By Steve Marinucci, Staff Writer
Published Dec. 12, 1980
San Jose Mercury
Special section commemorating John Lennon
OCT. 9, 1940- 'John Lennon born in Oxford Street Mater ~ nity Hospital in Liverpool, England.
JUNE 15,1956 - Paul and John meet for the first time at Woolton Parish Church festival in Liverpool. ihe same year, 13-year-old George Harrison buys a cheap guitar from a friend and with a group called the Rebels, and plays his first paying gig.
1957 - Paul and John perform as the Nurk Twins.
1958 - George meets and plays with Paul. Paul joins John's group, the Quarrymen. George is formally introduced to the leader.
JULY 15 - Julia Stanley Morgan, John's mother, is killed in an accident involving an off-duty police car in front 01 John's home. Her death shattered him, since he felt he was beginning to know her. Later in his career, he writes "Julia," "Mother" and "Mv Mummv's Dead."
1960 - John, Paul and George form Johnny & the Moondogs. They change their name to the Silver Beatles and land a two-week tour of Scotland with Johnny Gentle. Back in Liverpool, they back strippers and get their foot in the door at the Cavern Club. Pete Best added as drummer.
DECEMBER - Only 17, George is deported from Germany for beingunderaged and having neither resident nor work permits.
DEC. 27 - The BeatJesplay Litherland Town Hall and become the talk of Liverpool.
JANUARY 1961 - The Beatles begin appearing regularly at the Cavern Club.
APRIL - The Beatles return to Hamburg since George turned 18 and appear at the Top Ten Club. They make their recording debut with Tony Sheridan.
JULY - The Beatles return to Liverpool without Stuart Sutcliffe and Paul is deemed its bass player.
OCTOBER - Raymond Jones walks into NEMS Record Store and asks owner Brian Epstein for a single, "My Bonnie" by the Beatles.
NOV.9 - Intrigued that a Liverpool group actually cut a record, Epstein visits the Cavern Club on his lunch hour to watch the Beatles.
DEC.3 - First meeting between The Beatles and Epstein who soon becomes their manager.
JAN. 1, 1962 - They audition for Decca Records.
APRIL-MAY - They work at polishing their act at the Star Club. Early Beatles member Stuart Sutcliffe dies of brain hemorrhage.
JUNE 6 - The Beatles audition and pass approval of producer George Martin.
AUGUST - Ringo Starr quits Rory Storme's Hurricanes, shaves his beard and replaces Pete Best as The Beatles' drummer.
AUG. 23 - John marries Cynthia Powell.
SEPTEMBER - George Martin signs The Beatles to EMl's Parlophone Records and produces first recordings including their first single, "Love Me Do" back'ed with "P.S.I Love You."
NOVEMBER - First television appearance in England. NOV.26 -:- Recorded second single, "Please, Please Me." DECEMBER - Fifth and fjnal trip to Hamburg.
JANUARY 1963 - A tour of Scotland.
FEBRUARY - First national tour of England with the Helen Shapiro Show. First nationally televised appearance in England.
APRIL 18 - John Charles Julian Lennon born jn London. MAY - Theyheadllne their own national tour with Gerry and the Pacemakers and Roy Orbison.
OCT. 13 - Beatlemania fully ignited with appearance on "Sunday Night at the London Palladium."
OCT. 24~29 - Tour of Sweden with televison appearances. NOV.4 - Royal Command performance at Prince of Wales Theater, London.
DEC.29 - WMCA radio station in New York City broadcasts the first Beatles song in the United States, "I Want to Hold Your Hand."
JANUARY 1964 - They perform three weeks at the Olympia Theater in Paris.
FEB. 7-21- First American visit. Four nervous Beatles land in New York to the first of the airport hysteria scenes. An estimated 5,OOO fans greet them. They appear twice on "The Ed Sullivan Show," in Washington, D.C., and Carnegie Hall where they are pelted with jellybeans, a trademark of Beatlemania.
MARCH - Filming begins for the first Beatles movie, "A Hard Day's Night."
MARCH 23 - John Lennon'sfirst book, "In His Own Write" is published.
