Beatles News
In 1964, after playing to a staggering 45% of American households on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in February, the band embarked upon a chaotic tour of North America. The dates included a Sept. 5 show at Chicago’s International Amphitheatre, 60 years ago this week.
“It’s hard to understand how it was before the internet, but there was a thing called word of mouth,” says Beatles historian Martin Lewis. “The Beatles became successful because friends told friends. They said, ‘Have you heard this? It’s astonishing.’ ”
On the podcast “The Excerpt,” Lewis talked recently about how The Beatles went from being virtually unknown in the U.S. in 1963 to global icons in 1964. Here are a few highlights:
Q. What was happening in the American music scene when The Beatles toured the country in 1964?
A.The audience was still in the 1950s. They were still in that gray Eisenhower decade, but The Beatles were in 3D Technicolor … just giddy and optimistic and exuberant with their own energy, their enjoyment of music. And America was sorely in need of that authenticity and that expression of youthful vitality.
Q. What role did The Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, play in the band’s rapid success?
A. On Christmas Day 1963, practically nobody in America had heard of The Beatles. And yet, by the time of “The Ed Sullivan Show” 45 days later, 73 million people tuned in. How did that happen? It was triggered mainly by Brian Epstein having secured a contract for them to appear on “The Ed Sullivan Show” at a time they didn’t even have a record contract in America.
He went about convincing Capitol Records to sign The Beatles, and he did that by saying, “Hey, I’ve got them on ‘Ed Sullivan.’ ” The record was released on the day after Christmas, which was crucial because kids were at home. So instead of hearing the record on the radio maybe two or three times a day, they were hearing it 10 times a day.
By the time of “The Ed Sullivan Show” on Feb. 9, 1964, they were already No. 1. It took what was already exploding and just took it into the stratosphere.
If you think of the wonderful enthusiasm for Taylor Swift — a terrific artist — it was like that times 100 million. It is no disrespect to Taylor Swift and her incredible fans, but the electricity of The Beatles and their success without the internet was astonishing.
Q. The Beatles’ music still endures. Do you think that would surprise the Fab Four of 1964?
A. It would have surprised The Beatles to know that their music would last that long. But if we take a broader perspective, it shouldn’t surprise us.
Source: Dana Taylor and Kim Willis | USA Today
Paul McCartney and John Lennon loved to get weird with their songwriting, and it’s part of what made The Beatles so charming. However, there are quite a few lyrics from their songs that just don’t make any sense. Let’s take a look at some of the strangest Beatles lyrics and what they actually mean. This isn’t an exhaustive list; there are quite a few head-scratching lines in The Beatles’ discography. We just think these five songs are worth revisiting.
1. “I Am The Walrus”
“I am the eggman / They are the eggmen / I am the walrus / Goo goo g’ joob.”
“I Am The Walrus” is one of the Fab Four’s most surreal and seemingly nonsensical songs. Could there be a deeper meaning behind these particular lyrics? Lots of fans have tried interpreting the lyrics, and some believe it’s all about the cycle of human life from egg to… walrus? All we know for sure is that Lennon wanted to write a very obscure and bizarre song, so he wrote this one. We’ll likely never know what it’s about; if it’s about anything at all.
2. “Dig A Pony”
“Oh now / I roll a stoney / Well you can imitate everyone you know.”
Many of the strangest Beatles lyrics were intended to be surreal nonsense. Lennon actually said that the whole of “Dig A Pony” was intentional nonsense. However, some fans have interpreted this particular line as a dig at The Rolling Stones. The stoney in question could be a reference to Mick Jagger. Unfortunately, that was never confirmed.
Source: Em Casalena/americansongwriter.com
The new documentary One to One: John & Yoko is ostensibly about John Lennon and Yoko Ono‘s move to New York City in the ’70s and their 1972 One to One concerts, which were Lennon’s only post-Beatles full-length performances. But according to People, the doc also shows Ono airing her grievances about how she was treated because of her relationship with Lennon.
In one portion of the film, People reports, Ono is seen giving a speech at the First International Feminist Conference in 1973, where she told the crowd that after she and Lennon got together, “the whole society started to attack me, and the whole society wished me dead.”
In another part of the documentary, Ono says that because she was made a scapegoat for the breakup of The Beatles, she received letters while pregnant that read, “I wish you and your baby would die,” and was even sent a voodoo doll stuck with pins.
According to People, in the film Ono also expresses disappointment over the fact that, she claims, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney never “set the record straight” about the fact that she wasn’t the reason the band broke up.
Source: wdrv.com
Plenty of Beatles songs never made it to the stage. Whether it’s because the band retired from touring before the song could get a proper performance or some other reason, plenty of fan favorites never got to be experienced live in concert.
One such song is the 1968 track “Good Night” from the band’s self-titled album, also known as the White Album. “Good Night” is one of the Fab Four’s most famous closers. It is the last song on that very album and one of very few that features Ringo Starr as the lead singer. In fact, he’s the only Beatle featured on the song, period. Starr sings his heart out against an orchestral arrangement conducted by the famed English composer George Martin. So, is there a deeper reason as to why The Beatles never performed this incredible closing song live?
