No forum (Blog) predominantly based in the 1960's or '70's would be complete without a page on the Fab Four from Liverpool. The only snag with that is that it's a story which everybody knows, and that of The Beatles has been done before - by pretty much EVERYBODY!
Yet we ARE predominantly in the Sixties here. Could I really proceed without doing a page on the Beatles. Personally, I felt I could not - BUT........if I'm gonna do a Beatles page, then let's at least try and look beyond the norm, I said. Let's try and explore their REAL place in History. Ask or read any other column, or even a BOOK about the Beatles and they'll all say similar things - the biggest of which will be the fact they INVENTED modern Rock/Pop music. Well, I'm not one to push the guys off their pedestal, but it is time that myth was thought of again, because I am sure that if they were here themselves, they themselves would disagree.
It was 1963 - the year of President Kennedy's assassination that the Fab Four first came to prominence. In the UK first, where they became the biggest sensation since Cliff Richard (who was still largely in control of the scene at that time). It was Cliff - and his band, The Shadows who had paved the way in the early Sixties. By the time of The Beatles' appearance in 1963, a huge NATIONWIDE wave of burgeoning Pop/Rock talent had been in the making since around 1960. Most of them had wanted to be like The Shadows, others just got into their OWN stride straight away, by wanting to Rock the world on their own terms. But whatever their roots, and from where-ever they came from, by 1963, they were ALL just about ready to make their move on the world stage.
The Beatles were formed by John Lennon - in 1957 as The Quarrymen. They were a skiffle group in those days who played street parties and club dances. Lennon loved American Rock'n'Roll. His best friend was Stuart Sutcliffe, an Art School friend who later accompanied them to Germany when they played Hamburg in 1960/61 as the Silver Beatles. By 1959, Lennon had added young Paul McCartney on second guitar - principally to function as his song-writing partner. Lennon KNEW he had talent.
But the path to World Crowning glory was never to be easy for The Beatles. It was in 1958 that Cliff first charted with his first record, "MOVE IT". At that time, Lennon's band were still strumming skiffle to whoever wanted to hear - and that just about lands it on a plate. Cliff played long and hard on the gig circuit - but he still came in virtually AT THE TOP - whereas everyone else had to just gig and gig and gig night in and night OUT in order to get anywhere.
The Quarrymen were no different. For the band who was to become the greatest live and recording act EVER, they paid their dues the hard way in those early years. Indeed, there were many during those long far-off days that never made it at all. In saying that though, Lennon's own opinion of Cliff was open. He was always to say that Cliff would always have a place at the top, and that "MOVE IT" was the best Rock'n'Roll record to come out of England. That was nice.
Such a reputation for The Beatles themselves was not always the case though. Around Liverpool and the North and frequently without a drummer, they were often looked down upon by their rivals as a bum group of no-hopers. It was against this background that Lennon's determination and BELIEF in his own group was total. In his mind they were the best, and all he ever wanted of them, was to ACHIEVE.
When the success first came in, in 1962; it was to EMI producer George Martin's studio that they eventually came. He tested them, and decided that rather than looking for the ONE solo singer of the band why not use them all. He was well aware of the success rival producer Norrie Paramor had had with Cliff, and saw this as a way of proving himself against the man who was in many ways back then thought to be "the best" producer in Britain. In many ways, The Beatles success should never have happened at all. A group with hardly any success at all up north, looked down upon by their peers, THOSE STRANGE (for the time) HAIRCUTS, - not to mention songs which were SO different - and pawned off by EMI to a producer who was often kept in the backroom at Parlphone because he was thought to be a weirdo. Jeebuz....those were the days, Sweetie!
As we all know now, the bands' first hit was "LOVE ME DO" in 1962; but that only charted to 17 in the UK Charts. It WAS enough however, to crack the old glass and get them noticed. As 1963 began, and England shuddered in the cold of a Canadian winter, Cliff starred in his finest moment ("Summer Holiday")....and The Beatles returned to the charts with "PLEASE PLEASE ME". It was here that The Beatles' story really began to take shape. Throughout 1963, they were to become the sensation throughout the nation - cutting their first LP ("Please Please Me") in fourteen hours straight, and touring consistently to a new generation of screaming chicks who just couldn't wait to take their panties off.
