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Music
Reading for Week 15: The Beatles

Introduction

All of you know at least one Beatles song. Some of you know lots and lots of
Beatles songs. These observations form a good starting point for us. Given
that The Beatles broke up a good two decades before most of you were born,
it is striking how familiar their music remains to us. To a large degree their
staying power is related to quality; The Beatles were a good band, in short,
and many of their songs have thus far withstood the test of time.

Here is another introductory observation regarding The Beatles
prominence: back in the day there was generally just one main popular-
music radio station in a given market, and thus pop-culture was widely
shared. Nowadays, and thanks in large part to the internet, we all build our
own perfect worlds of musical genres and sub-genres, and spend a lot of time
talking to those people who share our tastes. In sum, society was configured
in such a way in The Beatles time that they were almost everybodys band.
Given how fragmented popular taste has become, it is unlikely that any single
group will ever dominate popular music the way they did.

The next introductory point requires a little background in order to make
sense of it. Theres this common career-trajectory for many groups, one
youve no doubt encountered: the band is not well known, and develops a
tight-knit base of fanatical insider-fans. The band then makes it big, and as it
settles into super-stardom, those insider-fans begin to lose their sense of
connection; they feel the band has sold out, become too mainstream, etc. The
Beatles defied that trajectory. For reasons difficult to pin down, the more
popular they became, the more they were treated like a cutting-edge, avant-
garde band. If its possible to be superstars and a cult-band at the same time,
they did it.

That leads to a last introductory point, one that also requires some context:
you may remember how 20th-century modernist composers became very
experimental, and, in the process, lost most of their audiences. Here again
The Beatles defy precedent: as we will see, over the course of the 1960s they
became more experimental themselves, and yet they gained audiences in the
process. Somehow their envelope-pushing became a kind of pop-culture
experiment in which everyone was involved.

The Early Years

Forewarning: there is endless scholarship out there on The Beatles (books,
articles, encyclopedia-entries, interviews, video-clips, etc.). Consequently

there is probably nothing you could not find out about The Beatles if you set
your mind to it. No doubt we know exactly what guitar John Lennon used in
a given concert, who was dating whom when, in what restaurant the words
to a given song were written on a napkin, and so forth. That kind of trivia is
absent from this unit; in an effort to make our unit similar in approach to the
Dylan and funk units, well focus mainly on musical style and culture.

The Beatles formed in 1960. The group consisted of Paul McCartney (bass,
guitar, vocals and other things later on), John Lennon (guitar, vocals), George
Harrison (guitar, vocals), and, eventually, Ringo Starr (drums; he was not the
bands first drummer, but held the spot from 1962 on). From the outset, the
primary songwriters were McCartney and Lennon. The two collaborated on
words and music, and thus most Beatles songs are attributed to Lennon and
McCartney.

Regarding influences: members of The Beatles were of the same generation

as Dylan (though of course they grew up far from Dylan, in Liverpool,
England), and consequently their early listening experiences overlapped
significantly with his. These would have included Buddy Holly, Little
Richard, Elvis, George Jones, Brenda Lee, Patsy Kline and others. Having said
that, here is one difference: The Beatles would have heard less of American
country music (although it was not unknown to them), and more of a type of
British folk music called Skiffle.

Given that The Beatles were four individuals with unidentical upbringings, it
makes sense that these styles of music had varying degrees of influence on
them. Be that as it may, here is something you can take to the bank: The
Beatles were primarily focused on R&B (rhythm and blues), and thus began
their career as an R&B band. In the early days they wore black leather
jackets and jeans and generally did their best to rock. Listen to I Want to
Hold your Hand (1963). If you were to compare it to, say, Little Richards
Good Golly Miss Molly (available on Youtube), you could tell that this is the
kind of sound The Beatles are aiming for. (Side note: the way Little Richard
singswith those high wooswas a big influence on Paul McCartney,
whom you can hear attempting the same thing in many of the early songs.)

