The Beatles | Lady Madonna and The Rock 'n' Roll Revival of 1968

[@roberthughes4143]

The Beatles are one my most listened to Artists of all time. That being said, to even for one second, imagine a Beatle coming close to a Little Richard performance is ABSOLUTELY INSANE!!!

[@JMA335077]

This song, as often with the Beatles, never gets old-fashioned. Timeless.

[@dsmpaul]

The B-side of the single was “The inner light”…if it is not something innovative, I don’t know what it is.

[@version736ha2]

Beatles never played it safe, in my view

[@papadopp3870]

Right. George’s song … reminded me of “Tomorrow Never Knows”, whilst the Lennon song was about going with the trip, “The Inner Light” says you can trip all you want without help and ”…without going out of your room…”

[@SophieLovesSunsets]

"It sounds more like Ringo singing in tune" 😂😂😂😂😂😂 To be honest, listening to "Lady Madonna" it never really strikes me that Paul was trying to sound like Elvis or anybody else for that matter. He's pretty damn good just being himself ❤️ Great video as always. The 60s footage is gold. Please keep these videos coming 😊

[@JamZorro]

"It sounds more like Ringo singing in tune"... (ouch)... Is that somebody's quote or did you come up with that?... Either way, I like it 🤣... (I never thought it sounded like Paul trying to do Elvis either)

[@SophieLovesSunsets]

@@JamZorro It's mentioned at 7:35 in the video. It's a quote by Cilla Black 😊

[@spreet65]

It never crossed me that Paul was trying to sound like Elvis either. His vocals in this are unique & brilliant, like so many other songs he adapted his voice for, his voice was so versatile & he could do anything with it. Like any of their songs.. absolute quality & nothing cheap about them. They put the work in, sung meaningful lyrics & the well thought out instrumentals with George Martin were sublime. Pity they didn't have 8 track when they started recording. The Beatles will never be matched.

[@PlanetoftheDeaf]

Paul has said that he was actually trying to sound more like Fats Domino actually!

[@beatlebrian4404]

@@SophieLovesSunsets Cilla Black talking about singing! Oh the irony!

[@russellthechemist8291]

What a great channel this is. A real treat to discover this. I really appreciated the footage along with the explanation to what was happening in rock trends at the start of 68. Marvellous stuff.

[@YesterdaysPapers]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it.

[@ParkerAllen2]

Amazing. Pete Townsend talking about the music of that era as if the kids were getting a raw deal. The charts in that era were filled with great stuff. I didn't realize there was this look back to the early days of rock in 1968 - that probably helped the rise of my all-time favorite band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, who had a strong roots feel to their music.

[@YesterdaysPapers]

It definitely helped the rise of bands like CCR. The first album by The Band was also hugely influential in 1968 and it sparkled interest in rootsy sounds.

[@varsityathlete9927]

@@YesterdaysPapers 100% The Band Music from the Big Pink started this. Paul is even quoting from The Weight in the live Hey Jude outro singing

[@willieluncheonette5843]

@@YesterdaysPapers When Big Pink dropped here in America it sure was a new sound to many of us.

[@Schteve59]

"It doesn't sound like Paul. It sounds more like Ringo singing in tune." I'm glad Cilla wasn't going to say anything rotten.

[@omegajrz1269]

Ringo has a very rock and roll voice

[@peterdowney1492]

I must confess it passed my by. I was not aware of it, at all.

[@Mavors1099]

"Everyone expected the new Beatles single to be anything but unprogressive. However, the Beatles released Lady Madonna"... Yes, but on the B side, you have The Inner Light, you can´t say they failed the expectation.

[@deirdre108]

I've never heard "The Inner Light"! In the US the B-side was Hello Goodbye if I'm remembering correctly.

[@ndogg20]

Never heard The Inner Light before so I found it on You Tube and gave it a listen. Now I can't unhear it. Thanks. For nothing.

[@JustineLaLoba]

@@deirdre108 The US release was the Inner Light.....Hello Goodbye was a US A Side with I Am The Walrus the B Side

[@ThisBirdHasFlown]

@@ndogg20 Not our faults your taste in music is ass.

[@larrystevenson1587]

@@deirdre108Hello Goodbye came out a couple of months before Lady Madonna here in the US. It was a #1 song on the charts.

[@rogerioortega4652]

Great video. Interestingly, no one mentioned Fats Domino, and I think “Lady Madonna” is very much Paul “channeling” him - so much so that Fats himself re-recorded the song shortly afterwards.

[@PotrzebieConolly]

Yes, and I believe John Lennon said he loved Fats' version.

[@JReyes624]

Thank you so much for creating this channel! I’ve been obsessed since I first learned of it a few weeks ago.

[@YesterdaysPapers]

Thank you! Glad you enjoy it.

