Rock and Roll is Here to Stay:
The Beatles - Influence
• What makes the Beatles
sound unique?
• How did their sound change
over time?
• What influences can be heard
in their music?
British rock and roll
• Most English rock and roll stars
manufactured idols
• Teens (esp. guitarists) look to records of
American blues, folk music
• Sparks skiffle craze
– Syncopated mixture of jazz, folk, and blues
– Instrumentation cheap, easily accessible
– Ex. Chas Mc Devitt, Freight Train
The Beatles - Influences
• John Lennon (1940-1980)
– Country blues
– Trad (Dixieland) jazz
– Rockabilly
– Formed skiffle group, the Quarrymen, at age
17
The Beatles - Influences
• Paul Mc Cartney (1942 - )
– English popular music
– Dance hall music
– Trad jazz
– Rock and roll, rockabilly, R&B
– From musical family
The Beatles - Influences
• George Harrison (1943-2001)
– Dance hall music
– Jazz
– American country music, esp. Jimmie Rodgers
– Rock and roll, rockabilly
– Also in skiffle group
The Beatles - Influences
• Ringo Starr (1940 - )
– American country, esp. Gene Autry
– Swing jazz
– Skiffle
– English popular music
– blues
The Beatles – Style Periods
•
•
•
•
•
Early Career (1957-62)
“Beatlemania” (1962-64)
Dylan-inspired seriousness (1964-66)
Psychedelia (late 1966-1967)
Return to Roots (1968-1970)
Early Career
• Gigs in Liverpool
• House band at clubs in Hamburg,
Germany
– 6-7 hours a night, 6 nights a week
– Learn to quickly absorb, adapt, and reproduce
anything to fill time
Artists Covered by the Quarry Men and The Beatles before 1962
Artist or group
# of songs on play lists
*Elvis Presley
28
*Chuck Berry
14
*Buddy Holly
14
*Little Richard
14
Gene Vincent
13
Carl Perkins
12
Jerry Lee Lewis
10
Lonnie Donegan
8
Larry Williams
7
Fats Domino
6
Duane Eddy
6
The Coasters
5
*Eddie Cochran
5
The Everly Brothers
5
Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee
5
The Vipers Skiffle Group
5
Ray Charles
2
Les Paul and Mary Ford
2
Peggy Lee
2
Ricky Nelson
2
Big Joe Turner
2
“Beatlemania”
1962-3
June 6
Aug. 18
Oct. 5
Dec. 18-31
Jan 11
Late Feb.
Mar. 22
Oct. 13
Nov. 4
Dec. 26
Audition for EMI; signed by producer George Martin
Ringo Starr replaces drummer Pete Best
Love Me Do/P.S. I Love You released in U.K.
Final Hamburg performances
Please Please Me/Ask Me Why released in U.K.
Please Please Me hits #1 on British charts
Please Please Me, first Beatles LP, released in
U.K.; remains at #1 for 30 weeks
First outbreak of “Beatlemania”
Capitol Records signs The Beatles for release of
recordings in U.S.
I Want to Hold Your Hand/I Saw Her Standing
There released in U.S.
“Beatlemania”
• Height of fame in England, conquest of U.S.
• Albums
–
–
–
–
–
Please, Please Me (1st)
With the Beatles
Hard Days’ Night
Beatles for Sale
Help!
