THE BEATLES: 50 years gone, 100 per cent still with us……

[email protected] April 7, 2020

Imagine walking into a room without light. Due to the darkness, it takes a while to find the curtains. Pulling them back is to be bathed in the warmest sunshine – such is to envisage the impact made by The Beatles, not just on popular music, but the development of 20th Century popular culture.

In terms of significance their legacy is only rivalled by that of Bob Dylan, with whom they stand as pillars of artistic expression in a decade, the 60s, when creative intent soared to unparalleled heights of achievement.

Given The Beatles astonishing level of accomplishment in the eight years between their first and final records, the new musical territory they reached and lasting influence in shaping trends that still exist today, there is never a wrong time to glory in their incredible body of work.

Or as some of us feel a need to do, reassess what made them such a unique hub of creativity.

But with the 50th anniversary of their 1970 dissolution now here, this seems as good a time as any to offer a well-intentioned appraisal of why The Beatles continue to hold such an exalted place in the rock music pantheon.

If the explosion of Elvis Presley into a worldwide phenomenon can be seen as the first defining event of rock and roll, the sudden and massive breakthrough of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr is the second and arguably last on such a scale.

During my time as a student of rock music, the 1976 emergence of the Sex Pistols is the only one to bear remote comparison. But Johnny Rotten and co, initially at least, were ‘the‘ story, unlike 1963, when the wave of ‘Beatlemania’ that swept Britain was a counterpoint to the ‘Profumo affair’ – or its 1964 US version when The Beatles exploded into a news cycle which included the civil rights movement, Kennedy assassination and Vietnam.

In the wake of Elvis sending the planet into a state of frenzy with his country/blues hybrid that when distilled became rock and roll, the musical landscape, as with every rock phase to follow (heavy, country, blues, prog, punk), then eased into a state of normalcy, the habitual turn of the wheel that sees revolt become fashion.

Come 1962, The Beatles brought to the table an energy and enthusiasm the like of which had never been seen in a pop group before, the merest glance of them in early television clips enough to reveal the excitement and optimism etched on their faces – and who would have thought just an extra couple of inches in hair would have made all that difference?

The origins of Beatle-music lay in the rock and roll they had been so enraptured with growing up, subsequently arranged and adapted to fit their purpose. From the pubs of hometown Liverpool to the bars of Hamburg, there is a sense the fledgling Beatles absorbed everything they heard, sounding like a 50s vocal group in one song, a rockabilly act in the next.

Whether it was matching Little Richard for vivacity or harmonising like the Everly Brothers, they were not only crafting their own sound, but inventing one at the same time.

Unlike their great contemporaries Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones, The Beatles emerged through rock and roll. Dylan (folk) and the Stones (blues) came from territory beside it, writing songs reflecting their background, be it protest or rebellion.

In contrast, the song writing partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney took their lead from Brill building tunesmiths Gerry Goffin and Carole King, Lennon/McCartney songs through the early years displaying a lightness and optimism even when they were trying to sound conflicted.

Even at their most anxious (‘Help‘ for example), they could not match the Stones for sullenness, who in turn lost out to The Beatles when it came to exuberance.

Which, if nothing else, goes to prove that comparisons between the two are fun, but largely pointless (to that end could also be added The Kinks, The Byrds and The Who), but had The Beatles not established the centre ground, there would have been no margins for the others to emerge from.

Indeed, as the 60s unfolded The Beatles were defining popular music to such an extent, a ballad like ‘Yesterday,’ sung to the accompaniment of acoustic guitar and string section, was deemed a ‘rock’ song based solely on the fact it was by The Beatles.

Forming a song writing partnership from virtually the moment they met as teenagers in July 1957, by the time their songs were reaching a mass audience John and Paul had created a template built around a big beat, inventive arrangements and group dynamics that were entirely their own.

Not only did The Beatles write and perform their own material (which then became the norm for those who followed), they switched lead vocalist in the course of a song and threw in screams, yeah-yeah-yeahs and head-to-head ooos to communicate the joy captured in such early treasures as ‘I Saw Her Standing There,’ ‘Please Please Me,’ ‘She Loves You,’ ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand,’ ‘All My Loving,’ ‘A Hard Day’s Night,’ ‘I Should Have Known Better,’ ‘Things We Said Today,’ ‘Any Time at All‘ and ‘Eight Days A Week.’

