Beatles News
January 3 marked what would have been lauded Beatles producer George Martin’s 100th birthday. In commemoration of the milestone, Curvebender Publishing will release a book collection in April titled George Martin: The Scores, described as “the first-ever definitive collection of the legendary producer’s original music manuscripts.”
The three-volume set features full-sized reproductions of Martin’s handwritten scores, as well as commentary about the musical pieces, and new orchestral recordings made at the famed Abbey Road Studios in London. In addition, the multi-part tome includes a foreword written by Paul McCartney.
The publishing company began putting together George Martin: The Scores more than 10 years ago, working in close cooperation with Martin before his death at age 90 in March 2016.
The book’s preface, Curvebender collaborators Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew recalled about the project, “As we worked—scanning, notating, building a database—George would occasionally pop in and observe over our shoulders. He had never seen the entire collection pored over in this manner. He would sometimes pick up a score and glance through it, bright eyes flickering across its staves, before returning it to the pile.”
The volumes include Martin’s scores for various Beatles and McCartney solo songs, as well as for tunes the producer created for other artists. Some of the manuscripts feature arrangement ideas that were discarded and differ significantly from the music that appeared on the final recordings.
Volume I covers the scores Martin wrote from 1965 through The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album in 1967. Volume II spans from September 1967 through The Beatles’ self-titled 1968 album, a.k.a. “The White Album.” Volume III covers the period from The Beatles’ 1969 album Abbey Road through Martin’s final score in 2006.
About the Recordings Included with ‘George Martin: The Scores’
As part of the George Martin: The Scores project, several of the producer’s arrangements were rerecorded in Studio Two of Abbey Road, where Martin and The Beatles frequently worked together on many songs. The new recordings will give listeners the chance to hear Martin’s arrangements clearly, sometimes revealing instrumental parts that are harder to hear on the songs’ original mixes. Multitrack files from the new sessions are also included in the book sets, giving fans a chance to more closely analyze the pieces and create remixes.
Source: Matt Friedlander/americansongwriter.com
Paul McCartney is remembering his late friend and fellow musician, Bob Weir.
Days after Weir's death at age 78 on Saturday, Jan. 10, McCartney took to Instagram to pay tribute to the late Grateful Dead co-founder while highlighting his lasting legacy on the music world. Paul McCartney Remembers the Last Time He Saw Bob Weir
In an emotional Instagram post shared on Thursday, Jan. 15, McCartney shared a photo of himself performing on stage with Weir, who he described as a "great musician who inspired many people of many generations."
McCartney, 83, went on to reflect on the last time he saw Weir while watching Dead & Company perform at Sphere in Las Vegas.
"He was very welcoming and during the interval in the show he invited us into his trailer, and it was a special moment to meet his family and friends," McCartney recalled. "Bob showed me the recording set up that he had in the back of the bus so even though he was on tour he could make and record music; I offered to play the bass on one of the tracks he played me but unfortunately that never came to pass."
McCartney's heartfelt message continued, "His humour, friendship and musicianship inspired me and will inspire many people into the future." "Our family’s thoughts go out to Bob’s family at this time of loss, and I know they will remain as strong as he would wish them to be," he added. "God bless you Bob. See you down the road. Love Paul."
While announcing the news of Weir's death, his family revealed that the rocker died due to "underlying lung issues" after previously battling cancer.
"It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of Bobby Weir," He transitioned peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, after courageously beating cancer as only Bobby could," read the statement posted to Weir's official website on Saturday, Jan. 10.
Weir is survived by his wife, Natascha and their two daughters: Monet, 28, and Chloe, 23.
Source: Carly Silva/yahoo.com
The Beatles had many iconic album covers. From simple shots of the band staring down the lens to more off-kilter, artistic choices, the Beatles’ covers were as diverse as their sound. It’s hard to find fault in any album cover from the Fab Four. Although if we had to, there is one that comes to mind…George Harrison certainly thought so, pointing a finger at one “gross” and “stupid” cover that shouldn’t have made it past the ideation stage.
