In 1980, Frank Veteran was a resident in surgery at Roosevelt Hospital on New York City’s west side. At 30 years old, he was in his fifth and final year of surgical training Between the pressures of medical school and his job, he’d had little time to keep up with current events, let alone the comings and goings of his childhood heroes.

“I was into the Beatles, and I followed them,” Veteran told me when we spoke in 2005 for a Guitar World Presents special issue. “But by the time I was the chief resident in surgery, I wasn’t listening to them anymore. I was too busy. I didn’t even realize John Lennon was living in New York.”

One of three chief residents at Roosevelt, Veteran was on call for emergencies every third night. There, he attended to the routine injuries of city life.

“Gunshot wounds, stab wounds. You wouldn’t have to be in the hospital all the time, but if anything happened, you’d have to come in and take one of the younger residents through the procedure,” he explained. “When you were chief resident, you were the primary head doctor. You ran the whole show.”

On the night of December 8, 1980, the show was unlike any Veteran had seen before.

He’d spent the evening at his girlfriend’s apartment, on 10th Avenue, across from the hospital. Around 11 o’clock, as they were getting ready for bed, his beeper went off.

“They said, ‘We have a gunshot wound to the chest,’” Veteran recalled. “I asked, ’What’s status of the patient?” They said, ’Well, Dr. Halloran’ — one of the younger residents — ‘is opening his chest.’ I said, ‘Well, if Halloran is opening his chest, you don’t need me.’”

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Opening the patient’s chest, Veteran explained, is a last resort, performed when the heart has stopped and the patient is unlikely to live. “But they said to me, ‘No, we need you now!’”

Source: guitarplayer.com

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In the experimental, psychedelic operetta that was The Beatles’ 1967 album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, drummer Ringo Starr got to don the role of Billy Shears, singer of the affable, tongue-in-cheek second track, “With a Little Help from My Friends”. (Shears was a subtle reference to the man who allegedly replaced Paul McCartney in the infamous “Paul is dead” conspiracy.)

McCartney, along with John Lennon, wrote the song specifically for Starr. The track was a little dopey, which was both a friendly tease of their bandmate and, from a performance standpoint, a character that Starr could portray well. “We always liked to [write a song] for him. It had to be not too much like our style,” McCartney explained to Barry Miles in Many Years From Now. “I think that was probably the best of the songs we wrote for Ringo, actually.”

Starr had no qualms taking up the mantle for novelty songs like “With a Little Help from My Friends”, “Yellow Submarine” the previous year, or “Octopus’s Garden” two years later. But there was one lyric from the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band track that he refused to sing.

Source: Melanie Davis/americansongwriter.com

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George Harrison fought a long and hard battle against cancer, but his full autopsy report is still a mystery 24 years later.

Harrison battled several different forms of cancer and sought treatment all over the world before he died at the age of 58 on November 29, 2001. Those who were present during his death said he left his body in the spiritual way he'd been practicing for decades. After the tragic event, which left Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr the last surviving Beatles, his loved ones gave him a send-off he would've loved.

However, more than two decades later, some mysteries still surround Harrison's death. His autopsy report was never released, and there were issues with the place of death that was initially added to his death certificate.

In 1997, after Harrison discovered a lump in his throat, doctors diagnosed him with throat cancer. They successfully removed the lump and Harrison underwent two radiation treatments at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, one of the U.K.'s leading cancer centers, per Rolling Stone.

Harrison played down his illness by saying, "I am very lucky. I'm not going to die on you folks just yet." However, not long after becoming cancer-free, Harrison almost died in a home invasion in 1999. The former Beatle was left with multiple stab wounds and a collapsed lung.

Doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota examined Harrison on an annual basis. In March 2001, they diagnosed him with lung cancer. That May, he underwent successful surgery to remove a growth. However, by the summer, he was told that his cancer had spread to his brain.

Harrison and his wife, Olivia, began a worldwide search for treatment. It was reported that he was recovering from his lung surgery in a villa in Luino, Italy. However, he was actually receiving "grueling" cobalt treatments for a brain tumor at the San Giovanni hospital in Bellinzona, Switzerland.

In November, the Harrisons' search for treatment led them to Staten Island University Hospital in New York City. However, the treatment didn't work, and as Harrison's health began failing him, he and his family began staying in Los Angeles.

Once there, Harrison used Olivia's maiden name to check into UCLA Medical Center as Jorge Arias. However, doctors couldn't do much but alleviate his pain. His wife and son, Dhani, made him comfortable in his final days. As a very spiritual person, Harrison was not afraid of death. He had been preparing to die for years and wanted to leave his body peacefully. Dhani even claimed he bore no scars on his body at the moment of his death, which was a special feat in itself.

Harrison died peacefully on Nov. 29, 2001, with many of his friends and family in attendance, while the Hare Krishna Temple chanted to God. When he left his body, Olivia said he lit the room. "There was a profound experience that happened when he left his body," she explained in Martin Scorsese's documentary, George Harrison: Living in the Material World. "It was visible. Let's just say you wouldn't need to light the room if you were trying to film it. You know, he just lit the room."

Harrison's official autopsy report was never released, but his cause of death was listed on his Los Angeles County death certificate as "metastatic non-small cell lung cancer." According to Beatles Bible, his body was wrapped in a shawl and covered with holy oils. Twenty minutes after he died, staff from the Hollywood Forever Cemetery collected his body. Harrison's family and friends said prayers.

Source: Hannah Furnell/irishstar.com

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Sir Paul McCartney is locked in a battle with the European Union over its plans to ban the use of the words 'sausage' or 'burger' to describe plant-based products.

