Beatles News
Ringo Starr revealed his favorite Beatles song and his thoughts on the afterlife during a bonus interview from the drummer’s recent virtual visit to The Late Show.
Taking part in Stephen Colbert’s 15-question “The Colbert Questionert” — a segment Starr initially recorded when he appeared on The Late Show in March — the host asked Starr, “You get one song to listen to for the rest of your life. What is it?” Starr quickly replied, “[The Beatles’] ‘Come Together.'”
“There’s lots of other favorites, but if you want one, ‘Come Together’ can’t be bad,” Starr said, noting it was his favorite Beatles song. “I just think it worked perfectly with the band and the song and John being John. I loved that moment.”
Starr also shared his unique take on the afterlife when Colbert asked him what happens when we die. “I think we go to heaven,” Starr said. “Heaven’s great, but you don’t stay there too long; you just gotta get yourself together again and come deal with all that [shit] you didn’t deal with last time you were here.”
Source: Daniel Kreps/rollingstone.com
By the time The Beatles’ 11th album, Abbey Road, was released in September 1969, the band had been writing songs for almost a decade. Each of the members had worked hard on their own tracks as well as collaborative efforts. One of the stronger songwriters in the band was George Harrison, who penned such hits as While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Here Comes The Sun. The Quiet Beatle disagreed with Paul McCartney over one track on Abbey Road, however.
The song in question, Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, was one of Paul’s compositions for the record.
The track included a collection of subtle guitar notes, as well as some extra background noises involving metal shards.
Paul’s wife at the time, Linda McCartney, said the track was his experimentation with the "avant-garde".
He himself said the song was “my analogy for when something goes wrong out of the blue, as it so often does, as I was beginning to find out at that time in my life".
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
With Brian Epstein dead, Lennon self-medicating with LSD, Yoko Ono's presence a distraction and Starr temporarily leaving the band, it was an album where the Beatles' washed their dirty laundry in the most public manner possible.
These are the 50 things about The Beatles' White Album you need to know.
1. Referring to The Beatles’ ninth LP as The White Album is like referring to 1991’s Metallica as The Black Album – technically incorrect, but universally understood. It wasn’t meant to be called The Beatles, either, but the band opted for simplicity after their working title, A Doll’s House, was gazumped by Family’s Music In A Doll’s House.
2. Sleeve designer Richard Hamilton suggested tainting the virginal cover with a coffee mug ring, but was told this was “too flippant”. He earned his fee with a stamped serial number, unique to each copy and creating, he felt, “the ironic situation of a numbered edition of something like five million copies”.
Source: Henry Yates/loudersound.com
After meeting John Lennon, Yoko Ono became a part of The Beatles’ history. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean she was a fan of The Beatles’ music. Here’s what a reporter said about her relationship to The Beatles’ work — and what she said about it.Jann S. Wenner interviewed John for a famous book called Lennon Remembers. In his 1971 introduction to the book, Wenner discussed what it was like meeting with John and Yoko. “I did this interview with John Lennon in early December 1970, at the offices of his business manager, removed by high stories from the day-time traffic in the middle of the music business on Broadway in New York City,” he said. “We were with Yoko, more or less isolated, in the massive walnut-paneled conference room.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
Sir Tom Jones, 80, rose to fame in 1963 shortly after becoming the frontman for Welsh singing group, The Senators. Since then, the music legend has gone on to achieve worldwide fame, performing with some of the biggest names in the business.
Since finding fame, the Treforest born star has spent over 305 weeks in the UK Top 40, recording songs alongside the likes of Jools Holland and Cerys Matthews.
Now, the music icon has spoken of the time he was approached by The Beatles star, Sir Paul McCartney, 78, who had offered to pen an original track for him.
Shortly after the Liverpool legend had made the suggestion, Sir Tom instantly jumped at the opportunity to record a track written by a member of the world's biggest band.
Despite his initial joy - all was not as it seemed as he faced a hurdle put in place by his then management team.
Source: Daniel Bird/express.co.uk
John Lennon famously wrote a song called “Working Class Hero.” However, the author of a famous book about The Beatles said John wasn’t actually a member of the working class when he was growing up. Here’s a look at John’s early years and the song.
Hunter Davies was the author of The Beatles: The Authorised Autobiography. For The Guardian, he discussed the book Lennon Remembers, which consists of a long interview with John. While praising the book’s entertainment value, he cast doubt on its accuracy. “So can John be trusted in this interview?” he asked. “It’s hardly a balanced account, even about himself. But it’s true to what he felt, that day.”
