Beatles News
Phil Spector said critics hated his work on The Beatles’ “The Long and Winding Road.” He said it was fun to read critics say he “took all the guts out of” The Beatles. Spector gave fans insight into Paul McCartney’s role in recording the album Let It Be.
Phil Spector produced The Beatles‘ “The Long and Winding Road.” Subsequently, critics “destroyed” him for his contributions to the song. Critics took issue with one specific element of the ballad’s production.
The 2003 book Phil Spector: Out of His Head says The Beatles’ “The Long and Winding Road” received negative reviews from critics. Reviewers disliked the string section Spector added to the track, claiming it made the song sound too sentimental.
“Critically, I was destroyed,” Spector recalled. “They just panned the s*** out of me. It was fun to see people getting into it … ‘how Spector ruined The Beatles’ and how I took all the guts out of them.”
Spector discussed how people should think about “The Long and Winding Road” in retrospect. “Now that it’s sold 3 million, and it’s all over and done with, they should listen to what was there beforehand, I mean really listen to it,” he said.
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/
cheatsheet.com
Even Ringo Starr wasn’t spared in The Beatles’ bitter breakup. His drumming increasingly shone through in the music (he praised his work on “Get Back”) in the later years, but none of that mattered as the band dissolved. Paul McCartney threatened the drummer when he visited his house, and Ringo admitted he got very emotional about being attacked by his bandmate.
The Beatles were technically still together in 1970 when Paul’s debut solo album was set to hit shelves that April. The only trouble was it was scheduled to come out a week after the Fab Four’s Let It Be.
Ringo, John Lennon, and George Harrison didn’t think that was the wisest decision, so they wrote a letter pleading with Paul to change his release date. The drummer decided he should deliver it instead of a courier. Macca read the letter and erupted.
Paul threatened Ringo and threw the drummer out of his house. Things got so hostile that the meeting between longtime bandmates almost came to blows. Being verbally assaulted — Paul uttered an “I’ll finish you!” according to You Never Give Me Your Money author Peter Doggett — and nearly attacked made Ringo emotional.
Source: Jason Rossi/cheatsheet.com
Producer George Martin called The Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” a “typical John song.” Martin discussed the public reaction to the track. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was a huge hit in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Producer George Martin worked on The Beatles‘ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. He revealed what he thought of The Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” Subsequently, he hated when the song was used in a program about LSD.
The book The Beatles: Paperback Writer includes an excerpt from Martin’s 1979 book All You Need Is Ears. In the latter book, Martin discussed John Lennon’s songwriting.
“Compared with Paul’s songs, all of which seemed to keep in some sort of touch with reality, John’s had a psychedelic, almost mystical quality,” he said. “‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ was a typical John song in that respect, and a lot of analysts and psychiatrists were later to describe it as the drug song of all time. They were talking rubbish, but the tag stuck.”
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
Paul McCartney claimed his bandmate George Harrison got The Rolling Stones a recording contract with the label that turned The Beatles down. That isn’t all the Fab Four did to kick-start their friends’ careers. Later, The Beatles gave The Rolling Stones a hit song.
In The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, Paul recalled a day in the summer of 1963, shortly after The Beatles moved to London, when he and John Lennon admired the guitars on display in shops on Charing Cross Road.
The Beatles were fairly new and they’d only been a part of the EMI family for about a year. They didn’t have any No. 1 hits in the U.S. yet, but they did have a No. 1 in the U.K., “Please Please Me.” Then came their second, “From Me To You” (their first No. 1 on the official U.K. chart).
As Paul and John looked through the shop windows, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards drove by. The Rolling Stones invited to drive them up town. In the car, Jagger told Paul and John that they’d finally landed a recording contract.
Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com
George Harrison became involved in Transcendental Meditation, Indian music, and even wrote a song about the Hindu god Krishna — “My Sweet Lord.” Here’s what this Beatle said about his connection with the country and its culture.
In 1967, George Harrison answered questions for the BBC Radio program Scene And Heard. There, he commented on his close connection with Indian culture and what drew him to this country, in particular.
