This ambitious project was possible thanks to the fact that Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr agreed to tell the story of their group specifically for this book. Together with Yoko Ono Lennon, they also participated in the creation of complete television and video versions of The Beatles Anthology (without any cuts). Meticulous work with all known sources helped bring the words of John Lennon to this wonderful edition. What's more, the Beatles were given permission to use their personal and shared archives, along with the amazing documents and memorabilia stored in their homes and offices, in the development of the book. The Beatles Anthology is an amazing book. Each page reflects personal impressions. The Beatles take turns talking about their childhood, how they became members of the group and became famous throughout the world as the legendary four - John, Paul, George and Ringo. Every now and then turning to the past, they told us amazing story the life of the Beatles: the first performances, the phenomenon of popularity, the musical and social changes that happened to them at the zenith of fame, all the way until the collapse of the group. The book “The Beatles Anthology” is a unique collection of facts from the history of the ensemble. Woven into the text are the memories of those people who at one time or another collaborated with the Beatles - administrator Neil Aspinall, producer George Martin, press agent Derek Taylor. This is truly an inside look, an inexhaustible storehouse of previously unpublished text materials. Created with the active participation of the musicians themselves, The Beatles Anthology is a kind of autobiography of the ensemble. Like their music, which played an important role in the lives of several generations, this autobiography is characterized by warmth, frankness, humor, causticity and courage. The true story of the Beatles has finally come to light.
Anthology
Note from the editor
Many books have been written about the Beatles. This one differs from the others in that the Beatles themselves gave their version of events up to 1970.
Quotes from Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and additions from Neil Aspinall, Sir George Martin and Derek Taylor are taken in part from the interviews on which the television and video versions of The Beatles Anthology are based. In addition, the book includes important materials published for the first time. In-depth interviews with Paul, George and Ringo were conducted especially for the Anthology.
The text attributed to John Lennon is taken from extensive sources collected over several years around the world, again specifically for this book. These sources include printed materials and video recordings, private and public archives. Materials are located in chronological order and in such a way that the narrative is coherent. To help the reader perceive John's words in a period-specific manner, each quote is labeled with the date it was spoken, written, or first published. Years are indicated only by the last two digits: for example, 1970 is indicated in the text as (70). These dates apply to the entire text fragment, up to the specified date.
In only a few cases, quotations could not be dated accurately (despite the fact that they contain John's original words). They are included in the book without date.
To provide additional historical context, here are the actual words of Paul, George, Ringo and others from before 1970. They are also indicated by the last two numbers, just like John's words.
While working on the Anthology, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr made their personal archives available to the compilers. Moreover, unlimited access to photographs and documents from the archives of Apple and EMI was obtained.
This book was prepared for publication by the editorial staff of Genesis Publications for Apple with the active assistance of the late Derek Taylor, who advised the compilers until his death in 1997.
John Lennon
What can I tell you about myself that you don’t already know?
I wear glasses. Born on October 9, 1940, I was not the first of the Beatles. The first of us was born, Ringo, on July 7, 1940. However, he joined the Beatles later than the others, and before that he not only grew a beard, but also managed to work as a drummer at the Butlins campsite. He also did other nonsense until he finally realized what fate had in store for him.
Ninety percent of the inhabitants of our planet, especially in the West, were born thanks to a bottle of whiskey drunk on a Saturday night; No one intended to have such children. Ninety percent of us people were born by chance - I don’t know a single person who planned to have a child. We are all creatures of Saturday nights (80).
My mother was a housewife. She was also a comedian and singer - not professional, but she often performed in pubs and the like; She sang well and knew how to imitate Kay Starr. She often sang one song when I was one or two years old. This is a tune from a Disney movie: “Do you want me to tell you a secret? But do not tell anyone. You are standing next to a wishing well” (80).
My parents separated when I was four years old and I lived with Aunt Mimi (71).
Mimi explained that my parents had fallen out of love with each other. She never accused them of anything. Soon I forgot my father. It's like he died. But I constantly remembered my mother, my love for her will never die.
I thought about her often, but for a long time didn't realize that she lived only five or ten miles away from me (67).
My family consisted of five women. Five strong, smart, beautiful women, five sisters. One of them was my mother. Life was not easy for mom. She was the youngest and could not raise me alone, so I moved in with her older sister.
These were amazing women. Perhaps someday I will write something like “The Forsyte Saga” about them, because they were the ones who ruled the family (80).
The men remained invisible. I have always been surrounded by women. I often listened to them talk about men and life, they were always aware of everything. But the men never knew anything. This is how I received my first feminist education (80).
The most painful thing is to be unwanted, to realize that your parents do not need you as much as you need them. As a child, I had moments when I stubbornly did not notice this ugliness, I did not want to see that I was unwanted. This lack of love poured into my eyes and into my mind.
Nobody ever really needed me. I became a star only because I held back my feelings. Nothing would have helped me get through all this if I were “normal” (71).
Most people spend their entire lives under the influence of others. Some people just can't understand that their parents continue to torment them even when their children are in their forties or fifties. They are still being strangled, their thoughts and minds are being controlled. I was never afraid of this and never groveled before my parents (80).
Penny Lane is the area where I lived with my mother, father (however, my father was a sailor and spent almost all his time at sea) and grandfather. We lived on Newcastle Road (80).
This is the first house I remember. A good start: red brick walls, a living room that has never been used, drawn curtains, a painting of a horse and carriage on the wall. There were only three bedrooms upstairs; the windows of one looked out onto the street, the second into the courtyard, and between them there was another tiny room (79).
When I left Penny Lane, I moved in with my aunt, who also lived in the suburbs, in a semi-out-of-the-way house with a small garden. Doctors, lawyers and other such people lived in the neighborhood, so the suburb did not resemble a slum at all. I was a good-looking, clean-cut boy from the suburbs, growing up in a higher class environment than Paul, George and Ringo, who lived in council houses. We had our own house, our own garden, but they had nothing like that. Compared to them, I was lucky. Only Ringo was a real city boy. He grew up in the crappiest neighborhood. But he didn't care; he probably had more fun there (64).
Actually, the first thing I remember is nightmare (79).
I see colorful dreams, always surreal. The world of my dreams is similar to the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch and Dali. I like him, I look forward to him every evening (74).
