For Beatles Fans Only


Ross Barlow

Recommended Posts

What the Hell? I must have been the last person on earth to find out -- just now -- that The Beatles have broken up. This would explain a lot. I have been patiently waiting for 35-odd years for them to issue a new album. Damn! This is really disappointing, because The Beatles turned music listening into a passion for me.

Ok, I just paused and did a little research, and now I know why I missed this incredible news. In mid-April 1970, I was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on a troop ship bringing us back from Vietnam. We did not hear about the Apollo 13 crisis or the Beatle break-up. It has always been a black hole period in my memory. When my family picked me up at the bus station, my Dad told me about the Apollo 13 scare but no one said anything about the end of The Beatles, probably because they knew what shattering news it would be for me. This band truly was one of the great joys in my life.

Backing up a bit, on Xmas 1963, I was almost 14 years old and got my first AM radio of my very own. On Xmas afternoon, I was scanning stations and a DJ said, with a bit of surprise in his voice, “Here’s a record by a band from *England*.” I was surprised too, as I did not think the British even listened to Rock ‘n Roll let alone play it. What a surprise we were in for in the coming months. He played “She Loves You” (Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!) and I have not been the same since.

By February 1964, The Beatles had 5 of the American Top Ten songs with a solid 1, 2 and 3. I would sit at breakfast before school with the radio on the counter next to my ear, and it was ecstasy for me when they played “I Wanna Hold Your Hand.” What totally new, happy and exhilarating music this was! It had the pure joy of life in it. This was my “tiddlywink” music. The first record album I ever bought was the Capitol issue, “Meet The Beatles.”

In February 1970, when we were not out in the field we were living in the mud at the Marine combat base at An Hoa. One night a friend of mine came by and invited me to a reefer and music party over in the neighboring sector of the base. It was home to a unit of the 1st Marines that had just come back in from some extremely shitty fighting, and they were cutting loose. My friend told me that a Marine had just come in from the rear echelon with a portable battery-powered turntable plus a *new* Beatle album, called “Abbey Road.”. The smell of burning Laotian Green was in the air, but no one was going to fuck with these grunts and try to bust them after the Hell they had just been through.

I am a bit of a hermit and at that time I was trying to read *Aristotle* by John Herman Randall, Jr. in every moment of spare time, of relative safety and dryness I could find, so I really did not want to go that badly to a party. But curiosity about a “new Beatle album” just could not be resisted, so I did hear portions of “Abbey Road” from the shadows before I went back to my bunker and book. Phenomenal! A ray of light and joy shined down on us in a very dismal place.

Thank you, John, Paul, George and Ringo.

So The Beatles really did break up, huh? That explains a lot.

-Ross Barlow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a question for Beatle fans. Bear with me here. I am using only my (old) memory, so please correct me if I am remembering wrongly.

In 1964 in the USA, Capitol Records released “Meet The Beatles” and “The Beatles Second Album.” I think the next one was “The Beatles ’65.” These were strictly American releases and were different than the original British releases in their line-up of song content. I believe that “Rubber Soul” -- that masterpiece -- was the first album that was identical on both sides of the Atlantic.

My vinyl albums died long ago. Through the years, I have picked up a hodge-podge of CDs of Beatles music, but I dearly miss the original American releases of the early stuff with the original line-up of songs that I grew up with. Any CDs I see of the early Beatles are the British line-ups. I would love to hear “Meet The Beatles” all the way through in its original order.

Can anyone tell me if the earlier Beatles albums are available on CD as originally released by Capitol on vinyl?

Thanks.

-Ross Barlow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ross,

In England in late winter '65 my sister was 15, my brother was 13, and I was born. My sister was nuts about The Beatles, especially McCartney. That's where my name came from. My brother was more a Lennon fan. I grew up with the spirit of their music inside me. I know what you mean when you say, "What totally new, happy and exhilarating music this was! It had the pure joy of life in it. This was my 'tiddlywink' music." I have no doubt that one's spirit has the ability to tune into music and music has the power to shape one's spirit. The energy and passion of The Beatles are definitely a part of me.

Paul

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ross,

I am glad you started this thread. The time between 63 and the early seventies was such a period of change that when I look back on it, it seems almost impossible for all the various happenings to occur in such a short span of years.

