Question: The Rickenbacker 425 guitar of George Harrison, of the iconic 1960’s rock band, The Beatles, has sold at auction for $657,000. Do you know where George originally bought it and for how much? For extra credit, can you name the specific store.
Answer: In the summer of 1963, before the Beatles were "discovered" while visiting his sister, Louise Harrison Caldwell, in downstate Benton, George Harrison visited Fenton Music Store in Mount Vernon, half an hour north of Benton. That's where he also bought the guitar, for $400, that a month later would be used by George to record The Beatles’ first big hit, “I Want To Hold Your Hand.” A story detailing this and more appears in the May 2020 edition of Smithsonian Magazine.
Source: Bill Flick
John Lennon and Bob Dylan were contemporaries. It’s impossible to truly understand the evolution of John’s career without understanding Dylan’s influence on it. However, that doesn’t mean John liked everything Dylan did.
In a famous 1971 interview, John discussed a huge range of topics, including several recent albums from 1960s rock gods. In the interview, he discussed Dylan’s most recent album. John was not a fan.
According to Ultimate Classic Rock, Dylan released the album Self-Portrait in 1970. It was an experiment – to say the least. First of all, it had a painting on its cover which looked downright amateurish. The tracklisting was mostly covers of other people’s songs, as well as a few remakes of Dylan tracks.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Each week, I'll present a new album for your consideration—a means for passing these uncertain times in musical bliss. For some readers, hearing about the latest selection might offer a chance reacquaintance with an old friend. For others, the series might provide an unexpected avenue for making a new one.
For years, the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club" reigned supreme, routinely topping "Best of" lists as the finest album ever recorded. In the decades since the release of the Beatles' masterworks on compact disc in 1987, when the group's American LPs were deleted in favor of their canonical UK counterparts, the "Revolver" album has slowly but surely gained momentum — and particularly among Stateside listeners, who had no idea what they'd been missing.
By the advent of the band's "Rubber Soul" album in 1965, the Beatles had begun self-consciously challenging themselves to create new sounds with each new LP. The extreme musical shifts from "Rubber Soul" to "Revolver" are a terrific case in point. In later years, George Harrison would come to describe the records as parts one and two of the same album. In this instance, the Quiet Beatle couldn't have been more wrong. The folkish, melodic sounds of "Rubber Soul" exist in sharp contrast with "Revolver"'s dramatic generic shifts and brash experimentation.
Source: Kenneth Womack/salon.com
Sir Paul McCartney, Dame Julie Walters and Ed Sheeran are just some of the stars who have contributed letters thanking the NHS for a special charity book.
The project, titled Dear NHS: 100 Stories To Say Thank You, is set to feature letters written by just over 100 celebrities, with Miranda Hart, Dermot O’Leary and David Tennant some of the final famous names added to the list.
All profits made from the book, which has been put together by This Is Going To Hurt author Adam Kay, will go to NHS Charities Together and The Lullaby Trust, which helps to support bereaved parents.
Kay, who previously worked as a former junior doctor, said he was ‘absolutely delighted to announce the final contributors to the book’.
In a statement, he said: ‘They’re brilliant people with brilliant stories – reminding us that whoever you are, you have relied on the NHS.’
Source: Isla Williams/metro.co.uk
In 1968, music buyers were still purchasing plenty of singles, with rock bands like The Doors, the Rolling Stones and The Beatles sharing the Top 40 airwaves with popular vocalists like Bobby Goldsboro and Judy Collins and soul hits from Otis Redding and O.C. Smith.
Here’s a recap of 1968’s #1 albums in the U.S., including many classic rock favorites, as determined each week by Record World. Thirteen different albums claimed the top spot this year; each had a story to tell. Two artists in particular, The Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel, dominated the charts.
Listings are in reverse order, saving the longest-running titles for the end. [Fellow chart nerds might note that several of the albums failed to reach #1 on rival trade magazine, Billboard.]
Source: Greg Brodsky/bestclassicbands.com
Ringo Starr has claimed that he ‘didn’t have the talent’ to finish recording a song, so he would go to friend, and fellow Beatles member, George Harrison for help.
The iconic musician, 79, reflected on his struggle to complete tracks in an interview with Rolling Stone radio on Thursday, when he made the surprising admission.
Looking back on his debut album Sentimental Journey for its 50th anniversary, the Beatles drummer revealed: ‘I used to always go to George to help me end the song.
Candid: Ringo Starr said on Thursday that he often asked fellow Beatles star George Harrison for advice when making music (pictured in 1967 with John Lennon and Paul McCartney)
‘I didn’t have the talent to end a song. With Back Off Boogaloo, I went to George and he helped me finish it.’
Source: Roxy Simons For Mailonline/readsector.com
The Beatles made a huge amount of music, with Paul McCartney and John Lennon working together to write fantastic songs. The Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership also created tension between the pair, which never seemed to entirely heal. However, it turns out another thing the musicians could not agree over is which is the best Beatles album.
Which is the best Beatles album?
Generally speaking, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is considered one of the greatest albums of all time.
In fact, McCartney has spoken out about how this is his favourite album, telling Bob Costas in a 1991 interview: “It wasn’t entirely my idea but to get us away from being ‘The Beatles’ I had this idea that we should pretend we’re this other group.”
Source: Jenny Desborough/express.co.uk
John Lennon was married to Cynthia, a young woman he met as the Beatles became big, with whom he had one child named Julian. After their marriage broke down, he married artist Yoko Ono and they had Sean. These two claim to have been treated very differently by their father.
Do Julian and Sean Lennon get on?
Brothers Julian and Sean Lennon are said to be pretty close.
When he was still alive, John opened up about his relationship with his sons but revealed it was very different.
Speaking about Julian, John told Playboy in 1980: “90 percent of the people on this planet, especially in the West, were born out of a bottle of whiskey on a Saturday night, and there was no intent to have children.”
Source: Jenny Desborough/express.co.uk
An unheard track by Beatles stars Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr is set to raise £20k at at Omega Auctions in Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside on Tuesday (pictured in 2014)
The cassette is now being sold by former Radio Luxembourg DJ Tony Prince.
It's expected to fetch up to £20,000 at Omega Auctions in Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside.
A quarter of the profits will be donated to the NHS Charities Together Covid-19 Urgent Appeal, while the rest will go to Prince's United DJs radio station project.
Source: Rebecca Davison/dailymail.co.uk
Paul McCartney took to Twitter to pay tribute to Astrid Kirchherr. See his messages below.
Astrid Kirchherr, the German photographer who shot some of the earliest and most striking images of The Beatles and helped shape their trend-setting visual style, has died at age 81.
She died Tuesday (May 12) in her native Hamburg, days before her 82nd birthday, her friend Kai-Uwe Franz told The Associated Press. Her death was first announced by Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn, who tweeted Friday that Kirchherr made an “immeasurable” contribution to the group and was “intelligent, inspirational, innovative, daring, artistic, awake, aware, beautiful, smart, loving and uplifting.” According to the German publication Die Zeit, she died of a “short, serious illness.”
Source: billboard.com
