Years before the Beatles sold hundreds of millions of albums themselves, they were looking for a record deal that would save them from playing racy Hamburg venues, only to be given an uncredited performance opportunity on an album they didn’t even like that much. As the old adage goes, beggars can’t be choosers, right?

The recording process might not have been everything the band dreamed of. Still, it was an interesting precursor to a life they would soon become well-acquainted with: that of an original recording artist. But before that could happen, the lads had to pay their dues.

As is so often the case in the music industry, the Beatles got their start as a backing band, not the original band we know and love today. The group cut their teeth across Europe, performing for hours on end for solo performers, entertaining nightclub attendees into the wee hours of the morning, and other kinds of “jukebox” gigs that make playing music feel like, well, a real job. Countless green performers will “pay their dues” in this way in the hopes that these backing gigs will lead to something bigger for themselves, and the Beatles were no exception.

When solo performer Tony Sheridan needed a backing band to cut a few records in the studio, the Beatles obliged. But once they got there, they quickly realized that this wasn’t the “big break” they had been looking for. As George Harrison recalled in Anthology, “It was a bit disappointing because we’d been hoping to get a record deal ourselves.” Moreover, the band walked into the session with a great deal of confidence. “We thought it would be easy,” John Lennon added. “The Germans had such s***** records. Ours were bound to be better. We did five of our own numbers. But they didn’t like them.”

Source: americansongwriter.com/Melanie Davis

Read More<<<

He's known for this three-word mantra.

When the average person hears the name Ringo Starr, a few things might come to mind: The Beatles. Drums. "Yellow Submarine." Thomas and Friends. And, of course, there's always the musician's iconic catchphrase: "Peace and love."

It's long been assumed by many that Starr, 84, came up with his motto after visiting India with the other Beatles — John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison — in 1968. But as he recently told the Associated Press, Starr was actually inspired to coin the phrase after spending time in a particular American city.

“It actually came, for me, from San Francisco, where the hippies were,” Starr said. “They were, of course, great peace and lovers, and then it changed. But I found a picture the other day of the four of us [giving the peace sign]...I didn’t invent it, I just picked it up. Johnwas a big proponent of peace and love, and it just came to me.”

In the years since, however, Starr has come to appreciate the true value of his message, which the world might need to hear now more than ever.

“I think it’s important every day — and right now the world is going through a madness. Maybe it’ll help,” Starr said.

Later in the same interview, the drummer admitted that he's naturally “an optimist, not a pessimist," referencing the challenges of his early life (which included contracting tuberculosis and spending two years in a sanatorium, where he learned to play the drums).

Source: parade.com/Jacqueline Burt Cote

Read More<<<

Some Beatles critics were quick to blame the Fab Four for the rise of drug culture, particularly psychedelics and marijuana, in the late 1960s, but George Harrison had a different idea about who was really responsible for the public’s interest in LSD and weed. While it’s true that much of the Beatles’ later work was heavily influenced by this psychedelic drug and the mental and visual revelations they had while taking it, the band didn’t feel it was their obligation to lie about it.

 When someone asked about their recreational drug use, they were honest. And as Harrison once argued during a 1971 appearance on the Dick Cavett Show, that was the real problem.  George Harrison Says Beatles Weren’t Responsible For Drug Culture

To pin the rise of drug use and counterculture solely on the Beatles would be wholly overestimating their cultural influence as a singular musical group. The Beatles were massive, certainly, but hardly big enough to inform an entire generation of global citizens without any extra help. The Beatles were one thread in a larger tapestry of societal change. They didn’t invent LSD. They were merely one of the thousands of people who started trying it recreationally in the mid-1960s. And even then, this was after the drug had already been present in psychiatric and other scientific circles for decades.

Nevertheless, the Beatles were one of the biggest bands in the world in the mid-1960s. If they said jump, most of their fans would ask, “How high?” Social influence of this size comes with its fair share of downsides, including the fact that critics will often lobby your personal choices against you in the context of other people’s choices. Because the Beatles did LSD, the media tried to blame other people using LSD on them. But as George Harrison argued during a 1971 appearance on the Dick Cavett Show, he and his bandmates simply didn’t believe that to be true.

Source: americansongwriter.com/Melanie Davis

Read More>>>>

If you’re under 60, you prob­a­bly heard the line “I read the news today, oh boy” before encoun­ter­ing the song it opens. Even after you dis­cov­ered the work of the Bea­t­les, it may have tak­en you some time to under­stand what, exact­ly, it was that John Lennon read in the news. The “lucky man who made the grade” and “blew his mind out in a car” turn out to have been inspired by the young Guin­ness heir Tara Browne, who’d fatal­ly wiped out in his Lotus Elan. The fig­ure of 4,000 holes in the roads of Black­burn came from anoth­er page of the same edi­tion of the Dai­ly Mail. These are just two of the mem­o­rable images in “A Day in the Life,” which son­i­cal­ly recon­structs the fab­ric of the nine­teen-six­ties as the Bea­t­les knew it.

