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Abbey Road And A Typical Session

The Studio Complex was not especially large, having been converted from a sixteen room Victorian town-house by EMI in 1929. The conversion took two years and HMV studios opened in 1931. The exterior was left largely intact – white painted, but greyed by London rain and pollution. Edward Elgar was the first musician to make use of the studios, conducting a recording of Land of Hope and Glory in Studio 1. Others - Yehudi Menuhin, Sir Thomas Beecham, Sir John Barbirolli and, perhaps most importantly, George Formby - recorded there in the years that followed.

In fact, all of EMI's artists recorded there, using EMI engineers, producers and disc cutters. It was possible for an artist, once signed to EMI, to have a successful career without ever stepping outside the EMI system. The Beatles entered that system in 1962, and rarely recorded anywhere but at Abbey Road. Between 1962 and 1966 they settled into a routine - Abbey Road became like a home to them: “In the end, we had the run of the whole building... I think we knew the place better than the Chairman of the company, because we lived there” (McCartney, Anthology, p.93).

Sessions never began before midday, and 7pm was the band's favourite time to start recording. During recording, the Beatles would usually arrive together at the studio, having been picked up by Lennon's chauffeur, perhaps having stopped at McCartney's house to rehearse. The car - Lennon's Rolls Royce or Austin Princess - would pull through the gates and into the small rear car park where their van would already be parked. Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall would have arrived sometime earlier and unloaded their guitars and amplifiers, setting them up in whichever studio they were booked into on that day.

The band would enter through the "tradesman's entrance", rather than the front door88. Inside, security guards - retired policemen or former soldiers, like university porters - in official looking black uniforms and peaked caps were reminiscent of the foyer of a minor government office in Whitehall. Institutional corridors led off toward an institutional canteen, institutional toilets, with institutional waxed toilet paper, and institutional offices. Each office was occupied by one of EMI's army of strictly graded, by- the-book managers, including Mr EH Fowler, the top man – Studio Manager89. “The whole building,” recalls Nick Mason of Pink Floyd, “was painted throughout in a shade of green that I can only imagine was inspired by the KGB headquarters in the Lubyanka.

Anyone you get who's been EMI trained really knows what he's doing. they actually used to have to come to work in ties and suits and white coats which is lovely, like another age! (McCartney, in Lewisohn, p.11)

Then, there were the three recording studios themselves. Studio 1: vast, cold, and echoing - like a school assembly hall, with its waxed parquet floored and white painted wooden wall panels. The smell was of disinfectant, floor wax and dust. A staircase led up to the ceiling where the control room, like the bridge of a ship, looked out over the "shop floor". The mixing desks were expensive and solid – painted metal, with heavy industrial knobs and switches, which might have come from the dashboard of a tank, and shining rivets. The faders resembled the
throttle controls from fighter planes. This was the high prestige, classical recording venue which made the studio famous.

You'd see classical sessions going on in number one - we were always being asked to turn down because a classical piano was being recorded in number one and they could hear us (McCartney, Sessions, p.8)

Studio 2: smaller, but still large, and still echoing, and with more parquet flooring and white paint – Geoff Emerick describes “filthy white walls” (p.180). It was, as George Harrison observed, a “big white room that was very dirty and hadn't been painted in years.” With his noted eye for detail, he recalled “these old sound baffles hanging down that were all dirty and broken... this huge big hanging light... no window, no daylight.”91 The control room here was also up a flight of stairs. The cupboard under that staircase was a "toy cupboard", filled with items which were largely useless, except insofar as when banged together, rattled or hit, they made interesting sounds. There was a wind-up wind machine, tambourines, strange percussion instruments from Africa and Asia. In the studio itself were a Hammond organ, a piano, and a harmonium.

Studio 3: the smallest studio, almost cramped, and used to record artists on a budget, or as a last resort when Studio 2 isn't available. The control room here wasn't up a flight of steps - it looked out straight into the room. Most of Revolver was recorded in Studio 3 and Studio 2. The band would have entered whichever room they were working in to find Aspinall and Evans finishing the setting up of their instruments. George Martin would be in the control room with engineer Geoff Emerick and his assistant, Phil McDonald. Martin, Emerick and MacDonald, wearing sober shirts and ties, adhering to the strict EMI dress-code, would pop down the staircase or – in the case of Studio 3, along the corridor – to say hello.

Sessions usually started with cups of tea and cigarettes – and perhaps some toast or sandwiches. It was Evans' job to fetch these from the canteen, or prepare them in an improvised kitchen in the Studio, which the Beatles had earned the right to run with their superstar status.

Once they had settled in George Martin would stand with the band and they would decide amongst themselves which track to record, with the song's main author running through them on acoustic guitar or piano93. Emerick would often listen from the control room and try to anticipate any technical issues which might arise.

Once they'd decided, they'd tell George Martin how they wanted the record to sound, often in quite abstract terms, and he would relay the requirements to the engineer, whose job it was to conceive of a way to achieve the requested sound. He, in turn, would then ask the white-coated studios technicians to carry out any electrical adjustments necessary, and/or ask the brown-coated maintenance staff to move amplifiers or instruments into the right positions. The engineer would then see to microphone positioning and set-up.

