Book Review: 'Ribbons of Rust – The Beatles' Recording History in Context'

'Volume 1 – July 1954 through January 1963' places the early incubation of The Beatles along the birth of rock and roll

So much of what we know about The Beatles primarily is within the space of only the last 30 years. As noted historians Robert Rodriguez and Jerry Hammack point out in their book Ribbons of Rust – The Beatles Recording History in Context Volume 1 – July 1954 through January 1963, it’s this relatively recent timeline that gives us the tools to dig much deeper into their music (and inspirations) than ever before.

The tools in this case are a recipe of old and new. Mixed in with images of era-defining records and music paper cuttings are QR codes that relate to key songs (and images) for artists who inspired not only The Beatles, but were themselves the cornerstones of what would eventually become known as rock and roll.

The authors chart peak milestones within the first few years that would serve the highly impressionable and driven teenagers a lifeline to a world outside the class system and war-torn landscape of Merseyside: Lonnie Donegan, Bill Haley and His Comets, and of course, the undisputable force of nature that was Elvis Presley.

Elvis Presley – Heartbreak Hotel (Official Audio/℗© Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, TuneCore Inc./YouTube

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We’re introduced to the vision of original songwriting within the Lennon-McCartney partnership and the core trio of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison with drummer Colin Hanton and pianist John “Duff” Lowe paying the ungodly sum of £11 3p (not paid in full at the initial recording!) for a direct cut-to-acetate of Buddy Holly’s “That’ll Be the Day” and the McCartney-Harrison penned “In Spite of All the Danger” in July 1958.

Also crucial to the development was the availability of the radio airwaves that played what they wanted to hear (Radio Luxembourg, with its programs of country music, which stood outside the BBC) and the singles that they could (sometimes) purchase or most frequently, spinning in a listening booth at NEMS, the local record store, managed by the mercurial Brian Epstein.

The legendary 1960 Hamburg trip is given a fresh perspective, coming decades after an almost near-erasure of Harold “Lord Woodbine” Phillips. Regaining control of his contribution to their history — working with colorful promoter Allan Williams to ferry the group to Germany — is worked alongside the completion of the band, recruiting Lennon’s art schoolmate Stuart Sutcliffe and drummer Pete Best. In addition to the role Hamburg itself played, the inclusion of photographs from Astrid Kirchherr, and the atmosphere that accelerated their determination, the authors correctly surmise “Characteristic of the band as the world came to know them, they were moving forward with no looking back.”

Cry For A Shadow (Anthology 1 Version)/℗© 1995 Polydor International GmbH, under exclusive license to Apple Corps Ltd./YouTube

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The ‘throughline’ of this book is a defined account of their “music-making,” rather than a hagiography of The Beatles as influential “music-makers.” Anecdotes are aplenty and told in detail, so much so that you’re wondering if you should sprinkle crumbs for fear of losing your way back. Included are various technical aspects of amplification, instrumentation and recording that stretch back to their first recordings at McCartney’s house on Forthlin Road. Rodriguez and Hammack also include flowcharts to illustrate the recording sessions – formal and informal – the band undertook in these nine years. By providing visuals, one can understand how the dynamics of sound were captured, utilizing what instruments, and even down to how the early sessions were laid out on two-track equipment.

One of the infographic flowcharts for the 1961 Hamburg “My Bonnie” session with Tony Sheridan/© Parading Press

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A curio, but welcome insight, are the authors’ sometimes critical, sometimes blunt assessments of well-documented stories from other Beatles sources. Be it technical or historical, the tone can be simultaneously judgmental and spit-out-water funny. Granted, there’s reason. Drummer Bernard Purdie’s claim he performed on twenty-one Beatles’ songs in place of Ringo, is humorously noted, pulling no punches: “Purdie’s account is to bullshit what the Pacific is to oceans.”

The acquisition of Ringo’s talents in August 1962 also brought into light Pete Best’s chemistry within the band (lacking) and his drumming skills in a recording session (also lacking). Surprisingly, Ringo was the first to say “yes” to the invite after Best’s firing — a thought process that showed his type of character and altruistic identity that ultimately cemented the four not only as a band but as a cultural entity that reverberates to this day and probably into millennia.

The authors go into painstaking granular detail concerning Ringo’s contributions (and lack thereof vis a vis Andy White) on their first single “Love Me Do.” Much has been made of who did what when and why this or that version is the “real” release. Suffice it to say, a good portion is undertaken in explaining why certain choices were made of who would drum (Ringo and White alternated) and how it was chosen. Admittedly, much of what we believe as Beatles fans and followers can never be explained to the satisfaction of the majority. But Rodriguez and Hammack have given us the most insight into this particular point of liftoff with surprising facts (and humor).

Love Me Do (2023 Mix)/℗©2023 Calderstone Productions Limited (a division of Universal Music Group)/YouTube

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The impact of “Love Me Do” is calculated by a quotient factor rarely given coverage, threaded by tributes in other songs — Bad Company’s “Shooting Star” in 1975 for example — to a “Love Me re-Do” from Ringo on 1998’s Vertical Man. It’s the benefit of hindsight that this small moment in rock history was swimming against the tide of popular music on the charts. The UK was basking in the tones of Nat King Cole, Tommy Roe, and Shirley Bassey, while over in the US… well, there was no US coverage to speak of in 1962. All of that competition and recognition was not even a twinkle in the American constellation. There was no face-off with the likes of Dion, Steve Lawrence or the Number One hit “Telstar” by fellow Brits The Tornados.

Telstar – The Tornados/ ©1962 London Records/YouTube

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A well-documented piece of lore gets a better hold of the technicalities: the contractually obligated visit in December 1962 to the Star-Club in Hamburg. Considering the timeframe, this was a side of Brian Epstein’s managerial qualities (read: he didn’t want them to break a contract) that got up The Beatles' dander. Yet, as the public would discover decades later, it was a fortuitous set of circumstances (however drunken and captured in poor quality they may be) that we have recordings of their stage act before superstardom set in. What is known from then is that The Beatles and Epstein rejected it “sound unheard,” according to the authors.

The Beatles - Where Have You Been All My Life? (Star Club ‘62) - 1080p/YouTube

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The storyline moves into 1963 and chronicles the factual reasoning why The Beatles were persona non grata in the States, due to a variety of hostile circumstances that most fans are familiar with: rejection from the US arm (Capitol) of their UK label Parlophone and a US mainstream press corps blind to the teenage population…

until January 1964.

Ribbons of Rust – The Beatles Recording History in Context Volume 1 – July 1954 through January 1963 by Robert Rodriguez and Jerry Hammack from Bemis Publishing Group is available from Amazon in the US.

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