MARCH 31- U.S. Billboard charts have "Can't Buy Me Love" at NO.1; "Twist and Shout" at NO.2; "She loves You" at NO.3; "I Want to Hold Your Hand" at NO.4; "Please, Please Me" at No.5 and other Beatles' songs on seven other spots on the Top 100.
JUNE 4--6 - Concerts in Denmark.
JUNE 8 - Begin touring Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.
JULY 6 - World premiere of"A Hard Day's Night" at London Pavilion.
AUG. 19·5EPT. 20 - First North American tour.
OCT. 9-NOV.10 -, British tour with Mary Wells.
FEB. 11, 1965 - Ringo marries Maureen Cox.
FEBRUARY·MAY - Filming "Help!" begins in Bahamas, in Austria and at Twickenham Studios in London.
AUG.13·SEPT.1- American lour with the Shea Stadium show highlighting it. Taped "The Ed Sullivan Show" for broadcast Sept. 9.
OCT. 26 - Her Majesty the Queen presents M BE medals to Beatles at Buckingham Palace.
JAN, 21, 1966 - George marries Patricia Anne Boyd at Epsom Register Office. Paul is the only witness.
JUNE·JUL Y - Appearances in Germuny, Japan and The Philippines.
AUG. 5, 1966 - John said The Beatles are more popular than Jesus, leading some U.S. stations to take their songs off the air.
AUG. 12·29 - American tour. The Beatles make their final stage appearance at Candlestick Park, San Francisco.
AUG. 27,1967 - The Beatles visit Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Bangor, North Wales. Brian Epstein dies at the age of 32.
SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER - Scripting, casting, filming and editing the color TV film, "Magical Mystery Tour" on BBC.
FEBRUARY - Apple Corps. Ltd. founded.
FEBRUARY-APRIL - The Beatles take instructions in transcendental meditation at the Maharishi's Academy in Rishikesh, India.
JULY 17 - World premiere of "Yellow Submarine," a cartoon film with Beatles animated characters and Beatles music.
NOV.8, 1968 - John and Cynthia Powell Lennon issued final divorce.
NOV. 28 - John Lennon fined 150 pounds after he admits possessing marijuana after an Oct. 18 raid. When he was arrested, he reportedly said: "Can I just ask a question? As this stuff is all mine, it will be only me who is involved?" His solicitor told the court that after the raid, Yoko suffered a miscarriage which had been an awful blow to the Lennons.
DECEMBER - Filming begins for John and Yoko's "Rock'n'Roll Circus" (never commercially released).
JANUARY 1969 - Work begins on "Let It Be."
FEB.3 - Announcement that Allen Klein will handle The Beatles and Apple Records' business affairs.
MARCH 12 - Paul marries Linda Eastman.
MARCH 20 - John marries Yoko Ono in Gibraltar. They spend seven days oftheir honeymoon holding a "Bed-In" at the Amsterdam Hilton.
MARCH31- World premiere of John and Yoko's "Rape (Film No.6.)"
APRIL 22 - John Winston Lennon changes his name to John Dna Lennon.
JULY 1- John, Yoko and her daughter Kyoko in serious car accident.
SEPTEMBER - "An Evening with John and Yoko" at London's New Cinema Club features four John and Yokofilms - "TwO Virgins," "Smile," "Honeymoon" and "Self Portrait."
JANUARY - Paul takes court action to dissolve all remaining connections with the other Beatles, Allen Klein and Apple.
MAY 15 - Filmmaker's Fortnight Festival in Cannes, France features two John and Yoko films - "Apotheosis (Balloon)" and "Fly."
JULY 31 - George puts together two historic Bangladesh charity concerts in Madison Square Garden with Ringo, Ravi Shankar, Bob Dylan, Eric elapton, Leon Russell, Billy Preston, Badfinger and others.
SEPTEMBER - London's Art Spectrum features five John and Yokofilms - "Cold Turkey," "The Ballad of John and Yoko," "Give Peace a Chance," "Instant Karma" and "Up Your Legs."
AUG.31- John appears in "One-to-One," a concert to benefit mentally retarded children.
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER - Paul tours Northern England and Southern Scotland with Wings, making him the first Beatle to tour since 1966.