As 1963 wore on, it was obvious that although actual SALES in Britain were NOT in the Top Three, the whole Beatles phenomenon was a major turning point for the UK - NOT JUST the Record Industry. This was to be England's' long-awaited coming-of-age, the moment when they finally shrugged off and got over the after-effects of the Second World War....and The Beatles were to be the major cheerleaders in the front row. Throughout the generation that lay ahead, as England swung, the idea of The Beatles NOT being at the top and leading the way was to be UN-thinkable.
1964 was to see them at their height in many ways - although their actual POSITION in the scheme of things was to be hardly UN-changed for many years. 1964 was the year in which they travelled to America. This was indeed a major coup. For NO UK act in Rock had ever done this. Although Dave Clark has claimed ever since that it was HIS band who actually undertook the first successful U.S. tour (and he's probably right) - it was NOT his band which made the most waves. Although the Dave Clark Five WERE without doubt huge on the U.S. stage - it was also without doubt The Beatles who scored the biggest kudos.
Throughout the year they toured long and hard - especially in the U.S., but it was the very FACT that a British group was making it at all in the U.S. that was just so big. OK so Dave Clark and the Stones and all the others ALSO made it over in The Beatles' wake - THAT IS NOT THE POINT. What IS the point was the simple fact that a British group had made it over there in the first place, and that band was The Beatles. To understand this, you need to understand that the British mindset in 1964 had always been that America was the big cheese and no Brit NO MATTER HOW GOOD THEY WERE could ever hope to succeed in place of the American big boys, especially on their own turf.
It was The Beatles which changed all that, and redressed the map.
Musically too of course the band changed much. One major point in this respect was that they were the first band to write their home-grown material. THIS WAS & IS FALSE. The Beatles NEVER WERE the first to write their own material - let alone make it work. Again, we go back to The Shadows - Cliff Richard's band - for years they were writing their own material, much of which was recorded by Cliff AND MADE INTO HIT RECORDS. Their only drawback was that THEIR period was immediately before The Beatles and no one took so much notice. Where The Beatles DID score on this tack was that by the time they came along the media had caught up, and their songs WERE good. In fact, they were so good that I don't think they hardly wrote a bad one!
The plain simple truth was that The Beatles WERE good all over. They were pleasant (real) people - not just faces for a camera, what you saw was what you got, AND they played well too!
That said, the album "A HARD DAY'S NIGHT" in
Summer'64 was without doubt one of their very best. There is not a bad song on
it, and together with it's accompanying film made for the pinnacle of their
early success. But was all really well behind the scenes??
It has since come out, that in complete
contrast to his earlier feelings and drive for the band to reach the top, John
Lennon was not and NEVER WAS happy once they became famous. Now married to
Cynthia and with young Julian as a son (whom he rarely had time to see), Lennon
first started to become unhappy with the way things panned out when he found
that he was consistently trying to sing higher at every show just to get above
the screaming of the girls. He found it was an impossible task. Moreover, he
also became quickly dis-enchanted with the whole media circus and the way they
were built up into something UNREAL and never allowed time to be themselves. All
he ever wanted was to have a successful Rock'n'Roll band.
As the Beatles went into 1965, he was not the
only one to start hitting the Pot, as they ALL began to get more and more
depressed at something which just became more and more of a grind (and a joke)
as time wore on.
Although to the outside world in 1965, The
Beatles were now the planet's favorite darlings who could do no wrong, they
themselves were secretly crying, and none more so than Lennon who then wrote two
songs two describe his feelings" 'HELP" & "NOWHERE MAN".
As 1965 played out however, the band made
"RUBBER SOUL" - easily the best album they had made since "A HARD DAY'S NIGHT" -
and played the Shea Baseball Stadium in New York. Paul McCartney also chimed in
with his song, "YESTERDAY". Perhaps now they could start to progress more.
But as they went into 1966, there still
remained the question of touring. It was not becoming any easier, and THEY were
becoming more and more fed up with it each time they went out. To make matters
worse, tours of Japan, America and the Philippines all hit controversy over
remarks made about everything from Madame Marcos to Jesus Christ. Across the
southern states of the U.S. right wing radio stations staged Beatles "burning"
sessions, where Beatles records were burnt, and the band only played there under
a sentence of abuse from racists and Klu Klux Klan members ("crisis, what
crisis...?").