The Beatles legend's late wife Linda, who died of breast cancer in 1998, was a vocal vegetarian and launched her own best-selling chain of meat-free alternatives in 1991.  However, her business's right to continue describing its products as vegetarian burgers and sausages is now under threat.

The EU could make a decision as early as Wednesday over whether the use of the two words will be outlawed if a food is plant-based.

Mr McCartney, 83, and other members of Linda's family have joined the campaign protesting against the move. He told The Sunday Times: 'To stipulate that burgers and sausages are "plant-based", "vegetarian" or "vegan" should be enough for sensible people to understand what they are eating.

'This also encourages attitudes essential to our health and that of the planet.' A group of cross-party MPs, including Jeremy Corbyn, have also called for the proposed ban to be scrapped in a letter written to the European commissioners.

Linda McCartney launches her range of vegetarian food in 1991. Paul McCartney, 83, and other members of Linda's family have joined the campaign protesting against the move. They have said that it could cause 'confusion' and 'undermine sustainability goals' put in place by the EU. In the letter, they added: 'Research consistently shows that consumers intentionally choose plant-based alternatives and do not confuse them with animal meat.'

Proposed by French lawmaker Céline Imart, the new naming restrictions were slipped in with a broad package of technical rule adjustments to farming contracts. Thanks to overwhelming support from the French livestock and meat industry, the bill was approved with a majority of 355 votes in favour and 247 against in October.

Source: Olivia Christie/dailymail.co.uk

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The Beatles drummer opened up about the devastating phone call he received in December 1980 while in Barbados and how he reacted to the news of John Lennon having been shot

It's been 45 years since a fan fatally shot John Lennon outside his New York home, and fans are just now looking back on the moment Ringo Starr opened up about finding out about the shooting for the first time.‌

John Lennon was shot on December 8, 1980, in the entrance of his Manhattan residence, with the Beatles legend declared dead upon arrival at hospital after being rushed there in a police vehicle. The musician was leaving his home alongside wife Yoko Ono when gunman Mark David Chapman seized his chance to attack the star, later citing Lennon's controversial remark about the Beatles being 'more popular than Jesus' as his primary motive. Chapman received a life sentence and continues to serve his time behind bars to this day.‌

The assassination sent shockwaves across the globe, particularly affecting his former Beatles bandmates, who have subsequently spoken openly about losing their dear friend.‌

During a 1981 interview with Barbara Walters, Ringo Starr recalled the devastating moment he learnt of John's shooting through a telephone conversation with his wife Barbara Bach's daughter, Francesca Gregorini, while they were holidaying in Barbados.

"And so, that drove me crazy," Ringo explained, adding his initial assumption was that John had sustained injuries to his leg or arm. "And then, they came back and they said, he's uh, he's dead."

The drummer disclosed he immediately arranged flights to New York to support Yoko, who requested they spend time with her and John's son Sean, asking them to 'keep him busy'. Ringo then requested they 'stop it there' as he visibly found discussing the traumatic experience difficult, admitting it 'always makes me upset' when reflecting on the tragic shooting.

He went on to reveal the final time he'd encountered John was on November 15, weeks before the assassination, describing how he'd been residing at the Plaza in New York when John arrived with Yoko for a visit after they hadn't met for some time. ‌

"And we had such a great time, cause they stayed five hours. And it didn't matter it was a year between we didn't see each other, it was always fine when we did," Ringo said.  Further into the conversation, Ringo simply stated: "I'm really sad. I still miss John a great deal, I'll always miss him, you know. But it's still brand new."

Source: Alice Sjoberg/liverpoolecho.co.uk

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No catalog has ever been as exhaustively analyzed as The Beatles’ output of albums. And yet, even within the relatively small batch of albums that they released, some LPs have failed to receive the attention they deserve.

These three Beatles albums will rarely be named among the group’s finest efforts. We explore the reasons why below. And we also explain why you should check them out if you’ve been holding back till now.
‘With The Beatles’ (1963)

The Beatles’ UK debut Please Please Me features a fantastic track listing. It also owns the great story about it being recorded, for the most part, in a single night. By contrast, With The Beatles couldn’t possibly have garnered that same kind of attention. But don’t think for a moment that the group was enduring some kind of sophomore slump with this release in 1963. If anything, it displayed just how quickly they were progressing as writers and musicians. Songs like “It Won’t Be Long” and “All My Loving” pushed all the pleasure buttons like the early hit singles. The group also once again flexed their muscles on cover material, as on their searing take on the Motown staple “Money (That’s What I Want)”. They were also starting to branch out in terms of the types of material they were releasing, with “Not A Second Time” standing out as one of their first great weepers.
‘Beatles For Sale’ (1964)

When it came to Beatles For Sale, the Fab Four might have been feeling the effects of their hectic schedule. In 1964 alone, in addition to two albums and a handful of massive hit singles, they also released their first movie, A Hard Day’s Night. The accompanying album for the film also marked the first time that John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the entirety of the material on an LP. They couldn’t pull that off on Beatles For Sale. But the originals that did make the cut show just how fast the pair were developing as writers. Songs like “I’m A Loser”, “I’ll Follow The Sun”, “I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party”, and “What You’re Doing” suggest that relationships weren’t always easy to maintain in the Beatles’ fishbowl. Even the surging opener “No Reply” contains that bluesy edge that makes this album so subtly fascinating.
‘Help!’ (1965)

Source: Jim Beviglia/americansongwriter.com

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