Join David Bedford, one if the authors of The Beatles Fab Four Cities book, as he uses his book to take a walking tour of the famous Beatles locations.
Don’t forget to grab your copy of the book too!
From When We Find Ourselves in Times of Trouble: The Beatles (All their songs with encouraging words for challenging times) By Tim Hatfield
This was the last song recorded for the Revolver album, a John Lennon song with some help from George, and harked back to a strange incident in a rented home in Los Angeles while the Beatles were doing several concerts on the West coast.
Roger McGuinn and David Crosby of the Byrds were among a bunch of people in the home that day for an LSD party with the Beatles (all except Paul, who abstained). At one point, George Harrison said he was afraid he was dying, and actor Peter Fonda, also present and tripping, did what he could to reassure George that he would be OK. But he also went on at some length about how he had almost died when he was a young boy, and then said, “I know what it’s like to be dead.”
John Lennon heard him and went ballistic; he didn’t want anyone to be talking to his friend about being dead, let alone some guy in sunglasses who he didn’t know. But Fonda’s one-liner proved to be very generative – it stuck with Lennon, who changed “he” to “she” and softened his rage so that early iterations of the lyrics also were more even, more accessible. By the time that George stopped by John’s house one day the next year, John had fragments of more than one song he was working with, including one about childhood innocence (“When I was a boy everything was right”) that George helped him combine into what would that be the final version of “She Said She Said.”
It may be no coincidence that, as at the party in California, McCartney opted out of this song as well, one of the only Beatles tracks on which he does not appear at all. The song is officially attributed to Lennon/McCartney, but it would have been more accurate to describe it as a Lennon/Harrison piece. McCartney recalled in Many Years from Now,
I think we’d had a barney [a noisy quarrel]…and they [John, George, and Ringo] said, “Well, we’ll do it.” I think George played bass.
And they did. John sang lead, played rhythm guitar, and added a track on a Hammond organ; George did the harmonies, played a raspy, sitar-like lead guitar, and played the bass guitar track; and Ringo’s drumming was described by Rolling Stone as “spirited.”
It would not be much of a stretch, I think, to say that we have been living in a surreal time in 2020 and 2021. No LSD is necessary for us. And we – the collective WE – need to persevere and do something about our major national challenges before (how many more?) people know, quite literally, what it’s like to be dead.
A budding painter could be immersed in the artistry of The Beatles with a ‘Paint Your Own Beatle’ set. The set was available in four different paint-by-number versions, one for each Beatle. Produced in 1964, the collection came with oil-colored paints, two bristled brushes, a thinner/brush cleaner, and an 11″x14″ numbered, ready-to-paint canvas board for you to paint a life-like portrait. Artistic Creations made it, Incorporated at 12825 South Broadway in Los Angeles, California.
The box, which was14″x19″, advertised “Paint Your Own Beatle” and included a graphic depicting the finished product. “Sensational Real-Life Oil Portrait. Do it yourself by the numbers. It’s fun; it’s easy! So great… you’ll want to do all four Beatle portraits” “Everything you need to create an exciting oil painting.” “Not a print, not a picture…genuine 11″x14″ oil painting. Paint it…frame it…hang it! The Official Beatles licensed oil paint kit by Artistic Creations, Inc.”
Printed on the box exterior was a list of the contents:
–Giant 11″x14″ Paint By Number Portrait
–Genuine Pre-Mixed Oil Colors
–Two Genuine Bristle Paint Brushes
–Supply Of Special Brush Cleaner Liquid
–Print Of Finished Paint-By-Number Portrait
–Complete Easy To Follow Instructions
Printed detailed instructions inside the box said, “Congratulations! You have just purchased a genuine Artistic Creations Numbers Oil Painting Set…Before You Start Your Painting Read These Simple Instructions.” It then went on to list nine instruction items to follow to paint your picture correctly. The kit series listed for these were “Beatles 102-5.” Individual kit numbers were Ringo – #102, George – #103, Paul – #104, John – #105.
Columbia Record Club published a flyer for this item. The cover displayed a 6″x8″ painting of Ringo and said, “A first for club members – Paint Your Own Beatle or other famous personality…”
A print graced the lid “window” of a paint by number kit. It showed what the completed painting would look like if you followed the directions. The print measured 11″x14″ and had a biography of the Beatle on the back.
“The full set comes with a guide print with a bio on the back, printed on thin paper. The actual painting is on very hard cardboard.” – Ricky Glover.
