Beatles News
The Beatles' laid-back "Eight Days a Week" has become one of their signature singles: a widely covered No. 1 hit that even inspired the name of a band documentary. So it's surprising to learn that John Lennon, the song's co-writer and lead vocalist, hated it — describing it as "lousy" in a 1980 interview.
In the beginning, though, it was just another tune — the latest from a Lennon/Paul McCartney song factory that, by 1964, could churn out product with minimal effort. This time, the creative spark came from the titular phrase, which McCartney has most frequently attributed to a chauffeur.
"John had moved out of London, to the suburbs," McCartney reflected in the Beatles' 2000 Anthology book. "I usually drove myself there, but the chauffeur drove me out that day and I said, 'How've you been?' – 'Oh, working hard,' he said, 'working eight days a week.' I had never heard anyone use that expression, so when I arrived at John's house I said, 'Hey, this fella just said, 'eight days a week.' John said, 'Right — 'Oooh, I need your love, babe …' and we wrote it.
"We were always quick to write. We would write on the spot," McCartney added. "I would show up, looking for some sort of inspiration; I'd either get it there, with John, or I'd hear someone say something."
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
Claims to fame don’t get much cooler than being told your bike was the one used by Paul McCartney disguised as a policeman to flee hoards of screaming fans.
The legendary escape was made after The Beatles played at Exeter’s ABC in 1964, and the bike belonged to Frank Mallett - the son of infamous Exeter professional photography duo Stan and Betty.
Their modest home in Hoopern Street was far from conventional because the front room was a photographic studio, the pantry was converted into a darkroom and all the photography glazing was done in the hallway.
By day Stan worked as an accountant. He was renowned locally not just for his passion for photography but also for having been the only Exeter person to be on Omaha Beach during the D-Day landings.
Betty worked as an RAC patrolwoman. She rode around on a scooter with a sidecar and then became a lecturer at St Loye’s College.
Their sideline business Photography by Mallett captured all the great music highs of the ‘60s when many famous names came to Devon.
Source: Anita Merritt/devonlive.com
TOM JONES said when John Lennon insulted him the first time they met in 1965 and mocked his music, he wanted to "take him outside and give him a hiding." The Welsh star later told the story to a delighted Elvis who had his own feud with the Beatle. Ten years later, Jones had the last laugh at a major star-studded televised event.
Lennon was famous for his sharp tongue. Although he often explained his comments away as dry humour, they often had a harsh bite and were sometimes a little cruel. In 1965, Jones was a young aspiring star, enjoying his first hit on the charts, It's Not Unusual. He was not expecting the biggest pop star in the world to insult him when they met backstage on the TV show Thank Your Lucky Stars, but he was ready to fight back. And Elvis was very impressed when he heard the story later.
Jones said: "I was doing Thank Your Lucky Stars. I had It’s Not Unusual out, my first hit record, in 1965. The Beatles were on the show.
"I went to watch them rehearse in the afternoon. I’m sitting there where the audience would be later on, with my manager Gordon Mills. I’m waiting for The Beatles to come on; I want to watch them rehearse, you know.
Source: Stefan Kyriazis/express.co.uk
If you visit The King’s home of Graceland today, just across the road from the mansion is a huge exhibit complex called Elvis Presley’s Memphis. Inside the spacious halls is a display called ICONS: The Influence of Elvis Presley, which features artefacts owned by actors and musicians who have said they were impacted by The King. Of course, just like millions of other teenagers in the late 1950s, The Beatles were huge fans of Elvis and attribute his influence to their success.
John Lennon especially was a huge fan of The King growing up, famously saying: “Before Elvis, there was nothing.”
And on display at the Graceland exhibit among all kinds of treasures items is a piano owned by the late Beatle.
Growing up in late 1950s Liverpool, Lennon remembers first hearing Heartbreak Hotel and watching Elvis on the big screen in Love Me Tender.
After seeing The King’s debut movie in 1956, Lennon knew he wanted to do what Elvis did.
Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk
After The Beatles’ split, dozens of reports suggested they would eventually get back together for another collection of shows. On this day, February 13, 1994 the Mail on Sunday further fuelled speculation with an exclusive report saying the band were gearing up for a gig in New York City.
The report read: “The Beatles are getting back together for a one-off concert that will be the biggest rock event ever staged.
“The three surviving Beatles are set to play alongside John Lennon’s sons to a live audience of more than a million people.
“Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr will each earn £20 million for appearing on stage on the great lawn at Central Park in New York later this year.”
Although McCartney, Harrison and Starr were on good terms at the time, there was no official word that they were getting together again.
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
George Harrison was so often called the ‘quiet Beatle’, but his story is remarkable both for his creative achievements, social conscience and influence.
