Just to cheer up my good friend @h-p-saucecraft, here’s a thread dedicated to the countless things the Beatles did before anyone else in the pop world.
Here’s just a few to kick things off:
First song with a FADE-IN – Eight Days A Week
First use of feedback – I Feel Fine
First LP without the band name on the cover – Rubber Soul
http://i.imgur.com/4B01EOQ.jpg
Now read on….
First pop artists to become bigger than Jesus (Elvis may have already done that, but was scared to admit it)
I’ve already knocked two of your three first “firsts” down without too much effort. The first fade-in? Possibly – I doubt it – but who cares?
You do, clearly
On that fade-in thing:
“By the early 1930s longer songs were being put on both sides of records, with the piece fading out at the end of Side One and fading back in at the beginning of Side Two. Records at the time held only about two to five minutes of music per side. The segue allowed for longer songs (such as Count Basie’s “Miss Thing”), symphonies and live concert recordings.”
So I’m betting the fade-in was not entirely forgotten in the decades between the early thirties and the Beatles’ ground-breaking rediscovery in the mid-sixties.
Again, it’s a question of – even if your claims are provably true – which many of them are not – how much does this matter? If the Beatles hadn’t printed lyrics on an album sleeve, it’s a reasonable bet that someone else would have. It’s not like artists today need to thank the Beatles in their prayers for allowing them to print lyrics on their albums. It’s not like they invented penicillin. The advantage of timing they possessed at the time – of appearing to be first – today means nothing. All that’s left is the music, which is increasingly having to stand on its own (often rather slender) merits without the support of the cultural phenom that lifted the group to virtual god-hood in their time.
That fade-in thing. Isn’t it great that the Beatles took something that had existed previously as a matter of necessity – the splitting up of a track over both sides of a record due to space limitation – and turned it into a cute little pop music gimmick.
Don’t you just love them for that?
First pop LP to feature lyrics on the sleeve- Sgt Pepper
First hidden track – Sgt Pepper run-out groove
First use of sitar in pop – Norwegian Wood
First use of backwards tape – Rain
Re: ‘first use of sitar in pop’
The Kinks used a sitar on “See My Friends”, which came out about four months before “Norwegian Wood”
I think you find (he said importantly) that was Dave Davies using a slack tuned guitar to give a sitar effect.
First use of sitar in pop – the Kinks “See My Friends”
WIKI:
“See My Friends” is a song by The Kinks, written by the group’s singer and guitarist, Ray Davies. Released in 1965, it reached #10 on the UK Singles Chart. A rare foray into psychedelic rock for the group, it is credited by Jonathan Bellman as the first Western rock song to integrate Indian raga sounds, being released four months before the Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)”.
Why don’t you look some of this up before repeating these tired old claims, Johnny? You’re usually a stickler for detail. Why so sloppy when it comes to the Fabs?
I have:
“however, the Kinks’ 1965 single “See My Friends” featured a low-tuned drone guitar that was widely mistaken to be a sitar”
You would have been closer with The Yardbirds Heart Full Of Soul, also in 1965. They hired a real Indian sitar player for this but he couldn’t grasp what was required and after a long time fannying around, our mate Jeff Beck took control and played exactly what was needed on his Telecaster. That was the released version, but apparently there is an outtake with sitar still in the can.
..but definitely NOT yer actual Sitar. Case dismissed. *bangs gavel*
Also, first band to incorporate full on Indian classical instrumentation eg tambura, tabla etc and I would suggest the first pop/rock band to use tape loops, phasing etc.
I’d say that tuning a guitar to sound like a sitar is a creative achievement on a par with picking up the actual instrument. He wanted the sitar sound, and that’s what he got. Before the Beatles ever had it.
I disagree. The former is simulated, the latter, even at it’s basic level of playing is authentic and shows more concerted genuine innovation, in my opinion.
‘its’
Bollocks. Good try, though.
Very reasoned reply – ‘bollocks’. Took a lot of effort and thought, no doubt !
Not 100% sure about this, but:
First group to use electric 12-string
First group to put the wind up the Beach Boys 🙂
I think John McNally of The Searchers was using an electric 12-string at least at the same time, if not earlier.
First band to release a totally self-penned LP – A Hard Day’s Night in 1964, making it seem possible for everyone who came after.
