Beatles Biography
So much has been said and written about the Beatles
-- and their story is so mythic in its sweep -- that it's difficult to summarize
their career without restating clichés that have already been digested by tens
of millions of rock fans. To start with the obvious, they were the greatest and
most influential act of the rock era, and introduced more innovations into
popular music than any other rock band of the 20th century. Moreover, they were
among the few artists of any discipline that were simultaneously the best
at what they did and the most popular at what they did. Relentlessly
imaginative and experimental, the
Beatles grabbed a hold of the international mass consciousness in 1964 and
never let go for the next six years, always staying ahead of the pack in terms
of creativity but never losing their ability to communicate their increasingly
sophisticated ideas to a mass audience. Their supremacy as rock icons remains
unchallenged to this day, decades after their breakup in 1970.
Even when couching praise in specific terms, it's hard to
convey the scope of the Beatles' achievements in a mere paragraph or two. They
synthesized all that was good about early rock & roll, and changed it into
something original and even more exciting. They established the prototype for
the self-contained rock group that wrote and performed its own material. As
composers, their craft and melodic inventiveness were second to none, and key to
the evolution of rock from its blues/R&B-based forms into a style that was
far more eclectic, but equally visceral. As singers, both John
Lennon and Paul
McCartney were among the best and most expressive vocalists in rock; the
group's harmonies were intricate and exhilarating. As performers, they were (at
least until touring had ground them down) exciting and photogenic; when they
retreated into the studio, they were instrumental in pioneering advanced
techniques and multi-layered arrangements. They were also the first British rock
group to achieve worldwide prominence, launching a British Invasion that made
rock truly an international phenomenon.
More than any other top group, the Beatles' success was
very much a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. Their
phenomenal cohesion was due in large degree to most of the group having known
each other and played together in Liverpool for about five years before they
began to have hit records. Guitarist and teenage rebel John
Lennon got hooked on rock & roll in the mid-'50s, and formed a band, the
Quarrymen, at his high school. Around mid-1957, the Quarrymen were joined by
another guitarist, Paul McCartney, nearly two years Lennon's
junior. A bit later they were joined by another guitarist, George
Harrison, a friend of McCartney. The
Quarrymen would change lineups constantly in the late '50s, eventually
reducing to the core trio of guitarists, who'd proven themselves to be the best
musicians and most personally compatible individuals within the band.
The
Quarrymen changed their name to the Silver Beatles in 1960, quickly dropping
the "Silver" to become just the Beatles. Lennon's
art college friend Stuart
Sutcliffe joined on bass, but finding a permanent drummer was a vexing
problem until Pete
Best joined in the summer of 1960. He successfully auditioned for the combo
just before they left for a several-month stint in Hamburg, Germany.
Hamburg was the Beatles' baptism by fire. Playing grueling
sessions for hours on end in one of the most notorious red-light districts in
the world, the group was forced to expand its repertoire, tighten up its chops,
and invest its show with enough manic energy to keep the rowdy crowds satisfied.
When they returned to Liverpool at the end of 1960, the band -- formerly
also-rans on the exploding Liverpudlian "beat" scene -- were suddenly
the most exciting act on the local circuit. They consolidated their following in
1961 with constant gigging in the Merseyside area, most often at the legendary
Cavern Club, the incubator of the Merseybeat sound.
They also returned for engagements in Hamburg during 1961,
although Sutcliffe
dropped out of the band that year to concentrate on his art school studies
there. McCartney took over on bass, Harrison
settled in as lead guitarist, and Lennon
had rhythm guitar; everyone sang. In mid-1961, the Beatles (minus Sutcliffe)
made their first recordings in Germany, as a backup group to a British rock
guitarist/singer based in Hamburg, Tony
Sheridan. The Beatles hadn't fully developed at this point, and these
recordings -- many of which (including a couple of Sheridan-less
tracks) were issued only after the band's rise to fame -- found their talents in
a most embryonic state. The Hamburg stint was also notable for gaining the
Beatles sophisticated, artistic fans such as Sutcliffe's
girlfriend, Astrid
Kirchherr, who influenced all of them (except Best)
to restyle their quiffs in the moptops that gave the musicians their most
distinctive visual trademark. (Sutcliffe,
tragically, would die of a brain hemorrhage in April 1962).
