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| Copies of The White Album were numbered |
The Beatles were the soundtrack to my teenage years. I heard Love Me Do on Radio Luxembourg when I was twelve, and their last LP came out when I was twenty.
I have two Beatles LPs: the White Album, and Abbey Road, but I had the whole set on tape. I also have two 7-inch, 45 rpm singles: I Feel Fine / She’s A Woman and I Wanna Hold Your Hand / This Boy. Every record was innovative and original, leading the development of 1960s popular music from simple songs such as Please Please Me to the more sophisticated, like The Long And Winding Road. They assimilated a wide variety of musical styles, and widened our musical horizons.
I played them all the time, and liked just about everything they did. I have written about them several times, such as about how we went underage to the pub to watch The Magical Mystery Tour on television, and how Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, especially the song Fixing A Hole, seemed to accompany all my practical DIY repairs through the years (recently reposted).
I liked Paul McCartney’s melodies best, and later George Harrison’s songs, such as While My Guitar Gently Weeps. I was never a big fan of John Lennon: he was too full of himself, outspoken, and opinionated for my liking. A bit of a big head. This was matched by his music which was edgier than the others’.
The White Album allowed my early experiments with stereo. I fitted a stereo stylus and pickup cartridge to my record player, and wired one channel to my tape recorder input. It worked. The aeroplane at the start of Back In The USSR flew convincingly across the room, and I wanted to hear more. I spent my twenty-first birthday money on a rather expensive stereo hi-fi.
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| Stereo Pickup Cartridge and Stylus |
In the shared house in Leeds, we had The Beatles Song Book and played through it on our guitars at least once a week. We knew the songs really well, and I later recorded some improvisations around them.
I suppose if I were allowed only one record, it would be by The Beatles. But which one? They had immense influence on popular music, and upon me.
The Beatles were a bit before my time but of course I came to know their music well. My late partner who grew up in Newcastle used to take his tranny (?) to bed to listen to Radio Luxembourg as ice froze on the inside of his bedroom window.
ReplyDeleteNo central heating, draughty windows, poor insulation. One advantage of being ill was that you got a fire lit in the bedroom.
DeleteThe way you experimented with stereo sound and brought new life to the music is a perfect example of how The Beatles inspired innovation and creativity in their fans. It's also interesting to hear your take on the members’ styles and personalities, especially regarding Paul, George, and John. Truly, their influence on popular music is immeasurable, and it sounds like their impact on you was just as profound.
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Yes, they were a big influence.
DeleteThanks for visiting and commenting. I have little interest in fashion and lifestyle, so sorry but won't be following your blog.
What a watershed moment in music the Beatles represented!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. Right place, right time, but I doubt others would have been able to do it.
DeleteYou know, it's funny. I remember sitting in a dark kitchen as a thunderstorm raged outside. I was having breakfast, and my mother was at the sink. I was in kindergarten, and walked to the school alone (can you imagine that now?) every morning and I was afraid to go out in the storm. My mother was trying to talk me into it. The Beatles were playing "I Want to Hold Your Hand" on the radio and I was having quite a blub. Because I did. I did want to hold her hand, although quite honestly, the realization of how well this song fit to the circumstances was lost on me until I began to write this. How funny.
ReplyDeletePS: in the end, the neighbor drove me to school that morning.
Almost every song has its own memory for me.
DeleteKids in our quiet village walk to school on their own.
Although I was quite young when they were in their heyday, I loved their music and would sing along every time they were played on the radio at home. I learned every word and would belt them all out at the top of my voice. Mum and Dad loved that! 😏
ReplyDeleteWhat would P say if you were to do it now?
DeleteI liked Paul McCartney but somehow The Beatles washed over me. It is weird we are just as likely to meet Linda McCartney at the supermarket in the vegetarian section. I liked the family atmosphere and I would choose The Mull of Kintyre as a particular favourite.
ReplyDeleteRam with Paul and Linda M has been described as a domestic bliss album.
DeleteYour experimentation sounds first-class.
ReplyDeleteI could have my nerdy moments in those days.
DeleteWhen I was in fourth grade our choral teacher had us perform songs from Sgt. Pepper's. This was in 1979 and I still remember the excitement of learning the lyrics and performing the songs. I found an LP of the music from the film a few years' back and am glad to be able to play when the mood strikes.
