Beatles News
Back in 1964, Toronto artist Myra Lowenthal was far more than just a fan of the rock ’n’ roll supergroup, The Beatles.
Only 18 years old when this picture was taken by Toronto Star photographer Ted Dinsmore, Lowenthal is captured here putting the finishing touches on an impressive oil painting of lead singer John Lennon.
“This was the tip of the iceberg of my outpouring of Beatle imagery,” Lowenthal says, “using art to express the impact that the Beatles and their music had on me at that young age.”
Myra Lowenthal was an early convert to Beatlemania.
“They were not generally know in North America at that time,” she says. “I first noticed an article in the People section of TIME magazine about these four lads in England and their mop top haircuts, and I was intrigued.”
Soon thereafter (Feb. 9, 1964, to be exact), Lowenthal recalls, “They appeared on the ‘Ed Sullivan Show,’ and I was hooked.”
Later that year, tickets went on sale for the Beatles’ first shows in Toronto, and Lowenthal stood in line in the pouring rain for six hours to secure her seats. But, it was her art that brought her closest to the band.
Source: thestar.com
In October 1970, drummer Denny Seiwell was a sought-after New York City session musician who split his time between studios and jazz clubs. Like a lot of local session men, he used an answering service to set up his gigs. One day, the service called to give him good news and bad news: A session he was supposed to attend had been canceled, but Barry Kornfeld, a friend and folky guitarist, wanted him to do a demo. Normally, Seiwell was too busy to do demos, but because of the cancelation, he had an open slot, and he hadn’t seen Kornfeld in a while. He agreed to go.
“They gave me the address, and I said, ‘Jeez, is there a studio there?’” Seiwell says. “It didn’t sound right. I went to the address, and it was a brownstone, way over on the West side, on 43rd Street or something. And it didn’t look like it had electricity. Like they were going to renovate the building or something. I walk up the steps to the lobby there, and there’s a guy. I said, ‘Is there a studio here?’ And he pointed to the basement. And here it is, this dingy, dirt-floor basement, a ratty set of drums sitting in the middle of it, and Paul and Linda sitting on a folding chair over in the corner. That was it. It was very bizarre.”
Source: Ben Lindbergh/theringer.com
THE BEATLES drummer Ringo Starr has spoken out about why his favourite song in the Fab Four's repertoire comes from John Lennon, claiming it "worked perfectly" with the rest of the band.
The Beatles wrote and released a massive amount of songs throughout their career. While some of them became more popular than others, there is no doubt that the band released a huge amount of memorable songs, becoming one of the best-selling acts of all time with more than 600 million record sales worldwide. Throughout all of their hits, however, Ringo Starr has revealed which of the Fab Four's tracks stands above the rest in a new interview.Ringo appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last month where he chatted all things Beatles.
The 80-year-old rocker was open to talking about his early days and touring with the band as their fame was skyrocketing.
During the chat, Ringo was asked: "You get one song to listen to for the rest of your life. What is it?"
After thinking about it for a second, Ringo replied: "Come Together."
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
What a long and winding road Paul McCartney's had since 1970, the year the Beatles broke up.
In the decades since, he's released two dozen studio albums, played with everyone from Michael Jackson to Nirvana, been given a knighthood and on Friday, he'll headline the Moda Center. It'll be his first Portland performance in 11 years, since a 2005 show at the venue then known as the Rose Garden.
Every McCartney era, from "Ram" to Wings to 2013's "New," has its supporters, but even one of the world's most beloved songwriters has his highlights. We've counted down 15 of our favorites since Sir Paul and the Fab Four called it quits.
15. "New"
McCartney worked with a handful of top producers for his 2013 album of the same name, arriving at one of his better, bolder latter-day collections. "Don't look at me," he warns on this one, a bright flash of piano-pop that plays it too humble: who's still doing songs this great 50 years later?
14. "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey"
McCartney's first solo No. 1 remains one of his strangest songs, a split track detailing some odd British characters alongside rain sounds and a return of the "Yellow Submarine" telephone voice.
Source: David Greenwald | The Oregonian/OregonLive
The Beatles were a legendary band, for sure. But even the members of the Fab Four would admit that one of the secrets to their success was groundbreaking producer George Martin. It is not an exaggeration to say that Martin helped define The Beatles’ unique sound.
Martin was long considered the “Fifth Beatle.” The London-born producer had honest opinions about “the boys'” music. This included, of course, the performance of drummer Ringo Starr.