Find out more about Beatles memorabilia in Terry’s great book:
The book covers the approximately 150 licensed items that dotted store shelves and helped fuel the band-crazed fan during the time right after the band landed in America and performed on The Ed Sullivan Show. Toys, games, dolls, jewelry, clothing, wigs, and more!
Barnes and Noble site: httpss://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/nems-and-the-business-of-selling-beatles-merchandise-in-the-us-1964-1966-terry-crain/1137422952?ean=9783347096165#
The launch of the Liverpool International song Contest 2022 is Monday, May 9th, starting with a live stream launch between Liverpool, hosted at the British Music Experience, and Nashville, anchored at the Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum. and you can tune in live on TUFFM.com
This is a global, historic project, bringing Nashville & Liverpool together to support musicians & songwriters battling the stigma of mental health while promoting diversity and understanding. The mayors from both of these iconic music cities will come together to combat mental health while also championing the search for the best songwriters from around the globe.
The Road to Nashville – Liverpool International Song Contest 2022 is a seven-month project which highlights original material of global songwriters & musicians with a unique infrastructure to support them with mental health services while submitting their songs throughout the process of the song contest.
With May marking Mental Health Awareness Month, the timing was perfect for igniting this initiative. As a display of the unity between the cities, the Mayor of Liverpool, Joanne Anderson and Cavern director Jon Keats, will be passing to Nashville Mayor John Cooper a priceless artefact from the British Invasion era of music history to truly reveal how the cities will “Come Together.”
Last year, the project took place in The Cavern Club, acquiring over 20,000 submissions from 28 countries. The top prize for the inaugural contest went to James Holt for his song “Make My Day.” You can relive the performance here.
Last year, Liverpool City Council played a role in supporting the International Song for Kindness created by the charity TUFF (The Unity of Faiths Foundation) to support the goals of empowering young people and promoting acceptance, equality and respect for other cultures.
The Liverpool International Song Contest is a vehicle used to tackle discrimination and mental health stigma, providing support for those most in need and developing a bespoke mental health service infrastructure specifically tailored toward those in the creative sector.
Participants in the 2020/21 Liverpool International Song Contest were invited to attend one of 23 workshops across the Liverpool City region, delivered by TUFFs Music division and led by TUFFs co-founders Anna Prior & Dr Shamender Talwar FRSA (renowned social psychologist) and Liverpool based producer Daniel Xander BSc MA (TUFFs Head of Music).
These engaging workshops provided education in music, production and human values. While also providing education on mental health and counselling with mental health practitioners. As well as the thousands who attended the in-person workshops, TUFF also offered an online version of the syllabus for those unable to participate. This online digital format provided people with the same opportunities and one to one counselling, delivered in a way that best suited their needs.
The connection with Liverpool came about because TUFF developed the global #KIND20 campaign as a way to demonstrate and promote social integration, which reached a staggering 6.5 million people worldwide. After conversations with The Cavern Club and other organisations in Liverpool, they came up with the idea of an International Song Contest to celebrate what would have been John Lennon’s 80th birthday.
Kevin McManus, Head of UNESCO City of Music, was involved on behalf of the city and attended the final event at The Cavern in October 2021.
FOR THE FULL STORY OF COUNTRY MUSIC IN LIVERPOOL AND THE COUNTRY ROOTS OF THE BEATLES IN DAVID BEDFORD’S BOOK: THE COUNTRY OF LIVERPOOL.
The Country of Liverpool: Nashville of the North by David Bedford. The Untold Story of the Country Roots of The Beatles and Liverpool, when Liverpool had the largest country and western scene in Europe!
Tomorrow Never Knows – Revolver
There are still a few Beatles songs from their major albums that have not yet made an appearance here. When I initially wrote this in early November of 2020, I referred specifically to the title of the song in this way: “Today, the day before what many are calling the most consequential Presidential election in a long time, if not in the history of the republic, is time to highlight one of them, if only for the title of the song – ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’.”
A highly experimental, and LSD-enhanced song that came at the end of the B-side of Revolver, it denoted a significant moment in the evolution of the Beatles as a group. But before I discuss the song itself, I should mention that for the longest time the working titles were “The Void” or “Mark 1.”
Then, as noted by Kenneth Womack in his 2014 book The Beatles Encyclopedia: Everything Fab Four, the group recalled an interview Ringo had given during the group’s first concert tour in America, after a female fan had come up and cut off a swatch of Ringo’s hair in DC. His response, which may not have risen to the level of his most famous malapropism – “It’s been a hard day’s night” – was another, now famous malapropism of the phrase “tomorrow never comes.”
