Beatles News
THE BEATLES wrote a massive amount of songs over the years, with the Lennon-McCartney partnership penning a great deal of them. Despite how many iconic tracks Paul McCartney wrote, he once explained which song he wished he had written.
The Beatles have gone down in history with their unbelievable back catalogue of music. The Fab Four sold over 500 million records during their time, with a collection of unforgettable hits such as Strawberry Fields, Come Together, Don’t Let Me Down, and Let It Be. John Lennon and Paul McCartney were responsible for writing a massive amount of the biggest Beatles hits, but one of Sting’s songs stood out to McCartney.
McCartney has been quite open in the past about what songs he enjoys listening to from other artists.
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
Paul McCartney is still writing songs all these years after he and the rest of the Fab Four, the Beatles, burst onto the scene. He has a new solo album, "McCartney III," which is why I sat down with him the other day - well, via Zoom. More on that next week when the album drops. It did occur to me that we were speaking just a couple of days after the 40th anniversary of John Lennon's murder. Lennon was shot by a fan on December 8, 1980, and I was curious how McCartney is marking 40 years since his collaborator, sparring partner and friend died.MCCARTNEY: ...And just going over memories. Now, mind you, I do that all the time. And I think as time goes on and that John is a distant memory, it becomes more and more special. And I often just sit there and think, wait a minute, did we go hitchhiking when we were kids? Yeah, we did. We went to Paris. Boy, we had a laugh there, you know?
Source: npr.org
A photograph taken by the late Iain Macmillan (below) from a stepladder in the middle of Abbey Road, London, on 8 August 1969 remains one of rock and roll’s most iconic images over half a century later. Using a Hasselblad 500C camera, with a Zeiss Distagon 50mm f/4 lens, Macmillan only took six shots of the Beatles as they walked across the crossing near EMI Studios, where the group usually recorded. The visual idea for the shoot came from Paul McCartney.In a 1989 interview with The Guardian newspaper, Macmillan recalled, ‘We hired a policeman to hold up traffic while I was up on the ladder. A few days before the shoot, he [Paul] drew a sketch of how he imagined the cover, which we executed almost exactly that day. ‘I took a couple of shots. We let some of the traffic go, then they walked across the road the other way, and I took a few more. The one chosen was number five of six. It was the only one that had their legs in a perfect ‘V’ formation.’
Source: amateurphotographer.co.uk
Mourners sang and laid flowers Tuesday on Central Park’s candlelit memorial to John Lennon on the 40th anniversary of his murder in New York City, as his widow Yoko Ono marked the moment with a call for gun control.
“The death of a loved one is a hollowing experience,” tweeted the 87-year-old artist, who still lives in the Manhattan building where her husband was shot.
“After 40 years, Sean, Julian and I still miss him,” she added, before quoting the 1971 song she co-wrote with Lennon that became the best-selling single of his solo career.
“Imagine all the people living life in peace.”
Source: japantimes.co.jp
The Beatles fans will never forget the day John Lennon was murdered. On December 8, 1980, 40 years ago this month, Lennon was shot in front of the Dakota hotel in New York City whilst walking with his wife, Yoko Ono. Lennon’s death sent shockwaves throughout the showbiz world, and indeed the music industry. One of the harder parts of Lennon’s death for his family was the constant hounding from the press for comment shortly thereafter.
Close friend of Lennon and his family, Elliot Mintz, recently spoke out about his experience at the time.
In a long discussion he revealed he flew out to be with Yoko and Sean Lennon - the star’s son - to help with anything he could.
During this interview Mintz explained: “I wouldn’t say I managed the press, but I interacted with it. At the time of John’s death he had no manager, no agent, no publicist, no spokesperson, just a very few people on staff - and there were 500 phone calls flying into the downstairs office.
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
Tuesday marked the 40th anniversary of the fatal shooting of music legend John Lennon, and Patch editors in Hartford and Tolland counties asked readers to share their memories of the famed former Beatle.
Here is a sampling of some of the replies, as well as a video clip of Howard Cosell announcing Lennon's death during a Monday Night Football game between the Patriots and Dolphins.
"Friends of mine and I (attending seminary in NYC) had gone to the Rockefeller Center tree lighting and decided to walk back to 122nd street. As we passed 72nd someone point down toward the Dakota and remarked that Lennon's building was there. When we got to our dormitory 45 minutes later and flipped on the T.V. we were greeted by the news. How quickly a joyous event turned. The radio was playing "Imagine" and I can't hear it any more without being back in New York City." - Paul Goodman
Source: Patch.com
Forty years this month after his tragic death, John Lennon‘s music, both with the Beatles and in his solo career, is fondly remembered by fans who were there at the time and has gained admiration with every new generation that has come along. In addition, Lennon’s writing and particularly his vocals have been held in high esteem by music critics around the world for decades. He has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, as part of the iconic band and for his solo career
While his work with the Beatles are most fondly remembered by pop music fans, following the break-up of the group, Lennon spun his career in an entirely new direction, both with fans and critics. His sound became far less pop and far more individualistic, as he balanced songs about politics with those about relationships. Though his life was cut short far too early, the work he left behind with resonate with fans long after our own lifetimes.
Source: Tom O'Brien/goldderby.com
A massive coup': Rare Linda McCartney retrospective to show at the Ballarat International Foto Biennale
Paul McCartney often joked that he ruined his wife's career.
Before he met her, Linda Eastman was an award-winning photographer whose talent was capturing pop stars in those character-revealing moments in between poses. She made her name in 1966 as an editorial assistant at Town & Country magazine in New York, wangling her way into a Rolling Stones party on the band's motor yacht on the Hudson River and snapping the cool weariness of a band on the run.
But then “she became known as 'Paul's wife' instead of the focus being on her photography,” McCartney told The Guardian in 2019, of the woman he married in 1969 while the long, painful break-up of The Beatles dragged on.
Source: Nick Miller/smh.com.au
When Led Zeppelin topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic in 1969, the rock press realized it had a story on its hands. As rumors of The Beatles’ demise swirled, a powerful new British act had emerged. And it looked as if the Zeppelin could be as successful as the Fab Four.
That didn’t change when the calendar pages flipped to 1970. As The Beatles tried out solo projects and broke up, the Zep continued selling out concert halls and released another No. 1 record. And by the end of the year Melody Maker readers named Zeppelin the top British band.
So when John Bonham and his bandmates began giving interviews, journalists wanted to know how they felt about the Fab Four and their latest release, Abbey Road. Bonham had nothing but good things to say about the drums on Beatles albums. The only thing was, he wasn’t sure whether Paul McCartney or Ringo Starr played them.
Source: cheatsheet.com
By the time the Beatles broke up in 1970, the four members had already started work on their respective solo debuts. John Lennon produced the raw, vulnerable, critically lauded Plastic Ono Band. George Harrison's monumental All Things Must Pass sprawled over three vinyl records. Ringo knocked out two LPs within the span of five months — one a collection of jazz standards, the other a country album he cut in Nashville.
Paul McCartney's solo debut, simply titled McCartney, was the most modest of the lot, a series of doodles and improvs whose release coincided with a press release officially confirming his departure from the Beatles. It was the first public acknowledgment that the most successful band of all time had called it quits, and it unfairly marked McCartney as the true saboteur behind the Fab Four's demise (in fact, Lennon had privately "divorced" himself from the band the previous year).
Source: Nathan Weinbender/inlander.com
