The Beatles

"Twist and Shout," the closing song (and last one recorded) for the Please Please Me album. Recorded in one wild, magnificent take at the end of the aforementioned day-long session. John's ravaged throat was already in tatters before he even stepped to the microphone. It didn't matter. He turned in a performance that was legendary from the second he opened his mouth. I'd say it's the musical equivalent of Kirk Gibson in the 1988 World Series, except Gibson would have to have hit about five home runs that night for that feat to really compare to what Lennon did here.

The Beatles certainly grew more sophisticated over the years, but that doesn't necessarily mean they got better - because rock and roll does not get any better than this.

 

A couple of great quotes JJ.

A book? The making of Please Please Me?

Sounds like a great story. (And not for nothing, but probably a bigger potential audience.)

 

One more reason why the Beatles were the greatest band in history. Check out their tour schedule.

http://www.dermon.com/Beatles/details/tours.htm

By my count, they made 245 concert appearances across the U.K. and in Sweden in 1963 alone.

On top of this grueling itinerary, they made numerous radio and TV appearances, plus they recorded and released two 14-song albums (each album contained eight original songs) as well as the three classic singles that cinched Beatlemania - From Me To You/Thank You Girl, She Loves You/I'll Get You and I Want To Hold Your Hand/This Boy.

 

I like the way you think.

 

I'm more of a Stones/Who guy but to me their importance cannot be overstated. Without the Beatles there is no British invasion, no Stones, no Who, no Floyd, no Kinks, no Sabbath, no Zeppelin and on and on until today.

I used to work with a guy who grew up in Liverpool when they were in their earliest days. He knew them all to some degree (he knew Lennon the best) and said they were just the band you went to see around town on a Friday or Saturday night. He said nobody expected them to become that huge because British entertainers just didn't get popular around the world.

 

Just ponder that the majority of the Lennon-McCartney canon was forged with them not liking each other very much and not working cooperatively together very much. But they often made the key contributions to the other's work (Paul's instruments on Ballad of John and Yoko, John's lyrical suggestions on Hey Jude).

My favorite song by them: In My Life. The perfect encapsulation of the complexity and passion of love. I'm a McCartney man, but I wish he'd stop trying to horn in on that song; it was Lennon's masterpiece.

 

Thank you resident genius. I'll get right on that.

Favorite song? I think I have to split it up by singer/songwriter.

Paul: Paperback Writer. Because it rocks, it took the Beatles in a new direction of having a hit without it being a love song, the song took put the bass up in the mix to unheard of levels, and, well, mainly, it rocks.

John: You've Got To Hide Your Love Away. Even though it's a quiet song, it has a sense of urgency to it because John's vocals are so well paced throughout.

George: Here Comes The Sun. Hard to pick between this and Something, but I give this one a slight edge because it's more up-tempo.

Ringo: Not a big fan of Ringo's songs during and after the Beatles. I'll go with Yellow Submarine.

But really, other than Ringo, I could have easily picked four or five others for John, Paul and George.

 

What's amazing, too, is the number of times they played two shows on the same day. Granted, sets weren't three hours long, and they weren't lugging around five truckloads of lights and pyrotechnics, but still. No wonder speed was such a popular drug for entertainers around that time.

What's interesting, too, is how few shows they played in North America: 49, by my count, in three tours over three years. Granted, already getting off the plane in New York with the American audience in your pocket cuts down on the need to play every burg to build a fan base.

 

Didn't really discover the Beatles until I was in my late 20s. It was the "1" album that spurred me to buy the entire discography on CD.

Interesting though, I really prefer the Let It Be Naked album to the original. I just think the songs sound more raw and current. I wish they played those versions on the radio. I shudder every time I hear the awful backing symphony on "The Long and Winding Road."

Anyway, favorite Beatles tune is "Don't Let Me Down" off the Let It Be Naked CD. Very close second is "If I Fell." Just love the harmonies on that.

 

That's right. Playing all the shows they did in the UK gave them the national base they needed for the springboard to America.

And even though they weren't lugging around all the shit touring bands do nowadays, they had to deal with some pretty primitive conditions. They played theatres, town halls, auditoriums, basement clubs, all kinds of shitty places, in a van on brutal two-lane roads, up and down and across the countryside. They slept in little tiny fleabag hotels. Not a real glamourous life.

One thing they were proud of later, although they weren't thrilled at the time, was Brian Epstein's insistence that they keep all the commitments that had been made at the start of 1963, before "Please Please Me" began its assault on the charts. They were booked for months ahead of time at very low rates; it would have been very easy, once their star began to rise, to say, "fuck you, theatre owner, we want more money now or we're not playing your venue after all." But Epstein insisted they had to fulfill their agreements, and this became a source of pride for them later.

 

A well-rehearsed outfit - even in 1963 - could lay down a lot of studio work in a single day. Hell, that's how it was done in most early rock 'n' roll. Spend weeks going over the material until it's perfect then walk into the studio and lay it all down in a matter of hours. Nothing amazing about it.

I've always been of the opinion that the Beatles got where they were partly because of the situation in America at the time. Rock 'n' roll was in the shit in the early '60s. Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper were dead. Chuck Berry was in jail. Jerry Lee Lewis was ruined by the cousin scandal. Eddie Cochran died in a car wreck. Gene Vincent was in the same wreck and would never be the same again. Little Richard found God. Elvis joined the military. That's a lot of star power out of commission.

That's also probably why my favorite live album of all-time is Jerry Lee Lewis' Live at the Star Club. It's Jerry in 1964 at a venue where the Beatles developed their skills early on. And it's a glorious last gasp fuck you to British rock 'n' roll from a fallen American pioneer.

 

This version: the nearest thing we have to late-period Beatles actually rocking out in live performance.