Fans Make Journey to Hear the Beatles

 The photo and the article below were in the "Daily News-Journal" from Murfreesboro, Tennessee published on August 26, 1966.   

Fans Make Journey to Hear Beatles

By Phyllis Murphy and Andrea Lindsey

The Beatles concert on August 19 in Memphis was reported to be one of the quietest and most orderly to date. And we must agree. Of course, there were screams, shouts, and tears of joy, but it was generally an exceptional concert in all respects. 

They bounced on stage wearing gray and Rose, pinstriped mod suits and Rose shirts, and even  through a bad microphone, they were excitingly auditable over the cheers. The songs were a mixture of old and new, of hard rock and roll and the subtler Beatle forms. They began with "Rock and Roll Music" by John, and then Paul sang, "She's a Woman". George sang his composition of "If I Needed Someone." "Day Tripper", "Baby's in Black," and "I Feel Fine" followed and then a quiet and beautiful "Yesterday" by Paul.  Ringo sang  "I Want to Be Your Man" to the largest round of applause. After that, they sang two of their newer hits, "Nowhere Man" and "Paperback Writer", and ended with a rocking, "Long, Tall Sally."They were on stage for approximately 43 minutes, and then they were gone.

 Between the four o'clock and 830 shows, a press conference was held. It was attended by nearly 150 reporters, many of them teens from around the country. Everything was quite congenial and orderly, and one got the feeling that the teens no longer felt so far below the Beatles. They were still fans, but they were reporters as well.

 The questions asked by the veteran reporters were not as topical in some cases as those of the teen reporters because they had more knowledge in the field of Beatleism. Some of the questions were about various parts of songs, which I shall not list here, but were quite interesting to a student of Beatle music.

 One of the questions dealt with the controversial first cover of their Yesterday and Today album. The cover pictured the Beatles in butcher smocks with meat and dismembered doll bodies all around. They stated that it was the photographer's idea and that they really hadn't liked it that much anyway.

 Memphisans were interested in why the Beatle's plans to make a record and that city had fallen through. They said they had hoped to record a blues album there, but they said cryptically, "things came up."   Commenting on the banning of their records by certain disc jockeys. John said he didn't mind if anyone didn't play their records, but they shouldn't try to force their opinions on anyone else. 

The perianal question, Will  Paul marry Jane Asher soon? Was answered by Paul's statement that he didn't know if he would marry Jane soon, sooner or later, or what. He was asked for his definition of happiness, and he said, "you know when you've got it, and I do." After they stated that England was not really as swinging as it is made out to be. (It was called a swinging facade by John) An executive from Capitol Records Promotion Department asked the Beatles how much more promotion they thought they needed. George answered with another question, "how much promotion does capital need?"

 The final question was for Ringo, when he would he release more pictures of the baby?  "As soon as someone sneaks in and gets them," was his reply, and then they left in a hail a presents and goodbyes from the fans and reporters. 

The Beatles are now off for more concerts, more press conferences, and then a trip to the jeweled Island, set in a silvered sea—or, as they prefer to call it, their "swinging facade" trailing ablaze of excitement as they go.