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The Canadian Beatles Connections…
I came across this article a few yrs ago, in a local newspaper, but now after watching the Rubber Soul WOTT installment, thought be interesting to share the Canadian Beatles Connections of sorts:
Here is one article of interest, will post others separately:
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17 Replies
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And though, I was only a baby when they arrived that year and time…
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Wow Jacki, I had no idea the Beatles music appearance and influence in Canada predates the British Invasion in the US by a year. I’ll have to check out that Canadian OPP (Ontario provincial police)badge on Paul McCartney on the Sargent Pepper album cover. I didnt know John and Yoko did a “bed in” peace protest in a Montreal hotel room in 1969. Great story of a 14 year old sneaking into the Lennon’s Toronto hotel room to meet John and suggest they meet Prime Minister Trudeau in Ottawa which took place a few months later that year in Ottawa.
The first Beatles Canadian concert was 1964 in Vancouver which unfortunately turned into a riot ending the show early and the Beatles never returning to Vancouver ever! Im glad they had much better experience in Canada later in Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa. Thanks for sharing these Beatles Canadian connection articles.
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Yes, thanks for the great read, Jacki! I can’t get enough of these behind-the-scenes Beatles stories.
I’m stunned by Allan Rock’s claim in the caption of the last photo, that John requested that the car radio be turned up so he could sing along with “Get Back”. I know that Canadians don’t lie, but that just doesn’t sound plausible.
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You’re both welcome David and Jung….I wasn’t aware of the Ottawa connections except for the Bed In one….the other I came across a few yrs ago when it appeared in our Ottawa Citizen paper…
David, as for the Allan Rock claim, who knows, it may be true or he could of just added some oomphness by means of exaggeration, y’know, like getting his 15 mins of fame….you never know , and we don’t know for sure either…
Elvis did play Ottawa once, I found out that gem of info one year at The now defunct Super Ottawa Ex that used to happen downtown Ottawa at the football/civic centre stadium place…. they had a famous people’s photo exhibition of a who’s who , and the Elvis Ottawa show was featured in the photo exhibit…I had no idea before then Elvis came to Ottawa ( if my Mom did tell me, I forgotten, , or she never told me at all, but I did find out at The Ottawa Ex, that made my day at the EX rock n roll….lol…
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I remember as a kid when it was announced that Elvis was going to do a concert in my hometown of Lexington, Kentucky. It was advertised constantly on TV and radio. I was excited because thanks to Happy Days I knew about Elvis and what a big deal he was.
The concert was scheduled for August 23, 1977. But of course we all know what happened on August 16th.
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Oh yes I remember Aug 16 1977 quite vividly for some reason. It was one of the big family road trips in my dad’s big old Chrysler Fury 3, the whole family all 7 of us, my parents and the 5 kids packed in the car on an epic 2 week Vancouver to LA to San Francisco whirlwind road trip. We were on or way back from LA going north through San Francisco and we just crossed the big Golden Gate bridge and my brother in the back seat listening to his portable radio yells out, hey Elvis died! And then fast forward 3 years, 1980 sitting in my room with the radio on, doing home work I think, and in between the music breaking news comes on about John Lennon being shot. Those 2 tragic events I remember in detail when I heard about it.
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That’s remarkable, Jung, because I heard about Elvis’ death in much the same way. I was accompanying my dad on an out-of-town business trip, because I loved to travel and he enjoyed having someone to talk with. We were listening to the radio on the way home when they announced what had happened during a news break.
I didn’t hear about John Lennon until the following morning, because in my time zone I was already in bed. But it had no impact on me because, believe it or not, I had never heard of him. (I had heard of the Beatles, but I didn’t know their names or their music.) A lot of my classmates at school were really broken up about it, but it was all lost on me at the time.
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David, I remember on the news the following days the many tributes to John Lennon, and in particular a candlelight tribute in New York with his song Imagine. That was so moving I remember. It was that song that really had an impact on me then as like you I didnt know John Lennon as much as the Beatles.
Another one that stand out is when Beach Boys Dennis Wilson drowned 3 years later in Marina Del Rey that had an impact on me.
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Jung, I honestly didn’t pay attention to any of the tributes, because at the time I had no interest in any music more recent than the doo-wop era. Fortunately I was less than four years from my great enlightenment.
Dennis’ incident occurred a few months before I began to get into the Beach Boys. I think the first big rock-and-roll death after I became 60’s-literate was Ricky Nelson.
Another one that meant something to me was Del Shannon. I found out about it on the radio as I was driving to attend my first Paul McCartney concert. I bought a souvenir program that had a page with a collage of photos of early rock-and-roll artists… including Del Shannon.
And now I’m reading that Elvis’ grandson just died.
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I recall when Elvis died, I came home from school, to seeing both my mom and our neighbour/family friend, kinda 3 sheets to the wind at kitchen table crying…they both were Elvis fans…I didn’t know for years later, that Elvis was a twin, not sure if identical or fraternal…. I recall also seeing on TV one of his last tv appearances, concerts before he died…he was in such sad shape by that point, needed help onstage/off….
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Del Shannon’s “Runaway” I remember, what an awesome song David, just had to have another listen. Was one of the 60’s great iconic songs.
Jacki, I had no idea Elvis had a twin. Is he still around? Watching some of his earlier videos of songs from the 50s rigth through the 60s he was great. It’s really too bad how he changed through the 70s and lost that spark.
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Hi Jung, yes Elvis’ twin Jesse was born either stillborn or shortly thereafter the birth…makes onevwonder had he/she lived …if they would have also gone into music or not, imagine if identical or fraternal…….I’ve always had a fascination with twins, multiple births… I even questioned my late Mom one time if I was/had a twin…lol…No, but my late Grandma Rea’s Mom was twin, I think identical, maybe fraternal, their photo , they looked identical to me. One of my younger cousins in her late 30s -early 40s gave birth to twins, biy/girl about 5 yrs ago…. as for Del Shannon’s Runaway song, I’m not now nor was ever all that keen of the song, whether because of his voice irritated me, the song sound itself, lyrics are fine but I think it’s a combo of his voice and song sound combo, made me not liking it from getgo…lol…
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What made Runaway so groovy for me was the prominent use of that synthesizer. I didn’t know that there were synthesizers that pre-dated the Moog, so I listened to the song repeatedly trying to figure out what analog instrument I was hearing, without success.
I just looked up the history of it, and it was invented by the very guy who played it on the track: Max Crook. According to Wikipedia, “he built a monophonic synthesizer, which he called the Musitron, out of a clavioline heavily enhanced with additional resistors, television tubes, and parts from household appliances, old amplifiers, and reel-to-reel tape machines.” He just died twelve days ago.
After Del Shannon passed away, the Traveling Wilburys recorded Runaway in tribute to him:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEPx9bkpkh8
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David, I thought at first it was some kind of flute or something but upon closer listen I suspected something electronic. I’m surprised to hear a synthesizer in an early 60s song too, how inventive, the Musitron, to get that creative sound.  That adds beautifully to the song. That Wilbury version with George Harrison does cool justice to that song, what a wonderful tribute.
That’s tragic about Elvis twin Jacki, and makes you wonder what could have been if he/she had survived. One of my favorite Elvis songs is “Can’t Help Falling In Love”, sounds so beautiful with Elvis rich deep voice. One of the most beautiful rock ballads ever. Interestingly around the same time as Del Shannon’s hit.
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