Lecture notes for Meet the Beatles

Slave songs -> Gospel -> Ragtime -> Jazz -> Blues -> Rock and Roll sometime in the 1940’s.
It was largely teenage and black, and underground (much like 1970’s rap).

Most music companies dropped black artists in the wake of WWII for the following reasons - not seen as profitable, hard to keep up with trends, and frankly they didn’t like black people. So Rock and Roll grew on independent labels. Since the music was largely youth music - and youth music is usually trendy, there was no reason to think it would last and persist as it has. It was uncool in the 1960’s to listen to music popular 20 years ago.

Rock and Roll stayed underground until the marketer's dream of white guys who could sound black and thus make the music acceptable to white youth.

First rock-and-roll song? Arguably Bill Haley - Rock Around the Clock (1954). He was a white guy interested in rock.

Early Rock and Roll songs are under 3:30, because radio is the only way to listen to music and they wanted to maximize the amount of songs they could play. Albums largely are not important, and contain mostly filler. The single is dominant.

Rock and Roll is simple, with repetitive chord progressions with bands composed of drums, bass and guitar. Originally it wasn't neccesarily guitar-based, but guitar, or piano, or sax based. But Rock was always simple and danceable.

Most rock-and-rollers who hit it big in this phase are from the south. This included a truck driver named Elvis Aaron Presley. Elvis moving his hips while singing was scary to much of America and he was filmed from the waist up on Ed Sullivan show.

Lennon once said “If rock-and-roll could have a name it would be Chuck Berry”. One of first to perform his own material. His songs described “life”, whereas most rock songs were love songs. He also played the guitar, and thus lead the way for guitar rock.

Important to note about 50’s rock-and-roll: Integration hadn't happened (yet). Rock 'n' Roll was able to give black and white youth something in common to relate to. And since the big labels refuse to carry it, so it has an element of rarity and taboo to it.

Another white guy from the south to make a huge impact was Jerry Lee Lewis. He was from Alabama and was a former altar boy. He was quite suggestive in his lyrics and performance. John Lennon called his "Whole Lotta Shakin'" “The quintessential rock-and-roll song”. Jerry Lee Lewis didn't play guitar and instead focused on Piano-based rock.

Historically there had always a distinction between low-brow and high-brow music (French troubadours vs. Bach) Rock and Roll was unquestionable seen as low-brow music.

Buddy Holly and the Crickets in a way attempted to bridge that gap. Buddy Holly was unusually talented. Controlled every aspect of recording (writing, playing, singing, mixing, and producing) Lennon saw a white guy with thick glasses who looked nerdy playing on TV, and, at the age of 16, and thought that he could do that. His first breakthrough hit was “That’ll be the day” and at that point the record company thought Buddy Holly was black from the sound of his band. Holly pioneered a lot of recording techniques used by rock-and-roll recording artists, such as double-tracking, which enhances the quality of the vocals, as evidenced by "Words of Love" Holly also started integrating different kinds of instruments and orchestras into his songs as well. He started expanding the sound of rock and roll while still turning out records that were identifyable as rock 'n' roll.

In Brittain there wasn't any real native Rock 'N' Roll. Instead they had skiffle: Minimalist rock-and-roll, that used washboards to create the rhythm. “Rock Island Line”, by Scottish artist Lonnie Donnegan was the one of the only rock-and-roll songs out of Britain to chart before Beatles. He was essentially the only British rock star of any signifigance before the Beatles. Skiffle bands could be put together easily and cheaply to play a form of rock-and-roll. Because of the government-controlled media in Britain, and the little amount of broadcast time dedicated to it rock was hard to find on the radio in Britain and thus it kept largely underground.

Big Bopper, Buddy Holly and Richie Valens got on a plane in early '59, only to crash minutes later - The day the music died.

Elvis got drafted, and was sent to Germany. Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13-year-old second cousin while still married to his previous wife. Chuck Berry hired a 14-year-old as a waitress, who later claimed he trafficked her across state lines with intent to prostitute her. This took all of these major rock and roll figures out of the scene by 1960.

BMI - licensed rock songs for airplay. ASCAP brought forth an investigation to see whether the DJ’s were paid to play particular singles (payola). Alan Freed and Dick Clark were DJ’s questioned by Congress on this issue.

In the wake of the shakedown Rock and Roll became corporatized to a large extent.
Corporate rock-and-roll was largely pleasant-sounding, but homogenized, white, and mostly toothless.

However, since in Britain rock remained largely taboo instead of being coopted by corporations, it remainder underground, raw and true to its roots.

To get a much more indepth and accurate story on this, please visit:
http://history-of-rock.com

Richard Starkey: a.k.a. Ringo Starr. Born to a fairly poor family with a father who left very early in June of 1940. He was sickly as a child and constantly in and out of hospitals. He was given a drum set at age 11, and later joined Rory Storm and Hurricanes (at the time, Liverpool's best band).

John Winston Lennon was born on Oct 9, 1940. Born to Julia Lennon, his father, a seaman left when he was very young and surfaced when Lennon was already famous. Julia Lennon was “unbalanced”, left John when he was 5. Given to be raised by his aunt Mimi and his uncle. He was constantly in touch with Aunt Mimi throughout his life.

John was a smart, but rebellious kid, published a humor magazine in school called “Daily Howl”. Also a gifted artist - accepted at age of 16 into Quarry Bank, an art college in Liverpool. At about that point, John’s mother resurfaced and became friends with John. At this time she taught him to play banjo and ukulele which John converted into guitar playing. However, she was soon killed when a drunken off-duty police officer ran over her.

Also, at age of 16, Lennon saw Elvis, then Buddy Holly on TV. Original band name formed with his friend Pete Shotton: Black Jacks (then soon became The Quarrymen in honor of their art college).

June 18th, 1942
Born to a Catholic mother and Protestant mother in their40’s - James Paul McCartney was born. He had a generally happy life, given a trumpet at age of 10, then switched to guitar, so he could sing. His father had a bit of musical history being in swing jazz bands in his past. Paul never had any formal music lessons. Paul's mother died from breast cancer at age of 14. Paul also went to Quarry Bank.

Feb 25, 1943
George Harrison was born to a large and fairly poor family of French background. His father drove the school bus. He didn’t do all that well in school. His primers covered with pictures of guitars. He practiced the guitar incessantly once he got one, and played in a small band with his friend, Paul McCartney.

July 6th - 1957 - Performance by Quarrymen, incl. 16-year-old John Lennon at a Liverpool church fete. Paul McCartney was in the audience, and a common friend introduced Paul to John after the show. McCartney was invited to join the band a few days later, on the strength of knowing every line to Twenty Flight Rock from a movie released in 1956 (The Girl Can't Help It).

Harrison was let in due to his musical ability in 1958 after this, they desperately tried to land gigs and perform on "star search"-esque programs hoping to make their big break, and mostly succeeded in getting kicked out of jazz clubs when they started playing rock.

