When a famous musician passes away, the whole world mourns. While we, as listeners, certainly feel the loss, it’s nothing compared to how their bandmates feel. Bands, if they are lucky, spend decades together in a larger-than-life circumstance. It builds a relationship that is unlike anything else in life. Moreover, they express their grief in a way no one else does: through song. Below, find four touching tribute songs written by artists for their late bandmates.

“All Those Years Ago” – George Harrison and John Lennon

Like much of the world, George Harrison felt very reflective after the murder of John Lennon. At least, that’s what his songwriting suggests. Despite their issues towards the end of the Beatles‘ tenure, Harrison looked back fondly on his late bandmate, penning the song “All Those Years Ago” as a tribute to him.

Living with good and bad / I always looked up to you / Now we’re left cold and sad / By someone, the devil’s best friend / Someone who offended all, the lyrics read. Though this song was initially written for Ringo Starr, Harrison managed to rework it into the perfect eulogy for Lennon.

Kurt Cobain’s death is one of the most infamous moments in rock history. It has been the subject of much discussion, taboo, and even conspiracy. Dave Grohl put all of that aside while writing “Friend of a Friend,” honoring Cobain’s memory in a way only he could.

Source: Alex Hopper/americansongwriter.com

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Bob Dylan and the Beatles had a memorable 1964 hotel meeting.  Dylan’s misunderstanding of a Beatles' song lyrics prompted a 'surreal' evening.  John Lennon and Paul McCartney later shared fond memories of the experience.

It goes without saying that Bob Dylan is one of the most influential musicians in history, as anyone with a passing familiarity of rock history knows. But the folk-rock icon’s impact on his peers goes beyond chord structure and lyrical composition, as one particularly entertaining anecdote from the annals of rock history involving the Beatles proves.

In August of 1964, the Beatles were staying at the Delmonico Hotel near Manhattan’s Central Park, according to the Beatles Bible, digging into a room service dinner, when Dylan showed up for a visit.

After being introduced to the band by a mutual friend, the writer Al Aronowitz, Dylan was offered some champagne…but apparently, he preferred “cheap wine” instead. Since there wasn’t any budget booze on hand, Dylan suggested they “smoke grass” instead. When the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, admitted that the band didn’t have much experience with marijuana, Dylan was shocked…all because he apparently misheard the lyrics to one of their biggest hits.

As Peter Brown wrote in The Love You Make: An Insider’s Story of the Beatles, Dylan “looked disbelievingly from face to face” following Epstein’s admission.

“’But what about your song?’ he asked. ‘The one about getting high?'”

Brown continued: “The Beatles were stupefied. ‘Which song?’ John managed to ask. Dylan said, ‘You know…’ and then he sang, ‘and when I touch you I get high, I get high…'”

Of course, those aren’t really the words to “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (the actual lyric is “I can’t hide, I can’t hide, I can’t hide”), but plenty of other listeners have made the same mistake. And the Beatles apparently weren’t completely new to weed at the time, as George Harrison explained in Anthology, but their first experience with the substance was underwhelming.

“We first got marijuana from an older drummer with another group in Liverpool. We didn’t actually try it until after we’d been to Hamburg,” Harrison explained. “I remember we smoked it in the band room in a gig in Southport and we all learnt to do the Twist that night, which was popular at the time. We were all seeing if we could do it. Everybody was saying, ‘This stuff isn’t doing anything.’ It was like that old joke where a party is going on and two hippies are up floating on the ceiling, and one is saying to the other, ‘This stuff doesn’t work, man.’”

Source: Jacqueline Burt Cote/parade.com

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The Beatles’ debut album was an attempt to capture the band’s live appeal, according to John Lennon.

Please Please Me would be released in March 1963 and was a chance for the band to showcase their skills as a touring unit. Lennon would share the thought process behind recording Please Please Me as a way to “capture The Beatles live” in interviews given shortly after the album was released. Lennon suggested Please Please Me is the closest the Fab Four could get to capturing the essence of their live performance, though even that was missing the atmosphere of the Hamburg and Liverpool audiences. Producer George Martin had initially suggested the band record a live album as their debut release at The Cavern Club in Liverpool, though these plans would fall through. Instead, the band recorded studio album Please Please Me as an opportunity to highlight their live appeal.

Lennon said: “That record tried to capture us live, and was the nearest thing to what we might have sounded like to the audiences in Hamburg and Liverpool. You don’t get that live atmosphere of the crowd stomping on the beat with you, but it’s the nearest you can get to knowing what we sounded like before we became the ‘clever’ Beatles.”

Lennon would confirm Martin’s influence in the studio would help them find a better route through the title track too. He said: “Our recording manager (George Martin) thought our arrangement was fussy, so we tried to make it simpler. We were getting tired though, and just couldn’t seem to get it right. In the following weeks we went over it again and again.

