Beatles News
In 1968, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the leader of the Transcendental Meditation movement, invited The Beatles to visit his ashram in Rishikesh, India.
The group heard the guru speak in London and were spellbound. Then, after a 10-day conference of the Spiritual Regeneration Movement in Bangor, Wales, Maharishi invited The Beatles to India. It became a media frenzy, and many other celebrities came along for the three-month stay. They learned about meditation, quit drugs, and experienced one of their most creative periods, writing about 48 songs.
However, the band’s peaceful stay was cut short. They made a startling discovery about Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. John Lennon was not pleased. He felt as if he’d been taken for a fool, let the guru know, and abruptly fled the country. However, the rest of the band didn’t quite understand why John was so hurt.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Paul McCartney's brother, photographer and songwriter Mike McCartney claimed the Beatles may not have existed and they both could have been doctors.
Their mum Mary died in October 1956, after a battle with breast cancer. Mike said the world may have been without the Liverpool quartet if their mother had lived. The origins of the Fab Four date back to 1957, when Paul met a young John Lennon by chance at a church fete at St. Peter's Church in Liverpool.
Speaking to the ECHO, Mike McCartney explained how the guidance from their mother may have meant him and brother Paul would have followed more educational routes. He joked: "You'd be speaking to Dr McCartney now, or she was a Catholic so maybe it would be Father McCartney."
Source: Aaron Curran/liverpoolecho.co.uk
John Lennon called him his "soul mate." George Harrison called him the band’s "art director." He's the reason Paul McCartney switched to bass guitar. He had the fashion sense and the stage presence. He even invented the band's iconic "mushroom head" hairdo. As Ted Widmer writes in a lengthy piece for the New Yorker, original Beatles member Stuart Sutcliffe "remains a spectral presence in Beatles lore"—so much so that he appears in the eclectic crowd on the Sgt. Pepper's cover. Widmer examines Sutcliffe’s heavy influence in the band’s earliest days and leaves the impression that, without him, the Beatles never really would have been. (Incidentally, the band’s name was a joint creation between Sutcliffe and Lennon.)
Source: Mike L. Ford/newser.com
I met President Putin once. His eyes scared me when they locked with mine across Red Square and I got the feeling from his hard, cold look that we weren’t going to be mates.
It was back in May of 2003 and my then-boss Paul McCartney was performing for the first time in Russia as part of a European concert tour on which I was the head of Macca’s publicity team.
If you’re the Beatle who wrote Back In The USSR for The White Album in 1968 and you finally get to play in Moscow 35 years later, then there’s only one place that you want to do the gig – beside The Kremlin in Red Square.
And so that’s where we built the huge stage. We were told that there was only space for about 60,000 in Red Square. We had a look and said no, we think you can fit in at least another 40,000. The Russians said no, our eyes deceived us, there wasn’t the room. So we put 60,000 tickets on sale and they went in a flash. Oddly enough, come the night of the gig, another 40,000 had squeezed in. The Russians said that had nothing to do with them…
Source: Geoff Baker/thisiswiltshire.co.uk
When gods of mythology meet, you expect some sort of cosmic collision to take place that shakes the pillars of the Earth. When gods of rock n' roll meet however, the tale isn't always so stoic and majestic. The story of how the legendary Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler met iconic Beatles frontman Paul McCartney reminds us that those monuments of music that we have looked up to for decades are really just normal people after all.
Picture your hero — the person you idolize the most in this world. Where would be the ideal place to cross paths with them? Who else would be present? How would the conversation go? Now imagine on the flip side the most awkward circumstances you can summon. For Steven Tyler and Paul McCartney, their first encounter was less awkward than it was goofy and charming, and it happened while the two were standing next to one another in a restroom (via Showbiz Cheat Sheet).
Source: Luke Holden/grunge.com
According to bass guitar player/vocalist Paul McCartney, the first version of “Don’t Let Me Down” featured some lyrics that “aren’t that good.” The Beatles reworked this hit song, as seen during the Disney+ original documentary series The Beatles: Get Back.
The Beatles are award-winning, legendary songwriters, creating hits “Here Comes the Sun,” “Twist and Shout,” “In My Life,” and “I Want To Hold Your Hand.” Even years after their split, The Beatles appeared on a documentary special released exclusively on Disney+.
The Beatles: Get Back offered never before seen footage of John Lennon, McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr as they rehearsed for their live rooftop performance at the Apple Corps headquarters in central London. That performance included songs “Get Back,” “Dig a Pony,” and “Don’t Let Me Down,” all of which were new songs at the time.
Source: cheatsheet.com
The Beatles are award-winning songwriters, even collaborating on new songs during Disney+’s The Beatles: Get Back. Some members were more punctual than others, with Paul McCartney even joking that he would kick another Beatle out of the band for being so late.
Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr of English rock and pop group The Beatles | David Redfern/Redferns
Some listeners know them for songs like “In My Life,” “Strawberry Fields Forever,” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
Disney+ released their original documentary series The Beatles: Get Back, debuting never-before-seen footage of John Lennon, McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr as they rehearsed for one of their final live performances.
That was their rooftop concert at the Apple Corps headquarters at London’s 3 Savile Row, where Ringo Starr made it a point to always be on time for their rehearsal.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Things weren’t easy for The Beatles, as seen during The Beatles: Get Back. Specifically, when they were tasked with managing themselves, this band struggled to find “discipline,” according to Paul McCartney.
Before they were the world’s biggest band, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, John Lennon, and McCartney had humble beginnings. These artists had business owner Brian Epstein as their band manager, guiding them in the right direction.
As The Beatles grew in popularity, Epstein remained The Beatles’ manager until he died in 1967 of an accidental drug overdose. Still, footage surfaced of this manager, offering insight into his experience.
“I was immediately struck by their music, their beat, and their sense of humor, actually onstage,” Epstein said during one video clip from The Beatles: Get Back. “And it was there that, really, it all started.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
George Harrison didn’t care what anyone thought of his music. It was great when fans liked it. However, George made music because he wanted to, not because fans or record companies demanded it. When George went in to record All Things Must Pass, he wanted to prove to himself that he could make a successful album.
George wanted it to be perfect and had it all mapped out before stepping foot in a recording studio. Although, it didn’t exactly turn out as perfect as George imagined. Later, George confessed he wasn’t too happy with the reverb producer, Phil Spector added.
Over the lockdown, George’s widow, Olivia, their only son, Dhani, and Grammy award-winning producer, Paul Hicks worked on remastering All Things Must Pass for its 50th-anniversary edition. One of the hardest things about the project was respecting the originals while toning down Spector’s reverb, which he used in most productions.
Source: cheatsheet.com
The Monkees‘ songs are often compared to The Beatles’ songs. Notably, the two bands had to battle for chart supremacy simultaneously. For example, one of The Beatles’ songs knocked The Monkees’ final No. 1 single off of its pedestal. John Lennon revealed he wasn’t a big fan of The Beatles song in question.
In the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul discussed the meaning of The Beatles’ “Hello, Goodbye.” “‘Hello, Goodbye’ was one of my songs,” he said. “There are Geminian influences here I think the twins. It’s such a deep theme in the universe, duality.” For context, Paul referred to the Gemini, twins from the Western Zodiac.
Paul elaborated on “Hello, Goodbye,” “Man woman, black white, ebony ivory, high low, right wrong, up down, hello goodbye — that it was a very easy song to write,” he recalled. “It’s just a song of duality, with me advocating the more positive. You say goodbye, I say hello. You say stop, I say go. I was advocating the more positive side of the duality, and I still do to this day.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
