Beatles News
Paul McCartney paid tribute to Dolly Parton and her “unrivaled” songwriting, singing, and philanthropic efforts in a tribute to the late country legend on Instagram.
The post featured some photos from the time McCartney and his family met Parton and her old performing partner Porter Wagoner during a trip to the Grand Ole Opry in the mid-Seventies. At the time, Parton was already a budding star with Wagoner, about to launch her solo career, and, as McCartney remembered her, “so bubbly and full of life.”
“The magnificent star Dolly Parton has died and it is so sad,” McCartney wrote, adding, “Her songwriting, her singing, and her philanthropy were unrivaled in the world of country music and it is hard to imagine living in a world without Dolly. She was a very clever business woman who understood the value of music and, most importantly, the effect that she had on the people of the world.”
Along with their mid-Seventies meeting, McCartney and Parton crossed paths again when the she recorded the Beatles’ “Let It Be” for her 2023 album, Rockstar.
Both McCartney and Ringo Starr featured on the track, too, as did Peter Frampton and Mick Fleetwood.
“There was no greater honor for me than to have her sing my song ‘Let It Be’ and, even though I only made a small contribution to it, I am so honored that she did it,” McCartney wrote of the collaboration. “I am so proud to have known her and admire her unique talents.”
Source: rollingstone.com/Jon Blistein
RECORDING CAPTURES JOHN LENNON AND PAUL McCARTNEY DEVELOPING ‘DAY TRIPPER’ TOGETHER BEFORE THE SONG’S ICONIC RIFF HAD BEEN WRITTEN
Today, UMG and Apple Corps Ltd. release ‘Day Tripper (Songwriting Work Tape)’ from the forthcoming expanded Special Edition of The Beatles’ landmark 1965 album Rubber Soul. Recorded during the Rubber Soul sessions, ‘Day Tripper’ and ‘We Can Work It Out’ were intended for release as a standalone double A-side single and were kept separate from the album.
The ‘Day Tripper (Songwriting Work Tape)’ offers a rare glimpse into the earliest stages of the song, capturing John Lennon and Paul McCartney working together at John’s home, Kenwood, in Weybridge, Surrey. At this stage, the iconic riff that would come to define ‘Day Tripper’ had yet to be written.
Initially based on an old folk song John had written the previous month, the recording captures the pair developing the song together, highlighting the fun they had when writing as a duo. John and Paul can be heard laughing as they work through the song, with John later making reference to the high level of sound being captured on tape.
Source: thebeatles.com
In the mid '60s, the Beatles were still very much together, but not necessarily on the exact same page.
Ringo Starr was a brand new father, happily soaking in the many blisses of domestic family life, while George Harrison was falling deeper into his studies of Eastern music and philosophy. Paul McCartney was investing his time into London's cultural scene — art galleries, operas, etc.
John Lennon's experience, however, was less stimulating, at least emotionally. He lived in Weybridge then, just far enough outside London for there not to be very much day-to-day excitement. He was regularly taking LSD and his relationship with wife Cynthia and son Julian was, in a word, deteriorating.
"I can get up and start doing nothing straight away," he told the journalist Hunter Davies in 1967 (via American Songwriter). "I just sit on the step, look into space, and think until it's time to go to bed. … If I am on my own for three days, doing nothing, I almost leave myself completely. I'm just not here. … I'm up there watching myself, or I'm at the back of my head. I can see my hands and realize they're moving, but it's a robot who's doing it."
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com/Allison Rapp
Sixty years ago, San Francisco native Gus Tham was living the dream. The 15-year-old was one of the bat boys for his hometown Giants.
"It was a fantastic job," Tham recalled.
At the time, the Giants played at the iconic Candlestick Park, and the team was packed with legends.
"Well, you start with the 3 M's: Mays, McCovey, and Marichal," Tham said.
Tham's tenure at Candlestick included not only the 3 "M's", but the Fab Four: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. On August 29, 1966, the Beatles came to San Francisco as part of their North American Tour.
