry Fields Forever”/ “Penny Lane” double A-side single released

The first songs released by The Beatles in 1967 look back to Liverpool and their childhood days. “Strawberry Fileds Forever” and “Penny Lane” were both such strong songs that they were equally listed as A-sided on the single record.

Penny Lane

In Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs

Of every head he's had the pleasure to know.

And all the people that come and go

Stop and say hello.

On the corner is a banker with a motorcar,

The little children laugh at him behind his back.

And the banker never wears a mack

In the pouring rain, very strange.

Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes.

There beneath the blue suburban skies

I sit, and meanwhile back

In penny Lane there is a fireman with an hourglass

And in his pocket is a portrait of the Queen.

He likes to keep his fire engine clean,

It's a clean machine.

Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes.

A four of fish and finger pies

In summer, meanwhile back

Behind the shelter in the middle of a roundabout

The pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray

And tho' she feels as if she's in a play

She is anyway.

In Penny Lane the barber shaves another customer,

We see the banker sitting waiting for a trim.

And then the fireman rushes in

From the pouring rain, very strange.

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Penny lane is in my ears and in my eyes.

There beneath the blue suburban skies

I sit, and meanwhile back.

Penny lane is in my ears and in my eyes.

There beneath the blue suburban skies,

Penny Lane.

“Penny Lane” is both a street and an area in the Beatles hometown of Liverpool. One of Paul’s most popular story songs, “Penny Lane” is “part fact, part nostalgia” he said. It includes a nurse selling poppies, a happy barber, a banker, a fireman, and other characters. The narrative of the lyric is not a story in the conflict-resolution sense, instead, it simply presents a series of images meant to capture the ‘flavor’ of Liverpool’s Penny Lane as remembered and interpreted by McCartney. The line, ‘and she feels as if she’s in a play, she is anyway’ is like John’s line from “Strawberry Fields,” ‘Nothing Is Real,” in its allusion to the relativity and nature of reality.

Instrumentation

“Penny Lane” incorporates orchestral wind instruments (woodwinds and brass), a stylistic feature that started with songs in Revolver (“For No One” French Horn and “Got To Get You Into My Life” Brass) and would become quite prominent in next two albums, Sgt.Pepper’s and Magical Mystery Tour. One night Paul was watching an orchestra on T.V. performing one of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos and was taken by the sound of a high-pitched trumpet. What he heard was actually a piccolo (or Baroque) trumpet. David Mason, the person Paul heard playing the trumpet that night, was hired the following day to come in and record the solo on Penny Lane.

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The Piccolo or Baroque trumpet

Another instrumental feature of the song is the Bass Line: It starts off on a very high part of the register (on the 15th fret), and it is clearly upfront in the mix, taking on a prominent ‘melodic’ role with its descending moving line, like the one in “All My Loving.” The song also includes the sound of Fire Truck Bells.

Strawberry Fields Forever

Let me take you down, cause I’m going to Strawberry fields

Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about

Strawberry fields forever

Living is easy with eyes closed, Misunderstanding all you see

Its getting hard to be someone, but it all works out

It doesn’t matter much to me

Let me take you down, cause I’m going to Strawberry fields

Nothing is real, And nothing to get hung about

Strawberry fields forever

No one, I think, is in my tree, I mean, it must be high or low

That is, you cant, you know, tune in, but its alright

That is, I think its not too bad

Let me take you down,………..

Always, no, sometimes, think its me, But, you know, I know when its a dream. I think, er, no, I

mean, er, yes, but its all wrong

That is, I think I disagree

Let me take you down, ……………..Strawberry fields forever

After the touring had stopped, in fall of 1966, John was in Spain as an actor in a film by Dick Lester called How I Won The War. It was during the breaks, between takes, that he conceived and wrote “Strawberry Fields Forever.” Originally a nostalgia song about the Salvation Army orphanage in Liverpool, it ended up as an essay on states of

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consciousness and reality. John wrote and recorded many sketches for this piece, but in the end, he was only satisfied with the first half of one version, and the second half of another version. He approached George Martin and asked him to splice together the first minute of version one to the back of end of version two. Martin told John that there was one major problem; the two versions were in different tempi and different keys, to which John, in his usual untroubled spirit, turned to Martin and said, “I’m sure you can fix it, George.” Martin did indeed figure out a solution; he slowed down the speed of one of the versions until it matched the same key and tempo as the other version. (When the tape of a recording is played at a speed slower than the original speed the music’s tempo is slowed down, the pitch is lowered, and the timbre or tone color is altered). A listener familiar with John’s voice will detect that it sounds lower in tone color in some phrases.

Instrumentation

“Strawberry Fields Forever” employs an impressive instrumental arrangement by the Beatles and George Martin. The opening flute sounds were played by Paul on a Mellotron, an electro-mechanical keyboard instrument that played back pre-recorded tape loops of mainly orchestral instruments (a prototype of today’s digital samplers). The song also includes multiple percussion parts, including backwards cymbals (the cymbals are recorded with the tape running in reverse. When the tape is then returned to the forward direction, the recorded cymbals are heard backwards). “Strawberry Fields Forever” set the standard for the psychedelic rock movement that followed. Up to that point, it was the most complex and sophisticated track they had ever recorded.

“Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields Forever” were intended for the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, but Capitol Records were pressuring the Beatles for a single, and the songs were released as a double A sided single. In America “Penny Lane” went to the number one spot on the charts, but in England it stayed at number 2, beaten by Engelbert Humperdinck’s song, “Please Release Me,” making it the first Beatles single that did not make it to number one in England. By now, John and Paul were hardly writing songs together. As they wrote less and less together, and as they matured, the differences in their personalities became more pronounced in their music. These two songs are excellent examples of their distinct personalities and writing styles. Paul’s “Penny Lane” is cheery, optimistic, tells a fictitious story mainly from a third person/narrator perspective, it is straight forward rhythmically and harmonically, and features a very memorable melody, while John’s “Strawberry Fields” is written in first-person narrative (“I”, “Me”), the lyrics are psychedelic (philosophical, symbolic, and abstract), the mood is slightly dark, there are unexpected chord changes, and it is rhythmically complex.

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June 1: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album released by

Parlophone

TRACK LISTING (All songs written by McCartney/Lennon, except where indicated).

Title Lead Vocals Length

Side one

1. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" McCartney 2:02

2. "With a Little Help from My Friends" Starr 2:44

3. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" Lennon 3:28

4. "Getting Better" McCartney 2:47

5. "Fixing a Hole" McCartney 2:36

6. "She's Leaving Home" McCartney with Lennon 3:35

7. "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" Lennon 2:37

Side two

1. "Within You Without You" (George Harrison) Harrison 5:05

2. "When I'm Sixty-Four" McCartney 2:37

3. "Lovely Rita" McCartney 2:42

4. "Good Morning Good Morning" Lennon 2:41

5. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)"McCartney, with Harrison 1:18

and Lennon

6. "A Day in the Life" Lennon with McCartney 5:33

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PERSONEL

The Beatles

John Lennon: vocals; lead, rhythm and acoustic guitars; Hammond organ and

piano; bass guitar; handclaps, harmonica, tape loops, sound effects and kazoo;

tambourine and maracas

Paul McCartney: vocals; lead electric and acoustic guitars; bass guitar; piano

and Hammond organ; handclaps, vocalizations, tape loops, sound effects and

kazoo

George Harrison: lead, rhythm, acoustic and bass guitars; sitar; vocals;

tamboura; harmonica and kazoo; handclaps; maracas

Ringo Starr: drums, congas, tambourine, maracas, handclaps and tubular bells;

lead vocals; harmonica and kazoo; final piano E chord

Additional musicians and production

Neil Aspinall: tamboura and harmonica

Geoff Emerick: recording and mixing engineer; tape loops and sound effects

Mal Evans: counting, alarm clock and final piano E chord

Matthew Deyell: tambourine

George Martin: producer and mixer; tape loops and sound effects; harpsichord

(on "Fixing a Hole"), harmonium, Lowry organ and glockenspiel (on "Being for

the Benefit of Mr. Kite!"), Hammond organ (on "With a Little Help from My

Friends"), and piano (on "Getting Better" and the solo in "Lovely Rita"); final

harmonium chord

Session musicians: four French horns on "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club

Band", (Neill Sanders, James W. Buck, John Burden, Tony Randall), arranged

and conducted by Martin and McCartney; string section and harp on "She's

Leaving Home", arranged by Mike Leander and conducted by Martin;

harmonium, tabla, sitar, dilruba, eight violins and four cellos on "Within You,

Without You", arranged and conducted by Harrison and Martin; clarinet trio on

"When I'm Sixty Four", as arranged and conducted by Martin and McCartney;

saxophone sextet on "Good Morning, Good Morning", arranged and conducted

by Martin and Lennon; and forty-piece orchestra (strings, brass, woodwinds and

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percussion) on "A Day in the Life", arranged by Martin, Lennon and McCartney

and conducted by Martin and McCartney

Peter Blake: cover designer

Michael Cooper: photographer

Recorded in 5 months (between December 1966 and April 1967), at a cost of 8th$100,000., Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was their album and is

considered by many as the Beatles’ masterpiece. Rolling Stone Magazine ranked it as #1 on its “500 Greatest Albums” list in 2003.

CONCEPT ALBUM

Paul came up with the concept for the album while in an airplane across the Atlantic. Since the Beatles weren’t touring anymore, Paul thought that the album could tour in their place. He then created the fictitious group Sgt. Pepper and his band, an idea that freed the Beatles of any expectation from their fans as to what music to write next because now it was ‘Sgt. Pepper’s’ music, not the Beatles’ music. Consequently, they gained much creative freedom, and the recording studio truly became another ‘instrument.’ To highlight the “album touring” effect, the first sounds one hears on track 1 are ambient sounds suggestive of a live concert setting.

“The aliases, however, were never sustained beyond the opening and closing tracks and the segue into ‘A Little Help From My Friends,’ where Ringo is introduced as Billy Shears. The plan helped because it gave the impression that this was a ‘concept album.’ “The songs, if you listen to them, have no connection at all,” George Martin admits. “Paul said, ‘why don’t we make the band ‘Pepper’ and Ringo ‘Billy Shears’ because it gives a nice beginning to the thing? It wasn’t really a concept album at all. It was just a question of me trying to make something coherent by doing segues as much as possible.” Later, Martin came up with the idea for a reprise, which helped to wrap it all up.”

-Steve Turner A Hard Days’ Write

Other rock music albums that are considered concept albums include Freak Out! by Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention released on June 27, 1966 (one full year before Sgt. Pepper’s) and Face to Face by The Kinks, also released in 1966. Sgt.Pepper’s is not the first released concept album, but it is the first album that still qualifies as a concept album to become enormously popular. After the release of Sgt. Pepper’s, rock music was accepted as serious art and songs became longer and more complex.

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THE COVER

Designed by Peter Blake, the album cover consists of pictures and statues of people chosen by the Beatles; boyhood idols, favorite movie personalities, etc… The Beatles were each given free rein to select any historical figure they wished. Lennon’s original choices included Mohandas Gandhi, Jesus Christ, and Hitler, but he was convinced by the record label executives not to include them, since a great number of people might be offended by seeing these figures on a record cover together.

LYRICS PRINTED ON ALBUM

The backside of the album has a picture of The Beatles and the song’s lyrics; it was the first album ever to print the lyrics of the songs.

“Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”

This song was rumored to be about LSD because of the coincidence of these

three letters with the title of the song: Lucy-Sky-Diamonds. John denied any connection with LSD and explained that the title was taken from a drawing that John’s

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son Julian had done in school. A verifiable influence on the song’s lyrics, with its surreal and picturesque imagery, is Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland, and Through The Looking Glass) one of John’s favorite authors.

Lucy in the sky with diamonds

Picture yourself in a boat on a river

With tangerine trees and marmalade skies.

Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly,

A girl with kaleidoscope eyes.

Cellophane flowers of yellow and green

Towering over your head.

Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes

And she's gone.

Lucy in the sky with diamonds

Lucy in the sky with diamonds

Lucy in the sky with diamonds, ah, ah

Follow her down to a bridge by the fountain

where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies.

Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers

That grow so incredibly high.

Newspaper taxis appear on the shore

Waiting to take you away

Climb in the back with your head in the clouds

And you're gone.

Picture yourself on a train in a station

With plasticine porters with looking glass ties,

Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile,

The girl with kaleidoscope eyes.

“A Day In A Life”

John commonly got his ideas or inspirations for songs from magazines, newspapers, books…. from whatever he read. The lyrics of “A Day in a Life” originated from multiple sources, some of which include the fatal car accident of Guinness heir millionaire and socialite Tara Browne (an acquaintance the Beatles), and a newspaper article about the multiple potholes in the streets in Blackburn, Lancashire.

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Tara Browne and his car after the fatal accident

Even to a greater degree than the song “We Can Work It Out,” “A Day in a Life” is comprised of music by John and Paul composed separately and then sewn together into one song. When John first came to the studio with the song, he only had four verses and felt that it needed some new and contrasting material, like a bridge. In response to John’s request, Paul mentioned that he had been working on a song which was still incomplete and suggested that it might work as a bridge for John’s verses.

