Beatles News
The Beach Boys and the Beatles were often inspired by one another — with Brian Wilson noting similarities between “Girl Don’t Tell Me” and John Lennon’s songwriting. Here’s what we learned from the memoir I Am Brian Wilson.
He’s one of the masterminds behind “God Only Knows,” “I Get Around,” and “Wouldn’t It Be Nice.” Aside from his role in the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson often shared his support for other bands. That includes the Beatles, who rose in popularity around the same time.
In his memoir, Wilson noted that the Beach Boys weren’t creating music “in a vacuum.” As they became popular, the group noticed the rise of rock and roll. They also noted the bands that impacted the music scene.
“One of the most important parts of the takeover was the Beatles,” Wilson wrote. The Beatles even impacted the Beach Boys’ original music — inspiring specific sounds and harmonies.
“I wrote a song called ‘Girl Don’t Tell Me,’” Wilson said in I Am Brian Wilson. “It was one of the first songs that Carl sang lead on, and one of the only songs we did from that time where we didn’t sing in the back of him. It was almost like a different sound.”
Source: Julia Dzurillay/cheatsheet.com
Paul McCartney has a musical gift that he displayed at a very young age. He learned how to play the piano and the guitar and formed The Beatles before many people even went to college. However, Paul McCartney didn’t achieve the same success as his other musical endeavors when he auditioned to become a choir boy and got rejected.
Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Oratorio is a live album by Paul McCartney and Carl Davis, released in 1991. Davis and McCartney composed the show to commemorate the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s 150th anniversary. The album was recorded and performed at the Liverpool cathedral during the show’s dress rehearsal. In an interview with Barnes and Noble’s James Daunt, McCartney shared how this project originated.
“I knew Carl Davis, the composer and conductor, and his wife Jean, and Linda knew Jean. So he turned up one day and he said, ‘The Liverpool Philharmonic is having a big anniversary.’ I think it was 150 years,” McCartney said. “And he said, ‘And they’d like to commission you to write something.’ So I said, ‘Well, great.’ I had no idea what I was doing, but that’s me.
Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsheet.com
Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair's "The McCartney Legacy: Volume 1, 1969-73" is a triumph. Masterful in scope and full of rich detail, the first volume on Paul McCartney's post-Beatles career, out Tuesday from Dey Street Books, kicks off the authors' ambitious literary biography series in fine style.
Over the years, Paul McCartney has been the subject of numerous biographical studies, while remaining frustratingly elusive in terms of sharing the nature of his interior life. Kozinn and Sinclair sagely begin their book with an epigraph in which McCartney himself gets to the heart of the matter. "I'm very good at forgetting who I am," he admits, "because as far as I'm concerned Paul McCartney is a name I was given at birth, and at the beginning of the Beatles he split off into a celebrity, and I remained [as me]. . . . When you talk about Paul McCartney, I talk about the guy inside me, but you're talking about him—the guy who goes onstage and makes records and stuff."
Source: Kenneth Womack/salon.com
George Harrison freaked out some nuns who lived in his estate, Friar Park, before him. The former Beatle should’ve waited until all the nuns were moved out of the 35-acre property before he made it his own.
In the mid-1960s, George purchased a bungalow, Kinfauns, in Surrey. The home should’ve offered George the privacy he craved after living in London amid Beatlemania. However, it didn’t.
George said some fans knew where he lived, especially the students of an all-girls school down the road. He couldn’t have chosen a property with worse surroundings.
“Actually there’s a girls’ school right next to it but the head mistress was good and she told the kids to give me a bit of privacy,” George said.
Still, other fans found the property. There’s a video of some fans getting their autographs signed by George right on his front porch. Once, George and his wife, Pattie Boyd, came home to find two fans had broken in and were hiding under their bed.
In 1970, George needed more privacy.
Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com
It’s been 42 years since the tragic passing of John Lennon on December 8, 1980. Although it’s been decades since he was ruthlessly murdered on his own doorstep, Mary McCartney spoke EXCLUSIVELY with HollywoodLife and recalled how her father Sir Paul McCartney reacted to the passing of his former Beatles bandmate.
