Beatles Walk Blog

While Liverpool was home to the Beatles and where they did much of their developing as a band, London became their second home throughout the 60s as they changed the music, fashion, and art scenes. During our Beatles walk through London, we saw many of the important places much the same way the Beatles would of back in their heyday. From our walk through Carnaby Road to our stop at Apple Studios, we saw several of the spots that the Beatles frequented and made prominent during their time in London.

To begin our tour, we took the underground from King’s Cross to Tottenham Court Road to meet our tour guide for the Magical Mystery Tour Walk. After meeting him, we preceded to Soho square, which is the current home to Paul McCartney’s offices, MPL Communications. Though this location was not from the Beatles glory days in London, it still holds significant importance in the music world today. We showed the tour guide that we knew our stuff when it came to Beatles history and got to enjoy the sights of Soho during pride weekend, which was interesting to say the least.

Following our stop in Soho square we went down an alleyway to see Trident Studios, the studio were the Beatles and many other prominent bands of the late 60s and 70s recorded songs. There was a list of bands and songs that they recorded in the studio in the window, which included the Beatles because they recorded Hey Jude there along with songs for the White Album. I found this stop to be interesting not only in the fact that the Beatles recorded there but that so many other well known musicians and bands recorded songs there too, such as Elton John, The Rolling Stones, Genesis, and Judas Priest.

After we finished talking about Trident Studios, we proceeded down Broadwick street passing the Broadwick street toilets, which were the backdrop for a sketch John Lennon acted in for the British comedy show “Not only … but also” in 1966. Broadwick Street ended into Carnaby Street, which was the fashion centre of the 60s and was our next stop on the tour. We stopped by the mural that contained elements to those of the Sgt. Pepper’s album cover and discussed the significance of the street. Carnaby Street was where many musicians of the 60s came to shop prior to Time magazine publishing an article and the secret getting out. Soon the streets were filled with adoring fans trying to get a glimpse of their favorite bands and finding nothing but overpriced clothing shops.

From Carnaby Street, we made our way to 3 Savile Row, which was home to the Apple Corps and Studios.  Seeing the building from the street was really neat considering all I’ve ever seen is the clips of the rooftop performance. Though the ground up view was fascinating, it would have been amazing if we would have been able to get up on the roof where the Beatles performed their last live performance. While we where there our guide said something that really struck me as odd, He claimed that the Beatles used their offices as a way to lose money (to taxes) but in a manner so that they could choose where the money would go as opposed to having the government getting to spend it on whatever it pleased. I never realized that the taxation was that bad even though I have heard George’s Taxman and Only A Northern Song.

Our final stop along the tour was at Abbey Road, which became famous after the Beatles used it as the background for the album, cover to their last recorded album, which was aptly named Abbey Road. Abbey Road has now practically become holy grounds to Beatles fans everywhere as they flock to try and recreate their own version of the Beatles Abbey Road album cover. I couldn’t help but be excited to walk across such a well-known Beatles landmark. Also, we could see EMI’s Abbey Road Studios from the crosswalk but unfortunately the front of the building was covered up for some kind of restoration work. It was odd though that Beatles fans had made it a tradition to graffiti the wall in front of the studio. Before leaving us, our tour guide gave us an interesting piece of information about the wall, which was that the British government paints over it every 3 months to cover up all the vandalism. I found this hard to believe when I looked at the wall because there were just so many names written all over it. This was yet another reminder of just how popular the Beatles really were/are and how many fans they still have.

It was amazing that in one day, we could walk to see so many important places in regards to the Beatles. The tour gave me prospective on what the Beatles may have seen as they reached the pinnacle of their success in their second home. While many stops we made would seem quite ordinary to those few who are unfamiliar with the Beatles, it was quite interesting how important they were in the development of one of the greatest bands to rule the airways.

Liverpool Blog

Seeing as we are in England studying the Beatles, it would be a mockery if we didn’t take a trip to the Mecca of all Beatles sites, Liverpool. This unassuming working class city was the birthplace of the members of the band, which would become one of the most well known bands to ever walk the earth. While in Liverpool, we saw many places that were important to the Beatles as they grew up and we saw the effects that their environment, schooling, and relationships had on them as they developed into what we know today.

When looking at the influences on the Beatles, one must first look at the city in which they grew up. The tour guide for the Magical Mystery Bus Tour told us that to grow up in Liverpool, one must develop a sarcastic sense of humor or you wouldn’t survive and that is just what the Beatles did. Though I wasn’t privileged enough to have met the Beatles personally, its possible to see their sense of humor in the manner which the conducted interviews and in other public appearances.

Paul McCartney also displayed this sense of humor many years after he had made it big and even longer from the time when he was rejected from a choir at the Liverpool Cathedral. It was said that McCartney was told that he would never be a successful singer by Ronald Woan, the cathedral director of music, and that McCartney came back to the church after he made it big with the Beatles to check in Woan. Woan still believes that McCartney’s success was due to his rejection from the choir. While McCartney doesn’t quite agree, he still got a shot at redemption when an he came back in 2008 to hear an orchestra there perform a piece he wrote for/about his late wife, Linda.

While a sense of humor can get one through many things in life, john Lennon found that it couldn’t help you cope with the lose of a parent. John had started to mend ties with his mom when her life was cut short when she was hit and killed by an off-duty police officer. This incident led to John questioning authority and retreating for the world for the rest of his life.

