Beatles News
As most Queen fans probably know, Freddie Mercury was a unique individual with extraordinary talent. Many people barely understood him and thought he was a bit strange, but in reality, he was just misunderstood. His vocal range set him apart from other lead vocalists. His ability to blend high and low notes harmoniously and with tremendous precision made him stand out from his peers. His talent was unlike any other.
He was known to be someone who only discussed his own work. He was focused and wanted to achieve great things with his music. However, there was one person in the industry whom he admired the most, John Lennon. Mercury saw Lennon as one of the few with enough power to influence a new generation of musicians. He was a massive fan of the Beatles icon, so his death was quite hard for him to fathom. The Queen icon did what he did best and wrote a song to commemorate the late Beatle.
Source: Serra Ozturk/rockcelebrities.net
Bob Dylan and John Lennon held each other in high regard and spent time working together in the 1960s. Dylan visited England frequently and often met up with Lennon while he was there. He was impressed by the other musician’s living situation, so much so that he tried to find something similar for himself. Not to be outdone by the size of Lennon’s house, Dylan bought a bigger home. He explained that it ended up being a disaster.
Source: cheatsheet.com
George Harrison thought his lyrics for “All Those Years Ago” were a bit abstract. However, George didn’t like explaining his songs. He thought it should be up to the listener to decipher their meaning.
George Harrison performing at the Prince's Trust Concert in 1987.
During a 1987 interview with Entertainment Tonight, George explained he originally wrote “All Those Years Ago” for Ringo. However, after John Lennon died, George made it about him.
“I think I originally wrote it for Ringo,” he said, “who was doing an album at the time. I wrote it with slightly different words, it had the same chorus, but it was more about-it was a bit more of an uptight kinda lyric like, ‘You did this and you did all of that.’
Source: cheatsheet.com
George Harrison said The Beatles‘ performance at Shea Stadium in 1965 was “impersonal.” By the time the group played their record-breaking concert, they’d already been through the wringer touring the world at the height of Beatlemania. When they landed in New York, they didn’t care anymore.
The Beatles' performance at Shea Stadium in 1965 to thousands of fans.
Touring throughout Beatlemania was exhausting for the four lads from Liverpool. Most of the time, they hid from hoards of screaming girls in cars and hotel rooms. They often had to be escorted to the stage in armored vehicles.
In Here Comes The Sun: The Spiritual And Musical Journey Of George Harrison, Joshua M. Greene wrote, “During a concert in Kansas City in September 1964, hundreds of screaming fans broke through police barriers and attacked the band’s mobile dressing room.
Source: cheatsheet.com
There are few names more synonymous with our city than that of the Beatles.
Four normal lads from Liverpool suburbs would go on to change the the history of music and pop culture. But where did their stories begin?
Paul McCartney's home
The McCartney family moved to 20 Forthlin Road in 1956, and shortly after, mum Mary died of breast cancer. In an interview with the ECHO, Mike McCartney explained how this event, and tough life on Forthlin Road helped shape his career, as well as that of brother Paul.
He said: "It was a warm family home, not as warm as it would have been with a mum around. We lived here when he had no money and no hope- certainly no hope in showbusiness."
The property was bought by the National Trust in 1995, and is labelled by them as "The Birthplace of the Beatles". The trust keep the home in the same condition as it was when Paul was growing up.
Source: Aaron Curran/liverpoolecho.co.uk
John Lennon and Yoko Ono met in 1966 and started an affair. The relationship drew a great deal of negative attention, and many fans of The Beatles unfairly blamed Ono for the band breaking up. According to Lennon, he already had one foot out the door with the band when he met Ono. He explained that after meeting her, though, he had very little in The Beatles.
In 1966, Lennon visited an art gallery and saw Ono’s work. He hadn’t known much about her ahead of this.
“I was looking around the gallery and I saw this ladder and climbed up and got a look in this spyglass on the top of the ladder — you feel like a fool — and it just said, yes,” he told Playboy in 1980. “Now, at the time, all the avant-garde was smash the piano with a hammer and break the sculpture and anti-, anti-, anti-, anti-, anti. It was all boring negative crap, you know. And just that yes made me stay in a gallery full of apples and nails.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
Paul McCartney said The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” inspired a song from The Beatles’ Revolver. Paul said the song is one of his favorite of his own tracks. The singer revealed why many jazz musicians learn how to play the song.
Paul McCartney said one of the songs from The Beatles’ Revolver was inspired by The Beach Boys. In addition, he said The Beach Boys drew inspiration from one of The Beatles’ most famous albums. Paul said this was a form of “circularity.”In his 2021 book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, Paul discussed The Beatles’ “Here, There and Everywhere.” “What I like most about this song is that we think we’re on a path on the moors and we’re going for a walk, and then suddenly we’ve arrived where we started,” he said. “It’s not quite that we’ve gone around in the circle. It’s more magical than that.
Source: cheatsheet.com
George Harrison and Elton John were good friends and collaborators. However, the former Beatle once revealed that he didn’t think much of the “Rocket Man” singer’s work. George thought most of Elton John’s songs followed the same formula and lacked creativity. However, they later worked together.
In a 1976 interview with India Today, George touched on the day’s music. For him, no other form of music could hold a candle to Indian music.
“Personally, I think Indian music is where it’s at,” George said, “If I had to choose one record in the whole world, I’d select Bismillah Khan, and that’s it.”
India Today asked, “Where does that leave pop?” George’s reply had no hope for current pop music. “Well, I don’t really know,” he said. “There isn’t too much going on that I seem to like. When the Beatles started off, our influences were Tamla-Motown and Chuck Berry, and that’s the music I still like.
Source: cheatsheet.com
The Beatles are one of music’s biggest bands, with humble beginnings and even more humble sleeping and traveling arrangements. Here’s what Ringo Starr said about the “Strawberry Fields Forever” band sharing hotel rooms even when they were big stars. The Beatles are the rock band behind “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “Here Comes the Sun,” and “Hey Jude,” with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr acting as founding members.
As time passed, the Beatles became one of the world’s biggest bands, performing overseas and making history on the Ed Sullivan Show. Even as they grew in popularity, these artists stayed true to their roots, even sharing hotel rooms on tour.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Though The Beatles had many overt protest songs, notably “Revolution,” another song that is just as politically charged, though you wouldn’t know it upon first listen, is “Blackbird.”
The delicate track features a single guitar line with only Paul McCartney crooning out the lyrics over top. Every so often, a few chirps from a bird can be heard as a nod to the song’s opening refrain blackbird singing in the dead of night.
However, this song has nothing to do with ornithology and is instead a commentary on the ongoing Civil Rights Movement of the ’60s. Let’s dive into the meaning of the song’s lyrics below.
Source: americansongwriter.com