There was a standard set-up prescribed by the EMI technical guidelines, which indicated which microphones should be used for which instruments, and how far away each should be placed; each engineer also had his own preferred set-up, with minor adjustments based on experience and the kind of sound the artist was after; in the case of the Beatles, Geoff Emerick started out using a variation on Norman Smith's set-up, but was willing to make severe adjustments, often in contravention of studio rules and regulations, in order to achieve not only the right sound, but also completely new sounds.

Once everything was ready, there would be wires trailing all over the floor, empty tea cups balanced on amplifiers or other flat surfaces, and everybody would be in their places with “cans” (headphones) on. In Studio 2, Martin and Emerick would be out of sight of the band up the staircase, and able to communicate only by coming downstairs or talking to them through the studio desk. In Studio 3, they would be face-to-face with the band through heavy glass.

The session would then go on, often for hours, until the band called it to a halt. Martin didn't always stay to the end of a session – despite regulations, sessions rarely finished on time - but would leave his engineers in charge.

In the meantime, members of the band would periodically retire to the echo chamber or toilets to smoke pot; dinner would be ordered and brought in by Mal Evans; visitors might pop in, though they were rarely welcome.

Eventually, Starr would grow tired – drumming is the most physically strenuous job in most bands – or a natural pause in proceedings would occur, such as getting a good take of a particular track, and band members would make their way out to waiting cars. Sometime, an individual member might stay to tinker with his parts on a track, or all four members might hang around in the control room listening to playback of their evening's work. Sometimes, they made copies to take home.

This article is continued from the previous Paul McCartney Goes Too Far Part 1

The impact on McCartney of this kind of music-making, which lacks any obvious sign of the melody or structural perfection which are trademark qualities of his, can nonetheless be seen clearly in a song as apparently childish and simplistic as “Yellow Submarine”. This seemingly humble strum-along tune, much ridiculed by critics48 is richly embroidered with musique concrete49. Compare the description of a session for Yellow Submarine with the AMM event described above:

We needed all kinds of sound effects, and sandbags were bumped about while John blew bubbles and George made swirling sounds with the water... There was also a brass band... right there in the studio, not to mention a massed chorus made up of anybody and everybody who happened to be around at the time. (George Martin,“Off the Record", p207)

The communal, participatory nature of this event echoes an AMM performance, and the Beatles continued to hold similar “parties” with guests in the studio up until the recording of the “The Beatles” (the “White Album”) in 1968. Their happenings, however, were ultimately more disciplined, having as their end the production of a releasable pop “product”. As well as the minimalist musique concrète of Cardew's AMM, McCartney (and Miles) also pursued their interests in an emerging high art alternative to classical music, namely electronic music. They attended a lecture given by Luciano Berio, the renowned Italian electronic composer, in February 1966. One
journalist described the event:

Everything that Luciano Berio does is interesting even when it isn't entirely convincing. Last night at the Italian institute he talked for almost an hour about his new work, Homage to Dante - mostly about what it was not, and what is the only possible way of creating a work of art, and suchlike topics. (The Times, 24/02/66, p.16)

At the lecture, Berio played a tape of his new piece Laborintus 2 (Un Omaggio a Dante), which develops certain themes in Dante's texts, combining them with biblical texts as well as the work of T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound and Edoardo Sanguineti. During the intermission, Paul was able to have a few words with Berio but the Italian embassy staff cluste around so closely that serious conversation was difficult. (Miles, Many Years From Now, p.234-5)

In Britain, Berio was notable for being the first electronic composer to have his work performed at the Proms, when his Perspectives - a series of oscillations and radio noises - was played, from tape, in August 1960.

It was also during this time that McCartney developed an interest in the music of John Cage, of whom Cornelius Cardew was, at that time, a disciple50. He was particularly impressed by 4'33", which was four minutes of complete silence. Another composer who impressed McCartney was, in turn, Cage's teacher, the German Karlheinz Stockhausen, who was later to appear on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band. McCartney was not only intrigued by his experiments
with tape manipulation, but also particularly seems to have enjoyed dropping his name as evidence of his erudition. There was a lot of experimental stuff that went on. George's Indian stuff and all of that. It was really just pushing frontiers, that's all we were doing. Everyone else was pushing frontiers too but perhaps we didn't necessarily like what, say, Berio was doing. There was only one Stockhausen song I liked actually! We used to get it in all the interviews “Love Stockhausen!”. (McCartney, in Lewisohn, p. 15)

He missed seeing Stockhausen in person introducing a concert of his works at the Commonwealth Institute in London in December 1965 - The Beatles were playing a concert in Liverpool - but might have read the article published in the wake of that event in The Times on December 6th, or seen the television programme Music on Two on BBC2 on December 21st, when a
Stockhausen special was broadcast. Stockhausen was everywhere in 1965 and early 1966, at least if you were the kind of person who read the broadsheets and watched the high-brow second
channel.

