25 Days Of Harrison Day 4- Meeting Paul and John

"It took from four o'clock to five to get home in the evening outskirts of the Speke estate and it was on that bus journey that I met Paul McCartney, because he, being in the same school, had the same uniform and was going the same way as I was so I started hanging out with him."- George Harrison

George Harrison and Paul McCartney

Paul and George at the time only lived one stop apart from each other at what they called 'The Trading Estates' in Speke. On these bus rides George had found out that Paul played the trumpet and was getting a guitar and Paul found out that George played guitar, the two would get together at night and played from what Paul remembers songs like "Besame Mucho" and "Don't Rock me Daddy O" . George tells the story as he was walking on the bus he saw a kid making faces in the bus window looking at his reflection and thinking that this was interesting.

Paul and George became friends fast even taking a hitchhiking trip to Whales.

"One year, Paul and I decided to go hitchhiking. It's something nobody would ever dream of these days. Firstly, you'd probably be mugged before you got through the Mersey Tunnel, and secondly everybody's got cars and is already stuck in a traffic jam. I'd often gone with my family down South to Devon, to Exmouth, so Paul and I decided to go there first."- George Harrison

hitchhiking

The two were only teenagers and didn't have much money, and carried bags and a little stove with them, stopping at stores along the way for canned food.They would 'top and tail it' in beds at bed- and- breakfast's they'd find along the way. Both remember being in this one town where a lady had offered the two a place to stay at her house, her two sons were away and had extra room in her house, so the boys went with her.

"So she took us to hers - where we beat her, tied her up and robbed her of all her money! Only joking; she let us stay in her boy's room and the morning cooked us breakfast. She was really nice. I don't know who she was - the Lone Ranger?"- George Harrison

Their journey continued towards Exmouth, where they met a character from John's later book A Spaniard in the Works, a drunk in a pub who's name was Oxo Whitney. Anyways, the two continued to Paignton where the had no money and had to sleep on the beach. On the move again the boys walked to a Ferry boat that would take them to a relative of Paul's in South Wales. Desperate for sleep, when the two arrived at Chepstow they went to the police station asking if they could sleep in a cell where the police told them to go sleep in the football grandstand, and they did. George and Paul got up and hiked north through Wales where they tracked down a truck and got a ride for a while.

"The trucks didn't have a passenger seat in those days so I sat on the engine cover. Paul was sitting on the battery. He had on jeans with zippers on the back pockets and after a while he suddenly leapt up screaming. His zipper had connected the positive and negative on the battery, got red hot, and burnt a big zipper mark across his arse." -George Harrison

Then they finally arrived at Butlins and couldn't get in. George compared it to a German prisoner-of-war camp. That there were barbed-wire fences saying they had to break in.

The following video is of Paul McCartney talking about bits of the trip;

"Now George came through Paul"- John Lennon

By this time Paul McCartney had joined a band that called themselves The Quarrymen, named after Quarrybank School where lead singer, John Lennon and the rest of the band had attended (Read more about The Quarrymen here and about Paul and John's meeting here ). Paul had told John that he had this friend who he played guitar with and said that they had to hear him.

"They said, 'OK, lets hear him then.'" - Paul McCartney

George and John met on a top of a double decker bus with Paul and the rest of the band. John was about eighteen and George fifteen. Paul encouraged George to take out his guitar and play the American classic "Raunchy".

"George could play 'Raunchy' so well it sounded like the record."- Paul McCartney

All impressed by his playing John was a little uneasy about letting him in the band, he was too young. John even said that George looked younger than Paul and Paul at the time looked like he was ten! But they knew George was good, loads better than what the others were playing and he was excepted into the band and not only made the group stronger but taught the others the correct chords on guitar, especially John who was playing his like a banjo with five strings and banjo chords.

"Paul introduced me to George and I had to make the decision whether to let George in. I listened to him play and said ,'Play "Raunchy".' I let him in and that was the three of us then, and the rest of the group was thrown practically together."- John Lennon

"I don't know what I felt about him when I first met him; I just thought he was OK. At that age I only wanted to get into music. I think that's with anybody you meet who sings or is into music like that, you just buddy with them instantly"- George Harrison  on meeting John

 After that meeting George and John saw a lot of each other but at the beginning John thought he was too young even saying at first "George was too young. I didn't want to know at first.". George use to go to John's and ask to go to the movies with him but John would act as if he was busy. Paul had thought he was young looking too, he recalls one experience of the two wanting to see The Blackboard Jungle in theaters but they were both under aged, Paul was in between the 'young' look and the 'about the appropriate age' look so he could easily bluff and say he was of age. George on the other hand looked too young, Paul came up with the idea of going into the Harrison's garden and rubbed some dirt on George's upper lip making it look like a mustache. They got into the movie.

"I didn't dig him until I got to know him." -John Lennon

 When John got to know George most of the time John would go to the Harrison's home for two reasons; one, John was embarrassed by his aunt Mimi (read about her here). and two, Mrs. Harrison loved music and loved having them around.There's even one memory George has when he was younger of him going to visit John at his aunt Mimi's home. Everyone then were trying to look like Teddy Boys, with the greased hair and the leather.

