Beatles News
"For the first time, John and Paul knew that George had risen to their level" – Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick track-by-track interview on Abbey Road
It is an image as memorable as the moon landing - and one copied by tourists on a daily basis. (Even a few bands have paid homage, most notably Booker T & The MGs.)
Ironically, that picture was a last-minute decision. During the recording of what was to be their swan song, The Beatles toyed with several titles, and Everest, a reference to the brand of cigarettes their late chief engineer, Geoff Emerick, smoked, was the favourite.
So Ringo said, 'Why don't we just shoot the cover outside and call it Abbey Road?' Like many a Ringo suggestion, it won out.
Source: Joe Bosso/musicradar.com
When the official trailer for The Beatles: Get Back was released in October, commentary across social media often referenced how harmonious and collegial the band looked in the footage. Undoubtedly, much of the anticipation surrounding Peter Jackson's docu-series was its suggestion that the Beatles' final years were much less acrimonious than previously believed.
In tandem with this, another set of comments focused on Yoko Ono’s inclusion in the jovial preview. After all, the 1970 Beatles documentary Let It Be, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg – which was created from the same 60-plus hours of footage – has not only served as supposed evidence of the group’s disintegration, but as “proof” that artist Ono, John Lennon’s then girlfriend and soon-to-be wife, played a major role in the world’s greatest rock band splintering apart.
Source: Christine Feldman-Barrett/news24.com
Mary McCartney has shared her fondest memories of mother Linda with her father, Paul McCartney, in a new interview.
Speaking to The Times, Mary and Paul reflected on family Christmases and how Linda helped raise awareness of vegetarianism.
Mary argued that many of Paul’s fans disliked Linda because she “didn’t fit the mould of the woman they wanted” him to marry.
“Being a vegetarian family in the late 1970s marked you out as different,” she said. “Everybody said it was all Mum’s idea and she’d forced Dad to stop eating meat, but they did it as a team. I remember them discussing recipes and Dad saying he still wanted something he could slice for his Sunday roast. Mum was always excited about cooking and she inspired me.
“Dad’s pretty good in the kitchen — he’d make a great sous-chef,” she added. “If you ask him to sort out the mashed potato, it’ll be the best you’ve ever tasted. He’s meticulous, just like he is in the studio.”
Source: independent.co.uk
PAUL MCCARTNEY has spoken out about how he and John Lennon wrote a song about their friend after their death, but the song was later banned from radio.
In 1967 John Lennon and Paul McCartney worked together to write a new batch of songs for The Beatles' eighth studio album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. During their writing sessions, the pair heard some tragic news about one of their friends, prompting them to write candidly about losing one of their pals.In McCartney's new book, The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, he delved into the secrets of how he and Lennon wrote A Day In The Life. The song was a joint effort between the two pals mourning the loss of their friend, Tara Browne.
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
In life, I think, there are only three ways that we can relate to the Beatles, which is fewer than you could say for any other band. (Yes, okay, there are probably people—probably millions of people, on this planet—who simply don’t know them, but this is Paste and you know what I mean.)
The overwhelming majority of us fall into the three basic camps. First, the obsessed devotees, of which there are many. Second, the iconoclasts who delight in blowing our minds with radical takes like, “actually, the Beatles suck.” And third, my group: the “casuals” who appreciate the music but aren’t diehards. That’s most of us, I think, but the sheer status of the Beatles means that even casuals aren’t truly casual… which is why even for people like me, it’s such a thrill to watch the most famous band in human history interact in the Get Back docuseries.
Source: By Paste Staff/pastemagazine.com
Peter Jackson's Get Back is a musical documentary unlike any other. Rather than featuring interviews with those involved, Get Back is styled with a more "fly on the wall" approach. The cameras are simply pointed at The Beatles and capture their every move, whether it's arguing amongst each other, goofing around, smoking cigarettes, or making music.
The latter is perhaps the most interesting thing about the entire documentary. The magic of Get Back is in watching some of the most iconic pop songs of all time take shape. Many songs can be seen getting crafted, and it makes for fascinating viewing.
Source: Nathan Sharp/screenrant.com
Keith Richards and George Harrison knew a thing or two about being a lead guitarist in a world-famous rock band.
As The Rolling Stones’ lead guitarist, Richards was the mastermind behind famous guitar riffs in songs like “Brown Sugar” and “Honky Tonk Women.” Meanwhile, George always knew how to fill out Beatles’ songs like “Day Tripper” and “If I Needed Someone.”
Knowing what it took to make each other their bands dominate the charts bonded them in a way. Without them, there wouldn’t be The Beatles or The Rolling Stones.
In the special edition of Rolling Stone, “Remembering George,” published months after George died in 2001, Richards spoke about his relationship with his guitar-playing counterpart. He said that he thought he and George had a “bond.”
“George and I kind of formed-without talking too much about it, although we did have a laugh here and there-a bond, in that we felt we were kind of fulfilling the same role within our respective bands,” Richards said. “It was a nod and a wink to say, ‘Well, they’d be nowhere without us.’
Source: cheatsheet.com
‘The Beatles: Get Back': How Peter Jackson Found 60 Hours of Unseen Fab Four Footage
The ”Lord of the Rings“ director spun a meeting with The Beatles’ business managers into a documentary pitch
“The Beatles: Get Back” director Peter Jackson’s gargantuan feat of compiling 60 hours of never-before-seen footage of the Fab Four’s “Let It Be” recording sessions — as well as new interviews with Paul McCartney and others who were at the scene 52 years ago — actually began as a different project altogether.
Source: Harper Lambert/thewrap.com
A record shop in Newcastle is just one of fifty charities or businesses across the country to receive an early Christmas gift courtesy of musical Royalty.
Yoko Ono and Sean Ono Lennon - the wife and son, respectively, of John Lennon - sent out the extremely rare copies of the song Happy Xmas (War Is Over) to 'spread Xmas cheer.'
Through a letter, recipients are advised to do whatever they choose with the vinyl, be it "sell, auction, raise money to help your business or your favourite charity."
The record is an acetate, hand-cut at the famous Abbey Road studios to mark the 50th anniversary of the single's first release.
Source: ITV News
Fifty years ago, the breakup of the Beatles divided American music fans. Recently, the debate over why the best-selling group broke up has been revived by Peter Jackson's new documentary series The Beatles: Get Back, which documents the making of the band's final album, Let it Be.
While half of Americans say they lack an opinion on the issue, those who hold one are most likely to attribute the British rock band's dissolution to Yoko Ono, the wife and collaborator of the group’s founder, John Lennon.
Speculation regarding Ono’s role in the band’s split is not new. This narrative has been called into question in recent weeks, however, following an interview in which band member Paul McCartney attributed the band’s breakup to Lennon, rather than Ono. Lennon is the culprit for one in four Americans with an opinion on the breakup. Far fewer attribute the Beatles’ breakup to other members of the band, including Paul McCartney (5%), George Harrison (3%), and Ringo Starr (2%). About 10% say someone else is responsible for the dissolution.
Source: Taylor Orth/today.yougov.com
