No matter how successful and world-renowned a musician becomes, there will still be a “suit,” or record label executive, telling them what to do—Paul McCartney being no exception. When the former Beatle felt pushback from his labels in the mid-1990s, the artist in him was ready to take offense.

But by the mid-1990s, McCartney was no spring chicken in the industry. He knew that there were silver linings to the favor-slash-command EMI and Capitol were expecting. And as is often the case in rock and roll history, this temporary delay ended up working in McCartney’s favor.  Paul McCartney Was Asked (Or Told) Not to Make Another Album

In the mid-1990s, Capitol in the United States and EMI in the United Kingdom were gearing up to release three albums as part of their massive Beatles Anthology series. Speaking with Billboard in 1997, Paul McCartney recalled, “One of the bigwigs at the record company said, ‘We don’t want a [solo] record from you for the next two years. We don’t really need a record off you for a while.’ I was almost insulted at first.”

And indeed, it’s easy to see why he would be. Who tells Paul McCartney not to make new albums? However valid, these feelings didn’t last long. “I thought, ‘Well, yeah, it would be silly to go out against yourself in the form of The Beatles,’” McCartney said. “So, I fell in with the idea and thought, ‘Great. I don’t even have to think about an album.’ What a great, lovely, lazy couple of years. Although we worked quite hard on the anthology.”  Working on ‘Anthology’ Helped Inform His Next Album, ‘Flaming Pie’.

Putting his solo work to the side to dive into the anthology of his former band, The Beatles, was another blessing in disguise. As Paul McCartney told Billboard, revisiting his old band’s catalog helped recalibrate his artistic vision. He remembered The Beatles’ ethos in their earliest, most optimistic years, when they sought to make music “for the kid in the bedroom somewhere because we had recently been that kid in a bedroom.”

Source: americansongwriter.com/Melanie Davis

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It wasn’t all that often that all four Beatles were active at the same time as solo artists. Whether or not they consciously steered away from releasing music on top of each other isn’t clear. But you’ll note there aren’t too many years when all four put music out to battle for the public’s attention.

The year 1974, however, was a different animal. In fact, the US pop charts featured all four with at least one big hit single at some point during that calendar year. Here’s a look back.

We think about the mid-70s as a bit of a wayward period for John Lennon, what with the whole “Lost Weekend” and all. But he pulled focus quite well for his Walls And Bridges album in 1974. He cleaned up while making the album and insisted that all around him do the same. And he produced it himself, steering clear of any Phil Spector chaos in the process. Lennon also received some help from a friend to score what was his first No. 1 hit as a solo artist. Elton John came aboard to perform a rollicking duet with Lennon on “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night”. The song’s success famously led to Lennon appearing with Elton live at Madison Square Garden.

Source: americansongwriter.com/Jim Beviglia

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A major new TV drama about the formative years of The Beatles has started production in Germany and Liverpool.  Hamburg Days will chart the band's early era when they performed more than 250 gigs in the German port city between 1960 and 1962.

It has been inspired by the memoirs of artist Klaus Voormann, who played bass on some Beatles records and designed the cover of their Revolver Album in 1966. Produced and financed by both British and German companies, Hamburg Days will also film in Merseyside and Munich. The six-part drama will be shown on BBC One.

Producers say it will show the band – which at the time included bassist Stuart Sutcliffe and drummer Pete Best – meeting Voorman and photographer Astrid Kirchherr, sparking the group's transformation from "a scrappy group of teenagers into the greatest music phenomenon the world has ever known".

Kirchherr, who died at the age of 81 in 2020, has been credited with helping develop the band's aesthetic style and famous mop top hairstyle.  She was also engaged to Sutcliffe, who left the band to do an arts course in Hamburg but died of a brain haemorrhage at the age of 21 in 1962.

Source: bbc.com/Rumeana Jahangir

Paul McCartney has been making music with Ringo Starr ever since the classic Beatles lineup was solidified in 1962. But they’d never actually duetted on a track until McCartney began assembling his upcoming LP The Boys Of Dungeon Lane, and the new song “Home To Us” felt like a natural place to feature Starr on vocals alongside himself.