During their first two years of recording The Beatles mastery of the form is absolute, the artistry reaching new heights in early 1965 with ‘Ticket to Ride,’ ‘Help,’ its lesser-known B-side ‘I’m Down‘ (a magnificent hard-rocker complete with a raucous Little Richard vocal from Paul) and ‘Daytripper.’ Being chased hard by The Byrds, Dylan and the Stones, at the end of the year The Beatles manage to keep their noses in front of the field with the astounding ‘Rubber Soul.’

There is no doubt whatsoever their first five albums ‘Please Please Me,’ ‘With the Beatles,’ ‘A Hard Day’s Night,’ Beatles for Sale‘ and ‘Help‘ are each a joyous listen, but ‘Rubber Soul‘ is the first conceived as an album. It could be argued there are moments on each of their first five LP’s that are as good, but now every track was inspired, a feat new and remarkable in itself.

In the lyrics they were still writing about love, but with a different perspective; love that is ambiguous, unnerving, scary even – themes the earlier songs had skimmed over.

‘In My Life‘ might just be the most moving song ever written about a relationship, while ‘Girl,’ though apparently straightforward, was no less sophisticated than Dylan’s ‘Just like a Woman.’

With the lyrical approach becoming deeper the music turns lighter, subtlety taking over from strident, the power all beneath the surface. It has come to be regarded as their most engaging and deeply satisfying record – to this listener it is unquestionably their best.

Yet as wonderful as it is, ‘Rubber Soul,’ stands as the final representation of ‘Beatle’ music – the story from here on in far more complicated. By their respective contributions it is clear John and Paul are no longer the song writing partnership they had once been.

Broadly speaking ‘Lennon‘ songs depicted struggle while ‘McCartney‘ songs denied it, thus foreshadowing their post-Beatle careers, Paul the melodist, John the political activist (and while giving out loose-fitting labels, George the mystic and Ringo, well just being Ringo, with all the panache that entailed).

Shortly after release of ‘Revolver‘ (another tour-de-force) in August 1966, The Beatles ceased being a touring band, concerts now seen by the group as an irritating duty and obstacle to their creative progress. With no expectation of performing material in a live setting, inventiveness became key, the music no longer locked into basic instrumentation – and thus emerged an album of incredible light and shade, each strand boasting immediacy and ambition.

With a sense of retreat brought on by no longer needing to tour, The Beatles heed what The Beach Boys have achieved on ‘Pet Sounds‘ and come up with fresh perspectives of their own. ‘Nowhere Man‘ and ‘I’m Only Sleeping‘ see Lennon giving Dylan a run for his ‘Ballad of a Thin Man‘ money with songs of equal resonance, while on ‘Eleanor Rigby‘ and ‘For No One,’ McCartney reveals himself a writer of exquisite, if somewhat bleak, vignettes that are superbly drawn and soberingly dramatic.

On the closing ‘Tomorrow Never Knows,’ Lennon and McCartney reach an experimental peak, not just for ‘Revolver‘ but possibly their entire output – individual segments that on their own may not work although combine to forge a work of stunning originality.

For all its undoubted merit, however, there are moments on ‘Revolver‘ when the collective ‘Beatle’ soul appears not to have made it onto every track. Which is not saying one or two are below par, far from it (song for song there is a case for it being their strongest collection) – but with fads of the time, drugs, transcendence and psychedelia beginning to shape them as individuals rather than a group, the divergent approach to song writing of Lennon and McCartney (and by now Harrison as well) is becoming apparent.

The distinctly different creative visions of John and Paul were reflected in the February 1967 double ‘A’ side single of ‘Penny Lane‘ and ‘Strawberry Fields Forever.’ Regarded by many as the finest 45 ever made, on ‘Penny Lane‘ McCartney beautifully evokes a Liverpool location of his childhood, but when John does likewise on ‘Strawberry Fields Forever,’ he conjures more a state of mind than a place – the surrealism in the lyric reminiscent of author Lewis Carroll, Lennon composing later songs such as ‘I Am The Walrus,’ in similar vein.

Growing in confidence, in June 1967 they released ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band‘, which for many years afterward came to be regarded as the apex not just of The Beatles career, but rock music as a whole. Conceived largely by McCartney as a song cycle, it features a dazzling variety of styles and yet more innovative production work from long-time control room maestro George Martin.

The final track ‘A Day in the Life‘ is not only a landmark rock recording but testament to the chemistry between Lennon and McCartney, who once again knit together two separate pieces (what belonged to who clearly evident) to close the record in astonishing fashion.

Despite being rapturously received and lauded for a long time thereafter, it has not aged well, yet even acknowledging the thin spots there is no denying the huge effect (for good and bad) it had on the notion of rock music being recognised as an art form – the sleeve design alone set new standards in cover art, The Beatles notching another first by having the lyrics printed on the sleeve.

