Beatles News
Paul McCartney almost always appeared with the Beatles playing a bass: typically either a Höfner 500/1 or Rickenbacker 4001S.
But from the earliest days of his long musical career, McCartney was drawn to the guitar, reaching for a six-string in the studio with the Beatles and Wings, as well as on solo recordings.
In this gem from the GP archives, Macca discusses how he ended up playing bass in the Beatles, the tortoise and hare race of melody versus speed, and why he likes heavy metal.
The following interview extract originally appeared in the July 1990 issue of Guitar Player…
Source: Tom Mulhern, Rod Brakes/guitarplayer.com
After The Beatles split up, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr embarked on solo careers. As they worked together for years, reporters often asked what they thought about the others’ work. When Lennon spoke about Harrison’s solo career, he was slightly dismissive. He explained that he felt Harrison’s talents developed as a direct result of working with Lennon and McCartney.When Harrison joined The Beatles, he was still a teenager. Harrison greatly admired his older bandmates, including Lennon.
“He told me he really, really admired John,” Tom Petty told Rolling Stone. “He probably wanted John’s acceptance pretty bad, you know?”
“I’d put on ‘Paperback Writer’ and say, ‘I love the guitar on that,’ and he’d say,’ “Oh, that’s Paul.’ I put all these other Beatles tracks on: ‘Oh, that’s Paul,'” Peter Frampton told the Daily Mail. “It wasn’t until then I realized he had been stifled. It was very frustrating for George.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
After The Beatles split, George Harrison said people came in “grabbing and plundering as much as they could.” Everyone wanted a piece of one of the most successful bands of the 1960s. However, George said they wouldn’t get away with it.
However, when The Beatles broke up, they left room for everyone to come in and steal everything they’d done.
In a 1987 interview with Creem Magazine, George spoke about what happened to The Beatles’ catalog shortly before they split.
The Beatles’ music publisher, Dick James, who earned a high percentage of the band’s publishing company, Northern Songs, sold the company to ATV Music without letting John or Paul buy him out. Then in 1985, Michael Jackson bought ATV Music. George was thankful he didn’t write as many Beatles songs as John and Paul.
Source: cheatsheet.com
The Beatles‘ “I Am the Walrus” might appear meaningless at first glance. Despite this, John Lennon said it offered commentary on the Hare Krishna movement. Beyond that, John revealed how the song’s lyrics are similar to Bob Dylan’s songwriting.The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono is an extended interview from 1980. In the interview, John was asked if “I Am the Walrus” criticized the Hare Krishnas. “I’d seen Allen Ginsberg and some other people who liked [Bob] Dylan and Jesus going on about Hare Krishna,” he said. “It was Ginsberg, in particular, I was referring to.” For context, Ginsberg was a writer and mystic most known for the controversial poem “Howl.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
It wasn’t easy for George Harrison to come forward with his songs during his time with The Beatles. However, maybe that was a good thing. Looking back, George was glad he’d only managed to squeeze out a few songs while in the band. Otherwise, his songs would’ve become “Dick Jaws” property.
Starting with the first song he ever wrote, “Don’t Bother Me,” George wrote 21 songs plus “Flying,” which was a group effort.
John Lennon and Paul McCartney allowed him to add about two to three songs per album. However, Geoge has four songs on The White Album.
Source: cheatsheet.com
George Harrison‘s wife Olivia says she’s never considered herself a “Beatle wife.” When Olivia met George in the early 1970s, he hadn’t been a Beatle for years. He was a completely different person.
However, since George died in 2001, Olivia has taken her husband’s place in The Beatles’ affairs.
Technically speaking, Olivia is right. She has never been a Beatle wife in the literal sense. That role went to George’s first wife, Pattie Boyd. George met Boyd on the set of The Beatles’ A Hard Days’ Night in 1964. They married in 1966, but they had some pretty big bumps. Boyd got sick of George’s infidelities and left him for his friend Eric Clapton.
Source: cheatsheet.com
George Harrison and Bob Dylan rose to prominence in the early 1960s, and each admired the other’s work. Harrison was particularly reverent of Dylan — those close to him said that the former Beatle adored him. He thought of Dylan as a musical genius but also conceded that he was a bit eccentric. Harrison explained why he thought of Dylan as one of the “looniest” people he knew.
Tom Petty worked with both Harrison and Dylan in the Traveling Wilburys. He explained that while all the band members were fans of Dylan’s work, Harrison was particularly reverent of him.
“George quoted Bob like people quote Scripture,” Petty told Rolling Stone, per the Petty Archives. “Bob really adored George, too. George used to hang over the balcony videoing Bob while Bob wasn’t aware of it. Bob would be sitting at the piano playing, and George would tape it and listen to it all night.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
“Eleanor Rigby” was released by The Beatles in 1966 as part of their Revolver album roll-out. A unique offering for the famed group, the song features only a string arrangement and vocal from Paul McCartney across the verses. The full group joins in on the chorus for a few moments of classic Beatles harmony.
Paul McCartney recounted the song’s origin and meaning in a 2018 interview with GQ, saying “Over the years, I’ve met a couple of others, and maybe their loneliness made me empathize with them. But I thought it was a great character, so I started this song about the lonely old lady who picks up the rice in the church, who never really gets the dreams in her life. Then I added in the priest, the vicar, Father McKenzie. And so, there were just the two characters. It was like writing a short story, and it was basically on these old ladies that I had known as a kid.”
Source: americansongwriter.com
Being a rockstar is only half of Paul McCartney’s job! The former Beatles bassist is also a father to five children: Heather McCartney, Mary McCartney, Stella McCartney, James McCartney and Beatrice McCartney. While his singing talent has taken him worldwide, the doting dad has shared sweet memories with his kids over the years captured in family photos.
Paul married Linda McCartney in 1969 and became a father to her daughter, Heather, from a previous relationship. The pair also welcomed their daughter Mary in 1969. Their third daughter, Stella, arrived in 1971 and emerged as a world-renowned fashion designer.
Stella has maintained a close relationship with her father over the years and even released clothing collections inspired by The Beatles. In 2021, the style maven created a capsule collection in honor of the band’s Disney+ documentary Get Back.
Source: Samantha Agate/closerweekly.com
Zak Starkey’s move to Reggae isn’t exactly shocking, but it is interesting. The now 56-year-old English rock musician is the son of The Beatles drummer Ringo Starr and has served as the drummer in two legendary rock bands, The Who and Oasis.
Starkey has detailed how covering a Peter Tosh song led him to launch and helm a Grammy Award-winning Reggae label. “If you said five or six years ago, ‘You’re gonna be living in Jamaica and making records with Sly & Robbie…’ I would’ve just thought, ‘No, you’re crazy, man!’”
n 2015, Starkey and his partner (now wife) Sharna “Sshh” Liguz began recording tracks for Issues, a covers album premised on playing new versions alongside the original musicians. The project was intended to raise funds for the U.K.-based Teenage Cancer Trust—a charity backed by Starkey and his fellow members of The Who. During a recording session with American drummer Gil Sharone, Starkey began praising Peter Tosh and, a few moments later, found himself speaking with the Stepping Razor’s former bandmate.
Source: dancehallmag.com
