Beatles News
Over 70 million people tuned in to The Ed Sullivan Show on Feb. 9, 1964, to watch the Beatles’ first live U.S. television performance. The Fab Four captured America’s hearts and forever secured a place in pop culture history. Despite TV’s role in the group’s immense success, lead guitarist George Harrison claimed he was not a fan of American television. Many of us can probably relate to his reason.
In a 1971 interview on The Dick Cavett Show, Harrison said he didn’t watch television in America because “it’s such a load of rubbish.”
The world-famous rocker explained, “It just drives you crazy — the commercials. You just get into something and then, ‘Sorry, now, another word from and another word from.'”
The “Here Comes the Sun” songwriter said, “In the end, you know, they just put commercials on all the time.”
Asked whether British TV had advertisements, Harrison responded, “Yeah, but it’s really done good.”
Source: Rita DeMichiel/cheatsheet.com
Roll over, Sgt. Pepper. The Beatles’ Revolver is way beyond compare. Rolling Stone’s Rob Sheffield declared it “the best album the Beatles ever made, which means the best album by anybody.”
And thanks to a lavish new reissue overseen by Beatles producer George Martin’s son Giles Martin, Revolver has never sounded better. It’s got extras (28 early takes, three home demos, remastered mono and new stereo mixes of “Paperback Writer” and “Rain”). You can buy a 63-track super-deluxe special edition (five CDs, four LPs, a 7-inch EP, a 100-page hardcover book); a deluxe special edition (two-CD digipak and 40-page booklet); or the standard special edition (the original 14 tracks, digital and on CD, LP or vinyl picture disc).
So why does 1966’s Revolver outplay 1967’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which used to be widely considered the band’s finest hour? Seven Beatles authorities offer their explanations:
Source: Edna Gundersen/Edna Gundersen
The Beatles’ career has been so exhaustively documented, chronicled and bootlegged, it can feel as if there aren’t many surprises left to uncover. But the footage in Peter Jackson’s recent documentary on the band, Get Back, certainly proved that assumption wrong … particularly the mind-blowing jam session where the band conjure the documentary’s title track out of thin air. Knowing the Beatles possessed unparalleled studio chemistry is one thing; seeing them nonchalantly chisel away at a musical idea and create greatness in real time is another thing entirely.
A bonus disc on the new expanded, remixed and remastered box set of 1966’s Revolver offers an even more transformative experience: a jaw-dropping sequence of Yellow Submarine work tapes traces the song’s evolution from a fragile, sad wisp sung by John Lennon to its later iteration as a Ringo Starr-directed psych-pop goof. That the band steered Yellow Submarine from morose folk trifle to boisterous stoner singalong seems improbable, but the tapes don’t lie: through a combination of focused acoustic woodshedding and whimsical studio risks, the band arrived at the more familiar, upbeat Yellow Submarine.
Source: Annie Zaleski/theguardian.com
Take a trip down a quiet country road near Rye and you'll stumble across a stunning windmill recording studio. Owned by The Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney, Hogg Hill Mill sits surrounded by astonishing countryside views.
Many know that Sir Paul just cannot stay away from Sussex. After owning a property in Hove's Millionaire's Row with ex-wife Heather Mills, he now owns a farm in the village of Peasmarsh where he grows hemp.
While he is believed to spend much of his time living in New York, Sir Paul stayed at his farm for a period during the COVID pandemic to record his McCartney III album. A picture shared by a fan account on Instagram shows a pensive Sir Paul working on his album in his studio in Icklesham.
Source: Luke Donnelly/sussexlive.co.uk
Yoko Ono felt John Lennon’s songs were less popular than The Beatles’ songs. She felt the same thing about George Harrison’s songs.
Yoko said listeners should be more “mature.”
Yoko Ono named two of John Lennon‘s songs that dealt with real-world issues. She said these songs were less popular than The Beatles’ songs because they weren’t optimistic. In addition, Yoko discussed what she thought about George Harrison’s songs.