You know – what can you say? Tomorrow never knows.
The phrase never appears in the mystical song, but it stuck as the title.
John Lennon wrote this song, and besides some significant LSD usage also leaned heavily on Timothy Leary’s The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Some of the initial verses from the song, including the very first, are direct quotes from Leary’s book:
Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream….
Lay down all thought, surrender to the void.
All the Beatles, not just John Lennon, joined in the experimentation that made “Tomorrow Never Knows” such a revolutionary piece. Ringo slackened the tuning on his tom-toms and recorded them through an echo chamber. George played the sitar, which he had been studying with master sitar artist Ravi Shankar, and recorded it at varying speeds for playback both forward and backwards; Paul drew on his interest in the electronic music of Karlheinz Stockhausen to encourage all his bandmates to create tape loops of interesting sounds that also could be played forward, backwards, and at different speeds. One of Paul’s loops sounded like a seagull, but really was him laughing and recorded at high speed before playback.
John’s lead vocal required significant experimentation by sound engineer Geoff Emerick, who reported in the Beatles’ Anthology that Lennon said that he wanted his voice
to sound like the Dalai Lama chanting from a mountaintop, miles away.
As reported in the Anthology, what finally worked, and pleased Lennon greatly, was the directing of his voice track through the rotating speaker of a Leslie cabinet, then through a Hammond organ. Lennon wasn’t the only Beatle excited about the effect; McCartney, upon hearing the track, exclaimed, “It’s the Dalai Lennon!”
Remarkably, for this very, very different song, leaning so heavily on experimental recording techniques, it all came together very quickly: only three takes, and an evening and an afternoon of overdubs for the experimental loops.
The Beatles had introduced an additional “different” song, “Love You To,” also on Revolver (#143), but with this song to round out the Revolver album they made an emphatic statement that their work henceforth would not follow an established pattern. And as I wrote on November 2, 2020, “Tomorrow, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage the country, may provide some insight as to whether there is interest in sustaining – or changing – our nation’s response to it. But for now, ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’.”
This is an excerpt from Tim Hatfield’s book “When We Find Ourselves in Times of Trouble: The Beatles”
Tim Hatfield
GET TIM’S EXCELLENT BOOK NOW!
My first Beatles Fest in Jersey City was memorable for all the right reasons. On arrival at our hotel, we were greeted by a magical view of the night skyline of Manhattan from across the Hudson River.
It was so good to finally meet all my fellow authors in person and to experience the exciting atmosphere of the Beatles Fest for the first time. There was so much happening every day. Author’s panels, celebrity talks and presentations and of course the one ingredient that brought us all together in the first place, the music.
I had been invited to give a presentation relating to my ten years at the Cavern; five years as a member and five years as an owner. The audience were thrilled to learn that I had attended all 292 of The Beatles appearances at the Cavern, so much so that they rose as one and gave me a standing ovation which was very gratifying.
It was great to catch up with Mark Lewisohn again, who has been a good friend of ours for almost forty years.
There were so many fantastic bands appearing that we were spoilt for choice. The spectacular sound of the band LIVERPOOL, and the band that came the closest to transporting me back to hearing The Beatles in the Cavern in the early sixties was The Black Ties. Their sound was raw and loud, and I felt as if I had jumped aboard a time machine and had been dropped back in the Cavern listening to The Beatles when they started to play , “I Saw Her Standing There”.
I did well with sales of my book, CAVERN CLUB THE INSIDE STORY and received very positive feedback.
This first-hand account of Debbie’s teen years frequenting and eventually helping to run the original Cavern Club is the authentic inside story of the Beatles launch pad, full of triumphs and failures – and surprise celebrity encounters.
Nigel and I met such lovely like-minded people, experts, authors, and customers. Everybody was happy and the feeling was infectious throughout the venue, there was music everywhere.
I am already looking forward to my next Beatles Fest in Jersey City next year.
Huge thanks go to Mark Lapidos, Susan Ratisher Ryan and all the teams of technicians and musicians and everyone that made the weekend so memorable.
The Beatles What If? Limited Edition Hardback (US & CANADA)
£28.50
The Quarrymen in Rosebery Street Compilation Poster
£40.00
The Quarrymen in Rosebery Street Poster
£40.00
The Quarrymen in Rosebery Street (Compilation) - Signed Photograph
£150.00
The Quarrymen in Rosebery Street (Red) - Signed Photograph
£125.00