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The Beatles are often hailed as geniuses of pop, but John Lennon shrugged off grandiose claims about his talent.

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The Beatles were legends in their own lifetime.

Countless books were written about the band in the decade they were together. Many more have been written in the 55 years since the breakup.

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Arguably the best is Hunter Davies's The Beatles: The Authorised Biography.

The only authorised account of the band written while they were a going concern, Davies published the book in 1968 having spent 18 months with the group, speaking extensively with the band themselves as well as thei friends, family and associates.

While the book is the origin of many of the now-canonical stories about The Beatles, it's written with a rare mix of respect and distance that, together with its contemporaneous nature, sets it apart from most other biographies.

So many Beatles bios focus on the musical genius of the Fab Four, painting the group – and especially John Lennon and Paul McCartney – as uniquely talented figures magically spinning gold from straw like a pair of pop Rapunzels.

John and George in a rare moment of calm during The Beatles’ first visit to America.  Davies doesn't go in for any of this mythmaking.

Source: goldradio.com/Mayer Nissim

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For the most part, the Beatles had a keen sense of which member should take on lead vocals. Most of their catalog feels right and just–every member playing to their strengths. However, there are a few songs that could’ve done well with a switcharoo. Below, find three Beatles songs that arguably beg for a different frontman.

“When I’m Sixty Four”

While “When I’m Sixty Four” screams “Paul McCartney”, it would have an entirely different tone if Ringo Starr were to have been the lead vocalist. From McCartney’s point-of-view, this Beatles song is a syrupy-sweet mark of devotion. Like many of his best tracks, “When I’m Sixty Four” sees McCartney wear his heart on his sleeve when he sings, Will you still need me, will you still feed me / When I’m sixty-four? If this song had been given to Starr, it would’ve been a light-hearted tune, akin to “Yellow Submarine”. It would’ve been given a shot of humor–one that would’ve likely helped this song in its heyday. Many, like John Lennon, felt this tune was a little too schmaltzy for the Beatles. Starr’s irreverent take would’ve helped to cut some of the heavy-lifting fans had to do.


“Across the Universe”

On paper, “Across the Universe” seems more like a song George Harrison would’ve written amid his Hare Krishna days. It’s just heady enough to give off the impression of higher enlightenment and meditative practice. Lennon sings this song perfectly well. His distinctive vocals helped make this song a classic in the Beatles’ catalog. However, we dare to say that Harrison on lead vocals could’ve made an even bigger splash. But, all’s well that ends well, we guess. Harrison had plenty of songs that flexed his soul-searching intellect.

Source: americansongwriter.com/Alex Hopper

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Everyone knows John, Paul, George, and Ringo — the Beatles who rocked the world. But behind every great band is a squad of secret weapons, the unsung legends who kept the magic alive. Meet the “Fifth Beatles”: the managers, musicians, and mates who played crucial roles in the Fab Four’s rise to superstardom. From early bandmates to behind-the-scenes masterminds, their stories are just as fascinating as the music itself.

Stuart Sutcliffe
The Beatles’ original bassist and close friend of John Lennon, Sutcliffe was as much a visual architect of the band’s early image as he was a musician. His moptop hairstyle set the style for the band, even if his playing was less than polished. Sadly, he left the band early and passed away young.

Pete Best
Drummer before Ringo, Pete Best toured and played with the Beatles during their crucial Hamburg and Liverpool days. Despite being replaced just before their big break, Best’s role in the band’s development is undeniable, earning him a solid claim to the title.

Chas Newby
A temporary bassist who filled in briefly after the band returned from Germany, Newby played a handful of shows before returning to university. His brief tenure helped the Beatles keep their momentum before McCartney took over on bass.

Jimmie Nicol
For eight shows on the 1964 world tour, Nicol stepped in as drummer when Ringo was ill. His stint was short but historic, making him the “fifth Beatle” on tour, albeit briefly.