"I must of looked pretty good, because Mimi didn't like me at all. She was really shocked and said, 'Look at him! Why have you brought this boy round to my house? He looks dreadful, like a Teddy boy.' and he'd say, 'Shut up Mary, Shut up.'"- George Harrison on visiting John

 John even says that Mimi always said George had a low Liverpool voice followed by the remark,

"You always seem to like lower -class types, don't you, John?"

It was at a party at Les Stewart's home where John finally gained respect to George. Les Stewart was a banjo, mandolin, guitar player for the second band George was in (he was in two bands at this time). There was a blonde haired girl with pigtails at the party, "Bardot type", who George took interest to.

"...and I pulled her and snogged her. Somehow John found  out, and after that he was a bit more impressed with me."- George Harrison

The rest of the band would soon fall apart leaving it just John, Paul and George for a while. John at the time was attending Art College, which was connected to the Institute where George and Paul were. George and Paul had lunches off and weren't aloud to leave the school with a dismissal note, they would leave anyway and go around the corner taking off as much of their school uniforms as possible and walk into the college to meet John. The three would later form a stronger group with drummer Pete Best and bassist and John's best friend Stuart Stutcliffe which lead to various names from The Quarrymen, Johnny and The Moondogs, Long John and the Silver Beetles, Silver Beetles, to finally The Beatles.

25 Days of Harrison Day 3- Early music

"As I became a teenage, I first heard Fats Domino's 'I'm In Love Again' . That was what I would call the first Rock 'n' Roll record I ever heard. Another record from when I was still a schoolboy was The Del-Vikings' 'Whispering Bells' - I still remember the guitars on that. And then, of course 'Heartbreak Hotel'. That just came out of somebody's radio one day and lodged itself permanently in the back of my brain. Elvis, Little Richard, and Buddy Holly influenced us very much, and to this day theirs is my favourite rock 'n' roll music" - George Harrison

Growing up his oldest brother, Harry had a little portable record player that  could stack ten records, even though he only had three. Harry would keep it all nice and clean, with the wires tightly wrapped and the 45s and 33s in sleeves, it was made clear that no one would use it while he was out.

"But as soon as he'd go out my brother Pete and I would put them on." -George Harrison

George's dad had bought  a wind-up gramophone in New York when he was at sea. He also had records from America like Jimmie Rodgers, who George said was the first country singer he ever heard. There were also names like Big Bill Broonzy and Slim Whitman, who George recalls as the first person he saw play guitar, whether it was a picture or on the television.

While in the hospital (read more about on my previous post here) he realized he wanted to seriously play guitar. There was a kid from Dovedale named Raymond Hughes who had had a guitar for
£3 10s

"It was a lot of money then, but my mum gave me the money and I went to Raymond's house and bought it" -George Harrison

The guitar was as George said 'real cheapo horrible little guitar' with a bolt in the neck that once George got it, he unscrewed and the neck fell off. He threw the two pieces in a cupboard. Peter, his brother fixed it up for him.

George even tried to make his own guitar based off of his drawing he used to do in the back of his classroom at age fourteen or fifteen.

Arthur Kelly and George Harrison

"I got some three-ply wood. I first drew the shape that I wanted, then cut it out. (It was like a Les Paul shape, but it had 'f' holes.)  It had a hollow body, and on the inside of the back and the front I cut out little squares. I fitted doweling into the holes to hold the front in place. Then I soaked and bent the wood that went around the edge. It was very rough and a bit lumpy where it was glued on." -George Harrison

Then he made a big mistake when making the neck. To build the neck he didn't have a big enough piece of wood so he had to make it with multiple pieces using an aluminum plate to hold them together. He had put the he had finished putting the bridge, machine heads, nuts, and the strings on, even going to the extent to paint in in sunburst colours. As he was tightening the strings the whole guitar just 'ripped itself apart'.

"I threw it in the shed and never spoke to it again."- George Harrison 

He later got got a Hofner President, which was his 'first decent guitar'.

"It had big cutaway cello 'f' holes, based on the big Super Gibson guitars. I used to sit up late at night. I didn't look on it as practising, more learning. It was the only thing I really liked. When i had a new set of strings I'd take all the old ones off, and I'd polish the guitar and clean it and make it really impeccable."- George Harrison

Young Paul McCartney

He had later got a guitar manual that showed a few chords. When he got it he showed it to his new friend, Paul McCartney who he had met on a bus. Paul at the time had a trumpet, he would later trade in for a guitar, and George with his guitar had gotten together to play. Then came Lonnie Donegan who started the skiffle boom in the 50s. Everyone then went out to start a skiffle group of their own including George who formed a group with his brother and friend Arthur Kelly and called themselves The Rebels. The Rebels played only one gig at the British Legion Club and spent the rest of the time playing in somebody's garage.

As a teenager George went to see Lonnie Donegan in 1956 at the Liverpool Empire and others like The Crew Cuts and Danny and the Juniors but he says the best show he ever saw was when Eddie Cochran came ( a few years later).

