Basics of Beatlemania
So a friend asked me to educate her on the Beatles.
I'm not sure I can do it justice and I know I can't talk about them without talking about the fandom. My mom was a Beatlemaniac and is still a PaulGirl. When I say that I'm third generation fangirl, I'm not joking. My grandmother and mother were fangirls. I was raised to be one.
I'm directing this to the fan who asked for this. So it's told in terms of our shared fandoms. It is told from the fangirl perspective as taught to me - actual truth is irrelevant.
The Cast
So first let's break down who the Beatles are. I'm sure you already know them, but I'm not sure you know them from a fangirl pov.
John Lennon: To a JohnGirl - John is SPN Sam without the demon blood, Aragorn, and the Ninth Doctor. He sees the potential of the world to have peace and believes in the power of unity over adversity. He is also very easily angered over injustice and apathy towards it. He's the one with the sharp sarcastic humor and his one-liners tend to be quoted quite a bit by fandom.
How do you find America? -- Turn left at Greenland
We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity.
It gets him into about as much trouble as you'd think.
Paul McCartney: Mom is a PaulGirl - you don't even know. The thing, Dear Fangirl, that you need to understand is that Paul McCartney is made of schmoop, wrapped in Puppy Eyes of Doom and smoking a joint. Think of the sappiest, silliest, most Mary Sue fantasy you've ever had. You know, the one you think is so stupid you've never even written it down. Paul McCartney has not only written it, he's put it to music and you probably have it memorized and you don't even know it.
This can best be summed up by this story:
John Lennon once had a snitfit moment of exasperation that Paul never writes anything political. Just "silly love songs".
Paul promptly wrote a song titled "Silly Love Songs" in which one croons nothing but the words "I Love You" for a solid minute and a half. It went to Number 1 in the US.
If you listen carefully, you can still hear John Lennon headdesking from the grave.
You'd think that people would have had enough of silly love songs
But I look around me and I see it isn't so
Oh no
Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs
And what's wrong with that?
I'd like to know because here I go again.
I
Loooooooooooove
Yooooooooooooooou
And I just realized that it's quite possible that Paul McCartney is a RL Chibi.
George Harrison: You are a SamGirl. You'll love George. George is the "quiet, soulful" one. He's not actually, but that's how fandom perceived him and there was no shaking it after that. Per fandom he's BFF with Eric Clapton. (The way we assume Kane and Carlson hang out with the boys all the time.) George is definitely the spiritualist of the group and explores Hinduism before coming back to Christianity. He shares John's humor and political idealism. He's also stifled creatively by the contract signed by all of them and limited to one song here and there. When the Beatles break up, he's the first with an album out and the first to find a musical identity that's not "ex-Beatle".
“The nicest thing is to open the newspapers and not to find yourself in them.”
Ringo Starr: Truthfully, Ringo is perceived as Ash or Andy. The comic relief of the group - mostly because he's not the songwriter the other three are. He's in it more for the music and performance and is insanely generous when the others start writing songs that don't need a drummer. He's the "goofy one" in several respects:
Drumming: He was a left handed drummer playing on a right handed set and the resulting percussion fills drum geeks with squee. I can recognize it, but I don't understand it. (Mainly because I compare everything to it, so I don't see it as abnormal).
Ringoisms: Ringo makes up expressions. The other boys HEART THIS LIEK WOAH. Several of these become titles of Beatles songs. A Hard Day's Night being the most famous one.
Pick Up Bands: Because he is who he is, Ringo knows an insane number of famous people. He apparently wanders away quite a bit in Apple Studios and may end up uncredited on other bands' albums.
Ringo not only follows his own drumbeat, he's likely leading a whole new parade. He's the one that seems to me to be most aware of the fandom and how unique it is. I saw him in concert recently and instead of leaving the stage to prep for encore, he came to the front and said:
Ok, so this is the part where we go off stage and pretend to leave until we get asked for an encore. We know we're not really leaving. You know we're not really leaving. We know that you know we're not really leaving. And besides - it's really, really sweltering hot and cramped back there. So instead of THAT nonsense - we're just going to turn off the lights and stand here. You guys just make THAT NOISE. Ok?
And we did.
The Albums
One of the interesting things I learned doing this? "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" isn't on any of their albums. Brian Epstien literally just told John and Paul to go write a song that would do well in America. So they locked themselves in the basement at Paul's girlfriend's house and did.
This is the fandom equivalent of "Greatest Hits of Mullet Rock" line. Other songs will over shadow it, but this song will never fail to take my mom to her happy place.
Please, Please Me (UK, 1963)
The entire album shows how in sync they were as a group. This is their first album, but they'd been performing together for quite awhile and know each other quirks. Paul and John harmonizing always gets me. Neither of them have an excellent voice, but somehow, when one goes sharp the other goes flat to compensate and the sound created is almost its own thing.
Songs of Note:
I Saw Her Standing There: has been covered by a zillion people, and I still prefer the original as it doesn't sound as ironic as a cover inevitably does.
Twist and Shout: a cover and a one take recording - and even though they aren't the ones that wrote it - I'm willing to bet it's who you hear think of the song.
Love Me Do: if there is a stereotypical Beatles song, this is it for the early years.
Do You Want To Know A Secret: George sings! Also notable because John swears it's inspired by "I'm Wishing" from Walt Disney's Snow White. And I believe him.
With The Beatles (UK, 1963)
The second album makes The Beatles a bona fide hit group in England. It's definitely a quintessential Epstien era album. It's not my favorite album, but like Bugs has LongBoyOnCarHood and steam showers, there is no such thing as a worthless Beatles album.