[@voxac30withstrat]

The Beatles were simply 4 truly gifted individuals. They were each blessed with remarkable talent. The fact that they met each other and did what they did was pre ordained Id say. There NEVER will be another band as famous or popular or influential, NEVER. The time for that is sadly passed. Here we are 60 years give or take later and STILL analyzing their legacy. I am so lucky to have been able to experience their brilliance I could hardly wait for their next song to be released. They were landmarks in my youth. Personally I dont give a rodents rectum how good or bad some people think of their songs are and yes I admit some were better than others BUT.... that was just my personal taste. I loved them. Today I still love them and so enjoy hearing them played on the radio. I have moved on to other fields, other paddocks of music but will always stop and return to my youth every time I hear them.

[@jeffclement2468]

I remember being kind of underwhelmed when it came out. In the U.S., we were still in the last throes of psychedelia. Absolutely loved to hear Paul play it on his '76 tour of the States. It really came alive. 😻

[@barnabyaprobert5159]

Jane Asher was heartbreakingly adorable.

[@jejmoss11]

These are really good videos. I find contemporary feelings of the time so interesting.

[@EclecticoIconoclasta]

I guess the song "Back in the USSR" from the White album was a very 50s rock n roll moment and the whole album is almost a reaction to the complexity of Sgt. Peppers and had a going back to basics approach overall. The Stones also went back to rock n roll with Jumpin Jack Flash and even to acoustic blues with Beggars Banquet. I guess with this I can understand how something like Sha Na Na actually made it into Woodstock 69. The Who dressed as rockers in TOTP? That sounds almost as blasphemy when only a few years back you had all the big fights between mods and rockers but that also shows mod subculture was long gone and replaced by psychedelia, although some aspects of it, incluiding the violence, will show up agressively with the skinhead subculture which will take force in 69. Anyway nostalgia for times past can also be modernistic if it seems new, againts the current and out of place in a specific context. The 70s had a much larger 50s nostalgia trend with teddy boy revival and american TV shows and movies with a 50s rock n roll theme as well as appreciation of simple rock n roll being a large part of glam rock and punk. But then in the early 80s you had also a reaction againts that and you had huge mod and psychedelic revivals within the new wave and post punk movements

[@oleggorky906]

Psychedelia didn't totally go away. Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin etc were still doing good trade. And out of Psychedelia sprang prog rock and heavy metal. But yeah, at least there was a good mix of styles. Oh, and in America country rock sprang up with the likes of Bob Dylan, The Flying Burrito Brothers and The Band releasing albums in that vein.

[@kymdantet7303]

Yes..... But it's all about the B side..... Paul does the pop brilliantly..... But it the B sides..... Walrus.... The inner light.... That's the good stuff

[@sebastiamarques3274]

And yet I contend that the White Album was The Beatles most psychedelic album ever, more far out than Pepper and MMT. I mean that there wasn't anything trippier in their canon than Revolution 9, even moreso keeping in mind that it was sandwiched between Cry Baby Cry and Good Night. The White Album takes you on a journey, a Magical Mystery Tour, and gets progressively weirder until climaxing first with Helter Skelter and later with Revolution 9. The previous two albums seem tamer by comparison. I think that Beggar's Banquet too retained a slight psychedelic flavour in places, and that only with Let It Bleed the Stones fully embraced a pure rock and roll and bluesy sound.

[@sebastiamarques3274]

@@oldwomanwithacasket6976 It's The Beatles trying to be the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Of course it sounds very little like Hendrix, but it's a good freak out anyway. I

[@glenndespres5317]

Seeing Sha Na Na at Woodstock 69 was always a head scratcher for me.

[@markgardner1020]

Loathed Judy in Disguise. Still do. Lady Madonna is one of the greatest 2 pllus minutes of musical energy I have ever heard. The vocals are magnificent, whether Elvis, Little Richard or Little Eva. Great song. A real knock out punch when I first heard it

[@wolfgangdevries127]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/jp-ml3iwlt53bK8

[@allenswanson2423]

Judy in Disguise is a pretty obvious pastiche of Lucy in the Sky -- and I don' t just mean the title, I mean the whole thing.

[@pcno2832]

@@allenswanson2423 The story I heard about John Fred and the Playboy Band was that they had struggled for years as a blue-eyed-soul band, but in their regional market (somewhere in the southern U.S., I believe), the white stations ignored them because they sounded too black and the black stations ignored them because they looked too white. So, in desperation, they threw everything but the kitchen sink -- the "Lucy in the Sky" parody, Ian Whicomb's orgasm from "You really turn me on." and horns that sounded a little like "The Stripper" -- into one record and it took off. I've always thought of that record as being in the same vein as "The Ballot of Bonnie and Clyde"; I can understand why some people hated it, but I loved it.

[@deirdre108]

I hated that song (Judy) ! I considered it a "novelty" song at the time and still do.

[@thesilvershining]

For many years Lady Madonna has been one of my favorite go-to Beatles song for a quick pick-me-up. The piano, the guitar, Paul’s immaculate vocal, the sax solo, the boys doing fake trumpet and tuba sounds to be silly… it’s awesome.

