Beatles News
It’s hard to talk too much about John Lennon‘s “Grow Old with Me” without referencing the tragedy that rendered the song’s heartfelt wishes an impossibility for Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono. Let’s instead celebrate it as a beautiful message of enduring affection that can be appreciated by lovers of all ages who want to stick with their significant others into the autumn and even winter years.
What is “Grow Old with Me” about? How did a songwriting challenge between John and Yoko help to create it? And how did the song eventually undergo a few Beatles-adjacent releases? The story begins with the flurry of songwriting and recording activity that John Lennon perpetrated in the final year of his life.
Yoko Throws Down the Gauntlet
Yoko Ono indirectly started the process of “Grow Old with Me” coming into existence with a song of her own. Ono had used Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How Do I Love Thee (Sonnet 43)” as the basis for her song “Let Me Count the Ways,” and she challenged Lennon to write one of his own based on a Robert Browning poem. On holiday in Jamaica in the summer of 1980, he obliged, using the poem “Rabbi Ben Ezra” as his jumping-off point, even borrowing the lines “Grow old along with me / The best is yet to be.”
Lennon made a demo recording of the song in the month before his death. It was a time when the couple was furiously recording material for both the comeback album Double Fantasy and the planned followup Milk and Honey. Ono explained why they held “Grow Old with Me” off the first album in the Milk and Honey liner notes:
Source: Jim Beviglia/americansongwriter.com
Yoko Ono reportedly told John Lennon how to take heroin, according to an excerpt from a new oral history book on The Beatles.
The Sunday Times shared several new excerpts from All You Need Is Love — a book featuring interviews from the early 1980s with Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, as well as Ono and other loved ones in the band's world.
In one interview from the book, Ono, now 91, reportedly said she advised Lennon on how to take heroin, and denied that she "put John on H," which she claimed his bandmate Harrison had accused her of. Ono also said that Lennon "wouldn’t take anything unless he wanted to do it."
Per the Times excerpt, Ono reportedly said she first "had a sniff of" heroin in Paris and that she experienced "a beautiful feeling" as she did not get sick from it. "It was just a nice feeling," she said in the book, according to the outlet. "So I told John that."
Ono also reportedly said that Lennon would ask her about her experience using the drug, the Times reported. Ultimately, Ono thought he "wanted to take it, that’s why he was asking," per the excerpt. She also said that they "never injected" the drug.
A rep for Ono did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.
Source: Brenton Blanchet/people.com
A controversial book about The Beatles is shining a light on the band’s most contentious years.
The Love You Make was first published in 1983, having been written by Steven Gaines and Peter Brown, who was the personal assistant to the band’s manager Brian Epstein and stepped in to oversee the band’s affairs when Epstein died.
But the band were left “furious” by the revelations made in the book, with Gaines recalling: “Paul and Linda [McCartney] tore the book apart and burned it in the fireplace, page by page.
“There was an omerta, a code of silence around the Beatles, and they didn’t think anyone would come forward to tell the truth.
Now, inspired by Peter Jackson’s acclaimed documentary Get Back, Gaines and Brown are releasing a follow-up book filled with interview transcripts from which The Love You Make was written.
One moment in the book reveals an encounter The Beatles had with Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger that left the musician feeling “very uncomfortable”.
It concerned Allen Klein, the shady accountant who came in to manage The Beatles and eventually sacked everyone the band had been working with at the time. Lennon was a big fan of Klein, with Gaines suggesting to The Times it was due to the businessman offering Lennon’s wife Yoko Ono “a million dollars for her movie project”.
At the time, Brown, attempting to steer the band away from Klein, set up a meeting with Jagger so he could “explain who this Allen Klein was”.
Source: Jacob Stolworthy/independent.co.uk
From her cover of the Dolly Parton hit “Jolene” to the Tina Turner-inspired “Ya Ya,” Beyoncé fans everywhere have been dissecting every inch of her new album, Cowboy Carter, since its release. And while every member of the Beyhive knows that practically everything Ms. Carter does is for the culture, some may be surprised to learn that the Beatles song she chose to cover was originally written as a special tribute to an inspirational group of young Black people. And now, Paul McCartney, who wrote the song in 1968 is giving Bey his blessing on a “magnificent version.”
