Fab Foundations # 1: "Album-Cover Duality”

(Personal reflections inspired by Beatles songs)

Song: “Something”
Album: Abbey Road
Release Date: September 1969

How was it that the Beatles became so successful?  I’ve brought this up before in these blog pages - in the context of ‘luck’ (the question “were they just lucky?” was posed by my Mom a while back) - but it’s worth revisiting. I mean, here were four aspiring musicians who formed a band, not unlike so many who had done it before and who have done it since. They were from lower-middle class families, each with a below average formal education from what I can gather. This made it clear to me and many others in my generation that an Ivy League degree (or anything even close) was no prerequisite for generating Beatlemania. It was an eye opener and a game changer.

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr were not born with silver spoons in their mouths.  There was no regal British blood running through their veins. Opportunity was not knocking at their doors.

In one of the great ironies of life, tragedy must have played a factor in the band’s success, seeing as both Lennon and McCartney lost their mothers at a young age, and the band lost a founding member, Stu Sutcliffe, in the early years.  We all know people who have had to overcome adversity. Some tackle it head-on and then rise to amazing levels. Others never find their moorings. 

The times certainly had something to do with it too, as the Beatles were part of a post-war-England generation with a chip on its shoulder, a need to prove to their parents who sacrificed so much that they had something of their own to show the world.

Hard work cannot be overlooked, nor can talent.  And yes, lady luck could have played a role. I mean, how often can it be said that four individuals hit the jackpot by finding each other in such a way (as with my Rolling Stones and Who blog series, this narrative – the whole being greater than the sum of its parts - has so much juicy potential here).

But there was something more.

When I was deep into my original Gem Music Video series back in 2007-08, tackling a different musician every week for 100 weeks, my sister Amy challenged me to write an entry about my Beatles music-loving roots. (the Gem Music Videos eventually morphed into this Music and Memory blog site and those “Gems” are now available here).  Amy was spot on.  By that time (~ 90 entries in), I had not really written much on this sensational band.  Sure, they had been discussed in fits and starts throughout, and several videos of their songs had even been posted.  And yet, I had not given the Fab Four they’re just dues.  But what could I say about the Beatles that has not been said by others? It seemed as if their lives and music had already been covered ad nauseam.  In truth, I was intimidated: If there were any new angles to write on regarding this band - while weaving them into my personal linkages (as I do with all these series) - it was going to take some thought. 

To get a unique slant on things, I had to go back to the beginning, recalling my first foray into a magical mystery tour that has had me caught in its wake for 44 years and counting.  Strangely enough, this initial seed proved not to be the music itself.  The initial seed was an album cover, more specifically the cover of “The Red Album” (1962 -1966). And as I thought more, I came to the realization that this album cover was my inroad to understanding the reason for the Beatles success as well.

“The Red Album”, along with Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, were the first real rock albums to make their way into the Steeves Family household, thanks to my Mom and Dad.  I would later get beyond the trappings and allure of ‘Greatest Hits’ albums like “The Red Album” but seeing as this album was a ground breaker, I have no gripes about it, only praise (as opposed to greatest hits albums in general, which I feel undermine the creative intent of the original albums that the songs were plucked from).  The Red Album was my initiation into the Beatles early-mid years, which greased the skids for all my subsequent rock album purchases, including most of the Beatles catalog.  Songs like “Michelle”, “Eleanor Rigby” and “Paperback Writer” were the first songs I would play repeatedly, lifting the needle up on the turntable, moving it backwards, and dropping it back down again.  While listening, I would read the words, song dates, and credits. 

I would also stare at the album cover.

The cover of the album was pretty darn cool.  On the front side was a photo of the Beatles circa 1963 on the stairwell of EMI studios, looking over the balcony, down at the camera man, and on the flip side were the Beatles in the same pose (same positions, left to right: Ringo, Paul, George, John), on that same stairwell, near the end of their collaboration in 1969.  As I would glance back and forth, one photo to the next, it felt as if I were looking at eight people, not four. This was fascinating to me. The difference in their appearance, particularly John and George, but also Paul and Ringo, was striking.