Eddie Cochran

"I remember Eddie Cochran well: he had his black leather wasitcoat, black leather trousers and a raspberry-coloured shirt. He came on doing 'What'd Is Say', and as the curtains opened he had his back to the audience, playing the riff. I was watching his fingers, to see how he played. He had a Gretsch guitar, the one in all the pictures, with a black Gibson pick-up and Bigsby tremolo."- George Harrison

George goes on to say that he wasn't only impressed by his songs like the well known "Summertime Blues" C'mon Everybody" and "Twenty Flight Rock", but he was also impressed by Cochran's covers like Ray Charles's "Hallelujah, I Love Her So".

"There was a funny break in-between songs. He was standing at the microphone and as he started to talk he put his two hands through his hair, pushing it back. And a girl, one lone voice, screamed out, 'Oh Eddie!' and he coolly murmured into the mike, 'Hi honey.' I thought, 'Yes! That's it- rock 'n' roll!'"- George Harrison

At this time it was obvious that George was going into music, his grades in school had become awful, so bad that he'd burn his report cards so no one could see them and had persuaded his parents to have him leave school. He had become an apprentice for an electrician (his dad wanted all of the boys to have a trait and start their own garage) but Rock 'n' Roll was effecting everyone in the 1950s, especially with the 'Heartbreak Hotel' spread. George remembers hearing Elvis's song on someones radio and 'lodged itself permanently in the back of my brain' as George once said. 


Check for tomorrows post about how George met Paul and John.

25 Days Of Harrison Day 2- Early Childhood (Siblings, Homes, and Early School)

George Harrison and Family

On 25 February, 1943 George Harrison was born into a family of five, making him the sixth. His oldest sibling was his only sister Louise who was born in 1931. George had two brothers, Harry, who was born in 1934, and Peter who was born in 1940.

"I had two brothers and one sister - my sister was twelve when I was born; she'd taken her Eleven Plus. I don't really remembering much of her from my childhood because she left home when she was seventeen. She went to teacher college and didn't' come back."- George Harrison

Louise had moved to America and when The Beatles had become big she was in charge of reporting to Brian and the group  about how The Beatles were making in America.

George and Louise

"I told him that The Beatles weren't getting any airplay over here, that they really need to play on The Ed Sullivan Show, which they had never heard of." - Louise Harrison

 It was released in 2011 that Louise will be writing a publishing book all about The Beatles and her brother, she was hoping for it to come out this past September or for it to of been out by the end of 2013.

" So much garbage has been written about George and The Beatles. Half of the stuff have been written by people who spent maybe an hour on a plane with The Beatles. Now I think it's my duty to get the truth out."- Louise, 30 November 2011

Harry was his oldest brother and would be the one who gave John, Paul and George one of their earliest gigs at his wedding.

George and Peter

Peter was only a few years older than George making them, probably the closest growing up.When George was first getting into guitars he bought one off of his old school friend as he was messing around with the neck the neck fell off. George through the two pieces in a cupboard and Peter was the one who took the guitar and fixed it for him.

"Our house was very small. Two up and two down - step straight in off the pavement, step right out of the backroom. The front room was never used. It had the posh lino and a three piece suite, was freezing cold and nobody ever went in it, we'd all huddled together in the kitchen, where the fire was, with the kettle on, and a little iron cooking stove."- George Harrison

All of the Harrison children were born in 12 Arnold Grove, a two up two down house in Liverpool where they lived for six years after George was born. George Harrison recalls the house to of had an iron cooking stove in the back room and each room downstairs being ten feet square. When it was cold, it was cold. The house only had one fire that was suppose to heat the whole house. In the winter the windows use to get frost on them and the house would be freezing, they'd keep a hot bottle of water in their beds, keeping moving the bottle around heating the bed until it was time to go to sleep. The outside was almost all paved with a little flowerbed. It's also were the toilet and the tub was. To take a bath, they would drag the tub in from outside and would pour pots of boiling, and hot water into it.

"My earliest recollection is of sitting on a pot at the top of the stairs, having a poop - shouting 'finished!'"- George Harrison

During the post war era in England the Harrison's were offered a council house at 25 Upton Green, Speke  after waiting a while. This house is where George's parents would continue to stay through George's childhood and fame.

"I remember some nasty moments after we'd move to Speke. There were women whose husbands were running away and other women who were having kids every ten minutes. And men were always wandering round, going into houses shagging, I suppose. I remember my mother having to deal with someone who'd come around cursing and swearing about something or other. She got a bucket of water and threw it from the front step and closed the door and went in. She had to do that on a couple occasions."- George Harrison

 George first attended Dovedale Road Infant School where he remembers the smell of boiled cabbage, a curly blonde haired girls, and a Peter Pan house that all of the kids made. After that he attended Dovedale Junior School (primary) the same time John Lennon was there, but the two didn't meet until years later. At Dovedale there were sports and George liked playing football and says he was a fast runner.

