The Beatles Backyard

[Irons]

I don't know the Beatles well.  I do really like what I hear but get confused by them and the counterculture movement.  For example, how completely different their early music sounded (almost like retro 1950's rock) compared to later music.   It was also interesting how everyone was influencing everyone at that time.  McCartney mentioning they sometimes did an Elvis thing, or a Dylan thing and I hear lots of music influenced by what the Beatles were doing.  I do think there was a special magic with all of them together and they were in a special place and time.  Like if they somehow were all still around and the band still making music, would they be relevant at all?  Isn't that sort of like what the Rolling Stones are?  But I never thought of the Rolling Stones as artistically or culturally impactful as the Beatles but maybe that's because they still make recordings.  Perhaps if they ended in 1970 they would be equal to the Beatles?  I almost feel like I need to watch a documentary to understand all of this better as pop music is definitely not my strength. 

As a teenager in the 1960's I was definitely in the "Stones" camp. Their music being dirty and Bluesy which matched my tastes perfectly. The early stuff was culled from American black music, the first single being a Chuck Berry number "Come On"  https://youtu.be/_iAQVGOzj4M?si=drw_bna06FycVm7o
later they were to use material from the Chicago Blues scene, songs by people like Muddy Waters and  his ilk. The first of many times I saw the Stones live was in a field at Twickenham for the Richmond Blues Festival. A particular favourite of the time being a Bobby Womack song "It's All Over Now"  https://youtu.be/UVpFf2DmFSM?si=zQwv98-Kd5TpKPkW. I confess at the time being Rolling Stones mad. The 1960's were a great time to be young and the Rolling Stones were part of that, with the passage of time we have drifted apart and today I see them more as just a group of old geezers who make a lot of money.
I think my dislike of the Beatles at the time was a purely tribal thing and I like their music more now. The Beatles and Stones have always been lumped together only I feel because they were big at the same period of time which is quite wrong as the whole ethos of the two bands were worlds apart. 

[Elgarian Redux]

Just started watching, for the umpteenth time, The Beatles Anthology - probably the most frequently watched of all the boxes of DVDs that I possess. There are those who say it's a sanitised affair, an officially sanctioned product, and therefore somehow not 'true'. But I find it very true to my memories of them and the times, and I don't mind smoothing over some of the more unpalatable facts. They don't seem to matter, from this very late perspective.

I love it. Love the Beatles. Always did, right from the first hearing of Please Please Me, the harmonica wailing from the radio as I sat revising for exams, and the hair prickling on the back of my neck.

Lots of DVDs in the box still to go.

[San Antone]

Just started watching, for the umpteenth time, The Beatles Anthology - probably the most frequently watched of all the boxes of DVDs that I possess. There are those who say it's a sanitised affair, an officially sanctioned product, and therefore somehow not 'true'. But I find it very true to my memories of them and the times, and I don't mind smoothing over some of the more unpalatable facts. They don't seem to matter, from this very late perspective.

I love it. Love the Beatles. Always did, right from the first hearing of Please Please Me, the harmonica wailing from the radio as I sat revising for exams, and the hair prickling on the back of my neck.

Lots of DVDs in the box still to go.

I feel the same - and feel blessed to have been a youngster when they first broke on the radio.  I grew up in the States so it was probably a year after they were big in the UK. I have clear memories of learning their songs on my guitar off the radio: Eight Days a Week (that major 2 chord blew my mind); Day Tripper; I Feel Fine (a friend showed me how to get that buzzing note at the start) - and then later other songs on the piano, Lady Madonna, Martha My Dear.

I ignore all Beatles nay-sayers - and am still a fan at the ripe old age of 72. 60 years of enjoying their music.

[Karl Henning]

Oh, how did I not know of the Anthology DVDs?...

[Elgarian Redux]

Oh, how did I not know of the Anthology DVDs?...

We've all been keeping it a secret from you, Karl.
No excuse now: go get one!!

[Elgarian Redux]

I feel the same - and feel blessed to have been a youngster when they first broke on the radio.  I grew up in the States so it was probably a year after they were big in the UK. I have clear memories of learning their songs on my guitar off the radio: Eight Days a Week (that major 2 chord blew my mind); Day Tripper; I Feel Fine (a friend showed me how to get that buzzing note at the start) - and then later other songs on the piano, Lady Madonna, Martha My Dear.

I ignore all Beatles nay-sayers - and am still a fan at the ripe old age of 72. 60 years of enjoying their music.

Yes, and twice again, yes. ("Yeah, yeah, yeah", in fact.) A couple of years ago I tried to make something that might represent to some degree what they meant to me - a sort of labour of love. I think I posted about it on GMG somewhere. ... Yes I did. Here it is:

The Sgt Pepper Theatre

[Kalevala]

Yes, and twice again, yes. ("Yeah, yeah, yeah", in fact.) A couple of years ago I tried to make something that might represent to some degree what they meant to me - a sort of labour of love. I think I posted about it on GMG somewhere. ... Yes I did. Here it is:

The Sgt Pepper Theatre

I remember that!     Great job!

K

[Elgarian Redux]

You might like to see the back of the theatre.

[Karl Henning]

You might like to see the back of the theatre.

Classic!

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I think Good Morning Good Morning is my favorite song in Sgt. Pepper's. I wish the arrangement were better.