Now, I’m not talking about age, hair growth, or the possible ravages of drug abuse per se as principle driving factors.  I’ve seen all these as being much greater factors when looking at change in others.  For example, the difference in Keith Richards is dramatic when comparing a ’67 photo of him to a ’69 photo, which can be chalked up to all three of these factors (the good news for Keith: He’s barely aged since!).  Comparing these two Red Album photos however, I saw much more that should be attributed to the changes in the Beatles appearance.  And though I could not really nail it down at the time, what I was observing were the sage-like faces of knowledge, experience and wisdom.  This proved to be incredibly enlightening to me.  The changes in the Beatles were more in line with what you would expect to see in, say a grandparent when comparing their teen photos to their later years, particularly if that grandparent had been through much in the interim.  For the Beatles, however, there were only six years separating these two photos!

How could the Beatles have changed so much in so short a time?  Yes, they had seen the world, and met with virtually all the most famous people of their times.  They had become wealthy beyond their wildest imaginations. And yet, this has been the case for many others, without such a dramatic effect. No, I believe what changed the Beatles the most during the group’s career came from within. It was their openness, the breadth of their willingness to share their hearts, minds and souls with the world through the music they made together.  This more than anything was also why the Beatles were so successful.  They did not hold back one iota, which is a very, very hard thing to do.  Perhaps it was not so hard in the beginning, when they presumably had nothing to lose, but as time went by it must have gotten much more difficult to maintain that openness.  The Beatles did it for eight years, an amazing run.  As George Harrison once stated, “They (fans) gave their money and they gave their screams, but the Beatles kind of gave their nervous systems”.

After absorbing this concept to some degree all those years ago while looking at and listening to the Red Album as a 13 year-old kid, it was effortless to connect with the rest of the Beatles music.  It was all about filling in the song-story between those two pictures. And boy has it ever been fun:  From the Dylanesque “White Album” (The Beatles), to the psychedelic dream state of Sgt Pepper.  From the willingness to cry for “Help”, to the spiritual depth and beauty of “Long, Long, Long”; from the beautifully melodic “Martha My Dear”, to the intensity of “Oh, Darling”; from the brutal honesty of letting the cameras role as the band broke up in front of our eyes during the film Let it Be to their classy, brilliant, final regrouping for Abbey Road (side two after “Here Comes the Sun” is simply put, one, long, magnificent, harmonious, subconscious, goodbye). From the original album-oriented music of Revolver to the singles that defined a generation: “Hey Jude”, “All You Need is Love”, and“Strawberry Fields”. 

It certainly has been fun.

The Beatles were common ground for a family (Steeves) with very diverse musical interests.  They were the one band you could find in all our album/tape collections. This, I believe was the case in many other families. Come Together? Yeah, Yeah, Yeah! You Bet.

I could have picked any number of songs to open this Fab Foundations series, but I had to settle on something…. “Something”, yes that works! ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UelDrZ1aFeY ). This video (“Something”) was the last real collaboration the four Beatles worked on together, although they were by this time (late ’69) pretty much defunct as a band.  It shows the Beatles in separate clips with their spouses - a coordinated montage of sorts – and reflects well those older, wiser Beatles in the photo on the flip side of the Red Album (Side Note: Everyone looks happy in this video except Paul McCartney, who looks devastated, which supports my hypothesis that “Oh Darling” was a plea to John Lennon). George Harrison’s “Something” is one of the most beautiful of love songs. For a band that espoused love in their music more than any other I know, it was a perfect music video for the Beatles to sign out to.

As for this Fab Foundations series, well… I’m just getting started.  With the intention of building on that Red Album-cover enlightenment angle, I look forward to a year of listening to Beatles music (along with sprinklings of their solo material, because the Beatles story is far too short, and the solo albums are a natural extension). It’s been a long, long, ….long time.

- Pete