First two song demo recorded (in 1958):
That’ll Be the Day
In Spite of All the Danger (Only credited song to McCartney / Harrison)
2 copies originally pressed, one owned by McCartney, other copy unknown.

Name evolution: “Silver Beetles” ? “Beetles” ? “Beatles” (due to their admiration of The Crickets, and them being a Beat group)
John's preferred explanation of their name was that “A man came to him in a vision, standing on a flaming pie, saying ‘you shall be known as The Beatles with an A and so it came to be”

A promoter was looking for English rock bands to play in Hamburg - at the time a seedier version of what we think of Las Vegas. But they needed a drummer. They found a drummer named Pete Best, whose qualification was that he owned a drum set.

Bassist (Stuart Sutcliff): He was convinced by Lennon to join the band because he won enough money in an art contest to buy a bass and he was John's good friend. To hide that he couldn’t play, he often played with his back to the audience, which made him appear moody, and got him more girls than the rest of the band.

John Lennon had a long-standing girlfriend from Liverpool, Cythnia. She died her hair blonde to look like Bridget Bardot (a french competitor of Marlyn Monroe for biggest sex goddess in film at the time, whom John adored). However, she was left in England, and Lennon basically cheated on her without abandon.

Hamburg: Tough town, and Harrison isn’t even 18. Beatles had to perform 12-hour sets and had to expand their song repertoire. They covered rock songs they liked, and started adapting songs from other genres making them rock songs.

Originally signed up in a really bad club, with one small room for them to live in, room having rats, and no real blankets. Constantly trying to get into a better club, but they also met a lot of people, including American rock stars who fell out of favor in US, who were also playing Germany, including Little Richard.

Also, they met up Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, and their drummer, Ringo Starr who would occasionally "sit in" on sessions with them. Bought leather coats and jelled their hair to look like Elvis. But Stuart Sutcliff found a girl and fell in love with an existentialist artist (who took a lot of famous pictures and convinced them to wear the mop top haircut) and decided to move permanently to Germany.

They also had their first real exposure with drugs in Hamburg, taking strong stimulants in order to have the stamina to perform 10-12 hour sets. (at the time the drug was legal most places, and was regularly prescribed to housewives trying to lose weight)

Deported, due to Harrison being underage, after a burning condom incident. There was little danger of the concrete room burning, but the club owner was furious about losing the band to a club the Beatles had been trying to get into so the club owner called the police.

When they returned to Liverpool, they billed themselves as a German band, and were finally able to play the Cavern club, where they were rejected from before their trip.

Going back to Germany in 1961, an American rock star Tony Sheridan recruited them to play backup on a rocked up version of the old standard "My Bonnie (lies over the ocean)". They were also allowed to record two songs of their own, including Ain’t She Sweet (Lennon on lead vocals) and Cry for a Shadow (instrumental).

My Bonnie release was important, since it was a Liverpool band that was on record.

Brian Epstein, a record storeowner, after a girl requested that recording, researched them. He wasn't a fan of their music, but loved their charisma. Soon, he convinced them to get out of the leather jackets, and into suits, and he packaged them and shopped them to record labels. Arguably he was making them into a boy band and they went along with it.

On New Year’s day, 1962 - 45 minutes of music was recorded in an hour at Decca’s rehearsal studios. They played rocked-up Broadway tunes, humor tracks, covers, hard rock and original songs to show off their versatility.

Result: Rejected. “Guitar bands are on their way out”. -Decca Records executive. (Ha.)

Epstein did shop the tape around to every label that was willing to listen to it.

In late 50’s, John/Paul entered in an agreement where for publishing purposes the songs would be credited as McCartney/Lennon, and for song writing credits were credited as Lennon/McCartney. While Yesterday had little if anything to do with Lennon, and Give Peace a Chance didn’t have to do anything with McCartney, those were also credited to Lennon/McCartney.

Beatles got their first spot on BBC in 1962 on the radio - first time they got nationwide coverage.

Epstein got to them to rehearse in June 1962 for an obscure classical EMI label called Parlophone in Abbey Road studios 2, with George Martin, a producer of Peter Sellers humor records and classical music.

While in Germany and Liverpool and before the boys sometimes would call out “Where are we going, Johnny?” to which John would reply “To the toppermost of the poppermost!”

George Martin - “Get rid of Pete Best”. (due to his erratic playing during the tryout in June) Best fired, Ringo Starr brought in as their new drummer.
There were a few protests: “Ringo - never, Pete Best forever”

Martin also brought in Alan White, a professional drummer. By accident, the version with Ringo Starr on drums was the single, but the Alan White version was on the album. But Ringo was quite hurt to be brought into the band and immediately asked to step aside in the recording studio, though this would not happen again.

Controversy: Reached #17, but Brian Epstien was rumored to have bought 10,000 copies.

Lennon wrote a song Please Please Me. Based on the vocal styling of Roy Orbison. Originally, Martin wanted them to release a song he found called How Do You Do It, but Beatles refused to release it, releasing Please Please Me, re-recording it as a faster, rockier tune. On 2 of the 3 music charts in Britain at the time, Please Please Me hit #1.

How Do You Do It later hit #1 by another band that George Martin produced and brought the song to.

They already had 4 tracks available when they went in to record the album from the previous 2 singles. So, they recorded ten songs on the day in the studio. Please Please Me wound up with 8 original songs and 6 covers – It is notable that 8 songs are original because it is unusual for a rock’n’roll band at that time.

Most tracks were recorded with few if any overdubs, very much how they sounded live.

Where most albums of the time would include filler, the non-single tracks off of the first album included I Saw Her Standing There, Twist and Shout, and the album at approx 35 minutes was longer than 22-23 minutes typical for US albums of that time.

Beatles are touring incessantly, and they are happy about their fame, jazzed about the fan letters.

In the song, Beatles used (or if you believe the press releases at the time “discovered”) a different chord (minor). Single was an unqualified smash and solidly hit #1.

Beatles were soon very popular in Britain. BBC wanted to play Beatles, even though they didn’t play much rock, and they gave them their own show. From 1962 to 1965 - A few hundred appearances on BBC, each one recording new music. Because of BBC rules, they had to make unique recordings for broadcast on their shows, which lead them to record hundreds of songs only for the BBC.

The show gave them an entrance to every teenager’s house once a week. Releasing records at an amazing rate, 3 singles in 6 months. So, even with singles and records being relatively expensive for the average teenager, everyone got to hear them.

John had a girlfriend named Cynthia. In April ’63, he was forced to marry her (she gave birth to Julian Lennon). Not a lot of people knew about the wedding at Brian Epstein’s insistence, which allowed John to cheat on his wife incessantly.

