1957
John Lennon lived on the opposite side of Allerton Golf Course to McCartney, no more than a mile away, and was almost two years his elder. The pair apparently never met during Lennon’s famously turbulent childhood, during which he ended up living with his aunt, as his wayward parents followed their separate lives. Coincidentally, while McCartney was coming up with some of his first tunes in his home on Forthlin Road, Lennon was doing likewise, quite independently, within walking distance at his home on Menlove Avenue.
Like his future writing partner, Lennon benefited from having a musical parent to get him started – in his case, mother Julia who taught him to play her banjo in 1955. (Despite leaving him to be brought up by his aunt, she forged a close relationship with Lennon in his teenage years.) However music did not become the focus of his life until one day in April 1956, when he heard his first record by Elvis. Little Richard quickly followed, and then the skiffle boom – and Lennon knew what he needed to do, borrowed a guitar, and assembled a group to perform with. And so now, his path mirrors McCartney’s – he started to write songs.
None of Lennon’s very early efforts survive, mainly due to his bad memory and lack of sufficient discipline to write them down. As with McCartney, we know of two initial songs, but unlike those, he retained no real details and they were never preserved, let alone recorded.
Like his future writing partner, Lennon benefited from having a musical parent to get him started – in his case, mother Julia who taught him to play her banjo in 1955. (Despite leaving him to be brought up by his aunt, she forged a close relationship with Lennon in his teenage years.) However music did not become the focus of his life until one day in April 1956, when he heard his first record by Elvis. Little Richard quickly followed, and then the skiffle boom – and Lennon knew what he needed to do, borrowed a guitar, and assembled a group to perform with. And so now, his path mirrors McCartney’s – he started to write songs.
None of Lennon’s very early efforts survive, mainly due to his bad memory and lack of sufficient discipline to write them down. As with McCartney, we know of two initial songs, but unlike those, he retained no real details and they were never preserved, let alone recorded.
[03]
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Calypso rock (lennon)
Only the slightest of evidence exists for this song, which was Lennon’s first, written during the early months of 1957. Its author mentioned the name of the song in interviews circa 1970, but nothing else is known, bar its inspiration – the current musical craze, calypso, which the ‘experts’ said would replace rock and roll as the most popular style. Lennon’s song title is typical of his interest in the elastic meaning of words, incorporating both musical styles into a single phrase.
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[04]
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My love is like a bird... (lennon)
This is one of the most tenuous songs in the early catalogue, and practically nothing is known of it. We have just enough to list it: Mark Lewisohn states that Lennon once quoted a line from it, and said it was a song he was proud of at the time it was written – which was somewhere during 1957.
The line, “My Love Is Like A Bird With A Broken Wing”, gives us a means of titling the song, although Lennon may well have named it something else. It is interesting to note that McCartney’s 1968 song “Blackbird” contains a not dissimilar line, although this is almost certainly coincidence. |
Like Lennon, McCartney stumbled across rock and roll during 1956, when Gene Vincent’s “Be-Bop-A-Lula” arrived over the summer, and this was the first single he would actually own. He would soon discover an apparently endless run of great American 78s, which were arriving thick and fast at the time, but at the end of October, a shattering event happened in McCartney’s life when his mother died, after a short illness. McCartney was left at Forthlin Road with just his father and brother, apparently at a loss as to what would become of them. At this point, rock and roll must have seemed like a means of escape for him.
Early in the new year, McCartney befriended another rock and skiffle fan named Ian James, who had something important going for him, so far as McCartney was concerned: he had his own guitar. Through borrowing and practicing on this instrument, McCartney learnt his first chords and it wasn’t long before he and his pal were working their way through their rock and roll collections, delighting in the fact that almost all of their favourites could be played on the most rudimentary of chords. We can date a new McCartney song to this period:
Early in the new year, McCartney befriended another rock and skiffle fan named Ian James, who had something important going for him, so far as McCartney was concerned: he had his own guitar. Through borrowing and practicing on this instrument, McCartney learnt his first chords and it wasn’t long before he and his pal were working their way through their rock and roll collections, delighting in the fact that almost all of their favourites could be played on the most rudimentary of chords. We can date a new McCartney song to this period:
[05]
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i lost my little girl (mccartney)
There seems to be no dispute that this was the first song McCartney wrote on guitar. (And since this one is a ‘rock’ song, McCartney himself thinks of it inaccurately as his first ever composition.) McCartney is usually said to have written it at age 14 and since we know it was composed in the period after his mother’s death, it logically sits somewhere between November 1956 and June 1957 (when he turned 15).