"I'd just left Dovedale Junior School and gone to the big school, the Liverpool Institute, when I went into the hospital."- George Harrison

George had had Kidney trouble when he was about twelve or thirteen and would always have sore throats and tonsillitis. One year he had found himself at the Alder Hey Hospital with an awful sore throat that had spread giving him Nephritis and inflamed Kidneys.

"It was during this time that I first wanted to get a guitar."- George Harrison on his hospital stay

George Harrison's early music, including guitar and piano playing and major influences will be posted tomorrow.

25 Days Of Harrison- Day 1 Harold and Louise Harrison

 In honor of George's birthday month I'd like to dedicate 25 Days of Harrison (as done this past October for John). Each day will be information from George's family, music, and other interests.

George Harrison was born 25 February, 1943 at 12 Arnold Grove, a two-up, two-down town house where he and his family would live for six years.

Louise French

"My mother was from an Irish family called French, and she had lots of brothers and sisters. My mother was Catholic."- George Harrison

His mother, Louise French was born in 1912 to John French and Louise Woollam (which is most common in Yorkshire and East Anglia in the seventeenth century. It means ' dweller by the curved or crooked land'). John was born in 1870 to James Darby Ffrench and Ellen Whelan and lived a very poor life with his four siblings. By the end of 1906 both of his parents passed away, followed by his oldest sister four years later. The remaining children had now dropped the first 'F' in their last name making it 'French'. John then immigrated and joined Liverpool's police force. Later he was hired as a street-lamp lighter when he met Louise Woollam, the two moved into a home at 9 Albert Grove in Wavertree, the street next to Arnold Grove [Read more about the Harrison heritage here].

Harold Harrison

"My dad had been a seaman, but by then he was driving a bus"-George Harrison

George's father was Harold Hargreaves Harrison, born 28 May, 1909 to Henry Harrison and Jane Tompson .  Henry was a builder who constructed great Edwardian homes on Princes Road in Liverpool where doctors and those who could afford them lived.

"Perhaps my interest in architecture comes from my grandfather" -George Harrison

 Henry was born on 21 January,1882 at 12 Queen Street, West Derby to Edward Harrison and Elizabeth Hargreaves. Jane was daughter of an engine driver, James Tompson- they lived at 3 Wellington Grove. Henry and Jane were married on 17 August, 1902 in Holy Trinity Church, Wavertree.

Harold Harrison was a seaman but as work scattered he soon found himself driving a bus. The two met while Louise was working as a shop assistant as a teenager and started a home on 12 Arnold Grove settling down having four kids, one daughter, Louise, and three boys, Harry, Peter, and George.


George was the youngest of four and grew up in a house with parents who wanted their kids to pursuit their dreams and was always looking after them, especially George being the youngest. Even Pattie Boyd, George's first wife, talks about Mrs. Harrison saying,

"All she wanted for her children is that they should be happy, and she recognized that nothing made George as happy as making music."

 When George first started playing guitar regularly (around age 13) she would sit up all night listening to George practice, there's even a story that George and Paul (McCartney) were at a music store and Paul knocked a few things off the wall and Mrs. Harrison paid for it.

Mr. Harrison was as Paul once called 'A hero'. Back in school teachers used to cane students, Paul recalls this one experience as the teacher missing George's palm and got his wrist leaving the cane imprints. At dinner Mr. Harrison asked what had happened and George had told him the story, the next day the teacher was called out into the hall and George's father asked if he had been the one to hit his son then punched the teacher. George's dad also played the guitar when he was at sea, but sold it soon after he left. When George got interested in the instrument his dad had him take 'lessons' with an old friend of his.

It's been said by many people that out of any Beatles parents or family members, The Harrison's were the least private, inviting fans into their home and loved that their son had become successful by music.

"I was always waking up in the night, coming out of the bedroom, looking down the stairs and seeing lots of people having a party. It was probably only my parents and an uncle or two."- George Harrison

Louise unfortunately passed away at age 58 on 7 July, 1970 from a brain tumor, and eight years later Harold had emphysema and passed in May.

"Quite short and very Liverpudlian"- Pattie Boyd

"I have memories of being taken around by my mother when she went shopping on Saturdays. I used to be dragged around, seeing old ladies whom she always seemed to know and had to visit."

56 Grammys Award Ceremony- Paul and Ringo

Last night, 26 January, 2014, the 56th annual Grammy award ceremony was held at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles, California; The show broadcasted on CBS at 8 pm EST being filmed live at 5 pm PST.  LL Cool J made his way back to the front, hosting the ceremony for his third time (previously hosting the 54th and 55th awards). Amongst the many talented artist and collaborators at the Grammys sat seven very important people, Sean Lennon, Yoko Ono, Olivia Harrison, Barbara Starkey (Bach), Nancy McCartney (Shevell), Ringo Starr, and Sir Paul McCartney!