The plaudits they received for ‘Sgt Pepper‘ were tempered by the death of manager Brian Epstein in the weeks that followed. As The Beatles were no longer a touring entity there was less for Epstein to do, but his passing still came as a devastating blow. With the group now embracing Eastern mysticism and assorted narcotics, they become prone to erratic decisions, the self-indulgent ‘Magical Mystery Tour‘ film of December 1967, yielding some fine songs but also too many jumbled and ill-conceived ideas.

Relationships within the group were also beginning to falter. Lennon, having taken up with conceptual artist Yoko Ono, putting more of his energies into outside projects to leave McCartney at the helm. May 1968 brought resumption of group activities, the excellent single ‘Hey Jude/Revolution‘ showing no evidence of malaise – Paul writing lines of gentle wisdom into his piano ballad while John contributes a deft, up-tempo political number, that make his early-70s attempts at repeating the trick little more than sloganeering.

Less a collaborative piece and more the work of three uniquely talented song writers, the ensuing double ‘White Album‘ LP is a disparate collection showing little sign of unity – the plain white sleeve indicative of a blank slate on which the content has been created. ‘Revolution No 9‘ ranks as the most bizarre entry in their catalogue and more a Yoko Ono exploration of avant-garde than something akin to a Beatles song.

But for all the flashing signals of this being a disintegrating unit, The Beatles still had a knack of being revelatory – not least in ‘Julia‘ a haunting Lennon lullaby and ‘Helter Skelter,’ McCartney penning a driving rock track where they cut loose with an energy The Who would envy.

For all its charm, the next single ‘The Ballad of John and Yoko‘ had ominous overtones for the future of the group, the air of foreboding heavier still in recording sessions for a 1969 project initially titled ‘Get Back‘ – later renamed ‘Let it Be.’ The quartet are revealed as fallible, squabbling individuals at the end of their tether with each other when a film version of proceedings appeared the following year.

In the meantime, they managed to put aside their differences, no mean achievement in itself after such conflict earlier in the year, to record ‘Abbey Road.’ Chronologically the last recordings they cut together, McCartney rallies the troops for, to all intents and purposes, a grand finale.

For the most part Paul oversees a send-off befitting their status, the innovations and nuances mostly down to him, although not the two strongest songs – Harrison weighing in with ‘Something‘ and ‘Here Comes The Sun,’ both of which are sublime and equal to anything in their extraordinary repertoire.

Despite being a largely peripheral figure, eclipsed not only by McCartney but Harrison as well, Lennon still manages to affect things, being directly responsible for ‘Come Together‘ and ‘I Want You‘ (She’s So Heavy) – the latter a chunky riposte to critics who had begun to see The Beatles as somewhat quaint when measured against the plethora of emerging heavy rock groups.

Lennon also offers fragments to the second side ‘suite’ – a connected sequence of songs that propel the record to its conclusion. While far from the first attempt at linking successive tracks, it was a new departure for them. The Beatles pull it off with customary aplomb, the pieces working far better as a whole than in their singular parts – throughout it all McCartney is at the controls and even though the ‘suite’ is not quite among his finest moments as a Beatle, his devotion to duty has to be admired.

The album culled from the ‘Let It Be‘ project, the songs given a production overhaul by Phil Spector, finally appeared in May 1970 but proved a posthumous release – The Beatles, by now showing no interest in working with each other, having called time on their existence the month before.

As the album, a desultory affair that excelled and sagged in equal measure, proved their final offering and with the film of the same name leaving a bad taste, The Beatles ended their career on something of a sour note. Yet when measured against a colossal rollcall of artistic endeavour, it should not cast cloud on a glorious vista of achievement.

In Lennon and McCartney, they had a song writing team without equal and supported increasingly by Harrison for the second half of their reign, they produced material that forged a path into hitherto unchartered territory – resulting in a series of albums that are monumental in terms of presentation, scope and imagination.

Given the seismic social, economic and technological changes to have occurred since The Beatles revolutionised the way popular music was conceived and presented, it is hard to envisage circumstances from which anyone else will emerge to make such a deep and lasting impact on the consciousness of successive generations.

Along with Bob Dylan they opened up an awareness of attitudes, both political and personal, that without them might have lay stifled for years.

No matter this month marks fifty years since their disbandment. Pull back the curtains and allow that light to shine in – in these difficult times we need the invigoration only The Beatles can provide more than ever.

This article was first published on 7/4/2020.

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