So the band played their last gigs at
Candlestick Park in San Francisco that summer. An era came to an end, and some
said it would never be the same again. Perhaps, perhaps not...but as they left
the stage that night, how many bets for taking that they ALL heaved a sigh of
relief?
As 1966 played out and 1967 began, many fans
were wondering if they had actually split up. The answer was "no" - instead what
they had decided was to move into the studio and work entirely from there,
making the music they really wanted to make.
By this time, they were the un-questioned
"demi-gods" of the World. By 1967, the whole world was in the process of being
completely re-structured, and it was The Beatles who were looked upon at the
time as being largely responsible in some way or other. Certainly their
influence was never far away from much of what happened back then, but as for
anything else, that must be open to debate and will still largely (I believe) be
an over-played myth. Yet it was these feelings in 1967, which just went onto
show how ridiculous it had all become. Like James Bond, the world needed a new
direction, and The Beatles fitted the bill perfectly.
In 1967 they released the "SGT. PEPPER" album
- a breakthrough album by any standards. From music to artwork, to production -
there had never been an album like it. To capitalise on this success, they then
appeared on satellite Television (then just finding it's feet), with another
"first", by participating in one of the first satellite link-up's called "Our
World". This was a worldwide show linking up all parts of the globe for the
first time and The Beatles represented Britain by performing "ALL YOU NEED IS
LOVE" in the studio before a live audience.
It was then that they also began what became
in hindsight a fleeting association with an Indian guru named the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and his special brand of Hare Krishna. This later culminated six
months later in February 1968 with a trip to India, only for them all to fly
back to the UK after changing their minds. Only guitarist George Harrison was to
continue with his beliefs, and the mysticism became an essential part of his
life from hereonin. Just as they were achieving this new-found "freedom",
tragedy struck when manager Brian Epstein died.
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Just as they had reached the very pinnacle of
their career together, everything changed. John Lennon even went onto say in the
years to come that the band actually died when Brian died. Certainly things were
never to be the same again, as Paul McCartney attempted to step into the breach
("temporarily", as he put it), until a suitable replacement could be found.
In reality, just four young men from Liverpool who'd got lucky through sheer hard work and divine providence. To the world at large however, something much greater....
The world then held it's breath for the second time in just twelve months, as Epstein passed away and everyone wondered what the band would do next - even though it must have seemed like, what with "PEPPER" making such waves around world, they could certainly do no wrong. On the surface - that fall of 1967 - everything must have seemed so UNTOUCHABLE - as the band opened the Apple Boutique in Baker Street, with a lavish party, and then issued their latest single in "HELLO GOODBYE". McCartney was keen to show that they COULD handle it alone without Brian. Then, over Christmas 1967, disaster struck when the boys unveiled their latest movie in 'MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR".
To say this film became their NEMESIS would be something of an understatement. On Boxing Day that year, the whole country tuned into what they hoped would be the latest hours' worth of fun from their favorite band. What they DISCOVERED however, was perhaps the most boring and POMPOUS hours' worth of viewing ANY artiste could hope to divulge upon an audience. Led by McCartney, the band had toured up and down Britain that September in a large bus with a retinue of variety acts, just literally filming anything which happened. The concept was to just take an ordinary home movie of a regular English mystery tour and turn it upside-down - but the plan backfired, when Maccas refused to accept guidance and insisted that he could do just as well himself. Well I'm sorry Baby, but you thought WRONG.
The audience that night over Xmas 1967 revolted. BBC phone lines were jammed for hours with fans and viewers venting their wrath, thinking - and with some justification - that they'd been had!
McCartney was chastened by the experience. In fact - no offence to Paul but I think I'm not out of place saying here that his brawn was perhaps bigger than his brain. Which is a nice way of saying he was on EGO OVERDRIVE. The idea was good, no arguments on that. But Maccas' refusal to accept advice or even guidance let both the project AND the band DOWN; and from hereonin, their reputation was never to be the same in Britain again.....
