Beatles News
By 1966, Beatlemania was in full swing. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr were internationally adored for their contributions to music, and they were feeling the weight of that adoration immensely. Together, they had set records for concert attendance and revenue, and ultimately, had to travel by armored car to ensure their safety when en route to different destinations.
This popularity was draining for the quartet, and they retired from touring in August of 1966. Despite taking a step back from the spotlight, The Beatles still wanted to make music. So, escaping to the studio, The Beatles created Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1966 and 1967.
Source: americansongwriter.com
Once George Harrison heard Indian music, popular music, and even some rock ‘n’ roll didn’t impress him. He said Eastern music was the best form of music people have. When he added it to his compositions, though, fans didn’t receive it well. So, George stopped incorporating Eastern influences in his music only in terms of sound. His songs remained spiritual.
However, that didn’t stop George from hoping Indian music would one day capture a bigger audience. Nothing else would’ve pleased him more. Ragas, mantras, chants, and everything else Hindu people used to communicate with God soothed George’s soul. Meanwhile, popular music made him feel “uptight.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
George Harrison and Elton John were very different rock stars. The former Beatle realized there was more to life than money and fame, but the “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” singer enjoyed those things. George said he felt sorry for his fellow singer because he was one of the only rock stars to have come close to Beatle-level fame but wasn’t God-conscious.
In a 1976 interview with India Today, George explained that after having success with The Beatles, he realized there had to be something more important in life. He’d reached a wall where nothing surprised or wowed him. Thankfully, he met Ravi Shankar, his future musical guru.
Shankar taught George sitar and gave him religious texts. Then, in the mid-1960s, George found what he’d been looking for during a trip to India. There were God-conscious people there who knew how to help him find the answers he was seeking. He read a lot about Hinduism and started meditating and chanting to be closer to God.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Following the Beatles split in 1970, the Fab Four went their separate ways and continued making music.
Some members had more success in their solo ventures than others, however. Paul McCartney formed the band Wings with his wife Linda in 1971, and they would go on to perform the best commercially of all the ex- Beatles acts.
By the time of their split in 1981, the band had won six Grammy Awards, while selling some 14 million records, earning seven platinum and nine gold discs along the way. This would not prove to be the end of Macca's solo career however, as he even headlined Glastonbury in 2022 at the age of 80.
Source: Aaron Curran/liverpoolecho.co.uk
Although they created some of the best music in rock history, The Beatles were only together for a total of eight years. Although its members were very close, they had a strained and contentious relationship. They struggled to keep the band together, often clashing over personal and creative differences. To this day, fans still wonder why exactly The Fab Four broke up.
Many have speculated that John Lennon’s relationship with Yoko Ono drove a wedge between the “Imagine” singer and his bandmates. Lennon may have hinted at this dynamic in the song “Glass Onion.”
The lyrics include the line, “Here’s another clue for you all/The walrus was Paul.” This was a reference to a previous song titled “I Am the Walrus,” in which Lennon said he was the walrus.
Source: cheatsheet.com
At eighty years old, Paul McCartney has eight grandchildren, and the former Beatles star is really living life to the full in 2022; spending time with his family, reading them his storybook and breaking records…Now that four of McCartney’s children are all grown up and starting families of their own, he has become a devoted grandfather. McCartney has revealed that he is a “pretty normal” grandfather but as an eighteen-time Grammy winner we think he falls in the ‘pretty cool’ grandfather category.
According to Express, McCartney has been married to three women, his first marriage was in 1969 to music photographer Linda Eastman and the pair had three children together — Mary, Stella, and James. McCartney also adopted Heather, who was Linda Eastman’s daughter.
Source: Darcy Rafter/thefocus.news
When you're as famous as Phil Collins, you're bound to bump elbows with some of the greats—but good ol' Phil's elbow-rubbing with Paul McCartney wasn't a pleasurable experience. Specifically, it ignited the most legendary of all grudges that Collins isn't about to let go of anytime soon.
In the U.K. Sunday Times in 2016, Collins fondly recalled their first meeting over a decade ago:
"I met him when I was working at the Buckingham Palace party back in 2002. McCartney came up with [his then-wife] Heather Mills and I had a first edition of The Beatles, by Hunter Davies, and I said, 'Hey, Paul, do you mind signing this for me?' And he said, 'Oh, Heather, our little Phil's a bit of a Beatles fan.' And I thought, 'You f*ck, you f*ck.' Never forgot it."
Source: Sammy Nickalls/goodhousekeeping.com
Before John Lennon‘s murder in 1980, his oldest son, Julian Lennon, didn’t get to make very many memories with him. But he recalled one moment with the former Beatle that still stands out.
How close were John and Julian Lennon? And what “simple moment” did Julian say was one of his fondest with his iconic father?
Julian Lennon was born in 1963 to John Lennon and his first wife, Cynthia. That marriage ended, and the rock and roll icon married Yoko Ono. After that, Julian’s time with his father was always short and fleeting.
“[My] relationship with dad was very few [and] far between, really,” he told BBC (as transcribed by Rock and Roll and Garage.) “There are fond flashes of memories.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
On December 8, 1980, renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz stood over John Lennon and Yoko Ono's bed with a camera.
Leibovitz had been welcomed into the couple's apartment on the Upper West Side and was tasked with snapping a portrait of the Beatles superstar.
The cover photo was supposed to be a solo shot of Lennon, but the rocker had demanded his wife be in the frame.
He told Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner: "If they don't want the two of us, we're not interested."
When she arrived, Leibovitz decided she wanted the pair to be locked in an embrace, but Ono didn't want to be naked.
So instead, a nude Lennon wrapped himself around the fully-clothed Japanese artist and Leibovitz took a Polaroid photo.
"You've captured our relationship exactly," Lennon, 40, told her after he saw the image.
Source: April Glover/celebrity.nine.com.au
Paul McCartney’s guitar recently broke a record for the most expensive bass, but the iconic member of The Beatles was not the original owner of the priciest instrument in the world. Here’s how much The Fab Four star’s bass guitar sold for and who holds the record for the most expensive instrument.
Paul McCartney is a legendary musician who can play over 40 instruments, including the bass guitar, electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards, and piano. He is quite attached to his guitars, even humanizing them at times.
According to Goodreads, McCartney once said, “Music is like a psychiatrist. You can tell your guitar things that you can’t tell people. And it will answer you with things people can’t tell you.”
He’s not the only member of the band with the habit of personifying his instruments. His fellow Beatle George Harrison gave his guitar human traits in the song “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
