The Beatles: The Best Band Ever (Interesting Biographies #14)

The Beatles is one of the best if not the best band ever. They set the standard for music and pop culture through their massive influence. No band has topped their fame yet, but why? Little darling, here comes the story of The Beatles.

The Beatles started in Liverpool when John Lennon in March 1957, began recruiting members for his band. Eventually, he teamed up with three other members and the group we all know as the Fab Four was created. It was Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Stuart Sutcliffe. Wait, Sutcliffe? Wasn’t it someone else? Anyway, Sutcliffe is the one who came up with the name, “The Beatles”. Originally he suggested the band be called “Beatals”  as a tribute to Buddy Holly and The Crickets. Then the band became “The Silver Beatles” and then they changed their name to “The Beatles”. Sutcliffe also has credit for creating the classic hair cuts The Beatles had that we all love. In mid-August a drummer joined the band. I bet you know who it was. That’s right, it was Pete Best! Wait, did you expect someone else? The band performed at several clubs the next two years and became popular in Liverpool. During this period Sutcliffe left the band to pursue his art studies in Germany. Boy, did that guy miss out. Eventually, The Beatles made a record deal with George Martin of EMI.

The Beatles first recorded at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios in London on June 6, 1962. However, Martin was not satisfied with Best’s drumming skills, so The Beatles replaced Best with Ringo Starr (there is the fourth member we all know). Hear that haters? Starr literally replaced the Best. In February 1963, The Beatles recorded ten songs for their debut album, “Please Please Me”. It included two songs that had been released as singles a month earlier: “Love Me Do” and “Please Please Me”, which had moderate success. Those song titles aren’t exactly proper grammar. The album released in March and met with success, remaining at the top of the charts in the UK for thirty weeks. In April the band released their third single, “From Me To You” and their fourth single called “She Loves You” reached the top of the charts with their fourth single receiving the fastest sales of a record at the time.

(The Beatles’ first album, Please Please Me.)

On February 7, 1964, the Beatles landed in New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport to begin their conquest of the United States of America after their band had gained popularity in the U.S. in December. They became even more famous after they appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show with 70 million viewers watching them. This began the phenomenon known as Beatlemania. In March and April, United Artist Records convinced the band to sign a three-motion-picture deal because of the commercial potential for their songs. During those months The Beatles shot their first film, A Hard Day’s Night, which was a mock-documentary on the band. It was a success when it premiered in July and August in the U.S. and U.K. In August the Beatles met famous musician Bob Dylan, whom introduced them to cannabis. I guess The Beatles weren’t kidding when they said they got “higher with a little help from my friends”.

In July 1965, The Beatles released their second album called, “Help!”. This album highlighted the McCartney-Lennon song writing partnership in songs like Help!, Ticket To Ride, and Yesterday. In December they released their third album, “Rubber Soul”, which included famous songs such as In My Life that showed the maturity and growth of the band. In June 1966, The Beatles released a compellation album for the U.S. called “Yesterday and Today” that caused an uproar for its gruesome cover art. The idea of the cover was supposed to be a satirical response to how the U.S. was butchering their albums. They ran into more U.S. controversy when Lennon made a comment during an interview stating The Beatles were “More popular than Jesus”. It was supposed to be more of a humorous remark by commenting on how their concerts were more packed than churches. However, in the eyes of Bible Belt America, The Beatles were spawns of Satan. Just imagine how Fox News would have reacted to that comment. In response, Bible Belt Americans burned Beatles albums and banned their music from the radio. If Lennon had said “To teenage girls we are more popular than Jesus”, maybe he would have gotten away with it.

(The cover of The Beatles’ compellation album, “Yesterday and Today. Quite gruesome isn’t it?)