Quite apart from the avant-garde European and American electronic music which McCartney came across, there was also the then cutting-edge BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

The Workshop is staffed by four creative assistants, three technicians, one engineer, and part-time maintenance personnel, who work in three specially equipped studios... it was set up in 1958 with a staff of only two... At the moment, it provides incidental accompaniments in the main and aims to underline atmosphere and extend dramatic impact. Many programmes are educations, children tend to listen with open ears and without preconceived notions.51

The Workshop was well-known amongst musicians as the best equipped electronic studio in the UK, rivalling that at the Westdeutcher Rundfunk studio in Cologne, Germany, and the Colombia Princeton Electronic Music Center in the USA. Whereas those institutions were used by a range of composers for the creation of “pure art”, the BBC Workshop had something of a “closed door policy”52 to outside musicians, and a more practical purpose – namely, the low-cost production of music and sound effects for BBC television and radio programmes. It was music for the popular science fiction programme Dr Who which made it something of a household name, and which, almost inadvertently, exposed the public at large to the sounds of tape loops, musique concrète and manipulated electronic sounds generated by oscillators. McCartney would have heard Radiophonic Workshop music frequently, and also claims to have spoken to someone at the Workshop, probably Delia Derbyshire, about the possibility of an electronic backing for “Yesterday” in 1965.

George Martin also gets some credit for fostering McCartney's interest in unusual electronic sounds:
In 1962 Parlophone issued a single called: “Time Beat/Waltz in Orbit", a compilation of electronic sounds, composed by a certain Ray Cathode - me! (Summer of Love, p.83)

George Martin played them [McCartney and Miles] the famous 1962 Bell Telephone Labs recording of an IBM 7090 computer54 and digital-to-sound transducer singing “Bicycle Built for Two” in a thick German-American accent, which they loved. (This was also favourite late-night listening at Miles's flat.) (Many Years From Now, p.207)

This interest in electronics manifested itself practically in an ongoing series of experiments with tape recorders from 1965. Both Lennon and McCartney acquired Brenell Mark 5 tape recorders through their music publisher, Dick James, who was presumably keen to get their songs demoed on tape and then in print as soon as possible. Being a small company, Brenell were able to meet individual demands far better than Ferrograph, who were heavy into Government orders and supplying the BBC. The Brenell was a very basic, but very well built three motor, three speed design... the Mark 5 introduced to the amateur/semi-pro an extremely versatile and very well made deck at a reasonable price. (Interview with Barry M Jones, author of Brenell - True to Life Performance)

The simplicity and versatility of the machine enabled both of the “senior Beatles” to experiment, but Lennon tended to use his machine more as a kind of notebook for sketching ideas and recording somewhat tuneless, rambling demos, whilst McCartney leapt straight into manipulating the sound – into using the tape recorder as an instrument in its own right.

I would do them [tape loops] over a few days. I had a little bottle of EMI glue that I would stick them with and wait till they dried. It was a pretty decent join. I'd be trying to avoid the click as it went through, but I never actually avoided it. If you made them very well you could just about do it but I made 'em a bit ham fisted and I ended up using the clicks as part of the rhythm. (McCartney, Many Years From Now, p.219)

McCartney was quick to share what he was learning, just as Harrison and Lennon had been quick to share their experiences with Indian music and LSD with him. Paul constructed all these 'loops' of tape with these funny, distorted, dense little noises on them. He told the others, and they too, took the wipe heads off their recorders and started constructing loops of taped gibberish. (George Martin, Summer of Love, p.80)

Though McCartney talked of releasing an entire album of avant-garde tape experiments under the name Paul McCartney Goes Too Far55, he ultimately baulked at the idea. In fact, he went so far as to head in quite the opposite direction, concealing his own experimentation by giving away his work to Lennon for use on his otherwise simple song “Tomorrow Never Knows”. This compounded the public perception of Lennon as the “Clever Beatle", and of McCartney as a brilliant but conventional songwriter.

In reality, “Tomorrow Never Knows", like so many of the songs on the album, is a genuine group effort. Lennon's contribution, musically, was the simple vocal melody and the one chord around which the music moves. It is McCartney who deserves the credit for the distinctive other-worldly sound of the backing track, and Ringo Starr whose drumming has been so much imitated in recent years.

As well as the high-brow artistic interests that his central location and avant-garde contacts facilitated, McCartney's celebrity also gave him opportunity to monitor the work of other movers and shakers in the pop world. His mixing socially with British pop stars and producers at various nightclubs paid off in 1966 when, through Andrew Loog Oldham, then managing and producing the Rolling Stones, he was given the opportunity to hear an early tape of the Beach Boys “Pet Sounds”.

Paul McCartney and I had enjoyed tea and smoke at my Hurlingham Road abode and awaited Lou's [Lou Adler] arrival... He was bringing his good self and an acetate of “Pet Sounds”, which neither Paul or I could keep, since this was a time when personal tape recordings were not on or done... we settled into more tea, lots of smiles, more smoke... and a long, long listen and lot of wonder from Paul and I. (2Stoned, p. 443)

In the wake of hearing “Pet Sounds”, McCartney would arrange a distinctly Beach Boys influenced introduction for his “Here, There and Everywhere”, although, as Ian McDonald rightly notes, the song itself is not much after the manner of Brian Wilson56. These small additions to Revolver give it yet another level of complexity and richness.

