Beatles News
When she first joined Radio 1 in 1970, Annie Nightingale made history as the first national female DJ at the BBC. Today, after 51 years with the station, she holds the Guinness World Record for the longest career of a female radio presenter.
Now 81, Nightingale continues to present her Radio 1 show and was given a CBE in the 2020 New Year’s Honours. Her memoir Hey Hi Hello is published in paperback this week, revealing the best and worst of her five decades behind the microphone. Here she shares a few more…
Shipbuilding by Robert Wyatt, written by Elvis Costello. It’s about the moral dilemma of shipbuilders in the North East in the 1980s. If we went to war in the Falklands, it would give work to the shipyards which were in decline – but would you want that job, knowing that what you made would be used to kill people? To me, that’s one of the most important songs I’ve ever known and it matters to me a lot.
Source: Jack Rear/telegraph.co.uk
IRON MAIDEN drummer Nicko McBrain was the featured guest on BBC's "The Rock Show With Johnnie Walker" during the "Rock God" segment. Nicko picked THE BEATLES' Ringo Starr and stated about his choice: "I've chosen Ringo because he was the very first drummer that really influenced me in my genre of music. I started off listening to Dave Brubeck when I heard Joe Morello playing, but Ringo was my first hero. In fact, when I was 12 years old — in fact, I was 11 — I had a poster of Ringo in my bedroom. He was looking over the left side of his drum set over his hi-hats, and I every night would go to sleep thinking, 'That is the man. That is the guy I wanna be like.' And he really did kick off my drumming career. One other thing is I got to meet him three years ago when he played down here in Fort Lauderdale — the first time after all of those years that I got to meet my hero."
Source: blabbermouth.net
Written by John Lennon, and recorded during the famed Let It Be sessions in 1969, The Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me Down” was first released on the B-Side of the “Get Back” single released that same year. Though Lennon crafted the intimate lyrics, the hit single has a Lennon-Paul McCartney dual credit—much like the majority of The Beatles discography. The two artists founded what went on the be the best-selling band of all time with George Harrison and Ringo Starr in 1960.
Like much of Lennon’s best work for the late years of The Beatles and beyond into his solo career, “Don’t Let Me Down” was penned in the shape of his enduring muse, Yoko Ono—whom he married a few months after this recording. McCartney recalled the inception of the song as a “very intense period.” In his 1997 biography, Many Years From Now by Barry Miles, he explained the context:
Source: americansongwriter.com
Producer and arranger George Martin had been the true “fifth Beatle”.
He had taken his background in performance and arrangement and brought to The Beatles ways of making a recording studio respond that had never been properly explored before. Martin made the Beatles into a better band, and they, in turn, made Martin into a greater producer and arranger than he might otherwise have become.
But, by the end of the 1960s, Martin and everybody around him needed a break, from the work – and each other.
The Police’s Andy Summers, Sting, Stewart Copeland recorded two albums at AIR Montserrat, despite barely being able to be in the same room as each other.
Source: Graeme Tuckett/stuff.co.nz
Yoko & Sean Ono Lennon, the Estate of John Lennon and Universal Music Group will host a Global Party to celebrate the 50th anniversary of John’s “Imagine” song, album and film on September 9. The event will honor one of the most famous and beloved songs and universal messages in music history.
“John and I were both artists and we were living together, so we inspired each other,” says Yoko. “The song ‘Imagine’ embodied what we believed together at the time. John and I met – he comes from the West and I come from the East – and still we are together. We have this oneness and ‘the whole world would eventually become one’ is the sense that we will all be very happy together. All these instructions are for people for how to spend eternity, because we have lots of time.”
Source: Paul Sexton/yahoo.com
The lyrics to The Beatles’ “She Loves You” seem pretty unobjectionable. Despite this, Paul McCartney’s father wanted him to change the lyrics. Paul revealed how he and John Lennon responded to this request.During an interview with NPR, Paul said his father, James McCartney, was a musician. Paul’s grandfather disapproved of James’ style of music, calling it “tin can music.” Paul said he “couldn’t fathom” his grandfather’s reaction to his father’s music.Paul blamed his grandfather’s taste on his generation. “But I think what it was was that in his father’s era, the singers were more operatic,” Paul said. “My dad was born in 1902. Consequently, my dad was more tolerant. He’d gone through playing his tin can music. So when we brought our tin can music, he quite liked it. He realized that it was quite musical.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
George Harrison had temporarily quit The Beatles in January 1969, disillusioned with their fraught sessions after witnessing the domestic bliss of The Band and their home studio set-up in Woodstock the previous November. What he saw in New York suggested a cooler, more democratic process was possible. The tensions in which he was mired at that time bore a handful of songs that were at once spiteful yet contemplative, including “I Me Mine” and “Wah Wah.”
“Run Of The Mill” is similarly probing; ironically, its lyrics were first scrawled across an envelope from Apple, the company that would irrevocably tear the group apart over differences of opinion regarding its management. A few weeks after Paul McCartney announced to the world in April 1970 that The Beatles had split, Harrison was in New York to discuss starting work on a solo album with Phil Spector, playing the producer “Run Of The Mill” and a selection of songs he’d earmarked for it. While the majority of “Run Of The Mill”’s ire is purportedly aimed at McCartney, the song also serves as a cautionary tale of owning one’s actions: “No one around you will carry the blame for you,” George sings. “No one around you will love you today/And throw it all away.”
Source: Simon Harper/udiscovermusic.com
Heart guitarist Nancy Wilson has talked about her musical hero, The Beatles legend Paul McCartney, and made heartwarming comments to praise him.
At first, Wilson has revealed whether she ever get a chance to talk of The Beatles as a peer. She told that she talked with Paul McCartney three different times before his shows. Wilson added her words that McCartney is the man you want him to be.
“I got to talk to Paul about three different times before his couple shows that I went to see,” Nancy told during a recent interview with The Mistress Carrie Podcast. “One was with Wings, and then it was his newer band, the Paul McCartney Show I guess.
“And he’s exactly the guy you want him to be. He’s really generous and sweet, and there’s no pretense with Paul McCartney, he’s just a good person, and he’s kind of upbeat guy.”
Source: Sami Altintas/metalcastle.net
Flashback: Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry Tries to Bust Paul McCartney Out of Prison for Weed Possession
“Please do not consider the amount of herbs involved excessive,” the reggae legend wrote. “Master PAUL McCARTNEY’s intentions are positive”
Reggae legend Lee “Scratch” Perry is best known as the architect of reggae and dub, his mind-bending solo productions and his work with everyone from Bob Marley and the Wailers to the Clash to Beastie Boys. Less known by the general public, though, is the role he played in trying to extract Paul McCartney from a Japanese prison following a marijuana bust.
Source: Angie Martoccio/rollingstone.com
A TRIBUTE TO THE BEATLES presents The Best of Abbey Road Live! In celebration of Abbey Road, RAIN will bring the greatest hits to life in addition to all your early favorites for three shows at the Boch Center Wang Theatre in Boston October 9th at 8:00 PM and October 10th at 1:00 PM and 6:00 PM. Tickets are on sale now at the Boch Center Box Office or www.bochcenter.org.
This mind-blowing performance takes you back in time with the legendary foursome delivering a note-for-note theatrical event that is “the next best thing to seeing The Beatles!” (Associated Press). Experience the world’s most iconic band and come celebrate The Best of Abbey Road Live with RAIN – A TRIBUTE TO THE BEATLES.
Source: whatsupnewp.com