They agreed to sandwich Paul’s bridge between the third and fourth of John’s verses and proceeded to record a version like this. They liked it, but now felt the song needed a link, or transition, between John’s third verse and Paul’s bridge. The solution turned out to be one the most powerful transitions in the history of music; they asked George Martin to arrange a very slow orchestral crescendo that would rise in pitch as it gradually grew louder and more dissonant, creating (as Martin called it) an ‘Orchestral Orgasm.’ It proved to be the icing on the cake. “A Day in a Life,” with its beautiful melodies, haunting harmonies, multi-meaning psychedelic lyrics, masterful arrangement, and performance (Ringo’s drum fills are brilliant), is considered by many one of their favorite Beatles’ songs.

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A Day in the Life

(Verses) I read the news today oh boy

About a lucky man who made the grade

And though the news was rather sad

Well I just had to laugh

I saw the photograph.

He blew his mind out in a car

He didn't notice that the lights had changed

A crowd of people stood and stared

They'd seen his face before

Nobody was really sure

If he was from the House of Lords.

I saw a film today oh boy

The English Army had just won the war

A crowd of people turned away

but I just had to look

Having read the book.

I'd love to turn you on

(Bridge) Woke up, fell out of bed,

Dragged a comb across my head

Found my way downstairs and drank a cup,

And looking up I noticed I was late.

Found my coat and grabbed my hat

Made the bus in seconds flat

Found my way upstairs and had a smoke,

Somebody spoke, and I went into a dream

(Verse) I read the news today oh boy

Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire

And though the holes were rather small

They had to count them all

Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall.

I'd love to turn you on

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In Their Own Words

Songs from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "'Sgt. Pepper' is Paul after a trip to America and the whole West Coast long-named group thing was coming in. You know, when people were no longer the Beatles or the Crickets-- they were suddenly Fred and His Incredible Shrinking Grateful Airplanes, right? So, I think he got influenced by that and came up with this idea for the Beatles."

PAUL 1984: "It was an idea I had, I think, when I was flying from L.A. to somewhere. I thought it would be nice to lose our identities, to submerge ourselves in the persona of a fake group. We would make up all the culture around it and collect all our heroes in one place. So, I thought, A typical stupid-sounding name for a Dr. Hook's Medicine Show and Traveling Circus kind of thing would be 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.' Just a word game, really."

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS (Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL circa-1994: "This was written out at John's house in Weybridge for Ringo... I think that was probably the best of our songs that we wrote for Ringo actually. I remember giggling with John as we wrote the lines, 'What do you see when you turn out the light/ I can't tell you, but I know it's mine.' It could have been him playing with his willie under the covers, or it could have been taken on a deeper level. This is what it meant but it was a nice way to say it-- a very non-specific way to say it. I always liked that."

LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "My son Julian came in one day with a picture he painted about a school friend of his named Lucy. He had sketched in some stars in the sky and called it 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,' Simple. The images were from 'Alice in Wonderland.' It was Alice in the boat. She is buying an egg and it turns into Humpty Dumpty. The woman serving in the shop turns into a sheep and the next minute they are rowing in a rowing boat somewhere and I was visualizing that. There was also the image of the female who would someday come save me... a 'girl with kaleidoscope eyes' who would come

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out of the sky. It turned out to be Yoko, though I hadn't met Yoko yet. So maybe it should be 'Yoko in the Sky with Diamonds.' It was purely unconscious that it came out to be LSD. Until somebody pointed it out, I never even thought it, I mean, who would ever bother to look at initials of a title? It's NOT an acid song. The imagery was Alice in the boat and the image of this female who would come and save me-- this secret love that was going to come one day. So, it turned out to be Yoko... and I hadn't met Yoko then. But she was my imaginary girl that we all have."

GETTING BETTER (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "It is a diary form of writing. All that 'I used to be cruel to my woman, I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved' was me. I used to be cruel to my woman, and physically... any woman. I was a hitter. I couldn't express myself and I hit. I fought men and I hit women. That is why I am always on about peace, you see. It is the most violent people who go for love and peace. Everything's the opposite. But I sincerely believe in love and peace. I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence. I will have to be a lot older before I can face in public how I treated women as a youngster."

PAUL 1984: "Wrote that at my house in St. John's Wood. All I remember is that I said, 'It's getting better all the time,' and John contributed the legendary line 'It couldn't get much worse.' Which I thought was very good. Against the spirit of that song, which was all super-optimistic... then there's that lovely little sardonic line. Typical John."

FIXING A HOLE (Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL 1967: "It's really about the fans who hang around outside your door day and night. 'See the people standing there/ they worry me, and never win/ and wonder why they don't get in my door.' If they only knew the best way to get in is not to do that, because obviously anyone who is going to be straight and be like a real friend is going to get in... but they simply stand there and give off the impression, 'Don’t let us in.' I actually do enjoy having them in. I used to do it more, but I don't as much now because I invited one in once and the next day, she was in The Daily Mirror with her mother saying we were going to get married."

JOHN 1980: "That's Paul... again writing a good lyric."

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SHE'S LEAVING HOME (Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL 1984: "I wrote that. My kind of ballad from that period. One of my daughters likes that. Still works. The other thing I remember is that George Martin was offended that I used another arranger. He was busy and I was itching to get on with it; I was inspired. I think George had a lot of difficulty forgiving me for that. It hurt him; I didn't mean to."

BEING FOR THE BENEFIT OF MR KITE (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1968: "'Mr. Kite' was a straight lift. I had all the words staring me in the face one day when I was looking for a song. It was from this old poster I'd bought at an antique shop. We'd been down to Surrey or somewhere filming a piece. There was a break, and I went into this shop and bought an old poster advertising a variety show which starred Mr. Kite. It said the Henderson's would also be there, late of Pablo Fanques Fair. There would be hoops and horses and someone going through a hog’s head of real fire. Then there was Henry the Horse. The band would start at ten to six. All at Bishops gate. Look, there's the bill-- with Mr. Kite topping it. I hardly made up a word, just connecting the lists together. Word for word, really."

JOHN 1972: "The story that Henry the Horse meant 'heroin' was rubbish."

WITHIN YOU WITHOUT YOU (Harrison)

GEORGE 1967: "I'm writing more songs now that we're not touring. The words are always a bit of a hang-up for me. I'm not very poetic. 'Within You Without You' was written after dinner one night at Klaus Voorman's house. He had a harmonium, which I hadn't played before. I was doodling on it when the tune started to come. The first sentence came out of what we'd been doing that evening... 'We were talking.' That's as far as I got that night. I finished the rest of the words later at home."

JOHN 1980: "One of George's best songs. One of my favorites of his, too. He's clear on that song. His mind and his music are clear. There is his innate talent. He brought that sound together."

WHEN I'M SIXTY-FOUR (Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL 1984: "I wrote the tune when I was about 15, I think, on the piano at home, before I moved from Liverpool. It was kind of a cabaret tune. Then, years later, I put words to it."

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LOVELY RITA (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "That's Paul writing a pop song. He makes 'em up like a novelist. You hear lots of McCartney-influenced songs on the radio now. These stories about boring people doing boring things-- being postmen and secretaries and writing home. I'm not interested in writing third-party songs. I like to write about me, 'cuz I know me."

GOOD MORNING GOOD MORNING (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1967: "I often sit at the piano, working at songs with the television on low in the background. If I'm a bit low and not getting much done, the words from the telly come through. That's when I heard the words, 'Good Morning Good Morning.'"

PAUL 1984: "'Good Morning' --John's. That was our first major use of sound effects, I think. We had horses and chickens and dogs and all sorts running through it."

A DAY IN THE LIFE (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1967: "I was writing the song with the 'Daily Mail' propped up in front of me on the piano. I had it open to the 'News In Brief' or whatever they call it. There was a paragraph about four thousand holes being discovered in Blackburn Lancashire. And when we came to record the song there was still one word missing from that verse... I knew the line had to go, 'Now they know how many holes it takes to --something-- the Albert Hall.' For some reason I couldn't think of the verb. What did the holes do to the Albert Hall? It was Terry Doran who said 'fill' the Albert Hall. And that was it. Then we thought we wanted a growing noise to lead back into the first bit. We wanted to think of a good end, and we had to decide what sort of backing and instruments would sound good. Like all our songs, they never become an entity until the very end. They are developed all the time as we go along."

JOHN 1980: "Just as it sounds: I was reading the paper one day, and I noticed two stories. One was the Guinness heir who killed himself in a car. That was the main headline story. He died in London in a car crash. On the next page was a story about 4000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire. In the streets, that is. They were going to fill them all. Paul's contribution was the beautiful little lick in the song 'I'd love to turn you on.' I had the bulk of the song and the words, but he contributed this little lick floating around in his head that he couldn't use for anything. I thought it was a damn good piece of work."

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PAUL 1984: "That was mainly John's, I think. I remember being very conscious of the words 'I'd love to turn you on' and thinking, well, that's about as risqué as we dare get at this point. Well, the BBC banned it. It said, 'Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall' or something. But I mean that there was nothing vaguely rude or naughty in any of that. 'I'd love to turn you on' was the rudest line in the whole thing. But that was one of John's very good ones. I wrote... that was co-written. The orchestra crescendo and that was based on some of the ideas I'd been getting from Stockhausen and people like that, which is more abstract. So, we told the orchestra members to just start on their lowest note and end on their highest note and go in their own time... which orchestras are frightened to do. That's not the tradition. But we got 'em to do it."

ON RECORDING (DURING THE 'SGT. PEPPER' PERIOD)

JOHN 1967: "Sgt Pepper is one of the most important steps in our career. It had to be just right. We tried, and I think succeeded in achieving what we set out to do. If we hadn't, then it wouldn't be out now."

JOHN 1972: "Pepper was just another psychedelic image. Beatle haircuts and boots were just as big as flowered pants in their time. I never felt that when Pepper came out, Haight-Ashbury was a direct result. It always seemed to me that they were all happening at once. Kids were already wearing army jackets on King's Road-- all we did is make them famous."

PAUL 1974: "Then the 'this-little-bit-if-you-play-it-backwards' stuff. As I say, nine times out of ten it's really nothing. Take the end of Sgt Pepper. Some fans came around to my door, giggling. They said, 'Is it true, that bit at the end? Is it true? It says, We´ll fuck you like Supermen.' I said, 'No, you´re kidding. I haven´t heard it, but I´ll play it.' It was just some piece of conversation that was recorded and turned backwards. But I went inside after I´d seen them and played it studiously, turned it backwards with my thumb against the motor-- turned the motor off and did it backwards. And there it was, sure as anything, plain as anything. 'We´ll fuck you like Supermen.' I thought, 'Jesus, what can you do?'"

“Our World” Satellite Broadcast” – A Historic Technological Event

June 25th: The Beatles participated in “Our World,” a two-hour television program transmitted live by satellite to five continents and 24 countries. They performed All You Need Is Love. This was the first live television satellite program to air worldwide.

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Discussion Assignments for Class Projects

The discussion topics below are designed for student assignments or projects in a class setting. It will offer the students a platform on which to contribute their own ideas and reflections on the materials studied. There are a total four discussions, arranged chronologically throughout the book.

Discussion Format and Topic Assignment

Each Discussion contains 4 topics. To enhance and diversify the discussions, each student will be assigned one of the four topics. The topic designation will be determined by the first letter the student’s last name.

For example, if your last name is Martin, your topic will be Topic 3, which covers all last names that start with the letters M through P.

Last names starting with the letters A-C Topic 1

Last names starting with the letters D-L Topic 2

Last names starting with the letters M-P Topic 3

Last names starting with the letters Q-Z Topic 4

Topics for Discussion II

Now that you have read about and listened to musical examples from the Beatles four middle-period albums, Help!, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, as well as the singles (Chapters 6-8):

Topic 1

Based on the information on Chapter 6, discuss the similarities and differences between the albums Help! and Rubber Soul. Compare the music, lyrics, instrumentation, album covers, the songwriting styles each member, … Also incorporate the Beatles’ views and comments (In Their Own Words, Chapter 6), of the recording and songs of these albums, in your discussion.

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Topic 2

Based on the information on Chapters 6-8 (Including the Beatles’ views and comments found on In Their Own Words at the end of each chapter), how would you describe the Beatle’s professional development and transformation from the album “Help!” through “Sgt. Pepper”? In what areas was the greatest evolution? What were the key influences in their musical development? You may describe the individual growth of each of the Beatles as part of your answer.

Topic 3

Based on the information on Chapters 7-8, discuss the similarities and differences between the albums Revolver and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Compare the music, lyrics, instrumentation, album covers, and the songwriting styles each member. Also incorporate the Beatles’ views and comments (In Their Own Words - Chapter 7), of the recording and songs of these albums, in your discussion.

Topic 4

Select your three favorite songs from the album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, (you may include the singles Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever) and based on the information in Chapter 8 discuss and compare the song’s lyrics, music, instrumentation, the songwriting styles each member, and the song’s sources of inspiration. Also incorporate the Beatles’ views and comments (In Their Own Words - Chapter 7), of these songs in your discussion.

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Magical Mystery Tour

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination. - John Lennon

July 7: “All You Need is Love”/ “Baby You’re a Rich Man single

released by Parlophone

August 24: The Beatles meet Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at the London

Hilton

August 27: Brian Epstein is found dead in London from an accidental

overdose.