Up until now, every Beatles song is very straightforward, with simple, first-person narrative. She Loves You was one of their first songs to be told from a third-person perspective, and was more complex, lyrically, and musically than their previous single. However, the “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” refrain served to draw the people into the single, although Beatles were mocked for that. The song was assembled out of 18 edits, with advanced for it time studio techniques.
Also, the bass line was more prominent and musical (rather than just a rhythm marker)

This was the biggest selling single in British history, until that record was broken in 1977 by McCartney

From this point on, their songs began to slowly, but surely become more and more difficult to perform live as they were starting to develop sounds in the studio that were increasingly difficult to perform live.

After conquering Britain, Beatles went on to sell well in surrounding countries, and toured there.

November ’63: More impressive than She Loves You – The Beatles were invited to play for the Queen of England.

Beatles were one of the first bands to not lose their regional accent – which made Lennon say that they were the first band to stay “working class” – although they were millionaires by that time.

By Fall of 1963, they had to release another album. They had more than 10 hours to record this one, though, so out went 14 songs, all brand new, and none of them were singles. Beatles put out just the album, once again with 8 originals and 6 covers.

Album also featured George Harrison’s first song, Don’t Bother Me, which he wrote while sick, and in bed. He wrote 4 other songs in the next two years.

Six months after having so few songs, Beatles had a plethora of good songs, so they were giving them away. Rolling Stones positioned themselves as the louder, grungier, bluesier version of Beatles. When the two met, Beatles offered to write a song for the Stones. John and Paul went off in the corner, and, ten minutes later, came back with I Wanna Be Your Man, which was the first top-20 hit for the Stones.

First Hendrix tour was opening for the Monkees (note: this happened several years later, but it serves to illustrate the point). Beatles didn’t want to go to the US until they had a #1 hit, to avoid this.

I Want to Hold Your Hand: This was their first song recorded on a 4-track machine (previously all EMI sessions were recorded on twin-track decks) This allowed more complex recordings and the ability to use more advanced overdubbing techniques.

I Want to Hold Your Hand was backed by This Boy, which featured the most advanced harmony on a Beatle record yet.

In the US, from From Me To You through She Loves You, George Martin tried to get Capitol records (which was owned by EMI) to release the Beatles’ albums and singles, to be refused. Thus, George Martin had to release these early hits on very small labels, to have them flop in the US.

With I Want To Hold Your Hand, Capitol records finally relented, and agreed to release it with a $70,000 promotional budget for US.

While touring France: 5th single, first one Paul wrote, Can’t Buy Me Love. Recorded in France, February 1964.

Ed Sullivan, mainstay of American culture, was in Europe. Overhearing the fervor of the Beatles, he decided to invite them over (this was before the Beatles got the news they wanted).

When they arrived, there was a horde of screaming fans waiting for them. This was one of the biggest TV audience ever.

Beatles were able to come out in the US with 4 albums in 6 months. (because of all the music that they had released in the UK that essentially had never been heard in the US)

March 1964: Beatles had 4 of the top 5 positions in Billboard. This is an accomplishment that has never since been repeated. Competing against themselves – the only thing to knock out a Beatles song was another Beatles song.

Beatles then did their first picture, “Hard Day’s Night”. Dick Lester, a hot young director, was brought in. The writing was amazingly clever (trying to imitate a day in the life of Beatles). Still given lines, but they were true to form. Film wound up bigger than the sum of its parts.

Roger Ebert has taught an entire course, shot-by-shot, about Hard Day’s Night.

Monkees: Created to act like the Beatles in Hard Day’s Night, since the Beatles refused to take part in a TV show.

4th album: Exclusively on 4-tracks. The songs were all original, and all Lennon/McCartney. This was more than a little unusual for a Rock record.

Title came from a Ringo line, as they were tired after a day’s filming, and Ringo made a passing comment, which was adopted.

Byrds: One of the groups credited with starting the folk rock movement by playing Dylan songs electric, were influenced by the fadeout of Hard Day’s Night, played on a 12-string Rickenbacker guitar, so they used it almost exclusively on their first album.

Merchandising: Beatles merchandised anything and everything (bedsheets, boots, anything they could merchandise)

Beatles had a cartoon series - aproximatly from 1964 to 1966. Cheesy Saturday morning cartoons where they get into shenanigans in an attempt to make a song

Ever since John Lennon was a boy in school had a habit of writing weird stuff (Today is muggy, tomorrow is tuggy, then wuggy, thuggy, etc)

Lennon's writing was really dense, have to read each line 7-8 times to get each pun. There were also inklings of possible political messages.

1964: The fans screaming at live shows begins in earnest. Some of the shows were recorded - Beatles could hardly hear themselves sing, as even the soundboard (mikes + instruments) recording has screaming from the audience that often is louder than the music itself.

During Australian leg of the tour - Ringo becomes ill. While he's in the hospital, bring in Jimmy Nichols to play. When he got better, he was gladly welcomed back by the band.

John Lennon was a big fan of Robert Zimmerman (aka Bob Dylan). At the time, John was listening to his famous The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, a folk album of Dylan's with political messages that Beatles couldn't have.

Dylan thought Beatles had drug references in their songs, but they didn't. He also introduced them to pot.

In late 1964 they went back into the studio to record a new record: Beatles for Sale. Unlike previous album (13 originals), this one had 8 originals and 6 covers. On it you had some of the first Dylan inspired songs from John Lennon. For example, I'm a Loser - Lennon attempts to write in a more lyrically complex manner, and it also features the harmonic prominently in a manner similiar to how Bob Dylan uses it.

John later called the era from mid 1964 through the end of 1965 as his "fat Elvis" period, and his songwriting of the period often reflects this. (Fat Elvis being a reference to Elvis Presley in his last years when he was overweight and having severe problems with relationships and drugs)

Lennon's songs of this time could be arguably misogynist, but by 1967 or so that had largely changed.

The covers were pretty good, including a Chuck Berry cover of "Rock and Roll Music" that arguably bests the original. The album also included "Eight Days A Week", a song that was to be the single for the album, until John Lennon wrote "I Feel Fine".

For the song "I Feel Fine", the Beatles intentionallyused guitar feedback for the opening of the song. Took a bass guitar, placed it next to the mike AND an amp - so that when guitar was strummed, the sound reverberated between the microphone and the amplifier, getting louder and louder.

While not the first use of feedback, (Chuck Berry did use the technique in the 50's), this was quite unusual for 1964, and very influential.

The next single, Ticket to Ride, was promoted as being from the film Eight Arms to Hold You (Released as Help!)

Also notable for the development of drums as a more important instrument than just a method of keeping the rhythm. Unlike Pete Best, Ringo can handle changes of rhythm.

Album notable for a few tracks - You've Got to Hide Your Love Away - first all-acoustic Beatles track, first outside musician (flute).

Rumor and Legend: McCartney asleep, woke up with this melody in his head. He asked others whether they've heard it, but no one did. So, he assumed he wrote it.

