Beatles News
Ringo Starr was often the butt of jokes about The Beatles. Paul McCartney said this began to wear on the celebrated drummer.
Paul McCartney has long praised Ringo Starr’s skill as a drummer, but he didn’t think Starr always felt confident in himself. Starr was often the butt of jokes in the press; a rumor that John Lennon said Starr wasn’t even the best drummer in The Beatles circulated. McCartney eventually spoke about why he thought Starr was paranoid about his abilities.
For years, members of The Beatles and countless other drummers have spoken about Starr’s skill. McCartney thought Starr doubted his abilities because he didn’t do drum solos, though.
“I think Ringo was always paranoid that he wasn’t a great drummer because he never used to solo,” McCartney said in The Beatles Anthology. “He hated those guys who went on and on, incessantly banging while the band goes off and has a cup of tea or something. Until Abbey Road, there was never a drum solo in The Beatles’ act, and consequently other drummers would say that although they liked his style, Ringo wasn’t technically a very good drummer.”
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
Ringo Starr discussed Yoko Ono's role in The Beatles' breakup. Shockingly, John Lennon had the opposite perspective on the situation.
Ringo Starr discussed Yoko Ono’s role in The Beatles’ breakup. Shockingly, John Lennon had the opposite perspective on the situation. John also discussed what helped him through the backlash that he and Yoko suffered.
During a 1981 interview with Rolling Stone, Ringo revealed his feelings about The Beatles. “They are my brothers, you see,” he explained. “I’m an only child, and they’re my brothers. I’ve always said that if I ever spend all my bread, I can just go and live with one of them, and vice versa, ’cause we all love to spend it.”
Ringo said he had a special connection to Yoko. “I always know there’s a home for me with Yoko,” he said. “She’s taken a lot of s*** — her and Linda [McCartney]. But The Beatles’ breakup wasn’t their fault.”
Ringo had his own explanation for the band’s dissolution. “It was just that suddenly we were all 30 and married and changed,” he said. “We couldn’t carry on that life anymore. From 1961, ’62, to around 1969, we were just all for each other. But suddenly you’re older, and you don’t want to devote all that time to this one object. It was time it ended.
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
Ringo Starr was aware that fans read a lot into The Beatles' songs. In response, he described his band as just a bunch of buskers.
Ringo Starr was aware that fans read a lot into The Beatles’ songs. In response, he described his band as just a bunch of buskers. John Lennon made similar comments about The Beatles’ music. He analyzed the Fab Four’s appeal — while also claiming music had medicinal properties!
During a 1981 interview with Rolling Stone, Ringo recalled the way people interpreted The Beatles’ songs. “Anyway, we used to get freaked out by what everyone thought our songs were about, because they’d make up all this madness,” he recalled. “The Sunday Times in London brought all this analyzing into the establishment when someone wrote an article about the ‘decading solances’ [Aeolian cadences] in our music and things like that.” An Aeolian cadence is when a tune composed in a major key resolves on the VI chord.
“We didn’t know what the s*** they were talking about,” Ringo continued. “We just play guitar and drums. We’re buskers.”
Ringo had a very humble attitude towards The Beatles’ music. “We don’t read music,” he said. “We just make it up, and if it feels good and sounds good, then fine. And if you learn a new chord, you put it in.
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
In a Paris hotel room, Paul snapped a black-and-white selfie in a mirror. On the street, his friend John leaned into the camera frame, striking a goofy and almost schoolboy-like pose shortly before they jetted to America on a trip that would change their lives and millions of others’ forever.
World culture was indefinitely altered when they and the rest of the Beatles in February 1964 stepped off a plane onto a New York City tarmac, to a real-life soundtrack of shrieks from the several thousand young women who’d gathered. In America, Paul snapped a picture of newsmen chasing after their car and photographed the photographers who took pictures of him. Out of New York, he used color film to get a bright portrait of a shirtless George in Miami Beach. Once he even went bokeh, using the effect to capture an artistically blurred Ringo Starr smile.
Paul McCartney was a prolific photographer as a Beatle, and 250 of his images are making their U.S. debut in Norfolk at the Chrysler Museum of Art. This exhibition consists of photos he made shortly before and during the band’s first trip to the U.S., providing a taste of the private side of Beatlemania — the Fab Four during their downtime, the quieter moments in between grand adventures.
Source: Colin Warren-Hicks/pilotonline.com
The Beatles are back at #1: The band’s new single, “Now and Then,” tops the Billboard Adult Alternative Airplay chart for the very first time.
The Adult Alternative Airplay chart launched in 1996, and The Beatles have landed on it one other time — when 1996’s “Free as a Bird” peaked at #11. They now hold the record for the longest time between their first appearance on the AAA chart and their first #1.
In other Beatles news … Sir Patrick Stewart recounted a sweet story of meeting Paul McCartney during an appearance on Live with Kelly & Mark.
He was in Bristol working in an acting company with McCartney’s then-girlfriend Jane Asher and during lunch one day they were playing a game where they shared what they’d buy if they had 1 million pounds; Stewart chose an Aston Martin. Two weeks later, McCartney showed up at Stewart’s dressing room.
