As the year winds down, I offer something to smile about in one of my once and future fandoms I've indulged a lot in this year.
First of all, something snagged from Tumblr today. A photo by Astrid Kirchherr of George and Paul in Hamburg, that somehow manages to showcase how freaking young they were more than the better known pics she made of the group in leather (original source here):

Next, two - well, how to describe them? Perhaps best by starting that much as I love the group, I'm the last to deny no individual member of the Beatles managed a decent Christmas song. Paul's best known one is paper thin and annoying, John's best known one is preachy and just as annoying, only in a different way. And the one they did for the BBC back in the day was just okay-ish.
However.
They used to do a thank you record for the Beatles fan clubs at the end of each year, which consisted of the four of them being goofy and joking around. Now these recordings are still fun to listen to. Cases in point:
1963 - the annus mirabilis (ask Philip Larkin). Beatlemania is still be a European rather than world wide phenomenon; they're enjoying the whole being famous thing rather than being used to it or captured. What gets me most is that George (later the most turned off by the whole phenomenon) knows the names of the individual fan club organizers.
1965 - someone has been introduced to pot by Bob Dylan in the meantime, is all I'm saying. Also, this is the year of Yesterday which is why they're teasing Paul about it non-stop.
First of all, something snagged from Tumblr today. A photo by Astrid Kirchherr of George and Paul in Hamburg, that somehow manages to showcase how freaking young they were more than the better known pics she made of the group in leather (original source here):

Next, two - well, how to describe them? Perhaps best by starting that much as I love the group, I'm the last to deny no individual member of the Beatles managed a decent Christmas song. Paul's best known one is paper thin and annoying, John's best known one is preachy and just as annoying, only in a different way. And the one they did for the BBC back in the day was just okay-ish.
However.
They used to do a thank you record for the Beatles fan clubs at the end of each year, which consisted of the four of them being goofy and joking around. Now these recordings are still fun to listen to. Cases in point:
1963 - the annus mirabilis (ask Philip Larkin). Beatlemania is still be a European rather than world wide phenomenon; they're enjoying the whole being famous thing rather than being used to it or captured. What gets me most is that George (later the most turned off by the whole phenomenon) knows the names of the individual fan club organizers.
1965 - someone has been introduced to pot by Bob Dylan in the meantime, is all I'm saying. Also, this is the year of Yesterday which is why they're teasing Paul about it non-stop.