Beatles News
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
It must have been tough at times for George Harrison. To be in a band with the likes of Paul McCartney and John Lennon—that’s like being an All-Star athlete but sitting behind Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, Kobe and Shaq.
But despite that situation, Harrison was able to write more songs that fans might remember for the Beatles. Many of the tracks he wrote became some of the group’s biggest hits. These are five songs you likely didn’t know Harrison wrote for the Beatles.
Source: Jacob Uitti/americansongwriter.com
The Beatles released their first hit “Love Me Do” on 5th October 1962, sparking a phenomenon known as 'Beatlemania' across the world.
Source: The Collector
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. George Harrison said Magic Alex Mardas was a disaster in the studio for The Beatles
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
Janis Joplin was like a fireworks display. Brilliantly explosive, colorful and stunning, bombastic and captivating, a kaleidoscopic wonder burning loud and brightly that ends nearly as soon as it starts. Like far too many others in the history of rock ‘n’ roll, Joplin’s legacy is one of admiration and contemplation.
Age 27 at the time of her tragic death, Joplin released only three albums in her lifetime. A fourth, Pearl, was posthumously released the year after her death.
Joplin’s two albums with Big Brother & The Holding Company, 1967’s self-titled debut and 1968’s Cheap Thrills, immediately established the Port Arthur, Texas native as one of the all-time iconic voices in rock ‘n’ roll. Incorporating influences from pioneering Black musicians like Big Mama Thornton, Bessie Smith and Leadbelly, Joplin’s unparalleled vocal delivery and thrilling stage performances put her in the center of the late-1960s counter-cultural movement.
Released as a solo album, I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama! was delivered in 1969 and featured a new backing group, the the Kozmic Blues Band. In 1970, Joplin’s career evolved again as she formed a new supporting group called the Full Tilt Boogie Band. The same year, Joplin toured Canada on the Festival Express train tour with the likes of the Grateful Dead and The Band.
Source: Andy Kahn/Jambase.com
iHeartPodcasts and Pushkin will debut the much anticipated McCartney: A Life In Lyrics podcast. The 12-part series, based on the best-selling book, is hosted by the poet Paul Muldoon, who explains in the first episode, which I was given exclusively for first listen, "We worked together on a book looking at more than 150 of his songs. And we recorded many hours of our conversations. This is McCartney: A Life In Lyrics; a master class, a memoir and an improvised journey with one of the most iconic figures in popular music. Each episode is centered about the writing of a particular song and the circumstances surrounding it."
Episode one, premiering today, focuses on the song "Eleanor Rigby." But before that, McCartney offers some insight into his love of writing. An aspiring poet who was friends with the iconic poet Allen Ginsberg ("Howl"), McCartney exclaims at the outset of the 19-minute episode, "Oh my God, I wanted to become a person who wrote songs. And I wanted to be someone whose life was in music."
Source: Steve Baltin/forbes.com
Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" connects to a Beatles song George Harrison wrote. One of the songs was a much bigger hit than the other.
All roads lead to Rome — and all classic rock roads lead to The Beatles. Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” has a major connection to a song from The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour. One of the songs blew the other out of the water commercially, no pun intended.
During a 1972 interview with Rolling Stone, Simon discussed the origin of “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” “Me and Artie [Garfunkel] and [Simon’s wife] Peggy [Harper] were living in this house with a bunch of other people throughout the summer,” he said. “It was a house on Blue Jay Way, the one George Harrison wrote ‘Blue Jay Way’ about.” The two tracks are a study in contrast, as “Blue Jay Way” is a sleepy psychedelic tune, while “Bridge Over Troubled Water” is a forceful power ballad.
“We had this Sony machine and Artie had the piano, and I’d finished working on a song, and we went into the studio,” Simon added. “I had it written on guitar, so we had to transpose the song. I had it written in the key of G, and I think Artie sang it in E. E flat.”
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/Cheatsheet
John Lennon compared "Give Peace a Chance" to Elvis Costello's "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding." A rabbi inspired the former.
Some classic rock stars got credit for things they didn’t do. John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance” was inspired by a phrase he didn’t coin. Interestingly, the tune was inspired by a rabbi who was also a folk singer.
Source:Matthew Trzcinski/Cheatsheet
