Lovely Liverpool: Part 2 (Beatlemania!)

Dear Reader,
Last week was truly a magical mystery tour on many long, winding roads!  And, I'm ready to twist and shout about going here, there, and everywhere!

P.S. I love you.

I know this is the Liverpool instalment you've really been itching to read about.  So, here we go:

This unimpressive building with the yellow door is called a register office, something we don't really have back in the States.  This is where people go to get married (we would just go to City Hall).  This particular register office, located just two doors down from the hostel I was staying on Mount Pleasant St, is where John Lennon married Cynthia Powell in 1962.

Just around the corner from the hostel and register office, is Liverpool College of Art.  Who left all their luggage piled on the sidewalk?  Well, that would be Paul McCartney!  Over the years, Paul has made some considerable donations to the school, and actually returns to the College once a year to hand the graduating class their diplomas.  Imagine receiving your diploma from Paul McCartney!  In any case, this pile of luggage was Paul's way of welcoming students from all over the world to Liverpool.

I'm sure many of you have seen a picture of this house before.  This is where Paul grew up.  This is also where Paul and John would come when they decided to skip school for the day.  Their favorite thing to do was to get high and see who could write the best song!  Some of those tunes include I Saw Her Standing There, one of my favorite Beatles songs - I remember listening to it over and over again on my 17th birthday!

See all the signatures?  We saw a lot of those at most Beatles sites.  This was the childhood home of Richard Starkey .... Oh, I'm sorry .... Ringo Starr.  This neighborhood was completely boarded up when Liverpool realized they ran out of money to fix them up to acceptable living standards.  There are blocks and blocks of brick row homes just like this.  It's a bit eerie, but there you go.

About halfway down on this tomb stone is the name ELEANOR RIGBY.  Oddly enough, she was not the inspiration for the Beatles song, but actually just a funny coincidence.  The song's namesake was actually a different woman whom Paul knew, but her surname was three syllables, and therefore inconducive with the meter of the song.  Instead, Paul used Rigby, a common surname in Liverpool at that time.  Years later, someone discovered that there was actually a woman who lived in the 19th century with that name.  This is in the graveyard of the church that the Lennons attended.  In fact, it's also located just across the street from where John and Paul first met.

This plaque is affixed to the outside of a small church where Paul and John were introduced by a mutual friend on July 6, 1957.  The story goes that John's band, The Quarrymen, was playing that night when his friend told him about this young kid who was really good on the guitar.  The Quarrymen were looking for a lead guitarist - John was not so good at the time; he learned on a banjo and consequently played the guitar like a banjo.  John, acting like it wasn't a big deal, let Paul play a few songs for them.  Not only was Paul really good, he played left-handed!  The band was thoroughly impressed.  John, after excusing himself to have a smoke and a beer, returned to tell Paul he could join the band on the condition that he remember who was in charge .... John wasn't about to let some punky kid take reigns away!

The bottom of the plaque reads:

"that was the day, the day I met Paul, that it started moving"

- John Lennon

Because Penny Lane became so iconic after The Beatles wrote about it, the City of Liverpool has given up on trying to replace the stolen metal signs with new metal signs.  So now, Penny Lane is one of the only streets in Liverpool with plastic signs.  Nevertheless, every one you find is full with signatures.  This one was in fairly good shape.

This familiarly named bistro in the middle of a roundabout is across the street from that Penny Lane sign I am standing next to.  Also across the street from there is a barber shop, a bank, and a cafe .... all places mentioned in the song Penny Lane.  This is where Paul came when someone told him to write songs about things he knows.

Now, let me take you down to one of the last stops on our magical mystery tour.

This is the gate to Strawberry Field orphanage.  When John lived in Liverpool, this was an all-girls orphanage, a rather strong incentive to break onto the grounds with his friends via the unlocked door in the brick wall that surrounds the property. He spent a lot of time here because his parents were frequently absent.

The song Strawberry Fields is all about (John) feeling misunderstood - by parents, teachers, other friends - and he could be anything he wanted when he came to this haven called Strawberry Fields.  It was also a reference to the Vietnam War - no one really knew why we were there.

Thanks for reading!  Look for other posts about Liverpool and my Harry Potter Studio tour!!