Once McCartney teamed up with Lennon, the song entered the Quarry Men’s set list, but no audio of a group performance is known. It is rumoured (probably falsely) that a version was taped in 1962, but the first time we actually hear it is from 1969, at the Get Back sessions. Curiously, the song was sung through by Lennon, not McCartney, on January 25, with the others gradually joining in. (This version doesn’t bear much relation melodically to McCartney’s subsequent recordings.) We finally get to hear its author sing it thanks to a piano demo made in 1973, implying McCartney might have been considering recording it properly at that point. This version has an added section: “Gather round people, let me tell you the story of the very first song I wrote”, which is almost certainly new at that point – more evidence that he planned to release it, although it never materialised. The song was finally recorded in something resembling a finished version, in a live stage performance in January 1991, for the MTV “Unplugged” series. This recording duly found its way onto CD, where it was copyrighted (correctly) to McCartney alone. |
At this stage we need to pause for a moment, as the chronology needs attention. As noted above, McCartney had apparently already written “I Lost My Little Girl” in the aftermath of his mother’s death. McCartney has noted the sub-text of the song’s title but insists it was not a conscious reference when he devised the song.
Confusion arises because Mark Lewisohn dates the number to late-1957, after McCartney had hooked up with Lennon. Ordinarily we would accept Lewisohn’s word, but here we have to make an exception, with due respect to the author.
It is true that McCartney wrote the song on guitar, and equally true that he did not own one of his own until July 1957 – around the time he and Lennon met. This fact alone seems to imply that “I Lost My Little Girl” was written during McCartney’s Quarry Men days. However, we know that he was proficient on the instrument before the two came together, having taught himself well on Ian James’s model. This is not in dispute; when McCartney eventually did meet Lennon, he amazed the latter with his ability, bursting into a rendition of “Twenty Flight Rock”, which was ahead of anything Lennon was able to do at that stage. (He also corrected Lennon’s guitar tuning; it had been tuned in the same way as a banjo.)
It is noticeable that in interview, McCartney does not discuss the song in the context of the Quarry Men, and always seems to link it to the period after his mother’s death (almost a year before Lewisohn dates the song). Not only was it showcased to Ian James at Forthlin Road, implying that it was written on that borrowed guitar, but McCartney himself has said, “I must have played it to John when we met and we decided to get together”, which is pretty conclusive.
For these reasons, we place it here in the chronology.
LINKING
Lennon and McCartney came face to face for the first time on July 6, 1957 (at least, that's the official story - it's thought by Beatle-ologists that they met once prior to this, with details not fully known). The Quarry Men were performing on stage at the time, in one of their sporadic early appearances, running through a selection of skiffle and rock and roll numbers, with McCartney in the crowd, watching on with interest.
That day, the band took to the stage twice – once in late afternoon on a temporary stage set up in a field behind Woolton church, and then again indoors, in the evening. It was during the lull between these two shows that McCartney was taken by his mate, Ivan Vaughan, to meet Lennon – and McCartney made sure he got himself noticed.
When The Quarry Men resumed for the evening session, by an incredible stroke of luck their set was captured on reel-to-reel tape...
Confusion arises because Mark Lewisohn dates the number to late-1957, after McCartney had hooked up with Lennon. Ordinarily we would accept Lewisohn’s word, but here we have to make an exception, with due respect to the author.
It is true that McCartney wrote the song on guitar, and equally true that he did not own one of his own until July 1957 – around the time he and Lennon met. This fact alone seems to imply that “I Lost My Little Girl” was written during McCartney’s Quarry Men days. However, we know that he was proficient on the instrument before the two came together, having taught himself well on Ian James’s model. This is not in dispute; when McCartney eventually did meet Lennon, he amazed the latter with his ability, bursting into a rendition of “Twenty Flight Rock”, which was ahead of anything Lennon was able to do at that stage. (He also corrected Lennon’s guitar tuning; it had been tuned in the same way as a banjo.)
