【阪本研究所】 SK laboratory 代表 Kazuyoshi Sakamoto

【阪本研究所】 SK laboratory 代表 Kazuyoshi Sakamoto                                   

https://www.facebook.com/sakamoto.kazuyoshi.1

ビートルズ物語 THE BEATLES STORY No.1 / A Book (The Beatles Story) by Paul Shipton

THE BEATLES STORY

The End of a Dream

Paul McCartney once said, The Beatles were always a great little band – nothing more, nothing less.’ Millions of fans around the world disagree with this. To them, the Beatles were a ‘great little band’ who changed modern music forever.




When the Beatles ended in 1970, people around the world couldn’t believe it. John, Paul, George and Ringo all followed their own interests successfully. But all four faced the same question everywhere they went: ‘When will you play together again?’ The answer always seemed the same – never – but fans could hope and dream.


Then, on 8 December 1980, the dream ended. John Lennon and Yoko Ono were returning home to their building in New York. Mark Chapman was waiting in the shadows. He shouted to John and then he shot the singer in the back and chest. John Lennon died in hospital that night.


The news was met with sadness all around the world. The Beatles could never play together again.



Early Days

The four boys from Liverpool were all born during the Second World War. Life in the northern city wasn’t always easy after the war. Most people lived in small houses and many were poor. But like many ports, Liverpool was open to new ideas. Sometimes ships brought something that other places in Britain couldn’t get – rock and roll records from the US! For the young people of Liverpool in the 1950s, the exciting sound of rock and roll was an escape from their daily lives.



Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr) was born in 1940 and grew up in one of Liverpool’s poorest areas. He was often ill, and he first played drums in hospital. He bought his first drum around 1956 – just one big drum! He played with a few local bands. Then he joined Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. Around this time, Richard took a new name – ‘Ringo’ – because of all the rings on his hands.



George Harrison, the youngest Beatle, was born in 1943. His father was a bus driver, but before that he worked on ships. George loved his father’s records from the US. At school, he sat in class drawing pictures of guitars. When he did get his guitar, he practiced all the time.




Paul McCartney was born in 1942, the son of a nurse and a cotton salesman. The family loved music. When Paul was old enough, his father bought him a trumpet. But Paul couldn’t play the trumpet and sing at the same time. So he changed the trumpet for a guitar. He sometimes talked about music with a younger boy at his school – George Harrison.



John Lennon was born in 1940. After his father left, his mother sent the four-year-old boy to his Aunt Mimi and her husband’s big house in a pleasant part of Liverpool. John loved rock and roll. He remembered seeing an Elvis Presley film. When the audience screamed, he thought, ‘That’s a good job!’ John’s mother loved music too – and she taught her son well. He started a band, the Quarry Men. The name came from his school, Quarry Bank.




One afternoon in July 1957, a friend took Paul to see the Quarry Men at a church garden party. John was singing, but he couldn’t remember all the words. This didn’t stop him – he sang new words. After the concert, Paul played a song on his guitar for John. Years later, John remembered the meeting. Paul was better than the people in the band, but John was a little worried. What was more important: his own strong position in the group, or a stronger group? He chose the group. Lennon and McCartney were together.




From Liverpool to Hamburg

One day, Paul showed John one of his own songs. After that, John began to write his own musical ideas, and soon the two young men were writing song after song. Sometimes they worked together, sometimes alone. But each of them pushed himself harder because of the other one. This was true during all the Beatles years.
Not long after Paul joined, he told John about his friend George. John wasn’t sure – George was only fifteen. But George joined after John heard him play. They were on the top of a bus at the time!
Soon John, Paul and George were playing concerts in Liverpool, but there was a problem. They didn’t have a drummer or a bass guitarist. One of John’s art-school friends, Stu Sutcliffe, looked like James Dean and he was an artist. When he sold a painting, the boys in the band asked him to buy a bass guitar. Stu wanted to be in a band, but there was one small problem: he couldn’t play. Stu often turned his back to the crowds in concerts because of this!




What’s in a name?

John and Stu probably thought of the name ‘the Beatles’, but there are other stories. John wrote that, at twelve years old, he was told the name by a little man. There was a more serious story, too: they heard it in a Marlon Brando film, The Wild One. But many years later, Paul McCartney named a 1997 album Flaming Pie, for the place where John saw his little man!
People were starting to like the band. The Beatles got a job playing with a rock and roll singer, Johnny Gentle. They toured Scotland under the name the Silver Beetles. For a time, Paul played drums because they couldn’t find a drummer. Then, back in Liverpool, they were offered another job. Bands were needed to play in clubs in the German city of Hamburg. The band said yes – but first they needed a drummer. They asked Pete Best, the drummer in another local band (and the owner of some nice drums!). Pete agreed and the band travelled to Germany in the summer of 1960.





