Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Beatles Blog

Until I was ten, I had no interest in music. Then I discovered the Beatles, and they made me realize how good music can be . Ever since, I have been amassing an unnerving amount of trivia on my favorite band, and I have decided it is time to share some.

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Black Girl

Paul wrote "Blackbird" to show support for the American civil rights movement. The title was a play on "black bird" or "black girl."

Source: Paul's circa-1994 quote

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Depression

Am I the only one who thinks it's odd that three of the songs on John's "Imagine" album have lyrics that could be construed as suicidal?

It's So Hard: "It's so hard, and sometimes I feel like going down"

How?: "You know life can be long and you've got to be so strong. And the world, she is tough, sometimes I feel I've had enough."

Gimme Some Truth: "It's money for dope, money for rope."

Sources: the songs listed above

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Fits of Lethargy

"Don't Pass Me By," of the White Album, was the first song Ringo wrote in "a fit of lethargy" (my absolute favorite oxymoron). Considering it was his first song, it's extremely good, in my not-so-humble opinion.

Source: 1968 Beatles Interview

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Meeting Wives

It's interesting how people meet those they wind up marrying. For George and his first wife, Pattie Boyd, it was during the filming of "A Hard Day's Night," the Beatles' first film. (Which you should definitely watch, by the way).

Source: TV Guide Magazine's special edition on the Beatles (The Untold Story)

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Wife Stealing

Eric Clapton was a good fried of the Beatles and especially, it seems, George. To show his friendship, he wound up marrying George's first wife, Pattie Boyd, whom he wrote "Layla" for. It's so nice to have friends you can trust.

Source: TV Guide Magazine's special edition on the Beatles (The Untold Story)

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Freda's Song

It has been heavily implied that Paul wrote "I Saw Her Standing There" for the Beatles' long-time secretary, Freda Kelly, whom they met when she was just seventeen.

Source: Freda speaking at the 2013 Cleveland Film Festival showing of "Good 'Ol Freda"

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Instrumental Personalities

When recording "A Day in the Life," Paul told the orchestra to go through all their notes, lowest to highest at their own tempo, as long as they ended at the 24th bar. The funny thing was that you could tell the personality types of all the instruments: the violins all followed each other up, while the trumpets were all different and wild.

Source: Paul's 1988 quote found here

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Drug Songs

"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," which many people thought was about LSD. The song was actually written about a picture John's first son (Julian) drew with his friend from school, Lucy, in a starry sky. Julian titled the picture "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," and John and Paul were inspired. They both thought it was ridiculous to look at the acronym (LSD).

Ironically, Paul admitted that "Got to Get You into My Life" was about pot, which no one suspected.

Sources: John's 1980 interview with Playboy, and Paul's 1994 quote found here

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Song Writers

When I was young, the Beatles were literally all the music I listened to. So, when I started listening to other groups, I always assumed that if they were singing a song, they'd probably written it, because the Beatles wrote most of their songs. It took me a long time to adjust to the fact that the opposite was generally true.

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George's Lead

On the album Yellow Matter Custard, the Beatles' audition tape for Decca, Paul was ill. So George sang lead on half the songs instead, which was rather surprising considering that he didn't do so very often for many years after.

Source: 1972 WPLJ-FM 

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Yellow Matter Custard

Yellow Matter Custard, an early Beatles bootleg album, was their audition tape for Decca (that was turned down), which had been thought to be lost for over ten years. Even the Beatles themselves didn't have a copy. So, when it came out, John traded for it with a fan, for a signed copy of Yesterday and Today.

Personal Note: I highly recommend listening to this album. It's hard to find, and poor quality, but it is very good (and I normally don't like their covers as much).

Source: 1972 WPLJ-FM 

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Twist and Shout

For the Beatles' first album, they recorded all the songs they knew in one day. They intentionally saved "Twist and Shout" for last because they knew the screaming would throw John's voice out and they could only do one take. They were right.

Source: The Beatles Anthology

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Loosing Ringo

Right before going on a tour, Ringo was hospitalized because he needed to have his tonsils removed. George, Paul, and John refused to go without him, saying it wasn't the Beatles without Ringo. Which would be more touching if they hadn't been forced to go on tour with a substitute drummer anyways. But George, especially, seemed rather miserable the whole time.

Source: The Beatles Anthology

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Requests

I invite anyone to ask me questions about anything the Beatles, or to request a backstory on any of their songs.

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What's in a Name?

Asked about the origin of the name 'Beatles', Paul explained: "John thought of it... and he sort of explained how it was spelled with an 'E-A,' and we said, 'Oh yes, it's a joke.'"

It's really sad how long it took me to get that joke (the musical beat-les)

Source: 1963 Beatles interview with Dibbs Mather in Doncaster, England

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Irony

Proof that irony exists in real life:

John, 1963: "You can be big headed and say, 'Yea we're gonna last ten years,' but as soon as you've said that you think, 'We're lucky if we last three months,' you know." (they did last almost exactly ten years, a little less if you only start counting when Ringo joined them)

Paul, 1963: Well, obviously we can't keep playing the same sort of music until we're about forty-- sort of, old men playing 'From Me To You'-- nobody is going to want to know at all about that sort of thing." (he's still performing Beatles tunes at the age of 72, and we still love him!)

Paul, 1964. When the Beatles were asked if they thought they may be knighted, Paul was the first to reply: "No. No, YOU may be, though." (he's the only Beatle to have been knighted in 1997)

Sources: 1963 Beatles interview with BBC-TV, and 1964 Beatles Washington D.C. Press Conference, 

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Flaws

I don't approve of hero worship and ignoring peoples flaws, and I sometimes come dangerously close with the Beatles, especially John (I like his politics). So I feel obligated to point out that John, by his own admission: beat and cheated on his first wife, and was rather absent for most of his first son's life. However, I do honestly believe his assertions that, with Yoko's help, he became a better person.

Sources: The Beatles Anthology, and 1980 Lennon and Ono interview with Playboy