[@arturecords]

Not everything from the Beatles must be great. But man, we are talking about a band which few months earlier was recording I'm the Walrus. They had an extraordinary hability to change their style over and over. Amazing!!

[@garrettdavis6500]

Yeah, imagine if 1968 audience's could hear 2021's top 20. They'd rush the gates, w/ ammunition to bring back "The Great Rock Revival. " !!!!!!!

[@Fordham1969]

Interesting to learn that Judy In Disguise was such a significant record in England at the time of it's release, would have never figured. While it is a fun, groovy record it doesn't particularly remind me of the classic early rock and roll period, sounds more pop to me.

[@Williamottelucas]

"Sounds like Ringo singing in tune" Cilla Black wins the prize for the best comment

[@PlanetoftheDeaf]

Great video, love all the comments from the other artists (and George Best!) from the time. Hilarious in retrospect at 4:16 that the voice against the Rock revival was Status Quo's Rick Parfitt! And of course the B side to Lady Madonna was the very un rock and roll The Inner Light, so it wasn't as if The Beatles had left behind experimental music completely

[@bobbyb5582]

Great single in their career. The fact that George's, The Inner Light is on the b-side makes it even more noteworthy.

[@brianwolle2509]

im glad you did this cuz no one ever talks about it. here in the states, every band joined in the trend. notice the band, dr john, dylan going nashville, the mothers, clapton... but the SAME THING happened to jazz in the forties when bop was taking hold. the beatles even jettisoned geo martin in an attempt to get back to basics. ringo did some blatant nostalgia... and of course, in 68, so did elvis.

[@bugeanuflorin1531]

Thanks so much, fabulous, good time for you

[@justiceforall6412]

Rings put it perfectly. Basically, "We would have done this record anyway."

[@Mercuryrising56627]

I liked this song of the Beatles, and never thought much who and what. I liked all the later songs of them. They had the knack to do good music and meaningful songs.

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

Early 1968 ... a San Francisco bar band with a badass blues-rock vibe had just revivaled itself and was at work recording its new sound ...

[@NewFalconerRecords]

Initials possibly C.. C.. R... ?

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

@@NewFalconerRecords You should see their early 1968 set list!

[@Mandrake591]

Always a great show, thank you!

[@deirdre108]

I was in high school in '68 in the US and really plugged into the music world but this is the first I've heard of a 50's rock and roll throwback trend then. I remember a little of that in the early 70's but it was fairly minor. There was a "roots revival" in the late '60s-early '70s but the "roots" were more country oriented than R&R. Dylan might have kick-started that with his Nashville Skyline album.

[@deirdre108]

@@isaiah5323 Right! I remember a little of that too, but in the early '70's. There was Sha Na Na, and a couple other minor bands like them but we all just considered it novelty music. John Lennon had his "Rock and Roll" album that I listened to once at a friend's house and never heard it again. There was so much good music during that time that no one I knew was interested in nostalgia.

[@lindadote]

Thanks YP. I’ve just come from the “Julie Driscoll” critique you posted today. I’m so pleased I did, I’ve never seen this video before. Apart from the (already mentioned) impact of John Fogarty and CCR’s dynamic debut, I can’t say I remember the fuss about the (much-needed) “Revival”, there always seemed to be such a glut of wonderful music back then. As for “Lady Madonna”, it never struck me as particularly Rock and Roll and was one of the few Beatles’ songs I didn’t like. But then, I preferred John’s voice and compositions. Your channel is a treasure-trove of musical trivia that never fails to entertain and amuse me. Keep up the great work!

[@YesterdaysPapers]

Thanks, Linda! Glad you enjoyed this video.

[@GroovingPict]

"it sounds like Ringo singing in tune", Jesus, woman, you just straight up murdered him!

[@kevinmac2200]

Yeah that got me. "The singing sounded like X but not shit". The whole conversation is weird really. Doesn't sound rock and roll to me. More 40s boogie-woogie. And it's a beautiful touching song. "Tuesday afternoon is never-ending" in a song about a single mum doesn't sound very Gene Vincent.

[@Wygruce]

Another fantastic video. Much appreciated.

[@eximusic]

Awesome comments from lesser artists of the era. Critiques of pure genius are always entertaining. But it is interesting to hear them acknowledge Paul's clear vocal influences, something lost on new listeners today.

[@varsityathlete9927]

not just new listeners, pretty much for decades. the stuff paul/john etc listened to as a kid growing up, it pretty much faded away for the following generations. take Gene Vincent, you'd struggle to find anyone under 40 that knows who that is. Everyone knows Elvis and Buddy Holly about it.

[@Cuber-ml8gj]

My first time watching content from this channel; there was a lot of video snippets I’d never seen before, from the Lady Madonna promo film, or that time period for the Beatles.

[@goncaloveiga]

Wow! Deeply researched video! I absolutely loved it.