Brian Epstein
The Beatles’ manager, and arguably the most important figure in their rise to superstardom. Epstein’s business savvy, belief in the band, and grooming helped transform them from a local Liverpool act into global icons. McCartney and Martin called him the real “fifth Beatle.”

Source: thatericalper.com/Eric Alper

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The Museum of Contemporary Art of Montenegro (MSUCG) announced the opening of the exhibition Yoko Ono called “Unfinished”, scheduled for Thursday, June 19th at 20 p.m., in the exhibition spaces of the Petrović Palace and the Perjanički dom in Kruševac, Podgorica. The exhibition curators are Maša Vlaović, Gunar B. Kvaran and Connor Monahan.

Yoko Ono is one of the key figures of avant-garde and conceptual art of the 20th and 21st centuries. Her work knows no boundaries; it moves fluidly between experiment, performance, poetry, music and film, while her tireless social and political activism, especially in the field of women's rights and peace initiatives, forms the core of her work.

Her art breaks down traditional boundaries between artistic disciplines and rejects the passive role of the audience, inviting each individual to become an active participant, co-creator, and agent of change.
A wide spectrum of creativity

From her early “instructional works” from the 1950s, through performances and films that call for collective action, to contemporary installations, Yoko Ono builds an authentic artistic language in which the personal and the universal, the poetic and the political, the spiritual and the physical constantly intertwine.

Source: en.vijesti.me/Vijesti

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The Beatles' fans were left stunned by the revelation that John Lennon and Paul McCartney almost reunited for an album post Fab Four's split.  The legendary songwriting duo had entertained the notion of collaborating on a fresh record in the 1970s.

Wings, spearheaded by McCartney following his departure from the Beatles, was busy crafting a new album at the same time Lennon mulled over an impromptu studio reunion with his former writing partner partner.  Had he attended the studio with McCartney it would have been an occasion which would have marked their first joint effort since The Beatles disbanded.

However, the stars never aligned, and Lennon and McCartney never shared the recording studio again. Fans have only recently discovered how close the pair came to working together once more.

If Lennon had joined McCartney at the recording sessions, his involvement would have likely been some of the tracks of 'Venus and Mars', Wings' milestone album now celebrating 50 years since its release.  A fan shared on the r/PaulMcCartney subreddit: "On this day in 1975, Wings released 'Venus and Mars'. As the follow-up to 'Band on the Run', the album continued Wings' run of commercial success.

"John Lennon almost visited the recording sessions and considered writing with Paul again. What's your favourite track?"

Beatles enthusiasts have been heaping praise on the classic album while speculating on how Lennon might have influenced what has become a McCartney masterpiece.  Fans have taken to sharing their fond memories of the album, with one user commenting: "This has always been my favorite Wings album.

"The popular songs weren't played to death on FM radio back in the day quite as much as the songs from Band on the Run, and I think it's pretty clear this was the best incarnation of Wings' lineup."

Source: express.co.uk/Ewan Gleadow

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Kiss have firmly left their stamp on the world of glam rock, but they carved out their sound thanks to the music legends that came before them. In fact, Gene Simmons insists that rock and roll wouldn’t be the same today without The Beatles.

Speaking on The School Of Greatness, the Kiss bassist named The Beatles as some of the greatest musicians and songwriters in musical history. “The Beatles are above and beyond anything that anybody’s seen in music over, oh, 200 years?” he says. “Easily. Not since the Renaissance.”

As proof of the band’s genius, he points to how unlikely it was for a group of lads from Liverpool to succeed in the industry. “You have to understand, they only existed for seven years and they came from a place that was a pool filled with liver – Liverpool – where nothing ever happened,” he explains. “High unemployment rate, no experience, no resume, no nothing!”

Despite the circumstances, The Beatles were able to toy with music in a way few had before them. “‘I wanna hold your hand’, ‘She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah,’” he sings as evidence. “That last chord, that minor ninth, is a sophisticated chord, if you know about music. It’s almost like a jazz chord – unheard of in rock music!”

