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.

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