Near the end of 1961, the Beatles' exploding local
popularity caught the attention of local record store manager Brian
Epstein, who was soon managing the band as well. He used his contacts to
swiftly acquire a January 1, 1962, audition at Decca Records that has been
heavily bootlegged (some tracks were officially released in 1995). After weeks
of deliberation, Decca turned them down as did several other British labels. Epstein's
perseverance was finally rewarded with an audition for producer George
Martin at Parlophone, an EMI subsidiary; Martin
signed the Beatles in mid-1962. By this time, Epstein
was assiduously grooming his charges for national success by influencing them to
smarten up their appearance, dispensing with their leather jackets and trousers
in favor of tailored suits and ties.
One more major change was in the offing before the Beatles
made their Parlophone debut. In August 1962, drummer Pete
Best was kicked out of the group, a controversial decision that has been the
cause of much speculation since. There is still no solid consensus as to whether
it was because of his solitary, moody nature; the other Beatles' jealousy of his
popularity with the fans; his musical shortcomings (George
Martin had already told Epstein
that Best
wasn't good enough to drum on recordings); or his refusal to wear his hair in
bangs. What seems most likely was that the Beatles simply found his personality
incompatible, preferring to enlist Ringo
Starr (born Richard
Starkey), a drummer with another popular Merseyside outfit, Rory Storm &
the Hurricanes. Starr
had been in the Beatles for a few weeks when they recorded their first single,
"Love Me Do"/"P.S. I Love You," in September 1962. Both
sides of the 45 were Lennon-McCartney
originals, and the songwriting team would be credited with most of the group's
material throughout the Beatles' career.
The single, a promising but fairly rudimentary effort,
hovered around the lower reaches of the British Top 20. The Beatles phenomenon
didn't truly kick in until "Please Please Me," which topped the
British charts in early 1963. This was the prototype British Invasion
single: an infectious melody, charging guitars, and positively exuberant
harmonies. The same traits were evident on their third 45, "From Me to
You" (a British number one), and their debut LP, Please
Please Me. Although it was mostly recorded in a single day, Please
Please Me topped the British charts for an astonishing 30 weeks,
establishing the group as the most popular rock & roll act ever seen in the
U.K.
What the Beatles had done was take the best elements of
the rock and pop they loved and make them their own. Since the Quarrymen
days, they had been steeped in the classic early rock of Elvis,
Buddy
Holly, Chuck
Berry, Little
Richard, Carl
Perkins, and the Everly Brothers; they'd also kept an ear open to the early
'60s sounds of Motown, Phil
Spector, and the girl groups. What they added was an unmatched songwriting
savvy (inspired by Brill Building teams such as Gerry
Goffin and Carole
King), a brash guitar-oriented attack, wildly enthusiastic vocals, and the
embodiment of the youthful flair of their generation, ready to dispense with
postwar austerity and claim a culture of their own. They were also unsurpassed
in their eclecticism, willing to borrow from blues, popular standards, gospel,
folk, or whatever seemed suitable for their musical vision. Producer George
Martin was the perfect foil for the group, refining their ideas without
tinkering with their cores; during the last half of their career, he was
indispensable for his ability to translate their concepts into arrangements that
required complex orchestration, innovative applications of recording technology,
and an ever-widening array of instruments.
Just as crucially, the Beatles were never ones to stand
still and milk formulas. All of their subsequent albums and singles would show
remarkable artistic progression (though never at the expense of a damn catchy
tune). Even on their second LP, With the Beatles (1963), it was evident that
their talents as composers and instrumentalists were expanding furiously, as
they devised ever more inventive melodies and harmonies, and boosted the
fullness of their arrangements. "She Loves You" and "I Want to
Hold Your Hand" established the group not just as a popular music act, but
as a phenomenon never before seen in the British entertainment business, as each
single sold over a million copies in the U.K. After some celebrated national TV
appearances, Beatlemania broke out across the British Isles in late 1963, and
the group generating screams and hysteria at all of their public appearances,
musical or otherwise.
Capitol, which had first refusal of the Beatles'
recordings in the United States, had declined to issue the group's first few
singles, which ended up appearing on relatively small American independents.
Capitol took up its option on "I Want to Hold Your Hand," which
stormed to the top of the U.S. charts within weeks of its release on December
26, 1963. The Beatles' television appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show in
February of 1964 launched Beatlemania (and the entire British Invasion) on an
even bigger scale than it had reached in Britain. In the first week of April
1964, the Beatles had the Top Five best-selling singles in the U.S.; they also
had the first two slots on the album charts, as well as other entries throughout
the Billboard Top 100. No one had ever dominated the market for popular music so
heavily; it's doubtful that anyone ever will again. The Beatles themselves would
continue to reach number one with most of their singles and albums until their
1970 breakup.