DEC. 23, 1972 - World premiere of John and Yoko's "Imagine"film.
MARCH 1973 - George founds the Material World Charitable Foundation.
MARCH 30 - John, George and Ringo terminate managerial contract with Allen Klein.
JUNE 29 - Premiere of film "Live and [et Die" with title song by Paul.
JULY 10 - John, George and Ringo record together for the first time in four years when they cut John's "I'm the Greatest" for the "Ringo" album.
NOVEMBER - John, George and Ringo sue Allen Klein, who sues them. Paul McCartney and Wings release second album, "Band on the Run."
MAY 1974 - George announces formation of Dark Horse Records. He and Patti Boyd Harrison are formally separated, get divorced three years later. She weds Eric Clapton in 1979.
JUNE - World premiere of "Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs" with George as executive producer.
SEPTEMBER-QCTOBER - George's first solo tour begins in Europe, he appears in the U.S. in November.
JAN. 9, 1975 - last legal links among The Beafles dissolved in court.
OCT. 9, 1975 - Sean Ono lennon born to John and Yoko in New York Hospital. Dubbed "the all-American boy" by his father, Sean's birth helped secure Joh~'s permanent residency permit in the U.S. nine months later.
NOVEMBER - Paul's Wings begins a major tour of England, Australia and Europe.
FEBRUARY 1976 - Bill Sargent offers The Beatles $50 million for a single reunion performance.
MAY3-JUNE 23 - Wings' first North American tour and the first tilTle Paul appears on a concert stage in the U.S. since the last Beatles show in 1966. The band releases the album "Wings at the Speed of Sound" and by the end of the year, "Wings Over America."
JULY 27 - Federal agencies give up deportation efforts of 35-year-old John lennon and grant him a green "permanent resident alien" card.
APRIL 1977 - The Broadway stage play called "Beatlemania" opens at the Winter Garden Theater in New York.
OCTOBER - "We really have nothing to say," John says
from Tokyo, hinting that he has no plans to record pr per-
form in public for at least another year. "We've basically decided, without a great decision, to be with our baby as much as we can until we feel we can take time off and indulge ourselves in creating things outside the family." ~
JAN. 18, 1980 - Paul deported from Japan for alleged possession of marijuana; 11 sold out concerts canceled.
SUMMER 1980 - John begins writing songs for the first time ~ in five years while on vacation with son Sean in Bermuda.
SEPTEMBER - John comes out of retirement, signs to David Geffen's new record label.
NOVEMBER - John releases 14-song album, "Double Fantasy" with Yoko.
DEC. 8,1980 - John Lennon assassinated in Manhattan at the age of 40.
Friday, December 12, 1980
Tragedy helps memorabilia business
By Steve Marinucci, Staff Writer
Published Dec. 12, 1980
San Jose Mercury News
Special Section to commemorate John Lennon's death
IN DEATH, as in life, The Beatles are very big business.
EMI pressing plants in Great Britain have been put on overtime to keeJfup with the demand for John Lennon and Beatles records. "Quite a few of our branches had sold out of stocks of everything," said a spokesman for one of Britain's largest record chains.
''You can liken the situation to when Elvis Presley died."
With this difference: The Beatles - even after their breakup - have outsold every other record group ever. The Guiness Book of Records cites The Beatles as the world's best-selling recording group, with 100 million LPs and 100 million singles sold.
Every Beatles record is still in print. In Britain alone, almost 30,000 albums are sold each month. And that was before the demand caused by Lennon's death.
"Elvis Presley has sold a lot of records since he died," said Nikki Randall, manager of musical research for Capitol Records, "but nobody has ever sold like The Beatles sell. Since they broke up in 1970, they have sold as many records as when they were together,"
Not only records, but Beatles items of all kinds hav.e been fast movers since the four went their separate ways. How many Beatles wigs, plastic Yellow Submarines, coin banks, Beatles trays, Beatles dolls, Beatles models, Beatles harmonicas, Beatles Flip Your Wig games, Beatles cards, and other items are stored in attics and trunks around the country?
