Comments by "John Burns" (@johnburns4017) on "Talks at Google" channel.

11:28 The Beatles looked for the "unusual" because they did not want to play the same songs as all the other bands. They did think from a different angle for sure, but were not being different for the sake of it. They were just different.
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Mark is right. They were the first band that had the setup of: - drums. - rhythm guitar. - lead guitar - bass guitar - most importantly, no focal point of a lead singer (they all sang). - wrote their own material.
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Co-ops and Land Valuation Taxation will bring stability and economic justice
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Mark is right about Liverpool, apart from the city centre, the two main social roads in the 1950s/60s were Park Rd in the south end of the city and Scotland Rd in the north end. These two roads literally had a pub on the corner of each street running off the main road. On a Friday and Saturday evening about every 5th pub had a live band. People wanted live music. If the band was semi-comedic by cracking jokes and witticisms between songs all the better. Other districts of the city were similar but far less concentrated. Liverpool city planners literally razed the two areas in the 1960s, depopulating both districts, obliterating the music nursery.
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Julia had a child to a Norwegian sea captain. John never met his half sister after years of trying to track her down. Late in life she found she was John's sister after he had died. She lived in Hampshire.
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Mona and Pete Best were so active and influential in formation of the Beatles. The Beatles were moulded in the two years in Hamburg when Best was with them. He was in the first session at Abbey Rd, then booted out when The Beatles were on contract to EMI. He may have had a legal case against them as the contract was with The Beatles, of which he was one. Pete's drumming was fine, Martin even said so. Pete played an off beat which was popular only in Liverpool, which was a part of the distinctive Mersey Sound. The southern England people at Abbey Road could not identify with it and criticized Best's drumming. At the time London was an appalling place for popular music - totally way back and in the dark. The London bands that thought they were "in" played Blues, as did the Stones. Liverpool bands were not heavily into Blues, having a great mix of American music with their own added.
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Wolff does not seem to know how to break the destructive boom-bust cycle. Land Value Tax charged at a level high enough to eliminate personal income tax will pretty well do that. LVT breaks the 18 year land cycle (which is like clockwork only interrupted by wars and natural disasters) which the business cycle tends to follow with other minor boom-busts between. Richard should have Land Value Taxation in his lectures.
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Timeline: 1) John, Paul & George wrongly thought the EMI contract was uncertain because of the drummer, after Epstein told them a sessions man would be brought in if they got the contract. Epstein says nothing to Pete. mmm odd. 2) The three approached Epstein about replacing the drummer, not knowing having a sessions drummer was normal practice. 3) Epstein sees an opportunity to get rid of Mona Best by using her son as the lever. Mona was the ex manager and interfering. Epstein goes along with casting the blame on the three band members. 4) A week or so after the 1st session at EMI on 6 June, Epstein approaches his lawyer, David Harris, on how to get Pete out. 5) In late July a firm contract is secured meaning Pete was fine, no problems with EMI over him. All fears now dissolve over securing a contract. Resistance from the three would now be near zero, as anxieties dissipate. 6) Epstein still goes along with ousting Pete from the band, despite having a secure contract. 7) Three weeks after securing a contract Epstein fires Pete on 15 August 1962. 8) A number of drummers were approached to fill the vacant position, Richard Starkey who was the 4th choice and accepted. If Mona was not a pain in Epstein's side interfering with the management of the band, Pete would have remained in my opinion. Epstein was the key man in ousting Pete. But my opinion is more leaning to analysis as it is based a lot on facts uncovered by Mark Lewishon and David Bedford.
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The rock scene was not mainstream. The music establishment, and others, were suppressing it.
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@ceediddy925 In the late 50s/early 60s Latin American music was being promoted. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M95pgo-PslY
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The Liverpool seamen who sailed between Liverpool and America were called the Cunard Yanks. There was constant sea traffic between Liverpool and east coast US ports. A few thousand seamen worked this route. They brought back obscure US records for sure. They were easily identifiable as they wore American clothes. Mark says it is a myth they influenced Liverpool. It is not. Their role may be overstated but no myth. Gerry Marsden clearly says they listened to records brought in by fiends who were Cunard Yanks. As a kid I clearly recall my elder cousin, a Cunard Yank, playing records to my elder sisters that he got from the USA - and that no one had heard of. Mark says The Beatles were in the second wave in Liverpool. The first wave clearly had an influence via the Cunard Yanks. How great an influence is undetermined. Mark also highlights that all records in the USA were available in the UK, that being so. If you knew what it was and then ordered the record of course it was available. The obscure records were never in the shops or played on the one radio channel - there was two, the other being Radio Luxembourg, which faded in and out being at times unlistenable in Liverpool being further away from Luxembourg than the likes of London. So how did they know or hear of these obscure US songs? You had to be introduced to them by someone......like a Cunard Yank. George Harrison played a Gretch guitar in early Beatles recordings. He bought that from a Cunard Yank who bought it in New York.