Mary McCartney’s first feature-length documentary ‘If These Walls Could Sing’ premieres on Disney+ on December 16 (Mercury Studios/Tim Cragg)
“I think it devastated him and it was a shock because John Lennon was somebody that advocated so strongly for peace,” the photographer and chef said while promoting her upcoming first feature-length documentary, If These Walls Could Sing.
“What happened to him, it upset so many people all around the world, even to this day. I choose to try not to dwell on a day like today, I more choose to celebrate people’s birthdays,” the Mary McCartney Serves It Up star explained.
Source: Sarah Jones/hollywoodlife.com
Paul McCartney has been writing songs since a young age. While growing up in Liverpool, he learned how to play the guitar, and the piano and later met the other band members who would form The Beatles. McCartney has had a music career that has lasted over six decades, and he has no plans to stop anytime soon. In an interview with Barnes & Noble’s James Daunt, Paul McCartney discussed his 2021 book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present. The novel features analysis and backstories about 154 of McCartney’s songs he has written throughout his career. The former Beatle has worked hard to create this much music, but McCartney says he never saw it as work since it was what he loved doing. “I say to people when they say, ‘You work hard,’ I say, ‘Well, we don’t work music, we play it,’” McCartney explains. “And even though it might sound a bit glib, it is true. To me, it would be a hobby if I didn’t do it professionally. It’s just something I love because, you know, you’re creating this thing out of a black hole, and it’s very satisfying. So I love to do that.”
Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsheet.com
Ringo Starr said drummers could be replaced with gorillas and nobody would care. He said people treat drummers like second-class citizens. He wanted attention so much he was fine with negative reviews that at least mentioned him.
Ringo Starr said people didn’t view drummers as fully human. He said a gorilla could have replaced him and other drummers. Subsequently, he made it into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and several other drummers revealed their views of him.According to the 2015 book Ringo: With a Little Help, John Lennon and Paul McCartney spoke their minds in the studio during The Beatles’ early days. They would make it clear what they wanted their songs to sound like even when they were recording tracks written by other people. On the other hand, George Harrison and Ringo tended to be quiet and antisocial.
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
Ringo Starr rerecorded The Beatles‘ “Love Me Do” with a little help from Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. Subsequently, Tyler wrote about crossing paths with Ringo. The former initially wanted to change the song.
In his 2011 book Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Memoir, Tyler discussed getting recruited to work on Ringo’s 1998 album Vertical Man. “Around that time, [producer] Marko Hudson was working on a Ringo album and put me on the phone with him — never mind the fact that it was the first time I’d ever spoken with Ringo, one of my heroes (an actual Beatle), and to say the least I was beside myself,” Tyler wrote.
Tyler was having difficulty with the other members of Aerosmith at the time. “I thought to myself, if I’m having problems with my bandmates and you’re in The Beatles, I can only imagine what you went through,” he recalled.
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
After George Harrison performed with Ringo Starr, Elton John, Jeff Lynne, and Eric Clapton at the Prince’s Trust Concert in 1987, many people thought they’d make a good band. With the idea “bubbling about,” George admitted he liked it.
George performed with his friends at the 1987 Prince’s Trust Concert. On Aspel & Co., George explained that before performing, it felt like he was going to the electric chair. Fortunately, George had Ringo, Clapton, Lynne, and Elton John to support him.
All four musicians also helped George record 1987’s Cloud Nine. Lynne co-produced the album, contributed vocals and various other instruments and co-wrote “That’s What It Takes,” “This Is Love,” and “When We Was Fab.” Ringo contributed drums on various tracks. Clapton added electric guitar on “Cloud 9,” “That’s What It Takes,” “Devil’s Radio,” and “Wreck of the Hesperus.” Meanwhile, Elton John contributed electric piano on “Cloud 9,” piano on “Devil’s Radio,” and “Wreck of the Hesperus.”
Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com
Mary McCartney, the daughter of The Beatles legend Paul McCartney, joined Good Day New York to address the constant death rumors involving her father.
Mary says one conspiracy theory involves the Abbey Road album cover, where Paul is seen being out of step with his bandmates and walking barefoot.
The theory states the white Volkswagen Beetle apparently has a number plate saying "28IF," suggesting Paul would have been 28 IF he had survived. Also, the four Beatles represent a funeral procession: George is the gravedigger, Paul is the corpse, Ringo is the congregation and John is the priest.
Source: FOX 5 NY