Songs of Note:
It Won't Be Long: the call/response of the yeahs between John and Paul are their "thing". It's how most of the songs seem to be written - and from the vids, it's their preferred method and the moments when they love each other most.
Till There Was You: for the novelty of Paul McCartney wanting to be the librarian in The Music Man. Like I said - Paul McCartney will out schmoop you. You've become diabetic just reading a post mentioning him this much.
I Wanna Be Your Man: Ringo sings! This is a Lennon/McCartney song that is also recorded by the Rolling Stones. Why? Because both bands are under the same label and are actually personal friends. (This will be a plot point in a minute.)
Then America discovers them and there are albums that are those but different combinations and it's all very confusing. I'm sticking to the UK albums.
And then there is fandom. Beatlemania hits both sides of the Pond, and the fangirls begin writing each other. And writing. And writing. Because the Beatles are producing different content on either side of the Atlantic. And it sounds odd, because they were the same songs, but the Brits had more, the Yanks had different production values, and there were several combinations.
There's no modern equivalent. Would you buy the different region versions of the dvds if you could? Especially if they offered the seasons in a different order. If there were extended scenes in the UK version, but the blu ray versions were available in the US?
The fangirls found each other. Clear across the oceans, they found each other and they started mailing each other albums, newspapers, magazines, posters, photos, you name it. They found it and shared it with the world.
And while they're talking to each other anyway - they start organizing. They start showing up. Today we take it for granted. People set stalk, go to the airports, go to the clubs, go to the conventions. But they didn't in 1963/1964. No one had ever seen fangirls en masse.
The closest had been Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. But with better mass communication available to teens in the 60s, the phenomenon exploded. That's what Beatlemania is. As near as I can tell, it was the first global fandom.
Somewhere during this, John Lennon and their manager, Brian Epstein, go on a 4 day holiday to Barcelona. Brain was as openly homosexual as one could be in 1963 England (where sodomy was still illegal) and behold. It's a tinhat fandom!
That's right. There are people that firmly believe that John was at least bi-curious and that he and Brian were an item. Fandom is that old. That my mom might be one of them is just disturbing on levels I can't describe. Because I grew up with the impression that John Lennon was openly bisexual, but I couldn't tell you why. *eyes mother issues; avoids like the plague* Ahem. He wasn't.
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Not knowing what the hell else to do with them, the studios went the Elvis route and put them on film. The Beatles had charmed the press and the cameras loved them - so why not? This is the first album completely written by the boys.
The title is a Ringoism - after a long, long recording session, he declared, "That was a hard day's night, that was."
See? It's impossible not to love Ringo a little.
Songs of Note:
A Hard Day's Night: The opening chord of both the album and the film, nobody seems to actually know how the hell they did it. LOL. Oh boys. Fortunately fandom these days has a wiki that pieced it together from interviews where they all give variations of the response: Well here's what I did, I don't know what the others were doing.
It is THE Beatle chord and predominately George's. And that's his guitar work at the end. There's a reason he's BFF with Clapton. He's not doing it to be fancy - he's just being playful and enjoying it.
If I Fell: is just a pretty love song filled with trippy harmonies. Kurt Cobain wouldn't lie.
Can't Buy Me Love: Paul's idealism meets American cynicism. People here immediately thought he was talking about prostitution. LOL. He was aghast. He was just trying to convey that all his new fame and fortune weren't helping him get what he really wanted from life. No. Really. Stop sniggering, John.
This is one of my all time faves simply because it's a Beatles memory attached to my father. He used to put this song on and we'd reenact the opening chase scene of the movie and my mom would facepalm. Greatly.
The Film
The film shows the wives and girlfriends although they're never identified as such "in canon". It's on this shoot that George Harrison meets Pattie Boyd. The film is adored by fandom. (It actually ages well enough.) There is all sorts of wank about whether or not they are married. Oh, Fandom, you never change.
Somewhere along the line, absolute WAR breaks out between Rolling Stones fans and Beatlemaniacs. No one has ever been able to explain it to me, Mom herself never hated the Stones.
The film is at its best when the boys break character - when they are running and keep falling. The Looks Fraught With Significance that Paul and John manage to engage in. It blurs the lines between reality and fiction and fans tend to tinhat that they really do all live together and are in luuuuurve.
Beatles For Sale (1964)
This was recorded in the same week as Hard Day's Night. Poor babies are exhausted.
Songs of Note:
I'm A Loser: John starts his "Dylan" period and starts using his songs to take a look at himself. "Part of me suspects I'm a loser and part of me thinks I'm God Almighty."
Rock and Roll Music: Another Chuck Berry cover. Rock-a-billy never seems to fail to perk John up.
I'll Follow the Sun: Remember how I said they were exhausted? Paul records a song he wrote when he was 16. Can you say filler? But it proves that Paul was born that schmoopy, even when he's being emo. Also the best stuff is the surprises.
Eight Days A Week: Another Ringoism that Ringo swears came from his chauffeur. No one buys it. It's everyone's favorite "annoy John" song - who apparently haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaates it, Precious. No really - there were apparently several attempts to put it to tape before settling on the pop style it now is. John never is happy with it and will never sing it live.
It, of course, goes to number 1 in America and stays there for seven weeks. No one knows it yet, but Beatlemania is at it's peak. If you listen closely, you'll hear John headdesking from the grave again.