In March 1966, shortly before the Revolver sessions commenced, McCartney moved into a new house even nearer Abbey Road studios, at 7 Cavendish Avenue. This property McCartney at once set about making into a more expansive version of his room at Wimpole Street, even using the same architects who had refurbished the upper floor to handle the renovation work. His instruments were stacked around the place, along with his tape recorder and various pieces of art – by Magritte and others – which he had picked up during his virtual student days with the Ashers. This marked the end of an era, and also the beginning of the end of his relationship with Jane Asher herself, now that he had somewhere to bring women as and when the opportunity arose. He graduated, as it were, from his student lifestyle with the Ashers a mature, sophisticated man.

In the light of experience gained from operating HMS Dreadnought the Navy has made a number of changes in the arrangement of Britain's first all-British nuclear submarine, the Valiant, now back at Barrow after three weeks' contractors' sea trials. (The Times, May 25th 1966) We all live in a Yellow Submarine, A Yellow Submarine, A Yellow Submarine (Paul McCartney, “Yellow Submarine”, (written May 31st 1966)

Paul McCartney spent his hiatus from the business ofbeing a Beatle absorbing mid-sixties London's vital cultural life. He came back to the table with a bag of new ideas, and the confidence to be “pretentious” - to make their next album something more than a pop album. He wanted it to be a work of Art: “I for one am sick of doing sounds that people can claim to have heard before”38, he said.

Since early in The Beatles career, McCartney had felt a slight irritation at being perceived as “the cute Beatle”, with the implication that Lennon was the brains behind the group. Even on Revolver, however, there are moments which remind us of how he developed that reputation. “Here, There and Everywhere” was a leftover from the Help! period39, and would have fit nicely on any of the preceding three Beatles albums. It is an excellent song in many ways but is also relentlessly sweet and calculatedly sentimental, after the manner of “Michelle” or “Yesterday”. Nonetheless, it is balanced by McCartney's other contributions to the record, which demonstrate a new-found adventurousness, and exhibit a range of styles not only unusual for McCartney, but at the cutting-edge of pop music.

The road away from cuddly balladeer to bold experimenter began at the end of 1964 when John Lennon ceased to conceal his marriage and children. He moved away from London to a prosperous but dull upper-middle-class enclave in Weybridge, Surrey, and tried (half-heartedly) to be a family man. In so doing, he all but abdicated leadership of the group, and if McCartney didn't take over, he did at least find room to stretch.

And he was well-placed to do so, both geographically and culturally. In November 1963, he too moved out of the shared bachelor flat and into a large middle class house. Unlike Lennon’s house – “Kenwood” – Jane Asher’s family home at 57 Wimpole Street provided plenty of stimulus: it was Bohemian, busy, and right in the centre of London's West End.

I lived a very urbane life in London... I had the metropolis at my fingertips with all this incredible stuff going on... and John used to come in from Weybridge... and I'd tell him what I'd been doing: “Last night I saw a Bertolucci film and I went down the Open Space, they're doing a new play there”... I do remember John coming in with his big chauffeur and Rolls-Royce, the big, lazy, almost decadent life out in Weybridge and saying “God man, I really envy you”. (McCartney, Sessions, p. 15)

Asher and her family were an extraordinary group of people. Jane herself had been acting since she was 5 years old, in both films and on stage. When McCartney met her, she was a strikingly beautiful 17 year old who was not yet a household name, but whose star was distinctly on the rise. Like all of her family, she was also interested in music, and played several instruments.

Her father Dr. Richard Asher was a renowned psychiatrist, most famous for his 1951 article in the Lancet, in which he identified and named Munchausen syndrome, a condition which leads people to fake illnesses in order to get attention from doctors and other medical professionals. He demonstrated a creative streak in naming the illness, borrowing it from a series of fictionalised accounts of the adventures of the real life Karl Friedrich Hieronymus, Baron von Münchhausen (1720 – 1797), rather than simply giving it his own name40, as was standard practice. He spent most of his spare time “playing an out of tune grand piano”, and he also enjoyed taking pin-hole photographs of the view from the window of his ground floor den. He was a lively, occasionally eccentric individual, who once advised McCartney on how to get the benzedrine out of a nasal inhaler, for recreational purposes41.

Her mother Margaret Asher was a music teacher, who had formerly played oboe with several orchestras, and then worked at the Guildhall School of Music. When McCartney lived at Wimpole Street, she was giving private lessons from a well-equipped but unglamorous music room in the basement of the house.

Jane's brother Peter had also acted as a child but, like many young men, was captivated by pop music and had formed a band with his friend Gordon Waller. He and McCartney got on well, despite the difference in their upbringings, and he was later to work for the Beatles' Apple Corporation, and from there to go on to a career as a high-profile record producer in Los Angeles. Jane's youngest sibling, her sister Claire, was also a child actress.

The house itself, as well as being conveniently placed for the cultural life of London, and in a tranquil, airy street, might also have been designed for the education of a curious young man. There were several pianos, stacks of classical music LPs, and the aforementioned music room, which became something of a base for Lennon and McCartney when working on increasingly rare joint compositions.

The Ashers... were very perceptive people, highly intelligent and very musical. Although no one could ever say they had any taste for the avant-garde, they encouraged Paul in his musical self-education to experiment and to be free, musically, if he felt like it. (George Martin, Summer of Love, p.80)

Exposure to classical music in this environment opened McCartney's mind to the use of orchestral instruments on his songs, and the unequivocal success of “Yesterday” only encouraged him further. That song featured a tastefully arranged string quartet in the place of the other Beatles - there were no drums, bass or electric guitar. Brian Epstein and George Martin seriously discussed releasing the song as a McCartney solo single. It was not only a commercial success – though not released as a single, it has been covered more than 2500 times - but also impressed critics.