The Beach Boys almost managed this as early as 1962/63, but they tended to write with assorted outsiders and there’s a few “trad: arr” tracks on those early albums. In addition the Beach Boys’ early LP releases were very different in the UK/US, which adds to the confusion
Oh, it’s “first band”, now, is it? Your OP says “the countless [sic] things the Beatles did before anyone else in the pop world.” So I’m trumping your HDN with Chuck Berry’s first album from 1957. I know you’ll disallow it because he’s black and not a group, but he was a rock n’ roll act, and for any rock n’ roll act to have the power and talent to release an entire album of their own compositions at that time was probably unheard of. Buddy Holly’s first album from the previous year had half of its tunes penned by Holly.
The problem is with most of these firsts is that they’re only firsts as far as the Beatles are concerned. Many of them have precedents somewhere down the line. Can’t you be happy with that?
Didn’t Rubber Soul come out after the first Rolling Stones album? That one didn’t have the band name on the cover did it?
Quite so. In the UK. But it did in America, which sort of rules it out
(actually neither did the second UK Stones LP Rolling Stones No.2, but that wasn’t released in America)
http://i.imgur.com/beCk7z6.jpg.
Let’s try that again:
http://i.imgur.com/2w3nUAZ.jpg
Ooh you can’t rule it out like that Johnny! I’m sure Rubber Soul was released somewhere in the world with “The Beatles- “La sensacion musicale dal Inglaterra!!” or something like that on the cover.
If you can find such a copy of Rubber Soul, I’m sure the adjudicating panel will take it into consideration. But I have a feeling that for the purposes of this thread, the two main record markets of the world – US/UK – will overrule any third world semi-legal releases.
See below. First Them album
The first band to blow my tiny mind. It was 1979 and I was nine.
I thought I heard one of them (probably Paul) say that She Loves You was the first pop song to talk in the third person i.e. not I Love You/She Loves Me.
The first Them album predated Rabbi Saul by a few months. No band name, no album title. So a bit edgier than Rabbi Saul, then, as well as earlier. You should have known this, Johnny.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Angry_Young_Them
From an internet: “Albert Collins, Johnny “Guitar” Watson and Guitar Slim had (independently) recorded feedback years before [I Feel Fine]” so that’s two out of three of your Top Three Fabs Inventions blown out of the water already.
Ah, you’ve fallen at the first hurdle there HP, as I pointed out in the OP, we’re talking about the world of pop here, not jazz, blues or any other genre.
I’ll give you the Them album for now.
Very decent of you. Ruling out the black guys who really did invent most of what we know as pop. It only counts when a bunch of middle class white boys do it “first”, right?
The first pop video? Not Bohemian Rhapsody, as we’re often told. As Van might say, you gotta go back, go way, way back.
It wasn’t even Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields in 1967, sometimes considered the first purpose made promo clip.
Go back even further and the colour film of The Beatles miming to Paperback Writer and Rain in the grounds of Chiswick House in west London in May, 1966 is almost certainly the first true pop video. Paul has a fat lip and a broken tooth in the clips following a bicycle accident.
But even as early as 1964 the Fabs had become so big they couldn’t appear live on TOTP or Ready Steady Go anymore, so promo films of I Feel Fine, Day Tripper, We Can Work It Out and other songs were shot for distribution to the TV stations.
Well if we’re going to play that game, I’ll see your Rain and raise you the Subterranean Homesick Blues sequence from Don’t Look Back.
Ah, but it was filmed as part of the movie, not a promo clip as such.
” … colour film of The Beatles miming to Paperback Writer and Rain in the grounds of Chiswick House in west London in May, 1966 is almost certainly the first true pop video.”
Except that it’s not. Ricky Nelson’s dad Ozzie (bandleader and family TV show star) filmed Ricky miming to a Hit Pop Single before this in what is thought to be the real first true pop video. I know this because I’ve been reading up on Rick, but I can’t at this moment find the reference. But so far your claims for the Fabs are just so much myth, aren’t they? Better repeat the myths than face the grim reality, I suppose …
First (and only) group to have the Top 5 in the same week in America.
I believe, sometime in ’64, they actually held the top 6 positions in the New Zealand chart.
