Fun sidebar - wish I had known about these 5-6 weeks ago but I only started reading Lewisohn's book a week ago - the Beatles put out an annual Christmas record each December for their official fan club, 1963-69.
These were not available commercially, they were mailed to members mid-December. Of course bc of the goofy way EMI handled releases, different flexi-discs for the U.K. and USA fan clubs.
ASIDE - in 2017 the U.K. 7" single sided EPs were boxed into a compilation release
The records ran three to seven minutes, including spoken word thank you messages, holiday and/or silly songs, skits, etc. Each year is microcosm of where the boys are at in their evolution. The first few years, straight forward fan appreciation records. They mock themselves Year 3 (1965) and then - with greater control over the studio - the experimentations begin in 1965. Some of these rival Revolution 9 as mini sound collages (though MUCH more enjoyable.)
Wikipedia - The Beatles Christmas Records
THE BEATLES' CHRISTMAS RECORDS: They wanna wish you a merry crimble and a gear new year from the New Zealand site
Elsewhere - really stupendous work year recapping each year for the lads, a couple song clips, abstract on the Christmas record, and full audio of the latter. I could find some of these but not all on YouTube but then happily stumbled onto this page.
Silly stuff to be sure but delightful discovery for me personally. I had no idea about this practice - I kept reading mentions of their annual Christmas record but didn't grasp what it was. Kind of love that they were so generous in giving back to the fans, even in the latter years when even this exercise was being done separately instead of in the studio together.
_______________
One thing I noticing over and over in studying their upbringing and early years which I have not seen discussed...these boys worked their asses off. When they went over to Hamburg in August 1960 (the trip they all got deported except for John) here was the schedule:
- £2.50 each a day
- seven days a week
- played 8:30–9:30, 10 until 11, 11:30–12:30, and finishing the evening playing from one until two o'clock in the morning.
Then go on and look at 1961 onward, look at these tour schedules:
List of the Beatles' live performances
It is astonishing. They would go 5-7 months of playing 28 gigs a month with 2-3 days off. Couple weeks break, and then right back at it. Now sure, they're all young and energetic and hopped up on Preludin, but even still, their work ethic is tremendous. Even in 1969 when they're about to splinter off, they're going to the studio every single day to write songs. That's the full-time gig - see if you can write an album with no overdubs in 3-4 weeks time. They're the biggest thing ever yet they're working on the craft every day. Then getting started on
Abbey Road a few weeks after the rooftop concert (Feb 22nd.)
Of course it's easy to forget about this now. Macca is worth $400M, Ringo $350M, the Harrison and Lennon estates are in a similar stratosphere. They were certainly living large in the mid-sixties, what with each of them acquiring Grade II country estates, John buying Mimi seaside digs, Paul setting his pops up in a wealthy suburb. But those early years, straight through the Beatlemania, the World Tours, they were working almost nonstop. They made one of the greatest albums of all time in
Rubber Soul - four months latter they were back in the studio pushing the envelope yet again, giving the world the incredible
Revolver. It just blows my mind that
Help!, RS and
R all came out within 12 months of each other.
How many other bands, giving the same unique set of circumstances, would have made the choices they did? When you consider it all in context, they kept choosing the hard road. Everyone else had a hit, they wanted the next one to be the same sound to ensure it would chart. But the Fab Four just wanted to keep going in different directions - challenging themselves, inventing techniques they didn't exist.
Little wonder they're the most influential band which ever existed.