The Beatles 2

I’m up here at the Marian Shrine, at our Provincial Chapter, and to not bore you too much, the internet connection here is worse than dial up speed.  They’re working on it, but in the mean time I’ve had to do some fancy footwork to get the blog out this week.  And mainly because of the time restraints put on me by the Chapter, and now the terrible internet,  I’m continuing with my look at John Lennon and the Beatles.  I’d begun to work on these next couple of posts already, so it seems like a good thing to finish at least one theme that I’ve started (remember the whole Theology of  the Body/Phenomenology tangent I was on for a while?)  As a reminder, I was prompted to write on this because of the upcoming 30^th anniversary of John Lennon’s murder in December.

As we continue this little appreciation of the Beatles, it is important to remember how unique they are, not only in the context of their time, but in the entire history of pop music over the last 50 years.  They represented a quantum leap forward in how Rock and Roll was produced and marketed, and in many ways you could argue that they saved the musical form itself.  Between 1958 and 1962 many of the first pioneers of Rock and Roll were either in the Army (Elvis), in jail (Chuck Berry), dead (Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, The Big Bopper, Richie Valens), had careers derailed by scandal (Jerry Lee Louis) or were in self imposed exile (Little Richard).  The sounds were smooth and mellow, with a smattering R&B to make things danceable.  The Beatles were famously rejected by Decca Records in part because in 1962 guitar bands were out of fashion and the suits thought they wouldn't be back in any time soon.  They were eventually signed by Parlophone, a minor imprint of EMI, and the rest as they say, is history.

But this signing to Parlophone is no small detail because it was actually more fortuitous for the “Boys” than if they had been signed to the more mainstream label.  On first blush it seems like a strange pairing.  Parlophone was a small outfit that specialized in classical recordings.  The producer assigned to them, George Martin, had his background in the classics and Jazz.  The Beatles two main song writers, John and Paul, were rockers with no formal musical training and couldn’t read music.  But as they grew in their song craft and ambition as recording artists it was the classically trained Martin who translated Lennon and McCartney’s sometimes cryptic requests into musical magic (Lennon famously asked that the piano break of  In My Life “sound like Bach,” to which Martin manipulated the recording to resemble a harpsichord).  The process of recording harmony and backing vocals was tedious and boring because each vocal had to be recorded separately. At the band’s request Martin and his engineers devised a way of recording a single vocal track several times at once, saving time and energy, a practice that became standard in the industry.   Martin always insisted that all the music and the main ideas came from the band, and that he simply translated the inspirations into concrete musical expressions.  However you look at it, It’s hard to see the Beatles breaking through artistically the way they did without a little help from their friend George Martin.

And break through they did.  By 1966 it was the Beatles, Bob Dylan, with what would later be known as The Band as his backing group, and the Beach Boys, and everyone else was pretty much trying to catch up.  Dylan was the self proclaimed murderer of Tin Pan Alley, melding pop songwriting, traditional folk forms with modernist and beat poetry.  His concerts with the Band helped revolutionize the rock and roll stage show.  Listen to his "Albert Hall" concert, and then "Got Live If You Want It!" by the Rolling Stones from the same year and tell me if they belong in the same universe with each other, let alone the same stage.   Meanwhile the Beatles and Beach Boys were dueling to see who could create the greatest sonic masterpieces.  Each were influencing the other, as well competing against each other.

After Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys creative leader, imploded and Bob Dylan's famous motorcycle accident The Beatles were left alone as the masters of the studio, as well as becoming the main voice the "kids" were listening to (the purposefully nonsensical  I Am the Walrus was written by Lennon to confuse those trying to find the deeper meaning of their music). Under the often under-appreciated guidance of producer and arranger George Martin, they created recordings that other artist couldn't even begin to touch.  Nothing in 1966 sounded like "Revolver," nor did anything in '67 sound like "Sgt.  Pepper's" and even the more stripped down "White Album" in '68 defies comparison.  While 1969's "Abby Road" was arguably less revolutionary than their earlier efforts, it's still mentioned among the greatest rock and roll records of all time.  That they produced something so cohesive, and yes innovative, is amazing considering the fact that they were hardly a functioning band in the summer of '69 when it was recorded.

But this only begins to scratch the surface.  More on the Fab Four and their cultural impact next time.