saintsfan
Footballguy
Similar to tim's thread of World War II, I would like to start up a thread about the Beatles in advance of 09-09-09 with the release of the Beatles Rock Band and the remastered catalogue.
Like tim, I consider myself to be an amateur expert on the Beatles, so I will try and type up a few posts for you to read and you can comment and ask questions and I'll see if I can do so. Like tim, I'm going to try and go in chronologically. Anyway, here's the first one.
The Early Years
The Beatles story really starts with schoolboys John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison all being friends in Liverpool, England in the late 1950's. John heard Elvis on the radio and from that moment on, he was "lost". His auntie, Mimi, bought him a cheap guitar and his mother, Julia, taught him how to play banjo chords. John was used to being the leader of a gang, so he became leader of a new gang, which was a band he started called the Quarrymen, named after John's school. His best friend Pete Shotton and other of John's friends were also in the band.
Meanwhile, a friend of John named Ivan Vaughn brought a young lad named Paul McCartney to a summer fair to see the Quarrymen play. Paul was a guitarist himself and Ivan thought he and John would get along. Paul goes to this fair and sees a guy up on stage "with a checkered shirt playing these strange banjo chords." Paul was impressed that John had a good voice and he would make up words to the song if he didn't know the real words. After the show, John and Paul met up with each other and John was impressed that Paul could tune a guitar and that Paul could do Eddie Cochrane's "Twenty Flight Rock" and he knew all the words. The next day, John asked Paul to join the band. He said yes.
Paul had a school friend of his named George Harrison who rode the same bus as Paul. They got to talking and both realized that they had common interests in music and in guitars. George, while not perhaps as talented as Paul, worked harder learning how to play and knew more chords and could play fluidly in a way Paul could not yet do. When John heard George play "Raunchy" note for note, John asked George to join and he did.
The Quarrymen had people go in and out of the group, always around the core of John, Paul, and George, so the lineup continuously changed in those years. In 1958, the Quarrymen recorded a disc in a local mom and pop type recording studio. It was recorded straight to disc. The record had "That'll Be The Day" backed with a McCartney written "In Spite of All The Danger" on the flip side. This record was in the possession of John Lowe until 1981 when Paul purchased it from him. It can be heard on the Anthology 1 CD.
Next...Going to Hamburg
Like tim, I consider myself to be an amateur expert on the Beatles, so I will try and type up a few posts for you to read and you can comment and ask questions and I'll see if I can do so. Like tim, I'm going to try and go in chronologically. Anyway, here's the first one.
The Early Years
The Beatles story really starts with schoolboys John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison all being friends in Liverpool, England in the late 1950's. John heard Elvis on the radio and from that moment on, he was "lost". His auntie, Mimi, bought him a cheap guitar and his mother, Julia, taught him how to play banjo chords. John was used to being the leader of a gang, so he became leader of a new gang, which was a band he started called the Quarrymen, named after John's school. His best friend Pete Shotton and other of John's friends were also in the band.
Meanwhile, a friend of John named Ivan Vaughn brought a young lad named Paul McCartney to a summer fair to see the Quarrymen play. Paul was a guitarist himself and Ivan thought he and John would get along. Paul goes to this fair and sees a guy up on stage "with a checkered shirt playing these strange banjo chords." Paul was impressed that John had a good voice and he would make up words to the song if he didn't know the real words. After the show, John and Paul met up with each other and John was impressed that Paul could tune a guitar and that Paul could do Eddie Cochrane's "Twenty Flight Rock" and he knew all the words. The next day, John asked Paul to join the band. He said yes.
Paul had a school friend of his named George Harrison who rode the same bus as Paul. They got to talking and both realized that they had common interests in music and in guitars. George, while not perhaps as talented as Paul, worked harder learning how to play and knew more chords and could play fluidly in a way Paul could not yet do. When John heard George play "Raunchy" note for note, John asked George to join and he did.
The Quarrymen had people go in and out of the group, always around the core of John, Paul, and George, so the lineup continuously changed in those years. In 1958, the Quarrymen recorded a disc in a local mom and pop type recording studio. It was recorded straight to disc. The record had "That'll Be The Day" backed with a McCartney written "In Spite of All The Danger" on the flip side. This record was in the possession of John Lowe until 1981 when Paul purchased it from him. It can be heard on the Anthology 1 CD.
Next...Going to Hamburg