In fact, although it had still to play itself
out yet; the whole business concerning APPLE CORPS (that year that followed in
1968), followed largely the same script. The band - led mostly by McCartney
literally BLUNDERED into an area with which they had no previous experience
whatsoever, and thought they do BETTER than anyone else with generations of more
experience than they.
Essentially, the idea behind APPLE was good.
They wanted to form a buisness with fewer restrictions, and which was more
artiste-friendly than most. The ideas were good. But they forgot, that such a
thing takes a serious mind with NO DISTRACTIONS. Also, that some of the rules
and practices which govern a huge amount of business are usually there for a
reason - even if it's because the opposition simply hasn't discovered a way
round them yet!
As 1968 played out, and it was obvious APPLE
was in trouble, their Xmas LP, "THE WHITE ALBUM" only found serious acclaim in
North America. The buzz in Britain by then wasn't so much if the band WERE gonna
split, it was WHEN.
That Summer, the "Yellow Submarine" movie had
restored some of their reputation to them (despite little interest from the firm
themselves), but again this was largely only in the U.S.
By the start of 1969, NONE of the band were
really interested in working with each other anymore - a feeling which was only
made worse by McCartney's incessant attitude for being the boss. Drummer Ringo
Starr & guitarist George had already felt the brunt of this - but what of
Lennon. John later said (once it was all over) that for a long time he was so
chastened by Epstein's' death that he didn't know WHAT to think, and that he
went along with most of what happened simply to see if it could still work with
Paul in charge.
Looking back now, I think that was possibly
his biggest mistake. Albeit a long time had now passed since the band was formed
up in Liverpool, and John had dreamed of making it big. By now he'd become
richer than his wildest dreams and seen the falsity of THAT, he'd become famous
and seen the falsity of THAT, he'd wound up on drugs (largely to distract him
AWAY from these painful realities) and seen the falsity of THAT TOO. Yet STILL
The Beatles were part of his reality at the time, and they still meant something
to him. His voice was perhaps the one voice in the group which could have made a
difference.
It all came to a head in the Spring of 1969, when John - now having met Yoko Ono - was staging his first Bed-In for Peace in Holland. A phone call came through from the office that Maccas and his new wife Linda, were staging a private press conference announcing that the band would now be in the capable hands of HER parents Lee & Jill Eastman of Eastman-Kodak. Apparently, it was so hush-hush that Maccas had even given strict instructions that no calls were to be made of it TO ANYONE....the Secretary who did obviously did it off her own back. With this news, Lennon wasted no time and took the first plane BACK to London with a vengeance. The stage was then set for the biggest media circus concerning the group since their initial success some years before.
1969 was to see just one last shout before the final split the following year of 1970, and that was of course the LP, "ABBEY ROAD". If anything, this LP could be called the "sequel" or "partner" LP to "PEPPER". From this, we finally got to see just what guitarist George could really do, when on Lennon's own insistence, "SOMETHING" was issued as their Christmas single for 1969. An instant No.1 in America, in Britain it still rose no higher No.4....an instant measure there of just how much their reputation was sinking further and further into the mud back home.
Whilst still much loved, the state of band in 1969 was NOT what most Brits wanted to see, and they took the news badly when the final split actually came in 1970. For five straight years (1963-67), The Beatles had been the spirit which finally pulled England together - seeing them fall apart one tiny piece at a time, especially all the legal wrangling played out on the world stage was a hard nut to swallow. England is a nation which loves it's heroes, and in 1970 there was never none so dear as The Beatles.
EPITAPH: And as for Paul?
After John Lennon I don't think anyone cared
so much for The Beatles as Paul McCartney. We all do what we think is best and
sometimes we slip, or make mistakes. It's just so sad there couldn't have been
more coming together. For at the end that's what The Beatles represented most,
the spirit of love and coming together. That Paul made his share of mistakes in
the later days is perhaps not so in doubt. But then one could turn that around
and say "where was Lennon then?", with equal justification. One can only guess
what it must have been like FOR ALL OF THEM to be perched on top of that
pedestal with so much expected of them all the time. Can anyone of us say that
we would have done any better. At the last ditch - regardless of anything else
he did right or wrong - he was prepared to go to the wall rather than see a
shoddy dubiously-looking "businessman" like Allen Klein get the band. In THAT
instance I personally would have done exactly the same!