Martin didn’t love The Beatles on his 1st listen
In the first volume of his biography on Martin’s life, Maximum Volume: The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin, The Early Years, 1926–1966, author Kenneth Womack noted the producer’s underwhelmed first assessment of the band. Their manager Brian Epstein had run a demo by Martin who later recalled, “I was not knocked out at all.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
The third part of the equation that would become the Beatles fell into place on Feb. 6, 1958. George Harrison joined the Quarry Men, the John Lennon-led group that Paul McCartney had joined as a second guitarist and singer the previous summer.
Harrison, who was a few weeks shy of his 15th birthday, had known McCartney for about a year. The two were students at the Liverpool Institute and frequently took the same bus to and from school. A friendship blossomed, and the two began jamming together, even after McCartney had moved from Speke to Allerton.
When the Quarry Men – named after the Quarry Bank High School where the band was formed three years earlier – were looking to bring in a third guitarist (they had the idea long before Lynyrd Skynyrd), McCartney suggested his friend. The audition took place, strangely enough, on the top of a double-decker bus. At McCartney's prompt, Harrison took out his guitar and played Bill Justis' R&B instrumental "Raunchy," a No. 2 hit on Sun Records in 1957.
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
After The Beatles split up in 1970 John Lennon continued making music while living in New York City with his wife, Yoko Ono. Together, the couple released a collection of albums, with their first - John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band - coming out in the same year. The star was no stranger to hanging around in the more popular areas of the city, where he invariably made some friends along the way. During his time in NYC Lennon met Chase, a prominent comedy actor at the time who appeared on the weekly show Saturday Night Live (SNL), as well as some films including Foul Play and National Lampoon's Vacation.
Chase recently spoke to fellow Hollywood star Rob Lowe on his podcast, Literally!, where he discussed Lennon.
He revealed: "I was living on the west side around 71st street or something, close to the Hudson River … [Lennon] and Yoko lived somewhere near there too because I’d see him quite frequently in the little park there, eating something, and that’s where I liked to go to eat.
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
During an interview John Lennon revealed one of the songs from The Beatles’ White Album was partially a parody. In addition, he felt there was something ironic about the circumstances in which he wrote the song. Here’s the story behind a classic White Album track.
In the book Lennon Remembers, John tells Jann. S Wenner his last batch of great Beatles songs were written when The Beatles were in India with Hindu guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. He cited “I’m So Tired” and “Yer Blues” as some of these songs, revealing they were both realistic songs about him. He said the songs just came to him because he had time to write. Notably, neither of these songs are happy songs, with John longing for death in “Yer Blues.”
“They’re pretty realistic, they were about me,” John said. “They always struck me as – not, what’s the word? Funny… ironic? – that I was writing supposedly in the presence of [a] guru and meditating so many hours a day, writing, ‘I’m So Tired’… songs of such pain such as ‘Yer Blues,’ which I meant.”
Wenner then asked John if “Yer Blues” was a parody of English blues music. “Well a bit,” John said. “I’m a bit self-conscious – we all are a bit self-conscious. And The Beatles are super self-conscious people about parodying Americans, which we do and have done.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
In a CBS News special about Queen Elizabeth II, Sir Paul McCartney, who has met the monarch multiple times, says he would describe her as "down to Earth."
"I think the thing about the Queen is that she's – she's royal, so you look up to her cause she's royal. But she's very down to Earth," the singer-songwriter told "CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King.
McCartney's connection to the queen goes back to when he was a young boy.
"Let's go to Paul McCartney at 10. What happened at 10?" King asked McCartney.
"Because the coronation was approaching, ... there was a competition for all the schools in England you had to write an essay on the monarchy," McCartney said. "And I liked that idea."
Queen Elizabeth's coronation was in June 1953, when she was 27 years old.
McCartney's essay "had the lyrics of a love song, as Paul wrote about 'our lovely young Queen,'" King said.
Source: cbsnews.com
The Beatles‘ album Abbey Road may not have been universally received as a masterpiece at the time of its release but since then, there’s no question it’s one of the greatest rock albums of all time.
One of the album’s tracks, “Sun King,” featured John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison singing in another language. Here’s what Lennon had to say about it.
‘Abbey Road’ was released in 1969
Abbey Road was recorded that year in the midst of The Beatles’ bitter dissolve. In addition to “Sun King,” the album featured what were to become classics: “Come Together,” George Harrison’s “Here Comes the Sun,” and the long medley with “Sun King,” “Mean Mr. Mustard,” “Polythene Pam,” “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window,” “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry That Weight” and “The End.”
McCartney told CBS News how the album’s legendary cover image – and its title – came to be.
Source: cheatsheet.com
