Classic Rock History

Part One: Rock Music

The Evolution of Classic Rock

Chapter One:

The Beatles and The Solo Beatles

The Beatles

By the late 1950’s, rockabilly had lost its appeal with the youth of America, as Elvis moved into movie star mode singing pop ballads. The teen idol movement that had made an impact on rock music was coming to an end. In November of 1963, American culture was in a state of crisis with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The nation was is need of healing and something new musically. This would come from a British band that would create an unprecedented impact on music and culture, both American and worldwide. The rules of rock would soon be rewritten while the music of Elvis, Chuck Berry, and Buddy Holly would be used as inspiration for a new British style that would capture a new generation of rock music fans.

The Beatles (1960-1970) grew out of a combination of musical cultures and styles in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. Based on the British folk music style called skiffle, and the strong influence of Buddy Holly and the Crickets, John Lennon and Paul McCartney formed one of the greatest songwriting teams in rock history. With the final additions of George Harrison and Ringo Starr, The Beatles took America by storm in 1964 at a time of great political and social upheaval. In their relatively short ten-year career, no band in music history achieved such worldwide success and musically evolved in such dramatic fashion. In this chapter we will trace The Beatles evolution in their different phases and then look at the solo careers of the Fab Four. We will also examine the transitional albums of Rubber Soul and Revolver and do a full breakdown of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The port city of Liverpool, England was home to a thriving, yet different musical scene than that found in London. One significant difference was that London was visited much more frequently by American blues greats such as Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. Meanwhile, the music scene in Liverpool was influenced more by skiffle musicians. Skiffle was a simple style of British folk music that featured guitar or banjo and homemade instruments such as washboard bass and a wooden box. Skiffle drew from simple two and three chord harmonies. It was fairly easy to play and sing basic skiffle folk melodies.

At this same time, a Liverpool resident, sixteen-year-old John Lennon (1940-1980), was intrigued with the sounds of Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly. Lennon, with the help of his mother, Julia, learned to play simple chords on his first guitar. John soon adapted a rebellious image and wore slicked back hair and tight pants. He also heard the single Rock Island Line by skiffle singer Lonnie Donegan and was determined to form his own skiffle group with his friends from his school, Quarry Bank High School. Lennon named the band The Quarrymen and they played little gigs around Liverpool. It was then that John was introduced to Paul McCartney (1942-) in 1957 at a Quarrymen gig. Paul was raised in a musical family where his father, Jim, had led a successful society band. He learned to imitate the guitar and vocal styles of Elvis and other rockabilly artists. McCartney also listened to Little Richard and The Everly Brothers. Soon, Paul impressed Lennon with his knowledge of Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, and Little Richards’ tunes. Within a week, McCartney was asked to join the Quarrymen.

Rock Hard Fact

The Beatles had twenty songs go to number one on the American charts and seventeen on the British charts.

The Lennon and McCartney combination found instant chemistry in the Quarrymen. They shared a love for both rock ‘n’ roll music and guitars. They also loved art and language, a sign of what was to come. However, they had very different personalities. John was uninhibited and rebellious while Paul worked to establish a good boy image and wanted the approval of authority figures. Their similarities and differences contributed to their strong songwriting relationship but would also eventually contribute to the demise of The Beatles. Lennon and McCartney were also smart and they shared an ability to understand the creative approaches of other musicians and composers. By 1957, Lennon had failed out of Quarry Bank and enrolled in the Liverpool Institute where he joined his bandmate, McCartney. At the Institute, Paul was a model student. Later that year, a younger student and friend of McCartney, George Harrison (1943-2001) began to hang around and sit in with The Quarrymen on guitar. Harrison was also absorbing the sounds of American rock ‘n’ roll, especially Buddy Holly. Harrison soon joined the group. In 1958, tragedy struck when John’s mother, Julia, died when hit by a car. John managed to stay in school and continued to gig with The Quarrymen. He soon met his eventual wife, Cynthia Powell.

The Quarrymen were without a bassist (and drummer), until a fellow student and friend of John, Stu Sutcliffe, bought a bass guitar. Sutcliffe was invited to join the band, although he had no idea how to play. What he did do was suggest a name change to the Beetles inspired by Buddy Holly’s Crickets. After a short time as Long John and The Silver Beetles they settled on The Silver Beatles changing the spelling, a pun on the word beat. In 1960, the still drummer-less Silver Beatles were not very good and did not have a stage act. They were learning to play by covering early rock and skiffle songs. George was defining his role in the band as Sutcliffe was faking the bass, barely getting by. Later that year, The Silver Beatles added drummer Tommy Moore, who was a friend of Sutcliffe. In 1962, the band received an opportunity to play in the rebuilt World War II city of Hamburg, Germany. New drummer Moore was not up to a lengthy engagement out of the country and McCartney quickly asked a local drummer, Pete Best to join the band for its two-month engagement as The Beatles (thus dropping Silver). The demands of a nightly four and a half an hour gig forced the band to develop more material and get its stage act together. Soon, the German police discovered that George was underage to play in clubs and promptly deported him. To compound the problem, The Beatles got into some other minor trouble and soon returned to England. At the same time, Stu Sutcliffe became more interested in painting and less in The Beatles. He was also suffering from severe headaches and soon died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Now without a bassist, Paul quickly moved to become the new bass player in The Beatles.

The Beatles’ early stage repertoire at this point was a healthy mix of Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, The Everly Brothers, and Gene Vincent tunes. They also covered Chuck Berry’s Too Much Monkey Business, Hank Williams Sr’s Hey Good Lookin, and Ray Charles’s Hallelujah, I Love Her So etc… The first of their original songs included the McCartney songs Tip of My Tongue, and Like Dreamers Do, a Lennon tune Hello Little Girl, and a Lennon /McCartney tune P.S. I Love You. Thus far, The Beatles had recorded only one original song (it wasn’t released until after their initial success) and one cover. These recordings were the Lennon/McCartney original In Spite of All the Danger, and the Buddy Holly cover That’ll Be the Day.