As the night went on with many awards and preformances from numerous artist, mixing from older generations to new the fourteenth award, "Best Rock Song" was award to Dave Grohl, Paul McCartney, Krist Novoselic, and Pat Smear for their song "Cut Me Some Slack" from Sound City- Real to Reel, a music documentary produced by Dave Grohl. See The boys receiving the award below;

Picture taken By Sean Lennon which he captioned "Homies"

 The previous day the award for "Life Time Achievement" was given to the Fab Four (finally!). Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, and Olivia Harrison were there to accept the award, Paul was busy with the band rehearsing.

"It's a Lifetime Achievement Award, but I feel like we've all got a lot more life left in us," Starr says on receiving this award"It's a great afternoon; it's all about music. . . . The Beatles' music is still out there and that's what I'm most proud of."

Yoko Ono said ,

"I'm here today because I think John would have wanted me to be here"

And Ronald Isley even spoke about the award,

 "Me and Paul talk about that all the time," he continues,"And we talked about that all night, and he said, you know, if it wasn't for our group, they would probably still be in Liverpool."

 

After the award for "Best Rock Song" was presented and a few others Ringo Starr took the stage to sing an obvious crowds favorite, 'Photograph', and ended it with his signature "Peace and Love" saying. 

Not only did Ringo preform but Paul's rainbow piano was rolled on stage to play one of his new songs from his NEW album, 'Queenie Eye'. It was everything a Beatlemaniac could ask for when Ringo Starr was shown playing  with Paul McCartney. The two remaining Beatles reunited on stage, one of the best performances in Grammy history! Video below;

Besides the "Best Rock Song" Paul had received three more awards last night,

• 'Best Rock Song' for 'Cut Me Some Slack' along with Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear
• 'Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package' for 'Wings Over America'
• 'Best Surround Sound Album' and 'Best Music Film' for 'Live Kisses'

 

"This coming February to honor The Beatles 50th year anniversary of being on The Ed Sullivan Show The Grammys are presenting  "The Night That Changed America: A GRAMMY Salute To The Beatles."  It will be a 2- hour showing and brodcasted on the CBS Television Network on Sunday February 9, 2014 ( the exact date The Beatles first played Ed Sullivan, read more about their performances here) from 9-10 p.m ET/PT.


Read more about the Ed Sullivan Grammy event on their website, here " -Taken from an old post about All Things Must Pass being iducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, check it out here.

 

Revolver

"It was in April 1966 that we started recording Revolver."-George Harrison

After releasing Rubber Soul in 1965 and releasing Yesterday and Today in the US The Beatles started recording their seventh LP, Revolver. It was 6 April, 1966 when the recording for the album started and lasted till 21 June, 1966. The full album, including fourteen original tracks lasted around 34 minutes and 40 seconds.

Producer: George Martin
Engineers: Geoff Emerick and Peter Vince
Released: 5 August 1966 (UK)
                8 August 1966 (US)
John Lennon: Vocals, harmonium, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, tape loops, tambourine, handclaps, finger clicks
Paul McCartney: Vocals, bass, piano, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, clavichord, tape loops, handclaps, finger clicks
George Harrison: Vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass, sitar, tape loops, tambourine, maracas, tambura, handclaps, finger clicks
Ringo Starr: Vocals, drums, tambourine, maracas, tape loops, cowbell, shaker, handclaps, finger clicks
George Martin: piano, organ, backing vocals

The album was the last album the group would release while still touring, after 29 August 1966 (when The Beatles played Candlestick Park- their last concert until the Rooftop).  This album was an opening to new experimental songwriting and defiantly different from what the mop-topped, suited boys have previously done. As John Lennon said,

"One thing's for sure - the next LP is going to be very different."

Revolver is often referred to as 'the acid album'. In the previous year (1965) John and George had accidentally taken acid that was slipped into their drinks while attending a party with their dentist. This trip is often known as "The Dental Experience". LSD was given to John and Cynthia Lennon, George Harrison, and Pattie Boyd, none of them had ever had experience with this wondrous drug and didn't take their dentist's advice when he told them to stay until the drug wore off. The four left in George's mini cooper and headed to a night club.

"We'd just sat down and ordered our drinks when suddenly I felt the most incredible feeling come over me. It was something like a very concentrated version of the best feeling I'd ever had in my whole life. It was Fantastic. I felt in love, not with anything or anybody in particular, but with everything."- George Harrison

"It was terrifying but it was fantastic."- John Lennon

 Ringo took it shortly after John and George, it took Paul two years to come around and try it. The drug become an influence to some of The Beatles songs during these sessions, for instance "She Said, She Said" was written off of a John Lennon acid experience with actor Peter Fonda.

Another break through happened during the recording of Revolver. EMI engineer Ken Townsend in April of 1966 invented ADT (Artificial Double Tracking), when you link two tape machines and creates a doubled vocal track. This technique was used profoundly with The Beatles and later became big in pop productions. The group were ecstatic when this was created, George even telling Ken that he should of received a medal for inventing it. George Martin tried explaining how the process works to John saying the following,

"I knew he'd never understand it, so I said 'Now listen, it's very simple. We take the original image and we split it through a double vibrocated sploshing flange with double negative feedback...' He said 'You're pulling my leg. Aren't you?' I replied 'Well, let's flange it again and see'. From that moment on, whenever he wanted ADT he would ask for his voice to be flanged, or call out for 'Ken's flanger.'"

