Legends of Rock & Roll: The Beatles

By James Hoag

The Beatles are arguably, the greatest band of the rock and roll era and perhaps of all time. They struggled to get started,
having several personnel changes and name changes over the first two or three years. Then, in 1963, everything clicked and the
Beatles became known all over England.

The next year, in 1964, they came to America and conquered this country. Thus began the British Invasion.

Everyone knows who the Beatles are, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Sadly, two of them have left us at this point,
but the remaining two (Paul and Ringo) continue to create and perform music well into their Seventies.

You may think you know everything there is to know about the Beatles, but I'd wager there are a few points in this book that you have not heard before.
The group is taken from their growing up years, through the creation of the band and to their eventual breakup.

Come with me for a walk down memory lane as I review the life of the band, The Beatles and especially, the music that they produced.
We'll visit each of their hits and find out how they came to be written or how they were recorded; and discuss any trivia that might
be associated with the music. This book is about the band but even more importantly, it's about the music.
This series is my way of honoring the people that have brought so much joy to our lives over the years.

• Language: English
• Publisher: James Hoag
• Release date: Jan 23, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005856403

James Hoag

James Hoag has always been a big fan of Rock & Roll. Most people graduate from high school and then proceed to "grow up" and go on to more adult types of music. James got stuck at about age 18 and has been an avid fan of popular music ever since. His favorite music is from the Fifties, the origin of Rock & Roll and which was the era in which James grew up. But he likes almost all types of popular music including country music.After working his entire life as a computer programmer, he is now retired and he decided to share his love of the music and of the performers by writing books that discuss the life and music of the various people who have meant so much to him over the years.He calls each book a "love letter" to the stars that have enriched our lives so much. These people are truly Legends.

Book preview

Introduction

In 2012, I wrote four small books about each of the members of what is, arguably, the best band in the history of rock-and-roll, or just music in general, The Beatles. Those books were part of the ongoing series of Legends of Rock & Roll which I have been writing for the past ten years. I’ve always felt that, while writing about John, Paul, George and Ringo was a good thing, the entire picture of the Beatles should be told.

Now, I would be the first to admit that there are many books out there about the Beatles. A band as popular as they were is bound to generate a lot of press. But, nobody writes like I do, (good or bad) and I feel I should write my own thoughts on the creation and progress of the band. They existed for only 10 years or so, but in that time, they had a bigger impact on the music world than anyone else in history (and I include Elvis Presley in that group.)

Now, this book only covers a small amount about the lead up to the creation of the band. I wanted to repeat as little as possible from the four original books, but it’s impossible not to duplicate some of that information. So, if you have purchased and read any of the other four books, you might find some of that material repeated here. It can’t be avoided. But, this book is about the band as a whole, from the beginning about 1960 until the break-up in 1969. The careers of the fab four after the breakup was covered in each of their individual books and while some of the information is repeated here, most is not.

I’m not sure why, but the members of the Beatles are always referred to as John, Paul, George and Ringo. It may be because that is the exact order in which they joined the band and so, it is in that order I discuss their childhood and upbringing before creating the band.

John was called the smart Beatle, Paul was the handsome or popular Beatle and George was known as the quiet Beatle. Ringo is the lovable Beatle. I did not make this up.

So, without further ado, I present to you, The Beatles…..

The Early Years – John

World War II was going strong in England when John was born. John Winston Lennon was born October 9, 1940 in Liverpool Maternity Hospital in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. Most people have heard of Liverpool. It lies about 210 miles northeast of London and is right on the coast of the Irish Sea.

John’s mother was Julia Stanley and his father was Alfred Lennon. Alfred was a merchant seaman and was away at sea a good bit of the time. When John was born, Alfred was at sea and missed the birth. John was named after his grandfather John Jack Lennon and he got his middle name from the newly appointed Prime Minister of England, Winston Churchill. That’s quite a heritage.

Father and mother had problems, however. Maybe it was because Dad was gone most of the time. The war was on and he had his duty to his country. Alfred sent cheques home to Julia when he could. However, in 1944 when John was three, the cheques suddenly stopped and Alfred was listed as absent without leave. Essentially, he had gone AWOL. Maybe the family thought he was dead, I’m not sure, but six months later he showed up at home and found that Julia was pregnant with another child. This one, however, was not his.

Julia’s sister Mary (Mimi) Smith offered to take John and have him live with her and her husband, George. So, while Julia continued to live with her new boyfriend, Alfred left the country and John, from the age of five, lived with his aunt and uncle for most of his childhood. He did not see his father again for almost twenty years.

Mimi and George lived at Mendips, 251 Menlove Avenue, Woolton. Woolton is a suburb of South Liverpool. As you can imagine, the house today is preserved by the National Trust. It didn’t start out that way, however. The National Trust had purchased the home that Paul McCartney grew up in and preserved that. However, since no Beatle songs had been written in the house on Menlove Avenue, the National Trust, at first, had no interest in the house.