One of the recurring dreams that I have had throughout my life is flying. I
There is a prejudice among neophyte Beatlemaniacs that “it’s all Yoko Ono’s fault.” But, in fact, the collapse of the most famous group in history is natural and understandable if you analyze the processes in the music market of the 1960s and the relationships between the group members immediately before the collapse.
"Famous Four" ( English Fab Four) from the very beginning of its journey could have become another mediocre musical ensemble of teenagers, creating covers of hits American stars rock and roll and country scenes. Imagine five Liverpool youths (John Lennon, Stuart Suttcliffe, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Pete Best) who returned from the sex capital of Europe - Hamburg, and who lived in bitter glory as leaders in the bars of the "red light streets" and personal buffoons of the mafia. And then they, in the Liverpool club Cavern, where they constantly performed, met the charismatic manager Brian Epstein. Being on short hand with London recording studios, they get some studio time at Parlophone, an EMI Records subsidiary. Next they were given George Martin, who was an expert in academic music and a maestro of recording engineering. That is, the significance of these two figures for the Beatles is undeniable. Brian Epstein was very close to John Lennon, and George Martin is unofficially called the “fifth Beatle.” But this is only the prehistory of the beginning of the collapse of the great group.
After unexpected success, The Beatles become popular in America, and the “British Invasion of America” actually begins. But the hysteria of frantic fans, tireless tours around the world and constant harassment of journalists do not please the band's frontman John Lennon. He begins to have a personal crisis and depression. The title track of the fifth album Help! already speaks of a cry for help from a person who does not know what to do with his life. And after the release of two landmark albums in the group’s work, Rubber Soul and Revolver, it became clear that new notes were appearing in the group, “notes of growing up.” In Norwegian Wood and In My Life, Lennon foreshadowed the emergence of psychedelic music, and Harrison's experiments with the sitar made it clear that the Beatles and Indian culture were closer than they seemed. Since 1967, Lennon began to get involved in drugs, and the leading role in the group passed to Paul McCartney. The creation of the two albums Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (which was recognized as number one on the list of the 500 greatest albums in the history of music by the rock publication Rolling Stone) and the Magical Mystery Tour announced a transition to a new type of music and experiments with psychedelic motifs. John Lennon is increasingly moving away from others group members.
On August 27, 1967, Brian Epstein died, which was a heavy blow for all members of the group. Finding themselves face to face with organizational and financial problems, the contradictions between them only intensified. All songs were primarily created by McCartney, and the rest had to be approved by the McCartney-Martin tandem. Since Harrison became very interested in Indian culture, Lennon had problems in his marriage with Cynthia, the group decided to go to India to visit their spiritual guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. But when they flew back in March 1968, everyone was disappointed with the trip, especially Lennon (read: Sexy Sadie song). The loss of moral leaders, personal problems in his marriage, and Lennon's isolation from his own son Julian drove him into deep stress. Meeting the Japanese avant-garde artist Yoko Ono opened a new stage in his life. Cynthia, seeing her husband in bed with another woman, decides to divorce him.
Then, tired of the atmosphere at the sessions, engineer Geoff Emerick refuses to work with the group, and George Martin takes a vacation. Lennon ignored recording sessions for songs by other members of the group, and Ringo Starr even announced his departure from the group in August 1968, but soon returned. 1969 was marked by constant bickering between the band members and the recording of material for Abbey Road and Let It Be. The strong differences between the styles and methods of creating compositions and Paul's attempts to keep the others from breaking up by any means led Lennon to the final decision to leave The Beatles in January 1970. Although the media announced the termination of The Beatles' activities already in April.
If you try to structure the reasons for the breakup of The Beatles, you can come up with the following list:
- John Lennon's addiction to drugs and his personal crisis, which affected the atmosphere in the group;
- the death of Brian Epstein, the ideologue and PR manager for The Beatles we know, and George Martin's refusal to produce;
- personal grievances and conflicts between musicians; isolation from each other and differences in musical style; for example, Let It Be producer Phil Spector got along well with Lennon, while McCartney tore his hair out over the orchestra's string accompaniment on The Long and Winding Road; Moreover, Lennon constantly brought Ono to the sessions, although the group, at the beginning of their journey, agreed not to bring their girlfriends and wives to rehearsals and sessions;
- the market did not accept the musical experiments of Lennon and Harrison, so there was a decline in interest in The Beatles
Personally, for example, I lamented the breakup of The Beatles when I first began to get involved in their work. But later I came to the conclusion that this was natural and it could not have been any other way.
Why do some have everything and others have nothing? This question has worried people for thousands of years. Some become rich, famous and happy, while others do not have such a generous life of success. What is the secret - talent, origin, perseverance or the banal smile of Fortune? Gladwell Malcolm, author of the book "Geniuses and Outsiders", analyzed the path of the Beatles and came to interesting conclusions.
10,000 hour rule
Scientists have concluded that it takes 10,000 practice to become an expert in any matter. The only problem is that it must be a “clean” watch. It turns out that you need to spend more than one decade of your life polishing your skills in one area. Does this rule always apply or are there exceptions? And if you take apart the story of every successful person or group of people, is it always possible to find an element of chance or “you can’t pull a fish out of the pond without difficulty”? Let's test this idea with the example of the Beatles, one of the famous rock bands of all times.
One of the most famous photographs in the world -
The Beatles - John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Star - arrived in the United States in February 1964, ushering in the so-called "British Invasion" of the American music scene and producing a string of hits that changed the sound of popular music. First, let's note one interesting detail: how long did the band members play before they came to the United States? Lennon and McCartney began playing in 1957, seven years before arriving in America. (Incidentally, ten years passed from the founding of the group to the recording of such famous albums as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and The White Album.) And if we analyze these long years of preparation even more carefully, the story of the Beatles takes on painfully familiar features.
In 1960, when they were still an unknown school rock band, they were invited to Germany, to Hamburg.
Fateful invitation
“In those days there were no rock and roll music clubs in Hamburg,” he wrote in the book “Scream!” (Shout!) band biographer Philip Norman. - There was one club owner named Bruno, who had the idea of inviting various rock bands. The scheme was the same for everyone. Long speeches without pauses. Crowds of people wander here and there. And the musicians must play continuously to attract the attention of the milling public.”