Back in Liverpool, The Beatles started a residency at the Cavern Club, owned by Pete Best’s mother, Mona. It was here that they gained a steady following. A local store manager, Brian Epstein (1934-1967), was asked if he sold any Beatles records. That request peaked his interest in The Beatles, who were playing down the street from his store. Epstein befriended the band by going to many of their Cavern Club shows and eventually asked to become their manager in late 1961. He had no managerial experience but quickly learned on the job. However, all of the major record companies including Decca, EMI, and Pye Records rejected Epstein’s proposals to sign The Beatles.

We were driving through Colorado (in 1971) and we had the radio on and eight of the top ten songs were Beatles songs

– Bob Dylan

Brian Epstein

Brian Epstein was strongly determined to make The Beatles a success. Epstein created an image for them right from the beginning. He made them give up their leather jackets and jeans and embrace a professional look that started with matching, custom-made velvet collared jackets. They sported narrow pants and what became Beatle boots (Cuban-heeled boots handcrafted by a custom shoemaker). Then came the mop-tops, better known as Beatles cut hairstyles. George Harrison was first to adapt this new Beatles look, (started back in the days of their Hamburg residency) and the others soon followed. Epstein also made them behave. He no longer allowed them to smoke, to swear or eat or drink onstage. He made them bow after tunes to appear humble, especially to win over adults who were disapproving of their hairstyles. Epstein was passionate about promoting the band and simple refused to take no for an answer. While they were becoming a sensation in Britain, Epstein had bigger plans; the musical takeover of America.

Epstein flew to New York in November of 1963 looking for American label support. In Britain, Epstein convinced Capitol to release I Want to Hold Your Hand (small labels Vee Jay and Swan had released the first three Beatles singles with none making the top 100) and in January of 1964, Epstein also secured a concert date at Carnegie Hall and two appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. Epstein was successful as over 70 million people saw The Beatles first Sullivan appearance. In return, The Beatles were very loyal to Brian Epstein. In 1963, Epstein had The Beatles unfortunately sign a publishing contract with Northern Songs. This publishing company only gave Lennon and McCartney twenty percent each and Epstein nine percent of the publishing rights to their tunes. Epstein was very busy managing The Beatles schedule between 1963 and 1965. After what would be their last live concert, held in 1966 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Epstein pressured The Beatles to continue touring but they refused.

Brian Epstein died of an alcohol and sleeping pill overdose in August 1967. He will always be remembered for his aggressive and unwavering ambition that broke The Beatles wide open to the whole world. Brian Epstein was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.

The Beatles returned again to Hamburg for a seven-week engagement at the Star club, a new rock venue. They honed their stage act playing four hours a night, seven nights a week. While The Beatles were still in Hamburg, Brian Epstein set up a meeting with Parlophone Records, a subsidiary of EMI. George Martin (1926-2016), the head of Parlophone, liked Epstein but was unimpressed with the quality of the demo that Epstein provided. Martin was looking to make Parlophone a respectable and successful label. Martin was intrigued with The Beatles and was thinking about signing them, since he had come to believe in their potential. However, he was unsure of what to do with them in terms of material. In June of 1962, Martin had The Beatles play through some of their repertoire and finalized an offer for a contract to record four songs over a one-year period. Later that summer, the band decided that Pete Best was not working out both personally and musically. Brian Epstein fired Best and replaced him with Richard Starkey, aka Ringo Starr (1940-).

Ringo Starr had first started out in a skiffle band called Rory and the Hurricanes. He received the nickname, Ringo, because he wore so many rings. Rory and the Hurricanes were well known around Liverpool and Hamburg. Ringo began to hang out with The Beatles in Hamburg and by August of 1962, The Beatles were complete with Ringo in place. He soon got his own Beatle haircut and shaved his beard to fit into the band’s image. The first original songs in The Beatles’ repertoire were not profound lyrically but were very simple and musically inventive. The Beatles worked within the conventions of the standard pop market but often added different chord changes. They experimented with key shifts that they learned from their various musical influences. Early Beatles songs were not about personal life events and they knew their lyrics didn’t possess much meaning or depth. Soon, they would expand their influences to embrace the sounds of Motown, Marvin Gaye, and the songwriting combination of Gerry Goffin and Carole King. Lennon and McCartney began to write songs for other artists and they envisioned themselves as a songwriting team in the Brill Building style of songwriters.

The Beatles recorded Love Me Do and P.S. I Love You in the fall of 1962. Love Me Do would climb to number seventeen on the British charts by the end of the year. Martin arranged another recording session for the band later that same year. They recorded Please, Please Me and Martin knew they had a number one hit. By March of 1963, it went to number one. Martin quickly had them record a full album of songs from their live repertoire. This included a cover version of the Isley Brothers Twist and Shout. The big hits came quickly with From Me to You and ‘She Loves You" and they firmly established a new sound that people were referencing as the Mersey sound (named for the river that ran through Liverpool). A slew of television appearances followed, along with a tour of Sweden and a home appearance for the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret. The English version of Beatlemania was up and running. They soon had seven of the top twenty hits on the British charts. However, a full-scale invasion of America was on the horizon. [Note: The release dates and album names were often different for British and American Beatles album releases. To minimize the confusion, we will only refer to the American releases.]

