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The
Beatles - Biography
The
Beatles
(1960-1970) were an English rock group from
Liverpool, who were the most critically acclaimed, commercially
successful artists of all time. They continue to be held in
the highest esteem for their artistic achievements, their
huge commercial success, their groundbreaking role in the
history of popular music, and their contributions to popular
culture. Although their initial musical style was rooted in
the sounds of 1950s Rock & Roll, the group explored a great
variety of musical styles, ranging from Tin Pan Alley to
rockabilly and from folk to avant-garde. The innovative
music and style of John Lennon (1940–1980), Paul McCartney
(1942—), George Harrison (1943–2001), and Ringo Starr
(1940—) helped to define the 1960s.
The
Beatles were the best-selling popular musical act of the
20th century. In the United Kingdom alone, they released
more than 40 different singles, albums and EPs that reached
number one. This commercial success was repeated in many
other countries: EMI estimated that by 1985, the band had
sold over one billion discs or tapes worldwide. The RIAA has
certified The Beatles as the top selling artists of all time
in America based on U.S. sales of singles and albums.
Their
early material fused elements of American rock 'n' roll and
R&B into a new and influential strain of popular rock 'n
roll. With Lennon and McCartney penning most of the band's
songs, they established a prototype for the "self-contained"
rock group, which departed from the traditional practice of
producers, composers and arrangers writing the songs for
popular music acts. The Beatles were a major force behind
the so-called "British Invasion" of U.K.-based rock 'n' roll
bands in the United States in the mid-1960s, inspiring what
the media was to term "Beatlemania". They helped to pioneer
more advanced, multi-layered arrangements in both rock and
pop and were instrumental in the development of some of the
dominant musical styles of the 1960s, notably folk rock,
hard rock and psychedelia.
The
Beatles' impact extended well beyond their music. Their
clothes, hairstyles, statements, and even their choice of
instruments made them trend-setters from the 1960s to this
day, while their growing social awareness reflected in the
development of their music saw their influence extend into
the social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s.
History
Formation
and early years
In March
of 1957, John Lennon formed a skiffle group called The
Quarrymen (fleetingly known as The Blackjacks). On 6 July of
that year, Lennon met Paul McCartney while playing at the
Woolton Parish Church Fete. In February of 1958, the young
guitarist George Harrison joined the group, which was then
playing under a variety of names. A few primitive recordings
of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison from that era have
survived. During this period, members continually joined and
left the lineup; Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison emerged as
the only constant members.
The
Quarrymen went through a progression of names -- Johnny and
The Moondogs, Long John and The Beatles, The Silver Beetles,
The Beat Brothers -- and eventually decided on "The
Beatles." There are many theories as to the origin of the
name and its unusual spelling; it is usually credited to
John Lennon, who said that the name was a combination
word-play on the insects "beetles" (as a nod/compliment to
Buddy Holly's band The Crickets) and the word "beat" He also
later said that it was a joke, meaning a pun on "Beat-less".
In her book John, Cynthia Lennon suggests that John
came up with the name Beatles at a "...brainstorming session
over a beer soaked table in the Renshaw Hall bar...". In
addition to being a fan of the Crickets, Lennon is
paraphrased as having said: "If you turn it round it was
'less beat', which sounded French and cool." Lennon, who
became famous for giving multiple versions of the same
story, also once claimed in Mersey Beat magazine
(tongue-in-cheek) that a man appeared to him on a "flaming
pie" and instructed him to "Call the band The Beatles --
with an 'a'."
In May of
1960, The Beatles were hired to tour the north-east of
Scotland as a back-up band with singer Johnny Gentle, who
was signed to the Larry Parnes agency. They met Gentle an
hour before their first gig, and McCartney referred to that
short tour as a great experience for the band. For this tour
the chronically drummerless group secured the services of
Tommy Moore, who was considerably older than the others. The
band’s van (driven by Gentle) had a head-on crash with
another vehicle on their way back from Scotland; Moore lost
some teeth and had stitches after being hit in the mouth by
a guitar. Nobody else was seriously injured. (Shortly
afterward, feeling the age gap was too great and following a
girlfriend's advice,
Moore
left the band and went back to work in a bottling factory as
a fork-lift truck driver.)
Hamburg
Norman
Chapman was their next drummer, but only for a few weeks, as
he was called up for National Service. This was a real
problem as their unofficial manager, Allan Williams, had
arranged for them to perform in clubs on the Reeperbahn in
Hamburg, Germany. (Paul McCartney has often said that if any
of The Beatles had been individually called-up for National
Service –– had it been extended for just a few more weeks ––
the band would never have come into existence, because of
the different ages of the key members).
In August
of 1960, McCartney invited Pete Best to become the group's
drummer, after watching Best playing with The Blackjacks in
the Casbah Club. This was a cellar club operated by Best's
mother Mona, in Hayman's Green, Liverpool, where The Beatles
had played and often used to visit.
They
started in
Hamburg
by playing in the The Indra and The Kaiserkeller bars. They
were told to play six or seven hours a night, seven nights a
week. They went back a second time and played the Top Ten
club for three months (April until June, 1961.) While they
were playing at the Top Ten they were recruited by singer
Tony Sheridan to act as his backing band on a series of
recordings for the German Polydor Records label, produced by
famed bandleader Bert Kaempfert. Kaempfert signed the group
to its own Polydor contract at the first session in June
1961. On 23 October Polydor released the recording "My
Bonnie (Mein Herz ist bei dir nur)", which made it into the
German charts under the name "Tony Sheridan and The Beat
Brothers".