One of the first indicators that The Beatles would turn out to be more than a
pure R&B combo was the fact that from their first years onward they were
able to write and convincingly perform slow ballads. This was by no means
to be expected. Given that R&B constituted the hardest sound there was at
the time, this is a little like having a death-metal band of today pull off a slow
ballad featuring Mariah Carey. (If that analogy doesnt work for you, dont
worry about it.) While The Beatles early ballads are generally sugary
bubble-gum pop, theyre nevertheless catchy and well crafted. This very
likely resulted from Paul McCartneys knowledge of crooner-style hits of the

1930s, 40s, and 50s. You could hear this if you compared And I Love Her
(largely written by McCartney, 1964) to Nat King Cole singing George
Gershwins Embraceable You (searchable on Youtube).

The Beatles Rise to Superstardom

Were moving fast here, so youll have to use your imagination: imagine that
The Beatles spend the first years of the 1960s making a name for themselves,
first in Liverpool, then in England as a whole. And imagine that this
reputation rests mainly on R&B singles occasionally broken up by soft
ballads, both along the lines of the songs sampled above. What we will now
trace is their rise beyond national to international success.

Speaking of imagining things: it might be hard to wrap our brains around the
fact that there was a time when bands did not know demographics and their
fan base well enough to predict (for instance) whether a British band would
be well received in America. But that was the case in the 1960s much of the
time. In terms of The Beatles, this meant that no one was sure when exactly
they should seek their fortune abroad. The U.S. was a potential jackpot for
bands, but it was also a potential graveyard. To use another analogy: think
of British bands as baby birds trying to decide when to leave the nest; leaving
too early (i.e., coming to America) could spell disaster, for if they flopped,
they likely wouldnt get another chance. This was the dilemma facing The
Beatles and their handlers in the early 1960s. It was decided that the time
had come to test the American market in 1964, after The Beatles had scored
their first British no. 1 single, Please Please Me (1963).
o Small detour: when The Beatles came to the U.S., they were part of
what is called the British Invasion, meaning that there were other
English bands doing the same thing. One of them was the Rolling
Stones. The Stones were The Beatles biggest competition, and while
there were generally good feelings between the two groups, the
professional rivalry was real. When you listen to the Rolling Stones
(I Cant Get No) Satisfaction of 1965 (searchable on Youtube), you
can recognize that the group was following The Beatles very carefully.
It is not a matter of the songs sounding exactly the same. Rather, the
similarity is strategic: like Please Please Me, Satisfaction is about
sexual frustration, and the latter is expressed in both songs by a rising
four-step sequence; one might think of this as a sequence of
exasperation.

So The Beatles arrived in the U.S. in 1964 and were surprised to learn that
they were already big stars here. 5,000 fans awaited them at the airport
when they landed, and they were booked repeatedly on the Ed Sullivan
Show, which was an unavoidable stop for any band seeking American

acceptance. (At their first appearance on the show, 50,000 fans applied for
tickets, butthe theater had a capacity of just 700).

Thus 1964 marks The Beatles rise to superstardom. By 1965 they had
returned to the U.S. more than once, had broken new ground by playing in a
sports stadium (Shea Stadium), and had begun touring the world. While big
stylistic changes were on the horizon for them, to this point they were still
thriving as an R&B band with the occasional ballad (see above). What
accounts for their monumental appeal? At least four things:
o They crafted catchy songs (no elaboration necessary).
o They were good musicians (also no elaboration necessary).
o They exuded charisma. This does require a little explanation: in the
early years The Beatles seemed to be having a good time with their
fame, and likewise seemed to be enjoying each others company.
Compared to other, darker bands (like the Rolling Stones), this
played well in a generally upbeat culture like that of mainstream
America.
o They were sexy without being controversial. To put this another way,
they titillated their young fans without setting off alarms among the
parents. If you think about it, this is quite a feat, and may not be
possible anymore (at least not to the same degree): receiving
parental approval has obviously been death for many a band.

Dissatisfaction in the mid 1960s

So youre a superstar, touring the world, rich beyond all reason, young,
attractive, and healthy; whats not to like? A lot, evidently. Dissatisfaction
had spread among The Beatles by 1966, and to it we owe the changes that
turned them from pop icons into truly interesting musicians. As they
subsequently explained in interviews, the following issues related to
constant touring began to bother them:
o They had little time to focus on songwriting.
o Their musicianship suffered (they couldnt practice sufficiently).
o Fans were screaming so loudly at concerts that neither they (the fans)
nor the band could hear the music.

