Beatles News
Paul McCartney has been making music with Ringo Starr ever since the classic Beatles lineup was solidified in 1962. But they’d never actually duetted on a track until McCartney began assembling his upcoming LP The Boys Of Dungeon Lane, and the new song “Home To Us” felt like a natural place to feature Starr on vocals alongside himself.
“In writing the song I’m talking about where we came from,” McCartney told members of the press who assembled in Abbey Road on May 5 to hear a preview of the new album. “In common with a lot of people, you come from nothing, and you build yourself up. Ringo was from the Dingle, and that was well hard. He said he used to get mugged coming home because he worked. Even though it was crazy, it was home to us.”
“I made the song around that idea and sent it to Ringo,” he continued. “He sent me back a version where he just added some lines to the chorus, so I thought, maybe he doesn’t like it. I rang him, and he said he thought I only wanted him to sing one or two lines, and I said I’d love to hear him sing the whole thing. So we took my first line, Ringo’s second line, and then we had a duet. We’d never done that before. Then we wanted some backing vocals and I had the idea it would be nice to hear girls. Chrissie Hynde said she’d do it, and Sharleen Spiteri, they’re mates. So they did it.”
Like many songs on The Boys Of Dungeon Lane, which was produced by Andrew Watt, “Home To Us” looks back on McCartney’s life with a heavy dose of nostalgia. The title comes from a line one “Days We Left Behind,” which references an area near Liverpool’s River Mersey where McCartney played as a child. It also reflects on the “secret code” he shared with John Lennon at his childhood home. “I stand by what I said,” he sings. “The promise that I made will never be broken.”
“This was a lot of memories of Liverpool for me,” McCartney told the press, “but also any days we’ve left behind. Everyone’s got them – school, old mates. [The song] has memories of John in the middle, that’s lovely to go back to.” When asked what sort of “secret code” he had with Lennon, McCartney laughed. “I’m not telling,” he said. “You make a lot of stuff up when you write songs.”
Source: rollingstone.com/Andy Greene
Sir Paul McCartney shocked and delighted fans with a return to Abbey Road studios - playing them his new album and admitting it was “emotional” talking it through with memories of his life and career.
The Beatles legend returned to the venue where the Fab Four recorded many of their biggest hits to launch his LP The Boys of Dungeon Lane which will be released later this month.
A few dozen lucky competition winners were led into Studio two which had been set with a stage filled with framed bird sketches, a chair and a guitar.
Sir Paul then emerged from a control room and walked down some stairs and said with a grin: “Hello and welcome. This is a listening party. I’m going to play the album and then try to find something to say about it!”
But Paul found plenty of words to accompany the 14 tracks and even had anecdotes about the choice of venue.
He said some strings and woodwind parts of the LP had even been recorded at Abbey Road recently and then looking back to the Beatles days said: “We were here forever, we spent days and days in this studio.
“We used the tradesman’s entrance, up the stairs is the posh entrance for people like George Martin!”
Both on the song lyrics and in the talk he regularly referenced Liverpool and growing up in the city, where he would meet John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison and go on to before the fab four, amongst the most famous people in the world.
After playing the single Days We Left Behind, which was released in March he said: “It is a little emotional because I’m talking about John and George and Ringo.
Source: mirror.co.uk/Mark Jefferies
The special exhibition – at Hamburg’s City Hall – features a rare set of Beatles photographs and letters
It opens as a Liverpool City Region business and culture delegation heads to Hamburg to strengthen economic ties
The exhibition has been created to celebrate Liverpool City Region’s role as the official partner of Hamburg’s annual port festival – Hafengebustag A Mayoral Joint Declaration of Intent will be signed during the visit to identify and promote long-term economic and maritime cooperation
A special exhibition featuring a rare set of Beatles photographs and letters written by the band’s five original members whilst in Hamburg, is set to go on display in the German city this week.
Entitled Harbour Cities-Global Stages, the exhibition has been created to celebrate Liverpool City Region’s role as the official partner of Hamburg’s annual port festival – Hafengebustag. Encompassing 48 panels, across six pillars, the free exhibition will go on public display in Hamburg’s City Hall – the Rathaus Rathausdiele – from May 7-25 and is expected to be seen by more than 10,000 people.
The Beatles section features historic elements such as the only Lennon and McCartney letter in existence, the first photograph of John, Paul and George performing together, a photo of their first gig in Hamburg as well as an insight into how they had started to feel like stars and how they secured their first recording contract.
