Beatles News
Sir Paul McCartney has been famous for more than half his life. As a Beatle, he created songs that turned into iconic anthems and for some, the soundtrack to their lives.
Since the 1960s, the singer-songwriter carved out a career that included his monumental time with the famous British band, as well as a run with Wings and his solo outing.
Beyond his membership in The Beatles, the legendary McCartney also extended his artistry into the food business, musical theater, and books. However, music is what turned him into a super star and he realizes his global fan base holds him—and the other Beatles—in high esteem. When it comes to interacting with fans, McCartney does have a preference.
Source: cheatsheet.com
On November 27, 1970, one of, if not the single greatest solo record from a former-Beatle was released. Coming from none other than the quiet Beatle himself, I’m of course talking about the sextuple-platinum triple album All Things Must Pass by George Harrison.
This album, in the most basic sense, is Harrison finally breaking free from the creative control of his fellow Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney. While certainly legends in their own right (with killer solo albums to boot), they both undoubtedly came down way too heavy on Harrison in the final years of The Beatles.
All Things Must Pass is where Harrison truly just opens the floodgates; it’s the culmination of a built-up back catalog of knock out songs that Lennon and McCartney had rejected over the years, of his unique musical and lyrical influences that had been sucked out of virtually all of the Beatles’ works and of his wide array of talented musical friends, as many of them helped him bring this album to life.
Source: Noah Nickel/brockpress.com
The Beatles released 22 singles over the course of their careers. While not all of them were show stopping hits, the Fab Four managed to sell over 600 million singles in the United Kingdom alone. Across the board, the band broke records, selling unbelievable amounts of records all the way up until they split. Although they had countless fans across the planet, John Lennon and Paul McCartney were happy to explain what they didn’t like about each other’s music.
Shortly after the death of The Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, the Fab Four released their first single without him.
The single was Hello, Goodbye, the A-side to Lennon’s I Am The Walrus.
Hello, Goodbye was written and mostly performed by McCartney, who later described the track as the “duality of man”.
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
A book that looks at The Beatles from a playful kaleidoscope of angles won Britain’s leading nonfiction literary award on Tuesday.
Craig Brown’s “One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time” was named winner of the 50,000-pound ($66,000) Baillie Gifford Prize at a virtual ceremony in London.
Brown’s “composite biography” juxtaposes the stories of John, Paul, George and Ringo with relatives, partners, artists, imitators, hangers-on and others drawn into their orbit.
Broadcaster Martha Kearney, who chaired the judging panel, said Brown’s “joyous, irreverent, insightful celebration” of the Fab Four was “a shaft of light piercing the deep gloom of 2020.”
“Who would have thought that a book about The Beatles could seem so fresh?” she said.
The award recognizes English-language books in current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts.
Source: Jahnavi Gupta/hindustantimes.com
Paul McCartney has reflected on how John Lennon‘s 80th birthday made him reflect on his fondest memories of his late bandmate.
The late Beatles icon would have reached the milestone birthday on October 9, prompting an array of famous faces to pay their individual tributes to him last month.
Discussing the celebrations in a new interview with Uncut, McCartney explained how Lennon’s birthday had sparked a mixture of emotions from him.
“That was happy sad. It reminds me he was murdered – but it also reminds me of the fantastic times we had. I tend to think back to early times,” he said.
“I remember, we tried to hitchhike to Spain once, but we only got as far
as Paris. We liked it so much, we stayed there, just the two of us. We were in this little hotel in Paris; it was so cheap it had fleas. My mum was a nurse, we were very hygienic, then you end up there – bloody hell! Those things bring you together.
Source: Nick Reilly/nme.com
n a crossover no one quite expected, Sonny Starkey, grandson of Ringo Starr, and Gene Gallagher, son of Liam Gallagher, are both in big trouble with the law.
Liam Gallagher has always idolised The Beatles (especially John Lennon), but I’m pretty sure having his son and Ringo Starr’s grandson both getting copped with assault charges isn’t the way he’ll want to be associated with his favourite band.
