Listen to ‘Isolation’, the sparse fifth track on ‘Plastic Ono Band’ (John Lennon’s first post-Beatles record), a meditative piano ballad on which he laments the fact that “the world may not have many years”, and you may find it difficult to believe that the album turns 50 this year. Featuring both the brittle, paranoid ‘Working Class Hero’ and the unabashedly romantic ‘Love’, it’s a timeless collection that truly encompasses the complex singer-songwriter’s duality.

It would have been John Lennon’s 80th birthday earlier this month. To celebrate both this and the album’s anniversary, publisher Thames & Hudson has released John & Yoko / Plastic Ono Band, a lush coffee table book that gathers together interviews new and old, hand-written song lyrics and previously unseen photos – from Lennon’s childhood snaps to candid studio pics – that tell the story of this singular musician and magnificent record.

Source: Jordan Bassett/nme.com

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If you were a fan of Jamaican giants Toots Hibbert and Bob Marley, the idea of British pop stars recording reggae songs might have terrified you. Did the world need that ’74 Eric Clapton cover of “I Shot the Sheriff”? Clapton thought so. The former members of The Beatles also went there in the ’70s.

That wouldn’t have come as a complete surprise to fans of the Fab Four. After all, The Beatles took their first stab at Jamaican music way back on 1964’s “I Call Your Name.” On that track, you hear the band shift into a ska beat in the middle eight bars.

Island sounds crept into the band’s music again on The White Album (1968). On that record, McCartney developed “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” with a rocksteady beat. (While the recording reportedly bugged Lennon to no end, it wasn’t the groove that annoyed him.)

After the Beatles’ breakup, Toots & The Maytals and Marley & The Wailers broke internationally with their reggae sounds. And Lennon and McCartney took a stab at the music in their ’70s solo work. In both Lennon’s and McCartney’s cases, these dives into reggae predated that of Clapton.

Source: cheatsheet.com

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The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac are both classic rock bands, but you wouldn’t really associate one with the other. However, one of the Fab Four’s later songs was directly inspired by a Fleetwood Mac song. Here’s how Fleetwood Mac inspired The Beatles — and how John Lennon’s passing inspired a member of Fleetwood Mac.There are numerous books and articles about The Beatles’ influence on pop culture, however, The Beatles definitely drew inspiration from other artists. For example, Abbey Road is filled with references to other artists. Listen closely, and you’ll hear homages to everyone from Ludwig van Beethoven to Chuck Berry. In addition, one of the tracks from Abbey Road took influence from one of the Fab Four’s contemporaries, Fleetwood Mac.

Source: cheatsheet.com

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John Lennon was married twice at different times of his life, though his marriage to Yoko Ono was best known. Before this, however, he was married to Cynthia Lennon, whom he met before he was famous. But what happened to Cynthia, after she and John broke up?

Cynthia Lennon first met John in 1957, when they were both attending Liverpool College of Art.

They began dating and in 1962 she became pregnant with Julian, who was subsequently born on April 8, 1963.

At this time, the band was only just making it big in the music business, but in the years which followed, The Beatles’ fame morphed into Beatlemania

Their relationship began to break down until John met avant-garde artist Yoko Ono and they began corresponding in 1966.

Source: Jenny Desborough/express.co.uk

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From classic American rockers to British artists to the estates of late legends, here's a look at some of the musicians who have objected to Donald Trump using their songs at campaign events.

JOHN FOGERTY, PHIL COLLINS, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

Some classic rockers say not only do they oppose Trump using their music, the choice of songs is ironic or downright wrong. John Fogerty, who last week sent the campaign a cease-and-desist letter over the use of “Fortunate Son” by his band Creedence Clearwater Revival, said he was baffled by the use of a song that could have been written to slam Trump. Phil Collins sent the campaign a demand to stop using “In the Air Tonight" after it was played at an Iowa rally this month. Many observers say it was an odd song to choose given that the air among the mostly mask-less people at the rally could have been spreading the coronavirus. And just as he had with Ronald Reagan in 1984, Bruce Springsteen objected in 2016 to Trump blasting “Born in the U.S.A." as a patriotic anthem, when it's actually a scathing indictment of the treatment of Vietnam vets.

Source: clickorlando.com

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Grammy-Award winner Steve Lukather, best known as the lead guitarist for Toto, recently joined host Kenneth Womack to talk about the Beatles on "Everything Fab Four," a new podcast co-produced by me and Womack, a music scholar who also writes about pop music for Salon, and distributed by Salon.

Lukather, who has played on over 2,000 rock and pop tracks, talks about how he went from being "shitty at sports" and "bullied as a kid" to finding his soul in music when the Beatles hit "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1964.

"Life went from black-and-white to color," says Lukather. "I was like, I gotta learn how to do that. I [joined] a band when I was nine. I mean, what are the odds of a little kid from West Hollywood seeing the Beatles on 'Ed Sullivan,' then playing on the 50th anniversary of that show?"

Nowadays, having been a member of Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band for years, he counts Ringo as one of his closest friends. "I cherish that relationship probably more than anything at this point," Lukather says. "Ringo's the coolest guy I've ever been friends with — and I have a lot of cool friends."

Source: salon.com

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