Beatles News
Chuck Berry was around for a few years before The Beatles came on the scene. Chuck’s music, along with Buddy Holly and some other rock ‘n’ roll stars, had gone across the pond and started influencing British musicians, including The Beatles.
Sir Paul McCartney, bass player and songwriter of The Beatles, spoke in tribute of Chuck on his death on March 18, 2017.
On his website, Sir Paul commemorated the singer, saying: “From the first minute we heard the great guitar intro to Sweet Little Sixteen we became fans of the great Chuck Berry.
“His stories were more like poems than lyrics – the likes of Johnny B Goode or Maybellene.
“To us, he was a magician making music that was exotic yet normal at the same time.
Source: Jenny Desborough/express.co.uk
Paul McCartney has announced a sequel to his bestselling picture book Hey Grandude!, titled Grandude’s Green Submarine, available for preorder now. Like the first Grandude book, Grandude’s Green Submarine will be illustrated by Kathryn Durst.
The book will continue the adventures of Grandude and his grandchildren as they set out to search for their music-loving grandmother, Nandude. Grandude’s Green Submarine will be published on September 2nd, from Random House Children’s Books in the U.S. and Penguin Random House Children’s U.K.
The original Hey Grandude! was released in September 2019 and quickly became a New York Times #1 bestseller, selling 300,000 copies around the world.
“I’m really happy with how Hey Grandude! was received, as this was a very personal story for me, celebrating Grandudes everywhere and their relationships and adventures with their grandchildren,” McCartney said in a statement. “I love that it has become a book read to grandkids at bedtime all around the world. I always said if people liked the first book and there was an appetite for more, I would write some further adventures for Grandude — so he’s back and this time with his special invention, Grandude’s green submarine!”
Source: Claire Shaffer/rollingstone.com
Ringo Starr spent the past year as a homebody, but kept busy during the pandemic. He published a book and his mini-album, titled “Zoom In,” comes out Friday. Mr. Starr, the drummer for the Beatles and a nine-time Grammy winner, was among the presenters at Sunday’s Grammy Awards.
Mr. Starr, who is 80 years old, spent much of the lockdown at home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He worked out and made paintings—a creative outlet he has pursued for decades. Between April and October, he worked on “Zoom In,” a five-song EP (for extended play) in the recording studio in his guest house. Some famous friends joined the project, working alongside Mr. Starr but at a safe distance. Among the background singers on “Here’s to the Nights,” a song on “Zoom In,” are Sheryl Crow, Lenny Kravitz, Dave Grohl, Jenny Lewis—and fellow Beatle Paul McCartney. Mr. Starr’s brother-in-law, Joe Walsh, of the Eagles, also sang, as did Steve Lukather, a founder of Toto, who also played guitar on the track.
Source: David Marino-Nachison/wsj.com
The breakup of The Beatles wasn’t just a breakdown of a professional relationship. It also signaled the breakdown of the brotherly bond that the fab four shared with each other. And the one relationship that suffered the most was that of George Harrison and Paul McCartney. But, George didn’t stay quiet with his discontent. In fact, he expressed his anger against Paul in a song.After the death of Brian Epstein, and with John Lennon’s attention turning towards Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney emerged as the dominant force in The Beatles. Moreover, George Harrison was his junior in school, which created an unequal power dynamic between the two. These feelings of animosity festered until the Let It Be 1969 recording sessions. And after they split, they all took digs at each other through the one thing they were good at – writing songs. In his solo album Ram, Paul took a dig at John with the song Too Many People. And John didn’t take it lightly, as he fired back with How Do You Sleep At Night?
Source: Ali Arslan Ahmed/dankanator.com
Sitting down virtually with Stephen Colbert to promote his new EP Zoom In, The Beatles drummer opened up about how he still thinks about his late bandmates "quite a bit", decades after their deaths.
As Ringo, who now lives in Los Angeles, reflected on the band's first trip to America in 1964, Stephen asked: "Aside from when people are asking you about your fellow Beatles, how often do you think about them? How often are they on your mind?"
Ringo looked choked up as he responded: "Yeah, quite a bit. Not every moment of my life, of course.
