Beatles News
Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr had worked closely together for years by the time The Beatles broke up. Even when tempers flared as the band was breaking up, McCartney didn’t necessarily want to have a falling out with Starr. The Beatles’ drummer came by McCartney’s house to deliver a message from the rest of the band. Though McCartney wanted to keep things friendly, he kicked his former bandmate out of his house for the first time ever.In 1970, McCartney sued The Beatles to dissolve their contractual relationship. He didn’t trust the band’s manager, Allen Klein, and wanted to make sure the band members had control over their own work. The lawsuit made the band’s inner turmoil public, and the other three members complained about McCartney in interviews and their songs.
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
George Harrison was known as the quiet member of The Beatles. Still, when he spoke, he never minced words and tended to tell the truth, such as admitting working with John Lennon on the Imagine sessions was nerve-wracking. When George once assessed his songwriting skills, he was honest but also completely wrong.
George appeared on The Dick Cavett Show in November 1971. It came a few months after his trendsetting Concert for Bangladesh event and a few weeks before the album from the concert hit shelves.
Cavett asked George several questions during their wide-ranging interview, including some about The Beatles and George’s drug use. The former Beatle answered honestly, and he did the same when Cavett asked about songwriting (via YouTube):
Source: Jason Rossi/
cheatsheet.com
As diaries go, it’s something of a scorcher. ‘Does your silence mean be gone?’ reads one urgent telegram contained within it — the sender, one heartbroken Eric Clapton.
And there can be few young women who will have excitedly scribbled in their journals: ‘George Harrison asked me out!!!!’ — date, March 6, 1964.
Yet these messages are but a mere fraction of the passion and turmoil contained in a uniquely gripping new book from Sixties model and icon Pattie Boyd.
While it’s mainly an anthology of images from her remarkable life — from portfolio shots to photos she has taken herself over the years in her secondary career as an acclaimed photographer — it is her accompanying contemporaneous diary entries and scribbled reminiscences which leap out most vividly.
Source: Kathryn Knight/dailymail.co.uk
During the Let It Be sessions at Twickenham Film Studios in January 1969, The Beatles were strumming along coming up with new songs. Paul McCartney’s composing of Get Back was captured on film as was George Harrison showing off his new track All Things Must Pass, which ended up being the title song on his debut solo album. Yet, there was another of the Quiet Beatle’s iconic releases that John Lennon and Paul McCartney also turned down.
Harrison first heard the track during a visit to his sister in the US back in 1963. This was a full five months before The Beatles first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.
Entering a record shop in rural Illinois, he bought a number of albums including a 1962 one by James Ray. Included on the vinyl was the song Got My Mind Set On You, which was originally written and composed by Rudy Clark.
Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk
October 11, 1971. "Imagine" was recorded by Lennon with producer Phil Spector in a single session at his country estate, Tittenhurst Park. While Lennon constructed the song, "Imagine" was heavily influenced by Yoko Ono's book of poetry, 'Grapefruit.' . Ono was recognized as co-writer of the song in 2017. The song's radical vision of idealism and peace immediately struck a chord with a world disillusioned with war. Released just over a year after the break-up of the Beatles, "Imagine" became a massive success, easily the most successful song of Lennon's solo career.
Source: roanoke.com
George Harrison brought spirituality to pop music with his 1970 song, “My Sweet Lord.”
He began his spiritual journey after his musical guru, Ravi Shankar, gave him spiritual texts and taught him that God is sound. Suddenly, George would’ve been glad to throw away his marriage and his famous band to learn more from Shankar.
However, George didn’t leave The Beatles or his wife. Instead, he incorporated religious themes into his songs like “Within You Without You” and “Long Long Long.” For the album cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, George added images of revered gurus from the Hindu faith as “clues to the spiritual aspect” of him.
However, George truly showed the world his spirituality in “My Sweet Lord.” He had no idea fans would accept the song and even thank him for it.
Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com
John Lennon has little to be embarrassed about in his music career. However, the British artist reflected on a song with The Beatles that he was “bitterly ashamed of.” His shame didn’t come from the song itself but from his own performance, which he believes could have been better.
One day in Abbey Road Studios, The Beatles had been recording for over 12 hours. According to Slate.com, producer George Martin wanted one more track to send the album, Please Please Me, out with a bang. The Beatles decided to do a cover of 1962’s “Twist and Shout” by the Isley Brothers, a song that requires a lot of screaming. The group was already exhausted after a long day of recording but elected to go for it.
The band summoned the strength they had left and delivered a recording that reportedly “stunned the listening technicians” and brought energy to the band. The Beatles tried to do a second take, but John Lennon discovered he had nothing left in him, and the session stopped there. Still, the group ended up being satisfied with the results of the first take.
Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsheet.com
When Paul McCartney and John Lennon first met as teenagers, the latter was around two years older and therefore the natural leader of what became The Beatles. As time when on, the duo formed their joint songwriting credit, the most successful in music history. Now two members of the Fab Four always had a healthy and brotherly rivalry, but following the death of manager Brian Epstein in 1967, McCartney ended up taking on his role.
In The Beatles: Get Back footage released on Disney+ last year, it's clear that McCartney had a charismatic leadership style and appears somewhat more dominant than Lennon during those 1969 Let It Be sessions.
In the first episode of Peter Jackson’s revisionist documentary, Macca gets frustrated with Lennon for not coming up with enough new material and clashes with George Harrison over the way he plays the guitar.
In the end, on January 10th, 1969, the Quiet Beatle had had enough and temporarily left The Beatles. The second episode opened with just Ringo Starr and McCartney arriving at the Twickenham Studios on Monday, January 13, discussing with the others what to do.
Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk
In 1970, Paul McCartney sued The Beatles. He explained that he did it to protect the band’s catalog of music from band manager Allen Klein, but the move also aired out a great deal of the group’s dirty laundry. The group’s inner workings were made public, and John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr had harsh words to share about McCartney. Starr, at least, tried to soften the blow of his words, but he still insulted his former bandmate.
In 1970, McCartney sued The Beatles to dissolve their contractual relationship when the other members appointed Klein to control the band’s finances. McCartney never liked Klein and didn’t trust him to manage the group’s affairs.
“The only way for me to save The Beatles and Apple — and to release Get Back by Peter Jackson and which allowed us to release Anthology and all these great remasters of all the great Beatles records — was to sue the band,” McCartney told GQ. “If I hadn’t done that, it would have all belonged to Allen Klein. The only way I was given to get us out of that was to do what I did.”
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
George Harrison didn’t enjoy performing live but did reveal which of his songs he thought was a good stadium tune. However, most of George’s songs sound great over loudspeakers.
George enjoyed playing all night to drunken sailors during The Beatles’ residency in Hamburg, Germany. He liked that the band could hone their performing skills. There was also the freedom to jam on anything they liked. That sort of performance stayed in George’s heart.
However, when Beatlemania commenced, George began to dread touring and performing. With screaming fans following their every move, The Beatles jumped from car to hotel room to stage on repeat. They couldn’t go out. Soon, George became paranoid that someone would hurt or even murder them.
Thankfully, The Beatles stopped touring in 1966. Still, that paranoia stayed with George, even when The Beatles split in 1970.
Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com