With the advent of the Beatles following on the heels of the Rock N Roll era, life seemed to go into fast forward for me; the music, musclecars, Vietnam, long hairstyles on guys, the Cold War still in full swing, The US landing on the Moon, and the Watergate debacle shattering the last of any adolescent naivete I held concerning politicians there was then and still is now a plethora of topics concerning that period.

I had also just entered my teenage years when I first heard about the Beatles, and as did so many other kids became an immediate fan. Although I enjoyed most all of their music, the ladder years- due probably to the difference in my age- did not hold the same magic as I felt during the early ones. My son and my girlfriend who is quite a few years younger than me both have made the statement that they would have loved to experience the sixties and early seventies, and for myself I totally agree it was a great time in many ways to grow up.

L W

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Ross -- Thanks for the thread about my first great love in music, and this coming from someone who spends much of his spare time now in opera houses and concert halls. I bought those original Capital LPs as a youngin'. I've been watching Leonard Bernstein's old series of Young Peoples' Concerts, which he started in the late '50s and he uses a Beatles tune to illustrate the sonata form in music.

I actually enjoy listening to the three Beatles Anthology collections of early or alternative cuts or arrangements of songs so familiar to us. Some of the instrumental arrangements are quite different. On a trip this past week I was listening to how "Strawberry Fields" evolved. I actually like John's voice better in the earlier versions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Videos!!!

I have posted various links to Beatle related videos in other places so I should probably repeat the links here in the Beatles thread for easier reference.

From YouTube

The Beatles - Rain - Check out Paul's chipped tooth

From Parenting – Videos for Kids

As the resident OL Beatlemanic, I'm sharing Beatle-related videos

The Beatles - Yellow Submarine

This is a homemade video made with many of the kind of Beatles toys I have around my house and I thought it was very cute and has some cool effects like the color going away when bonked by Apple Bonkers and coming back at the end when the Beatle music triumphs. It is not from the movie Yellow Submarine, but definitely worth a look.

Ye

- The Beatles (toys)

Here are some clips from the movie Yellow Submarine

Nowhere Man - The Beatles

- The Beatles

It's All Too Much - The Beatles

Eleanor Rigby - The Beatles

Only a Northern Song - The Beatles

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles

When I'm 64

All Together Now - The Beatles

Hey Bulldog - The Beatles (studio, the animated versions were low quality and this shows them having fun)

Paul McCartney

Mary Had a Little Lamb - Paul McCartney & Wings

We All Stand Together - Paul McCartney and Frogs

John Lennon

Here is John Lennon's song for his son, Sean

(My son is also named Sean, so this is his song!)

Beautiful Boy - John Lennon

From Holiday Songs

The Beatles - Christmastime is Here Again

Paul McCartney & Wings - Wonderful Christmastime

John & Yoko - Happy X-Mas (War is Over)

Ringo Starr - I Want to Be Santa Claus

Here is a clip I ran across recently of George appearing on Eric Idle's (of Monty Python) Christmas special. George has used a lot of humor in his videos over the years and you could tell he was hanging out a lot with Monty Python. He appears in their parody of the Beatles called The Rutles and he produced their movie, Life of Brian. Here is George doing the Pirate thing and also a few other videos from George just for fun. He definitely was the silly Beatle and had tons of famous friends.

as a Pirate on Eric Idle's Christmas Show

George Harrison - This Song

Crackerbox Palace

Got My Mind Set on You

True Love

Ding Dong Ding Dong

Blow Away- his first video I remember being released when I was a teenaged Beatlemaniac

Here is George with the Traveling Wilburys (George, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynn of ELO, Roy Orbison and occasionally, Ringo) and other famous friends

Tom Petty, George & Ringo - I Won't Back Down

The Traveling Wilburys - Handle With Care

The Traveling Wilburys - End Of The Line

- with Ringo, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Jeff Lynn, and Phil Collins

Beware of Darkness with Leon Russell

Here Comes the Sun with Paul Simon on Saturday Night Live

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

~ Many groups since them have been 'good', while they lasted (need be stressed, most haven't?) But, like Elvis, NO GROUP (er, in his case, ONE) will ever replace them re their place in 'rock'-history. The Beatles are the Top Singing-Band. I'd say, really, only because of their 'change' with REVOLUTION. They made their name earlier with simplistic "I Wanna Hol' Your Hand", etc, but, after they came back from 'guru'-country, they all were definitely changed...as they showed in their music and lyrics.