1. George loved the guitar even before he learned to play, or owned one. He used to draw pictures of the instrument as a young boy. His father Harold – yes that’s Harry Harrison – bought George a Dutch Egmond Toledo 105/0 flat-top acoustic guitar in 1956. It cost just over three pounds. That’s £90 in today’s money. A fan of skiffle legend Lonnie Donegan’s music, George formed a skiffle group called the Rebels, with his brother and a friend.
2. Throughout his life, he mastered how to play an incredible 26 different instruments. His beloved guitar, of course – Rolling Stone magazine ranked George number 11 in their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time – but also the sitar, four-string guitar, bass guitar, arp bass, violin, tamboura, dobro, swordmandel, tabla, organ, piano, moog synthesizer, harmonica, autoharp, glockenspiel, vibraphone, xylophone, claves, African drum, conga drum, tympani, ukulele, mandolin, marimba and Jal-Tarang.
Source: theguideliverpool.com
It was 57 years ago today that The Beatles performed their first US concert. On February 11, 1964, two days after their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, the Fab Four’s American gig took place at the Washington Coliseum which had been set up for boxing. This meant that John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr had to perform in the unroped ring, which wasn’t ideal as they’d only be facing 25 per cent of the audience at one time.
So in-between songs The Beatles had to stop three times to rearrange the microphones and turn Ringo’s drum kit around.
Over 350 police officers surrounded the stage, with one finding the noise so loud he used two bullets for earplugs.
The 35-minute set saw The Beatles perform: Roll Over Beethoven, From Me to You, I Saw Her Standing There, This Boy, All My Loving, I Wanna Be Your Man.
Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk
The sloppy, posthumous Live in New York City LP documents John Lennon's final full concerts — but rather than reflecting his musical genius, it reminds of wasted opportunities.
Despite its failure on a creative level, the music served a good cause. The album, released Feb. 10, 1986, samples the former Beatle's pair of Plastic Ono Band gigs at the August 1972 "One to One" festival. The Madison Square Garden event, which also featured Stevie Wonder and Roberta Flack, raised money for Staten Island's Willowbrook State School for children with intellectual disabilities — an institution whose horrifying conditions were revealed in a Geraldo Rivera expose earlier that year.
"[Rivera] came all the way to San Francisco to meet us," Yoko Ono later recalled. "He convinced us to do this. Without him, it wouldn't have happened."
Lennon and Ono had already played multiple benefit shows — like a 1969 UNICEF show in London — operating under the moniker Plastic Ono Band. They worked with a shifting crew of musicians — including Eric Clapton, bassist Klaus Voormann and future Yes drummer Alan White, all of whom appeared during their set at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival, chronicled on the Live Peace in Toronto 1969 album.
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
In the Beatles' early days, the songwriting partnership between John Lennon and Paul McCartney was balanced and consistent enough to warrant their 50/50 credit system. But the sweetly resolute road song "All My Loving" deviated from that norm.
The song — which famously opened their debut Ed Sullivan Show performance on Feb. 9, 1964 — was a solo McCartney composition, top to bottom. It originated the previous year, hashed out efficiently in their usual style from those days. And there was one other wrinkle. “It was the first song [where] I'd ever written the words first," the bassist recalled in 1997's Many Years From Now. "I never wrote words first, it was always some kind of accompaniment. I’ve hardly ever done it since either."
McCartney dreamed up the lyrics, envisioning a "little country and western song," as the Beatles traveled in a tour bus to a gig. Temporarily without a guitar, he sat down at a piano in the venue's cavernous backstage area, figuring out a melody. "It was a good show song," he added. "It worked well live."
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
Beatle George Harrison was pigeon-holed as the "Quiet Beatle," but the youngest member of the Fab Four had an acerbic, dry sense of humor that was as sharp as the rest of his bandmates.
He gave great performances in the musical comedy classics, "A Hard Days Night" and "Help!" while holding his own during The Beatles' notoriously anarchic press conferences. After he left the band in 1970, in addition to his musical career, he would produce the 1979 Monty Python classic, "The Life of Brian."
Harrison clearly didn't lose his sense of humor for the rest of his life. Shortly before his death in 2001, he played an elaborate prank on Phil Collins that shows how the "Here Comes the Sun" singer would go the extra mile for a laugh.
In 1970, Harrison was recording his first solo record and arguably the best by a Beatle, "All things Must Pass." The session for the song, "The Art of Dying" featured former Beatle Ringo Starr on drums, keyboard legend Billy Preston on keys, virtuoso Eric Clapton on guitar, and was produced by the notorious Phil Spector.
Source: Tod Perry/good.is