Plenty of books on The Beatles also have gone in and out of print since the early days. The most.recently published work is a $29.95 coffee table-style book called "The Beatles," published by Rolling Stone and The New York Times and featuring Andy Warhol's painting of the Fab Four on the cover.
Other books on the group include" All Together Now" and "The Beatles Again," two volumes by Harry Castleman and Walter J. Podrazik that together list nearly every piece of recorded work by The Beatles, as well as an incredible compendimn of statistics. "The Beatles Forever" is Nicholas Schaffner's loving tribute to their lives and times. Ron Schamnburg weaves his memories of The Beatles in "Growing Up With The Beatles," a volume that also contains photographs and a color poster. Hunter Davies' authorized biography, "The Beatles," out of print for many years, recently
was reissued with new material.
Other book include "Lennon Remembers," a transcript of his two-issue interview with Rolling Stone shortly after the group's split; "The Man Who Gave The Beatles Away," by their first manager, Allan Williams; "The Longest Cocktail Party," a remembrance of Apple by former Apple employee Richard DiLello, and "As Time Goes By," a lighthearted memoir by Beatles press officer Derek Taylor.
Some books are harder to find, such as Brian Epstein's account of discovering and managing The Beatles and others, titled "A Cellarful of Noise," "Murray The K Tells It Like It Is, Baby" by the self-styled Fifth Beatle and "The True Story of The Beatles," by Billy Shepherd, a comprehensive remembrance of the group produced under the auspices of a monthly magazine once published by the group.
In addition to the collectible material, The Beatles have found their way into convention halls and theater stages through various Beatlefests held around the country where fans gather to exchange memorabilia. And there is a successful Broadway and national touring show, "Beatlemania," which The Beatles recently sued to have stopped.
Groups imitate The Beatles, though they aren't nearIy as nmnerous as the Elvis imitators. Probably the best-known is Rain, the group that supplied the music for the TV movie, "The Birth of The Beatles."
The run on Beatles collectibles will calm down, said Gary Rowe, owner of Rowe's Rare Records. "When something like this happens, people want all they can get. When the market settles down, through, they'll just want the more obscure stuff."
,
Published Dec. 12, 1980
San Jose Mercury News
Special Section to commemorate John Lennon's death
IN DEATH, as in life, The Beatles are very big business.
EMI pressing plants in Great Britain have been put on overtime to keeJfup with the demand for John Lennon and Beatles records. "Quite a few of our branches had sold out of stocks of everything," said a spokesman for one of Britain's largest record chains.
''You can liken the situation to when Elvis Presley died."
With this difference: The Beatles - even after their breakup - have outsold every other record group ever. The Guiness Book of Records cites The Beatles as the world's best-selling recording group, with 100 million LPs and 100 million singles sold.
Every Beatles record is still in print. In Britain alone, almost 30,000 albums are sold each month. And that was before the demand caused by Lennon's death.
"Elvis Presley has sold a lot of records since he died," said Nikki Randall, manager of musical research for Capitol Records, "but nobody has ever sold like The Beatles sell. Since they broke up in 1970, they have sold as many records as when they were together,"
Not only records, but Beatles items of all kinds hav.e been fast movers since the four went their separate ways. How many Beatles wigs, plastic Yellow Submarines, coin banks, Beatles trays, Beatles dolls, Beatles models, Beatles harmonicas, Beatles Flip Your Wig games, Beatles cards, and other items are stored in attics and trunks around the country?
Plenty of books on The Beatles also have gone in and out of print since the early days. The most.recently published work is a $29.95 coffee table-style book called "The Beatles," published by Rolling Stone and The New York Times and featuring Andy Warhol's painting of the Fab Four on the cover.
Other books on the group include" All Together Now" and "The Beatles Again," two volumes by Harry Castleman and Walter J. Podrazik that together list nearly every piece of recorded work by The Beatles, as well as an incredible compendimn of statistics. "The Beatles Forever" is Nicholas Schaffner's loving tribute to their lives and times. Ron Schamnburg weaves his memories of The Beatles in "Growing Up With The Beatles," a volume that also contains photographs and a color poster. Hunter Davies' authorized biography, "The Beatles," out of print for many years, recently
was reissued with new material.