Love Me Do

written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney

Love Me Do was The Beatles first hit song. It was released in Britain in October of 1962 where it went to number four on the pop charts. Love Me Do was released in America on April 1964 and went to number one. Although listed as a Lennon/McCartney song, Paul mostly wrote it. The lyrics were very basic with most of the words containing only one syllable and the word love was repeated twenty-one times. The entire lyrical statement was essentially I will love you forever so please love me in return. Most Beatles lyrics were analyzed to death for their obvious and (sometimes) hidden meaning. In an interview, McCartney said, ‘Love Me Do’ was our greatest philosophical song…for it to be simple, and true, means that it’s incredibly simple. #1

On Love Me Do, the gospel and blues influence of the band’s vocals and Lennon’s harmonica playing made the tune different from hundreds of other, then current love songs. John loved the harmonica playing of many blues artists and referred to gospel and rhythm and blues as some of his favorite music(s). John would go on to play harmonica on a number of other early Beatles’ tracks. Love Me Do was included on The Beatles first extended record along with Please Please Me,’ Thank You Girl, and From Me to You."

In 1963, the first Beatles record to arrive in America, Please Please Me, was released by the Chicago label, Vee Jay records. It did not make the pop charts. However that same year, the early phase of Beatlemania swept Britain with hits on EMI Records including; Love Me Do, Please Please Me, From Me to You, and She Loves You. The American affiliate of EMI, Capitol Records, released I Want to Hold Your Hand and its B side, I Saw Her Standing There. They became the band’s first official singles in America. They both received radio play by December and by the middle of January of 1964, I Want to Hold Your Hand went to number one on the pop charts. On January 20th, 1964, the album Meet The Beatles! was released by Capitol Records in America. By February 15th, it went to number one on Billboard’s album charts and stayed there for eleven weeks.

What happened next on the pop charts was unprecedented. By March 21st, I Want to Hold Your Hand, which had been on top of the charts since January 25th, was knocked out by The Beatles own She Loves You. That single was number one until they again replaced it at number one with Twist and Shout. A week later, they replaced Twist and Shout with another number one, Can’t Buy Me Love. With the exception of a brief takeover at number one by Louis Armstrong’s Hello Dolly, The Beatles captured the number one spot once more with Love Me Do. On March 31st of that same year, The Beatles held all five top chart positions. Unprecedented!

On February 7th, 1964, The Beatles stepped off a plane in New York for the first time. They were met at the airport by approximately 5,000 fans and later by 4,000 fans in Miami for an Ed Sullivan Show appearance. Paul McCartney recalled the New York arrival saying, I remember the great moment of getting into the limo and putting on the radio, and hearing a running commentary on us: They have just left the airport…It was like a dream. The greatest fantasy ever. Their first press conference was watched carefully by many curious Americans as The Beatles charmed the masses with their quick wit and good manners.

Beatlemania

The first popular music explosion happened in America in 1955 and lasted until, more or less, 1957. That was until a major musical change was on the horizon. The 1964 pop explosion known as Beatlemania would invade America and last for approximately four years. The term Beatlemania was used as early as when The Beatles made a mini-tour of Scotland in October of 1963. From the day they landed at John F. Kennedy Airport in February of 1964, Beatlemania was a cultural phenomenon previously unseen in America. They quickly charmed an entire nation with their emotionally powerful songs and Fab Four personas. Their first tour of America was characterized by mass hysteria and mostly high-pitched screaming females, present at their every appearance.

The Beatles aired on the Ed Sullivan Show three times in one month and an estimated seventy-three million TV viewers tuned in for their February 9th appearance. They dominated newspaper headlines. The effect on America was unprecedented. In the nine days of that first visit, Americans bought more than two million Beatles records and spent more than two and a half million dollars on Beatles-related merchandise. It was everything Beatles: Beatles T-shirts, Beatles hats, Beatles pajamas, Beatles posters, even Beatles bubblebath, etc…

Rock Hard Fact

The first Lennon and McCartney recording to reach the American charts was a cover of the song From Me To You by Del Shannon.

Beatlemania affected the feel and day-to-day life of many Americans. The Beatles created a presence. The culture of America was transformed by the Beatlemania pop explosion by the way people would dress, talk, create new personal heroes, and more. Beatlemania made America think about and sometimes alter their political beliefs, their sexual behavior, and social constructs of their personal relationships. The tremendous energy of Beatlemania became the redirected energy of adolescence frustration and repression. Thousands of individuals became attached to a group; that group being The Beatles themselves and more importantly, a unified generation of Americans.

The excitement of Beatlemania would eventually dissipate by late 1966. Constant touring, increased crowds, and never-ending demands by the press wore down The Beatles. The challenge of finding large enough concert venues created touring problems and the large stadiums made performing even more difficult; attributed to the deafening roar of thousands of screaming teenage girls.

The phenomenon of Beatlemania changed American culture forever.

Moving forward, The Beatles released their first movie, A Hard Day’s Night in the summer of 1964. They toured Holland, Scandinavia, Australia, and the Far East, thus extending their appeal worldwide. By August, they were back in America for their second tour which included twenty-three cities. Beatlemania reached new heights, as rabid fans were everywhere. The Beatles were forced to figure out exit strategies for their live appearances that included escape by armored trucks. By 1965, The Beatles had embraced the multimillion-dollar rock lifestyle. They bought big homes, luxury cars, and had an extended entourage. Besides the normal rock band use of alcohol, marijuana and pills, Lennon and Harrison were introduced to the mind-altering drug, LSD. This (only occasional) experimentation would later go on to influence their music and connect them to the psychedelic genre of rock, as seen in their sometimes ambiguous lyrics and experimental use of sound colors and instruments. Their second movie Help!, was released in 1965 and proved to be as successful as the first. A third American tour followed. It was marked by an outdoor concert at the enormous venue of Shea Stadium in New York. 55,000 screaming fans made the music inaudible. Ringo pointed out "I never felt people came to hear our show-I felt they came to see us." #2

In spite of all of the success, the band had grown tired of touring. They missed their families. They also hated having to escape concert venues and being unable to hear themselves on-stage. The Beatles generally had trouble reproducing their studio material live. But in spite of those issues, they were on top of the music business and their personas were larger than life. Most artists would be afraid to change a thing in fear of losing their audience and ticket to success. Not The Beatles.