George Martin brought in a string quartet to fill out the acoustic sound. Only Beatles song to be performed by just on Beatle (McCartney).

Beatles succeeded marvelously with Hard Day's Night - liked even by the critics, and even people who didn't like Beatles music, liked their personalities from the film, and thus the Beatles were given wide latitude for the followup film.

New movie promoted as "The Beatles - in Color!". It was also directed by Richard Lester (who directed "A Hard Day's Night"). On a whim, Beatles decided to go skiing for the film so they headed over to the Alps. The footage of them in the Alps is the first time they ever tried skiing.

The Beatles later admitted they were stoned while filming most of the movie. During one scene, where Beatles are curling, and a bad guy substitutes a curling stone with a bomb. "Look, it's a fiendish thingy!" Paul and Ringo were due to run off-camera, but they kept running until they were far away, and out of breath, at which point they lit a joint….

The humor was largely patterned after a Monty Python precursor called The Goon Show.

Also, had a James Bond-style story where Ringo is to be sacrificed by a very fake Indian cult.

Help! - Second song in a row that Beatles released as a single that was a downer. Took him a while to admit it was rather autobiographical of how Lennon felt. Also, for the first time for a Beatles single (with the possible exception of "From Me To You"), the song is NOT about a girl!

Help!, the album was a partial return to the form of "A Hard Day's Night" in that it only had two covers.

In 1965 the Beatles were awarded MBE's (Members of the British Empire). There was a bit of controversy of whether or not the Beatles should be given such an hour (and even further controversy over whether or not it was that big of an honor) When they went to Buckingham Palace, they were nervous, and they slipped into the bathroom and, possibly, smoked a joint. It is unclear if this really happened or is legend though.

Of the Beatles, only McCartney has been knighted. Harrison was never knighted, Starr - not yet. Lennon returned his MBE in protest of the British colonial practices in 1969.

Officially Lennon claimed he wasn't knighted because his single, Cold Turkey wasn't doing well in the charts (joke answer)

To go from 30 minutes to 25 minutes per concert, Beatles played louder and faster. Notable event: Invited to play Shea Stadium in New York. 75,000 people - biggest rock concert ever. Beatles were NERVOUS. Aside: Sting claimed that when the Police played Shea Stadium, he knew they were finally big.

They also met Elvis. Although they were bigger than him, it was touted as the summit of the rock gods.

On an outtake of the song I'm Down from the "Help!" sessions, Paul made a comment afterwards of "Plastic soul" (a comment on how the song was arguably white-washed soul)

This line was changed to "Rubber Soul" for their next album, which was rushed to get it manufactured in time for Christmas shopping season

"Norwegian Wood" - MAY be slang for marijuana. Also, first admission from John about having an affair.

They needed a new sound for the song. Ironically, the really fake Indian mysticism from "Help!" introduced George Harrison to real Indian mysticism. Friends soon introduced George to the music of Ravi Shanahar, who was a master sitar player. Harrison bought a cheap sitar, but didn't know what to do with it.

Harrison played something resembling chords on his sitar for Norwegian Wood. The lyrics were increasingly abstract. The track does represent the first use of the sitar on a rock and roll record.

One track was left over from the Help! sessions which they added a few overdubs to for Rubber Soul, as they were completely out of time.

Final day - They were one song shy of the album. John Lennon asked to be left alone for a while, wrote Girl on the spot, and the album was finished just in time.

The backing vocal on the track is actually a three letter slang term for the human femal mammary gland. (this is a g-rated website, so that's as explicit as it gets)

In My Life - originally written as an autobiographical song. They needed something in the middle of the song, but they didn't know what. George Martin suggested playing a Bach-like melody on piano and harpsichord (which is part of why the song could never be performed live)

This album heavily influenced Brian Wilson, front man of the Beach Boys. The US version, almost all-folk (no rockier songs, some folk tunes from the Help! era).

Beatles, instead of going on TV shows to perform their newest single ("Day Tripper"/"We Can Work It Out"), released footage of them performing - precursor of music videos.

Like the lecture, these notes are WOEFULLY inadequate to explain everything that was going on. I am mainly focusing on the points you will need to know for the midterm, and anything else of importance.

Phil Spector - In the early 1960s, he was the most important rock and roll producer with his trademark "Wall of Sound" production technique he leant to every record he produced at the time. The technique was to use a lot of instruments (including orchestral instruments) play a lot of them at once, and add a lot of echo and reverb to create a very very thick sounding sound to each record (the proverbial wall in the "wall of sound"). His style heavily influenced Brian Wilson. (see below)

The Beach Boys were formed from a nucleus of the Wilson family, a suburban white family from the LA suburb of Hawthorne. The three boys, Brian, Dennis and Carl (in descending order of age) grew up with a pretty abusive father, Murray. Murray had designs to make his boys, especially Brian into a musical act. The father would make his boys to sing songs at night. Brian had a real knack at harmonies though and would be the leader of the band. Add into these three brothers, their nearby cousin, Mike Love, and a college friend, Al Jardine, and you have the "classic" lineup of the Beach Boys. The sound of the Beach Boys was designed to be a combination of the vocal harmonies of the "Four Freshman" with the guitar style of "Chuck Berry." Dennis was the only one of the three who ever surfed, and it was his interest in this that encouraged Brian to write songs based around surfing. It was their 3rd single, "Surfin' USA" that was the one that made the Beach Boys stars. The song was essentially a rewrite of Chuck Berry's hit "Sweet Little Sixteen" and because of that Berry was co-credited as having written the song. Soon the Surf music fad was fading, and the hot-rod culture then took predominance in pop music, and the Beach Boys followed soon writing lots of hot-rod songs. By 1963 they were the biggest rock band in America. Brian soon moved from using the Beach Boys in the studio playing the instruments to studio pros working under Brian's control. Brian would call this group of pros his "wrecking crew". Brian also worked on ridding the band of the influence of his father. However, the strain of making the records, dealing with his father, and dealing with touring soon got to Brian, and he suffered a nervous breakdown while on a flight in 1964. At that point he quit touring and focused solely on recording the records. The upside was that the studio records soon improved. When Brian heard "Rubber Soul" he was inspired to create his 1966 album, "Pet Sounds". For the album he brought in Tony Asher, an advertisement writer, to write the lyrics. The album was essentially a song-cycle describing a relationship from the happy start to the bitter end. The album featured incredibly ornate instrumentation, and amazingly complex vocal harmonies, and was well received by the critics and his peers. Paul McCartney called the album "necessary to anyone's musical education" and called one track off of it, "God Only Knows", "the greatest love song ever written." The album heavily influenced the Beatles records "Revolver" and "Sgt. Pepper's." The album however failed to sale well. However, those who liked the album liked it a lot. At one point a record executive from a DIFFERENT record company bought a one-page ad extolling the virtues of the album. Immediately Brian went to work on his follow-up album. He worked on something he described as a "teen aged symphony to God", which eventually took on the title "Smile". The album was even more complex than Pet Sounds, with most songs recorded in few second segments, with dozens or hundreds of segments recorded for each song, to be later pieced together by Brian in a jigsaw like fashion. "Good Vibrations" comes from these sessions, and took 8 months to record. The song hit #1. The album was designed to be half-Americana, half-about the elements (earth, wind, water, and fire). He hired an avant-garde poet, Van Dyke Parks, to handle the lyrics this time. The record company, Capitol, wary that the last album had not done well, and frustrated at how long this album was taking to record (Brian worked on it for over a year) soon put pressure on Brian to produce. Brian was also taking heavy drugs. In addition, the group members did not quite "get" what Brian was doing and were anxious due to the poor reception of "Pet Sounds" by the buying public. In May of 1967 Paul McCartney visited Brian, and performed on the song "Vega-Tables" (he chewed carrots for a rhythm track) and played Brian some of the finished "Sgt. Pepper's" tracks. A week later Brian scrapped the album altogether. The Beach Boys were to headline the legendary 1967 Monterey Jazz festival in the summer of '67, but pulled out due to the deteriorating mental state of Brian.