It’s highly likely they were no. 1 on the singles AND EP AND LP charts in the same week c. summer ’64 (go and check!), AND the no. 1 film must have been ‘A Hard Day’s Night.’
Not necessarily the first, but definitely the group who most get up the noses of 60s dodgers (see Robert Elms, born 1959), and, for that fact alone, vital and to be held in the highest esteem.
Yup. They were popular all right. But managing this chart feat scacely counts as inventing something, does it?
Simultaneous US/UK number ones.
The Beatles were the first act to have simultaneous US/UK number ones in both the singles and album charts
Singles:
A handful of acts achieved this before the Beatles, but all of them were 50s crooners such as Perry Como. The Everly Bros had a simultaneous US/UK #1 in 1960 with Cathy’s Clown, but after that The Beatles became the first group to achieve this with A Hard Day’s Night in 1964 and they went on to do it seven times in all.
Albums:
As for albums, only Elvis, Nat King Cole and a few movie soundtracks had reached number one on both sides of the Atlantic simultaneously before the Fabs got there with their A Hard Day’s Night LP in 1964. Again, they repeated this feat seven* times, more than any other act.
*In addition the Beatles also had a further five simultaneous number ones in the US/UK with differently titled LPs – eg With The Beatles and Meet The Beatles.
Albums AND singles:
Only nine artists have done the double, having simultaneous number one singles and albums in the US/UK: The Beatles, The Monkees, Simon & Garfunkel, Rod Stewart, Men at Work, Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, Adele, and Zayn (who he? Ed.)
HP is correct – you start off talking about firsts – look, it’s in the title of the thread! – and now you’ve shifted ground to popularity. Hmmm
“The Beatles were the first act to have simultaneous US/UK number ones in both the singles and album charts”
Sorry, Johnny. Quoting sales figures in this thread is the mark of a punch-drunk man on the ropes.
Not really sales figures as such, but significant events in pop history. It was a huge deal to have the number one single and album on both sides of the Atlantic.
Surely you remember when Rod did it with Maggie May and Every Picture Tells A Story in 1971?
I thought my above post made fascinating reading….
And I’m disappointed that you didn’t pick up on the fact that the Monkees were only the second act to achieve this landmark.
Not at all sure about the premise of this thread JC.
BUT – they were surely the first pop band to be called The Beatles.
Well, “The Silver Beetles” was pretty close!
First band to eat properly chilled avocado for breakfast.
First band to see the Charles Hawtrey classic ‘What A Palaver!’ at the Odeon cinema in Wigan.
First band to utilise sticky-back plastic in a non conventional manner.
First band to debate crisps.
First band to laugh at a passing gannet.
“First band to utilise sticky-back plastic in a non conventional manner”
I didn’t know The Fabs were on Blue Peter.
The real problem for this list of Wonderful Firsts achieved by the Beatles (those that bear scrutiny) is that for every groundbreaking invention that they came up with, someone else came up with something else at least as “important”:
First use of phasing (probably) – Small Faces, Itchycoo Park.
First use of Moog synthesizer – Monkees, Pisces Aquarius
First double album – Frank Zappa
… and so on, and so on. Any of these seems to me to be more “groundbreaking” than (say) first use of fade-in, or first lyrics printed on sleeve (a really questionable “advance”, that one).
No, no, no. I already checked the Moog:
First rock recordings to feature the Moog synthesizer included:
Diana Ross & the Supremes single, “Reflections” (released July 1967)
Strange Days by The Doors (released September 1967
Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, & Jones, Ltd. by The Monkees (November 1967)
Cosmic Sounds by The Zodiac (November 1967)
Their Satanic Majesties Request by The Rolling Stones (released December 1967)
The Notorious Byrd Brothers by The Byrds (released January 1968)
Simon & Garfunkel’s Bookends (released April 1968)
The Beatles didn’t use a Moog until Abbey Road in 1969.
“Micky Dolenz purchased the third Moog Synthesizer ever commercially sold (the first two belonged to Wendy Carlos and – weirdly – Buck Owens.” But however you look at it, it wasn’t bought by a Beatle, and it wasn’t heard first on a Beatles record, which is what this thread is about. Which is a bit of a mis-step by the ahead-of-the-game Fabs, isn’t it?
Afterword tshirt.
Only in very small font or XXXXL to get all the words on.