It is noticeable that in interview, McCartney does not discuss the song in the context of the Quarry Men, and always seems to link it to the period after his mother’s death (almost a year before Lewisohn dates the song). Not only was it showcased to Ian James at Forthlin Road, implying that it was written on that borrowed guitar, but McCartney himself has said, “I must have played it to John when we met and we decided to get together”, which is pretty conclusive.
For these reasons, we place it here in the chronology.
LINKING
Lennon and McCartney came face to face for the first time on July 6, 1957 (at least, that's the official story - it's thought by Beatle-ologists that they met once prior to this, with details not fully known). The Quarry Men were performing on stage at the time, in one of their sporadic early appearances, running through a selection of skiffle and rock and roll numbers, with McCartney in the crowd, watching on with interest.
That day, the band took to the stage twice – once in late afternoon on a temporary stage set up in a field behind Woolton church, and then again indoors, in the evening. It was during the lull between these two shows that McCartney was taken by his mate, Ivan Vaughan, to meet Lennon – and McCartney made sure he got himself noticed.
When The Quarry Men resumed for the evening session, by an incredible stroke of luck their set was captured on reel-to-reel tape...
Recording: st peter's church, woolton, july 6, 1957
The Quarry Men, featuring just Lennon of the future Beatles, were taped in performance by local lad Bob Molyneux. In fact, Molyneux captured a fair bit of the day’s shows by the Quarry Men and other acts, but most of his tape reels were lost over the years. Luckily two Quarry Men songs survived – a version of Elvis’s “Baby, Let’s Play House” and the skiffle song, “Puttin’ On The Style”. Although these have not been officially released, since the sound quality is so poor, the tapes have been bootlegged and can be heard quite easily.
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Shortly after McCartney met Lennon, he was asked to join the group. McCartney inevitably traded in his disliked trumpet for a guitar of his own – the Zeneth Seventeen – and made his stage debut with the Quarry Men on October 18, at New Clubmoor Hall in Liverpool.
By now Lennon was enrolled at the Liverpool College of Art, and no longer constrained by a regular timetable, ‘dropped out’, adopting a scruffy, rebellious look, and sometimes dressing as a Teddy Boy in opposition to his fellow students.
It seems highly probable that both Lennon and McCartney played their respective original songs to one another over the following weeks – assuming Lennon had any he could remember! McCartney certainly did, and the period from August 1957 to February 1958 shows both of them coming up with new songs, which must have been a mutually inspiring process. Indeed some of the ensuing songs are thought to be more or less 50-50 collaborations.
During this period, the two started keeping their exercise songbook, with each page pre-headed “Another Lennon-McCartney Original”. Here they wrote down all their new songs along with the letters of the associated chords, meaning they could retain their compositions in some form, without having to memorise them. (The book is still kept by McCartney, but he is apparently not concerned with revealing its contents. Even in his autobiography, he is content to recall the early co-compositions vaguely from memory, when he could have checked and informed us of these historic songs.)
It is difficult to place the period compositions in order of appearance, so the chronology below is approximate, based on the little we know for certain. It is clear that creativity was now in full-flow...
By now Lennon was enrolled at the Liverpool College of Art, and no longer constrained by a regular timetable, ‘dropped out’, adopting a scruffy, rebellious look, and sometimes dressing as a Teddy Boy in opposition to his fellow students.
It seems highly probable that both Lennon and McCartney played their respective original songs to one another over the following weeks – assuming Lennon had any he could remember! McCartney certainly did, and the period from August 1957 to February 1958 shows both of them coming up with new songs, which must have been a mutually inspiring process. Indeed some of the ensuing songs are thought to be more or less 50-50 collaborations.
During this period, the two started keeping their exercise songbook, with each page pre-headed “Another Lennon-McCartney Original”. Here they wrote down all their new songs along with the letters of the associated chords, meaning they could retain their compositions in some form, without having to memorise them. (The book is still kept by McCartney, but he is apparently not concerned with revealing its contents. Even in his autobiography, he is content to recall the early co-compositions vaguely from memory, when he could have checked and informed us of these historic songs.)
It is difficult to place the period compositions in order of appearance, so the chronology below is approximate, based on the little we know for certain. It is clear that creativity was now in full-flow...
