Beatles FAQ

Ringo Starr has a baritone voice with a limited range but a distinctive tone. Though not usually identified as a vocalist, he has sung regularly throughout his professional career.

  Ringo's first instrument was  a toy drum - given to him by a visiting nurse while he was in hospital during a childhood illness.

John Lennon  first discovered  The T ibetan Book of the Dead  in  the Indica Bookshop, hang out for London's grooviest tambourine shakers in the mid-60s.  John began to scan the shelves. His eyes soon alighted upon a copy of The Psychedelic Experience, Dr Timothy Leary's psychedelic version of the Tibetan Book of the Dead.  John was delighted and settled down on the settee with the book. Right away, on page 14 in Leary's introduction, he read, 'Whenever in doubt, turn off your mind, relax, float downstream.' He had found the first line of 'Tomorrow Never Knows' .   Many Years From Now  Barry Miles Did Lennon understand what he was singing? Though intellectually curious, Lennon always cheerfully conceded that his research tended to be haphazard.  In  Anthology , George Harrison dismisses Lennon's knowledge of Indian mysticism:  I am not too sure if John actually fully understood what he was saying. He knew he was onto something ...

In the film Help  The Beatles living together in the ultimate bachelor pad. Four doors lead into a miraculous shared space, with all mod cons. No boring housework to worry about. 

Liverpool in the 1940s.   Photograph: Bernard Fallon All four Beatles had what Mark Lewisohn calls ‘unvarnished working class roots’ in an industrial city that had seen better days. Liverpool was heavily bombed during the war and its docks long in decline. The rationing of food and clothing (until 1954) added to a general austerity.  John’s parents were married but did not live together. His father, Alfred (Freddie) Lennon, went back to sea before John was born. He never really came back. The couple were legally separated in 1942. In October 1940, Alf and Julia Lennon took their new-born baby home. On paper, they would be living with their (Stanley) in laws on Newcastle Street, in the inner city. Within weeks, however, the façade of a settled family began to crumble. A suitable home? While Alf was at sea Julia worked as a barmaid. In 1945, she had a second child, a daughter named Victoria. Julia put Victoria, up for adoption but kept custody of John. Towards the end of 19...

I am like a chameleon, influenced by whatever is going on. If Elvis can do it, I can do it. If the Everly Brothers can do it, me and Paul can. Same with Dylan. John Lennon I could feel myself climbing a spiral walkway as I was talking to Dylan. I felt like I was figuring it all out, the meaning of life.”  Paul McCartney In their early lyrics, Lennon and McCartney broadly stuck to the Tin Pan Alley lyrical format: essentially I love you/please love me too .  This allowed for some quirky takes: Paul's When I'm Sixty Four, for example, took a very unusual perspective for a teenage songwriter. But at some level the words usually circled back to the trials and tribulations of romantic love: I Want to Hold Your Hand, From Me to You etc. Along Came Bob Two factors disrupted this approach. One was practical - there are only so many ways to say 'I love You' and The Beatles success demanded the rapid production of new material. The other was their desire to keep ahead of their...

Paul & Mary McCartney Paul McCartney has recently suggested a ‘subconscious’ inspiration for the line I said something wrong/Now I long for yesterday  was his regret at once chiding his mother for ‘talking posh’:

 

57 Wimpole Street where Paul lived with the Asher family