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This 2023 marks the 60th anniversary of the publication of the first album by the music band that changed everything on the cultural scene: the Beatles. On the occasion of this anniversary, I propose a review of his career, the members of the group and a brief analysis of what was his most ambitious project: Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Bandas well as the end of the band.
First of all, who are the beatles?
The Beatles are a British band, originally from Liverpool, made up of four musicians: Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison.
The band was active for just seven years, from 1963 —with the publication of Please Please Me—, until 1970. More than enough time to compose 13 albums that have transcended as 13 musical masterpieces, ingenious and full of experimentation who have opened the way for other artists to explore new paths in the world of culture.
As the years went by, the musicians were acquiring large amounts of money that allowed them to quit live music and spend a long time in the studio. Thus, they were able to experiment and test new sounds, until now never used in the most commercial music. A clear example of this work is their eighth studio album: Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Both its cover and its lyrics have given us something to talk about, beyond the musical composition, which is also outstanding. In the case of letters, the popular imagination, for example, has assumed that Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds is a reference to LSD and something similar happens with With a Little Help of my Friends. However, according to Daily MailHas nothing to do.
And the same has happened with the cover. Much has been said about what it hides, why they chose some characters and not others. The idea was much simpler than all that. He front man from the band, Paul McCartney, wanted to do something with a lot of color and break with the cover of the previous album: Stir. And, for this, he found inspiration in a photograph that he found at the house of his father’s orchestra.
Among the four of them, they chose which characters would accompany Sgt. Pepper’s band of lonely hearts. They shuffled multiple names, from Jesus Christ to Adolf Hitler, although both ended up discarded. Those in charge of giving shape to this idea were the artists Jane Haworth and Peter Blakewho arranged the photographs of all the illustrious people chosen by those from Liverpool as a collage and finally, during the night of March 30, Michael Cooper He pulled the shutter and captured the most iconic cover of the British quartet.
Another aspect that stands out from this project is the wide range of instruments that they needed for their preparation. Beyond the conventional ones, such as bass, guitar or drums, they also made use of some from India, from an orchestra of 40 musicians and even a comb and toilet paper.
And, as a result of all this work, the band gained two Grammy Awardsof the five to which they had been nominated in 1967.
After the overwhelming success of Sgt Pepper’s, and the publication of the Magical Mystery Tour, those of Liverpool took a break. In February 1968 they decided to take a spiritual retreat at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Transcendental Meditation center in India. And, although they were only there a few months, it was a period of maximum creativity, especially for John Lennon. And, by May 1968, the quartet was already preparing to return to the studios of Abbey Road and publish the first studio album with his own record label: Apple.
Unlike other times, they wanted to have all the songs very well rehearsed before going into the studio. But from their busy schedules they only managed to take out a day to put all the material together and choose which one to go to Abbey Road with. The day in question was spent in Kinfauns, George Harrison’s luxurious bungalow in Esher. And, with the guitarist’s four-track Amplex machine, they recorded 27 pieces. Of which, 19 ended up in the White Album, two will be saved for Abbey Road and six were never released by the group as an active unit. In any case, all of them have been kept for posterity as a document of maximum value.
Because? Well, because it is the last recorded material in which the quartet works in full harmony. Sitting around the bungalow’s living room, the four musicians can be heard in a relaxed atmosphere devoid of any type of tension, like the one that will end up coming in the next recordings. And, although they remained hidden for a long time, some could be heard in the collection Anthology 3 and, finally, a large part of them are already available in Youtube.
The next album they released is Abbey Road, although it is the last one they recorded. So if the White Album was the beginning of the end, Abbey Road is the epilogue. By this point, all but McCartney had given up their intention to leave the band. And this tension became evident during this last recording. Far from the laughter and complicity that we talked about during the recording of the white albumin Abbey Road the opposite happened.
The last record that Liverpool released as a band was let it be. AND there are many factors that make this a very special album. To begin with, the entire recording process has been recorded in the documentary getback. And yes, there was already tension between the members of the group, but the connection between McCartney and Lennon continues to be magical and exciting. And between the four of them you can appreciate, beyond personal quarrels, complicity, resentment, admiration, misunderstanding and even rancor.
But what makes this record really special is what happened on the roof of the Savile Row studios, headquarters of the Apple company. There, the last live performance of the group took place. It was on January 30. At about 12.30 in the morning, lunchtime for the British. Without prior notice. The four went up to the roof of their building. They plugged their instruments into the amplifiers. AND magic arose.
There were many lucky ones who were walking around and were able to witness the last live performance of the Beatles. But not everyone was very amused. Some neighbors and workers complained about the noise. The police showed up at the studios to make them stop. They tried to entertain the agents in the hall of the building, but they ended up going up. And the complicit smiles between them when they saw a Bobby on the rooftop they only confirm how much they ended up enjoying the idea.
And it is that not all were in favor of presenting the songs of let it be. Especially Harrison. However, that concert remains there for posterity as one of the most important events of the music history.