The Night People

“The Night Life” doesn’t refer to the in-crowd that hangs out at nightclubs, the theater and parties. The Night Life is lived by the waiters and performers who make the other one possible. When the play is over and the bars close, the night people emerge into an empty city. Counting their tips they decide between supper or seeking to be themselves amused and waited on in after-hours (and usually illegal) clubs hiding on the silent streets. Exhilarated from a successful performance and exhausted from a long evenings drudgery a strong kinship exists almost without any status conflict between performer and server. Others can go out after supper; night people can only go out before breakfast or go home. In either case, eventually home they go as the darkness fades, street lights go out and the first of the day workers yawn their way along the waking streets.

What is that pale half-life after midnight when we let it all hang out? I don’t think it can be described well enough for anyone who hasn’t experienced it. When a day is sunset to sunrise, you definitely see the world differently. A certain distain grows because they don’t know what you know, don’t experience what you’d seen; live farther from the edge of reality. Ordinary people, “customers,” “fans;” don’t count the way the other night people count. They seem conventional, stodgy; they can’t understand, they are out of touch with the reality you know. What the night people don’t understand, of course, is they are out of touch with the reality the rest of the world sees.

An Explanatory Note

I don’t plan to break my word to have daily posts and I’m grateful to everyone who has stopped by this blog already. It has not been publicized yet — that’s the project for this coming week and I’ve spent the last couple days gathering details of websites that might carry a banner as well as doing some more Beatle writing. As soon as I get that process going, I will be slotting a post here on a more regular basis.

Ringo Star 1

The first thing I want to be absolutely clear about, Ringo was not the dumb Beatle. Uneducated when we first met him because of missing so much school (we had home-bound teachers who went to wherever the sick kid was at that time in this country but obviously they didn’t in England) he obviously has done a great deal of reading an other forms of learning since. Not that he’d ever push our nose in it, “laid-back” can easily be defined as ‘like Ringo”. It’s a good thing Ringo IS so laid-back, there he was on a fragile looking little stool 3 to 6 feet above the stage on a platform hardly large enough to hold all his drums and I’ve never heard that he managed to fall off the damn thing! One spontaneous move and “woopsie!”

Ringo was always my favorite. Born three weeks after I was, we each in our own way ushered in WWII, Paris fell the day I was born and the first Nazi U-boat reached England the day Ringo was born. Although Ringo’s very easy-going personality saw him relegated to one of the “little brothers” of the Beatles, anyone who underestimates either his musical contributions to the group or his place in their popularity probably has the Lennon fetish. If nothing else, looking at him in the back, slouched relaxed at his drums, he is an important antidote from the frenetic activity of the others. Not that he didn’t have his own fire. Many drummers sit very still and may even seem a bit detached from what’s going on. Ringo moves, shakes his hair and from time to time and you can see him take off from time to time really into “hitting things”. Having fun is Ringo’s special place in life and he has the ability to bring everyone else with him.

Ringo had always wanted to play with the best and he was enthusiastic about joining The Beatles for that reason. Ringo never tired of touring though I suspect he was the most conscious that the screaming noise that became the ambience of their concerts was ruining them as musicians.

Ringo is the author of a number of lines upon which songs later hung. John was pleased to call them “Ringo’s malapropisms”. (“A Long Day’s Night” and “Tomorrow Never Knows” etc.) I’m not at all sure about that. They are too apt, too deep – I think he had a visceral understanding of the world we live in now, where such statements might be made by Stephen Hawking. Do you suppose that he knew exactly what he was saying? I noted particularly his comment “you can’t try to be married, you just have to be married” as probably the best comment on an attempt at reconciliation I’ve ever heard. Not only are his news conference witticisms very apt, they also don’t put anyone down.

All us troubled souls should be thankful that there are a few people who are happy with what they get. He seems to be one of those very rare individuals who aren’t always focused on self. Not to imply he’s a couch potatoes who is too lazy to think at all. He simply isn’t obsessed with how he’s seen or if he’s getting proper credit for what he is doing. So long as he has a few true and loyal friends, a good band and good music, he has little need to be the great star. He’s also endlessly forgiving – an important trait in anyone who needed to be around John and/or Paul.
Ringo was/is ambitious but not aggressive and appears to me to be content to rise to whatever point his talent made for him. I suspect no party lucky enough to have him present has been a flop. If his enjoyment led him close to alcoholism or any other addiction, he recognized it and cleaned up his act. I’d certainly invite him to any party of mine! In fact, if he’d come, I’d put together a party. His capacity to enjoy the particular minute he is living now is one that most of us could well afford to cultivate.

