Beatles News
Ringo Starr is releasing a new album, titled "Zoom In," featuring contributions from Paul McCartney, Dave Grohl and Finneas.
Bob Dylan kicked off December by quietly releasing Bob Dylan — 1970 (50th Anniversary Collection) through the U.K. store Badlands. Now, he’s releasing it digitally on February 26th, 2021 via Columbia Records/Legacy Recordings.
Bob Dylan — 1970 will be released as an eight-panel digipack with new cover art and liner notes by Michael Simmons. The recordings span from March to August 1970, including rare sessions with George Harrison that have been widely bootlegged for years. They jam on “Time Passes Slowly,” “Mama You Been on My Mind,” the Beatles’ “Yesterday,” and others. You can preorder it now.
Dylan initially dropped Bob Dylan — 1970 as part of the 50th Anniversary Collection copyright extension series, in response to a European law stating that recordings enter the public domain 50 years after their creation if they aren’t officially released by the copyright holder. Badlands limited the copies to one per customer; one is currently on sale at Discogs for more than $1,000.
Source: Angie Martoccio/rollingstone.com
Ringo Starr might have just turned 80, but he can’t be accused of taking it easy. The Beatle drummer kept busy making music this year, even though it was the first time in years he couldn’t hit the road with his long-running All-Starr Band. His new single, “Here’s to the Nights,” is a quintessential Ringo ode to peace and love, just in time to sing out the end of a 2020 where everybody had a hard year. He got a little help from his friends for “Here’s to the Nights.” The song has long-distance vocals from pals like Dave Grohl, Lenny Kravitz, Sheryl Crow, Chris Stapleton, Ben Harper, Ringo’s brother-in-law Joe Walsh, and many more — including a promising British bass player named Paul McCartney.
Ringo worked in his home studio on a five-track EP set for March, with the timely title Zoom In. For one of rock & roll’s most beloved figures — and one of its most gregarious legends — it was a challenge to adapt to making music in the age of social distancing. But as he always warned us, it don’t come easy. “Here’s to the Nights” is a wry sing-along with lyrics from Diane Warren. As Ringo says, “New Year’s Eve, they’ll all sing along with us, we hope.”
Source: rollingstone.com
Who or what REALLY broke up the Beatles? Ken McNab’s book “And In The End: The Last Days of the Beatles” hardly provides a definitive answer to that question and is all the better for it.
Of course, there is no single reason the band dissolved, although individuals have long pointed to the death of band manager Brian Epstein, John Lennon’s marriage to Yoko Ono or Paul McCartney’s attempts to steer the band’s creative ship with the “Get Back” project as THE cause. Those all come into play as McNab details, month by month, the lives of all four Beatles in 1969. But so much more is also at work, from the band’s Apple Corps becoming more of a financial boondoggle than creative hub, to factions warring over who should represent the group’s business interests, to all four Fabs finding creative outlets and music-making opportunities outside their unit.
Source: John Young /post-gazette.com
The new music releases year ends with a Beatle, as well as a second drop from Drive-By Truckers and some archival material for last-minute stocking stuffing...
Album of the Week: It’s been 40 years, but Paul McCartney follows 1970′s “McCartney” and 1980′s “McCartney II” with “McCartney III” (Capitol), another entirely solo effort recorded in quarantine at his studio in Sussex, England, using gear that dates back as far as 1971. One track, “When Winter Comes,” hails from the early 90s and was co-produced by the late George Martin.
Album Title of the Week: Meg Myers, “Thank U 4 Taking Me 2 the Disco. I’d Like to Go Home Now” (Sumerian)
Did Ya Know: The self-released “Muscle Memory” is the first solo album ever by 10cc co-founder and Godley & Creme’s Kevin Godley, also known for his music video directing. The crowd-funded set was built from ideas contributed via an online solicitation.
Source: Gary Graff/cleveland.com
Paul McCartney has a tendency to conjure up self-named albums at moments of pressure, like a release valve. The first McCartney came out in 1970 when The Beatles were in their death throes. His soon-to-be ex-bandmates were angry at its timing: they believed McCartney was using the break-up to promote his solo debut. They were also dismissive of the songs. “He’s a good PR man, Paul,” John Lennon jibed.
McCartney II came out a decade later in 1980, after he had been jolted by the anxious experience of 10 days in jail in Japan for cannabis possession. Disillusionment with his band Wings was another spur for making the album. Its quirky experiments with synthesisers and drum machines foretold Wings’ end the following year. Its reception was unfavourable, although it has since acquired a cult following.