“There were a lot of bands from Liverpool playing in Hamburg,” Norman continues. - And that's why. Bruno went looking for bands in London. But in Soho he met an entrepreneur from Liverpool, who ended up in London by pure chance. And he promised to organize the arrival of several teams. That’s how contact was made.” And it was .
So what was so special about Hamburg? They didn't pay very well. The acoustics are far from fantastic. And the public is by no means the most demanding and grateful. It's all about the amount of time the band was forced to play - 8 hours every day.
How the Beatles tempered themselves
From 1960 to the end of 1962, the Beatles visited Hamburg five times. On their first visit, they worked 106 evenings, five or more hours per evening. On their second visit they played 92 times. The third time - 48 times, spending a total of 172 hours on stage. On their last two visits, in November and December 1962, they performed for another 90 hours. Thus, in just a year and a half they played 270 evenings.
By the time their first great success awaited them, they had already given about 1,200 live concerts. Can you imagine how incredible this figure is? Most modern bands don't play that many concerts throughout their entire existence.
“They left with nothing to show for it and came back in great shape,” Norman writes. “They learned not only endurance. They had to learn a huge number of songs - cover versions of all the works that exist, rock and roll and even jazz. Before Hamburg they did not know what discipline was on stage. But when they returned, they played in a style unlike any other. It was their own find."
Concert at Shea Stadium in front of 55,000 spectators, 1965. An unprecedented event for that time -
If we analyze the success story of the Beatles (the same trick is played with Bill Gates and Bill Joy), we can say: they are all very talented. Lennon and McCartney had something rare. However, a significant component of their talent, in addition to natural abilities for music, was also desire. The Beatles were willing to play eight hours, seven days a week. But an equally important factor is opportunity. And we underestimate this element of the equation. The Beatles received an invitation to Hamburg by pure chance. Without this invitation, they might well have chosen a different path. P.S.Liked? Under subscribe to our useful newsletter. We send you a selection every two weeks ku best articles from the blog. Based on materials from the book
Beatles (« The Beatles"; separately, members of the ensemble in Russia are called “Beatles”) - an iconic British rock band from Liverpool:
John Lennon (rhythm guitar, lead guitar, keyboards, tambourine, maracas, bass guitar, harmonica, vocals),
Paul McCartney (bass, keyboards, drums, guitar, vocals),
George Harrison (lead guitar, rhythm guitar, sitar, tambourine, keyboards, vocals),
Ringo Starr (drums, tambourine, maracas, cowbell, bongos, keyboards, vocals).
Also at various times, the group included Pete Best (drums, vocals) and Stuart Sutcliffe (bass guitar, vocals), Jimmy Nicol (drums). The group made an invaluable contribution to the development of rock music. The ensemble not only changed it, but also achieved unprecedented popularity, thanks to which Beatles became one of the most striking phenomena of world culture of the 20th century, selling more than 1 billion records worldwide. Appearance, the demeanor and beliefs of the musicians made them trendsetters, which, coupled with their enormous popularity, led to the group's significant influence on the cultural and social revolution of the 1960s. After the group disbanded in 1970, each of its members began solo career. « The Beatles"is considered the greatest group of all time.
Origins (1956-1960)
The roots of the ensemble go back to the mid-1950s, the era of rock and roll, which shaped the worldview and musical tastes of the future members of the group. In the spring of 1956, John Lennon (1940-1980) first heard the song “All Shook Up” by Elvis Presley, which, according to him, meant the end of his entire previous life (it is interesting to note that Bill Haley, who he heard before, is the most popular rock and roll artist -roll to Presley - made less of an impression on him). By then John was playing harmonica and banjo. Now he began to master the guitar. Soon, together with his schoolmates, he founded the group “The Blackjacks”, a week later renamed The Quarrymen, named after their school, Quarry Bank. The Quarrymen played skiffle - a British form of amateur rock 'n' roll - and tried to sound like teddy boys. In the summer of 1957, Lennon, during one of Quarryman's first concerts, met 15-year-old Paul McCartney, who impressed John with his knowledge of the chords and words of the latest rock and roll (in particular the song "Twenty Flight Rock" by Eddie Cochran) and the fact that he was clearly more developed musically (Paul also played trumpet and piano). In the spring of 1958, for occasional performances, and in the fall, Paul's friend, George Harrison (1943-2001), joined them permanently. It was these three who became the main backbone of the group; for the remaining members of Quarryman, rock and roll was a temporary hobby, and they soon fell away from the group.
Quarrymen occasionally played at various parties, weddings, and social events, but they never got to the point of real concerts and recordings (however, in 1958, out of curiosity, they recorded a record with two songs out of curiosity); several times the participants dispersed (for example, Harrison had his own group for some time). Lennon and McCartney, inspired by the example of Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran (they not only sang, but also played guitars and composed songs themselves, which was not a common practice music industry that time), began to write their own songs together, and they decided to give them dual authorship, similar to American songwriting groups like Leiber and Stoller. At the end of 1959, the group included aspiring artist Stuart Sutcliffe, whom Lennon met at his art college. Sutcliffe's playing was not distinguished by great skill, which repeatedly irritated the demanding McCartney. In this form, the composition of the ensemble was almost complete: John Lennon (vocals, rhythm guitar), Paul McCartney (vocals, piano, rhythm guitar), George Harrison (lead guitar), Stuart Sutcliffe (bass guitar). However, there was a problem - the lack of a permanent drummer, which prompted the musicians to even organize comic competitions, inviting spectators to the stage as drummers.
Name
By that time, the group was actively trying to integrate into the concert and club life of Liverpool and its outskirts. Talent competitions followed one after another, but the group was constantly unlucky. Such more serious events made the musicians think about a suitable stage name - none of the participants had anything to do with Quarry Bank. For example, at a local television competition in December 1959, the group performed under the name “Johnny and the Moondogs,” which was replaced by others at subsequent concerts. The name "The Beatles" appeared a few months later, in April 1960. There is still no clear answer as to who exactly coined this word. According to the recollections of the band members, the authors of the neologism are considered to be Sutcliffe and Lennon, who were keen on the idea of coming up with a name that simultaneously had different meanings. Buddy Holly's group The Crickets was taken as an example ("crickets", but for the British there was a second meaning - "cricket"). Lennon stated that he came up with the name in a dream: "I saw a flaming man who said, 'Let there be beetles.'" However, simply the word Beetles did not have any double meaning; Only with the replacement of “e” with “a” did the original word appear: if you pronounced it, you heard “beetles”, but if you saw it in print, then the root “beat” (like beat music) immediately caught your eye. Promoters found the name too short and “inconspicuous”, so the musicians were initially forced to change their name on the posters to a more advertising one - “Johnny and the Moondogs”, “Long John and the Beetles” or “The Silver Beatles”. The band received more and more offers to perform - usually in pubs and small clubs. In April 1960, The Beatles embarked on their first small tour of Scotland as a backing band. Their prowess as musicians grew steadily, although they continued to be one of Liverpool's many obscure rock 'n' roll bands.