The Monkees also did the “fake scratchy gramophone record” trick on Magnolia Simms, many months before Honey Pie. Take that, so-called Fabs.
https://youtu.be/oHVFbsTvcPM
That’s a good one.
How about the first backwards guitar on I’m Only Sleeping, recorded a year before Hendrix.
The Fabs certainly beat Jimi to it, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Les Paul had used backwards tape effects on his late 50s – early 60s recordings, given that he used multitracking and speeded-up and slowed-down tapes extensively.
Les Paul certainly came up with plenty of technical innovations, but ironically some of them weren’t all that suited to rock and roll.
The Gibson Les Paul Custom guitar he designed in 1954 was dubbed “the fretless wonder” because of its low action and smooth playability. Blues players hated it because it made big string bends difficult, The cheaper Les Paul Standard was much more suitable in that respect.
Les then came up with some low impedance pick-ups which were fitted to Les Paul models in the 70s. They were great for jazz, but not very good for rock at all. The futuristic controls were much too fiddly and complicated for most players, too.
First band to pass a litmus test.
First band to characterise Joaquin Phoenix as “a lorry driver”.
This is true. It’s a little known fact that if you put The Beatles red and blue albums in strong acid and alkali they change colour.
First, and last, band to blow the doors wide open so that everyone who could would follow their lead as they heralded in and subsequently led a global popular music cultural revolution that seeped into and changed forever other forms, norms and precepts too. The ripple effect of The Beatles. Not bad eh ?
“Waits for someone to cite a hip hop act”
First pop band to release a properly crafted and scripted film that stood as a bona fide piece of creative cinema art in it’s own right.
release/appear in.
I may be sticking my neck out here, but it’s quite possible that Revolution #9 is the first example of sampling in pop/rock, as it features snippets of other Beatles’ records including A Day In The Life and Tomorrow Never Knows.
The “number nine, number nine” voice is taken from a BBC test record and there are snatches of several classical pieces in there too, all taken from records.
Zappa samples his old surf records on both WOIIFTM and Lumpy Gravy.
I’ll concede that
But Walrus falls right in the middle of the WOIIFTM recording dates, so that is still a possibility.
Save The Life Of My Child on Bookends “samples” Sound of Silence, FWIW.
Following on from their experiments in I Am The Walrus ? Could that be a first ?
Yes, a bit of a Shakespeare play at the end of Walrus, sampled from BBC radio. Well remembered.
I’d say Mr Kite qualifies as an earlier example. Fairground tunes recorded onto tape then chopped up etc.
And Tomorrow Never Knows surely had some “samples” hidden in its various tape loops. George Martin (or someone) said Tomorrow Never Know and Revolution No 9 were basically composed the same way.
Tomorrow Never Knows has Paul’s guitar solo from Taxman looped in backwards, making those seagull sounds.
First band to over-estimate a cat.
First band to use the word “concupiscent” in a description of Estonia.
I’m liking them @Gary even if no-one else seems to be…
and me!
Me too. Much more impressive (and interesting) than the so-called “real” examples quoted by the Beatles Scientologists.
Me too.
Also, first band to insist on avocados in the tour rider.
Whoah! Just seen that Gary made first use of an avocado reference up there at 06.30. Damn these meds.
Gary is Beatles Band.
Better too many avocado references in a thread than too few, Jeff. the latter being all too often the case round these here parts.
Wise words, Gary, wise words.
In your posts in this thread, you have displayed a firm grasp of the facts, and set out a clear vision of your values. These, to me, are leadership qualities. Please stand against Corbyn.
Please.
Bring guacamole back to the fish and chip-eating masses.
First band to do a global broadcast – ‘Our World’ ( ‘All You Need Is Love’ )
First group to only release their own songs on singles.
Something they continued to do – 22 45s, 44 songs, all self-penned.
They’d get criticised for fleecing the public, but I’d be first in the queue for a Dusty-like As/Bs comp., 22 tracks on each CD, by the Four they call Fab.
‘Please Fleece Me.’
And not too many of those As and Bs on the albums, either.
First band to set up their own independent record label/company ?
I did consider that, but Sinatra and his mates started Reprise in 1960 and there must have been other artist owned labels before 1968
The first vanity label perhaps, as Apple operated through EMI
Ah. I wasn’t sure. Thank’s for clarifying. First to open a crazee boutique ?
