John Lennon says that he named The Beatles from a vision that he had. "A man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them 'From this day on, you are Beatles with an A'---'Thank you, Mister Man," they said (41)." This was the very beginning of the cultural, musical, lyrical, and historical phenomenon that was The Beatles. When George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr first recorded together in 1963, no one could predict the imprint they would leave on the world once they were done recording as a band. In the year 2000, nearly 30 years after their breakup; their songs still get more radio airplay than any current songs. Their albums still occupy top spots on the best seller list. It is not just the continuing widespread popularity of the Beatles that draws the masses; it is also the various ideas, messages, thoughts, and feelings that they chose to convey with the lyrics of their songs. The Beatles, especially the widely regarded as 'legendary' Lennon!

-McCartney songwriting partnership, drew inspiration from almost every aspect of life while making a natural progression from their early, simple songs to their later, more philosophical, story-telling songs (C

Carpozi, George. John Lennon: Death of a Dream. New York, NY: Manor, 1980.

Woofinden, Bob. The Beatles Apart. London: Proteus, 1981.

The Beatles, John Lennon and Paul McCartney especially, trudged on. Their lyrics had taken a very creative turn by the time they released their second and third albums 'With The Beatles' and 'A Hard Day's Night' in November 1963 and July 1964, respectively. They were gradually infiltrating their lyrics with more meaningful ideas. "Shifts from generality to specificity, and from romantic involvement to detached commentary are accomplished in the songs by a broadening of vocabulary, increased use of names, changes in pronoun use and words being set in different connotational contexts (Cook & Mercer 104)." A selection from each of these albums could demonstrate this effectively. George Harrison got his first chance to have his songwriting capabilities recognized on a record with 'Don't Bother Me' on the 'With The Beatles' LP. It was a song about a girl that left a boy and she tries to come back to him later and the boys says 'don't bother me.' It was one of the first Beat!

The Beatles were accepted universally as great artists, when they burst onto the scene with their new LP, 'Rubber Soul' in 1965 (Cook & Mercer 88). The "broader themes" (89) discussed in the lyrics of 'Rubber Soul' further define the amazing songwriting talents of Lennon and McCartney. Two songs from the album are very definitive of those talents. 'In My Life' was expressly an autobiographical work of John's (Lennon 197). It was a song about his life, yet many people could take the words in the song and apply them to their lives. They were progressing into writing songs about themselves in an ambiguous way, so that everyone could experience the feeling in the song. Another example of this was 'Nowhere Man,' a song John wrote when he did not know what to do. "I though of myself as Nowhere Man-sitting in this Nowhere Land (196)." It was songs like this one with a universally accepted message that led some to compare The Beatles to jongleurs. Jongleurs were wandering poe!

These very plain ideas of love were conveyed free of intricacies in songs such as 'Please Please Me', 'From Me To You', and 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand.' The simple nature of these songs did not signify that the meaning behind them wasn't important.

From 'A Hard Day's Night,' the song 'Can't Buy Me Love' can demonstrate the beginnings of their songwriting progression. It was not about the regular, everyday boy-girl story in this song. The lyrics are saying to the world that money and material possessions are not everything. Paul wrote most of this song and he said his initial idea was that "all these material possessions are all very well, but they won't buy me the important things" (qtd. in Miles 161). Early on, newspapers began to say that The Beatles were not as wholesome as they immediately sound because the song 'Can't Buy Me Love' was about a prostitute. Paul McCartney replied to their accusations saying, "Personally, I think you can put an interpretation you want on anything, but when someone

partnership, drew inspiration from almost every aspect of life while making a natural progression from their early, simple songs to their later, more philosophical and story-telling songs. They began with 'Love Me Do' and ended with 'Real Love.' In between, they managed to tackle every human emotion and relate it to an image in a song. With every song, they shook the world up a little bit. The glory of it all is that The Beatles were four rather ordinary guys from Liverpool, England who somehow united the world for a

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