“The door opened and there was Paul McCartney and he said, ‘Jane tells me that you like Aston Martins. Here, drive this,’” Stewart recalled, noting he was in his underwear at the time. “He threw me a bunch of keys.” Stewart said they went out on a joyride in the middle of the night and drove about 18 miles together to Bath, England.
Source: mikeeves@wxhc.com
One of Ringo Starr's albums was going to feature songs written by John Lennon. While discussing this record, Ringo shrugged off the nostalgia fans had for the Fab Four.
One of Ringo Starr‘s albums was going to feature songs written by John Lennon. Ringo decided not to use them, but he still recorded songs for that album by George Harrison and Paul McCartney! While discussing this record, Ringo shrugged off the nostalgia fans had for the Fab Four. John made similar comments about The Beatles around the same time.
During a 1981 interview with Rolling Stone, Ringo discussed his album Stop and Smell the Roses, originally known as Can’t Fight Lightning. “I asked all my friends to help on Can’t Fight Lightning,” Ringo recalled. “George did a couple of tracks, Paul’s done a couple of tracks. But the real drag is that there were tracks made for me by John.”
Ringo decided not to use tracks written for the album by the recently-deceased John. “I won’t use them now, though,” he said. “Well, I might. You never can tell. But they won’t be on this album. The fun was going to be that we’d play together, you know? And we could play real well together — even in 1981.” The final version of Stop and Smell the Roses uses zero John compositions.
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
John Lennon and George Harrison grew close in The Beatles. Harrison said that their use of LSD greatly improved their friendship.
When George Harrison met John Lennon, he began to idolize him. Harrison was several years younger than Lennon and wanted to spend as much time as possible with the older boy. As they aged, their relationship changed through their collaboration in The Beatles. While Harrison often felt frustrated with Lennon, he also said that he felt closer to him than his other bandmates. Here’s what contributed to this shift in their relationship.
In the mid-1960s, every member of The Beatles took acid. Paul McCartney was the most cautious about the drug, but Lennon and Harrison took it often. Harrison thought that this improved their relationship.
“After taking acid together, John and I had a very interesting relationship,” Harrison said in The Beatles Anthology. “That I was younger or I was smaller was no longer any kind of embarrassment with John. Paul still says, ‘I suppose we looked down on George because he was younger.’ That is an illusion people are under. It’s nothing to do with how many years old you are, or how big your body is. It’s down to what your greater consciousness is and if you can live in harmony with what’s going on in creation.”
Source:Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
In 1961, the 18-year-old George Harrison purchased his first American-made guitar, a 1957 Gretsch Duo Jet, from a former merchant seaman named Ivan Heyward, for 75 pounds sterling, after he saw an advertisement in the Liverpool Echo. After giving it good use on “Please Please Me” and “I Saw Her Standing There,” he eventually passed it to his old friend from the Beatles’ days in Hamburg, Germany, the artist/musician Klaus Voormann. When Harrison was ready to shoot the cover for his new album Cloud Nine in 1987, he retrieved his “old black Gretsch” from storage in Los Angeles, had it refurbished, and posed with it, smiling widely in front of a stratospheric backdrop. You couldn’t see his eyes because of the light flare in his sunglasses, but it’s pretty clear from the content of the album they were twinkling with mischief.
Source: Mark Leviton/bestclassicbands.com
May Pang, left, who had a relationship with John Lennon, during a period when he was separated from Yoko Ono, will share photos from that time in a show at AnArte Gallery.
For decades, complete strangers have told May Pang they knew all there was to know about her and her 18-month relationship with John Lennon.
“I’ve had many fans or people, they all say, 'I know everything about you,' and I say, 'You do? ' And they go, 'Yes, I’ve read everything,'” Pang said in a telephone interview. “After so many years, my story took on a life of its own, with other people telling it. At first, it doesn’t bother you, but after a while, now it’s bothering me. Now people are hearing different stuff that’s not correct.”
Pang has been working to set the record straight about her time with the former Beatle. They were together from 1973 to 1975 when he was separated from Yoko Ono, an era in his life dubbed “the lost weekend.”
Source: Deborah Martin/expressnews.com
Paul McCartney‘s hit-making abilities are something of a marvel. It’s no surprise he has secured nine No. 1 songs throughout his career, given he pretty much wrote the book on how to craft a timeless pop offering. Below is our definitive ranking of McCartney’s Billboard Hot 100 hits.
9. “Listen To What The Man Said“
First up we have “Listen To What The Man Said.” We have no qualms with this track. It’s fun and a good listen but we find it to be a little less powerful than some of the other hits on this list.
8. “With a Little Luck“
“With a Little Luck” features a rhythmic melody that is hard not to sing along to. It’s a little quirky and very ’70s, but we see why it was such a hit amongst McCartney fans upon its release. That being said, it’s not one of McCartney’s signature tracks, meaning its appeal hasn’t been as long-lasting as some of his other No. 1’s.
Source: Alex Hopper/americansongwriter.com