Their
third trip to
Hamburg
was when they opened The Star Club (April, 1962) and were
there for two months.
Upon their
return from
Hamburg,
the group was enthusiastically promoted by
Sam Leach, who
presented them for the next year and a half on various
stages in Liverpool forty-nine times. Brian Epstein, manager
of the record department at NEMS, his family's furniture
store, took over as the group's manager in 1962 and led The
Beatles' quest for a British recording contract. In one
now-famous exchange, an executive at Decca Records turned
Epstein down flat and informed him that "Guitar groups are
on the way out, Mr. Epstein."
Record
contract
Epstein
eventually met with producer George Martin of EMI's
Parlophone label. Martin expressed an interest in hearing
the band in the studio; he invited the quartet to London's
Abbey Road studios for an audition on 6 June. Martin had not
been particularly impressed by the band's demo recordings,
but he instantly liked them as people when he met them. He
concluded that they had raw musical talent, but said (in
later interviews) that what made the difference for him that
day was their wit and humour in the studio. They were very
likeable, and slightly cheeky, young men. When he asked them
if there was anything they did not like,
Harrison replied, "I don't like your tie". The remark typified the
slightly surreal blend of wry humour and irreverence towards
authority that eventually became the band's in-joke with a
global audience. That day, however, their audience was a
single person: a detail-orientated, slightly stuffy-looking
Parlophone executive who had never worked with a rock 'n'
roll band before. Fortunately for the band, Martin, whose
background was in comedy and novelty records, appreciated
the joke. He offered the band a contract.
Martin did
have a problem with Pete Best, whom he criticised for not
being able to keep time. He privately suggested to Brian
Epstein that the band use another drummer in the studio.
Best had some popularity and was considered good-looking by
many fans, but the three founding members had become
increasingly unhappy with his popularity and his
personality, and Epstein had become exasperated with his
refusal to adopt the distinctive hairstyle as part of their
unified look. Epstein sacked Best on 16 August 1962. They
immediately asked Ringo Starr (real name: Richard Starkey),
the drummer for one of the top Merseybeat groups Rory Storm
and the Hurricanes, to join the band. The Beatles had met
and performed with Starr previously in Hamburg. (In fact the
first recordings of John, Paul, George and Ringo together
were as early as 15 October 1960, in a series of
demonstration records privately recorded in Hamburg as
backing group for singer Lu Walters.) Starr played on The
Beatles' second EMI recording session on 4 September 1962,
but Martin hired session drummer Andy White for their next
session on 11 September.
Their
recording contract –– in common with how shabbily new
artists were treated in that era –– paid them only one penny
for every single sold, which was split among the four
Beatles. This amounted to one farthing per group member.
This royalty rate was further reduced for overseas sales, on
which they received half of one penny (split between the
whole band) for singles sales outside of the
UK.
George Martin said later that it was a "pretty awful"
contract. Their publishing contract with Dick James Music (DJM)
was also standard for the time; Each writer received the
statuatory minimum of 50% of the gross monies received, with
the publisher retaining the other 50%.
The
Beatles' first EMI session on 6 June did not yield any
releasable recordings but the September sessions produced a
minor UK hit, "Love Me Do", which peaked on the charts at
number 17. ("Love Me Do" reached the top of the
U.S.
singles chart over 18 months later in May 1964.) This was
swiftly followed by their second single "Please Please Me".
Three months later they recorded their first album (also
titled Please Please Me), which was a mix of
original songs by Lennon and McCartney with some covers of
their favourite songs. The band's first televised
performance was on a program called People and Places
transmitted live from
Manchester
by Granada Television on 17 October 1962.
America
Although
the band experienced huge popularity in the record charts in
Britain from early 1963, Parlophone's American counterpart,
Capitol Records (owned by EMI), refused to issue the singles
"Love Me Do", "Please Please Me" and "From Me to You"
in the United States, partly because no British act had ever
yet had a sustained commercial impact on American audiences.
Vee-Jay
Records, a small
Chicago
label, is said by some to have been pressured into issuing
these singles as part of a deal for the rights to another
performer's masters. Art Roberts, music director of Chicago
powerhouse radio station WLS, placed "Please Please Me" into
radio rotation in late February 1963, making it possibly the
first time a Beatles' record was heard on American radio.
Vee-Jay's rights to The Beatles were cancelled for
non-payment of royalties.
In August
1963 the Philadelphia-based Swan label tried again with The
Beatles' "She Loves You", which also failed to receive
airplay. A testing of the song on Dick Clark's TV show
American Bandstand resulted only in laughter and scorn
from American teenagers when they saw the group's Beatle
haircuts. The famous radio DJ,
Murray
the K (Kaufman) featured "She Loves You" on his 1010 WINS
record revue in October, to an underwhelming response.
