From 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on November 2nd, you are invited to the North Bend Library to enjoy “The Beatles and Their Buddies: Americans Who Influenced the Early Fab Four.” You’ll hear side-by-side comparisons of original American songs with the more-familiar Beatles tracks, as well as little-known stories about the rise of the supergroup during the early 1960s. There will also be a just-for-fun trivia quiz handout to fill in as the music plays. The iconic English quartet became the most successful and respected rock ‘n’ roll group of all time. Beginning as a band in smoke-filled German bars and covering American hits, the Beatles eventually found their creative feet in the recording studio, where they produced such iconic works of “rock as art” as Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Most of the Beatles’ success, of course, was due to John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who as highly competitive teenage pals spent many afternoons learning and dissecting music they knew and loved from the States. In interviews after they achieved international fame, the quartet members never failed to give credit to the American rockers who had laid the foundations upon which the Beatles would build their legacy. The talk will be given by Bandon resident Randal Hill. Hill is a retired high school English teacher from the Los Angeles area who for many years offered a Fine Arts elective class that he called “The Rock and Roll Years.” He is also the author of numerous music publications, including the first three editions of the House of Collectibles’ The Official Price Guide to Collectible Rock Records, the first of which was reviewed on NBC-TV’s Today show. Currently he writes about popular music of the 1960s for several monthly senior publications around the country. “The music never stopped being fun to listen to or learn about,” Hill says. “If you’re a fan of the Beatles, you won’t want to miss this.”
