The Beatles' Defining Moment (Hint: It's Not 'Sgt. Pepper')

by NPR STAFF, June 16, 2013 5:59 AM

Michael Ward/Getty Images

Author Colin Fleming is an avowed Beatles superfan, but he has one deeply held opinion about the band that other fans might find heretical. In an essay in this month's issue of The Atlantic, Fleming argues that the Fab Four's most emblematic, "Beatle-esque" year was 1963, before they'd even made it big in the States. His evidence? A set of sessions that John, Paul, George and Ringo recorded that year at the BBC, which Fleming argues are the quintessence of everything the group would become.

At the risk of a flood of calls and letters from angry fans, arguing that the band's defining year was '65 or '67, Weekend Edition Sunday decided to hear Fleming out. He spoke with host Rachel Martin.

So why 1963?

Well, I think people like to focus on [Sgt.] Pepper from '67, maybe Rubber Soul from '65 or Revolver from '66. But if you wanted to know what The Beatles liked, what they listened to, what they were trying to become and, in large part, who they already were and who they would be, the '63 BBC recordings would be your one-stop shopping destination. When they tackled ... a crucial rock 'n' roll text like Elvis' "That's All Right, Mama," you can hear that they keep elements of the past — that burnished country tone that Elvis' band excelled at — but they've added a sort of stomping, northern soul element to it. So they're really overhauling the past.

So these guys were young then. They were at kind of this nascent stage in their career. Yet they had the audacity to cover the king of rock 'n' roll, and black bluesmen from America. I mean, what was going on with them?


There was a lot of temerity there, actually, for four skinny northern white kids. A lot of times, British rock 'n' roll bands would look to the States as the music here, being so legitimate. So to be 21, 22, and think, well, let's have a go at Elvis, let's have a go at, in another instance, Arthur Alexander, who was like "Lord R&B," basically ... You didn't really want to mess around with Arthur Alexander. And they do a cover of Alexander's "Soldier of Love" that, if Alexander was listening to it, he'd be like, "Oh my goodness — they've one-upped me!" The groove The Beatles hit in this song is so deeply incised. It's one of their earliest "big boy" moments.

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