Beatles News
The Beatles‘ 1968 track ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’ has been declared the most perfect pop song ever written by researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Germany.
The scientists analysed 80,000 different chord progressions from 700 songs recorded between 1958 and 1991, using machine learning to give a score to each chord based on how “surprising” it was compared to the chord preceding it.
Chord sequences from 30 of the songs were then played to 39 volunteers, stripped of lyrics and melody to make the source track unrecognisable. The volunteers were asked to rate how enjoyable they felt each chord to be.
Source: nme.com
Paul McCartney remembered Robert Freeman as “imaginative and a true original thinker” in a tribute to the late photographer who shot some of the Beatles’ most memorable album covers.
Freeman’s photos of the Beatles ended up the covers of albums like With the Beatles, Rubber Soul, Help! and Beatles for Sale. In his tribute, McCartney recalled the shoot for With the Beatles, which he noted always had the aesthetic of “a carefully arranged studio shot” considering the way the band is so meticulously lit.
“In fact it was taken quite quickly by Robert in the corridor of a hotel we were staying in where natural light came from the windows at the end of the corridor,” McCartney remembered. “I think it took no more than half an hour to accomplish.”
McCartney also recalled how Freeman accidentally created the stretched effect on the Rubber Soul cover. To give the band a sense of what their covers would look like, Freeman regularly projected photos onto a piece of cardboard cut into the size of an LP sleeve. During the viewing session for the Rubber Soul photos, the picture fell backwards a bit in the slide projector, altering its dimensions.
Source: Rolling Stone
When Eric Clapton heard John Lennon suggested bringing him into The Beatles, Clapton weighed the pros and cons of such an unlikely gig. On the one hand, Clapton thought, it would be amazing to be part of such a close-knit family — one with unbounded artistic potential.
But on the other hand, he saw how familiarity had bred contempt among members of the Fab Four. “The cruelty and the viciousness were unparalleled,” Clapton said in Living in the Material World.
If you’ve ever heard any stories of the White Album sessions, you know what Clapton meant. Whether you know about Ringo’s walkout or Paul McCartney lashing out at producer George Martin, it’s not difficult to see why Paul called it “the tension album.”
Indeed, one of the wildest scenes of all came while the band was working through the umpteenth take of Paul’s “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.” After leaving the studio in disgust, John returned a few hours talking about how wasted he’d gotten in the interim.
Source: cheatsheet.com
When Joe Pesci dropped out of the acting game in the late ’90s, word was he’d be playing more golf and might get back to his first career, music. Before making his name as an actor in Martin Scorsese movies, Pesci played guitar and sang in bands around New Jersey and New York.
In fact, Pesci played in a band called Joey Dee and the Starliters that later featured a guy named Jimi Hendrix on guitar. But Pesci had already made his mark on music history when he introduced Frankie Valli to Bob Gaudio, basically launching the Four Seasons in 1959.
Now, decades after Pesci released the absurd Vincent LaGuardia Gambini Sings Just For You (1998), he has a new record coming out in time for the arrival of The Irishman on Netflix. And it includes not one but two duets with Adam Levine of Maroon 5.
Pesci’s latest features mostly jazz standards, which is a slight departure from his first record, 1968’s Little Joe Sure Can Sing! That obscure album went out with three covers of Beatles songs.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Most Beatles fans have heard stories about the band’s problems by the time they were recording The White Album (1968). By then, John Lennon and Paul McCartney had gotten in each other’s faces; Yoko Ono had become a fixture in the studio; and George Harrison had become disenchanted.
As for Ringo Starr, the Beatles’ drummer was the first to walk out on the band, so it’s clear the vibe wasn’t working for him, either. After they finished The White Album, the Fab Four decided they would try to get back to basics with a live feel in their music and plans to perform again.
But that plan didn’t work, either. George described those early Let It Be sessions (January ’69) as more miserable than the White Album days. Though the mood improved when George invited Billy Preston to play on the record, nothing could keep The Beatles going at that point.
All was not lost, however. Right after the band announced its break up (in April ’70), George spoke as if he saw the group making music together in the future. However, he said he couldn’t keep dealing with the big problems he had while being a Beatle.