~ My wife's and my favorite is Lennon's Imagine; *my* next fave is Hey-y, Jude. All the others, well, once hearing them playing on a station, can't turn 'em off, whether "I Love You, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah..." or "I Am the Walrus." --- I sometimes wonder if any of them (as well as Elvis) were really ever really able to appreciate their uniqueness in music, world-culture, or...world-history....apart from being aware that they were merely 'famous.'

LLAP

J:D

Edited by John Dailey
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I was five when the Beatles invaded, but nonetheless enjoyed their music all during growing up. It didn't get stitched into me, though, until adolescence, which came well after they broke up.

I couldn't recall a musical world where they didn't exist, so the epochal changes they brought about never registered quite as much with me emotionally as they would with many of you.

Of special personal resonance: "She's Leaving Home," "I Saw Her Standing There," "All You Need Is Love," and most of all, "The Long and Winding Road" ... yes, I know the purists never liked the orchestral arrangement, but I was held captive by it. That song alone got me past losing my first love.

In the years since, the boys' fave bits for me have been "It Don't Come Easy" (Ringo), "Live and Let Die" (Paul, with a frisson from its being for a Bond movie), "My Sweet Lord" (George), and "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" (John). They were musicians, not just a pop-culture sensation.

Ross, I'm truly curious: Didn't you ever run across a mention, at least, of McCartney's next band (Wings) in the intervening years, and wonder why he wasn't working on another Beatles album instead?

I'd have thought the cultural shock over Lennon's murder in 1980 would also have jogged things loose, with the constant mentions of his being the "former Beatle." It certainly shook me up.

I remember with stark clarity how shocked my entire residential college was that night, gathered around the big TV in the downstairs living room. It seemed more important, and more senseless, than the mishigass going on with Carter and Iran. Who on earth would hate John Lennon that much? How was it possible? I'm still wondering, and the killer's madness will never quite explain it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am a major Beatles fan, too. In homage to John Lennon, I painted this caricature of him and Yoko. I thought you might enjoy it.

Thanks for posting it! You're a witty and adept caricaturist. John's head made me laugh out loud, and he got da funk. Yoko might not have quite that skin color, but it still works. Their getup evokes the time of the famous Bed-In of ... was it Toronto? Montreal?

I've seen a couple other works of yours on this site, since joining late last week, but they weren't of people I know, so they didn't register as much. I'll have to take a broader look. Do you have a Web gallery? If not, you might consider joining me over at deviantART (it's free).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am a major Beatles fan, too. In homage to John Lennon, I painted this caricature of him and Yoko. I thought you might enjoy it.

Thanks for posting it! You're a witty and adept caricaturist. John's head made me laugh out loud, and he got da funk. Yoko might not have quite that skin color, but it still works. Their getup evokes the time of the famous Bed-In of ... was it Toronto? Montreal?

I've seen a couple other works of yours on this site, since joining late last week, but they weren't of people I know, so they didn't register as much. I'll have to take a broader look. Do you have a Web gallery? If not, you might consider joining me over at deviantART (it's free).

Greybird

My god! OL certainly has a plethora of artists of various sorts. You know, I have been a member of OL since June of last year, and it is only now that this is starting to hit home. Thanks for letting me know about that site. Yes, I must post there. Do you think I would fit in? Some of the stuff there is pretty weird. :turned:

The Two Virgins painting is a parody of John and Yoko’s1968 album of the same name. Mind you, there physical appearance is more along the lines of their 1969 visit to Montréal for their Bed-in for Peace. Regarding your remark about Yoko's skin color...ah, spoken like a true artist. :)

-Victor

Edited by Victor Pross
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Yessssssssssssssssss!!!!

I am finally going to England for Beatle week. This is something I have wanted to do since I was a teenager and since I won two nights at the Savoy, a five-star hotel in London, I decided I'm finally going to make the trip to Liverpool as well and go to the Mathew Street Festival, The Cavern Club, ride the Magical Mystery Tour Bus, check out the sights and have a great time. I got a room in Liverpool pretty cheap through Priceline and now I'm watching for airfares. All I need to do is get a passport and get a cheap flight from Chicago to the UK and I'm off. I've never been out of the country before and this is so exciting!

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

Kat

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yessssssssssssssssss!!!!