Beatlemania
In
November 1963, The Beatles appeared on the Royal Variety
Performance and were photographed with Marlene Dietrich who
also appeared on the show. In early November 1963, Brian
Epstein persuaded Ed Sullivan to commit to presenting The
Beatles on three editions of his show in February, and
parlayed this guaranteed exposure into a record deal with
Capitol Records. Capitol committed to a mid-January release
for "I Want to Hold Your Hand",
but a series of unplanned circumstances triggered premature
airplay of an imported copy of the single on a Washington DC
radio station in mid-December. Capitol brought forward
release of the record to December 26 1963.
Several
New York radio stations — first WMCA, then WINS and WABC — began playing "I
Want to Hold Your Hand" on its release day, and the
Beatlemania that had started in
Washington
was duplicated in New York and quickly spread to other
markets. The record sold one million copies in just ten
days, and by January 16, Cashbox Magazine had certified The
Beatles record number one (in the edition published with the
cover-date January 23).
This
contributed to the hysterical fan reaction at JFK Airport on
February 7 1964. A record-breaking seventy-three million
viewers — approximately 40% of the U.S. population at the
time — tuned in to the first Sullivan appearance on February
9. During the week of April 4, The Beatles held the top five
places on the Billboard Hot 100 (see The Beatles record
sales, worldwide charts) - a feat that has never been
repeated.
In
mid-1964 the band undertook their first appearances outside
of Europe and North America, touring Australia and New
Zealand (notably without Ringo Starr who was ill and was
temporarily replaced by session drummer Jimmy Nicol). When
they arrived in
Adelaide, The Beatles were greeted by what is reputed to be the
largest crowd of their touring career, when over 300,000
people — about one-third of the population of the city —
turned out to see them. In September that year baseball
owner Charles O. Finley paid the band the then unheard of
sum of $150,000 to play in
Kansas City,
Missouri.
In 1965
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II bestowed upon them the MBE, a
civil honour nominated by Prime Minister Harold Wilson. The
award, at that time primarily given to military veterans and
civic leaders, sparked some conservative MBE recipients to
return their awards in protest, which was widely reported in
the British press and was even the lead item on the BBC
television news. The first two were returned on June 14th,
before The Beatles received theirs on October 26th 1965.
On August
15 that year, The Beatles performed the first stadium
concert in modern rock, playing at Shea Stadium in New York
to a crowd of 55,600. The band later admitted that they had
been totally unable to hear themselves play or sing, due to
the screaming and cheering. This concert is generally
considered the point at which began their disenchantment
with performing live.
Backlash
and controversy
In July
1966, when The Beatles toured the Philippines, they
unintentionally snubbed the nation's first lady, Imelda
Marcos, who had expected the group to attend a breakfast
reception at the Presidential Palace. When presented with
the invitation, Brian Epstein politely declined on behalf of
the group, as it had never been the group's policy to accept
such "official" invitations. The group soon found that the
Marcos regime was unaccustomed to accepting "no" for an
answer. After the snubbing was widely broadcast on
Philippine television and radio, all The Beatles' police
protection disappeared. The group and their entourage had to
make their way to Manila airport on their own, with the
authorities throwing up every road block they could to
harass them as much as possible. At the airport, roadie Mal
Evans was beaten and kicked, and The Beatles themselves were
pushed and jostled about by a hostile crowd. Once the group
boarded the plane, Brian Epstein and Mal Evans were ordered
off, and Mal Evans said, "Tell my wife that I love her. . ."
(showing how seriously he thought the danger was of them
both being shot). Epstein was forced to give back all the
money that the band had earned while they were there before
being allowed back on the plane (Anthology).
Almost as
soon as they returned from the Philippines, an earlier
comment by John back in March of that year launched a
backlash against The Beatles from religious and social
conservatives in the Bible Belt of the US. In an interview
with British reporter Maureen Cleave Lennon had offered his
opinion that Christianity was dying and that The Beatles
were "more popular than Jesus now." In many cities and towns
across the United States (primarily in the South) and in
South Africa, people banned and burned Beatles records.
However, The Beatles observed wryly, "Hey, they've gotta buy
'em before they can burn 'em." Under pressure from American
media, Lennon apologised for his remarks at a press
conference 11 August in Chicago, on the eve of their first
performance of what would turn out to be their final tour.
The
Beatles performed their last concert before paying fans at
Candlestick Park in San Francisco on 29 August 1966. Tony
Barrow was asked to film the event, but it was a 30-minute
film and it cut halfway through the last song. The concert
lasted for only 35 minutes.
From then
on, they concentrated on recording music. After 3 months
away from each other, they returned to Abbey Road Studios on
November 24, 1966, to begin their 129-day recording period
in making their eighth album: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts
Club Band, released on June 1, 1967.
On 25 June
1967, The Beatles became the first band globally transmitted
on television, in front of an estimated 400 million people
worldwide. The Beatles' appeared in a segment within the
first-ever worldwide TV satellite hook-up –– a show entitled
Our World. The Beatles were transmitted live from
Abbey Road Studios, and their new song "All You Need Is
Love" was recorded live during the show.
Soon after
the triumphs of the Sergeant Pepper album and the global
broadcast, The Beatles' situation worsened. First, their
manager Brian Epstein died of a drug overdose on 27 August
1967, at the age of 32, and the band's business affairs
began to unravel. Next, at the end of 1967, they received
their first major negative press criticism in the UK with
disparaging reviews of their surrealistic TV film
Magical Mystery Tour. The film was also panned by
the public. Part of the public's difficulty lay in the fact
that colour was an integral part of the film but it was
broadcast in a black-and-white. The film's soundtrack is
notable in that the song "Flying", written especially for
the film, is one of The Beatles' only instrumental tracks.
