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7.39am
21 January 2025
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Not just another Beatles thread. This one is going to take a long time, and will hopefully help answer the question – what were the Beatles like in the full context of Merseybeat? When did they show that they were better than their contemporaries? When did they show they had something the others didn’t?
Every few days I’m going to upload something from my Merseybeat collection. It’s going to be chronological…and there’s going to be some barely listenable stuff. Here’s the first.
It’s 22nd June 1957 at Percy Phillips’ living room in Kensington, Liverpool. Two young men – Johnny Byrne (later with the surname ‘Guitar’ of the Hurricanes) and Paul Murphy (who would late be behind attempted sales of the Beatles’ Star Club tapes) are two young men who play music. Johnny is in the Hurricanes, and Paul will be later, but not for long. We are a full year away from the day the Quarrymen would knock on Percy’s door, and Johnny and Paul are his first skifflers. Two tracks are recorded. The first, an instrumental, was called Butterfly and frustratingly does not circulate.
This is the second. A Little Richard cover. Johnny would later play it for George Harrison , and the Quarrymen duly did turn up. But Phillips would have more skifflers first.
As for the context – we’ll be discussing each track for
a) quality of performance
b) quality of songwriting if it’s an original (as obviously there’s a big question about whether the Beatles’ appeal was through writing their own stuff).
Additionally, if this interests you, and you’re a fellow anorak and want to send me something I don’t already know about, then *please* get in touch! Do you have ‘Butterfly’ by any chance?!
This one is also on youtube:
And Spotify on the ‘Unearthed Merseybeat Vol.1 (From The Birth Of Merseybeat To Psychedelia’ album.
Marks out of 10? I’ll be keeping scores, and I want to see how the various artists do, and whether and when the Beatles creep ahead…
The following people thank Asclepius for this post:
vonbontee5.04pm
21 January 2025
Offline In the face of such tremendous interest, let’s crack on!
First of all, here’s a list of the first batch that we’ll be doing. If you know of anything I’ve missed, get in touch!
Recorded when Artist track status
22/06/1957 Johnny Byrne Butterfly exists
22/06/1957 Paul Murphy and Johnny Byrne She’s Got It circulates
06/07/1957 Quarrymen Puttin’ on the Style (stitched together) circulates
06/07/1957 Quarrymen Baby Let’s Play House (Extracts) circulates
09/08/1957 The Firecrests That’ll be the Day circulates
09/08/1957 The Firecrests Come Go With Me circulates
09/08/1957 The Firecrests I Knew From the Start exists
09/08/1957 The Firecrests Party exists
Late September 1957 The Dominoes Whole Lot of Shakin’ Goin’ On circulates
Late September 1957 The Dominoes Baby circulates
Late September 1957 The Dominoes Great Balls of Fire circulates
Late September 1957 The Dominoes Guitar Boogie circulates
Late September 1957 The Dominoes Roll Over Beethoven circulates
Late September 1957 The Dominoes So Long circulates
Late September 1957 The Dominoes I Want You To Know circulates
Late September 1957 The Dominoes Mean Woman Blues circulates
Late September 1957 The Dominoes Autumn Leaves circulates
So we don’t have Butterfly, we’ve done She’s Got It and now we’re at St. Peter’s Church Hall, Woolton on 6th July 1957 listening to the worst sounding recording that we ever will.
Unbelievably, the set by the Quarrymen (John Lennon , Pete Shotton, Eric Griffiths, the still living Len Garry, and the still performing Rod Davis and Colin Hanton) was recorded in part. But only snippets of the two tracks exist – from the auction where the recording was sold, and a couple of radio plays.
The best version I’ve ever found, that stitches together all of the sections is here:
You can hear the early Lennon loud and clearly, and the booming drumming of Colin Hanton. The rest is a bit of a fog, but we do have it, and it’s so clearly Lennon, and we can literally – if we strain – hear him changing the words to reference the age of the crowd, the Vicar, etc. All of which is said to have impressed the 15 year old Paul McCartney , who’d been taken to see the band that very day.
History in the making.
As for the performance – a definite 6/10 for me. It’s confident, it’s fun, and it’s quite exciting, despite the quality.
Later in the Quarrymen’s set, they also covered Elvis. Not much of this one circulates.
It’s the earliest surviving Elvis cover by any Merseyside band. One of the earliest surviving British covers of him full-stop I’d say…?
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