martes, 30 de julio de 2019

The ultimate itinerary for Beatles fans






































www.nationalgeographic.com
The ultimate itinerary for Beatles fans
Take a musical pilgrimage from London to Liverpool to New York.
BY ZAC O'YEAH
Monday, Jul 29 2019


Tourists pose for a photo on the iconic zebra crossing near Abbey Road Studios.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT ALEXANDER, GETTY IMAGES

The epiphany that I was a Beatles fan came in my early teens, and it was like experiencing one’s first heady taste of ale—I just knew this was something special. Considering I was born three weeks after the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band—the album that changed the sound of pop music—and three weeks before the launch of “All You Need Is Love,” it seems I was destined to be a diehard Beatles fan.




When John Lennon was shot I wrote a condolence letter to his 
widow Yoko Ono, spending all my pocket money on the postage 
from Sweden to New York; a decade later Paul McCartney played 
nearby where I lived in Gothenburg, so I volunteered to work at 
the arena just to get a chance to say “Hello, Goodbye.” When I 
traveled through India I always thought of George Harrison, a 
fellow Indophile like myself. I even heard a story from an old 
hippie in Goa who claimed to have crossed paths with Ringo 
Starr. They became like my extended family. So, it followed that 
I should travel with them when I went on my first visit to England.

A stroll down Abbey Road

Topmost on my agenda when I arrived in London was to take 
the underground to the neat, and outlying Saint John’s Wood
It isn’t named after Lennon, but the station boasts a Beatles-
inspired coffee shop, selling the essential “I crossed Abbey Road” 
badge. Down the road is the legendary Abbey Road Studios, 
where the Beatles cut many hits, as did icons such as Pink Floyd, 
Queen, and U2.
But I didn’t see any popstars step out humming a hit, and truth 
be told it was a fairly anonymous dirty-white building, which 
was a bit of a let-down. However, the main draw was in front 
of the studios: to my knowledge, the only zebra crossing that 
has been bestowed a heritage monument status. Once the 
tourists in front of me finished taking selfies, I tap danced 
across like a Beatle gone solo, dodging cars in the manner of a 
second-rate bullfighter, realizing it would’ve been better to come 
on a Sunday when London settles down.
Afterwards, I took the tube to Baker Street, and headed to the 
London Beatles Store souvenir shop—advertising its opening 
hours as “Eight Days a Week.” Incidentally, in the late 1960s the 
Beatles themselves ran their own trendy, yet short-lived, Apple 
Store at 94 Baker Street when they diversified into design, but 
the venture was a commercial failure.

A visitor takes a photograph of Abbey Road Studios in London, where the Beatles recorded several hit songs.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT ALEXANDER, GETTY IMAGES


A graffiti-covered wall near Abbey Road Studios pays homage to the Beatles.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT ALEXANDER, GETTY IMAGES


Magical mystery tour

My next destination was the Marylebone station around the 
corner from Baker Street, which features in the opening sequence 
of the 1964 movie, A Hard Day’s Night. It was also where 
Liverpool trains terminated, making it the Beatles’ entry point to 
London. As I walked about, I got the feeling that almost every 
other building had something to do with them. Not far from the 
station, Starr rented an apartment at 34 Montagu Square
where Yoko Ono and Lennon lived one summer. The blue heritage 
placard sits high up on the wall so that no souvenir-hunter can 
nick the marker of the abode where the nude cover photo for 
Lennon’s first solo album Two Virgins (1968) was made.
The headquarters of Apple Records, the label they started at 
Savile Row, is long gone, yet I wasn’t the only fan gawking at 
the rooftop. It was there the concert movie Let It Be was filmed 
during the Beatles’ last public performance on a cold January day 
in 1969. The spectacle irritated neighbors so much that they called 
the bobbies, who ended the historical event unceremoniously. But 
at least they won an Academy Award for best original soundtrack.
While both Lennon and Harrison have moved on to the big studio
 in the sky, one might spot Sir McCartney outside his offices in 
Soho Square. It’s a discreet building, but keep an eye out for 
the “mpl” over the glass doors (McCartney Productions Limited), 
the company that holds his copyrights. I also sauntered past 
Cavendish Avenue, where Macca has lived since the 1960s, 
with high hopes he might step out for a quick puff of his once-
preferred herb. And, of course, I tracked down the address 
where actress Jane Asher used to live, whom McCartney dated 
before marrying Linda Eastman. Once when he slept over at her 
place on 57 Wimpole Street, he woke up ravenous and came 
up with a song called Scrambled Eggs. The melody was great but 
the lyrics needed an overhaul, so he rewrote it asYesterday—which 
remains one of the most covered songs in the world.
I didn’t have time to go to the British Library, where Lennon’s 
handwritten lyrics for Strawberry Fields Forever are on display, 
nor the rock and roll museum at the Old Park Lane branch of 
HarRock Cafe that preserves Lennon’s specs—Liverpool 
beckoned. As I squinted out at the foggy British landscape from 
the coach window, I thought back on my years of Beatlemania.