[06]
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thinking of linking (mccartney)
The inspiration for “Thinking Of Linking” was a cinema advertisement for a furniture company. George Harrison stated in the Anthology book (page 97), “I remember once sitting with Paul in the cinema on the corner of Rose Lane, not far from where he lived, near Penny Lane. They showed an ad for Link Furniture: ‘Are you thinking of linking?’ Paul said, ‘Oh, that would make a good song,’ and he wrote one that went, ‘Thinking of linking my life with you’.” McCartney recalls composing it at the front window of his home on Forthlin Road, and it probably dates to 1957, before Harrison joined the Quarry Men – he just happened to be present when the song was inspired.
This is one of a few early songs which was (almost) lost, but during the 1969 Get Back sessions, a brief snippet appears on the tapes from January 3. McCartney can barely remember it, attempting to sing a line but failing to recall tune or lyrics correctly. (Given his semi-improvised words, the song went down on bootlegs as “Thinking That You Love Me” or “I’ve Been Thinking That You Love Me”.) A better recording was captured on January 29, this time with Lennon vocalising. Running through a rendition of Buddy Holly’s “Peggy Sue Got Married”, he noticed the similarity of chords and switched to “Thinking Of Linking” before veering off into a section apparently of his own making (“...When you say you care... you are everywhere...”). The fact that Lennon recalled the song come 1969 suggests the group had played it to some reasonable extent back in the day. In 1988, McCartney sketched out a few of the song’s words to Mark Lewisohn in interview, but still it remained obscure. It was not until the filmed sessions by the ‘Threetles’ in 1994 that it was properly heard. In one of the few moments of apparent camaraderie between McCartney and Harrison, the latter kicked off a rendition on acoustic guitar, which McCartney delighted in. (Starr splashes away gamely with his brushes, despite possibly not knowing the song.) McCartney comments, “There’s no second verse”, so this is in effect a complete performance. This rendition appeared as an extra on the bonus DVD when Anthology was released, and is the best available by some measure. It is thanks to the clarity of the chords in this performance that the earlier “I’ve Been Thinking That You Love Me” was positively identified as a variation on the song, thereby erasing a false title from the songbook. (Bootlegs have made a mess of the documentation; “Cayenne” was erroneously called “Thinking Of Linking” on at least one CD. Elsewhere, bootlegs of the Hamburg tapes have used the title “Thinking Of Linking” against yet more songs.) Note - on the subject to mistaken titles, we should point out that the major authority on the Beatles' early years, Mark Lewisohn, names "I've Been Thinking That You Love Me" as a separate song from "Thinking Of Linking". On the basis of the available audio from Get Back, we would tend to disagree, but are open to further clarification. |
[07]
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too bad about sorrows (lennon-mccartney)
Thank heavens for the Get Back bootlegs! “Too Bad About Sorrows” is an historic song not just for the Beatles but for popular music as a whole – McCartney cites it as the very first one that he and Lennon wrote together, entering it in their exercise book as “A Lennon-McCartney Original” in the latter months of 1957. (Although Lewisohn places it in 1958, I think late-1957 is more likely, and so we will enter it here in the chronology, accepting that it’s not possible to be absolutely certain.)
No trace of the song is left from that early era, but it surfaces on the 1969 tapes. It was first recalled on January 8, when Lennon sang a garbled version of the first line or two, before switching to “Just Fun”, to laughter from McCartney. It was remembered again on January 22, where McCartney tears into it with Presley-esque gusto. However he soon loses his confidence, and the rest of the group also falters, only to re-launch into inappropriate rhythms and wrong chords (presumably as a joke) before coming to a halt at around the minute mark. Nevertheless, we get a reasonable idea of how the song goes, and there’s a line (“There’ll be no tomorrow”) which reminds us of one in the later “There’s A Place”. Messy this might be, but it’s priceless nonetheless – Lennon and McCartney running through their first ever composition! Although there are other audio fragments known (such as a 1978 interview McCartney did with Melvin Bragg for the South Bank Show in which he sings the hook line), they add nothing to the marvellous and terrible 1969 recording. |
[08]
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just fun (lennon-mccartney)
This song probably also dates to late-1957, since it has been cited by McCartney as one of the very first Lennon-McCartney co-writes, and as such it sits alongside “Too Bad About Sorrows”. There is no evidence of it before it cropped up in extremely fragmentary form during the Get Back sessions, where there are two references.
