Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Somewhere on this site (not the forum) there is a whole story...
Here it is, the article is called Babys in Black
http://www.rickresource.com/beatles/

Yes, a work in progress with limitation but great fun to research and think about. We have but scratched the surface when it comes to understanding the complete story.

Were George's guitars black? I was thinking at least one that he played in the "early" days (funny, the whole thing lasted less than ten years, but I digress) was a dark color, but not black.

Why did John paint it Black?

So the Stones could write a song about it!

emac.

weemac wrote:Why did John paint it Black?

So the Stones could write a song about it!

emac.

now that's funny!

Ryan: The Gretsch Country Gentleman was not black at all but dark brown as you have mentioned. It did look black in a number of photos. He did have his Rickenbacker 420(425) painted black but that is another story.

Eden: A brilliant quip.

admin wrote:Ryan: The Gretsch Country Gentleman was not black at all but dark brown as you have mentioned. It did look black in a number of photos. He did have his Rickenbacker 420(425) painted black but that is another story.

Eden: A brilliant quip.

Neither was Pauls Hofner. So much for the hip, bad *** uniformity theory.

Glenn

I'm not sure the uniformity theory holds any credence...

Ever-fashion-conscious Mr. Epstein was taking the Boys from their Hamburg Teddy Boy days into a more "together", formal, socially-acceptable image. Dark always out-formals lighter shades. John's alder 325 reads pale grey in black and white photos and on B & W TV. Black is more serious.

Serious musicians = nice, "styled" haircuts, specially "styled" dark suits, "high-style" black pull-on winkle-pickers from Cuba, dark instruments. Although Macca's bass wasn't black, the sunburst was a classic, serious look against the dark background. A black violin? Not on yer life.

Ironically, on the first Sullivan show, the 325 wasn't even wiped down before going on stage. Photos taken of that performance show a scratched, smeared, and heavily fingerprinted hard-working Rickenbacker. Given the visual evidence, I suspect the Boys' last meal before going on was Aitch's Fried Chicken, or perhaps Pizza In A Cup. Greasy...

No Zymol back then!

jingle_jangle wrote: ...No Zymol back then!

That's the reason for the chicken grease.

While uniformity theory is not as even as one would like it to be, Epstein did want to have as many of The Fab Four's ducks lined up as he could in my view. Perhaps striving towards uniformity might be closer to the truth.

Certainly, George Harrison was on record as wanting his Rickenbacker 425 painted black to go with the "black" look in the day.

Black is a cool look today as it was in yesteryear. Certainly a black theme was apparent at least during the early days.

Oh dear what can I do, Baby's In Black. Trying to understand the Beatles from the outside looking in has always been a difficult thing to do.

John, in my opinion, was way to much of a free spirit to listen to Epstein.

Excellent comment Ivan. He did, however, have to toe the line on occasions in the early days and take one for the team. Most memorable in the beginning was keeping his marriage to Cynthia under wraps for a time.

Note that I didn't say, "homonym alert" just then...

Yes, (tow toe) seen and corrected Paul. But you did miss another before my comment. Thanks for being kind to us. You are too much.

Raps/wraps, Peter?

Or is that being unkind?