Beatles News
ven if you loved Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), you had to admit The Beatles went heavy on the studio polish. On side 1, “She’s Leaving Home” told the story of its runaway rich girl with the help of a 10-piece string section that included a harp player. It was a long way from Hamburg.
There was more of the same on “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!,” the John Lennon track that featured tape loops, harmonium, organ parts, and other sounds not made by a Beatle. In brief, producer George Martin’s touch was easily detectable in the making of Sgt. Pepper.
When the sprawling White Album (1968) arrived late the following year, fans got a very different look from the and. On “Blackbird,” basically all you heard was Paul McCartney and an acoustic guitar. And you got the same man-and-a-guitar approach (with Lennon this time) on “Julia.”
More acoustic guitar came on “Rocky Raccoon,” “Mother Nature’s Son,” “Dear Prudence,” and “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill,” among other tracks. It was a defining feature of The White Album, and it was no accident.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Paul McCartney has shared a heartfelt message on what would've been his late bandmate and friend John Lennon's 80th birthday.
On Friday 9 October, the Wings musician posted a black and white throwback photo of the pair smiling while working on a collaboration as McCartney puts pen to paper in the snap.
"I love this picture, it reminds me of the bond between us," the Beatle wrote on Instagram. "Happy 80th John. Love Paul."
Source: Amy Johnson/msn.com
The Beatles released an incredible amount of music in the 10 years they were together, but there were songs written by John, Paul, and George during that time that never got recorded by the band. Producer Frankie Siragusa, who owns TheLAB STUDIO in Los Angeles and plays in The Posies, has taken these songs and recorded them, imagining them as if The Beatles had recorded them back then, for an album called Goodbye My Love - Lost Songs of The Beatles Covered and Rediscovered which will be out November 20 via Reimagine Music.
Helping Siragusa realize his vision for this album were Ken Stringfellow (The Posies, R.E.M., Big Star), Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. (Jellyfish, Beck), and Keith Slettedahl (The 88, Ray Davies Band). Arrangements were kept to how they would've been in the era that the songs were written and, with Executive Producer Jim Sampas, Frankie recorded the songs using similar equipment that The Beatles would have used at the time. "Great art is malleable, and these new interpretations are reaffirming and multi-faceted," says Sampas. "They allow us to experience the genius of The Beatles’ seminal work from a fresh perspective, and this youthful approach. These are Beatles songs that most people have never heard. The approach that Frankie Siragusa has taken, keeping true to The Beatles’ esthetic and assembling the perfect vocalists for this project, will make this a significant discovery."
Source: brooklynvegan.com
The estate of the late George Michael have loaned John Lennon‘s ‘Imagine’ piano to the Strawberry Field exhibition in Liverpool so it can go on public display.
The Steinway piano, which the late Beatle wrote and recorded his 1971 song ‘Imagine’ on, was bought by Michael at auction for £1.45 million back in October 2000. He later toured the piano around the world “as a symbol of peace” and used it during the recording of his song ‘Patience’.
Speaking to reporters at the time of the auction purchase, the late singer said that “it’s not the type of thing that should be in storage somewhere or being protected, it should be seen by people”.
Source: Sam Moore/nme.com
Patti Smith, Jackson Browne, Natalie Merchant, Rosanne Cash, Taj Mahal and many more artists will be featured in the 40th annual John Lennon Tribute Charity concert presented by Theatre Within, the non-profit organization that has presented the concert since 1981. The concert will be streamed for free at LennonTribute.org and will premiere on what would have been John Lennon’s 80th birthday, Oct. 9 at 7 p.m. and thru Oct. 12 at midnight.The program will feature unreleased performances from past tributes and new performances of John Lennon and Beatles classics by the above artists as well as Jorma Kaukonen, Martin Sexton, Joan Osborne, Bettye LaVette, Shelby Lynne, Marc Cohn, Willie Nile, Nicki Richards, The Kennedys, Ron Pope, and Music Director Rich Pagano.
Source: mcall.com
The late singer-songwriter visited Carlisle on two occasions during 1963, the year before Beatlemania went into full swing across Britain with his famous bandmates Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
The band played the Carlisle ABC cinema stage, which was a venue more suited perhaps to showing films such as that year’s ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ starring Peter O’Toole.
