The Beatles
Ilona Bibrowicz
Greeley Elementary School
November 29, 2010
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, and one of the
most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular
music.[1] From 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon (rhythm guitar, vocals), Paul
McCartney (bass guitar, vocals), George Harrison (lead guitar, vocals) and Ringo Starr
(drums, vocals). Rooted in skiffle and 1950s rock and roll, the group later worked in
many genres ranging from pop ballads to psychedelic rock, often incorporating classical
and other elements in innovative ways. The nature of their enormous popularity, which
first emerged as the "Beatlemania" fad, transformed as their songwriting grew in
sophistication. The group came to be perceived as the embodiment of progressive ideals,
seeing their influence extend into the social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s.
Initially with a five-piece line-up of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe (bass)
and Pete Best (drums), The Beatles built their reputation in Liverpool and Hamburg clubs
over a three-year period from 1960. Sutcliffe left the group in 1961, and Best was
replaced by Starr the following year. Moulded into a professional outfit by music store
owner Brian Epstein after he offered to act as the group's manager, and with their musical
potential enhanced by creativity of producer George Martin, The Beatles achieved
mainstream success in the United Kingdom in late 1962 with their first single, "Love Me
Do". Gaining international popularity over the course of the next year, they toured
extensively until 1966, then retreated to the recording studio until their break-up in 1970.
Each then found success in an independent musical career. Lennon was murdered outside
his home in New York City in 1980, and Harrison died of cancer in 2001. McCartney and
Starr remain active.
Music
The Beatles as Musicians, Walter Everett points out Lennon and McCartney's contrasting
motivations and approaches to composition: "McCartney may be said to have constantly
developed—as a means to entertain—a focused musical talent with an ear for
counterpoint and other aspects of craft in the demonstration of a universally agreed-upon
common language that he did much to enrich. Conversely, Lennon's mature music is best
appreciated as the daring product of a largely unconscious, searching but undisciplined
artistic sensibility."[228]
Ian MacDonald, comparing the two composers in Revolution in the Head, describes
McCartney as "a natural melodist—a creator of tunes capable of existing apart from their
harmony". His melody lines are characterized as primarily "vertical", employing wide,
consonant intervals which express his "extrovert energy and optimism". Conversely,
Lennon's "sedentary, ironic personality" is reflected in a "horizontal" approach featuring
minimal, dissonant intervals and repetitive melodies which rely on their harmonic
accompaniment for interest: "Basically a realist, he instinctively kept his melodies close
to the rhythms and cadences of speech, colouring his lyrics with bluesy tone and harmony
rather than creating tunes that made striking shapes of their own."[229] MacDonald praises
Harrison's lead guitar work for the role his "characterful lines and textural colourings"
play in supporting Lennon and McCartney's parts, and describes Starr as "the father of
modern pop/rock drumming... His faintly behind-the-beat style subtly propelled The
Beatles, his tunings brought the bottom end into recorded drum sound, and his distinctly
eccentric fills remain among the most memorable in pop music."[230]
Influences
The band's earliest influences include Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Chuck Berry,
whose songs they covered more often than any other artist's in performances throughout
their career.[231] During their co-residency with Little Richard at the Star Club in
Hamburg from April to May 1962, he advised them on the proper technique for
performing his songs.[232] Of Presley, Lennon said, "Nothing really affected me until I
heard Elvis. If there hadn't been Elvis, there would not have been The Beatles".[233] Other
early influences include Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison[234] and
the Everly Brothers.[235][236] The Beatles continued to absorb influences long after their
initial success, often finding new musical and lyrical avenues by listening to their
contemporaries, including Bob Dylan, Frank Zappa, The Byrds and The Beach Boys,
whose 1966 album Pet Sounds amazed and inspired McCartney.[237][238] Martin stated,
"Without Pet Sounds, Sgt. Pepper wouldn't have happened... Pepper was an attempt to
equal Pet Sounds."[239]
Genres
A Höfner "violin" bass guitar and Gretsch Country Gentleman guitar, models played by
McCartney and Harrison, respectively. The Vox AC30 amplifier behind them is the kind
The Beatles used in concert.
