Ringo Starr has announced new tour dates for his All Star Band. Spring concerts were previously announced; the new run of shows will take place in the fall.

The nine new dates start on Sept. 12 in Omaha and run through Sept. 25 with a show at New York City's Radio City Music Hall.

Starr will also release a new EP, Crooked Boy, on Saturday for Record Store Day; a digital edition will arrive on April 26. "February Sky," the first single from the EP, was released last week. You can hear it below.

In other news, Starr's old band the Beatles will see their long-shelved 1970 film Let It Be receive a proper release. Disney+ will air a remastered version of the movie, about the making of the band's last-released album, on May 8.

Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band features Steve Lukather, Edgar Winter, Colin Hay, Warren Ham, Hamish Stuart and Gregg Bissonette. They will launch a spring tour on May 22 in Las Vegas; that run will wrap up on June 9 in Austin.

Source: Michael Gallucci/ultimateclassicrock.com

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Paul McCartney is known as one of the most talented and successful songwriters of all time. He’s penned–or co-penned–countless smashes and beloved tunes throughout his many decades as a superstar. But even the greats borrow from others, and that doesn’t exclude the former Beatle.

In the latest episode of his podcast Paul McCartney: A Life in Lyrics (co-produced by iHeartPodcasts and Pushkin), the rocker admitted that even he has been influenced by other songwriters. Only, in one specific instance, he wasn’t so much influenced or inspired, but rather, he simply lifted lyrics from someone else and used them for his own purpose.

“That chorus that I've used as a chorus, literally, is the lyrics to an old Victorian song,” McCartney shared in the podcast. He was referring to the tune “Golden Slumbers,” which the Beatles released in September 1969.

McCartney’s podcast co-host, his friend and poet Paul Muldoon, tried to soften the comment the songwriter had just made. “Is this what we call sampling?” he asked, but McCartney wasn’t trying to sugarcoat things.

“Well, it's called stealing,” McCartney said. It’s good of the celebrated musician to not try to cover up his past questionable behavior, or to try to find another way to describe it that doesn’t sound so harsh. McCartney knows he stole lyrics, and he’s open to talking about it–something other creatives shouldn’t be afraid of.

Source: Hugh McIntyre/forbes.com

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As two of the biggest stars in the planet, Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder had to know that any collaboration between them would invite major scrutiny. They overcame those worries by keeping it simple with “Ebony and Ivory,” a straightforward plea for racial unity that struck a major chord with audiences when released in 1982.

How did the song develop? And how did a little tardiness almost throw a wrench into everyone’s plans? Why don’t we get all the details on this hugely successful chart-topping song? A Duet, but with Whom?

Paul McCartney took a break from Wings with his 1980 album McCartney II, but it wasn’t meant to be a permanent break. He intended to reassemble the group for his following album, which would be recorded with George Martin as producer. In October 1980, Wings did demos of a batch of songs McCartney had recently written, songs that would end up on albums like Tug of War (1982) and Pipes of Peace (1983).

One of the songs that the band demoed was “Ebony and Ivory.” McCartney envisioned the song as a duet, and he had Denny Laine, Wings’ longtime guitarist, sing it with him on the demo. Alas, those sessions were Wings’ last, as McCartney found that he didn’t like how the songs were sounding, and also that he had lost his enthusiasm for being a bandleader.

Once he knew he was moving forward as a solo artist, he decided that, since “Ebony and Ivory” was all about race relations, he should find a Black singer to do it with him. Since he had known Stevie Wonder since they met in the ’60s when McCartney was a Beatle and Wonder was already scoring hits in his teens, he immediately thought it would be a good match.

Source: Jim Beviglia/americansongwriter.com

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The Beatles and their music were an enormous part of my teenage years.

You usually chose between The Rolling Stones or The Beatles as to who were your favourite music icons. For me, it was always The Beatles, unfortunately I didn’t succeed in seeing them live but I did marry a Liverpool man who went to art school with John Lennon and who used to listen to the group play in the Cavern Club in Liverpool long before they became famous – so that was quite something to talk about!

