FEATURE:
The Musical Big Bang
IN THIS PHOTO: John Lennon with The Quarry Men (1957)/ALL PHOTOS (unless credited otherwise): Getty Images/Press
Why John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s First Meeting Is the Most Important Moment in Music
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YOU will have to forgive the lack of original imagery…
because, back in 1957, there were few snaps of Paul McCartney and John Lennon! It may not be timely or celebrating an anniversary, but I wanted to look at a moment, I feel, is the most important in all of music. We can argue when music changed forever and what the most important moment is. Some see the explosion of Blues as revolutionary; the 1960s and the wave of fantastic bands that came through – some see more modern innovations and breakthroughs as more vital. I look at the album cover of Please Please Me (The Beatles’ debut) and that famous shot of the quartet looking at the camera from a balcony – from the stairwell of EMI’s base in London. They are all smiles: the excitement of launching their first L.P. and delivering it to the world. That album came out in 1963 and, thinking back; how did the greatest band who ever live come together? Many might say it is when the foursome was complete – after Pete Best departed and the classic line-up gelled – or when the debut album came out. To me, The Beatles’ beginning was back in 1957 when John Lennon met Paul McCartney for the first time. On 6th July, if you are not familiar with the details; this is how the 1960s’ best songwriting duo got together:
“In the afternoon the Quarrymen skiffle group played at the garden fete of St Peter's Church, Woolton, Liverpool. The performance took place on a stage in a field behind the church. In the band were Lennon (vocals, guitar), Eric Griffiths (guitar), Colin Hanton (drums), Rod Davies (banjo), Pete Shotton (washboard) and Len Garry (tea chest bass).
The group arrived on the back of a lorry. As well as music, there were craft and cake stalls, games of hoop-la, police dog demonstrations and the traditional crowning of the Rose Queen. The fete was a highlight of the year for the residents of the sleepy Liverpool district.
The entertainment began at two p.m. with the opening procession, which entailed one or two wonderfully festooned lorries crawling at a snail's pace through the village on their ceremonious way to the Church field. The first lorry carried the Rose Queen, seated on her throne, surrounded by her retinue, all dressed in pink and white satin, sporting long ribbons and hand-made roses in their hair. These girls had been chosen from the Sunday school groups, on the basis of age and good behaviour.
The following lorry carried various entertainers, including the Quarry Men. The boys were up there on the back of the moving lorry trying to stay upright and play their instruments at the same time. John gave up battling with balance and sat with his legs hanging over the edge, playing his guitar and singing. He continued all through the slow, slow journey as the lorry puttered its way along. Jackie and I leaped alongside the lorry, with our mother laughing and waving at John, making him laugh. He seemed to be the only one who was really trying to play and we were really trying to put him off! - Julia Baird, Imagine This
“That evening the group were due to play again, minus Colin Hanton, this time at the Grand Dance in the church hall on the other side of the road. They were due on stage at 8pm, and admission to the show, in which the Quarrymen alternated on stage with the George Edwards Band, was two shillings.
While setting up their equipment to play, the Quarrymen's sometime tea-chest bass player, Ivan Vaughan, introduced the band to one of his classmates from Liverpool Institute, the 15-year-old Paul McCartney.
IN THIS PHOTO: John Lennon and Paul McCartney (circa 1962/1963)/PHOTO CREDIT: Pinterest/Press
This historic occasion was the first time McCartney met John Lennon, one year his senior. McCartney wore a white jacket with silver flecks, and a pair of black drainpipe trousers.
The pair chatted for a few minutes, and McCartney showed Lennon how to tune a guitar – the instruments owned by Lennon and Griffiths were in G banjo tuning. McCartney then sang Eddie Cochran's Twenty Flight Rock and Gene Vincent's Be-Bop-A-Lula, along with a medley of songs by Little Richard.
I remember coming into the fete and seeing all the sideshows. And also hearing all this great music wafting in from this little Tannoy system. It was John and the band.
I remember I was amazed and thought, 'Oh great', because I was obviously into the music. I remember John singing a song called Come Go With Me. He'd heard it on the radio. He didn't really know the verses, but he knew the chorus. The rest he just made up himself.
