Beatles News
Ringo Starr revealed the incredible last thing George Harrison said to him on his deathbed in a 2011 documentary. Picture: Grove Street/Spitfire Pictures
Ringo Starr recalled the last ever words his great friend and fellow-Beatle George Harrison said to him in his final days at his home in Switzerland, before his death on November 30, 2001.
Ringo Starr revealed the last thing Beatles' star George Harrison said to him on his deathbed, and it's incredibly moving.
In footage taken from the Martin Scorsese documentary George Harrison: Living in the Material World, Ringo Starr reveals what was said on his last visit to the Beatle star's home in Switzerland.
Source: smoothradio.com
Just over 50 years ago, The Beatles released their final studio album in Let It Be. While mainly loved by fans alongside much of the Fab Four’s work, the final mixing by producer Phil Spector – who died in prison today while serving a 2003 murder conviction – proved particularly controversial. Originally, the Let It Be album was going to be called Get Back after the record’s final song before Spector assembled an album in early 1970 under the title of Paul McCartney’s iconic track.
In Spector’s final mixing, he removed Don’t Let Me Down, the B-side of the Get Back single and instead included a 1968 version of Across the Universe.
The late producer also famously put in background studio chatter by The Beatles and included orchestral and choir overdubs on four of the songs.
McCartney was not pleased with Spector’s take on the album and in 2003 initiated the release of an alternative mix in Let It Be…Naked, which omitted The Beatles’ comments plus Spector’s embellishments.
Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk
Over the course of the 1960s it seemed like The Beatles went through quite a metamorphosis. Starting off as a plucky quartet from Liverpool, England, the band transitioned from all-out pop band to transcendent hippies. A lot of discussion has been had over when these changes occurred, but John Lennon himself once spoke out about what album spurred it all on.
After the band’s fifth album, Help!, The Beatles were keen to change things up.
During the summer of 1965 each of the members opened their eyes to new creative avenues, mostly because they were allegedly smoking a lot more cannabis than ever before.
December of 1965 saw the release of the band’s sixth album, Rubber Soul.
The iconic LP included a number of legendary hits, including Nowhere Man, Girl, Run for your Life, and Drive My Car.
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
While The Beatles has their set roles in the band, you couldn’t be certain you were hearing, say, George Harrison play a guitar solo even though he was the Fab Four’s lead guitarist. Over the group’s recording run, both John Lennon and Paul McCartney stepped in with the occasional guitar solo.
The instrumental switches didn’t end there. On “She Said She Said,” you get an example of Harrison taking over on bass after McCartney left the studio following a “barney” of sorts. And on “Back in the U.S.S.R.,” you had multiple Beatles on drums after Ringo Starr walked out on the band.
But it can be even trickier to figure out who’s playing piano on Beatles songs. Later on, McCartney would be pounding the keys on tracks such as “Lady Madonna” and “Martha My Dear.” Yet you don’t hear him tackling the piano solo on “Lovely Rita,” recorded the previous year.
George Martin, the Parlophone Records chief who produced The Beatles, took the “Lovely Rita” solo, just as he’d done on Lennon’s “In My Life” in ’65. When the band recorded “You Really Got a Hold on Me” in ’63, Martin had also taken the piano part.
Source: cheatsheet.com
The Beatles all came from similar areas in Liverpool, but their backgrounds were not as closely linked. Nevertheless, they were able to make waves in the music industry ultimately even further afield than their hometown. Those relationships eventually fractured to the point where The Beatles broke up - by why did George Harrison threaten to quit the band at one point?
On January 15, 1969, The Beatles had a very important meeting.
John Lennon, Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Ringo Starr and George Harrison sat together for five hours, and George made it clear he was prepared to quit the band for good.
At this time, John had begun seeing his soon to be wife, Yoko Ono, who was placed at the centre of the band’s break-up.
It turns out George was pretty furious about Yoko’s presence with the band as well.