In his new video below, Evan Puschak, bet­ter known as the Nerd­writer, calls “A Day in the Life” “arguably the Bea­t­les’ best song.” Crit­ic Ian Mac­Don­ald is rather less ambigu­ous in his book Rev­o­lu­tion in the Head: The Bea­t­les’ Records and the Six­ties, pro­claim­ing it “their finest sin­gle achieve­ment.”

And if any sin­gle fac­tor shaped its devel­op­ment, that fac­tor was LSD. “A song about per­cep­tion — a sub­ject cen­tral both to late-peri­od Bea­t­les and the coun­ter­cul­ture at large — ‘A Day in the Life’ con­cerned ‘real­i­ty’ only to the extent that this had been revealed by LSD to be large­ly in the eye of the behold­er,” he writes. Lennon may have proven to be the group’s most ded­i­cat­ed enthu­si­ast of that short­cut to enlight­en­ment. It’s worth not­ing, as Puschak does, that it was Browne who first “turned on” Paul McCart­ney.

Source: openculture.com/Colin Marshall

Read More>>>

The Beatles' split was famously acrimonious and left them on bad terms with one another. Factors including John Lennon's relationship with Yoko Ono, emerging creative differences and a disagreement over the appointment of Allen Klein at their label Apple Records are all cited for the break up of the world's biggest band.

However, it seems the troubles really began during the recording sessions of the band's 1968 record 'The White Album', which were notoriously feisty. Ringo Starr left the band for a period, fed up with the mood, as The Beatles clashed.

‌About that period of recording, Paul McCartney said: "There was a lot of friction during that album. We were just about to break up, and that was tense in itself". John later added: "The break-up of The Beatles can be heard on that album."

‌‌In September 1969, after the band had recorded the majority of what became 'Let it Be' (the 'Get Back' sessions) and 'Abbey Road', John told Paul, George Harrison and Ringo that he wanted a "divorce" from The Beatles. Paul went away to work on his first solo album 'McCartney', believing it was all over for the group.

Paul has said he told his bandmates in advance that he would release 'McCartney' with a press release announcing his departure from The Beatles in April 1970. The Beatles had released 'Let it Be' as a single in March 1970, so the new album was renamed after it and they set a May 1970 release date for that album - following the film's premiere.

But with record label Apple wanting to avoid a clash and Paul not wanting to speak to them due to his disapproval of manager Klein, Ringo went to his home with a letter from himself, John and George asking him to move his release date. Paul and Ringo had a huge row and he threw the drummer out of his house.

Source: liverpoolecho.co.uk/Dan Haygarth

Read More<<

Years before the Beatles sold hundreds of millions of albums themselves, they were looking for a record deal that would save them from playing racy Hamburg venues, only to be given an uncredited performance opportunity on an album they didn’t even like that much. As the old adage goes, beggars can’t be choosers, right?

The recording process might not have been everything the band dreamed of. Still, it was an interesting precursor to a life they would soon become well-acquainted with: that of an original recording artist. But before that could happen, the lads had to pay their dues.
The Beatles’ Uncredited Album Gig From Early Hamburg Days

As is so often the case in the music industry, the Beatles got their start as a backing band, not the original band we know and love today. The group cut their teeth across Europe, performing for hours on end for solo performers, entertaining nightclub attendees into the wee hours of the morning, and other kinds of “jukebox” gigs that make playing music feel like, well, a real job. Countless green performers will “pay their dues” in this way in the hopes that these backing gigs will lead to something bigger for themselves, and the Beatles were no exception.

When solo performer Tony Sheridan needed a backing band to cut a few records in the studio, the Beatles obliged. But once they got there, they quickly realized that this wasn’t the “big break” they had been looking for. As George Harrison recalled in Anthology, “It was a bit disappointing because we’d been hoping to get a record deal ourselves.” Moreover, the band walked into the session with a great deal of confidence. “We thought it would be easy,” John Lennon added. “The Germans had such s***** records. Ours were bound to be better. We did five of our own numbers. But they didn’t like them.”

Instead, the band recorded covers with Sheridan providing lead vocals, including “My Bonnie.” When the time came to list the band on the singles, Bert Kaempfert, the band leader and producer, changed the Beatles’ name to the Beat Brothers. “This is more understandable for the German audience,” Paul McCartney recalled him telling the band. “We went along with it,” he said. “It was a record.”
It Didn’t Take Long For Those Tables To Turn

The Beatles might have left the German recording session with their tail between their legs. But that humility didn’t last long. It would only take a few years for the band—properly billed under their own name—to reach international stardom. What’s more, they managed to do so with their original music. This was still a novelty at a time when most music was written by songwriters, not by the performing artist. When Tony Sheridan first released his records with “the Beat Brothers” as his backing band, even songs where he wasn’t present, like “Ain’t She Sweet” and “Cry For a Shadow,” were still primarily billed to him, not the future Fab Four.

Source: americansongwriter.com/Melanie Davis

Read More>>>