Brian Epstein

Two months after the Beatles were broadcast live via-satellite to over 400 million people, performing “All You Need Is Love” on the “Our World” television program, their manager Brian Epstein died in London. When they received the news of Brian’s death, the Beatles were in Bangor, Wales, getting introduced to Transcendental Meditation (TM) by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (Soon after TM became a world fad).

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CAUSE OF DEATH

Even though Brian’s death was ruled as an accidental overdose of sleeping pills, many rumors instantly rose about the possibility of suicide; the coroners also found alcohol in his system, and it is well-known fact that the mixture of alcohol with barbiturates is often deadly. Brian’s role with the Beatles had diminished significantly after they stopped touring and he expressed frustration about this to his friends. A few days after Brian died, his assistant Joanne found two notes from him among his papers that were dated roughly two months before he died. The notes were to his mother and brother, saying: “Don’t be sad. I’m okay. Take good care of yourself. I love you.” Perhaps he had been contemplating suicide, but perhaps not, on the night he died. Brian Epstein was only 32 years old.

“When the Beatles ceased touring in August 1966, Brian Epstein lost what he saw as his main function in life. Feeling superfluous to their new studio-bound career, he fell into a cycle of binge and depression, quickly becoming addicted to the prescription drugs with which he maintained a semblance of normality.”

-Ian McDonald, Revolution in the Head: The Beatles Records and the Sixties.

REPERCUSIONS

Brian’s death shook the Beatles and specially John who was closest to him and who had a history of losing close friends and loved ones. According to Ringo, they suddenly felt like ‘chickens without heads’. Paul, the most positive and workaholic Beatle, tried to take hold of the group and take on a managerial role; a behavior resented by the others, particularly by John and George. It took the Beatles well over a year after Brian died to address the question of finding a new manager. The loss of Brian and their disagreements on a manager of choice was a major factor in their eventual breakup. Once the shock of Brian’s death had subsided John thought, “We’ve fuckin had it.”

November 24: “Hello, Goodbye”/ “I Am the Walrus” single released by Parlophone

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November 27: Magical Mystery Tour is released in the US by Capitol Records

The American Capitol Records release included previously released as singles.

Recorded: Abbey Road and Olympic Sound Studios / April-October 1967

Released: November 1967 (in US)

In the UK it was released as an extended play (EP) (A double 7 inch disc)

Label: Parlophone, Capitol, EMI

Title Lead vocals Length

Side one

1. "Magical Mystery Tour" McCartney 2:51

2. "The Fool on the Hill" McCartney 3:00

3. "Flying" (Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starkey) (Instrumental) 2:16

4. "Blue Jay Way" (Harrison) Harrison 3:56

5. "Your Mother Should Know" McCartney 2:29

6. "I Am the Walrus" Lennon 4:36

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Side two

1. "Hello, Goodbye" McCartney 3:30

2. "Strawberry Fields Forever" Lennon 4:10

3. "Penny Lane" McCartney 3:03

4. "Baby, You're a Rich Man" Lennon 3:03

5. "All You Need Is Love" Lennon 3:48

TRACK LISTING (All songs written by McCartney/Lennon, except where indicated).

Title Lead Vocals Length

Side one

1. "Magical Mystery Tour" McCartney 2:51

2. "Your Mother Should Know" McCartney 2:29

3. "I Am the Walrus" Lennon 4:36

Side two

1. "The Fool on the Hill" McCartney 3:00

2. "Flying" (Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starkey) (Instrumental) 2:16

3. "Blue Jay Way" (Harrison) Harrison 3:56

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PERSONEL

The Beatles

John Lennon: guitar; vocals; harmonica on "The Fool on the Hill;" harpsichord

on “All You Need Is Love.”

Paul McCartney: bass guitar; piano; vocals; recorder on "The Fool on the

Hill;" Contrabass on “All You Need Is Love.”

George Harrison: guitar; vocals; harmonica on "The Fool on the Hill"

Ringo Starr: drums; maracas; tambourine; vocals

Additional musicians

"Magical Mystery Tour": Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall on percussion, David

Mason, Elgar Howarth, Roy Copestake and John Wilbraham on trumpets

"The Fool on the Hill": Christoper Taylor, Richard Taylor and Jack Ellory on

flute

"I Am the Walrus": A 16 piece orchestra, The Mike Sammes Singers

"Hello, Goodbye": Ken Essex, Leo Birnbaum on violas

"Strawberry Fields Forever": Mal Evans on percussion, Tony Fisher, Greg

Bowen, Derek Watkins and Stanley Roderick on trumpets and John Hall, Derek

Simpson, Norman Jones on cellos

"Penny Lane": Ray Swinfield, P. Goody, Manny Winters and Dennis Walton on

flutes, Leon Calvert, Freddy Clayton, Bert Courtley and Duncan Campbell on

trumpets, Dick Morgan and Mike Winfield on English horns, Frank Clarke on

double bass and David Mason on piccolo trumpet

"Baby, You're a Rich Man": Eddie Kramer on vibraphone

"All You Need Is Love": George Martin on piano, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards,

Marianne Faithfull, Keith Moon, Eric Clapton, Pattie Boyd Harrison, Jane

Asher, Mike McCartney, Maureen Starkey, Graham Nash and wife, Gary Leeds

and Hunter Davies on backing vocals, Sidney Sax, Patrick Halling, Eric Bowie

and Jack Holmes on violins, Rex Morris and Don Honeywill on sax, David

Mason and Stanley Woods on trumpets, Evan Watkins and Henry Spain on horns,

Jack Emblow on accordion and Brian Martin on cello

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THE FILM An hour-long television special broadcast in the U.K. on December 26, 1967. Approximately 14 million viewers see it.

Paul McCartney came up with the idea for a television special based on the Beatles and their music. He had been inspired by the experimental mood of the period and started making films with his 8mm camera and composing soundtracks. His idea was of an unscripted film where the story would develop spontaneously during shooting. “They had decided that the film would be Magical, so that they could do any ideas which came to them and Mysterious in that neither they nor the rest of the passengers would know what they were going to do next,” said Beatles author Hunter Davies.

The movie received negative reviews by most critics on its release. It was the first project the Beatles undertook after Brian Epstein’s death in August in 1967 and their first public “failure,” leading many people to believe that the absence of Brian’s supervision was a big factor in its lack of organization and direction. On the other hand, some people, including renowned film director Steven Spielberg, have praised aspects of the film.

TWO SOURCES OF INSPIRATION

1. In Britain ‘Mystery Tours’ are organized working-class day trips by coach, where only the driver knows the destination.

2. American novelist Ken Kesey had an idea of driving through America on a psychedelically painted bus full of counterculture ‘freaks’ stoned on LSD and listening to music.

THE MUSIC

Sgt. Pepper’s album was a very hard act to follow. Magical Mystery Tour also shares the psychedelic spirit of Pepper but, because it is mainly a compilation of singles (the extended play singles released in the U.K.), it does not have the cohesive, conceptual quality of Pepper. Years later Lennon was quoted as saying that Magical Mystery Tour was his favorite Beatles’ album because it was “so weird.”

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Selected Songs from Magical Mystery Tour

“Magical Mystery Tour”

Right from the outset of the album, the brass sounds of “Pepper’s Band” plays a high-energy fanfare followed by a narrator inviting you to join them, to “step right this way!” into the “Magical Mystery Tour.” The title track is full of drive and exhilaration. Paul said that he wanted this song to sound like a television commercial.

“The Fool on the Hill”

A McCartney composition, this song is about a person that everyone dismisses as a fool but is in fact wiser than them. The scene in the film shows Paul walking and dancing on a mountainous open field all alone (taken in France), obviously portraying himself as the ‘fool.’ Alistair Taylor, Epstein’s assistant, recalls the original inspiration for the song: Early one morning Taylor was walking with Paul and his dog Martha, and as they were watching the sunrise, they suddenly realized that Martha was missing. “We turned round to go and suddenly there he was, standing behind us. He was a middle- aged man very respectably dressed in a belted raincoat. Nothing in that, you may think, but he’d come up behind us over the bare top of the hill in total silence,” recalled Taylor. After the men exchanged greetings, the older gentleman commented on the beautiful view and walked away. When they looked around, the man was nowhere to be seen. “There was no sign of the man. He’d just disappeared from the top of the hill as if he’d been carried off into the air!” said Taylor. “No-one could have run the thin cover of the nearest trees in the time we had turned away from him, and no-one could have run over the crest of the hill.”

A distinctive feature of “The Fool on the Hill” is the use of recorders.

The Recorder

The recorders are heard slightly out-of-tune, adding to the ‘down to earth’ and ‘pastoral’ feel of the song. “Fool on the Hill” became a Beatles’ classic song. Paul often includes this song in his post-Beatles solo tours, and sometimes has integrated a recording of Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech along with this song.

“Flying” / “Blue Jay Way”

This album contains the only instrumental track written by the Beatles that was included in one of their ‘official’ albums. The song is titled “Flying” and it is also the first song written by all four Beatles. It uses the standard 12-bar blues pattern and incorporates the Mellotron; a keyboard instrument that played back pre-recorded sounds (like today’s sample playback keyboards) of voices, orchestral strings, and

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woodwinds. “Blue Jay Way” is George’s sole contribution to this album. Written in California while George was waiting for Derek Taylor, formerly a Beatle’s press officer and later a publicist working in Los Angeles, to visit him. Apparently, Taylor got lost on his way to the cottage where George was staying. George picked up a Hammond organ in the room and wrote a song about waiting for his friend that was lost in the fog. The song captures qualities of Indian music, with its drone and melodic embellishments, without using Indian instruments. Blue Jay is an actual street in Los Angeles.

“Hello Goodbye” / “I Am The Walrus”

Released as A and B-sides respectively in November 1967, Hello Goodbye was #1 in the charts for seven weeks. A McCartney composition, the song uses word play based on opposites; Yes/No, Hi/Low, etc. Paul, in an interview with Disc, provided the following explanation: “the answer to everything is simple. It’s a song about everything and nothing…If you have black you must have white. That’s the amazing thing about life.”

“I Am The Walrus”

John was working on three songs at the same time: the first one was inspired by police sirens and began with the words ‘Mister City policeman,’ the second was about John in his garden and the third an abstract song about sitting on a corn flake. “I don’t know how it will all end up,” John told author Hunter Davies. The ‘walrus’ idea came from the poem ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’ by Lewis Carroll, one of John’s childhood idols. One day John found out that a teacher from Quarry Bank School was getting his class to analyze Beatles’ songs. John, who had often been reproached as a talentless troublemaker by his Quarry Bank English teachers, decided to perplex these people by writing one of his most complex songs to date. He asked his friend Pete Shotton to remind him of playground rhymes of English schoolchildren. John wrote down: ‘Yellow matter custard, green slop pie, all mixed together with a dead dog’s eye, Slap it on a butty, ten foot thick, Then wash it down with a cup of cold sick.’ He combined some of these with his own made-up words and pieced together the three songs he was working on. After finishing the song (referring to the teacher and students analyzing Beatles’ lyrics) he remarked, “Let the fuckers work that one out.”

At first glance, the lyrics might seem to be a meaningless and disjointed array of images and ideas. However, granting the obvious sheer linguistic fun, as well as the patchy veneer of the song’s structure, (the result of three songs combined into one), many of the lines in the lyric had meaning for John, and upon closer examination a particular ‘protest song’ cohesiveness comes into focus.

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In his book, Revolution in the Head, author Ian McDonald wrote: “I Am The Walrus became it’s author’s ultimate anti-institutional rant – a damn-you-England tirade that blasts education, art, culture, law, order, class, religion, and even sense itself. The hurt teenager’s revenge on his ‘expert textpert’ schoolmasters (‘I’m crying’) broadens into a surreal onslaught on straight society in general. The song is (with the possible exception of Dylan’s surrealistic and anti-nuclear nightmare ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’) the most idiosyncratic protest-song ever written.”

Excluding the communal opening sentence, most of the lyric is an avenging tirade: The ‘elementary penguin singing Hari Krishna’ was a jab at the renown Beat Generation poet Allen Ginsberg, who at the time was performing around chanting mantras and promoting Hari Krishna; referring to his English teachers, ‘see how they smile, like pigs in a sty;’ the contemptuous sentiment towards cops, ‘pretty little policemen in a row,’ etc.

Strict official censorship laws were still in effect in Britain during most of the sixties, (it was not until late 1967 that abortion and homosexuality were legalized in Britain, and contraception regulated in the Family Planning Act), and, upon its release, “I Am The Walrus” was banned by the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) for its use of the word ‘knickers’ (the British-English word for panties). Acknowledging the deeper meaning of the lyrics, one of the most attractive features of this song is the element of surprise and spontaneity. A case in point occurs during the closing seconds of the song, where a few lines from Shakespeare’s play King Lear are heard. This was the result of John’s idea to arbitrarily record a radio broadcast into the mix of the song. During the session, John told George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick: “You know, I think it would be great if I could put some random radio noise on the end of it – you know, just twiddling the dial, tuning into various stations to see what we get and how it fits into the music.” King Lear just happened to be broadcasting on BBC that night. “I Am The Walrus” incorporates one the most sophisticated and complex productions the Beatles and George Martin ever produced. Acknowledge

I AM THE WALRUS

I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together. See how they run like pigs from a gun, see how they fly.