The answer to this question is pretty simple: They had retired from touring long before the song was released. Specifically, the Fab Four quit touring in 1966. However, there is another question worth posing: Why didn’t Starr perform the song live throughout his solo career?
“Good Night” wasn’t written by Starr. It was originally written by John Lennon as a tribute to his then-five-year-old son Julian. It’s widely described as a “lullaby”. Even though Starr didn’t write it, he is the main and only Beatle to be featured in the song. It doesn’t make sense why he would avoid performing the iconic piece of work live with his All Starr Band.
Source: Em Casalena/americansongwriter.com
Paul McCartney wanted the Beatles to star in an anti-Vietnam War film at the height of their fame, a new book has revealed.
Philosopher Bertrand Russell had pleaded with the singer and bass guitarist “to do something positive” with the Fab Four’s global following and make a political movie a year after the band’s second big screen outing Help.
But the secret 1966 film project was shelved after thriller writer Len Deighton failed to convince Sir Paul, now 82, that remaking the First World War musical Oh! What a Lovely War was the right vehicle for his stand against US intervention in South East Asia.
In Deighton’s 1966 script, the Fab Four would have played members of the doomed Smith family, who feature in the musical and unwittingly volunteer for the hell of the trenches. By then the Beatles had made two films, A Hard Day’s Night in 1964 and Help in 1965. So the third film would have been at the height of Beatlemania.
Writing in his new book, With The Beatles, Patrick Humphries reveals the idea was born in the summer of 1966 when McCartney met 94-year-old anti-war activist Russell in London.
“Russell had tried to convince Paul to do something positive with the power the Beatles had by then accrued,” writes Humphries. Soon after, at Russell’s suggestion, Sir Paul contacted Deighton, who had shot to fame the same year as the Beatles with his spy thriller The Ipcress File, filmed with Michael Caine in 1965, and re-imagined by Netflix in 2022.
The writer, now 95, had been desperate to adapt the stage play Oh! What a Lovely War for the big screen and the pair discussed the idea over a curry at the writer’s home in Southwark, south London, in August 1966.
Source: Mark Branagan/express.co.uk
The Beatles quit touring for good in 1966, and many of the songs from later releases never got a proper Fab Four performance. That being said, each respective member of The Beatles went on to perform a number of those post-Beatles songs during their solo runs. But surprisingly, there’s one hit track that never got a performance; not even from the man who wrote it.
That song would be “Martha My Dear” from the band’s 1968 self-titled album. The track was written by Paul McCartney and is a heartfelt tribute to his beloved sheepdog, Martha. Some have interpreted the song as a reference to his public breakup with Jane Asher, notably with the lyrics “Don’t forget me”. The lyrics “Help yourself to a bit of what is all around you” is seen as a dig at a potential alleged affair Asher had while McCartney was traveling with The Old Vic Theatre.
However, McCartney has never verified these claims. He’s also never performed the song live. Why Paul McCartney Never Performed “Martha My Dear” Live?
“Martha My Dear” is a major fan-favorite among Beatles superfans and casual listeners alike. The band’s contemporaries and other artists love it too, with the likes of Brass, World Party, Phish, and more covering the track. It’s quite surprising that McCartney never played the song live with Wings or during his solo endeavors. Ironically, the song sounds as close to a Wings song as you can get.
Source: Em Casalena/americansongwriter.com
John Lennon and Yoko Ono's move to New York City in the early 1970s is the subject of the new documentary One to One: John & Yoko
The film will explore the backlash Ono faced from Beatles fans upon entering into a relationship with Lennon
"Society suddenly treated me as a woman who belonged to a man who is one of the most powerful people in our generation," she says in the documentary. A new documentary is revisiting the difficult road Yoko Ono faced when she fell in love with John Lennon in the late 1960s.
One to One: John & Yoko focuses on never-before-seen material of the high-profile couple as they uproot their life in England to move to New York City in 1971, where a changing American culture collides with the pair’s desire to do good in the world.
In one moving section of the film, Ono gives a speech at the First International Feminist Conference, which took place in 1973. During the emotional address, Ono, then 40, detailed the harsh way she was treated by society after she first started dating Lennon and how a constant barrage of criticism chipped away at her self-confidence.
When Ono and the former Beatle first met in 1966, she was already established as a successful artist. She told the crowd in her speech that because she was an independent, creative woman, society had already deemed her a “bitch” — and when she and Lennon got together, she was “upgraded into a witch,” which was “very flattering,” she quipped.
“Society suddenly treated me as a woman who belonged to a man who is one of the most powerful people in our generation. And some of his closest friends told me that probably I should stay in the background, I should shut up, I should give up my work and that way I’ll be happy,” she said. “Because the whole society started to attack me, and the whole society wished me dead, I started to stutter.”