Now comes McCartney III. Like its predecessors, it is literally a solo record: McCartney plays all the instruments and does all the vocals. Unlike McCartney or McCartney II, it arrives without any obvious personal or professional drama in his life. This time the pressure lies outside. McCartney made it during the spring lockdown in his East Sussex farmhouse as coronavirus ripped through the world.
Source: ft.com
On December 15, 1969 John Lennon made what would be his final appearance on a UK stage, when the Plastic Ono Band performed their only European show at a Unicef benefit Peace For Christmas concert at the The Lyceum in London.
On the night, which also featured appearances by Desmond Dekker and The Aces, the Young Rascals and more, Lennon and Yoko Ono were backed by an all-star band including Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Keith Moon, keyboard players Billy Preston (The Beatles/The Rolling Stones) and Nicky Hopkins (Led Zeppelin/The Rolling Stones) and sax player Bobby Keyes (The Rolling Stones). The group played just two songs - a seven-minute version of Cold Turkey, Lennon’s dark depiction of heroin withdrawal, introduced by the singer with the words “This song’s about pain”, and a mammoth, intense, hard-riffing 40-minute version of Don’t Worry Kyoko, which, according to legend, caused half the Lyceum audience to walk out of the venue, much to Lennon’s amusement.
The singer later described the performance of Don’t Worry Kyoko as “the most fantastic music I’ve ever heard… 20 years ahead of its time”.
Source: Paul Brannigan
The Fab Four had nicknames: the cute one, the quiet one, the smart one, the funny one. The brainy Beatle was also dizzyingly complex, as demonstrated in “The Search for John Lennon: The Life, Loves, and Death of a Rock Star,” which arrives as fans mark the 40th anniversary of his murder in New York on Dec. 8, 1980. Monitor correspondent Randy Dotinga spoke with the book’s author, British rock historian Lesley-Ann Jones, about her deeply perceptive portrait of this brilliant, troubled, not-always-admirable musician.
Q: What surprised you about John Lennon’s life?
I didn’t realize quite how much his songwriting was a blatant cry for help. He’s always trying to claw his way back to his mother. I’ve interviewed many rock stars, and it’s struck me how much these guys tend to have in common. They almost always come to music as an escape. They’ve mostly had dysfunctional childhoods with abuse or abandonment, and there’s a massive void that they’re looking to fill in some way. For the book, I wanted to approach it from a woman’s and a mother’s point of view – bring the small boy John back, see [the world] through a child’s eyes, and try to bring him along with me and understand him at every stage.
Source: Randy Dotinga/csmonitor.com
In a rarely known interview, the late lead guitarist and occasional vocalist of The Beatles, George Harrison opened up about the rumor that he’s the person who turned his bandmates to LSD as he shed a light on the unknown side of the band.
During his little-known conversation with the Creem editors, J. Kordosh and Bill Holdship, the late Beatles legend, George Harrison, clarified the matter about his band’s addiction history. When asked if he had ever felt guilty about being the one who got them used to it, Harrison revealed the fact that it’s not him.
He recalled the time when his dentist invited him, John Lennon, and their ex-wives to a dinner. On that night, Harrison told, the dentist put the acid called, LSD, in their coffee. Got off the drugs from the man who ran Playboy in London, Tim Leary, Harrison’s friend didn’t let the bandmates go without finishing their coffee according to The Beatles icon.
Source: Dilara Onen/metalheadzone.com
A curated collection of instrumentals will make schoolwork just a little more enjoyable, thanks to The Beatles’ enduring hits.
Available now across streaming platforms, The Beatles: Study Songs Vol 1 includes six tracks – all featuring the band’s original instrumental takes. The collection not only offers a soothing backdrop for studying but also introduces a new generation to The Beatles’ unparalleled catalog of music.
The collection opens with “Because,” from 1969’s Abbey Road. The instrumental track features an arpeggiated guitar riff played by John Lennon, backed by Paul McCartney on bass and producer George Martin on harpsichord. Ringo Starr can be heard in the background, guiding the musicians with a faint but steady beat. Missing from this version, in addition to multi-tracked vocals, are distinctly woozy Moog synthesizer lines, as played by George Harrison.
Source: Sophie Smith/udiscovermusic.com
