HOW THE BEATLES STILL GRIP LIVERPOOL…..

Well, they probably don’t – at least not in the popular sense. Go ask any scouser their opinion of the Beatles and there’ll be a mixed bag of responses ranging from the indifferent (granted, they were ok! ) to the downright hostile (whatever did they do for us? or, they got too big for their boots didn’t they?). And so on.But given that there are fewer music fans who lived through Beatlemania, maybe it’s best to focus on just what exactly they do for the city now.   

  Day tripper……..

Quite a lot – according to a report commissioned by Liverpool City Council who quote that the fab four’s legacy brings more than £89m in tourist revenue; that the Beatles are responsible for 1 in every 100 jobs (total employed in all jobs: 230,800) and that of the 1 to 2m visitors over half cite the Beatles as the main reason to visit. (1)

In fact, it seems that this ‘multiplier effect’ of methodology, i.e., every tourist pound generates another in hotels, another in transportation, etc, is replicated by the American city of Memphis which due to its associated fame with Elvis has formed a transatlantic linkup with Liverpool to ‘strengthen links and promote tourism.’ (2)

And although only 10,400 tourists visit Lennon and McCartney’s respective childhood homes p.a. (it could be far more except numbers are controlled because of residential areas), it is no mean feat that the City of Memphis sees similar good business ideas – even though visitors to Graceland far surpass 500,000 p.a.But typically who are Liverpool’s tourists? For although the majority are from North America, it should be remembered that there are Beatles fan clubs worldwide in the most unlikely of countries including Argentina, France, Japan, Russia and Ukraine; the USA and Germany have some of the highest number of clubs, whilst in the Philippines thousands are no doubt still in awe of the Beatles concert at a Manila stadium – a long time ago on 4 July 1966, to be precise.
And of course, there are many Brits and Irish people who combine Beatles interest with excursions to the football stadia, plus the city’s unrivalled Victorian architecture – rated as ‘the best in England’ according to English Heritage. (3)   

The Long and Winding Road………….

But in this year 2020, I’ve tried to suss out how many Merseysiders actually do find positive things to say about the band. For despite their local roots and references to city life, Lennon/McCartney’s songwriting partnership wasn’t the most prolific; indeed, 30 years previously the Hammerstein/Hart collaboration far exceeded their number of songs.
Maybe that’s like comparing hot-dogs to hamburgers, and to a typical millennial Beatles songs such as The Fool on the Hill sound as dated as Hammerstein/Hart’s My Funny Valentine and The Lady is a Tramp did to us.Which was was a factor in the Beatles’ success: young people everywhere in the sixties were bored with the music of their parents. 
The Beatles’ fame was fast and intense but short-lived, and it culminated in many controversial statements and lifestyle choices that were greatly irritating to many people worldwide, the most quoted being John Lennon’s observation to the London Standard of the day “We’re bigger than Jesus.”

In the UK no-one took much notice of Lennon’s claim, but it blew up like a mushroom cloud among reactionary Americans causing public bonfires of Beatles records, censorship by FM stations and even protests by the Ku Klux Klan prompting some music journalists to speculate that this caused the band’s breakup three years later.The main response to Lennon’s inflammatory remark everywhere though was one of indignation – basically people were asking just who the Beatles thought the hell they were.
This issue steadfastly refused to go away: in ensuing years it was blamed for reduced record sales; it even resurfaced forty years on in an episode of the American cartoon The Simpsons in which Bart lamented the unpopularity of his own band:
“What did you do to get fired from your rock band?” Bart Simpson was asked.“Did you say you were ‘bigger than Jesus?'” 
And Lennon’s involvement with alternative politics certainly didn’t endear him to mainstream America and the UK, especially when in 1969 he returned his MBE to the Queen as a protest against “Britain’s support of America in Vietnam.”     On the other hand, Lennon is seen as his self-penned ‘Working Class Hero’ from his later album ‘Imagine’ – someone who stands up for workers’ rights – this was especially evident in the Beatles fight to control the finances of Northern Songs when he proclaimed he was “sick of being f****d about by suits sitting on their fat arses in the city.” (4)

An angry statement that no-one from socialist Liverpool could deny was uncalled for
John Lennon – the son of a merchant seaman – was supported not just by the traditional left for years later was immortalised by Bob Dylan in ‘Roll on John’ and the song’s lyric ‘from the Liverpool docks to the red-light Hamburg streets’ (5) summed up Lennon’s working-class roots. 
But both Paul McCartney and George Harrison drew flak. McCartney’s 1972 song ‘Give Ireland back to the Irish’ as honest as it may have been intended, didn’t go down too well in music circles. Most stations banned it – the irony being that years on McCartney’s songwriting is criticised as too bland and unappealing.At a later date McCartney was interviewed in the US and, drawing upon his childhood, commented that he’d “never met any people more soulful, more intelligent, more kind, more filled with common sense than the people I come from in Liverpool…. people who can cut through any problems.” (6)