The group
spent the early part of 1968 in Rishikesh, Uttar Pradesh,
India, studying transcendental meditation with the Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi. Upon their return, Lennon and McCartney took a
trip to New York to announce the formation of Apple Corps,
initially an altruistic business venture which they
described as an attempt at "western communism." The middle
part of 1968 saw the band busy recording the double album
The Beatles, popularly known as The White
Album due to its stark white cover. These sessions
saw deep divisions opening within the band.
McCartney
gradually took greater charge of the group's production,
growing dominant in that role. Internal divisions within the
band had been a small but growing problem during their
earlier career; most notably, this was reflected in the
difficulty that George Harrison experienced in getting his
own songs onto Beatles' albums, and in the growing artistic
and personal estrangement between Lennon and McCartney.
On the
business side McCartney wanted Lee Eastman – the father of
his wife Linda Eastman – to manage The Beatles, but the
remaining Beatles wanted New York manager Allen Klein to
represent them. All Beatles decisions in the past were
unanimous but this time the four could not unanimously agree
on a manager. Lennon, Harrison and Starr felt the Eastmans
would look after McCartney's well-being before that of the
group. Paul was quoted years later during the Anthology
interviews, saying that "Looking back, I can understand why
they would feel that was biased against them."
Their
final live performance was on the rooftop of the Apple
building in Savile Row, London on 30 January 1969, the
next-to-last day of the difficult Get Back sessions
(later used as a basis for the Let It Be
album). Largely due to McCartney's efforts, they recorded
their final album, Abbey Road in summer 1969.
Rowan Ayers launched the album on his show Late Night Line
Up on 26 September 1969. Rowan recalls we had a boozy
lunch at Apple Studios and they showed me their latest album.
Lennon
announced his departure to the rest of the group in
mid-September 1969, but the breakup was not made public
until the release of McCartney's first solo album in April
1970. One month later, Let It Be followed as their
last commercial album release.
Studio
band
The role
of producer George Martin is often cited as a crucial
element in their success. He used his experience to bring
out the potential in the group, recognising and nurturing
their creativity rather than imposing his views. After The
Beatles stopped touring, they would increasingly come under
pressure, and it was decided for the group to vent their
artistic energy solely into recording.
Their
constant demands to create new sounds on every new
recording, and the imaginative –– and ground-breaking ––
studio expertise of EMI staff engineers, including Norman
Smith, Ken Townshend and Geoff Emerick all played
significant parts in the innovative sounds of the albums
Rubber Soul (1965), Revolver (1966)
and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
(1967).
While most
recording artists of the time were using two, three or four
tracks in the studio, The Beatles had to use linked pairs of
four-track decks, and ping-ponging tracks two, and even
three times, became common.
EMI
delayed the introduction of eight-track recording - already
becoming common in American studios - until 1968, when
American studios were already upgrading to 16-tracks. EMI
were loath to spend any money on new equipment - even though
The Beatles were earning vast amounts - and so Abbey Road
was always (technically) one step behind every other studio.
When Magic
Alex proposed building a 72-track studio in the basement of
the Saville Row office, everybody encouraged him, but this
was later proven to be a complete disaster, as Alex had no
idea about studios at all, but nevertheless convinced all of
The Beatles that he could do it.
Along with
studio tricks such as sound effects, unconventional
microphone placements, automatic double tracking and vari-speed
recording, The Beatles began to augment their recordings
with instruments that were unconventional for rock music at
the time, including string and brass ensembles, Indian
instruments such as the sitar and the swarmandel, tape
loops, and early electronic instruments including the
Mellotron, which was unforgettably used (with flute voices)
on the intro to "Strawberry Fields Forever".
McCartney
once asked Martin what a guitar would sound like if it was
played underwater, and was serious about trying it. Lennon
also wondered what his vocals would sound like if he was
hanging upside down from the ceiling. Clearly their ideas
were out-stripping the technology that was available at the
time.
In 1971,
it was discovered that Allen Klein had stolen £5m from The
Beatles holdings, and, in 1973, Lennon admitted to McCartney
that they should have gone with the Eastmans' management.
This helped to mend the personal relationship between the
two, although not entirely.
They still
remain enormously popular. In 1995, and 1996, three
Anthology collections of CDs were released –– each
containing two CDs of never-before-released Beatles material
–– based on the Anthology documentary series. 450,000
copies of Anthology 1 were sold on its first day of
release, reaching the highest volume of single-day sales
ever, for an album. In 2000, a compilation album named 1
was released, containing almost every number-one single
released by the band from 1962, to 1970. The collection sold
3.6 million copies in its first week and more than 12
million in three weeks worldwide, becoming the
fastest-selling album of all time and the biggest-selling
album of the year 2000. The collection also reached number
one in the United States and 33 other countries.
The BBC
have a large collection of Beatles recordings, mostly
comprising original studio sessions from 1963 - 1968. Much
of this material formed the basis for a 1988 radio
documentary series The Beeb's Lost Beatles Tapes.
Later, in 1994, the best of these sessions were given an
official EMI release on Live at the BBC.