The book Lennon on Lennon: Conversations With John Lennon includes an interview from 1972. In it, Yoko said the album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band was a masterpiece. The album contains the songs “Working Class Hero” and “God.”
“And then the other one, which is Imagine,” she added. “Obviously Imagine was more popular, because it has a little sort of sugarcoat on it, as John puts it.”
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
With stunning new stereo mixes and extensive outtakes documenting the journey of each song, the compendium captures John, Paul, George, and Ringo at the peak of their collective power
Some Fab Four folklore: In 1966, when Paul McCartney tried to impress Bob Dylan with an acetate of “Tomorrow Never Knows” — the sprawling, experimental acid freakout that concludes the Beatles’ seventh (and arguably best) LP, Revolver — Dylan quipped, “Oh, I get it: You don’t want to be cute anymore.”
In the liner notes for the weighty, new Super Deluxe edition of the album, the Cute One offers a different take: In the half a decade since they’d busted out of Liverpool’s bar-rock caverns, they’d simply become worldly. They’d discovered musique concrete, Indian music, Motown, and drugs, drugs, drugs. Although a sempiternal intellectual like Dylan might not have been able to see it at the time (he reportedly countered Macca by playing him his own witty-not-cute Blonde on Blonde acetate), the Fab Four were no longer a boy band and hadn’t been for a while, at least since they explored Dylanesque folk rock on Rubber Soul. In fact, by 1966, they’d become sorta sophisticated.
Source: Kory Grow/rollingstone.com
George Harrison claimed the rock press tried to “kill” Bob Dylan. The former Beatle knew what it felt like to have the press eat you alive. However, he defended his friend as much as he could.
From the start, Dylan amazed George with everything he did. Whether Dylan sang folk, rock, or country, George loved it all. Other fans weren’t as open-minded.
George attended Dylan’s performance at London’s Royal Albert Hall in May 1965. Dylan walked on stage with an electric guitar.
In Here Comes The Sun: The Spiritual And Musical Journey Of George Harrison, Joshua M. Greene wrote that the move prompted boos from fans “who viewed the switch from acoustic as a betrayal of his folk purity.”
Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com
George Harrison blamed his complexion and weight on his vegetarianism. The Beatle became vegetarian once he started practicing Hinduism in the 1960s.
In the mid-1960s, George hit a wall. Fame wasn’t impressing him. He wanted something more in life. Thankfully, a few important things happened next. He took LSD, which opened his mind to God-consciousness. He heard sitars on the set of The Beatles’ Help! and couldn’t stop hearing their sound. It all led him to his musical guru, legendary sitarist Ravi Shankar.
Shankar taught him sitar and that God is sound. They traveled to India, and George read about ancient gurus at the bottom of the Himalayan mountains. Suddenly, George embarked on a spiritual journey. All he cared about was connecting and communicating with God.
Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com
Abbey Road is considered one of The Beatles’ best albums. However, the image attached to the album might be even more iconic. The Beatles never could’ve imagined how iconic the cover for Abbey Road would become as the cover came together in just 15 minutes. Little did they know they were creating a legendary image.
Many wonder whether Abbey Road is a real place. The short answer is yes. The location where the cover was taken is right outside of Abbey Road studios, where The Beatles spent most of their career recording songs. According to Radiox.com, the crossway is located at “the southern-most point of Abbey Road, at the junction with Grove End Road, in the St John’s Wood area of North West London.”
Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsheet.com
John Lennon said a song from The Beatles‘ The White Album was about his lack of secrets. During another interview, he said the song was about hiding his true self. Notably, The White Album performed very differently in the United States and the United Kingdom.
The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono includes an interview from 1980. In it, Yoko discussed her relationship to the world. “Everything is public,” she said. “Whatever you’re doing, even if you cough or sneeze or something, is going to affect the world.
“Even things you think you are doing in private,” she continued. “We’re all sharing the whole world together. There is no reason why you can’t do these things publicly. On the contrary, you have to do it publicly.”
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