The Fab Four, in fact, were second on the bill behind Helen Shapiro for their first performance on Cumbrian soil in February 1963 with their first single ‘Love Me Do’ having reached only number 17 on the charts the previous year. In the next year, the Beatles would achieve the first of 17 number one singles in the UK, making sales and cultural history in the process. Lennon’s group were so low-profile they were reportedly asked to leave a dance at Carlisle hotel on account of being inappropriately dressed later during their visit!
Source: Tom Beattie/newsandstar.co.uk
THIRTEEN pays tribute to singer-songwriter and Beatles member John Lennon with two films airing the week that he would have turned 80. Both films center on his post-Beatles career and life. American Masters: LENNONYC takes an intimate look at the time John Lennon, his wife Yoko Ono and their son, Sean, spent living in New York City during the 1970s. Classic Albums: John Lennon – Plastic Ono Band, airing Thursday, October 8 at 9 p.m., captures and reflects on the making of Lennon’s first post-Beatles album in 1970, widely regarded as one of his finest.
American Masters: LENNONYC is, essentially, a classic immigrant tale: Lennon and Ono left London in 1971 in search of freedom, both artistic and personal. Maintaining his residence in the U.S. was not easy, despite his fame. With unprecedented and exclusive cooperation from Yoko Ono, access to never-before-seen material from the Lennon archives and conversations with those closest to him – Ono, Elton John, the photographer Bob Gruen, fellow Beatles member Ringo Starr – American Masters tells John Lennon’s story as it has never been told before.
Source: thirteen.org
A new pop-up TV channel is being launched to mark what would have been John Lennon‘s 80th birthday this week.
Sky, Virgin and Freeview will broadcast LENNON80 in honour of the late Beatle‘s birthday this Friday (October 9), which will include a mix of old footage and new content.
Among the programmes airing on the channel will be the famous documentary Bed Peace, which follows Lennon and Yoko Ono‘s famous “Bed-In for Peace” protest in 1969, as well as appearances on Parkinson in 1971 and The Dick Cavett Show in 1971 and 1972.
The channel will also show three documentaries by Ono: her 2004 Tate Gallery Lecture, her Onochord performance piece and a show about the Imagine Peace Tower in Iceland.
Source: Sam Warner/nme.com
Paul McCartney said he and John Lennon had “rescued each other” with the partnership that led to their success with the Beatles and beyond.
Speaking on the BBC radio documentary John Lennon at 80, he recalled how they had started out together at a similar level of musical ability, and kept learning to the point that they “absorbed” each other’s influence.
“We all had to learn together,” McCartney told host Sean Ono Lennon, John's son. “He only knew a couple of banjo chords, but that only lasted a week or two. And I would just show him chords I knew, which [were] very basic, but it was great bonding, just learning chords off each other. And I think the minute he knew those chords, he was as good as anyone. … He might have had a little bit of a hang-up about not being sort of musically trained, but none of us were.”
McCartney recalled how both of them had started trying to write songs around the same time, in an era when it was common for musicians to perform material written by other parties.
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
In terms of British cultural exports, there may not be a more significant day than Oct. 5, 1962. That's when the Beatles' debut single, "Love Me Do," and the first James Bond movie, Dr. No, were released.
"Love Me Do" was one of four songs - along with "P.S. I Love You," "Ask Me Why" and "Besame Mucho" - the Beatles played for George Martin at their Parlophone Records audition at London's Abbey Road Studios in June. The producer thought enough to sign the band, which had been building steam over the previous few years thanks to success in Liverpool and Hamburg clubs. But they weren't happy with their drummer, Pete Best. So, they replaced him with Ringo Starr.
On Sept. 4, the Beatles returned to Abbey Road for their first proper session, recording "Love Me Do." But Martin wasn't sure about their new drummer. So, he brought them back a week later and had session drummer Andy White take over, with Starr playing tambourine. Still, the version with Starr on drums was tapped as their first single; the take featuring White ended up on the band's debut album, Please Please Me.
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
