Beatles 4 Ever

John Lennon had an itch. Influenced by people like Bill Haley & The Comets and naturally Elvis Presley, he set out to start his own band. Inviting some of his friends, none who had any formal musical training, they formed what was known as a skiffle band.

Skiffle was a hybrid of blues, primitive rock, American folk and hillbilly music.

The band, first known as The Black Jacks, a name that only lasted a week or two, eventually went through a number of members. Each change brought a little more talent to the group until finally they were reasonably ready for the public.

On June 22nd 1957 the Quarrymen played twice at an outdoor party in Rosebery Street to celebrate the 750th anniversary of the granting of Liverpool's charter by King John.

On July 6th they played at St. Peter's Church garden where a friend of John's, Ivan Vaughan introduced John Lennon to another friend of his, namely Paul McCartney.

After a conversation between John and Paul, and a rather impressive exhibition of Paul's guitar prowess, John invited McCartney to join the band.

By January 1958 John became bored with playing skiffle and started leaning more toward Rock and Roll. It was around this time they booked some shows at the now famous Cavern Club.

It was also around this time that Paul introduced John to another friend, George Harrison who quickly scoffed up the now vacant position of lead guitar.

By the Summer of 1958 The Quarry Men recorded their first record, the B side being one of Lennon and McCartney's first song writing joint ventures.

In August of 1959 the band was about to go through another significant change. Mona Best opened a new club and invited the Quarry Men to be her resident band. Due to some arguments and misunderstandings, half the Quarry Men left the band. This left Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Ken Brown and Les Stewart.

On one occasion, Ken Brown took ill and was not able to perform. When Mona insisted that he get paid for the night's gig anyway, the band walked out and never returned.

The band next appeared as Johnny and The Moondogs at The Carroll Levis Auditions at The Empire Theatre, in Liverpool. By May 1960, Lennon, McCartney and Harrison had been joined by Stuart Sutcliffe, and three months later they invited Mona Best's son, drummer Pete Best, to join the band and come away with them to West Germany. They tried several other names, including the Silver Beetles, before settling on The Beatles for their performances in Hamburg in August 1960. When the group returned to Liverpool, Sutcliffe left the group, choosing to remain in Hamburg. (He died shortly afterwards.) In August 1962, Lennon, McCartney and Harrison decided to dismiss Pete Best and replace him with Ringo Starr. The final lineup of the Beatles was now in place and remained intact until the group disbanded in 1970.

By 1963 the Beatles were gaining popularity throughout England and most of Europe, but I don't think the world was quite prepared for what was about to happen.

Sure there've been music icons before this. People like Elvis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Buddy Holly all made an impact and still have their fans today. But no one that came before, or since have created a mania quite like the Beatles did after performing for that first time in February 1964 on the Ed Sullivan Show.

They arrived at the perfect time. The US was still reeling over the assasination of President Kennedy, the Rock and Roll era was becoming stale and filled with "one hit wonders", and the #1 song at the time was Dominica by the Singing Nun.

We were all ready for something new, something motivational, and on February 9th, 1964 we got it!

With Beatlemania in full bloom, it's not surprising that the next logical thing to do was to put the Fab 4 in movies. 1965 brought the debut of A Hard Day's Night that took us through the daily routines of the Beatles as they prepared for their live performances.

Of course there was some dramatization and elaboration, but the movie brought a back stage view of what it took to get the boys past the screaming fans and onto the stage.

It also gave us a glimpse of the off hand humor that they became so famous for.

"How did you find America?" asked one reporter, inquiring about their opinion about the USA.

"We turned left at Greenland," replied George.

Sure it was silly at times, but it showed the enthusiasm of Beatlemania and the fun everyone was having with it.

Next came Help which was originally titled "Eight Arms to Hold You," but was changed at the last minute.

This time there was more of a plot to the movie. An Eastern religious group needed a certain ring to perform a human sacrifice, but it somehow ended up on Ringo's finger. Of course he couldn't get it off, so the next best thing was to sacrifice him to fulfill the requirements.