Ah yes, the Apple boutique in Baker Street. I got a free pair of Apple underpants when they gave everything away at the end, you know.
REALLY ? Actual genuine Apple Undercrackers ?????!!!!! Please tell me you still have them !
Sadly not, they fell apart within a year. And in July 1968 who knew anything the Fabs breathed on would soon be hugely collectable?
http://i.imgur.com/9dOQI0D.jpg
Very fine indeed, sir. Fit enough to have been worn by Adam himself before fair Eve did set her gnashers at ’em.
Of course HP takes a hard line on the Beatles
http://i.imgur.com/0SP1sZw.jpg
I like the Beatles, they’re a good group. But when you start posting “facts” about them that are demonstrably wrong, I have to ask myself – why?
Why this desperate need to put them on a pedestal all the time?
Who in his right mind cares if they were “the first” in anything? It doesn’t matter any more, other than as footnotes in the history of pop music. All that matters is the music. I’m not slack-jawed in amazement that they were the “first” to use feedback, any more than I’m impressed by the Small Faces uses phasing. So what?
My position on the Fabs (again) is just that there were a whole shitload of records by other people that were/are quite as good/better than Beatles’ records.
That’s it.
But the Fabfans won’t be having any of that, will you? For you, the Moptops have to be the toppermost of the poppermost and they invented EVERYTHING, right, and NOBODY ELSE IS AS GOOD. 4-EVA!!
It’s a belief system, and nobody can change any belief system with rational thought.
I think you might be taking this a little too seriously HP. It’s just a fun discussion about something some of here (including you) clearly love. That’s all it is.
A belief system ?! Nah. An opinion, and it’s just a bit of good natured rough and tumble of no real importance.
For such a sorry bunch of unashamed copyists and purveyors of weedy choons, they weren’t half regarded with some awe by their contemporaries and those that they inspired.
I’ve never quite understood your point that there were other great records around at the same time. I’d thought that was a given. I listened to them and bought some of them, as well as the few Fabs records I could afford. I listened to and enjoyed a variety of artists – any love I had for the Fabs didn’t stop me from so doing. It wasn’t the equivalent of cheating on my wife.
Up, up and…. away!
To paraphrase Alan Partridge, back of the net.
Things the Beatles invented:
Band as a gang
Percussion
The pre-gig communal wank
Irony
Having a better drummer but not using him
Elevator music
The colours red and blue
Beards
The phrase “I’d forgotten how good they were”
Rap music
The Internet
HP Saucecraft
and the Beatles in a nutshell
Hamburg
Provincial accents
Beatlemania
Cheeky to the Queen
Christmas Fan Club Records
Haircuts
Cuban heel boots
LSD
Psychedelia
Meditation
India
Japanese/American wives sticking their oar in
Splitting up
You’re forgot skiing whilst spannered on weed.
Better yet, smoking dope in the Buckingham Palace toilets
I think Terry Gilliam was spot on when he said that it was The Beatles, and not The Stones, that were the real cultural subversives, as they were working from within the Establishment, changing heads, opening minds.
And in Keith’s book he’s strangely charitable to the Fabs, crediting them with kicking the door open to America for the UK bands.
I think Mick was only half joking when asked about The Rutles reforming, he replied, ‘I hope not’. The Stones were always going to be in the artistically creative shadow of The Beatles whilst they existed.
And perhaps it’s no coincidence that the Stones only started to get really great as the Fabs neared the end.
No coincidence at all. They could finally blossom with confidence.
That might be a matter of opinion, though. I prefer the Stones to the Beatles, and I think the records the Stones made from, say, 1968 onwards were clearly better than the records the Beatles made during that time.
I love those albums. The Stones were finally getting there and coming up with the goods, but in terms of genuine originality, I don’t think they’re on the same level.
As part of a Ronnie lane trip, I recently started paying far more attention to The Small Faces, especially the Immediate era, and honestly think they were very much the bobbins, second to The Beatles of course.
The Beatles split up just after pop turned into rock and the Stones were perfectly positioned to capitalise on that.