Source: Jenny Desborough/express.co.uk
The Beatles only worked together for just over a decade, from around 1960 to around 1970. In that time the Fab Four changed the way music and bands functioned, creating timeless albums and music along the way. Over the course of the last 50 years, a number of documentaries have been produced about the band, and their work.
It has now been announced that a brand new documentary is being produced to tell the story of the iconic recording studio which was used to mix the band’s 11th album, Abbey Road.
The documentary is titled If These Walls Could Sing, and will supposedly tell the “untold secrets” of the iconic location.
Abbey Road Studios is famed for recording one of the most iconic albums of all time, and now its story is going to be told for the first time.
Even more exciting, the feature-length doc is due to be shot by Paul McCartney’s daughter, Mary McCartney.
READ MORE: The Beatles: John Lennon 'terrified' David Bowie when they first met
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
Paul McCartney has a musical career that’s spanned more than 60 years, and he’s still producing new music. With that many years of songs to choose from, it’s understandable that he can’t play all of them at every performance. But some fans wish he would dig a little deeper and bring back some old favorites.
They told him so recently, and he explained what’s holding him back.
When you start your music career in an iconic band it’s a pretty tall order to establish a significant solo career later on. But according to NPR, McCartney was up to that challenge.
After spending the ’60s changing the world of music as a member of The Beatles, he didn’t let their breakup in 1970 slow him down. The same year, he released a solo album, McCartney.
He then went on to form a new band, Wings. After several successful years, Wings disbanded in 1980, and he released another self-titled solo album, McCartney II.
Source: cheatsheet.com
"We're still pals," Ringo notes. "We don't hang out with each other a lot. But if we're in the same country, and if we're in the same town, we always have a dinner, and we say hi or he comes over here or I go over to his house."
Starr also says he enjoys getting the chance to perform live with McCartney occasionally.
"I love that, getting up with him," says the 80-year-old drummer. "We did it at the O2 [arena] in England [in 2018]. And then he called me [in 2019] and he said, 'I'm doing Dodger Stadium, if you want to do a few numbers.' 'Sure.' So he picked three numbers, and I got up and went down there."
Adds Ringo, "[I]t's magic for the audience as well as us. I love playing with him. The audience is like, 'Oh, there's two of them! Wow.' It lifts everything, in a joyous way."
Source: wxhc.com
Sir Paul McCartney is one of the most known people on the planet, but for the majority of 2020 it seems that no one can recognize him.
The face mask he wears amid the COVID-19 pandemic is giving him anonymity, and the former Beatle loves it because he can "go anywhere and do anything."
"We love the mask," he told Howard Stern. "I walked into work today wearing a mask, you know, looking at everyone. Looking them right in the eye. 'Hello. You don't know who this is. Do you know who I think I am?'"
While the obscurity is nice, Sir Paul knows that the year has been trying for far too many people.
"Even though it's been probably the most frightening year of our lives … 'cause you know, when there were other big crises like AIDS, the bird flu or SARS or whatever, they tended to happen to other people, but this thing's happening to us, no matter who you are or what you've been doing," he said. "In this most frightening year of our lives, I think we've got to kind of take some lessons from it, like, it's quite good to slow down, it's very good to be with your family, have time for people instead of just rushing around, and to me that was the silver lining."
Source: Mark Gray/wonderwall.com
The Beatles made quite the impact on the music industry in the 1960s. A lowly quartet from Liverpool went on to become the biggest band in the world in just a few years - and it was mostly thanks to their incredibly composed hits that were supremely catchy. One of their most popular albums of all time was 1965’s Help! The album saw the beginning of the band’s transition into timeless pop band, utilising such hits as Help!, Ticket to Ride, and Yesterday. Despite the incredible music on the record, John Lennon famously “hated” one of his own songs.
Side two of the LP featured It’s Only Love, a short soliloquy written and performed by Lennon.
While it certainly isn’t as good as many of the other songs on the album, it is not a dreadful song by any means.
Despite this, in 1980 Lennon told David Sheff that he truly “hated” the track.
During the interview with Playboy at the time, Lennon was keen to condemn the song completely.
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