[@pm94952]

That's a great summing up of a little-known UK pop music trend -- I had no idea 'Judy In Disguise' was considered some sort of trend-setting record in Britain...it was just bubblegum music over here. The biggest music of the next decade would be album rock, not pop singles. Bowie, The Who, The Band, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Elton John...the only band of that era that truly made great original music based on the type of Little Richard/Chuck Berry rock 'n' roll singles would be Creedence Clearwater Revival, IMHO. Elton John would occasionally do something like 'Honky Cat' or 'Crocodile Rock' that had that same style. The 'Tommy' album from 1969 was hardly nostalgic 1950's rock 'n' roll.. so it's odd that Pete Townsend was complaining about 'I Am The Walrus' just a year earlier.

[@Blisteryn]

"It doesn't sound like Paul, sounds like Ringo singing in tune". WTF!!!!!!😂😂😂

[@YesterdaysPapers]

Cilla Black's greatest quote ever.

[@happyron]

Thank you so great to hear something that gives new (to me) info on The Beatles. Thank you

[@johnallenismynameandmusici2796]

Really enjoying your shows. "Lady Madonna" could hardly be called a "'50s rock song." Listen to the background singers. You don't hear that in the '50s. I even think there's a kazoo in there.

[@iamfantastic.iamgreat3649]

I have no idea what you're talking about. Can't even tell if you're trolling or what's! 😭😭😂😂🤔

[@pcno2832]

I've always heard it compared to Fats Domino's records, which, while they were recorded in the 1950s, had some New Orleans Jazz influences going back to the 1920s. I don't remember any kazoos in those records, but one wouldn't be out of place in many of them. I think "Lady Madonna" is a good example of a retro record done right, with influences from various points in the past blended smoothly enough that it doesn't sound like either a replica or a patchwork. The most surprising thing about it was that it was inspired by a photo in LOOK (or maybe LIFE) magazine of a woman in Vietnam breast feeding.

[@johnallenismynameandmusici2796]

@@pcno2832 Very insightful. Thank you. IDK, Paul & John were cranking out so much music that I don't think they stopped and said, "OK, let's do a retro record." I agree that you write music based on all your influences and Paul and John both were very influenced by '50s US music. That's what they were listening to when they were young.

[@ChrisMezzolesta]

The 'kazoo' sounds could either be the Beatles doing vocal imitations of a horn section behind the sax solo, or the sax solo by Ronnie Scott itself which is EQd in such a way that it sounds very metallic.

[@jeffreyboswell1085]

It may be mentioned elsewhere in the comments, but “fire brigade“ was the spark that set the inspiration for a young Paul Stanley to write ‘Firehouse’

[@markallen2984]

I found it interesting that Paul Stanley said that the KISS staple "Firehouse" was written as a bit of inspiration from the Move's Fire Brigade.

[@thefool2007]

This is a most-excellent channel. Love the in-depth stories. Definitely subscribed.

[@YesterdaysPapers]

Thank you very much.

[@prince13896]

Also, Elvis did his TV comeback special in '68

[@NewFalconerRecords]

Good point.

[@deirdre108]

I was in high school in '68 and (although this will seem blasphemous) most of us around my age ignored Elvis. He was pretty much considered a lounge act our mothers might like. Mine did.

[@KariKauree]

Cilla Black: "It doesn't sound like Paul, it sounds more like Ringo singing in tune" 😂

[@saifonlawrence2044]

Best channel on KZbin !

[@peterchecksfield9958]

When did Rock 'n' Roll fade away, and when was it revived? For example, The Dave Clark Five had a big hit in 1965 with a cover of Chuck Berry's 'Reelin' and Rockin'', so was it the last "original" big rock 'n' roll hit, or the first "revived" hit? It should also be pointed out that the careers of Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, Little Richard, Larry Williams, Bo Diddley and more was revived by covers from The Beatles, The Rolling Stones (etc) in 1964. As for 'Lady Madonna', check out Fats Domino's great cover, the song sounds tailor made for him.

[@YesterdaysPapers]

Yes, I like Fats Domino's version of the song better than the original by the Beatles.

[@peterchecksfield9958]

@@YesterdaysPapers Me too (and same applies to Wilson Pickett's 'Hey Jude'!).

[@YesterdaysPapers]

@@peterchecksfield9958 Oh yes, I love Pickett's cover of Hey Jude! And another big favourite is Roy Redmond's cover of "Good Day Sunshine": kzbin.info/www/bejne/nZOym5Z-gZeCaLs

[@peterchecksfield9958]

@@YesterdaysPapers I'd forgotten about that one, fabulous!

[@radiomindchatter7994]

Never seen that clip of Carl Wayne on TV..very rare! Thanks also for mentioning Piper as a major lp in 1967.

