Pop Music, Culture and Identity Series Editors Steve Clark Graduate School Humanities and Sociology University of Tokyo Bunkyo-ku , Tokyo , Japan Tristanne Connolly Department of English St Jerome’s University Waterloo , Ontario , Canada Jason Whittaker School of English & Journalism University of Lincoln Lincoln , Lincolnshire , United Kingdom Pop music lasts. A form all too often assumed to be transient, commer- cial and mass-cultural has proven itself durable, tenacious and continually evolving. As such, it has become a crucial component in defi ning vari- ous forms of identity (individual and collective) as infl uenced by factors such as nation, class, gender, ethnicity, location/situation, and historical period. Pop Music, Culture and Identity investigates the implications of this greatly enhanced status. Particular attention will be paid to issues such as the iconography of celebrity, the ever-expanding archive, the nature of the performance-event, the parameters of generational memory, and the impact of new technologies on global marketing. In particular, the series aims to highlight interdisciplinary approaches and incorporate the informed testimony of the fan alongside a challenging diversity of aca- demic methodologies. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/14537 Kenneth Womack • Katie Kapurch Editors New Critical Perspectives on the Beatles Things We Said Today Editors Kenneth Womack Katie Kapurch Wayne D. McMurray School Department of English of Humanities & Social Sciences Texas State University Monmouth University San Marcos West Long Branch Texas New Jersey USA USA Pop Music, Culture and Identity ISBN 978-1-137-57012-3 ISBN 978-1-137-57013-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-57013-0 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016939269 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016 The author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identifi ed as the author(s) of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub- lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Macmillan Publishers Ltd. London For L.A. Wilson (1942–2015) PREFACE: HOW D ID THEY DO IT? Walter J. Podrazik There is a short path to Beatles fandom. Listen. Enjoy. For scholars, there is then the far more circuitous journey the pleasure of that initial musical company inspires. Searching for an understanding of what just happened. What touched us? Why did it work? Why does it still work? When it comes to the Beatles the puzzle is captured in a pair of decep- tively simple queries: How did they do it? How do they still do it? New Critical Perspectives on the Beatles: Things We Said Today brings together a range of thinkers about the band, including respected writers, researchers, musicians, and academics. They are, in short, a gathering of kindred spirits. As we consider the Beatles’ impact more than fi fty years later, it would be a mistake to suggest that fi ve decades’ distance has been necessary to engage in critical exchanges. In fact, the quest for understanding the how and why of the Beatles began practically at the moment of arrival of the Fab Four. At fi rst, the discussions in 1964 were generational. Adults/parents were simply attempting to understand what the kids (their children) saw in the raucous, long-haired group. Very quickly, though, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr established their individual vii viii W. PODRAZIK identities, cemented by the documentary-like feature fi lm A Hard Day’s Night . Even more striking, the four matured and developed in public with amazing speed, changing the tone of discussion to a fascination at their continued and sustained accomplishments through the 1960s. There was no shortage of media coverage through touring days and feature fi lms, psychedelic imagery in the Summer of Love, peace anthems, hallucinogens, meditation, love, marriage, luscious pure studio produc- tions, and their sudden, public, rancorous breakup in 1970. By 1971 each of the Beatles was well into a solo career, in the pro- cess creating an instant sense of nostalgia for their group recordings. Simultaneously the desire to put that history and its accomplishments into perspective began to emerge. That’s where I came into the story in my fi rst forays into Beatles research. At Northwestern University, I had just met my future writ- ing partner Harry Castleman and we quickly established ourselves at the school’s radio station (WNUR) as the Beatles experts. When there was a Beatles question, people turned to us. In response, we found ourselves constantly learning something new, and realizing how much we did not yet know. Much to our annoyance. This was a pre–Internet world. A pre-personal computer world. A pre- digital recording world. A pre-personal video recording of any kind world. Information on television fl ickered and was gone. Stories in print were hid- den in stacks of newspapers and magazines, just daring you to fi nd them. Repeatedly, to the general public, seemingly straightforward informa- tion about the Beatles proved surprisingly elusive, despite some seven years of nonstop media coverage of the group to that point. The embarrassingly simple question of naming the fi rst Beatles record led either to a confi dently inaccurate answer or to a pleasant shrug. What were their number one hits? (Weren’t they all ?) Locating all the songs in the group’s offi cial canon was a challenge, matched only by naming all the songs in the offi cial canon. Even the group’s own US company (Capitol, which distributed Apple Records) had a mixed record on capturing historical detail back then. Its discography sheets that accompanied the pair of 1973 compilations (the red-sleeve-packaged 1962–1966 and the blue-sleeve-packaged 1967–1970 ) identifi ed the song “A Hard Day’s Night” as being from Help! In that early 1970s era, John, Paul, George, and Ringo themselves were also otherwise focused, ready to take the conversation to another level as PREFACE: HOW DID THEY DO IT? ix fl ourishing solo artists. The past was then, they were now. Yet at the same time they were regularly referencing their legacy, overtly and obliquely, in songs and interviews. Lennon famously “trash-talked” the Beatles experience in the 1971 Rolling Stone “Lennon Remembers” interview. Musically he sent barbs directly toward McCartney in “How Do You Sleep?” on Imagine , while Paul needled John’s public posturing with “Too Many People” on Ram . Harrison lamented the group’s ongoing legal entanglements with his “Sue Me Sue You Blues” on Living in the Material World , while Ringo in “Early 1970” (the fl ip of the “It Don’t Come Easy” single) sang about wanting to play with all three. As a result, the Beatles story in the years after their break-up was deeply embedded in the public consciousness, but in a fractured mosaic of images, musical riffs, moments in world history, and personal memory hooks. In that early 1970s era, despite all the published stories about the Beatles, fi nding anything on the shelf going beyond a surface press release level was challenging. Yes, there was the authorized 1968 Hunter Davies Beatles biography, but not only did that end just past the Sgt. Pepper era, its treatment of their discography was almost perfunctory, even though records were how most people knew them. The musical story was there, but with limited context available for indi- viduals to add to their own warm associations with their favorite Beatles releases. Those connections keyed Beatles hits to their own lives, but it was essentially a different Beatles story for everyone. To better appreciate the group’s narrative, it seemed important to cap- ture facts that could be applied to anyone’s observations, putting them into some manageable, quantifi able form. With that goal in mind, my fi rst personal Beatles research project set a simple goal: track every week’s chart movement of every Beatles single (group and solo) released in the United States since 1964. Here the resources were accessible and on the local Northwestern University library shelves: bound volumes of Billboard magazine. Armed with those, speculation and fuzzy memories yielded to straightforward facts. Castleman and I used that research to promote his 10-week Beatles radio series on WNUR. Reaction to those facts and fi gures was remarkable. Listeners welcomed this informative roadmap to history. There was more to come two years later. As our send-off on departing the station, Harry and I hosted a sev- enteen-hour live radio history of the Beatles. x W.