How It's Used

"There was Pope John, if you remember. Now there's Pope John Paul. The next Pope's going to be Pope John Paul George. And we can see where they're going. It's that more populist-edged Pope John Paul George and Ringo is going to take off, have songs on the charts."

—Eddie Izzard, "Eddie Izzard: Circle" (2002).

"The songs have endured, despite the aubergine hair tints, the failed marriages, the Starbucks affiliations, the Dance Tonight video and the Yoko Ono that have beset their singers. But can they endure being sold off to the highest bidder? Fans of the Beatles were dismayed this week to learn the most valuable back catalogue in music history (unless a Salzburg housewife suddenly unearths a pile of early work by a foetal Mozart) is now being opened up to advertisers keen to press the Fab Four's work into the service of flogging stuff. The first deal has been made with Procter & Gamble, who sell Luvs nappies. Yes. Yes. All You Need Is Luvs. Fortunately, they absorb tears too."

—no author listed, "The Beatles," The Guardian (UK), January 5, 2008.

"'Rock Band' is just part of the Sept. 9 Fab Four onslaught. Apple Corps/Capitol is issuing a box set of all 13 original Beatles LPs, from 'Please Please Me' to 'Let It Be,' plus the 'Yellow Submarine' movie score and the two-disc singles set Past Masters. They all sound great in versions remastered for the first time since the 1987 editions (which are still fine). Each CD comes with the original album art, a booklet of new information and rare photographs of the quartet and a minidocumentary on the making of each album. For truly obsessive completists, there's also 'The Beatles in Mono.' If you want to hear how every Beatles song sounded on your (or your dad's or granddad's) car radio in the '60s and have a spare $298.98, this is the one for you."

—Richard Corliss, "I Am the Walrus," Time, September 14, 2009.

"When the original stadium band toured across North America, no one had a clue how it would work, and thus expectations were low. Footage of The Beatles' famous first concert at Shea Stadium reveals how little it took to make large numbers of young fans scream in 1965. The band played for a mere half-hour on an unadorned stage near second base on an otherwise empty baseball field, using a direly inadequate sound system—they couldn't hear each other play, and the 55,000 in attendance saw very little, and heard nothing but their own prolonged hormonal shrieks.

"Dissatisfied, the Fab Four retired from live performance just a year later, leaving their successors to cope with fans who had higher demands."

—Mike Doherty, "Massive Intimacy: U2's 360 Tour is the latest evolution of the stadium tour, one that tries to be both big and small," The National Post (Canada), September 19, 2009.

"As I survey a bronze relief map of the city set into the pavement, one of the Beatles, a kind of southern Chinese version of Ringo, sidles up.

"'You! Hello! Where? Stay where?' He barely speaks English but the question is clear enough since he's pointing at the map...When I finally land on the right spot, Ringo and the George, John and Paul who have by now joined him couldn't be more delighted. 'Chinese people before, not allowed there,' Ringo says, grinning from ear to ear, and offering it up in case I was in any doubt that nationalism has replaced ideology in all its forms in China.

"The faux fab four break into peals of laughter before skipping off into the crowd."

—Peter Shadbolt, "Always the bridesmaid: For tourists, Guangzhou is often the forgotten name among China's big cities but Peter Shadbolt finds it full of revelations," The Financial Times, September 26, 2009.

Links

Related on eAlmanac
The Fifth Beatle

Beyond eAlmanac
Wikipedia article on the Beatles
The Beatles official Web site