HELP! (1965)
They try a second movie the following year - it's not aged as well. All of them have freely admitted to "eating pot for breakfast" and spend the movie in one long giggle fit.
Songs of Note:
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away: John's love of Dylan and a more introspective, autobiographical nature to songs
I've Just Seen A Face: It's bluegrass without the banjo. Paul's kinda fascinated with cowboys.
Yesterday: The origin of the song is something of an urban legend. Paul dreamed the song and spent days playing it and going nuts trying to figure out where it was from. Finally after a month of this, he decided it was probably his own and should put words to it. Unfortunately he had none - so for the longest time he just kept singing "Scrambled Eggs" while he worked it out. As in -- Scrambled Eggs, oh baby how I love your eggs -- and yes, you will now hear that when you hear the song. You're welcome.
Rubber Soul (1965)
Just so you know. Mom raised me to believe that this and Revolver are actually the same album. This is the first album in the "late Beatles" period. The sound becomes different. (There's also a way to make the title say Abbey Road in a mirror, but I have no way to explain that - it has to be shown.) It's the first album where they apparently either rebel against Brian or he's too out of control with drugs to contain them. But this album defines psychedelic pop rock.
Songs of Note:
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown): First use of a sitar in a rock song. It won't be the last. George Harrison apparently falls enamoured of the Indian guitar during trips to India. It starts a fad.
Girl: You will get stoned just listening to this song. I adore John Lennon's voice here and the tempo and swirling melodies are just so mellowing.
In My Life: This is one of my all time faves. A nostalgic, future nostalgic, emo, loving ballad to the rock star life. And it wasn't written by Paul. John's responsible. He's at his best when he's looking inward and reflecting the world.
Run For Your Life: The Beatles as creepy stalker. It's notable for the driving rhythm. A reminder that, at the end of the day, The Beatles are a rock n roll band.
Revolver: (1966)
And they kept going. Whatever this new freedom was, from this point on, they never give it up. Paul and Ringo still only produce what their muse tells them to. They found that inner voice and they don't waver musically from it. This is what they bring to the rock generation and why their music is so definitive to so many people from then.
Songs of Note:
(It is very, very hard not to just throw both albums at you)
Elenanor Rigby: This is what happens when Paul does Dylan. There are so many different stories about the behind the scenes of this, but it was a landmark for them as it had no chance of being performed live in the 1960s. They were studio oriented and less concerned about reproducing it without studio aids.
And Your Bird Can Sing: Old school Beatles harmonies over the newer sound. This sound is all about George Harrison on his 12 string Rickenbacker. Tell me you've heard every sound there is and your bird can swing.
For No One: Paul McCartney can make baroque music with an insanely depressing plot sound schmoopy and fun.
Here, There, and Everywhere: No, really. Paul's a real life chibi. It explains it all.
Tomorrow Never Knows: More psychedelic pop from John.
Sgt. Pepper's Lonley Hearts Club Band (1967)
By this time, the Beatlemania was fading. The fans were still fans and raving fangirls. But there were other bands to fangirl over. There was the war between the Stones and Beatles fans that split the fandom. Wank ruined fandoms back then the way it does now. The Beatles themselves weren't touring. They were burned out from the insane schedule they had had. They made back to back albums that were hits, but not in the public eye. But just as Twitter is not an indication of actual consciousness, The Beatles weren't out of the picture.
They produced Sgt. Pepper and everyone loses their shit over this album. I'm at a loss why, really. It does crystallize their new sound - and strikes a chord with people everywhere. But it also crystallizes the growing rift in the band. Like I said, they all found their muse which is a beautiful thing for an artist, but as a band with four different muses, it was the beginning of the end.
Songs of Note:
Getting Better: A glimpse of how good it is when John and Paul work together. Paul: It's getting better all the time. John: It can't get much worse. LOL. The sweet with the sour. John counters the insane happiness and Paul negates the depressed and introspective angst.
She's Leaving Home: The ultimate song for rebellious teenage girls in the 60s rejecting their WWII parents
A Day In The Life: The first of several "drabbles". John had half a song. Paul had half a song. Rather than try to finish either, they just jam them together - and it works when it shouldn't. It's a completely different tone, tempo and style. But it works. And the ending note fades forever into a deep subliminal bass reverb. It's the other definitive Beatles chord to match the one at the beginning of A Hard Day's Night.
Magical Mystery Tour (1968)
Some film maker who saw all the hijinks in Hard Day's Night and Help! thought it was like that in RL. LOL, Fanboy. He sticks The Beatles and their relatives on a bus tour to film what happens. A whole lotta nothing is what happens. Plus the Fab Four ignore each other as much as possible. It's not actively antagonistic - it's self preservation. They've been in each other's pockets for nine years at this point. They want to spend time with people who are NOT Beatles at this point.
The album's kinda awesome though and I like it better than Sgt Pepper's. THE BEATLES WERE DOING CAPSLOCK BACK IN 68, BITCH. AND THEY DID IT RIGHT.
Songs of Note:
The Fool On The Hill: Paul's song for the leader of the Transcendental Meditation movement. My mom associates it with Dr Martin Luther King, Jr - so I was surprised a couple years ago to find out it was before he died and not about him at all.
Your Mother Should Know: It's just so silly. They do a Broadway thing - no, it cannot be rendered in words. - behold the crack. (And I swear, this is where the Helter Skelter line - "You may be a lover but you ain't no dancer" - comes from.)
I Am The Walrus: This is drugs. This is your Bealtes on drugs. Any questions?