I'm crying.

Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come. Corporation tee-shirt, stupid bloody tuesday.

Man, you been a naughty boy, you let your face grow long.

I am the eggman, they are the eggmen. I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob.

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Mister city policeman sitting Pretty little policemen in a row.

See how they fly like lucy in the sky, see how they run.

I'm crying, i'm crying.

I'm crying, i'm crying.

Yellow matter custard, dripping from a dead dog's eye.

Crabalocker fishwife, pornographic priestess, Boy, you been a naughty girl you let your knickers down.

I am the eggman, they are the eggmen.

I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob.

Sitting in an english garden waiting for the sun.

If the sun don't come, you get a tan

From standing in the english rain. I am the eggman, they are the eggmen.

I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob g'goo goo g'joob.

Expert textpert choking smokers,

Don't you think the joker laughs at you?

See how they smile like pigs in a sty, See how they snied.

I'm crying.

Semolina pilchard, climbing up the eiffel tower. Elementary penguin singing hari krishna.

Man, you should have seen them kicking edgar allan poe.

I am the eggman, they are the eggmen. I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob g'goo goo g'joob.

Goo goo g'joob g'goo goo g'joob g'goo.

In Their Own Words

Songs from the album Magical Mystery Tour.

MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR

(Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL circa-1994: "'Magical Mystery Tour' was co-written by John and I, very much in our fairground period. One of our great inspirations was always the barker: 'Roll up! Roll up!' The promise of something-- the newspaper ad that says, 'guaranteed not to crack,' the 'high class' butcher, 'satisfaction guaranteed' from Sgt. Pepper... You'll find that pervades a lot of my songs. If you look at all the Lennon/McCartney things, it's a thing we do a lot.

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FOOL ON THE HILL (Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL circa-1994: "'Fool On The Hill' was mine and I think I was writing about someone like the Maharishi. His detractors called him a fool. Because of his giggle he wasn't taken too seriously... I was sitting at the piano at my father's house in Liverpool hitting a D6 chord, and I made up 'Fool On The Hill.'"

YOUR MOTHER SHOULD KNOW (Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL circa-1994: "I dreamed up 'Your Mother Should Know' as a production number... I've always hated generation gaps. I always feel sorry for a parent or a child that doesn't understand each other. A mother not being understood by her child is particularly sad because the mother went through pain to have that child, and so there is this incredible bond of motherly love, like an animal bond between them. But because we mess things up so readily, they have one argument and hate each other for the rest of their lives. So, I was advocating peace between the generations. In 'Your Mother Should Know' I was basically trying to say your mother might know more than you think she does. Give her credit."

I AM THE WALRUS (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1968: "We write lyrics, and I write lyrics that you don't realize what they mean till after. Especially some of the better songs or some of the more flowing ones, like 'Walrus.' The whole first verse was written without any knowledge. With 'I Am the Walrus,' I had 'I am he as you are he as we are all together.' I had just these two lines on the typewriter, and then about two weeks later I ran through and wrote another two lines and then, when I saw something, after about four lines, I just knocked the rest of it off. Then I had the whole verse or verse and a half and then sang it. I had this idea of doing a song that was a police siren, but it didn't work in the end (sings like a siren) 'I- am-he-as-you-are-he-as...' You couldn't really sing the police siren."

JOHN 1980: "The first line was written on one acid trip one weekend. The second line was written on the next acid trip the next weekend, and it was filled in after I met Yoko. Part of it was putting down Hare Krishna. All these people were going on about Hare Krishna, Allen Ginsberg in particular. The reference to 'Element'ry penguin' is the elementary, naive attitude of going around chanting, 'Hare Krishna,' or putting all your faith in any one idol. I was writing obscurely, a la Dylan, in those days. It's from 'The Walrus and the Carpenter.' 'Alice in Wonderland.' To me, it was a beautiful poem. It never dawned on me that Lewis Carroll was commenting on the capitalist and social system. I never went into that bit about what he really meant, like people are doing with

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the Beatles' work. Later, I went back and looked at it and realized that the walrus was the bad guy in the story and the carpenter was the good guy. I thought, oh, shit, I picked the wrong guy. I should have said, 'I am the carpenter.' But that wouldn't have been the same, would it? (singing) 'I am the carpenter...'"

HELLO GOODBYE (Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL circa-1994: "'Hello Goodbye' was one of my songs. There are Geminian influences here I think-- the twins. It's such a deep theme of the universe, duality-- man woman, black, white, high low, right wrong, up down, hello goodbye-- that it was a very easy song to write. It's just a song of duality, with me advocating the more positive. You say goodbye, I say hello. You say stop, I say go. I was advocating the more positive side of the duality, and I still do to this day."

STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "Strawberry Fields is a real place. After I stopped living at Penny Lane, I moved in with my auntie who lived in the suburbs... not the poor slummy kind of image that was projected in all the Beatles stories. Near that home was Strawberry Fields, a house near a boys' reformatory where I used to go to garden parties as a kid with my friends Nigel and Pete. We always had fun at Strawberry Fields. So that's where I got the name. But I used it as an image. Strawberry Fields Forever. 'Living is easy with eyes closed. Misunderstanding all you see.' It still goes, doesn't it? Aren't I saying exactly the same thing now? The awareness apparently trying to be expressed is-- let's say in one way I was always hip. I was hip in kindergarten. I was different from the others. I was different all my life. The second verse goes, 'No one I think is in my tree.' Well, I was too shy and self-doubting. Nobody seems to be as hip as me is what I was saying. Therefore, I must be crazy or a genius-- 'I mean it must be high or low,' the next line. There was something wrong with me, I thought, because I seemed to see things other people didn't see. I thought I was crazy or an egomaniac for claiming to see things other people didn't see. I always was so psychic or intuitive or poetic or whatever you want to call it, that I was always seeing things in a hallucinatory way. Surrealism had a great effect on me, because then I realized that the imagery in my mind wasn't insanity; that if it was insane, I belong in an exclusive club that sees the world in those terms. Surrealism to me is reality. Psychic vision to me is reality. Even as a child. When I looked at myself in the mirror or when I was 12, 13, I used to literally trance out into alpha. I didn't know what it was called then. I found out years later there is a name for those conditions. But I would find myself seeing hallucinatory images of my face changing and becoming cosmic and complete. It caused me to always be a rebel. This thing gave me a chip on the shoulder; but, on the other hand, I wanted to be loved and

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accepted. Part of me would like to be accepted by all facets of society and not be this loudmouthed lunatic musician. But I cannot be what I am not."

PENNY LANE (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1968: "We really got into the groove of imagining Penny Lane-- the bank was there, and that was where the tram sheds were and people waiting and the inspector stood there, the fire engines were down there. It was just reliving childhood."

JOHN 1980: "Penny Lane is not only a street but it's a district... a suburban district where, until age four, I lived with my mother and father. So, I was the only Beatle that lived in Penny Lane."

PAUL circa-1994: "John and I would always meet at Penny Lane. That was where someone would stand and sell you poppies each year on British Legion poppy day... When I came to write it, John came over and helped me with the third verse, as often was the case. We were writing childhood memories-- recently faded memories from eight or ten years before, so it was recent nostalgia, pleasant memories for both of us. All the places were still there, and because we remembered it so clearly, we could have gone on."

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1971: "I think if you get down to basics, whatever the problem is, it's usually to do with love. So, I think 'All You Need is Love' is a true statement. I'm not saying, 'All you have to do is...' because 'All You Need' came out in the Flower Power Generation time. It doesn't mean that all you have to do is put on a phony smile or wear a flower dress and it's gonna be alright. Love is not just something that you stick on posters or stick on the back of your car, or on the back of your jacket or on a badge. I'm talking about real love, so I still believe that. Love is appreciation of other people and allowing them to be. Love is allowing somebody to be themselves and that's what we do need."

ON SONGWRITING

PAUL 1988: "We knew we were good. People used to say to us, 'Do you think John and you are good songwriters?' and I'd say-- "Yeah it may sound conceited, but it would be stupid of me to say 'No, I don't,' or 'Well, we're not bad' because we are good." Let's face it. If you were in my position, which was working with John Lennon, who was a great, great man-- It's like that film 'Little Big Man.' He says, 'We wasn't just playing Indians, we were LIVIN' Indians.' And that's what it was. I wasn't just talking about it; I was living it. I was actually working with the great John Lennon, and he with me. It was very exciting."

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The Beatles with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

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The Beatles (White Album) Yellow Submarine

The movement you need is on your shoulders. -Paul McCartney

1968 February: The Beatles visit the Maharishi’s compound at

Rishikesh

John and George arrived on February 16, and were later joined by Paul and Ringo on February 19. On March 1, Ringo decided to leave, complaining that the food was not doing him well, the insects were driving him crazy, and that he simply missed his children. Paul left on March 24. John and George, after hearing rumors that the Maharishi, who had claimed to be celibate, had slept with one of the young students, abruptly left on April 12. When asked by the Maharishi why they were leaving, John replied, “If you're so cosmically conscious, as you claim, then you should know why we're leaving.”

“Lady Madonna” went to number 1 in Britain but only reached number 4 in the US. It was inspired by the bluesy piano playing style of Fats Domino and by “Bad Penny Blues,” a 1956 hit in Britain by jazz trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton which was produced by George Martin. George Martin told Ringo that the drummer of “Bad Penny Blues”

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had used the brushes instead of drumsticks. Ringo first recorded a take with the brushes then later added another drum track to provide an offbeat.

The song was a celebration of motherhood. “How do they do it?” Paul asked when interviewed by Musician Magazine in 1986. “Baby at your breast-how do they get the time to feed them? Where do they get the money? How do you do this thing that women do?” The Beatles recorded “Lady Madonna” during the first week of February, right before they left for India; when EMI released it on March 15, the Beatles were still there. Ronnie Scott, a British jazz musician, played the saxophone solo. This single was the last song released on the Parlophone label in England and Capitol Records in the United States. All their subsequent releases were on their own label Apple Records (discussed below).

“The Inner Light” was inspired by the book Lamps of Fire, a collection of spiritual wisdom from different traditions, sent to George by Sanskrit scholar and Cambridge professor Juan Mascaro. The song features George singing the lead vocal, John and Paul doing subtle background vocals, and six Indian musicians playing Indian Instruments. It was the first song of George’s to appear on a single.

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On May 14, 1968, John Lennon and Paul McCartney appeared on “The Tonight Show” to announce the formation of their company, Apple Corps, Ltd.

John and Paul on “The Tonight Show” with guest host Joe Garagiola, who was sitting in for Johnny Carson.

One of the Beatle’s primary objectives behind Apple Records was to create a record label that would allow them, as well as other artists, more creative control than the older established companies. Some of the most distinguished artists they signed included James Taylor, Billy Preston, the band Badfinger, and Mary Hopkin.

From a financial standpoint, Apple Corps offered a tax loophole that allowed the Beatles to keep more of their income by paying fewer taxes. To avoid the 94% income tax bracket they were in, the Beatles decided to create a company of which they would

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become employees; each owning a 5% stake in the firm, with the remaining 80% held by Apple Corps Ltd. Consequently, their earnings would now be subject to a corporation tax rather than the much higher income tax. Founded in January 1968, Apple Corps Ltd replaced the original corporation, Beatles Ltd, and was designed as a conglomerate company (a parent company with multiple subdivisions). Some of the subsidiary companies were Apple Electronics, Apple Films, Apple Publishing, Apple Retail, Zapple Records, and the most notable, Apple Records.

In 1974, during the proceedings dissolving the Beatles as a unit, the courts ruled that 80% of all profits from Beatles albums would belong to Apple records, and 5% would go to each of the four members. EMI and Capitol Records distributed Apple records until 1975; EMI retained ownership of the Beatles’ records while Apple owned the record rights of the artists they signed as well as the rights to all the Beatles’ videos and movie clips.

In 2006 Apple Records (Apple Corps) made the news as litigation over trademark rights between the record company and Apple Computer (Apple Inc.) concluded. The High Court produced a judgment in favor of Apple Computer; Apple Corps appealed the judge’s ruling. Between 2006-2009, relations between the two Apples improved, and in November of 2010, Beatles albums were available, for the very first time, for purchase as downloads, on Apple’s iTunes Store.

July 17: YELLOW SUBMARINE (the movie) premieres

Premiere: London - July 1968 Story: Lee Minoff Screenplay: Al Brodax, Jack Mendelsohn, Erich Segal Directed by George Dunning Art Director: Heinz Edelmann Production: United Artists and King Features Syndicate. Songs: The Beatles Instrumental score: George Martin

This was the third of a three-film contract the Beatles had agreed to with United Artists (A Hard Day’s Night and Help! being the first two). During the making of the film the Beatles were not excited about the project, and it was only after the successful premiere in July that they embraced the idea. The cartoon format allowed the Beatles to avoid acting in the film (They do appear during the closing moments of the film), but they were still required to provide a soundtrack. The voices of the fictional Beatles were done by actors.