• Singles
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–
–
–
–
–
Please, Please Me
I Wanna Hold Your Hand
Love Me Do
Can’t Buy Me Love
Hard Days’ Night
Eight Days a Week
Please, Please Me
• Influences
– Roy Orbison
– Carl Perkins, Lend Me Your Comb
(harmonies, shape)
• Oblique melodic descent
• Some complex harmonic turns
• Forceful drumming
Please, Please Me
• Favorite Beatle sound – guitar lines in
octaves
– Leads Harrison to adopt 12-string
Rickenbacker
• “Proto-punk” bass line
I Wanna Hold Your Hand
• Rhythmic layers
– Style beat
– Backbeat
– Variant of clave rhythm in claps
• Common to early sound – no drummer until
’61
I Wanna Hold Your Hand
• Verse/refrain form with “middle 8”
• Vocal harmonies – Everly Brothers
influence
• Vocal style
– Rising at end of verse into falsetto
– Melismas
– Hints of blues shouter voice
• Note: no guitar solos
Early period and “Beatlemania”
• Emulation of rockabilly, rock and roll, R&B
idols
• Many songs covers, or modeled after
songs that formed early repertoire
• 3 part vocal harmonies
• Recordings basically “live” – little studio
production
• “Woo”, “Yeah”, other vocal embellishments
• Largely romantic lyrics
Dylan-inspired seriousness (or
Mature period) 1965-66
• Albums
– Rubber Soul
– Revolver
• Singles
– We Can Work It Out
– Day Tripper
– Paperback writer
– Yellow Submarine
– Eleanor Rigby
Mature period
• Influence of Bob Dylan
– Lyrics more personal, literary, some veiled
political commentary
– Drug-influenced songs, lyrics
– Greater familiarity with American culture
Mature period – style characteristics
• Expanded palate of tone colors
– Sitar, orchestral instruments
– Different guitars used for different effects
• Willingness to depart from traditional rock
ensemble
• More complex harmonically
Mature period – style characteristics
• Increased role of producer George Martin
– Collaborative part of ensemble
– Key in creating Beatles sound
– Begins to exploit multi-track recording
Norwegian Wood
•
•
•
•
•
Slow waltz – 3 beats per measure
Pop vocal style
No influence of blues, gospel
Thin texture
Modal, not tonal, orientation
– Different pattern of half and whole steps
– Lacks harmonic direction, drive of blues
A
A
A
A
B
B’
A
A
A
A
B
B
A
A
A
Instrumental – guitar
Instrumental – sitar + guitar
I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me.
She showed me her room, isn't it good Norwegian wood?
She asked me to stay and she told me to sit anywhere,
So I looked around and I noticed there wasn't a chair.
I sat on a rug, biding my time, drinking her wine.
We talked until two and then she said, "It's time for
bed".
Sitar + guitar
Sitar + guitar
She told me she worked in the morning and started to
laugh.
I told her I didn't and crawled off to sleep in the bath.
And when I awoke I was alone, this bird had flown.
So I lit a fire, isn't it good, Norwegian wood.
Sitar + guitar
Psychedelic period
• Huge cultural changes by 1965
– Civil Rights movement
– Free speech movements
– Early protests of Vietnam war
– LSD beginning to filter through country
• Creates new artistic and cultural
movement
• Distortion of reality
• New emphasis on imagination, creativity
• Individual perception of rules, norms of
society
• Interest in new, non-Western viewpoints
• Modally-based harmonies = lack of
harmonic drive
• Drone: sustained note underneath entire
texture
• Often lacks definitive beat
• Free-form, often obscure lyrics
• Thick, dense textures
The Byrds – Eight Miles High
• Intro
– Thick, dense texture
– Heavy reverb on all, especially guitar
– Static quality
– Riff-based
• Droning, directionless guitar solos
• Lyrics that might be about drugs
• Beatles no longer touring
• Focus on recording
• Influenced by Beach Boys, Pet Sounds
– Result of Brian Wilson’s focus on song writing,
producing
– Theme album
– Highly prpoduced
– New sounds, non-traditional instruments
Good Vibrations – The Beach Boys
Basic tempo: 152 beats/minute (fast) with 4 beats to the bar
Slows considerably in D section, but returns to original tempo at end
A
I, I love the colorful clothes she wears
And the way the sunlight plays upon her hair
I hear the sound of a gentle word
On the wind that lifts her perfume through the air
Vocal (heavy echo) accomp.