In August, The Beatles released their next album, “Revolver”.  This continued to show the band’s maturity and experimentation with psychedelic rock. Then in June of 1967, they released their next album, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”. This album is considered the greatest album of all time. In 1968, The Beatles released a successful film called Yellow Submarine. Then they released their next album, “The White Album”, while it was successful it was not critically received well for it lacked creativity. Also the cover of the album is incredibly lazy. The making of “The White Album” is marked as the beginning of the break up of The Beatles. Tensions were growing high as the band members were becoming annoyed with each other. Also Lennon began to bring his girlfriend, Yoko Ono to the recordings. We all know what that’s like when your friend is dating and they show off their date everywhere. In September they released their next album, “Abbey Road”, which quickly rose to number one. It was a miracle that album was made considering how much the band members hated each other at that point. In May of 1970, The Beatles released their final album, “Let It Be”. A month earlier the world was brought the most devastating announcement since the Kennedy Assasination. McCartney had announced his departure from The Beatles and soon all the other members left as well.

(The album cover to The Beatles’ “Abbey Road”.)

What happened to the members? John Lennon had is own successful solo career, but he was assassinated in December 1980. George Harrison also had a successful solo career, but he died in November 2001 due to lung cancer. Paul McCartney is still alive and has had a successful solo career. Finally, Ringo Starr is also still alive and had a briefly successful solo career, but now is the guy people go to in order to find out about the more popular members of The Beatles.

Why are The Beatles the most successful band in history? Why is it we don’t have a artists like The Beatles in today’s time? First of all The Beatles set the standard story for all bands. Start off your career with some love songs, have a documentary film about you, do some controversial stuff, get hooked on drugs, and break up. No band has strayed from this formula unless they just fade into obscurity like Click Five.

The closest thing we have to The Beatles today is One Direction, which is sad because it shows how much popular music has deteriorated over the years. Anyway, when The Beatles first started they were a simple boy band, whom sang love songs that filled the fantasies of teenage girls. One Direction is doing the same thing right now. Will One Direction mature like The Beatles did? Probably not. Why? The answer is the market. When The Beatles were around their was major changes taking place in America. President Lyndon B. Johnson had the War on Poverty, Civil Rights, and the protests against the Vietnam War. The Beatles became the people’s voice of these issues and that sold a lot of money. In today’s world we obviously still face major issues, but political music doesn’t sell. Sex, drugs and partying does. Yeah, there are songs that relate to issues like gay marriage out there, but they are not rebellious in nature. We need a band or artist that is not afraid to be like, “FU!” to the government. For example when the NSA scandal was uncovered did you hear any artists sing about it? When is the last time you heard a political song on the radio? I don’t know why, but artists have not been allowed to express those beliefs. I would think a producer could make more money on an artist that is outspoken than a restricted one. If you watch The Beatles in their interviews, they are smart and funny. They aren’t afraid to mock the U.S. We need more artists like that in the world. No artist really stands out on top today because music wise they don’t stick out from everybody else. There is a good chance I will not see a band like The Beatles in my lifetime and that is sad.

This has been the fourteenth installment of my Interesting Biographies series. Follow my blog for more entries in the future. Also check out my previous biographies. Leave a comment if there is someone you want me to do a biography on.

Pablo Picasso: One of the Most Inspirational Artists of the 20th Century (Interesting Biographies #13)

Pablo Picasso was one of the most influential painters of the twentieth century because of his innovations and experimentation. Behind the great paintings are a great story that reveals an interesting look inside this weird man.

Pablo Picasso was born Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Crispiniano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso on October 25, 1881, in Malaga, Spain. He was given many names to honor different saints and relatives. but that doesn’t justify how ridiculously long it is. It’s not like someone would actually call his by his full name. His first word was “piz, piz”, which his mother claims was sort for the Spanish word for pencil, “lapiz”. Or he just had to pee, but that wouldn’t sound as pleasant. Picasso’s inspiration came from his father, whom was an art painter and professor. By age 13, it is said Picasso had surpassed his father. His dad was so humiliated he vowed to never paint again. What a great lesson to teach your son, “if there is someone better than you, give up”. Picasso was also so good he got into the School of Fine Arts his father worked at, however he lacked discipline. At age 16, Picasso enrolled at the Royal Academy of San Fernando, but dropped out because he was too cool for school.

In 1900, he moved to an apartment in Paris, France with his friend Max Jacob. 1900-04 is known as Picasso’s Blue Period because he painted his paintings in red. Just kidding, obviously it was because he painted his paintings in blue. 1904-06 is known as Picasso’s Rose Period because of the cheery colors of orange and pink. 1907-09 was known as his African-American Period, not because he became black, but because his art was inspired by African-American artifacts. During this period he painted one of his famous paintings called Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.

(Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon displays his weird taste in women.)

In 1909, Picasso along with Georges Braque (but no one cares about that guy) invented Cubism. Mixing cubism and serialism along with inspiration from the German bombing of Guernica, Picasso painted Guernica.

(Picasso’s Guernica.)

In his personal life, Picasso was a player.  He had affairs with women that were much younger and older than him through out his entire life. Hugh Hefner would be jealous of this guy. As a result he painted several pictures of women such as the Weeping Mistress and Le Reve.

(Picasso’s Le Reve is said by critics to be a picture of Picasso’s erect penis. Do you see it?)

Picasso died on April 8, 1973, in Mougins, France.

This has been the thirteenth installment of my Interesting Biography series. Follow my blog for more entries in the future. Also read my previous biographies. Leave a comment if there is someone you want me to do a biography on.

Marie Antoinette: The Most Hated Queen Ever(Interesting Biographies #12)

Marie Antoinette is known for saying, “Let them eat cake” even though she never said that. If TMZ existed in her time, she would be the scapegoat of the show. She was so unpopular people even tried to kill her. Why was she so hated and was she hated too much?

Antoinette was born a princess on November 2, 1755,  in Vienna, Austria. Her dad was Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor and her mom was Queen Maria Theresa of Hungary and Bohemia. Fun fact, she was born the same day the Great Lisbon Earthquake, when fires and tsunamis almost completely destroyed the Portugal city. If that was not an obvious symbolism of the French Revolution in the future, I don’t know what would have been. The only thing her education covered as a youth was how to behave like a princess, so she watch the Princess Diaries daily. She did learn how to play musical instruments such as the clavicord (whatever that is) and the harp.

(Antoinette at age thirteen, looking like a grandma.)

On April 19, 1769, she was married to Louis XVI, the future king of France. She was fourteen, which might seem young, but is only two years younger than the average Disney princess. On June 11, 1775, her husband became the king of France. Immediately, she was pressured into producing a heir. However, Louis did not know how to have sex. Their relationship was like Steve Urkel marrying Paris Hilton. Louis’ friends had to tell him how to have sex. If you thought your parents were putting pressure on you to have children, just imagine how it must have felt for Antoinette to have an entire country pressure her. Antoinette did not help her image out by buying lavish clothing and gambling money while the people were living in famine. She gave birth to a daughter on December 19, 1778. Antoinette was like, “Look people, I gave birth to a child just like you wanted.” The people responded, “We wanted a MALE heir, not a girl! Go have another baby!” Considering how rough of the birth was she was not looking forward to going through it again. She gave birth to a son on October 22, 1781. The only job a queen had was give birth to a son. She had no real power or influence.

(Antoinette and her husband, Louis.)

As the financial situation in France kept getting worse and no reforms were being made, the queen became involved with politics. One major reason was to save her reputation because there had been a recent scandal, which today is known as the Affair of the Diamond Necklace. The queen was accused of not paying the crown jewelers for a necklace they made for her. On top of that there was a lot of bad gossip surrounding the queen related to sexual activity.

On July 14, 1789, the French Revolution began with the destruction of the prison called Bastille. Violence started as a result of Louis’ failure to provide more rights to the people. As a result, Louis signed the Deceleration Rights of the Man and Citizen, declaring men had certain universal rights and a constitutional monarchy was born. However, that didn’t end the revolution because a bread shortage drew people mad again. On October 5, an angry mob stormed into the Palace of Versailles where the royals and powerful people were living. The mob successfully drove the royals and most of the French Assembly back to Paris, which is where they were supposed to be. In Paris the royal family were under watch 24/7 under house arrest. Antoinette was accused of several sex scandals and hit tabloids harder than Britney Spears. On the night of June 20, 1791, the royals tried to escape from Paris by disguising themselves as servants to spark a counter-revolution. However, the king was recognized and the escape failed.