To five boys from Liverpool, Hamburg was another world – a world of all-night bars and street crime. Concerts weren’t always easy. On some nights, John had to push people off the stage. To keep audiences happy, bands had to play well for six or seven hours every night. With all this practice, the band became better and better.



Another of the Liverpool bands in Hamburg was called Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. The band was famous in Liverpool. The band’s drummer loved to come and watch the Beatles. Sometimes, when Pete Best was ill, he even played with the band. His name was Ringo Starr.
The first trip to Hamburg ended suddenly. George was sent home by the police because he was too young to play in the clubs – he was only seventeen. But the Beatles returned often to Hamburg. Each time they played to bigger crowds in better clubs.



In The Cavern

On their second trip to Hamburg, a record producer asked the Beatles to play on a record for the singer Tony Sheridan. The song was ‘My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean’ and they played as the Beat Brothers. The boys were becoming successful. But one of the band decided that he didn’t want to be a Beatle.



Stu met a young photographer, Astrid Kirchherr, in Hamburg. Her photos of the band later became famous. She also helped the band’s look. One day, she cut Stu’s hair. At first, the others in the band laughed – they all pushed their hair back off their faces like rock and roll singers. But later John, Paul and George all had the same haircut. After the band’s second trip to Hamburg, Stu decided to stay there. He was in love with Astrid and he wanted to study art in Hamburg.



Paul never had a high opinion of Stu’s playing, and he started to play the bass. Back in Liverpool, people were interested in the new band ‘from Hamburg’. At first, someone told John, ‘You speak good English.’ But the band became more and more popular in their home city. They often played at a club called The Cavern. Hundreds of fans crowded into the small, dark club when the Beatles played there.


The band was famous now in Liverpool, but was that enough? Everything changed when they met Brian Epstein. He was the manager of a big music shop in the city. When he heard about the Beatles, he went to The Cavern. In his suit and tie, Epstein probably looked very different from The Cavern’s young crowd. In his opinion, the band were a little rough. But, he has said. ‘I immediately liked what I heard.’ Epstein met the band and offered to become their manager. When he promised to make an agreement with a record company, the band said yes!


Brian Epstein immediately gave the band new rules. They couldn’t eat, drink or smoke on stage. The four young men started wearing suits. Epstein worked hard for the band and on the last day of 1962, they drove down to London. They played for Decca, a big record company, but it didn’t go well. Two months later, the company said no to Brian Epstein and the Beatles. In their opinion, guitar bands weren’t popular now.



Worse news came from Germany. Stu was ill with terrible headaches. He died in April 1962, a day before the Beatles’ third trip to Hamburg. He was only twenty-one.
During the band’s third trip to Hamburg, they received a message from their manager. Another record company, Parlophone – part of the big company EMI – wanted to hear them in the studio.


On Their Way!

In June 1962, the Beatles were in London again – this time, at the Abbey Road studios. George Martin was one of the producers who was listening to them for the record company. Martin didn’t like their songs much, but he liked the boys. After the Beatles finished playing, he showed them around the studio. The band were quiet.
‘Is there anything you don’t like?’ asked Martin.
Finally, George spoke. ‘Well, I don’t like your tie.’
The fifth Beatle?


Before the Beatles, the producer George Martin mainly produced records of funny songs. But Martin knew a lot about music and about recording. Over the years, he helped the Beatles to grow as musicians. At first, he was really the boss. But after a time, the band told him what they wanted.



A few weeks later, Martin called Brian Epstein. Yes, the band could make a record with him… but not with Pete Best on drums. In the producers opinion, Pete wasn’t good enough. It was a hard decision for the band, but Pete had to go. The drummer was angry when Brian Epstein told him the news.


The next decision was easier. In Paul’s words, they wanted ‘the greatest drummer in Liverpool’ – their friend from Hamburg, Ringo Starr. Epstein called Ringo on a Wednesday and asked him to join the band. By Saturday, Ringo was the new drummer. Some fans weren’t happy about the change. At The Cavern, a few people shouted angrily and held up signs: ‘Pete is Best!’



The married Beatle

Before they went back to London John married his girlfriend, Cynthia. Marriage to a Beatle wasn’t easy. John was often away from home. When their son Julian was born in 1963, fans even ran after John at the hospital. Later, the Beatles didn’t want their young fans to know that one of the band was married. After their first tour of the US, a reporter asked John, ‘Did your wife like the country?’ John joked, ‘Who? Who?’


The band recorded their first single, ‘Love Me Do’, at Abbey Road in September 1962. It was one of Paul’s songs. Fans wrote to radio stations, asking them to play the record. By December 1962, the song was quite successful at number seventeen. The Beatles were on their way!








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The Beatles Story / Reading material