On June
30, 2006, Cirque de Soleil opened their show LOVE, a
tribute to The Beatles, at the The Mirage in Las Vegas. It
featured Beatles music remixed, recombined, and re-mastered
by George Martin and his son Giles Martin.
Changes in
their music
The
Beatles were fans of almost every kind of music that they
heard on the radio, or heard on imported records from
America. These early records were not officially imported to
the UK, but were taken to Liverpool by sailors who had
bought them in America.
The
Beatles were, in the beginning, heavily influenced by Rock
and Roll. This later graduated into Beat Music, which is the
reason why they chose The Beatles name. Mid-sixties
Beatles material shifted away from dance music, and the
tempo of their songs was varied from the back-beat rhythm of
their beginnings. Lennon and McCartney never lost their
affection for the driving R&B of Little Richard, and
Chuck
Berry, and this was reflected in many songs, from "I Saw Her
Standing There" to "Revolution", "Birthday", and "Helter Skelter".
Lennon is
conventionally portrayed as having played the major role in
steering The Beatles towards psychedelia ("Rain" and
"Tomorrow Never Knows" from 1966, and "Lucy in the Sky with
Diamonds", "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "I Am the Walrus"
from 1967), but McCartney was also influential being
involved in the London avant garde scene, which was
itself moving towards psychedelia during the same period.
Moreover,
with his customary humorous irreverence, John Lennon once
quipped: "Avant-garde is French for bullshit." In 1967,
while Lennon retreated to his house in Weybridge, McCartney
looked for musical inspiration in the experimental works of
Stockhausen, John Cage and Cornelius Cardew. 'It was a very
free, formless time for me'.
McCartney,
who still lived in London, would often tell John about any
new "happening" or "movement", and Lennon was always keen to
hear about it, and to endorse it. They created many of the
tape loops used on the album Tomorrow Never Knows and
experimented with musique concrete techniques and
electronic instruments, as well as creating many
experimental audio-visual works.
In 1965,
having recently become interested in Indian music,
George
Harrison purchased a sitar, which he played on the song
"Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)", the first incident
of such an instrument being used on a rock n'roll record. He
later took sitar lessons from maestro Ravi Shankar, and
implemented further elements of Eastern music and
spirituality into his songs, notably "Love You To" and
"Within You Without You". These musical decisions greatly
increased the influence of Indian music on popular culture
in the late 1960s.
Beginning
with the use of a string quartet (arranged by George Martin)
on "Yesterday" in 1965, The Beatles pioneered a modern form
of art song, exemplified by the double-quartet string
arrangement on "Eleanor Rigby" (1966), "Here, There and
Everywhere" (1966) and "She's Leaving Home" (1967). Lennon
and McCartney´s interest in the music of Bach led them to
use a piccolo trumpet on the arrangement of "Penny Lane",
and the use of a Mellotron at the start of "Strawberry
Fields Forever".
The
decision to stop touring, in 1966, caused an abrupt change
in their musical direction. They had already shown a clear
trend towards progressively greater complexity in technique
and style but this accelerated noticeably on their Revolver
album. The subject matter of their post-touring songs
branched out as well, as all manner of subjects were written
about.
The
extreme complexity of Sgt. Pepper reached its height
on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack album, parts of which
(for example "It's All Too Much" and "Only a Northern Song")
were left over from 1967, and were used because The Beatles
themselves were not interested in the animated film as a
project and did not want to record new material for it.
Lennon and
McCartney renewed their interest in rootsy forms towards the
close of The Beatles' career, e.g. "Yer Blues" and
"Birthday" from 1968 to "Don't Let Me Down" the following
year.
On film
The
Beatles created five films (excluding the anthology
collection) and most were very well received. The exception
was the (mostly unscripted) Magical Mystery Tour which was
panned by critics and the public alike. All of their films
had the same name as their soundtrack albums and a song on
that album.
A Hard
Day's Night
The
Beatles had a successful film career, beginning with A
Hard Day's Night (1964), a loosely scripted comic
farce, sometimes compared to the Marx Brothers in style. It
focused on Beatlemania and their hectic touring lifestyle,
and was directed in a quasi-documentary style in
black-and-white by the up-and-coming Richard Lester, who was
known for having directed a television version of the
successful BBC radio series The Goon Show as well as
the off-beat short film
The Running, Jumping and Standing Still Film,
with Spike Milligan.
Help!
In 1965
came Help!; an Eastmancolour extravaganza,
which was also directed by Lester, and was shot in exotic
locations (such as Salisbury Plain, with Stonehenge visible
in the background; the Bahamas; and Salzburg and the Tyrol
region of the Austrian Alps) in the style of a James Bond
spoof along with even more Marx Brothers-style zaniness: For
example, the film is dedicated "to Elias Howe, who, in 1846,
invented the sewing machine."
In 1966
Lennon took time off to play a supporting character in the
film called How I Won the War, again directed by
Lester. It was a satire of World War II films, and its dry,
ironic British humour was not well received by American
audiences.
Magical
Mystery Tour
The
Magical Mystery Tour film was essentially Paul
McCartney's idea, which was thought up as he returned from a
trip to the U.S. in the late spring of 1967, and was loosely
inspired by press coverage McCartney had read about Ken
Kesey's Merry Pranksters' LSD-fuelled American bus odyssey.