by short organ chords, bass
Drum, tambourine added
Four even drum shots lead into…
B
I'm pickin' up good vibrations
She's giving me excitations
I'm pickin' up good vibrations
(Oom bop bop good vibrations)
She's giving me excitations
(Oom bop bop excitations)
Good good good good vibrations
(Oom bop bop)
She's giving me excitations
(Oom bop bop excitations)
Good good good good vibrations
(Oom bop bop)
She's giving me excitations
(Oom bop bop excitations)
Low voice + theremin
Backing vocals enter + tambourine
Fast triplets in cellos
Second, higher layer of background
vocals added
A
B
C
Close my eyes`
She's somehow closer now
Softly smile, I know she must be kind
When I look in her eyes
She goes with me to a blossom world
I'm pickin' up good vibrations
She's giving me excitations
I'm pickin' up good vibrations
(Oom bop bop good vibrations)……
As in first A
Instrumental – 8 bars
(Ahhhhhhh)
(Ah my my what elation)
Barroom sounding piano
Alternates beats with bass
Vocals on vowel sounds with
heavy echo
don't know where but she sends me there
(Ah my my what a sensation)
(Ah my my what elations)
(Ah my my what)
As in first B
D
Gotta keep those lovin' good vibrations
A happenin' with her
Gotta keep those lovin' good vibrations
A happenin' with her
Gotta keep those lovin' good vibrations
A happenin‘
Sustained organ, maracas; slower tempo
E
Ahhhhhhhh
Good good good good vibrations
(Oom bop bop)…..
(Good good good good vibrations
(Oom bop bop)
She's na na . . .
Return to original tempo
Begins with “Ahhhh” of C section, but
then same as 2nd part of B section
Na na na na na
Na na na
Na na na na na
Na na na
Do do do do do
Do do do
Do do do do do
Do do do
Bass, high vocals with heavy echo
Joined by second melody, then third polyphonic texture
Heavy bass triplets and theremin to end
Beatles – Psychedelic period
• Albums
– Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
– Magical Mystery Tour
– Yellow Submarine (released 1969, but characteristic
of earlier period)
• Singles
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–
–
–
–
All You Need Is Love
Hello/Goodbye
I Am The Walrus
Strawberry Fields Forever
Penny Lane
Characteristics of Beatles’
Psychedelic style
• Experimentalism
– Creating new sounds and effects
– New styles, forms, methods of composition
• Surrealistic/psychedelic lyrics, often from
impersonal sources
• Album takes precedence over singles
– Singles viewed as separate entities
• Abandonment of traditional roles in band
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
• “concept album” – songs arranged around
central concept or story
– “Frame” created by song Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely
Hearts Club band and reprise
(melody, with different words, recurs)
• New idea of what album could be
• Highly produced
– Manipulation of sounds, tracks
– Lots of overdubbing
• Many songs acid rock
Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
2 measure intro – Lowrey organ
A
B
Picture yourself in a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marlmalade skies.
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
The girl with kaleidoscope eyes.
Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
Towering over your head
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes
And she’s gone.
Duple feel
Drone-like bass
More active bass line,
outlines triplets
Shuffle rhythm in cymbals
More echo on vocals
A
B
Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain
Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies
Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers
That grow so incredibly high.
Newspaper taxis appear on the shore
Waiting to take you away.
Climb in the back with your head in the clouds
And you’re gone.
Refrain Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds (x3)
Oooohhhh, oooooh.
A
Picture yourself on a train in a station
With plasticine porters with looking glass ties.
Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile
The girl with kaleidoscope eyes.
Lucy in the sky with diamonds (x3)
Repeated until end
Return to Roots (1968-70)
• Albums
– The Beatles [aka The White Album]
– Abbey Road
– Let It Be
• Singles
– Revolution
– Hey Jude
– Get Back
– Ballad of John and Yoko
– Come Together
– Lady Madonna
– Something
– The Long and Winding Road
Return to Roots
• Decrease in experimental tendencies
• Largely independent songwriting – little
collaboration
• Music in wide variety of styles
– Reflect influences from past and present
White Album (1968)
• Influences
– Back in the U.S.S.R.?
– Rocky Racoon?
– Honey Pie?
– Yer Blues?
– Revolution 1?
– Sexy Sadie?
White Album (1968)
•
Variety of influences
Back in the U.S.S.R.?
Rocky Racoon?
Honey Pie?
Yer Blues?
Revolution 1?
Chuck Berry, Beach Boys
Folk rock, country
English dance hall, pop
R&B
Rockabilly
Importance of Beatles
• Expand possibilities of rock music
– Unorthodox ensembles
– Demonstrate what’s possible in studio
– Begin shift of importance from single to album
– Expand acceptable length of single
– Expand harmonic, tone color choices