{"id":254669,"date":"2025-10-27T14:04:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T14:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/254669\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T14:04:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T14:04:12","slug":"the-dark-song-the-beatles-insisted-on-playing-at-every-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/254669\/","title":{"rendered":"The dark song The Beatles insisted on playing at every show"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Mon 27 October 2025 12:00, UK <\/p>\n

The Beatles<\/a> had a rise to fame that other bands can only sit and envy. Their overnight success was the stuff of legend and left such an impact that people still talk about it to this day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, the term \u201covernight success\u201d has always been a bit loose. The British invasion certainly did happen overnight, as E Street Band guitarist Steve Van Zandt can attest. \u201cIt transformed America,\u201d he said when discussing the band, \u201cOn February 8th, there were no bands in America; on February 9th, we had Ed Sullivan, and on February 10th, everybody had a band in their garage. It was literally overnight<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

While their impact in America might have happened in pretty rapid succession, that doesn\u2019t mean that the band had been sitting on their backside up until that Ed Sullivan performance. In fact, by the time their breakthrough moment on American television came around, the band was halfway through their career, having spent the last six years perfecting their songwriting technique and nailing their live performances following residencies in Hamburg and at the famous Cavern Club in Liverpool. <\/p>\n

The moment their plane wheels hit the ground in America was the turning point for the band. That was when they went from being just good to transforming into one of the biggest outfits on the face of the damn planet. This was a great phase for The Beatles, but it was also one of compromise, as the image of them that had been presented to the world had been somewhat crafted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The band used to grow frustrated with how much they had to change their image and creative approach to confine it within a specific image. John Lennon said that when the band originally came forward, they weren\u2019t their most authentic selves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t as open and as truthful when we didn\u2019t have the power<\/a> to be,\u201d said Lennon. \u201cWe had to take it easy. We had to shorten our hair to leave Liverpool. We had to wear suits to get on TV. We had to compromise.\u201d<\/p>\n

The band also had to write a very specific kind of song, which was love songs about unnamed individuals that the world could dance and swoon to. They didn\u2019t necessarily hate this kind of music, but they were more multifaceted than that, and they couldn\u2019t explore their creative range because they had been so pigeonholed. They found spells of freedom wherever possible, and one of these came in the form of relentlessly playing that song \u2018Baby\u2019s In Black\u2019 at live shows despite the fact it wasn\u2019t a fan favourite. <\/p>\n

The track was a dark number, one that referred to mourning rather than someone just wearing the colour black. Fans were so adverse to the song that the band would have to introduce it as \u201csomething different\u201d. \u201cWe got more and more free to get into ourselves,\u201d said McCartney when discussing the band\u2019s decision to play the track, \u201cOur student selves rather than \u2018we must please the girls and make money\u2019.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The song was written in 3\/4 and really flexed the band\u2019s creative muscles. As soon as they had more creative freedom, they felt the need to include the song, even if it wasn\u2019t their most loved at the time. \u201cI think also John and I wanted to do something bluesy, a bit darker, more grown-up, rather than just straight pop,\u201d McCartney concluded. \u201cIt was more \u2018Baby\u2019s In Black\u2019 as in mourning. Our favourite colour was black, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n

The Far Out Beatles Newsletter<\/p>\n

All the latest stories about The Beatles from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Associated Press) Mon 27 October 2025 12:00, UK The Beatles had a rise to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216,13979],"class_list":{"0":"post-254669","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-the-beatles"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}