An “impractical” song written before She Said, She Said is the first psychedelic song John Lennon ever wrote.

The Beatles member behind hits like Come Together and I Am the Walrus confirmed an earlier song was actually his first test of psychedelic-tinged songwriting. Lennon would confirm this two years after The Beatles had officially split up, giving an interview breaking down his writing style in the early years. Though the song proved “impractical” compared to the popular She Said, She Said, it would be the first time Lennon had written with a psychedelic intention in mind. A few candid reflections on the song in question were shared in 1972, where Lennon wished he had stuck to the “original idea” he had for Tomorrow Never Knows, a song which featured on Revolver.

He said: “This was my first psychedelic song. Tomorrow Never Knows… I didn’t know what I was saying, and you just find out later. I know that when there are some lyrics I dig, I know that somewhere people will be looking at them.

“Often the backing I think of early-on never comes off. With ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ I’d imagined in my head that in the background you would hear thousands of monks chanting. That was impractical, of course, and we did something different. It was a bit of a drag, and I didn’t really like it. I should have tried to get near my original idea, the monks singing. I realise now that was what I wanted.”

Source:  Ewan Gleadow/cultfollowing.co.uk

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Had he lived, Lennon would have celebrated his 85th birthday on October 9, 2025. Here are five songs written by John Lennon but recorded by other acts.

John Lennon’s body of work is staggeringly impressive. With The Beatles and as a solo artist, he created some of the most enduring music of the rock era. And though it represented a small fraction of his creative output, his work as a writer for (and in one case, with) other artists is worthy of note. In addition to his production credits (for wife Yoko Ono, The Silkie, David Peel and the Lower East Side, Mick Jagger and Harry Nilsson), Lennon composed songs expressly for other artists he admired. Nearly all of that activity took place between his leaving The Beatles in 1969 and the start of his retirement/hiatus in 1975. Had he lived, Lennon would have celebrated his 85th birthday on October 9. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the first of many compilations surveying his solo work – 1975’s Shaved Fish – here are five songs written by John Lennon but recorded by other acts.

“God Save Us” by Bill Elliot & the Elastic Oz Band (single, 1971)

In the years immediately following The Beatles’ breakup, Lennon championed a variety of political and/r social justice causes. One was the London-based underground magazine Oz. The publication had run afoul of obscenity laws in the U.K., and John and Yoko took up their cause. Lennon quickly penned this song with hopes of the single raising money for Oz’s defense. Phil Spector produced the quickie session, which has a flavor not unlike the material on Imagine, and enlisted Bill Elliott of George Harrison protégé band Splinter to record the lead vocal. Sadly, the ad budget to promote the release cost more than the single earned.

Source: Patrick Prince/goldminemag.com

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The Beatles had wanted to put on a final performance before they split up.

Though Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr would play out a show on the roof of Abbey Corps Headquarters, the four had spoken of playing a regular, attended show. Lennon would say it’s the reason he had agreed to a television special, which had been scrapped during the making of the band’s final two albums. Harrison would also say he “really wanted to play” but that the opportunity to do so had simply not occurred during their sessions together. McCartney would also suggest a live show was the right time to “light a rocket and really take off for the end” of the band. Plans for a show beyond the rooftop gig never came to be, though it seemed the band were keen on performing together in front of a planned, ticketed audience.

Lennon would say during the Get Back sessions in 1969 that he would have liked to play live with The Beatles again. He said: “I would dig to play onstage, you know? I mean, if it was all… everything was all right and there was no messing and we’re just gonna play onstage.

“You know, that’s why I said yes to the TV show. I didn’t want the hell of doing it, but nobody else wants to go on the stage or do a TV show. You know, that’s what it’s about. Nobody wants to get out there. You know?”

Harrison, Lennon, McCartney, and Glyn Johns would then speak on the possibility of doing the live set and even got as detailed as discussing an order for the songs. Johns would suggest the band needed to find a way to “change from the acoustic numbers to the electric numbers” and that the band would need a “run-through on each number to get the balance set for it”.

Harrison would then say: “No, really, you know, I mean. And also we’ve played… This is the most I’ve ever played by playing every day. And I can just feel myself getting… My fingers getting loose a bit. But really I just want to play. That’s what it was about.”

Even McCartney was up for a show and said it would be a way for The Beatles to “go and have fun with it.” He said: “I think all I wanna do is, like, uh… I probably, you know, having got it together, I probably just wanna go and have fun with it. Rather than just, sort of, finish off exactly as we started.

Source: Ewan Gleadow/cultfollowing.co.uk

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 English actor James Norton will play Brian Epstein, the influential manager of the Beatles, in the upcoming four-part musical biopic by director Sam Mendes.

He’ll star in “The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event,” as the unconventional project has been dubbed, alongside Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harrison Dickinson as John Lennon and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison.

Epstein, a legend among Beatles fans and often considered the band’s fifth member, met the Fab Four in 1961 and helped propel them into a global phenomenon. He was with the group until he died in 1967 from a drug overdose at age 32. (Epstein’s own epic story was immortalized in the 2024 biopic “Midas Man.”)

Sony, the studio behind the films, declined to comment on Norton’s casting, which was first reported by Deadline.

Mendes is making four separate movies, one from each Beatles member’s point of view. All four installments will debut on the big screen in April 2028. The films are expected to intersect to capture the band’s improbable journey from Liverpool to the center of global culture, leading to their 1970 breakup. Given Epstein’s influence, it’s likely that he’ll appear in each of the films.