Bob Dylan was born Robert Zimmerman in 1942 in Minnesota. He took the last name Dylan later in tribute to a favorite poet of his: Dylan Thomas. He was originally a folk single in the mold of Woody Guthrie, the famous folk singers from the 30s who wrote such songs as "This Land Is Your Land". In 1962 Dylan released his 2nd album, a folk album titled "The Freewheeling' Bob Dylan." This album was extremely influential on John Lennon and featured such songs as "Blowin' In The Wind". Unlike the Beatles, Dylan WAS political. His songs did not mince words. He also wrote romantic songs, and abstract songs and stream-of-conciousness songs. However, like Lennon, Dylan had a very wicked sense of humor that he often let show on his songs. In late 1964 Dylan released a song "Subterranean Homesick Blues", which featured an electric band backing him up. In early 1965 he followed up the single with the album "Bringing It All Back Home" which was half-acoustic and half-electric. His folk-purist fans did not take kindly to his conversion. In 1965 at the Newport Folk Festival, he played the first half of his set acoustic, and then switched to electric for the second half. The folk purists, which had the closer seats, booed him and heckled him during the second set. This phenomenon continued through 1966 and he was often called "Judas" by the folk purists. In 1965 he also released a groundbreaking single, "Like A Rolling Stone", which at over 5 minutes was considerably longer than the 3:30 normal limit of singles. Dylan definitely changed views as to what was an appropriate kind of voice for a rock star, and he helped bring more complex, abstract and poet lyrics to the genre. However, his rocked songs were rarely anywhere near as political as his "pure folk" songs of his earlier career.

In 1962 an aspiring musician named Brian Jones found a Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards (friends since elementary school) and then soon added bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts to form the Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger was at the time an economics student at college in south England, and Keith Richards was an aspiring guitar player. The band was signed to Decca records at the end of 1962 (the same label that had rejected the Beatles at the start of that year). The band was soon marketed as a tougher alternative to the Beatles. They played hard blues standards, and rarely wrote their own songs initially. Their first single was a cover of Chuck Berry's "Come On", and their first hit was their version of the Lennon/McCartney song "I Wanna Be Your Man." By legend in 1963, their manager one day locked Jagger & Richards in a room until they came out with a song of their own. This yielded their first original song, "Tell Me." Very soon in Britain the Rolling Stones were the main competition on the charts to the Beatles. Shortly after the Beatles invaded America, the Stones followed suit. In 1965 Keith Richards woke up with a weird horn riff playing in his head. He wrote it down and the next day showed it to Mick. The two reached an interesting conclusion that the song would work best if they used a guitar to emulate the sound of the horn (since horns weren't really in the Stones' style). The song of course was "Satisfaction," a major hit for the Stones in 1965. In late 1965 the Rolling Stones were preparing to release an album, tentatively titled "Could You Walk On Water?" For obvious (religious) reasons their record company refused to release the album and delayed the album until the Stones were willing to go with the far less controversial title, "Aftermath." Two songs recorded during these sessions are notable (for the sake of this class). On the track "Paint it Black", Brian Jones brought in the sitar, which had been recently used by the Beatles in "Norwegian Wood." Another track "Mother's Little Helper" was a song directly referencing drugs. (unlike the Beatles which would only hint at drugs and/or drug usage in their song). "Mother's Little Helper" was written about the phenomenon of housewives in Britain and the US taking stimulants. (meth) At the time, it was legal, and indeed often prescribed by doctors for housewives wanting to lose weight. In 1967, Brian Jones' desire to expand the Rolling Stones' sound yielded arguably the two oddest albums in the Rolling Stones' catalog. On their first album of the year, "Between The Buttons", the Rolling Stones incorporated a vastly mellower style that often included "vaudeville" and instruments and lyrics that vastly differed from anything previous. On their album released at the tail end of 1967 "Their Satanic Majesties Request", they followed the Beatles into the then hot realm of psychedelic. Their album's cover even mimicked the Beatles' cover for "Sgt. Pepper's." This direction was short lived, and by 1968, the Rolling Stones famously returned to "roots rock" and reverted to their blues influences.

Jimi Hendrix was a black guitar player born in Seattle, who developed his blues-influenced guitar playing while serving in the military. When he returned from the service, he found an American rock and roll industry that did not feel comfortable with him as the lead of a band and would only really hire him as a guitar player for studio work. However, at this time the British invasion was as hot as could be imagined, and he came upon a brilliant idea of going to Britain to gain a following, then return to America as a British act. When in Britain he soon found a good bassist and drummer, and formed his band, The Jimi Hendrix Experience. His first album, released early 1967, "Are You Experienced" melded hard blues-based rock with the psychedelic sound that was being developed in London at the time. He also proved with songs like "The Wind Cries Mary" that hard rock could also be poetic. Jimi Hendrix soon took full control over all aspects of recording, and started to use the studio electronics to create new sounds from the guitar and other instruments, and influenced every one since him greatly. In 1967 Jimi Hendrix and The Who took the Monterey Pop Festival by storm (this was the show that the Beach Boys were to headline before Brian Wilson's breakdown). Both acts involved destruction of their instruments. The Who wrecked their instruments after their set, while Jimi Hendrix famously set his guitar on fire while playing it during his performance.

In another British group, The Kinks, released "You Really Got Me" in 1964, which has since been called the "first heavy-metal song." The aggressive song used what are known as "power chords" that would form the basis of most heavy metal songs in the years to come.

In 1967 the Doors released their first, self-titled LP which combined psychedelic with hard rock, jazz and strange poetic lyrics from its front-man, Jim Morrison.

