Beatles News
Paul McCartney has announced a 50th anniversary vinyl edition of his 1975 Wings album Venus and Mars.
The album was Wings’ fourth and the follow-up to their classic Band on the Run. Venus and Mars would reach number one on the album charts on both side of the Atlantic, going on to sell over four million copies worldwide.
Mostly recorded in New Orleans, this period would saw a change in the Wings lineup as McCartney would recruit guitarist Jimmy McCullough and replace short-lived drummer Geoff Britton midway through recording, with the more Macca-friendly Joe English. The album features fan favourite ‘Letting Go’ and hit single ‘Listen To What The Man Said’, which reached number one in the US singles chart.
The vinyl is half-speed mastered edition, cut by Miles Showell at Abbey Road and there’s no bonus material just a “meticulous reproduction” of the original UK pressing, with an OBI-strip. Venus and Mars will also be available– digitally only – in Dolby Atmos for the first time, having been newly mixed by Giles Martin and Steve Orchard.
Venus and Mars will be reissued on 21 March 2025 via MPL and UMe. It’s only available via Universal/McCartney channels until Friday, when it will be listed in ‘normal’ retail outlets.
Source: superdeluxeedition.com
This is FRESH AIR. Ringo Starr has released a new album of country songs called "Look Up." It's a collaboration with producer T Bone Burnett, who wrote many of the songs. And it features appearances by Alison Krauss and a new young bluegrass star, Billy Strings. Ringo recently taped a country special that will air on CBS in the spring, and in February, he'll make his debut at Nashville's Grand Ole Opry. Not bad for an 84-year-old ex-Beatle. Rock critic Ken Tucker has a review of "Look Up."
RINGO STARR: (Singing) It's a long way down and there's no bottom. You had the blues, but you forgot them. Look up. In the midnight hour, look up. Love is the higher power. Keep your eyes on the skies. Don't look down on the shadows town. Look up.
KEN TUCKER, BYLINE: Beatle fans have known of Ringo Starr's love of country music ever since he had The Fab Four cover the Buck Owens hit "Act Naturally" in 1965, singing a rare lead vocal. "Look Up" isn't even Ringo's first country album. That was way back in 1970. It was called "Beaucoup Of Blues" and was more self-conscious and lugubrious than the new one, which radiates the confidence and ease that an aging professional can bring to his material.
STARR: (Singing) Every time I think about you, I never want to live without you. And every time you come around, I'm spellbound. I'm spellbound. Yeah. When I see you on the boulevard, my spirit flies and my heart beats hard with a love that's deathless and I'm breathless.
TUCKER: While producer T Bone Burnett has written most of the music here, he and Ringo have selected some clever new songs, including a couple by an old pro, Billy Swan. Swan will forever be known for one beautiful No. 1 hit, "I Can Help" from 1974. Swan's always charming songwriting yields this lovely interlude called "You Want Some."
STARR: (Singing) Well, I got love to give, baby, that's better than none. You want some? You want some? Deep down in my heart is where it all comes from. You want some? Oh, baby, you want some?
TUCKER: What makes Ringo such an effective country vocalist? Well, the rhythmic sense that made him a great rock drummer guides the way he phrases, giving a country lyric the air necessary to breathe life into the story it's telling. Freed from the demands of rock 'n' roll volume when singing with the Beatles, Ringo's crooning possesses the kind of relaxed authority that usually only a genius like Willie Nelson or Ray Charles can make sound so easy.
STARR: (Singing) I used to have a true love, everything was fine, but now she's found a new love. She's no longer mine. I thought it was forever, but she had other plans. Now these arms are empty, and I've got time on my hands. I turned my collar up, kept my eyes turned down. I walked the empty streets, the blue side of town. When she was my baby, I was a busy man. But she slipped through my fingers, and I've got time on my hands.
Source: bpr.org/Ken Tucker
Fans of George Harrison are calling his work on an unused How Do You Sleep take “the best playing he ever did”.
Post-The Beatles, John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote retaliatory songs against one another. Lennon’s How Do You Sleep was a response to McCartney’s Ram track, Too Many People. Harrison joined Lennon on How Do You Sleep, a song which featured on Imagine and was dubbed a personal jab at McCartney after the fallout of the Fab Four. McCartney had joked he was planning a follow-up, titled Quite Well, Thank You, but it never came to pass.