Years later, Yoko Ono bought the house and after restoring it to its condition in the Fifties, donated the house to the National Trust. Yoko felt that the childhood home of John Lennon should be preserved. Now, if you are in England, you can visit the home.

John’s Aunt Mimi bought him several volumes of short stories for him to read. This got him on the road to appreciating literature. His uncle George bought him a harmonica and taught him to play. It should surprise nobody that John was a troublemaker in school. John said later that the parents of other boys told their children to stay away from him. John was envious of other children who had a real mom and dad and since he didn’t, so he tried to disrupt their lives whenever he could. So, he honestly earned his reputation.

John did all the things you’d expect a young pre-teen and teenager to do. He visited the circus with his cousins. John particularly liked George Formby who was a comedian, musician in the Thirties and the Forties. Formby sang songs and accompanied himself on the banjo. John’s mother had bought him a banjo and so John learned how to play it. John’s uncle George passed away when he was 14 years old from a liver hemorrhage.

The Early Years – Paul

James Paul McCartney was born June 18, 1942 to parents James (Jim) McCartney and Mary Mohin. He came into this world at Walton Hospital in Liverpool, England. This is very close to where John Lennon was born just two years earlier. They gave him his father’s first name, but he was always known as Paul, maybe so the family wouldn’t confuse him with his father. Paul’s mother was a nurse and worked in the hospital where Paul was born. His father was a volunteer firefighter, sold cotton and was an amateur musician and since this was the middle of World War II, he was very busy. Like John’s father, Paul’s was away at the time of his birth fighting fires.

Unlike John, however, Paul had one younger brother, Michael, who was born in 1944. The boys were baptized into the Catholic Church, but since Jim was essentially an agnostic, the boys did not attend church. Paul attended school at Stockton Wood Road Primary School from about 1947, when he was five, until 1949 when he was transferred to Joseph Williams Junior School.

In 1953 at age 11, he passed the Eleven-Plus exam, so named because that’s when you took it, at about age 11. The test is used to determine which direction the student should go. Is he more suited to a technical school or just go on to regular school? Passing or not passing the exam could decide where a child might end up, what job he eventually qualified for. Of the 90 children that took the test with Paul, only three passed and Paul was one of them. So, he was granted admission to the Liverpool Institute.

The school had a profound effect on Paul as all sorts of Arts were studied, including music. He met George Harrison while attending Liverpool Institute and he met the man (Ivan Vaughn) who introduced him to John Lennon.

Paul’s mother, Mary, was the primary wage earner for the family, working as a nurse. Her income allowed them to move to a better house in Allerton, a suburb of Liverpool. Paul says he remembers her getting up at three in the morning and in rain or snow, riding her bicycle to work. The family lived there until 1964, but in 1956, Mary died of breast cancer. This later provided a common point between Paul and John Lennon as John also lost his mother when he was young.

You know that there must have been music in the family of Paul McCartney. Most everyone I write about who later turn out to be giants in the music world started out hearing it in their families when they were young.

Paul’s father, Jim, who stayed with the family, unlike John Lennon’s father, was a musician. He played the trumpet and the piano and had his own band in the Twenties, called Jim Mac’s Jazz band. I would have liked to hear it. Father Jim encouraged his boys to play instruments. They had an old upright piano in their living room on which Paul practiced. Jim bought him a trumpet when he was 14, but seeing the direction that music was going in the country and in the world, traded it for a guitar a year or so later. After all, it’s hard to sing and play the trumpet at the same time.

The guitar was a Framus Zenith, model 17, acoustic guitar. Paul tried to play it like he saw all the other performers playing, right-handed, but one day he noticed that Slim Whitman, a famous country singer in the Fifties, played the guitar left-handed. Paul decided to switch, and that made all the difference in the world. I understand you have to reverse the order of the strings when you play left-handed. He still owns that guitar.

Rock-and-roll was starting in the early Fifties and Paul was in the right place at the right time. He wrote his first song, I Lost My Little Girl, when he was 14 using the Fender guitar. He also wrote a song which later became When I’m Sixty-Four on the piano. His father wanted him to take piano lessons, but Paul preferred to learn by ear. So, he taught himself how to play. He liked Rhythm & Blues and his favorite singer of the day was Little Richard. The very first performance he did live was at a Butlins holiday camp talent show where he sang Long Tall Sally. Butlins is a chain of holiday camps all over England and Ireland which caters to family fun. They sound analogous to the Amusement Parks we have in the United States. Ten were built between 1936 and 1966. Of those, only three are still left today.

The Early Years – George

Like John and Paul, George Harrison was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England on February 25, 1943. According to imdb.com, a family record was found that claims he was born at 11:50 p.m. on the night of the 24th. If