Rubber Soul was when The Beatles really started experimenting with new things, for example George Harrison with the sitar. Soon they were using ADT in Revolver and also playing songs backwards.

"Revolver very rapidly became the album where the Beatles would say 'OK, that sounds great, now let's play it backwards or speeded up or slowed down'. They tried everything backwards, just to see what things sounded like. "- Geoff Emerick

The group first started with backward songs on off- Revolver song, "Rain" which were recorded on 14 April 1966. This resulted in two songs from the LP to be feuatre backwards recordings; "I'm Only Sleeping" and "Tomorrow Never Knows"

Track-List;

1.  Taxman (Harrison)
2. Eleanor Rigby (Lennon-McCartney)
3. I'm Only Sleeping (Lennon-McCartney)
4. Love You To (Harrison)
5. Here, There and Everywhere (Lennon-McCartney)
6. Yellow Submarine (Lennon-McCartney)
7. She Said She Said (Lennon-McCartney)
8. Good Day Sunshine (Lennon-McCartney)
9.  And Your Bird Can Sing (Lennon-McCartney)
10. For No One (Lennon-McCartney)
11. Doctor Robert (Lennon-McCartney)
12. I Want To Tell You (Harrison)
13. Got To Get You Into My Life (Lennon-McCartney)
14. Tomorrow Never Knows (Lennon-McCartney)

Taxman
 The album starts off with the countdown one-two-three-four and leads into "Taxman", a song written by George Harrison about how much money they were loosing to the 'taxman' and were all fed up about it.

"I discovered I was paying a huge amount of money to the taxman. You are so happy that you've finally started earning money - and then you find out about tax."- George Harrison

Paul McCartney even says the song is "Very George". When the group had business meetings and the accountants would explain to them about tax George would be the one to speak up and question why their money was being taken.  Ringo says that they were all pissed off at the taxation and that they even went in with a plan having a guy go to the Bahamas and hold their money so it would be tax-free but didn't work out in the end.

"'Taxman' was an anti-Establishment tax song, where we said, 'If you walk the streets, they'll tax your feet.' George wrote it and I helped him with it. At the time we weren't aware of the whole tax scene. I'm still not really aware of what goes on with taxes. We believe that if you earn it, you may as well keep it, unless there's a communal or Communist or real Christian society. But while we're living in this, I protest against paying the government what I have to pay them."- John Lennon

Eleanor Rigby

" I wrote 'Eleanor Rigby' when i was living in London and had a piano in the basement.  I used to disappear there and have a fiddle around, and while I was fiddling on a chord some words came out; 'Dazzie-de-da-zu picks up the rice after a wedding took it in the poignant direction, into a 'lonely people' direction.'"- Paul McCartney

There's many different stories about how the name "Eleanor Rigby" came to be. Paul says he got Eleanor from Eleanor Bron, the actress in there second movie "Help!" and "Rigby" was from a store in Bristol. It turns out that at St. Peter's Church in Woolton- Paul and John met across the street from the church in the church hall read about it here. In St Peter's cemetery there is a grave stone a few rows back and about three or so heads in lies the Rigby family. Eleanor Rigby (married to Thomas Woods) is burried a few rows behind the Mackenzie family where the name 'Father Mackenzie' came.

"'Eleanor Rigby' was Paul's baby, and I helped with the education of the child."- John Lennon

I'm Only Sleeping

  "He can sleep almost indefinitely, is probably the laziest person in England."-Maureen Cleave.

One of the two songs on Revolver that features the backwards guitar which gives it a 'yawning' effect.

Love You To
One of the songs written and influenced by George's new interest in Indian music.

"I wrote 'Love You To' on sitar, because the sitar sounded so nice and my interest was getting deeper all the time. I wanted to write a tune that was specifically for the sitar. Also it had a tabla part, and that was the first time we used a tabla player."- George Harrison

The Beatles were first introduced to the sitar in the film "Help!" and George's interest kept growing, that's when The Beatles met Ravi Shankar who as Paul said George was 'knocked out by him'.

"The Indian sounds are definitely mainly George."- Paul McCartney

Here, There And Everywhere

"'Here, There and Everywhere' was Paul's song completely, I believe - and one of my favourite songs of The Beatles."- John Lennon

Yellow Submarine
 A song written by both Lennon and McCartney (with help from Donovan), a children's song in which Ringo sings vocals.

"I remember lying in bed one night, in that moment before you're falling asleep - that little twilight moment when a silly idea comes into your head - and thinking of  'Yellow Submarine \' ; 'We all live in a yellow submarine...'" -Paul McCartney

 "I don't actually know where they got the idea for it, I just felt it was a really interesting track for me to do. I'd been doing a lot of covers. At The time I did either covers or something they wrote specifically for me."- Ringo Starr

Ringo also says that during this time it was hard to come out with an original song and when he did come up with an original song they'd find out it was just a re-written, lyric changed Jerry Lee Lewis or an older standard which become a little joke amongst the group.
 

