Beatles News
Some never-before-seen photographs from Paul Saltzman's Beatles in India series are on display at Toronto's Markham Street Gallery
Paul Saltzman’s Beatles in India photos came as a result of a serendipitous meeting
A group of people wearing flower garlands sit cross legged on a platform. In 1968, filmmaker Paul Saltzman went to India and took some photographs of the Beatles that eventually became very famous. These photos would form the basis of a book, as well as a show, on now, at the Markham Street Gallery in Toronto.
But at the time, Saltzman didn't go to India with the intent of having a book or a gallery show or even photographing the Beatles at all. He didn't even know they were there. He went because he was having an existential crisis.
Saltzman says that, at the time, he had everything he could have wanted; he had a budding career in film, an apartment in Montreal, a girlfriend and a cool car. But one morning, he woke up and realized: "there were parts of myself I didn't like, and I wasn't a very self-reflective person, so that was a shock." Sitting on the edge of his bed, he asked himself what he was supposed to do about that, and he heard "a deep inner voice that was all calming and all loving." It was a voice that he describes as that of "his soul." And that voice told him to get out of his environment, and specifically, to head to India.
So he did. He got a gig as the sound engineer on a National Film Board documentary crew heading to India — despite having no experience doing sound. Unfortunately, his trip didn't go quite as he planned. While he was away, he received a letter from his girlfriend back in Canada, dumping him.
"I was shattered," he says. "I was devastated. I've had heartbreaks … and that was the worst heartbreak I've had in my whole life, including two marriages that went south."
An acquaintance told him to try meditation to get over the heartbreak, which led him to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram in Rishikesh. Unfortunately, when he got there, he was told by one of the Maharishi's assistants that he could not come in "at this time," because the Beatles were there and the ashram was closed to the public.
Source: cbc.ca/Chris Dart
December 8, 2025, will mark 45 years since the senseless murder of John Lennon. And all these years later, it still remains one of rock's greatest tragedies: not only did it spell the end once and for all of any potential Beatles reunion, but also the fact that Lennon appeared to be gearing up for a highly productive creative period, after being out of the limelight for several years.
This leaves one to wonder what projects he had in the works for 1981. Over the years, quite a few people who worked closely with Lennon dropped a few hints as to what he had in the pipeline. Lennon's biggest plan for 1981 appeared to be the launch of his first-ever substantial solo tour in support of his most recent album, "Double Fantasy," which was released on November 17, 1980, less than a month before his death.
In the 2020 book, "John Winston Ono Lennon", the bassist in Plastic Ono Elephant's Memory Band, Gary Van Scyoc, recalled a conversation he had with Lennon concerning this topic. "We talked on the phone, and he said, 'I'm hoping to go out. I don't know who would want to do it – whether Tony Levin [who had played on 'Double Fantasy'] would want to tour.' I said, 'Put my name on the list,' and he said I'd be the first person he'd call. And that's the last time I spoke to him."
However, Cheap Trick's Bun E. Carlos made it seem like Lennon had another plan in mind for his "tour-that-never-was."
"Then after Lennon got shot, the next year we started to hear things like, 'Oh, he loved working with you guys [on a version of 'I'm Losing You']. He wanted you to be in his band when he toured. He wanted to use Cheap Trick as his band.'"
In addition to touring in the immediate future, Lennon also appeared eager to work on a solo album by his wife, Yoko Ono, with whom he had collaborated on "Double Fantasy." This would later be confirmed as fact when it came to light that earlier in the evening, when Lennon was fatally shot, he had been working on the Ono song "Walking on Thin Ice" at the Record Plant. The song would be issued as a single on February 6, 1981.
As renowned rock photographer and Lennon friend Bob Gruen later explained, "Because Yoko had gotten good reviews [on 'Double Fantasy'], they decided to immediately do a single – a new record – with Yoko, which was 'Walking on Thin Ice.' That's what they were working on that night in December, in the studio. They wanted to get a new single out, to capitalize on the fact that the critics seemed to suddenly like her."
"So, we were talking about how in December, he was going to take a couple of weeks off after finishing that record for the holidays, and then come back in January, and he was going to get a band together and make some videos to promote the record. Then in February, start rehearsing with the band, and by March, was going to go out on a tour all around the world. So, we were up until dawn."
And speaking of videos, MTV was still half a year away from being launched at the time of Lennon's death. However, the ex-Beatle could apparently sense the value of the format, as he was working on a video clip for his hit single, "(Just Like) Starting Over," around this time. However, despite a photo existing from the video shoot (of Lennon sitting in an all-white room), the music video was never completed, nor was footage ever released.