And then my favorite part about the album. They ran out of songs so side 1 is this weird acid trip and then side 2 is a perfectly acceptable old school Beatles album. No, really. It's like a perfect illustration of "this is what schizophrenic means"
Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane: Two songs written by John and Paul respectively about the same thing - the childhood places they missed.
All You Need Is Love: And if there is any one song to sum up what Mom has taught me about The Beatles, this is it. My all time favorite John'n'Paul moment is at the end of the song where they begin singing "She Loves You" spontaneously. I'm sure there's a wiki. There is! (and damn, I find it NOW?!) But in rehearsals, John started it, having suddenly grokked that they were subconsciously stealing from themselves. During the live performance, Paul starts it back. And there's this shared grin and they start singing to each other, and there's no one else in the world. *FLAILS* Oh, boys. 3:25
The Beatles - better known as "The White Album" (1968)
Brian, the manager, dies. They come out with an album cover that features male nudity and the subsequent fight with the record distributors happens. They release it with no album art and it becomes "The White Album". Most of these songs were recorded without the band being in the same room, and Ringo quit at one point, so that's Paul playing drums on some of the songs. The album should be an unmitigated disaster, and it is very disorganized to listen to from start to finish. But even apart, The Beatles magic is there.
Songs of Note:
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da: I find it impossible not to bounce to this song and judge you if you can.
The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill and Rocky Raccoon: THE CRACK. YOU MUST HEAR THE CRACK. The juxtaposition between these and the downright morbid tracks is like comparing Castiel to Misha Collins. They'll never be my all time faves, but The Beatles give good crack. Bungalow Bill is doubly delicious as it's supposed to be based on a guy The Beatles met at the meditation camp in India. He took a break from communing with God, to go tiger hunting and then came back to commune with God more. John apparently felt this fell under "I couldn't make this shit up if I tried" and wrote a song. Rocky Raccoon is just what happens when Paul gets stoned to country music. (No. Really.)
While My Guitar Gently Weeps: God. George Fucking Harrison. *FLAILS*
Blackbird: THIS was definitely written for the Civil Rights marchers. I know cause Paul McCartney said so at a concert this month. So there. It's also simple and fucking beautiful.
Helter Skelter: The Beatles were making Heavy Metal before anyone knew what it was.
Yellow Submarine (1969)
Someone learned from the poor fanboy who made Mystery Tour and decided to animate them instead. It's the guy who did the Flinstones, I think. The film is love, the album is pieced from other recordings. BLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEANIES!!!!!!
Let It Be (1970)
It's released last, but recorded first, so I'm dealing with it first. Plus, there's all the "Paul is Dead" crap to recap yet. Paul lost his mind and missed performing. The rest of the band was all, "We can't seem to record at the same time, what the hell, Paul?"
But as it turned out, Paul didn't mean a concert as much as he did a jam session to end all jam sessions. They did it on the roof. They had permits, but the police came and said, "Yeah, we know you have permits. But your the goddamn Beatles, you morons! Are you trying to get killed? GET. OFF. THE. ROOF. And holy shit, is that Eric Clapton up there with you? The Stones? Frampton? DOWN. NOW."
And fandom bitched and musicians called OPRESHUN! OPPRESHUN OF TEH MUSAKS! and the police told them all to go jump off a roof. "No. Wait. They just might. Fucking hippies."
Ahem. I kinda heart them. Have you noticed?
Songs of Note:
Two of Us: Paul meets Linda. He's done. Any chance of not writing love songs? Gone. It's also my "Happy Winchesters" song. Shut up, it's not Wincest.
Across The Universe: "Nothing's gonna change my world" is just such a loaded line for a song created in 1969.
Let It Be and The Long and Winding Road: Both songs have the same "End of an Era" feel.
I've Got A Feeling and Get Back: The live performance on the rooftop I mentioned. Rock Gods jamming to please no one but themselves.
Abbey Road (1969)
So it's 1969 and The Beatles have been fighting for over a year. A rumor starts that Paul is dead and has actually been replaced by a look alike. This is, of course, the OBVIOUS and logical reason that they stopped touring and why Paul (who is made of lollipops) has been OMG!MEEN to fans. (The fans climbing in windows, disrupting SURGERY, and generally being a public menace are blameless.) This explains all those horrid rumors about fighting and potential break ups. The surviving members CANNOT LIVE WITH THE LIES. THE UTTER, TERRIBLE LIES!
Ahem. Read the wiki.
So The Beatles are tired of it, but the Rooftop Concert was love and they actually remember that they LIKE making music together. George Martin (the sound producer who is there through it ALL) takes charge and gets all sexy bossy mod on their asses but lets the wives come to recording. The boys are all sheepish and actually RECORD TOGETHER. The feeling was apparently that if they were going to go out - they were going out on a high note.
Songs of Note:
Come Together: This is the song everyone covers to prove their Beatles cred. I'm not sure why. But it is addictive.
Something: This song is the number 1 reason to hate Patti Boyd. She's George's wife at the time and the inspiration for the song. They'll get divorced and she'll marry the BFF Eric Clapton and inspire Layla and Wonderful Tonight. The bitch. ;P
Oh Darling: I'm not sure how you make a swing song a rock ballad, but it's evidently possible
Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End: Paul takes three drabbles, sets them to music (recycled in part from Back and You Never Give Me Your Money) gets his groove on and belts out what is The Beatles final message to the universe: And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make. Oh, yeah.