Hair

Even today in America short hair (on men) is seen by many as a sign of virtue. The military continues, for absolutely no known reason, to shave all (male) recruits bald and thereafter take a ruler to everyone’s (male) hair from PFCs to generals (who are usually bald anyway). My (male) friends with long hair continue to tell stories about the nasty comments made about their hair from bars to boardrooms. Republicans (male) wear their hair shorter then Democrats (also male) though in no case could their hair be called long. I notice that British writers on the Beatles somehow have never managed to comprehend the shock those “long-haired Beatles” were to every (female as well as male for once) one in America.

By ruler I’m sure the Beatles hair was far shorter, particularly in front, then Elvis’. Although Elvis had been castigated for his coiffeur, it was the grease as much as the length that was seen as too low-class and Southern. The Beatles hair on February 7, 1964, was slightly shorter then mine is at the moment since my last haircut was about three weeks ago. Although the newspapers went on and on about the length, combed differently it probably have been seen as slightly too long in the back. Bangs, most recently seen in the second-most dowdy First Lady (the current holder of that office has far surpassed Mamie) were only worn by women. Even men going bald, combed the last threads sideways in lank strands across their dome then in the more successful forward combing.

How America reached its hysterical (in men only despite the origin of the word) devotion to the idea that only short hair (on men) was moral, businesslike and most important, manly, doesn’t leap to my mind. George Washington, Davy Crockett and General Custer all had quite long hair as did Buffalo Bill and many US presidents. However and whyever it came to be so firmly planted in the national consciousness, long hair is seen to make men look ineffective, inefficient and, most important, sissy (i.e. homosexual). Televangelists, however, seem to be exempt, evidently being either queer or women in drag anyway.

The questions asked of the Beatles at news conferences certainly display how ignorant the average reporter (male) was of hair and/or women’s lives. “How do you sleep with all that hair?” one asked. Chances his wife had much longer hair but of course he’d never noticed – or perhaps he thought everyone not wearing a crew-cut had to try to sleep with their hair rolled around orange juice cans as his wife did (yes, it was a way to straighten curly hair). What was seen in Europe as eccentric but basically acceptable “mop tops” or “Hamlets” in the US were an offense against public morality.

You don’t see much mention in the books, but boys were kicked out of high school, physically forced by their fathers into barbershops and attacked on the street for copying the Beatles hairstyle. In the meantime, girls of ‘marriageable age’ were nearly required to have hair at least shoulder length while women past menopause might cut theirs short without risking being classes as too masculine (the word “lesbian” hadn’t yet achieved public notice). In Britain the screaming girls provided the primary culture shock of the early Beatles but in America, the hair was a serious threat to all real men. The fact that, obviously, women liked it implanted an insecurity that persists to this day.

Why Was It The Beatles?

Beatlemaniacs, scholars, fans and simple appreciators have a great many questions about the group from the personalities of each of the four to the background of the songs. The biggest question remains: why did it happen {to them}? IF this question had an easy answer, we wouldn’t still be asking it. As I said earlier, the words gestalt and synergy are very important in understanding the phenomenon of the Beatles. Something about the way the four members of the band interacted – and the obvious strength of their personal friendship – made them watchable. Other bands have been made up of good friends who played music well adapted for popular enjoyment though. The Beatles were blessed with people around them who each in their own way contributed to crafting something truly special.

I plan to talk about the contributions of the people who were in the Beatles’ team and who each contributed to their unprecedented popularity and success. The primary credit, however, must go to John, Paul, George and Ringo. They and no one else forged the bonds of friendship that were the foundation of their on and off-stage attraction. Yes, the personalities they, surely with Brian’s help and that of director Richard Lester, crafted were clear and simple, fit well enough to be sustainable, and highly attractive to their young audience. (Obviously, the constrictions of these roles became one of the pressures that ended the group.) Their suits were great and the ultra-slim cut of their pants, “drainies” for drain pipes, created a wonderful look. If you don’t believe me, watch the running around like nuts in a field scene in A Hard Days Night.