There would be the dramatic shift in the direction of The Beatles’ music. One example, was the mostly McCartney written tune Yesterday. It contained an interesting chord progression not seen in many pop-rock songs. George Martin suggested that they add a string quartet arrangement, initially rejected by Paul. John contributed to the tune but was not a fan of soft love ballads with sentimental lyrics. The song went on to become one of The Beatles most covered songs and, of course, a number one hit in America. The song also showed two things. First, the musical personalities of John and Paul were growing in different directions. Paul was personally and musically more conservative, traditional, and sentimental (thus The Beatle love song) while John was more cynical, musically adventurous, and rebellious. Secondly, Yesterday, later released on Help!, showed that The Beatles were capable of much more than relying on the simple pop tune formula that had previously made them superstars.

Going back to 1964, the musical direction of Lennon and McCartney began to expand. The music and lyrics of Bob Dylan hit them like a bombshell. Dylan’s first three albums, including The Freewheeling Bob Dylan and The Times They Are A Changin, revealed to them the great potential within song lyrics to express a wide range of emotions. The Beatles felt free to experiment much more with lyrics of substance and the language of metaphor. John, especially inspired by Dylan, saw the potential to express his poetry and creative writing in a new songwriting approach. Examples of this included the Lennon/McCartney tunes Help, I’m A Loser, and Norwegian Wood.

The Songwriting Genius of John Lennon and Paul McCartney

The Beatles recorded 208 songs, most of which were credited to John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Both benefited from a good high school education that included art and writing classes. They would eventually identify their creative approach as inspired by artists who worked in other fields, artists such as Dylan Thomas and Pablo Picasso. From this inspiration, John and Paul enhanced their craft of writing and recording rock songs. John Lennon remembered,The person I actually picked as my partner...who I recognized had talent and I could get on with was Paul.

In the beginning, Lennon and McCartney both worked within the confines of the existing pop music market, writing in the styles of artists such as The Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly. Their early compositional approach grew out of their inspiration from other artist’s songs, rather than serious events in the real world or from a deeper introspective place. Early on, John had written his personal observations of life in the form of poems and short stories. Some of these ideas were later published in two books titled Spaniard in the Works and In His Own Write and would be important sources for John’s progression as a writer. The songwriting team admired most by John and Paul was Gerry Goffin and Carole King, one of the best of the New York Brill Building scene.

John Lennon and Paul McCartney had an uncanny ability to complement each other’s musical ideas. Lennon explained, The way we wrote a lot of the time; you’d write the good bit, the part that was easy like ‘I read the news today’ or whatever it was, then when you got stuck or whenever it got hard, instead of carrying on, you just drop it, then we would meet each other and I would sing half and he would be inspired to write the next bit and vice versa… if he already thought it was a good song then sometimes we wouldn’t allow any interference either. #3 A good example of their teamwork was the tune Drive My Car from Rubber Soul, where Paul wrote the melody and chords but got stuck on the storyline. Rather than forcing it, Paul had John come in to pull the song’s lyrics together at the last minute.

John and Paul, both capable of writing at the piano or guitar, and both singing lead, were never restricted to the role of lyricist or melody writer. This way, either of them could contribute to any dimension of a song at any time. Also, both John and Paul seemed to have an innate sense of what the public wanted to hear. Each girl in the audience was made to feel that they were singing directly to them. This was reflected in the titles From Me To You and Thank You Girl.

1964 marked a pivotal year in the Lennon/McCartney songwriting machine. They traveled extensively, mixing with artists and intellectuals in the London art world. More and more self-contained songs were written by each of them. By the time of the writing and recording of the album Rubber Soul, Lennon and McCartney were clearly moving in different songwriting directions. John’s songwriting focused on rebellion, struggle, and sometimes anger. Paul wrote about different topics but still included love songs, now much more lyrically sophisticated than wanting to hold your hand. Soon the divide widened even more on the album Revolver, with John and Paul growing further apart in their perceptions of themselves and their music. This was, in part; due to their contact with the emerging counter-culture and the effect of psychedelic drugs on their personal lives. Sometimes, Paul was motivated to write utilizing the sound of the words more than the content of the story itself. He was inspired by other artist’s hit songs and continued to emulate styles such as the Motown sound with his Got to Get You Into My Life, the first Beatles track to use brass instruments.

All the way to the recording of Abbey Road, Lennon and McCartney would still collaborate when it was necessary. They did whatever it took to arrive at the finished product. There has never been a duo throughout the history of rock that was as complete a package as the Lennon and McCartney songwriting machine. Pure magic.

The Beatles entered a whole new introspective and experimental period by the end of 1965. They released their tenth American album Rubber Soul, which revealed many changes. Gone were the simple, upbeat love songs about holding hands. Songs were now a more studio based constructive process with multi-step recording tape effects and complex mixes. Songs were built layer by layer with four-track recording that replaced the old two-track process. George Harrison had heard the Indian master, Ravi Shankar, play the sitar when The Beatles were on a tour of India. Shankar taught him some of the basics of the sitar including the microtonal shading capable of its very distinct sound that Harrison employed on Norwegian Wood. Rubber Soul was different (including its distorted cover photo) in how each song flowed from one to the next. Now, whoever was singing the song was in charge even though all Beatles’ songs without Harrison were still listed as Lennon/McCartney collaborations. Rubber Soul also featured the hits In My Life and Michelle.

Norwegian Wood

(This Bird Has Flown)"

written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney

Inspired by a new and musically powerful Bob Dylan influence, John Lennon moved away from the usual boy and girl innocent Beatles song to his eventual philosophy of love and its meaning in a deeper context. Dylan’s use of imagery, symbolism, and metaphor had a profound effect on Lennon and McCartney. It was felt here in Lennon’s song Norwegian Wood. The song’s lyrics told the story of an affair John had experienced. It detailed a seduction scene at a woman’s apartment. Lennon was stuck for ideas after coming up with the basic tune and the first verse of the lyrics. John asked Paul for help with the lyrics on the middle eight-bar phrase. Paul suggested that the story should be about a girl who leads men on and the story should end up with a man setting her apartment on fire as an act of revenge.

