When John and Paul McCartney met for the first time
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6th July 1957, John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time at The Woolton Church Parish Fete where The Quarry Men were appearing. As The Quarry Men were setting up for their evening performance, McCartney eager to impress Lennon picked up a guitar and played ?Twenty Flight Rock? (Eddie Cochran) and ?Be-Bop-A-Lula? (Gene Vincent). Lennon was impressed, and even more so when McCartney showed Lennon and Eric Griffiths how to tune their guitars, something they'd been paying someone else to do for them. Vote for your fave Beatles album. http//www.thisdayinmusic.com/pages/favorite_beatles_album
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What a wonderful day! I wish I could go back in time and see them meet and watch/hear them hang out together.
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I still find it rather absurd that John could supposedly play guitar (at least enough chords to play a song) and not know how to tune one. Tuning a guitar is easy once you get at least one string in proper pitch (historically the A string or the second string from the left when facing the fretboard). I think his mother taught him a banjo tuning for some reason and he learned to play some banjo chords on the guitar. If this were the case then I would imagine it wouldn't have been very hard to impress Lennon with even the most rudimentary knowledge of the instrument The whole story is a bit weird!
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further edited....
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As usual I don't get the "disconnect" from my post to your reply. Conspiracy theory? Huh? Have you ever tuned a guitar? Gotta run--my hamburger made of sacred cow is getting cold!
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In the Spirit of the Day of Saint Paul and Saint John meeting for the first time I send THE WORD of LOVE to everyone! I am in sincere Gratitude to the Universe for allowing the boys to meet and giving us ALL the wonder we have received in return through their music and message of being ONE.
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Greenpea:
6th July 1957, John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time at The Woolton Church Parish Fete where The Quarry Men were appearing. As The Quarry Men were setting up for their evening performance, McCartney eager to impress Lennon picked up a guitar and played ?Twenty Flight Rock? (Eddie Cochran) and ?Be-Bop-A-Lula? (Gene Vincent). Lennon was impressed, and even more so when McCartney showed Lennon and Eric Griffiths how to tune their guitars, something they'd been paying someone else to do for them. Vote for your fave Beatles album. http://www.thisdayinmusic.com/pages/favorite_beatles_album
A little known fact is later that day, the two of them had already started writing songs for the Pepper album. Paul took the lead on "When I'm 64", & the rest is history...
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JoeySmith:
Greenpea:
6th July 1957, John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time at The Woolton Church Parish Fete where The Quarry Men were appearing. As The Quarry Men were setting up for their evening performance, McCartney eager to impress Lennon picked up a guitar and played ?Twenty Flight Rock? (Eddie Cochran) and ?Be-Bop-A-Lula? (Gene Vincent). Lennon was impressed, and even more so when McCartney showed Lennon and Eric Griffiths how to tune their guitars, something they'd been paying someone else to do for them. Vote for your fave Beatles album. http://www.thisdayinmusic.com/pages/favorite_beatles_album
A little known fact is later that day, the two of them had already started writing songs for the Pepper album. Paul took the lead on "When I'm 64", & the rest is history...
Yeah, that's the way it works. You may finish a song, poem, story much later in life. I try never to throw any of my writing away for that very reason.
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It is also hard to judge when something is "finished". I guess when you have a deadline for publication/recording, that means it is finished!
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Thank God John met Paul on that beautiful day! Had they not met, there's a good chance that Rock n' Roll would have died after 1959! With Elvis going in the Army, Chuck Berry in jail, Little Richard going into the ministry and the death's of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, Rock n' Roll was on the verge of dying! In more ways than one, THE BEATLES SAVED ROCK N' ROLL! Hail Hail Rock n' Roll!
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jl4761 wrote:
Thank God John met Paul on that beautiful day! Had they not met, there's a good chance that Rock n' Roll would have died after 1959! With Elvis going in the Army, Chuck Berry in jail, Little Richard going into the ministry and the death's of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, Rock n' Roll was on the verge of dying! In more ways than one, THE BEATLES SAVED ROCK N' ROLL! Hail Hail Rock n' Roll!
DITTO!!
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jl4761 wrote:
Thank God John met Paul on that beautiful day! Had they not met, there's a good chance that Rock n' Roll would have died after 1959! With Elvis going in the Army, Chuck Berry in jail, Little Richard going into the ministry and the death's of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, Rock n' Roll was on the verge of dying! In more ways than one, THE BEATLES SAVED ROCK N' ROLL! Hail Hail Rock n' Roll!