A lot of people also forget how hard they worked. They had played nearly 1,000 gigs before the night they appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show! They had played as many as three in a day each in a different venue and in Hamburg had played as much as six hours of actual playing in one night. Before their first real break, the Hamburg gig, they rehersed nearly every day as well as playing anyplace that would have them, sometimes for no pay of any sort. Once Brian took over their management, they did extensive touring appearing at a different venue every night, frequently then driving through the night to reach the next one. On one US tour they sang 30 concerts in 32 days (I think I’ve got the figures right.) They spent over 5 years learning their craft. Sudden celebrity it wasn’t.

More then anything else though, the secret of the Beatles is that they could clearly convey to everyone that they were having fun. Hearing them was fun, watching them was fun and I’m quite sure screaming your head off at their concerts was a lot of fun. Fun had been in very short supply in the 40s and 50s what with a world war and then the Cold War. If you’d had drills in grade school where you had to crawl under your desk and cover your head to save yourself from atom bombs and your family was trying to decide between buying a new car or building a bomb shelter in the back yard, you’d welcome some fun as well! In a lot of ways, the movie, A Hard Days Night, sums up the early attraction of the Beatles; energy, good music and FUN.

History, Imagination and the Slippery Nature of Truth

I am not going to reprise the biographies of any of the individual Beatles nor the history of the group. This information is widely available both on the internet an in numerous books – admittedly of variable accuracy. I will mention specific events as they shed light (or not) on my deductions and reactions.

The One True and Only history of the band and the individuals in and around it is obscured first by the agreed-upon responses to questions beginning at their first news conference/interview. I don’t know who was smart enough to realize that they wouldn’t like having everything about their lives exposed but all in all it was a very smart move despite the problems it may cause us now. Like anyone, they did have things to hide; things that wouldn’t fit into the nice clean image Brian Epstein was building for them. Beatle mysteries are being, is not solved, at least illuminated, all the time and anyone citing an event is in danger of finding it exploded the next day. That’s just the way things are.

I won’t generally be providing footnotes in this blog. If I dispute a published authority I anticipate including a citation. I won’t be able to go back and correct everything that might someday prove to be incorrect but I welcome comments pointing out such errors. Many “facts” about the Beatles and the times are legitimately a matter of discussion and belief and I do not apologize for the choices I have made.

However, most of my deductions have been made from a large number of moments – facts – rather then being based on a single event and I don’t and won’t feel that finding that one is a non-happening will do a great deal to change my ideas. On the other hand, my ideas and understanding of the people and events changes daily and sooner rather then later I will no doubt contradict myself. Interestingly enough, peoples’ behavior is frequently contradictory. Essentially, everything in Miss Marple’s Beatles is my opinion, nothing more and nothing less. I don’t expect you to agree with everything I say. I do expect you to disagree politely.

I think this is the last of my background posts — though I suppose questions will arise that will need a background type of answer. Luckily, I can catagorize posts so those of you interested in such things can read them and the rest can just enjoy whatever is current. *smiley* I plan to make posts in this blog relatively short. The post of one day may or may not relate to the post of the day before. I recommend using the Comment search function to put the parts together. I plan to have a new post every day for those of us who must have our Beatle fix. Obviously this isn’t going to work 100%. Yes, there will be an occasional post on current events including Paul McCartney’s divorce. Will there be any exposes? Possibly. Mostly the shocks will come from different angles of vision. Mostly this blog is intended to interest and amuse you.Only time will tell if I succeed.

All entries in this blog are © Copyright M. Marshall 2006. You may quote me on your own website or blog but you must place quotes in quotation marks and credit them to me. Otherwise readers will think you said it and you’ll have to take the heat!

A Few Words About My Musical Background

 

Since this whole Beatles thing has gotten completely out of hand, I decided that it might be a good idea to update you about my interest in the Beatles and how I came to write all this stuff. No, it doesn’t amount to a book but there’s a whole lot more then any rock magazine is going to publish!