Rock Hard Fact

The Beatles tune Helter Skelter was a McCartney song written in response (to not be outdone) by Pete Townshend of The Who, who claimed to have written the loudest, dirtiest rock and roll song ever.

At this same time, George Harrison had become interested in the Indian instrument, the sitar. He first heard one while filming the movie Help!. The recording of Norwegian Wood became one of the first times a sitar was used on a rock record. Norwegian Wood represented a turning point in the folk-style rock ballad format. Lennon was developing the ability to quickly move from one lyrical image to another and leaving it to the listener’s imagination to fill in the complete story. For the recording of Norwegian Wood, The Beatles experimented with the arrangement by having Lennon overdub a lead vocal and then double track it at the end of each line in the verses. Harrison’s sitar part worked well as an accompaniment with its mystical sounding drone effect. This employment of the sitar was to become a trend in Indian rock and psychedelic rock.

(George) Harrison’s ‘Something’ is the greatest love song of the last fifty years

– Frank Sinatra

It now took longer for The Beatles to complete an album. Capitol Records released the album Yesterday and Today to give starving Beatles fans a new record while they worked on the next album, Revolver. The American release of Yesterday and Today featured tracks from their two most recent British albums (which had not yet been included on American albums), plus three tracks from their upcoming album to be released in England. This record contained the hits Yesterday, Nowhere Man, and Day Tripper.

In March of 1966, The Beatles were in the middle of their greatest controversy. John Lennon had given an interview to a London reporter when he said, Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now. #4 The public backlash was immediate and strong. There were radio record bans, protest marches, and record burning events. Eventually, John gave an apology and gradually things returned to normal.

In the summer of 1966, a new tour of America was coordinated with the release of Revolver. This would be The Beatles final tour of America. They again played Shea Stadium and gave their last public concert ever at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park. They did play a spontaneous rooftop concert in London (seen in their film Let It Be). Revolver’s cover was in black and white and showed sketches of the bands’ faces. The album featured more experiments with tape effects of different speeds and backwards mixing. Lennon was writing songs with more cynical and sometimes surrealistic lyrics. Revolver featured lyrics that dealt with death, ocean adventures, sunshine, paying taxes, and psychedelic imagery. Revolver revealed The Beatles fascination with the growing counterculture and the influence of avant-garde art. This would appeal to a new audience. None of Revolver’s fourteen songs would ever be performed onstage. Revolver featured the hits Eleanor Rigby, Yellow Submarine, and Got To Get You Into My Life.

In 1967, The Beatles would move into their last musical phase. They began work on a record inspired by the concept album titled Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys. This would represent the height of their musical creativity and in the process, they revolutionized rock music. This period was also marked with tragedy. Brian Epstein died of a drug overdose. Feeling useless since The Beatles were no longer touring, Epstein’s personal life had been in turmoil. Epstein became a victim of the Beatlemania he had helped to create.

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released June, 1967. The album started with the tune Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band written by Paul. For many groups, there is a single identifying album that is considered to be their masterpiece. However, The Beatles were so prolific that the title of masterpiece could be bestowed on many of their albums. Still, this one was a game changer on many levels.

Groundbreaking album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

In the months preceding the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, there were rumors circulating that The Beatles were working on a project that would amount to a historic musical landmark. The new album would take over seven hundred hours to record (as opposed to the twelve hours it took to record their first album). Rumors continued that it would include highly experimental recording techniques (sound shaping signal processing), hundred-voice choirs, and a huge orchestra. The anticipation was intense. An announcement was made when it would first receive airplay in England. Turns out, it was worth the wait.

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was immediately recognized as a musical masterpiece. It was also a miniature pop explosion unto itself. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was often referred to as a concept album held together by one unifying theme. The Beatles did not see it that way. John thought that only the title tune, its reprise and A Day in the Life were connected. The album was shaped around the idea of a fictional Sgt. Pepper Band. This alter ego group gave The Beatles the freedom to musically experiment. However, the Sergeant Pepper idea and song didn’t appear until they were well along the way to completing the album. After considering the new album theme, Sgt. Pepper took on a life of its own.

On side one, the opening tune (and its reprise at the end of side two) did fit the definition of a concept album. Sgt. Pepper was presented in a psychedelic circus atmosphere in a series of acts. It started with crowd noises, then the music began, Sgt. Pepper’s band was introduced, a brass band was heard, and then the crowd’s reaction followed. George Martin and McCartney further denied that the songs had any connection to each other and that they were merely trying to create segues between the songs to support the flow of the record. The reprise at the end was George Martins’ idea to help bring the work to a conclusion. On A Little Help From My Friends it was John who came up with the idea of starting each verse with a question such as Do you believe in love at first sight? The brilliant tune Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds followed. It has been interpreted to be about the drug LSD but John insisted it was inspired by his son Julian’s drawing of his fourth grade friend Lucy. This was one of the first rock songs to shift back and forth between different meters going from 3/4 in the verses to 4/4 in the choruses and back. The first side continued with Getting Better, Fixing a Hole, She’s Leaving Home, and Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite.

Side two opened with Within You Without You, then moved to When I’m Sixty-Four, Lovely Rita, and Good Morning Good Morning. The album seemed to come to the end with a reprise of the opening tune but one of the classic Beatles songs, A Day in the Life, finished side two and unified the album. It was a great success both with Beatles fans and critics. It revolutionized the music industry. It was seen as one of the first art rock albums and would help inspire a generation of progressive rock musicians. The album cover featured The Beatles in their Sgt. Pepper costumes and sixty celebrities and historical figures who were central to western culture. Actress Mae West first refused to allow her image on the cover of the album, but later changed her mind after receiving a personal letter from The Beatles. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, considered by many to be one of the most important works of the twentieth century, has sold more than thirty-two million copies worldwide.