Alright, let’s just quickly recap how Liam Gallagher and Ringo Starr inadvertently found themselves in the headlines for this pretty wild crossover people didn’t expect.
According to The Sun, Starkey, the younger Gallagher, and model Noah Ponte have been accused of attacking staff at a Tesco Express shop in North London (of all places) in 2019.
It is alleged that the attack occurred after Ponte tried to steal a can of beer after the shop’s midnight curfew for buying alcohol.
Source: Alexander Pan /tonedeaf.thebrag.com
The exBeatle George Harrisonclassic “My Sweet Lord”celebrates half a century after its successful appearance in 1970, still surrounded by controversy of allegations of plagiarism and the spiritual aura of his Hindu inspiration.
Harrison was known as the “Quiet Beatle” for his preference to stay away from fame, despite being a rock star, and for his interest in Hinduism, which began to mark his life following the American Beatles tour in 1966.
The guitarist of the Liverpool quartet released the hit single “My Sweet Lord” on his first solo album “All Things Must Pass” (1970), after the separation of the Beatles.
The song, recorded at Abbey Road studios in London under the production of Phil Spector, featured musicians such as guitarist Eric Clapton and fellow ExBeatle Ringo Starr on drums.
Source: inspiredtraveler.ca
The story of the Beatles did not end happily. Break-ups are seldom cheerful. But it was not, as some of us thought at the time, the end of the damn world.
Craig Brown tells that story in 150 Glimpses of the Beatles, from the early days to 1970, when the four members of the band went their separate ways. But what Brown does best is remind us why the split did seem at the time—to Beatles fans at least—like the end of everything.
I don’t know if Brown’s is one of the best books written about the band because I’ve never managed to finish a book about them, but it’s one of the best books I’ve read on any subject in a good while.
With a handful of exceptions (the autobiographies of Keith Richards and Count Basie, Nick Tosches’ book about Jerry Lee Lewis), I’ve never been too interested in books about bands or musicians, even ones I like. I picked up Brown’s book because I’m a huge fan of his last book, 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret. I had never been much of a royals fan either, but I thought, well, I’ll try a glimpse or two and see how it goes. In no time, Brown hooked me for the whole ride. He did it again with the Beatles.
Source: Malcolm Jones/thedailybeast.com
Paul McCartney was an ex-Beatle on a mission as he arrived at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Midtown Manhattan on 19 January 1994. He was there for the induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame of John Lennon, his friend, collaborator and occasional rival.
Also at the ceremony was Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono, who would appear that night onstage alongside McCartney. In Beatles lore, the two were sworn enemies (an overstatement, though McCartney had admitted to feeling “threatened” by Ono when she started turning up to band recording sessions with Lennon). So it was seen as hugely significant that they would come together to honour a fallen husband and comrade. This was the hell-freezes-over moment many “Fab” fanatics had never imagined they would witness.
“I wish John could have seen this,” Ono said as she and McCartney publicly patched up whatever differences they had. Later that evening, back at Yoko’s residence, she and her 19-year-old son, Sean, went further with the reconciliation by handing over to McCartney and his wife Linda several battered recordings, dating from the late 1970s. And with that, began the next chapter in the story of The Beatles.
Source: independent.co.uk
Joe Wong and Mary Timony have released a new cover of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s song “Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him” as a 40th anniversary celebration for Lennon and Ono’s album Double Fantasy. Dave Fridmann of The Flaming Lips mixed Wong and Timony’s version of the track.
Wong and Timony create a psychedelic soundscape with deep vocals and transcending synths. Wong slowly sings Lennon’s lyrics, creating a haunting sound that pulls listeners into an alternate dimension. Drums slowly beat beneath to create a softer sound, the track continuing to have an edge within its instrumentals. Timony provides slithering back-up vocals as she and Wong dance and sway amid the plucking guitars and deep bass.
“The song has always felt haunting and profound to me, and is an under appreciated song in the Ono/Lennon oeuvre,” Wong said in a press statement. “Although the song was recorded during the week of Lennon’s 80th birthday (last month), the track continues to inhabit my dreams, and that’s a good thing.
Source: Ariel King/music.mxdwn.com