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While the story is written for children, the script contains plenty of tongue-in- cheek humor and double entendres for adult viewers. As is the nature of most musicals, the narrative largely consists of set pieces designed to present the Beatles songs. Both the moral of the story and the film’s imagery are 100% a product of their time: the principles of the mid-sixties “love generation” presented through psychedelic pop culture lens. The film was a box-office success.

The Plot

It all takes place in a fictitious joyful place located “80,000 leagues under the sea called Pepperland. In Pepperland Sgt. Pepper’s Band provides the music, and the Beatles are the good guys whose job is to defeat the evil forces, represented by the music-hating Blue Meanies, who are out to turn the citizens of Pepperland into statues and drain the town of music and color. As the plot unfolds, the Blue Meanies trap Sgt.Pepper’s Band inside a soundproof sphere, completely ridding the town of music. Upon hearing of this, Ringo summons the other three Beatles and they all ride to Pepperland inside the yellow submarine. Once there, they impersonate Sgt. Pepper’s Band and rally the people to rebellion against the Blue Meanies. They liberate Sgt.Pepper’s Band and free the people. Color and music return to Pepperland and everyone lives happily ever after.

Almost six months had passed, since the Beatles last record release, before their new single came out. “Hey Jude,” the first Beatles release on the Apple label, would top the charts in both Britain (2 weeks at #1) and America (9 weeks at #1) and has become one of their most popular songs. It is a rock ballad lasting an unprecedented 7 plus minutes; it would be their third longest song, following “I Want You” (7:47) from Abbey Road, and “Revolution 9” (8:22)) from “The White Album.” The original idea for “Hey Jude” came to Paul as he was driving and thinking of Julian, John’s son, who was going through his parents’ divorce. John had fallen in love with avant-garde artist Yoko Ono, whom he had met in November of 1966, and started having an affair with approximately two years later.

Paul started singing “Hey Julian, don’t make it bad,” which later became “Hey Jules” and finally “Hey Jude.” Julian Lennon knew the song, but it was not until 1987, when he got together with Paul in New York, that the full story was revealed; “It was the first time in years that we’d sat down and talked to each other,” said Julian. “He told me that he’d been thinking of my circumstances all those years ago, about what I was going through and what I would have to go through in the future. Paul and I used to hang out quite a bit more than dad and I did. Maybe Paul was into kids a bit more at the

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time. We had a great friendship going and there seems to be far more pictures of me and Paul playing than there are pictures of me and dad.”

Paul has often recalled how at one point, when the song was almost complete, he approached John and played it for him. As he sang the line, “the movement you need is on your shoulders,” he turned to John and told him not to worry that he would change that line to another one that made sense. John looked at him and said, “You won’t you know! That’s the best line in the whole song!” Paul responded by saying that the line was meaningless, that it reminded him of having a parrot on one’s shoulders or something. John looked at him again and said, “I know what it means.” Paul decided to keep the line. Years later, while touring with his solo band, Paul would often fondly remember John whenever he sang that line, sometimes pointing to the sky in acknowledgment of his old friend.

Comments about “Hey Jude” and “Revolution” by John and Paul

“HEY JUDE” (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1968: "Well, when Paul first sang 'Hey Jude' to me... or played me the little tape he'd made of it... I took it very personally. 'Ah, it's me,' I said, 'It's me.' He says, 'No, it's me.' I said, 'Check. We're going through the same bit.' So, we all are. Whoever is going through a bit with us is going through it, that's the groove."

JOHN 1972: "That's his best song."

PAUL 1974: "I remember I played it to John and Yoko, and I was saying, 'These words won't be on the finished version.' Some of the words were: 'The movement you need is on your shoulder,' and John was saying, 'It's great!' I'm saying, 'It's crazy, it doesn't make any sense at all.' He's saying, 'Sure it does, it's great.'"

JOHN 1980: "He said it was written about Julian. He knew I was splitting with Cyn and leaving Julian then. He was driving to see Julian to say hello. He had been like an uncle. And he came up with 'Hey Jude.' But I always heard it as a song to me. Now I'm sounding like one of those fans reading things into it... Think about it: Yoko had just come into the picture. He is saying. 'Hey, Jude'-- 'Hey, John.' Subconsciously, he was saying, 'Go ahead, leave me.' On a conscious level, he didn't want me to go ahead. The angel in him was saying, 'Bless you.' The devil in him didn't like it at all, because he didn't want to lose his partner."

PAUL 1985: "I remember on 'Hey Jude' telling George not to play guitar. He wanted to do echo riffs after the vocal phrases, which I didn't think was appropriate. He didn't see

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it like that, and it was a bit of a number for me to have to 'dare' to tell George Harrison-- who's one of the greats-- not to play. It was like an insult. But that's how we did a lot of our stuff."

PAUL circa-1994: "There is an amusing story about recording it... Ringo walked out to go to the toilet, and I hadn't noticed. The toilet was only a few yards from his drum booth, but he'd gone past my back, and I still thought he was in his drum booth. I started what was the actual take-- and 'Hey Jude' goes on for hours before the drums come in-- and while I was doing it, I suddenly felt Ringo tiptoeing past my back rather quickly, trying to get to his drums. And just as he got to his drums, boom boom boom, his timing was absolutely impeccable."

“REVOLUTION” (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1968: "On 'Revolution' I'm playing the guitar and I haven't improved since I was last playing, but I dug it. It sounds the way I wanted it to sound."

JOHN 1980: "The statement in 'Revolution' was mine. The lyrics stand today. It's still my feeling about politics. I want to see the plan. That is what I used to say to Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin. Count me out if it is for violence. Don't expect me to be on the barricades unless it is with flowers. For years, on the Beatles' tours, Brian Epstein had stopped us from saying anything about Vietnam or the war. And he wouldn't allow questions about it. But on one of the last tours, I said, 'I'm going to answer about the war. We can't ignore it.' I absolutely wanted the Beatles to say something about the war."

Revolution

You say you want a revolution

Well you know

We all want to change the world

You tell me that it's evolution

Well you know

We all want to change the world

But when you talk about destruction

Don't you know you can count me out (in)

Don't you know it's gonna be alright

You say you got a real solution

Well you know

We'd all love to see the plan

You ask me for a contribution

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Well you know

We're doing what we can

But when you want money for people with minds that hate

All I can tell you is brother you have to wait

Don't you know it's gonna be alright

You say you'll change the constitution

Well you know

We all want to change your head

You tell me it's the institution

Well you know

You better free your mind instead

But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao

You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow

Don't you know know it's gonna be alright

Alright Alright

November 1: Wonderwall Music (George Harrison) released by Apple

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Wonderwall Music has the distinction of being the first solo album released by a member of the Beatles and the first LP released by Apple Records. It is a predominantly instrumental album created as the soundtrack for director Joe Massot’s film, Wonderwall. Produced by George Harrison, it was recorded between November 1967 and February 1968, at Abbey Road Studios and HMV studios in Bombay. In 1992, George remembered, “I decided to do it as a mini anthology of Indian Music, because I wanted to help turn the public on to Indian Music.”

Some of the noted personnel included: Eric Clapton on electric guitar, Ringo Starr on drums, Peter Tork (of the Monkees) on banjo, and an ensemble of 12 Indian classical musicians.

November 22: The Beatles (White Album) released by Apple

Recorded: Abbey Road Studios and trident Studios / May-October 1968

Released: November 1968

Label: Apple, Parlophone, EMI

Producers: George Martin, Chris Thomas

Engineer: Geoff Emerick, Ken Scott, Barry Sheffield

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Title

Side One

1. "Back in the U.S.S.R."

2. "Dear Prudence"

3. "Glass Onion"

4. "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"

5. "Wild Honey Pie"

Lead vocals Length

McCartney

Lennon

Lennon

McCartney

McCartney

2:43

3:56

2:17

3:08

1:01

6. "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" Lennon 3:05

7. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (George Harrison) Harrison 4:45

8. "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" Lennon 2:43

Side two

1. "Martha My Dear"

2. "I'm So Tired"

3. "Blackbird"

4. "Piggies" (Harrison)

5. "Rocky Raccoon"

6. "Don't Pass Me By" (Richard Starkey)

7. "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?"

8. "I Will"

9. "Julia"

Side three

1. "Birthday"

2. "Yer Blues"

3. "Mother Nature's Son"

4. "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except

Me and My Monkey"

5. "Sexy Sadie"

6. "Helter Skelter"

7. "Long, Long, Long" (Harrison)

Side four

1. "Revolution 1"

2. "Honey Pie"

3. "Savoy Truffle" (Harrison)

4. "Cry Baby Cry"

5. "Revolution 9"

6. "Good Night"

McCartney 2:28

Lennon 2:03

McCartney 2:18

Harrison 2:04

McCartney 3:41

Starr 3:42

McCartney 1:41

McCartney 1:46

Lennon 2:54

McCartney with Lennon 2:42

Lennon 4:01

McCartney 2:48

Lennon 2:24

Lennon 3:15

McCartney 4:29

Harrison 3:04

Lennon 4:15

McCartney 2:41

Harrison 2:54

Lennon 3:11

Musique Concrete 8:22

Starr 3:11

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PERSONEL

The Beatles

John Lennon: lead, harmony and background vocals; lead and rhythm (electric

and acoustic) guitars, four- and six-string bass guitar; pianos (electric and

acoustic), Hammond organ, harmonium, mellotron; drums and assorted

percussion (tambourine, maracas, thumping on the back of an acoustic guitar,

handclaps and vocal percussion); harmonica, saxophone and whistling; tape

loops

Paul McCartney: lead, harmony and background vocals; lead and rhythm

(electric and acoustic) guitars, four- and six-string bass guitar; pianos (electric

and acoustic); Hammond organ; timpani; tambourine; handclaps; vocal

percussion; drums (on "Back in the U.S.S.R." and "Dear Prudence"); recorder;

flugelhorn

George Harrison: lead, harmony and background vocals; lead and rhythm

(electric and acoustic) guitars, four- and six-string bass guitar; Hammond organ;

drums and assorted percussion: tambourine, hand shake bell, handclaps and

vocal percussion

Ringo Starr: drums and assorted percussion (tambourine, bongos, cymbals,

maracas, vocal percussion); electric piano and sleigh bell (on "Don't Pass Me

By") , lead vocals (on "Don't Pass Me By" and "Good Night") and backing vocals

("The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill")

Guest musicians

Eric Clapton: lead guitar on "While my Guitar Gently Weeps"

Mal Evans: backing vocals and handclaps on "Dear Prudence", handclaps on

"Birthday,” trumpet on "Helter Skelter"

Jack Fallon: violin on "Don't Pass Me By"

Pattie Harrison: backing vocals on "Birthday"

Jackie Lomax: backing vocals and handclaps on "Dear Prudence"

Maureen Starkey: backing vocals on "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill"

Yoko Ono: backing vocals and handclaps on "The Continuing Story of Bungalow

Bill", speech, tapes and sound effects on "Revolution 9,” backing vocals on

"Birthday"

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Session musicians

Ted Barker: trombone on "Martha My Dear"

Leon Calvert: trumpet and flugelhorn on "Martha My Dear"

Henry Datyner, Eric Bowie, Norman Lederman, and Ronald Thomas: violin

on "Glass Onion"

Bernard Miller, Dennis McConnell, Lou Soufier and Les Maddox: violin on

"Martha My Dear"

Reginald Kilby: cello on "Glass Onion" and "Martha My Dear"

Eldon Fox: cello on "Glass Onion"

Frederick Alexander: cello on "Martha My Dear"

Harry Klein: saxophone on "Savoy Truffle"and "Honey Pie"

Dennis Walton, Ronald Chamberlain, Jim Chest, and Rex Morris: saxophone

on "Honey Pie"

Raymond Newman and David Smith: clarinet on "Honey Pie"

Art Ellefson, Danny Moss, and Derek Collins: tenor sax on "Savoy Truffle"

Ronnie Ross and Bernard George: baritone sax on "Savoy Truffle"

Alf Reece: tuba on "Martha My Dear"

The Mike Sammes Singers: backing vocals on "Good Night"

Stanley Reynolds and Ronnie Hughes: trumpet on "Martha My Dear"

Tony Tunstall: French horn on "Martha My Dear"

Leo Birnbaum and Henry Myerscough: viola on "Martha My Dear"

John Underwood and Keith Cummings: viola on "Glass Onion"

Album Cover

In November of 1968, as far as album covers were concerned, the Beatles seemed to be leaving the period of psychedelic excesses with a vengeance, from the multi-colored and indulgent world of Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour to the stark minimalism of a plain white cover. The band’s name was embossed a bit below the middle of the front sleeve, along with a unique serial number printed near the bottom right-hand corner. Because of its plain white cover, the Beatles’ 10th album (excluding Magical Mystery Tour, it is their 9th official album), titled The Beatles, became known as the White Album. The cover, designed by McCartney’s friend, English painter and artist, Richard Hamilton, is the only Beatles album that does not include a picture of the band on the outside cover.

Double-Album / Sales

This was the only official Double-Album the Beatles released. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) ranks the White Album as the Beatles best-

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selling album at 19-times platinum, and the ninth-best selling album of all time in America. The RIAA counts sales of double albums twice for its rankings, and without this adjustment, the White Album would be the Beatles’ fourth best-selling album in the US, selling nearly two million copies in its first week of release.