[Elgarian Redux]

I eventually finished watching The Beatles Anthology, as captivated by it as I always am. I've watched it too many times to get any new insights, but no matter. What counts is the time spent in the company of John, Paul, George and Ringo, which is time very well spent.

Were they really that good? Yes they were. Did they really change things so profoundly? Well, they certainly changed me; and I ask no more of art than that it should encourage shifts in perception and open new windows.

I was thinking about the first 4 LPs I ever bought. LPs cost serious money in the mid-sixties (when I was buying them), so they were chosen with careful deliberation. And anyway, these were my 4 first ever LPs:

Berlioz/ Symphonie Fantastique
Rimsky-Korsakov/ Scheherazade
Elgar/ Enigma Variations
The Beatles/ A Hard Day's Night

There was no pecking order among these. Each record was bought because it turned my world around when I was in my teens, and I owed as much to the Beatles as I did to Elgar. (That's saying something.)
 
And I still do, sixty years later.

[Karl Henning]

I eventually finished watching The Beatles Anthology, as captivated by it as I always am. I've watched it too many times to get any new insights, but no matter. What counts is the time spent in the company of John, Paul, George and Ringo, which is time very well spent.

Were they really that good? Yes they were. Did they really change things so profoundly? Well, they certainly changed me; and I ask no more of art than that it should encourage shifts in perception and open new windows.

I was thinking about the first 4 LPs I ever bought. LPs cost serious money in the mid-sixties (when I was buying them), so they were chosen with careful deliberation. And anyway, these were my 4 first ever LPs:

Berlioz/ Symphonie Fantastique
Rimsky-Korsakov/ Scheherazade
Elgar/ Enigma Variations
The Beatles/ A Hard Day's Night

There was no pecking order among these. Each record was bought because it turned my world around when I was in my teens, and I owed as much to the Beatles as I did to Elgar. (That's saying something.)
 
And I still do, sixty years later.

A mighty quartet of platters!

[Elgarian Redux]

A mighty quartet of platters!

And I have feasted richly from all of them!

[Mookalafalas]

Watched the new "'64" documentary. Couldn't turn it off (I started it late, and ended up staying up past 1 to finish). A really nice job--nearly as much a cultural document of the era as celebration of the Beatles.

[AnotherSpin]

The first Beatles record I ever held in my hands remains in my memory. It was around 1970 — a single featuring Come Together and Something. This release came from the Bulgarian label Balkanton, but the text on it was in Russian, evidently tailored for distribution in the USSR. Whether it was available in stores or sold discreetly at inflated prices amidst the Soviet scarcity, I can't say. I first saw it at a classmate's home. At that time, Beatles records were entirely out of reach for Soviet listeners. It wasn't until the final years of Gorbachev's perestroika that anything began to trickle in. In my city, however, the situation was slightly better — Western LPs often found its way through sailors returning from their voyages.

I don't know if it's a coincidence or not, but these two songs, Come Together and Something, still give me goosebumps to this day.

[Elgarian Redux]

I don't know if it's a coincidence or not, but these two songs, Come Together and Something, still give me goosebumps to this day.

Not surprised! That's a mighty coupling!

[Elgarian Redux]

I've started a second reading of Rob Sheffield's Dreaming the Beatles, which would be in my top 5 list of Beatles books:



It might be one of those love-it-or-hate-it books, but I'm in the love camp. It's artfully artless, sort of seriously flippant, with continual references that might make it impenetrable to non-Beatle-people. For instance:

"The Beatle records were a map of adulthood - okay, here's where you start, as fresh-faced moptop boys, then you get a little older and deeper, then you're men singing about walruses and raccoons and yellow custard mustard mojo and then The End."

And then I've never read such a delightfuly offbeat Beatle track review as this, about:
"the Swinging London hipster in Norwegian Wood, the one who stays up late drinking wine on her rug with John and tells him she has to leave early for work in the morning. She's got John Lennon in her bathtub - for that you'd think she could call in sick."

It's hard not to read this book with a perpetual daft smile on my face, but it won't be for everyone.

[vandermolen]

I remember my family having 'With the Beatles' on LP c. 1963 when I was 8. We collected all the others as well. My favourites were the Magical Mystery Tour EP set (I wish that I still had it - probably worth a fortune), Sgt Pepper and the White Album.

[Kalevala]

I've started a second reading of Rob Sheffield's Dreaming the Beatles, which would be in my top 5 list of Beatles books:



It might be one of those love-it-or-hate-it books, but I'm in the love camp. It's artfully artless, sort of seriously flippant, with continual references that might make it impenetrable to non-Beatle-people. For instance:

"The Beatle records were a map of adulthood - okay, here's where you start, as fresh-faced moptop boys, then you get a little older and deeper, then you're men singing about walruses and raccoons and yellow custard mustard mojo and then The End."

And then I've never read such a delightfuly offbeat Beatle track review as this, about:
"the Swinging London hipster in Norwegian Wood, the one who stays up late drinking wine on her rug with John and tells him she has to leave early for work in the morning. She's got John Lennon in her bathtub - for that you'd think she could call in sick."[/i]

It's hard not to read this book with a perpetual daft smile on my face, but it won't be for everyone.

Do we know whether or not that song is based on a true story or is totally made up?

K

p.s.  Reminds me that I've been wanting to watch that movie about what if the Beatles and their music weren't known to the rest of the world but rather by only one young man?

[Szykneij]

Do we know whether or not that song is based on a true story or is totally made up?

It was based on a cheating episode he engaged in while he was married to his first wife.