I don’t exactly deserve the term “Beatlemanic” – I don’t scream a whole lot – but I’m afraid I’m going to have to plead guilty to “fan.” Their story is very interesting; the “lads” were/are very interesting individuals and the group, for which the terms “gestalt” and “synergy” keep coming up, (If you aren’t sure about the definitions of these words, please go to http://dictionary.com (or your favorite online dictionary) and look them up. They are important.) accomplished truly amazing and inexplicable things.

Remember folks, the music of my teens was rock-and-roll–I was 15 and at band camp (I played clarinet, bass clarinet, and bassoon. I also took beginning band in order to skip study hall and learned a bit about french horn and drums.) when Rock Around-the-Clock came out and we learned to do the bop. I never realized until I took up this research that I heard Rock Around The Clock within a week after it hit the top of the charts. Did you know that bop differed geographically? Although a pretty untypical 15-year old, I was just as blown away by it as anyone. Didn’t do any of us in small town Tennessee much good, no sock-hops or soda shops to dance in though I do remember dancing a bit at one of the two drug stores. As Rock and Roll began to wind down and I inched out of my teens, I renewed my early interest in folk. I heard The Beatles differently from the way younger people did. Remember that I was part of the “between generation” as in between the depression and WWII. There weren’t very many of us. I’ve never done the fan thing–not for Elvis, not for Bo Diddley, not even for Pat Boone (though I still know the words to Love Letters in the Sand).

I was a “folkie”, not really a performer (didn’t play guitar although I did buy a dulcimer.) I eventually knew quite a few of the performers well enough to spend evenings at the musicians table when I lived in an apartment right across the street from the back door of the Steamboat Lounge, a jazz club which had “Hootnanny Night” on Sundays. (A hootnanny was a performance by folk singers, probably paid very little.) My then husband and I rarely missed it. Later we hung out at The Shadows in Georgetown (Washington, DC neighborhood) and knew the house musicians well enough that we were invited to be part of the “Live at” audience for their (Carol Hedin and Donal Leace) shared album. [1963 The Cellar Door opens at 34th and M Streets, NW. WAMA Hall of Fame singer/songwriter Donal Leace headlined with blues (and folk) singer Carol Hedin opening the show. The club soon becomes known as “The Home of Donal Leace.”] (Except to those who knew it as the “home of Carol Hedin!”)

I returned to Tennessee in the fall of 1962 (to work on the Congressman’s reelection campaign) and stayed. I first heard of the Beatles in probably February of 1963. Yes, I do remember (not at all well as I will explain) seeing them perform on Ed Sullivan on February 9, 1964. No, I didn’t see their subsequent appearances. My father died on the 12th. The rest of the 60s for me were pretty full of work, motherhood (a single mother from 1965 on) and a bit of a swinger, mostly around Washington, DC again. I became a serious jazz fan and hung out at several of the jazz clubs in that town including Blues Alley with the Ramsey Lewis Trio? Quartet? Anyway, Keeter Betts was the bassman and I recognized his “walking bass” in Paul’s bass. And Tommy Chase, the opening act, took me home safe the only time I ever got drunk. Also hung out at a bottle club somewhere in Northern Virginia for the Tee Carson Trio with Wilbur Little on bass and at least two other jazz venues in town. Also visited Mr. Henry’s pub on Capitol Hill (where I lived) and heard Roberta Flack doing “The First Time”, a lovely song I first heard from Carol Hedin. (This song is actually what introduced me to Carol. She said as intro that she’d learned it from a friend named Oswald [name changed to protect the guilty]. I went up to her after her set and asked if that could possibly be the Oswald I knew. Turns out it was — I’d met him at the University of Tennessee a year before.)

I recognized many of the later Beatles songs but I’ve never been someone who knows who did this or that song. Radio simply isn’t very good about giving out the names unless they are doing a top whatever session. As my daughter said at the Beatles tribute band concert she took me to; “I didn’t know Come Together was a Beatles song.” Well, neither did I until I got into this research.

Of course the most important question is do I think I finally cured myself of having their songs running through my mind? You can suggest maybe better songs to have running through my mind? Obviously there have been great and wonderful songs written and/or performed by other soloists and groups during my lifetime. However I don’t think that any single individual group has produced quite so many remembered and welcome songs. I have come to the conclusion that I can easily deal with having Beatle songs in my head. After all it could be Swinging or Achy Breaky Heart. No, I’m not picking on country music, let’s not remember Teen Angel or Chapel in the Moonlight either.

