A Lucky Face

Why did the Beatles become so big? Why was their music so amazing?
Well, they had a blank canvas for a start. When I say that, I mean that pop music hadn’t quite entered the modern age yet. The Beatles form the line where this boundary is crossed I believe. They came to perfect the art of what became known as the three minute pop song. Not an ounce of fat on any of them. By enlarge, small but perfectly formed pieces of work to which the world of music could merely gasp and listen to in awe. This is a catalogue of work which is unlikely to be matched for sheer ingenuity and for the scale of it’s effect on the world both musically and culturally.
The Beatles were also lucky with their timing.
In 1962, Britain was waiting for something to lift the gloom of post war austerity, to turn the black and white world of the newsreeles into a blaze of Sixties colour. Then these funny Liverpudlian guys with really long hair turn up. I wasn’t around then unfortunately, but relatives have tried to impress upon me the significance of their hair and their overall look initially. It seems like a trivial detail now. It's difficult to imagine a hairstyle having that much significance. There was no one else like them. Then there’s the music. It’s perhaps not the most original thing ever heard at the beginning, but there’s something about it. Something about the way they crowd around a microphone stand. The harmonies. John Lennon's "leather tonsils". It’s just, well…plain different.

They were lucky too when they went to America. The US was still dealing with Jack Kennedy’s demise and they must've been a ray of pure sunshine upon arrival; a really big deal, with their funny accents and nice suits (and that!). They seem to be so different. Again, don’t underestimate the hair. It grabbed the world’s attention and gave them that thirty second platform to impress. So, they had unwittingly got the timing of their arrival just right. Then you have to look at who they accidentally hook up with after they’d been knocked back from every record company up and down the land.
They’ve got George Martin in their corner to tidy up their compositions, adding and subtracting as they went. Today, it’s likely that a producer of his stature would be in on co- writing credits for a band in their position. Again, they were lucky meeting him. They found someone who could give them ideas for free in a sense. This is an educated musical mind, working way above their level. However, they too, no doubt would have come up with ideas because of their lack of musical knowledge. So again, in finding Mr Martin, it’s another lucky break for them. It is a marriage made in heaven. It is hard to imagine for example that Yesterday or She’s Leaving Home would have been in the same league but for his contribution. I don’t just mean string sections here. I’m talking about the bare bones of the song, the structure and arrangement. As producer, George would have had a big say in how Parlophone’s products were presented and I can imagine that once an idea was around, he would have been right on top of it to make the best of it. That coupled with the fact that the boys were eager to make the best product possible surely make a recipe for success? George Martin’s contribution is simply enormous to the band. It’s like he was a silent member of the group. Didn’t quite have the hair for it though! The band not only benefited from him directing their songs, but they learned directly from him, and how! The sheer speed of their development is breathtaking. A friend mentioned to me the other day, that it’s almost impossible to equate the band that played Love Me Do with the one who created the regal majesty of A Day In The Life just five short years later. It’s a quantum leap in song writing. It does defy description in some ways. Their work rate is simply terrifying. The Lewisohn books illustrate this only too well. It is day after day after day and they make it count just about every time. And, all of this happening against a background of a world on the cusp of change in every way and a new generation, sick to the back teeth of the old order.
Yip, The Beatles were in the right place every single time they needed to be and their music changed as often as their hairstyles. Probably one of the reasons why there is unlikely to be another Beatles is because the canvas isn’t blank any more and the genie is out of the bottle.