Because the Beatles are forever
2 min read
By Jagdeep Singh
The writer, popularly known as Jags, is a Public Relations veteran, writer and poet
The strange fact of the Beatles is that they are still heard. Heard with passion and gusto. And that too, 50 years after their split. No mean achievement, this! The Fab Four, as the lads from the Liverpool were called, took the pop music world by storm. From the time they began their journey to Hamburg in Germany in 1962, till their last album, Let it Be was released in 1970 — it was Beatles all the way.
The day Brian Epstein took over the management of John Lennon (co lead singer and rhythm guitarist), Paul McCartney (co-lead singer and bass guitarist), George Harrison (lead guitarist) and Ringo Starr (the drummer ) — there was no looking back.
While Lennon and McCartney were the main writers of the lyrics of their songs — Harrison and Starr also wrote the lyrics. Lennon and McCartney often finished each other’s lyrics — such was their amazing partnership.
The metamorphosis one sees in the songs written by the Beatles in terms of maturity and introspection is absolutely amazing. No group had ever metamorphosed so fast — within a few years to writing such in-depth lyrics. Bob Dylan had a huge impact on their lyric writing. It was Dylan who freed them from the conventions of pop songs and got them to write more introspective and serious stuff. He asked them to bid bye to the yeah-yeah-yeah style singing.
Once they gave up stage performances after the 1966 US Tour, their experimentation and innovation in music was seen in their studios. The most well-known albums like Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Abbey Road and Let It Be were all studio productions.
Surprisingly, there is a huge fan following of the Beatles in India, and even in the heritage city of Jaipur. Recently, the city-based publicity firm, Spark organised a virtual session, ‘The Beatles Are Forever’ on 50 years of the break-up of Beatles. The sessions was attended by Siddhartha Chaturvedi (a music festival producer and event manager), Melven Castelino (teacher, musician and music producer) and Vijay Andrews (publisher, lead singer and bass guitarist). It was moderated by the writer of this column.
Discussing the various genres of music and the difference between pop, rock as well as rock-n-roll genres, Chaturvedi shared with me that the Beatles are a band that falls under both the pop and rock music genres. Castelino said that Beatles had an impact on various bands playing all over the globe. He shared the first-hand experience of his own band and says that the audience demands Beatles numbers even today!
Andrews had an interesting insight — the Indian connection of the Beatles, their playing on the Sitar and their trip to India, which was instrumental in awakening their creativity. The band’s interest in Indian culture was led by its guitarist, Harrison.
The popularity of their music seems to continue, something that is unlikely to change in the coming years.
