The Beatles

The Beatles

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Humble Beginnings

The sensation that would soon be known as Beatlemania all began in Liverpool, England, in the year 1957. John Lennon, who had played the banjo since a young age but had moved quickly toward the guitar, formed his first band named “The Quarry Men.” The high school band changed members constantly, and John Lennon soon came upon Paul McCartney in between one of their gigs. John, hearing Paul play the guitar, asked him to join his band. Ironically he said, jokingly, “we’ll become the best band in the world.” It wasn’t until the next day that Paul agreed, and the world renowned Lennon/McCartney songwriting duo was conceived.

The group also consisted of Stuart Sutcliffe, who was not a really talented musician, on bass. He was more of a painter. He got into the Beatles because of a friendship with John. He would leave the Beatles in 1961, after the Hamburg tour mentioned later.

Eight months after his meeting, Paul had another recruit in mind: the young George Harrison. George was a master of the guitar. Despite this, he was three years younger than John, and he was not sure if he wanted someone that young in the band. However, George wowed him, and he was granted entrance (2 weeks before his 15th birthday.) In 1958, The Quarry Men recorded their first song, “That’ll be the day.”


In all their time together, they actually released an entire album, entitled “The Quarry Men At Home,” which featured early versions of Beatles songs, such as “One After 909” and “I’ll Follow The Sun.”




The group also featured Stuart Sutcliffe on bass. hamburg.jpg

Two years after the recordings, their drummer, Tommy More, had left in the early part of 1960, and Pete Best joined in late 1960.

The Quarry Men changed their name constantly. One change was to Johny and the Moondogs, which was followed by The Nerk Twins (I have no idea what that means, but yeah.) John then came upon the name “The Beatals” (yes, that’s spelled right.) This was now their official title, which seemed to be influenced by Buddy Holly’s band “The Crickets.” Their next five titles reflected the beetle theme: The Silver Beetles to The Silver Beats, to The Beatles, and finally to The Silver Beatles. The silver was again dropped, and the name “The Beatles” stuck.

The Journey UP

The Beatles traveled and toured Liverpool for months, simply trying to get a fan base. They then traveled to Hamburg and played for a very rambunctious crowd, and learned how to become true showmen. When they returned to Liverpool, a somewhat sense of fame followed.

This sense of fame peaked the interest of Brian Epstein, who was a record salesman in Liverpool. One night, he went and saw them perform. At first sight, they looked like normal Liverpool bums, but on stage their energy moved Brian Epstein to become their (long lasting) manager. He got The Beatles some auditions, but they were denied (imagine knowing you denied The Beatles!) However, the one audition that bore some fruit was with Parlophone Records (George Martin.)

Martin, as Epstein did, loved their sound. He put them in suits, and gave them thumbs up. The only part of the band Martin was not a fan of was their drummer (Pete Best.) Martin (apparently without reason) asked Epstein to get rid of Best before the deal could be completed. The other members thought that Pete was good until they heard Ringo perform. Martin did not know the the beatles were actually thinking the same thing that he was, for whatever reason. Nobody really knows why they wanted him gone. Maybe it was because he skipped rehearsals, or was considered more handsome than the other members. But, This gap was filled by none other than Richard Starkey, of Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, who would become known as Ringo Starr. Ringo had performed with the group before, when Best was sick. The Beatles were now a whole.

young+beatles.jpg

The Beatles released a few somewhat successful singles in the UK, Please Please me was recorded in March of 1963, in a 12 hour session. The album topped charts for over six months. I Want To Hold Your Hand became a number one. Teenagers of the time also loved their look and their personalities.

The Beatles then went to America and performed their (now famous) gig on the Ed Sullivan Show.


America fell in love with The Beatles’ simple but moving songs, and their fame was only beginning.

The Beatles On Top

At the time, being “on the top” meant being on lunchboxes, socks, or gum. The Beatles were on all of the above, and much much more. Beatlemania set upon the world like a firestorm.
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However, some critics said that The Beatles’ music would die soon, and that it was just a fad.

The Beatles’ answer to the critics was to make a movie, and thus A Hard Days Night was born. An album of the same name also accompanied it.


The band members were also becoming very close. A Hard Days night was the climax of this. This was the first album that they had written together entirely by themselves. However, the workload during these periods were massive. They had almost no time to relax and fully enjoy their fame. They had to tend to their fans, and tour and then tour some more and then tour some. In December of 1964, the album Beatles For Sale (a personally least favorite) was released. This album only had a few originals, and a lot of half-baked covers. By the dawn of 1965, it was clear what they wanted to do. They wanted to slow down on the touring and focus on making good music. Thus, they quit touring after a gig in Candlestick Park.