[@dougmcqueen1861]

Much respect to the makers of this video for referencing John Fred & His Playboy Band. I've read some comments here dismissing John Fred's "Judy in Disguise" but my take on this little gem is a much different. In 1967 John Fred & His Playboy Band were based in New Orleans and that influence was heard in the band's sound with strong elements of R&B, jazz, and zydeco; although "Judy" is very much a knock off of Lucy in the Sky it has an unmistakeable zydeco beat. This was probably why the song was seen, as this excellent documentary describes, "A triumphant return to 50s style Rock & Roll." Lady Madonna is very much a knock off of Humphrey Lytteton's Bad Penny Blues which in itself is a pleasant pastiche of numerous New Orleans jazz and piano blues tunes. The great thing about the music that The Beatles did was that someone with a discerning ear could follow a trail of musical notes back to its origins, and the trail was often a full circle journey. I feel the same about this little recognized New Orleans group, John Fred & His Playboy Band.

[@syater]

The single "Hello Goodbye" followed by "Lady Madonna" was quite a jump stylistically. But it's interesting that Paul McCartney was already in a period of using primarily piano for his songs in late 1967, namely his songs for the Magical Mystery Tour soundtrack. (I'm aware that the bulk of the song Magical Mystery Tour itself was recorded 3 or 4 days after Sgt. Pepper was completed, earlier that Spring, but still.) So whereas it might have seemed Lady Madonna was a radical turn at the time, the wider view is that, more than ever, Paul was consistently using piano for his songs. But with Lady Madonna the piano was pushed way up front.

[@Peter7966]

So much jabbering went on about pop music back then. It was like fashion. Who's playing what? Who's wearing what? What's in? What's out? I didn't pay much attention. I just liked what I liked at the time. It's fun to hear about all of the stuff I didn't pay much attention to. I just went with what was happening and didn't think too much about what the "in crowd" was blabbing about.

[@obbor4]

Yeah. It's always amazed me how self-aggrandizing and superficial the "musical press" in particular the British press seems to be regarding music. I know they get paid to write these things, but they generally reveal more about the writers than the actual music they're reviewing. We have really bad ones over here, in The U.S., too. Attention spans of a gnat, writing insipid borrowed quotes while trying to convince you that what they've decreed has any real impact. Sometimes a song is just a song. Trying to categorize something as fast-moving and liquid as the British pop/rock scene of the 60's is a fool's errand. Particularly when it comes to Beatles music. We all know by now that those guys were writing and playing Beatles music. That is the only umbrella category that can describe them. The fact that their music is still flying off of the shelves says that we get it, even if the scribes don't...

[@baronsaturday9529]

For me it was like a fantasy thing with certain bands and styles. I was in love with bands like New York Dolls, Heartbreakers, the first US/UK punk era, the beat era, the psychedelic era, Post Punk/Gothic, etc... and it was also the lifestyle, the fashion, art, film, literature, (many were influenced by those scenes, and changed things all around..:)

[@salvadormarley]

Imagine if they'd been looking at the charts today or a particular song from the charts today - LOL - They had no idea how great things were.

[@tammiealmany6239]

Very enjoyable ☺️❤️

[@accam6734]

I Am The Walrus isn't exactly what I would consider a flower power song. And I've heard that Lady Madonna was a tribute to Fats Domino, who recorded a cover version. It's perfect rhe way it is.

[@ThisBirdHasFlown]

Little of Revolver, Pepper's and MMT is. It's just chucked among that weird generalisation because it's psychedelic.

[@oliverbayley3509]

"It sounds more like Ringo singing in tune". When I was a kid I thought it was Ringo.

[@drexlerjohn3822]

Funny to think that their goal for the White Album was to kind of go for a more rawer sound than what they did for Pepper. Be it as it may, it never stopped the album and the songs in it from charting and gaining recognition

[@drummer78]

The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band had “Deathcab for Cutie” in 1967 and that’s as 50’s throwback as it gets. It was also featured in the Magical Mystery Tour film.

[@PaulFormentos]

That's "Paul" as "Viv"

[@JannikLindquist]

Very informative! Keep up the good work :-)

[@imkluu]

Lady Madonna is not one of my favorite singles by the Beatles, but I never really thought of it as rock and roll roll back, more of a blues song to me, and because of their recent psychedelic sounds, more of a return to the earlier Beatles sound than a return to early rock and roll.

[@FiveLiver]

I never heard there was a Rock and Roll revival in 1968. I suppose the later one in the 70s with Showaddywaddy and others overshadowed it.

[@fredsystra7584]

Crazy how things are looked back on much differently then they are viewed at the time

[@garethb1961]

George Best liked it, and he was the Beatles of soccer!

[@alanogy]

It's interesting the press had this "Rock and Roll Revival" thing going in the UK, and to hear people at the time kind of dismissing both that and the idea that Lady Madonna was born of nostalgia. I was 14 that year, and we were still listening to psychedelia that year and thinking of music from the 1950's as the epitome of uncool. The usual story is that The Band influenced everyone including the Beatles to get back to basics later that year. The Beatles' white album and the Stones Beggars Banquet at the end of 1968 were the signal to my generation that back to basics was happening. All this stuff about a song by Paul is a little silly - on the most psychedelic album, Paul was singing, "When I'm 64". Not every one of his songs is a touchstone for where the Beatles or popular culture were at the moment. Perhaps, though, this song was an early sign of where the Beatles were going while the B-side was more of an indication of where they'd just been.