Although The Fabs had already invented Stadium Rock in 1964/65 during their US tours, it’s true that they didn’t have the musicianship to compete with the big live bands of the 70s. Including the Stones with Mick Taylor
Agreed. Not their natural environment/style/performing ability. The timing of their break up was perfect as it turned out.
Picky, I know, but it’s a bit of a stretch to say they invented stadium rock. Playing in a stadium maybe. How many of the audience could actually hear the band? By the 70s, PAs and monitors had come a long way, enabling bands to play in large venues. I read an article about a US speaker company that got into stadium PAs early on because their speakers dealt with mid range frequencies much better and therefore projected the sound further. (Can’t remember where or find the article online.) Fenton Steve would understand this much better than me.
“Shuffles back to Video Village”
Oh yeah, the sound was poor, but they played in a stadium. Proving it was possible. And other pop bands soon followed.
On a related aside, John Lennon was the only musician/contemporary that Keith Moon was in genuine awe of and showed proper respect too.
… and of course David Crosby’s reminiscenses are very insightful and informative too, as he was part of the close knit inner social sanctum.
I insist you end that post with a “…” to better reflect that the Beatles and their music will NEVER EVER DIE.
Little known fact: although The Beatles are often credited with having invented irony, they really only experimented with what is now known as sarcasm. According to wikipedia, irony in the modern sense of the word didn’t come into being until Kenneth Branagh’s 1989 marriage to his Fortunes Of War co-star, Emma Thompson.
To their credit, they did invent the nuanced term velleity during afternoon tea at Brian Epstein’s Godalming retreat “Muffins”.
T.R.K. Anstruther, in his revealing memoir of the time (“A Life In Corduroy”) has it thus:
“McCartney said, “I wish there was a word for quite liking the idea of something but not enough to actually do it.” To which Lennon (then oil-wrestling a naked Epstein in the rhododendrons) shouted out “velleity” in his wonderfully nasal Liverpudlianese. The term soon caught on.”
It was at Muffins that Ringo invented the snood.
Fingerpicking, Heavy Metal, concept albums, wearing fishing caps, Donovan. *checks earpiece* Ah, no, as you were, that was Donovan.
The first band to accidentally invent a cult of crazed, committed deniers of their revolutionary achievements and importance ?…..
First band to have a member hatch a plan to have the House Of Commons water supply laced with LSD. It did not come to fruition.
Or did it ?……..
First pop artist to prompt a reviewer to use the words “pandiationic clusters” to describe their work.
Ah yes, pandiatonic clusters. William Mann and the most famous article in pop music history.
http://aeoliancadence.co.uk/ac/Most_famous_article_in_pop_music_history__William_Mann_Aeolian_cadence_pop_music_appreciation.html
First band filed after The Beat in most record shops
First band with a name containing a clear instruction to commit violence against Jack The Biscuit
I haven’t a clue if you are joking/serious/ironic/sarcastic/having a dig at me or just plain taking the piss, but could you please enlighten me on your comment KD.
Many thanks,
jackthebisciuit.
Don’t think it was a dig: Beat Les.
I just assumed it was another in a succession of obscure comments designed to illustrate how pointless the thread is.
Yes, Bingo has it. “Oi, Ringo! Beat Les!”
Just a silly bit of wordplay, absolutely no offence intended and I apologise if any was taken.
In 1965 The Beatles played to a crowd of 55,000 at Shea Stadium (named after the Cuban guerrilla leader Che Stadium etc) . This was a world record attendance for a pop concert at the time and stood until Led Zeppelin broke it in 1973.
http://i.imgur.com/HJhH8HP.jpg
When Garth Brooks played Central Park in 1997 there were 55,000 people in the queue for the toilets.
Seriously – who’s Garth Brooks ?
Exactly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgYP1d5nN2o
I love that look between John And George – a real “how the fuck did we get here, its fucking mad” moment. George who always thought that John looked down on him cos of his age rarely lookd happier than this.
And of course, offscreen, Macca cracking up laughing
Yes – it’s a wonderful image, and very touching.
I love the live footage where you can see them not caring about the madness around them and just going with and larking about, especially Lennon ‘freaking out’ (Ringo) on the keyboard.
I wish Apple would just release the bloody thing Maybe as a companion go the upcoming Ron Howard touring years documentary along with Washington, Munich, Paris, Tokyo…..oh I can dream
Wasn’t it broadcast in December ’79 on BBC2 when they did a Beatles film run ? It would be a very good companion release to the Ron Howard doc, which looks excellent.