“I am so happy with @beyonce’s version of my song ‘Blackbird.’ I think she does a magnificent version of it and it reinforces the civil rights message that inspired me to write the song in the first place. I think Beyoncé has done a fab version and would urge anyone who has not heard it yet to check it out. You are going to love it!” McCartney said in an April 4 Instagram post.
The Beatles frontman said Bey thanked him for writing the song, inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, in a FaceTime call. He hopes that herb 2024 version will help continue to ease racial tension.
Source: Angela Johnson/yahoo.com
George Harrison was rarely a provocateur, however, he called his final album 'Brainwashed'. One of George's British Invasion peers explained the origin of that memorable title.
George Harrison was rarely a provocateur, however, he called his final album Brainwashed. Accusing anyone of being brainwashed is pretty bold! One of George’s British Invasion peers explained the origin of that memorable title. Notably, it had a connection to George’s spiritual views. Donovan said George Harrison’s album ‘Brainwashed’ was a reaction to materialism
Two kindred spirits in the 1960s counterculture were George Harrison and Donovan. Both artists were folk-rockers who explored spirituality through their songs. George’s songs were often expressions of his Hindu faith, whereas Donovan sang about common New Age topics like Atlantis and witchcraft. Both of them were also environmentalists.
During a 2018 interview with Goldmine, the “Mellow Yellow” singer discussed his feelings about the planet and George’s — and what they both learned from the books they read. “That the older generation was destroying the ecosystem with no consideration whatsoever for the inner world of plants, for the inner world of children, and they were trying to brainwash the younger generation to follow in their insidious desire for all things materialistic, including an exploitation of natural resources and a greedy lust for as much money as possible,” he said. “These books George and I shared spoke to that.
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
“She Loves You,” “All My Loving,” “Love Me Do,” “P.S. I Love You,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “And I Love Her.” Are you noticing a theme here? The Beatles began their career singing about love and relationships. Even song titles that did not contain the L-word dealt with relationships and love. “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “From Me to You,” and “Please Please Me” all focus on interpersonal relations.
Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys began looking inward to avoid simply writing about cars and girls. Songs like “In My Room” and “When I Grow Up to Be a Man” were both introspective and thriving on the charts. John Lennon and Paul McCartney had their share of success with songs about love, but they too wanted to expand their subject matter and move in different directions. One such song was “Nowhere Man.” Let’s take a look at the story behind the song.
He’s a real nowhere man
Sitting in his nowhere land
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody
Inspiration
Lennon and McCartney were very prolific in the years following their big breakthrough. Lennon was in search of inspiration for a song. In 1980, he told author David Sheff, “I’d spent five hours that morning trying to write a song that was meaningful and good, and I finally gave up and lay down. Then ‘Nowhere Man’ came, words and music, the whole damn thing, as I lay down.”
Source: Jay McDowell/americansongwriter.com
Six decades ago, the Beatles achieved a first in Billboard chart history. On April 4, 1964, the band occupied the top five positions on the Hot 100, edging out the likes of the Temptations and Beach Boys for their enviable chart domination.
This was at the beginning of Beatlemania in America, a phenomenon ignited just two months earlier by the group's appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show." In mid-1964, everyone was looking to cash in on the British imports — much to the annoyance of a small Philadelphia label, which had released one of their chart toppers the previous year to a resounding thud.
The label was Swan Records, and one of its founding partners was already a legend on the local music scene. Dick Clark formed the company in 1957 with his "American Bandstand" producer Tony Mammarella and Bernie Binnick, a former salesman. The goal was to have a hand in as many parts of the music business as possible, an aim that would backfire two years later when both Clark and Mammarella got caught up in a payola scandal that ultimately forced Clark to divest. Before that fallout, the TV host owned 50% of the company.