Hard as it may be to believe today, the Beatles were often
dismissed by cultural commentators of the time as nothing more than a fad that
would vanish within months as the novelty wore off. The group ensured this
wouldn't happen by making A Hard Day's Night in early 1964, a cinéma vérité-style
motion picture comedy/musical that cemented their image as "the Fab
Four": happy-go-lucky, individualistic, cheeky, funny lads with nonstop
energy. The soundtrack was also a triumph, consisting entirely of Lennon-McCartney
tunes, including such standards as the title tune, "And I Love Her,"
"If I Fell," "Can't Buy Me Love," and "Things We Said
Today." George
Harrison's resonant 12-string electric
guitar leads were hugely influential; the movie helped persuade the Byrds,
then folksingers, to plunge all out into rock & roll, and the Beatles (along
with Bob
Dylan) would be hugely influential on the folk-rock explosion of 1965. The
Beatles' success, too, had begun to open the U.S. market for fellow Brits like the
Rolling Stones, the Animals, and the Kinks, and inspired young American
groups like the Beau Brummels, Lovin'
Spoonful, and others to mount a challenge of their own with self-penned
material that owed a great debt to Lennon-McCartney.
Between riotous international tours in 1964 and 1965, the
Beatles continued to squeeze out more chart-topping albums and singles. (Until
1967, the group's British albums were often truncated for release in the States;
when their catalog was transferred to CD, the albums were released worldwide in
their British configurations.) In retrospect, critics have judged Beatles for
Sale (late 1964) and Help!
(mid-1965) as the band's least impressive efforts. To some degree, that's true.
Touring and an insatiable market placed heavy demands upon their songwriting,
and some of the originals and covers on these records, while brilliant by many
group's standards, were filler in the context of the Beatles' best work.
But when at the top of their game, the group was
continuing to push forward. "I Feel Fine" had feedback and brilliant
guitar leads; "Ticket to Ride" showed the band beginning to
incorporate the ringing, metallic, circular guitar lines that would be
appropriated by bands like the Byrds; "Help!" was their first burst of
confessional lyricism; "Yesterday" employed a string quartet. John
Lennon in particular was beginning to exhibit a Dylanesque
influence in his songwriting on such folky, downbeat numbers as "I'm a
Loser" and "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away." And tracks like
"I Don't Want to Spoil the Party" and "I've Just Seen a
Face" had a strong country flavor.
Although the Beatles' second film, Help!, was a much
sillier and less sophisticated affair than their first feature, it too was a
huge commercial success. By this time, though, the Beatles had nothing to prove
in commercial terms; the remaining frontiers were artistic challenges that could
only be met in the studio. They rose to the occasion at the end of 1965 with Rubber
Soul, one of the classic folk-rock records. Lyrically, Lennon,
McCartney, and even Harrison
(who was now writing some tunes on his own) were evolving beyond boy-girl
scenarios into complex, personal feelings. They were also pushing the limits of
studio rock by devising new guitar and bass textures, experimenting with
distortion and multi-tracking, and using unconventional (for rock) instruments
like the sitar.
As much of a progression as Rubber
Soul was relative to their previous records, it was but a taster for the
boundary-shattering outings of the next few years. The "Paperback
Writer"/"Rain" single found the group abandoning romantic themes
entirely, boosting the bass to previously unknown levels, and fooling around
with psychedelic imagery and backward tapes on the B-side. Drugs (psychedelic
and otherwise) were fueling their already fertile imaginations, but they felt
creatively hindered by their touring obligations. Revolver,
released in the summer of 1966, proved what the group could be capable of when
allotted months of time in the studio. Hazy hard guitars and thicker vocal
arrangements formed the bed of these increasingly imagistic, ambitious lyrics;
the group's eclecticism now encompassed everything from singalong novelties
("Yellow Submarine") and string quartet-backed character sketches
("Eleanor Rigby") to Indian-influenced swirls of echo and backward
tapes ("Tomorrow Never Knows"). Some would complain that the Beatles
had abandoned the earthy rock of their roots for clever mannerism. But Revolver,
like virtually all of the group's singles and albums from "She Loves
You" on, would be a worldwide chart-topper.