They were amazing pioneers of sound, John, Paul, George and Ringo, four working class lads from Liverpool who were music rebels. They ignored the old way of recording music and together with producer George Martin, they opened up new horizons, again and again, experimental, avant-garde, rock, jazz, pop. They had a special sound using new techniques. Their albums were innovative to not only the sound but the incredible album cover designs. They were real works of art and they displayed the songs’ lyrics too.

The 1960s youth culture was born, a sort of protest against the adult world. I remember the feeling well, a change of lifestyle and freedom to experiment with art, fashion, morality, female liberation – The Beatles were a catalyst for all of that.

Lennon and McCartney were amazing songwriters creating music that lasts. They were very brave in reinventing themselves and creating the first rock videos, you didn’t know what to expect from them next. They promoted love and peace, their messages are still important today, in fact they loved what they were doing.

Hearing Beyoncé recently releasing a version of McCartney’s song Blackbird , made me think about the Beatles and their huge influence on our lives in the 60s. McCartney says that the song Blackbird is not about a bird but is a symbol of black women and the civil rights movement in the USA at that time. He had heard about the problems in Little Rock, Arkansas where 9 black students were faced with segregation, the 9 students finally helped to desegregate schools. Paul McCartney says he is delighted that Beyoncé and her female singing friends have decided to perform Blackbird . He says it reinforces the civil rights message.

Source: La Montagne/lamontagne.fr

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On April 9, All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words was released worldwide. The book is written by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines, who have both worked with The Beatles and written about them for years.

The book features unreleased interviews with The Beetles and their significant others, including Yoko Ono. This is not the first time Yoko Ono and John's relationship has been in the spotlight.

Their relationship started in an art gallery and took many forms in the 14 years they were together. It continues to be one of the most famous love stories. A look into their relationship timeline shows that Yoko continues to carry on John's legacy and accept awards on his behalf.

"Love can sometimes be hell", Yoko Ono says about her relationship with John Lennon

Yoko Ono and John Lennon's relationship began at a gallery where Yoko presented her artwork at the Indica Valley. The Beatles visited the gallery, and John was intrigued by Yoko's work. John later recalled to Playboy about his first meet and reported,

"That's when we locked eyes, and she got it, and I got it and, as they say in all the interviews we do, the rest is history."

John, at that time, was married to Cynthia Lennon and also had a son with her, but he found a new connection with Yoko, and they fell in love.

November 11, 1968: The first collaboration

Lennon and Ono joined for their first musical collaboration, Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins. While it marked the beginning of their relationship, it led to John's subsequent divorce from Cynthia.

March 20, 1969: The Gibraltar summer dream

Shortly after Ono and Lennon married on March 20, 1969, in Gibraltar. The Beatles split in the subsequent year.

Source:Janvi Kapur/sportskeeda.com

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George Harrison had temporarily quit The Beatles in January 1969, disillusioned with their fraught sessions after witnessing the domestic bliss of The Band and their home studio set-up in Woodstock the previous November. What he saw in New York suggested a cooler, more democratic process was possible. The tensions in which he was mired at that time bore a handful of songs that were at once spiteful yet contemplative, including “I Me Mine” and “Wah Wah.”

“Run Of The Mill” is similarly probing; ironically, its lyrics were first scrawled across an envelope from Apple, the company that would irrevocably tear the group apart over differences of opinion regarding its management. A few weeks after Paul McCartney announced to the world in April 1970 that The Beatles had split, Harrison was in New York to discuss starting work on a solo album with Phil Spector, playing the producer “Run Of The Mill” and a selection of songs he’d earmarked for it. While the majority of “Run Of The Mill”’s ire is purportedly aimed at McCartney, the song also serves as a cautionary tale of owning one’s actions: “No one around you will carry the blame for you,” George sings. “No one around you will love you today/And throw it all away.”

Source: Simon Harper/udiscovermusic.com

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