By the time the band came to record Revolver, McCartney seemed to find it hard to write an unadorned pop song, without either a French horn ("For No One"), brass band ("Yellow Submarine") or string octet ("Eleanor Rigby"). Compare these to Lennon's contributions to Revolver, which are lyrically and structurally adventurous, but built around drums, bass and guitars, without session musicians playing classical instruments, or even jazz musicians playing horns. The only adornments are electronic and even those, as we will see, are largely the work of McCartney.

McCartney had, like Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, always been happy experimenting with a range of instruments - he played guitar, bass guitar, drums and piano, and Margaret Asher also taught him to play the recorder 43 during 1965. Lennon, by contrast, played guitar, but not especially well, and was uncomfortable, at best, behind a keyboard.

McCartney was not, however, musically trained – his learning had all been informal, with tunes picked up by ear. He still cannot read music, but in 1965 briefly flirted with remedying the situation, by having a few lessons in music theory with a “proper bloke at the Guildhall School of Music": I went off him when I showed him “Eleanor Rigby” because I thought he'd be interested, and he wasn't. I thought he'd be intrigued by the little time jumps. (McCartney, Anthology, p.209)

That quotation is telling. It demonstrates a desire to not only mix with, but also to impress and be approved of by, the artistic establishment. Evidently the teacher in question was not terribly supportive, but then it is surely somewhat egotistical to expect someone with a training in classical music to be especially impressed by a minimalistic and rhythmically uniform composition like "Eleanor Rigby", as a piece of classical music.

“Eleanor Rigby” was not only written almost solely by McCartney, but is also performed with only a small amount of help from his band mates. It represents a perfect synthesis of new influences, being not only musically adventurous (in pop terms, at least) but also lyrically advanced. It draws its themes and dramatic mode from social realist theatre and film, rather than from personal experience, or other pop songs. It marks the stretching of McCartney's imagination, with deftly sketched characters and narrative suggesting a gritty black-and-white “Wednesday Play”44 concertinaed into 3 minutes.

In 1966, Jane Asher was acting in a version of John Dighton's farce The Happiest Days of Your Life at the Theatre Royal, Bristol. It was whilst visiting her there that McCartney claims to have come across the inspiration for the name “Eleanor Rigby”.

I saw Rigby on a shop in Bristol when I was walking round the city one evening. I thought, 'Oh, great name, Rigby.' It's real, and yet a little bit exotic. (Anthology, p.208)

There was, in 1965, a firm called Rigby & Evans, with a premises across the road from the Theatre Royal, on King Street. It is likely that, as he rolled the words around in his mind, Rigby & Evans became “Evans & Rigby", and that the sound of this spoken aloud triggered a memory of the gravestone in Liverpool which is commonly supposed to have inspired the song.

The lyrics of the song developed, as seems typical of McCartney, after the tune. McCartney himself cites an early improvised lyric in Anthology: “Dazzie-de-da-zu picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been...” (p208). Donovan Leitch, however, recalls hearing an early version of the song with quite different “nonsense” lyrics: “Ola Na Tungee/ Blowing his mind in the dark/ With a pipe full of clay45”. It's interesting that, if Leitch recalls these proto-lyrics correctly, McCartney had almost (perhaps subconsciously) settled on Eleanor as his character's first name.

The other song on Revolver with the clearest classical influence - “For No One” - is actually more influenced by Lennon's earlier Rubber Soul tune “In My Life”. In short, both are pop ballads with baroque instrumental solos grafted on. In both cases, too, a persuasive case can be made for crediting George Martin with both the idea and execution of both solos.

As well as a general encouragement and facilitation of his interest in the more conventional side of classical music, McCartney's relationship with the Ashers led him to become acquainted with the well educated “arty” crowd who were to become his most frequent social companions during the Revolver period. They were to take him beyond the formal “prettiness” of classical music, and into the realms of the often exciting, sometimes baffling, but rarely pretty, avant-garde.

I first met Paul in the summer of 1965... Together with John Dunbar and Peter Asher, I started Indica Book and Gallery in Mason's Yard and Paul was very involved in painting the walls and putting up shelves. Paul designed and had printed the wrapping paper for the bookshop and helped design advertising flyers. (Barry Miles, Many Years From Now, p.xiii)

Barry Miles studied at Cheltenham Art College, where he pursued an interest in painting and “quickly fell into what then passed as a bohemian existence, listening to jazz, smoking pot and marching with CND"46. He moved to London in 1963, where he found work managing a bookshop. He used this position as an opportunity to push the writing of his favourite American “beat” poets and writers to other like-minded young men.

