July 6, 1957: The day Paul McCartney met John Lennon: A special tribute

July 6, 1:48 PMBeatles ExaminerSteve Marinucci

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   Eric Cash's "The Introduction," which depicts the day Lennon
    met McCartney. (Courtesy Eric Cash.)

Today (Monday) is a very important anniversary in Beatle history. July 6 is the 52nd anniversary of the day John Lennon and Paul McCartney met.

Who could have predicted that innocent meeting would have changed the course of history? 

Above is a clip of "Puttin' on the Style," including some unbootlegged segments, from that day. And this link  has both "Puttin' on the Style" (a shorter clip) and "Baby, Let's Play House" from the same day.

Jim O'Donnell's "The Day John Met Paul: An Hour-by-Hour Account of How the Beatles Began" is the best examination of that meeting. And here is a link to a previous column about a painting by Eric Cash called "The Introduction" (pictured at right) that depicts the moment. (Prints are available at www.ericcashillustration.com.)

A few links: Here is the website of St. Peter's Church, where the historic meeting took place. St. Peter's has a page titled "The Beatles Connection", a slide show of Beatle-related photos plus a special page about "The Introduction," mentioned above, which hangs in the church where the meeting took place.

There are several pictures from that day. One of the most famous is here.

And here is a link to the Quarrymen's official website.

We asked Bill Harry, founder and editor of the Mersey Beat newspaper in Liverpool, which covered the Beatles career intimately during the '60s, for a comment:

I think that we all owe a lot to Ivan Vaughan for his part in the meeting. But for Ivan it would never have happened. He was a unique individual in his own right and both John and Paul were inspired by him. He was, apparently, a bit of a rebel and oddball, but someone who John and Paul never forgot. He fought long and hard against Parkinson's Disease before his death and the tragic ending led Paul to begin writing poetry again.

 

On this day, we should all give a thought and thanks to Ivan.

 

Best,

Bill

We also asked our eloquent friend saki from rec.music.beatles to add her thoughts:

For me, July 6, 1957 is the musical equivalent of the Big Bang. Nobody saw or felt it at the time, of course, and it took several years for the physics of rock and roll to register what had begun. But that meeting between two guitar-mad teenagers at St. Peter’s parish fete in Liverpool resulted in a profound musical and cultural evolution -- a day well worth celebrating.

 

Regards,

saki 

When it happened, who knew? We certainly do now.