The Beatles and Endurance
With "The Beatles: Rock Band" all the rage for music video gamers, why not ride
this wave of piqued interest to reinforce some character traits that propelled
The Beatles to mega success? I think you'll find these stories useful in your
classroom, home and work with youth in the community.
Below, you'll find a couple of motivational Beatles stories based on our
research. Were they perfect moral examples? No. But to be fair, neither were
most of the other great athletes and political figures and writers we revere. By
telling the stories of what they did right
along their path to success, we imbed memorable character motivators in the
minds of young people. We're writing our illustrations primarily based upon our
reading of one of the most respected biographies of The Beatles:
Shout! The
Beatles in Their Generation, by Philip Norman .
Press
On Despite Criticism
(Beatles Succeed Despite Discouraging
Comments)
Don't let discouraging comments get you down. Sometimes we simply need to ignore
them and press forward with our passion.
Fifteen-year-old John fell in love with his guitar, playing it night and day.
His Aunt Mimi, who was raising him, couldn't see the point of his obsession and
would try to discourage him. Do you know what it's like to hear discouraging
comments, over and over, from those you really respect and want to please? Well,
John's Aunt Mimi put it it this way,
"To me, it was just so much waste of time. I
used to tell him so. 'The guitar's all very well, John, but you'll never make a
living out of it.'"
But John kept right on playing, putting his heart into the music he loved. In
fact he grew up to play guitar, sing and write music with one of the most
popular bands ever - The Beatles. That's right, that 15-year-old boy was John
Lennon. And yes, Aunt Mimi, he did manage to eek out a living with the millions
he made from that guitar.
Aunt Mimi wouldn't be the last to put down The Beatles along the way. Here were
some other negative comments they endured:
- While John attended Art College, he, Paul and George played together but
apparently weren't very good. A member of another band suggested that they
"weren't worth a carrot." (p. 68)
- They managed to get a gig playing between sets at a club, but were so
bad that they were ordered off stage after two songs. (p. 69)
- When they decided to change their name to The Beatles, their promoter
assured them that nobody would ever take a band with that name seriously.
(p. 74)
- They auditioned for a recording contract with Decca, but were turned
down. Bands with guitars "were on the way out," the experts at Decca
explained. (p. 144)
- Their relentless manager, Brian Epstein, approached every record label
he could find in the catalogue, only to be rejected at every turn. (pp. 146,
152)
- When they finally landed a contract, it was with a small label with a
mediocre track record, obligating the label to pay the band and Epstein a
mere penny per album sold. (pp. 154-158)
But The Beatles kept playing despite all the negative comments and rejections,
becoming so wildly popular that they sold more albums in the United States than
any other band or artist. Almost four decades after their breakup in 1970, their
fan base continues to grow through games like
The Beatles: Rock Band.
[Copyright December, 2009, J. Steve Miller and
Legacy Educational Resources ( www.character-education.info ). Feel free to post
with this attribution. Not for resale. Sources: Shout! The Beatles in Their
Generation, by Philip Norman (New York: MJF Books, 1981) p. 35; Wikipedia, The
Beatles.]
Discussion:
1) Why do you think Aunt Mimi tried to discourage John?
2) Why do you think so many people put The Beatles down and failed to recognize
their talent?
3) When should we take criticism to heart?
4) When should we move forward in spite of criticism?
5) In what area of life do you need to move forward, despite discouraging
comments?
Don't Let Poverty and
Bad Breaks Define You
(Lennon and McCartney Endure)
Some kids seem to get all the breaks. Not only do they get the coolest and most
expensive gifts for Christmas and birthdays, but they also get those little
extras to give them the edge in life – like the best guitars, professional
athletic equipment, or expensive lessons from the pros. How can regular young
people – those whose parents struggle just to put food on the table – compete
with that?
Well, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the chief songwriters and vocalists for
one of the top-selling bands of all time, The Beatles, refused to allow humble
beginnings to get in their way.
John Lennon's Humble Beginnings
Let's take John first. Do you know what it's like to grow up without a dad?
John's dad left his mom the year after they married. And he didn't just move
next door – he sailed from England to America, putting an ocean between them!
Soon his mom started a new life with a new man, but she didn’t bring her son
into the new family. John was raised by his Aunt Mimi and Uncle George, although
he had a great relationship with his mom and visited with her regularly (p. 18).