Fans of How Do You Sleep and Harrison are now saying an earlier take of the song hides one of his best performances as a guitarist. A post to The Beatles’ subreddit saw people share their fondness for his guitar playing on How Do You Sleep. One user wrote: “George’s guitar on How Do You Sleep (Takes 5 and 6) is some of the best playing he ever did.”
Another user agreed, adding: “Even on the official album version I’d agree with that statement. He had a lot of career moments where he shined as a guitarist but this is my number one.” A third suggested “everyone” was in top form on this “insane take”. They wrote: “In those versions, everyone kinda pops off.
Source: cultfollowing.co.uk/Ewan Gleadow
The Beatles dominated charts all around the world throughout the years the four musicians were together, and even many times following the split that shocked the human race. The Fab Four became superstars and rulers of the weekly rankings in the United Kingdom shortly after its first album dropped, and the band remains one of the most successful names to ever grace the charts. Now, one of The Beatles’ most impressive records has finally been matched by another one of the most beloved musicians of all time in the country.
Robbie Williams returns to No. 1 on the U.K. albums chart this week. The singer leads the charge on the list of the most-consumed full-lengths with Better Man, the soundtrack that accompanies the film of the same name.
The Better Man soundtrack earns Williams his milestone fifteenth leader on the U.K. albums ranking. As he snags one more champion, he matches The Beatles’ all-time record for the most No. 1s on the roster.
Before Better Man arrived, Williams was matched with another one of the most beloved rock bands, the Rolling Stones. That act is steady with its 14 No. 1s on the U.K. albums chart, though now that lands the stars in third place on the ranking of the most successful names in this regard, instead of second, as was the case just days ago.
Williams’ roundup of winners is even more impressive than some casual onlookers may realize. He’s scored 15 No. 1s as a soloist, but he’s reached the summit with five additional albums as a part of Take That. The singer started his career as a member of the boy band, but he struck out on his own and found great success in doing so.
Better Man is one of Williams’ 17 top 10 titles on the main albums chart across the pond, as only two of his releases failed to top the ranking. Both Live at Knebworth and Reality Killed the Video Star peaked at No. 2, narrowly breaking up his winning streak.
Source: forbes.com/Hugh McIntyre
—Donald Trump compared himself on Monday to The Beatles and Elvis Presley while bragging about his fundraising prowess.
Speaking at his golf resort, the commander-in-chief told a cheering crowd of congressional and other supporters that he’s right on par with the British pop legends and the king of rock and roll.
And just as the Beatles drew throngs of screaming and crying fans, Trump’s telethon-style town halls were just as significant, he said.
“We get on, we have 25-30,000 people on, just in a congressional area, and they win easy,” Trump said. “It works for Elvis the Beatles, and it doesn’t work for anyone else—but it works for Trump.”
“Now we raised a lot of money, a tremendous amount, and our tele-town halls are something that’s very special that nobody else is able to even contemplate using,” he said. “We’ve gotten a lot of people elected with those tele-town halls.
The president has repeatedly compared himself to the King, including at a campaign stop in Tupelo, Mississippi, in 2018, when he said, “Other than the blond hair, when I was growing up they said I looked like Elvis. Can you believe it? I always considered that a great compliment.”
Trump, who’s sitting on a $500 million post-election war chest, asked Speaker Mike Johnson if he can seek another term.
“I’ve raised a lot of money for the next race that I assume I can’t use for myself, but I’m not 100% sure, because I don’t know. I think I’m not allowed to run again, I’m not sure. Am I allowed to run again, Mike? I better not get you involved in that.”
While Trump may have been joking, some conservative lawmakers have said they are open to the idea.
Source: The Daily Beast
All you need is luck — and maybe a stroke of fate.
That was the case in 1961 when one of Brian Epstein’s customers in the record department he managed at NEMS — his family store in Liverpool, England — asked for the single “My Bonnie” by The Beatles. It was, despite all his retail intel, the first instance that the Fab Four’s future manager had heard of the band.
Curious about the group that had recorded “My Bonnie” in Germany but turned out to be locals, Epstein saw The Beatles for the first time at Liverpool’s Cavern Club — where they played lunchtime concerts — on Nov. 9, 1961. The mind-blowing moment that would change his life — and pop music — is depicted in the new biopic “Midas Man,” which is streaming on Olyn.
