THE BEATLES - Jim Colyer

John Lennon was the heart and soul of The Beatles. He was the one who wanted to be Elvis. When it was over, he said the only good thing about The Beatles was being bigger than Elvis. John Lennon met Paul McCartney in their hometown of Liverpool, England in 1957. They had something in common. Both were mesmerized by American rock & roll. Paul sang Little Richard. John covered Chuck Berry. A bond formed. They wrote together. George Harrison joined them on lead guitar. George was a student of Carl Perkins and rockabilly. Ringo Starr came last on drums. The Beatles' personalities were such that they fit together to make a whole. John was the brooding intellectual, always questioning himself and others. His wit was razorlike. Paul was politically correct. He was the cute one who wanted to please. George was spiritual and introverted. Ringo was a comedian who got along with everyone. In the beginning, The Beatles dressed alike and looked alike. It was hard to tell them apart. They were regulars at a club in Liverpool called The Cavern. The Cavern is where they were approached by Brian Epstein. Brian became their manager. He got them to London and to George Martin. Martin became their producer. If there was a 5th Beatle, he was it. The Beatles released Love Me Do in October, 1962. Beatlemania ensued. Songs like Please Please Me, From Me To You, She Loves You, I Wanna Hold Your Hand & I Saw Her Standing There drove girls berserk at concerts. The Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show in America. It was the same. It was pandemonium. Young people went wild. The Beatles were chased by fans and the press everywhere they went. Records were released on 5 different labels. Their alblums were solid. Every song was good: You Can't Do That, Can't Buy Me Love, I Should Have Known Better, P.S. I Love You, I Feel Fine, She's A Woman. The Beatles made a movie called A Hard Day's Night which portrayed something of what Beatlemania was. Teenage girls screamed in movie theaters to the point that the dialogue was inaudible. It was The Beatles' look. It was the long hair. It was their sound. The Beatles annihilated everyone in music except Elvis Presley. Even Elvis reeled. It took him awhile to recover. After 1964, things cooled. The one constant was the music. The Beatles made great records. They recorded Ticket To Ride which John Lennon called the first heavy metal song. They did a second movie, Help! It seemed a bit silly with its James Bond parody. Being in color took away. A Hard Days Night was in black & white. Rubber Soul came out in the fall of 1965. The Beatles invented what became known as the concept album. They turned rock music into an art form. Revolver was released the following year. These were tough times in the United States. The Vietnam War and race riots were out of control. The Beatles were threatened by the Ku Klux Klan. Their touring ended as they retired to the studio. John Lennon's songs remained the best on The Beatles' albums but they became morbid in a way which is hard to explain. The idea of death pervaded song after song. He constantly referred to being dead. In My Life - Some are dead and some are living Run For Your Life - I'd rather see you dead Girl - Will she still believe it when he's dead Rain - They might as well be dead Tomorrow Never Knows - Ignorance and hate mourn the dead She Said She Said - I know what it's like to be dead This trend continued through Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Magical Mystery Tour, the White Album, Let It Be and Abbey Road. Good Morning Good Morning - Nothing to do to save his life A Day In The Life - He blew his mind out in a car I Am The Walrus - Dripping from a dead dog's eye Yer Blues - Wanna die...If I ain't dead already...Feel so suicidal Happiness Is A Warm Gun - Bang bang shoot shoot The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill - What did you kill...Bullet-headed...If to kill was not a sin The Ballad of John & Yoko - They're gonna crucify me...When you're dead Come Together - Shoot me In the Rolling Stone interview following the breakup, Lennon was distracted, incoherent. He rejected his Beatle years and never embraced them again. When he did Double Fantasy, he said he did not want to be thought of as a Beatle but as John Lennon whose life was changed by American rock & roll. The theme of death extended into his solo work. Instant Karma - Pretty soon you're gonna be dead Cold Turkey - I wish I was dead My Mummy's Dead - Title Working Class Hero - Smile as you kill How Do You Sleep? - When they said you was dead I Don't Want To Be A Soldier - I don't wanna die John Sinclair - Shooting gooks in Vietnam Angela - They shot down your man The Luck of the Irish - Wish you were dead...The death and the glory We're All Water - If we check their coffins Sunday Bloody Sunday - When they shot the people...When they nailed the coffin lids Born In Prison - Die in prison Attica State - The prisoners did not kill...Watch them die Woman Is The Nigger Of The World - We kill her will Intuition - It seemed like suicide Scared - I just wanna stay alive...Gonna be the death of me Old Dirt Road - Breezing thru the deadwood It is as if John Lennon had a premonition of his death. He was shot and killed on a street in New York City by a deranged fan named Mark David Chapman in December, 1980. He had turned 40 on October 9. Lennon once made the remark that he did not want to work in a factory because he would be dead by 40. There is irony, too, in the hoax about Paul McCartney being dead. The hoax has never been explained. No one has ever claimed responsibilty for the clues that popped up in the music as well as on album covers. John Lennon admitted that he wanted out of The Beatles as early as 1966 but was afraid to leave the group. Indeed, he used his boredom to craft many classic Beatle tunes: Strawberry Fields Forever, Revolution & The Ballad of John and Yoko. It was always Lennon on the cutting edge. He tried to break down the English language and reform it with nonsense lyrics like those in I Am The Walrus, Hey Bulldog & Come Together. Lennon's songs were superior to those of Paul McCartney's even though McCartney fans maintain otherwise. In My Life is a better song than Yesterday. Someone called Lennon a diarist and McCartney a dramatist. This is accurate. Ego was at the center of all Lennon's work. Even during the peace movement, he acted as if he invented peace. McCartney created characters as in Penny Lane & She's Leaving Home. When Lennon brought Yoko into the studio, it drove a wedge between him and McCartney. Yoko had no talent. Nor did McCartney's wife, Linda, who accompanied her husband on stage with Wings. It was up to ABBA from Sweden, a country known for its sexual equality, to produce a group in which men and women could thrive together. As The Beatles were breaking down, they unknowingly paved the way for the band which would take rock & roll to its next level. Elvis Presley may never have heard of ABBA. The Beatles created them.
Contact: jim@jimcolyer.com