On 5 October 1962 (60 years ago) an largely unknown group of four kids from Liverpool released their first ever recording. It was a song they'd written themselves a few years earlier.

The Beatles went on to become the most successful entertainers of the 20th century. This first recording (Love Me Do) reached number 20 in the UK charts but was more successful in Australia when it was released later in the year. A month later, they recorded 'Please, Please Me' which reached number one and popular music was changed forever.

Although they had no classical training (really no training at all) they became the most accomplished musicians of their day introducing classical instrumentations and instrumentation to a new audience. For example, the song 'For the One' features musical techniques unheard since Bach.

Thousands of books, articles and treatise have been written about the group so 350 words won't do. Suffice to say that this day in 1962 is as consequential as any in the 20th century.

A couple of years ago I managed to see McCartney in his "One on One" tour. It was a religious experience, with 10000 people united in their love of the songs the Beatles had created.

A world without them doesn't bear thinking.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VgRuLQgeSE

Hi mhaze,

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!

My father bought me the entire c/d collection of the
Beatles and I ended up giving it to my son.
Their songs were great - from "Hey Jude," to
"All you need is Love," to "Penny Lane," "She Loves
You," "Can't buy me love," and the beat goes on.

mhaze,

Do you have a favourite Beatles song?

I remember when Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band came out, man we just about wore the needle through the vinyl.

When I was young the Beatles were putting out top hits all the time. I just assumed it was part of the eternal fabric of the universe, but later it turned out to be just a historical phase that passed.

Hi mhaze

A good post. I too love the Beatles.

Though re: "For example, the song 'For the One' features musical techniques unheard since Bach."

Don't you mean "For No One" where a Bach like French Horn kicks in about 49 seconds in, see http://youtu.be/ELlLIwhvknk?t=47s

Not to mention pop-Classical masterpiece "Eleanor Rigby" http://youtu.be/zwoCuzGMS_I

++++++++++++++

Foxy, Cumberland

The songs of "Sergeant Peppers..." are also my favourite collection.

Also, mainly Lennon's "Imagine" http://youtu.be/QfgVhE1M6ns

Mavs

Not a favourite, but a few favourites:

"The one after 909"... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd2QANK6hYg

(Lennon wrote that when he was 17!!)

"For no one" ....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuphFPEqJqw

A Day in the Life"... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usNsCeOV4GM

"Rocky Racoon"....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDcDCZGcZj8
(its not a great song but it is the first song my daughter was ever passionate about. She remains a Beatles fanatic and we still play it when we are together and music is the subject).

But if I had to pick one...

"Please please Me"....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3NTVkHwD5I

(incidentally, my favourite Australia singer is Russel Morris and he does a homage version.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqxW29Ich3k .
I met Russel Morris backstage at one of his concerts and he effused over how the McCartney 'One on One' concert was the best he'd ever seen.)

Yes Maverick "For no One".

I saw an interview with a 'Bach' specialist who said the French Horn interlude was as close to Bach as anyone had come in 100 years. Note also that the French Horn chords are repeated by the entire orchestra at the back-end of the song, another Bach trait.

Thanks for putting this up for discussion mhaze.

I too can't really choose just one favourite.
Although "Imagine," comes close.

Well strictly speaking Imagine is post-Beatle Lennon.

In that same regard I'd throw in lot's of post-Beatle McCartney and Wings including....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SEVPR5Ssck

Not to belabour the point, but at the 'One on One' concert they had an entire 40 piece bagpipe band (I think King's school band) come on stage for Mull of Kintyre.

I remember the Beatles well mainly because I found it difficult to avoid hearing their versions of music and song.

My fav Beatles song is 'GETBACK'.

I was able to love the Beatles only because my English was so poor at the time that I didn't understand their lyrics, only a few words in between so I imagined them to be ideal and filled in my own words.

I had for example the record 'Abbey Road' which I adored. I thought it was so spiritual, say "She came in through the bathroom window", now I understand that it was a song about a common thief and drug addict, but then I thought that she came in through the bathroom window because the door was locked and good people, possibly children, were locked and tortured inside so she came to save them!

Or was it "Dirty old man" ("Mean Mr. Mustard") - no chance I could understand that expression ("Dirty old man"), so I actually thought that it was a continuation/repetition of the song "Carry that Weight", which is what a saint does!

Then I saw the film "Yellow Submarine" with "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" - classical good against evil, I had no idea about drugs, certainly didn't work out the initials - L.S.D., all I saw is the good apple people knocking down the evil giants that invaded the earth. Then of course, who wouldn't agree that "All You Need is Love"? - even I understood these simple words!

Later my friends told me that "The Beatles are God" while my parents on the other hand told me that the Beatles tell people to take drugs. Well I was scared because I knew that God must be obeyed, and I definitely was not willing to take drugs, so what could I do? Thus I resolved that: "The Beatles live in England, so I will never go to England so the Beatles cannot catch me and tell me to take drugs!"

Hi Yuyutsu

I think posing an issue of the Beatles failing:

- your initial forays into the English language

OR

- the morality of a concept you call "God"

misses the point about enjoying some of the most creative music ever.

eg: http://youtu.be/HtUH9z_Oey8

Cheers Mavs

Dear Maverick,

But I did obviously enjoy the music!

Had I understood the words and how mundane they were, then I suspect that would detract from my joy - but fortunately I didn't...

As for my concept of God, it was still very immature at the time, as was I, and very different from my understanding today.