"This was a big quick tour playing very large venues," music critic Joel Selvin said.
It was the Beatles' third performance in the Bay Area, and as it turns out, their final ticketed concert. The legendary rock band wanted to stop touring and go into the studio to record albums.
The group sent word that they would stop the tour early in Los Angeles. The tour's promoter Tom Donahue then traveled to Los Angeles, to serve them papers that if they did not show up, they would be breaking a legal contract. The Beatles then relented.
"The Beatles were so tired and done," said photo archivist Amelia Davis. "They did not want to come to San Francisco at all."
Source: cbsnews.com/Molly McCrea
More than most artists, Paul McCartney has projected a sunny disposition and a positive outlook within his music. Not unfailingly, of course. But a solid percentage of McCartney’s songs will leave you feeling good when you’re finished listening to them.
He’s maintained that upbeat stance in his songs even when turmoil raged behind the scenes. “With A Little Luck”, for example, kept looking for the bright side, even as Wings, McCartney’s band at the time, was crumbling.
Videos by American Songwriter
Paul McCartney has always been looking for ways to spice up the recording process. In some cases, that meant finding a different location, somewhere that could liven up the somewhat dreary process of going into the studio and playing songs endlessly until they’re perfected.
Perhaps his wildest idea ever was to record a chunk of the 1978 album London Town on a boat. Well, technically, it was a fancy yacht called the Fair Carol that was moored in the Virgin Islands. McCartney chartered two more boats, one for other members of the band and one for him and his family, including wife Linda, who was pregnant at the time.
During those sessions on the boat, which took place throughout May 1977, the band recorded the bones of several songs, including “With A Little Luck”. But the close quarters didn’t necessarily improve band relations. That’s evidenced by the fact that two of the five members of Wings left the band later that year as sessions for London Town moved to other areas.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Jim Beviglia
The Beatles are arguably the greatest rock band – or even band – of all time, but they didn’t always get along.
The height of fame and their evolving lives eventually led them to separate, but not before one of the greatest guitarists of all time laid down an uncredited appearance in one of the band’s most legendary songs.
Eric Clapton was a surprise appearance in the studio, which forced the band to behave.
While John Lennon and Paul McCartney were viewed as the lyrical geniuses of the band, George Harrison emerged in his own right. Among his biggest hits was “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” which he wrote while at his mother’s house while thinking about the Chinese I Ching, the Book of Changes.
“The Eastern concept is that whatever happens is all meant to be, and that there’s no such thing as coincidence – every little item that’s going down has a purpose,” Harrison revealed. “‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ was a simple study based on that theory. I decided to write a song based on the first thing I saw upon opening any book – as it would be a relative to that moment, at that time. I picked up a book at random, opened it, saw ‘gently weeps’, then laid the book down again and started the song.”
Source: mensjournal.com/Andrew McCarty
Sixty years ago, on Aug. 29, 1966, the Beatles played their final live show, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. It was a turning point for the Fabs — the night that John, Paul, George, and Ringo quit the road. They signed off with one last bash at “Long Tall Sally,” four boys in the freezing fog and wind, proving to themselves one last time that they’re still the greatest rock & roll group, the toppermost of the poppermost. But then they took their goodnight bows, and that was it: the final twist. The final shout. The last stand of the Beatles as a live band.
They didn’t announce anything at Candlestick Park — none of the crowd had any clue this was the end. But all four Beatles knew it. They were sick of racing from town to town, for quickie 25-minute gigs where they couldn’t hear themselves play. They were sick of stadiums, with no room to explore their complex new sounds onstage. They were sick of saying “We’d like to carry on now” every night.
Candlestick turned out to be a new beginning — finally, they were free to experiment full-time in the studio, far away from the airports and hotels and dressing rooms. They were about to take off into new musical adventures that would transform the world. But at the time, the boys had no idea if they had any future at all. On the plane back to England, George Harrison came out and said it out loud. “Well, that’s it,” he told a reporter. “I’m not a Beatle anymore.”
