Post by The End on May 1, 2020 15:44:48 GMT
...and a few other memories from a young fan...
How I got into The Beatles (and a few memories from a young fan)!
By my reckoning I became a Beatles fan between 1974 and 1976 but the reason I became such a fan in the first place I think is due to a combination of three things:
Reason One: In the early seventies, each Boxing Day, the BBC would show a Beatles’ film and I vividly remember enjoying “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Help!” as a kid.
Reason Two: My aunt was a massive fan – she apparently used to scream at Paul McCartney whenever he appeared on TV, much to the annoyance of my nan and grandad - and when in 1970, she left home to get married, she left a considerable number of Beatle singles, EPs, albums and the 1964 Christmas fan club record behind at my nan’s. When I discovered these records, one by one they found their way across the road to where I lived and into my little record box. Shhhhhhhh!
Reason Three: In 1976 every Beatle single was reissued and promoted in new sleeves and all re-entered the charts to varying degrees of success, so their records were readily accessible and their music was all over the radio. Plus, that same year, the double album “Rock ‘n’ Roll Music” was released, which I bought with the money I got for my 10th birthday.
So going back to Reason One then; watching those films as a kid prompted me to search through my mum and dad’s record collection, where I was lucky enough to find two Beatles LPs – “Please Please Me” and, conveniently, “A Hard Day’s Night” (and Band on the Run actually!). However, these albums proved far more difficult to prise from my parent’s grasp than any of my aunt’s unwitting hand-me-downs!
I guess I was too young to be allowed to play those LPs on my own record player, however under supervision I could play them on my mum and dad’s - I can still remember staring down at the black and yellow labels revolving on the turntable – it was quite mesmerising! But considering those LPs are not quite so playable now, I can appreciate my parents’ reluctance at letting their seven-year-old touch their vinyl!
I recall “I’m Happy Just to Dance With You” always got stuck on the line: “I don’t wanna kiss or hold your hand>kiss or hold your hand>kiss or hold your hand>kiss or hold your hand…”! But then I discovered EMITEX record cleaner and I was amazed when, after a good clean, it finally played through without sticking! I tried the same trick on “Love Me Do” on the “Please Please Me” LP but it didn’t work and still jumps on that track to this very day!
Reasons Two and Three: The “With the Beatles” Saga
It was early 1975, so I must have been eight-years-old, when The Carpenters entered the UK charts with “Please Mister Postman”. I absolutely loved that song, much to the chagrin of my dad who could not stand The Carpenters. He said they played "Sunday music", which was his way of saying their music fell into that dreaded bracket of “easy listening” – much-loved by old farts in beige comfortable slacks and knitted cardigans but certainly not by the likes of my dad, who had more discerning tastes and had been in an R ‘n’ B group throughout the sixties.
The Carpenters’ version, he said, was “lightweight rubbish and nowhere near as good as The Beatles’ version”.
“Wait, The Beatles recorded it?” I asked incredulously.
“Yes, it was a track on one of their LPs.” He didn’t know which one.
By then, I was technically a fan, so I knew it wasn’t on “Please Please Me” or “A Hard Day’s Night” but I simply had to find that song!
Up to this point I had just been playing (and “borrowing”) The Beatles singles and EPs left at my nan and grandad’s by my aunt but I knew there were some LPs stored in the wire rack beneath their record player. And, as my aunt had left her 7” singles behind when she left home, I hoped that she had also neglected to take her albums with her as well, you never knew your luck!
So, across the road I went to my nan and grandad’s and began searching through their LPs. Most of them belonged to my grandad though - Jim Reeves, Nat King Cole, Mrs Mills, the Cat Ballou soundtrack, Rubber Soul, With The Beatles... wait, what? Two Beatles LPs!
I removed both albums from the rack and scanned through the track listings on the back of both sleeves and bloody hell – and there it was: side 1, track 7 on the album with the black and white cover: “Please Mister Postman”.
Hurriedly, I slipped the LP from its sleeve, put it on the record player and dropped the needle at the start of the final track on side one and waited... “I think I’m gonna be sad, I think it’s today, yeah...” Hmmmm, this sounded absolutely nothing like the Carpenter’s version of “Please Mister Postman” – what was going on?
It soon transpired that the wrong album was in the wrong sleeve and I was in fact playing the “Help!” LP. Following an exhaustive search through the remaining LPs in the rack, the absent vinyl was nowhere to be found. So after all that, I still hadn’t heard The Beatles’ version of “Please Mister Postman” and I instead went off for a ride on my bike to play conkers with my schoolmates and collect caterpillars in a crisp bag.