I’d Love to Turn You On

– John Lennon

A Day in the Life

written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney

A Day in the Life was written in 1967 and marked an incredible feat of songwriting. A mostly complete Lennon tune was merged with a partially completed McCartney tune. The arranging and orchestration genius of George Martin was then utilized to make a coherent whole. John’s song was about events he had read in the newspaper (he read the paper every day) including the line I’d love to turn you on that may have been about sex, drugs, or music. The line He blew his mind out in a car was about a man named Tara Browne, a friend of The Beatles, who had died in a car accident.

After an intense orchestral glissando (a full forty member orchestra was hired for the recording session), there was an abrupt segue into Paul’s tune Woke up, fell out of bed. Paul’s section was about getting up in the morning and going to school on a typical day. He described going into a (perhaps marijuana-induced) dream and then transitioned to a return of the first section. Paul recounted, It was just me remembering what it was like to run up the road to catch a bus to school, having a smoke and going into class… It was a reflection of my schooldays. #5 Paul’s tune was then spliced between the second and third verses of John’s song. It was remarkable how the two different songs worked together as Lennon, McCartney and Martin were able to bring it all together to create one of the defining Beatles songs. John ended the tune with a return to the line I’d love to turn you on and the intense wall of orchestral glissando returned, this time reaching a peak. A long silence ensued after a massive chord was simultaneously struck on three different pianos by Lennon, McCartney, Starr, George Martin, and road manager, Mal Evans. The added drama engaged the listener to reflect on the song and the whole album.

Moving forward from Sgt. Pepper, The Beatles recorded soundtracks for the films Yellow Submarine and Magical Mystery Tour in 1967. The songs All You Need is Love, Hello, Goodbye, Lady Madonna, and Hey Jude were all on Magical Mystery Tour. This showed that there was no drop off in their prolific songwriting abilities. In Britain, Magical Mystery Tour went to number two and in America it reached the number one spot. Yellow Submarine was released in July of 1968 and it went to number three in Britain and number two in America.

In 1968, The Beatles released a double album that consisted of thirty tunes. It was simply called The Beatles but it became better known as The White Album since the cover was completely white and without names or graphics. The band was headed in different directions at this time and the eclectic nature of the songs would bare this out. The album was also influenced by their interest in the teaching of Indian guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. They had all attended a ten-day course on Transcendental Mediation in North Wales and they visited the Maharishi in India in February of 1968. They were also still recovering from the death of Brian Epstein and this was a factor in seeking out the Maharishi. The trip to India helped to renew their friendships with one another. George Harrison was allowed to contribute four songs to The White Album including the classic While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Harrison tried to stay out of the way of the growing divide between Lennon and McCartney. While My Guitar Gently Weeps was based on Harrisons’ reading of the I Chang, the Chinese book of changes. Harrison decided to apply these concepts of change to his songwriting. Both Lennon and McCartney were not very interested in his song so Harrison brought in Eric Clapton to play lead guitar and he played the rhythm guitar part. The White Album also contained an eclectic blend of songs including; Blackbird, Birthday, Helter Skelter, and Revolution. The Beatles was released on The Beatles new label, part of their new company, Apple Corp Ltd.

1968 also saw the high profile weddings of Paul McCartney to Linda Eastman and John to Yoko Ono. In early 1969, The Beatles were realizing that they were becoming further detached both musically and socially. Paul suggested that they begin to play live again. The Beatles were legally committed to do a final movie for United Artists. They began filming and recording an 80 minute documentary of the group rehearsing in the studio and playing live on the roof of the Apple office building in London. This endeavor was intended to be a work about musical creativity, but the music and filming of Let It Be ended up more about musical disintegration. In order to get the album finished, McCartney took control as John and George became more and more indifferent about the process. Nevertheless, the album Let It Be contained some vintage Beatles songs such as Get Back, The Long and Winding Road, The Ballad of John and Yoko, and of course, Let It Be. Let It Be was to become the last Beatles record released and it was often assumed that it was the last record they ever recorded. But even after the dysfunction that occurred in making Let It Be, The Beatles would go on to record Abbey Road.

The Beatles released Abbey Road in 1969. It had been seven years since their first recording at Abbey Road Studios, a time when they were intent on making their mark on the musical world. But by now, they were tired veterans of the music business and weighed down by power struggles over money and power. The songs on Abbey Road reflected their many issues. They were struggling with debt, getting ripped-off by everyone trying to take advantage of their success, fighting legal battles, and feeling the pressure of being The Beatles. Abbey Road would, however, go on to become their biggest selling album. George Martin has said many times that Abbey Road was his favorite Beatles album. He recalled that McCartney had asked him for help in returning to their earlier recording process; back when they had achieved a magical feeling. George Martin knew this was possible but he demanded that they give him their full cooperation.

From one generation to the next, The Beatles will remain the most important rock band of all time.

– Dave Grohl

The title Abbey Road referred to their EMI Abbey Road studio, where they had recorded for most of their career. Each Beatle contributed songs and they played as a group on almost every track. Harrison continued to emerge as a great songwriter with Here Comes the Sun and Something. Lennon was being pulled in two different musical directions. On one hand, he was pursuing some avant-garde concepts with Yoko Ono and on the other, he was going back to old school rock with the song Come Together. Lennon’s I Want You, a hard rocking song with some electronic distortion, was nearly eight minutes long. The second side featured a collection of songs that Paul very skillfully unified into a suite. It began with Paul’s You Never Give Me Your Money and culminated with The End, the perfect song to end their illustrious Beatles career. The End was philosophical and very Beatles-like with Paul’s line the love you take is equal to the love you make. This was impressive to John and he declared it to be very cosmic, thus providing the final punctuation for The Beatles message of love.