Source: cheatsheet.com
How versatile was Paul McCartney as a songwriter? Just check his late Beatles songs. After shooting for his “nastiest, sweatiest” work with 1968’s “Helter Skelter,” Paul was tinkling the ivories playing “The Long and Winding Road” while filming Let It Be in January ’69.
But that wouldn’t surprise anyone who knew what Paul listened to in the ’60s. When he wrote “Good Day Sunshine” (’66), he wanted to match the energy The Lovin’ Spoonful brought to “Daydream.” On Sgt. Pepper’s (’67), he wanted to top what The Beach Boys had achieved with Pet Sounds.
By “Helter Skelter,” he was looking to outdo The Who, one of the heaviest early rock acts. With “The Long and Winding Road,” which became the Fab Four’s last No. 1 hit in America, Paul had one of the greatest soul singers in mind.
Source: cheatsheet.com
It's easy to imagine that Ringo Starr's closet is full of shoe boxes containing old mementos, like the photographs that populate Another Day In The Life, his newest book. The reality is a bit different though.
"If I'm in them, I just lift them off the internet," he says. "Others are what I do on tour when I'm hanging out."
In addition to playing drums, Ringo likes taking photos and making art. He puts out these books — a mix of coffee table decor and memoir — for charity, and they all have a scrapbook feeling, with funny notes in the margins. Another Day In The Life holds over 500 photographs, a combination of images shot by Ringo and bits pulled from The Beatles' archives.
Ringo spoke to NPR's Rachel Martin about his new book, including returning to The Plaza Hotel 50 years after The Beatles' first visit, smoking cigars with George Harrison at the film premiere of A Hard Day's Night and the story behind the Abbey Road album cover. Hear their conversation at the audio link.
Source: Rachel Martin
In 1969 when Abbey Road by The Beatles was released I was dating Ann Burgess. She was my first serious girlfriend in London. It had taken me two years to get over the girl I’d been seeing back home in Ireland.
I mean the reality was, if I’m being absolutely truthful, the girl in Ireland was a girl who was a friend, rather than a girlfriend. She might even have been one of the reasons I left my home in Ireland when I’d just turned 17 in 1967. The other main reason would definitely have been my love for The Beatles, but that’s another story altogether. At the same time it brings us back nicely to the Abbey Road album. Abbey Road was released on Friday, September 26th, 1969 and I (quite literally) rushed out on release day to buy it. I was living in Wimbledon in south London at the time and bought it in Goodness Records up on Wimbledon Bridge and it would have cost me £1, 12 shillings and 6 pence. This would have been about a sixth of my weekly wage.
Source: irishtimes.com
The Beatles are often cited as the greatest band of all time. As such, the members of the group took lots of inspiration from other artists ranging from Victorian novelist Lewis Carroll to Nigerian congo player Jimmy Scott. Among the band’s many influences were the films of Walt Disney. Here’s how Disney classics inspired the Beatles.
Walt Disney inspired a Beatles hit
Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs gave the world many iconic songs including “Heigh-Ho” and “Sunday My Prince Will Come.” It was one of the lesser-known songs on the soundtrack, however, that inspired a Beatles hit. The Beatles’ debut studio album Please Please Me includes a smooth ballad called “Do You Want to Know a Secret?” that was inspired by the first song in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: “I’m Wishing.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
With Ringo Starr’s announcement of a 2020 All Starr Band tour — which includes three Florida dates — the former Beatle is almost as busy as he was in the early 1970s.
Starr, 79, has tour dates on June 26 at St. Augustine Amphitheatre, June 27 at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood and June 28 at Eckerd Hall in Clearwater.
The tour opens May 29 in Ontario, Canada, and includes dates in New York, New Hampshire, Boston and Atlanta.
Presale tickets for the Florida dates and several others go on sale at 10 a.m. Wednesday through Ticketmaster.
Why should you consider seeing Starr in 2020? He’s turning 80 on July 7. Even with a little help from his friends, the road can’t go on forever. He’s not Tony Bennett, after all.
Source: miamiherald.com