Recording Sessions

On May 30, 1968, the recording sessions for the White Album started with the songs “Revolution” and concluded with take three of “Julia” on October 13, 1968. Mixing for the album was finished five months later, on October 18, 1968.

First Apple album

This was the first Beatles’ album released on the Apple label, which had debuted three months earlier with the “Hey Jude”/” Revolution” single, both of which were recorded during the White Album sessions.

Discarded songs

The songs “What's the New Mary Jane” by Lennon and “Not Guilty” by Harrison were recorded during the White Album sessions but were not included in the album. For years these two tracks were only available on bootlegs but were finally released legitimately (28 years after they were recorded) on Anthology 3 in 1996.

Extras

The album’s packaging included a collage poster with the lyrics to the songs printed in the back and four individual pictures of the Beatles, taken by John Kelly, which have become legendary.

Mono and Stereo Versions

This would be the last album the Beatles would release in two versions, one in stereo and the other in mono. In the US, it was released only in stereo as Apple SWBO 101. Out of the 30 tracks in the album, 28 exist in official alternate mono mixes (“Revolution 1” and “Revolution 9” being the exception).

Original Title

The White Album's initial working title was A Doll's House, which is the name of a play by Henrik Ibsen's written in the 19th century. According to author Geoffrey Giuliano, before the band decided on the plain white cover an illustration was prepared

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for the cover, of A Doll's House. This illustration eventually showed up on Parlophone's The Beatles Ballads in 1980.

The Music and Background Information

Not only the cover but the music of the White Album was also considerably scaled down from the previous two albums:

- Instead of a long elaborate album title they called it The Beatles

- Instead of layers of overdubs and mixes they opted for mainly acoustically based songs.

- Instead of abstract and profound lyrics they sang about cowboys, truffles, and ‘doing it in the road’

India and the seeds of the White Album

The Beatles visited the Maharishi in India in February of 1968. Their stay there brought them peace and calm, and they were able to ‘take a break’ from their hectic lives, which allowed them to spend time together as friends and to reflect. They took their acoustic guitars and came back from India with over 30 songs. This is one of the reasons why so many of the songs in the “White Album” are acoustic guitar songs. However, even though the “White Album” has 30 songs, not every they wrote in India were included. The song “Sexy Sadie” was written by John about the Maharishi after becoming disenchanted with him. The original lyrics included the name Maharishi instead of Sexy Sadie, (“Maharishi, what have you done...”) but John was convinced by George not to mention the Maharishi by name, since it could ruin the man, and proposed that he replace the Maharishi's name with Sexy Sadie.

One of the most prominent features of the album is the great diversity of musical styles. While eclecticism had always been a Beatles’ trait, in the White Album the stylistic variety is almost schizophrenic, largely because many of the songs were written independently. The project unity of the previous albums was no longer there. John said of the White Album, “it was just me and a backing group, Paul and a backing group.” Although not all the songs where arranged this way, (i.e., While My Guitar Gently Weeps), this album does contain mainly solo contributions. Unbeknownst to the outside world at the time, the recording sessions for the White Album would prove to be the beginning of the end for the Beatles as a group.

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Ringo Walks Out

When the Beatles filmed the promotional performance video for “Hey Jude” on the (David) Frost Program at Twickenham Film Studios, the audience did not know that it was Ringo’s first day back at work after having quit the group on August 22, 1968. He felt taken for granted by the other three and was tired of the bickering within the band. Paul was known to sometimes lecture Ringo on his drumming, to the point where sometimes Paul did the drumming himself. It was during a recording session for “Back in the USSR,” after Paul had been criticizing Ringo’s drumming, that he walked out in frustration. Paul ended up recording the drums himself.

The Egos, The Bickering, Geoff Emerick resigns

Ringo’s stepping out was a sign of deeper problems within the band. John was hardly seen without Yoko anymore and even started bringing her to their recording sessions, breaking a long-held Beatles ‘rule’ of not allowing anyone else but their inner circle of friends inside the studio. This bothered the other three and in turn caused resentment in John. “There was a definite strained relationship right from the White Album, there was a lot of alienation between us and him,” George said. The once fun and exciting recording sessions had turned into tense affairs with shouting matches and swearing. Even Geoff Emerick, their creative engineer who had been a great contributor to Revolver and Sgt. Pepper, resigned after a disturbing outburst within the band.

Mark Hertsgaard, author of A Day in a Life: The Music and Artistry of the Beatles, writes: “The Beatles were also confronting the paradox of having too much talent for their own good. The internal competitiveness that had previously propelled the group to ever greater heights of achievement now began turning brother against brother. Paul remained as prolific a songwriter as ever. And now that the trip to India and the arrival of Yoko had reawakened John’s artistic energies, he was composing songs at a rate not seen since the Hard Day’s Night period. John was also growing increasingly critical of what he ridiculed as Paul’s weakness for “granny music” – songs like “Martha My Dear” and “Honey pie.” Meanwhile George was feeling taken for granted almost as much as Ringo was.”

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Harrison and Clapton

George Harrison was growing as a songwriter and becoming more prolific than ever. According to George, when he first played his song “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” to the other Beatles, they basically dismissed it. George invited Eric Clapton to play in his new song partly as a way of defying the other Beatles and hoping that having a guest in the studio would bring back some civility to the sessions, since it would probably make everyone be at their best behavior. Clapton’s initial reaction after George’s invitation was one of disbelief: “I can’t do that. Nobody ever plays on Beatles records.”

George probably felt that if John could bring Yoko into the studio, then he could certainly recruit one of England’s top guitarists. Clapton’s presence that night did bring good manners into the studio. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” went though many transformations, not unlike what happened with John’s “Strawberry Fields Forever,” before the final version was recorded for the album, and unlike most of the other songs on the album, John, Paul, George, and Ringo, along with Clapton, did come together as a group during the recording of this song.

Tragic Event

Psychopath criminal Charles Manson's name is often associated with the song “Helter Skelter,” (As an adjective, the expression means haphazard or carelessly hurried and confused, and in England (as a noun) a ‘helter skelter’ is a high spiral ride, as at a fairground) which Manson misinterpreted to be about an impending apocalyptic race war in the United States. In 1967, by the time Manson was 32, he had spent more than half his life in prison and had a criminal record that dated back to when he was 13. In the summer of that year, he began forming a hippie cult in California that eventually became known as the Manson Family. After listening to the White Album, soon after its release in November of 1968, Manson became convinced that the Beatles were sending him coded messages, not only in “Helter Skelter” but in other songs of the album as well. He began telling his “family” that they might have to show blacks how to start the impending holocaust, or “Helter Skelter” as he called it, and in the summer of 1969 convinced them to commit murder, which they did.

One of their victims was the American actress Sharon Tate, who was married to film director Roman Polanski and eight and a half months pregnant with their baby at the time of her slaying. By a strange twist of fate, the murder of Sharon Tate and four others took place on August 8, 1969, the same day the famous picture for the Beatles Abbey Road album cover (discussed in Chapter 12) was taken. It was later reported that one of Manson's henchmen, after stabbing Tate to death, cut open her stomach to save the baby. Like many other cults, most members of the Manson family were most likely “lost”, susceptible and of poor intelligence. Manson possessed the dangerous combination of being a vicious low life degenerate with the astuteness and coercive

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persuasive power which enabled him to tap into his follower’s vulnerabilities and subsequently recruit as well as preserve members by invalidating their ability to reason, to think critically, and make choices in their own best interest. In 1971 Charles Manson was convicted of murder and is serving life in prison.

Yoko Ono and “Revolution No. 9”

Yoko’s influence was growing, and John would never feel the same about belonging to a band. Yoko’s artistic influence is most obvious in the piece “Revolution 9.” Technically “Revolution No.9” is not a song, but a Musique Concrete composition. Musique Concrete (meaning “concrete music” or “real music” in French) is music that uses pre-recorded acoustic (hence the term “real”) sounds to construct the piece. In the 1960s, these sounds were recorded on analog tape and often modified in the studio by manipulating the tape through looping, cutting, splicing, playing backwards, speed modification, etc. In “Revolution No. 9” the results often have a collage effect. Before meeting Lennon, Yoko had been involved in avant-garde happenings, sometimes collaborating with famous American avant-garde composer John Cage.

November 29: Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins (John Lennon and Yoko Ono) released by Apple

The first solo album released by John Lennon, Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins, is an experimental music album recorded by John and Yoko in John’s house at Kenwood, Surrey, on the first night that they spent together. The music largely consists of improvised sound effects created by Yoko’s vocals, John guitars, and tape loops. The album is not only known for its experimental music, but also for its controversial cover, which featured John and Yoko naked. It was typically released wrapped in a brown paper bag cover (as seen below).

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In Their Own Words

Songs from The Beatles (White Album) and the singles “Lady Madonna,” “Hey Jude,” and “Revolution.”

LADY MADONNA (Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL 1986: "'Lady Madonna' is all women. How do they do it? --bless 'em. Baby at your breast, how do they get the time to feed them? Where do they get the money? How do you do this thing that women do?"

PAUL circa-1994: "The original concept was the Virgin Mary, but it quickly became symbolic of every woman-- the Madonna image but as applied to ordinary working-class women. 'Lady Madonna' was me sitting down at the piano trying to write a bluesy boogie-woogie thing. It reminded me of Fats Domino for some reason, so I started singing a Fats Domino impression. It took my voice to a very odd place."

HEY JUDE (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1968: "Well, when Paul first sang 'Hey Jude' to me... or played me the little tape he'd made of it... I took it very personally. 'Ah, it's me,' I said, 'It's me.' He says, 'No, it's me.' I said, 'Check. We're going through the same bit.' So, we all are. Whoever is going through a bit with us is going through it, that's the groove."

JOHN 1972: "That's his best song."

PAUL 1974: "I remember I played it to John and Yoko, and I was saying, 'These words won't be on the finished version.' Some of the words were: 'The movement you need is on your shoulder,' and John was saying, 'It's great!' I'm saying, 'It's crazy, it doesn't make any sense at all.' He's saying, 'Sure it does, it's great.'"

JOHN 1980: "He said it was written about Julian. He knew I was splitting with Cyn and leaving Julian then. He was driving to see Julian to say hello. He had been like an uncle. And he came up with 'Hey Jude.' But I always heard it as a song to me. Now I'm sounding like one of those fans reading things into it... Think about it: Yoko had just come into the picture. He is saying. 'Hey, Jude'-- 'Hey, John.' Subconsciously, he was saying, 'Go ahead, leave me.' On a conscious level, he didn't want me to go ahead. The angel in him was saying, 'Bless you.' The devil in him didn't like it at all, because he didn't want to lose his partner."

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PAUL 1985: "I remember on 'Hey Jude' telling George not to play guitar. He wanted to do echo riffs after the vocal phrases, which I didn't think was appropriate. He didn't see it like that, and it was a bit of a number for me to have to 'dare' to tell George Harrison-- who's one of the greats-- not to play. It was like an insult. But that's how we did a lot of our stuff."

PAUL circa-1994: "There is an amusing story about recording it... Ringo walked out to go to the toilet, and I hadn't noticed. The toilet was only a few yards from his drum booth, but he'd gone past my back, and I still thought he was in his drum booth. I started what was the actual take-- and 'Hey Jude' goes on for hours before the drums come in-- and while I was doing it, I suddenly felt Ringo tiptoeing past my back rather quickly, trying to get to his drums. And just as he got to his drums, boom boom boom, his timing was absolutely impeccable."

REVOLUTION (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "The statement in 'Revolution' was mine. The lyrics stand today. It's still my feeling about politics. I want to see the plan. That is what I used to say to Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin. Count me out if it is for violence. Don't expect me to be on the barricades unless it is with flowers. For years, on the Beatles' tours, Brian Epstein had stopped us from saying anything about Vietnam or the war. And he wouldn't allow questions about it. But on one of the last tours, I said, 'I'm going to answer about the war. We can't ignore it.' I absolutely wanted the Beatles to say something about the war."

BACK IN THE USSR (Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL 1968: "Chuck Berry once did a song called “Back in the USA,” which is very American, very Chuck Berry. Very sort of, uhh... you know, you're serving in the army, and when I get back home, I'm gonna kiss the ground. And you know-- Can't wait to get back to the States. And it's a very American sort of thing, I've always thought. So, this one is like about... In my mind it's just about a spy who's been in America a long long time, you know, and he's picked up... And he's very American. But he gets back to the USSR, you know, and he's sort of saying, 'Leave it till tomorrow, honey, to disconnect the phone,' and all that. And 'Come here honey,' but with Russian women. It concerns the attributes of Russian women."

JOHN 1980: "Paul completely. I play the six-string bass on that."

PAUL 1984: "I wrote that as a kind of Beach Boys parody. And 'Back in the USA' was a Chuck Berry song, so it kinda took off from there. I just liked the idea of Georgia girls

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and talking about places like the Ukraine as if they were California, you know? It was also hands across the water, which I'm still conscious of. 'Cuz they like us out there, even though the bosses in the Kremlin may not. The kids do."

PAUL 1986: "I'm sure it pissed Ringo off when he couldn't quite get the drums to 'Back In The USSR,' and I sat in.

