Beatles News
McCartney sets the record straight about Lennon's feelings towards "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" in a 2018 interview with Howard Stern.
Lennon's love for Yoko Ono played a role in the breakup of The Beatles, according to McCartney.
McCartney and Lennon reconciled after The Beatles' breakup, bonding over shared experiences and even discussing parenting.
John Lennon's history with The Beatles has been marred by various fan speculations and statements from the band members over the years. But what really divided their supporters was Paul McCartney's complicated relationship with the late musician.
In a 2018 interview with Howard Stern, McCartney set the record straight about how Lennon's love triangle romance with Yoko Ono affected The Beatles. But when the host insinuated something about Lennon "not liking" one of their hits, the richest Beatle went into defensive mode, for which fans commended him.
On September 5, 2018, McCartney went on The Howard Stern Show to promote his 17th studio album, Egypt Station. There, Stern played Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, and then asked his guest if Lennon "didn't like this song." The Say Say Say hitmaker replied, "Who says? No, John did like this song."
He then shared how they came up with the catchy track. "We went on vacation and we were in Rishikesh (in India) studying meditation with Maharishi [Mahesh Yogi, founder of Transcendental Meditation]," McCartney recalled. "There was a friend of mine, an African guy. He was called Jimmy Scott... And we would jive together... And he would say 'Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, brah. Yah, man, yah man.'"
Source: Gia Marcos/thethings.com
The latter years of The Beatles have become an arena for debate once more. Where fan lore previously held that 1969 to their dissolution was a fractured period, of endless in-group inter-fighting, Get Back has shown that actually, things weren’t so bad at times. Yet one song remains beyond the pale for Ringo Starr – ‘Abbey Road’ knockabout ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’.
A Paul McCartney endeavour that matches music hall aspects against then groundbreaking technology, it took a number of sessions before the songwriter was entirely happy with it. Sadly, the studio grind took its toll on the rest of the group.
Ringo Starr, for example, was left exhausted by his bandmate’s perfectionism. In a 2008 interview with Rolling Stone he said it was “the worst session ever” and “the worst track we ever had to record”, before adding: “it went on for fucking weeks”.
That’s perhaps a little strong. Kicked off in 1968, Paul McCartney initially wanted to include ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ on the White Album, before time constraints pushed it back. Rehearsed during the Get Back era, it was finally recorded six months later.
Source: Robin Murray/clashmusic.com
John Lennon, born on October 9, 1940, in Liverpool, England, was a legendary singer, songwriter, and peace activist who co-founded the iconic rock band, The Beatles. He was a pivotal figure in the music industry and became one of the most influential and celebrated musicians of the 20th century.
In the early 1960s, along with Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, John Lennon formed The Beatles, a band that would revolutionize popular music and become a cultural phenomenon. As the primary songwriter and co-lead vocalist of the group, Lennon’s creative contributions were instrumental in shaping their sound and style.
The Beatles’ massive success and unprecedented fame brought Beatlemania to the world, influencing an entire generation and changing the landscape of popular music forever. Some of Lennon’s most iconic compositions for The Beatles include “Imagine,” “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “A Day in the Life,” and “Let It Be.”
In 1969, John Lennon married artist and musician Yoko Ono, and the couple became known for their activism and advocacy for peace. Their “Bed-In” events, peace protests, and iconic song “Give Peace a Chance” demonstrated Lennon’s commitment to promoting non-violence and social harmony.
Source: Edward Tomlin/singersroom.com
Paul McCartney once freaked out that The Beatles' 'Revolver' was entirely out of tune. He explained how the other Beatles reacted to his feelings.
Paul McCartney isn’t always the most confident man. He once freaked out that The Beatles’ Revolver was entirely out of tune. He explained how the other Beatles reacted to his feelings. John Lennon had something interesting to say about Revolver in retrospect.
During a 2018 interview with 60 Minutes, Paul called Revolver “one of the early Beatles records.” That’s an odd statement. The Beatles bubblegum albums like Please Please Me are usually classified as their early records. Revolver came in the latter half of the band’s career and they’d already made the transition to psychedelic music by that point. Then again, Paul probably has a better understanding of The Beatles’ chronology than anyone else.
Paul wasn’t always a fan of Revolver. “I got the horrors one day,” he said. “I thought it was outta tune. I thought the whole album was outta tune. I listened to it and for some reason just, like, ‘Oh my God.'”
Paul went to his bandmates with the news. “I went to the guys, I said, ‘It’s outta tune. It’s outta — I don’t know what we’re gonna do,'” he recalled. “You know? And they said — and they got a bit worried and listened to it. They said, ‘No, it isn’t.’ I go, ‘Oh, OK.'”
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
The Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever" originally had a country influence. Paul McCartney said the tune has a special connection to "Penny Lane."
The Beatles‘ “Strawberry Fields Forever” is John Lennon’s masterpiece. The Beatle had a hard time remembering the sequence of events that led him to write it. Fascinatingly, Paul McCartney said the tune came out of his rivalry with John — and that it had a special connection to “Penny Lane.”
The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono features an interview from 1980. In it, John said he wrote The Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever” while he was filming the comedy film How I Won the War. The film was directed by Richard Lester, who also helmed A Hard Day’s Night and Help!, as well as Superman II and Superman III starring Christopher Reeve. Despite John and Lester’s involvement, How I Won the War is not one of The Beatles’ films.
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
Paul McCartney has said that Johnny Cash inspired him to form Wings.