According to an interview with Yoko Ono in an interview quote in the aforementioned "John Winston Ono Lennon" book, music video was not the only visual medium she felt her husband would have embraced in the future.
"He would be so excited about the computer stuff. Because we all kept saying, 'global village.' But now it really is a global village through the computer, through the internet, etc. And John was the kind of person that would jump on it. He would be using the art shelf stuff to create computer art and also he would be sending messages to the whole world."
Getting back to his plans for 1981, Lennon also appeared set on not only playing on Ringo Starr's next solo album, "Stop and Smell the Roses" (which also included appearances by the other Beatles, Paul McCartney and George Harrison), but he was planning on offering Starr two originals of his to cover for the LP: "Nobody Told Me" and "Life Begins at 40." However, after Lennon's death, Starr declined to record them.
Source: Ultimate Guitar
Ringo Starr’s energy shows no sign of waning, even though the celebrated musician recently turned 85. After more than six decades in the spotlight, the legendary drummer is not only still touring, he’s expanding his musical horizons in ways few could have expected, and continuing to produce more new music.
Just months after releasing Look Up, his first full-length in more than half a decade, Starr recently shared some good news via an announcement that confirms that more new work is on the way.
A Follow-Up to Look Up
In a video Starr shared recently on YouTube, the former Beatle revealed that he is already working on a new album, and the project sees him reuniting with the producer who helped him produce his latest genre-shifting effort.
“I’m in the studio here now doing another album with T Bone [Burnett]. Thank you, Lord. Woo. Yeah,” he said in the clip. He jokingly referred to the album’s working title as Look Up Two, but then added with a smile, “I don’t think it’ll be called that.”
Few Details Are Available
For the moment, details about Starr’s upcoming album are scarce, but that’s likely only because it’s still early days when it comes to putting the project together. The set, which doesn’t have a real title or release date yet, will be Starr’s twenty-second as a soloist.
Source: forbes.com/Hugh McIntyre
The Beatles shocked their fans by releasing one of their most controversial albums at the height of their fame, one that stood as their first major political statement
The Beatles became one of the most successful acts in music virtually overnight with their fresh sound and incredible songs.
While some were unprepared for the changes the Fab Four ushered into music and pop culture at the time, diehard fans continuously fell in love with them. Besides what they brought the world in the early 1960s, they didn't truly rattle listeners until they released one of their most controversial albums, one that stood as their first major political statement.
In 1966, The Beatles released the album Yesterday and Today, which had a cover so grotesque that their record label pulled it. It featured the band surrounded by pieces of raw meat and decapitated baby dolls. As a result, copies featuring the original image are very difficult to come by, but one copy recently went up for auction and sold for a whopping five-figure value.
Yesterday and Today's disgusting album image seemed to come out of left field for The Beatles. They'd never done anything like it, as their previous albums had simply featured them posing by themselves. So, it's no surprise that the controversial album cover made waves amongst their fans and the music industry.
Source: Hannah Furnell/themirror.com
Ringo Starr famously stated that neither he nor his fellow Beatles bandmates (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison) could read sheet music. He humorously recalled that their biggest fear about joining a musicians' union was being forced to read music, as they were all self-taught musicians. Despite this, they achieved significant musical success, with Ringo Starr contributing both as a drummer and vocalist, and even writing and co-writing several songs.
Self-taught musicians:
The Beatles were primarily a band that learned by ear and through experience, rather than formal music education.
Union concerns:
Starr's anecdote about the Nashville musicians' union highlights their initial apprehension about being required to read music.
Ringo's musical contributions:
Despite the lack of formal music reading skills, Ringo Starr was a vital part of the Beatles' sound, both as a drummer and vocalist.
Songwriting:
Starr also contributed as a songwriter, composing and singing "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden" and co-writing other songs.
"There are 4 drummers": The fact that Starr and the other Beatles couldn't read music didn't stop them from becoming one of the most successful bands in history, according to a blog post.
Source: ara
Beatlemania is alive and well on Reddit, where fans have come together in harmony to declare one of George Harrison's songs as their favorite.
A Reddit thread has become a chorus of praise for with many users lauding it as Harrison's most impactful work and a pinnacle in The Beatles' storied catalog.
"Surprisingly no one said 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' yet - masterpiece," commented one enthusiast. "Not only is 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' my favorite song sung by George, it's my favorite Beatles song," another wrote.
The acoustic rendition of the song struck a particular chord among fans. "This is my answer, specifically the acoustic version," penned one Redditor.
"The Love album acoustic version is his greatest masterpiece imo," echoed another, with several voices in the thread resonating with thoughts on how the unplugged variant allowed Harrison's vocal artistry to truly resonate.
One admirer reflected, "To me, the acoustic version shows what an incredible song it really is," while another confessed, "The album version is a classic, but IMO is way overproduced."
