Beatles News
John Lennon was one of the first writers whose lyrics were studied by fans for their insight and depth. But Lennon became a little bit wary of those who’d try to find meanings that he didn’t think were there.
As a result, he adjusted late in The Beatles years and early in his solo career. He started keeping the lyrics simple. And he still found ways to captivate with his words and music.
“Don’t Let Me Down”
Lennon’s first response to those who went diving deep into his lyrics was to make them deliberately obtuse and nonsensical. The Beatles’ tracks “I Am The Walrus” and “Glass Onion” offer excellent examples of this approach. He eventually decided that he’d try to keep things as simple and direct as possible. “Don’t Let Me Down”, released as a B-side in 1969, offered the first evidence of this approach. Still relatively new to his relationship with Yoko Ono, Lennon used the song to plead for reliability from her. He doesn’t do anything fancy with the lyrics. Instead, he relies on his impassioned vocals, recorded during The Beatles’ rooftop concert at the start of 1969, to communicate.
“I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”
Lennon missed the first chunk of sessions for the Abbey Road album in 1969 while recuperating from minor injuries suffered during a car accident. That’s part of the reason his songwriting output was somewhat diminished compared to what fans had come to expect from him on a Beatles album. “Come Together” was his major offering on the record. Meanwhile, “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” doesn’t expand much, in lyrical terms, beyond the wording in the title. Over and over, Lennon professes his unquenchable desire for his significant other. The Beatles take the focus off the words by working up quite a maelstrom of sound behind him, especially in the extended coda.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Jim Beviglia
George Harrison may not have been part of The Beatles’ legendary songwriting partnership of Paul McCartney and John Lennon, but he had a talent early on for songwriting that deserved to be nurtured. He really stepped into his own in 1969 with a few self-penned Beatles tunes that would go on to change songwriting forever. These tunes were just a preview of what Harrison would do with his solo career.
“Something” from ‘Abbey Road’
Let’s start with the obvious. “Something” is one of The Beatles’ most enduring hit songs. And it’s easily one of the biggest releases from the Fab Four in 1969. Harrison penned “Something” as a love song with a beautifully constructed melody. The way those harmonics shift throughout the song is gorgeous. Many listeners at the time couldn’t believe how little Harrison had contributed to the band as a songwriter up until that point. “Something” would be Harrison’s first composition to get the A-side single treatment.
“Something” was a smash hit across the board back in 1969. It peaked at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 4 on the UK Singles chart. “Here Comes The Sun” from ‘Abbey Road’
How about a sweet, flowery number? “Here Comes The Sun” is one of those Beatles songs that younger listeners have caught on to. Just look at how much love it gets on streaming services. This enduring classic was written by Harrison and has that beautiful simplicity to it often associated with folk pop. Those vocals that come in layers, the use of the ol’ Moog synth; the entirety of “Here Comes The Sun” is still a delight after all these years.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Em Casalena
Apple Corps will take over management of the award-winning attraction The Beatles Story in 2028, moving it to a new location in St Johns Shopping Centre. The new experience will transport fans from The Beatles' post-war Liverpool childhoods through Hamburg, The Cavern, Beatlemania, Abbey Road, Shea Stadium, Savile Row and beyond, using immersive technology, original artefacts and spectacular reconstructed sets to bring the Beatles’ extraordinary story to life.
Fans will also be able to visit a brand new Yellow Submarine experience at Liverpool's iconic St Johns Beacon tower, also arriving in 2028.
Add your details below to confirm your interest in The Beatles: Liverpool 2028, be the first to receive all updates and to be notified when tickets go on sale.
The Beatles Story will be open as usual in 2026 and 2027. Please visit beatlesstory.com for more information
Nearly 59 years after the Beatles’ historic 1968 visit to the iconic Chaurasi Kutia in Rishikesh in Uttarakhand, the popular Beatles Ashram is all set to feature in an ambitious four-film project on the legendary band, directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Sam Mendes.
An international film production delegation on Sunday met Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami to discuss the proposed February 2027 shoot for The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event, being made by Neal Street Productions for Sony Pictures Entertainment in collaboration with Apple Corps.
The production is expected to bring more than 100 international crew members and around 150 Indian professionals to the state. Local arrangements are being coordinated by On The Road India, with opportunities expected for local technicians and service providers.
The four films will tell the individual stories of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. The cast includes Harris Dickinson as Lennon, Paul Mescal as McCartney, Joseph Quinn as Harrison and Barry Keoghan as Starr. A simultaneous global theatrical release is planned for April 2028.
The Beatles visited Rishikesh in February 1968 to study transcendental meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Their stay became a landmark chapter in the band’s history, with several songs written during the period later appearing on their albums.
Source: prashantnews.com
Some biographies give you a glimpse into music history. Others make you feel like you’ve stumbled into a private family album belonging to the greatest band that ever lived.