He and McCartney became good friends quickly. Miles would play McCartney records at the Hanson Street flat where he lived with his wife. He accompanied McCartney to “happenings” - performances at which the audience were expected to participate fully, and at which the boundary between the audience and performers all but disintegrated47. One such event was hosted by the AMM musical collective, under the leadership of eccentric Marxist composer and essayist, Cornelius Cardew:

About 20 people sat around on the floor, facing AMM who were making noises on instruments ranging from tenor saxophone and violin to various percussion instruments and wind instruments. A number of transistor radios stood among the instruments but were only rarely turned on... channels of static or distorted music from far-away stations were preferred... The audience was encouraged to contribute: Paul ran a penny along the side of an old-fashioned steam radiator and, after the break, used his beer mug as an instrument to tap. (Barry Miles, “Going Underground", The Beatles: Ten Years That Shook the World, p 238)

The Beatles was an American animated television series featuring the fanciful and musical misadventures of the extraordinarily popular British rock band of the same name. It ran from 1965 to 1967 on ABC in the USA (later transmissions were reruns). The series debuted on September 25, 1965 and ended on September 7, 1969. A total of 39 episodes were produced. The series was shown on Saturday mornings at 10:30 AM until the fall of 1968, when it was moved to Sunday mornings. Each episode has a name of a Beatles song, so the story is based on its lyrics and it is also played at some time in the episode.

Season 1 (1965-3/1966)

A Hard Day's Night/I Want To Hold Your Hand: The Beatles are in Transylvania rehearsing in a haunted house with "monstrous" visitors; The Beatles went into a diving bell to hide from their fans which drops them into the ocean with a lovesick octopus. Sing Along: Not A Second Time/Devil In Her Heart

Do You Want To Know A Secret/If I Fell: The Beatles went to Dublin, Ireland for the weekend where they've met a leprechaun named Willomena Morris; John is kidnapped by Dr. Dora Florahyde and Igore, both of whom want John's brain for their monster. Sing Along: A Hard Day's Night/I Want To Hold Your Hand

Please Mr. Postman/Devil In Her Heart: Ringo lost 15 rings he bought with all of the Beatles' spendings and they're expecting a telegram from their manager Brian Epstein for more money; Ringo wanders into the woods in Transylvania where he meets a witch who wants Ringo for a husband. Sing Along: If I Fell/Do You Want To Know A Secret

Not A Second Time/Slow Down: The Beatles abandon their flight and land in Africa while trying to get away from their fans, but three girls keep tracking them down. They later encounter a few crocodiles; The Beatles are on the way to the town Ringo Ravene (named after Ringo) until they encounter a donkey that smells gold named "Gold Nose". Sing Along: Baby's In Black/Misery

Baby's In Black/Misery: Paul gets kidnapped by Professor Psycho who wants Paul to marry his creation Vampiress, half girl and half bat; The Beatles went to a wax museum where they're being followed by a vampire. Sing Along: I'll Get You/Chains

You've Really Got A Hold On Me/Chains: In Africa, Ringo ask a medicine maker named Jack to help fix the Beatles' flat tire, then he turned a worm into a snake, and it lusts for Ringo; After getting knocked out, Ringo dreams about himself as Captain Bligh from the movie "Mutiny On The Bounty". Sing Along: Slow Down/Honey Don't

I'll Get You/Honey Don't: The Beatles ran into Alan Watermain in Africa after escaping from their fans, and went out hunting for a lion; Ringo is mistaken as a bull rider, and the cowboys send him to ride on a toughest bull named Honey. Sing Along: You've Really Got A Hold On Me/Anytime At All

Anytime At All/Twist And Shout: The Beatles imagine themselves as the Three Musketeers (Plus One) while they are on a tour at a museum in France; The Beatles attend an art show where a girl tries to be like other artists. They inspire her with music. Sing Along: I'll Be Back/Little Child

Little Child/I'll Be Back: A little girl Indian wants to prove that girls are as good at trapping as boys are by trapping the Beatles; The mayor of Texas gave Ringo a golden guitar as a gift. Later it got stolen by three men, and the Fab Four went on a hunt to get the guitar back. Sing Along: Long Tall Sally/Twist And Shout

Long Tall Sally/I'll Cry Instead: The Beatles stay at a castle for the night during a fog. John and Ringo try on a couple of cursed armor suits and start to fight each other; After signing too many autographs in Japan, George's hand got swollen and suffered "autographitis". His mates took him to a hand doctor, but they went to a karate class by mistake. Sing Along: I'll Follow The Sun/When I Get Home

I'll Follow The Sun/When I Get Home: The Beatles' car broke down and they are captured by a highwayman who happens to be a car repair man; The Beatles are exploring the Notre Dame in France where they later meet the hunchback of Notre Dame: Quasimoto. Sing Along: I'll Cry Instead/Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby

Everybody's Trying To be My Baby/I Should Have Known Better: The Beatles are spend the night at a temple in Japan during a rainstorm. They are mistaken as Japanese ancestors of four girls; The Beatles are in Rome trying to find a theatre to rehearse. Their last choice is the Coliseum. Sing Along: I'm A Loser/I Wanna Be Your Man

I'm A Loser/I Wanna Be Your Man: In Hollywood, Ringo gets hired as a stuntman and ends up in the hospital after getting pulverized in many scenes; In Rome, The Beatles bought a statue of the Goddess of Musica which is actually stolen gold coins being melted down and sculptured. Sing Along: No Reply/I'm Happy Just To Dance With You

Don't Bother Me/No Reply: The Beatles are being followed by a couple of spies, all of whom are after their songbook; In Japan, The Beatles are warned about a jewel thief named Anyface who comes in disguised as Paul, which causes double trouble. Sing Along: It Won't Be Long/I Should Have Known Better