Hamburg (1960-1962)
Summer 1960 Beatles received an invitation to play in Hamburg, where club owners were interested in real English-language rock and roll ensembles; The fact that several Liverpool bands were already playing in Hamburg worked to the advantage of the Beatles. However, this also forced them to urgently look for a drummer in order to comply with a professional contract. So they recruited Pete Best, who was a drummer in the Liverpool rock band “The Blackjacks”, who played at the Casbah club. On August 16, the Beatles left England, and the very next day their first concert took place at the Hamburg club Indra, where the group played until October. From October until the end of November, The Beatles played at the Kaiserkeller club.
The performance schedule was extremely strict: as a rule, one group played in the club for one hour, another for another hour, for 12 hours. The Beatles lived in one cramped room located in a cinema building. On stage, the musicians had to play a huge amount of material, so in addition to rock and rolls (they performed almost all the records in a row from the albums of Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins and others), they played blues, rhythm and blues, folk songs, old pop and jazz numbers, modifying them in the style of rock and roll. Sometimes ordinary songs in rock and roll format turned into half-hour improvisations; in doing so, the group discovered that the Germans liked particularly loud and assertive playing. Your own songs Beatles did not perform because, according to them, there was no incentive for the same reason - there was too much suitable material in the surrounding modern music. It was this kind of daily work and the ability to play music of any genre that became one of the determining factors in the development of The Beatles' talent.
In Hamburg, the ensemble members met a group of students from a local art college - Astrid Kirchherr and Klaus Foorman, who played a significant role in the biography of the group. Kirchherr soon became Sutcliffe's friend and it was she who suggested, however, on the next visit of The Beatles to Hamburg, in the spring of 1961, new hairstyles - hair combed over the forehead and ears, and a little later - jackets without collars and lapels in the fashion of Pierre Cardin. All these innovations were first tested by Sutcliffe, and only then were they adopted by the whole group (although Best never agreed to long bangs).
On his return to Liverpool in December 1960 Beatles found themselves among the most active and ambitious local groups who competed in repertoire, sound and number of fans. It is interesting that all the Liverpool groups played almost the same (American) songs, but the competition was also based on the principle of who would be the first to “discover” which song and make it “their own”. Rory Storm and the Hurricanes were considered the leaders, they played in the best clubs in Liverpool, as well as Hamburg - it was there that the Beatles met their drummer, Ringo Starr (real name Richard Starkey), with whom they quickly became friends and began to spend time together.
In April 1961, the group went on a second tour to Hamburg, where they performed for three months at the Top Ten club. It was in Hamburg that the Beatles' first professional recording took place - as an accompanying ensemble for singer Tony Sheridan. Sheridan was positioned as a rock and roll singer for the domestic West German market. The recording took place under the direction of Bert Kaempfert, who selected the Beatles. During recording, the band was allowed to record several of their own compositions (Lennon also sang "Ain't She Sweet"). The first result of the recordings was the single “My Bonnie / The Saints” released in August 1961 in Germany, indicating the performers - Tony Sheridan and ... “The Beat Brothers”. So for the German market, for reasons of euphony, The Beatles were named. At the end of the tour, Sutcliffe decided to stay in Hamburg with Kirchherr and thus give up his musical activity in Group. Bass guitar went to McCartney. A year later, on April 10, 1962, Sutcliffe died in Hamburg from a cerebral hemorrhage.
Since the spring of 1961, occasionally, and since August - regularly, The Beatles began performing at the Cavern club in Liverpool. In total, The Beatles performed there 262 times in 1961-1962. last performance took place on August 3, 1962. On July 27, a concert took place in Liverpool's Litherland Town Hall, which became the first truly major success - the local press called Beatles Liverpool's best rock 'n' roll band.
In November 1961, Brian Epstein became the first manager of the Beatles (Allan Williams, who had previously helped the group, was not a manager, he only performed the duties of a concert promoter and tour agent, with no obligations to the group).
First contract (1962)
Over time, Brian Epstein met with producer George Martin from the Parlophone label, which belonged to EMI. George showed interest in the group and wanted to see them perform in the studio; he invited the quartet to audition at London's Abbey Road Studios on June 6. It should be noted that in the end, George Martin was not particularly impressed with the group's first demo recordings, but immediately fell in love with the Beatles as ordinary people. Recognizing that they had talent, Martin later said in interviews that it was not the Beatles' talent that impressed him that day, but that they themselves were attractive, cheerful and slightly cheeky young people. When Martin asked if there was anything they didn't like about the studio, Harrison replied, "I don't like your tie." Fortunately for " Beatles", George Martin appreciated the joke: the group was asked to sign a long-awaited recording contract, and direct and witty answers to questions became the Beatles' signature style of conversation at various press conferences and interviews.
George Martin only had problems with Pete Best - he believed that Pete did not reach the overall level of the group. As a result, Martin personally suggested to Brian Epstein that he change the band's drummer. However, despite his not very good drumming, Best was very popular among fans, which slightly angered the other three members of the group. Moreover, Pete did not get along with the rest of the Beatles because of his individuality - Epstein was generally angry (which rarely happened to him) when Best refused to give himself the signature “Beatles” hairstyle and fit into the general style of the group. As a result, on August 16, 1962, Brian announced that Pete Best was leaving the group. Beatles. His place was immediately taken by drummer from the group Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, Ringo Starr, with whom the Beatles had long been familiar. Having first met Ringo in Hamburg, the Beatles, ironically, recorded their first record with him. In mid-August 1960, in the private Akustik studio, The Beatles participated in the recording of the first record in their lives - a demonstration record, then printed in only four copies and designed to be played at a speed of 78 rpm. In fact, it was not their record, but the bass guitarist and vocalist of "Rory Storm and The Hurricanes" Lou Walters, who decided to record the songs "Fever", "Summertime", "September Song" and asked The Beatles " help him. Sutcliffe and Best were simply present in the studio, as Walters preferred Ringo to do the drums.
