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.

The Funny

Ringo Starr joined the band in 1962, being the last member to be incorporated. Unlike the other Beatles, he played on other bands before joining them.  His parents, Elsie and Richard Starkey, split up when he was three years old. His mother remarried and was his stepfather, Harry Graves, who introduced him into the world of music. As a child, Ringo was a sickly boy, he was sick very often and missed a lot of school due to that. After a long hospitalization, he never got back to school. 

 


He joined several bands, before joining the Beatles, after the band’s manager asked them to get rid of former drummer Pete Best. With the Beatles, Ringo Starr met success and fame. In the movies, he was usually portrayed as a funny and comical character and his presence was crucial for the development of the story. He didn’t write too many songs, but in every album he sang at least one song. Anyway, the rest of the band’s attitude towards him made him quit the band a few times, being the most famous the time when he left in the middle of the recording sessions of “The Beatles”. 

Unlike the other Beatles he didn’t use to write songs for their albums, but in the later albums, some songs written by Starr were included in the track list, for example, “Octopus’s Garden”. As a drummer, he is listed as one of the best drummers in rock history and quoted as an influence for many modern drummers. 

After the break-up Starr collaborated with Harrison and other musicians, in what was called the “all star band”.  He also did some solo work, and he still performs in public as a solo artist.

The Quiet

The first time George Harrison heard Elvis’ “Heartbreak Hotel” had an epiphany. After that, his whole life was about music. He was a very good student, and even though his family was quite poor, he managed to enter to the best high school in Liverpool. When he discovered music he lost interest in school. His mother, Louise, gave him some money to buy a used guitar, allowing him to follow his passion. He learned to play the guitar, and was invited by McCartney to join the Quarrymen. At first, Lennon was reluctant to Harrison’s joining the band, because he was too young, but Harrison impressed him with his ability to play the guitar, and he accepted him in the band.

 

During his Beatles years, Harrison went through major changes in his life. At first, he was shy and reserved, and preferred being in the second line, playing his beloved guitar, but as he grew older he became interested in writing his own music, with his personal style. Motivated by his interest on eastern cultures, he learned to play the sitar and played it in the introduction of “Norwegian Wood (This Bird has flown)”. His love for eastern culture made him the leader of the Beatles’ spiritual trip to India in 1968, from which they returned disappointed and with lots of ideas for their next two albums. Harrison contributed with several songs, such as “Something”, and “While my guitar gently weeps”.

After the break up, George Harrison had a successful career, recording albums with his all star band (with Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton and other famous musicians).  Later, he retired and dedicated his time to his hobbies, before dying in 2001 from lung cancer in Los Angeles, California.

The Genius

Calling Paul McCartney a genius is not an exaggeration, after all, he is still one of the most important musicians in history and even today his songs are played and known all over the globe. His extraordinary musical abilities had made him one of the most important referents for today’s musicians and the musical industry in general.

He was born in Liverpool, to Mary and James McCartney. His mother was a midwife, and his early memories of her, were from seeing her riding her bike to where she was needed. She died when he was fourteen years old. This loss connected him to Lennon, whose mother died later. His father was a trumpeter and pianist, and he tried to involve his sons in music; he gave Paul a trumpet that he later exchanged for a guitar. 

He met John Lennon and George Harrison as a boy; he was the one who proposed Harrison as a guitar player for Lennon’s band. After the departure of Stuart Sutcliffe, the band’s bassist, McCartney took over his part and learned to play the bass guitar.

 

He wrote and composed lots of songs. His most famous are “Yesterday” and “I’ve just seen a Face”, that are more traditional than most Lennon’s songs. That’s why McCartney is usually regarded as the more traditional Beatle, but he also had his experiences with drugs and experimented with different styles.  Just as an example, the song “Helter Skelter”, written and composed by McCartney, is widely known as the first hard rock songs.

 After the break-up, McCartney achieved  a very successful solo career as well as with his second band, “Wings". He still performs in public as a solo artist.

The Greatest Love Song Ever

George Harrison’s “Something” is probably the best love song in history. In its lyrics is expressed the essence of falling in love with someone. Normally people don’t know what attracts them to someone, and try to figure out what it is. This song doesn’t revolve around the usual ideas of attractive features. It doesn’t talk about figure, eyes or personality as the cause of the attraction of the speaker towards his lover, but he states that there is “something” about her, that attracts him “like no other lover”. 

A love song usually says that their love will last forever, and again, “Something” doesn’t follow the cliché of “eternal love”, the singer says that he doesn’t know if his love will grow but that she should stay and see it for herself. 

So, “Something” isn’t a 100% traditional love song, it doesn’t try to guess what is what made the speaker fall in love with the woman, and it doesn’t swear that their love will be forever. But somehow, it is what attracts us more about the song. In real life, we don’t know for sure why we fall for someone, or if our love will last forever. “Something” is a song about real love, not the idealized love we often see in movies and books.