| The Beatles distinguished
themselves from other rock performers of the time in their emphasis on
composing their own material. In part, Lennon and McCartney (if not Harrison)
saw composing (and probably producing) as where they would continue after
their performing career collapsed in a few years. Their paradigms of the
time were composing teams like Lieber and Stoller (or, perhaps, Rogers
and Hammerstein) and bands like the Shadows (whose members made individual
careers as producers and session musicians). However, several of their
rock idols were also composers: Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry,
the Everly Brothers are a few examples. Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison
had been working on writing songs almost from the start. Lennon, certainly,
was not adverse to improvising lyrics and he demonstrated from early on
an ability to manipulate musical materials, adapting banjo chords to the
guitar, for example. McCartney's home life would have probably been an
environment in which the profession of musicianhood, including song composition,
would have been nurtured. |
| When the Beatles invaded American
soil in 1964, they brought with them reinterpretations of American pop,
rhythm and blues, country, and rock and roll. Their flattened transatlantic
telescopic gaze superimposed different genres and styles onto the same
screen: Chuck Berry, Arthur Alexander, Carl Perkins, the Isley Brothers,
the Shirelles, the Donays, and others were all in the repertoire. What
Americans saw in the sonic mirror, they loved, even as the reflections
distorted racial and class realities. |