McCartney felt inspired to take this idea and blend it with
the peculiarly English working class tradition of charabanc
mystery tours, in which children took chaperoned bus rides
through the English countryside, destination unknown. The
film was critically dismissed when it was aired on the BBC's
premier television network, BBC-1, on Boxing Day — a day
primarily for traditional "cosy, family entertainment". The
film appeared radical avant-garde by those standards, and
instead of showcasing the lovable "moptops"/Beatles as they
had been up until then, it showed them as part of the hippie
counter-culture of 1967, which was at odds with the British
establishment of that era. Compounding this culture clash
was the fact that BBC-1, at that time, still only
transmitted programmes in black & white, while Tour
was in colour. The film was repeated a few days later on the
BBC's second channel (BBC-2) in colour — receiving more
appreciation, but the initial negative media reaction is
what is most remembered.
Yellow
Submarine
The
animated Yellow Submarine followed in 1968,
but had little direct input from The Beatles, save for a
live-action epilogue and the contribution of four new songs
(including "Only a Northern Song", an unreleased track from
the Sgt. Pepper sessions). It was acclaimed for its
boldly innovative graphic style and clever humour, along
with the soundtrack. The Beatles are said to have been
pleased with the result and attended its highly publicised
London premiere, every one of The Beatles thought their own
voices (narrated by actors) were not quite right, whilst
saying that the other three were perfect.
In 1969,
Ringo Starr took second billing to Peter Sellers in the
satirical comedy The Magic Christian; in a part which
had been written especially for him. Starr later embarked on
an irregular career in comedy films through the early 1980s,
and his interest in the subject led him to be the most
active of the group in the film division of Apple Corp,
although it was Harrison who would achieve the most success
as a film producer.
Let It Be
Let It Be
was an ill-fated documentary of the band that was shot over
a four-week period in January 1969. The documentary — which
was originally intended to be simply a chronicle of the
evolution of an album and the band's possible return to live
performances — captured the prevailing tensions between the
band members, and in this respect it unwittingly became a
document of the beginning of their break-up.
The band
initially rejected both the film and the album - instead
recording and issuing the Abbey Road album. But with
so much money having been spent on the project, it was
decided to finish, and release, the film and album (the
latter with considerable post-production by Phil Spector) in
the spring of 1970. When the film finally appeared, it was
after the break-up had been announced, and it was viewed by
shocked fans as the last (but not the best) album of The
Beatles.
Note:
Unlike the other Beatles films, Let It Be is
unavailable to buy on DVD or any other media. It has not
been shown on television for nearly three decades.
In 2003,
The Beatles released LET IT BE... NAKED, which was a
compilation of tracks from the Let It Be recordings, free of
the post-production from Phil Spector.
Anthology
The
Beatles released the Anthology series of DVDs, which
was made over five years of planning and production (1,760
minutes) and which collected together numerous film clips
and interviews to provide a complete history of the band
from The Beatles´ own personal perspectives. The series was
released as a boxed set of 5 DVDs. Klaus Voorman, who had
known The Beatles since their Hamburg days, and had
previously illustrated the Revolver album cover, directed
the Anthology cover concept.
Although
having consistently said that they would never reunite, they
recorded Free as a Bird, recorded Real Love, and gave hours
of individual interviews to Jools Holland, as well as
interviews with the remaining three members in the same
room.
On
Anthology 8, all three discussed the questions and rumours
about them reuniting for a tour, to which McCartney said
that he felt sorry about Julian Lennon or Sean Lennon being
involved. Ringo asked the definitive question: "Well, are
you going to get back together? No."
Early
Influences
Major
early influences included:
-
Buddy
Holly was a major early influence. Like
Chuck Berry - he
wrote and performed his own songs. The group played many
of his songs on stage in their early days. They also
recorded "Words of Love". It is accepted that their name
was partially inspired by Holly’s backing group, The
Crickets. Stuart Sutcliffe suggested "Beetles" which John
Lennon altered to Beatles, but his version was a joke,
meaning "Beat-less".
-
Chuck
Berry. They recorded covers of Berry songs: "Roll Over
Beethoven" and "Rock and Roll Music" on their early
albums, and also performed many other of his classics in
their live repertoire. When Lennon first met Berry (as
Berry walked in the dressing room door) Lennon shouted
out, "Chuck Berry, my hero!".
-
Country
Music. All four band members have talked about their
influences from American country music. The group covered
Buck Owens "Act Naturally" and also recorded an original
country-style number "What Goes On?", both sung by Starr.
Starr's first original Beatles composition, "Don't Pass Me
By" for The White Album, had a distinct bluegrass
sound. Both Starr and McCartney would continue to record
country material in their solo careers. McCartney was once
asked to record a duet with Kenny Rogers, which he
accepted but nothing was ever recorded.
-
Elvis
Presley. They recorded a number of Presley covers at the
Abbey Road studio, and bootleg copies have existed since
the late 1960s. Interviews for the documentary
Anthology has all four band members speaking very
highly of Presley, with Paul McCartney referring to him as
"The guru". In other interviews McCartney has credited
Presley as the rocker who influenced him the most. The
band and Presley met only once, during their summer tour
in 1965, The meeting was later described by the various
Beatles as having been awkward and anti-climactic. Five
years later, Presley joined President Richard Nixon in
publicly denouncing the band as "a real force for
anti-American spirit." After Presley died in 1977 Lennon
was asked for a comment. "Elvis died when he joined the
army. . ." said Lennon.