Six months later, their next movie was released, with a bigger budget and more imagination. Help was released, starring Ringo as the Star of the movie (weak, I know.)
beatles_help_dvd.jpg

The album had a lot of originals by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, including the most recorded song in the history of music, Yesterday.


Then Rubber Soul came and changed all of this. Rubber Soul had been called the first “true” beatles album, as it moved away from the usual love songs. Almost Every song on the album was an original, and the songs are highly praised. For example, In My Life, has been called the greatest song ever made. Norwegian Wood also introduced a new instrument, unheard of by most of the western world: The Sitar, played by George.

The band continued to experiment, and Revolver (a personal favorite) was born. The album was creativity to the max, mixed with love, harmony, tradition, and experimentation to the extreme. For example, Tomorrow Never Knows has been cited as the world’s first electronic song.


Even more creative than Revolver, was Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, whose name was conceived by Paul. This album gave the beatles an excuse to wear crazy outfits and act happy and gay (as in happy…) The album has many musical firsts. Each song goes into the next perfectly, and creates the illusion that the album is one big concert, and it even had yelling fans and applause. During this time, psychedelic drugs were spreading across the world, and the Beatles experimented with their fair share of the drugs too. The album was a long time hit, and has been called the best album of all time by many honorable reviewers (including Rolling Stone.)

The Beatles were about to go through a big change in 1967. Paul was conceiving of a new movie, which was completely unscripted. The movie’s plot was that they would place random actors on a bus and take them through their magical imaginations (their magical mystery tour, perse. ) The album for the movie began in the spring of 1967, but was interrupted several times. The main event was that their manager, who had been with them from the beginning, had died. This was both a work-related strain and an emotional one. Without a manager, the duties of the manager were given to the band. Paul took responsibility, and tried to encourage the other members to do the same. John and George disagreed completely, and Ringo just didn’t care either way. The first strain on the band formed, which would (after many more incidents) lead to the breakup of The Beatles. During this time, the Beatles traveled to India, searching for spiritual knowledge.
1968_Maharishi_Beatles.jpg


A larger riff was created between them during this time, because they each had a different experience in India (for example, Ringo left almost immediately because he hated the food.) Magical Mystery Tour was completed on their return, and the movie and the soundtrack were released before the end of the year.


Continued...
 
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The Beatles

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Re: The Beatles-- Band Of The Month-- June 2010

The differences and tensions were starting to affect the group, along with John insisting that he bring Yoko Ono into the studio, despite their no-girlfriends policy, and Ringo even left the band during this period. However, just because of this does not mean that their creativity was gone. The next album would certainly show that. The White Album, unlike the last few albums, had a very boring (but somewhat wonderful) cover. Over two dozen songs filled this gigantic album, each more different and more crazy than the last. It had all sides of the spectrum, from wild drug induced songs (Wild Honey Pie) to somber piano melodies (Julia) to acoustic guitar masterpieces (Blackbird.) The album would become famous for combining all of these music forms.


The Beatles owed UA a new movie, due to their contract. This movie would be an animated, drug-induced fun fest based on the song Yellow Submarine from Revolver. The album only contained four Beatles originals, and some instrumentals conducted by George Martin.




The Breakup

The band felt like they were running out of steam. Tensions were just so high. A new album was though of, but the constant bickering didn’t even allow the terms of this album to be agreed on. Martin usually like Paul’s ideas, causing John to storm out in anger much. Ringo and George didn’t even feel wanted or needed, and refused to show up at many rehearsals. The band was suffering, but their music wasn’t.

Along came Abbey Road, which was planned as a “goodbye” album, which featured tight vocals, memorable harmonies, and the famous second side medley. The album was released in Fall 1969, but the Beatles were not finished yet.



Paul wanted to start touring again to respark their fan base, but John and George didn’t really want to, which resulted in the famous rooftop gig in London.


Some songs were recorded and mixed by Phil Spector. The album Let It be was released after abbey road, but recorded before. The album Let It be was a finale to the beatles worldwide power.

December 29, 1970. This was officially “The End.” The Beatles had been through it all, and now it was all over, with their official and public break up.

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Up Next: Discography

All content written by me. This took a lot of time to do. Thanks for reading.
 