I seem to remember they showed all the Beatles films over Christmas around 1980 so you could be right.
Hard to believe you simply couldn’t get them at that time and early video copies off the TV became treasured possessions and/or valuable trading currency
December ’79. I’m pretty sure of it. I didn’t see ‘Help!’ and Lennon was still alive. First time I saw ‘Help!’ was on the evening of December 9th 1980, on BBC1 after Newsthingy (?)
I remember being particularly sad at the scene where John fell under a tank on Salisbury Plain. Just seemed so… well, you know. I choked up. 12 years old at the time.
First band to have a vocalist / rhythm guitarist fall under a tank on Salisbury Plain.
Interestingly, future artygreasercrooner Bryan Leery was to later refer to this mysterious incident in Roxy Music’s 1972 debut single, with the closing couplet “What’s my pain? Salisbury Plain!”, followed immediately by the first recorded use of the dramatic mic drop walk-away ending.
Nationwide. That was it.
The coke and s & m dude, I think.
Yeah there is a nice DVD from that broadcast and an edited version from a 35mm print but would be nice to have a copy from the master on Blu Ray if possible.
Available on dvd ? Nice one. Thanks for the heads up.
Through not strictly legal means. LMK if you need any hep tracking it down
Not official ? Hopefully it may get the full proper release, Let It Be as well (surely I can’t still be just because they have a bit of a minor tiff). Thanks.
I’m surprised our Dave H is involved in anything dodgy like that?
I’m waiting for the next round of Apple/Beatles dvd product – inevitable.
Actually you’re right – although Mark Ellen does have a copy and he now is on the inside in Apple
Let It Be – Michael Lindsay Hogg has recorded a commentary track for it and says the only thing stopping it is Paul n Yoko because she wants it recut with more her and John footage. There is plenty of good extra stuff – would make a great double disc out of hours of dullness
Perhaps Paul wants less of:
“I’ll play whatever you want me to play, or I won’t play at all if you don’t want to me to play. Whatever it is that will please you… I’ll do it!”
Well, that’s easily sorted with a bonus disc of extra footage, yes. Let’s hope so.
It’s online here
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4am57k_the-beatles-at-shea-stadium_music
Good man. Nice one.
Yeah, John out of his mind on something and playing the keyboard with his elbow.
Garth Brooks, pop/country singer. He was maybe the biggest selling artist in the world at one point in the 90s. Pissed on his chips by trying to reinvent himself as a rock act under the name Chris Gaines. It was a dismal failure.
Then he tried to stop record stores selling his CDs second hand by withholding supply of his new albums. The stores rightly told him to go fuck himself.
er, that’s about it
Thanks. I resisted the urge to google and was just about to reply to Bingo that was I right in that he was a footballer.
‘thinking that he was’ after the Accrington Stanley link.
You’re thinking of Garth Crooks, a man who have never played to a capacity crowd of more than 70,000.
Here he is, serenading a sold-out Old Trafford.
The eagle-eyed amongst you will no doubt notice that Garth’s shirt has shoulder straps, which were (of course) invented by – ta da – George Harrison.
Teach me how to surf. Go on, dude. TEACH ME HOW TO SURF THE OCEAN WAVES (and I’ll teach you how to surf THE ASTRALS ! ).
Here’s how to surf:
Good man. Nice one.
(replicated reply to Slotty further up)
That’s truly amazing. I can only begin to imagine the mystical spiritual experience of the connection with the majestic forces of nature that one most experience. Just you and the wave in time suspended harmonious synchronicity.
Well, I did ask.
Shoulder straps? Epaulettes, surely, as seen on the Sgt Pepper uniforms
‘Epaulettes’ being, of course, the name given to the groupies provided to McCartney as part of his deal with Epiphone.
They come from China these days and cost a lot less….
Cheap knock-offs.
The guitars are no better.
Estimated attendance at his Central Park gig: between 300,000 and 1m.
Still not a patch on Rod Stewart at the beach (3.5m).
Obviously, none of this would have been possible without yer Fabs, who invented live music, ear drums, public spaces and the portaloo.
First band to have a member whom certain members of the public will insist has been dead since 1966.
