Beatles News
When Tom Petty started working on his debut solo album, Full Moon Fever, he turned to George Harrison for help. The two musicians were friends and had worked together in The Traveling Wilburys. Harrison was a fan of the album and helped champion it. He also helped Petty improve some of the songs. Petty explained that there was one line in “I Won’t Back Down” that confused Harrison. His feedback helped bring the song to its finished form.“I think I needed a friend really badly,” he said in the book Petty: The Biography by Warren Zanes. “My friendship with the band was a different kind of friendship. And it was frayed. I’d become very lonely. George came along, and we got so close; it was like we had known each other in some other life or something. We were pals within minutes of meeting each other.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
George Harrison said Jeff Lynne’s singing voice made him want to try harder on his vocals for his 1987 album, Cloud Nine. However, Lynne might have formed his singing voice on George’s.
For the most part, George’s singing voice was always in top form. Except during his first solo American tour in 1974.
Before his Dark Horse Tour, George did a lot of recording. It exhausted him and wore out his voice.
“That was the problem in 1974, when I toured America,” George explained to Rolling Stone in 1979. “I’d done three albums before I went on the road, and I was still trying to finish my own album as we were rehearsing, and also we’d done this other tour in Europe with these classical Indian musicians. By the time it came to going on the road I was already exhausted.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Over the weekend, the Hollywood Critics Association hosted its 2nd Annual HCA TV Awards at The Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. Disney picked up a number of awards at the event, with “Dopesick” and “Abbott Elementary” picking up multiple awards. Also, What’s On Disney Plus’s writer Mama’s Geeky Tessa Smith presented one of the awards during the ceremony.
Disney+ Originals picked up a number of awards including “The Beatles: Get Back” winning in the Best Streaming Docuseries or Non-Fiction Series category. While “Chip ‘N Dale: Rescue Rangers” won the award for Best Streaming Movie.
Source: Roger Palmer/whatsondisneyplus.com
George Harrison made it his life’s work to raise consciousness, in every sense of the phrase. In 1971, he managed the extraordinary combination of both raising money for a desperate humanitarian plight in South Asia, and creating a hit record about it.
Probably not too many radio programmers or record buyers knew very much about the former East Pakistan until Harrison used his influence to publicise the country’s plight. He had been deeply moved when his friend Ravi Shankar brought to his attention the human disaster in which millions of refugees from the country were starving, because of the effects of the Bhola cyclone of 1970 and the Liberation War.
Source: Paul Sexton/yahoo.com
In 1964, pop groups in America didn't talk about politics or social issues. When they spoke to the press at all, it was about very superficial, Tiger Beat-style topics such as what they like to do in their dressing room before a show or whether they had favourite pets at home.
When The Beatles arrived on the scene in 1964, they changed all that. Their invasion of America was not just about music and fashion, but reshaping the very idea of a pop star into a thinking, feeling, three-dimensional human being with principles and opinions.
And all four Beatles were united in their opinion on the policies of racial segregation that were in practice through much of the southern United States. So much so that in the midst of their 23-city tour, they issued a brief, forceful press statement that said: “We will not appear unless Negroes are allowed to sit anywhere.” The Fabs were looking ahead to a date at the Gator Bowl Stadium in Jacksonville, FL, where they'd heard that blacks were confined to the upper tiers at public events.
Source:Bill DeMain/loudersound.com
John Lennon said The Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever” reflected feelings he had since his childhood. In addition, he said a lyric of the song was about how he must be “crazy” or “a genius.” Notably, the song appeared on the soundtrack album of one of The Beatles’ movies.The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono is an interview from 1980. In it, John talks about “Strawberry Fields Forever” at length. “The second line goes, ‘No one I think is in my tree,'” John said. That line actually comes much later in the song than John recalled. “Well, what I was trying to say in that line is ‘Nobody seems to be as hip as me, therefore I must be crazy or a genius.'”
Source: cheatsheet.com
Chances are that you had a few extra guests over the Thanksgiving holiday – namely John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison. Peter Jackson’s “The Beatles: Get Back,” was a three-night Thanksgiving event on Disney+, one that featured previously unseen material from the lead-up to their last-ever live public performance, is astounding and eye-opening, an intimate portrait of larger-than-life creative titans.
“The Beatles: Get Back” is easily one of the premier television events of the year – and if you need some nudging in the direction of the Fab Four, well, here are all the reasons that you should make it appointment viewing.
Source: Drew Taylor/thewrap.com
George Harrison‘s son, Dhani, said his father said something typical to him in a dream once. Dhani was 23 when his famous father died of cancer in 2001.
The former Beatle and his wife, Olivia, treated Dhani like an adult throughout his life. George told him things about life, including spirituality, from a young age.
When his father died, Dhani was more familiar with what happens after you die than George was at 23. So, Dhani should have expected his father’s response in dreamland.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Olivia said she’s “constantly surprised” to hear Dhani talk about things she didn’t know George had told him.
“Whether it was something for history’s sake, or a mantra, or some lesson, I thought, he didn’t wait until (Dhani) was 30 or 40,” Olivia said. “That’s a real lesson, too. Why do we hold back? Why are we so constrained by time? George didn’t live like that. Maybe he was prescient. Maybe he knew.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
In 1991, George Harrison embarked on a 12-show Japanese tour with his long-time friend Eric Clapton. George had some trepidations about touring for the first time since 1974. However, Clapton put his mind at ease.
When George got on the road, he found that touring wasn’t so bad, at least not that type of touring. It got him out of a rut and even allowed him to perform some of his biggest hits for the first time.
George didn’t like touring because of all the exhausting planning. He didn’t want to waste time getting a band together and rehearsing. However, George still missed playing with other musicians. So, when Clapton said he could have him and his band for a 12-show tour, Geoge couldn’t pass it up.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Eight years after his death, Robin Williams is still revered for his legendary career (via Yahoo! Entertainment). On August 11, 2014, the actor and comedian killed himself after being misdiagnosed with Parkinson's disease. An autopsy later revealed that Williams was actually suffering from Lewy body dementia, a disease (per Mayo Clinic) that slowly deteriorates the mind. Per Biography, his legacy lives on, remembered for his beloved roles in "Good Will Hunting," "Mrs. Doubtfire," "Jumanji," "Aladdin," and many more. Besides his Oscar for "Good Will Hunting," Williams was also a five-time Grammy award-winning performer, out of nine nominations.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Williams had numerous musical accomplishments to his credit. In 1993, he was a part of the "Aladdin" soundtrack, where he sang "Friend Like Me" and "Prince Ali." The album later climbed to No. 6 on the charts. Moreover, NME reports that Williams sang in several of his other films and projects, including in "Mrs. Doubtfire." At the 2000 Academy Awards, he performed "Blame Canada" (as seen on YouTube) from the film "South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut." The Ringer writes that it is now considered to be one of the most iconic moments in Oscar history. All Music explains that in 1998, Williams, along with Bobby McFerrin, recorded a cover of a 1969 Beatles song.
Source: Leslie Veliz/grunge.com
