Changes and Growing Up

The Beatles released twelve studio albums in their short career. Those albums show how the Beatles changed during the years. I normally divide these albums in three stages and one transitional album. 

•  The Rock ‘n’ Roll Years 
• “Rubber Soul” 
• Psychedelic Stage
• Mature Years

First of all, with the “Rock ‘n’ Roll Years” I refer to the earliest stage in their career. In the first years, the Beatles sang youthful songs, with catchy lyrics and tunes. Such as the song “I wanna hold your hand”, the first single they released on the States. In the song we can see a love song between a young boy and a girl. The boy seems to be confessing his love to the girls, and makes a very simple (and sweet) request: to hold the girl’s hand. Is funny to think that this rather naïve request, is what attracts us to the song. The naivety of the boy, and the sweetness of the song’s tone, had made this song one of the most popular love songs ever.

Oh yeh, I'll tell you something,
I think you'll understand,
Then I'll say that something,
I wanna hold your hand,
I wanna hold your hand,
I wanna hold your hand.
Oh please say to me
You'll let me be your man,
And please say to me,
You'll let me hold your hand,
Now let me hold your hand,
I wanna hold your hand.

(Iwanna hold your hand, 1963)

Even though this period can be seen as their most traditional stage, the Beatles were highly innovative for their time. In the late fifties, the first rock stars appeared in the U. S and expanded all over the world. But those musicians didn’t write the songs they played and normally presented themselves with a band that didn’t had much importance. The Beatles managed to change that. For example, they swapped lead vocals, played their own instruments and wrote their own songs. They also were proud of their origins, and had no problem saying that they were from Liverpool and that their families were working class. As British youth was hungry for someone they could identify with, the Beatles were perfect for this, and became very popular between them. In these years, they crossed the Atlantic and began “the British invasion” in the States.

“Rubber Soul” deserves being a stage on its own. In this album we can see the changes going on between “Help” and “Revolver”. In the song “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)”, the first notes have a marked eastern influence, and the lyrics show a more” grown-up” relationship, very different from the playful view of love in their early albums.  In “Nowhere Man” they criticize how people refuse to see reality and to have their own opinions and views on what was going on.  The “Nowhere Man” doesn’t care for anybody and lives just for himself. This song is one of the earliest songs in which the Beatles criticize social issues.

Doesn't have a point of view,
Knows not where he's going to,
Isn't he a bit like you and me?

Nowhere man please listen,
You don't know what you're missing,
Nowhere Man, the world is at your command.

He's as blind as he can be,
Just sees what he wants to see,
Nowhere Man can you see me at all?

(Rubber Soul, 1965)

The “Psychedelic Stage” showed drugs use and new theme in the lyrics. This stage coincides with the birth of the Hippie movement in the US. The ideals of this movement were adopted by the Beatles, leading them to write “All you need is Love”, a hymn to universal love and peace. The song also talks about letting materialism go, and focusing your life in love. This was highly provocative for their time, when talking about forgetting about material possessions and saying that they were not important, could be seen as a sign of communism and “anti-Americanism”.  These years’ albums also feature very surrealistic images, which are believed to be hallucinations, for example, the first verses of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”.

Picture yourself in a boat on a river,
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies.
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly,
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes 

(Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967)

Is said that the inspiration for this song came from an hallucination provoked by LSD as many of the songs of the album and the surreal images (not just in the video, but in the lyrics) and the music lead us into a dreamy world, that well could be a drug induced hallucination. 

The Beatles’ “Mature Years” are the albums that came after their spiritual trip to India in 1968. They returned early from the trip because they felt disappointed about their guru, the Maharishi. Despite the bad experience in India, the Beatles returned home with lots of inspiration for writing new songs. In these albums, the Beatles did quite a lot of experimentation with different styles and tunes. Furthermore, the themes in the lyrics showed the Beatles dealing with adulthood issues and the challenges of growing up. For example the song “Two of us”, in which they reflect on how their life as changed through the years, and how that changes had echoed in their views on love. Their loved ones are portrayed as life companions, rather than being a possession as they saw them in their first albums (Eg. “You can’t do that”).

You and I have memories
longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

Two of us wearing raincoats,
standing solo in the sun.
You and me chasing paper,
getting nowhere, on our way back home.

We're on our way home.
We're on our way home.
We're going home.

(Let It Be, 1970)

They were no longer the young boys from Liverpool that rocked the whole world; their interests had changed, as well as their view of the world, and all that changes are reflected on their lyrics. The changes in their point of view also included their political views; they were influenced by the Hippie Movement and its ideals of love and peace towards the whole world. 

But, although their message to the public was all a about love and peace, the conflicts within themselves were reaching a critical point. The presence of Yoko Ono during their recording sessions, the feeling of Ringo Starr of being left behind and the creative discussions between Lennon/McCartney were just some of the issues that eventually led the band to their Break-up. 

In the Beatles musical and lyrical evolution is reflected how they grew up during those years. Seeing and listening to how they change through the years, can help us relating to them, because we also change a lot during our lives. In a certain way, the Beatles musical evolution can echo how we grow up.