McCartney credited the late singer with inspiring him to form the band, having found himself at a crossroads after the Beatles split up.
With several other bandmembers drifting in and out of the band, Wings’ main three players were Paul McCartney, his wife Linda who was on keyboards, and Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine.
Following two unsuccessful albums, Wings eventually released ‘Band On The Run’ in 1973, reaching number one in the UK charts by early 1974, thanks to the album’s title track and Jet. It also hit top spot in the US Billboard Chart.
McCartney previously announced that a special 50th anniversary edition of that album, would be out next month. More on that here.
Before this success was to happen, Paul McCartney admitted that he was in the midst of a musical crossroads, following the Beatles split.
“After the end of The Beatles I was faced with certain alternatives,” he explained. “One was to give up music entirely and do God knows what. Another was to start a super-band with very famous people, Eric Clapton and so on. I didn’t like either so I thought: How did The Beatles start?”.
He added, “It was a bunch of mates who didn’t know what they were doing,” he continued. “That’s when I realised maybe there is a third alternative: to get a band that isn’t massively famous, to not worry if we don’t know what we’re doing because we would form our character by learning along the way. It was a real act of faith. It was crazy, actually”.
Source: Dalton Mac Namee/nova.ie
Ringo Starr had a good relationship with John Lennon. Still, he was the last of The Beatles to learn that his bandmate had gotten married.
Ringo Starr joined The Beatles in 1962, several years into John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison’s musical collaboration. While he fit in with them well, he was still initially an outsider. This meant that he wasn’t always in on information the other Beatles had. When Lennon got married, for example, Starr had no idea.
In 1962, Lennon married his longtime girlfriend, Cynthia, when he learned she was pregnant. They tried to keep their union and child a secret from the public. They also kept the secret from Starr.
“George and I started out sharing an apartment in Green Street, Park Lane,” he said in The Beatles Anthology. “£45 a week it cost — a fortune! John was living with Cynthia.”
This was when they informed Starr that they were married. According to him, they worried he’d accidentally leak the news.
“That’s when they finally told me they were married — they’d kept it a secret in case I told somebody,” he said. “They didn’t really trust me, you know. Just joking!”
In fairness to Starr, though, the other Beatles knew little about the wedding.
“I don’t remember much about John’s wedding,” Harrison said. “It took place in August 1962. He just went in some office in Liverpool one afternoon, and in the evening we got in Brian [Epstein’s] car, went to the gig (we actually did a gig that night) and it was, ‘Well, we got married.’ It wasn’t hushed up, it just wasn’t mentioned to the press. There was no wedding — it was a five-minute thing in a Registry Office. It was different in those days. No time to lose.”
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
George Harrison began to grow tired of The Beatles by the mid-1960s. By the end of the decade, he would have done anything to get out of the band.
When The Beatles officially broke up in 1969, George Harrison breathed a sigh of relief. He had grown tired of the band and had even briefly quit. While he acknowledged that being in the band had some benefits, he saw it as a rut. He said that by the end of the
When Harrison became more interested in writing songs, his frustration with The Beatles began to mount. Paul McCartney and John Lennon were the band’s primary songwriters, and they didn’t seem to want this to change. They pushed back on Harrison’s contributions and valued their work over his. As a result, he saw the band’s breakup as a chance to grow creatively.
“My feeling when we went our separate ways was to enjoy the space that it gave me, the space to be able to think at my own speed and to have some musicians in the studio who would accompany me on my songs,” Harrison said in The Beatles Anthology. “It sounds strange, because most people would like to be in The Beatles, or at that time it looked like such a great thing to be in. And it was. But it was also a great thing to get out of — just as when you grow up and leave home and spread your wings.”
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
The Beatles' "Do You Want to Know a Secret?" was even more secretive than you thought! John Lennon said he penned the song in a "secret little apartment" in Liverpool.
The Beatles‘ “Do You Want to Know a Secret?” was even more secretive than you thought! John Lennon said he penned the song in a “secret little apartment” owned by an important figure in rock ‘n’ roll history. Paul McCartney’s memories of the song contradict John’s.
The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono features a 1980 interview. In it, John discussed The Beatles’ “Do You Want to Know a Secret?” That ballad was one of the rare Beatles hits with lead vocals from George Harrison.
“Well, I can’t say I wrote it for George,” John said. “I was in the first apartment I’d ever had that wasn’t shared by fourteen other students — gals and guys at art school. I’d just married Cyn, and [The Beatles’ manager] Brian Epstein gave us his secret little apartment that he kept in Liverpool for his sexual liaisons separate from his home life. And he let Cyn and I have that apartment.”
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
John Lennon felt he deserved credit for getting one of George Harrison's songs released as the B-side of The Beatles' "The Ballad of John and Yoko." The latter is edgy.
It would be an understatement to say John Lennon and George Harrison had some issues with each other. John felt he deserved credit for getting one of George’s songs released as the B-side of The Beatles’ “The Ballad of John and Yoko.” The latter song did well despite its edgy lyrics.
The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono features a 1980 interview. During the interview, the “Instant Karma!” singer said he didn’t like his unflattering portrayal in George’s book I, Me, Mine. John recalled times he looked out for George.
“I made sure George got the B-side of ‘The Ballad of John and Yoko,’ I think,” he said, referring to George’s song “Old Brown Shoe.” “And those little things he doesn’t remember. You know, I always tried … It was because of me that Ringo and George got a piece of John and Paul’s songwriting.”
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