Originating as a skiffle group,[240] The Beatles soon embraced 1950s rock and roll.[241]
The band's repertoire ultimately expanded to include a broad variety of pop music.
Reflecting the range of styles they explored, Lennon said of Beatles for Sale, "You could
call our new one a Beatles' country-and-western LP",[242] while Allmusic credits the band,
and Rubber Soul in particular, as a major influence on the folk rock movement.[1]
Beginning with the use of a string quartet on Help!'s "Yesterday", they also incorporated
classical music elements. As Jonathan Gould points out however, it was not "even
remotely the first pop record to make prominent use of strings—although it was the first
Beatles' recording to do so ... it was rather that the more traditional sound of strings
allowed for a fresh appreciation of their talent as composers by listeners who were
otherwise allergic to the din of drums and electric guitars."[243] The group applied strings
to various effect. Of "She's Leaving Home", for instance, recorded for Sgt. Pepper, Gould
writes that it "is cast in the mold of a sentimental Victorian ballad, its words and music
filled with the clichés of musical melodrama."[
Great Britain
Great Britain (informally Britain) is an island[6] situated to the northwest of Continental
Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island. With a
population of about 60.0 million people in mid-2009,[4][7] it is the third most populated
island on Earth. Great Britain is surrounded by over 1,000[8] smaller islands and islets.
The island of Ireland lies to its west. Politically, Great Britain may also refer to the island
itself together with a number of surrounding islands which comprise the territory of
England, Scotland and Wales.
All of the island is territory of the sovereign state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Northern Ireland, and most of the United Kingdom's territory is in Great Britain.
Most of England, Scotland, and Wales are on the island of Great Britain, as are their
respective capital cities: London, Edinburgh, and Cardiff.
The Kingdom of Great Britain resulted from the political union of the kingdoms of
England and Scotland with the Acts of Union 1707 on 1 May 1707 under Queen Anne. In
1801, under a new Act of Union, this kingdom merged with the Kingdom of Ireland to
create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. After the Irish War of
Independence most of Ireland seceded from the Union, which then became the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The island has a relatively small variety of fauna and flora, due to its size and the fact that
wildlife has had little time to develop since the last ice age. The high level of urbanisation
on the island has contributed to a species extinction rate that is about 100 times greater
than the background species extinction rate.
World History 1960 – 70
1960
American U-2 spy plane, piloted by Francis Gary Powers, shot down over Russia (May 1).
Khrushchev kills Paris summit conference because of U-2 (May 16). Top Nazi murderer of Jews,
Adolf Eichmann, captured by Israelis in Argentina (May 23)—executed in Israel in 1962. Powers
sentenced to prison for 10 years (Aug. 19)—freed in February 1962 in exchange for Soviet spy.
Communist China and Soviet Union split in conflict over Communist ideology. Senegal, Ghana,
Nigeria, Madagascar, and Zaire (Belgian Congo) gain independence. Cuba begins confiscation of
$770 million of U.S. property (Aug. 7). There are 900 U.S. military advisers in South Vietnam.
1961
U.S. breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba (Jan. 3). Robert Frost recites “The Gift Outright” at John
F. Kennedy's inauguration as president of U.S. (Jan. 20). Moscow announces putting first man in
orbit around Earth, Maj. Yuri A. Gagarin (April 12). Cuba invaded at Bay of Pigs by an estimated
1,200 anti-Castro exiles aided by U.S.; invasion crushed (April 17). First U.S. spaceman, Navy
Cmdr. Alan B. Shepard, Jr., rockets 116.5 miles up in 302-mile trip (May 5). Virgil Grissom
becomes second American astronaut, making 118-mile-high, 303-mile-long rocket flight over
Atlantic (July 21). Gherman Stepanovich Titov is launched in Soviet spaceship Vostok II: makes
171/2 orbits in 25 hours, covering 434,960 miles before landing safely (Aug. 6). East Germans
erect Berlin Wall between East and West Berlin to halt flood of refugees (Aug. 13). USSR fires 50megaton hydrogen bomb, biggest explosion in history (Oct. 29). There are 2,000 U.S. military
advisers in South Vietnam.
Resources
www.infoplease.com
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Britain
Collett-White, Mike "Original Beatles digitally remastered".