In 1966, the Beatles released one of their more controversial records: Yesterday and Today. Though the album’s sound was par for the course, the cover turned heads.
The cover featured the band donning butcher coats, surrounded by headless baby dolls. Not the image one typically thinks of when discussing the Beatles. Somehow, the cover got through, although Harrison refused to give it his stamp of approval.
“Gross and Stupid”
Harrison made his feelings on the album quite clear, saying, “I thought it was gross, and I also thought it was stupid.”
“Sometimes we all did stupid things, thinking it was cool or hip when it was naive and dumb, and that was one of them,” he added. “But again, it was a case of being put in a situation where one is obliged, as part of a unit, to cooperate.”
Harrison’s disapproval of this record was indicative of why he ended up leaving the group several years later. Harrison felt unheard, a theme that would become common during the “quiet Beatle’s” tenure with the group.
“So we put on those butchers’ uniforms for that picture,” he added. “In the photograph we’re going, ‘Ugh!’ That’s what I’m doing, isn’t it?… I’m disgusted, and especially so by the baby dolls with their heads off. What the bloody hell is that all about?”
Harrison’s bandmates didn’t feel as strongly opposed to the cover as Harrison did. John Lennon saw it as an opportunity to defy expectations, something the Beatles certainly faced at the time.
“I would say I was a lot of the force behind [the ‘butcher’ cover] going out and trying to keep it out,” Lennon once said. “I especially pushed for it to be an album cover, just to break the image. There we were, supposed to be sort of angels. I wanted to show that we were really aware of life.”
Source: Alex Hopper/americansongwriter.com
George Harrison’s broken guitar string and a rare set of Beatles autographs obtained by a teenage fan in 1963 could sell for more than $5,352 at auction. The Fab Four scribbled their names down for starstruck 15-year-old Elizabeth Salt and also signed her arm following a gig on April 7, 1963.
Elizabeth, then Elizabeth McBrierty, got to meet her idols following the concert at the Savoy Ballroom in Southsea, Portsmouth. Elizabeth Salt holding her autograph book with The Beatles' signatures and George Harrison's broken guitar string.
An open autograph book with Beatles signatures and George Harrison's broken guitar string taped inside. Now, the autographs and George Harrison’s broken guitar string could sell for more than $5,352 at auction. During the performance, George Harrison snapped his guitar string, and quick-thinking Elizabeth scooped it up from the stage as a souvenir.
Elizabeth said she was “heartbroken” when her dad made her wash off the autographs from her arm – but fortunately still had her autograph book. The album is also stuffed with signatures of other stars, including the Rolling Stones, Cliff Richard, Adam Faith, Del Shannon, Bobby Vee and Billy Fury.
The book – hailed as a celebration of one of the most exciting periods for pop culture in British history – is now set to fetch thousands at auction. It could sell for between $4,014 to $5,352 when it goes under the hammer at Richard Winterton Auctioneers in Lichfield, Staffs., on February 2.
At the time, Beatlemania was just beginning following the release of Love Me Do, and Elizabeth went on to watch her heroes several times.
Elizabeth, now 79, from Lichfield, said: “I remember going with my friend who bought Love Me Do in late 1962. “That was when it started – we just got obsessed with them. “We were sat around the stage when George Harrison broke his guitar string and I picked it up.
“Afterwards they went into a room and we all just piled in. “That’s when I got their autographs on my left arm – I just held it out asking them to sign and they did.
“I was still at school and wanted to show all my friends the next day, but when I got home my dad said, ‘You’ll get blood poisoning!’ and made me wash it straight off. “I was heartbroken.”
Elizabeth, then of North End, Portsmouth, and her friends had already seen the group at the Guildhall in Portsmouth on March 30, 1963, and continued to go to as many shows as they could all along the south coast, including Brighton, Bournemouth and Southampton.
An autograph book page featuring signatures from the Rolling Stones members Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Bill Wyman, and Mick Jagger.
The album is also stuffed with signatures of other stars, including the Rolling Stones, Cliff Richard, Adam Faith, Del Shannon, Bobby Vee and Billy Fury. An elderly woman holding an autograph book with The Beatles' signatures and a broken guitar string from George Harrison.
