Beatles News
Olivia Harrison has announced the release of a new book of poems, Came the Lightening, which she has dedicated to her late husband George Harrison of The Beatles.
The writer and producer is the widow of the guitar player and solo artist, who died in 2001 at the age of 58 from lung cancer. Olivia is George’s second wife and the pair were married for 23 years up until his death.
The series of 20 poems celebrates the 20th anniversary of his passing and examines the “intimacy and emotional connection of their relationship”.
Further, it “delves into the phenomenon of losing a partner and the passage of time” and will include a collection of photographs and relics specially selected by Olivia, along with some never-before-seen images of the couple.
This book marks her debut in the world of poetry. She previously penned the bestselling George Harrison: Living in the Material World, the revised version of I Me Mine, and contributed to the book Concert for George.
Her work as a producer includes the co-production of the Grammy-winning film of the 2002 Concert for George, an event she organised in his memory.
Source: Inga Parkel/ca.movies.yahoo.com
Out of the 12 studio albums The Beatles recorded, there was one their fans greeted without the usual joy and wonder but with a mixture of disappointment and dread. That was Let It Be, released in 1970.
The title was a phrase used by parents in Liverpool to calm quarrelsome or fractious children. It seemed tacit confirmation of the widespread rumour that the world's most beloved pop band was imploding.
The album had initially been named after Paul McCartney's song Get Back, reflecting The Beatles' wish to return to a simpler, more 'honest' style after electronically embroidered tracks like Paul's Penny Lane or John's Tomorrow Never Knows.
With it came a cinema documentary intended to be little more than a 'Beatles at work' promo, to make amends to their public for having given up touring four years earlier. However, it turned out rather differently. So much so that after its theatrical release alongside the album, it disappeared from sight for 54 years, other than in odd YouTube clips and bootlegs.
Now it has been resurrected, however, as part of the relentless monetising of The Beatles in a world that seemingly can't get enough of them. A digitally restored version by the Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson is to be streamed on Disney+ next week as a postscript to his eight-hour-plus 2021 documentary about the Get Back album's recording sessions.
Source: Philip Norman/dailymail.co.uk
True to form Beatle and rock and roll legend Ringo Starr gets a little help from his friends and hits the tour road starting in May. The limited tour will take them on an 18-date tour, six of those dates will be at the Venetian in Las Vegas.
Ringo and his band stop in Philadelphia at the TD Pavilion at the Mann on September 24th and then the following day September 25th he and his band head to Radio City Music Hall in New York.
Source: Big Joe Henry/nj1015.com
A song featuring George Harrison and Ringo Starr has been played in public for the first time, after the composer discovered the tape more than 50 years after it was recorded at a London music studio.
Suresh Joshi, 77, said he met The Beatles stars when he was recording music for a documentary atTrident Studios in 1968, at the same time as the group was recording Hey Jude.
He said they recorded the song Radhe Shaam together, which was played for the first time at Liverpool Beatles Museum in Mathew Street on Wednesday.
He was an intellectual figure who looked very successful but was very lonely in the crowd and I just picked up on that. Mr Joshi said that when he first met Harrison, who died in 2001, he came across as “very lonely”. He said: “He was an intellectual figure who looked very successful but was very lonely in the crowd and I just picked up on that.
“What he told me at the time is he always felt the underdog in the group.” Mr Joshi said Harrison told him wanted to do something different, so he composed and produced a “rock song in an Indian style”. Singer Ashish Khan performed the vocals on the track while Harrison played the guitar and Starr offered to accompany on drums.
Mr Joshi said: “It was a miracle for me to have big stars like that play for me.” Harrison was known to have been inspired by Indian music and culture and Mr Joshi said he turned to meditation to give him confidence.
Source: Eleanor Barlow/ca.style.yahoo.com
Paul McCartney has responded to a fan’s declaration of love that was made six decades ago.
The Beatles singer-songwriter, 81, shared his reply in a video message on Instagram.
At the start of the video, a clip from is played, in which a woman who calls herself Adrienne is interview by a journalist ahead of the band’s first US tour in 1963.
“Paul McCartney if you are listening, Adrienne from Brooklyn loves you with all her heart,” says the woman.
McCartney then addressed the fan, speaking into the camera.
“Hey Adrienne, it’s Paul,” he says. “Listen, I saw your video. I’m in Brooklyn now. I’m in New York. I finally got here. We got an exhibition, a photo exhibition. Come along and see it!”
He then points down the lens with his finger, smiling.
A new exhibition, Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm, is currently running at the Brooklyn museum until 18 October. The show contains photographs taken by the Beatle documenting the band’s first US trip.
In a caption alongside the video, he wrote: “And Adrienne from Brooklyn if you are listening, Paul McCartney from Liverpool loves you too"
Source: Louis Chilton/independent.co.uk
George Harrison brought the sounds of India to The Beatles on songs like “Love You To” and “Within You Without You.” But that wasn’t his only lane. On “Piggies” off the White Album, he used a positively antiquated, very properly British musical backdrop to make a stinging comment on society at the time.
What is “Piggies” about? How did Harrison get help with the writing from both a fellow Beatle and a beloved relative? And who stepped in to play the harpsichord on the track? Let’s dive deep into this porcine production by the Fab Four.
When you look at the songwriting that George Harrison did as a member of The Beatles, an interesting contrast emerges. On the one hand, Harrison could take a cosmic, spiritual overview of the world while urging others to do the same. This was a byproduct of his own study of religion and his inner yearning to make sense of life and death.