Let’s not forget that our country was in mourning after JFK was assassinated on November 22, 1963. It seems that the world was waiting for something to lift its spirits, IT BECAME THE BEATLES! Long live Rock and Roll
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love2travel wrote:
jl4761 wrote:
Thank God John met Paul on that beautiful day! Had they not met, there's a good chance that Rock n' Roll would have died after 1959! With Elvis going in the Army, Chuck Berry in jail, Little Richard going into the ministry and the death's of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, Rock n' Roll was on the verge of dying! In more ways than one, THE BEATLES SAVED ROCK N' ROLL! Hail Hail Rock n' Roll!
Let’s not forget that our country was in mourning after JFK was assassinated on November 22, 1963. It seems that the world was waiting for something to lift its spirits, IT BECAME THE BEATLES! Long live Rock and Roll
Absolutely!
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Regarding Paul teaching John how to tune the guitar, this doesn't mean John was playing out of tune. As someone has already pointed out, John's mum taught him banjo tuning and chords. I think he was mainly using just four strings.
Paul taught him how to tune all six strings properly.
What I find really remarkable, was that Paul played Twenty Flight Rock and other songs on a guitar that was strung for a right-handed player. In effect, he played those songs upside down, which is an amazing skill (Hendrix could do that too, and some left handed players like surf rocker Dick Dale always played the guitar upside down). This fascinating detail is often left out of the John-meets-Paul story.
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Jeffrey C wrote:
Regarding Paul teaching John how to tune the guitar, this doesn't mean John was playing out of tune. As someone has already pointed out, John's mum taught him banjo tuning and chords. I think he was mainly using just four strings.
Paul taught him how to tune all six strings properly.
What I find really remarkable, was that Paul played Twenty Flight Rock and other songs on a guitar that was strung for a right-handed player. In effect, he played those songs upside down, which is an amazing skill (Hendrix could do that too, and some left handed players like surf rocker Dick Dale always played the guitar upside down). This fascinating detail is often left out of the John-meets-Paul story.
I was just reading Carlin's version of how Paul reversed everything. He had to "restring the instrument in opposite order and flip it over so he could form chords with his right hand." I've always admired Paul's innovation, too, Jeffrey. He definitely knows how to think outside the box.
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In regards to JL4761's comment, The Beatles not only saved rock 'n' roll, they reinvented it.
In effect, they invented the rock band. Before the Fab 4, all bands were backing bands, instrumental combos or vocal groups. After the Beatles, thousands of rock bands emerged that weren't necessarily backing a star front man, often with several singers, and mostly writing their own material instead of relying on supplied songs or doing cover versions.
The Beatles, more than any other band, turned the music industry on its head. Many may disagree, but I believe they had a more seismic impact than Elvis. Their impact is still being felt today.
How did the only two young rock 'n' rollers in Liverpool who were writing their own songs come to meet each other? Fluke? Fate? I don't know, but I guess it was meant to happen.
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Jeffrey C wrote:
In regards to JL4761's comment, The Beatles not only saved rock 'n' roll, they reinvented it.
In effect, they invented the rock band. Before the Fab 4, all bands were backing bands, instrumental combos or vocal groups. After the Beatles, thousands of rock bands emerged that weren't necessarily backing a star front man, often with several singers, and mostly writing their own material instead of relying on supplied songs or doing cover versions.
The Beatles, more than any other band, turned the music industry on its head. Many may disagree, but I believe they had a more seismic impact than Elvis. Their impact is still being felt today.
How did the only two young rock 'n' rollers in Liverpool who were writing their own songs come to meet each other? Fluke? Fate? I don't know, but I guess it was meant to happen.
It was Kismet!
I don’t know about the rest of you, but my life would have been much less fun without the Beatles! (I would, however, have considerably more money!)
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NancyR, what would that money be worth compared to the wonderful music and experiences? Not much, I'm sure you'd agree.
As Paul says: We always come back to the songs we were singing at any particular time. What an amazing influence they've had on millions of lives, and I've discovered so much other music because of them. For me, they're the launching pad for my love of music.
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Jeffrey C wrote:
NancyR, what would that money be worth compared to the wonderful music and experiences? Not much, I'm sure you'd agree.
As Paul says: We always come back to the songs we were singing at any particular time. What an amazing influence they've had on millions of lives, and I've discovered so much other music because of them. For me, they're the launching pad for my love of music.
That was just a joke Jeffrey, that’s why I put the I would much rather have The Beatles in my life than the money.