The book could sell for between $4,014 to $5,352 when it goes under the hammer at Richard Winterton Auctioneers in Lichfield, England, on Feb. 2.
Another encounter came through The Beatles’ Fan Club at an event in London before an evening concert. Elizabeth added: “We went up to London for the fan club meet-and-greet. “It was quite weird, I can remember that John Lennon’s teeth were absolutely lovely.
“But you weren’t allowed to linger. They all shook our hands and we were moved along.” Another memory is of queuing up overnight for another concert at Portsmouth Guildhall when Elizabeth’s cousin Mary agreed to save the girls’ place in the queue so the others could watch The Beatles’ TV appearance on Sunday Night At The London Palladium.
Elizabeth also has a copy of a cutting from the Portsmouth Evening News where the writer describes meeting her and four friends who had spent ‘three nights sleeping on the pavements, with transistors and a blanket each, to buy tickets for both performances – much to the dismay and disapproval of their parents’.
Now a gran-of-four, Elizabeth, a former legal secretary, remains a huge Beatles fan. Her album also contains a further George Harrison signature and those of Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney again on another separate page.
In addition, there is a complete set of the Rolling Stones’ signatures, including Brian Jones, obtained when Elizabeth went to see the band at the Savoy Ballroom in Portsmouth.
Other 1960s stars in the book include a Cliff Richard signed photo and separate autograph, Adam Faith, Del Shannon, Bobby Vee, Tony Orlando, Dion, Billy Fury, Marty Wilde, Mark Wynter, Eden Kane, Shane Fenton – later reborn as Alvin Stardust.
Source: SWNS/nypost.com
As one of the most iconic musical groups of all time, The Beatles have had more than their share of critically well-received album releases.
From early hits like With the Beatles to transformative classics like Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles are one of the few bands in rock history to have nothing but enjoyable hits making up their larger discography.
As fantastic as many of their musical ventures were over the years, however, there's one classic Beatles album that Paul McCartney remains less than enthusiastic about.
According to Far Out Magazine, McCartney maintains a cool-headed view of the band's 1970 tour de force Let It Be, the twelfth and final Beatles album the group released prior to their breakup in 1970.
While McCartney initially envisioned the project as an epic collaboration between himself, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, studio interference from Phil Spector on the album's direction ultimately led to increasing frustration for McCartney.
As an example, McCartney had hoped to present "The Long and Winding Road" as a straightforward song, using a simple arrangement of piano, bass, guitar and percussion instruments.
When Spector got his hands on the song, though, he made significant changes to "The Long and Winding Road," notably adding orchestral backgrounds at the cost of McCartney's vocal tracks.
“The album was finished a year ago, but a few months ago American record producer Phil Spector was called in by John Lennon to tidy up some of the tracks," McCartney said in 1970. "But a few weeks ago, I was sent a re-mixed version of my song ‘The Long And Winding Road’, with harps, horns, an orchestra and women’s choir added."
“No one had asked me what I thought. I couldn’t believe it,” the iconic singer-songwriter continued. “The record came with a note from Allen Klein saying he thought the changes were necessary. I don’t blame Phil Spector for doing it but it just goes to show that it’s no good me sitting here thinking I’m in control because obviously, I’m not."
Beatles producer George Martin felt the same way, remarking of the album, "It was so uncharacteristic of The Beatles. It went against everything The Beatles wanted to do with the record. He tried to use the same techniques that he used on other people’s records, and it didn’t work.”
Source: Richard Chachowski/yahoo.com
George Martin became the world’s most legendary producer with the Beatles, the studio wizard who teamed up with four lads from Liverpool to transform music. Now his music has been collected in a lavish new book, George Martin: The Scores, which will be published in April by Curvebender. It’s the first collection of his music manuscripts, opening up his personal archives. The Scores honors the late Sir George Martin on the occasion of his centenary — he was born 100 years ago, on Jan. 3, 1926.