For what felt like years (in reality a few months), all I could do was stare at that song title on the back cover and read the tantalising description given by Tony Barrow in his sleeve notes, longing for the day I would actually hear the bloody thing!
To make matters worse, while I was wandering round a record shop in Aldgate one day, they started playing the Red Album and I remember being so pleased, smug even, that I knew all the songs, when the next track stopped me dead in my tracks - it was literally the best thing I had ever heard and from the lyrics I derived it was a song called, “All My Loving” – another track from the elusive “With The Beatles” LP!
All of which made this album even more tantalising - I absolutely had to have it but LPs were very expensive, especially for an 8 year-old with no steady income. Even if I’d sold my conkers and my crisp bag of caterpillars I’d still have come up short!
Then my parents came up with a brilliant idea, no doubt influenced by some persistent badgering from me – I was a good badger at that age! When my aunt was visiting, my mum she asked her if, instead of giving me a present for my up-coming birthday, she might instead like to reacquaint the correct Beatles album sleeve with the correct Beatles LP, and give that to me instead. To my delight, she actually thought that was an excellent idea - so my aunt took the “With The Beatles” sleeve and the “Help!” record home with her and I waited patiently for my birthday to come around.
On the big day of my 9th birthday, my aunt and uncle duly arrived with an LP-shaped gift, which I eagerly unwrapped – and there it was, finally the right LP in the right sleeve: the bloody “Help!” album!
Obviously I hid my disappointment at the time, and I wasn’t ungrateful because I was more than delighted to receive any Beatles LP as a gift, but secretly I was a bit gutted at the epic balls up!
On my next birthday, some 525,600 long minutes later, my aunt very kindly gave me the “With The Beatles” LP - my god it was well worth the wait – “Please Mister Postman” was even better than I dreamt it would be and “All I’ve Got to Do” is still one of my favourite songs ever! It was that same birthday I bought the “Rock ‘n’ Roll Music” LP and the obsession truly began!
From that day forward, I did not stop playing “With the Beatles” - I still have it today, although sadly it’s unplayable because, in the end, the grooves simply wore out!
How I got into The Beatles (and a few memories from a young fan)!
By my reckoning I became a Beatles fan between 1974 and 1976 but the reason I became such a fan in the first place I think is due to a combination of three things:
Reason One: In the early seventies, each Boxing Day, the BBC would show a Beatles’ film and I vividly remember enjoying “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Help!” as a kid.
Reason Two: My aunt was a massive fan – she apparently used to scream at Paul McCartney whenever he appeared on TV, much to the annoyance of my nan and grandad - and when in 1970, she left home to get married, she left a considerable number of Beatle singles, EPs, albums and the 1964 Christmas fan club record behind at my nan’s. When I discovered these records, one by one they found their way across the road to where I lived and into my little record box. Shhhhhhhh!
Reason Three: In 1976 every Beatle single was reissued and promoted in new sleeves and all re-entered the charts to varying degrees of success, so their records were readily accessible and their music was all over the radio. Plus, that same year, the double album “Rock ‘n’ Roll Music” was released, which I bought with the money I got for my 10th birthday.
So going back to Reason One then; watching those films as a kid prompted me to search through my mum and dad’s record collection, where I was lucky enough to find two Beatles LPs – “Please Please Me” and, conveniently, “A Hard Day’s Night” (and Band on the Run actually!). However, these albums proved far more difficult to prise from my parent’s grasp than any of my aunt’s unwitting hand-me-downs!
I guess I was too young to be allowed to play those LPs on my own record player, however under supervision I could play them on my mum and dad’s - I can still remember staring down at the black and yellow labels revolving on the turntable – it was quite mesmerising! But considering those LPs are not quite so playable now, I can appreciate my parents’ reluctance at letting their seven-year-old touch their vinyl!
I recall “I’m Happy Just to Dance With You” always got stuck on the line: “I don’t wanna kiss or hold your hand>kiss or hold your hand>kiss or hold your hand>kiss or hold your hand…”! But then I discovered EMITEX record cleaner and I was amazed when, after a good clean, it finally played through without sticking! I tried the same trick on “Love Me Do” on the “Please Please Me” LP but it didn’t work and still jumps on that track to this very day!
