How The Beatles Did It: Pop Gallery eBooks, #4
By Marc Platt
()
About this ebook
(Updated January, 2017)
“How The Beatles Did It” (with 13 Video Notebooks and 6 Audio Notebooks at the End of The Manuscript) The Beatles history has been told and retold for more than half a century. This user-friendly reference book will focus on the material they wrote and recorded and artists who influenced that material. How DID The Beatles do it? Musically! That’s how.
As we all know, many recording artists who followed them were greatly influenced by their body of work. I have gathered annotated quotes and a few by some of the artists who were directly and indirectly influenced by the songs and the legendary recordings produced by George Martin, Phil Spector and Chris Thomas (‘The White Album’).
I have paid attention to detail in the analysis of when and where certain songs were conceived and taken some liberties in the assumption of certain songs, but have done my best to present solid evidence of the possible influences. The best part of the equation is YOU. You will be able to go listen to certain songs by the artists who may have influenced The Beatles. You will be able to make that final decision.
This is a content-heavy book with a lot of analysis. It is designed for Beatle fans new and older. This is a band that has transcended generations and future generations will be following the songwriting model Lennon, McCartney and Harrison created with the great arrangement and production guidance from Sir George Martin.
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Book preview
How The Beatles Did It - Marc Platt
How The Beatles Did It!
Intro
1 A Brief History
2 Who THEY Liked
3 Early Songs 1962-63
4 The Beatle Machine 1964-66
5 The Beatle Culture 1967-68
6 The End 1969-70
7 Why Ringo is My Favorite Drummer
8 George Really Wasn’t That Quiet
9 How I Met Paul McCartney
10 John Lennon: the Chameleon
11 The Beatles Early Musical Balance Of Power
12 Let’s Go A Little Deeper
13 Deeper Into The ‘Abbey Road’ Album
14 ‘Let It Be... Naked’ A Lost Classic
15 UK Albums Versus US Releases
16 George Martin: The Beatle-Maker
17 Apple
18 Behind the Beatle Scene
© 2017 Marc Alan Platt
Intro
The Beatles history has been told and retold for more than half a century.
This user-friendly reference book will focus on the material they wrote and recorded and artists who influenced that material. How DID The Beatles do it? Musically! That’s how.
As we all know, many recording artists who followed them were greatly influenced by their body of work. I have gathered annotated quotes and a few by some of the artists who were directly and indirectly influenced by the songs and the legendary recordings produced by George Martin, Phil Spector and Chris Thomas (‘The White Album’).
I have paid attention to detail in the analysis of when and where certain songs were conceived and taken some liberties in the assumption of certain songs, but have done my best to present solid evidence of the possible influences. The best part of the equation is YOU. You will be able to go listen to certain songs by the artists who may have influenced The Beatles. You will be able to make that final decision.
This is a content-heavy book with a lot of analysis. It is designed for Beatle fans new and older. This is a band that has transcended generations and future generations will be following the songwriting model Lennon, McCartney and Harrison created with the great arrangement and production guidance from Sir George Martin.
I have been a songwriter myself since 1978 and a Beatle fanatic since 1965 when I was five years old. I have authored another book called So You Want To Be A Rock n’ Roll Star,
which serves as a songwriting guide. Needless to say, I have approached this book from the standpoint of a songwriter AND a Beatles fan.
I hope you get as much out of the book reading it as I did writing it.
Marc Alan Platt
Winter, 2015
Chapter 1: A Brief History
In case you didn’t already know...
In 1957, 14-year-old Paul McCartney, who was grieving the recent loss of his mother Mary McCartney, met John Lennon at a church fair in Woolton, Liverpool. Lennon’s skiffle group ‘The Quarrymen’ was performing at the fair. Their mutual friend Ivan Vaughn brought McCartney, who brought along his guitar, and introduced Lennon to McCartney.
John basically challenged Paul to show Lennon and his friends what he can do on the guitar. McCartney ripped through Eddie Cochran’s "Twenty Flight Rock," which impressed Lennon and his Quarrymen band mates.
Lennon, the group’s leader, ran into Vaughn a short while later and told him he’d like Paul to join the band. Vaughn relayed the message to McCartney a few weeks later and the seeds were planted.
In the following months, Paul brought George Harrison into the band and other members dropped away. The nucleus of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison with several interchanging drummers and Lennon’s art school friend Stuart Sutcliffe went through several name changes and managers such as local Liverpool club booker and owner Allen Williams.
Williams secured the group lodgings and bookings in Hamburg, Germany in clubs along the red light district. The band learned the ropes and became a top-flight live act that gained a lot of local traction in Liverpool when they returned from Germany between engagements.
They took up a residency in Liverpool’s Cavern Club and began to build a rabid local following. Recordings they made in Hamburg came to the attention of local NEMS entrepreneur Brian Epstein, who went down to see the band during a lunch time performance.
Epstein was so impressed, that he began to formulate a game plan in his mind during that first performance of how this band could become a major recording act.
The shy and reserved Epstein went backstage and introduced himself and started the ball rolling to manage the group, who had settled on Pete Best as a drummer by this time.
Epstein secured his deal to manage the band and then began shopping their crude unpolished demos to record labels in London. Every label passed on the band and Decca Records even had the band come in and play their Cavern set live in the studio. The A & R rep Tony Meehan passed on the band declaring ...guitar bands are on the way out.
Epstein was near the end of the line when by chance he was transferring the Decca audition tapes into acetates when the engineer suggested Parlophone’s George Martin should hear the acetate. EMI, Parlophone’s parent company, had already passed on The Beatles.
Martin didn’t like the demo, but heard something he liked and invited the band to come to London for a studio audition.
When the band showed up, Martin was taken not with their music and material, but their charm and humor. He liked the fact they had three singers and while formulating which Beatle would be lead singer; it dawned on him it could be all three.
Martin signed the band and insisted they change drummers. Pete Best would be out and Epstein and his young band grabbed Ringo Starr, who had played with them as a substitute at times, to join as the final piece.
Martin was not convinced when they showed up to record their first single "Love Me Do. Martin hired studio specialist Andy White to play on the session and Ringo was handed a tambourine. The 45rpm single features Andy White on the drums and Ringo on tambourine. The LP version, which was recorded later features Ringo. That is how you distinguish between the two versions. The
Ringo" version has no tambourine.
Martin made his presence felt greatly in that first session when he had Paul sing the hook line love me do
while Lennon played the harmonica. Paul recalls Martin saying Wait a minute, wait a minute. There’s a crossover there. Someone else has to sing (the line) ‘Love me do.’ We can’t go
Love me waahh..."**
The ‘waahh,’ of course being that signature harmonica part Lennon developed and the band had been playing for months.
"Love Me Do" reached #17 on the charts with or without the financial support of Epstein, who may or may not have bought enough copies himself for his NEMS store.
The Beatles were off and running and were developing a strong bond with George Martin, who was producer of their records AND the label chief at Parlophone.
Chapter 2: Who THEY Liked
John Lennon and Paul McCartney were the chief architects of the songs and the sound of the band. As teenagers, they along with their mate George Harrison, grabbed every rock n’ roll import that came along from the states. Living in a seaport like Liverpool gave them an advantage when it came to getting those valuable records. All the Liverpool bands depended on those singles for repertoire in the clubs. They all played the same covers at their gigs.
These Motown, Stax and U.S. pop records served as Lennon and McCartney’s