One of John’s favorite locations to retreat from life to was at an orphanage named Strawberry field. Strawberry Field was a Salvation Army orphanage where John felt at home and free from the outside world after the disappearance of his father and death of his mother. The location later prompted him to write Strawberry Fields Forever, which reached #2 in the UK charts. 

Strawberry Fields wasn’t John’s only place to retreat to though. John also would spend loads of time at his good friend Paul McCartney’s house, which wasn’t to far from his own. John and Paul spent hours over there practicing and writing songs together. Their friendship was one of the main reasons the Beatles stuck together for so many years and were so productive during their time. Despite the kindred spirits love of music, their friendship would of never happened if not for Paul coming to see John’s band play at a church festival in July of 1957.

Before Paul and John started writing music together, John formed a band with some of his mates from school called the Quarrymen. This band was one of the many skiffle groups of its time and became the starting point for a cultural revolution that was and is the Beatles. Though John distained school and preformed poorly in almost all school related matters, the band he formed while at school became the magnet for the likes of Paul McCartney and George Harrison.

The Beatles can’t contribute their success to any one event or influence during their lives, but a perfect storm of influences from their childhood.  Whether it was relationships with people who were lost, environments which natured or encouraged growth, or hardships and places used to escape from reality, the Beatles were influenced by many different things while growing up in Liverpool that helped them become as successful as they have been, and in Paul and Ringo’s cases still are today.

Blog Assignment #1

The nineteen sixties were a time of great cultural turmoil and in response to that, the Hippie movement gained prominence. This movement was began as a youth movement in the US and spread to all ages as well as reaching other countries around the globe. Hippie ideology evolved from the countercultural values of the Beat Generation. They formed their own social groups, which embraced the sexual revolution, opposed the Vietnam War, as well as experimenting with drugs to explore alternative states of consciousness, but most of all, they listened to rock music.

            Rock music, or Rock-and-Roll as it was first called, is a genre of music that exploded onto the musical scene in the 1950s. Since then rock has become the vehicle by which many cultural movements have identified themselves from the Mods and Rockers of 1950s in the UK to the Punk Rockers of the 1980s. In many ways, rock music affected the cultural movements, which it has become the driving force behind but at the same time many of these cultural movements had their own impact on rock. Though there are many examples that could be examined, today we shall focus on the Hippie movement of the 1960s and how it affected rock as well as how rock affected it.

            The Hippie movement has had many effects on rock music such as the popularization of psychedelic rock. This type of rock came about as a way to enhance the effects of mind-altering drugs that were popular among Hippies. Psychedelic rock formed from rock bands of the late 1960s experimenting with new studio effects and non-western instruments, particularly those from India such as the sitar.

            Also, the Hippie movement had a strong message of peace and love, which can be seen in many of the rock songs of the time. This message was made clear by around 500,000 hippies showing up to the Woodstock Arts and Music Festival, which was billed as “3 days of peace & love.” Woodstock became one of the most resounding successes in terms of concerts to spread the Hippies message of peace and love and it would not of been possible without the army of rock bands that played it.

One of the many effects that rock has had on the Hippie movement is that it has given the movement a soundtrack. On June 1^st 1967, the summer of love begin with the release of the Beatles latest album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. From the time of its release, Sgt Pepper’s instantly enjoyed outstanding commercial success and found itself comfortably atop the charts in the US and the UK. This, of course, was due to the multitude of youth that played the album continuously throughout the summer.

One of the biggest moments in the general publics opinion towards the use of drugs was Beatle band member Paul McCartney’s admission to using LSD on national television. If the likes of the legendary Paul could take drugs, then why couldn’t any of his millions of fans? This made it seem to many that experimenting with drugs couldn’t be that bad for you.

In February of 1968, the Beatles travelled to India and seek guidance from their spiritual counsellor, the Maharishi. Their 2 month long retreat to learn Transcendental meditation turned out to be some of the bands most productive time and resulted in songs for two separate albums. From musical production to renewed exposure to non-western influences, the Beatles trip to India had many effects on the Hippie movement, including the popularization of meditation.

Another effect that rock had on the Hippie movement was when John Lennon of the Beatles and his new wife Yoko Ono staged a Bed-In in a Dutch Hotel as a peace protest. Despite media speculation that the event would include John and Yoko having sex, it did not and instead was just the couple sitting there, talking about peace with the press. This was their way of peacefully protesting wars and promoting peace, which was one of the key ideals of the Hippie movement.

Cultural movements and the music during they time period in which they happen often have profound connections to one another and the Hippie movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s and rock music was no exception. While rock music and musicians influenced the Hippies by giving them the music that connected the movement to promoting Hippie ideals in public stunts, the Hippies attended large concerts to promote love and peace. The combination of the Hippie movement and rock music has left a lasting impression on history, which will never be duplicated and can never be undone.

A few days ago, we went to the British Musical Experience in London and it was phenomenal. It had exhibits for all the different time periods through British rock history and even a room were you could actually experiment with real instruments yourself. Though I spent a large majority of my time in the wing of the exhibit with the guitars and drums, which you could play, I really enjoyed seeing all the musical memorabilia that was on display from the 1950s to the present. They had an interactive part to the 1960s wings that bridged the early 60s to the later 60s by virtue of musical history of the time period that I found to be rather neat. All in all, it was a great experience.

So this is how it begins

With just over a day until our departure, I have fully engrossed myself in packing and planning (to some extent) for the impending expedition. The combination of nerves and excitement has fully gripped me by now and I'm ready to start this adventure.

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” –  Lao Tzu