DEAR PRUDENCE (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "'Dear Prudence' is me. Written in India. A song about Mia Farrow's sister, who seemed to go slightly balmy, meditating too long, and couldn't come out of the little hut we were livin' in. They selected me and George to try and bring her out because she would trust us. If she'd been in the West, they would have put her away... We got her out of the house. She'd been locked in for three weeks and was trying to reach God quicker than anybody else. That was the competition in Maharishi's camp-- who was going to get cosmic first. What I didn't know was I was 'already' cosmic." (laughs).

GLASS ONION (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "That's me, just doing a throwaway song, a la 'Walrus' a la everything I've ever written. I threw in the line 'The walrus was Paul' just to confuse everybody a bit more. It could've been the fox terrier is Paul, you know. I mean, it's just a bit of poetry. It was just thrown in like that... The line was put in because I was feeling guilty because I was with Yoko, and I was leaving Paul. I was trying... I don't know. It's a perverse way of saying to Paul, you know, 'Here, have this crumb, this illusion, this stroke, because I'm leaving."

OB-LA-DI OB-LA-DA

(Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL 1984: "A fella [Jimmy Scott] who used to hang around the clubs used to say, (Jamaican accent) 'Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on,' and he got annoyed when I did a song of it, 'cuz he wanted a cut. I said, 'Come on, Jimmy, it's just an expression. If you'd written the song, you could have had a cut.' He also used to say, 'Nothin's too much, just outta sight.' He was just one of those guys who had great expressions, you know."

WILD HONEY PIE

(Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL circa-1994: "We were in an experimental mode, and so I said, 'Can I just make something up?' I started off with the guitar and did a multi-tracking experiment in the control room... It was very homemade-- it wasn't a big production at all. I just made up

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this short piece and I multi-tracked the harmony to that, and a harmony to that, and a harmony to that, and built it up sculpturally with a lot of vibrato on the (guitar) strings, really pulling the strings madly-- hence 'Wild Honey Pie.'

THE CONTINUING STORY OF BUNGALOW BILL (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "Oh, that was written about a guy in Maharishi's meditation camp who took a short break to go shoot a few poor tigers, and then come back to commune with God. There used to be a character called Jungle Jim, and I combined him with Buffalo Bill. It's a sort of teenage social comment song, and a bit of a joke. Yoko's on that one, I believe."

WHILE MY GUITAR GENTLY WEEPS (Harrison)

GEORGE 1980: "I had a copy of the I Ching--the Book of Changes, which seemed to me to be based on the Eastern concept that everything is relative to everything else, as opposed to the Western view that things are merely coincidental. The idea was in my head when I visited my parents' home in the North of England. I decided to write a song based on the first thing I saw upon opening any book-- as it would be relative to that moment, at that time. I picked up a book at random, opened it-- saw 'gently weeps' -- than laid the book down again and started the song. Some of the words to the song were changed before I finally recorded it."

GEORGE 1987: "I worked on that song with John, Paul, and Ringo one day, and they were not interested in it at all. And I knew inside of me that it was a nice song. The next day I was with Eric Clapton, and I was going into the session, and I said, 'We're going to do this song. Come and play on it.' He said, 'Oh no. I can't do that. Nobody ever plays on the Beatles records.' I said, 'Look, it's my song, and I want you to play on it.' So, Eric came in, and the other guys were as good as gold-- because he was there. Also, it left me free to just play the rhythm and do the vocal. So, Eric played that, and I thought it was really good. Then we listened to it back, and he said, 'Ah, there's a problem though; it's not Beatley enough.' So, we put it through the ADT (automatic double-track) to wobble it up a bit."

HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN (Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL 1968: "The idea of 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun' is from an advert in an American paper. It said, Happiness is a warm gun, and it was 'Get ready for the long hot summer with a rifle,' you know, 'Come and buy them now!' It was an advert in a gun magazine. And it was so sick, you know, the idea of 'Come and buy your killing weapons,' and 'Come and get it.'"

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JOHN 1972: "They all said it was about drugs, but it was more about rock 'n roll than drugs. It's sort of a history of rock 'n roll... I don't know why people said it was about the needle in heroin. I've only seen somebody do something with a needle once, and I don't like to see it at all."

JOHN 1980: "A gun magazine was sitting around, and the cover was the picture of a smoking gun. The title of the article, which I never read, was 'Happiness Is a Warm Gun.' I took it right from there. I took it as the idea of happiness after having shot somebody. Or some animal."

MARTHA MY DEAR (Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL 1968: "You see, I just start singing some words with a tune, you know what I mean. Mainly I'm just doing a tune and then some words come into my head, you know. And these happened to be 'Martha My Dear, though I spend my days in conversation.' So you can read anything you like into it, but really it's just a song. It's me singing to my dog." (laughs)

PAUL circa-1994: "When I taught myself piano, I liked to see how far I could go, and this (song) started off as a piece you'd learn as a piano lesson. It's quite hard for me to play, It's a two-handed thing, like a little set piece. Then when I was blocking out words- - you just mouth out sounds and some things come-- I found the words 'Martha my dear.' So I made up another fantasy song... I mean, I'm not really speaking to Martha, it's a communication of some sort or affection, but in a slightly abstract way-- 'You silly girl, look what you've done...' Whereas it would appear to anybody else to be a song to a girl called Martha, it's actually a dog, and our relationship was platonic, believe me."

I'M SO TIRED (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "'I'm So Tired' was me, in India again. I couldn't sleep, I'm meditating all day and couldn't sleep at night. The story is that. One of my favorite tracks. I just like the sound of it, and I sing it well."

PAUL circa-1994: "It has that very special line, 'And curse Sir Walter Raleigh/ He was such a stupid git.' That's a classic line and it's so John that there's no doubt who wrote it. I think it's 100 percent John."

BLACKBIRD (Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL circa-1994: "The original inspiration was from a well-known piece by Bach, which I never know the title of, which George and I had learned to play at an early age-- he better than me actually. Part of its structure is a particular harmonic thing between

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the melody and the bass line which intrigued me... I developed the melody based on the Bach piece and took it somewhere else, took it to another level, then I just fitted words to it. I had in my mind a black woman, rather than a bird. Those were the days of the civil-rights movement, which all of us cared passionately about. So, this was really a song from me to a black woman, experiencing these problems in the states... 'Let me encourage you to keep trying, to keep your faith, there is hope.' As is often the case with my things, a veiling took place. So, rather than say 'Black woman living in Little Rock' and be very specific, she became a bird, became symbolic, so you could apply it to your particular problem."

PIGGIES (Harrison)

GEORGE 1980: "'Piggies' is a social comment. I was stuck for one line in the middle until my mother came up with the lyric, 'What they need is a damn good whacking,’ which is a nice simple way of saying they need a good hiding. It needed to rhyme with 'backing,' 'lacking,' and had absolutely nothing to do with American policemen or Californian shagnasties!"

ROCKY RACCOON (Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL 1968: "I was sitting on the roof in India with a guitar-- John and I were sitting 'round playing guitar, and we were with Donovan. And we were just sitting around enjoying ourselves, and I started playing the chords of 'Rocky Raccoon,' you know, just messing around. And, oh, originally it was Rocky Sassoon, and we just started making up the words, you know, the three of us-- and started just to write them down. They came very quickly. And eventually I changed it from Sassoon to Raccoon because it sounded more like a cowboy.”

DON'T PASS ME BY (Starkey)

JOHN 1968: "We've just done two tracks, both unfinished. The second one is Ringo's first song that we're working on this very moment. He composed it himself in a fit of lethargy."

WHY DON'T WE DO IT IN THE ROAD (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1972: "Paul. One of his best."

JOHN 1980: "That's Paul. He even recorded it by himself in another room. That's how it was getting in those days. We came in, and he'd made the whole record. Him drumming, him playing the piano, him singing. But he couldn't... maybe he couldn't make the break from the Beatles. I don't know what it was, you know. I enjoyed the

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track. Still, I can't speak for George, but I was always hurt when Paul would knock something off without involving us. But that's just the way it was then."

PAUL 1981: "There's only one incident I can think of which John has publicly mentioned. It was when I went off with Ringo and did 'Why Don't We Do It In The Road.' It wasn't a deliberate thing, John and George were tied up finishing something, and me and Ringo were free, just hanging around, so I said to Ringo, 'Let's go and do this.' I did hear John sometime later singing it. He liked the song, and I suppose he wanted to do it with me. It was a very John sort of song anyway. That's why he liked it, I suppose. It was very John, the idea of it, not me. I wrote it as a ricochet off John."

I WILL (Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL circa-1994: "I was doing a song, 'I Will,' that I had as a melody for quite a long time, but I didn't have lyrics to it. I remember sitting around (in India) with Donovan, and maybe a couple of other people. We were just sitting around one evening after our day of meditation and I played him this one and he liked it, and we were trying to write some words. We kicked around a few lyrics, something about the moon, but they weren't very satisfactory, and I thought the melody was better than the words... it's still one of my favorite melodies that I've written. You just occasionally get lucky with a melody, and it becomes rather complete, and I think this is one of them-- quite a complete tune."

JULIA (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "Julia was my mother. But it was sort of a combination of Yoko and my mother blended into one. That was written in India... We wrote tons of songs in India."

PAUL circa-1994: "The interesting thing for me on 'Julia' is the finger-picking (guitar) style. He learned to fingerpick off Donovan or Gypsy Dave... That was John's song about his mum, folk finger-picking style, and a very good song."

BIRTHDAY (Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL 1968: "What happened was 'The Girl Can't Help It' was on television. That's an old rock film with Little Richard and Fats Domino and Eddie Cochran and a few others... and we wanted to see it, so we started recording at five o'clock. And we said, 'We'll do something, we'll make up a backing track.' So, we kept it very simple-- twelve bar blues kind of thing. And we stuck in a few bits here and there in it, with no idea what the song was or what was gonna go on top of it. We just said, 'Okay. Twelve bars in A, and we'll change to D, and I'm gonna do a few beats in C.' And we really just did it like that...

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random thing. And we came back here to my house and watched 'The Girl Can't Help It.' Then we went back to the studio again and made up some words to go with it all. So, this song was just made up in an evening. Umm, you know. We hadn't ever thought of it before then. And it's one of my favorites because of that. I think it works, you know, 'cuz it's just... It's a good one to dance to. Like the big, long drum break, just 'cuz, normally we might have four bars of drums, but with this we just keep it going, you know. We all like to hear drums plodding on."

JOHN 1980: "'Birthday' was written in the studio. Just made up on the spot. I think Paul wanted to write a song like 'Happy Birthday Baby,' the old fifties hit. But it was sort of made up in the studio. It was a piece of garbage."

YER BLUES (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "'Yer Blues' was written in India, too. Up there, trying to reach God and feeling suicidal."

MOTHER NATURE'S SON

(Lennon/McCartney) JOHN 1980: "Paul. That was from a lecture of Maharishi where he was talking about nature, and I had a piece called 'I'm Just a Child of Nature,' which turned into 'Jealous Guy' years later. Both inspired from the same lecture of Maharishi."

PAUL circa-1994: "I seem to remember writing 'Mother Nature's Son' at my dad's house in Liverpool... I've always loved the song called 'Nature Boy’...'Mother Nature's Son' was inspired by that song. I'd always loved nature, and when Linda and I got together we discovered we had this deep love of nature in common. There might have been a little help from John with some of the verses.

EVERYBODY'S GOT SOMETHING TO HIDE EXCEPT FOR ME AND MY MONKEY (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "That was just a sort of nice line that I made into a song. It was about me and Yoko. Everybody seemed to be paranoid except for us two, who were in the glow of love. Everything is clear and open when you're in love. Everybody was sort of tense around us-- you know, 'What is SHE doing here at the session? Why is she with him?' All this sort of madness is going on around us because we just happened to want to be together all the time."

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SEXY SADIE (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "That was inspired by Maharishi. I wrote it when we had our bags packed and we're leaving. It was the last piece I wrote before I left India. I just called him, 'Sexy Sadie,' instead of (sings) 'Maharishi what have you done, you made a fool...' I was just using the situation to write a song, rather calculatingly but also to express what I felt. I was leaving the Maharishi with a bad taste. You know, it seems that my partings are always not as nice as I'd like them to be."

HELTER SKELTER (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "That's Paul completely. All that (Charles) Manson stuff was built 'round George's song about pigs and this one... Paul's song about an English fairground. It has nothing to do with anything, and least of all to do with me."

PAUL 1985: "The Who had made some track that was the loudest, the most raucous rock 'n roll, the dirtiest thing they'd ever done. It made me think, 'Right. Got to do it.' I like that kind of geeking up. And we decided to do the loudest, nastiest, sweatiest rock number we could."

LONG LONG LONG (Harrison)

GEORGE 1980: "The 'you' in 'Long Long Long' is God. I can't recall much about it except the chords, which I think we’re coming from (Dylan's) 'Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands'-- D to E minor, A, and D-- those three chords and the way they moved."

REVOLUTION 1 (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "Completely me. We recorded the song twice. The Beatles were getting real tense with each other. I did the slow version (Revolution 1) and I wanted to put it out as a single: as a statement of the Beatles' position on Vietnam and the Beatles' position on revolution. The first take of 'Revolution' ...well, George and Paul were resentful and said it wasn't fast enough. Now, if you go into the details of what a hit record is and isn't, maybe. But the Beatles could have afforded to put out a slow, understandable version of 'Revolution' as a single, whether it was a gold record or a wooden record."

