Beatles News
John Lennon’s ex May Pang says that the late musician still wanted to write with Paul McCartney even after The Beatles split.
Pang — who dated Lennon for 18 months from 1973 to 1975 amid a break in his marriage with Yoko Ono — spoke with USA Today in an interview published Friday about the retelling of her relationship with the legendary musician in her documentary,The Lost Weekend: A Love Story.
In a wide-ranging chat about how she and Lennon became involved romantically and details covered in the documentary, Pang, 72, is asked by the outlet if it was “surprising” that Lennon’s “mind goes to ‘Maybe I should start writing with Paul again,’” (in the documentary).
She then explained: “The pressure was off. All of them were now free to do whatever they wanted to do.”
“So in January 1975, Paul and Linda [McCartney] were saying, ‘We’re going to go down to New Orleans and do a new album [Venus and Mars].’ So John says, “Oh, great, New Orleans, always loved it,’” Pang recalled.
She continued, “A couple of days later, he’s tinkling on the guitar, and he goes, ‘What do you think if I wrote with Paul again?’ You talk about shock: The reference is like The Exorcist, the head flips back. And I said, ‘I think it would be great.’"
Source: Alexis Jones/people.com
John Lennon and George Harrison’s creative differences on the song ‘Norwegian Wood’ almost ruined their friendship.
The Beatles had their fair share of fights and conflicts during their time together, with instances of near fistfights and getting kicked out of homes.
John Lennon believed that George Harrison and Ringo Starr were unnecessary to the band's success, but thought Starr would have found success regardless, while he didn't see Harrison reaching his full potential.
Lennon and Harrison had some tension while recording the song "Norwegian Wood," but ultimately managed to record it the way Lennon wanted, despite disagreements.
The Beatles are one of the biggest rock bands of all time. With 2 studio albums, 5 live albums, 51 compilation albums, 36 extended plays (EPs), and 63 singles, they sold millions of copies across the world. Despite their ability to create incredible songs together, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison didn’t always get along.
Source: By Astrid Longi/thethings.com
Producer George Martin's son compared The Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" demo with John Lennon's vocals to gold. Ringo Starr discussed the tune's evolution.
The son of a famous producer found a demo of The Beatles‘ “Yellow Submarine” with John Lennon singing the lead vocal. The demo includes some morose lyrics. Ringo Starr revealed that other members of the band decided to “liven up” the song before they had him sing it.
In 2022, USA Today reported John moped a lot in a demo of The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine.” In the demo, he sangs lines like “In the place where I was born, no one cared, no one cared,” “and the name that I was born, no one cared,” and “in the town where I come from, no one cared.”
Giles Martin, son of Fab Four producer George Martin, discussed the demo. “I had no idea it existed,” he said. “It was a complete discovery and I was surprised. One of the thrills I get when doing this is for people to experience the same thing I experience. Going through the cobwebs and finding the gold — that’s what I want to transfer to other people.”
Martin felt the sad version of “Yellow Submarine” didn’t have as much appeal as the version we all know and love. “It wouldn’t have been as commercial in that original form, and you can hear them working together and pushing each other in different directions,” Martin said. “Which, of course, was their downfall in the end. But at this stage, they were delighted by the way they were creatively pushing each other.”
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
John Lennon was a big fan of a Yoko Ono song he co-produced. He compared himself to Ike Turner and his wife to Tina Turner.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono had a more fruitful musical partnership than many Beatles fans acknowledge. John thought one of Yoko’s songs was so good he wanted it to be an A-side single. The track later influenced the work of the couple’s only child, Sean Ono Lennon.
During a 1980 interview with Rolling Stone, John discussed “Walking on Thin Ice,” Yoko song he co-produced. “We were thinking that this song is so damn good that she should put her own single out, with me on the B side,” he said. “I’d love to be on the B-side of a hit record after all these years.” Several of John’s most famous songs, such as “(Just Like) Starting Over,” “Woman,” and “Happy Xmas (War Is Over).”
“I’d love to be the guitarist — I’m playing backwards guitar on this song,” John added. “I’d settle for it any day. Yoko deserves it, it’s been a long haul. I wouldn’t fight about it at all.” Yoko had a huge impact on popular music, having produced the album Imagine and co-written the title track.
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
Paul McCartney kicked off a new tour of Australia in Adelaide, and to celebrate the trek’s launch, the former Beatles star took part in a special live Q&A event Tuesday (October 17) attended by a small group of lucky fans.9 News Australia reports that only about 20 contest winners got to attend the gathering, each one getting to ask McCartney one question. They also were treated to a six-song soundcheck performance that, according to Setlist.fm, included renditions of The Beatles’ tunes “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Drive My Car,” and “Birthday,” the Wings hit “Let ‘Em In,” and his solo songs “Coming Up” and “Come On to Me.”