For the past couple of years, live performance had become
a rote exercise for the group, tired of competing with thousands of screaming
fans that drowned out most of their voices and instruments. A 1966 summer
worldwide tour was particularly grueling: the group's entourage was physically
attacked in the Philippines after a perceived snub of the country's queen, and a
casual remark by John
Lennon about the Beatles being bigger than Jesus Christ was picked up in the
States, resulting in the burning of Beatle records in the Bible belt and demands
for a repentant apology. Their final concert of that American tour (in San
Francisco on August 29, 1966) would be their last in front of a paying audience,
as the group decided to stop playing live in order to concentrate on their
studio recordings.
This was a radical (indeed, unprecedented) step in 1966,
and the media was rife with speculation that the act was breaking up, especially
after all four spent late 1966 engaged in separate personal and artistic
pursuits. The appearance of the "Penny Lane"/"Strawberry Fields
Forever" single in February 1967 squelched these concerns. Frequently cited
as the strongest double A-side ever, the Beatles were now pushing forward into
unabashedly psychedelic territory in their use of orchestral arrangements and
Mellotron, without abandoning their grasp of memorable melody and immediately
accessible lyrical messages.
Sgt.
Pepper, released in June 1967 as the Summer of Love dawned, was the
definitive psychedelic soundtrack. Or, at least, so it was perceived at the
time: subsequent critics have painted the album as an uneven affair, given a
conceptual unity via its brilliant multi-tracked overdubs, singalong melodies,
and fairy tale-ish lyrics. Others remain convinced, as millions did at the time,
that it represented pop's greatest triumph, or indeed an evolution of pop into
art with a capital A. In addition to mining all manner of roots
influences, the musicians were also picking up vibes from Indian music,
avant-garde electronics, classical, music hall, and more. When the Beatles
premiered their hippie anthem "All You Need Is Love" as part of a
worldwide TV broadcast, they had been truly anointed as spokespersons for their
generation (a role they had not actively sought), and it seemed they could do no
wrong.
Musically, that would usually continue to be the case, but
the group's strength began to unravel at a surprisingly quick pace. In August
1967, Brian
Epstein -- prone to suicidal depression over the past year -- died of a drug
overdose, leaving them without a manager. They pressed on with their next film
project, Magical Mystery Tour, directed by themselves; lacking focus or even
basic professionalism, the picture bombed when it was premiered on BBC
television in December 1967, giving the media the first real chance they'd ever
had to roast the Beatles over a flame. (Another film, the animated feature
Yellow Submarine, would appear in 1968, although the Beatles had little
involvement with the project, either in terms of the movie or the soundtrack.)
In early 1968, the Beatles decamped to India for a course in transcendental
meditation with the Maharishi; this too became something of a media
embarrassment as each of the four would eventually depart the course before its
completion.
The Beatles did use their unaccustomed peace in India to
compose a wealth of new material. Judged solely on musical merit, The
White Album, a double LP released in late 1968, was a triumph. While largely
abandoning their psychedelic instruments to return to guitar-based rock, they
maintained their whimsical eclecticism, proving themselves masters of everything
from blues-rock to vaudeville. As individual songwriters, too, it contains some
of their finest work (as does the brilliant non-LP single from this era,
"Hey Jude"/"Revolution").
The problem, at least in terms of the group's long-term
health, was that these were very much individual songs, as opposed to
collective ones. Lennon
and McCartney had long composed most of their tunes separately (you can almost
always tell the composer by the lead vocalist). But they had always fed off of
each other not only to supply missing bits and pieces that would bring a song to
completion, but to provide a competitive edge that would bring out the best in
the other. McCartney's romantic melodicism and Lennon's
more acidic, gritty wit were perfect complements for one another. By The
White Album, it was clear (if only in retrospect) that each member was more
concerned with his own expression than that of the collective group: a natural
impulse, but one that was bound to lead to difficulties.
In addition, George
Harrison was becoming a more prolific and skilled composer as well, imbuing
his own melodies (which were nearly the equal of those of his more celebrated
colleagues) with a cosmic lightness. Harrison
was beginning to resent his junior status, and the group began to bicker more
openly in the studio. Ringo
Starr, whose solid drumming and good nature could usually be counted upon
(as was evident in his infrequent lead vocals), actually quit for a couple of
weeks in the midst of the White
Album sessions (though the media was unaware of this at the time). Personal
interests were coming into play as well: Lennon's
devotion to romantic and artistic pursuits with his new girlfriend (and
soon-to-be wife) Yoko
Ono was diverting his attentions from the Beatles. Apple Records, started by
the group earlier in 1968 as a sort of utopian commercial enterprise, was
becoming a financial and organizational nightmare.