“That day is the big bang,” Beatles historian Martin Lewis told The Post about Epstein’s culture-shifting discovery. “He had some kind of X-ray vision and X-ray hearing. He’s hearing it, and he’s looking at it, and he sees magic. These guys had something. It wasn’t just the music … it was the charisma, the presence, the energy. The Beatles had that life force.”
And Epstein gave The Beatles new life, proposing to manage them on the spot backstage despite having no previous experience.
“He just instinctively, intuitively senses there’s something here, and there may be a mission for him,” said Lewis, who wrote the companion narrative for the 1998 re-publication of Epstein’s 1964 autobiography “A Cellarful of Noise.”
Source: nypost.com/Chuck Arnold
Sam Mendes is reportedly under a lot of pressure to do justice to The Beatles movie.
According to the latest findings of Life & Style, “The cast is coming together and the world is watching.”
The musical band of 1960 comprised Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, and George Harrison. The band released more than 200 songs between 1960 to 1970.
It is pertinent to mention here that Paul Mescal plays the role of Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson plays John Lennon, Barry Keoghan plays Ringo Starr and Joseph Quinn plays George Harrison in the movie, which is slated to be released in 2027.
More importantly, the source mentioned, “But more importantly, the surviving controllers of the Beatles’ legacy are watching – Paul [McCartney], Yoko [Ono], Ringo [Starr] and Olivia Harrison.”
The insider also addressed, “Sony and Sam Mendes have one chance to get this right.”
Source: geo.tv
While many factors contributed to the mega-group's demise, including creative differences, business disputes, and the inevitable erosion of camaraderie that often occurs among friends after years of intense, close contact, one of the most cited reasons for the break-up has been John Lennon's relationship with Yoko Ono.
The perception that Ono was controlling Lennon and manipulating him into making creative and practical decisions that served her own interests rather than his or the band's has persisted. Part of that also came from Lennon's decision to withdraw from public life almost entirely, taking a five-year hiatus, but Lennon's own assessment of that time reveals the truth of their relationship.
John Lennon "Retired" In 1975. Between the birth of his son, Sean, on 9 October 1975, and October 1980, when he released "(Just Like) Starting Over" as a single, John Lennon essentially disappeared. History says he he "baked bread" and "looked after the baby", and his only musical activity was collaborating on "Cookin' (In the Kitchen of Love)" for Rino Starr's Ringo's Rotogravure (1976) as a writer and performer on the track. Looking back, it's been hard for some to accept that this hiatus didn't rob us of more of his work, but it was necessary for Lennon's own wellbeing.
Source: screenrant.com/Marcel Green
John Lennon wrote and recorded the single “Instant Karma” in one day, at one point telling reporters he “wrote it for breakfast, recorded it for lunch, and we’re putting it out for dinner.”
The song, produced by Phil Spector, featured his Beatles bandmate George Harrison on acoustic guitar and piano, with Lennon’s wife Yoko Ono and Billy Preston contributing background vocals.
The inspiration for the tune came to Lennon during a visit he and Yoko took to Denmark, where they met up with Yoko’s former husband Tony Cox. Cox’s then wife Melinde Kendell used the term in conversation.
“Instant Karma,” Lennon’s third solo single, wound up being a hit for the rocker, peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Source: kslx.com
Shortly after The Beatles split, John Lennon was publicly critical of Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. He dismissed their solo efforts and work in The Beatles. By the mid-1970s, Lennon’s attitude towards his former bandmates had softened considerably. Still, he wasn’t afraid to share his honest opinion when asked about a former Beatle’s music. He said one of Harrison’s concerts hadn’t impressed him.
In 1975, Lennon reflected on a recent Harrison concert he attended. It hadn’t impressed him.
“It wasn’t the greatest thing in history,” he told Rolling Stone. “The guy went through some kind of mill. It was probably his turn to get smacked.”
Harrison embarked on a 45-show tour of North America with Ravi Shankar in 1974. The critical reception was mixed, with many lambasting the shows. Lennon believed this was a part of the typical cycle of approval for the Beatles.
“When we were all together there was periods when the Beatles were in, the Beatles were out, no matter what we were doing,” Lennon said. “Now it’s always the Beatles were great or the Beatles weren’t great, whatever opinion people hold. There’s a sort of illusion about it. But the actual fact was the Beatles were in for eight months, the Beatles were out for eight months. The public, including the media, are sometimes a bit sheeplike and if the ball starts rolling, well, it’s just that somebody’s in, somebody’s out.”
Source: MSN