Other book include "Lennon Remembers," a transcript of his two-issue interview with Rolling Stone shortly after the group's split; "The Man Who Gave The Beatles Away," by their first manager, Allan Williams; "The Longest Cocktail Party," a remembrance of Apple by former Apple employee Richard DiLello, and "As Time Goes By," a lighthearted memoir by Beatles press officer Derek Taylor.
Some books are harder to find, such as Brian Epstein's account of discovering and managing The Beatles and others, titled "A Cellarful of Noise," "Murray The K Tells It Like It Is, Baby" by the self-styled Fifth Beatle and "The True Story of The Beatles," by Billy Shepherd, a comprehensive remembrance of the group produced under the auspices of a monthly magazine once published by the group.
In addition to the collectible material, The Beatles have found their way into convention halls and theater stages through various Beatlefests held around the country where fans gather to exchange memorabilia. And there is a successful Broadway and national touring show, "Beatlemania," which The Beatles recently sued to have stopped.
Groups imitate The Beatles, though they aren't nearIy as nmnerous as the Elvis imitators. Probably the best-known is Rain, the group that supplied the music for the TV movie, "The Birth of The Beatles."
The run on Beatles collectibles will calm down, said Gary Rowe, owner of Rowe's Rare Records. "When something like this happens, people want all they can get. When the market settles down, through, they'll just want the more obscure stuff."
,
Music at the heart of the man: Lennon's rough edge cut deeply into songwriting history
By Steve Marinucci
Published Dec. 12, 1980
San Jose Mercury News
Special section commemorating the life of John Lennon
What was to become the most the most influential song writing team of the decade starting out writing together gradually. They wrote about 80 percent together, Paul McCartney said, and the other 20 percent were things each would write on his own. But, even in its early stages, The Beatles performed their music in a way more complicated than it sounded.
On that first "Ed Sullivan Show" appearance in 1964, George Harrison provided a lead guitar influenced heavily by Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins and others, at the same time adding technical touches of his own.
Paul McCartney provided a solid bottom beat on the bass, in addition to a screaming voice that rivaled his idol, Little Richard. Ringo Starr bashed a low key, but very underrated drum beat that was compact, economical.
And John Lennon added the backbone of his rhythm guitar and vocals that could either be aggressive or tender. Together, though, it added up to a new sound, which, when coupled with their personalities and looks, took the country by storm.
And it was easy to tell what each of the songwriting duo added to the songs. Paul McCartney provided the softer phrasings, while Lennon's were more raucous. Each would hold down the other's tendency to excess, in effect balancing each other out.
And it worked. For example, "All My Loving," "When I'm 64" and "Let It Be" were basically McCartney tunes and "I'll Be Back," "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" were basically Lennon compositions.
Some early Beatles songs with examples of heavy Lennon influence are "You Can't Do That," with its stern lyrical and musical admonishment, and "Help!," which Lennon said later was a real plea.
An example of the way the duo worked was with "We Can Work It Out" with the chorus written by McCartney and the "middle bit" as Lennon called it ("Life is very shorL") written hy himself.
The McCartney-Lennon partnership continued to work fairly smoothly through the first few albums, and despite a trend by other groups to bow to the pressures of commercialism, the Beatles kept their music challenging to listeners. When "Rubber Soul" was released, many fans began to protest that The Beatles had changed and the music was going over the fans' heads. The only change, however, was that the group's music had become more serious. The innocence of "I Want To ~ Hold Your Hand" and "I Saw Her Standing There," written as a team, progressed to the introspection of "I'm A Loser," which in turn progressed to the heavily Dylan-influenced Lennon song, "You've Got To Hide ~ Your Love Away" to the moody "Norwegian Wood," which Lennan later described as a sang written about an affair "without letting me wife know."
The complexity of the group's music became even more apparent as the influence of drugs unabashedly ~ showed up on "Revolver." Though they later admitted marijuana had influenced their work earlier an "Rubber Soul," the use of psychedelic sounds on "She Said, She Said" and "Tomorrow Never Knows" left no doubt. For some fans, this was the band's drop-off point, while others joined up to take their place. The group zenithed on "Sgt. Pepper"s Lonely Heart's Club Band." Critics and reviewers praised it and damned it, but it has withstood the test of time to become what many believe is the greatest rock album ever made.