MILLENNIUM BRIDGE
Looking at St. Paul's Cathedral and the Millennium Bridge in London
(This photo and caption were submitted to Your Shot.)
PHOTOGRAPH BY PHILIP COZZOLINO, YOUR SHOT


Across the universe

One of its most extreme moments was in Athens, Greece, where 
I found the band’s sandal maker near Monastiraki Square and 
bought exactly the same footwear that Lennon had (I even wore 
them as I wrote this piece). On my first trip to India in the early 
1990s, I immediately checked out the Rikhi Ram & Sons shop 
at Connaught Place, Delhi, where Harrison bought a sitar, sarod, 
and tanpura to use on Beatles’ recordings, before I headed to 
Rishikesh where they meditated in 1968. In Mumbai, I snuck 
into the Taj Mahal Palace hotel where, in 1966, Harrison took 
sitar classes from Ravi Shankar. The hotel has since renamed his 
room “The Ravi Shankar Suite,” though before I could get a peek 
inside the security promptly threw me out as I was dressed too 
much like a hippie Beatle myself. On that trip, Harrison also 
visited the actual Taj Mahal in Agra to take an iconic selfie.
The Beatles und ihre Frauen in Rishikesh, Indien, 1968
On my maiden U.S. trip, later in the 1990s, I made sure to land at JFK. rather than Newark because that was where the four first set their eight feet on American soil in 1964 and went on to hold a hilarious airport press conference. Their U.S. debut concert was at Carnegie Hall, followed by a TV broadcast from the Ed Sullivan Theater on 1697 Broadway, watched by one quarter of the American population. I certainly went to Madison Square Garden, where Lennon performed live for the last time ever in 1974 (in a concert with Elton John). My NYC walk ended at 72nd Street, at the corner of Central Park West, where he used to live in an apartment building among celebrity neighbors, such as actress Lauren Bacall and composer Leonard Bernstein. It was at the entrance that Lennon was shot by a troubled fan as he returned from a late-night studio session. The three-acre Strawberry Fields memorial garden, nearby in Central Park, pays tribute to the musician.

Allan Tannenbaum - John and Yoko at the Dakota, 1980 1


All you need is Liverpool

Happier days awaited in Liverpool, so I took a bus to the 
Woolton suburb riddled with places reminiscent of the Beatles. 
On 251 Menlove Avenue, I tracked down Lennon’s childhood 
home, Mendipsa 1930s, semi-detached villa now owned by 
the U.K.’s National Trust. As a child, he played guitar on the 
porch and amused himself at the nearby Strawberry Field 
orphanage. ThMcCartney family home on 20 Forthlin 
Road is also managed by the trust. Other hotspots includ
Penny Lane and the parish church where Lennon–McCartney 
originally teamed up in 1957 (and where a woman named 
Eleanor Rigby lies buried).
Paul McCartney/ Penny Lane
I left the quiet neighborhood and headed to where the pre-
Beatlemania action actually happened—downtown Liverpool. 
The harbor town has certainly capitalized on its Beatles 
connection with Magical Mystery bus tours and the Hard 
Day’s Night Hotel; additional sites include include a fancy 
replica of the Cavern Club (the original was demolished).
I opted to down a pint at the not-so-glamorous Jacaranda on 
Slater Street, where they performed before their breakthrough—
in the crammed basement there are murals painted by the the 
Beatles’ original bassist Stuart Sutcliffe. One profile on the wall 
looked like Lennon’s face. In fact, I drank at every pub with the 
slightest association with themThe Grapes on Mathew Street, 
where they had pints before heading to the Cavern ClubYe 
Cracke on Rice Street is where Lennon and Cynthia (his first 
wife-to-be) had their first dateThe Pilgrim on Pilgrim Street 
is famous for some Beatle thing or another; and Philharmonic 
on Hope Street was the snazziest of their local hangouts.
Magical Mystery Tour of The Beatles' Liverpool
These pubs, which seem to have remained unchanged throughout 
the ages, brought me closer to them than the official Beatlemania 
tourism industry did—the only drawback is that a diehard fan 
doing all the Beatles-pubs needs a bladder the size of 
Liverpool’s harbor.

This story was adapted from National Geographic Traveller India.



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