Beatles News
George Harrison‘s “My Sweet Lord” was inspired by a song that gave George a religious experience. Subsequently, “My Sweet Lord” became a hit once in the United States and twice in the United Kingdom. The song appeared on a hit album.
According to the 2013 book George Harrison: Behind The Locked Door, George discussed the origin of “My Sweet Lord.” “I remember Eric [Clapton] and [rock duo] Delaney & Bonnie were doing interviews with somebody in either Copenhagen or Gothenburg, and I was so thrilled with [The Edwin Hawkins Singers’] ‘Oh Happy Day,'” said Harrison.
George had a religious experience while listening to “Oh Happy Day.” “It really just knocked me out, the idea of that song and I just felt a great feeling of the Lord,” he said. “So I thought, I’ll write another ‘Oh Happy Day,’ which became ‘My Sweet Lord.'”
Source: cheatsheet.com
It was the summer of love, and The Beatles had just returned from a trip to Greece in search of an island on which they could all live together and build a recording studio. The island studio was John’s idea, but it quickly proved to be honey pie in the sky and they all gradually began to drift home.
Ringo had left early as Maureen Starkey was due to have a baby, George Harrison and Pattie flew home on July 29, 1967, to prepare to fly to Los Angeles.
Arriving in Los Angeles on August 1, George rented a house on Blue Jay Way. While he was waiting for Derek Taylor, the Beatles former PR man, to arrive that day, George wrote a song named after the street, which was included on the Magical Mystery Tour album.
Source: Richard Havers/yahoo.com
Paul McCartney compared one of the lyrics of The Beatles’ “Hey Jude” to a mutt.
He received letters about the lyric.
The track became a huge hit.
Paul McCartney initially had an issue with a lyric from The Beatles‘ “Hey Jude.” He later came to love the line. Subsequently, he received letters from cults about the lyric.
According to the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul had doubts about the line “the movement you need is on your shoulder” from “Hey Jude.” John convinced him to retain the lyric. “So of course, you love that line twice as much because it’s a little stray, it’s a little mutt that you were about to put down and it was reprieved and so it’s more beautiful than ever,” Paul said.
Source: cheatsheet.com
The Beatles: Get Back was a lengthy three-part, six-hour documentary of the making of the Let It Be album. Now, director Peter Jackson wants to release a longer version.
The Academy Award-winning director said on The Business with Kim Masters (as transcribed by Ultimate Classic Rock), “[Disney and Apple] say — and they might be quite right — that there’s no market anymore for extended cuts. But I know that there’s five or six hours of fantastic material that we didn’t include, and I don’t want it to go back into the vaults for 50 years. So, let’s just say that it’s a conversation that’s happening, but it’s not necessarily a definitive one at this point.”
The Beatles: Get Back was met with critical and commercial acclaim. The doc is nominated for five Emmy Awards including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series. Additionally, Julian Lennon said the documentary reminded him “of the way Dad used to be.”
Source: Erica Banas/wmmr.com
George Harrison and Tom Petty have left a significant legacy as members of two rock bands that have released many hit pieces. Besides these bands, the pair collaborated within the supergroup Traveling Wilburys. The idea to form the band came to Harrison and Jeff Lynne during Harrison’s 1987 record ‘Cloud Nine’ sessions. With the inclusion of Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty, the band was formed in 1988 and received critical success from the first album.
Source: rockcelebrities.net/Iklim Alev
When Pattie Boyd and George Harrison began to experience cracks in their relationship, The Beatles also dealt with a fraught dynamic. Harrison grew weary of touring and the pressures of fame, and the band fought more and more frequently. According to Boyd, Harrison brought home a lot of stress after band meetings. It began to impact their marriage.
A black and white picture of George Harrison sitting with his arm around Pattie Boyd.
During breaks between The Beatles’ busy touring and recording schedule, their manager Brian Epstein organized vacations for the band.
“In May Brian arranged a holiday for us all,” Boyd wrote in the book Wonderful Tonight. “He split us up into fours, and that was usually the way we holidayed from then on. Paul and Jane, Ringo and Maureen went off to the Virgin Islands, while John and Cynthia, George and I went to Tahiti, where we planned to spend four weeks island-hopping on a boat.”
Epstein broke up the band into groups in order to avoid fights.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Unbelievably, George Harrison struggled to write songs sometimes. More often than not, it was a painstaking process, prying his jumbled thoughts from his head. The only thing that seemed to be able to extract them was a deadline.
George Harrison at Apple Headquarters in 1969.
With some of the best rock ‘n’ roll songs in his catalog, including “Something,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” and “All Things Must Pass,” it’s hard to imagine George Harrison struggling to write songs. However, it happened often.
In his former sister-in-law, Jenny Boyd’s 1988 book, It’s Not Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (per George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters), George spoke about his creative process.
He explained, “I find that, having just finished writing and recording an album, I tend to now work in spurts. At one point I think, ‘How do you write a tune?’ I have just totally forgotten. But unlike some people who think they’ve dried up, I don’t believe we dry up.
Source: cheatsheet.com
The Beatles: Get Back director Peter Jackson says he is trying to convince the film's distribution partners, Disney and Apple, to release an extended cut of his revelatory 2021 documentary series.
As the original three-episode series spans over seven hours in run time, Jackson explained on a recent podcast appearance that both partner companies are understandably wary about releasing an even longer version.
"They say — and they might be quite right — that there's no market anymore for extended cuts. But I know that there's five or six hours of fantastic material that we didn't include, and I don't want it to go back into the vaults for 50 years," Jackson told Kim Masters. "So, let's just that it's a conversation that's happening, but it's not necessarily a definitive one at this point."
Source: iheart.com
The Beatles regularly found ways to hide interesting sounds, instruments, and phrases in some of their most iconic songs. However, there were many circumstances when fans didn’t realize the depths of surprises within these tunes. This included a classic French nursery rhyme hidden within the song “Paperback Writer” with backing vocals by John Lennon and George Harrison and lead vocals by Paul McCartney.
Lennon, Harrison, McCartney, and Ringo Starr pushed themselves as musicians and songwriters, setting trends followed today and evolving into musicians stretching the boundaries of popular music,
With the help of producer George Martin, Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr used their vast knowledge of music styles to push industry confines.
Some of the Beatles’ greatest innovations did not happen on the stage but in the studio. Ideas and techniques that became commonplace in the recording industry were either invented or advanced by the Fab Four during that progressive time period.
Source: cheatsheet.com
FORMER Beatle George Harrison said he has always been a fan of reggae music.
He also confessed that he has tried his hand at writing a reggae song.
"Well, I've tried a couple of times – I must say, not too serious – but I've tried to make a tune into like a reggae feel [with the song] Crackerbox Palace. But, like I say, it's harder than it appears, you know?," Harrison was quoted in Showbiz CheatSheet as saying.
"And the one thing I like about it is the drum sound they always get, like the high [vocalises timbale-like fill] ta-tang-tang! The toms-toms… fantastic."
Crackerbox Palace is the ninth track on George Harrison's 1976 album, Thirty Three & 1/3. The song was released as the second single from the album and reached number 19 on the American pop charts.
Source: Brian Bonitto/jamaicaobserver.com