Around 1966 The Beatles returned home to England, effectively ending their
career as a touring band. From here through the end of the 1960s they
seldom performed live, preferring the laboratory-environment of the studio,
where they could better realize their various musical experiments.

Developments in the Late 1960s

Lets will abandon story-telling mode here in favor of another approach that
highlights aspects of The Beatles development over the final years of their

existence. First we will encapsulate the changes in a general way. Then we

will focus on songs that reveal significant developments. Naturally this will
be a little duplicative, since most late-Beatles traits surface in more than one
song; but that should help to reinforce the points, and has the added
advantage of introducing you to songs worth knowing. How should you
handle this information? Do not worry about the dates of the songs or the
albums they are from (as long as you know were talking about late Beatles,
thats good enough). Do, however, memorize the developments themselves,
along with which songs demonstrate which developments.

General encapsulation: as The Beatles reached their final years together in
the late 1960s, they were no longer viewed as sunny, sexy teen-idols, and
were instead often worshiped as gurus. Their lyrics were studied by literary
scholars, and their musical experiments analyzed by both the public and
specialists. Songs were played backwards in search of secret meanings. One
mass-murderer, Charles Manson, felt that The Beatles were sending him
messages via their lyrics. The group cringed at such insanity (as well they
should: George Harrison would at one point be stabbed by a delusional fan,
and John Lennon would actually die at the hands of another). But at the same
time they appreciated the fact that they were being taken seriously. Photos
of the group in the late 1960s show them no longer smiling, but rather
looking serious, introspective, and sometimes drugged out. As they grew out
of their youth, they developed relationships outside of the band and sought
to find their individual creative voices. All of this helps explain their
dissolution as a band; by the 1970s they were ready to call it quits.

All You Need is Love (1967, Magical Mystery Tour). This song demonstrates
several of the late-Beatles developments:
o Hippy culture: look at their new presentation, with the long hair and
funky clothes. Suddenly the group seems a long way from the suits
and moptop haircuts of their early days.
o Subject matter: notice that theyre singing about love in a
philosophical way. Were a long way from I Want to Hold Your
Hand here. This is less about romantic love than world peace. It is
worth noting at this point that youre watching what was the first live
globally televised TV moment. As they were sitting there chewing
gum and singing, they were being seen by more people
simultaneously than had ever happened in the history of the world to
that point, most likely.
o Musical experimentation: the additional of classical instruments
becomes fairly common around this time for The Beatles, as do such
tricks as the shifting meters this song contains.
Penny Lane (1967, Magical Mystery Tour). Penny Lane reinforces The
Beatles adoption of classical instruments. In terms of lyrics, it joins All You

Need is Love in foregoing the traditional topic of romantic love and sex in
favor of something else; in this case, Paul McCartney thinks back on his
childhood, and occasionally gets a little surrealistic (.and though she feels
as if shes in a play, she is anyway). It is also important to point out that this
song qualifies as neither R&B nor a slow ballad. This is a hybrid genre, in
other words, and it says something about The Beatles that their late works
can really only be pigeon-holed as Beatles songs.

Eleanor Rigby (1966, Revolver). In addition to the classical instruments,
pay attention to the lyrics here (theyre easy to make out). We have already
noted The Beatles trend toward subject matter that is unlike other popular
song-topics of this time. Here they are taking the long view of humanity,
which is to say they are thinking philosophically about the human condition.

Because (1969; Abbey Road). Let us focus here on the psychedelic quality
of the song and lyrics. By 1969 The Beatles were more than familiar with
mind-altering drugs, and have found a way here to express that artistically.
The lyrics float in a state of near-incomprehension (they seem to be
marveling at the sky, the wind, etc.). The music expresses altered states
through its use of timbre (listen for the electronic harpsichord, and a classical
instrument or two simulated on the synthesizer) and through rich vocal
harmonies of a sort that a) had rarely if ever to that point been tried in
popular music, and which b) The Beatles could only have pulled off in a
studio.

Within You Without You (1967; Sgt. Pepper). The Beatles (and George
Harrison in particular) joined many other hippies in becoming enamored of
Indian spirituality and instruments. They traveled to India in 1968, meeting
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and practicing meditation. You can hear such
influences in this song. Other groups quickly followed suit, writing mystical
lyrics and featuring the Indian instruments, the sitar and tabla, in their songs.