Source: liverpoolcityregion-ca.gov.uk
George Harrison didn’t always get his due in The Beatles, but when he did get a song out, it proved to be among the band’s most successful ventures. Harrison was able to remove any blockades—i.e., bandmates who thought they knew better—once he launched into his solo career. His time as a solo artist produced many audience-thrilling tracks, including the three below. These songs rivaled anything he did with The Beatles, proving that any snubs he got while with the band were unfounded.
We’re starting off this list with Harrison’s cover of a Bob Dylan staple, “If Not For You.” This sweet, simple ballad feels as though Harrison could’ve written it himself. He sings it with complete earnestness, and it’s tender enough to be his writing.
Regardless of the fact that this song is a cover, it remains one of Harrison’s most stunning solo songs. The former Beatle did Dylan proud with this intimate redo. It may not beat out “Something,” but it’s a strong contender for Harrison’s best ballad.
“Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)”
Never has a song summed up someone’s ethos better than “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)” did for Harrison. The former Beatle was all about spirituality, and this song is indicative of that. It features the intimate, tender songwriting that became a hallmark for Harrison—both in his time with The Beatles and as a solo act.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Alex Hopper
The Rolling Stones have released a cryptic Instagram post, hinting at the possible release of new music. The rock group shared a 13-second video to their 4.2 million fans on Friday, featuring their signature tongue and lips logo over a moving background including what appears to be different letters, words and symbols.
The posts come amid rumours that the band are preparing to release a new album, which would be their first since their 2023 Grammy Award-winning record Hackney Diamonds. Rumours of new music were first sparked last month when a series of cryptic messages including posters and QR codes linked to The Cockroaches popped up around London, believed to be connected to the band.
The Rolling Stones have also reportedly released music and performed gigs under the pseudonym The Cockroaches, with teaser videos hinting at the name shared to their Instagram.
The Cockroaches later released a limited-edition vinyl single, titled Rough And Twisted on April 11, which was reportedly only sold exclusively at independent record stores.
Formed in London in 1962, The Rolling Stones have a long history of chart-topping albums and number one singles, including (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, Paint It Black and Start Me Up. The band has had various members throughout the years, with its current line-up consisting of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood. After the long-serving member Charlie Watts passed away in August 2021 at the age of 80, musician Steve Jordan has stepped in as the group’s drummer.
Source: mirror.co.uk/Myriam Toua
The Beatles broke all sorts of new ground during their decade-long reign, both onstage and in the studio. In the nearly six decades since their 1970 split, few musical acts have come close to matching the Fab Four’s musical impact. That musical dynasty officially began 63 years ago today (May 2, 1963) when they first reached the top of the charts with their single “From Me to You”.
In many ways, “From Me to You” is the earliest example of the masterful songwriting partnership between John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who wrote the song on a coach trip to Shrewsbury while the Beatles were on tour with British jazz-pop star Helen Shapiro.
The title came from the letters section in British magazine the New Musical Express, which they were reading at the time. “We nearly didn’t record it because we thought it was too bluesy at first, but when we’d finished it and George Martin had scored it with harmonica, it was all right,” recalled Lennon in 1980.
The Beatles released “From Me to You” in April 1963, less than a month after their debut studio album, Please Please Me. Their first two singles, “Love Me Do” and “Please Please Me” had done well in the United Kingdom, peaking at No. 17 and No. 2 on the pop charts, respectively. But “From Me to You” catapulted the Fab Four to a new level of fame in their home country, topping what would become the official UK singles chart.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Erinn Callahan
Writing a melody as timeless and moving as The Beatles’ “Yesterday” isn’t something most of us would consider a “problem.” But in the mid-1960s, that’s precisely what that song was for the Fab Four.
Although the song is credited to the Lennon-McCartney partnership and billed as The Beatles (as was “the creed of the day,” per producer George Martin in Anthology), “Yesterday” was solely a Paul McCartney composition. The melody came to him in a dream, he came up with the lyrics, and he’s the only Beatle performing on the album version.
Therein was the problem: The Beatles were a rock band. And “Yesterday” didn’t have rock ‘n’ roll or a band to speak of. Speaking to PBS, Martin recalled the song “presented a problem for me, and I think for The Beatles, too, in that it didn’t fit the pattern. It wasn’t a song you could do with two guitars, bass guitar, and drums. It was something much more delicate.”