Source:Kristin Hunt/phillyvoice.com
The ‘80s were tough on a lot of classic rock artists who were dealing with the changing sounds of the times. Paul McCartney not only had to deal with that, but also the dissolution of his ‘70s band Wings and death of John Lennon.
McCartney managed to rise to the occasion time and again during the decade. He released a pair of his most beloved solo record in the ‘80s (Tug of War and Flowers in the Dirt). Even those albums that didn’t rise to classic status included several standout individual tracks. Let’s take on the difficult task of ranking McCartney’s five best songs of the ‘80s.
5. “So Bad,” from Pipes of Peace (1983)
Pipes of Peace was meant to play as a kind of companion piece to Tug of War, which was released the previous year in 1982. Unfortunately, it was stuck with the lesser material of the two, although it did get a commercial boost from the inclusion of the Michael Jackson duet “Say Say Say.” We’re partial to “So Bad,” an underdog of a ballad that didn’t exactly break chart records (No. 23 on Billboard) when released as a single. But we love the subtleties of it, from McCartney’s tender falsetto vocals to the way the open spaces in the song give way to the big rush of backing vocals in the middle eight.
4. “Take It Away,” from Tug of War (1982)
When Wings gave up the ghost, it freed McCartney from always having to write with a rocking arrangement in mind. A song like “Take It Away” might have never been tackled in that setting. Instead, McCartney gets to work here with a pair of ace drummers in Ringo Starr and Steve Gadd, and the duo give the song an unconventional hiccup in the opening section. The song delves into sophisti-pop in the verses, before McCartney leads a cavalry charge through the chorus. It’s restrained and thrilling all at once, almost like one of his ambitious song suites contained in one single.
Source: Jim Beviglia/americansongwriter.com
The Beatles made chart history by holding the top five spots on the Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously.
The songs in the top five were “Please Please Me” at #5, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” at #4, “She Loves You” at #3, “Twist and Shout” at #2 and “Can’t Buy Me Love” at #1.
The Beatles went on to become one of the most successful acts in the history of the U.S. charts.
Over the course of their career, they have had 20 number one hits and 35 top 10 singles. The latest is their 2023 release “Now and Then,” which used vocals John Lennon recorded on a demo in the late ’70s, along with guitar the late George Harrison recorded in the mid-’90s, and new recordings from Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.
The Beatles’ last number one single was in 1970 with “The Long and Winding Road,” from the Let It Be album.
Source: ABC News/kshe95.com
Two photos of ex-Beatle John Lennon and his wife, the artist and performer Yoko Ono, taken at Hell’s Kitchen recording studios feature in a retrospective of renowned photojournalist Bob Gruen’s work at City Winery at Pier 57 (W17th Street & West Side Highway).
John Lennon and Yoko Ono knitting at The Hit Factory, NYC. The show, Rock Seen, spans Gruen’s decades-long career capturing the images of music stars, and is on display through April 30.
Gruen took the photo at the Hit Factory (421 W54th Street, now converted to condominiums) in the fall of 1980, while John and Yoko were mixing the Double Fantasy album. Like many of Gruen’s photos, the black-and-white image of Yoko on a couch knitting while John is at work captures a lesser known, intimate side of the iconic duo’s life.
“A lot of people don’t know how domestic Yoko actually was, that she could knit and she was actually a very good cook,” Gruen told W42ST. “John and Yoko had a domestic life outside of the pop star world.” He believes Yoko was knitting a sweater for their son, Sean Ono Lennon.
The photo at The Record Plant (321 W44th Street) was taken in front of a larger-than-life guitar that John had made for the annual ‘avant garde’ parade during the 1970s. The guitar was so big, Gruen recalled, that it didn’t fit into the elevator at the Dakota. On a December night he visited the couple at the studio to take some pictures for the Village Voice, and asked them to pose in front of it.
Source: Dashiell Allen/w42st.com