Holy Shit. I hope this was something CLOSE to what you wanted. *joins John headdesking*
I'm not sure I can do it justice and I know I can't talk about them without talking about the fandom. My mom was a Beatlemaniac and is still a PaulGirl. When I say that I'm third generation fangirl, I'm not joking. My grandmother and mother were fangirls. I was raised to be one.
I'm directing this to the fan who asked for this. So it's told in terms of our shared fandoms. It is told from the fangirl perspective as taught to me - actual truth is irrelevant.
The Cast
So first let's break down who the Beatles are. I'm sure you already know them, but I'm not sure you know them from a fangirl pov.
John Lennon: To a JohnGirl - John is SPN Sam without the demon blood, Aragorn, and the Ninth Doctor. He sees the potential of the world to have peace and believes in the power of unity over adversity. He is also very easily angered over injustice and apathy towards it. He's the one with the sharp sarcastic humor and his one-liners tend to be quoted quite a bit by fandom.
How do you find America? -- Turn left at Greenland
We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity.
It gets him into about as much trouble as you'd think.
Paul McCartney: Mom is a PaulGirl - you don't even know. The thing, Dear Fangirl, that you need to understand is that Paul McCartney is made of schmoop, wrapped in Puppy Eyes of Doom and smoking a joint. Think of the sappiest, silliest, most Mary Sue fantasy you've ever had. You know, the one you think is so stupid you've never even written it down. Paul McCartney has not only written it, he's put it to music and you probably have it memorized and you don't even know it.
This can best be summed up by this story:
John Lennon once had a snitfit moment of exasperation that Paul never writes anything political. Just "silly love songs".
Paul promptly wrote a song titled "Silly Love Songs" in which one croons nothing but the words "I Love You" for a solid minute and a half. It went to Number 1 in the US.
If you listen carefully, you can still hear John Lennon headdesking from the grave.
You'd think that people would have had enough of silly love songs
But I look around me and I see it isn't so
Oh no
Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs
And what's wrong with that?
I'd like to know because here I go again.
I
Loooooooooooove
Yooooooooooooooou
And I just realized that it's quite possible that Paul McCartney is a RL Chibi.
George Harrison: You are a SamGirl. You'll love George. George is the "quiet, soulful" one. He's not actually, but that's how fandom perceived him and there was no shaking it after that. Per fandom he's BFF with Eric Clapton. (The way we assume Kane and Carlson hang out with the boys all the time.) George is definitely the spiritualist of the group and explores Hinduism before coming back to Christianity. He shares John's humor and political idealism. He's also stifled creatively by the contract signed by all of them and limited to one song here and there. When the Beatles break up, he's the first with an album out and the first to find a musical identity that's not "ex-Beatle".
“The nicest thing is to open the newspapers and not to find yourself in them.”
Ringo Starr: Truthfully, Ringo is perceived as Ash or Andy. The comic relief of the group - mostly because he's not the songwriter the other three are. He's in it more for the music and performance and is insanely generous when the others start writing songs that don't need a drummer. He's the "goofy one" in several respects:
Drumming: He was a left handed drummer playing on a right handed set and the resulting percussion fills drum geeks with squee. I can recognize it, but I don't understand it. (Mainly because I compare everything to it, so I don't see it as abnormal).
Ringoisms: Ringo makes up expressions. The other boys HEART THIS LIEK WOAH. Several of these become titles of Beatles songs. A Hard Day's Night being the most famous one.
Pick Up Bands: Because he is who he is, Ringo knows an insane number of famous people. He apparently wanders away quite a bit in Apple Studios and may end up uncredited on other bands' albums.
Ringo not only follows his own drumbeat, he's likely leading a whole new parade. He's the one that seems to me to be most aware of the fandom and how unique it is. I saw him in concert recently and instead of leaving the stage to prep for encore, he came to the front and said:
Ok, so this is the part where we go off stage and pretend to leave until we get asked for an encore. We know we're not really leaving. You know we're not really leaving. We know that you know we're not really leaving. And besides - it's really, really sweltering hot and cramped back there. So instead of THAT nonsense - we're just going to turn off the lights and stand here. You guys just make THAT NOISE. Ok?
And we did.
The Albums
One of the interesting things I learned doing this? "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" isn't on any of their albums. Brian Epstien literally just told John and Paul to go write a song that would do well in America. So they locked themselves in the basement at Paul's girlfriend's house and did.
This is the fandom equivalent of "Greatest Hits of Mullet Rock" line. Other songs will over shadow it, but this song will never fail to take my mom to her happy place.
Please, Please Me (UK, 1963)
The entire album shows how in sync they were as a group. This is their first album, but they'd been performing together for quite awhile and know each other quirks. Paul and John harmonizing always gets me. Neither of them have an excellent voice, but somehow, when one goes sharp the other goes flat to compensate and the sound created is almost its own thing.
Songs of Note:
I Saw Her Standing There: has been covered by a zillion people, and I still prefer the original as it doesn't sound as ironic as a cover inevitably does.
Twist and Shout: a cover and a one take recording - and even though they aren't the ones that wrote it - I'm willing to bet it's who you hear think of the song.
Love Me Do: if there is a stereotypical Beatles song, this is it for the early years.
Do You Want To Know A Secret: George sings! Also notable because John swears it's inspired by "I'm Wishing" from Walt Disney's Snow White. And I believe him.
With The Beatles (UK, 1963)
The second album makes The Beatles a bona fide hit group in England. It's definitely a quintessential Epstien era album. It's not my favorite album, but like Bugs has LongBoyOnCarHood and steam showers, there is no such thing as a worthless Beatles album.