Lennon had reached his height as a songwriter, as witnessed by "A Day In the Life," basically a Lennon composition to which McCartney added a few verses in the middle. The climax to the song featured the longest fade-out on record, accomplished, according to producer George Martin, by the orchestra hitting their instruments as hard as they could, then having the engineer push up the faders as the sound died down until even the air conditioning could be heard.
Shortly thereafter, came "Strawberry Fields Forever" then "I Am the Walrus" which became the Lennon trademark, even though in a later song he called Paul the Walrus. Lennon's use of phrasing and imagery, lightly used in "Life" was fully realized here with graphic phrases like "yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog's eye."
Things being what they were, the Lennon-McCartney partnership had lost the spirit of teamwork that had characterized the pair's earlier work. Each member pushed harder for each of their songs to be recorded. By the time "The White Album" was released, critics and fans realized that the album's cuts were each member performing "with his backing group," as it was termed. LennDn's contributions here ranged frDm a sarcastic put-down of the Maharishi ("Sexy Sadie") to a song written for his mother ("Julia") to the most outrightly political statement the Beatles had made to date ("Revolution"), a song Lennon considered so important that twa separate versions were released, a slaw version an the album and a rock-and-roll version on the flip side of the "Hey Jude" single.
It was around this time that Lennon met avant-garde artist Yoko Ono and began a love affair that would split his marriage to Cynthia Lennon and, some say, split The Beatles. Whatever, Yoko was a heavy influence on
his music to came. .
The Beatles' swan sang, "Abbey Road," featured their most intriguing wark. Lennon's contributions included a song to Yoko, "I Want You (She'; So Heavy)," the opening cut later revealed to be a Chuck Berry cop ("Come Together") and a song which was just "Moonlight Sonata" played backwards ("Because").
Then, the freedom from The Beatles which John had wished for as early as 1966 realized itself when Paul McCartney announced his split from the group. Now John could record alone, but it was not that easy.
While still a Beatle, he'd released "Give Peace A Chance" and "Cold Turkey" with the Plastic Ono Band. He'd also experimented with Yoko in some best-forgotten avant-garde artistic endeavors: the controversial "Two Virgins" with its cover 'Of Lennon and Ono naked; an unlistenable record of various noises and effects; "Life With the Lions," more of the same; and "The Wedding Album," one side of which featured John and Yoko alternately calling out each other's names in various degrees of emotion.
An improvement came on "Live Peace in Toronto," which featured a revitalized Lennon doing Beatles tunes and old rock songs. Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band were on one side and Yoko "doing her thing all over you," as Lennon put it, was on the other. It is needless to say which side got the most play.
His first real solo album, "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band," is still as powerful today as when first released in December 1970. Heavily influenced by primal therapy and helped by echoey production by the legendary Phil Spector, Lennon transmitted his internal pain into an extremely personal piece of vinyl and held nothing back. The result has been called by some the best Beatles solo ever.
The fallaw-up, "Imagine," lacked the pain, but was still favorably received. The title song was Lennon philosophy and was a very successful single. Another cut that garnered much attention was "How Do You Sleep?" in which a bitter Lennon directed sarcastic barbs at Paul McCartney.
The next album, "Sometime In New York City" was dismissed by listeners and critics for being too naive and overly indulgent in its political leanings. A live album included with it compensated a little, but not much. It has been his least popular solo effort. "Mind Games" garnered some favorable acclaim when first released, part of which was due to the fact that Lennon omitted any overtly political statements as an "Sometime." But time has rendered it ta a state of limbo, though the title track received much airplay.
The next album, "Walls and Bridges" came at a depressing point in his life. He and Yoko had split, a split later healed, but one which depressed John terribly. His music again reflected his pain and, though it wasn't as well focused as his first solo, it was received fairly decently and sold nicely.
Shortly thereafter, Lennon appeared on stage with Elton John in New York's Madison Square Garden, fulfilling a promise Lennon had made. Lennon sang "I Saw Her Standing There" and the performance was released on the back of Elton's "Philadelphia Freedom" single.