First band to be declared “the best thing since Schubert” and bigger than Jeebus
“Yes Marge, we do have French Fries in England, but we call them chips”
http://www.simpsonsarchive.com/guides/beatles.refs.html
‘Rattle yer jewellery’ – the first genuine act of Punk. No Elvis ‘Sir’ knowing his place.
The Beatles are always the first name mentioned when someone or something is described as ‘the biggest thing since……’ or ‘bigger than….’
Curious, then, that the thing described as ‘bigger than The Beatles’ in, say, 1983 or 1988 or 1997 or 2003 or 2008, is NEVER then name checked two or three years down the line for the next act to be ‘bigger than….’!
‘Glee’ springs to mind. Whoever is the next big thing, they definitely won’t be labelled ‘the biggest thing since Glee’ even though huge claims were made about ‘Glee being bigger than The Beatles’ (seriously!!!) in whatever year it was.
Goes some way to explaining why the tag-line ‘……of his/her/their generation’ is now regularly applied.
It’s shorthand for ‘not as good as The Beatles.’ (see smiths, clash, Jackson, prince, madonna etc.)
If you look at the music that people actually listen to, Michael Jackson is far more culturally significant than the Beatles, and he’s also sold more records in the last 40 years. The only sense in which the Beatles are inarguably “bigger” than him is if they get to stand on one another’s shoulders.
Told you. It’s almost what The Beatles were put on the earth to do.
Not so. Mchael Jackson was 175cm tall. Both John & Paul tape up at 180cm.
Yeah, but Wacko could dance on his tip-toes.
Actually Paul’s height is the subject of some controversy.
http://digilander.libero.it/jamespaul/fc42.html
Surveying this thread, that doesn’t surprise me at all.
And this page references total sales:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_music_artists
Did George invent the word “grotty” (Hard day’s night)
Good one. I think it was part of the script though.
In The Beginning
In the beginning The Beatles created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of The Beatles was hovering over the waters.
And The Beatles said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. The Beatles saw that the light was good, and they separated the light from the darkness. The Beatles called the light “day,” and the darkness they called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. etc
It was a hard day’s night…
Paul McCartney was the first person in history to write a song called ‘Penny Lane’ and then, only four years later, start a new group with someone called ‘Denny Laine’.
Ah, I’m guessing you haven’t heard the demos John recorded with The Blow Monkeys in late 1970 then.
Ummm… nope, you’ve lost me there, I’m afraid. I was thinking ‘Dr Robert’, but wiki tells me that Robert Howard was born in 1961, so he would have been 9 in 1970.
Do tell.
Er, it was a joke based around the premise that Lennon had beaten McCartney to the punch. Maybe it needed a little more work.
No hurry, take whatever time you need to graft the funny bit into it, and then get back to us.
How about they were the first to become so monumentally over played that we all just ended up hearing white noise?
Up of the highest order
The Beatles named themselves that as a nod to The Crickets – the Monkees of course were nodding at the Beatles. And the Krankees were named after The Monkees. And Radiohead got their name from a wee Jimmy Krankee character called Radioheed – she was painted silver and spoke like a robot. To be honest with you I am at yet another school disco. I’ve had a long week and I seriously cannot be bothered with the shouted small talk with the other adults. So I’m outside looking serious tapping out total bollocks right here right now. Perhaps people think I’m attending to a serious work issue? The fools. Ha ha ha. I’ll be off to some other threads now to literally type anything at all. Hey! Another Beatles reference – how about that…
First band to continue with one dead member
http://i.imgur.com/qNjKYVA.jpg
The Beatles: derivative if not altogether unoriginal.
Let’s just leave it at that.
I read over the weekend that the world’s first photobomb was on the cover of Abbey Road. The man standing on the pavement has been inducted into the Rock and roll hall of fame.
He was already famous to be fair
http://i.imgur.com/zo0gF7u.jpg
The Four Kooks
what a great name -they’d have done much better with that instead of “The Beatles”
“It’s not my kind of thing. I prefer classical music”
They were the first band to indulge in conspicuous virtue-signalling. See front cover of ‘Help’.
Here’s a thing. On the UK cover of Help they are signalling NUJV and on the US LP they are signalling NVUJ. Apparently this looked more symmetrical for the photos