"We just had two sad anniversaries, George's [death] was 20 years ago when we lost him. John's was 40 years ago, for God's sake," he said.
Source: Eve Crosbie/hellomagazine.com
Many things were delayed thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. One of those things was the release of The Beatles: Get Back, the new film by Peter Jackson that draws from 55 hours of never-released footage from the original filming of Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s documentary Let It Be.
A preview clip of the film was released in December, and the film’s new release date is currently slated for August 27.
Ringo Starr talked about The Beatles: Get Back in an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night (March 15.) Starr mentioned how Jackson would show him various funny clips he found in the unused footage and touched on his feelings on the original documentary.
“I always moaned that the original documentary was very narrow and was built around a moment of [pretends to scream], and there was no joy in it,” said Starr. “I was there! We were laughing! We were the lads! And there was a little bit of tension; no one can take that away. But to use that moment and to not use these 56 hours of unused film…the best thing to come out of the original documentary was we played on the roof.”
Source: Erica Banas /wror.com
If you were a George Harrison fan, you would have gotten excited for The Beatles’ first LP of 1965: Help! That album, the soundtrack to the film of the same name, featured two tracks by “the quiet Beatle.” It was a big step for Harrison after he got only one original song on the band’s first four albums.
“I Need You,” the first by Harrison, made it into the Help! film and side 1 of the soundtrack. As for the second, “You Like Me Too Much,” that track didn’t make it into the picture. In fact, by the time Help! premiered, “You Like Me Too Much” had already gone out in the U.S. as part of the Beatles VI release on Capitol.
Two months later (August ’65), it turned up in the U.K. on side 2 of Help! “You Like Me Too Much” presented a bit of a puzzle when it came to instrumentation. Along with two parts on an acoustic piano, the Harrison track also features an electric piano player.
Source: cheatsheet.com
The Beatles were a band — but sometimes, they were a bit of a comedy troupe. For example, they starred in comedies, made people laugh during interviews, and released a number of humorous songs. John Lennon even revealed that one of The Beatles’ hits was “a bit of a mocking song.” Here’s what he had to say.When Jonathan Cott interviewed John for Rolling Stone, Cott brought up how The Beatles will often distinguish between friends and lovers in their music. For example, he noted the use of the word “baby” in “Baby You Can Drive My Car” — which made it clear the song was about a lover. He contrasted that lyric with the use of the word “friend” in “We Can Work It Out.” Cott also opined that some bands used the term “baby” in a demeaning way, but not The Beatles.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Ringo Starr made a surprise showing at the 2021 Grammys on Sunday night.
The former Beatle, 80, took to the stage to present the Record of the Year award, and amazed viewers with his youthful appearance in the process.
One fan tweeted, “Can you believe #RingoStarr is 80!!?,” while another noted, “Your reminder that 80-year-old-looks-50-years-old #RingoStarr taught himself how to play the drums while he was hospitalized for nearly TWO YEARS as a child with respiratory illness. How’s everyone feeling about pandemic productivity now?”
Quipped a third, “ur telling me this man is 80 years old??? ringo what is your skincare routine sir.”
A source told Page Six that the drummer’s eternally youthful visage is due to “lots of broccoli and blueberries.” And like fellow Beatle Paul McCartney, he’s also a vegetarian.
The source added that the “It Don’t Come Easy” singer goes to the gym “a couple of times a week and meditates daily.”
Source: Nicki Gostin/pagesix.com
A number of men have been called the “Fifth Beatle” over the years from pre-Ringo drummer Pete Best to keyboardist Billy Preston. But another has to be The Beatles' original bassist Stuart Sutcliffe who attended Liverpool College of Art with John Lennon and moved in with him. Eventually, Lennon and Paul McCartney convinced Sutcliffe to buy a bass guitar and join them with George Harrison in The Silver Beetles, who were formerly known as The Quarrymen.
During 1960, Sutcliffe would book gigs for the band and they would often rehearse in his Gambier Terrace flat.
And by August, The Silver Beetles had become The Beatles, hired Best as drummer and were performing in Hamburg.
While in Germany, Sutcliffe met photographer Astrid Kirchherr but during that summer he left the band.
Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk
