Beatles News
Stella McCartney founded her eponymous brand in 2001. She submitted a self portrait and was interviewed for Vogue’s June/July portfolio. Her conversation with Hamish Bowles has been condensed and edited.
That’s my horse, Summer—I think there’s a level of emotional support from animals right now. It’s the place where I feel most calm and inspired when I’m riding my horse: it’s a precious, rare moment, and I’ve been able to ride more the last couple of weeks than I ever normally get to ride, so that’s my moment where I find my peace and calm. There’s so much noise in my daily life, so I don’t always see with clarity why I do what I do, not with the intensity that I do right now.
As a working parent I’ve always wanted to just be living in the country with my kids and my horse and just being a mom and everything that involves, and cooking … I’m so blessed.
Source: Hamish Bowles/vogue.com
Forty-nine years ago this month, John Lennon began piecing together the musical collection that would become his second solo studio album. The album was titled after a song that he suspected was too fanciful to become popular (Yoko Ono had to convince John that he had a hit on his hands). “Imagine” would become the best selling single of John Lennon’s astronomical and far too short career.
The honors earned by this simple three-minute tune are too many to list in this space; as is the catalogue of other performers, stars to street buskers, who have covered the song. And despite the many who have parodied it - and notwithstanding those who have performed it with a galling lack of social awareness during this pandemic (I’m looking at you Gal Gadot) — “Imagine” has remained an inspiration for five decades.
I listen to Lennon’s opus routinely, much to the chagrin of some of my friends who criticize “Imagine” for being unrealistic, too new age, or utopian. That, and it’s “insufficiently Christian” I’ve been repeatedly told. Whatever. It remains an immensely powerful song that speaks to our “better angels” to quote Shakespeare, another great British wordsmith. It invites us conceptualize a future that is appreciably better than the present.
Source: The Detroit News
Though John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote dozens of songs together in in their Beatles years, they rarely disagreed about which person contributed most to a particular song. And their post-Beatles interviews bear that out.
In the case of “Eleanor Rigby,” we have one song that John remembered writing more of than he likely did. (The recollections of Beatles associates back up Paul’s claims to the lion’s share of the composition.)
With “In My Life,” we have an example of Paul recalling writing a bigger piece of the composition than John believed was accurate. But these examples came in the Rubber Soul (1965) era and later. In the earliest days, when they still shared lead vocals, John and Paul wrote more closely together.
Source: cheatsheet.com
John Lennon and Paul McCartney didn’t always see eye-to-eye when it came to the creative process or the future of The Beatles but their songwriting partnership is almost unparalleled. The Fab Four remain among the greatest British bands in history and the impact of their musical legacy is so vast it’s almost impossible to gauge. There were, however, some bumps in the road along the way.
Lennon previously opened up about the challenge of their diverging lifestyles at the height of The Beatles’ success.
The band took off in the early 1960s and didn’t look back for almost a decade.
After they cracked America in 1964, heralding the start of the British Invasion, Beatlemania had gone global.
Source: Minnie Wright/express.co.uk
On the last weekend of September in 1963, 10-year-old Alan Crawford wasn’t really clued into what not-yet-famous-but-soon-to-be rock star was visiting his rural stomping grounds of southern Illinois.
Why should he have been?
The big news for him that Sunday –- Sept. 29 – was the final game of the Major League baseball season and, more significantly, the final game in the career of the great Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals. That region of the country is Cardinals territory, and Crawford, who lived on a farm near Eldorado (pronounced “el-do-RAY-doh”) at the time, was a big Redbirds fan.
So big that going on six decades later, when we spoke on the phone the other day, he recounted how he would have been listening to the game on the radio that afternoon: “Cardinals won, 3-2, in the bottom of the 14th when Dal Maxvill, who was like a .200 lifetime hitter, hit a double to knock in Ernie Broglio.”
Source: BILL LOHMANN Richmond Times-Dispatch
George Harrison’s role in The Beatles was a simple one to begin with. He was the unique guitarist who stood behind the principal songwriters of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, ready to harmonise at the drop of a hat. But by 1969 things had changed.
Harrison had found his musical chops and was now keen to enact his songwriting skill on the Fab Four’s records. It was not met with enthusiasm from John and Paul. It would lead to Harrison temporarily quitting the band and after storming out of the Get Back sessions. Harrison would prove his detractors wrong and write one of the best tracks in the band’s extensive back catalogue.
George Harrison had begun to work out his musical style by the turn of 1969. Having spent much of the latter part of the previous year with Bob Dylan and The Band, working on tracks like ‘I’d Have You Anytime’, and with his work on The Beatles so widely loved, Harrison had hope for the future of the Fab Four.
Source: Jack Whatley/faroutmagazine.co.uk
The Beatles have influenced numerous artists, particularly other British rock bands. It’s hard to imagine the Electric Light Orchestra or Oasis existing without them. Their influence also exerts itself in unexpected ways. Queen’s music sounds very different from the Fab Four’s, but Queen’s music was nevertheless influenced by John Lennon and company.
Brian May opened up about the Fab Four’s influence on his band. May knew there was something magical about the band from the first time he heard one of their early hits. May also said the White Album helped Queen find their musical direction.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Mick Jagger has responded to Paul McCartney’s recent comments that the Beatles were “better” than the Rolling Stones. McCartney’s initial statement came during an April 14 conversation on Howard Stern's radio show. When the host asserted that the Beatles were superior to the Stones, McCartney agreed, opining that his band had a more varied sound.
“[The Stones] are rooted in the blues. When they are writing stuff, it has to do with the blues. Whereas, we had a little more influences,” McCartney explained. “There’s a lot of differences, and I love the Stones, but I’m with you. The Beatles were better.”
“That’s so funny. He’s a sweetheart. There’s obviously no competition,” Jagger said when asked for his response by Zane Lowe of Apple Music. “The big difference, though, is and sort of slightly seriously, is that the Rolling Stones is a big concert band in other decades and other areas when the Beatles never even did an arena tour, Madison Square Garden with a decent sound system. They broke up before that business started, the touring business for real.”
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
If a stay at home order has you feeling cramped in your living situation, at least you're not packed into a submarine.
On Saturday, The Beatles' YouTube channel is hosting a sing-along watch party for the 1968 animated movie, Yellow Submarine. Viewers of the psychedelic film can follow the lyrics to songs like All You Need Is Love and Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds featured in the movie.
"For those of you missing singing together, I've got good news," Beatle Ringo Starr said in a video via Twitter on Wednesday.
Source: Erin Carson
We’ve talked extensively about the Beatles and their music. But, we often seem to forget that they were eye-candies too. After all, that’s one of the reasons why the girls were mad for them which gave us the Beatlemania! But, it seems that some have a special eye on George Harrison. He was quite the underrated Beatle, that’s for sure. But many believe that he was the hottest of the Beatles (If Paul and Ringo are reading this, please forgive me I love you just as much). So, let’s take a look at the many shades of George Harrison!
For this article, we’ll just look at George at the different stages of his life. Needless to say, he was a heart-throb in all of them.
Source: Ali Arslan Ahmed/dankanator.com
