The
Beatles 1
British rock and pop music group, the most admired and popular
of the 1960s and one of the most influential in the history of modern music. If
the great Elvis Presley dominated the 50s as king of rock and roll, it was up
to The Beatles, a group that was also rock at its roots, to exercise hegemony
in the following decade with a highly successful and sophisticated mix of
styles that would take pop music to the forefront. all audiences and preluded
later genres.
As a reference for the youth of the 60s, of whose rebellion
phenomena such as the hippie movement or May 68 were manifestations, and as a
consumer product in a decade of fashion and prosperity, it could have been
expected that the fervor aroused by that rich musical gale slowly faded after
the dissolution of the group. However, half a century later, the best songs of
The Beatles still do not seem "old": they keep their freshness intact
and seem to have entered a kind of timeless heritage, as if their music no
longer belonged to one era, but to all ages. Generations.
Training
From 1962, the year in which it was established on a stable
basis, and until its official separation in 1970, the members of The Beatles
were John Lennon (Liverpool, 1940-New York, 1980), Paul McCartney (Liverpool,
1942), George Harrison (Liverpool, 1943-Los Angeles, 2001) and Ringo Starr
(Liverpool, 1940). However, it is difficult to give an exact date of when The
Beatles were formed. In the second half of the 1950s, John Lennon and his
friend Peter Shotton (who would leave him shortly thereafter) formed a music
group called The Quarrymen, to which Paul McCartney was added in 1957, followed
shortly by George Harrison.
The Quarrymen began playing at various venues in Liverpool, at
which point bassist Stuart Sutcliffe joined them. Already by then the need to
incorporate a drummer was evident. The name of the group would undergo new
variations, from Johnny and the Moondogs to The Silver Beatles and The Beatles
(1960), which would ultimately be the definitive one; Such a denomination arose
from the fashion of naming musical groups after animals (beetle means
"beetle") and from the play on words with the style they then
practiced (beat music, "blow").
Finally, they incorporated a drummer, Peter Best, and got a
contract to play in Hamburg, in a place of dubious fame called Kaiserkeller.
His first German adventure ended prematurely with the expulsion of George
Harrison from the country due to his minority; the same fate later suffered
Paul McCartney and Peter Best, although not because of a minority, but because
of hooliganism.
The Beatles (George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Peter Best and
John Lennon) in their primitive rock image (The Cavern, Liverpool, February
1961)
In 1961 they would return to Germany again, to return again to
the United Kingdom without penalty or glory. Peter Best left the group due to
deep disagreements with the rest of its members and was replaced by Ringo Starr
(stage name of Richard Starkey). Shortly after, Stuart Sutcliffe died in
Germany, the victim of a stroke; with this the list of members of The Beatles
was definitively closed: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo
Starr.
The tandem formed by John Lennon (rhythm guitar) and Paul
McCartney (bass) would usually carry out the composition of the themes. In general,
they are due to Lennon, who should be considered the leader and creative soul
of the group, the most innovative songs and the artistic and intellectual
demand; McCartney's brilliant musical talent was easily carried away by the
commercial, but equally the songs ended up being the result of the
counterbalance between the two. In a more advanced phase, the always-restless
George Harrison (solo guitar) contributed to the group's repertoire with
valuable contributions; very few, however, are due to the carefree drummer
Ringo Starr.
The
"Beatle mania"
Despite the null repercussion, the experience in Germany had
given consistency to the group, although at the beginning of the 60s it did not
seem like more than another of the numerous bands that, since the triumph of
American rock and roll in the mid-50s, passionately cultivated this genre in
the United Kingdom, interpreting or covering songs by Elvis Presley, Chuck
Berry and other great American rockers. The Beatles, however, had begun to
compose and interpret their own songs, and already enjoyed a certain fame; They
played small clubs in Liverpool, such as The Cavern, and were well known in the
Liverpool area, but no record label had yet knocked on their doors.
The Beatles in concert
At the end of 1961, after hearing them in a performance, Brian
Epstein was enthusiastic and became his artistic representative; The role of
this record store owner with no managerial experience proved so decisive that
he would be called "the fifth Beatle." Epstein modeled a new look for
the group — which went from rocking jeans and leathers to sleek jackets and
helmet hair — and introduced them to producer George Martin, who signed them to
record a single. This first record work was titled Love me do (1962) and
managed to reach the charts in the United Kingdom. Already in 1963, Please,
please me and shortly after From me to you and she She loves you would once
again reach positions of honour in the British lists. That year can be
considered the birth of "beatlemania", a phenomenon of idolatry
towards the group whose maximum expression was the hysterical attacks that the
female audience suffered at the band's concerts.