Soon, The Beatles began working in the studio. Their first recording session at EMI produced no results, but during the September sessions, The Beatles recorded and released their first single, “Love Me Do,” which was released on October 5, 1962, and reached number 17 on the music magazine chart. Record Retailer" is a pretty good result for young musicians. In America, where it was released in May 1964 (right at the height of Beatlemania in Britain), the song stayed at the top of the charts for 18 months. A well-known role here was played by the commercial cunning of Brian Epstein, who, at his own peril and risk, bought 10 thousand copies of the record, which significantly increased its sales index and attracted new buyers. The Beatles made their first televised appearance on October 17, 1962, on People and Places, which broadcast their concert in Manchester, filmed by Granada Television. Soon the group recorded the single “Please Please Me,” which, according to various magazines, took first and second places in their charts (Britain did not have an official national chart at the beginning of 1963).
On February 11, 1963, the Beatles recorded all the material for their debut album, Please Please Me, in just 12 hours. Three months after the release of the single of the same name (March 22), the Beatles finally released their first album, which on April 12 topped the national hit parade for 6 months (finally appearing). The album was mixed from the group's own songs with the authorship of Lennon - McCartney and cover versions of their favorite hit songs belonging to famous performers at that time.
October 13, 1963 is considered to be the birthday of “Beatlemania” - a phenomenon of deafening popularity that has not yet been repeated by any group in the world. The Beatles then performed at the London Palladium, from where their concert was broadcast on the Sunday Night At The London Palladium program throughout the country. The program attracted 15 million television viewers, but thousands of young fans chose to skip the program and filled the streets adjacent to the concert hall building in the hope of seeing the musicians not on the screen, but in life. After the concert, the quartet had to make their way to the car surrounded by police. On November 4, The Beatles headlined the Royal Variety Show at the Prince of Wales Theatre. The Queen Mother, Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon were present at the concert, and the Queen did not hide her admiration for the Beatles' performance of the song "Till There Was You" from the popular musical "The Music Man".
On November 22, the quartet’s second album, “With The Beatles,” was released. Of the fourteen songs on the record, eight are the musicians’ own works, including George Harrison’s song, “Don’t Bother Me,” for the first time on the band’s official albums. The album set a world record for the number of advance trade requests - 300 thousand, and by 1965 over a million copies of the record were sold.
Trip to America and the height of Beatlemania (1963-1964)
Despite the group's growing popularity in Britain and its high chart positions since early 1963, Parlophone's American counterpart, Capitol Records (which was also owned by EMI), was hesitant to release The Beatles singles in the United States, partly because because no English group has ever had lasting success in America. Brian Epstein, however, managed to sign a contract with a small Chicago company “Vee Jay”, and it released the singles “Please Please Me” and “From Me To You”, as well as the album “Introducing The Beatles”, but they were not successful and even hit the regional charts.
The situation changed after the release of the single “I Want To Hold Your Hand” in the United States at the end of 1963. It appeared in England a little earlier and immediately took first place. Impressed by this song, music critic of The Sunday Times, Richard Buccle, in the issue of December 29, 1963, called Lennon and McCartney " greatest composers after Beethoven." On January 18, 1964, it became known that the single “I Want To Hold Your Hand” took first place in the Cash Box magazine chart in the United States and third place in the Billboard weekly chart. On January 20, the American company Capitol released the album “Meet the Beatles!”, partially similar in content to the English “With The Beatles” - both the single and the album went gold in the United States on February 3. By the beginning of April, only Beatles songs appeared in the top five songs of the US national hit parade, and in total there were 14 of them in the hit parade.
“Beatlemania” stepped overseas. The musicians were convinced of this as soon as they landed on February 7, 1964 at New York's Kennedy Airport - more than four thousand fans came to greet them. At that time, the quartet gave three concerts in the United States: one at the Washington Coliseum and two at New York's Carnegie Hall. In addition, The Beatles appeared twice on the Ed Sullivan Show, attracting a record 73 million viewers in television history (40% of the US population at the time!). Almost the rest of the time they met with journalists and American art colleagues, and on the morning of February 22 they returned to England.
On March 2, the Beatles began filming and recording songs for their first musical film, A Hard Day's Night, and the album of the same name. The work was not yet completed when the British press reported a new sensation: the single “Can’t Buy Me Love” / “You Can’t Do That”, which appeared on March 20, collected an unprecedented number of preliminary applications in England and the United States - 3 million. No work of art or literature has ever had such a first edition.
On June 4, the quartet set off on their first major overseas tour. His route ran through Denmark, Holland, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and Australia again. On the eve of the trip, Ringo was admitted to hospital with acute tonsillitis and appeared on stage only on June 16 in Melbourne. Previously, The Beatles performed with session drummer Jimmy Nicol. The tour was a truly triumphant success. In Adelaide, for example, the musicians were met at the airport by a crowd of 300,000(!).
The quartet returned to London on July 2, and three days later the premiere of the film “A Hard Day’s Night” (directed by Richard Lester) took place at the capital’s Pavilion cinema. Soon after the premiere, the group's self-titled album was released, which for the first time did not contain a single borrowed song. Both the film and the record received rave reviews from the press, and the outstanding American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, after listening to the album “A Hard Day’s Night,” called Lennon and McCartney “the best songwriters since Schubert.”
On August 19, 1964, the first full-fledged tour began Beatles across North America (the previous trip in February was more of a promotional and excursion nature). In 32 days, the quartet traveled 35,906 kilometers and gave 31 concerts in 24 cities (including three in Canada). For each concert the ensemble received 25-30 thousand dollars. Initially, the tour route included not 24, but 23 cities. A performance in Kansas City was not planned, but the owner of the local professional basketball club, Charles Finley, clearly determined to make history, offered the Beatles $150,000 for one half-hour concert, and Brian Epstein agreed.