There are Beatles fans, and then there are Beatles obsessives. You know the type. The ones who can tell you which version of a song appeared on which release, who played what on a particular recording, and why a seemingly insignificant moment in a documentary deserves an entire afternoon of discussion. The ones who have spent years devouring every photograph, interview, bootleg and scrap of Beatles history they can get their hands on, convinced there must still be something out there they haven’t seen.
Enter THE THIRD EYE: Early Photographs, a remarkable collection of George Harrison’s personal photography, published by Penguin Random House, and quite possibly one of the most exciting things to land in the hands of a Beatles tragic in some time.
We’ve seen the Beatles from just about every conceivable angle. We’ve watched the documentaries, read the biographies, studied the album sleeves and pored over countless photographs of four lads from Liverpool who somehow changed the world. But there’s something genuinely mind-blowing about seeing these moments through George’s own lens, particularly when so many of the photographs have never been collected in a book like this before.
Spanning the years 1963 to 1969, THE THIRD EYE brings together more than 200 photographs and 8mm film stills, capturing the Beatles at work, at play and in those rare moments when the machinery of Beatlemania momentarily loosened its grip. From their earliest adventures in America to Australia, Paris, India and beyond, this is history from the inside. Not another photographer positioned outside the barricades, but George Harrison himself, camera in hand, documenting the extraordinary world he was living in.
Source: fortemagazine.com.au/Tammy Walters
How should you listen to the Beatles? However you like, and as often you can. But faced with all that material, how – to coin a phrase – do you do it? In the aim of offering something like a benign, George Martin-style guiding hand, we’ve put together this series to put Beatles songs in your weekly calendar – hopefully bringing some fresh takes on their music, and on the hectic nature of their lives and creative development along the way.
The week of October 19th contains many of the different colours in the Beatle spectrum. In 1966, this is the week that George Harrison returns from India, where he has been taking a sitar course with Ravi Shankar. Today in 1968 is the day that John and Yoko are in court after a drugs bust. At the start of the career, however, the autumn is a time for harder work: a date at the Pavilion Gardens, Buxton (October 19th, 1963), and in 1964, where they enter the Scottish phase of their UK tour, with dates in Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow.
In Dundee they are interviewed for Scottish TV. “Where are we now?” someone asks. In the face of weariness, John Lennon enters the mildly surreal by way of reply.
“Cake,” he says.
Even the interviewer is puzzled.
“I Saw Her Standing There”
October 20th, 1963. It’s a Sunday morning three months after “She Loves You” came out and a BBC Beatles session recorded in front of a studio audience four days earlier is blasting out of your transistor radio. First up? The opening track of their debut album.
It’s now almost exactly a year since The Beatles became a chart phenomenon. In a couple of weeks’ time, they will release a stop gap 7” EP – or “extended play” – called No 1 whose title (we think, though no one makes the reason completely clear) commemorates that anniversary, and bridges the unbearably long wait for fans hungry for new material.
“I Saw Her Standing There” (presumably because it deserves to be recognised as more than just an album track) will be the lead-off track of the new EP, and this succinct Beatles show in fact is almost like an EP itself, comprising this track, followed by a run-through of the group’s story so far: “Love Me Do”, “Please Please Me”, “From Me To You” and “She Loves You”.
There would be more BBC radio sessions to follow but those hoping to witness The Beatles live in a small London theatre as part of a BBC studio audience were soon dashed. Brian Epstein had concerns for the Beatles’ safety in such a small space, and decreed that this would be their last such show – a booking for December 4th was cancelled.
“How Do You Do It?”
The Beatles had kindred spirits on Merseyside, and on October 21st 1961, they combined to play with one of them. By this time veterans of both Hamburg rock ‘n’ roll clubs and the Merseyside beat scene, The Beatles were happy to combine informally with Gerry and the Pacemakers for a date at Litherland Town Hall, a venue which the Beatles played more than any other excepting the Cavern and Aintree Institute. The name of this supergroup? The Beatmakers!
Source: uncut.co.uk/John Robinson
A Lincolnshire holiday camp played a little-known but crucial part in the birth of The Beatles.
A young, bearded Ringo Starr was playing drums with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes at the Butlins in Skegness in the summer 1962 when Paul McCartney and John Lennon arrived to try and recruit him to the band. Bobby Thomson, who was bassist in the Hurricanes, recalls the duo arriving early one morning after driving all night from Liverpool. "I think that was the whole idea, to invite him to join the Beatles," he said.
"Because I was with Ringo they didn't come out with it. They could have, it wouldn't have bothered me." He said that a few weeks later in mid August the band were having breakfast when an announcement over the speaker system asked Starr to report to reception.
He asked Thomson to come with him and the pair arrived to find a phone call from Beatles manager Brian Epstein asking if Starr would like to join the group. Keystone via Getty Images Black and white photograph of the five members of Rory Storm and the Hurricanes with the group wearing matching dark suits Bobby Thomson stands on the far left and Ringo Starr is far rightKeystone via Getty Images
Bobby Thompson (second left) played bass for Rory Storm and the Hurricanes alongside a young Ringo Starr (far right)
Starr later recalled the conversation in an interview. "The boys would like you to join The Beatles. What do you say?