She continued, “I consider myself a very eloquent woman, and also an attractive woman. And suddenly, because I was associated with John, I was considered an ugly woman, ugly Jap, who took your monument away from you. That’s when I realized how hard it is for women. If I can start to stutter, being a strong woman, it is a very hard road.”
Source: Rachel DeSantis/people.com
George Harrison gained a reputation as being a seeker of sorts, constantly searching for insight about the way to live his life under the strange circumstances of being a worldwide celebrity. As it happens, he was also actively researching the proper way to leave this life.
The song “Art of Dying,” which was released on Harrison’s incredible triple album All Things Must Pass in 1971, expresses some of the former Beatle’s ideas on the subject, many of which were sourced from his study of Indian religious beliefs. It’s an incredibly nimble lyric that elucidates a weighty subject with smarts and feeling.
A Song Years in the Making
Many of the songs that appeared on All Things Must Pass were begun when Harrison was still a member of The Beatles. In the case of “Art of Dying,” he had begun writing it all the way back in 1966, some five years before he’d get a chance to release it once he had gone solo. Early versions of the song even contained references to Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein.
The title of “Art of Dying” is telling, because that’s essentially what Harrison is trying to communicate to his audience. As he explained in his book I, Me, Mine, he was singing about trying to get to a point where all loose ends are tied up when it’s time to shuffle off this mortal coil:
“Everybody is worried about dying, but the cause of death (which most can’t figure out unless they are diseased) is birth, so if you don’t want to die you don’t get born! So the ‘art of dying’ is when somebody can consciously leave the body at death, as opposed to falling down dying without knowing what’s going on. The Yogi who does that (Maha-samadhi) doesn’t have to reincarnate again.”
Harrison’s own life was cut short by cancer and a stabbing incident, and he died at 58 years old. If you believe his wife Olivia’s quote from the documentary George Harrison: Living in the Material World, his seeking seems to have paid off. “He lit the room,” Olivia said, describing the moment when Harrison died.
The Meaning of the Lyrics to “Art of Dying”
Source: Jim Beviglia/americansongwriter.com
The band performed two sold-out shows on Sept. 3, 1964. Now, the fairgrounds are bringing the magic back with a tribute band, an art installation, and more. The Beatles toured the United States and Canada between August 19 and September 20, 1964.
What was life like in 1964? College students from across the US traveled to Mississippi to participate in Freedom Summer, the Ford Mustang debuted, Muhammad Ali became the world heavyweight champion... and The Beatles played at the Indiana State Fair.
In honor of the 60th anniversary of the two sold-out shows played on Sept. 3, 1964, the fairgrounds are celebrating all things Fab Four once more. The festivities on Tuesday, Sept. 3 include:
The unveiling of an art installation
A listening session of the original audio from the 1964 performance
A live performance of the original setlist by cover band 1964 The Tribute
An encore performance of The Beatles’ greatest hits
Merchandise + themed food and beverage options, such as “Hard Day’s Flight” “and “Yellow Submarine Sandwich”
Tickets are still available for $5, the same price thousands of screaming fans originally paid to see the band — or you can get closer to the stage with floor tickets for $25.
Source: Shea Stapley/indytoday.6amcity.com
Ann Arbor wasn’t immune to the fanatical craze sweeping the nation 60 years ago when the Beatles arrived in the United States.
With the British Invasion underway, Beatlemania struck Tree Town in 1964.
That was on full display that August as hundreds of enthusiastic teenagers lined up along State Street outside the State Theatre downtown for tickets to see the Beatles’ first feature film, “A Hard Day’s Night.”
“I love the Beatles” was among messages in the crowd, along with posters of the rockers from Liverpool, England, known for hits such as “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
Beatlemania in Ann Arbor
Enthusiastic teenagers line up along State Street outside the State Theatre in downtown Ann Arbor for tickets to see the Beatles film "A Hard Day's Night" in August 1964.Duane Scheel | Ann Arbor News archives courtesy of OldNews.AADL.org
Ann Arbor News reporter Dave Bishop and photographer Duane Scheel were there to document the excited scene as tickets went on sale two weeks ahead of the movie’s Sept. 3 opening at the theater. The crowd filled the sidewalk down to Washington Street and was estimated to include about 300 to 400 people.
Ralph Hinterman, a 15-year-old from the Allmendinger Park area, was first in line, sitting in a camping stool, and said the line began forming at 1:30 a.m. — over seven hours before the ticket window was set to open that morning.
“I don’t believe it,” he said in response to rumors the Beatles were “dying out” in England.
“I love the Beatles,” proclaimed 14-year-old Karen Reese, also in line. “I’d do anything for them,” she added when asked if it was worth waiting since 6 a.m.
"I love the Beatles" is among the messages in the crowd, along with posters of the British rockers, as enthusiastic teenagers line up along State Street outside the State Theatre in downtown Ann Arbor for tickets to see the Beatles film "A Hard Day's Night" in August 1964.Duane Scheel | Ann Arbor News archives courtesy of OldNews.AADL.org
The length of the band members’ hair was a subject of discussion and debate.
Source: mlive.com
