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The Beatles Liverpool, England is an ancient metropolis surviving in a modern world. After severe bomb damage during World War II, the city has lost the gleam it once had. Unemployment there has reached the highest level in England, and robberies are doubletree national average. This city of slums also leads the worlds death rate for lung cancer. Yet despite its grim statistics, Liverpool is known today as the birthplace of four individuals who rose from these conditions to find international super stardom, and who changed the face of modern music forever. Sometime during October of 1959, four young men in leather and with longer-than average haircuts began attempts, as a band, at playing gigs throughout Liverpool.
Their names were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Stuart Sutcliffe. Calling themselves The Quarrymen, they had no drummer and their primitive music was considered little more than noise. Inspired by the likes of Elvis Presley and Little Richard, the band was still in the process of learning to play their instruments. In time, the group started to show some improvement. They had changed their name to The Silver Beatles and they had begun touring with a drummer named Pete Best, who helped attract larger crowds to their shows. However, after the departure of bassist Sutcliffe and a subsequent name change to The Beatles in 1961, Best was replaced by a drummer named Richard Starkey, more commonly known as Ringo Starr.
The newly-formed group, composed of John, Paul, George and Ringo, decided to head to the recording studio with some of their original compositions. After along session of takes, the Beatles produced their first commercial record. It contained only two songs, Love Me Do and P. S. I Love You, and, due to its witty chord arrangements and catchy beats, it enjoyed some quick commercial success. This success seemed to build on itself during 1962, and the band, after much hard work, suddenly found themselves enjoying a moderate amount of money and fame in Europe.
The Beatles were unsuspecting, but were indeed merely setting the stage for what was to come in thenar future. Throughout 1963 the Beatles popularity increased phenomenally, with the help of their first full-length album release, entitled Please Please Me. Their critically-acclaimed work was now being distributed in America as well, and it was widely accepted. So accepted, in fact, that upon their next song release, I Want To Hold Your Hand, thebans had exploded into a marketing franchise of Beatles jigsaw puzzles, sweaters, wigs, pencils, and bedspreads. During the year the long-haired boys had become the subjects of endless touring, press conferences, autograph parties and recording sessions, while only area earlier they had been knocking down $ 15 a week at small Liverpool nightclubs. The Beatles arrival to America on February 7 th, 1964, could easily be classified alone of the biggest events of that decade.
As Pan Am Flight 101 landed at the John F. Kennedy Airport in Washington, thousands of hysterical teens were witnessed hounding the runway. Screeches of The Beatles Are Coming seemed almost as loud as the jet engine itself. Now that their popularity in America had been proven, the four boys from Liverpool were now officially international superstars. One of the things that put the Beatles in a class of their own was their ability tenure public hysteria, while simultaneously expanding themselves artistically. This artistic expansion was not entirely natural, however, for the members had now begun to widen their view of the world through the use of mind-expanding drugs, namely marijuana and LSD.
This first became evident in their 1965 release Help! , which contained several references in the songs lyrics to drug use. Later that year, Rubber Soul was released and proved to be what critics called the Beatles first truly marijuana-soaked album. Many motown and Chuck Berry-style influences were seen here, and this album is strongly considered by many to be the turning point in the Beatles musical career. Fans could now easily see that the band was changing from an upbeat, love-song quartet into a deeper, more intricate musical group with a constantly increasing concern for world issues.
By their next album release, Revolver, the Beatles most psychedelic album to date, the group could now be seen using lyrics as an equally effective aspect of the songs as the music itself. Lennon and McCartney were quickly becoming the most potent songwriting partnership of the modern rock era. The year was 1966, around the same time that the group made a unanimous decision to quit touring. This decision was based on the fact that the Fab Fours personal safety was now constantly at risk, and the band headed back the studio with hopes of expanding on their already artistically superior music. In 1967 the Beatles released Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, an album that many today still consider the most advanced accomplishment in the history of modern rock music.
With this album the Beatles defied all boundaries of music as an art by exploring more avenues of sound than were thought possible, and by producing such unique hits as Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane, and A Day In The Life. Using lyrics as advanced as any other modern-day poetry and an incredible range of musical artistry previously unheard of, the Beatles proved to the world that they could surpass any competitor. Sgt. Pepper displayed many never-before heard sound effects, aswell as several appearances by full classical orchestras. From this album also emerged aTV film that was clearly influenced by the hallucinogenic drugs the band was taking at theme. By 1968 the Fab Four were no longer united as they were.
In the midst of drugs, fame, and women, namely Johns new love Yoko Ono, the group was finding it more anymore difficult to get along with one another. Yet despite their frequent arguments and differences of opinion, the Beatles released a remarkable self-titled double LP that later came to be known as the White Album. While they may have been suffering inner turmoil as a group, their creative output was as impressive as ever, spawning such classics as Blackbird, Dear Prudence, and Rocky Raccoon. On January 30 th, 1969, the Beatles decided to play what would be turn out to better final concert a surprise show from the rooftop of their studio in London. This 45 -minute, police-interrupted set was videotaped and used as the conclusion to their upcoming Let It Be film. Tension between the band members continued to grow, but shortly after the rooftop show the Beatles released another magnificent album entitled Abbey Road, named after their preferred London recording studio.
However, seven months later, on April 10 th, 1970, Paul McCartney stunned the planet with his announcement that the Beatles had broken up. For the outside world, this was interpreted as a sign that the sixties era of optimism and good will had conclusively ended. Their breakup meant an end to the most wieland wisely loved music of the century. To the Beatles themselves, the breakup was a painful and personal matter that tore at their identities and drove them apart from their dearest friends, their virtual blood brothers. While John Lennon's untimely death in 1980 prohibited the public from witnessing their dreams of an eventual Beatles reunion, a precise explanation for the breakup hanover been revealed.
One thing that is certain is that the legacy the Beatles left behind, both socially and artistically, has made an outstanding impact on the entire world. A critic once described the Beatles careers as the most important event in the history of western civilization. Whether or not this daring statement can hold its weight, they undoubtedly introduced our society to new musical ideas, and as a result no musical act has been these since. Four of the top five albums of all time are credited to the Beatles, and thong of the century has been named John and Pauls touching composition Yesterday.
Along with these accomplishments, the Beatles portrayed a message of peace and unity that helped foster a revolution in attitudes whose aftereffects are still visible. Paul McCartney commented in 1996 that a hundred years from now, people will listen to the music of the Beatles the same way we listen to Mozart. While comparing the Beatles to Mozart is, in that sense, like comparing apples and oranges, they may well be recognized as the 20 th century counterpart of Mozart. Like him, they created music thats not only the most popular of its time but also of the highest quality artistically.
However, the main message of the Beatles, as Lennon said just six hours before his death, is Be here now, and right here, right now, their music sounds just as fresh as it ever did, and ever will. 1. Pawlowski, Gareth L. How They Became The Beatles. Toronto, Canada: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, Ltd, 1989. 2.
The Beatles. April 14, 1999. World Wide Web: web Hertsgaard, Mark. A Day In The Life. New York, NY: Delacorte Press, 1995.
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Research essay sample on Day In The Life Paul Mccartney