She Said She Said

"She Said She Said" was mine. It's an interesting track. The guitars are great on it. that was written after an acid trip in LA during a break in The Beatles' tour where we were having fun with The Byrds and lots of girls. "- John Lennon

 The song was written while talking with Peter Fonda where he said "I know what it's like to be dead." It stuck in John's mind but he thought it didn't sound right, so it become "She Said".

Good Day Sunshine

"'Good Day Sunshine' is Paul's. Maybe I threw a line in or something - I don't know."- John Lennon

It was Paul's effort to write a "the same traditional, almost trad-jazz feel".

 And Your Bird Can Sing

A song that John said could of been a 'throwaway'.

For No One 
Another one of John's favorites written by Paul.

"On 'For No One', the track was laid down on my own clavichord. I brought it in from my home, because I thought it had a nice sound, it was a very strange instrument to record, and Paul played it. But we wanted a very special sound, and French horn was what we chose.
Paul didn't realise how brilliantly Alan Civil was doing. we got the definitive performance, and Paul said, 'Well, OK, I think you can do it better than that, can't you, Alan?' Alan nearly exploded. Of course, he didn't do it better than that, and the way we'd already heard it was the way you hear it now."- George Martin

 The song was written while in Switzerland skiing, Paul remembers writing bass-line trick and the character it was written about, a girl putting on makeup.

Doctor Robert

"'Doctor Robert' is like a joke. There's some fellow in New York, and in the States we'd hear people say, 'You can get everything you want off him - any pills you want.' it was a big racket, but a joke too about this fellow who cured everyone of everything with all these pills and tranquillizers, injections for this and that. He just kept New York high. That's what 'Doctor Robert' is all about, just a pill doctor who sees you all right. It was a joke between ourselves, but they go in in-jokes and come out out-jokes, because everyone listens and puts their own things on it, which is great. I mean when I was young I never knew what 'gilly gilly osten feffer catsa nell a bogen' was all about, but I still enjoyed signing it."- Paul McCartney

I Want To Tell You

"'I Want To Tell You' is about the avalanche of thoughts that are so hard to write down or say or transmit."- George Harrison

George once said that if he could rewrite the bridge he would of wrote "Although I seem to act unkind/It isn't me - it's just my mind. That is confusing things." instead of "But if I seem to act unkind It's only me, it's not my mind That is confusing things"

Got To Get You Into My Life
A song most people think is a love song about telling someone that you need them every single day of you life but the song is actually written about marijuana.

"'Got To Get You Into My Life' was Paul's again. I think that was one of his best song, too, because the lyrics are good - and I didn't write them. When I say that he could write lyrics if he took the effort, here's an example."- John Lennon

Tomorrow Never Knows
 The last track of the album shows how much The Beatles has changed throughout the years from "She Loves You" a pop song to a psychedelic song like "Tomorrow Never Knows". A song that can easily be identified as an acid song.

"The expression 'tomorrow never knows' was another of Ringo's. I gave it a throwaway title because I was a bit self-conscious about the lyrics. So I took one of Ringo's malapropisms, which was like 'a hard days night', to take the edge off the heavy philosophical lyrics."-John Lennon

Not only is the song psychedelic with the range of instruments and deep, unexplainable lyrics but by this time got hold of Timothy Leary's adaptation of The Tibetan Book of The Dead and was singing lines from the book in the song. Lines like "Lay down all thought, surrender to the void,' where taken from the book.

"You can hear (and I am sure most Beatles fans have) 'Tomorrow Never Knows' a lot and not know really what it is about. Basically it is saying waht meditation is all about. the goal of meditation is to go beyond ( that is, transcend) walking, sleeping, and dreaming. So the song starts out by saying, 'Turn off you mind, relax and float downstream, it is not dying'.

Timothy Leary

Then it says,' Lay down all thoughts, surrender to the void - it is shining. That you may see the meaning of within - it is being.' From birth to death all we ever do is think: we have one thought, we have another thought, another thought, another thought. Even when you are asleep you are having dreams, so there is never a time from birth to death when the mind isn't always active with thoughts. But you can turn off you mind, and go to the part which Maharishi described as: 'Where was your last thought before you thought it?'"- George Harrison

George later goes on to say that the song is them, that we are the song and it's about us being, living, breathing, thinking, to be aware from the state of being. It about transcending.

"Tomorrow Never Knows" is a definite John song who probably didn't even know half of what he was saying but knew he was writing something and going in the right direction. It's an under rated song and is usually portrayed as one of the 'weird' Beatles songs, but it's truly a song that has deeper meaning that just goes over a lot of people minds and some people aren't willing to understand the song.

The song was written in various places, John had the lyrics and each Beatle (including John) had tape recorders at home and when they were home were suppose to record their own loop.