ReplyDeleteIt must have been great fun to perform something a little different from the usual choral pieces. I would have enjoyed being in that.
DeleteJohn Lennon was my working class hero. So funny and right to the point and so talented. He even bought an Island in Ireland never forgetting his Irish roots. Great post Tasker.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Although I tend to prefer quieter people, I do not dispute his talent.
DeleteMy favourite is Hey Jude.
ReplyDeleteI love it because my granny loved it. We used to be in the kitchen singing and humming to "Na Na Na Na Na Na, Hey Jude" as I was growing up.
A great song.
DeletePart of the soundtrack to my youth, but I always preferred the Stones and the Who to the Beatles, although I did really like some of their tracks.
ReplyDeleteFor a long time I didn't really like much of the Stones, because they were not as musically sophisticated as The Who and The Beatles.
Deletenorwegian wood? wooden't he?
ReplyDeleteIsn't it good?
DeleteThe Beatles reach us all, one way or another.
ReplyDeleteEven my dad came to like them, although he blamed them for the breakdown in social standards.
DeleteI forgot to say that two of my grandchildren now move in the same circle as George Harrison's grandson. Life certainly moves on at a pace.
ReplyDeleteIt does. It's difficult to think of him as a grandpa.
DeleteThey were my era too. I remember my grandfather tuttung at how long their pudding-basin haircuts were, as he was a short-back-and-sides man. I've still got most of the Beatles LPs and some of the singles too. I also made a point of revisiting their haunts in Hamburg when I went there 18 months ago.
ReplyDeleteA Beatles pilgrimage. Do you still have the equipment to play the LPs?
DeleteYes I do. I have an old music centre that plays vinyls, cassettes and CDs. You can still buy music centres usually online or from catalogue companies.
DeleteDear Tasker, I still remember the first time I heard the Beatles on our radio. It was enlightenment: I was very young, almost 15 years, and till then the tunes that came out of the radio were -- well: boring, for me at last, songs my parents heard and liked.
ReplyDeleteWhen I had heard the Beatles, I went out and bought my first single ever (till then I had only presents from aunts and uncles, more in the classic sector) - and that was "I want to Hold Your Hand!" which started in Germany the mania :-) Many discs followed, and are entangled with many memories of my youth.
I think we must all have Beatles stories. Before they were so well known, they crashed their van in my home town, returning late one night from a gig in Hull. George was driving, and had to appear later in Court.
DeleteWhich one? Surely it would have to be "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". That really broke the mould and marked a real uplift in their musicality - also signalling to other bands and song makers that there might be other, more exciting and innovative paths to tread.
ReplyDeleteA strong contender, but the earlier LPs also broke the mould. I remember being impressed by Revolver.
DeleteJust came back from my visit over the Pond...wishing I was still there--but now catching up on my reading so a bit late seeing this post.
ReplyDeleteI lived in Germany in the early 1960s and listened to Radio Luxembourg at night on my little transistor radio. My family camped all over Europe and at every campground we went to some young person would pull out a transistor radio in the evenings and tune in to RL. All of the teens would gather around--communicating through the music and dancing--when the multitude of languages made conversations a challenge. The early Beatles music, Love Me Do, PS I Love You (and then others from the Please, Please Me album) were playing quite a lot by the time I returned to the US in 1964 and I was a fan. Then in 1965 I was able to see the Beatles in person in Washington. See, being the operative word; hearing them was more of a challenge in the open stadium due to all the screaming girls (I was not screamer). But it was great fun. I have all their recordings. Even did a paper at university juxtaposing the lyrics of Eleanor Rigby and stanzas of TS Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Favorite album: Rubber Soul. That LP should have looked like a lace doily, I played it so often. Good memories.
What wonderful memories. I would have liked to be there.
DeleteI may be a week late but I had to respond to this post. The Beatles were also the soundtrack to not only my teenage years but much of my life. I was twelve when they first hit the U.S. and I was blown away. I still have many of their albums from my teenage years even though many have been supplemented by cds. I consider much of their music to be musical genius. Often I have tried to choose a favorite album, or even a favorite song. I can't do it. Thank you for taking me back.
ReplyDeleteI think it is easy to say in retrospect that album A is preferred to B, but at the time they were released they all seemed to be the most innovative thing ever made. I find it hard to choose one. I would not even exclude the earlier ones.
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