But the musicians themselves in those days were more worried about the other, downside of success. During the tour they felt like prisoners because they were completely isolated from the world. The hotels they stayed at all day long was besieged by a crowd. Incredible, but true: the equipment with which The Beatles performed in huge stadiums in 1964 would not satisfy even the most seedy restaurant ensemble today - the power and sound quality were so low. The technology was hopelessly behind the pace of show business development set by the quartet. There were not even monitors (control speakers), and behind the deafening roar of the stands, the musicians often did not hear not only each other, but also themselves, lost their rhythm, and lost the tonality in their vocal parts. But the audience didn’t notice this, they also heard almost nothing, and didn’t really see anything: for safety reasons, the stage was installed either in the center football field, or on the back line of a baseball diamond.
In such conditions, there could be no talk of any creative development or progress. Unlike the Hamburg concerts, the quartet now had to perform a limited number of the same songs day after day. Changes to the program were not allowed. The stage was no longer a laboratory or a testing ground for musicians. From now on, they could create something new, create, develop only outside its borders.
"Beatles For Sale" and "Help!" (1964-1965)
Returning to London on September 21, The Beatles began recording their next album, Beatles For Sale, on the same day. Of the 14 selected songs, six were borrowed and have appeared in the quartet’s repertoire for more than one year (“Rock And Roll Music”, “Mr. Moonlight”, “Kansas City”, “Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby”)). In general, the record was a bizarre bouquet of styles from rock and roll to country and western with a predominance of intonations in the spirit of Buddy Holly records. On the very first day (December 4), the disc sold 700 thousand copies and within a week topped the British charts. In February 1965, filming began on the second full-length film Help!, directed by Richard Lester, already known for The Beatles' previous film A Hard Day's Night. The film premiered in London on July 29, and the album of the same name was released on August 6.
Every song on the album is good, but one of them, without exaggeration, can be called an outstanding piece of music, a classic not only for popular music, but for music in general. This is the song "Yesterday". Paul McCartney composed its melody at the beginning of the year, but the lyrics appeared much later. He called it “Scrambled Eggs” because he sang the tune with the first words that came to mind: “Scrambled eggs, oh, my baby, how I love your legs...” (“Scrambled eggs, oh my baby, how I love your legs...”) . George Martin liked the melody, but he suggested recording it as a song using a string quartet accompaniment that was completely unexpected for The Beatles. This was the first time that neither John, George, nor Ringo participated in the recording. The song was clearly “doomed” to great success, but The Beatles did not release it independently, as a single, but immediately included it in the album. With their creativity, they could afford it. Shortly after the release of the album "Help!" the song “Yesterday” began to be performed by many soloists and ensembles one after another, its instrumental versions entered the repertoire symphony orchestras. Today, about two thousand interpretations of this composition are known - more than any other in history.
On August 13, The Beatles embarked on their second American tour. Exactly two weeks later, an event occurred that to this day haunts show businessmen and music lovers: the Beatles visited Elvis Presley, with whom they not only talked, but also played music, and several compositions were recorded on a tape recorder. Neither during Elvis's lifetime, nor after his death in 1977, the recordings were released. Despite the best efforts of agents hired by American, British, West German and Japanese record companies, the whereabouts of the tapes could not be determined. Their cost amounts to millions of dollars.
New directions in creativity and the end of concert activity (1965-1966)
The summer of 1965 was a turning point in the history of rock music. From dance and entertainment, it became a serious art. New rock groups appeared, and such ensembles and performers as The Byrds, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan began to compete with The Beatles, who, of course, could not stay away from these changes. On October 12 in London they began recording the album “Rubber Soul”, which marked the beginning of a new phase not only in their work, but also in rock music culture in general. All competing authors and performers were again left far behind. “It was the first album that introduced the new, maturing Beatles to the world,” George Martin recalled years later. “It was the first time we began to think in terms of the album as an independent and valuable work of art.” All the more surprising is the fact that Beatles They started recording this record with an almost empty “portfolio”: by October 12, they didn’t even have three songs completely ready for recording. And on December 3, 1965, the album was already on the shelves of music stores. For the first time, elements of mysticism and surrealism, so characteristic of The Beatles in the future, appeared in the songs of the album.
October 26, 1965 - the members of the group at Buckingham Palace were awarded (Labour Prime Minister Wilson announced this on June 12) state awards - the Order of the British Empire, MBE. For the first time, the UK's highest award was given to pop musicians "for their contribution to the development of British culture and its popularization throughout the world." The three of them took it with delight. And John later admitted: “If the court had bothered to read what I think about the royal family, they would never have allowed this.” The presentation of the award to members of the Beatles caused outrage among some of its recipients, including military heroes. They returned their orders in protest because, in their opinion, these awards were now simply worthless. “The British royal house has equated me with a handful of vulgar fools,” wrote one of these gentlemen.
In 1966, the Beatles first began to have real problems. In July, while on tour in the Philippines, due to their accidental conflict with the first lady of this country (they refused an official reception at the presidential palace), the Beatles were almost torn apart by an angry crowd, and they barely escaped from this state. On the way to a plane from the Philippines, their tour manager, Mal Evans, was horribly beaten at the airport, the band members were pushed and, in literally, “kicked out” to the plane. After returning to his homeland overseas, in America, a fuss arose because of Lennon’s carelessly said phrase back in March that “Christianity is dying, and, for example, now Beatles more popular than Jesus." In England they read this phrase, had a fight and immediately forgot about it. In cities of the USA and, oddly enough, in South Africa, protests against “The Beatles” took place, their records, portraits, clothes were burned, on every alley there were buckets with the inscription: “For garbage from ... the Beatles”, and in One fine day, the priests built stuffed musicians, and everyone could come up to them and do whatever they wanted. However, the Beatles themselves reacted to this with humor: “ha, before they burn these records, they have to buy them.” Pressed by the American press, Lennon officially apologized for his statements at a press conference on August 11 in Chicago (USA).
