ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS, LONDON. JANUARY 1967 Copyright Apple Corps
Award winning BBC radio producer Kevin Howlett has been reflecting on the music which inspired The Beatles ahead of a new documentary from Ron Howard which will in turn look at how the band inspired five decades of pop music.
Pointing to the significant of some of the Fab Four’s earliest heroes such as Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and Little Richard, Howlett has also discussed – printed for the first time on Live4ever – some of the contemporaries who subsequently helped the band on their incredible musical progression as The Byrds, Bob Dylan and others sparked a twist particularly from ‘Rubber Soul‘ onwards.
“Once they had become successful, The Beatles did not write and record in splendid isolation,” he’s said. “They still benefited from an unstinting curiosity to discover what was currently the best and most innovative music.”
Ron Howard’s film The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years opens at London’s Leicester Square and UK cinemas tomorrow, charting their life on the road from cutting their teeth on a jazz-dominated Liverpool circuit and the rock and roll excess of Hamburg to stadiums and ultimate disillusionment and live retirement.
“The Beatles had inspired the foundation of American folk-rock group The Byrds, but, in turn, were interested in where that pioneering group was heading. The words of Bob Dylan’s songs inspired a more ambitious approach to their lyric writing – first noticeable on Beatles For Sale (1964). By 1965, their beloved rhythm and blues was now called soul music and they responded to its new groove.”
“George Harrison’s passion for Indian classical music introduced sitars and tablas to several Beatles tracks released between 1965 and 1968,” he continued. “Ringo Starr’s fondness for country music also percolated through their albums, from his cover of the Buck Owens hit ‘Act Naturally’ to his own composition ‘Don’t Pass Me By’.”