Yet the concert had a mysterious coda. After they finished with “Long Tall Sally,” John Lennon tantalized the crowd with the opening guitar lick of “In My Life.” It was the kind of Beatle song they couldn’t play live— too delicate to work in a stadium full of screaming fans. But it was a taste of their future — the music they were determined to make from now on. The “In My Life” riff was John’s farewell to their live audiences—but it was also an invitation to come along for the future.
Source: rollingstone.com/Rob Sheffield
The solo careers of the four individual members of The Beatles received intense scrutiny from the press and music critics after the group’s breakup. And that attention really never let up.
Still, there are a few albums in their respective catalogs that feel like they never quite received their proper due. We’ve singled out one underappreciated album from each of the four members as examples.
‘Walls And Bridges’ by John Lennon
The music on Walls And Bridges gets somewhat overlooked because people tend to fixate on the biographical details of John Lennon’s early 70s period. For example, there’s a lurid interest in his so-called “Lost Weekend” antics in Los Angeles while separated from Yoko Ono. But Walls And Bridges came during a time when Lennon was able to pull focus. Commercially, it received a boost from “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night”, Lennon’s smash duet with Elton John. But folks need to check out this album from start to finish, as it’s one of Lennon’s most consistent records. Album tracks like “Scared”, “Steel And Glass”, and “Nobody Loves You (When You’re Down And Out)” are potent and piercing.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Jim Beviglia
Guests on Billy Corgan’s The Magnificent Others podcast have brought up some fascinating anecdotes in recent months. Gene Simmons told how Ace Frehley lifted a guitar solo from the Doors for a Kiss track. Zakk Wylde revealed how a chance to work with Guns N’ Roses sidelined his career with Ozzy Osbourne.
But few have delivered a history-changing story quite like Elliot Mintz. A friend of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Mintz has challenged the long-held belief that Lennon and Paul McCartney last met on April 25, 1976. According to that rather sad tale, McCartney turned up unannounced at Lennon’s New York apartment at the Dakota and was turned away by Lennon, who was busy with his son, Sean. Supposedly, the two former musical partners never met again.
Mintz, however, says the two men crossed paths two years later, during the Christmas holiday. And he knows, he says, because John and Yoko invited him over.
“They invite me to Dakota to spend one of the Christmas days with them,” Mintz tells Corgan. “And I go up to the Dakota, and I notice in the living room, there’s a vase with a single branch of a tree. That’s their Christmas decoration.
“I sat down on the white couch in the white living room, and we’re just making small talk,” he goes on. “Then there’s a knock on the door after the intercom. [Lennon] opens it, and Paul and Linda McCartney walk in.”
Source: guitarplayer.com/Phil Weller
Paul McCartney's 1970 song "Maybe I'm Amazed" was born during one of the biggest changes of his life: the end of The Beatles and the beginning of his solo career.
More than five decades later, the song remains one of his best-known love songs and has earned major recognition, including a spot on Billboard's list of the 50 Best Rock Love Songs.
In Billboard's ranking, "Maybe I'm Amazed" came in at No. 13. The publication described it as McCartney's purest love song from his early solo years, pointing to its piano runs, guitar parts, and powerful vocals.
The song also received top recognition from Rolling Stone, which placed "Maybe I'm Amazed" at No. 1 on its list of the 100 Best Beatles Solo Songs.
Released on McCartney's self-titled debut solo album, McCartney, the song became closely linked to his relationship with his wife, Linda McCartney. It also captured a period when McCartney was moving forward after the breakup of the band that had made him world-famous.
The Beatles had been dealing with growing problems before their split became public. During the making of the White Album, Ringo Starr temporarily left the group. George Harrison also briefly quit during the "Get Back" rehearsals. Later, disagreements over business matters added more tension.
Source: yahoo.com/Madz Dizon
