Tune In (The Beatles: All These Years, #1)

by Mark Lewisohn

Two Berry singles were issued in Britain simultaneously at the end of May 1957: “School Day” and “Roll Over Beethoven.” Columbia’s display ad for the former announced “He sings it! He plays it! He wrote it!”

Paul sitting on a chair in the sunshine, playing an upside-down acoustic guitar and singing some 1950s rock and roll numbers—including “Twenty Flight Rock.”

1957) about the explosion of guitar playing on Merseyside concluded with a music teacher remarking, “Liverpool was the first city to start the skiffle vogue.” It’s likely, though difficult to prove.

September 18, 2005. “Butting is the first move used by the Liverpool lout,” John Lennon would remember. “I only tried it once but my opponent moved and I nearly cracked my head open.”

The same book (p53) has a long quote from the group’s rhythm guitarist Niki Sullivan about how they arrived at the name Crickets, saying that when they went through a list of insects they briefly considered Beetles.

Thanks to iTunes it’s possible to see at a glance that the median duration of a 1958 chart record was 2:25.

“Moondog” probably came to their attention through its use by the American rock and roll DJ Alan Freed, whose show was broadcast for a while on Radio Luxembourg.

all used European guitars for the time being, but that would change in the early 1960s, after Britain’s dollar-conserving prohibition on the import of American instruments

that a scene in the Marlon Brando movie The Wild One (1953) has co-star Lee Marvin shouting, “Johnny, we’ve been looking for you. The Beetles have missed you. All the Beetles have missed you.”

“Although we did repeat ourselves, we used to try not to.” (Fifty Years Adrift, p169.)

Here, Paul related how he and John planned to swim the Mersey, though John told the crowded room, “I don’t remember this, actually. He keeps saying it all the time.” Paul countered, “It’s true, John, it is true,” and John—king of the last word—told him, “I think you must have been on your own then.”

“The Fingletoad Resort of Teddiviscious,” In His Own Write, p48. Another name John had for People and Places was Peotle and Plaices,

I’ve had many great photographic walks all over the city and suburbs,

I’ve walked many and want to walk them all. This is authentic Liverpool; it isn’t always pretty but I find it beautiful.

Particular thanks to Henry Epstein, the one and only, a good friend and funster and gateway to roomfuls of Liverpool musicians, poets, artists and wits whose company is always a treat.