During the walk, we learned about the Apple Boutique. This was a clothing store that Paul McCartney opened that was named after Apple Records. This Boutique was centered on beautiful style that Dutch designers were assigned to design. The problem is that people wanted to be everything that The Beatles were so badly; there was theft left and right. Again, everything that The Beatles did after a certain point was gold. The fact that they opened up a clothing store was an opportunity to greater immerse yourself in The Beatles. How cool would it be to say that you got this jacket from a clothing store that The Beatles fully approved because it was their store. In fact, people were so desperate to have this and stole so much, Paul gave up and decided to close the boutique. He went out with a bang by just opening up the store and giving it all away. I can only imagine the feeding frenzy that that must have been.
Speaking of The Beatle style, as I would walk around London, I could still see how their hairstyle, their cool leather jackets, and their funny personalities were still influential. They created that bowl haircut, and I recall our tour guide saying that a girl tried to get him to style it the way that The Beatles had it. The Beatles has a completely unique style that everyone loved. John’s “granny glasses” soon became all the rage. You can still see people today that would dress like a Beatle and they would be extremely trendy. The Beatles were individuals and created their own look. This was something that was not heard of in the 60’s, when the style was to look all the same.
The Beatles, as I soon came to realize, ruled the town. They were above it all. This was displayed perfectly when they played on the rooftop of Apple studios. Literally, they were above everyone and were playing their music for everyone for miles to hear. Even when the police came, it took a while to shut it down because they were The Beatles after all. They were so influential and so iconic that they were not worried about getting arrested, even though they didn’t because who wants to arrest a Beatle? Really, The Beatles were very powerful and could bend a lot of the rules simply because of the music they made.
Another great example of how influential The Beatles were is the amount if signatures that were on the Abbey Road Studio wall. People from all over the world, including myself, wrote a favorite lyric or the initials of themselves and a lover on the wall. There are hundreds of these writings, and thousands have been written because they paint it over which just allows more room for more signatures. As I looked though these signatures, I almost never saw a repeat of a love lyric. The Beatles had so many amazing songs that affected people in different ways because it seems that they are so personal with their music. I think that it is pretty incredible and it must be such a great feeling that people will come from all over the world to see where they made this music and give a little reminder of what it meant to them. Still today, their music is affecting people and is part of their lives. I saw this on the Abbey Road wall.
Abbey Road studios would not be Abbey Road Studios if The Beatles did not sign with them. From now on, any artist that records at a studio that The Beatles recorded at is very prestigious. The Beatles changed a lot of people’s lives because they were associated with them. For example, we were showed a club where John and Yoko met. This club has now become famous and known as a club where they met because of The Beatles. The Beatles made locations famous because of their presence. Trident Studios is another example of this. Even thought The Beatles were not the only well known group to record there, they recorded some of heir best songs there, like “Hey Jude”. There is a list of all of the great songs that were recorded there on the window.
Lastly, on our Beatles tour throughout London, we saw the Soho Mural. As you look closer and closer at this mural, you start to notice that it looks a lot like the Sergeant Peppers album cover. Even though this mural really has nothing to do with The Beatles directly, they still seem to leak in somehow. They are so influential and resonated with London well after they were over. Today, there are so many artists that have covered a Beatle song or have tried a signature look.
While spending my time in England and in the two cities where The Beatles were most present, Liverpool and London, I came to realize how great they were. People really looked up to them as icons and listened to their music as therapy. Even though I knew about them before I came here, coming here made me see them in a different light. I saw the places that they made famous and where they grew up. I feel as if I know them in a more personal way than I did before.