[@spockboy]

Love your channel.

[@ollietsb1704]

I'm surprised that we can't find the original Lady Madonna video as shown on 1968 TV. Paul at his colorful piano, the band bobbing around in various costumes, etc. Today, all the videos were actually spliced together lately - in the last ten years, and teh same footage is used in the HEY BULLDOG video.

[@IzzyWizzy1982]

Is this true? I’ve never heard of this or seen any alternative promo videos of the song around 68

[@darrenjray]

1:00 which puts paid to the notion that George expressed in Anthology that John might have got the idea for the name ‘Beatles’ from The Wild One!

[@walterfritzzz]

Wow i didnt expect george best commenting on a beatles song, and what blown me up more is that george best is a beatles fans

[@YesterdaysPapers]

He was a big music fan and was very knowleadgeable about music.

[@ndogg20]

A lot of brilliant creativity came out of the UK, pop music wise. Also a never ending cycle of passionate drama over trends that may last a minute that are hyped up in the press. Like this one here that really makes no sense whatsoever.

[@goodhumourman]

Amazing video! Would have been even more amazing to then talk about the b-side being George harrison’s first ever song on a single, one that ignores the entire rock idiom

[@williamr3840]

5:50 What's the story behind those military style peaked hats with chin-straps that the Rockers wore -- where did they come from? :0)

[@neiltheblaze]

I first heard "Lady Madonna" when it came out and my initial impression was that it sounded like Fats Domino with weirder lyrics. Later on, Fats covered the song, and did a great job of it, because it could have been written for him. But I do understand people saying Paul was using his Elvis voice at first - I definitely hear that. It was the piano and maybe the presence of the horns that made me think of Fats. Fats' version had more "roll" to it, and maybe a little less "rock".

[@johnceglick8714]

"Lady Madonna " was a big hit n mid 4/1968 to early 6/1968 , and heard on Philly:s Famous 56 WFIL !

[@kristerlund8845]

Never thought of Lady Madonna as rock n roll, to me it's pop.

[@vivaldesque]

Lol. The most prescient of those interviewed was the footballer George Best who said that The Beatles were just getting better and better ! I get the impression that everyone in the industry felt the pressure to say something original or intelligent and mostly end up slagging each other !

[@Sp33gan]

It definitely was a return to a more basic Rock 'n' Roll sound, though maintaining a more mature lyrics style. Lady Madonna is a nod to Fats Domino, who was having R 'n' R hits before it was called R 'n' R. Keeping in mind that the Get Back/Let It Be sessions were an attempt to return to basics for the band. Domino, himself, would have a hit with Lady Madonna in 1969, making the song sound even more tailor-made for him.

[@gibsoneb3]

Hey Bulldog was the rocker b-side

[@PAULLONDEN]

No surprise Fats Domino covered this immediately .It was something he could've written (music wise). Personally I never thought it was "rock'n roll"....just a nice Paul "Ob-ladi-ob-lada" pop tune.

[@gtrjay55]

Well c'mon The Beatles were a rock and roll band. Really enjoy the channel.🙏😷🎶🎵❗👀

[@billkingston4402]

Is the orange car at the start a TVR?

[@gmb858]

Strip out the piano part and you'll find a basic boogie-woogie chord progression. George Martin and his engineering gnomes played their tricks as well. It's only rock and roll, but I like it.

[@WorldInANutshell]

It's built on a boogie-woogie architecture I/IV repeat but it has a tail VI/FlatVII/Root sequence "Feed the rest" (not 50's or boogie woogie at all). The bridge section is a key change up 3 steps (still inventive to this day, and certainly not a throwback to the fifties). The tail back into the verse must step down 3 steps "see...how they run" - "lady madonna" is psychedelic rock built on a boogie verse just like "when i'm 64" is psychedlic rock built on a show tune architecture. Paul had many of these hybrid incarnations throughout his career.

[@wolfgangdevries127]

It reminds me of the 20s.

[@ThisBirdHasFlown]

@@WorldInANutshell Well said. I find it frustrating when people chalk up the success or interest of Beatles songs to Martin and co.'s production work. Extremely rarely was it anyone other than The Beatles leading a song.

[@briantravolta]

7:36-- "It sounds more like Ringo singing in tune" 🤣

[@ferpas9015]

-Legend has it that ... in 1968 on an afternoon session (of the white album), the four geniuses learned that on BBC1, they would broadcast the movie "the girl can't help it" at night (little Richard, Gene Vincent, Eddy Crochan, etc), the four of them met at Paul's house (which was the one closest to Trident and Emi studios), and they enjoyed their American Rock n 'Roll idols ! , returning very excited to their last musical session. midnight and I drift into the composition of "Birthday", where a distinctly wild Rock N' Roll sound is certainly heard and prevails ... Greetings to all...from the Méxican Beatles fans... that Remain !!!🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽

[@phantompanther648]

8:14......( Not Paul Jones......) So sorta looks similar ... to Paul Jones.... That's voice of The Mighty Quinn ...?