So, Martin set out to do the most important producer job of all: getting the roadblock out of the way. George Martin Helped Define “Yesterday,” and Paul Made Sure Some Rock Remained.
Both the band and producer George Martin recounted reaching a consensus that “Yesterday” ought to be performed solely by Paul McCartney. There was nothing that George Harrison, John Lennon, and Ringo Starr could think to contribute, and they preferred to sit out instead of muddying the song’s potential. It was Martin who suggested they bring in strings, though McCartney had his hesitations.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Melanie Davis
A rare set of letters and photos from the early days of the Beatles, in which they write about feeling like stars for the first time, is to go on display in Hamburg.
The collection, from an influential period when the band lived in the German city, includes the only letter in existence with words from both Paul McCartney and John Lennon, which was written to the bassist’s brother, Mike McCartney.
The free exhibition, which runs from 8 to 25 May and is part of Hamburg’s annual port festival, Hafengeburtstag, revolves around the original five members of the band during a period that massively shaped their sound and look between 1960 and 62.
Mike McCartney, who donated some of the letters to the collection put together by the Liverpool city region combined authority and the Hamburg senate, said: “It’s fascinating, because they [give] you so many secrets about them as they are developing.”
“It was quite extraordinary, because our kid is just saying what’s happening there in a foreign land, over the water. And it was a very important stage in their development,” Mike told the Guardian.
The letters, also gathered from The Cavern Club and the Liverpool Beatles Museum, reveal the thoughts of Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, as well as those of the original bassist, Stuart Sutcliffe, who died shortly after the Hamburg period from a brain haemorrhage at the age of 21, and the original drummer, Pete Best, who was hired specifically for their first visit to Hamburg.
In a letter from Best to his mother, he recalls how he, Lennon and McCartney felt like stars boarding their plane, having been interviewed by a member of the press about them being voted Liverpool’s number one band.
Source: theguardian.com/Robyn Vinter
In his book The Lyrics: 1956 To The Present, Paul McCartney reflects on the “imposter syndrome” he sometimes felt as a member of a band as huge as The Beatles. He also shares the inspiration behind his song “The Other Me”, which appears on his 1983 album, Pipes Of Peace. In the song, McCartney apologizes to the listener for perhaps not acting like the best version of himself.
I know I was a crazy fool
For treating you the way I did
But something took a hold of me
And I acted like a dustbin lid
I didn’t give a second thought
To what the consequence might be
I really wouldn’t be surprised
If you were trying to find another me.
McCartney writes, “We all get into situations where we put our foot in our mouth. We say something we didn’t mean to say, or say something that is taken amiss. So this song is an apology.”
Although he is calling himself out a bit, the song also expresses hope that a better version of him is out there somewhere.
But every time you pull me out
I find it harder not to see
That we can build a better life
If I can try to find the other me.
How Being a Beatle Gave Paul McCartney Imposter Syndrome
“The Other Me” is a fascinating song because, while hoping for a shot to be the other version of himself, McCartney simultaneously wonders what “the other me” might even look like.
Source:
americansongwriter.com/Kat Caudill
At age 83, Paul McCartney shows no signs of slowing down. Just last year, he closed a triumphant North American tour where he proved he could give any young new artist a run for their money. And this year will be just as busy. In May, he will be releasing a new album, titled The Boys of Dungeon Lane. The title and the single he released with the announcement set the tone for what will apparently be a very nostalgic album, looking back on his childhood, his hometown, and, of course, his early years with The Beatles.
And who better to join him in this endeavor than his oldest friend, his former bandmate, Ringo Starr. The two surviving Beatles have joined forces on several occasions through the years, but now, for the first time ever, they will be doing a duet. This piece of news sent Beatles fans into a frenzy, and the story of how the duet came together is even more interesting.
Paul McCartney's New Album Will Feature a Collab With His Fellow Beatle
A few days ago, producer Andrew Watt, who produced Paul McCartney's upcoming album, invited a handful of lucky fans to his home in Los Angeles for a listening party. The invitation was to listen to The Boys of Dungeon Lane ahead of its upcoming release and then discuss it with the producer, but they got the biggest surprise of their lives when Paul McCartney himself showed up and took over the event, sharing insight on the songs and how he'd written them. And revealing that it would feature a duet between the two surviving Beatles.
Source: collider.com/Val Barone