I just thought, 'Well, he looks good, he's singing well and he seems like a great lead singer to me.' Of course, he had his glasses off, so he really looked suave. I remember John was good. He was really the only outstanding member, all the rest kind of slipped away” - Paul McCartney, 1995, Record Collector
“Lennon was equally impressed with McCartney, who showed natural talent for singing songs that the Quarrymen worked hard to accomplish. McCartney also recalled performing on the church hall piano”
“I also knocked around on the backstage piano and that would have been A Whole Lot Of Shakin' by Jerry Lee. That's when I remember John leaning over, contributing a deft right hand in the upper octaves and surprising me with his beery breath. It's not that I was shocked, it's just that I remember this particular detail” - Paul McCartney
John Lennon, Philip Norman
That is a lot of cribbing from the history books – the actual smells and sights might be clearer to Paul McCartney. It seems strange to think that the then-teenagers would start The Beatles and, eight years from their first encounter, they’d record the debut album! It may sound like a long time considering The Beatles’ commercial career lasted about the same length of time. I feel the birth of modern music began when The Beatles’ lead songwriters found one another. If McCartney and Lennon had not met back in 1957 at that modest fete; they might never have ever met – would we have seen the band form at all or would each member record solo?! McCartney was, at that time, a superior musician to Lennon and taught the young Liverpudlian new skills and songs. McCartney’s repertoire and natural skill impressed Lennon. There were amazement and mutual affection between the songwriters during The Beatles’ regency – it sort of died down after the first few years of their career. The teenage eye-opening and discovery drove both of them to dive into music an open their horizons. We can trace music way back hundreds of years and say the likes of Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly pushed music to the masses.
IN THIS PHOTO: St Peter's Church, Woolton
Everyone has their own opinion as to when the music universe was created. I think the fateful and charming meeting of Paul McCartney and John Lennon started everything. One can smell the cigarettes being dragged and the boys hanging out and sneaking a crafty drink here and there. I guess the 1957 performance by The Quarry Men did not set Woolton alive back then – it did usher in John Lennon as a local fixture and someone who was a cut above his peers. I am not sure how much musical experience McCartney had at the time but it is clear he drooled over records and practiced playing as much as he could. Even though McCartney played bass for The Beatles; he had serious guitar skills from the start and, as I said, was teaching John Lennon a few tricks. The clear affection and respect between the schoolboys meant working together was inevitable. The reason I am writing about The Beatles, now, is a feature that ran on Yoko Ono as she spoke with The Guardian. She was looking back at her life with John Lennon and returning to Liverpool for her Double Fantasy exhibition. The life of The Beatles began way back in 1957 but, with Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr still alive and well; there are many more years of stories and memories.
IN THIS PHOTO: Paul McCartney and John Lennon performing with The Quarry Men
It is strange thinking about the first conversation between a young Lennon and McCartney. It is inevitable Lennon would have had that confidence and been curious about this new star. I guess there would have been jokes but a bit of mutual jealousy, too. How, then, did McCartney come to join Lennon’s band and start playing – the previously-quoted article takes up the story:
“…After the Quarrymen's show the group, along with Ivan Vaughan and McCartney, went to a Woolton pub where they lied about their ages to get served.
Later on, Lennon and Pete Shotton discussed the young McCartney, and whether to invite him to join their group. For Lennon it was a dilemma – should he admit a talented member who may pose a challenge to his own superiority within the group, or should he persist without McCartney, retaining his leadership yet likely consigning the group to failure?
They decided McCartney would be an asset, and roughly two weeks later Shotton encountered McCartney cycling through Woolton. Paul mulled over the invitation to join, and eventually agreed to join the Quarrymen's ranks”.
After joining The Quarry Men; things broke down in the band and, eventually, they mutated into The Beatles. You can picture those early Quarrymen sets with Lennon and McCartney together; both learning from one another and performing a range of cover songs. Although The Quarry Men are still playing; it is the way Lennon and McCartney developed and grew after that time that fascinates me. Their bond and talent outshone everything else and the closeness they shared led to the most successful songwriting partnership in popular music.
IN THIS PHOTO: The Beatles (circa 1960)
It is debatable the Liverpool legends would have met under other circumstances but does that July day back in 1957 hold an energy and opportunity other times would not have? What I mean is, if they had met a year later in another part of the country; would they have discussed music and playing together – or would it have been a fruitless endeavour? I feel the fact Lennon was playing in Woolton with The Quarry Men and playing Skiffle, on the day he met McCartney, made the difference. Today, we hear about musicians meeting online or at some huge festival. The fact the future-stadium-fillers met at a rather small and, I assume, boring fete makes the tale all the more wonderful and unexpected. John Lennon and Paul McCartney would form The Beatles in 1960: a few short years after the boys joined forces and bounced off one another. I love The Beatles’ early period and the work they produced between 1962 and 1965. I feel that was them at their most free and exciting; before they went psychedelic and pushed the studio to the very limits. Without that meeting and genius songwriters discovering one another; I argue whether The Beatles would ever have come to be. The Beatles and always will be the most important and biggest band in the world. They have inspired more musicians than anyone else – tracing the beginning of The Beatles is when we can see the birth of popular music. There were some great artists in the 1950s but it was The Beatles’ explosion and evolution that changed the world. It has been nearly sixty-one years (amazingly!) since Lennon and McCartney met and had that incredible first conversation. Their foundation might have been modest but, unbeknownst to them, that 1957 seduction would lead to a band…
IN THIS PHOTO: The Beatles (circa 1963)
THAT changed music forever.
