Beatles FAQ

  Outside Paul's family home in the early 1960s Soon after first seeing them at the Cavern, Brian Epstein invited The Beatles for a formal meeting at his office. This was arranged for the afternoon of Sunday 3rd December 1961 at 4.30. Epstein wanted to manage the band but had doubts about their reliability and professionalism. The Beatles for their part had achieved success in Hamburg and Liverpool but had no record deal or national profile John, George and Pete took the bus to the meeting. They arrived on time - but after forty five minutes there was still no sign of Paul.  A call was made to the McCartney family home. This revealed that  Paul had just got up and was having a bath. Epstein exploded, "How can he be so late for such and important meeting?"     To which Harrison famously replied, "He may be late but he's very clean".  A frosty silence melted into laughter. Why was Paul so  late? On one level Paul's lateness was symptomatic of  what ...

Outside Paul's family home in the early 1960s Soon after first seeing them at the Cavern, Brian Epstein invited The Beatles for a formal meeting at his office. This was arranged for the afternoon of Sunday 3rd December 1961 at 4.30. Epstein wanted to manage the band but had doubts about their reliability and professionalism. The Beatles for their part had achieved success in Hamburg and Liverpool but had no record deal or national profile John, George and Pete took the bus to the meeting. They arrived on time - but after forty five minutes there was still no sign of Paul.  A call was made to the McCartney family home. This revealed that  Paul had just got up and was having a bath. Epstein exploded, "How can he be so late for such and important meeting?"     To which Harrison famously replied, "He may be late but he's very clean".  A frosty silence melted into laughter. Why was Paul so  late? On one level Paul's lateness was symptomatic of  what Epstein...

"I heard about them through a lad who was asking for a record by them in one of my stores, or my family’s stores in October 1961," Brian Epstein, 1964 Always diligent, Brian Epstein tracked down the record My Bonnie by Tony Sheridan and The Beatles, recorded in Hamburg. Staff informed him The Beatles, he learned were a local band who regularly played in a local club, close to the shop. Epstein decided to check them out Brian Epstein first saw The Beatles at the Cavern on November 9, 1961. He came backstage and then attended more gigs over the next few weeks. Then he told his brother he wanted to manage them. It was an extraordinary decision but Epstein's CV had followed an unusual trajectory. Before agreeing to manage the family business he had trained as an actor at RADA and his musical preferences were classical.  Epstein was also homosexual at a time when it was still illegal. This was not uncommon in the entertainment business but Brian appeared to court danger by hav...

"We all play on it, i t’s a genuine Beatles recording .  ” Paul McCartney Is Now and Then  a 'genuine Beatles recording' ? via  Henry Grossman/Wikimedia Commons  and Apple Corps For Paul McCartney the defining component is the presence of all four Beatles in the final mix. This may be stretching a point in that only John Lennon recorded the de facto master tape, namely the demo cassette recorded in his apartment.  It is true that The Beatles recording process was often fragmented. Though they  largely recorded early tracks ‘as live’, improvements in multi-tracking meant that they later relied heavily of recording segments which were later assembled in collaboration with the Abbey Road engineers.  Frequently, two or three band members would work on a particular track. Some recordings, like Yesterday (Paul) and Love You Too (George) had only one of the four on the final recording, while three  contributed to Free as a Bird during the Anthology sess...

Excluding Maggie Mae - the traditional folk ballad featured on Let it Be  - The Beatles officially released twenty-four cover versions of songs by other artists between 1962 and 1970. 

"one of the Beatles most dispensable items". [8] Run for Your Life’, I always hated ... because it was a song I just knocked off Lennon Remembers Few would argue with this assessment. Thomas Ward diplomatically suggests that it is one of the Beatles most dispensable items".[8] while Ian MacDonald is characteristically forthright ('a dismal track'). 'Run for Life' was the first song recorded for what would become Rubber Soul. It was 'knocked off' during a break between the filming of Help and their return to Abbey Road in October 1965. Words One reason Lennon was later embarrassed by the song was what MacDonald calls its 'lazily sexist lyric'. Even allowing for the different social climate, 'you better run for your life ... or that's the end' has an unpleasant menacing edge. The words and the sentiment came from the old Elvis song 'Baby, Let's Play House'. There was a line on it; I used to like specific lines from...

The Beatles cheerfully sang 'Roll Over Beethoven' in their pre-fame stage show. The Chuck Berry anthem also appears on their second album. But if Ludwig was not safely out of copyright, his legal team would most likely have a solid royalties claim. In one of his last interviews, John Lennon revealed how the great German composer provided direct inspiration: I was lying on the sofa in our house, listening to Yoko play Beethoven's - Moonlight Sonata, on the piano. Suddenly I said, 'can you play those chords backwards'. The Beatles version retains the key and key change, plus the pattern of arpeggios. Lennon also added some bass notes and of course and a lyric which he claimed was ' clear, no bullshit, no imagery, no obscure references.' You won't find that kind of language in Fidelio but there is arguably a similarity of intent across the centuries. .

People always ask us how we sit down and write a song. Well, first we sit down. Then we write a song. 

Tabla - traditional Indian instrument

Beatles final meeting? The last time we can be certain that all four Beatles met together was for the final recording sessions for  Abbey Road. This   took place between on Wednesday 20 August, when various tracks were finished, including 'Here Comes the Sun' and, fittingly 'The End'.  Two days later they completed their final final official engagement together - a photoshoot which was held at the new Lennon-Ono residence Tittenhurst Park in Ascot - see here .   At the end, they wandered away in different directions.  The Meeting With recording duties completed, they were pretty much done. Only a final round of business meetings forced them them to meet again.  The key one was on September 20. This was when Alan Klein, now representing John, Paul and Ringo presented the new contract he had negotiated with Capitol Records.  George was absent. Despite the smiling publicity shot, the atmosphere was tense. At one point John announced that he was leavi...