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Mark uncovered that The Beatles were signed up to EMI before Martin ever met them. The first session at Abbey Rd with Pete Best was not an audition, it was an artists test. An artists test is when the artist is on contract. Artist's tests were also for established artists that have been on contract for a number of years - to re-assess them, as they may have improved with experience, or worsened. The Beatles, including Best, were paid the musicians union fee for the session, proof they were on contract. They were going to release a record whether Best was with them or not. One theory why The Beatles were signed before Martin met them was that Epstein was threatening not to sell EMI records in his music stores. The top managers said give them a recording contract and if they fail we still have the record sales, so nothing lost. They appointed a lowly producer, George Martin. Martin described The Beatles as rubbish. He mainly produced comedy records not really understanding popular and rock music. This rubbish band were writing their own material and were so bad they turned down a sure fire hit, How Do You Do, because they never wrote it. What new rubbish band turns down a sure fire hit? Martin's role in The Beatles is overstated, and the likes of Geoff Emerick's, the sound engineers, understated.
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@mussman717word Martin heard the DECCA tapes, recorded at West Hampstead studio at the other end of Abbey Rd. On their first session at Abbey Rd, Martin was not there, only arriving at the end, listening to the tape they just recorded, getting feedback from the EMI men in the studio. Martin still thought they were rubbish. He was loaded with this band by EMI. He had to record a single or two whether he wanted to or not. Then, when with them in the studio he realised they were a lot different, not having a lead singer front man, with all taking turns to sing lead and do harmonies. He couldn't make them out. They wrote their own music insisting the recorded singles to be their own compositions, which was unheard of in a new band new to recording. Most would not say "boo" to a producer. Martin probably went along with it as he thought they would go nowhere. Andy White the sessions drummer called in to sit in for Pete Best and Ringo, noticed they were different in that they wrote their own songs. The Beatles were pushing it, not Martin. The Beatles were Martin's chance of getting out of novelty and comedy records. Martin's only previous No.1 was a year before meeting The Beatles, with a novelty semi-comedy band, playing 1920s jazz types of music, the Temperance Seven: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz_2Lekc098
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@mussman717word The point is that Martin's influence is overrated. You can't keep a good man down. The Beatles would have been a success no matter who was the producer. There were countless ships sailing between Liverpool and New York each day. They could have jumped one of those then recorded in New York. New York had better studios, recording equipment, producers, the lot. The Beatles would have been closer to their musical roots, being highly stimulated. The Beatles may have been different by doing so, rather than staying in out of touch London, but no less successful or creative for sure.
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Mark is downplaying Pete Best's role, as if he was just picked up from the street. They had known Pete for a number of years, playing at his mother's coffee bar/club. Lennon, McCartney and Harrison helped paint the walls of the place before it opened. Pete was about to go to university/teachers training college when he was asked to go to Hamburg with them. He gave it all up to go with them. Then they treat him like that? He was in the first recording session at Abbey Rd studios - when they had a contract, not an audition. Pete was with them during the time The Beatles were moulded into a band. Then he was dumped without an explanation, with no future., having given up his education. When Pete's daughter was about 11, she said to him, that her friend's mother said he was with a band called The Beatles. He never bothered to tell her.
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David Bedford in Liverpool found that The Beatles were a signed formal partnership. Pete Best could not be fired. Pete was entitled to 25% of the profits. David Harris, Epstein's lawyer told him that it was a partnership by default, even without a formal signing. Harris did not know that in Dec 1961 they all signed a formal partnership. Best was so bad a drummer, and they never liked him so much after knowing him for two years, they all signed a formal partnership with him? Then six months later he does not fit in? I do not buy that.
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