The Long Hours and Pop Standards. . .

A photograph of eighteen-year-old Paul, taken by Astrid Kirchherr in Hamburg during the fall of 1960. Doesn't he look cold?

As most of you tuning in here probably know already, the Hamburg-era Beatles had to play for hours at a time during their nightly sessions onstage at venues like the Indra, the Kaiserkeller, and the Top Ten Club. According to various chronicles on The Beatles, the guys were always on the look-out for songs to add to their repertoire since they viewed repeating songs as amateurish.

One way the band filled out its long sets was to incorporate old pop standards, giving them the rock and roll treatment. Hardly surprising given Paul McCartney's musical education by his father Jim, who had been in a jazz band himself as a young man before marrying and starting a family. And one such song that The Beatles performed regularly during the Hamburg era, then, was September in the Rain, which made it onto tape during the infamous Decca auditions in January 1962. Click on the previous highlighted link to hear that recording and pay special attention to the tone on George Harrison's guitar. It's great!