Revolution 9 (1968; White Album). It has been mentioned in passing that

The Beatles can be compared to the experimental classical composers of the
20th century. Here is a quite literal case of that: The Beatles actually studied
some of those avant-garde electronic compositions, and tried to write one of
their own such works. This would officially qualify as collage music (thats
a genre of 20th-century classical music) in that they have spliced together
preexisting sounds. The public generally could not stand works such as this
when they came from classical composers. In the case of The Beatles, the
sound of Revolution 9 failed to please, but fans nevertheless assumed there
was something serious to grasp here, and many of them actually made the
effort to study the work. Overall these fans focused less on the techniques
behind the song than on theories related to its esoteric meaning. Lennon,

whose song this is, said he was trying to express the feeling of a revolution.
Manson (see above) interpreted it as forecasting a coming race-war.

For No One (1966; Revolver). This song has many of the traits already
discussed (such as advanced harmonies, classical instruments, and
introspective subject matter). There is an additional reason to discuss it,
however. As the 1960s went on and The Beatles became more a group of
individuals than a band, each member began to define his own style. For No
One is typical of McCartney in its tunefulness. Of the four musicians, he was
the one for whom catchy melodies seemed to come the most easily. If youre
ever listening to a Beatles song and wondering who wrote it, you can apply
that criteria: if it is easy to listen to and polished, it is likely McCartneys
song. By contrast, the most experimental works were frequently Lennons.
You have already heard his Revolution 9, and the next song continues this
discussion.

I Am the Walrus (1967; Magical Mystery Tour). I Am the Walrus shows us

that The Beatles never entirely abandoned their R&B roots. True, this song is
not exactly like their early ones, but you can nevertheless hear the R&B style
in it much as you could in Paperback Writer. Having said that, the
harmonies, timbres, and lyrics are clearly meant to shock, and thus the work
is perhaps 30 percent R&B and 70 percent experimental. Lennon wrote this,
so it serves the purpose of further demonstrating his style (see Revolution
9). Regarding the words: Lennon more than any other Beatle took up the
challenge of writing profound lyrics in the manner of Bob Dylan. When he
(Lennon) heard that a teacher at one of the schools he had attended was
having the class study his poetry, he wrote this nonsense song just to
befuddle them. So it is additionally Dylan-like in the way it plays with the
gray area between profundity and nonsense. Note in the Youtube-link that
The Beatles also broke ground in creating videos for some of their songs.
This comes from a film The Beatles made for the Magical Mystery Tour album.

A Day in the Life (1967; Sgt. Pepper). A Day in the Life, while far from
The Beatles last song, is a good place for us to end.
o First, it is co-written by McCartney and Lennon, so we close by
hearing the main songwriting duo at their best.
o Second, it is from the album, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band,
which many consider to be among the best rock albums ever made.
o Sgt. Pepper marginally qualifies as a concept album, and is the first
of that genre. What is a concept album? One that is unified by a
theme or story. In this case, The Beatles main goal was simply that of
recording a bunch of songs they had at-the-ready. In the process, they
came across the idea of pretending that the album was a recording of
a fictitious band, Sgt. Pepper. Thus you are supposed to listen to it
that way. If you do give the whole album a listen, notice that the band,

Sgt. Pepper, introduces itself at the beginning. You then get the feeling
that individual members are stepping forward to perform, and near
the end, the whole band comes together again to thank you for having
listened. Its a very loose concept, and you can tell as you listen that
many songs dont really fit it.
o A Day in the Life falls outside of the Sgt.-Pepper concept. We know
this because The Beatles have chosen to place it at the very end of the
album, after the band, Sgt. Pepper, has sung its goodbye to the
imaginary audience. Youre hearing The Beatles, in other words, not
pretending to hear Sgt. Pepper. This song exhibits true psychological
complexity. Nowhere is it clarified what exactly is happening, but you
sense that someone is going through a sort of mental crisis, and that
this crisis sends him/her hurtling through different realities that are
portrayed by strikingly different styles of music. In fact, these
different styles are additionally those of McCartney and Lennon; you
really can break this song down in terms of who wrote which part,
based on the short encapsulation of their styles given above. It is thus
a fitting end to the story of a band whose members produced such
good music together exactlyand ironicallywhile pulling apart
artistically.