-
Little
Richard. Some of their songs (especially in their early
repertoire) featured falsetto screams similar to his, most
notably on McCartney's rendition of Richard's song, "Long
Tall Sally". In 1962, Richard socialised with The Beatles
in Hamburg and they performed together at the Star-Club.
"Long Tall Sally" became a permanent fixture in early
Beatles' concert performances, and it would be the last
song they performed at their final show at Candlestick
Park in August 1966.
-
Ragtime
and English music hall (vaudeville); owing something to
the musical tastes of McCartney's father. This is apparent
in songs such as "When I'm Sixty-Four" (composed during
The Quarrymen period), "Honey Pie", and "Maxwell's Silver
Hammer". About their early single, "From Me to You",
McCartney said, "It could be done as an old rag-time
tune... especially the middle-eight, but we're not writing
the tunes in any particular idiom."
-
American
rockabilly music; particularly that of Eddie Cochran and
Carl Perkins. The band's early stage shows featured
several Perkins tunes; three of which (notably "Honey
Don't", featuring an early Starr vocal) they eventually
recorded on their albums.
-
Early
Motown artists. Early Beatles covers included Barrett
Strong's Motown recording of "Money (That's What I Want)"
and The Marvelettes' hit "Please Mr. Postman".
-
The
Everly Brothers. In their early days, Lennon and McCartney
copied Don and Phil Everly's distinctive two-part
harmonies. Their vocals on "Love Me Do" and "Please Please
Me" were inspired by the Everlys' vocals on "Cathy's
Clown" (1960), the first recording to ever reach number
one simultaneously in the USA and England. "Two of Us",
the opening track on Let It Be was overtly
performed in the Everlys' style and McCartney acknowledged
this in the recording, with a spoken "Take it Phil".
McCartney later name-checked 'Phil and Don' in his solo
track, "Let 'em In".
Later
Influences
The
Beatles continued to absorb influences throughout their
career - long after their initial success - often finding
new musical and lyrical avenues to explore from listening to
the work of some of their contemporaries. Among those
influences were Bob Dylan, on songs such as "You've Got to
Hide Your Love Away" (Help!) and "Norwegian Wood
(This Bird Has Flown)" (Rubber Soul). Dylan
introduced The Beatles to marijuana (1964) in a New York
hotel room when he offered the Fab Four pot as a consequence
of his misconception that the lyrics in their hit song "I
Want to Hold Your Hand" (Meet the Beatles!) were "I
get high" instead of "I can't hide". This initial partaking
in drugs grew into heavier experimentation with LSD and
various other substances whose psychedelic effects were
commonly thought to have manifested themselves in the band's
music. The Beatles, in turn, would influence Dylan's move
into an electrified rock sound in his music.
Although
not a major influence on Lennon, McCartney, or Starr, the
impact of Ravi Shankar's lessons in both Indian music and
spirituality to George Harrison made a permanent impact on
Harrison's musical style, provoking greater use of spiritual
themes in the band's music, and more intense musical
experimentation, climaxing with "Within You Without You" on
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which features
solely Indian instrumentation.
At their
peak in 1967-1968, The Incredible String Band had a brief
but noticeable impact on Lennon and McCartney's songwriting.
The fragmented structure of "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" owes
much to the ISB's "A Very Cellular Song" and the studied
innocence of songs such as "The Inner Light" and "Mother
Nature's Son" define similarities. Little evidence of their
impact can be found after 1968 and so the importance of
their influence is disputed.
Instrumentation
-
Rickenbacker, Gretsch, Epiphone, Gibson, and Fender
guitars
-
Ludwig
drums
-
Steinway, and Blüthner pianos
-
Höfner,
Fender and Rickenbacker basses
-
Hammond,
Vox and Lowrey electric organs
-
Fender
Rhodes, Wurlitzer, and Hohner Pianet electric pianos
-
MoogModular synthesizer
Microphones
Although
microphone usage varied somewhat according to the
requirements of each song, the group's recordings at Abbey
Road most often employed Neumann U47 or U67 microphones for
electric guitars and one or more Neumann U48s for vocals.
Early in their recording career the drums usually were
recorded with only two microphones: one overhead (an AKG D19
or STC 4038) and one for the bass drum (such as an AKG D20).
Later, more microphones were used on the drums.
With the
group's encouragement, recording engineer Geoff Emerick
experimented with microphone placement and equalization.
Many of his techniques were unusual for the time but have
since become commonplace, such as "close miking" (physically
placing the microphone in very close proximity of a sound
source) of acoustic instruments or deliberately overloading
the signal to produce distortion. For example, he obtained
the biting string sound that characterizes Eleanor Rigby by
miking the instruments extremely closely -- Emerick has
related that the string players would instinctively back
away from the microphones at the start of each take, and he
would go back into the studio and move the microphones
closer again.
The AKG
C28 is visible in the Let It Be film. Available studio
documentation and interviews with their former recording
engineers indicate that this microphone was not used for
recording in the studio.