Another fan professed their adoration, saying, "Not only is 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' my favorite song sung by George, it's my favorite Beatles song."
Source: the-express.com/Connor McCrory
The Bavarian garden gnomes, which feature on the cover of George Harrison‘s solo album All Things Must Pass, are representations of The Beatles.
The “quiet one” of the Fab Four confirmed as much during a question-and-answer session hosted on Yahoo Chat. A fan had asked why garden gnomes were featured on the cover of All Things Must Pass, and Harrison confirmed they were representations of the four members of The Beatles. The band had split up just months before its release in November 1970. Harrison began recording the album just a month after The Beatles had officially come to an end. He did leave a nod to his former bandmates on the front cover, though, confirming the four garden gnomes are meant to represent his time in the band.
Writing online, Harrison shared: “Originally, when we took the photo, I had these old Bavarian gnomes which I thought I would put there. Like kinda… John, Paul, George and Ringo.” Fans have since called the album cover “cute” knowing the intention was to pay tribute to The Beatles.
One user, who took to the r/Beatles subreddit where Harrison’s quotes were shared, wrote: “That’s so cute. Never even considered that this was the intention.” Elsewhere in the interview, Harrison confirmed he was looking for heading into his tape library for a remaster of Living in the Material World.
Source: cultfollowing.co.uk/Ewan Gleadow
It's "nonsense" that John Lennon was the creative genius of The Beatles, while Paul McCartney was his slightly talented, but superficial sidekick, Ian Leslie says.
In John & Paul, he explores a "love story" that began at a church fair, when both were 16, and was cut short by Lennon's assassination at 40.
"They were both extraordinary, complicated, weird geniuses, and you couldn't really have one without the other,” he tells Sunday Morning. “They kind of created each other."
It took many bizarre coincidences for two amazing vocalists like McCartney and Lennon to grow up a mile-and-a-half from each other in the south of Liverpool, then come together and ignite a cultural explosion, Leslie says.
One important aspect of their connection, which they didn't talk about much, was a shared a sense of being "different", because their mothers had both died when they were teenagers.
In a "very simplistic" version of their relationship, Lennon was the one who felt things very intensely, Leslie says, but the truth behind their incredible music is that they were both ambitious and extraordinarily emotionally intense young men.
Source: rnz.co.nz
While both could be jealous and resentful, McCartney was just better at controlling and, to some extent, concealing those feelings, with a more stable personality that partly reflected his more stable family background.
The pair's incredibly intense, very creative, conflicted and tempestuous relationship is hard to put in a box, Leslie says, and more like brotherhood than friendship.
Beatles star Sir Paul McCartney can be heard comparing a Spinal Tap song to “literature” in the first trailer for Spinal Tap II: The End Continues.
The clip also features Sir Elton John performing Stonehenge with the fictional band at their reunion concert in the film, on a piano that rises from underneath the stage.
Speaking in the trailer, Sir Paul says: “Pink Torpedo, that’s literature, really.”
The film is a follow-up to This Is Spinal Tap (1984), and follows David St Hubbins (Michael McKean), Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) as they reunite after a 15-year hiatus.
In the trailer, introduced by Marty DiBergi (played by real life director Rob Reiner), the band’s members are seen to have launched their own cryptocurrency and worked in a shop during their time apart.
Their reunion is revealed to take place in New Orleans as a replacement for “an evening with Stormy Daniels” which was cancelled at the venue, while a scene showing them going through merchandise for the show sees the band looking at branded Tap Water.
Source: uk.news.yahoo.com/Casey Cooper-Fiske, PA Senior Entertainment Reporter
Lennon wrote “Across The Universe” years before The Beatles’ breakup, and while the song was a hit, Lennon thought something was missing. Lennon did overcome his perfectionism as the song was released, and it ended up being an underrated gem in the band’s discography. Despite his earlier struggles with the song, Lennon regarded “Across The Universe” as his best lyrics he ever wrote.
"Across the Universe" Was Inspired by an Argument Between John Lennon and Cynthia Powell
Lennon is an example of how magic can come from the most unusual places. “Across The Universe” stemmed from an argument with his first wife, Cynthia Powell, in 1967. She muttered the words “Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup,” which had Lennon glued to his seat, writing the lyric in one sitting. He turned a domestic into one of The Beatles’ best hits.
The Beatles took a trip to India in 1967, and needed a song to release during that time. Lennon brought “Across The Universe” across to the studio, and was eager to work on the song. When he brought the song to the band in 1968, he explained how he was “psychologically destroyed.” The first recording session could not have been any more disjointed, as there was no vision for the song.
Source: Teguan Harris/collider.com