"I said, 'no, I'd love to, when?' And he said, 'oh, tonight'. I said, 'I can't', this was Wednesday, 'I can't come tonight. I'm in a band, I'll come Saturday'."
Thomson said that during the call with Epstein the drummer was told to lose his facial hair.
"He didn't want to shave his beard off," Thomson said laughing.
"So the beard came off and he got the haircut to match."
Madeline Morrison, who worked as a Redcoat at the Clacton camp, said people were surprised when the rumours of Starr joining The Beatles soon started to spread throughout Butlin's.
"Rory Storm was a big, big name," she said.
"I've got playbills where Rory Storm and the Hurricanes were above The Beatles."
She added people said he had been taken to the hairdresser: "He's got the Beatle haircut, he's joining them.
"You know, all this sort of stuff would jump round all the camps because we were all villages."
Source: bbc.com/Karl Bird
As Beatles fans are transported back to Abbey Road for Sam Mendes‘ upcoming biopic, Paul McCartney has some thoughts on the casting.
The Beatles alum said he was concerned that Paul Mescal looks “markedly shorter” compared to his co-stars, and he even reached out to Mendes about it, but doesn’t know how the director is “gonna deal with it” in the four-film cinematic event.
“Yeah, and guess what? He’s smaller than the guy who’s playing John [Lennon],” explained McCartney on the Good Hang with Amy Poehler podcast. “Sam Mendes is making the film. I heard Sam Mendes is making the film. I said, ‘Sam, I’ve got just one thing that I need to say to you. Paul’s a bit smaller.'”
After the movies’ cast re-created the iconic Abbey Road (1969) album cover while filming in London back in August, McCartney said his concerns worsened.
“So, I don’t know how Sam’s gonna deal with it, but he sent me a picture, a still from the filming they were doing,” he recalled. “They were crossing the Abbey Road crossing, and the Paul character is markedly smaller.”
McCartney continued, “So, I texted him, ‘Sam! Smaller! Don’t do this! You said you wouldn’t do it.’ He said, ‘No, it’s ok. It’s just the stride.’ And he sent me another one where they were equal.”
Last February, Deadline exclusively revealed that Mendes is set to direct each installment of The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event, through his Neal Street Productions and Sony Pictures Entertainment. Each film will connect, telling the band’s story from each member’s point of view.
The film has since cast Mescal as Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr and Harris Dickinson as John Lennon.
Source: deadline.com/Glenn Garner
George Martin helped steward each Beatles album. His steady, experienced hand and a willingness to explore musical boundaries with the band’s four members made a huge difference. Throughout their catalog, his musical genius is a subtle constant.
But Martin nearly wasn’t a part of Abbey Road, the last album that the group ever recorded together. It took some last-minute convincing. Only then did he come aboard and offer his expertise on that monumental record.
George’s Anger
The Let It Be project, initially titled Get Back, did more damage to The Beatles than it was probably worth in the end. Among the casualties was George Martin’s ego. He was largely sidelined by the Fab Four during the sessions at the Twickenham film studio, which were being filmed for a documentary.
Martin later helped the band by convincing EMI to lend portable studios to the group when they decided to relocate the sessions to their Apple home base. But Martin disliked the chaotic nature of the recording process and the fact that the group wasn’t seeking his input as they had in the past.
When the sessions ended following the group’s rooftop concert in 1969, Martin truly thought that he was done with the Fab Four. He didn’t think they’d be able to patch up their personal relationships long enough to record another album together anyway. Martin was happily proven wrong on both counts. A Fateful Phone Call.
In the spring of 1969, Martin received a call from a familiar, yet somewhat timid-sounding voice on the other end of the line. Paul McCartney was phoning, hat in hand, asking if Martin would return to produce another record for The Beatles.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Jim Beviglia
A community tourist attraction celebrating the Beatles has been put up for sale after closing its doors.
The Penny Lane Community Trust in Liverpool shut on New Year's Eve after struggling with rising costs and declining visitor numbers.
Former Lord Mayor and Penny Lane councillor, Richard Kemp, said: "It is disgraceful that this has taken so long and it will be well over a year before a successful bidder can start to use the building for the local community."
Liverpool City Council said it was "working with the liquidators and their representatives to explore future options for the building and secure the best possible outcome for the local community".
The site became a popular stop for tourists visiting Penny Lane and nearby Strawberry Fields, housing a visitor centre filled with Beatles memorabilia. The successful bidder must demonstrate financial viability and compliance with the building's permitted use.
The council owns the freehold of the Penny Lane Development Centre site, of which a lease was granted to Penny Lane Development Trust.
The property is held under a 99-year lease, granted by the council in 2009 at a peppercorn rent of £1 a year.
Source: David Humphreys/bbc.com
