Beatles News
The past few months have seen several artists covering John Lennon from home in quarantine, most recently with Bille Joe Armstrong’s Generation X–inspired rendition of “Gimme Some Truth.” Johnny Depp and Jeff Beck covered “Isolation,” while the Dirty Projectors offered their own take on the song. Gal Gadot also led a group of celebrities through “Imagine,” which, really, no one needed.
Yet no major artist has covered “How Do You Sleep?” — the late Beatle’s bitter Imagine track aimed at Paul McCartney. Things had grown tense between Lennon and his former bandmate before and after the Beatles’ messy breakup in 1970, and McCartney’s “Too Many People,” from his underrated 1971 album Ram, hadn’t helped. “He’d been doing a lot of preaching, and it got up my nose a little bit,” McCartney said in 1984. “In one song, I wrote, ‘Too many people preaching practices,’ I think is the line. I mean, that was a little dig at John and Yoko. There wasn’t anything else on it that was about them. Oh, there was ‘You took your lucky break and broke it in two.'”
Source: Angie Martoccio/rollingstone.com
Paul McCartney hasn’t been hugely provocative in recent years. However, that doesn’t mean he can’t make edgy music when he wants to. One of his more recent songs has lyrics that are a little risque by the standards of his recent work.
But Paul is still Paul. He has a famously good — and often cheeky — sense of humor. Paul worked in some provocative lyrics into one of his recent songs — without actually saying them.
One of the most famous songs from Paul’s album Egypt Station is called “Fuh You.” That title might look like a typo but it’s not. “Fuh You” might remind people of a much dirtier phrase and that’s exactly what Paul intended.
According to NME, it all started with the original version of the song, which included the line “I just want to for you.” Ryan Tedder, the producer of the song and the lead singer of OneRepublic, misheard the lyric as “I just want to f*ck you.” Tedder told Paul he shouldn’t sing a line that vulgar. Paul had a mischievous idea.
Source: cheatsheet.com
The Beatles' former drummer, Ringo Starr, hits eighty but feels just as young at heart as he did decades ago and says he hopes for better celebrations when the pandemic is over.
On July 7, singer-songwriter Ringo Starr known famously as the drummer for The Beatles, turned eighty years old. However, due to the pandemic, what would have been a remarkable celebration was turned into a virtual event.
The musician put together a virtual charity concert he titled "Ringo's Big Birthday Show" and a recorded episode of a video series, "Rolling Stone Interview: Special Edition." In the interview, the singer claimed that he hardly felt his age: He said:
"80? Man, I'm only 24 in here. That's a good thing and a bad thing. Yeah, 80, it's like, far out. It's a difficult one. 70 was easy. I think 40 was the hardest."
Source: Joe Akins/news.amomama.com
Photographer Fiona Adams, whose famous shot of The Beatles jumping in the air was used on the sleeve of the Twist and Shout EP, has died at the age of 84.
Adams captured the iconic image of the Fab Four on a London bomb site for Boyfriend magazine in April 1963.
The photo was then used on the record sleeve and has been described by the National Portrait Gallery as "the one that defined their early look".
Adams also snapped many other pop acts, from Bob Dylan to the Rolling Stones.
According to the late photographer's website, The Beatles "readily agreed" when Adams asked them to pose for Boyfriend magazine.
Having previously spotted an undeveloped bombsite near Euston station, she hailed a taxi and took them to the abandoned area.
Source: BBC News
"I’m celebrating with my friends in a new way this year — we’re going to have to keep our distance due to the coronavirus,” Ringo Starr said
Ringo Starr celebrated his 80th birthday on Wednesday with a virtual 65-minute show that included old and new performances by himself and famous friends.
The stream was raising money for a number of organizations, including the Black Lives Matter Global Network for the fight to “end all this racist violence,” Starr said, as well as The David Lynch Foundation, MusiCares and WaterAid.
“As most of you know, I’m fond of a good birthday party… but this is a bad year to host a get-together of any kind,” said the famous ex-Beatle, sitting behind a drum kit wearing a colorful face mask adorned with the peace sign, according to Variety.
Source: jpost.com
The Beatles stopped performing live concerts in August 1966 and focused instead on the latter half of their studio albums with more experimental music. But then on January 30, 1969, the Fab Four gave an unannounced show on the rooftop of Apple Corps headquarters at 3 Savile Row; their final Iive performance together. In a new post on The Beatles’ official Instagram account, Sir Ringo Starr reflected on the incredible occasion.
The Beatles drummer said: “We hadn’t been seen playing live in a long while.
“Only the crew were there and some people on the rooftop.
“But I’ve always liked the idea that maybe half a million people would have come to see us if they could have got there.”
However, in the end, the band’s final live show was shut down due to noise complaints.
Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk
As The Music Network reports, The Beatles played a sold-out show at Melbourne’s Festival Hall back in 1964, performing tracks including ‘She Loves You’, ‘I Saw Her Standing There’, ‘Twist and Shout’, ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ and ‘Long Tall Sally’. While John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison were all there, the band relied on the services of stand-in drummer Jimmie Nicol during the concert. All up, the group played 13 shows across Australia.
Nine will be airing the full concert, titled One Night Only – The Beatles in Oz, on Monday (July 13) at 9:30pm AEST. It will also be available to stream on 9Now. The concert will be remastered and will include never-before-seen footage.
Source: nme.com
When fans and critics start ranking all the albums by The Beatles, you usually find Let It Be (1970) near the bottom. That makes sense for a number of reasons. For starters, the last Beatles release wasn’t a product of all four band members working together in the studio.
In early ’70, after the band handed the tapes over to producer Phil Spector, Paul McCartney was barely speaking with the other three Beatles. And when he heard Spector’s rendition of “The Long and Winding Road” Paul became irate (to put it mildly).
Meanwhile, John Lennon didn’t play on “I Me Mine,” the last track The Beatles recorded in a studio as a band. And, speaking of George Harrison songs, you have to wonder how George only had “For You Blue” and “I Me Mine” on there, what with all the songs he had stashed in his notebook.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Linda McCartney was Paul McCartney's first wife and her tragic death left the legend in shambles. Here are some facts not many know about the female artist.
Paul and Linda McCartney's love was one that involved creativity and adventure. The two wed in 1969 and remained married until Linda's untimely death in 1998.
During her lifetime, Linda was heavily involved not only in her husband's music but in her own projects with photography and writing. 11 interesting facts about her are found below.
HER PHOTOS WERE WELL-RENOWNED
Linda wasn't just a backup singer for her husband. A year before the pair got married, she took a picture of Neil Young which would become the cover for his 2008 album, "Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House."
Source: Jaimie-lee Prince/news.amomama.com
Ringo Starr, the drummer for the British rock band The Beatles, is celebrating his 80th birthday today.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to BBC, Starr will forgo his annual birthday gathering and instead perform a concert on YouTube at 8 p.m. ET today.
“... He will put on a virtual charity concert on YouTube called Ringo’s Big Birthday Show. He’ll be joined by Sir Paul McCartney, Joe Walsh, Ben Harper, Sheryl Crow, Gary Clark Jr. and Sheila E to benefit Black Lives Matter, The David Lynch Foundation, MusiCares and WaterAid,” reported the BBC.
Starr was the last to join The Beatles. The group was formed in 1960 in Liverpool with Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and drummer Pete Best. Starr joined as the drummer in 1962.
Source: Deb Kiner/pennlive.com
