Beatles News
Forget What You've Heard: The Beatles Might Have Broken Up Over an English Biscuit
The reason for the Beatles’ demise in 1969 has long been argued and analyzed: how Ringo Starr left the group for two weeks during the White Album sessions, that George Harrison was inspired to go solo after seeing the changes in musical stylings from contemporaries like Bob Dylan, or that when the band ceased live performances in 1966, its members drifted apart while pursuing more individual projects. These moments and more in the Fab Four’s last years together were certainly sowing the seeds of disbandment for the iconic rock band. But most heated discussions on the matter include the marriage of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and Ono’s long-alleged intrusion into the band’s inner workings.
However, there might be a bit more to it than just a clingy wife: One little-known theory involving Ono and a digestive cookie, or as the Brits call them, biscuits, some believe, could have contributed to the crumby ending of one of the greatest bands in music history.
Source: Diamond Rodrigue/dallasobserver.com
Jude Law didn’t think Paul McCartney was ever really going to dedicate “Hey Jude” in his honor, the actor told Stephen Colbert.
After strutting out to the Beatles’ hit on “The Late Show” on Thursday, the “Firebrand” actor recalled experiencing the “quite emotional” dedication in front of a crowd of thousands. He further revealed that fashion designer Stella McCartney was the mastermind behind the moment.
After introducing the two backstage at an Australia show last November, the musician said he would dedicate the song to Law due to the name connection. “That was enough,” the actor said. “I didn’t think he would do it.”
Paul McCartney attends Stella McCartney Womenswear Fall/Winter 2024-2025 show as part of Paris Fashion Week. The “Holiday” heartthrob then admitted that he lamented his unique name while growing up as a “pretty boy” in 1970s London. But upon hearing the dedication live, Law said what he “probably would’ve done is just cry” except that he realized he was on the jumbotron.
In a video shared on social media, the star was caught “dad dancing,” as Colbert put it.
McCartney originally wrote the Beatles’ 1968 tune to cheer up John Lennon’s five-year-old son Julian after his parents’ split. The song, then titled “Hey Jules,” was meant to bring some optimism to the young boy as his father went public with artist Yoko Ono. The band eventually renamed the song to “Hey Jude” because it was easier to sing.
Source: Tess Patton/thewrap.com
A phonophile is preparing to offload his collection. Mark Miller has a collection of vinyls spanning the decades, most impressively assemblage consisting of 377 records from The Beatles.
“I collect records for a hobby and I thought, ‘The Beatles, they’re one of the most re-marketable,’” he said. “I’ve got mono version, stereo version, mistake vinyl, interview vinyl.” A retired flight attendant of 34 years with Northwest Orient & Delta Airlines, Miller has traveled the world amassing an assortment of vinyl records from all variety of production styles, misprints, bootlegs, and international versions.
“I spent most of my time, 20 days a month, in Asia — Singapore, Tokyo, Guangzhou, Beijing, Osaka, Nagoya. I could buy The Beatles everywhere, not just in the United States. My buying arena was everywhere,” he said. He’s got albums from European countries too, including the U.K., France, Netherlands, and also Brazil, and Canada.
Last week, Miller said President & CEO of the Honeywell Foundation Theater in Wabash Tod Minnich and former Capitol Records General Manager & VP Larry Mattera came to his home in Goshen to view the collection and discuss the possibility of buying it and putting it on display.
“I’ve been wanting to display it anywhere for years so that other people can see it,” Miller said. “I don’t want it just sitting on a shelf because it does no good. You just can’t walk into a store and see this many Beatle records. It’s not that it’s the coolest thing in the world. It’s just the product of lots of work. I’ve probably physically walked into 500 or 600 stores — walking in, saying hi, and going through their stuff. It was a labor of love. I loved doing it."
Source: DANI MESSICK THE GOSHEN NEWS
Local store’s namesake has links to controversial Beatles album cover. Beatle butchers pasted over after tidal wave of complaints sends Capital Records scrambling in 1966.