(The angry mob storms into the palace, but they don’t look that angry in this picture.)

On September 21, it was officially declared the French monarchy was over and the National Assembly became the head power in France. King Louis was put on trial in December for his crimes and was found innocent. Just kidding, of course they found him guilty and had him executed on January 21, 1793. As a result Antoinette went into mourning and her health deteriorated.  The National Assembly debated on what they should do with the queen. Ideas ranged from execution to trading her for money. Eventually, she was tried on October 14, with less than a day to prepare her defense, but it’s not like it would have made a difference. She was tried for incest with her son, assassination attempts, massacres, money theft, and planning orgies. To no one’s surprise, she was found guilty and was executed on October 16.

(Antoinette’s execution.)

Marie Antoinette was the easiest target for the French media. All of the accusations of her sexual activities were false including the one that claimed she had sex with her son. I’m not saying Antoinette is not guilty of being a bad queen. While the queen did not have much power, she should have at least fought for her people. She and the rest of the royals should have been more aware of the poverty that surrounded them. To be fair, part of this is because Louis and Antoinette were trained to behave like royals, but not on how to take the responsibilities of a royal. They had no guidance to make good choices. Giving the circumstances it is easy to see why the French media was angry and insulted her constantly. What is famously known about her comes from the rumors. In today’s media we can see the same thing from TMZ reports on celebrities to Fox News on President Obama. It shows how much influence the media has and how they can create a false image of a person that becomes accepted.

This has been the twelfth installment of my Interesting Biographies series. Follow my blog for more entries in the future. Also read my previous biographies. Leave a comment if there is someone you want me to do a biography on.

Charles I of England: The Only British King to Have His Head Chopped Off (Interesting Biographies #7)

Charles I is an interesting figure because of his stubbornness. He did not take any BS from those he disagreed with. This led to a story of a leader versus his country. We can learn a lot about power by listening to his story.

Charles was born on November 19, 1600 in Dunfurmline Palace, Fife. Charles was a very sick and weak child at first. He was so weak his family left him behind when his father, James I, became the king of England. He went through a Rocky training montage and became a very athletic young man and joined his family in England. This was partly due to his admiration of his better Henry Federick, Prince of Whales, whom was Charles’ more attractive, stronger, more awesome, better at everything, had a standard Charles could never achieve, probably would have been a much better king than Charles, older brother. Aren’t older brothers always the best? However, Henry died and Charles became the heir to the throne. 

(Portrait of Charles as a kid wearing ridiculous clothing.)

On February 2, 1626, Charles became the King of England after his father died a year earlier. Charles had married a French princess named Henrietta Maria. He had fallen in love with her, but more specifically he fell in love with her so he could create an alliance with France. Many Catholics were afraid that Charles would enact religious restrictions. Charles said he would not, but his support of the anti-Calvinist, Richard Montagu, did not help calm them down. 

He ran into more controversy when he planned a naval attack on Spanish fleets, hoping to steal some treasure. Parliament was taking forever to approve a plan and was not providing him with the funds he wanted. Charles put his BFF, the Duke of Buckingham,  in charge of a naval expedition. The expedition failed. Parliament and the commoners demanded for Buckingham’s dismal. So Charles did dismiss…..Parliament. Charles was like, “Screw you guys,” and dissolved Parliament. 
As you might imagine, taking away power from the people that are supposed to represent the voice of the commoners was not a popular move. 

This only got worse for Charles. His boyfriend, Buckingham led a failed attack on the French, his wife was constantly bothering him, and he tried to tax people for the war effort, but could not without parliament which he had dissolved. On August 23, 1628, Buckingham was assassinated to the pleasure of the commoners and to the despair of Charles. 

On January 1629, Charles reopened Parliament due to his low popularity. However, Parliament was not allowing him to get away with what he wanted, so he said, “You know what? Screw you guys,” and dissolved Parliament again for eleven years. I bet Barack Obama wishes he could do that with Congress. To raise money for war plans, Charles taxed hard and claimed people owed money for anything he could get away with. 