"Beatlemania" spread to the United States in 1964,
where songs like Love me do, She loves you or I want to hold your hand, backed
by their first tour in this country, reached the top of the charts. The
Guinness Book of Records collects a very revealing fact: in the same month, two
albums and five singles by The Beatles led the respective US charts. Instead
of, as was traditional, radiating their musical influence throughout the world,
the United States suffered the so-called "British Invasion", with the
group from Liverpool serving as a bridgehead for a series of bands (The
Animals, The Who or the Rolling Stones) who would also land on the new continent,
dethroning the supremacy of American rock and roll
Performing She loves you amid an explosion of
"beatlemania" (Manchester, 1963)
Simultaneously, and taking advantage of their popularity, The
Beatles shot various films, among which it is worth highlighting What a night
that day! (A Hard Day's Night, 1964), a promotional vehicle that recounted
three days in the life of the Beatles and reflected the phenomena of rapt
paroxysm that the group unleashed wherever they went. The director, Richard
Lester, gave the film a tone of surreal humor, destroying the notions of space
and time with the editing, as evidenced in the scene in which the Beatles are
both inside the train and running to catch it. The same filmmaker would direct
them in Help! (1965). The release of the self-titled albums accompanied both
releases; Also at that time the LPs Beatles For Sale (1964) and Rubber Soul
(1965) were released.
In fact, until 1965, the group continued chaining albums at an
average of two or more per year, most of whose songs were written by
themselves, which gives an idea of their extraordinary fecundity. During these
early years, The Beatles toured the world, but their concerts were
progressively spaced out, partly due to the group's growing irritation at that
exacerbated idolatry, more oriented towards their people than their music.
After certain incidents on their way through the Philippines and the southern
United States they gave their last concert in San Francisco,
in August 1966. With their retirement, "beatlemania" faded only in
its sense of collective frenzy; they continued to be the reference group of
their time and had enthusiastic followers.
Maturity
and dissolution
From then on they would limit themselves to making studio
recordings. Thus began a new stage in his career, with a new image and a new
style, more serious and profound. Experimenting with advanced techniques to
create innovative musical effects, his music ranges expanded and gave way to
blues, country, 1920s parodies, oriental influences, and social criticism,
elements that were harmoniously integrated into his own sound. and
unmistakable.
The Beatles in the Abbey Road studio
The first album of this second stage, Revolver (1966), already
contained a handful of excellent songs that were musically innovative and far
removed in their lyrics from the usual love stereotypes (Taxman, Eleanor Rigby,
Tomorrow Never Knows). The following year their contact with psychedelic drugs
(especially LSD) intensified, with the hippie movement and oriental mysticism,
embodied in the figure of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, whom they accompanied to
India.
All this came together in the release of his most
revolutionary work, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), an LP that
would mark the birth of psychedelic music and was a resounding worldwide
success for the British group, which reached number one simultaneously on the
UK and US charts. An eminent example, especially on its A-side, of what has
been called a "concept album" (that is, conceived as a unitary work
that goes beyond the mere juxtaposition of songs), the album is a celebration
of music, solidarity , freedom and fantasy expressed in a sophisticated and harmonious
mixture of styles; At the peak of their creative capacity and working as one
man, the group knew how to choose, among the multiple musical traditions, the
most suitable one to accompany each lyric, until obtaining the most brilliant
final result.
But 1967 was also the year of the death of the man who had
brought them to stardom, Brian Epstein, surely the only one capable of keeping
such disparate personalities together. John Lennon would always claim that
Epstein's death meant the end of the Beatles. The official separation would
take time to take place, and it was preceded by resounding signs, such as the
publication of solo records by John Lennon (three albums produced with Yoko
Ono, his wife since 1968) and by George Harrison. It probably did not take
place before because of the interest of its components to edit the pending
joint works before starting a personal trajectory.
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison
(London, 1968)
This is how the compositions of Magical Mystery Tour (1967), a
failed film for television, saw the light; the double LP The White Album
(1968); the soundtrack to his delicious animated film Yellow Submarine (1969),
and Abbey Road (1969). After the publication of Let it be (1970), which despite
its musical quality meant, for Lennon and many, the end of nonconformity and a
return to the fold on issues such as the one that gives the album its title,
the disagreements within the formation ended with its dissolution and each
member continued, with varying fortunes, their solo musical career, without any
of the attempts to reunite them coming to fruition. The death of John Lennon in
1980 at the hands of a disturbed man had a great impact throughout the world,
and ended any dream of his fans in this regard.
The influence of The Beatles' work over the ensuing decades
has been immense. To cite just a few examples, from the psychedelia of Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band started a whole current that reached groups
like Pink Floyd or Emerson, Lake & Palmer and gave rise to so-called
symphonic rock; his influence would still be felt powerfully in brit pop, one
of the most significant musical phenomena of the 1990s. Apart from their
undoubted artistic importance, The Beatles remained forever as the symbol of a
lifestyle that was perfectly linked to the deep youthful concerns of the 1960s.
How to cite this article:
Fernndez, Tomás and
Tamaro, Elena. "Biography of The Beatles". In
Biographies and Lives. The online biographical encyclopedia [Internet].
Barcelona, Spain, 2004. Available at
https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/b/beatles.htm [date of access: June
24, 2023].
With affection,
Ruben
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