Also in 1967, being recorded at the same time, and in the same studios as the Beatles were recording "Sgt. Pepper's", a London band, Pink Floyd, recorded their first LP, "Piper's At The Gates Of Dawn." While "Sgt. Pepper's" was arguably toned town psychedelic, Pink Floyd's was full-out psychedelia incorporating space themes and lyrics often inspired by Tolkein's book "The Hobbit."

Lecture 8 - And In The End...

[the following few paragraphs are largely text I wrote up for the lecture and are reproduced verbatim because it is an effective way of summarizing the "Get Back" sessions from January 1969]
The very end of 1968 saw the release of "The Beatles", with its stark white cover signaling a refutation of the stunning excess of Sgt. Pepper's' cover. This reaction was taken to its logical extreme in the start of 1969 when the Beatles, eager to regain a footing after extremely tough recording sessions for their last album decided that their follow-up would be simple, fun, and recorded live without the aide of overdubs, thus the world would hear their music, with warts and all.
They had not toured in nearly 3 years at this point, and with the band unity fraying, it was decided, that the sessions would be fully recorded and filmed so they could be used as a documentary for the lead-up to some event where they would record their next album. Unfortunately, that "event" was undefined at the start. While Paul was fairly keen on going out touring again in some capacity, the rest of the Beatles were adamantly opposed. It was suggested that the sessions would end with a singular concert either on a boat or at the Rome Coliseum or Greece or somewhere, but none of these plans came to fruition. Much like the Rolling Stones' were, the Beatles were frustrated, and in many ways they desired to do like the Stones' and hold their own version of the "Rock and Roll Circus" (which John had appeared in). They however, had no unity of voice or focus. But at the start of 1969 they went into Twickenham film studios to start recording the Beatles rehearsing new numbers for the use of something, though they weren't sure what. They hoped the film camera, and the idea of spontaneous, live performances would inject a sense of fun that they rarely had during the "White Album" sessions, unfortunately, it more often just showed the Beatles bored, and at odds with each other. Without direction or focus the sessions largely devolved into aimless jam sessions occasionally punctuated by a fight or occasionally an attempt to refine a recording. Yet, the sessions did have their moments. During the sessions a jam sessions' bass riff became the foundation to their next single, "Get Back", though originally the lyrics were a parody of Enoch Powell's (a British politician at the time who was anti-immigrant) policies toward Pakistani immigrants in Britain. They also rehearsed a large number of songs that were quite unfinished at this point, including a large number of songs that would find themselves on Abbey Road or their solo albums. The sessions also had a number of fun oldies medleys and some interesting made-up jams, but were going nowhere. Also, in addition to Yoko, Paul brought in his new girlfriend, and soon to be wife, Linda Eastman. In addition, John was frequently using Heroin during these sessions. The tension in the sessions soon boiled over and George Harrison quit the band. This time it was far harder to coax the band back together, and it was done on the understanding that they needed to finish their current project such that their breakup would be cleaner. George rejoined the band when they regrouped in Apple Corp's recording studio on Jan 22, 1969. He also brought along a friend, Billy Preston to play keyboards and also George hoped that he would serve the same role that Eric Clapton did in 1968 in keeping the Beatles on their best behavior. Eventually they decided to perform on the roof of their studio in an attempt to just finish the album as quickly as possible as they realized no other plan was very viable and they needed an end to the film. On January 30, 1969 the Beatles performed a few songs on the roof of their recording studio on Saville Row until the police demanded they end the show, however despite the Beatles' wishes for high drama for the end of their film, the Beatles were not arrested. 3 songs that ended up on the final album "Let It Be" come from this rooftop show ("Dig A Pony", "One After 909" & "I've Got A Feeling")
George had written a large number of songs and as John and Paul generally limited George to 2-3 songs per LP, his backlog was getting huge, for his 26th birthday he recorded 3 demos for himself.
In March, George Harrison was busted for pot possession by a Sgt. Pilcher who had gained notoriety for busting major rock acts in Britain. It was soon found out that Sgt. Pilcher fabricated much of the evidence used against George and the others.
Also in March both Paul and John married (not each other), with John's wedding complicated much by the fact that Yoko was not a British citizen forcing him to marry her in Gibraltar due to arcane laws. (the saga was documented in the song "The Ballad of John & Yoko")
For their honeymoon and twice after John & Yoko held multi-day "bed-ins" which were press conferences held at their bed in hotels. The focus on these were to advertise peace and obviously they generated even further controversy for John & Yoko. During a bed-in in Toronto John recorded "Give Peace A Chance" which he then released as a solo-single, though due to his gratitude for Paul helping him with "The Ballad Of John & Yoko" the song was credited to Lennon/McCartney.
Apple Corps was not doing well financially, and all Beatles but Paul wanted to bring in Allen Klein (who managed the Rolling Stones) in as their manager, but Paul wanted his father-in-law. In the end all but Paul signed with Allen Klein.
Throughout 1969 various attempts were made to take the hundreds of hours of tapes from the January 1969 sessions into a releasable album. Many of these attempts (titled "Get Back") found themselves into the black markets becoming the 2nd major bootleg of a rock and roll act (after Dylan's 1966 "Basement Tapes").
Deciding that the Beatles should not end its career on as sour a note as the Get Back sessions, the Beatles decided to make one last great album.
John Lennon had been approached by Timothy Leary (of LSD fame) to pen a campaign theme song for Leary's impending campaign against Ronald Reagan for California Gov for which John started to write "Come Together", but soon decided to keep the song for the Beatles to release. For the song "Because" John asked Yoko to play the 2nd melody from Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" backwards, and John wrote the song around it. For the recording Paul, George and John record their vocals three times each leading to the final recording having '9' vocals. "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window" was written by Paul describing an actual situation he had with a stalker who did come in through his bathroom window in 1969. "Something" was written by George originally with lyrics that went "something in the way she moves attracts me no other pomegranate", but in its finished form was not only the very first Beatles single to lead with a Harrison penned A-Side, but also referred to by Frank Sinatra as the greatest love song to ever be written. The album also marked the first time a moog synthesizer was used on a Beatles record.
In the Fall of 1969 John & Yoko decided to quit heroin "cold turkey" and also released a single of the same title describing the experience. John also returned his MBE award officially claiming due to the poor performance of the "Cold Turkey" single, but in reality more as a protest for British colonial practices and British support of the American war in Vietnam. In the winter of 1969 John & Yoko unveiled many billboards across the world simply saying "War Is Over (if you want it)"
During the fall of 1969 Paul spent most of his time with his new wife, his new stepdaughter and his new daughter and secretly recording a solo album on his own. The lack of publicity caused many deranged fans to speculate that Paul McCartney was dead finding all sorts of odd clues on various albums and appearances to support their claim.
On Jan 3 1970 the Beatles (except for John) returned to the recording studio to record properly George's song "I Me Mine" such that their long-delayed album/film project could be completed. The film "Let It Be" was compiled, and Phil Spector was brought in to try to assemble a releasable album from the available tapes. Phil Spector abandoned the live without overdub credo of the sessions and the album and added strings and choirs to several tracks including "The Long And Winding Road".
At this time John decided to record and rush-release a new song as a single, "Instant Karma!".
In April of 1970, when the album, film and single "Let It Be" was to be released Paul shocked the world by announcing the end of the Beatles and the release of his first solo album, titled "McCartney". This infuriates the other Beatles as they were not given a heads-up on what Paul intended to do.