Ringo was chased all over the world which put the Beatles in some amusing situations. No matter where they went, Ringo was inevitably dowsed with red paint as part of the sacrificial ritual.

Help was shot in color.

Yellow Submarine was an animated full length picture using the voice of the Beatles. Though it wasn't produced by them, they had a great deal of input in its creative flavor.

It centered around a place called Pepperland that was being beseiged by the Blue Meanies. The only thing that could save Pepperland was music, but the resident band, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band had been silenced.

The Beatles were retrieved via a Yellow Submarine to come to Pepperland to save the day.

Next there was Magical Mystery Tour, that was basically a macabre bus ride with some extremely bizarre characters. Though it didn't do very well in the box office, it still lets us see the creativity of the Beatles in Action.

And finally, Let It Be that was a behind the scenes look at the making of the album.

It also showed how the four were losing touch with each other that led to the end of the band.

By 1966 the Beatles became annoyed with touring and live performances. Their focus was on creating music with a message, but the screaming fans made it almost impossible for them to even hear themselves let alone the audience.

Their music was also becoming too sophisticated and complex to be performed live. So they decided to head into the studio and stay there.

This gave them the opportunity to experiment with various forms of sound manipulation like back tracking and overdubbing. What emmerged was an entirely new type of Beatle album, an album that knocked the music industry for a loop!

Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band is still heralded as the best album every produced. It set the Beatles in an alter-ego situation and allowed them to come up with their first "themed" production.

Following Sgt Pepper came Revolver with a expansion of back tracking and sitar music. Revolver also had the classics like "Good Day Sunshine" and "Got to Get You Into My Life."

You might say it was a fusion between what the Beatles were and what they were becoming.

In 1968, along with Mia Farrow, Donovan Leach, and others, John, Paul, George and Ringo traveled to India to meet with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who was touted as being the guru of all gurus.

It changed George's life forever, but the others weren't as influenced for any length of time. However the experience seems to have opened a flood gate of creativity.

Out of the trip, the Double White Album was born.

On the other hand, this album was the beginning of the Beatles' demise as it carried mostly solo recordings. On songs such as "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" we also saw, for the first time, any of the Beatles working with other artists. In this case, Eric Clapton played the lead guitar.

It was during the trip to India that the news came about the death of the Beatles' long time manager, Brian Epstien.

The last two Beatle albums were released opposite to how they were recorded.

Most of Let It Be was recorded in January 1969, before the recording and release of the album Abbey Road. The Beatles were unhappy with the album and it was temporarily shelved. Let It Be was later 're-produced' by Phil Spector in 1970, and it was the Beatles' final release.

It was said that they couldn't quite put their finger on what they didn't like about it, but after watching the accompanying movie about the making of Let It Be, it became obvious to all of us.

The Beatles weren't the Beatles any longer. They each had separate interests and were moving away from the typical Beatle style.

The pressures of running Apple Records was also becoming a burden, and it showed in their relationship and in their music.

Abbey Road proved they could still do it, but the fire had gone out and they were each contemplating moving on.

After threats by John and George to quit, Paul finally ended up being the one to make it official.

Since that day in 1970, both George and Ringo have played with John, and Ringo has appeared with Paul, but the four never got together again.

On December 8th, 1980 John Lennon was gunned down in front of his New York apartment. His death effected us all deeply and dashed all hopes of there ever being a reunion.

George Harrison passed away on November 21, 2001 from cancer. He died in peace.

Music Videos

Some of the things we find to be common place now actually started with the Beatles. Take for example music videos.

Today, all you have to do is switch your TV tuner to MTV and watch all the music videos you want to. But before the Beatles, there were none.

When they stopped performing live, they still fed Ed Sullivan with performances. See a couple of them below.

Benefit Concerts

Recently there was a major concert for Global Warming Awareness, and there seems to always be a cause that can draw out the best of the music industry to raise funds for or bring awareness to.

George Harrison started the whole thing off with his Concert for Bangladesh.

Video below as well.