Beatles News
Fun fact: What was the first Canadian city the Beatles set foot in?
You'd be wrong if you answered Toronto, Montreal, or Vancouver.
On August 18, 1964, 60 years and one day ago, the Fab Four made an unscheduled stop in Winnipeg, drawing more than 1,000 fans to the airport.
However, it wasn’t an impromptu concert; the band was traveling from London to San Francisco to start their first major North American tour and needed to fuel their plane in Winnipeg.
John Einarson, a Winnipeg music historian, said the plane's arrival was tipped off to radio stations in Winnipeg.
"Literally hundreds and hundreds of kids head immediately to the airport," Einarson said.
More than 1,000 Beatles fans in Winnipeg gathered at the Winnipeg airport hoping for a glimpse of the band when the plane carrying them stopped in Winnipeg to refuel on August 18, 1964. (Photo courtesy John Einarson)
The band’s manager, Brian Epstein, coaxed the band to step outside the plane and appear on the tarmac, speaking to several reporters talking with fans.
Einarson said he did tours of music history in Winnipeg, and when sharing the story of the airport stop, he had a woman tell him her story of the Beatles.
Source: winnipeg.ctvnews.ca
Time and time again through the years, the BBC has opted to ban The Beatles’ songs. For one reason or another, some of which were warranted, the BBC banned quite a few of The Fab Four’s biggest and lesser-known tracks.
One of those tracks happened to be “Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite” from the hit 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. If you’ve heard or read the lyrics to the song and understand the 1960s’ brand of drug innuendo and double entendre, you can probably guess why the BBC decided to ban it.
“Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite” was banned by the BBC for its use of drug-related lyricism. Some readers might be confused by this; what could possibly be wrong with the lyrics of “Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite”?
Why Did The BBC Ban The Beatles’ “Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite”?
The notably psychedelic song references not one, but two slang words for drugs. Specifically, the lyrics “Their production will be second to none / And of course Henry the Horse dances the waltz” contained two references to drug slang.
“Henry” was often used to describe the particular weight one would like to purchase of drugs. It’s a direct reference to the English king Henry the VIII, as in an “eighth” of an ounce of a particular drug. “Horse” has historically been used to refer to a long list of drugs, including the ones mentioned previously.
Source: Em Casalena/americansongwriter.com
It’s quite a joy that Paul McCartney is still doing interviews nowadays, mainly because he has such a good sense of humor. Back in 2019, Paul McCartney made an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. The two talked about The Beatles and music in general. During the conversation, Colbert asked McCartney if he had a favorite cover of one of The Beatles’ songs. He also jokingly noted that there was a “right” answer.
For reference, The Beatles’ discography is currently considered the most-covered of any band or artist of all time. There are thousands of covers on that list, and McCartney didn’t give a direct answer. He did, however, playful poke fun at a handful of musicians who covered “Yesterday”, the famed 1965 single from Help!
“So I said to one of our guys, ‘Well, get me the top 10,’” McCartney said with a laugh. “Just what you think are the best 10. So he did, and it was like Sinatra, Elvis, Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye. I think I like Marvin’s [cover of ‘Yesterday’] best.”
McCartney went on to say that Elvis Presley, Marvin Gaye, and Frank Sinatra all changed the lyrics to “Yesterday” in their recorded covers.
“In the middle [of ‘Yesterday’], I go ‘I said something wrong,’” McCartney quoted the lyrics of the song. “All of them said ‘I must have said something wrong.’ They’re not owning up!”
Colbert joked that it was akin to someone apologizing with “I’m sorry if anyone was offended”, to which McCartney agreed.
Source: Em Casalena/americansongwriter.com
Paul McCartney rose to worldwide stardom as a member of The Beatles alongside John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Nicknamed the “cute Beatle,” McCartney’s talent as a songwriter and musician led to his partnership with Lennon and the formation of The Beatles, one of the most iconic groups in history. McCartney and Lennon cowrote many of the bands’ hit songs, including “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Let It Be.”
He’d be sitting there and I’d be sitting there, and one of us would suggest an opening line. And then the other one would go, ‘OK’ and would make a suggestion for the second line,” McCartney explained. “It was just easier with me and John, just because you could iron out any wrinkles there and then.”In 2023, McCartney and Starr completed Lennon’s unfinished demo of “Now and Then.” With the use of new technology, the two were able to use guitar tracks by Harrison and salvaged Lennon’s voice with audio restoration technology. Lennon died in December 1980 after being shot by an envious fan named Mark David Chapman and Harrison died in November 2001 due to cancer.
Source: US Celebrity News
Paul McCartney has rarely been one to hate on The Beatles’ music; if he does have some shade to throw here and there, it’s usually quite warranted. However, a resurfaced interview clip of the Fab Four star from 1980 has a few fans confused.
The clip in question was from an episode of Countdown in 1980, where McCartney was interviewed in London, England. The interviewer asked McCartney which song he believed was his best work out of all the tracks he’s ever done, both inside and outside of The Beatles. McCartney’s response was playful, in his usual fashion.
“I don’t know,” said McCartney in the clip. “I don’t think in those terms, I think it’s people who analyze the music scene [that] think in terms of ‘What was his best one?’ But I don’t know, if I just had to answer it for some quiz or something I might say ‘Sgt. Pepper’ or I might say ‘Yesterday’.”
The next quip from McCartney seemed to be a dig at one of The Beatles’ less-popular songs from Revolver.
