Beatles News
Paul McCartney is remembering a moment he experienced after John Lennon died. "When you go through your grieving," he told me once, "and you just sort of think: 'What if he was here? What might we say?' We might talk about when we met and, being John, he might say: 'Ah, f**k off,' because we were that kind of mates, and I'd say to him, 'No, you f**k off.' It's like when you think of someone who's passed away, you get to see them again."
hat night, he also talked to me about his late mother, Mary. "She died when I was 14," he says. "She was Irish but she was sort of posh-Liverpool. She grew up in the other capital of Ireland, Liverpool."
The place helped inspire Paul to write one of his most controversial compositions, 'Give Ireland Back To The Irish' in 1972. What prompted the song?
"The fact that Bloody Sunday had happened," he says. "That fact, that it came over as our lads - the British troops - killing our mates. It would have been different if it was in the Sudan - you would have been able to remove it to your own imagination - but there, particularly as I am of Liverpool-Irish descent, it was our people killing our people to me."
Source: Barry Egan/independent.ie
COVID is unsparing, as we all know. Now the great Olivia Harrison, beloved and devoted widow of Beatle George Harrison, reports that she is recovering from the virus in a London hospital.
Olivia posted to Instagram today: “Redesigning my hospital room curtain. Unlucky to get covid but on the mend. Gratitude to all the selfless carers.”
Olivia was George’s second wife (after Patti Boyd) and mother of his only child, son Dhani. Olivia and Dhani have been steadfast in preserving George’s legacy. She’s soft spoken, elegant, and up to the task of representing George in the Beatles’ extended family. (Her mother named her for Olivia de Havilland, so that gave her a good start!)
Source: Roger Friedman /showbiz411.com
When The Beatles first came to America, only a few months had passed since the tragic assassination of JFK, and our nation was still in mourning. Their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show – then a Sunday night American instituion – was a well-needed shot of joy for the whole country still in shock. But it was also, famously, a profoundly galvanizing event in the lives of countless musicians who recognized their futures that night.
Tom Petty was one. Before that night, the idea of a self-contained band – writing, singing and playing the songs themselves – had not occurred to him. After that night, it was the only way.
Ann Wilson and Tom Petty are the same age, both born in 1950, so both took that in at that most impressionable age, and both decided then to become rock & rollers for life. And unlike almost all the other kids then making that same decision, they both succeeded. Ann did it with her little sister Nancy. Here she is, from an interview we did back in 2014, on the impact of The Beatles in her life.
Source: americansongwriter.com
The two remaining members of The Beatles may not be recording any new music, but Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have performed together multiple times over the last few years. There was a set at the 30th annual Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony in 2015, plus a 2018 performance at the O2 in England. Starr recently sat down with The Irish News, and he talked about how much he enjoys playing with his old bandmate.
“I love that, getting up with him,” he said. After their O2 performance, Starr said McCartney called him up to do a few numbers at Dodger Stadium. “And it’s magic for the audience as well as us. I love playing with him.” Starr also talked about that the audience’s reaction to seeing them both on stage. “The audience is like, ‘Oh, there’s two of them! Wow.’ It lifts everything, in a joyous way. So, yeah, I had a great time.”
Source: Wongo Okon/uproxx.com
Quick, name the most avant-garde member of The Beatles. If you said Ringo, you and I should have a serious discussion. Certainly, George Harrison brought Eastern music to the group, so that was unique. And John Lennon did contribute one of the oddest tunes to the official Beatles catalog with “Revolution 9” on The Beatles (White Album). That over-eight-minute cacophony includes random noises, clips from radio shows, babies crying, and so on. It confused some and amused others, but generally became the talk of the music community.
However, in reality, the first band member to toe the cutting edge was Paul McCartney who enlisted his bandmates in what would be called “Carnival of Light.”
In 1967, The Beatles were just beginning sessions for songs, many of which would appear on Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. During a break from recording “Penny Lane,” Paul asked the group to “indulge him for ten minutes.
Source: Will Wills/culturesonar.com
“Love, love me do/ You know I love you/ I’ll always be true/ So please love me do.”