"Shaved Fish," a pleasant compilatian of singles, including "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," "Instant Karma" and "Give Peace a Chance," was Lennon's last release far five years until "Double Fantasy" was released in November 1980.
"Double Fantasy" was initially dismissed by some as being "too much Yoko" though the Lennon songs were acknowledged as good. A single released from the album, a '50s-style rocker titled "Starting Over," described both Lennon's revitalized career and his relationship with Yoko. The album, though, will almost certainly be re-evaluated in light of Lennon's death.
Steve Marinucci has extensively followed The Beatles and their musical and cultural progress ever since seeing them on their first Ed Sullivan appearance.
Published Dec. 12, 1980
San Jose Mercury News
Special section commemorating the life of John Lennon
What was to become the most the most influential song writing team of the decade starting out writing together gradually. They wrote about 80 percent together, Paul McCartney said, and the other 20 percent were things each would write on his own. But, even in its early stages, The Beatles performed their music in a way more complicated than it sounded.
On that first "Ed Sullivan Show" appearance in 1964, George Harrison provided a lead guitar influenced heavily by Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins and others, at the same time adding technical touches of his own.
Paul McCartney provided a solid bottom beat on the bass, in addition to a screaming voice that rivaled his idol, Little Richard. Ringo Starr bashed a low key, but very underrated drum beat that was compact, economical.
And John Lennon added the backbone of his rhythm guitar and vocals that could either be aggressive or tender. Together, though, it added up to a new sound, which, when coupled with their personalities and looks, took the country by storm.
And it was easy to tell what each of the songwriting duo added to the songs. Paul McCartney provided the softer phrasings, while Lennon's were more raucous. Each would hold down the other's tendency to excess, in effect balancing each other out.
And it worked. For example, "All My Loving," "When I'm 64" and "Let It Be" were basically McCartney tunes and "I'll Be Back," "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" were basically Lennon compositions.
Some early Beatles songs with examples of heavy Lennon influence are "You Can't Do That," with its stern lyrical and musical admonishment, and "Help!," which Lennon said later was a real plea.
An example of the way the duo worked was with "We Can Work It Out" with the chorus written by McCartney and the "middle bit" as Lennon called it ("Life is very shorL") written hy himself.
The McCartney-Lennon partnership continued to work fairly smoothly through the first few albums, and despite a trend by other groups to bow to the pressures of commercialism, the Beatles kept their music challenging to listeners. When "Rubber Soul" was released, many fans began to protest that The Beatles had changed and the music was going over the fans' heads. The only change, however, was that the group's music had become more serious. The innocence of "I Want To ~ Hold Your Hand" and "I Saw Her Standing There," written as a team, progressed to the introspection of "I'm A Loser," which in turn progressed to the heavily Dylan-influenced Lennon song, "You've Got To Hide ~ Your Love Away" to the moody "Norwegian Wood," which Lennan later described as a sang written about an affair "without letting me wife know."
The complexity of the group's music became even more apparent as the influence of drugs unabashedly ~ showed up on "Revolver." Though they later admitted marijuana had influenced their work earlier an "Rubber Soul," the use of psychedelic sounds on "She Said, She Said" and "Tomorrow Never Knows" left no doubt. For some fans, this was the band's drop-off point, while others joined up to take their place. The group zenithed on "Sgt. Pepper"s Lonely Heart's Club Band." Critics and reviewers praised it and damned it, but it has withstood the test of time to become what many believe is the greatest rock album ever made.
Lennon had reached his height as a songwriter, as witnessed by "A Day In the Life," basically a Lennon composition to which McCartney added a few verses in the middle. The climax to the song featured the longest fade-out on record, accomplished, according to producer George Martin, by the orchestra hitting their instruments as hard as they could, then having the engineer push up the faders as the sound died down until even the air conditioning could be heard.
Shortly thereafter, came "Strawberry Fields Forever" then "I Am the Walrus" which became the Lennon trademark, even though in a later song he called Paul the Walrus. Lennon's use of phrasing and imagery, lightly used in "Life" was fully realized here with graphic phrases like "yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog's eye."