He then points to other ‘great’ rock songs in comparison to The Beatles, noting how the Liverpool stars rarely teased their audience. “[The Rolling Stones’] Satisfaction is one of the great songs… yet it takes about 40 seconds to get to the first ‘I can’t get no…” he says. “[Cream’s] Sunshine Of Your Love takes about 50 seconds to get [to] ‘I’ve been waiting so long’.”

The Beatles, on the other hand, always cut to the chase. Simmons re-imagines how the lads might have written the 1965 track, Help!: “‘I just wrote a new song’, ‘What is it called?’, ‘It’s called Help!’, ‘How does it go?’, ‘It goes like this: Help! I need somebody. Help!’”

He then points to Yesterday, Michelle, and Hey Jude to further back his case. “There’s not even an introduction, nothing,” he explains.

Source:guitar.com/Emily Swingle

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The sheer magnitude of the Beatles’ fame makes it easy to forget that when they first reached the peak of their stardom in the mid-1960s, they were just a group of ragtag, young 20-somethings who happened to land a big break. When the future Fab Four first met, they were even younger teens. For most of us, the idea of forging an entire career (and, more generally, a life) with the people we hung out with in high school. Yet, that’s how the Beatles, one of the biggest rock bands of all time, got their start.

Indeed, before they were topping the charts and touring the world, the band’s primary songwriters, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, were busy trying to see what kind of trouble they could get into at their childhood homes.

And like the resourceful lads they were, they certainly found it. Paul McCartney Describes “Teenage Fool Antics” With John Lennon

The Beatles saw and did more exciting and wilder things during their short tenure as a band than most people will experience in their whole lifetimes. But before they got their big break in the early 1960s, they weren’t that different from any other aspiring young male musician. They taught each other chords, made up silly lyrics to their favorite cover songs, and tried desperately to attract the opposite sex with little to no avail. Paul McCartney and John Lennon longed for the day they could get famous just from playing their guitars. But before that could happen, the two friends passed the time looking for ways to feel older and “cooler” while they wrote their music.

Source: americansongwriter.com/Melanie Davis

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How George Harrison (subconsciously) borrowed a love song from The Chiffons to make something spiritual.

While he always had his fans, it's fair to say that as a singer and songwriter, George Harrison was somewhat overshadowed in The Beatles by Paul McCartney and John Lennon.  Despite writing some of the best songs of the decade, poor George only squeezed 22 songs into the Beatles back catalogue, compared to over 160 by the Lennon-McCartney partnership.

How George Harrison saved Monty Python's Life of Brian film from being axed. How The Beatles' George Harrison coined "grotty" and deconstructed influencer culture in 1964.  He made up for that in the immediate aftermath of the split, releasing the TRIPLE album All Things Must Pass in late 1970.

That album was trailed by the single 'My Sweet Lord', which has remained one of the biggest post-Beatles song by any of the band, 55 years after the break-up. But do you know what track George "subconsciously" borrowed from for the song, or where it got in the charts? Read on for everything you need to know about 'My Sweet Lord'. Who wrote and played on 'My Sweet Lord'?

He started writing the song in December 1969 in wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen when he was hanging out with "Fifth Beatles" Billy Preston and Eric Clapton as part of Delaney & Bonnie's European tour.

George was in a spiritual mood, having written 'Hear Me Lord' and co-written 'Sing one for the Lord', as well as producing a Hare Krishna-inspired tracks for the Radha Krishna Temple (London).

Harrison was looking to mashup east and west with a gospel-Krishna tune.  Billy Preston helped by bashing out some chords while bandleader Delaney Bramlett offered up some "Oh my Lords" and "Hallelujahs", with George coming up with the words pretty quickly, riffing on the vibe of the Christian hymn 'Oh Happy Day'.

It was produced by Harrison with Phil Spector (who was also co-producing the Plastic Ono Band albums with John Lennon and Yoko Ono).

As well as singing lead and backing vocals, George played guitar and slide guitar on the record, backed by an all-star cast of collaborators.