The Beatles

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Re: The Beatles-- Band Of The Month-- June 2010

Discography
Part One: 1963-1964
Including Canadian and Capitol Releases!


please_please_me.jpg


Released: March 22 1963
Label: Parlophone
UK Position: 1
US Position: n/a


with-the-beatles001.jpg


Released: November 22 1963
Label: Parlophone
UK: 1
US: n/a


BeatlemaniaLP1.jpg


Released: November 25 1963
Label: Capitol Canada
UK: n/a
US: n/a


introducing.jpg


Released: January 10 1964
Label: Vee-Jay
US: 2


meet-the-beatles.jpg

Released: January 20 1964
Label: Capitol
UK: n/a
US: 1


79-1.jpg

Released: February 3 1964
Label: Capitol Canada
US: n/a
UK: n/a


dfbe6402.jpg


Released: April 10 1964
Label: Capitol
UK: n/a
US: 1


The-Beatles-Long-Tall-Sally-287221.jpg


Released: May 11 1964
Label: Capitol Canada
UK: n/a
US: n/a
 
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The Beatles

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Re: The Beatles-- Band Of The Month-- June 2010

Discography
Part 2: 1964-1966


album-the-beatles-a-hard-days-night.jpg

Released: July 10 1964
Label: Parlophone
US: 1
UK: 1


The-Beatles-Something-New---S-454376.jpg


Released: July 20 1964
Label: Capitol
US: 2
UK: n/a


beatles-for-sale-2.jpg

Released: December 4 1964
Label: Parlohpone
UK: 1


beatles_65.jpg


Released: December 15 1964
Label: Capitol
US: 1
UK: n/a


beatles_iv_lg.jpg

Released: June 14 1965
Label: Capitol
US: 1
UK: n/a



Released: August 6 1965
Label: Parlophone
UK: 1
US: n/a


rubber-soul.jpg

Released: December 3 1965
Label: Parlophone
UK: 1
US: 1


The-Beatles-Yesterday-And-Tod-293286.jpg



Released: June 15 1966
Label: Capitol
UK: n/a
US: 1
 

The Beatles

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Re: The Beatles-- Band Of The Month-- June 2010

Discography
Part III: 1966-1970


revolver.jpg

Released: August 5 1966
Label: Parlophone
UK: 1
US: n/a



Released: June 1 1967
Label: Parlophone/Capitol
UK: 1
US: 1


magical-mystery-tour.jpg

Released: Novemver 27 1967
Label: Capitol/Parlophone
UK: 31
US: 1


beatles-the-white-album.png

Released: November 22 1968
Label: Capitol/Parlophone
UK: 1
US: 1


Yellowsubjpg.jpg


Released: January 13 1969
Label: Capitol/Parlophone
UK: 3
US: 2



Released : September 26 1969
Label: Parlophone/Capitol
UK: 1
US: 1


let-it-be-album-cover.jpg


Released: May 8 1970
Label: Parlophone/ United Artists
UK: 1
US :1


COMING SOON!
Posts For Individual Albums!
 

LG

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Re: The Beatles-- Band Of The Month-- June 2010

Holy Crap Batman!!...that is one big OP The Beatles.:heheh:

I can see you are prepared for this epic voyage.

I won't be here for a few days, but I'll be back to check out your "Encyclopedia" for sure.:tup:
 

Magic

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Re: The Beatles-- Band Of The Month-- June 2010

Someone unleashed the Beatles!


OMG, what a grand beginning :) The Beatles deserve it, though.
 

The Beatles

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Re: The Beatles-- Band Of The Month-- June 2010

Holy Crap Batman!!...that is one big OP The Beatles.:heheh:

I can see you are prepared for this epic voyage.

I won't be here for a few days, but I'll be back to check out your "Encyclopedia" for sure.:tup:

Alright, there may be new material when you do.
 

Foxhound

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Re: The Beatles-- Band Of The Month-- June 2010

TheBeatles:

I love the organization you're showing already, particularly in the discography part!

Four quick questions though.

1. You don't mention when Stuart Sutcliffe joined and when and why he left the band.

2. When did Pete Best join? Why were the other Beatles so remarkably acquiescent to George Martin's suggestion that Pete be replaced?

3. How did each of the other Beatles react to the trip to India that turned out to exacerbate growing tensions between the members? Whose silly idea was it anyway?

4. Why was John so insistent on bringing Yoko to the studio? What did he think she could add?

:huh:
 
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