I am finally going to England for Beatle week. This is something I have wanted to do since I was a teenager and since I won two nights at the Savoy, a five-star hotel in London, I decided I'm finally going to make the trip to Liverpool as well and go to the Mathew Street Festival, The Cavern Club, ride the Magical Mystery Tour Bus, check out the sights and have a great time. I got a room in Liverpool pretty cheap through Priceline and now I'm watching for airfares. All I need to do is get a passport and get a cheap flight from Chicago to the UK and I'm off. I've never been out of the country before and this is so exciting!

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

Kat

Kat,

As a long standing fellow Beatle fan, I'm green with envy! (But it is the good type of envy). :turned:

You know, somehow I can't imagine MSK at this event. Hmmm. :hmm: Anyway, have a good time. I know you will be.

-Victor

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yessssssssssssssssss!!!!

I am finally going to England for Beatle week. This is something I have wanted to do since I was a teenager and since I won two nights at the Savoy, a five-star hotel in London, I decided I'm finally going to make the trip to Liverpool as well and go to the Mathew Street Festival, The Cavern Club, ride the Magical Mystery Tour Bus, check out the sights and have a great time. I got a room in Liverpool pretty cheap through Priceline and now I'm watching for airfares. All I need to do is get a passport and get a cheap flight from Chicago to the UK and I'm off. I've never been out of the country before and this is so exciting!

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

Kat

Brilliant, Kat - have a great time and a lorra lorra laffs as well. Millions will envy you!

In 2008 Liverpool is European Capital of Culture. If you guys who miss Beatle Week this year come over next year, you won't be disappointed and, as always, made very welcome. England still swings .....!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congrats Kat!

As a Beatles fan since I was a kid in the '60s, I see it as a testament to the talents of the Fab Four that four decades later they are still popular. I saw Paul in concert a few years ago, doing mostly his Beatle material and in Las Vegas I saw a group called the Fab Four that covers Beatle's songs with changes of costumes for the early, middle and late periods of the group's history. (They're pretty good too.)

But a whole week in England indulging in all things Beatles, great!!!

(P.S. -- Victor, backwards that reads "Luap saw Surlaw eht!")

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 years later...

I just got back from LV and saw the Beatles Circ show called Love. I reccomend it as it was absolutly excellent.

Btw, my advice is not to see two Circ shows on two consecutive nights. I saw Le Reve the night before and it made Love slighly less amazing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 years later...
On 3/26/2007 at 10:25 AM, Ed Hudgins said:

Congrats Kat!

As a Beatles fan since I was a kid in the '60s, I see it as a testament to the talents of the Fab Four that four decades later they are still popular. I saw Paul in concert a few years ago, doing mostly his Beatle material and in Las Vegas I saw a group called the Fab Four that covers Beatle's songs with changes of costumes for the early, middle and late periods of the group's history. (They're pretty good too.)

But a whole week in England indulging in all things Beatles, great!!!

(P.S. -- Victor, backwards that reads "Luap saw Surlaw eht!")

I always loved the Beatles. Tonight we watched a PBS show about the Bee Gees, from1997 and Olivia Newton John was in the audience with her young daughter. The backdrop during the Bee Gee's songs were from "Saturday Night Fever" and "Grease" which showed a young Olivia, etc. After all this time and all that listening to The Beatles and The Bee Gees, I think the Bee Gees songs are better to listen to today. I think they will be more appealing to later generations. Peter   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why else do I say The Bee Gees are better than The Beatles? The Beatles went through a psychedelic period where they embraced irrationality, the Hindu religion, and sad songs.   I think much of The Beatles music was for teens and The Bee Gees music is more for adults. I recognize that The Bee Gees were a more disco and dance music group later in their artistic growth, but because all teens become adults I think the Bee Gees will be appreciated for a longer period by their fans. Pop stations rarely play The Beatles but they sure play The Bee Gees.  

Cue the deep announcer’s voice. And now a song about the newest riots.

Stayin' Alive by The Bee Gees

Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk
I'm a woman's man, no time to talk
Music loud and women warm, I've been kicked around
Since I was born
And now it's alright, it's OK
And you may look the other way
We can try to understand
The New York Times' effect on man

Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother
You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin'
And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive

Life goin' nowhere, somebody help me
Somebody help me, yeah
Life goin' nowhere, somebody help me, yeah
I'm stayin' alive . . . .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now