Songs of Note:
It Won't Be Long: the call/response of the yeahs between John and Paul are their "thing". It's how most of the songs seem to be written - and from the vids, it's their preferred method and the moments when they love each other most.
Till There Was You: for the novelty of Paul McCartney wanting to be the librarian in The Music Man. Like I said - Paul McCartney will out schmoop you. You've become diabetic just reading a post mentioning him this much.
I Wanna Be Your Man: Ringo sings! This is a Lennon/McCartney song that is also recorded by the Rolling Stones. Why? Because both bands are under the same label and are actually personal friends. (This will be a plot point in a minute.)
Then America discovers them and there are albums that are those but different combinations and it's all very confusing. I'm sticking to the UK albums.
And then there is fandom. Beatlemania hits both sides of the Pond, and the fangirls begin writing each other. And writing. And writing. Because the Beatles are producing different content on either side of the Atlantic. And it sounds odd, because they were the same songs, but the Brits had more, the Yanks had different production values, and there were several combinations.
There's no modern equivalent. Would you buy the different region versions of the dvds if you could? Especially if they offered the seasons in a different order. If there were extended scenes in the UK version, but the blu ray versions were available in the US?
The fangirls found each other. Clear across the oceans, they found each other and they started mailing each other albums, newspapers, magazines, posters, photos, you name it. They found it and shared it with the world.
And while they're talking to each other anyway - they start organizing. They start showing up. Today we take it for granted. People set stalk, go to the airports, go to the clubs, go to the conventions. But they didn't in 1963/1964. No one had ever seen fangirls en masse.
The closest had been Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. But with better mass communication available to teens in the 60s, the phenomenon exploded. That's what Beatlemania is. As near as I can tell, it was the first global fandom.
Somewhere during this, John Lennon and their manager, Brian Epstein, go on a 4 day holiday to Barcelona. Brain was as openly homosexual as one could be in 1963 England (where sodomy was still illegal) and behold. It's a tinhat fandom!
That's right. There are people that firmly believe that John was at least bi-curious and that he and Brian were an item. Fandom is that old. That my mom might be one of them is just disturbing on levels I can't describe. Because I grew up with the impression that John Lennon was openly bisexual, but I couldn't tell you why. *eyes mother issues; avoids like the plague* Ahem. He wasn't.
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Not knowing what the hell else to do with them, the studios went the Elvis route and put them on film. The Beatles had charmed the press and the cameras loved them - so why not? This is the first album completely written by the boys.
The title is a Ringoism - after a long, long recording session, he declared, "That was a hard day's night, that was."
See? It's impossible not to love Ringo a little.
Songs of Note:
A Hard Day's Night: The opening chord of both the album and the film, nobody seems to actually know how the hell they did it. LOL. Oh boys. Fortunately fandom these days has a wiki that pieced it together from interviews where they all give variations of the response: Well here's what I did, I don't know what the others were doing.
It is THE Beatle chord and predominately George's. And that's his guitar work at the end. There's a reason he's BFF with Clapton. He's not doing it to be fancy - he's just being playful and enjoying it.
If I Fell: is just a pretty love song filled with trippy harmonies. Kurt Cobain wouldn't lie.
Can't Buy Me Love: Paul's idealism meets American cynicism. People here immediately thought he was talking about prostitution. LOL. He was aghast. He was just trying to convey that all his new fame and fortune weren't helping him get what he really wanted from life. No. Really. Stop sniggering, John.
This is one of my all time faves simply because it's a Beatles memory attached to my father. He used to put this song on and we'd reenact the opening chase scene of the movie and my mom would facepalm. Greatly.
The Film
The film shows the wives and girlfriends although they're never identified as such "in canon". It's on this shoot that George Harrison meets Pattie Boyd. The film is adored by fandom. (It actually ages well enough.) There is all sorts of wank about whether or not they are married. Oh, Fandom, you never change.
Somewhere along the line, absolute WAR breaks out between Rolling Stones fans and Beatlemaniacs. No one has ever been able to explain it to me, Mom herself never hated the Stones.
The film is at its best when the boys break character - when they are running and keep falling. The Looks Fraught With Significance that Paul and John manage to engage in. It blurs the lines between reality and fiction and fans tend to tinhat that they really do all live together and are in luuuuurve.
Beatles For Sale (1964)
This was recorded in the same week as Hard Day's Night. Poor babies are exhausted.
Songs of Note:
I'm A Loser: John starts his "Dylan" period and starts using his songs to take a look at himself. "Part of me suspects I'm a loser and part of me thinks I'm God Almighty."
Rock and Roll Music: Another Chuck Berry cover. Rock-a-billy never seems to fail to perk John up.
I'll Follow the Sun: Remember how I said they were exhausted? Paul records a song he wrote when he was 16. Can you say filler? But it proves that Paul was born that schmoopy, even when he's being emo. Also the best stuff is the surprises.
Eight Days A Week: Another Ringoism that Ringo swears came from his chauffeur. No one buys it. It's everyone's favorite "annoy John" song - who apparently haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaates it, Precious. No really - there were apparently several attempts to put it to tape before settling on the pop style it now is. John never is happy with it and will never sing it live.
It, of course, goes to number 1 in America and stays there for seven weeks. No one knows it yet, but Beatlemania is at it's peak. If you listen closely, you'll hear John headdesking from the grave again.
