Beatles News
When the Beatles started work on their masterpiece Revolver, in April 1966, they knew they were after the sound of the future. And they got there on the very first day of the sessions, with the wildly experimental buzz of “Tomorrow Never Knows (Take 1).” The psychedelic outtake was released on Friday and it’s a taste of the new Super Deluxe Edition of Revolver, which arrives on October 28. The new edition tells the story of how the Beatles took their gigantic creative leap into the unknown. As producer Giles Martin says, “It’s the Beatles punching their way out of a bag. They’re saying, ‘We’re no longer going to be constrained by anything.’”
Source: Rob Sheffield/yahoo.com
Paul McCartney has been writing songs since he was a teenager and making money with his music for more than 60 years. Macca had an easy time writing songs with John Lennon in The Beatles. He found new artists to collaborate with when the band broke up, but Paul said once got a bit defensive when Michael Jackson asked to work with him.A photo of him and John Lennon he saw later reminded Paul he wasn’t the villain of The Beatles’ split, but he didn’t necessarily believe that at the time. His relationship with John was so strong that he has dreams that sound like nightmares with Lennon in them. Still, he didn’t hesitate to form a new band not long after the Fab Four broke up.
Source: Jason Rossi/cheatsheet.com
Ringo Starr was a late addition to The Beatles.
Ringo Starr said that he was angry for a long time after the band broke up.
Years after The Beatles broke up, Ringo Starr said he has calmed down.
Ringo Starr spent years of his life dedicated to The Beatles and found it difficult to cope after the band broke up. He explained that for two decades, he stewed about the end of the band and tried to cope with it using alcohol. He said that because of this, many of his post-Beatle years are a blur to him. These days, though, Starr says he’s dedicated himself to his health.
Starr joined The Beatles in 1962, replacing the original drummer, Pete Best. His bandmates quickly realized that he would be a good fit in the group.
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
The British Library will be exhibiting the expanded archive of Hunter Davies, the only approved biographer of The Beatles.
Building upon Davies’ 2013 donations to the library, the collection will include “notebooks he used during conversations, photos and sketches” from his time spent working on The Beatles’ biography. There will also be a chance to see “Super 8 movie footage filmed by Hunter while on holiday with Paul and Linda McCartney”.
“The further we get from The Beatles, the bigger they become,” explains Davies. “I never thought all these years later my scruffy notebooks would be of such interest – and I’m pleased that they’ll be made available to a wider audience of Beatles fans and researchers through the British Library”.
Source: Kelly Doherty/thevinylfactory.com
George Harrison had a reputation as the Quiet Beatle, but he wasn’t afraid to show his sense of humor, as a Beatles producer quickly learned. George Martin, a producer who worked with the band for years, took some convincing to recognize that Harrison was a valuable part of the group. This could have been due in part to a snarky comment Harrison made to him early on in their relationship.
“The best thing I can say to people that are curious about that is George was probably everything that you thought he was, and then some more,” Tom Petty told NPR. “Very funny man; he could just kill me with his humor. He was a great guy and I miss him terribly.”
Keith Richards also said that he appreciated Harrison’s humor.
“So George and I always used to have that thing of, ‘Well, how’s your end holding up?’ He was a very quiet and enigmatic guy in many ways,” he told Rolling Stone in 2001. “He had a very sly sense of humor, very quiet. But there was always this unspoken bond between us.”
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
Paul McCartney has been a working musician for so long that it’s hard to remember that he and The Beatles were once new to the game. The Beatles got a lucky break playing on The Ed Sullivan Show and soon became internationally famous. They started playing in front of massive crowds in arenas and stadiums, but Paul still got nervous about performing one song on the Sullivan show in 1965.
The beauty of the internet is that any musician can release a song or album and start building an audience. The Fab Four had to cultivate a following the old-fashioned way — by playing live.
The Beatles spent years playing concerts to build their audience. Paul, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, and John Lennon honed their chops with residencies in Hamburg, Germany, in the early 1960s. When they weren’t entertaining the Germans, the Fab Four played shows across the U.K.
Source: Jason Rossi/cheatsheet.com
The Beatles may have split up in 1970 after many growing personal feuds and arguments permeated their lives, but they were not always at one anothers' throats. In the early 1960s, the Fab Four were a tight-knit team and strong friends who worked hard, played hard, and spent all their time together.
Ringo Starr recently opened up about how one recurring argument almost got out of hand while on tour, but the musicians worked through it by being honest about their actions.
Ringo revealed that, during The Beatles' early days in the UK, they would travel across the country packed into one van with their musical equipment.
These uncomfortable journeys were no doubt stressful for a number of reasons. But it was the dynamic between the band that got them through the tougher times.
However, rage exploded between the band when someone passed wind in the tiny space. Yes, The Beatles had full-blown arguments over farts.
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
A few weeks ago, a 1958 Gibson Les Paul with quite the backstory went up for auction.
The electric guitar in question had once been purchased by none other than George Harrison, as a ransom payment of sorts for the safe return of another Les Paul, the Beatle's beloved '57 "Lucy" model.
Now, via Heritage Auctions (opens in new tab), the '58 "ransom" Les Paul has reportedly been sold for an impressive $312,500 (opens in new tab), well over its original opening bid of $250,000.
After playing a significant role on the Beatles' White Album, Let It Be, and Abbey Road, Lucy – which, before Harrison, had been in the possession of the Lovin’ Spoonful’s John Sebastian, Rick Derringer, and Eric Clapton – was stolen from Harrison's Beverly Hills home during a 1973 burglary and sold to Whalin's Sound City music store on Sunset Blvd.
Source: Jackson Maxwell/guitarplayer.com
George Harrison said The Beatles’ musical direction in 1967 was a big “joke.” He said the band wasn’t doing anything different, but that was the problem.
In 1977, George spoke to Crawdaddy (per George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters) about The Beatles’ musical direction in the first half of the 1960s. He explained that he missed the band’s days of performing in Hamburg, Germany. It was a very experimental and creative time for them. They played night after night, but everything and anything was on the table for their shows.
George missed that once The Beatles began touring the world. He said it was a “drag” touring and playing the same tunes.
“I felt stale, you know because you play the same riffs da-dada-ding-ding-dow, you know, ‘Twist and Shout’ and things,” George said. However, once touring stopped, George felt out of touch with the guitar. He’d repeatedly played the same five tunes for months and had turned to the sitar for a bit of excitement.
Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com
Prior to September 26, 1969, most people in the world were blissfully unaware that Abbey Road was the location of EMI’s London recording studios. Some keen fans may have spotted the name in news reports of The Beatles’ activities, but this was a time when it was of little importance to most fans where something was recorded. Ironically, given the album’s title, not all of Abbey Road was recorded at Abbey Road, and, in truth, the title is as much about the street and the zebra crossing outside as it is about the studio itself.But when all is said and done, the album is for many, including this writer, the absolute pinnacle of the band’s achievements. All this, despite having been recorded as the band was breaking up amid internal strife and bitterness.Abbey Road was The Beatles’ 11th studio album and the very last to be recorded (their 12th – and last-released – studio album, Let It Be, was mostly recorded prior to this record). Rolling Stone magazine called it “complicated instead of complex”, while Nik Cohn, writing in The New York Times, suggested that “individually” the songs are “nothing special”, The Guardian called the album “a slight matter”, and the Detroit Free Press suggested, “We expected inventiveness. We got a good LP.”
Source: Richard Havers/yahoo.com
