Beatles News
Drummer Pete Best is explaining, not for the first time, what it was like for him that late summer’s day in 1962 when he was sacked suddenly from The Beatles, a beat combo from Liverpool who were about to become the biggest band the world had ever seen.
Best recalls an uncomfortable-looking band manager Brian Epstein explaining that other band members John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison didn’t think his drumming was up to scratch, and that they were replacing Best – who’d been with them for two years through those formative, frenetic Hamburg gigging days – with Ringo Starr.
“We were rockers, we were little hardies, we could handle ourselves. But when I got back home and I told my mother what happened, behind the sanctuary of the front door, I cried like a baby,” he recalls.
Source: irishtimes.com
From Al Jolson’s black-faced tearjerker “Mammy” to the Rolling Stones’ “Have You Seen Your Mother Baby, Standing in the Shadows” (which portrayed a struggling unwed mother confronted by the looming ghost of her own mother), songs about moms have often spelled trouble.
Nothing was more outrageous than The Doors’ oedipal opus, “The End,” in which an unhinged Jim Morrison screamed, “Father, I want to kill you, Mother… I want to…” Hoping to dodge an inevitable storm of controversy Elektra Records understandably substituted Jim’s “f-ck you” for an indecipherable feral groan from Morrison that teemed with self-loathing.
Lennon later confessed to having overwhelming oedipal desires towards his mother, Julia, after he accidentally brushed his hand against her breast as the two enjoyed an afternoon nap together.
Even naming one’s band The Mothers was fraught with issues, as the mad maestro Frank Zappa discovered. Irked by the implications of the group’s questionable moniker, Verve Records demanded the Mothers change their name, which led to Frank’s playful bastardization of Plato’s quote, “Necessity is the mother of invention” and called his band The Mothers of Invention. Thus, any questionable notions their original name might have conjured were instantly quashed.
Source: John Kruth/americansongwriter.com
Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David mixed together sweet and sour the way the Beatles did.
In a telling scene set on an airplane in Seinfeld, Jerry lucks into a seat next to a gorgeous model in first class and revels in the pampering. “More anything? More everything!” he exclaims to a flight attendant in “The Airport” (season four, episode twelve). An equally revealing moment about Larry David comes in the opening minutes of season ten of Curb Your Enthusiasm, when David, walking down the street, casually grabs a selfie stick from a tourist, breaks it over his knee, and continues his stroll.
As Curb Your Enthusiasm wraps up its typically fraught and hilarious tenth season with its 100th episode Sunday night, while Seinfeld’s more relaxed Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee is in limbo after eleven seasons, we may not see much in the way of new television from these two comedy geniuses for a while, though Seinfeld has a book of comic musings coming out in October, his first since 1993. While we await whatever David and Seinfeld do next, let’s savor their creations like a smooth cup of brew from Latte Larry’s.
Source: nationalreview.com
As part of the Concert for George in 2002, Paul McCartney led an all-star band in a touching rendition of his Beatles bandmate George Harrison’s iconic hit ‘All Things Must Pass’. The song is sung in memory of Harrison a year after his passing and its message still rings true today.
The Concert for George was held at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 29 November as a fitting memorial to the mercurial songwriting genius and former Beatle, George Harrison, on the first anniversary of his death. The event was organised by Harrison’s widow, Olivia, and his son, Dhani, and was a global musical event, expertly guided by Eric Clapton. The profits from the event went to the Material World Charitable Foundation, an organisation founded by Harrison.
It welcomed a host of incredible guests for the evening, opened by Anoushka Shankar, Ravi Shankar’s daughter, the stars on show were brighter than ever. It even saw a Monty Python comedy break introduce Academy Award-winner Tom Hanks singing ‘The Lumberjack Song’—but the real party began when ‘George’s Band’ rolled into town.
Source: faroutmagazine.co.uk
Peter Jackson’s Fab Four documentary, Beatles: Get Back, will hit theaters 4 September.
The documentary film will focus on the Beatles’ final year together, cut from 55 hours worth of footage filmed back in 1969, when the band were recording what would become the seminal record, Let It Be. It will feature never-before-seen footage, including a behind-the-scenes look at the Beatles’ iconic ’69 rooftop gig.