The three-volume book includes dozens of his original handwritten scores for classics like “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “A Day in the Life,” “Here Comes the Sun,” “Yesterday,” “Live and Let Die,” and more. It also has a foreword from one of his biggest fans and closest collaborators: Paul McCartney.
George’s son Giles Martin, an acclaimed producer in his own right, tells Rolling Stone, “It’s a book of art, if you like, because his scores are very beautiful. There’s a fluidity to it. There’s a vibrancy to looking at that music on a page.”
The Scores is a project that began in the producer’ final years, before his death in 2016. “It was a very poignant project,” Giles says. “It was an idea I had with the Curvebender guys. Actually, when my dad was ill, I thought this would be a good thing to keep him going — let’s do a book of his scores.”
Martin was deeply involved in the project, despite his declining health. “He liked the idea, and then he died. I mean, he was 90,” Giles Martin says. But the producer dug deep into his vaults. “What it is, essentially, is a selection of his scores that we have taken and perfectly reproduced, in the same way that the ‘Yesterday’ score was done all those years ago. It’s a book of his scores with commentary — a deep dive into each arrangement, the history behind it, and a deep dive into how it was done.”
These are the manuscripts Martin saved after the recording sessions. Since they were his working sheet music in the studio, they include his handwritten edits, for an inside look at his creative process. Some have his ideas for alternate arrangements that didn’t make the final cut. The book also comes with an album: orchestral re-recordings of his scores, for a closer listen to his work. They were done in Studio Two at Abbey Road, the room where Martin made so much magic happen with the Beatles.
Source: Rob Sheffield/rollingstone.com
Few figures in popular culture carry the kind of gravitational pull John Lennon still commands. As a member of The Beatles, he helped reshape music in real time, first as part of a sharp-suited pop phenomenon, then as one of the central architects of rock’s psychedelic and political awakening. By the early 1970s, Lennon had lived a life few could comprehend: global adoration, unprecedented wealth, and a creative freedom that bordered on dangerous.
That perspective, hard-earned and deeply personal, is what makes a handwritten letter Lennon wrote in 1971 so striking, and so heartbreaking. The letter was addressed to Steve Tilston, then a 21-year-old folk musician riding modest underground momentum following the release of his debut album An Acoustic Confusion. Tilston had recently appeared in an interview with ZigZag magazine, where he was asked whether sudden wealth and fame would damage his songwriting.
Tilston answered honestly: he thought it would. Lennon disagreed.
According to Tilston, recalling the moment years later, “I thought it was bound to, but obviously John Lennon disagreed, and he wrote to me to point out the error of my ways.” What followed was a thoughtful, candid letter, unmistakably Lennon in tone, humour, and slightly chaotic handwriting, offering a corrective from someone who had already been to both extremes.
“Being rich doesn't change your experience in the way you think,” Lennon wrote. He continued: “The only difference, basically, is that you don't have to worry about money, food, roof, etc. But all other experiences, emotions, relationships, are the same as anybody’s.”
Then, in classic Lennon fashion, he undercut the seriousness with lived authority: “I know. I've been rich and poor. So has Yoko (rich, poor, rich). So whadya think of that.”
The letter was signed “Love, John & Yoko,” complete with doodles and, remarkably, Lennon’s phone number.
Source: Jake Danson/classichits.ie
With all the machismo that often surrounds the rock ‘n’ roll world and its inhabitants, it’s no wonder that so many rock bands have become aggressive toward one another at some point in their careers. Even without the massive egos and on-stage pressure, working with someone in close quarters can be difficult. The Eagles, Aerosmith, and, more recently, Jane’s Addiction, are all no exceptions. And neither were The Beatles.
The Beatles’ most ubiquitous conflict is certainly the months-long breakup that bookended their time together as the Fab Four. But they had their fair share of rows while they were cutting their teeth, too. According to John Lennon and George Harrison, the worst of this aggression came out in the hours-long gigs they would play in Hamburg, boosted by dangerous mixes of booze and uppers.