ABC.net.au reports that during the Q&A, McCartney mused about the sometimes-magical occurrences that led to the creation of some of his most famous Beatles songs.
“Someone said to me once, ‘Do you believe in magic?’ and I said, ‘Well, I’ve kind of got to,’ because a couple of my songs I didn’t write,” he explained. “I woke up one morning and then there was this tune in my head and it turned out to be ‘Yesterday.’ … It just arrived and I didn’t have to sit down and write it or anything.”
He said something similar happened that inspired “Let It Be.”
Source: Matt Friedlander/americansongwriter.com
Ringo Starr never played The Beatles' "Get Back" in full in the studio. John Lennon said the song was connected to Paul McCartney's feelings about Yoko Ono.
While The Beatles wrote great harmonies, they were far from a harmonious band. Ringo Starr and John Lennon had different takes on The Beatles’ “Get Back.” One had fond memories of the song, especially a famous live version of it, while the other dismissed the track. John famously claimed Paul McCartney wrote the song to express his feelings about Yoko Ono. He also said it sounded a lot like one of the Fab Four’s other hits.
During a 2023 interview with USA Today, Ringo looked back at “Get Back.” “I love [the song] ‘Get Back,'” he said, beaming. “If you look at the [Peter Jackson documentary Get Back] … I never played to the whole song [in the studio]. Anyway, all the bits we were writing, it was regular rock.”
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/CheatSheet
John Lennon's "(Just Like) Starting Over" was a callback to Elvis Presley and other artists who inspired John. John's song is more mature than the Elvis tune that inspired it.
It doesn’t take a genius to hear that John Lennon‘s “(Just Like) Starting Over” was inspired by Elvis Presley’s music. During an interview, John named the Elvis song and the Roy Orbison song that inspired “(Just Like) Starting Over.” He also revealed how much he was indebted to both artists.
During a 1980 Rolling Stone interview recorded in the book Lennon on Lennon: Conversations With John Lennon, John discussed the genesis of “(Just Like) Starting Over.” “All through the taping of ‘Starting Over,’ I was calling what I was doing ‘Elvis Orbison:’ ‘I want you I need only the lonely,'” he said. His words were a clear callback to Elvis’ “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You” and Roy Orbison’s “Only the Lonely,” two songs that influenced “(Just Like) Starting Over.”
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
The Rolling Stones are set to release their first album of original material in nearly 20 years later this week. The set, titled Hackney Diamonds, features a slew of superstar collaborators, including the one and only Paul McCartney. According to one of the members of the band, it seems the former Beatle was as thrilled to be involved as fans of both acts likely are that he was in on the fun.
“He was so happy,” explained Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood when asked about McCartney's experience playing on the band’s new album. The rocker spoke to music outlet NME about Hackney Diamonds and their new work with the Beatles legend, who Wood referred to lovingly as "The schoolboy!"
McCartney is featured on the song "Bite My Head Off" on Hackney Diamonds. The tune has been described as leaning into "punk," which makes it sonically different from much of what’s been heard from the title so far. McCartney played bass on the track, and he's only credited on the liner notes, not as a featured artist or a songwriter.
Source: Hugh McIntyre/forbes.com
Paul McCartney says he would’ve liked to give Yoko Ono a quick “hello, goodbye” when she showed up to the recording studio.
On the latest episode of the “McCartney: A Life in Lyrics” podcast released last week, McCartney confirmed what most fans have long suspected: Ono’s presence during The Beatles’ recording sessions was a workplace “interference.”
McCartney dug into the making of “Let It Be” — The Beatles’ final album in 1970 — during the episode, and spoke candidly about how John Lennon and Ono’s “inseparable” romance only added more tension to his and his bandmates’ already strained relationships with one another.
“So things like Yoko being in the middle, literally in the middle of the recording session, was something you had to deal with,” McCartney said seven minutes into the episode. “And the idea was if John wanted this to happen, then it should happen. There’s no reason why not.”
Source: Elyse Wanshel/huffpost.com
The Beatles hired someone to build them a new studio. According to George Harrison, the entire project was a disaster for the band.
In the late 1960s, George Martin, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison, among others, began voicing their concerns about someone working with The Beatles. “Magic” Alex Mardas was one of Apple Corps’ earliest employees and a friend of John Lennon. He promised them unique electronic decorations and improved recording equipment. The band enlisted him to build them a shiny new studio, a project Harrison later described as a complete disaster.
As an Apple employee, Mardas grew familiar with The Beatles’ recording equipment and told them it was terribly out of date. Per the book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by Barry Miles, Mardas began telling them he could design a seventy-two-track studio that would be more advanced than any existing studio.
Source:Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