Then Charles had to mess around with religion. If you thought people were overly strict about religion today then you should be glad you were not born in the 1600s. Back then everyone responded to the slightest change in religion with outrage. Just imagine everyone had the mind set of Fox News. When Charles tried to impose his religious policies in Scotland, the response led to he First Bishops’ War of 1639. Charles attempted to fight the rebellion himself and got his ass kicked. He made a treaty with Scotland while he prepared to raise money for another military campaign. To do so he reopened Parliament. However, Charles were not seeing things eye to eye, so he said, “Screw you guys,” and dissolved Parliament. Doesn’t this sound familiar? However, due to a universal call for Parliament Charles reopened it in November. This was after Charles signed a humiliating treaty with the Scots in October. This began the period known as “Long Parliament”.

First thing Parliament did was have Charles sign a the Triennial Act, that stated Parliament had to meet at least once every three years. Then in May, they had him sign an act that stated the king could not dissolve Parliament without Parliament’s approval. Those guys knew history repeats itself. Parliament began to clean up Charles’ mess and indirectly boosted Charles popularity. However, that did not last long. 

In October 1641, Irish Catholics tried to overthrow Charles’ English administration in Ireland. When Charles asked for money to fund a war campaign, Parliament became suspicious and suspected that Charles was actually aligned with the rebels. They thought he planned to attack Parliament. When Charles heard Parliament was going after his wife because they thought she was a spy for the enemy, he demanded that Parliament hand over five members he had suspected of high treason. Then the tension snapped. Charles attempted to arrest the members by force, but Parliament had sent them away. Worried for his family’s safety, he and his families fled the kingdom. Cities and people began to chose sides between Parliament and Charles. This sparked the English Civil War.

The first act of the war began in mid-1642 as both sides prepared their armies. It was the Parliamentarians versus the Royalists. Both sides invented humiliating nicknames for each other such as “Roundheads” and “Cavaliers”. Actually those nicknames are lame. Seriously, did three year olds come up with those? Never had the world seen a more epic battle since the War of the Ring. In April 1646, the Royalists were defeated in the Siege of Oxford. Charles escaped and fled to Scotland. However, nine months later the Scots literally sold Charles out for money and put him in the custody of Parliament. Later, Charles was able to get the Scots back on his side. In May 1648 the second act of the war began when the Royalists regrouped along with the Scots and attacked England. The Royalists got destroyed more humiliatingly than the Denver Broncos at the Super Bowl.  

(Charles out on the battlefield.)

In January 1649, Charles was put on trial by Parliament having been accused of treason. Charles refused to cooperate with the trial, claiming it was his divine right as king to rule as he pleased. If this was Florida, Charles might have gotten away with his crimes, but since this was not Florida, he was giving the death sentence on January 26. 

(Charles’ attire during his trial. Looking like a pimp.)

Charles’ execution by decapitation took place on January 30. He wore two shirts, so people would not mistake shivers from the cold as shivers from fear. This man wanted to go out as a boss. In his last words he stated he wanted to give liberty and freedom to his people,  “but I must tell you that their liberty and freedom consists in having government … It is not their having a share in the government; that is nothing appertaining unto them. A subject and a sovereign are clean different things. I shall go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown, where no disturbance can be.”

Charles is a figure that should be studied by all countries. Why? His story raises important questions such as: What can a leader get away with? When should a leader be overthrown? How should power be split between a leader and the government? Can one person lead a nation? Famous philosopher, John Loche, once stated that if the government of a country failed to satisfy its people, it was the duty of the people to overthrow it. That’s what Parliament did to Charles. I have always been interested in Charles because of his stubborn personality. He believed in the divine right of the kings. I don’t think he would have any regrets. Charles’ story should be a cautionary tale for leaders around the world. Parliament’s rise against Charles should be an inspirational tale for the commoners around the world.

This has been the seventh installment of my Interesting Biographies series. Follow my blog for more biographies in the future. Also read some of my previous biographies. Leave a comment if there is a person you want to do a biography on.