Liverpool Genepool | Exploring the Beatle Bloodline

It’s been more than 50 years since The Beatles arrived on the international stage. From that several-decade distance, it can easily appear that, today, the world’s most successful band is a universe unto itself. True, The Beatles do occupy a one-of-a-kind position in pop music and culture, with an influence not likely to be exceeded by anyone, anywhere, ever. But no matter how blindingly bright their star, they have never existed in a vacuum. They were formed in a unique matrix of time, place and circumstance, and their musical DNA contains many strands that can be endlessly explored.

Do you really dig music by The Beatles and other related bands, but know relatively little about how it all came into existence? Maybe you already know plenty but you’re a serious music fan who wants to continue discovering the wealth of enjoyable music that bears a Fab Four connection. No matter. If you’re musically curious about vintage pop and its descendants, whether you’re a novice or a longtime collector and student, you’ll likely find Liverpool Genepool a pleasant destination. We’ll make it tuneful for sure, and, if you’re up for some reading, educational as well.

Whatever the reason you’re here, I hope you enjoy your visit. Your questions and comments (as long as they’re not mean-spirited) are always welcome.

Your host,
Steve Morley

Special thanks to my older brother, Tom, who brought home the records and allowed me at an early age to share in the excitement of growing up with The Beatles, right as it was all happening.

THE WHAT
I started Liverpool Genepool as an online destination for information and commentary about the countless dots that connect in one way or other to the lads from Liverpool, England who, as rightly inscribed upon their hometown statue, “shook the world.” For me personally, it’s a way to express my affection for music that descends directly from the Beatle bloodline and document my hobby of tracing the ways that musical “genes” are interconnected.

THE WHO
I’m a musician and published writer who specializes in writing about music. I first poked my head out in the late 1950s, making me a latter-day baby-boomer. Like many others of similar vintage, I felt the immediate aftershocks of the Beatles’ Big Bang, but my taste in music solidified during my teens, after the Fab Four had dissolved. Thanks to my early exposure to British pop in the 1960s, I’ve always had a special attraction to songs that contain what I’m loosely defining as the “Liverpool gene”: that curious American and British crossbreed of fruity pop melodies and invigorating rhythms typified by the first wave of The Beatles and their counterparts between 1963 and 1965.

THE WE
If you’re a music lover and dot-connector like me, you may find some new ones here, or have some of your own to share. Or perhaps you’re a Beatles fan who has been content to enjoy their music without knowing anything more about the much larger context that surrounds it. Fair enough. If you really like their music, though, especially their earlier work, there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy discovering other bands and songs that belong in the sprawling, still-unfolding story. That’s the idea, anyway.