Two full years before Sergeant Pepper, with Rubber Soul the Beatles were beginning to write much more complex songs than the pop songs for which they first had become popular, and because of which Sergeant Pepper was so iconic. “Girl” was one of those songs. Many were focused on women, many on love in general, but they were a universe apart from the early songs. The narratives, the instrumentation, the lyrics, the interest in experimenting with different types of music all went to a new level.
“Girl” was one of the watershed songs from Rubber Soul, the last song recorded for the album. The subject matter, again, was about an idealized girl, “the kind of girl you want so much it makes you sorry,” who makes your very intake of breath accentuated. But the harmonies were impeccable as always, the staccato background vocals in the bridge were a naughty schoolboy joke that were sneaked in past the producer George Martin, the guitar solo at the end could have been for a Greek folk song, and the lyrics were…poetry:
Was she told when she was young
That pain would lead to pleasure?…
That a man must break his back
To earn his day of leisure?
“Love love me do, You know I love you” this was not.
The Beatles grew, and continued to grow. We can, too, including during challenging times. And in troubled times for an entire society, it is imperative that we grow beyond where we have been. If only the growth of our civic and humane sensibilities could be anywhere as rapid as the growth of the Beatles’ creative powers.
But. We. Cannot. Let. This. Pivotal. Moment. Go. By.
Bill Zygmant took some of the most iconic photographs of the 1960s, with many of The Beatles. He took the very first photos of John and Yoko and, when told that John would be on the BBC show “Top of The Pops”, he gained exclusive access to the rehearsals.
“I took the last photos of John and Yoko together before they left for America in 1971. The photos of the two of them cuddling were really natural, and after a few pictures, Lennon signalled to me that that was enough, so I stopped.
Were They In Love?
“If anyone asks me if they were in love, then I say yes. You could tell when they were together, especially away from the camera. I was the only photographer allowed in the studio for the rehearsals, but not for the “live” show, because the BBC had their own photographers present, so I wasn’t allowed to be there then. John was singing “Instant Karma”, while Yoko sat there with what many thought was a napkin, but was actually a sanitary towel.
“I did lots of Top Of The Pops pictures over the years, through knowing the agents. I was well known at the BBC as I was there so often. A lady who worked there said that “you have first choice of anyone at the BBC”.”
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Shirley was my client for many years at Vidal Sassoon and she often used to say to me that she accompanied Cliff Richard, Liberace and Engelbert Humperdinck on their shows.
When I was listing to The Beatles rehearse at Trident Studios, John Lennon happened to say if anyone knew an accordionist. I said to him that I have a client who plays accordion professionally.
John asked if I could you tell her to ring Derek Taylor and he would put her in touch with him.
When she came in a few weeks later I asked her what she has been doing. She said a few TV shows etc, then asked what I have been doing?
Go With The Beatles on a Coach!
Ringo on the set of Magical Mystery Tour
I said if you could keep it quiet and don’t tell anyone I have been invited to go with the Beatles on a coach and they are making a film called the Magical Mystery Tour.
She looked at me and said that if I could also not tell anyone she had also been invited by John Lennon to go on the coach.
Shirley’s Wild Accordion
And that is why we had “Shirley’s Wild Accordion.”
You can read may more stories about my time as the Beatles hairdresser in my book THE CUTTING EDGE which can be purchased
The Cutting Edge (Paperback)
The Beatles’ hair changed the world. As their increasingly wild, untamed manes grew, to the horror of parents everywhere, they set off a cultural revolution as the most tangible symbol of the Sixties’ psychedelic dream of peace, love and playful rebellion. In the midst of this epochal change was Leslie Cavendish, hairdresser to the Beatles and some of the greatest stars of the music and entertainment industry.
When George Harrison declared that “No Lonnie Donegan, No Beatles”, he was joined by virtually every ’60s musician in that sentiment. What he created was a revolution in the music scene, inspiring young people to pick up guitars and start groups.