However, despite all the failures, one of the best albums was released on August 5, 1966 Beatles- "Revolver". The album was distinguished primarily by the fact that most of its songs did not involve stage performance - the studio effects used here were so complex. And “The Beatles” were henceforth a purely studio group. They were so tired of the exhausting world tour that they decided to stop their concert activities. IN home country their last performance took place on May 1, 1966 at the Empire Pool at London's Wembley Stadium, where they took part in a gala concert, performing 5 compositions in a 15-minute performance: “I Feel Fine”, “Nowhere Man”, “ Day Tripper", "If I Needed Someone" and "I'm Down". The last tour was an American tour of the same year, ending with a concert in San Francisco on August 29. This is where the stage biography of the quartet ended. The album "Revolver", meanwhile, topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. Critics praised it as the culmination of The Beatles' creativity. It seemed that it was basically impossible to create a better record than this one, and many newspapers seriously suggested that the quartet would stop on this incredibly high note. From the outside, such a decision would look quite logical, but it never occurred to the musicians themselves.
“Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (1967)
At the end of 1966 Beatles gathered in the studio again. The result of the recording sessions that began on November 24 was the single "Penny Lane"/"Strawberry Fields Forever", which appeared on February 17, 1967. A characteristic feature of the single was that instead of the usual first and second sides, it had two first sides. This emphasized that both songs included in the album are the main ones. The composition “Strawberry Fields Forever” seemed to contain all the experience of studio work accumulated by the quartet. The musicians began recording it on November 24, 1966, and the final version that we hear on the record appeared only on January 2. Innovative techniques in arrangement, a huge number of studio instrumentalists participating in the recording at that time, the very view of the studio as a musical instrument with almost unlimited possibilities, all this, characteristic of the single “Penny Lane” / “Strawberry Fields Forever”, as it were prepared listeners (and the musicians themselves!) for the metamorphosis, embodied in the album “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
The start date for recording "Sgt. Pepper" is considered to be November 24, when Beatles started working on "Strawberry Fields Forever". Over a 129-day period (in comparison, the album “Please Please Me” took 12 hours to record), the musicians, as it turned out, recorded the greatest album in the history of rock music. In the days of recording a record, almost everyone full-time employees studios did not go home until late at night, even those who had the day off. The camera room was crowded with fellow musicians and producers of other groups. Eyewitnesses said that Ron Richard, who at that time was the producer of the recordings of the group "The Hollies", the song "A Day In The Life" (as some critics admit, best song on the album) literally led to panic. Sitting in the corner of the control room and holding his head in his hands, he repeated as if wound up: “This is incredible... I give up.” Meanwhile, the Beatles created the album playfully. They took pleasure in saturating it with unheard of, unexpected musical and sound effects in general. And as a result, the album, released on May 26, received phenomenal success and stayed at the top of the charts for 88 (!) weeks.
The Death of Brian Epstein and the White Album (1967-1968)
June 25, 1967 Beatles became the first ensemble whose performance was broadcast throughout the world - almost 400 million people in all countries could see them. Their performance became part of the world's first global television program, Our World. The performance was broadcast live from the Beatles' main Abbey Road studio in London and featured a video version of the song "All You Need Is Love".
But after this triumph, the group’s business began to decline, and the tragic death of The Beatles manager Brian Epstein, who died on August 27, 1967 as a result of an overdose of sleeping pills, played a significant role in this. The “fifth Beatle,” as the group members themselves called him, who was in charge of all financial affairs and devoted all his time to the group, passed away. He was only 32.
At the end of 1967, The Beatles received their first negative reviews press about his work - the film “Magical Mystery Tour” became the object of criticism. The main complaint about the film was that it was only released in color, and few Britons had color televisions at the time. The soundtrack to the film (which, by the way, did not receive any complaints) was released in the UK as a mini-album.
The group spent early 1968 in Rishikesh, India, studying meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yoga. After returning home, Lennon and McCartney announced the birth of the Apple corporation, under whose label The Beatles now began releasing their records. Meanwhile, the quartet carried out two major projects: prepared material for the next album and participated in the work on the full-length animated film"Yellow Submarine", which was released in January 1969 along with a soundtrack album. In addition, on August 30, The Beatles released one of the best songs in the group’s history, “Hey Jude,” as a single. By the end of the year, the album had sold 6 million copies worldwide, topping the charts almost all over the world.
On November 22, 1968, the group released their new recording - a double album Beatles, which is known among the masses simply as the "white album", due to its stark white cover, which only had the band's name stamped on it. Critics gave the album mixed reviews. Many reviewers were of the opinion that the musicians should have been more demanding and compiled one disc. However, the audience was delighted - everyone liked the album. Well, it occupies a special place in the biography of the Beatles, since it is the first clear evidence of the impending collapse of the Beatles. The days of working on the “white album” showed the barriers that arose between the group members, their relationships deteriorated, and Ringo Starr even left the ensemble for a while. As a result, the songs "Martha My Dear", "Wild Honey Pie", "Dear Prudence" and "Back in the USSR" feature McCartney's drumming. However, the same album featured a song written by Ringo, "Don't Pass Me By". The atmosphere in the group was also tense because of Lennon's new wife, Yoko Ono, who was present at every sound session of the group and very annoyed all its members (except, of course, Lennon). In addition, Lennon and Harrison began to release solo records, which also did not greatly improve the group’s fortunes. All these nuances inexorably led to disintegration.
Last albums and breakup (1969-1970)
Reunion attempt, death of John Lennon
On December 8, 1980, John Lennon was assassinated in New York by mentally unstable US citizen Mark Chapman. On the day of his death, Lennon gave his last interview to American journalists, and at 22:50, when John and Yoko were entering the arch of their house, returning from the Hit Factory recording studio, Chapman, who had earlier that day taken Lennon’s autograph for the cover of the new album "Double Fantasy", fired five shots into his back. In a police car called by the gatekeeper of the Dakota, Lennon was taken to Roosevelt Hospital in just a few minutes. But the doctors’ attempts to save Lennon were in vain - due to heavy blood loss, he died, the official time of death was 23 hours 15 minutes. Lennon was cremated in New York and his ashes were given to Yoko Ono.
Mark Chapman is serving a life sentence for his crime in a New York prison. He applied for early release five times, but each time his requests were rejected.
Paul McCartney was planning a reunion Beatles a year before John Lennon was killed. In his 1979 contract with CBS Records, McCartney claimed that he would be able to record music again with Lennon, Harrison and Starr under the Beatles name.
Details of the $10.8 million contract were made public on the 25th anniversary of Lennon's death. A representative from the record company commented: " This is the earliest evidence that any of the Beatles made a formal attempt to revive the group.».