[@cjmacq-vg8um]

i don't remember the "music scene" of this era being so fragmented and out of touch. the thing about journalism, even music journalism, is that they thrive on sales. and controversy drives sales. so the music press would create baseless controversies just to sell more issues. there was no real freak out over "lady madonna." of course it was r&r. and they forget, "psychedelia" was also rock and roll. this whole thing seems to be confused and discombobulated. there's no reason why 50s style rock and roll and psychedelic rock can't co-exist. (in fact, they did.) they're both good and both bad. there's good and bad music of every genre. even mozart and beethoven wrote crap on occasion.

[@PotrzebieConolly]

All these decades of being a Beatles fan and I never heard of "Bad Penny Blues", nor the guy who recorded it, Humphrey Lyttelton, for that matter. I see it made UK #19 in 1956, and never did anything in US - may not even have been released here. Checked it out - pretty good instrumental - I'd say it's one of the very few good British singles of the 50's (in the R&B/rock style at least). Definitely a resemblance to the piano part in "Lady Madonna".

[@richardrussell6861]

Ditto with Sophie loves Sunsets' comment. Let's not forget that these were young people making some of the greatest rock music ever. While there may be 1950's elements in "Lady Madonna," it is dubious that Paul McCartney was trying to sound like Elvis. "Lady Madonna" is a song I heard over fifty years ago, and it never impressed me as an Elvis impersonation.

[@bettyschneider5268]

In 1968 i was only 12 yrs old. But i dance to the Beatles too! Lol 😂 💃🏻🕺🏻👯🏃🏻🚶😎🎸😎🎹😎🥁😎🎤🎻🎺🎷🎸🎶🎵🎼🎶🎵🎼🎶

[@felipedourado5721]

It's interesting that in 1968, after all the psychedelic and colourful atmosphere composed by the mix of smoke of joints, insence and patchouli parfume began to vanish after it's peak in the Summer of Love, in 1967, a new sense of rawness, a kind of urge of back to basics started to form. It seems that the Flower Power was beautiful as experimentation but not too strong to survive on a harsh enviroment related, for instance, by the growing violence on Vietnam war, the assassination of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. In 1969 the Altamont fiasco would happen and, symbolically, the two hippie bikers of Easy Rider would be shot off their bikes closing the Hippie Era. There was, I guess, a chain of historic factors, worldwide, that began to show that the dream was about to be over as, pretty soon, Lennon would notice on his famous statement. Those factors and the perception of the rise of a new enviroment may, at least partially, explain a more, let's say, grounded and less oneiric enviroment from wich the two major musical forces related to rock music would emerge: heavy metal and punk rock. Back to the Beatles subject, specifically, perhaps the two linked deceptions of George with his visit to Haight-Ashbury (1967) and of George, Paul and John, with Maharish (1968), could be very influential on their will to go back to make a kind of music a little further away from the psychedelic ilusions in favor of someting more real and, also by the historical circumstances discribed above, more basic, more solid and more true to their original aesthetic rocker core. Anyway, just some thoughts about complex times and complex cultural and artistc context. Peace from Brazil. ✌

[@YesterdaysPapers]

Good comment. Yes, the 60s was a decade of extremes. Even though there were still plenty of psychedelic bands in 68, many bands seemed to be going for a more earthy, rootsy sound. I believe The Band also had a lot to do with that. Their debut album was very influential that year.

[@felipedourado5721]

@@YesterdaysPapers Your answer kept me thinking and, sure enough, there were plenty of psychedelic bands in 1968. An epoch never just comes to an end like we press a button and it's turned off. It's a historical process and so an epoch tends more to slowly fades away while the subsequent epoch tends to rise also slowly, wich makes that, for some amount of time, the two epochs seem to be mixed in the transition. So, I'm tempted to think that, besides the psychedelic (and excelent) bands like The Zombies in England, on the other side of the ocean, for exemple, The Velvet Underground and one year later The Stooges were proponents, wich one on their secific ways , of new sonorities as well as The Band that you cleverly remembered. I think that from the very late 60ies to the 70ies psychedelic rock tended to morph itself in something less "high" and more "mental". From pychedelia to the progressive aesthetic. I think Pink Floyd is a classic case in that matter. They were, with Barret, psychedelic and went, under Waters (no pun intended here) into the progressive path. Another band that clearly had some of their roots planted in the experimental possibilities open by the psychedelic enviroment, if you will, but showed that the path to be followed by those who wanted do make a more elaborated sound was The Moody Blues. But none of those bands, as much as they were marvelous and even mighty, like Floyd, were capable to dictate what was to rise right there, after the horizon of the 70ies as major forces inside the rock as a form of artistic expression that were the nascent heavy metal (echoing since the late 60ies from bands like Blue Cheer and The Kinks) and the punk rock that we may hear on the forementioned Stooges, for instance. Anyway, just more thoughts on the fascinanting subject that is the History of Rock. Thank you for your reply. Peace from Brazil.✌

[@0532MOET]

I did not know about this, So after all of the good and different sounding music from 1967 like Sgt Peppers, Days of future passed, Are you experienced, The Doors etc most people wanted to hear more basic 50s sounding music like the music from only a few years earlier? Is this what happened?

