Here Comes the Sun

I've been in a Beatles mood lately. It might have something to do with the fact I have just seen the movie Across the Universe. It was a very good movie. I thought I would do today's post on how the Beatles got their start.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles#Discography
History

• The Beatles started in Liverpool in April 1960
• They are the ones who inspired virtually every musician known to man
• The band consisted of 4 guys: Paul McCartney(bass guitar, vocals), George Harrison(lead guitar, vocals), John Lennon(rhythm guitar, vocals), Ringo Starr(drums, vocals)
• The music they started out doing was something called ska, which is a mix of country, blues, R&B, folk music.

1957-1962

• Prior to joining up with the Beatles, John Lennon was in a band called the Quarrymen
• In July 1957, Paul and John met for the first time, when Paul was a guitarist
• A good friend of John's, a fellow student by the name of Stuart Sutcliffe, joined the band in January
• Before the end of August, they hired someone else, a guy named Pete Best.
• In August 1960, Harrison, who was only 17 at the time, lied to German authorities about his age so he could play in music.
• Eventually Pete Best was replaced by Ringo Starr

1963-1966

• This became their official logo
• The logo was designed by Ivor Arbiter, and made it's debut in 1963
• On February 7, 1964, the Beatles left Heathrow Airport and made the flight to the US, much to the delight of a million screaming teen girls. With their arrival, it's believed that opened the floodgate to the time we all know as the British Invasion. After their arrival, many more British acts started coming to the US, such as Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Kinks, The Who, The Rolling Stones, etc. In the US, there was even a following called Beatlemania. This gave them a huge fan base of screaming teen girls
• In June 1965, the Beatles were appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire by Elizabeth II.
• On August 15, 1965, the Beatles played a concert at New York's Shea Stadium. Later they got to meet their musical influence, Elvis Presley, at his house and they got to play music with him

1966-1970

• In June 1966, their album, Yesterday and Today, which depicted the Beatles in butcher's coveralls, surrounded by raw meat and mutilated baby dolls, faced serious backlash from religious groups in the US and US social conservative groups, along with the KKK. And this was all over a comment that Lennon had made: "Christianity will go, it will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus right now, I don't know which will go first, rock and roll or Christianity". He's lucky he didn't get the band lynched for that!
• Their Let It Be album was the final studio album that the Beatles would release together as a band before the big break up
• On Jan. 30, 1969, their final concert was a performance on the roof of 3 Savile Row, London, on the roof of the Apple Corps building.
• On Dec. 8, 1980, this day will live in infamy for every Beatles fan. This is the day that John Lennon was fatally murdered outside his Dakota apartment building by crazed gunman Mark David Chapman, with Yoko standing nearby, witness to it all. Her album, Season of Glass, would ultimately feature John's bloodstained, shattered glasses next to a half filled glass of water overlooking Central Park, almost to suggest John was happiest in New York.
• On Nov. 29, 2001, the Beatles suffered another major blow. George Harrison died from lung cancer