It’s unclear how other key figures in the Beatles universe will factor into the cinematic quartet. As previously announced, Saoirse Ronan is playing Linda McCartney, “Shogun” star Anna Sawai will portray Yoko Ono, “The White Lotus” breakout Aimee Lou Wood is circling the role of Harrison’s spouse Pattie Boyd and Mia McKenna-Bruce will appear as Starr’s first wife Maureen Starkey.

Norton, 40, recently appeared in another musical biopic, last year’s “Bob Marley: One Love,” as record producer Chris Blackwell. His other credits include Netflix’s limited series “House of Guinness,” “Grantchester,” “Happy Valley” and HBO’s third season of “House of the Dragon.”

Source: Rebecca Rubin/variety.com

The story of how one of The Beatles' biggest ever songs was almost not released under the band's name.

The Beatles were always so much more than the sum of their parts.  Despite the delights of John Lennon and Paul McCartney's solo careers (and those of George Harrison and Ringo Starr, too), when the Fab Four were together they genuinely changed the history of popular music and the whole society.

But even when they were together there were moments when individual members of the band were in complete creative control.

That was especially true on The Beatles (aka The White Album), when each corner of the band was frequently off doing their own thing. But there's one much earlier example that really stands out, too.  'Yesterday' is one of the most famous Beatles song that very nearly wasn't a Beatles song. This is why.
Who wrote 'Yesterday'?

Like the vast majority of The Beatles' original songs, 'Yesterday' was credited to Lennon–McCartney. It says it right there on the label.

But we all know that while some of the duo's songs for the Fab Four were true co-writes and many were driven by one of the pair and polished by the other, there were songs that were pretty much or actually entirely written only by either Paul McCartney or John Lennon.

These songs were still credited to the duo, thanks to an agreement they had from their earliest days writing songs together.

So 'Yesterday' was a Lennon–McCartney song, but it was actually written almost entirely by Paul McCartney.

In one interview in 1966, Lennon suggested he'd pitched in a little ("we just held finish off the ribbons 'round it"), but by his Playboy interview in 1980 he said plainly: "That's Paul’s song, and Paul's baby. Well done. Beautiful – and I never wished I'd written it."

There was a little bit of afters, decades later, when Sir Paul tweaked the songwriting credits for The Beatles songs on 2002 Back in the US live album to "Paul McCartney and John Lennon".

Yoko objected, ad a year later he switched it back, and told the Sunday Herald: "I'm happy with the way it is and always has been. Lennon and McCartney is still the rock 'n' roll trademark I'm proud to be a part of – in the order it has always been." Regarding the actual writing, the "official" story goes that Paul McCartney woke one night at the family home of his then-girlfriend Jane Asher at 57 Wimpole Street with the melody for the song in his head.

In those pre-voice note days, he jumped on to the nearby piano and played it out so he wouldn't forget it.

"There wasn't any room for me to keep my records," McCartney said in The Lyrics book of his room at Jane's. "They had to be kept outside on the landing. But somehow I had a piano in there - a small, sawn-off piano that stood by my bed."

That top line was so incredibly, obviously brilliant that Macca was initially convinced that he'd pinched it from somewhere.

As well as friend, singer and pop fan Alma Cogan ("I think she may have thought I was writing it for her," McCartney later recalled), Paul revealed in Hulu doc 3, 2, 1 that he played the melody to George Martin: "George's got a wider knowledge of particularly older songs.

"So I said, 'What's this?' He said, 'I don't know.' I said...it's this melody, y'know, 'cause I can't have written it. There was no conscious effort involved. I just woke up and it was there.'"

Source: Mayer Nissim/goldradio.com

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Saoirse Ronan is set to play photographer and musician Linda McCartney in the upcoming Beatles biopic.

The Oscar nominated actress will play alongside Paul Mescal, who takes up the role in the four films, directed by Sam Mendes.

The films are set for simultaneous release, with each film focusing on one of the four band members. Saoirse Ronan is set to play photographer and musician Linda McCartney in the upcoming Beatles biopic.  

Linda married Paul in 1969, with the pair going on to have three children together.  Born and raised in New York City, Linda was the second of four children to Louise and Lee Eastman. Linda attended Scarsdale High School and then Vermont College, where she obtained an Associate of Arts in 1961.

She majored in Fine Arts at the University of Arizona, where she also developed a fondness for photography. Linda didn’t complete her studies due to the tragic death of her mother in a plane crash in 1962.  Linda got her start in photography when she took up a receptionist and editorial assistant gig with Town & Country magazine. 

Before Paul, Linda was married to Joseph Melville See Jr. They married in 1962 and divorced three years later in 1965. Their only daughter, Heather, was born in December 1962.

Five years later, Linda met Paul for the first time during a photo job in London. Linda eventually made the move to London with her daughter Heather, with the pair marrying in 1969. It was a devastating time for Beatles fans as Paul was the last of the band members “unattached.” The pair went on to have three children — Mary, Stella and James — with Paul also adopting Heather. Paul is also father to Beatrice McCartney, 21, who he shares with his second wife, Heather Mills.

The children have all forged great careers for themselves with Heather an artist, Mary a photographer and documentarian, Stella a fashion designer and James a musician and songwriter.

Source: Extra ie