“When I first noticed that I was interested with the music first of all…,” Harrison said (via Beatles Interviews), “and along with that I’d heard stories of people in caves. Yogis, as they’re known. People levitating and dematerializing. And doing all sorts of wondrous things.”
Source: Julia Dzurillay/cheatsheet.com
Paul McCartney and John Lennon helped make The Beatles what they were. They never got to the bottom of each other’s souls, as Macca once said, but they wrote many of the Fab Four’s biggest hits. But not all good things last. Their working relationship was so fractured that Paul said he was too embarrassed to ask John about singing together on “Come Together.”
John Lennon (left) and Paul McCartney announce The Beatles' Apple Corps. company at a press conference in New York in 1968.
Paul and John guided The Beatles to international stardom. Their songwriting talents gave the world hit songs and all-time great albums. But all good things come to an end.
As George Harrison came into his own as a songwriter, he felt stifled when his songs rarely made it on Fab Four albums. That was by design, as John wanted to limit George’s songwriting, according to Macca. That was just one chink in The Beatles’ armor.
As the 1960s closed, the band members had opposing artistic visions, desires to explore solo careers, and fought about money and who should manage the band. Paul found himself at odds with his bandmates on many levels, and he and John drifted apart as The Beatles disintegrated.
Source: Jason Rossi/cheatsheet.com
Paul McCartney has a history of making subtle references to drugs in his music. Many songs from his solo career and The Beatles contain lyrics that are euphemisms for marijuana or psychedelics. One song from McCartney’s Band on the Run album was about the enjoyment of “rolling a joint.”
The Beatles had a knack for sneaking drug references into their music. An example of this is “Got to Get You into My Life” from their 1966 album Revolver. Written by Paul McCartney, the song seems like any other love song, but he later revealed the song was an “ode to pot.”
In Barry Miles’ biography Many Years From Now, McCartney discussed how he had developed a hobby of smoking weed during his time with The Beatles. He found the drug to have “literally mind-expanding” effects and wanted to write a song about his enjoyment of pot.
Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsheet.com
Little Richard might’ve inspired The Beatles’ “Oh! Darling.” Paul McCartney said he tried over and over to get the song’s vocals just right.
John Lennon liked “Oh! Darling” but he felt it had a flaw.
Paul McCartney could do an impression of Little Richard. A sound engineer said Little Richard might have inspired The Beatles‘ “Oh! Darling.” Paul shared his memories of crafting the song.The 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now says Paul was always a Little Richard fan. He memorized all of Little Richard’s hits. Paul felt Little Richard could write several rock ‘n’ roll songs in a row with ease while The Beatles struggled with that, at least during their early days.“I could do Little Richard’s voice, which is a wild, hoarse, screaming thing, it’s like an out-of-body experience,” he said. “You have to leave your current sensibilities and go about a foot above your head to sing it.”
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
It’s not a stretch to say The Beatles completely altered the pop music landscape. Their sweet pop hits won over young fans and reached the top of singles charts in England and the United States. The albums from their studio period remain all-time classics, and some of the most famous songs weren’t singles. Interestingly, the first album The Beatles played on (and the first single) wasn’t one of their records.The Beatles cut their teeth playing clubs in Hamburg, Germany, in the early 1960s. George Harrison once said the nascent band had no clue what they were doing until they went to Hamburg. The rigorous performing schedule helped mold The Beatles into the band they became. (Adding Ringo Starr on drums didn’t hurt).
Source: Jason Rossi/cheatsheet.com
Well, one of them. Sir Paul McCartney recounted his life and time with the legendary ’60s English rock group at Yale University on Thursday while celebrating his new book: “The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present.”
McCartney was joined by editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon and the Neil Gray Jr. Professor of English at Yale Landon Hammer. The trio discussed McCartney’s new book, which delves into 154 songs from all stages of his career: the decade with The Beatles, Wings, and his solo albums.
Fans got a behind-the-scenes look at why certain lyrics were written, the inspiration behind them, and what he thinks of the words now.
SOurce: Olivia Perreault/wtnh.com