HELP! (1965)
They try a second movie the following year - it's not aged as well. All of them have freely admitted to "eating pot for breakfast" and spend the movie in one long giggle fit.
Songs of Note:
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away: John's love of Dylan and a more introspective, autobiographical nature to songs
I've Just Seen A Face: It's bluegrass without the banjo. Paul's kinda fascinated with cowboys.
Yesterday: The origin of the song is something of an urban legend. Paul dreamed the song and spent days playing it and going nuts trying to figure out where it was from. Finally after a month of this, he decided it was probably his own and should put words to it. Unfortunately he had none - so for the longest time he just kept singing "Scrambled Eggs" while he worked it out. As in -- Scrambled Eggs, oh baby how I love your eggs -- and yes, you will now hear that when you hear the song. You're welcome.
Rubber Soul (1965)
Just so you know. Mom raised me to believe that this and Revolver are actually the same album. This is the first album in the "late Beatles" period. The sound becomes different. (There's also a way to make the title say Abbey Road in a mirror, but I have no way to explain that - it has to be shown.) It's the first album where they apparently either rebel against Brian or he's too out of control with drugs to contain them. But this album defines psychedelic pop rock.
Songs of Note:
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown): First use of a sitar in a rock song. It won't be the last. George Harrison apparently falls enamoured of the Indian guitar during trips to India. It starts a fad.
Girl: You will get stoned just listening to this song. I adore John Lennon's voice here and the tempo and swirling melodies are just so mellowing.
In My Life: This is one of my all time faves. A nostalgic, future nostalgic, emo, loving ballad to the rock star life. And it wasn't written by Paul. John's responsible. He's at his best when he's looking inward and reflecting the world.
Run For Your Life: The Beatles as creepy stalker. It's notable for the driving rhythm. A reminder that, at the end of the day, The Beatles are a rock n roll band.
Revolver: (1966)
And they kept going. Whatever this new freedom was, from this point on, they never give it up. Paul and Ringo still only produce what their muse tells them to. They found that inner voice and they don't waver musically from it. This is what they bring to the rock generation and why their music is so definitive to so many people from then.
Songs of Note:
(It is very, very hard not to just throw both albums at you)
Elenanor Rigby: This is what happens when Paul does Dylan. There are so many different stories about the behind the scenes of this, but it was a landmark for them as it had no chance of being performed live in the 1960s. They were studio oriented and less concerned about reproducing it without studio aids.
And Your Bird Can Sing: Old school Beatles harmonies over the newer sound. This sound is all about George Harrison on his 12 string Rickenbacker. Tell me you've heard every sound there is and your bird can swing.
For No One: Paul McCartney can make baroque music with an insanely depressing plot sound schmoopy and fun.
Here, There, and Everywhere: No, really. Paul's a real life chibi. It explains it all.
Tomorrow Never Knows: More psychedelic pop from John.
Sgt. Pepper's Lonley Hearts Club Band (1967)
By this time, the Beatlemania was fading. The fans were still fans and raving fangirls. But there were other bands to fangirl over. There was the war between the Stones and Beatles fans that split the fandom. Wank ruined fandoms back then the way it does now. The Beatles themselves weren't touring. They were burned out from the insane schedule they had had. They made back to back albums that were hits, but not in the public eye. But just as Twitter is not an indication of actual consciousness, The Beatles weren't out of the picture.
They produced Sgt. Pepper and everyone loses their shit over this album. I'm at a loss why, really. It does crystallize their new sound - and strikes a chord with people everywhere. But it also crystallizes the growing rift in the band. Like I said, they all found their muse which is a beautiful thing for an artist, but as a band with four different muses, it was the beginning of the end.
Songs of Note:
Getting Better: A glimpse of how good it is when John and Paul work together. Paul: It's getting better all the time. John: It can't get much worse. LOL. The sweet with the sour. John counters the insane happiness and Paul negates the depressed and introspective angst.
She's Leaving Home: The ultimate song for rebellious teenage girls in the 60s rejecting their WWII parents
A Day In The Life: The first of several "drabbles". John had half a song. Paul had half a song. Rather than try to finish either, they just jam them together - and it works when it shouldn't. It's a completely different tone, tempo and style. But it works. And the ending note fades forever into a deep subliminal bass reverb. It's the other definitive Beatles chord to match the one at the beginning of A Hard Day's Night.
Magical Mystery Tour (1968)
Some film maker who saw all the hijinks in Hard Day's Night and Help! thought it was like that in RL. LOL, Fanboy. He sticks The Beatles and their relatives on a bus tour to film what happens. A whole lotta nothing is what happens. Plus the Fab Four ignore each other as much as possible. It's not actively antagonistic - it's self preservation. They've been in each other's pockets for nine years at this point. They want to spend time with people who are NOT Beatles at this point.
The album's kinda awesome though and I like it better than Sgt Pepper's. THE BEATLES WERE DOING CAPSLOCK BACK IN 68, BITCH. AND THEY DID IT RIGHT.
Songs of Note:
The Fool On The Hill: Paul's song for the leader of the Transcendental Meditation movement. My mom associates it with Dr Martin Luther King, Jr - so I was surprised a couple years ago to find out it was before he died and not about him at all.
Your Mother Should Know: It's just so silly. They do a Broadway thing - no, it cannot be rendered in words. - behold the crack. (And I swear, this is where the Helter Skelter line - "You may be a lover but you ain't no dancer" - comes from.)
I Am The Walrus: This is drugs. This is your Bealtes on drugs. Any questions?