[@Lea99Jones]

McCartney ended up using this vocal sound a lot on the Album. Before that? Please advise.

[@ThisBirdHasFlown]

When else does he use it?

[@Mr.56Goldtop]

I don't know what these fools were listening to, this is a great well crafted song!

[@thesilvershining]

That’s what I think too. One of my favorites to sing in the car, it’s a fun forever re-listenable romp!

[@Mr.56Goldtop]

@@thesilvershining With opinions like these it makes you wonder how they managed to make ends meet.

[@thesilvershining]

@@Mr.56Goldtop Lol, exactly. Seee how they ruuunnnn… away from a good song :)

[@Mr.56Goldtop]

@@thesilvershining You got it. They can all be found on a hill.

[@alwaysamysteryyes2021]

Would love to know what all the Beatles footage is from.

[@L_Martin]

4:05 for the Beatles.

[@Mirokuofnite]

The more I watch these the more complicated the British music scene gets.

[@noscrubbubblez6515]

Sorry everybody's missed the boat on this one. LM is depression era story set to rousing orchestration and vocals you may find in a Chicago speak easy. I think Nilsson influenced Paul cause it has that old times feel he uses. Top movie at the time; BONNIE AND CLYDE. But it's Paul so cheerful depression.

[@sarahtonin4649]

I think a lot of people have a very narrow idea of what qualifies as "rock and roll." I remember when "Lady Madonna" came out (I'm old), and it bore no resemblance for me to '50s rock, which I never liked much anyway, especially if "Rock Around the Clock" and "At the Hop" are prime examples. I don't see how "Lady Madonna" was a "return" to anything, in fact, it struck me as pretty innovative, like pretty much everything The Beatles did. As Billy Joel's song says, "It's still rock and roll to me."

[@YesterdaysPapers]

Lady Madonna, unlike many of their other singles, wasn't really innovative though. As Ringo himself said, Paul just tried to sort of re-write Bad Penny Blues. Here's Bad Penny Blues from 1956: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fWbSlZSGhpWYjNE

[@sarahtonin4649]

@@YesterdaysPapers Yeah, well, I disagree, because although the piano part is similar, what they wound up with overall I think still qualifies as innovative. The beat in Lady Madonna is different from "Bad Penny" after the intro, much heavier, less bouncy; the chords are not just I-IV-V blues; the B section (Dm, G, C, etc) has more in common with Tin Pan Alley pop than blues; the production was state-of-the-art; the lyrics alone are pretty unusual, one might say "psychedelic." I just think about hearing the song for the first time in 1968 -- we knew immediately it was The Beatles, after that it was like, "Whoa, what are they doing now?!" Maybe if we'd been familiar with "Bad Penny Blues," it would have seemed less innovative, but I doubt it, because what they did with it was pretty unique, even as a Beatle song. But it's all a matter of opinion, innit?

[@YesterdaysPapers]

@Kate True, not the same chord progressions. It's got a similar sound and vibe, though. Not that there's anything wrong with that. That's the cool thing about bands like Beatles or the Stones. They always aknowleged their influences and wanted to introduce their audience to the artists that inspired them to become musicians. That's the sign of a great musician. I never trust musicians who try to deny their influences and pretend that what they do is completely new and original.

[@sarahtonin4649]

@Kate Yeah, and it doesn't even take a musicologist to determine that, you can hear it, in a side by side comparison. "Bad Penny" is a standard 3-chord blues progression, "Lady Madonna" is all over the place with chord changes. The initial rhythmic feel is very similar, but "Lady Madonna" departs from that soon as the drums come in.

[@brucedillinger9448]

Yes. I remember its release also. Never thought of it as anything other than a new Beatles song harkening back to nothing.

[@darthcheney7447]

It's funny how the Beatles are still relevant musically 50 plus years later.

[@lejoe48]

Creo que el video lo expone muy bien. La recuperación del rock&roll en 1968 se debe a motivos comerciales y de la industria, para incorporar a los niños y adolescentes de nuevo al mercado. Niños que no comprendían la psicodelia (o eso creía la industria). Ya en su origen en los años de 1950, el rock fue un tipo de música sencilla propuesto para producir comercialmente lo que el jazz no podía dar en cuestión de beneficios y popularidad entre los adolescentes. A mi parecer, es triste que los Beatles se adhirieran a este movimiento conservador en 1968, un triste paso atrás, después de sus grandes logros en los años precedentes.

[@ustheserfs]

Are these in-depths done at the time or done in today's day and age? I can't tell they're so authentic.

[@calvinguile1315]

They are actual articles from British pop magazines of the time

[@alwaysamysteryyes2021]

Pete cuts up I Am the Walrus yet he had no problem doing songs like Armenia City in the Sky.