Beatles News
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
The Beatles spent an extraordinary amount of time with one another, from their early days playing the Cavern Club in Liverpool to touring the world as the most famous band on the planet. Throughout these years, whether it was on the road or in recording studios, they were living in one another's pockets. And while the Fab Four came to an end in 1970 after a huge blowout that erupted from some personal feuds between the singers, things started to heat up back as early as 1962.
Ringo Starr recalled how Paul McCartney - more than anyone else - was at the centre of one argument that left the band squabbling for hours on a British road.
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
Rare censored footage of the tight security put in place by Tokyo police when the Beatles came to Japan to perform in 1966 has finally reached the public domain.
The nearly 36-minute black and white silent movie shot by the Metropolitan Police Department documents a level of security normally accorded to state guests.
The group was in Japan from June 29 to July 3. It was their first and last tour in Japan as a band.
It shows police meetings to discuss security measures and officers at checkpoints set up around Haneda Airport in the capital for the arrival of the four-member group.
The footage also captures a vehicle displaying a banner that read “Demoralizing Beatles must be driven out” heading in the direction of the cameraman.
Source: asahi.com
George Harrison once revealed that he read his album reviews. However, that didn’t mean he cared about what they said. He read them out of curiosity, but they didn’t affect him or his playing. Anyway, George wasn’t making music for the critics.
The former Beatle never liked explaining himself or his songs. He said whatever he was trying to say was plain as day in the lyrics. If they weren’t obvious, he was OK with fans’ interpretations. However, George wasn’t making music for anyone but God. In the mid-1960s, Ravi Shankar taught him that “God is sound.”
So, it’s surprising that George cared enough to read about what others said about his music. George explained he read some reviews if he came across them.
“I canceled all my newspapers five years ago, so I don’t really know what people say,” he said. “If I do see a review of an album I’ll read it, although it doesn’t make too much difference what they say, because I am what I am whether they like it or not.”
Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com
George Harrison was “by far the best” musician in The Beatles during their seminal stint playing on Hamburg’s Reeperbahn, a German friend of the band has said. Meanwhile John Lennon was still learning, while former drummer Pete Best was still glum about his departure almost 30 years after he was replaced by Ringo Starr, Hans-Olaf Henkel added.
The 82-year-old former MEP told Express.co.uk he got to know The Beatles thanks to an old flame - photographer Astrid Kirchherr.
Ms Kircherr had introduced Mr Henkel to Stuart Sutcliffe, Lennon’s art school friend who was the band’s bass player, and whom she was later engaged to before he died at the tragically young age of 21 of a brain haemorrhage.
Mr Henkel said: ”During 1961 I went to the Top Ten Club located on the Reeperbahn many times to hear the Beatles - and see Astrid.
Source: Ciaran McGrath/express.co.uk
It was 53 years ago today (September 26th, 1969) that the Beatles' final album, Abbey Road, was released. Although the Let It Be album was released the next year featuring earlier unreleased tracks, Abbey Road was the last album the group recorded together. The album's working title had been Everest — after a brand of cigarettes their engineer Geoff Emerick smoked — before the group simply chose the name of the street where their recording studio was located.
Abbey Road spent 11 weeks at Number One and featured the double A-sided single “Come Together” and “Something,” the highest-charting Beatles song written by George Harrison. Paul McCartney commented on the song in The Beatles Anthology saying, “'Something' was out of left field. . . It appealed to me because it has a very beautiful melody. I thought it was George's greatest track.”
Source: Music News/vermilioncountyfirst.com
The light in John Lennon's old bedroom will be left on overnight next month.
Mendips, Lennon's childhood home in Woolton, where he lived from 1945 to 1963, is now owned by the National Trust. Lennon's widow Yoko Ono bought the house in March 2002, and donated it to the National Trust in order to save it from demolition and property speculators.
The childhood home of Paul McCartney - 13 Forthlin Road - is also owned and managed by the National Trust, with many citing it as the birthplace of the Beatles.
On October 9 every year, the light in John's old bedroom in Mendips is left on overnight by the managers of the house, to mark the former Beatles' birthday. This year would have been the music legend's 82nd.
John lived at the Woolton address with his Aunt Mimi. He would later move out in 1963 as the Beatles rocketed to stardom.
Source: Aaron Curran/liverpoolecho.co.uk
The Beatles drummer Ringo Starr recently spoke to USA TODAY’s Melissa Ruggieri and reflected on how Paul McCartney and John Lennon prepared the song, ‘Yello Submarine,’ in which Starr took over the lead vocals.
‘Yellow Submarine,’ a product of the Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership, appeared on the band’s 1966 album, ‘Revolver.’ The track became a big hit from the day it premiered, reaching number 1 in many countries. It was intended to be a fun children’s song and stood out with its simple lyrics and melody. What McCartney and Lennon had in their minds was to create a song specifically for Ringo Starr.
Source: Bihter Sevinc/rockcelebrities.net