And then my favorite part about the album. They ran out of songs so side 1 is this weird acid trip and then side 2 is a perfectly acceptable old school Beatles album. No, really. It's like a perfect illustration of "this is what schizophrenic means"
Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane: Two songs written by John and Paul respectively about the same thing - the childhood places they missed.
All You Need Is Love: And if there is any one song to sum up what Mom has taught me about The Beatles, this is it. My all time favorite John'n'Paul moment is at the end of the song where they begin singing "She Loves You" spontaneously. I'm sure there's a wiki. There is! (and damn, I find it NOW?!) But in rehearsals, John started it, having suddenly grokked that they were subconsciously stealing from themselves. During the live performance, Paul starts it back. And there's this shared grin and they start singing to each other, and there's no one else in the world. *FLAILS* Oh, boys. 3:25
The Beatles - better known as "The White Album" (1968)
Brian, the manager, dies. They come out with an album cover that features male nudity and the subsequent fight with the record distributors happens. They release it with no album art and it becomes "The White Album". Most of these songs were recorded without the band being in the same room, and Ringo quit at one point, so that's Paul playing drums on some of the songs. The album should be an unmitigated disaster, and it is very disorganized to listen to from start to finish. But even apart, The Beatles magic is there.
Songs of Note:
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da: I find it impossible not to bounce to this song and judge you if you can.
The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill and Rocky Raccoon: THE CRACK. YOU MUST HEAR THE CRACK. The juxtaposition between these and the downright morbid tracks is like comparing Castiel to Misha Collins. They'll never be my all time faves, but The Beatles give good crack. Bungalow Bill is doubly delicious as it's supposed to be based on a guy The Beatles met at the meditation camp in India. He took a break from communing with God, to go tiger hunting and then came back to commune with God more. John apparently felt this fell under "I couldn't make this shit up if I tried" and wrote a song. Rocky Raccoon is just what happens when Paul gets stoned to country music. (No. Really.)
While My Guitar Gently Weeps: God. George Fucking Harrison. *FLAILS*
Blackbird: THIS was definitely written for the Civil Rights marchers. I know cause Paul McCartney said so at a concert this month. So there. It's also simple and fucking beautiful.
Helter Skelter: The Beatles were making Heavy Metal before anyone knew what it was.
Yellow Submarine (1969)
Someone learned from the poor fanboy who made Mystery Tour and decided to animate them instead. It's the guy who did the Flinstones, I think. The film is love, the album is pieced from other recordings. BLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEANIES!!!!!!
Let It Be (1970)
It's released last, but recorded first, so I'm dealing with it first. Plus, there's all the "Paul is Dead" crap to recap yet. Paul lost his mind and missed performing. The rest of the band was all, "We can't seem to record at the same time, what the hell, Paul?"
But as it turned out, Paul didn't mean a concert as much as he did a jam session to end all jam sessions. They did it on the roof. They had permits, but the police came and said, "Yeah, we know you have permits. But your the goddamn Beatles, you morons! Are you trying to get killed? GET. OFF. THE. ROOF. And holy shit, is that Eric Clapton up there with you? The Stones? Frampton? DOWN. NOW."
And fandom bitched and musicians called OPRESHUN! OPPRESHUN OF TEH MUSAKS! and the police told them all to go jump off a roof. "No. Wait. They just might. Fucking hippies."
Ahem. I kinda heart them. Have you noticed?
Songs of Note:
Two of Us: Paul meets Linda. He's done. Any chance of not writing love songs? Gone. It's also my "Happy Winchesters" song. Shut up, it's not Wincest.
Across The Universe: "Nothing's gonna change my world" is just such a loaded line for a song created in 1969.
Let It Be and The Long and Winding Road: Both songs have the same "End of an Era" feel.
I've Got A Feeling and Get Back: The live performance on the rooftop I mentioned. Rock Gods jamming to please no one but themselves.
Abbey Road (1969)
So it's 1969 and The Beatles have been fighting for over a year. A rumor starts that Paul is dead and has actually been replaced by a look alike. This is, of course, the OBVIOUS and logical reason that they stopped touring and why Paul (who is made of lollipops) has been OMG!MEEN to fans. (The fans climbing in windows, disrupting SURGERY, and generally being a public menace are blameless.) This explains all those horrid rumors about fighting and potential break ups. The surviving members CANNOT LIVE WITH THE LIES. THE UTTER, TERRIBLE LIES!
Ahem. Read the wiki.
So The Beatles are tired of it, but the Rooftop Concert was love and they actually remember that they LIKE making music together. George Martin (the sound producer who is there through it ALL) takes charge and gets all sexy bossy mod on their asses but lets the wives come to recording. The boys are all sheepish and actually RECORD TOGETHER. The feeling was apparently that if they were going to go out - they were going out on a high note.
Songs of Note:
Come Together: This is the song everyone covers to prove their Beatles cred. I'm not sure why. But it is addictive.
Something: This song is the number 1 reason to hate Patti Boyd. She's George's wife at the time and the inspiration for the song. They'll get divorced and she'll marry the BFF Eric Clapton and inspire Layla and Wonderful Tonight. The bitch. ;P
Oh Darling: I'm not sure how you make a swing song a rock ballad, but it's evidently possible
Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End: Paul takes three drabbles, sets them to music (recycled in part from Back and You Never Give Me Your Money) gets his groove on and belts out what is The Beatles final message to the universe: And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make. Oh, yeah.
Holy Shit. I hope this was something CLOSE to what you wanted. *joins John headdesking*