“They got so many complaints, Capital recalled the (750,000) albums and pasted a new slick to the front cover,” Thomas said. The new cover features John, Paul, Gorge and Ringo around a steamer trunk.
Yawn.
But a few butchers were purchased before the switch, making them highly collectible and valuable. So, when Thomas had five come through his door a year ago, he bought 'em all. “The cover was just too much for 1966,” Thomas said, noting people read too much into it as being some sort of statement from the Fab Four.
“It was the photographer's idea, and The Beatles just went with it,” he said. A 1970s Rolling Stone article was published about the rare cover, and prices shot through the roof. It went to $300 or $400 for the album, Thomas said. That’s around $2,500 in today's money.
Not bad for a B-sides compilation record. However, a Beatles B-side included Drive My Car, Yesterday, and We Can Work It Out. “I was 35 the first time I ever got one in my hands,” he said.
And now he’s got several.
Mark Thomas at home at Yesterday & Today new and used music in downtown The Dalles.
Source: Tom Peterson/columbiacommunityconnection.com
Paul McCartney turns 82 on Tuesday, so he’s sent us a gift.
“One Hand Clapping” is a collection of in-studio recordings Paul did with Wings in 1974. They are songs from “Band on the Run,” as well as a few Beatles tunes and oldies, plus some never heard tracks.
Listen, these were probably on bootlegs for 50 years, but most fans, including me, never heard them. Now they’re all cleaned up and remastered. The result is we owe Paul and his staff a thank you note.
What a lovely surprise. Live recording is always preferable to heavily produced, and “One Hand Clapping” proves the point. Paul, wife Linda, Denny Laine, and Jimmy McCulloch sound fresher and more vibrant than ever. The songs could be brand new, that’s how invested with life they are after five decades of listening to the conventional recordings.
“One Hand Clapping” is meant for a stereo, not headphones. The new production puts right in the middle of that studio. The sound is surrounding in the least technical way. Minor songs like “Soilly” and “C Moon” — which were dismissed as B sides when they were released — are more enjoyable than ever.
Source: Roger Friedman/showbiz411.com
Listen, I want my (okay, fine, Sabrina Carpenter’s) tiny, handsome boyfriend Barry Keoghan to stay booked and busy as much as the next Banshees of Inisherin stan. However, I think I have to draw a tenuous personal line in the sand at seeing him in filmmaker Sam Mendes’s series of four interconnected biopics following each member of the Beatles, the cast of which is alleged to include Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Charlie Rowe as George Harrison, and Keoghan as Ringo Starr.
As a lifelong Ringo girl, I should be thrilled to see one of my favourite actors portraying the legendary drummer – not to mention the Paul Mescal of it all! (A surprisingly apt McCartney, IMO.) But loath as I am to sound like one of those old cranks who need you to know that they saw the Stones live in 1970-something – and also that pizza used to cost a dollar – I just can’t help feeling somewhat disheartened at the prospect of the real-life Beatles getting the full-on, glossy biopic treatment. (Beatles movie musicals, however, I’m strangely okay with; just ask me how many times I saw Across the Universe as a teen.)
No part of American life is too sacrosanct for the biopic treatment, but if I may pretentiously quote Zadie Smith’s On Beauty, “Our memories are getting more beautiful and less real every day.” The prevalent Hollywood attitude towards biopic casting, which seems to hold that everyone should be roughly eight times more attractive than the people in real life – albeit with a slightly more attainable-looking haircut – reflects that sentiment.
Source: vogue.ph
George Harrison was undoubtedly playing catchup in The Beatles’ songwriting race to the more experienced duo of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. His 1965 song “I Need You” represented a significant leap forward in his writing as he became more established in that realm.
What is “I Need You” about? What instrumental effect helped to set it apart? And why was it an important song in Harrison’s songwriting development? Let’s find out all that there is to know about this somewhat unheralded track by the Fab Four.
Considering he was the youngest Beatle, and that John Lennon and Paul McCartney were already writing songs even before the group had a chance to record them, it’s no surprise George Harrison was at a disadvantage in terms of developing as a songwriter. He immediately found a crucial role as the band’s lead guitarist, and, for the first several years of the group’s success, that was enough.