This is also proof that Paul did not initiate the breakup, as was believed up to that point.
Free As A Bird, Real Love, Now And Then
When McCartney, Starr and Harrison compiled the anthology in 1994 Beatles, John's widow Yoko Ono gave them tapes with unfinished versions of three songs, two of which - "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love" - the musicians finalized. The third had to be abandoned, since the colleagues of the late Lennon did not dare to add stanzas of the verse, so as not to misinterpret John’s thought. According to other sources, the reason for the failure was strong noise on the recording.
« The song existed in the form of a fragmentary chorus, it had nothing else, - Jeff Lynne, a famous musician and close friend of the Beatles, who produced the recording, shares his memories. - We recorded the backing track, but things didn’t go further - then “Now And Then” remained unfinished. It's kind of a blues ballad, a very light song. I really like it, and I hope that it will still reach listeners».
However, more than 10 years later, Paul McCartney decided to take a bold step: he composed the missing lines and recorded them in his own performance, leaving the author’s voice in the chorus. Ringo Starr provided the drums, and the musicians took the guitar from archival recordings of George Harrison.
Biography of the Beatles - early years.
Legendary group The Beatles were born in 1959 in the UK, in the city of Liverpool. The very first line-up of the group included Paul McCartney (bass, guitar, vocals), John Lennon (guitar, vocals), George Harrison (guitar, vocals), Stuart Sutcliffe (bass), Pete Best (drums).
At first the group was known only in Liverpool, then, when the musicians left for Germany in 1960, Tony Sheridan, who was very popular at that time, drew attention to them. famous performer rock and roll. Sheridan recorded with the Beatles studio album"Tony Sheridan and the Beatles." It was then in creative biography The Beatles made their first major debut internationally.
After joint project Brian Epstein, the owner of a record store, became interested in the group. Since the fall of 1961, he became their manager. When Stuart Sutcliffe left the group in December 1961, the Beatles became a quartet. Then the composition of the group underwent another change: the record company with which Epstein was negotiating, for its agreement to cooperate with the Beatles, demanded a change in drummer Pete Best.
The Beatles' first original single, called "Love me do", was recorded at the then little-known Parlofon recording studio in December 1962. Brian Epstein, trying to arouse public interest in the band's new hit, took a rather risky step - he bought the first ten thousand copies himself. This commercial trick was a success - interest in the instantly scattered record attracted a lot of buyers. The first independent album in the Beatles' biography was released in early 1963. By 1964, the whole world was crazy about the Beatles.
The official “birthday” of the Beatlemania phenomenon is the day of the Beatles’ performance at the London Palladium on October 13, 1963. Their concert was broadcast on television and attracted approximately fifteen million viewers. At the same time, thousands of fans of the group, instead of watching the TV show, chose to gather near the concert hall building, hoping to see their idols in life.
On November 4th of that year, the Beatles performed at the Prince of Wales Theatre.
Their performance became the highlight of the Royal Variety Show program. The Queen Mother herself expressed admiration for the Beatles' song "Till There Was You".
Soon the Beatles' second album, With The Beatles, was released, which broke all existing records for the number of advance purchase requests. By 1965, the album had sold more than one million copies. In 1963-1964, the Beatles conquered America. They became the first English group
, which was such a resounding success overseas. Moreover, the Parlofon company did not risk releasing the group’s singles in the USA, precisely because of the short-lived popularity in the States of almost all musicians from the UK. Brian Epstein tried to attract the attention of the American public by releasing the singles "Please Please Me" and "From Me To You" and the album "Introducing The Beatles", but they were not successful.
Popularity came after the release of the single “I Want To Hold Your Hand” in the United States at the end of 1963. One of the famous music critics after this song called Lennon and McCartney “the greatest composers since Beethoven.” In January 1964, the album “Meet the Beatles!” was released in the United States, which already received gold status in February.
The quartet went on tour to the United States, where they gave three concerts, and also twice participated in the popular television program “The Ed Sullivan Show.” The Beatles attracted forty percent of the US population to their television screens - that's about seventy-three million people. This fact of the Beatles’ biography is one of the most significant: such a number of television audiences was recorded for the first time in the history of television. This was the height of Beatlemania: their next creative project, musical film
“A Hard Day’s Night” and the album of the same name received three million advance requests, the tour abroad was a triumphant success. The Beatles were called “the best songwriters since Schubert.” However, the quartet soon had to put an end to concert performances: the public was ready to tear their idols to pieces, the fans did not give the musicians passage, so the Beatles were practically isolated from the whole world. In 1965, global popularity showed its: protests against the Beatles began, their records, portraits, and clothes were burned. Careless statements by group members led to scandals on a national scale. In addition, the stage limited their creative development - day after day they performed the same songs, under the terms of the contract, not having the right to deviate from the program. The Beatles' stage biography ended, and the musicians decided to devote themselves entirely to studio work. On August 5, 1966, one of the best albums The
Beatles - "Revolver". The album was distinguished primarily by the fact that most of its songs did not involve stage performance - the studio effects used here were so complex.
In 1967, the Beatles recorded a monumentally innovative album called Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club. It was a real revolution in the world of rock music: the album was the first impetus for the new musical directions that subsequently appeared, such as art rock, hard rock and psychedelia.
Biography of the Beatles - mature years.
In June 1967, a Beatles concert was broadcast around the world. In this they also became the first - about four hundred million people saw their performance; no other musical ensemble has ever achieved such great success. During the performance, a video version of the song “All You Need Is Love” was recorded. Shortly after this triumphant success, the tragic death of the “fifth Beatle,” the group’s manager Brian Epstein, occurred. The group's affairs began to decline.
In 1968, the band released a double album, which later became known among fans of the band as the "white album" due to the cover art. The album was extremely popular, but it was during work on it that the first signs of subsequent disintegration appeared in the group. The atmosphere began to heat up, and scandals broke out between the musicians from time to time. contributed to the improvement of the group's condition.
In 1969, the group released one of their best songs, “Hey Jude.”
In April 1970, simultaneously with the release of his solo disc, Paul McCartney officially announced that the Beatles were no more. The greatest rock band in the world has broken up. In 1979, McCartney made attempts to reunite the group with the same lineup. But this was never destined to happen - a year later John Lennon was killed.
