It was 40 years ago today

[Guilbert]

In fact even under the guise of "safe" songs some Beatles songs have "unsafe" sentiments.

(A bit like "Puff, the magic dragon" by Peter, Paul and Mary, to many people a children's folk song, but which is actually about smoking cannabis)

The Beatles song Dr Robert was about a London doctor who supplied illegal drugs to pop stars in the 1960s.

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was John's tribute to LSD, which was big at the time (even if John said the song was not about that)

Sexy Sadie was a dig at the indian mystic Maharishi who had conned the Beatles. He could not sing "Maharishi what have you done, you have made a fool of everyone" so he called him "Sexy Sadie".

Norwegian Wood was John's way of telling his wife he was having an affair.

Even Help, a early typical hit single for the Beatles, has dark undertones, with John singing "Help me if you can i'm feeling down" as the Beatles bandwagon was running out of control and getting too much for him.


Of course you may not believe any of this and think that Animal Farm by George Orwell is about a farm full of animals.

[Pervert]

Tell me it wasn't The Archies.

I know The Kinks had a big following in the US---well into the 1970s when they'd fallen out of favour here.

Beatles, love 'em or loathe 'em, their influence was immense. They introduced the British public to different forms of music, simply because they liked the stuff themselves.

[mike johnson]

The Archies as in 'Sugar Sugar'?? Were they British???

[Pervert]

I assumed they were off some US kids TV show. It wasn't a serious answer, Mike, sorry.

[mart]

I guess a lot of "housewives" were Beatles fans in their teens. And fans of other groups too.
So whats with the housewives snipe?

Mart

[steve56]

Freddie and the Dreamers?,Dave Clark 5?mike johnson wrote:

> Don't want to go too deep, but The Beatles were a revelation in
> America. The entire British Invasion put rock music back on
> top. You Brits took R&B & kept it safe & did things with &
> gave it back to us, & we are in your debt therefor... R&R was
> moribund in the early 1960's in the U.S.. Bill Haley was old
> hat, Buddy was dead, Chuck Berry was in jail IIRC, & Elvis was
> doing movie tunes. We had Jan & Dean & The Beach Boys & The
> Ventures, & other than that it was doo-wop, novelty songs,
> folk....But we were saved. I am not being sarcastic. Brits were
> the best thing that ever happened to the post WWII music scene
> in the U.S..
>
> BTW--anybody know which English group was The Fab Four's chief
> competition in the mid 60's on this side of the pond??
>
>

[steve56]

Side 2 of abbey road has some interesting songs too eg polythene pam[kinky sex]Mean mr mustard?

[muswell]

Weren't The Dave Clarke Five something of a sensation stateside?

[steve56]

yeah but i was never keen on them he seemed conceated and full of himself.