From 1962 to 1964, a time span which encompassed four Beatles albums, Harrison wrote just one song. “Don’t Bother Me,” which was included on the 1963 album With the Beatles (the group’s second LP) sounded like a somewhat rough first try. Harrison later said the song was important for him if for nothing else than it proved he could do it.
Considering that 1964 contained a plethora of newly released Beatles material, and that none of it was attributed to Harrison, it might have seemed at the time he would never again return to songwriting. But then “I Need You” appeared on the soundtrack for Help! and Beatles fans heard a much more confident songwriting voice emanating from Harrison.
Source: Jim Beviglia/americansongwriter.com
The day he quit The Beatles, George Harrison went home and wrote a song that'd become one of his most beloved solo tracks.
Like all bands, they had their feuds. Though, given The Beatles were the most famous and influential musical group throughout the sixties, all eyes were on them. Almost always.
So when frictions between the four-piece were aired, it sent ripples of worry throughout their fanbase and the wider world. Naturally creative disputes would arise when you've got two equally talented songwriters jostling for supremacy over The Beatles' immaculate output, let alone three.
But with John Lennon and Paul McCartney to contend with, George Harrison seldom got a look in. When John Lennon and Paul McCartney reconciled and nearly reformed The Beatles.
During the filming of the 1970 documentary Let It Be - and later Peter Jackson's revisionist documentary Get Back which restored the original footage - George's frustration would come to a head.
With the four members seemingly struggling to be in the same room together, it was Paul McCartney's uncompromising creative vision which pushed everyone else to the margins.
Whilst John didn't seem too bothered, and Ringo Starr focusing on a concurrent acting career, George felt he was wasting his time. So he quit the band.
The day he quit The Beatles, George went home and wrote a song that'd become one of his most beloved solo tracks.
Source: Thomas Curtis-Horsfall/goldradiouk.com
Producer/engineer Glyn Johns recorded the whole of the Let It Be sessions for the Beatles in 1969, and mixed a raw version of the album that wouldn’t be released for another 52 years — so he’s far from a fan of the Phil Spector-embellished album that came out in 1970. “He did a terrible job,” Johns says on the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now. “Don’t misunderstand me — I respect Phil Spector for his early work tremendously. But somebody like Phil Spector shouldn’t ever be allowed near a band like the Beatles, in my view. Phil Spector was always the artist in the records that he made. He treated the artists like parts of the machine to make the end result. I don’t think the Beatles ever require that kind of input.”
Source: MSN
For most Beatles fans, their movies are laudable. Rife with the band’s titular humor, irreverent, and fun-loving, each of the Beatles’ films was a triumph in one way or another. Nevertheless, John Lennon felt that one film in particular was more humiliating than a success. Find out which film that is, below.
According to Lennon, the process for making the Beatles’ second film, Help!, was a doozy. The band was at the height of Beatlemania and, as such, had numerous responsibilities that far outweighed the usual asks of a rock band.
While filming Help!, Lennon says the band was forced to spend time with pre-teen fans to appease what he called “Jumped-up middle-class b***hes and b****rds.” He says, if they refused, there would be threats about going to the press–which would risk ruining everything the band had built so far.
“It was always that, they were always threatening what they would tell the press about us, the bad publicity if we didn’t see their bloody daughter with braces on her teeth,” Lennon once said. “And we had these people thrust on us.
“Like sitting with the governor of the Bahamas because we were making Help! and being insulted by these fuckin’ jumped-up middle-class b***hes and b****rds who would be commenting on our work and our manners,” he continued. “I couldn’t take it. It hurt me so; I would go insane, swearing at them and whatever. It was awful. All that business was awful. It was a fuckin’ humiliation.”
He went so far as to call the entirety of his time in the Beatles a humiliation. “One has to completely humiliate oneself to be what the Beatles were, and that’s what I resent,” he said.
Source: Alex Hopper/americansongwriter.com