As was as a clutch of unknown session string players, you had Eric Clapton plus Derek and the Dominoes' Bobby Whitlock, Yes drummer Alan White, Badfinger's Pete Ham and Joey Molland, Peter Frampton, Procul Harum's Gary Brooker.

Source: goldradio.com/Mayer Nissim

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Many uncertainties marked The Beatles‘ career. Though, there was one thing that was rarely, if ever, uncertain, and that was where they were going to record. For a devout music fan, it is common knowledge that The Beatles’ home base was EMI Studios on Abbey Road in London. The Beatles did, in fact, record some of their music elsewhere. However, the majority of it was recorded and produced at the iconic studio. Well, on this day, June 6, 1962, The Beatles found their home as they recorded at Abbey Road for the very first time.

Abbey Road is a renowned studio and has been used by musicians such as Sturgill Simpson, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, and many more. However, its acclaim and majesty would not be known if it weren’t for The Beatles. The studio is synonymous with the Fab Four’s illustrious career. And consequently, it is both a monument and a sacred space. However, that would not be the case if it weren’t for Brian Epstein’s tenacity and George Martin’s willingness to give The Beatles a shot at success.
The Day The Beatles Found Their Home

In 1962, The Beatles were on the cusp of success. That being said, their manager, Brian Epstein, had pitched the band to every major record label in London. All denied his pitch, except the head of Parlophone Records, George Martin, who invited The Beatles to EMI Studios on Abbey Road for an audition. So, on June 6, 1962, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and then-drummer Pete Best all went to EMI in hopes of scoring their big break.

Overseeing the audition were George Martin and engineers Ron Richards and Norman Smith. During the session, The Beatles covered a few songs and played their iconic original singles, “Love Me Do”, “P.S. I Love You”, and “Ask Me Why”. According to Smith, they didn’t impress anyone at first, as he told Sound on Sound that “The Beatles didn’t make a very good impression, apart from visually. I mean, we heard nothing of John and Paul’s songwriting ability.”

Source: americansongwriter.com/Peter Burditt

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Micky Dolenz and Paul McCartney came together in the ’60s.

The Monkees drummer, 80, is looking back at the first time he met the Beatle, 82, decades ago.

“The first Beatle I met was Paul [McCartney], the night before at dinner at his house,” Dolenz told People in an interview published Wednesday. “I’d gone over to England to do a press junket, just myself. As it turned out, a publicist got involved and made it a ‘Monkee Meets Beatle’ thing at Paul’s house for dinner. Just me, him and Martha the sheepdog.”

From what transpired next, it seems like the fellow musicians quickly formed a friendship.

“He invited me to Abbey Road [studios] the next day,” recalled Dolenz. “I don’t even know if he told me the name at the time, but they were working on ‘Sgt. Pepper.’ I just about peed in my pants, but I’m trying to be cool. I got all dressed up thinking … I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“I guess I thought it was gonna be some sort of Beatlemania fun-fest freakout psycho-jello happening thing,” the singer confessed. “So I got dressed up in paisley bell bottoms and tie-dyed underwear and my glasses and beads and hair. I looked like a cross between Ronald McDonald and Charlie Manson.”

But when Dolenz got to the session, things weren’t what he expected. “I walk in and, well … there’s nobody there! I was like, ‘Where are the girls?!’ ” he shared. “It was just the four guys sitting there under fluorescent lighting, like my high school gymnasium, in the middle of the day. John Lennon looks up and says, ‘Hey Monkee Man, you want to hear what we’re working on?’ From then on he called me Monkee Man.”

Dolenz rose to fame after being cast in the 1966 television sitcom “The Monkees” before landing the role as the drummer and lead vocalist in the band that was created for the series.

The performer is the only surviving member of the group after Michael Nesmith died in 2021. Peter Tork passed in February 2019, and Davy Jones died in 2012.

Source: nypost.com/Alexandra Bellusci

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