Born April 29th, 1931 in Glasgow as Anthony James Donegan, the name Lonnie came when a compere announced Lonnie Johnson, an American blues singer, as Tony Johnson and then went on to announce Tony Donegan as Lonnie Donegan and the new name stuck.
London
It was when the family moved to the East End of London in 1933 that things changed for young Donegan. Lonnie’s father was a classical violin player in the Scottish National Orchestra and encouraged his son to play. Lonnie learnt the guitar by the age of nine, but it was 1942 before he bought his first instrument.
Country Roots of Lonnie Donegan
Donegan’s first taste for Country music came when listening to music by Frank Crumit and Josh White. Among those first songs were “Frankie And Johnny” and “The House Of The Rising Sun.” One day while riding on a train, jazz musician Chris Barber approached him to join his band as a banjo player and that was his first break.
In 1949, Lonnie was conscripted for his National Service and was posted to Vienna, Austria, where he mixed with the American troops and listened to AFN radio (Armed Forces Network), further deepening his love of Country music. Hank Williams was touring the US bases at this time and this inspired him too. It would be those country roots that formed the heart of the skiffle craze.
In 1952 he formed his own band, the Tony Donegan Jazz Band, which brought about the name-changing tour with Lonnie Johnson.
Skiffle
He rejoined Chris Barber who had amalgamated with Ken Colyer for a supergroup and then Lonnie started to fill the intervals as a trio, playing Country/ skiffle, as it became known, he had Chris Barber on upright bass and Beryl Brydon on washboard percussion. Entertaining the punters brought about an opportunity that not even Donegan would have dreamed of.
Rock Island Line
Being a few songs short on an album, Donegan suggested recording a couple of their skiffle songs, like “Rock Island Line”, and released as singles. The sales of these rocketed, appealing to a teenage audience who made Lonnie a star. On both sides of the Atlantic, “Rock Island Line” sold by the thousands and made him a household name, though he didn’t make a penny from the sales: he purely got a musician fee for the session.
He then went to America and had great success touring with many artists, including Chuck Berry. A new genre of music was born teaming Country with jazz and blues.
The Country Roots of The Beatles
Donegan’s “Rock Island Line” inspired John Lennon and his friends to start a skiffle group, The Quarrymen picked up their instruments along with thousands of others in the UK. Those country roots of Donegan and skiffle defined the early Quarrymen sound and, as demonstrated in my book “The Country of Liverpool“, those country roots came through in their recording career too.
Find out more in “The Country of Liverpool: Nashville of the North”.
The Country of Liverpool: Nashville of The North (Limited Hardback Edition)
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!
In 1957 a twenty-one-year-old Liverpool man, Alan Sytner, who had been running a weekly jazz club at several other Liverpool locations, decided he would like to open his own club. He had been impressed by a club he had visited on the Left Bank in Paris called Le Caveau, which was housed in an underground cellar with brick arches.
On his return to Liverpool he sought out similar premises in the city centre and found what he was looking for in Mathew Street, a narrow street with warehouses on one side and the Fruit Exchange on the other. It had previously been used for storage and even as an air raid shelter in Word War II.
The Beatles at the Cavern
1,500 Left Outside!
The cellar was painted, lighting was installed and a stage was built at the far end of the middle one of three tunnels. On Wednesday January 16th 1957 the Cavern Club opened for its first gig, with 600 people crammed inside – and 1,500 left outside. The headline act, the Merseysippi Jazzmen, are still performing today.
Alan Sytner ran the Cavern strictly as a jazz club but starting in 1957 he allowed skiffle groups to play, getting very annoyed if any of them tried to play rock ‘n’ roll. The Quarrymen skiffle group, precursor to the Beatles, first played the Cavern on a date no-one can pinpoint in mid-1957 and again on 7th August 1957, only weeks after John met Paul at the St. Peter’s Church Garden Fete in Woolton Village.
Get your copy of Debbie’s fascinating book on the story of The Cavern Club
Cavern Club – The Inside Story
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.
£17.25Original price was: £17.25.£13.50Current price is: £13.50.