Reasons Two and Three: The “With the Beatles” Saga
It was early 1975, so I must have been eight-years-old, when The Carpenters entered the UK charts with “Please Mister Postman”. I absolutely loved that song, much to the chagrin of my dad who could not stand The Carpenters. He said they played "Sunday music", which was his way of saying their music fell into that dreaded bracket of “easy listening” – much-loved by old farts in beige comfortable slacks and knitted cardigans but certainly not by the likes of my dad, who had more discerning tastes and had been in an R ‘n’ B group throughout the sixties.
The Carpenters’ version, he said, was “lightweight rubbish and nowhere near as good as The Beatles’ version”.
“Wait, The Beatles recorded it?” I asked incredulously.
“Yes, it was a track on one of their LPs.” He didn’t know which one.
By then, I was technically a fan, so I knew it wasn’t on “Please Please Me” or “A Hard Day’s Night” but I simply had to find that song!
Up to this point I had just been playing (and “borrowing”) The Beatles singles and EPs left at my nan and grandad’s by my aunt but I knew there were some LPs stored in the wire rack beneath their record player. And, as my aunt had left her 7” singles behind when she left home, I hoped that she had also neglected to take her albums with her as well, you never knew your luck!
So, across the road I went to my nan and grandad’s and began searching through their LPs. Most of them belonged to my grandad though - Jim Reeves, Nat King Cole, Mrs Mills, the Cat Ballou soundtrack, Rubber Soul, With The Beatles... wait, what? Two Beatles LPs!
I removed both albums from the rack and scanned through the track listings on the back of both sleeves and bloody hell – and there it was: side 1, track 7 on the album with the black and white cover: “Please Mister Postman”.
Hurriedly, I slipped the LP from its sleeve, put it on the record player and dropped the needle at the start of the final track on side one and waited... “I think I’m gonna be sad, I think it’s today, yeah...” Hmmmm, this sounded absolutely nothing like the Carpenter’s version of “Please Mister Postman” – what was going on?
It soon transpired that the wrong album was in the wrong sleeve and I was in fact playing the “Help!” LP. Following an exhaustive search through the remaining LPs in the rack, the absent vinyl was nowhere to be found. So after all that, I still hadn’t heard The Beatles’ version of “Please Mister Postman” and I instead went off for a ride on my bike to play conkers with my schoolmates and collect caterpillars in a crisp bag.
For what felt like years (in reality a few months), all I could do was stare at that song title on the back cover and read the tantalising description given by Tony Barrow in his sleeve notes, longing for the day I would actually hear the bloody thing!
To make matters worse, while I was wandering round a record shop in Aldgate one day, they started playing the Red Album and I remember being so pleased, smug even, that I knew all the songs, when the next track stopped me dead in my tracks - it was literally the best thing I had ever heard and from the lyrics I derived it was a song called, “All My Loving” – another track from the elusive “With The Beatles” LP!
All of which made this album even more tantalising - I absolutely had to have it but LPs were very expensive, especially for an 8 year-old with no steady income. Even if I’d sold my conkers and my crisp bag of caterpillars I’d still have come up short!
Then my parents came up with a brilliant idea, no doubt influenced by some persistent badgering from me – I was a good badger at that age! When my aunt was visiting, my mum she asked her if, instead of giving me a present for my up-coming birthday, she might instead like to reacquaint the correct Beatles album sleeve with the correct Beatles LP, and give that to me instead. To my delight, she actually thought that was an excellent idea - so my aunt took the “With The Beatles” sleeve and the “Help!” record home with her and I waited patiently for my birthday to come around.
On the big day of my 9th birthday, my aunt and uncle duly arrived with an LP-shaped gift, which I eagerly unwrapped – and there it was, finally the right LP in the right sleeve: the bloody “Help!” album!
Obviously I hid my disappointment at the time, and I wasn’t ungrateful because I was more than delighted to receive any Beatles LP as a gift, but secretly I was a bit gutted at the epic balls up!
On my next birthday, some 525,600 long minutes later, my aunt very kindly gave me the “With The Beatles” LP - my god it was well worth the wait – “Please Mister Postman” was even better than I dreamt it would be and “All I’ve Got to Do” is still one of my favourite songs ever! It was that same birthday I bought the “Rock ‘n’ Roll Music” LP and the obsession truly began!
From that day forward, I did not stop playing “With the Beatles” - I still have it today, although sadly it’s unplayable because, in the end, the grooves simply wore out!