The film is said to provide a cheerful counter-narrative to the original Let It Be film, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. While the latter had a gloomy undertone and exposed many conflicts and arguments between the band members experienced, the upcoming film will apparently show the Beatles joking around and having a good time with each other.
In a statement about the film, Paul McCartney said: “I am really happy that Peter has delved into our archives to make a film that shows the truth about The Beatles recording together. The friendship and love between us comes over and reminds me of what a crazily beautiful time we had.”
Source; Terence Stanley/guitar.com
It's perhaps no surprise that America's "Sister Golden Hair" shares a Beatlesque guitar line, considering the presence of producer George Martin. But the connection actually runs deeper.
"I very openly tip my hat there to 'My Sweet Lord,'" composer Gerry Beckley told Songfacts in 2016. "I was such a fan of all the Beatles, but we knew George [Harrison] quite well and I just thought that was such a wonderful intro."
Martin brought a suitably deft production style to "Sister Golden Hair," which was released to radio on March 19, 1975. Elsewhere, a number of his artful touches bolster Hearts, the second in a run of albums with America that expanded their elemental style. Martin also brought engineer Geoff Emerick, a key figure in the Beatles' late-period studio renaissance.
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
Raquel Welch was one of the many big names — or future big names — to appear in the wacky British satire The Magic Christian. In the black comedy, Ringo Starr plays a former homeless derelict who is adopted but the richest man in the world, played by Peter Sellers. Taking aim at greed and capitalism, the film sees the wealthy Sir Grand test the limit people will go to for money in a bizarre, offbeat caper aboard a luxury liner, The Magic Christian.
The episodic movie features the likes of John Cleese and Graham Clapham, who would go on to form Monty Python, as well as the likes of Spike Milligan and Richard Attenborough.
Welch also has a small part as the villainous Priestess of the Whip.
As things start to take a turn for the worse aboard The Magic Christian, guests begin to attempt to abandon ship.
Source: Minnie Wright/express.co.uk
HERE WE GO AGAIN....
The battle between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones has been going on ever since they first crossed paths on the charts almost 50 years ago. The argument at the time, and one that still persists, was that the Beatles were a pop group and the Stones were a rock band: the boys next next door vs. the bad boys of rock. But it's not that clear cut, and never has been. So who's better? We asked two of our writers to choose side and make their arguments. Then we give you the final word. Here goes ...
These bands have more in common than their respective critics acknowledge: They're both British, they both grew up with American rock 'n' roll records that made up their early repertoires and they both shaped 20th-century music as we know it. But only one group continued to cut new paths at every step: the Beatles.
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
During the sixties, The Beatles got to know some journalists pretty well. One of them was Daily Mirror showbiz reporter Don Short, who befriended the Fab Four. Now as he publishes his memoir The Beatles and Beyond, he has shared some fascinating stories from his time with the band.
This included admitting that he tipped off John Lennon and Yoko Ono, having heard from a contact at Scotland Yard they were going to be raided for drugs.
The incident took place in September 1968 and Short “knew it was the wrong thing to do” but was loyal to Lennon as a friend so let him know.
John and Yoko were living in a house in Central London that had previously been occupied by Jimi Hendrix.
Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk
THE BBC banned three Beatles songs during their musical career - but the broadcasters were especially outraged with the hit ‘I Am The Walrus'.
John Lennon . ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’ was also banned for drug references too as a form of censorship by the broadcasting house. JUST IN: The BBC banned multiple songs by The Beatles – but one particularly annoyed the band (Image: GETTY) George Harrison was particularly frustrated by the decision to ban 'I Am The Walrus' (Image: GETTY) ‘I Am The Walrus’ suffered the same fate that year, as their two other songs, and was banned by the BBC. The corporation did not like the lyrics “Crabalocker fishwife, pornographic priestess” and “Boy, you've been a naughty girl you let your knickers down." In that era, Mentalfloss claimed that the word “knickers” and the “obvious reference to sex” was “all too much for the airways” in 1967. The Beatles were allegedly outraged by the decision not to allow their songs to be broadcast on the BBC – especially George Harrison who spoke out in an interview. DON'T MISS Read more: Daily Express.
Source: headtopics.com