George Martin The Fifth Beatle

George Martin (1926-2016) was thirty-six years old at the time he signed The Beatles to a recording contract. As a producer, his entire experience at the time consisted of working on some light classical recordings and producing a comedy show called The Gong Show. Martin remembered hearing The Beatles demo tape for the first time saying, In defense of all those people who turned it down, it was a pretty lousy tape, recorded in a back room, very badly balanced, not very good songs, and a rather raw group…I liked them as people apart from anything else, and I was convinced that we had the makings of a hit group. #6. Often called the fifth Beatle, Martin was in charge of The Beatle’s studio production throughout their entire career. The first thing Martin did was to take the raw original songs and shape and polish them. His ability to translate the groups’ individual talents and convert all of the parts into a cohesive whole was extraordinary. He did all of this at a staff producer salary rate and he was never offered any royalties even when the albums sold into the millions. Only until later, did Martin make the kind of money he deserved when he formed his own production company called Associated Independent Recording (AIR).

George Martin was a gifted musician. He possessed perfect pitch and learned to play piano by age seventeen. He studied composition, conducting, theory, and orchestration at the London Guildhall School of Music. He also had a commanding personality that helped him to deal with The Beatles in the sometimes chaotic studio environment. Paul McCartney said, He doesn’t write the songs or play them-he doesn’t fly the plane-but he is in charge. And that, tied in with his music, made him the perfect producer for The Beatles…He accommodated us. I think a lesser producer might not have done that. #7

George Martin transformed the recording studio into another instrument. He musically educated The Beatles on topics of orchestration and arranging. This in turn motivated them to experiment more in the studio and to compose more complicated songs. His strong musical influence was stamped on countless Beatles songs. For example, he wrote the string arrangement for the tune Yesterday. On Strawberry Fields Forever, he introduced backward tape recording and multi-layered musical effects. He contributed the addition of many instrumental sonorities such as French horn and harpsichord parts, the Mellotron, and string instruments. Martin played piano on most of The Beatles albums. George Martin’s concept for A Day in the Life saw him hire an orchestra of forty musicians and record a glissando of chromatic notes four times, all on different starting points. Then, he combined all the versions to create a massive wall of sound that he used between sections and again at the end of the song. Incredible. George Martin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.

The Beatles and George Martin were long gone when American production icon Phil Spector was brought in to save the release of Let It Be. Paul was not happy with Spector’s approach, as Spector added strings and multi-layers of sound to the basic tracks. Paul’s objections were ignored and he announced his departure from The Beatles. This came as no surprise, since it was clearly over for the other Beatles as well. John Lennon and Yoko One had released the single Give Peace a Chance in the summer of 1969 and George was playing in Eric Clapton’s band and preparing for his solo album, All Things Must Pass. Paul and Ringo Starr were preparing solo albums as well. Let It Be was premiered as a film in May 1970 and as a boxed album and book set. The album came out separately in November of 1970.

The collective achievements of The Beatles were musically and culturally groundbreaking. With mop-tops and Beatle boots, they came to represent a new version of the American dream. They infused a healthy lack of authority, central to connecting to their early fans and then repeatedly reinvented themselves and rock ‘n’ roll in the process. The Beatles just barely made it to 1970. No other band in music history made as big an impact and created such dramatic musical and sociological change. The Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.

The Solo Beatles

The demise of The Beatles did not mean the end of George, John, Paul, and Ringo’s musical lives. Each would go on to have profound and popular solo careers. However, each ex-Beatle went in different musical directions and utilized an array of high level supporting musicians and studio producers. People will always speculate as to what would have happened if The Beatles remained intact throughout the 1970’s and beyond. The tragic murder of John Lennon in 1980 would forever squash that dream and jolt both the musical community and millions of people around the world. George Harrison’s musical personality was finally free to emerge from the vice-grip of the Lennon/McCartney songwriting machine. Harrison was able to fully develop his compositional approach with his sense of spirituality and Indian musical influence. John Lennon wasted no time beginning his solo career while continuing to make political statements with his intelligent lyrics and penchant for musical experimentation. Paul McCartney began what would become the most successful solo career of the Fab Four. McCartney would come to dominate the pop charts throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s. Ringo Starr went on to establish himself as a prolific solo artist with an ability to surround himself with great musical talent. Ringo would also appear on a number of Lennon and Harrison solo albums.

George Harrison (1943-2001) was more than ready to become a solo artist and a very creative one at that. Although confined to a supporting role while in The Beatles, Harrison was already a seasoned songwriter. His songs would draw from a Bob Dylan influenced sense of introspection and his guitar playing continued to evolve with a unique slide guitar technique. Before the breakup of The Beatles, Harrison released his debut solo album Wonderwall Music in 1968. This was a Harrison composed film score for the movie Wonderwall. Harrison neither played or sang on this work but instead directed a group of Indian and British musicians. His 1969 release, Electronic Sound, revealed yet another side of the ex-Beatle as he collaborated with electronic music composer Bernie Krouse on two Moog synthesizer tone poems. Neither of these first two releases had much commercial appeal, but his 1970 All Things Must Pass triple album was a recognized masterpiece and essentially his real solo debut. Harrison had developed a musical relationship with Eric Clapton while still in The Beatles. He also toured with the band Delaney and Bonnie where he met the talented bassist Carl Radle, keyboardist/vocalist Bobby Whitlock, and drummer Jim Gordon. These musicians were previously from Delaney and Bonnie’s band where they would all become the core of Eric Clapton’s Derek and the Dominos band. All Things Must Pass featured the production of the legendary Phil Spector and his full orchestral timbres. A few of the hits songs to emerge were What is Life and My Sweet Lord.

My Sweet Lord

by George Harrison and John Gary Williams

My Sweet Lord reached number one in England and was popular worldwide. Harrison would beat his ex-Beatles bandmates to the top of the charts. However, it was not without controversy when Harrison was accused of plagiarism by taking the song’s hook and parts of the verse from The Chiffons’ hit He’s So Fine. He was found guilty of unconscious copyright infringement in 1976 and forced to pay the publisher royalties. My Sweet Lord was composed while Harrison was still a Beatle and he first gave the song to Billy Preston, who recorded it on his Encouraging Words album.