Things being what they were, the Lennon-McCartney partnership had lost the spirit of teamwork that had characterized the pair's earlier work. Each member pushed harder for each of their songs to be recorded. By the time "The White Album" was released, critics and fans realized that the album's cuts were each member performing "with his backing group," as it was termed. LennDn's contributions here ranged frDm a sarcastic put-down of the Maharishi ("Sexy Sadie") to a song written for his mother ("Julia") to the most outrightly political statement the Beatles had made to date ("Revolution"), a song Lennon considered so important that twa separate versions were released, a slaw version an the album and a rock-and-roll version on the flip side of the "Hey Jude" single.
It was around this time that Lennon met avant-garde artist Yoko Ono and began a love affair that would split his marriage to Cynthia Lennon and, some say, split The Beatles. Whatever, Yoko was a heavy influence on
his music to came. .
The Beatles' swan sang, "Abbey Road," featured their most intriguing wark. Lennon's contributions included a song to Yoko, "I Want You (She'; So Heavy)," the opening cut later revealed to be a Chuck Berry cop ("Come Together") and a song which was just "Moonlight Sonata" played backwards ("Because").
Then, the freedom from The Beatles which John had wished for as early as 1966 realized itself when Paul McCartney announced his split from the group. Now John could record alone, but it was not that easy.
While still a Beatle, he'd released "Give Peace A Chance" and "Cold Turkey" with the Plastic Ono Band. He'd also experimented with Yoko in some best-forgotten avant-garde artistic endeavors: the controversial "Two Virgins" with its cover 'Of Lennon and Ono naked; an unlistenable record of various noises and effects; "Life With the Lions," more of the same; and "The Wedding Album," one side of which featured John and Yoko alternately calling out each other's names in various degrees of emotion.
An improvement came on "Live Peace in Toronto," which featured a revitalized Lennon doing Beatles tunes and old rock songs. Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band were on one side and Yoko "doing her thing all over you," as Lennon put it, was on the other. It is needless to say which side got the most play.
His first real solo album, "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band," is still as powerful today as when first released in December 1970. Heavily influenced by primal therapy and helped by echoey production by the legendary Phil Spector, Lennon transmitted his internal pain into an extremely personal piece of vinyl and held nothing back. The result has been called by some the best Beatles solo ever.
The fallaw-up, "Imagine," lacked the pain, but was still favorably received. The title song was Lennon philosophy and was a very successful single. Another cut that garnered much attention was "How Do You Sleep?" in which a bitter Lennon directed sarcastic barbs at Paul McCartney.
The next album, "Sometime In New York City" was dismissed by listeners and critics for being too naive and overly indulgent in its political leanings. A live album included with it compensated a little, but not much. It has been his least popular solo effort. "Mind Games" garnered some favorable acclaim when first released, part of which was due to the fact that Lennon omitted any overtly political statements as an "Sometime." But time has rendered it ta a state of limbo, though the title track received much airplay.
The next album, "Walls and Bridges" came at a depressing point in his life. He and Yoko had split, a split later healed, but one which depressed John terribly. His music again reflected his pain and, though it wasn't as well focused as his first solo, it was received fairly decently and sold nicely.
Shortly thereafter, Lennon appeared on stage with Elton John in New York's Madison Square Garden, fulfilling a promise Lennon had made. Lennon sang "I Saw Her Standing There" and the performance was released on the back of Elton's "Philadelphia Freedom" single.
"Shaved Fish," a pleasant compilatian of singles, including "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," "Instant Karma" and "Give Peace a Chance," was Lennon's last release far five years until "Double Fantasy" was released in November 1980.
"Double Fantasy" was initially dismissed by some as being "too much Yoko" though the Lennon songs were acknowledged as good. A single released from the album, a '50s-style rocker titled "Starting Over," described both Lennon's revitalized career and his relationship with Yoko. The album, though, will almost certainly be re-evaluated in light of Lennon's death.
Steve Marinucci has extensively followed The Beatles and their musical and cultural progress ever since seeing them on their first Ed Sullivan appearance.
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