Were the Beatles the first ...

Subject: Were the Beatles the first ... Sun Sep 06, 2009 7:40 pm

Were the Beatles the first pop musicians to make records that they couldn't perform live? My recollection is that they were.

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Subject: Re: Were the Beatles the first ... Sun Sep 06, 2009 7:54 pm

The Tornadoes might have struggled to reproduce Telstar on stage without Joe Meek's innovative recording techniques, but I daresay they could have cobbled something together.

Number of posts: 697 Registration date: 2009-06-19

Which records couldn't they perform live, Pinz? I know that having packed up touring in 66 they didn't perform practically all of their subsequent records live (the rooftop 'Get Back' being an exception...) - but I'd suggest they could have if they'd broken their no live performing vow.

Subject: Re: Were the Beatles the first ... Sun Sep 06, 2009 11:30 pm

The still primitive live sound tech in 66 made some of it impossible, but by the early 70s there's nothing they couldn't have performed if they'd wanted.

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Subject: Re: Were the Beatles the first ... Mon Sep 07, 2009 1:36 am

pinhedz wrote:

Were the Beatles the first pop musicians to make records that they couldn't perform live? My recollection is that they were.

The first song unable to be reproduced outside the recording studio was Everyday by Buddy Holly and His Crickets. The logistics of reproducing lap slap percussion and celeste played by Mrs. Petty would not have been insurmountable, but they would have been untenable, unless of course Holly was able to persuade Mrs. Petty to tour with the celeste, and if the lap slapping could be suitably mic'd for live performance.

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Gender: Number of posts: 461 Registration date: 2009-06-15

To the point where they stopped touring, they could probably perform every song they recorded, live, and bloody well, too. Could the same be said of their closest American rivals, The Beach Boys? Could those harmonies survive a 'live' examination? And let's not even dream of putting the Monkees into the firing line. Even after they stopped touring, and started making records that would've been hard to replicate live, The Beatles had the balls to make 2 live-performance singles: All You Need Is Love & Get Back, with the additional pressure, in the case of the former, of simultaneously delivering that live recording to a live worldwide TV audience of circa 250 million. The Beatles were/ are, untouchably, the greatest, and boy oh boy, how that was reinforced on Saturday night, on BBC2.

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Subject: Re: Were the Beatles the first ... Mon Sep 07, 2009 10:07 pm

Eddie wrote:

The Tornadoes might have struggled to reproduce Telstar on stage without Joe Meek's innovative recording techniques, but I daresay they could have cobbled something together.

The Tornadoes are still touring! My ex guitar teacher was touring with them a year or so back. Might still be. I wonder what their setlist looks like.

Subject: Re: Were the Beatles the first ... Mon Sep 07, 2009 10:30 pm

The True Champions of Musicdom ply their trade:

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Number of posts: 697 Registration date: 2009-06-19

precinct14 wrote:

To the point where they stopped touring, they could probably perform every song they recorded, live, and bloody well, too. Could the same be said of their closest American rivals, The Beach Boys? Could those harmonies survive a 'live' examination? And let's not even dream of putting the Monkees into the firing line. Even after they stopped touring, and started making records that would've been hard to replicate live, The Beatles had the balls to make 2 live-performance singles: All You Need Is Love & Get Back, with the additional pressure, in the case of the former, of simultaneously delivering that live recording to a live worldwide TV audience of circa 250 million. The Beatles were/ are, untouchably, the greatest, and boy oh boy, how that was reinforced on Saturday night, on BBC2.

Mr 14, I couldn't have put it better. The Beatles were, by all accounts, a cracking good performing band long before becoming a top-flight pop recording band. And despite their having become understandably unwilling to continue the enervating and unfulfilling worldwide round of performing to screaming kids who couldn't hear what they were doing any more than the lads could hear themselves - they remained a band capable of great live performance until the end, I reckon.