I'm Happy Just To Dance With You/Mr. Moonlight: The Beatles are in a Roman Street Festival where Paul wins a dancing bear named Bonnie; The Beatles meet Professor Ludwig Von Brilliant who is on a mission to view an eclipse. Sing Along: Don't Bother Me/Can't Buy Me Love

Can't Buy Me Love/It Won't Be Long: John is given a friendship ring from the tribe chief, which means he has to marry the chief's daughter; While picnicing in Japan, John went out for a swim in a pond with the shrinking potion in it, and got shrunk. The other Beatles think John is a doll and chases after him. Sing Along: Anna/Mr. Moonlight

Anna/I Don't Want To Spoil The Party: In Japan, Paul got lured into a ghost ship called "Anna". The other Beatles dashes off to the rescue before they might lose Paul for good; Paul, George and Ringo sneaks away from John and went to Greenwich Village for some fun time rather than going to a museum. Sing Along: Matchbox/Thank You Girl

Matchbox/Thank You Girl: John bought a trailer to stay in away from home rather than staying at a hotel so many times. They later encounter a group of natives all of whom are evacuating from a volcano; The Beatles sneaks away from their manager to get something to eat at a French bakery. Sing Along: I Don't Want To Spoil The Party/Help!

With Love From Me To You/Boys: In Hawaii, a surfer named Surf Wolf challenges George to a surfing duel; The Beatles participate in a Mr. Hollywood Contest in California. Sing Along: Please Mr. Postman/I Saw Her Standing There

Dizzy Miss Lizzy/I Saw Her Standing There: John and Paul secretly signs George up to an ice boat race, and he partners up with a girl named Lizzy; In Madrid, John and Paul went to a restaurant where John develops a hot foot with ashes in his boot. Rosita falls for John, and her boyfriend Jose challenges John to a duel. Sing Along: Ticket To Ride/From Me To You

What You're Doing/Money: The Beatles are on a fishing trip, and Ringo runs into gypsies. One of them falls for Ringo and wants to marry him. George comes in as woman claiming he's engaged to Ringo to get him back; John puts Ringo in charge to keep their money safe in his jacket pocket. Later Ringo is being followed by a mystery man who is after the money. Sing Along: Dizzy Miss Lizzy/All My Loving

Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand/She Loves You: The Beatles' mission is to climb up a mountain with the dog Gunthar to put up their own flag on top; The Beatles are about to rescue a girl who they think is held as a prisoner on a ship. As a result, her boyfriend comes to her defense...with knives. Sing Along: Bad Boy/Tell Me Why

Bad Boy/Tell Me Why: A little boy named Hans plans to run away from home and be a Beatle. The Fab Four run after Hans to bring him back with their music (Paul is for some reason is playing right handed); In Spain, Ringo is the jockey of a donkey that can run like a horse whenever she hears loud music. Sing Along: Please Please Me/Hold Me Tight

I Feel Fine/Hold Me Tight: Paul thinks Hollywood's a phony. The actor Dick Dashing wants to prove Paul he is wrong by putting him in some different movie scenes; George and Ringo went to see the Statue Of Liberty until they've spotted a man with a package which they think is a bomb. Sing Along: What You're Doing/There's A Place

Please Please Me/There's A Place: In Madrid, a bull named El Taco got knocked out, and the Beatles decide to help out with the bullfight: Ringo as the matador, and John and Paul as the bull; John's sympathy helps an educated ape named Mr. Marvelous escape from the television studio, and went out to explore the outside world. Sing Along: Roll Over Beethoven/Rock And Roll Music

Roll Over Beethoven/Rock And Roll Music: The Beatles are on their way home after visiting New York City until Paul got grabbed by an elephant named Beethoven; The Beatles are invited to play at the Duke's Palace, but they're mistaken for a string quartet. Sing Along: I Feel Fine/She Loves You

Season 2 (9-10/1966)

Eight Days A Week/I'm Looking Through You: A great movie lover named Lips Lovelace lost his ability to kiss. Paul decides to take his place in the studio with a leading lady who falls for him; The Beatles are in Egypt. They are wandering around in the pyramid until Ringo encounters a ghost who wants a body, and he chooses Ringo's. Sing Along: Run For Your Life/Girl

Help!/We Can Work It Out: Paul and Ringo went to a fashion show in Paris. Later the designs are stolen by Jaque Le Zipper. Paul chases Jaque to the Eiffel Tower, and has trouble with heights; George becomes superstitious. The Beatles encounter the Lucky Wizard who is really a crook trying to give them bad luck and rob their money. Sing Along: The Night Before/Day Tripper

I'm Down/Run For Your Life: The Beatles are on a tour at a wine factory where Ringo accidentally knocks down a vat of wine. If it doesn't get fixed in two hours, the factory will go out of business; The Beatles are on a tour at the Palace of Versailles. Ringo gets knocked out by a statue, and dreams about the days of Marie Antoinette. Sing Along: Eight Days A Week/Paperback Writer

Drive My Car/Tell Me What You See: The Beatles are helping a young man and his girlfriend get their old jalopy running in a car race; The Beatles are visiting "the man of a thousand faces". They're fooling around with a makeup machine, and changing into different characters. (Look for Jimmy Durante and Sweet Pea from "Popeye" in it) Sing Along: Yesterday/We Can Work It Out