In the course of this pleasant research I’ve also written a book, which might somewhat explain why it’s gone a bit slowly. I’ve watched the full 8 video-tape set of the Beatles Anthology a great many times. Actually I found when I got seriously into finishing the book, that having it on, not very loud, helped me get work done. I don’t necessarily pay much attention but when I look up I know what year it is and what’s going on and there’s always good music to listen to. If you haven’t watched the Anthology, I highly recommend it.

A new friend, met through this Beatles interest, has provided me with all the groups music, well, all that was formally issued except for the Anthology CDs, and I have rediscovered old favorites and heard a good few of their songs I hadn’t heard at the time and my respect for the band has grown very great.

Remember, I’m just about Ringo’s age (he was the oldest of the Beatles) but Paul and my birthday are 2 days (and 2 years) apart which I tend to believe has given me some special insight into him. Fair warning, my respect for Paul has grown a great deal and I don’t like John a bit better then ever.

 

How this all got started

Don’t stop to think; what were their names? If you said “John, Paul, George and Ringo” you may be getting old. If you are having trouble figuring out who these people are, you might as well go do something else, I don’t think you’ll understand.

Every few years there seems to be a Beatles moment; on Saturday, October 28, 2005, one crashed down on me. Maybe because a new bio came out Tuesday—but I don’t think so. I’d run across a reference in a book to “the saddest song the Beatles wrote” and put the first greatest hits album on to hear “Yesterday” which I assumed was the song the author meant. Several of the songs kept sticking in my mind and I couldn’t root them out even by playing the whole series. So I gave up and started playing 1994s 6 hours of the Beatles Anthology that I had video-taped off the TV – which I enjoyed a great deal.

I was 22, in bed with Asian Flu and just barely pregnant with my daughter when the first whisper hit in the US. I then lived with carpet sample rugs, a couch made of an interior door with legs and foam pads in a little bitty frame house on some hidden back street beside the railroad tracks. No, I wasn’t one of the screaming girls ready to do almost anything to get within sighting distance of them. I was 10 years too old for that to begin with and not that sort of “fan” in any case. At the time they were, in John Lennon’s words (much, much later) “just another rock band”. There were many rock bands and many of them are still remembered and played an important part in the history of our times. I just remember thinking it was a strange name and wondering if with the change in spelling they had changed the pronunciation.

Were the Beatles special? Yes, I think they were. A lot because “the boys” were distinctive, “clean-cut” and handsome. They were also very appealing. They were “nice” boys and they had a very special ability to communicate that they were having fun. And for a good many years they simply did have fun with what they were doing and who they were. They were doing something they really loved doing and were monumentally successful at it.

But why am I obsessing about them and why now? I haven’t completely figured that out. In some ways the story of the Beatles was also the story of the best of the 60s (most decades start late and bleed over a bit into the next.) Simple nostalgia for my youth? I think the words and tunes are haunting me because then we had hope and that’s something really difficult to find these days. What makes the difference? Then the main enemy was comfort and complacency. Now it’s unashamed greed and a good bit of hostility towards just about everyone the activists of the 60s wanted to help. Womens’ Lib became Feminism became Feminatzies and political correctness. Alleviating the vicious abuse of the mentally ill in asylums became street people. When all legal bars to integration were destroyed, the African American community concentrated on education and economic issues – concerns of the middle classes.

The music of my teens was rock-and-roll–I was 15 and at band camp (clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, drums, french horn) when Rock Around-the-Clock came out and we learned to do the bop. I never realized until I took up this research that I heard Rock Around The Clock within a week after it hit the top of the charts. Did you know that bop differed geographically? Although a pretty untypical 15-year old, I was just as blown away by it as anyone. Didn’t do any of us in small town Tennessee much good, no sock-hops or soda shops to dance in though I do remember dancing a bit at one of the two drug stores. As Rock and Roll began to wind down and I inched out of my teens, I renewed my early interest in folk. I heard The Beatles differently from the way younger people did. Remember that I was part of the “between generation” as in between the depression and WWII. There weren’t very many of us. I’ve never done the fan thing–not for Elvis, not for Bo Diddley, not even for Pat Boone (though I still know the words to Love Letters in the Sand).