Lecture 9 - The Dream Is Over

George Harrison, eager to prove the Beatles had held him back as a songwriter, immediately began work on a triple-album once the announcement of the Beatles' demise. He enlisted producer Phil Spector to produce the album and in May recorded a set of demos for Phil Spector. At this point the Beatles who had enlisted Allen Klein as their manager changed their mind about him, and found him to be too ruthless for their taste. During the recording of the demos George Harrision changed a line in the song "Beware of Darkness" to "Beware of ABKCO" (Allan B Klein Company).
Over the summer of 1970 John underwent Primal Scream therapy (a then fadish psychological therapy whereby people would literally scream out their pain and traumas).
In the fall both John and George recorded their first post-Beatle albums. John's was also produced by Phil Spector, but was amazingly stark in its arrangement and its lyrics with songs often consisting just of guitar, bass drums and vocal. The album "Plastic Ono Band" was actually 2 albums, as Yoko released another album of the same title at the same time with nearly identical covers. John's album was not met with great public reaction as John proclaims "the dream is over" a little too harshly for the public's taste.
On the other hand George Harrison came out with a lushly produced intricate triple LP and largely proved his case that he was severely underrated. His backing band included Eric Clapton along with some of his friends (this pairing would soon lead to Derek & The Dominoes), Badfinger, and Ringo. The album did incredibly well establishing George for a short time as the most successful solo-Beatle.
During this year Ringo also released 2 solo albums, all of covers to little commercial note.
John then released his song "Power To The People" a song embracing the working class and women's liberation.
In 1971 Paul recorded his second solo album, "Ram", this time using a band. The album did fairly well commercially, but included a few songs that John thought were veiled attacks against himself (John). On the cover of Paul's album Paul is shown holding the horns of a Ram.
In John's home studio John recorded his follow-up to Plastic Ono Band that would become the album "Imagine". On this album John recorded a reply to the supposed attack from Paul with his song "How Do You Sleep", a very non-veiled attack against Paul. This album, also produced by Phil Spector, would prove to be a much greater success for John even though John claimed it was just "Plastic Ono Band" with a "bit of sugar" to make it more palatable for the masses. On the back cover of the album there is a picture of John holding the ears of a pig in parody of Paul's previous cover.
In the Fall John moves to the US (for good) and records a single "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" with the Harlem boys choir after his peace campaign from 1971.
That fall Paul also formed a band he called Wings and went into the studio for 3 weeks with the nascent band to record their first LP. 3 weeks later he had the album "Wings Wild Life" was complete. The album included the conciliatory song "Dear Friend" written to John to end the feud in songs the two had gone through. The album did not do well with the public.
Wings also released their first single which was promptly banned by the BBC, "Give Ireland Back To The Irish"
George sets up first charity megaconcert, "The Concert For Bangladesh" in a response to his friend Ravi Shankar asking what George could do help the humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh" at the time. George was able to get Eric Clapton, Badfinger, Billy Preston, Bob Dylan among others for a monster concert in Madison Square Garden. It was considered the prototype for the mega-charity concerts that would come.
Ringo also released his biggest solo hit, "It Don't Come Easy"
In 1972 John joined up with radical leftists in Greenwich Village taking up their causes.
Nixon becomes afraid that John will attempt to disrupt the Republican convention that year, and had the FBI work on deporting him.
John released Sometime in New York. The album, recorded to be "timely" was written, recorded and released quickly arguably too quickly, and it tanked.
As Wings were honing their act, booked college auditoriums anonymously. Halfway through the concert, people would realize that Paul was on stage, but in the meantime it was a good way for the act to become a band.
In 1973 John releases "Mind Games", a completely apolitical album. Soon after Yoko kicks John out, and for the next year and a half John is in his "lost weekend" where he boozed a lot, had much sex and was depressed most of the time.
1973 saw the release of Wings' 2nd album "Red Rose Speedway" which was received much better than their previous. Paul was also invited to do the theme song to the first non-Sean Connery Bond film, "Live and Let Die".
George Harrison released his Living in the Material World album. Very stoic and "preachy" album. It still did well, but not nearly as well as "All Things Must Pass"
Patti also leaved George for Eric Clapton.
Ringo released his biggest solo-album, the self-titled Ringo. The album had contributions from all 3 other Beatles though never did all 3 work together at the same time.
1974 -
Wings breaks down to 3 people, they go to Lagos Nigeria to record their biggest album,"Band On The Run"
John records "Walls and Bridges" including duet with Elton John "Whatever Gets You Through The Night". The album is relentlessly dark, but proved to be a fairly big hit.
John and Paul record together in a drunken jam session in LA
George releases "Dark Horse" including a rewrite of the song "Bye Bye Love" with references to Eric Clapton taking his wife, but also had Patti and Eric on backing vocals?!? The album was panned because of George's weak voice due to laryngitis and immediately thereafter George goes on his first and only major solo tour.
John and Elton John made a deal during the recording of "Whatever Gets You Through The Night", that if the song hit #1 John would go on stage with Elton. When the single hit #1 John agreed to go onstage with Elton John on his Thanksgiving Night show at Madison Square Garden. The 2 sang 3 songs, and immediately after the concert Elton reintroduced John to Yoko whom Elton had secretly invited to the show. John and Yoko reconcile. Yoko also soon becomes pregnant again.
John Lennon also teams up with David Bowie to record Bowie's first #1 hit, "Fame."
When Yoko finally gave birth on John's 35th anniversary to John's 2nd son, Sean, John announced his retirement from the music industry.
In 1976 Wings releases "Wings At The Speed of Sound" and goes on full-scale world-wide tour.
George Harrison befriends and becomes involved with Eric Idle and other former members of Monty Python.
George Harrison releases "33 1/3" with the song "This Song" referring to his experiences being successfully sued over his hit from All Things Must Pass, "My Sweet Lord" due to its supposed plagiarism of the 60s number, "He's So Fine".
Lorne Michaels of Saturday Night Live offers his famous $3000 to reunite the Beatles on SNL. However, Paul happened to be visiting John in New York that night and the two nearly went down to SNL to collect on the offer.
A few weeks later George Harrison showed up on SNL to collect his share of the $3000.
Ringo's solo career begins its downward slide, but he soon starts acting in films regularly.
Paul releases his biggest selling UK single, "Mull of Kintyre" in Britain only.
In 1978 Bob Dylan announces he is a born-again Christian causing John to record his caustic reaction to Bob Dylan's song "You Gotta Serve Somebody" called "Serve Yourself"
In 1979 George Harrison releases self-titled album to continued reduced commercial response, and Wings releases what will be their final album, "Back To The Egg"
In 1980 without announcing the end of Wings, Paul releases 2nd self-titled album, an experimental album, "McCartney II" once again completely recorded by Paul alone.
Later that year on tour with Wings Paul is arrested for pot possession in Tokyo.
John Lennon after a trip to Bermuda with Sean, decides to reenter the music industry, but do it his way. He records Double Fantasy over the Fall but pays for the sessions himself. As he had no record contract at this point he was able to shop the album around to different labels and he awards the rights to distribute the album to relative neophyte David Geffen.
He records most of a follow-up album, and prepares to tour. After recording a guitar overdub for Yoko's "Walking on Thin Ice" and giving an interview for Playboy he is shot dead by a deranged fan.

