Song of the Day: Cayenne (The Beatles Anthology, 1960)

This is a bit of a different post tonight, as this song is not technically a Beatles song. "Cayenne" is one of the first songs that Paul McCartney ever recorded, laying down the track in 1960 at his home on Forthlin Road in Liverpool. The song has a bit of a western vibe going for it and only lasts about a minute and a half. Though three out of the four Beatles can be heard playing on the record (Ringo would not join the band until August 1962), they were not calling themselves The Beatles by this point. The name went through various changes, starting in 1957 as The Quarrymen and moving along to the Silver Beetles until finally becoming the legendary Beatles around 1961. The song itself is not very well known, but it's possible to discern the very distinct style that would characterize their music for the next decade.

This Day in 1963

On September 16, 1963, George Harrison became the first Beatle to set foot in the United States-indirectly a big moment for Beatles history. George was the youngest of the Harrison children, with two older brothers and an older sister, named Louise. Louise moved to Benton, Illinois with her husband in the early 1960s, far before The Beatles made it big in the United States in 1964. At the time of his visit, The Beatles had enjoyed a year of Beatlemania back home in Britain, but they were still unknown in the United States (they hadn't even been heard yet on the radio waves-first gracing them, that November.) George was able to walk the streets of Benton incognito, shopping, eating, and even jamming with a local band (how cool is that ?!!). It was most likely the last time George was able to walk in public like an ordinary person, something he would cherish dearly in the next few years of Beatlemania. The above picture is the only picture that exists of George's relatively unknown trip to the United States.

Come Together

One, two, three, FOUR!

There are places I'll remember all my life though some have changed. Some forever not for better. Some have gone and some remain...But of all these friends and lovers, there is no one that compares with you and these memories lose their meaning when I think of love as something new...I know I'll often stop and think about them. In my life, I've loved you more.

There are times when all you want to say is encompassed perfectly in a song. But for me, almost all I want to say is perfectly expressed in a Beatles song. This is my first blog post in London, the city that has seen so much and radiates history from its walls. But as I walk around the streets of this great metropolis all I can think of is four twenty-somethings arriving in London from Liverpool to record for the very first time in Abbey Road Studios, strutting about the alleyways following their first number one, dodging screaming fans as Beatlemania cascaded down upon them, leaving Heathrow to fly into JFK International Airport in New York, spending days holed up in the studio recording legendary tracks, walking across the street, and finally performing for the last time to the world on the rooftop of Apple Studios. London itself, is the center of The Beatles, seeing their tentative beginning and modest but incredible end. T

The London scene in the 1960s was a magnificent place to be in world history even without The Beatles' contribution. To be here studying history and with a big place for the Beatles in my heart, is more than I ever could have hoped for. I feel closer to them than ever, despite the fifty-year gap between our lives.

Hopefully, I will be inspired to be a better blogger living here! I'll try to post pictures as much as I can.