“Or I might just as easily say something daft like ‘She Said She Said’, which is just a track I like,” McCartney said.
Why Did Paul McCartney Shade “She Said She Said”?
Even though McCartney did say that he liked “She Said She Said”, the fact that he said his answer was “daft” is a little puzzling. Is “She Said She Said” considered a not-so-stellar Beatles track?
Source: Em Casalena/americansongwriter.com
The Beatles landed another #1 single with “All You Need Is Love,” a non-album track that represented Britain in the TV program Our World, the first live global, multi-satellite TV show.
When they signed on for Our World, The Beatles were asked to contribute a song with a positive and universal message.
They performed the track on the show with a prerecorded backing track, and were joined by The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Graham Nash, The Who’s Keith Moon and others, who sat on the floor and sang along to the chorus.
“All You Need Is Love” also went to #1 in several other countries, including the U.K., Canada, Australia, Austria, New Zealand and Sweden.
Source: kslx.com
People might guess Ringo Starr when asked to name the last Beatle to have a No. 1 record. They would be wrong.
One doesn't need a bachelor's degree in Beatlemania to know that Richard Starkey got there (twice in fact) before John Winston Lennon.
Lennon's 1974 recording of "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" came four years after the Fab Four's dissolution. Elton John, then with a global following to match Lennon's, sang backup vocal and both appeared on stage at Madison Square Center that fall -- Lennon paying off a bet that the song would not top out in "Billboard."
The title of Lennon's pole-sitter traces to a comment by Frank Sinatra in a Playboy interview. That while he might disavow belief in God. Sinatra only asked for something to get through the night, though his day might not end until 5 a.m. Options, he said, included "prayer, tranquilizers or a bottle of Jack Daniel's." An unfiltered pack of Camel cigarettes was slipped inside his coffin upon the singer's 1998 passing.
Ex-Beatle George Harrison penned "Something," the group's first single off the "Abbey Road" (1969) album and which Sinatra, one of its many copiers, called the greatest love singer ever written. Harrison had three solo No. 1 singles before his 2001 death of lung cancer, though his association with "My Sweet Lord" (1970) was clouded when a court ruled it too closely copied The Ronettes' "He's So Fine."
Harrison was considered the quiet Beatle, the most introspective, but one confident enough to write "Here Comes the Sun," which begins Side 2 of "Abbey Road." Soul artist Richie Havens does the tune justice.
Source: Bob Wisener/hotsr.com
The Beatles, particularly their main songwriters John Lennon and Paul McCartney, knew how to weave in some enigmatic and loaded lyrics into their music. This list of the five deepest lyrics from The Beatles’ songs is far from exhaustive. However, we think these tidbits from their biggest songs are some of the most underrated examples of stellar songwriting.
1. “The End”
“And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make”
“The End” is an iconic Beatles song with some of the deepest lyrics of their entire discography, namely because the band was basically writing their own epitaphs. The above lyric was McCartney’s contribution. It’s a Shakespearean, philosophical, and existential line that manages to be so simple at the same time.
2. “Strawberry Fields Forever”
“Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see”
This lovely little poetic number from Magical Mystery Tour has a number of memorable lyrics, but we think the above line is sorely underrated. Lennon explored his childhood, mind state, depression, and loneliness in this song beautifully. This particular line notes that with all of his miseries, he can’t keep his eyes or heart closed to the reality of his feelings. They must be felt and understood instead of buried.
Source: Em Casalena/americansongwriter.com
It was the afternoon of Aug. 26, 1964, an early stop along a tour that would forever change music in America.
It descended upon the main entrance of the Brown Palace, the mass of manic, adolescent humanity flooding into the grand atrium. The papers reported about 5,000 girls converging to meet the four lads from Liverpool, who had arrived earlier to a crowd of thousands more at Stapleton Airport.
The Beatles, donning cowboy hats, leave the plane at Denver’s Stapleton Airport on Aug. 26, 1964, ahead of their show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. They were bound for Red Rocks Amphitheatre, bound for the next scene of pandemonium that played out at five previous venues in the western U.S. and Vancouver. It was the Beatles’ first North American tour, and North America seemed ill-prepared.
The Rocky Mountain News editorial implored: “Attention, teenagers of Denver. You have the opportunity of attracting worldwide attention today! Don’t be rowdies. Don’t throw things. ... Don’t kick and elbow. Gird on the self-discipline that is the mark of a true American citizen.”
So much for that.
“7 Hospitalized in Beatles Stampede,” read the headline from the Brown Palace.
Source: gazette.com
Nearly 60 years after The Beatles performed their final concert at Candlestick Park, Beatlemania is back in the Bay. Organized by the National Portrait Gallery, London, and presented exclusively in California at the de Young museum, Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm will present more than 250 personal photos by Paul McCartney, video clips, and archival materials, that offer a behind-the-scenes look into the meteoric rise of the world’s most celebrated band.
“In Eyes of the Storm, recently unearthed photographs by Paul McCartney provide a rare time capsule of The Beatles' world at the moment of their extraordinary rise to fame,” remarked Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. “Well known as one of the world’s most famous musical stars, it is a revelation to discover McCartney’s proficiency as a photographer, documenting everything from the band’s quieter moments and friendships to the ‘Beatlemania’ of the time. We’re honored to present this exhibition here in San Francisco, where The Beatles left an indelible mark on our city's musical and cultural history.”
Source: famsf.org