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HONEY PIE (Lennon/McCartney)

PAUL 1968: "My dad always played fruity old songs like that you know. And I liked 'em. I like the melody of old songs, and the lyrics as well. There's some old lyrics, like, you know-- the woman singing about the man, and she's saying something about 'I wanna have his initial on my monogram.' You know what I mean? There's good lyrics and just good thoughts that you don't sort of hear so much these days, you know. And so, I would quite like to have been a 1920's writer, 'cuz I like that thing, you know. Umm, you know, up in top hat and tails and sort of coming-on to 'em. So, this kind of number, I like that thing. But uhh... So, this is just me doing it, pretending I'm living in 1925."

GEORGE 1987: "John played a brilliant solo on 'Honey Pie' --sounded like Django Reinhardt or something. It was one of them where you just close your eyes and happen to hit all the right notes... sounded like a little jazz solo."

PAUL 1994: "I very much liked that old crooner style-- the strange fruity voice that they used, so 'Honey Pie' was me writing one of them to an imaginary woman, across the ocean, on the silver screen, who was called Honey Pie. It's another of my fantasy songs. We put a sound on my voice to make it sound like a scratchy old record. So, it's not a parody, it's a nod to the vaudeville tradition that I was raised on."

SAVOY TRUFFLE (Harrison)

GEORGE 1977: "'Savoy Truffle' on The White Album was written for Eric (Clapton). He's got this real sweet tooth and he'd just had his mouth worked on. His dentist said he was through with candy. So as a tribute I wrote, 'You'll have to have them all pulled out after the Savoy Truffle.' The truffle was some kind of sweet, just like all the rest-- cream tangerine, ginger sling-- just candy, to tease Eric."

CRY BABY CRY (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1968: "I've got another one here... a few words... I think I got them from an advert. 'Cry baby cry, make your mother BUY.' I've been playing it over and over on the piano. I've let it go now, but it will come back if I really want it. Sometimes I get up from the piano as if I've been in a trance, and I know I have let a few things slip away which I could have caught had I wanted something."

JOHN 1980: "A piece of rubbish."

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REVOLUTION 9 (Lennon/McCartney)

GEORGE 1969: "Revolution 9 wasn't particularly like a Beatles number... it worked quite well in the context of all those different songs. I find it heavy to listen to myself-- in fact, I don't, really."

JOHN 1971: "I thought I was painting in sound a picture of revolution, but I made a mistake, you know. The mistake was that it was anti-revolution."

JOHN 1980: "The slow version of 'Revolution' on the album went on and on and on and I took the fade-out part, which is what they sometimes do with disco records now, and just layered all this stuff over it. It was the basic rhythm of the original 'Revolution' going on with some twenty (tape) loops we put on, things from the archives of EMI. We were cutting up classical music and making different-size loops, and then I got and engineer tape on which some test engineer was saying, 'Number nine.' All those different bits of sound and noise are all compiled. There were about ten (tape) machines with people holding pencils on the loops-- some only inches long and some a yard long. I fed them all in and mixed them live. I did a few mixes until I got one I liked. Yoko was there for the whole thing, and she made decisions about which loops to use. It was somewhat under her influence, I suppose. Once I heard her stuff-- not just the screeching and the howling but her sort of word pieces and talking and breathing and all this strange stuff, I thought, My God, I got intrigued... so I wanted to do one. I spent more time on 'Revolution 9' than I did on half the songs I ever wrote. It was a montage."

GOOD NIGHT (Lennon/McCartney)

RINGO 1968: "Everybody thinks Paul wrote 'Goodnight' for me to sing, but it was John who wrote it for me. He's got a lot of soul, John has."

PAUL 1968: "John wrote it, mainly. It's his tune, uhh, which is surprising for John-- 'cuz he doesn't normally write this kind of tune. It's a very sweet tune, and Ringo sings it great, I think. The arrangement was done by George Martin, uhh, 'cuz he's very good at that kind of arrangement, you know-- very sort of lush, sweet arrangement."

JOHN 1980: "'Good Night' was written for Julian, the way 'Beautiful Boy' was written for Sean... but given to Ringo and possibly over lush."

PAUL circa-1994: "I think John felt it might not be good for his image for him to sing it, but it was fabulous to hear him do it, he sang it great. We heard him sing it in order to teach it to Ringo and he sang it very tenderly. John rarely showed his tender side, but my key memories of John are when he was tender, that's what has remained with me--

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those moments where he showed himself to be a very generous, loving person. I always cite that song as an example of the John beneath the surface that we only saw occasionally... I don't think John's version was ever recorded."

ON THE CONCEPT BEHIND THE WHITE ALBUM (During the time of its initial release)

JOHN 1968: "What we're trying to do is rock 'n roll, 'with less of your philosorock,' is what we're saying to ourselves. And get on with rocking because rockers is what we really are. You can give me a guitar, stand me up in front of a few people. Even in the studio, if I'm getting into it, I'm just doing my old bit... not quite doing Elvis Legs but doing my equivalent. It's just natural. Everybody says we must do this and that but our thing is just rocking. You know, the usual gig. That's what this new record is about. Definitely rocking."

PAUL 1968: "It's a return to a more rock and roll sound. We felt it was time to step back because that's what we wanted to do. You can still make good music without going forward. Some people want us to go on until we vanish up our own B sides."

PAUL 1968: "On 'Sgt. Pepper' we had more instrumentation than we'd ever had so it was more of a production, but we didn't really want to go overboard like that this time. And we've tried to play more like a band this time-- only using instruments when we had to, instead of just using them for the fun of it. We wrote them with guitars. And, on a lot of his, John picks the guitar because he learned off Donovan when we were in India-- Donovan showed him how to fingerpick. And while he was learning fingerpicking, I was sort of playing acoustic as well, you know. We decided not to try and cover them up like we might do normally."

JOHN 1968: "We wrote about thirty new songs between us. Paul must have done about a dozen. George says he's got six, and I wrote fifteen. And look what meditation has done for Ringo-- after all this time he wrote his first song."

REMEMBERING THE WHITE ALBUM SESSIONS

RINGO 1976: "I had left the band on the White Album. We're doing this album, and I'm getting weird-- saying to me-self, 'I've gotta leave this band. It's not working,' you know. So, I just said, 'Okay, I'm going on holiday,' and I went away for two weeks. (laughs) And uhh, that's when I left the band. And then I got a telegram from John saying, 'Great drums' on the tracks we'd done. And I came back, and it was great, 'cuz George had set up all these flowers all over the studio saying welcome home. So, then we got it together again."

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PAUL 1987: "The White Album was the tension album. We were all in the midst of the psychedelic thing, or just coming out of it. In any case, it was weird. Never before had we recorded with beds in the studio and people visiting for hours on end, business meetings and all that. There was a lot of friction. It was the weirdest experience because we were about to break up-- that was tense in itself."

Summary John, Paul, George, and Ringo were becoming more and more independent and

feeling confined in their role as Beatles. As their individual personalities became further pronounced, so did their different interests. The White Album sessions showed the first signs of their frustration and disenchantment with each other, and with Epstein dead, their ego clashes, and the business pressures of running their own record label, they were in need of strong and intelligent manager.

1969

January 2: Get Back project begins at Twickenham Studios.

January 17: Yellow Submarine album released by Apple

TRACK LISTING (All songs written by McCartney/Lennon, except where indicated)

Title Lead vocals Length

Side one

1. "Yellow Submarine" (originally from Revolver) Starr 2:40

2. "Only a Northern Song" (mono) George Harrison 3:24

3. "All Together Now" McCartney and Lennon 2:11

4. "Hey Bulldog" Lennon 3:11

5. "It's All Too Much" Harrison 6:25

6. "All You Need Is Love" (originally a 1967 single) Lennon 3:51

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(All tracks on side 2 written and composed by George Martin, except where indicated.)

Side two

1. "Pepperland" 2:21

2. "Sea of Time" 3:00

3. "Sea of Holes" 2:17

4. "Sea of Monsters" 3:37

5. "March of the Meanies" 2:22

6. "Pepperland Laid Waste" 2:19

7. "Yellow Submarine in Pepperland" Lennon/McCartney

arr. by G. Martin 2:13

According to George Martin, the Beatles, not initially enthusiastic about having to contribute a soundtrack for the film, provided “bottom of the barrel” songs to the project. Only four “new” songs were included; one by Paul, two by George, and one by John. Of these four songs only John’s contribution, “Hey Bulldog,” is of full Beatle quality.

“Hey Bulldog” Recorded in February of 1968, just days before they left for India, “Hey Bulldog” is a bluesy rocker with a strong Lennonesque edge. It is an instrumental ‘tour de force’ were all four Beatles put in 100% in their playing; John’s aggressive piano riff and chords are enhanced by Paul’s driving/syncopated bass line and Ringo’s relentless drumming, while the bold, distorted, ‘in-your-face’ guitar

solo by George is a masterful melody all its own. Engineer Geoff Emerick remembers that the Beatles were still having a great time in the studio during these days. This joyful spirit was soon to take a turn in the opposite direction during the sessions for their White Album.

Recording “Hey Bulldog” (February 11, 1968).

196 Armando Tranquilino

The second half of the Yellow Submarine album consists of first-rate orchestral music by George Martin. Martin, who was a superb orchestrator, captures the suspenseful and comical spirit of the film. Listening to his music, one becomes aware of how much his musical style had become a major feature in Beatles songs (i.e., “Yesterday,” “Eleanor Rigby,” “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “I Am The Walrus”).

In Their Own Words

On “Hey Bulldog”

HEY BULLDOG (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1980: "It's a good sounding record that means nothing."

PAUL circa-1994: "I remember 'Hey Bulldog' as being one of John's songs and I helped him finish it off in the studio, but it's mainly his vibe. There's a little rap at the end between John and I, we went into a crazy little thing at the end. We always tried to make every song different because we figured, 'Why write something like the last one? We've done that.' We were on a ladder so there was never any sense of stepping down a rung, or even staying on the same rung, it was better to move one rung ahead."

GEORGE 1999: "We now have an unreleased video of 'Hey Bulldog,' as you know. When we were in the studio recording 'Bulldog,' apparently it was at a time when they needed some footage for something else, some other record (Lady Madonna), and a film crew came along and filmed us. Then they cut up the footage and used some of the shots for something else. But it was Neil Aspinall who found out that when you watched and listened to what the original thing was, we were recording 'Bulldog.' This was apparently the only time we were filmed recording something, so what Neil did was, he put (the unused footage) all back together again and put the 'Bulldog' soundtrack onto it, and there it was!"

197 The Beatles: A Magical History Tour

Discussion Assignments for Class Projects

The discussion topics below are designed for student assignments or projects in a class setting. It will offer the students a platform on which to contribute their own ideas and reflections on the materials studied. There are a total four discussions, arranged chronologically throughout the book.

Discussion Format and Topic Assignment

Each Discussion contains 4 topics. To enhance and diversify the discussions, each student will be assigned one of the four topics. The topic designation will be determined by the first letter the student’s last name.

For example, if your last name is Martin, your topic will be Topic 3, which covers all last names that start with the letters M through P.

Last names starting with the letters A-C Topic 1

Last names starting with the letters D-L Topic 2

Last names starting with the letters M-P Topic 3

Last names starting with the letters Q-Z Topic 4

Topics for Discussion III

Now that you have read about The Beatles during the years 1967-68, and listened to musical examples from the albums Magical Mystery Tour, The White Album, Yellow Submarine, as well as the singles (Chapters 9-10):

Topic 1

After returning from India in 1968, the Beatles formed their own company, Apple Corps, and started work on a new album. They seemed poised to become more independent and powerful than ever, however, during the recording of the "White Album" the first signs of the Beatles falling apart were seen. Based on the information in Chapter 10, and including their comments (In Their Own Words), in your opinion, what were the TOP THREE primary reasons for the conflict, tension and animosity that ensued? Was there any one person you would consider the main source of the problems? If yes, Who and Why?

198 Armando Tranquilino

Topic 2

Based on the information on Chapter 9, and on your listening of these songs, discuss the similarities and differences between the songs Fool on the Hill by McCartney and I Am the Walrus by Lennon. Compare and contrast the music, lyrics, instrumentation, sources of inspiration, and the songwriting styles each member. Also incorporate the Beatles’ views and comments (In Their Own Words - Chapter 9), of these songs in your discussion.

Topic 3

Select one song by Lennon, one by McCartney, and one by Harrison from the White Album. Based on the In Their Own Words section of Chapter 10, discuss and compare the sources of inspiration for each song. Based on the information on Chapter 10 and on your own listening of the songs, compare the songwriting styles each member.

Topic 4

Based on the information on Chapter 10, and on your listening of these songs, discuss the similarities and differences between the songs Hey Jude by McCartney and Revolution by Lennon. Compare and contrast the music, lyrics, instrumentation, sources of inspiration, and the songwriting styles each member. Would you consider these songs representative examples of the individual styles of McCartney and Lennon? If so, in what ways? Also incorporate the Beatles’ views and comments (In Their Own Words - Chapter 10), of these songs in your discussion.