Beatles News
George Harrison once claimed John Lennon had a lot of power as the leader in the early days of The Beatles. John might’ve started one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll bands, but his power dwindled over time.
John had a tough childhood. He might’ve lived in the posh part of Liverpool in his Aunt Mimi’s spotless home, but his formative years were stained with heartbreak. After his father abandoned him, so did his mother. They left John in the care of his aunt for the rest of his childhood.
Into his teenage years, John became a rebel. The Guardian wrote, “He was a bohemian and a rebel, by turns arrogant and insecure; the classic outsider who came to define the boundaries of the mainstream by reacting against them; the nowhere boy who became Britain’s most famous pop star but never quite transcended his troubled childhood.”
Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com
John Lennon and Paul McCartney are responsible for one of the most prolific rock acts in all of musical history: the Beatles. Throughout their decades-long friendship, the pair traveled the world, sold out stadiums, and created a legacy that is still present today.
Regardless of all of the glitz and glam, one of McCartney and Lennon’s final conversations was about something seemingly mundane: baking bread.
Before they were the Beatles, Lennon and McCartney were two middle-class Liverpool boys who bonded over their passion for rock ‘n’ roll music and songwriting. The two famously met at a church social in 1957, when McCartney was just 15 and Lennon 16, per UDiscoverMusic. Lennon’s band at the time, the Quarry Men, was playing at the event, which captured the attention of the aspiring musician, McCartney.
Source: Amanda Landwehr/cheatsheet.com
Many people have their own theories about why The Beatles broke up. Some blame Yoko One, some blame John Lennon, and some blame Paul McCartney. Paul McCartney has denied being the reason The Beatles broke up, but may not have been a hundred percent sure. A recent clip from The Beatles: Get Back helped him forgive himself over the band’s breakup.
In 2021, Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson released his three-part eight-hour documentary The Beatles: Get Back on Disney+. The documentary featured re-cut footage from the 1970 Let it Be documentary, which featured a behind-the-scenes look at the end of The Beatles.
While Let it Be didn’t point a specific finger at who’s to blame, many moments showed the band teetering on the edge of a fallout. Paul McCartney was seen as overbearing in recording sessions, John Lennon would bring his wife Yoko Ono to the studio, to the band’s dismay, and George Harrison quit in the middle of a session. In an interview on the Fly on the Wall podcast with David Spade and Dana Carvey, McCartney says he’s never watched Let it Be as he “found it a bit depressing.”
Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsheet.com
In The Beatles' final years together as a band, the group was engaged in a number of feuds and arguments. During the recording of their final album, Let It Be, and the shooting of the documentary of the same name, tensions continued to rise, sparking disagreements that would eventually lead to the eruption of the band. George Harrison, in particular, had issues with Paul McCartney. He later explained how the Hey Jude singer was to blame for his biggest downfall.
Harrison was frequently pushed to the side by McCartney and John Lennon while they were songwriting.
As Lennon and McCartney had been writing tracks together for decades, it came as second nature to them. They even started the official Lennon-McCartney Songwriting Partnership to copyright their songs alone.
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
Abbey Road, September 2022: Giles Martin, son of the Beatles producer George Martin, is holding a playback for a new mix of Revolver. It is an album that came out 56 years earlier and it is so familiar to anyone with even a passing interest in popular music that you wouldn’t think there could be anything new to hear in it.
Yet there is. The Beatles, who after all started life as road-hardened rock’n’rollers, sound more raw and alive than ever. John Lennon’s guitar, previously buried in the mix, rings out with passion.
Source: Will Hodgkinson/thetimes.co.uk
- Paul McCartney became a vegetarian in the 1970s.
- He doesn’t even like to hurt flies, though he has one exception.
- Paul McCartney helped publish a vegetarian cookbook of his late wife’s recipes.
Since the 1970s, Paul McCartney has been a vegetarian and has dedicated himself to the protection of animal welfare. While he wouldn’t try to convert anybody to vegetarianism, he said that he feels ashamed of some of his past behavior involving animals. These days, he says, he wouldn’t even hurt a fly. There is one exception to his rule of protecting animals, however
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
Paul McCartney and John Lennon were behind many of The Beatles’ hits. Though the pair often worked together and the band didn’t have a clear leader, they vied for a modicum of control over the group. McCartney believed that early in their years as a band, Lennon took a trip with the band’s manager as a way to establish himself as the leader.
In the early 1960s, Epstein was working in the music department of his family’s store when he heard about The Beatles. Curious about the group that so many people had recommended to him, he went to see a live performance. Though the act wasn’t very polished — they ate and drank on stage — he saw their potential.
“I was immediately struck by their music, their beat and their sense of humor on stage,” he said, per Biography. “And even afterward, when I met them, I was struck again by their personal charm and it was there that it all started.”
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
Bob Dylan’s songs have been an important influence on a number of musicians, including The Beatles’ Ringo Starr. All of The Beatles credited Dylan with influencing their music, but Starr took it a step further. His bandmate Paul McCartney told the story of the time Starr spent hours writing a brilliant song. After showing his bandmates, he realized that he had actually copied a Dylan hit. Dylan and The Beatles rose to prominence at roughly the same time, and the band has spoken about how much the American songwriter influenced them. George Harrison was a dedicated fan and would go on to work with Dylan in The Traveling Wilburys. McCartney said that much of his songwriting was influenced by Dylan.
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
George Harrison enjoyed drum machines, but only when his friend Jim Keltner played them. The former Beatle was never interested in using the latest technology to record his music. The inhuman-sounding drum machines of the 1980s were at the top of his list of instruments he avoided as much as possible.
However, Keltner did something with the instrument, making it sound just a little better to George.
Keltner drummed for George’s fellow Beatle, John Lennon. That’s how the pair met. Later, Keltner added drums to tracks on George’s 1987 album Cloud Nine. Keltner was also an unofficial member of the former Beatle’s supergroup, The Traveling Wilburys.
Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com
The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi believed The Beatles‘ music would improve if they learned his meditation techniques. The guru was almost naively confident, but the group didn’t trust him for long.
The Beatles first heard the Maharishi speak in London. They’d entered a period of self-reflection and wanted to know more about spirituality, so the guru’s words struck a chord with them.
However, they soon learned that the Maharishi was a bit full of himself.
Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com
