Beatles News
The Beatles and The Rolling Stones are two of the greatest rock bands in music history. Both were British boy bands who rose to fame in the 1960s. Both have songs fans know by heart and both are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Luckily, we don’t have to choose between them. We can have both. But if we did, Paul McCartney is a little bit biased.
McCartney called into The Howard Stern Show on April 14 from his home in England where he’s staying with family. When Stern started telling him The Beatles were better than The Rolling Stones, McCartney couldn’t help but agree.
“The Stones are a fantastic group,” McCartney said. “I go see them every time they come out because they’re a great, great band. Mick can really do it, the singing and the moves and everything. Keith and now Ronnie and Charlie, they’re great. They really are great. So I love them.”
Source: Cheatsheet
We’re dipping into the Far Out Magazine vault to revisit George Harrison’s final interview look and performance of the song, ‘All Things Must Pass’ before The Beatle’s sad passing in 2001.
The interview with John Fugelsang took place in 1997 and was just another piece of television at the time. Sadly, Harrison’s passing from throat cancer just a few years later would mean this would be his last public interview and performance.
In the nineties, following the unprecedented success of MTV there came around a television channel which, instead of bringing you all new music all the time like the aforementioned acid-coloured behemoth, took time to sit back and reflect on musical milestones gone by. The channel was VH1.
On it they would host illustrious guests of the classic rock era such as Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend and Eric Clapton and often Fugelsang would allow them space to chat about new projects, reflect on old ones and play some tunes. He later said of the gig that with it he had the opportunity to host “the most incredible all-star concerts that nobody would watch.”
Source: Jack Whatley/faroutmagazine.co.uk
The cover of the Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is iconic. No other image has perfectly captured the aesthetics of psychedelic art. Part of the cover’s appeal is the numerous famous faces on it.
Celebrities on the cover range from Bob Dylan to Lewis Carroll. The cover depicts 65 individuals in total – real and fictional. Oddly enough, only a few of the faces on the cover are women. Why is this?
What was the idea behind the famous Sgt. Pepper cover? Well, the faces on the cover were supposed to be the Beatles’ heroes. Jann Haworth, one of the designers of the cover, said the selection process was “was completely open-ended.” Surprisingly, the Beatles didn’t choose enough people to be on the cover to create a whole crowd.
Source: cheatsheet.com
ifty years ago, in April, The Beatles broke up. But they remained so relevant that even the coronavirus crisis is borrowing from it. Their fun romantic song I Wanna Hold Your Hand has now been remastered to I Gotta Wash My Hands.
Another song that has acquired a new dimension altogether now is Here Comes the Sun, penned by George Harrison for a change, an oft-overlooked member of the band. A US hospital plays the song every time a patient recovers from coronavirus.
New Yorkers have been singing The Beatles’ songs during the lockdown.
So, how does a band that was together only for seven years still remain a glue between people and generations, even during a pandemic?
Source: Tuhin A. Sinha /theprint.in
At the beginning of 2019, Apple Corps Ltd and WingNut Films Ltd announced a new Beatles documentary, which would be based on around 55 hours of previously unreleased studio footage from the band’s 1969 “Get Back” and Let It Be sessions. Over the following months, Beatles fans have eagerly speculated about the film, which is being helmed by the Academy Award-winning director Sir Peter Jackson. Now, over a year later, more information has become available. As we await its premiere (currently slated for a September 2020 release via Disney), here’s what we know so far about The Beatles: Get Back.
It was made with the full co-operation of the band
Both Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have sung the film’s praises, while John Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono Lennon, and George Harrison’s widow, Olivia Harrison, have also offered their full support of the project.
Source: Sophie Smith/udiscovermusic.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.
Classic rock has marked one 50th anniversary after another in recent years. When it comes to the Beatles, the bandmates' post-break-up solo work in 1970 is the most poignant of the bunch, especially when it comes to George Harrison. Having languished in the shadows of the world-breaking Lennon-McCartney songwriting juggernaut for nigh on a decade, the Beatles' lead guitarist was poised for a breakout release to define his own considerable talents apart from the group. As Harrison later recalled, "That was the great thing about [the Beatles] splitting up: to be able to go off and make my own record. . . . And also to be able to record with all these new people, which was like a breath of fresh air."
Source: salon.com
How old is Paul McCartney?
Paul McCartney was born in Liverpool on June 14, 1942 and is 77-years-old.
His mother, Mary, was a nurse, his father, James, a firefighter and Paul had a little brother called Michael and a stepsister, Ruth.
The singer, songwriter and producer found worldwide success as a vocalist and bassist for The Beatles and his songwriting collaboration with John Lennon is widely acknowledged as the most successful in musical history.
What are Paul McCartney's most famous songs?
During his songwriting partnership with John Lennon, from October 1962 to May 1970, Paul and John published 180 joint songs, which became the majority of The Beatles' catalogue of work.
Source: Smooth Radio
In 1973 Paul McCartney was beginning to truly forge his solo career. The Beatles were at the back of his mind and his path to solo stardom was laid out in front of him. But that didn’t mean the Fab Four weren’t still looming over everything he did.
One such presence was that of Sir Lew Grade, owner of the ATV television Network and, by extension, the Beatles’ Northern Songs catalogue. The singer had been crediting his wife Linda as his co-writer since 1971 and Grade was not happy about the inclusion.
Sir Lew Grade and Paul McCartney were deeply embroiled in a legal battle over the issue. Linda’s inclusion as the second composer of the song meant that Grade’s company were missing out on the royalties that would otherwise be due to them. Grade cited Linda’s lack of professional experience as a songwriter or musician as proof of McCartney’s clever switch to keep the PRS cheques in the family.
Source: faroutmagazine.co.uk
It was 50 years ago today that Paul McCartney’s solo debut album was released, taking some of the shine off the impending release of The Beatles’ final album Let It Be. The previous week McCartney had previewed a promotional copy of McCartney containing a press release interpreted by the media as McCartney announcing that The Beatles were no more. The split had been brewing for years and would become official in due course, although, at the time, McCartney took the flak and was typecast as the man who broke up the beloved Fab Four. Accordingly, McCartney was roundly slated by the critics.
The five decades since have witnessed over 60 studio albums from the four solo Beatles and to say that they are a bit of a mixed bag is an understatement. A handful have attained classic status, however, so here is my choice of the 10 best solo Beatles albums.
Source: bioreports.net
The day John Lennon was murdered, “(Just Like) Starting Over” was on a steady climb up the Billboard charts. That day, “Starting Over,” the last single that Lennon would release during his lifetime, was at #6 and rising. There’s no reason to think it wouldn’t have eventually hit #1. As the first John Lennon single in five years, “(Just Like) Starting Over” certainly had public curiosity working for it. It’s a modest shrug of a song, but plenty of modestly shrugging Paul McCartney songs had ascended to the top of the charts after the Beatles’ breakup.
To plenty of people, “(Just Like) Starting Over” probably sounded like a pleasantly breezy love song from a guy whose voice they knew and loved. But then Mark David Chapman pumped four bullets into Lennon’s back, inflicting a generational trauma and altering the course of popular music. “(Just Like) Starting Over” probably sounded pretty different after that.
Source: Tom Breihan/stereogum.com