These weren't the ideal conditions under which to record a
new album in January 1969, especially when McCartney was pushing the group to
return to live performing, although none of the others seemed especially keen on
the idea. They did agree to try and record a "back-to-basics,"
live-in-the-studio-type LP, the sessions being filmed for a television special.
That plan almost blew up when Harrison,
in the midst of tense arguments, left the group for a few days. Although he
returned, the idea of playing live concerts was put on the back burner; Harrison
enlisted American soul keyboardist Billy
Preston as kind of a fifth member on the sessions, both to beef up the
arrangements and to alleviate the uncomfortable atmosphere. Exacerbating the
problem was that the Beatles didn't have a great deal of first-class new songs
to work with, although some were excellent. In order to provide a suitable
concert-like experience for the film, the group did climb the roof of their
Apple headquarters in London to deliver an impromptu performance on January 30,
1969, before the police stopped it; this was their last live concert of any
sort.
Generally dissatisfied with these early-1969 sessions, the
album and film -- at first titled Get Back, and later to emerge as Let
It Be -- remained in the can as the group tried to figure out how the
projects should be mixed, packaged, and distributed. A couple of the best
tracks, "Get Back"/"Don't Let Me Down," were issued as a
single in the spring of 1969. By this time, the Beatles' quarrels were
intensifying in a dispute over management: McCartney wanted their affairs to be
handled by his new father-in-law, Lee Eastman, while the other members of the
group favored a tough American businessman, Allen Klein.
It was something of a miracle, then, that the final album
recorded by the group, Abbey
Road, was one of their most unified efforts (even if, by this time, the
musicians were recording many of their parts separately). It certainly boasted
some of their most intricate melodies, harmonies, and instrumental arrangements;
it also heralded the arrival of Harrison
as a composer of equal talent to Lennon
and McCartney, as George
wrote the album's two most popular tunes, "Something" and "Here
Comes the Sun." The Beatles were still progressing, but it turned out to be
the end of the road, as their business disputes continued to magnify. Lennon,
who had begun releasing solo singles and performing with friends as the Plastic
Ono Band, threatened to resign in late 1969, although he was dissuaded from
making a public announcement.
Most of the early-1969 tapes remained unreleased,
partially because the footage for the planned television broadcast of these
sessions was now going to be produced as a documentary movie. The accompanying
soundtrack album, Let
It Be, was delayed so that its release could coincide with that of the film.
Lennon, Harrison,
and Allen Klein decided to have celebrated American producer Phil
Spector record some additional instrumentation and do some mixing. Thus the
confusion that persists among most rock listeners to this day: Let
It Be, although the last Beatles album to be released, was not the last one
to be recorded. Abbey
Road should actually be considered as the Beatles' last album; most of the
material on Let
It Be, including the title track (which would be the last single released
while the group was still together), was recorded several months before the Abbey
Road sessions began in earnest, and a good 15 months or so before its May
1970 release.
By that time, the Beatles were no more. In fact, there had
been no recording done by the group as a unit since August 1969, and each member
of the band had begun to pursue serious outside professional interests
independently via the Plastic Ono Band, Harrison's
tour with Delaney
& Bonnie, Starr's
starring role in the Magic Christian film, or McCartney's first solo album. The
outside world for the most part remained almost wholly unaware of the
seriousness of the group's friction, making it a devastating shock for much of
the world's youth when McCartney announced that he was leaving the Beatles on
April 10, 1970. (The "announcement" was actually contained in a press
release for his new album, in which his declaration of his intention to work on
his own effectively served as a notice of his departure.)
The final blow, apparently, was the conflict between the
release dates of Let
It Be and McCartney's debut solo album. The rest of the group asked
McCartney to delay his release until after Let
It Be; McCartney refused and, for good measure, was distressed by Spector's
post-production work on Let
It Be, particularly the string overdubs on "The Long and Winding
Road," which became a posthumous Beatles single that spring. Although
McCartney received much of the blame for the split, it should be remembered that
he had done more than any other member to keep the group going since Epstein's
death, and that each of the other Beatles had threatened to leave well before
McCartney's departure. With hindsight, the breakup seemed inevitable in view of
their serious business disagreements and the growth of their individual
interests.
As bitter as the initial headlines were to swallow, the
feuding would grow much worse over the next few years. At the end of 1970,
McCartney sued the rest of the Beatles in order to dissolve their partnership;
the battle dragged through the courts for years, scotching any prospects of a
group reunion. In any case, each member of the band quickly establis