Fair enough Yuyutsu

And learning English with a Liverpudlian accent must have been problematic :)

Here's a Beatles song without dark or hidden meanings - just simple heartbreak - something I can identify with.

http://youtu.be/wXTJBr9tt8Q?t=18s

Yesterday
All my troubles seemed so far away
Now it looks as though they're here to stay
Oh, I believe in yesterday

Suddenly
I'm not half the man I used to be
There's a shadow hanging over me
Oh, yesterday came suddenly

Why she had to go? I don't know, she wouldn't say
I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday

Yesterday
Love was such an easy game to play
Now I need a place to hide away
Oh, I believe in yesterday

Why she had to go? I don't know, she wouldn't say
I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday

Yesterday
Love was such an easy game to play
Now I need a place to hide away
Oh, I believe in yesterday

Mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm, hmm-hmm

And this second one is great http://youtu.be/Qyclqo_AV2M .

Cheers Mavs

By way of background as regards "Yesterday"......

Around the time it was written, or, more accurately, finished, McCartney was in a relationship with Jane Asher. He claims the tune was written while he was staying at her parents house. The relationship was rather fraught and, although Paul denies it, its hard to not get the sense that the lyric is an anguished cry over the declining love affair.

Paul says the melody came to him in his sleep, so complete that he assumed he'd simply subconsciously heard it elsewhere. So he spent months playing it for anyone who'd listen to try to find out he was 'plagiarising'. It turned out that indeed he had created it himself. He was 22 and had just written the most covered song of the 20th century.

It was a watershed song for the Beatles. The first to be sung solo. the first to have string/orchestral accompaniment. The Beatles were no longer just a rock band.

Hi Maverick,

Those words still ring true for me today.

They're timeless!

We all have our "yesterdays."

Thanks mhaze,

Music is one of the most powerful tools of communicating the message. In the Beatles we had a fab four of unlikely lads from Liverpool who achieved something special that will live on for ever.

Just checked my phone I have 67 Beatles songs.

Mein Gott!!

I’m rather amused at the nostalgic adulation of what was, essentially a group of drug pushers.
One wonders how many lives were ruined and how many premature deaths, not to mention suffering of parents that can be laid at their feet?

Hi mhaze, Foxy, Yuyutsu and Paul

Great we all like the Beatles. Even the "quiet" one, George, could write a great song. Hits its stride 1 minute 14 seconds in.

http://youtu.be/UelDrZ1aFeY

Something in the way she moves
Attracts me like no other lover
Something in the way she woos me
I don't want to leave her now
You know I believe and how

Somewhere in her smile she knows
That I don't need no other lover
Something in her style that shows me
I don't want to leave her now
You know I believe and how

You're asking me will my love grow
I don't know, I don't know
You stick around, now it may show
I don't know, I don't know

Something in the way she knows
And all I have to do is think of her
Something in the things she shows me
I don't want to leave her now
You know I believe and how.

By George.

Maverick do you like the Maverick's, my wife does.

Yesterday was John Lennon's birthday. He'd have been 82.

Abandoned by his mother at age two, to be raised by his beloved Aunt Mimi, he nonetheless remained devoted to Julia....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZip_br_v3w

She died when he was 17. It's interesting to ponder how childhood tragedy relates to artistic genius. McCartney was raised by his widowed father and Ringo's father had abandoned the family when he was 4.

Maybe that’s why they went on drugs.

Thanks Paul

In all humility we Mavericks are excellent strike fighter pilots http://youtu.be/IXbnzEHZDPg?t=7s

while moonlighting as Country singers http://youtu.be/ypJ3dP7qCpE

Cheers

Da Real Maverick (pulling Gs)

Hi Mav's,

The 'Mavericks' are number 1 with the "rock n' roll' set, and 'Back In Your Arms Again' is their best. I like all good music, mostly 'Old School, a bit of reggae, rock, all kinds etc etc.

Hi Paul

Just for you and youse:

A crazy hazy 60 minute "Reggae mix 2013 for Ganja Smoker!" http://youtu.be/owZ-Q29_Alw?t=12s

Enjoy Mavs :)

Hi Maves,

Me forum mate Issy, me thinks liked de gunga, said so, said de Beatles smoked de weed, Issy the old hippy man smoked de weed, me thinks. None for me for very long time.

http://youtu.be/EsyUa63NM1E

Herr Goebbels,
More of your lies,as expected; no Beetles fans can face the truth.

Yo PaulMarn

Dem Youtube http://youtu.be/EsyUa63NM1E yu sen me of da Issys be graarrrnd.

Lil kid wit belack beret be Michael Issy, like Jackson yu no!

Issy smoka Ganja wen he pipsqueak heepy.

Im pass the Dutchie 'pon the left hand side.

MavMarn

I don't care what they smoked themselves, but does anyone here know by chance, or at least is able to estimate, how many people (especially children) did the Beatles order to take drugs? And how many of them obeyed?

Yuyutsu,
They didn’t order anyone to do anything but by their example they influenced the mentally vulnerable, read fans, not all of course but a number, the order of magnitude of which we will never know; but drug pushers they certainly were by example.

Hi Issy,

You said you were a 'flower child' living in a hippy commune eating lentals and smokeing dope all day, making free love at night. Do you listen to 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds' LSD for short?

Well well, one (but not the only) reason they could not influence me to take drugs was because my English was not good enough at the time to understand them. Let alone thinking of these words as initials for a chemical substance, I knew the word 'Sky', I don't think I new 'Diamonds', nor that 'Lucy' was a girl's name, actually I thought that 'Diamonds' could be the name of a boy, and from the structure of the sentence I must have thought that 'Lucy' was some verb...

As the song goes, "old Satan's mad and I am glad [keep away from the Eden tree] - he lost the soul he thought he had [keep away from the Eden tree]"

Herr Goebbels,
More lies, as usual.