I was a “folkie”, not really a performer (didn’t play guitar although I did buy a dulcimer) but I still know the words to hundreds if not thousands of songs. I eventually knew quite a few of the performers well enough to spend evenings at the musicians table when I lived in an apartment right across the street from the back door of the Steamboat Lounge, a jazz club which had “Hootnanny Night” on Sundays. My then husband and I rarely missed it. Later we hung out at The Shadows in Georgetown (Washington, DC neighborhood) and knew the house musicians well enough that we were invited to be part of the “Live at” audience for their (Carol Hedin and Donal Leace) shared album. [1963 The Cellar Door opens at 34th and M Streets, NW. WAMA Hall of Fame singer/songwriter Donal Leace headlined with blues (and folk) singer Carol Hedin opening the show. The club soon becomes known as “The Home of Donal Leace.”] Except to those who knew it as the home of Carol Hedin!

If you’ve read Barry Miles book on Paul McCartney, I spent time in those barely furnished rooms with instruments all over the floor, cheap wine and lots of philosophy. (Not much pot in my background, I’m allergic to it.) I was on the staff of an underground newspaper and, through my job with the American Jewish Committee, did support organization for a number of huge demonstrations.

Yes, I do remember (not at all well as I will explain) seeing them perform on Ed Sullivan on February 9, 1964. No, I didn’t see their subsequent appearances. My father died on the 12th. The rest of the 60s for me were pretty full of work, motherhood (a single mother from 1965 on) and a bit of swinging, mostly around Washington, DC. I became a serious jazz fan and hung out at several of the jazz clubs in that town including Blues Alley with the Ramsey Lewis Quartet. Keeter Betts was the bassman and I recognized his “walking bass” in Paul’s bass. Tommy Chase, the opening act, took me home safe the only time I ever got drunk. Somewhere in Northern Virginia for the Tee Carson Trio with Wilbur Little on bass and at least two other jazz venues in town. Not to mention some nameless ‘blind pigs’ (after hours bars.) Also visited Mr. Henry’s pub on Capitol Hill (where I lived) and heard Roberta Flack doing “The First Time”, a lovely song I first heard from Carol Hedin. My across-the-street-neighbor even invited me to ride up to that huge rock concert in the summer of 1969 but I decided that walking 8 miles from the closest we were likely to be able to park wasn’t a good choice with a 5-year old along!

I recognized many of the later Beatles songs but I’ve never been someone who knows who did this or that song. Radio simply isn’t very good about giving out the names unless they are doing a top whatever session. As my daughter said at the Beatles tribute band concert she took me to; “I didn’t know Come Together was a Beatles song.” Well, neither did I until I got into this research.

Of course the most important question is do I think I finally cured myself of having their songs running through my mind? You can suggest maybe better songs to have running through my mind? Obviously there have been great and wonderful songs written and/or performed by other soloists and groups during my lifetime. However I don’t think that any single individual group has produced quite so many remembered and welcome songs. I have come to the conclusion that I can easily deal with having Beatle songs in my head. After all it could be Swinging or, Goddess preserve me, Achy Breaky Heart. No, I’m not picking on country music, let’s not remember Teen Angel or Chapel in the Moonlight either.

In the course of this pleasant research I’ve also written a book, which might somewhat explain why it’s gone a bit slowly. I’ve watched the full 8 video-tape set of the Beatles Anthology a great many times. Actually I found when I got seriously into finishing the book, that having it on, not very loud, helped me get work done. I don’t necessarily pay much attention but when I look up I know what year it is and what’s going on and there’s always good music to listen to. If you haven’t watched the Anthology, I highly recommend it.

A new friend, met through this Beatles interest, has provided me with all the groups music, well, all that was formally issued except for the Anthology CDs, and I have rediscovered old favorites and heard a good few of their songs I hadn’t heard at the time and my respect for the band has grown very great.

Remember, I’m just about Ringo’s age (he was the oldest of the Beatles) but Paul and my birthdays are 2 days (and 2 years) apart which I tend to believe has given me some special insight into him. Fair warning, my respect for Paul has grown a great deal and I don’t like John a bit better then ever.