Beatles News
It’s been 50 years since the release of John Lennon’s most famous album and it appears to gain more deeply tangible meaning through the ages.
“Imagine” was released on Sept. 9, 1971 and even today, it is unquestionably a fan favorite, a global classic body of work. It’s durably clever in the way each of the ten tracks serves a different purpose while solidly connecting to Lennon’s imagery of attaining mental peace and having thoughts beyond himself.
There’s no surprise at the album’s initial success after its release in 1971 and after Lennon’s assassination almost a decade later. Since his larger-than-life fame with the Beatles, “Imagine” defined the artist’s mainstream pop music comeback after occasional singles and the generational disdain for his wife, Yoko Ono.
Source: Trinity Bland/thedailyaztec.com
Paul McCartney has recalled the story behind The Beatles‘ ‘Rocky Raccoon’ during a conversation with Bob Mortimer – you can watch the video below.
The chat between McCartney and comedian Mortimer arrived as a teaser for the former’s upcoming biography The Lyrics: 1956 To The Present, which is set for release on November 2.
It will recount the legendary musician’s life through his earliest boyhood compositions, songs by The Beatles, Wings, and from his lengthy solo career.
Arriving today (September 22), the one-minute trailer for the book sees Macca speak to Mortimer at the British Library in London – where he recalls “the story of ‘Rocky Raccoon’“.
A verse in the 1968 track goes: “Now the doctor came in stinking of gin/ And proceeded to lie on the table/ He said, ‘Rocky, you met your match’/ And Rocky said, ‘Doc, it’s only a scratch/ And I’ll be better, I’ll be better, Doc, as soon as I am able“.
Source: Tom Skinner/nme.com
George Harrison and Paul McCartney met in 1957 after they realized that they went to the same school. They became friends, and George was like Paul’s little brother. A year later, Paul asked George to join his and John Lennon’s band, The Quarrymen. George was only 15, yet he impressed everyone with his guitar-playing skills. Reflecting on his time in The Beatles, Paul knows that he definitely underestimated George. He was a late bloomer, but George wrote some of The Beatles’ biggest hits.
George and Paul might have fought sometimes, but they were family. As George was dying, Paul sat at his bedside and held his hand for hours. After George’s death, only one thing helped Paul grieve his best friend.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Ringo Starr was the last member of The Beatles to get into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist. During an interview with Ellen DeGeneres, he said he was only in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame because of the intervention of another celebrity.
The Beatles entered the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison entered the Hall of Fame as solo artists in 1994, 1999, and 2004, respectively. Ringo didn’t get inducted as a solo artist until 2015.
During an episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, DeGeneres commented that Ringo’s induction was long overdue. She mentioned that Paul would be at the ceremony. “Well, I’m only doing it because of Paul,” Ringo commented. He said he wasn’t trying to get inducted, but Paul pushed for his entry into the Hall of Fame.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Ringo Starr’s health: The secret to looking terrific at 81 is “broccoli and blueberries.”
Ringo Starr, drummer for the BEATLES, is in excellent health. What is the secret of the quiet, calm, and collected rockstar who overcame life-threatening sickness as a child to survive into his 80s?
Finally, the actor has disclosed some of his “keeping young” techniques. Following his appearance at the Grammy Awards, many people were left wondering how the music veteran managed to keep his young appearance. Surprisingly, Starr disclosed that his daily meal of broccoli and blueberries is the source of his happiness. To keep this rockstar rocking, he must eat a vegetarian diet in general.
Starr told BBC Radio 2’s Zoe Ball that he has greatly enjoyed all of the compliments on his appearance.
Source: Helena Sutan/en.brinkwire.com
PAUL McCARTNEY, PETER JACKSON, Michael Lindsay Hogg, Glyn Johns, Giles Martin and more contribute to the most detailed and revealing exploration of the Beatles’ Let It Be album, film and upcoming Get Back documentaries yet published.
In the latest MOJO magazine, in UK shops from Tuesday, September 21, MOJO writers pull together all they’ve learned from Peter Jackson’s upcoming three-part Get Back documentary, the revelatory bonus material in a new box set of the music made by the Beatles in January 1969, plus the 120 hours of Beatle footage and recorded conversation perused by MOJO writer John Harris in the course of editing content for a companion book, also entitled Get Back.
Source: John Lewis & Partners/mojo4music.com
“We were just a band that made it very, very big. That’s all.” Was John Lennon’s myth-busting synopsis of The Beatles’ story, uttered during an interview with Rolling Stone. While the technical truth of that statement is inarguable, for millions around the world, The Beatles were – and remain – a huge deal more than just another band. From that first fabled meeting of John Lennon and Paul McCartney at the Woolton Village Fete in July 1957 to the spontaneous final rooftop performance atop Apple Corps’ Savile Row HQ at the culmination of the 1960s, The Beatles became one of the most seismic forces ever to impact popular culture.
Source: Andy Price/guitar.com
Janice Mitchell is a retired criminal and civil investigator, but it was she who was the subject of an international search when, in 1964, the Cleveland Heights teenager and a friend took off for a new life. It’s all in “My Ticket to Ride: How I Ran Away to England to Meet the Beatles and Got Rock and Roll Banned in England (a True Story from 1964).”
Mitchell’s early life was tumultuous, with hard-partying parents who left their three children alone or with strangers. When Janice was in second grade, her mother abandoned the family and Janice was taken in by her great-aunt Toots, husband Mac and spiteful adult daughter Margie. Life was fine because of Mac’s kindness and devotion, but it was not to last.
At 16, Janice was a student at a Catholic high school, listening to Bobby Vinton and the Singing Nun on the radio while doing her homework. Suddenly, a lightning bolt: “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” and she “had something to live for.” Janice struck up an acquaintance with Harry Martin, a Cleveland disc jockey, when he emceed a teen dance, and he invited her to visit his station.
Source: Opera News
New cuts of classic Beatles tracks from the forthcoming special edition of ‘Let It Be’ have been shared ahead of its release.
The Fab Four’s final studio album is set to be celebrated on October 15 with a reissue that will span a number of formats.
A trio of tracks from the ‘Let It Be’ re-release were shared back in August including ‘Let It Be’ (2021 Stereo Mix), ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ (first rooftop performance) and ‘For You Blue’ (‘Get Back’ LP Mix).
Now four more new mixes of their songs, which you can listen to below, have been shared including ‘Get Back’ (Take 8), ‘One After 909’ (Take 3), ‘I Me Mine’ (1970 Glyn Johns Mix) and ‘Across The Universe’ (2021 Stereo Mix).
The original album has been newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell in stereo, 5.1 surround DTS and Dolby Atmos.
Source: Damian Jones/nme.comnme.com
Paul McCartney is set to appear at a livestream event on Nov. 5 in which he'll discuss his new book, The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present.
The music legend will chat with author Paul Muldoon about The Lyrics, which includes anecdotes and personal history spanning McCartney's entire career - including his time with the Beatles and Wings, and his solo work.
A statement on the event's website reads: "Arranged alphabetically to provide a kaleidoscopic rather than chronological account, [The Lyrics] establishes definitive texts of the songs’ lyrics for the first time, and describes the circumstances in which they were written, the people and places that inspired them, and what he thinks of them now."
The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present is due for release on Nov. 2, a few days before the livestream event.
“More often than I can count, I’ve been asked if I would write an autobiography, but the time has never been right," McCartney said in a statement earlier this year.
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
