Yesterday
Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away.
Now it looks as though they're here to stay,
Oh, I believe in yesterday.
Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be.
There's a shadow hanging over me,
Oh, yesterday came suddenly.
Why she had to go, I don't know, she wouldn't say.
I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday.
Yesterday love was such an easy game to play,
Now I need a place to hide away,
Oh, I believe in yesterday.
Why she had to go, I don't know, she wouldn't say.
I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday.
Yesterday love was such an easy game to play,
Now I need a place to hide away,
Oh, I believe in yesterday.
John Lennon, guitar, vocals
Paul McCartney, bass, vocals
George Harrison, guitar, vocals
Ringo Star, drums, vocals
All four born in Liverpool – Lennon - October 9, 1940; McCartney – June 18,1942; Harrison – February 25, 1943; Star – July 7, 1940.
Under the guidance of producer George Martine – he played an important part in their career until almost the very end – the first single, LOVE ME DO, was a minor hit towards the end of the year; but it was not until 1963 and PLEASE PLEASE ME, which topped the U.K. charts, that the ball started rolling for what the national press was to dub “Beatlemania”.
Two more hits – FROM ME TO YOU, SHE LOVES YOU – followed, as well as their debut album PLEASE PLEASE ME, but it was not until their fifth single, I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND, was promoted by CAPITAL records in the U.S. that the group achieved recognition there in 1964.
By mid-64 the band was touring almost continuously in the U.K., Europe, the U.S., and Australia and after the sixth hit, CAN’T BUY ME LOVE, made their first feature film, A HARD DAY’S NIGHT, directed by Dick Lester from a script by Alun Owen.
Other hits, song and films, followed. Among them such songs as HELP, TICKET TO RIDE, ALL MY LOVING and many, many more.
The Beatles were the first rock band to bridge the generation gap – they did appeal to everyone from eight to 80.
Adapted and abridges from
When I was asked to be one of the compeers on the B.B.C. Jazz’n’ Pop Festival at the Albert Hall. I was pleased to see “the Beatles” were on the bill.
What I hadn’t been prepared for was their reception. It was my duty to announce them, and the moment I went on the stage I was met by a solid wall of screams. In the end I just gestured towards the performers, mouthed “The Beatles” and walked off. The scream lasted right through their act. Beatlemania had arrived.
After the concert the fans gathered outside the stage-door yelling for George Harrison. “We want George!” they shrieked. This was already an indication of something unique about the “Beatles”; the way that at one time or another all of them in turn have seemed to be singled out for popular favour. “Theirs” is the only group of which this has been true. Not only have they all their own devotees, but the emphasis has frequently shifted from one to another, and each of them has a separate function.
Throughout the rest of 1966 Beatlemania grew and grew. The papers fed it and it fed the papers. What’s more, the advent of “pop art” and its theoretical justifications had broken down a great deal of prejudice. “The Beatles” were analyzed at every level, and the reactions were usually favourable.
They have been loved, and have deliberately courted rejection. They embraced philanthropy but abruptly dropped it in favour of ruthless business manoeuvering. They were inseparable, but are now most often apart. Yet none of this would matter except in so far as it had helped them preserve and develop their talent. They have succeeded in producing a body of work which has illuminated a whole landscape and enlarged the horizons of a whole generation. The comparisons with Mozart and Schubert seem to me irrelevant; the Beatles’ aim is different; “art” is a concept which, as Beatles, they reject. They remain pop artists, but there is nothing to say that pop may not, in retrospect, turn out to have been art after all.