I Call Your Name/The Word: Ringo is convinced to let go his pet frog Bartholomew in the swamp. Later a movie producer offers a filming deal to Ringo and the frog, and the fabs have dashed off to find Bartholomew (George Harrison is briefly seen playing left-handed in one scene); The Beatles are being punished after gazing at the girls' unveiled faces. The only way to get out of the situation is to say the password: love. Sing Along: I Feel Fine/Wait

All My Loving/Day Tripper: The Beatles are in India where they are learning how to charm an animal, and they're face to face with a tiger. They're using music to tame it when it's about to claw John and Ringo; The Beatles went on a trip out in space with a beautiful woman who is actually an alien taking them on a one-way trip from Earth. Sing Along: I'm Looking Through You/Nowhere Man

Nowhere Man/Paperback Writer: The Beatles walk into a cave for some exploring which is a home of a hermit who wants to be alone. He tries to get rid of them, but no luck; The Beatles are each writing a story of how they met. They each wrote a fictional story: Ringo as a theatre actor, Paul as a scientist, George as a secret agent, and John as a war pilot. Sing Along: And I Love Her/Michelle

Season 3 (9-10/1967)

Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields: The Beatles are jealous of a detective named James Blonde who gets more attention from many women. The fabs are planning to stop some thieves from robbing Penny Lane so they can be heroes; The Beatles are using music to add some color and happiness to the children at the orphanage. Sing Along: Good Day Sunshine/Rain

And Your Bird Can Sing/Got To Get You Into My Life: The Beatles and a couple of hunters and out on a hunt for a rare bird called a green double-breasted tropical woosted that can sing anything; The Beatles are in India, learning how to escape from their bodies. It works, but the problem is that the souls' bodies are moving by themselves, and they must get them before it's too late. Sing Along: Penny Lane/Eleanor Rigby

Good Day Sunshine/Ticket To Ride: Ringo thinks he's a jinx. When the Beatles arrive at Carney Island, it starts to rain. Their music turns a rainy day into a sunny day again, and makes Ringo happy; The Beatles each have their own hobby. Ringo's is catching birds: an English term for girls. Paul releases the only one Ringo caught, and he runs after her. Sing Along: Strawberry Fields Forever/And Your Bird Can Sing

Taxman/Eleanor Rigby: The Beatles get knocked out while carrying tons of money to bank, and dream about the days of Robin Hood; A bunch of kids claim that an elderly lady named Eleanor Rigby is a witch, the fabs tell them the true story about Eleanor as a song. Sing Along: Got To Get You Into My Life/Here, There And Everywhere

Tomorrow Never Knows/I've Just Seen A Face: The Beatles fell into a well and end up in the inner world with lot of foreign natives. The chief wants the fabs to marry his daughters, and they began to run away; Ringo lost his singing voice. For treatment, his three mates send Ringo to a haunted house to scare his voice back. Sing Along: She Said She Said/Long Tall Sally

Wait/I'm Only Sleeping: The Prince of Krapotkin's girlfriend's in grave danger. The Beatles are helping him to save her from the Prime Minister who wants to marry her; John tells a story to a couple of children. Then he doses off and dreams about him helping King Arthur and Merlin slay the dragon. He and his mates play music to make the dragon go to sleep. Sing Along: Penny Lane/Eleanor Rigby.


Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles_(TV_series)

The Beatles: Rock Band is a music video game being developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games, and distributed by Electronic Arts.The game will consist of songs from The Beatles, from their first album Please Please Me, to their penultimate album Abbey Road, as well as previously unreleased material according to Dhani Harrison, son of George Harrison.
The game will be released internationally on September 9, 2009

Coinciding with the release of the remastered versions of The Beatles catalogue.The game will be shipped as a bundle with themed instrument controllers, but all existing Rock Band and compatible music game accessories can be used. The game will incorporate many of the gameplay features of the Rock Band series. However, the game will not be an expansion pack for the Rock Band series, as Harmonix co-founder Alex Rigopulos has stated that this game "...is a new, full game title production built from the ground up".

The game allows players to perform in virtual bands by providing up to four players with the ability to play three different peripherals modeled after music instruments (a guitar peripheral for lead guitar and bass guitar gameplay, a drum peripheral, and a microphone for vocals). These peripherals are used to simulate the playing of rock music by hitting scrolling notes on-screen. Both Game Informer and early retail listings state that the game will include support for up to three vocalists on separate microphones to recreate the Beatles' "fabulous harmonies".All currently available Rock Band peripherals will be compatible with their respective console version of The Beatles: Rock Band. Similarly, newly designed peripherals for The Beatles: Rock Band will be backwards compatible with other Rock Band titles. Controllers from Guitar Hero games will also work with the game.

In a press release for the game, it was announced that "a limited number of new hardware offerings modeled after instruments used by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr" would be made available. A "Special Edition" bundle of the game will include one Höfner bass controller, one Beatles-inspired Ludwig-branded drum controller with a vintage replica Beatles kick drum head, a microphone, a microphone stand, and yet-to-be-revealed "additional special content". Standalone instrument peripherals and game software will also be made available separately from the bundle on September 9, 2009.