How The Beatles Killed Time During Their Lengthy Nightclub Sets
Even the most seasoned musician is bound to feel at least a little weary after playing at performance-level for four hours straight, and The Beatles were doing it while they were just starting out. With the help of upper pills handed out by the Hamburg nightclub waitstaff, the musicians managed to play their rock music for hours on end—some of which were spent getting rather, er, creative with the stage production.
“The things we used to do!” John Lennon later recalled in Anthology. “We used to break the stage down. That was long before The Who came out and broke things. We used to leave guitars playing on stage with no people there. We’d be so drunk, we used to smash the machinery. And this was all through frustration, not an intellectual thought. ‘We will break the stage, we will wear a toilet seat round our neck, we will go on naked.’ We just did it through being drunk.”
Source: Melanie Davis/americansongwriter.com
Paul McCartney recalls being "depressed" post-Beatles and recounts the formation of Wings in Paul McCartney: Man on the Run
PEOPLE can exclusively reveal the trailer for the new Prime Video documentary, premiering Feb. 27
Wings enjoyed a string of hits in the '70s, including "Live and Let Die" and "Silly Love Songs"
The Beatles were Paul McCartney’s entire life. When the group parted ways, he thought his pen had run dry for good.
The English singer-songwriter, 83, opens up about his life in the wake of the break-up of the iconic British invasion band (McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr) in the new Prime Video documentary Paul McCartney: Man on the Run.
In the trailer for the Morgan Neville-directed doc — which PEOPLE is exclusively premiering — McCartney reflects on the depression he experienced after the Beatles’ break-up, and recounts how he climbed out of it while steering his career in a new direction with his '70s band Wings.
"I’ve always loved the Beatles, but Wings was the band putting out records when I was young," Neville, who directed the Oscar-winning 2013 documentary 20 Feet from Stardom, tells PEOPLE exclusively. "I remember buying them in stores and obsessing over them. Having a chance to revisit this time with Paul took me back like it took him back. In many cases, Paul hadn’t thought about those times in many years. So really it was a sense of rediscovering things together."
In the Man on the Run trailer, McCartney says, “The Beatles had been my whole life, really. When we split up, I thought I'll never write another note of music ever. I had fear of being a grown-up.”
'Paul McCartney: Man on the Run' documentary poster.
"I felt very depressed, but I was very lucky because I had Linda,” the musician continues, referring to his late wife and Wings co-founder, whom he married in 1969 and who died in 1998 at age 56.
Source: Bailey Richards/people.com
Why would a band member want to sabotage a song that could potentially become a hit? Well, there are quite a few reasons, some of them nonsensical. Let’s take a look at a few rock songs from the 20th century that ended up becoming hits, but not without some resistance from band members who (allegedly) tried to ruin them from the start.
“Across The Universe” by The Beatles (1969)
This gorgeous song, written by John Lennon, is one of the most memorable tracks in The Beatles’ discography. It inspired a movie musical based on their music, after all. And yet, apparently, Paul McCartney was not a fan. And Lennon accused him of trying to ruin the song during the recording process.
“Paul would […] sort of subconsciously try and destroy a great song,” said Lennon. “Usually we’d spend hours doing little detailed cleaning-ups of Paul’s songs; when it came to mine […] somehow this atmosphere of looseness and casualness and experimentation would creep in. Subconscious sabotage.”
He would also say in his famed 1980 Playboy interview that the “guitars are out of tune” on “Across The Universe” and that “nobody’s supporting me or helping me with it and the song was never done properly.”
“Creep” by Radiohead (1992)
The grip this alt-rock song had on the public in the early 1990s was wild. And it’s a really good song, no matter how you look at it. In the years following the release of “Creep”, though, Radiohead tired of it and would try to avoid performing it when they could. But before then, one Jonny Greenwood allegedly tried to “f*ck the song up” during recording.
In the spot where the verse shifts to the chorus, you can hear three loud blasts of noise from Greenwood’s guitar. Today, it adds charm to the song. But back then, it was apparently a bit of an accident according to Greenwood, who claimed he did not know how quiet the song was supposed it be. Member Ed O’Brien claimed that it was intentional.
Source: Em Casalena/americansongwriter.com