But he could also turn on a dime and pick apart the injustices perpetrated by the powers that be. He famously did that on “Taxman,” which was, in its way, The Beatles’ first ever protest song, well before John Lennon started to get political on songs like “Revolution.”
Around the same time that he wrote “Taxman,” Harrison also penned “Piggies,” another piece of social commentary set to music. Stuck for some of the lyrics, Harrison turned to Lennon, who chipped in the line to eat their bacon (it was originally pork chops). Meanwhile, Harrison’s mother Louise, of all people, came up with the phrase damn good whacking to help out the middle eight.
Source: Jim Beviglia/americansongwriter.com
Back in 1973, John Lennon and Yoko Ono founded an imaginary country, Nutopia. Launched to great fanfare at a press conference held at the New York City Bar Association in Midtown Manhattan, it was a reaction to Lennon's ongoing problems with the US immigration service, who were threatening to deport the former Beatles man back to the UK.
"Citizenship of the country can be obtained by declaration of your awareness of Nutopia," he explains. "Nutopia has no land, no boundaries, no passports, only people. Nutopia has no laws other than cosmic. All people of Nutopia are ambassadors of the country. As two ambassadors of Nutopia, we ask for diplomatic immunity and recognition in the United Nations for our country and its people."
"Anybody could be a citizen of this country," says Yoko Ono today. "Anybody could be a citizen of this country. Citizens were automatically the country’s ambassadors. The country’s body was the airfield of our joint thoughts. Its constitution was our love, and its spirit our dreams. We produced a white handkerchief from our pockets and said, “This is a flag to Surrender to Peace.” Not 'Fight for Peace’, but 'Surrender to Peace’ was the important bit."
Source: Fraser Lewry/loudersound.com
Sean Ono Lennon, the son of John and Yoko, has said his music collaboration with Sir Paul McCartney’s son James came about “naturally” and was not to “fulfil something for the Beatles fans”.
The multi-instrumentalist, 48, has released a song called Primrose Hill with McCartney, an ode to London’s panoramic viewing spot in Regent’s Park.
Speaking about the track to Chris Hawkins on BBC Radio 6 Music, Ono Lennon said: “It was really special for me. It actually happened quite some time ago, so I wasn’t sure if the song was going to come out or not.
“And so I was very surprised when he gave me a text and said ‘Hey, can we put Primrose Hill out?’ and I was like ‘Well, it’s about time I was hoping you would put it out!’ So yeah, I was thrilled you know. I thought he had forgotten about it or whatever.
“But it happened very naturally. I think a lot of people, I’ve been seeing just the comments section (which I guess one should avoid) but I’ve noticed that people kind of assume we’re trying to start something or we were doing it in order to fulfil something for the Beatles fans.
“But actually it came about very naturally. I was just at his flat in London and he was telling me about a girl he had a crush on, and he was sort of writing a song about it and he kind of wanted me to help him.
“And so all I really did was say ‘Well hey, where did you guys go on your first date?’
Source: Hannah Roberts, PA Entertainment Reporter
On "Everything Fab Four," the acclaimed actor discusses the Beatles, his career and Netflix series "A Man in Full"
Emmy Award-winning actor Jeff Daniels joined host Kenneth Womack to talk about the lesson he learned from George Harrison, the beauty of “Get Back,” his new Netflix series “A Man in Full” and much more on “Everything Fab Four,” a podcast co-produced by me and Womack (a music scholar who also writes about pop music for Salon) and distributed by Salon.
Daniels, who has lit up the screen for decades in such films as “Dumb and Dumber,” “The Squid and the Whale” and “Arachnophobia,” is also a stage actor and playwright, in addition to being a musician. And his introduction to how music could change the world arrived in elementary school when the Beatles debuted on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964. As he told Womack, “You could just feel a change in the room. Here were fourth-grade girls, and they were in love with these British mop tops.”
His own admiration for the band didn’t really take off until a few years later, with the release of their “Sgt. Pepper” album. “It freed them up to chase anything,” said Daniels, “as long as it was different than what they'd done before.” Little did he know that as he continued to buy each album the Beatles released from then on, that one day he would end up in the same room – professionally – with one of his musical heroes.
“In 1988 I got cast in an indie movie called ‘Checking Out,’” he told Womack, which was produced by George Harrison’s company Handmade Films. While shooting in Los Angeles, Harrison visited the set. “A photographer captured a photo of George talking, because he was the only one who could talk. I was in awe and unable to speak.” Daniels had his guitar with him and asked George to sign it, and the former Beatle obliged – and ended up playing 20 minutes’ worth of songs for the people in the room. “He knew he was giving us a gift that we would talk about forever. It was a very giving thing for him to do, and I never forgot that.”
Source: salon.com
Ringo Starr just released a new four-track EP titled Crooked Boy that was written and produced by acclaimed songwriter and producer Linda Perry. In the coming weeks, the former Beatles drummer will be launching a new tour with his All Starr Band, but Ringo says that fans who attend the shows shouldn’t expect to hear him perform any of his new tunes.
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Starr was interviewed recently by Nic Harcourt from the Los Angeles-area radio station 88.5 FM The SoCal Sound, and was asked if he planned to play songs from Crooked Boy.
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“No, I’m not playing the new music,” Starr said. He then quipped, “I’ll mention it. I thank the five of them for buying it, usually.”
Source: Matt Friedlander/americansongwriter.com
