The Beatles, “In Spite of All the Danger” from Anthology 1 (1958): Deep Beatles
As the future Beatles members grew up in Liverpool, they keenly listened to songs of the day, learning them for their local gigs. While imitating these popular artists, they were also honing their own songwriting and musicianship skills. During the summer of 1957 — still in their pre-Beatles group, the Quarrymen — John Lennon, and Paul McCartney began experimenting with writing songs.
Just a year later, George Harrison, Lennon and McCartney found themselves in a crude recording studio, singing into one microphone, laying down two tracks: a cover of Buddy Holly’s “That’ll be the Day” and a Harrison-McCartney composition (yes, you read that correctly) entitled “In Spite of All the Danger.” A blend of doo-wop, rockabilly, and rock and roll, the song is first time that Harrison, Lennon, and McCartney would appear on a recording.
“In Spite of All the Danger” represents one of McCartney’s earliest compositions. In Barry Miles’ Many Years from Now, McCartney described how the two would ditch school to write songs together during summer 1957. Once McCartney’s father left the house for work, the two friends would settle in for a three-hour composing session. Lennon would bring his first guitar (sporting the infamous “guaranteed not to split” label) and McCartney would play either piano or guitar.
“And because I was left-handed, when I looked at John I would see almost a mirror image of myself, I’d be playing the guitar as if it were upside down, he’d be reading me, upside down – so we would clearly see what each other was doing,” McCartney recalled. They wrote all the lyrics in a school notebook; McCartney remembered always scribbling “A Lennon-McCartney Original” at the top of each page.
By: Kit O'Toole
Source: Something Else Reviews