Lecture 10 - All Those Years Ago

After Lennon was shot, the Beatles were pretty shook up.
McCartney recorded a tribute to Lennon on the next album to come out after his death.
Harrison pulled a track he was giving to Ringo (at this point, Beatles were still giving songs to Ringo) and rewrote to the lyrics to be a tribute to John titled "All Those Years Ago." All These Years Ago had all three of the surviving Beatles contribute (Including the McCartneys on backing vocals). This was a bit of a Beatles reunion. On the album Somewhere in England. Warner Bros rejected the initial version of "Somewhere In England" and told Harrison to re-record the album – he added All These Years Ago, and Blood from a Clone, a commentary on commercialization of music. Album did pretty poorly.
McCartney released his next album in 1982. He confirmed the death of Wings as this was a solo album. Collaborators: George Martin, Ringo Starr on drums, and Stevie Wonder. Take it Away had Ringo and Martin in the video, one among three #1 singles from the album. Last successful solo McCartney album. Paul's collaboration with Stevie Wonder was the biggest hit: Ebony and Ivory.
On Paul's next album he teamed up with Michael Jackson and released his collaboration "Say Say Say" which hit #1 as well.
After releasing Thriller, Michael Jackson suddenly became extremely rich. McCartney also was extremely rich. McCartney at that point was getting into publishing music and advised Jackson to get into it also. As McCartney didn't have enough liquid assets, Jackson bid behind his back to get the rights.
Harrison's latest record tanked so horribly, he gave up on releasing records altogether.
In 1984 for the first time since Magical Mystery Tour, Paul directs a film - Give My Regards to Broadstreet. Basically, a film to give McCartney and a band a chance to be shown playing songs from the last 20 years. The film tanks horrifically.
1985 saw the release of Paul's last #1 hit, the theme to the film Spies like Us.
He later performed Let it Be at Live Aid, the first time he'd been on stage in 5 years.
In 1987 Paul began his collaboration with Elvis Costello that would last for the next 6 years or so.
First song to come out of this union was Back on my Feet, a rather unMcCartney effort, in that it was dark and pessimistic. Ends with the main character having no hope at all. The song was never released in the US.
In 1987 George Harrison released a new album, Cloud Nine. First album in four years, critically acclaimed. Included the #1 hit, Got My Mind Set On You. For the album George collaborated with Jeff Lynne of ELO, who produced the album.
In 1988 George helped form the ad hoc supergroup, The Traveling Wilburys along with Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan and Tom Petty. Originally, just one song recorded for a Harrison C-side, entirely by accident, but it became an album-length project. Each member took up alter-egos for the album and the band released 2 albums, Vol 1 and then Vol 3.
In 1989 McCartney released a new album, going back to using the original Hoffner Bass. The album did fairly well and was recieved well by critics.
Eric Clapton also cajoled George to go on a short tour of Japan this year yielding George's last live performances.
In 1990 Paul went on his first world tour as a solo act. It was a very successful tour. He played Memorial Stadium in 1990.
In 1991 McCartney agreed to do an Unplugged concert for MTV. It was a good show, and became the first one to be released on CD.
In 1993 Paul released the album Off the Ground to less favorable reviews and middling sales and immediately went on another world tour.
He also began releasing quasi-techno albums under pseudonym the Fireman along with orchestral albums.
In 1994 the Beatles inducted into Rock'n'Roll hall of fame. Yoko Ono gave the rest of the Beatles tapes of Lennon demos. Grow Old With Me, Free as a Bird, Real Love and an untitled track. The Beatles rejected Grow Old With Me immediately but instead worked on and finished Free As A Bird & Real Love, and tried for one afternoon to work on the untitled track.
During the Summer of 1995 Paul McCartney hosted a radio program, "Oobu Joobu". He heard Keith Moon host a radio show in the 1970's, where he played any song he liked, joked with the listeners, etc. McCartney syndicated out a 15-part program.

In the Fall of '95 the Beatles Anthology aired on ABC television. The 3-part documentary was one of the highest rated documentaries on TV ever and included the world premiere of the first new Beatles song in 24 years, "Free as a Bird". Along with the tv series, the Beatles also released singles for the new songs and 3 double-cd sets of rarities and alternates which sold incredibly well considering they were archival releases.
In 1997 Paul released his first rock and roll album since Off The Ground, Flaming Pie. Album came in the wake of Linda being diagnosed with cancer. Given that McCartney's mother died of cancer when he was 14, he had a few really melancholy songs and the album included Paul finally being at peace with his legacy as a Beatle as evidenced by the album's title which was a reference to John's ficticious story of how the Beatles got their name. The album was very well received critically, and had fairly good sales.
In 1998 Ringo released Vertical Man. The album has cameos by Tom Petty, Alanis Morrissette, Steven Tyler, etc. It also did well by Ringo standards.
In 1999 Linda died. Paul was pretty shattered. Harrison barely survived a stabbing by a deranged fan. Later that year Paul decided to record an album of obscure oldies. Including 3 originals, the album is called Run, Devil, Run. As part of the promotion, he held a one-time concert at the new Cavern club. (built very close to where the original was) The concert was broadcast over the Internet, and clogged a lot of servers.
In 2000 Apple records realized that they didn't have a single disc collection of greatest hits. So, they released "One" a compilation of "all" #1 hits in the US or UK, which stayed at #1 on the charts for 8 weeks, and is becoming one of the biggest selling albums of all time.
In 2001 George Harrison was diagnosed with brain cancer, and died in the fall. Before dying, recorded a song Horse to Water, for a friend and credited the publishing rights to RIP limited.
Paul met the former model and anti-landmine advocate Heather Mills, and they fell in love and proposed. He recorded new album (Driving Rain), and this year is touring for the first time since 1993.
In response to Sep. 11th, Paul arranged a concert, called "The Concert for New York City". He also composed a new song to commemorate the event, "Freedom"