“We changed the tempo a little, we altered the words slightly, and we went over the idea of featuring the harmonica just as we’d done on Love Me Do. By the time the session came around we were so happy with the result, we couldn’t get it recorded fast enough.”

Later on, Lennon would share the Orbison and Crosby influence which guided the song. Speaking in 1980, Lennon says Only the Lonely by Orbison had been a big factor in his writing process for Please Please Me.

Source: Ewan Gleadow/cultfollowing.co.uk

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It's been nine years since the tragic demise of music producer George Martin, best known for his groundbreaking work with The Beatles. Those included Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. Martin worked so closely with the famed British band that he was frequently nicknamed the "fifth Beatle." He died of undisclosed causes on March 8, 2016. Martin was 90 years old, and this is his story.

George Martin was born on January 3, 1926, in Highbury, United Kingdom.

From Please Please Me, the Beatles' initial collected work (released in 1963) to their Abbey Road album (released in 1969), Martin worked diligently with the so-called 'Fab Four' to perfect the unique sound and elements of each of their compositions.

Following the band's dissolution, Martin produced for Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr on their solo albums, specifically McCartney's James Bond movie track release Live and Let Die (1973).

Martin also worked closely with additional music icons such as Kenny Rogers, Celine Dion, Elton John, and more.

On March 8, 2016, Martin passed away quietly in his sleep.

Source: Herbie J Pilato/newsbreak.com

George Harrison was a stoic and quiet individual. He had no shortage of talent both in The Beatles and as a solo artist, and the latter of which was (in my opinion) where he truly shone. He wasn’t the big smack-talker, either. But George Harrison did have a few choice words for some of his musician contemporaries, and even disliked a few famous bands and musicians. Let’s look at a few examples, shall we?

Oasis

I’ll be honest, I was surprised to see this band mentioned in my research for this list of musicians that George Harrison famously disliked. Oasis? Really? A lot of people had some choice words for the Britpop band back in the day, but I wouldn’t have thought George Harrison, formerly of The Beatles, would be paying attention to them, specifically.

Well, it appears that this one is true, and George Harrison was not a big fan of Oasis in the 1990s. In fact, in 1996, Harrison pretty directly said that their music “lacks depth” and that “singer Liam [Gallagher] is a pain, the rest of the band don’t need him.” Ouch. No wonder Gallagher threatened to punch him.

Sex Pistols

The Beatles, in a roundabout way, were pretty punk rock for their time. Nobody was making music like them in the 1960s. They got into trouble for controversial lyrics on more than one occasion. And yet, most punk bands of the 1970s would not consider The Beatles punk.

That didn’t bother Harrison. In fact, he had a few choice words for punk bands as a whole, as well as Sex Pistols, specifically. Though, he also sympathized with the band to a degree.

“As far as musicianship goes, the punk bands were just rubbish,” said Harrison in 1979. “No finesse in the drumming, just a lot of noise and nothing. […] I felt very sorry when the Sex Pistols were on television, and one of them was saying, ‘We’re educated to go into the factories and work on assembly lines,’ and that’s their future. It is awful, and it’s especially awful that it should come out of England because England is continually going through depression; it’s a very negative country. […] But you don’t fight negativity with negativity. You have to overpower hatred with love, not more hatred.”

Source: americansongwriter.com/Em Casalena

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James Norton to Play Beatles Manager Brian Epstein in Sam Mendes’ Groundbreaking Biopic Series
Happy Valley actor James Norton is reportedly stepping into the shoes of the man behind the Beatles’ meteoric rise: Brian Epstein. The casting, yet to be officially confirmed, is for Sam Mendes’ unprecedented four-film biopic series chronicling the lives of the Fab Four.

Norton would portray Epstein, the shrewd and stylish manager who discovered the Beatles in a Liverpool basement club in 1961 and guided them to global superstardom before his tragic death in 1967. His role is pivotal to the Beatles’ origin story — and the films are aiming for just that: the full picture.

Announced in 2024, Mendes’ project will present four interwoven narratives, each from the perspective of a different Beatle. It marks a historic moment in music cinema, as Apple Corps has for the first time granted full life story and music rights for such a project.

Slated for a 2028 release, the biopics will star a dynamic ensemble:

Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney

Harris Dickinson as John Lennon

Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr

Joseph Quinn as George Harrison

The behind-the-scenes scriptwriting is just as heavyweight, with Jez Butterworth, Peter Straughan, and Jack Thorne bringing their pens to the Beatlemania saga. Meanwhile, Saoirse Ronan has been tapped to portray Linda McCartney, adding more star power to the ensemble.

Brian Epstein has appeared on screen before — notably in The Hours and Times (1991), Cilla (2014), and most recently Midas Man (2024) — but this marks his most high-profile portrayal yet.

Source: mix93.com

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