In Lennon Remembers, John discusses his song “Working Class Hero” at length — and Davies dismisses the notion John was ever part of the working class. “In his head and his memories, John was a working-class hero, but of course he wasn’t,” Davies wrote. “He was brought up in semi-detached suburbia by Mimi, his aunt, a snob who looked down on snotty-nosed councilhouse kids like Paul and George. In his mind, he’d been a teddy boy tearaway, street fighter and gang leader, but in reality he had run like hell when trouble or violence broke out.” For context, teddy boys were the English equivalents of greasers.
Source: cheatsheet.com
The reason for The Beatles' breakup is perhaps discussed even more than what brought the iconic band together. And at the top of the list sits John Lennon's second wife, artist Yoko Ono. Her name has become synonymous with the downfall of the "world's greatest band," as Rolling Stone described them.
However, as with most things in life, The Beatles' disbandment was a gradual process. "I don't think you could have broken up four very strong people like them even if you tried," Ono told Playboy (via Rolling Stone). "So there must have been something that happened within them – not an outside force at all." By the time Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr recorded "The Beatles" — commonly known as "The White Album" — in 1968, the tension among them, per the outlet, was palpable.
Lennon attributed the band's demise to the sudden death of The Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, in 1967. "After Brian died, we collapsed," Lennon told Rolling Stone in a 1971 interview. "Paul took over and supposedly led us. But what is leading us, when we went round in circles? We broke up then. That was the disintegration." But his relationship with Ono did contribute in the eyes of his bandmates. Lennon wanted Ono to be a member of The Beatles, but three-quarters of the band was against it, according to Rolling Stone. Still, out of the three, McCartney was the one who minded her the least. Keep reading for more about Ono and McCartney's relationship.
Source: Manuella Libardi/Manuella Libardi
Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr hasn’t stopped making music. Since the Fab Four’s break-up in 1970, he’s faithfully continued creating and promoting his work.
And in 2008, Starr released Liverpool 8, his 15th studio album. It was while Starr was pitching the album on Live with Regis and Kelly that the Photograph singer up and left the show’s set just before he was about to appear.
From Starr’s first album, the standards collection Sentimental Journey, to his latest, the five song EP Zoom In, the musician over the years has generated tunes and made the rounds to promote his new work.
His album Liverpool 8 refers to the postal district of the area of Liverpool where Starr was born. It was released in 2008.
The songs on the album, as its name implies, are a nostalgic look at his native English city, Starr told the Times Herald-Record.
“I was a sailor first and I worked in the factory and then I played with Rory (Storm) and I ended up in Hamburg and I ended up at Shea Stadium,” Starr said. “And Liverpool, I left you but I never let you down. So that was real easy to take those moments and put them in the song.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
It was 40 years ago today that The Beatles drummer Ringo Starr married his second wife, James Bond girl Barbara Bach. Celebrating their Ruby wedding anniversary, the 80-year-old music legend shared a photo from the big day in 1981 with the happy couple by their wedding cake. But also of note in the special snap are Paul McCartney and George Harrison with their wives Linda and Olivia.
Sir Ringo captioned the wedding photo: “It was 40 years ago today The love of my life said yes yes yes. And I said it right back peace and love.”
Of course, the wedding took place just over 4 months after John Lennon’s murder, so sadly The Beatles couldn’t be fully reunited.
Nevertheless, the John Lennon estate commented on the picture with three love heart emojis on his behalf.
While George’s widow Olivia Harrison commented: “What a day that was.”
Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk
Dan Greenberger is a television writer and producer who has made part of the "origin story" of The Beatles the basis of his debut novel "The Boys Next Door" (Appian Way Press). It's historical fiction, with the first-person narrative told through the letters and diary entries of a young American foreign exchange student named Alan Levy.
Greenberger admits to being a diehard Beatles fan and demonstrates his knowledge of their history by creating a character who pretty seamlessly interacts with the band and their milieu in 1960 Hamburg, Germany. John, Paul, George, Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe were in this famously seedy and rowdy part of the German city to play marathon sets of rock 'n' roll music in bars, primarily the Kaiserkeller. (The only recordings known to have survived from this era in Hamburg are from The Star Club in 1962.)
The story takes place over the course of less than three months. Alan Levy finds himself renting a cheap room right next door to the room where all five Beatles are staying. For the first third of the book, the boys next door are peripheral characters in Levy's life, a noisy and vulgar gang that ruins Alan's sleep.
Source: Mark Simmet/iowapublicradio.org
