A long time before the Beatles came to America, America came to the Beatles. Liverpool was a port city and off the boats came men who had visited the great US cities. Off, too, came the new sounds, records made in urban studios in America that didn’t yet stand much of a chance on the BBC Light Programme.
George Harrison may have been the first Beatle to visit the US but he wasn’t the first Harrison. It wasn’t only his sister who had beaten him to it, his father had too, filling the house with the stuff he brought back from working the liners — a radio, a gramophone.
Alf Lennon, John’s father, also worked the ships and visited the US.
Products of their city,