My Sweet Lord was unique in how it combined both Hindu and Christian religious messages, yet it contained a strong commercial pop appeal. Harrison began with acoustic guitar strumming and added his recurring slide guitar riffs. Harrison’s chant-like lyrics of Hindu and Christian phrases were expressed with a sense of joy that invited the listener to share their feelings, regardless of religious affiliation. The song ended on a fadeout by modulating to a higher key as if to mimic a rising to the heavens. All of this was amplified by the famous wall of sound production treatment of Phil Spector. My Sweet Lord became one of the most popular songs by an ex-Beatle.

In 1971, Harrsion released The Concert for Bangladesh, an all-star benefit for the refugees of Bangladesh organized by Harrison and his long-time musical mentor Ravi Shankar. It included rock legends Eric Clapton, Leon Russell, Ringo Starr, and the band Badfinger. 1973’s Living in the Material World went to number one in America with the hit Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Erath). This was followed by his last two albums on the Apple label, 1974’s Dark Horse and 1975’s Extra Texture. 1976’s Thirty-Three & 1/3 established Harrison on his new label Dark Horse. Three years later, Harrison released the self-titled George Harrison and in 1981, Somewhere in England, that dealt with the death of John Lennon. After the release of 1982’s Gone Troppo, Harrison had somewhat of a comeback in 1987 with the Jeff Lynne-produced Cloud Nine. In 1992, Harrison released Live in Japan, a live recording from his first tour since 1974. It contained some Beatles tunes and a collection of Harrison favorites.

In 1988, Harrison recorded a single entitled This Is Love and helped assemble the supergroup The Traveling Wilburys. They recorded 1988’s The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 and 1990’s Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3. In 1990, Harrison worked on the Beatles Anthology reunion. This would turn out to be Harrisons’ last musical venture when he would go on to battle two types of cancer. George Harrison died in 2001 from lung cancer. His last album, Brainwashed, was posthumously released in 2002. George Harrison was induced into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a Beatle in 1988 and as a solo artist in 2004.

John Lennon’s (1940-1980) solo career revealed his musical curiosity of experimental music contrasted by a lifetime devotion to pure rock ‘n’ roll. Simultaneously, Lennon was committed to revolutionary politics while living a controversial public life with his wife, avant-garde artist and musician Yoko Ono. Similar to his Beatles’ musical personality, Lennon still wrote songs that were intense, yet he continued to nurture his tremendous melodic and lyrical skills. Lennon’s artistic view outside of The Beatles included a 1964 published collection of his writings entitled In His Own Write and the 1965 A Spaniard in the Works. While still a Beatle, Lennon released Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins in 1968, an experimental album with Yoko Ono. This album was provocative when its cover art contained a nude photograph of Lennon and Ono. When the couple married in the spring of 1969, they made a political statement that achieved world-wide attention with a Bed-In for Peace event. Later in 1969, Lennon released Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions and Wedding Album, also musically experimental. Additionally, he released a single Give Peace a Chance, that was recorded during their infamous Bed-In.

Next, Lennon returned to live performance with a concert at a Canadian rock festival performing with his and Yoko’s Plastic Ono Band that featured bassist Klaus Voormann, drummer Alan White, and the legendary Eric Clapton. Soon after, Lennon released the single Cold Turkey, a confessional song about his struggle with heroin addiction. Lennon privately told the other Beatles that he was leaving and to keep it private until some record label legal matters could be resolved. In early 1970, Lennon released the classic hit Instant Karma. At this time, Paul McCartney announced that The Beatles were breaking up and this greatly angered Lennon. This provoked Lennon to write and record 1970’s Plastic Ono Band, inspired by his primal scream therapy sessions with Yoko Ono. In 1971, Lennon released Imagine with the classic song Imagine that would go on to become his defining solo composition.

Imagine

by John Lennon and Yoko Ono

The lyrical content of Imagine denounced capitalism and organized religion while promoting a socialist society and atheist view of religion. Lennon, inspired by a book of poetry introduced to him by Yoko, wrote Imagine on the piano. The song contained an introspective melody and a simple time feel. The lyrics were an invitation to imagine a world without religion or dominated by personal possessions where everyone can live together in peace. Imagine was a song of hope and promise where a lyrical phrase stated, You may say I’m a dreamer and echoed the idea that others felt the same as Lennon with the line but I’m not the only one. In retrospect, it’s remarkable that the message became so popular (going almost to number one on the U.S. charts), especially when Lennon asked for a world without religion. Imagine was recorded utilizing Lennon’s regular bassist Klaus Voorman and drummer Alan White. It also featured the production of Phil Spector.

Imagine was embraced by a wide range of artists that included; Diana Ross, Andy Williams, Herbie Hancock, the Average White Band, Joan Baez, and many others. Imagine also solicited the attention of many world leaders. President Jimmy Carter stated that In many countries around the world- you hear John Lennon’s song ‘Imagine’ used almost equally with national anthems. #8 John Lennon profoundly said, The concept of positive prayer ... If you can imagine a world at peace, with no denominations of religion—not without religion but without this my God-is-bigger-than-your-God thing—then it can be true... #9 A documentary about Lennon was released in 1988 entitled Imagine: John Lennon.

"I love to hear a choir. I love the humanity to see the faces of real people devoting themselves to a piece of music.

- Paul McCartney

By 1971, John Lennon was become increasingly more political in his world views. The resulted in 1972’s Some Time in New York City (recorded with the band Elephant’s Memory and featured collaborations with music luminaries George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Keith Moon, and Frank Zappa). This album, with its overtly political messages, did not fare well on the charts. This time period was also the beginning of a