"'Tomorrow Never Knows' was a great innovation John wanted a very spooky kind of track, a very ethereal sound. When we constructed the original version of the tape, we started off with just the tamboura drone and Ringo's very characteristic drumming."- George Martin

 Then another unique feature in this song was created by Paul McCartney messing around with his tape recorder at home. He took the erase-head off and putting on the loop it created a weird sound that saturated the tape which was later shown to the others and were used throughout the track.

Cover

Klaus Voorman with Revolver

For most of their previous albums The Beatles had Robert Freeman to photograph them but for this album the artwork was done by Hamburg friend,musician, and artist,  Klaus Voorman

"We liked the way there were little things coming out of people's ears, and how he'd collaged things on a small scale while the drawings were on a big scale. He also knew us well enough to capture us rather beautifully in the drawings. We were flattered."- Paul McCartney

The Beatles Decca Audtion

 "I hope he kicks himself to death!" -John Lennon

New Years Eve 1961 The Beatles; featuring John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Pete Best, and their road manager and friend Neil Aspinall were driving from Liverpool to London (getting lost in the midlands) in hopes to pass an audition with Decca records on the following day (1 January, 1962).

"Brian put in a lot of time getting us off the ground. He believed in us from the start."- George Harrison

The idea of the audition came across when Beatles manager, Brian Epstein met with Mike Smith, from Decca, who had seen The Beatles preform at The Cavern Club on 13 December, 1961.

"...We were all excited: it was Decca. He'd met this Mike Smith guy and we were to go down there. So we went down and we did all these numbers; terrified and nervous, you can heart it...we virtually recorded our Cavern stage show, with a few omissions- around twenty songs."- John Lennon

The Beatles arrived for their first time in London on New Years Day and headed to Decca studios where they set up their amps and started recording their demo. The group preformed fifteen songs at this audition (three of their originals, which are in bold)  and what is the believed set list is as followed;

(L-R) George Harrison, Pete Best, Paul McCartney, John Lennon

•  Like Dreamers Do
• Money (That's What I Want)
• Till There Was You
• The Sheik of Araby
• To Know Her Is to Love Her
• Take Good Care of My Baby
• Memphis, Tennessee
• Sure To Fall (In Love With You)
• Hello Little Girl
• Three Cool Cats
• Crying, Waiting, Hoping
• Love Of  The Loved
• September in The Rain
• Besame Mucho
• Searchin'

 They each picked numbers that they wanted to preform, George for example was a fan of Joe Brown and sang Brown's rock 'n' roll version of "The Sheik of Araby". Paul choose to sing "September Rain".

The audition lasted a few hours and the group found themselves broke and looking for a place to go. Neil Aspinall remembers it as,

"... We went to Shaftesbury Avenue and around there; amazing things to buy. The bootshop Anello and Davide was on one corner, then Cecil Gee, the clothes store. We went into a club up by St. Giles Circus. We didn't stay long because it was boring. Some of the women had an after-eight shadow. We were starving and went into a restaurant. All that we could afford was the soup so they threw us out and we went into Soho and got something there. London was all very exciting and new."

 While waiting to hear from Decca the band found themselves in Anello and Davide's bootshop which created what later became known as 'Beatles Boots'.

 "We went back and we waited and waited, and then found out that they hadn't accepted it; we really thought that was it then, that was the end."- John Lennon

Brian Epstein

 Decca decided to pick another group, Brian Poole and the Tremeoloes. Paul McCartney does now admit that he can see why they didn't get in. Saying that when he listens to the tape now they weren't good but they did play interesting and original things. John Lennon on the other hand says that he wouldn't of turned The Beatles down. Saying that many people weren't playing like they were playing and that the record was OK, it was just a demo and they weren't trying to be all polished. He wanted Decca to recognize their potential and that they should of been accepted.

"As for Deccas response, we didn't hear anything for ages, though Brian kept bugging them to find out; and in the end they turned us down, the funny thing is that it was by someone from one of those 'Dum de dum' bands, Tony Meehan, a drummer who had become big-time as the A&R man for Decca. there's a famous story that Brian Epstein was trying to get him to say whether he liked us, whether we'd got the job or not. He replied, ' I'm a busy many, Mr. Epstein,' and he was just a kid."- George Harrison

Dick Rowe, head of Decca recalls the experience as,

"I told Mike he'd have to decide between them. It was up to him - The Beatles or Brian Poole and the Tremeoloes. He said, 'They're both good, but one's a local group, the other comes from Liverpool.' We decided it was better to take the local group. We could work with them more easily and stay closer in touch as they came from Dagenham."

It's even said that Brian didn't take the rejection easy, he kept trying and making trips to talk to Decca, even saying he'd by 3,000 copies if they produced a Beatles record. David Rowe says he never heard that offer and if he did he would of considered the offer and maybe The Beatles would of recorded with Decca. Decca did however sign The Rolling Stones in George Harrison's recommendation.

"'It's too bluesy,' or 'It's too much like rock 'n' roll and that's all over now', they used to keep telling us. Even in Hamburg when we audition for these German companies they would tell us. Even in Hamburg when we auditioned for these stuff, because they all thought rock was dead; but they were wrong." -John Lennon