But George died suddenly of a hemorrhage when John was 12, leaving him once
again fatherless. (p. 23) Later, his real mom would be taken from him suddenly
when she was hit by a car. (p. 56)
By age 13 John majored in troublemaking – ever in detention or the principle’s
office. (p. 24.) But at age 15 he fell in love with the new rock and roll music
he heard at night on alternative radio, with a very weak signal from the
continent that kept fading in and out. Soon, he was pestering Aunt Mimi to buy
him a guitar. When she finally gave in, he became almost attached to the
instrument, strumming it endlessly. (pp. 34-36)
Not being able to afford lessons, his mom would teach him banjo chords, which he
could play with the first four strings, leaving the final two strings untuned.
He put together a band and they would practice standing in the bath because of
the superior acoustics.
His poverty posed another problem - the only way to learn the words to the songs
they wanted to play was to buy a record, but none of them could afford to buy
records. No matter. John made up his own words to go with the tunes.
Paul McCartney's Humble Beginnings
Now let's look at Paul’s hardships. His parents worked jobs that didn't pay
well, so that they could only make ends meet with both parents working. But when
Paul was 14, his mom died of breast cancer, devastating both he and his dad.
When Paul heard that his mom had died, he asked, "What are we going to do
without her money?" (pp. 25-30)
Money Troubles for Their Band
In their mid teens, John and Paul began playing in a band together, called The
Quarrymen, playing anywhere people would listen. But their lack of money
continued to pose problems, such as:
When they went to electric guitars, they had no money to buy amps. If the
organizers couldn't provide one, they'd have to settle for a crappy sound by
hooking up through the microphone system.(p. 59)If they played a church event,
the church would have to pay for broken strings. They lost an opportunity to be
"discovered" when they entered a talent competition. After passing the local
heats in Liverpool, they were invited to the semifinals at the Hippodrome in
Manchester. It was their big chance to get on TV and let the world view their
talents! But their poverty robbed them of the opportunity. They had enough money
for the bus trip to Manchester, but had to leave before the evening finals,
because the only bus home left before the finals. They had no money to book an
overnight stay. (p. 59)
The Power of Perseverance
Many would have gotten discouraged and quit, assuming that only those with money
could make it in the music business. But John and Paul kept right on playing and
singing. It would take them five more years before they were able to cut an
album and start to get some serious recognition. (p. 167) But perhaps, in the
end, it was best to take the long, harder road to success. During those years of
obscurity, they lost some band members but added George Harrison and Ringo
Starr. Time on the road allowed them to sharpen their skills at writing, playing
their instruments and performing, so that when they became famous, they were
ready to take the world by storm.
Do money problems and family problems get you down? Do you feel everybody else
gets the breaks, whether it be in academics, sports, music, or wherever you're
trying to excel? The next time you feel discouraged, maybe you'll hear a Beatles
song and remember that over 40 years ago, a couple of guys decided not to let
family set-backs and lack of money define them. Instead, they co-wrote and
published an astounding 180 songs, many of which are riding a new wave of
popularity today.
Discussion
1. What disadvantages did John and Paul grow up with? (poverty, loss of family
members, lack of formal musical training, not being able to buy the records to
get the words right, etc.)
2. Do you think their heartaches and struggles contributed to their ability to
write heart-felt lyrics that so many people identify with?
3. What do you think kept them moving forward when others might have given up?
4. In what area of life do you need to keep pressing on, despite your hardships?
[Copyright December, 2009, J. Steve Miller and
Legacy Educational Resources ( www.character-education.info ). Feel free to post
with this attribution. Not for resale. Sources: Shout! The Beatles in Their
Generation, by Philip Norman (New York: MJF Books, 1981) p. 35; Wikipedia, The
Beatles.]
Other Resources
For hundreds of quotes, activities and real-life stories to build character and
enhance life skills, visit us at www.character-education.info . Check out our
new section on teaching personal finances (
www.enjoyyourmoney.org ), and
our new, award-winning book on personal money management:
http://wisdomcreekpress.com/press_kits.html . E-mail us if you'd like
a discounted copy for review as a text.
Thanks for your work with character and life skills! As always, let us know how
we can improve and how we can serve you better.