The first, recorded on January 6, has McCartney speaking in front of the camera, and he recalls writing it with Lennon while playing truant (sic), and sings an impromptu rendition of the first verse. (This is captured on-screen in the Let It Be movie.) The other starts with an extremely brief quotation by Lennon on January 8; after running aimlessly through the start of “Too Bad About Sorrows”, he sings a rough line from this track, “There’s no blue moon in history”, provoking a ripple of laughter from the others. This is then allowed to develop into a ragged group performance (if it can be called that!) which is the best example of the song we have thus far. (Between these two sections we hear Lennon read a headline from a newspaper, “Queen says ‘no’ to pot-smoking FBI members” – which Phil Spector would later edit onto the start of Harrison’s “For You Blue” on the Let It Be album.) One or two other snippets are known on bootlegs, including one from 16 November 1999: McCartney was being interviewed on the television show The Big Breakfast, when he sang through a few lines – but most frustratingly, the fullest version happens to be the least audible, and comes from an audience-level taping made in 2004. McCartney was due to perform at Letzigrund Stadion in Zurich on the night of June 2, and during the afternoon played the longest-known version of “Just Fun” as part of his sound check. McCartney can be heard strumming through the song on acoustic guitar. What is most intriguing is the appearance of a second verse, with different lyrics. Sadly the quality of the tape is so poor that the words cannot be deciphered. It is possible these were ad-libbed, although McCartney sings them with assurance, as he had the first verse, indicating that they were not improvised. He also adds a repeating two-chord coda, possibly from the original. The song has never been released on anything official. If the Let It Be movie ever appears on DVD, then there will be a part of the song legally available. Until then, as with “Too Bad About Sorrows”, another historic number is entirely in the hands of the bootleggers. It is interesting that the original lyric, written in 1957, when McCartney and Lennon had just started playing and writing together, begins, “They say that our love is just fun / the day that our friendship begun”. These lines sound like they could be self-referential, and if so they precede later McCartney numbers concerning his relationship with Lennon (“You Never Give Me Your Money”, “Two Of Us” etc). |
[09]
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hello little girl (lennon)
Reliable sources, including Lennon himself, have named “Hello Little Girl” as his first composition, although we know that it was at least his third (not counting co-writes). It was, however, the first one he retained in his head, making it the earliest which survives.
Since it dates to November/December 1957, it was written after McCartney had joined the group, and presumably his “I Lost My Little Girl” provided some sort of inspiration for the song’s title, although Lennon stated that it was developed from an old song his mother used to sing to him. The number was performed by the Quarry Men, and the earliest recording dates to 1960, with the Forthlin Road tapes. There, it is a slow, Buddy Holly-esque number. The Beatles clearly liked it though, incorporating it into their 1962 Decca audition set, that recording now available on the Anthology set. By then it was faster, and had a new middle-8. Shortly thereafter, Brian Epstein was attempting to get some industry attention in London, and after having the Decca tapes transferred onto disc, found himself in an office with none other than George Martin, who (according to Epstein) listened back to “Hello Little Girl” and liked it, though nothing more came of this early meeting. (The group’s later signing to EMI was through a different route.) The song clearly had appeal but despite also selecting it for the BBC as part of the group’s first ever radio slot, in March 1962 (now lost), they never recorded it properly. Instead it was given to Brian Epstein’s act, The Fourmost, who made the UK top 10 with their version in 1963. It is credited there as by McCartney-Lennon. |
[10]
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what goes on (lennon)
This song turned up on Rubber Soul in 1965, but was probably begun in late-1957 or early-1958. It seems the main chorus (which holds much of the song) was Lennon’s original creation, the relatively brief verse being added later, in readiness for the recording.
The song almost surfaced in 1963, when a recording session on March 5 captured another unreleased oldie, “One After 909”. “What Goes On” was also scheduled for recording that day, but apparently never made it onto tape (possibly because the group were struggling to get “One After 909” wrapped up). A demo by Lennon is known from this period, and about half a minute of it has been released to the public on YouTube. It reveals the verses to be very different from the final version. By 1965, McCartney knew the song was headed for Starr and prepared a new demo for him, on which McCartney played everything, including drums. Starr was thereby able to listen through and consider some of his own improvements, earning himself a credit in the only Lennon-McCartney-Starr copyright. (It is possible that the newer verses were devised and worked on at this point, without Lennon’s input.) Come November 4, the song was captured for the final LP. |