“In writing the song I’m talking about where we came from,” McCartney told members of the press who assembled in Abbey Road on May 5 to hear a preview of the new album. “In common with a lot of people, you come from nothing, and you build yourself up. Ringo was from the Dingle, and that was well hard. He said he used to get mugged coming home because he worked. Even though it was crazy, it was home to us.”

“I made the song around that idea and sent it to Ringo,” he continued. “He sent me back a version where he just added some lines to the chorus, so I thought, maybe he doesn’t like it. I rang him, and he said he thought I only wanted him to sing one or two lines, and I said I’d love to hear him sing the whole thing. So we took my first line, Ringo’s second line, and then we had a duet. We’d never done that before. Then we wanted some backing vocals and I had the idea it would be nice to hear girls. Chrissie Hynde said she’d do it, and Sharleen Spiteri, they’re mates. So they did it.”

Like many songs on The Boys Of Dungeon Lane, which was produced by Andrew Watt, “Home To Us” looks back on McCartney’s life with a heavy dose of nostalgia. The title comes from a line one “Days We Left Behind,” which references an area near Liverpool’s River Mersey where McCartney played as a child. It also reflects on the “secret code” he shared with John Lennon at his childhood home. “I stand by what I said,” he sings. “The promise that I made will never be broken.”

“This was a lot of memories of Liverpool for me,” McCartney told the press, “but also any days we’ve left behind. Everyone’s got them – school, old mates. [The song] has memories of John in the middle, that’s lovely to go back to.” When asked what sort of “secret code” he had with Lennon, McCartney laughed. “I’m not telling,” he said. “You make a lot of stuff up when you write songs.”

Source: rollingstone.com/Andy Greene

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Sir Paul McCartney shocked and delighted fans with a return to Abbey Road studios - playing them his new album and admitting it was “emotional” talking it through with memories of his life and career.‌

The Beatles legend returned to the venue where the Fab Four recorded many of their biggest hits to launch his LP The Boys of Dungeon Lane which will be released later this month.‌

A few dozen lucky competition winners were led into Studio two which had been set with a stage filled with framed bird sketches, a chair and a guitar.‌

Sir Paul then emerged from a control room and walked down some stairs and said with a grin: “Hello and welcome. This is a listening party. I’m going to play the album and then try to find something to say about it!”

But Paul found plenty of words to accompany the 14 tracks and even had anecdotes about the choice of venue.‌

He said some strings and woodwind parts of the LP had even been recorded at Abbey Road recently and then looking back to the Beatles days said: “We were here forever, we spent days and days in this studio.

“We used the tradesman’s entrance, up the stairs is the posh entrance for people like George Martin!”

Both on the song lyrics and in the talk he regularly referenced Liverpool and growing up in the city, where he would meet John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison and go on to before the fab four, amongst the most famous people in the world.‌

After playing the single Days We Left Behind, which was released in March he said: “It is a little emotional because I’m talking about John and George and Ringo.

Source: mirror.co.uk/Mark Jefferies

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The special exhibition – at Hamburg’s City Hall – features a rare set of Beatles photographs and letters
It opens as a Liverpool City Region business and culture delegation heads to Hamburg to strengthen economic ties
The exhibition has been created to celebrate Liverpool City Region’s role as the official partner of Hamburg’s annual port festival – Hafengebustag  A Mayoral Joint Declaration of Intent will be signed during the visit to identify and promote long-term economic and maritime cooperation

A special exhibition featuring a rare set of Beatles photographs and letters written by the band’s five original members whilst in Hamburg, is set to go on display in the German city this week.

Entitled Harbour Cities-Global Stages, the exhibition has been created to celebrate Liverpool City Region’s role as the official partner of Hamburg’s annual port festival – Hafengebustag. Encompassing 48 panels, across six pillars, the free exhibition will go on public display in Hamburg’s City Hall – the Rathaus Rathausdiele – from May 7-25 and is expected to be seen by more than 10,000 people.

The Beatles section features historic elements such as the only Lennon and McCartney letter in existence, the first photograph of John, Paul and George performing together, a photo of their first gig in Hamburg as well as an insight into how they had started to feel like stars and how they secured their first recording contract.

Source: liverpoolcityregion-ca.gov.uk

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