Perhaps we shouldn’t doubt his sincerity.
And although George Harrison’s dalliance with Indian mysticism was derided by both the media and popular opinion – in fact, all four Beatles visited India – some years later the guitarist redeemed himself by promoting and playing in the ‘Concert for Bangla Desh’ to raise funds for the tragic floods in that country.  
As an aside George Harrison’s foray into Indian music was reputedly not influenced by his merchant seaman father’s travels, but by his mother listening into the Indian music stations of the day at home in Arnold Grove, Wavertree – probably an unusual pastime in 1950’s England.
George, a generally unassuming Beatle, commented at one time about their success too. But in contrast to John Lennon’s ‘Jesus’ comment his remark that the “Beatles saved the world from boredom” could also well be interpreted as boastful.That wouldn’t be such a boast to anyone who lived through the radio days of the late-50’s in the UK, however; in fact it was apparent that Harrison was alluding to the dreadful array of ‘popular’ music broadcast by the BBC of the day – in effect he was just speaking the truth. 

Get Back…………….

Which leaves only Ringo, and without a doubt he has received more of the city’s ire than any of the other Beatles, his professed loyalty being called into question during the 2008 City Of Culture launch when he was invited to stand atop St Georges Hall to sing “Liverpool I left you, but I never let you down.”Fine words, but members of the public later reacted with fury after Starr told Jonathan Ross’ BBC1 chat show that there “was nothing he missed about the city” and that he performed the song just “to appeal to Liverpool people.”  (7) 

And it is fair to say that although ten years on after this controversy was quelled, anti-Beatles sentiment emerged when Ringo received a knighthood. Naturally people wanted to know why someone who was essentially a tax-exile in the USA and Monaco for decades was presented with a Queen’s award for exceptional service or merit.There probably wasn’t a flurry of complaints to The Times from the Liverpool public – the city has no love affair with Fleet Street – instead the injustice felt on the street was enough.

Money (That’s What I Want)…………….

But the band themselves were no strangers to injustice and after corporate lawyers aimed to rip-off their songwriting company Northern Songs in 1969 there was more acrimony between Lennon and McCartney.Eventually, Northern Songs was dissolved in 1995 and is now part of Sony/ATV publishing. As such there are unfair comparisons to what the Beatles deemed to be played on the radio in the sixties compared to what is played now, and it is hard to tell why some radio stations give more airplay to the band than others.

For example, Northern Songs always ran a tight ship when it came to airplay and royalties; in this year 2020 however, some stations in America chalk up dozens of Beatles songs played per day, but few get close to the number broadcast by Radio ROKS Beatles in the Ukraine, or even NHK BS in Japan.Amongst other nations obviously Ukrainians and Japanese like the band; but curiously, local Liverpool stations have a scarcity of any Beatles airplay – check this out the next time you tune into Radio City or Radio Wirral. Radio Merseyside, to its credit does have an hour long show ‘dedicated to the Fab Four’ but it could well be that variables are at work here.For example, people anywhere can now stream music – their own choice of music rather than what a DJ would choose.

Come together….

So maybe people aren’t consciously relegating the music to a long-gone era.It has been noted that there was some 2015 disquiet about siting the Beatles statue at the Pier Head, a place which is special to many as an area of memorial especially to the Merchant Navy and armed forces. But maybe we should not be so critical for the sculptor Andy Edwards is quoted as saying that he hopes the monument should be a “place of ritual” for people to ”come together.”
This latter phrase taken from the album ‘Abbey Road’ couldn’t be more appropriate for as tourists flock into the city (yes, it’s quiet now but they will be back), it’s worth remembering that 1 out every 100 Liverpool jobs created by the Beatles is no mean feat.Tourist websites speak well of the city: indeed a comment, for example, by Steve from Chicago who writes that he “did the full Beatles Story tour, then had his hair cut at Penny Lane barbers.” is as typically a heartwarming compliment as the one from visiting Australians who proclaimed that “the Cavern club was awesome, Rock mecca.”
Wow! and I always thought that ‘Rock mecca’ sentiment was reserved for Graceland in far-off Tennessee.

Anyway, Liverpool’s Cavern club doesn’t have long waiting times as Memphis visitors do to tour Graceland, furthermore it is also a city with an equally fine musical legacy. So let’s continue the future investment into promoting culture and creating jobs.This indeed, is the conclusion made in the aforementioned report for Liverpool City Council, so let’s keep it going.As the Americans would say, don’t leave yourselves ‘a day late and a dollar short’ – that would never do, would it?

1)  www.independent.co.uk  Beatles legacy brings more than £89m to Liverpool’s economy 08.02.2016 (accessed 19.06.2020)
2)  Liverpool Express www.liverpoolexpress.co.uk burning love-beatles-and-elvis-cities-strengthenlinks/  05.11.2019 (accessed 19.06.2020)
3)  Liverpool Echo English Heritage praises Liverpool for historic buildings, p.5, 23.10.2014 (accessed 21.06.2020)
4) www.rollingstone.com John Lennon interviewed on the Beatles 21.01.1971 (accessed 20.06.2020)
5) from Bob Dylans’ album ‘Tempest’ (2012)
6) from an interview with Playboy magazine May 1976
7) The Independent, Liverpool turns on Ringo….., p17, 22.1.2008, (accessed 20.06.20)