Beatles FAQ

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  format: essentially,  "I love you/please love me too ."   There were some exceptions. Paul's When I'm Sixty Four, for example, shows the influence of music hall and takes a very unusual perspective for a teenage songwriter.  Generally, though,  the words 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...

The Beatles first met Dylan during their second visit to the US in August 1964. He came to visit them in their suite at the Delmonoco Hotel in New York, accompanied by his friend Al Aronowitz.  Eager to please their super-hip guests, The Beatles offered Dylan and champagne and amphetamines. Dylan said that he only drank cheap wine and suggested that they ‘smoke some grass’ Brian and the Beatles looked at each other apprehensively. “We’ve never smoked marijuana before,” Brian finally admitted.  Those British accents Dylan was clearly confused {He} looked disbelievingly from face to face. “But what about your song?” he asked. The one about getting high?” The Beatles were stupefied. “Which song?” John managed to ask. Dylan said, “You know…” and then he sang, “and when I touch you I get high, I get high…” John flushed with embarrassment. “Those aren’t the words,” he admitted. “The words are, ‘I can’t hide, I can’t hide, I can’t hide…'”    From The Love You Make...

'We were cowards when we sacked him,'  John Lennon The  Beatles replaced their drummer,  Pete Best , with Ringo Starr in August 1962 . 

John & Yoko  - Gibraltar wedding photo

In 1962, Brian Epstein was the best man at the hastily arranged wedding of John Lennon and Cynthia Powell in Liverpool. 

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

George Harrison bought what he later called a 'terrible..cheapoo guitar when he was thirteen. His mother, Louise Harrison, has confirmed that learning to play it didn't come easily George tried to teach himself [the guitar]. But he wasn’t making much headway. ‘I’ll never learn this,’ he used to say. I said, ‘You will, son, you will. Just keep at it.’ Progression With characteristic determination, George stuck to the task, literally making his fingers bleed.  Once he had the core chords memorised, he moved on to a Spanish guitar manual,  Modern Guitar Chord Progressions .  Around this time, he noticed an older boy carrying a trumpet on his bus journey from school. The budding musicians fell into conversation   Read more   (4-minute free on Medium)

None of the Beatles could read or write music. And before the Internet, there were no YouTube videos to watch or chord sheets to print off.