Discography
Studio
albums
The
original studio albums by The Beatles in their home market
(the UK) are as follows:
Please
Please Me
(March 22
1963) With the Beatles (November 22 1963)
A Hard Day's Night (July 10 1964) Beatles
for
Sale
(December
4 1964) Help! (August 6 1965) Rubber
Soul (December 3 1965) Revolver
(August 5 1966) Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club
Band (June 1 1967) The Beatles
(The White Album) (November 22 1968) Yellow
Submarine (January 17 1969)
Abbey Road
(September
26 1969) Let It Be (May 8 1970)
In 1987,
EMI released The Beatles' original albums on CD. To allow
the catalogue to be truly complete, EMI released an American
compiled album on CD in 1987 and two compilation CDs in
1988:
Magical
Mystery Tour
(August 8
1987) Past Masters, Volume One (March 7 1988)
Past Masters, Volume Two (March 7 1988)
According
to EMI and the Guinness Book of Records, The Beatles have
sold in excess of 1,010,000,000 units (including cassettes,
records, CDs, bootlegs). The only other artist to come close
is Elvis Presley, with a similar number.
Song
catalogue
In 1963
John Lennon and Paul McCartney agreed to assign their song
publishing rights to Northern Songs, a company created by
music publisher Dick James in conjunction with Brian
Epstein. The company was administered by James' own company
Dick James Music. Northern Songs went public in 1965
with Lennon and McCartney each holding 15% of the company's
shares while Dick James and the company's chairman, Charles
Silver, held a controlling 37.5%. In 1969, following a
failed attempt by Lennon and McCartney to buy the company,
James and Silver sold Northern Songs to British TV company
Associated TeleVision (ATV), in which Lennon and McCartney
received stock.
In 1985 -
after a short duration in which the parent company was owned
by Australian business magnate Robert Holmes à Court, ATV's
music catalogue was sold to Michael Jackson for a reported
$47 million (trumping a joint bid by McCartney and Yoko
Ono), including the publishing rights to over 200 songs
composed by Lennon & McCartney. A decade later Jackson and
Sony merged their music publishing businesses. Since 1995
Jackson and Sony/ATV Music Publishing have jointly owned
most of the Lennon-McCartney songs recorded by The Beatles.
Sony later reported that Jackson had used his share of their
co-owned Beatles' catalogue as collateral for a loan from
the music company. Meanwhile, Lennon's estate and McCartney
still receive their respective songwriter shares of the
royalties.
Although
the Jackson-Sony catalogue includes most of The Beatles'
greatest hits, four of their earliest songs had been
published by one of EMI's publishing companies prior to
Lennon & McCartney signing with Dick James - and McCartney
later succeeded in personally acquiring the publishing
rights to "Love Me Do", "Please Please Me", "P.S. I Love
You" and "Ask Me Why" from EMI.
Harrison
and Starr did not renew their songwriting contracts with
Northern Songs in 1968, signing with Apple Publishing
instead. Harrison later created Harrisongs, his own company
which still owns the rights to his post-1967 songs such as
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Something". Starr also
created his own company, called Startling Music. It holds
the rights to his two post-1967 songs recorded by the
Beatles, "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden".
The Beatles - Love - New Album 2006
From the label: Love
is a fascinating reworking of numerous classic Beatles
recordings by the band's original producer, Sir George
Martin, and his son Giles. Love is also the title of the
highly successful Cirque du Soleil show, a co-production
with Apple Corps featuring the music of the Beatles,
currently wowing audiences in Las Vegas. In creating the
music for the show and for the album, George and Giles have
created a continuous "soundscape"--a series of well-known
Beatles songs augmented by additional instrumentation and
vocals taken from their vast bank of original multi-track
tapes. If you can imagine "Strawberry Fields Forever"
beginning with John's original demo before going into an
early take of the song and then climaxing in a musical
collage including the piano solo from "In My Life" and the
harpsichord pattern from "Piggies" and lots, lots more--or
"Get Back" prefaced by the "Hard Day's Night" opening guitar
chord, the guitar and drum solos from "The End," and segued
into "Glass Onion," you will begin to get the picture. But
hearing is believing! The guys have pushed back the
boundaries and come up with a brand-new work that will add
to the enduring legacy of the band. The result is an amazing
album that not only reinforces the timeless quality of the
group's recordings--the fans will have fun enjoying the
roller-coaster experience of the album whilst trying to spot
where all the pieces come from--it is also destined to open
up a new legion of fans to the Beatles experience.
Track Listings
1. Because
2. Get Back
3. Glass Onion
4. Eleanor Rigby/Julia (Transition)
5. I Am The Walrus
6. I Want To Hold Your Hand
7. Drive My Car/The Word/What You're Doing
8. Gnik Nus
9. Something/Blue Jay Way (Transition)
10. Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite!/I Want You (She's So
Heavy)/Helter Skelter
11. Help!
12. Blackbird/Yesterday
13. Strawberry Fields Forever
14. Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows
15. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
16. Octopus's Garden
17. Lady Madonna
18. Here Comes The Sun/The Inner Light (Transition)
19. Come Together/Dear Prudence/Cry Baby Cry (Transition)
20. Revolution
21. Back In The U.S.S.R.
22. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
23. A Day In The Life
24. Hey Jude
25. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
26. All You Need Is Love
The Beatles
Official Website
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