Do you hear a young man’s earnest appeal against a trilling harmonica? This plea, first made by The Beatles to American audiences in 1964, proved to be an effective one.
On this day, Jan. 10, 1964, the British band’s first full-length album was released in the United States by Vee-Jay Records. America immediately loved The Beatles back, purchasing over one million copies of the debut album “Introducing… The Beatles” in mere months.
The Beatles’ popularity reached icon status with their live performance on The Ed Sullivan Show on Feb. 9, 1964. According to Nielsen records at the time, nearly 40 percent of the U.S. population — about 73 million people — tuned in. The screams of the live audience at that Sullivan taping even drown out the voices of John Lennon and Paul McCartney at times.
Source: Jessica Cosmas/dailyadvance.com
Paul McCartney joins Nile Rodgers for a fascinating masterclass discussion on songwriting in a new episode of Apple Music 1’s Deep Hidden Meaning Radio with Nile Rodgers.
Situated in his home recording studio where he recorded his latest album McCartney III, the former Beatle takes listeners back into the songwriter’s room with John Lennon as the two wrote “A Day In The Life” before bringing it to the recording studio with George Martin.
He also recalls how he wrote the Wings hit “Jet,” his thoughts on how people interpret his songs, and a prized possession of his- the original double bass used by Bill Black on early Elvis Presley recordings. Rodgers in turn reveals how one of Paul’s songs altered the course of his life and the life-changing moment many teenagers experienced in February 1964- seeing the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show.
Source: americansongwriter.com
David Bowie and John Lennon first met in scenes more reminiscent of an awkward children’s playdate than a summit of two of rock’s greatest ever stars, according to a new interview with music producer Tony Visconti.
Speaking on the programme Bowie: Dancing Out in Space, airing on BBC Radio 4 and 6Music on 10 January to mark five years since Bowie’s death, Visconti, who produced 11 of Bowie’s studio albums, tells the story of how the pair met in a New York hotel room, ahead of their collaborations on Bowie’s 1975 song Fame and his cover of the Lennon-penned Beatles song Across the Universe.
“He was terrified of meeting John Lennon,” says Visconti, who was asked by Bowie to accompany him and “buffer the situation”.
About one in the morning I knocked on the door and for about the next two hours, John Lennon and David weren’t speaking to each other. Instead, David was sitting on the floor with an art pad and a charcoal and he was sketching things and he was completely ignoring Lennon. So, after about two hours of that, he [John] finally said to David, ‘Rip that pad in half and give me a few sheets. I want to draw you.’ So David said, ‘Oh, that’s a good idea’, and he finally opened up. So John started making caricatures of David, and David started doing the same of John and they kept swapping them and then they started laughing and that broke the ice.
Source: Ben Beaumont-Thomas/theguardian.com
Paul McCartney joins Nile Rodgers for a fascinating masterclass discussion on songwriting in a new episode of Apple Music 1’s Deep Hidden Meaning Radio with Nile Rodgers.
The 30-minute plus conversation is available now on-demand for Apple Music subscribers. American Songwriter is premiering exclusive excerpts here today. Tune in and listen to the conversation in full for free this Saturday (Jan. 9) at 8am LA / 11am NY / 4pm London at https://music.apple.com/us/curator/1481637462
Situated in his home recording studio where he recorded his latest album McCartney III, the former Beatle takes listeners back into the songwriter’s room with John Lennon as the two wrote “A Day In The Life” before bringing it to the recording studio with George Martin.
Source: americansongwriter.com
“This is very difficult for me,” said Starr in a statement on his website in March, “in 30 years I think I’ve only missed 2 or 3 gigs nevermind a whole tour. But this is how things are for all of us now, I have to stay in just like you have to stay in, and we all know it’s the peace and loving thing we do for each other. So we have moved the Spring tour to 2021. My fans know I love them, and I love to play for them and I can’t wait to see you all as soon as possible. In the meantime stay safe. Peace and Love to you all.”
The tour is set to kick off in Asbury Park, N.J. on June 1 and travel through the United States until June 27, when the tour ends in Clearwater, Fla.. As of now, there is one stop scheduled in Mexico on October 20.
Check out the list below to see if the “Photograph” singer is coming to your area.
