Speaking to “Q on CBC” radio, Rush’s bassist Geddy Lee has shared his thoughts about playing bass guitar, and revealed the story of how he started to play bass guitar.

He also praised The Beatles’ legendary bassist Paul McCartney, and revealed why McCartney is so important for rock music. Here’s the statement:

“I think about McCartney on [The Beatles’ 1969 track] ‘Something,’ I think that was the first time I ever heard the bass as a lead instrument.

That’s not uncommon in the early days of pop. There were a lot of so-called lead lines, but they’re played down with the dulcet tones, the lower tones, and so people don’t really appreciate that a lot of content as a lead instrument, but it really is doing that job.”

On why he started with bass guitar, he said:

Source: Feyyaz Ustaer/metalheadzone.com

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Two iconic albums came out on January 20: Meet The Beatles! in 1964 and Bob Dylan’s 1975 masterpiece Blood On The Tracks.

For The Beatles, Meet The Beatles! was their second album to land stateside but their first release under Capitol Records. It featured the classics “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” “I Saw Her Standing There and “All My Loving.”

Meet The Beatles! has sold over five million copies to date. As for what happened next for those four lads from Liverpool, well…if you don’t know, then clearly you have been living under a rock for the past five decades.

Eleven years after America met The Beatles, they stared down Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks, which is now one of Dylan’s most celebrated albums, but upon its release, that wasn’t the case.

Source: Erica Banas/wror.com

HAVANA, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- The music of legendary British band The Beatles was practically banned in Cuba in the 1960s. But today there's a haven on the island for fans of the timeless rock group.

At night people line up to get into the Yellow Submarine, a busy nightclub in Havana that for almost eight years has celebrated the rock and roll spirit of the Liverpool quartet.

Named in honor of the band's popular song, the club has been built to resemble a submarine, with hatches and tubular features. The walls are adorned with images of "The Fab Four" and the lyrics of their most famous songs.

Here, Cuban bands play covers of Beatles hits and tunes by other well-known rock bands.

"Traces of the Beatles are scattered throughout the panorama of music in our country," journalist and cultural promoter Guillermo Vilar told Xinhua.

Source: Raul Menchaca/xinhuanet.com

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The Beatles arrive in New Zealand ahead of their 1964 tour.

Rose was in her Wellington flat one Sunday afternoon when the phone rang.

It was her journalist friend Sue Masters, who had just finished interviewing a visiting rock band.

The band members wanted to meet some local women. Would Rose and her two flatmates like to come down and hang out with them for the evening?

It was June 1964. The band was called The Beatles.

John, Paul, George and Ringo had landed in Wellington that afternoon. They were greeted by a Māori kapa haka group who presented them with very unusual hei tiki.

A hei tiki is a small carved pendant made of pounamu (greenstone) that is highly prized in Māori culture. Hei means worn around the neck in te reo Māori and tiki means human form. They are commonly referred to as tiki.

Source: Charlie Gate/stuff.co.nz

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George Harrison was the George Harrison of the Beatles. This, presumably, was not an easy thing to be. Harrison was a bona fide star, a fascinating and omnivorous musical mind and a tremendous talent who happened to be in a band with two world-historical game-changing titans. In a lot of ways, Harrison was my favorite Beatle: the funniest, the most musically curious, by far the best-looking. He’s responsible for many of the twangy, snaky guitar lines and solos that add so much to so many of the great songs that he didn’t get any credit for helping to write. His influence subtly nudged the Beatles toward Motown, toward folk-rock, and toward Eastern mysticism. He was absolutely crucial to the Beatles’ success, and yet he was still the third horse in a two-horse race.

Harrison was the youngest Beatle, the Quiet One. He was almost never the focus of the band. He’d joined the Quarrymen, the pre-Beatles skiffle group, when he was just 15, and he’d gotten the Beatles’ first Hamburg residency shut down when he was deported for being too young to be in the clubs.

Source: Tom Breihan/stereogum.com

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Rachel Fuller, musician wife of The Who's Pete Townshend, has composed a requiem for lost pets, with help from Sir Paul McCartney

Sir Paul McCartney has approved a unique reworking of a Beatles classic which will be performed during the first Animal Requiem, a memorial concert celebrating the lives of deceased pets.

Audience members are invited to bring a 
photograph, portraying a happy memory of their beloved pet to the concert, held at the St James’ Church, in Piccadilly, London.

They can pin their photo to a large board that will be placed in view, 
then light a candle in remembrance of their pet.
Animal Requiem premiere

This will be followed by a full orchestral and choir performance of the Animal Requiem, a work composed by Rachel Fuller, the singer-songwriter who is married to Pete Townshend of The Who.

Source: Adam Sherwin/inews.co.uk

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