Beatles News
The Beatles weren’t a group much given to squabbling, says Mark Lewisohn, who probably knows more about them than they knew about themselves. But then he plays me the tape of a meeting held 50 years ago this month – on 8 September 1969 – containing a disagreement that sheds new light on their breakup.
They’ve wrapped up the recording of Abbey Road, which would turn out to be their last studio album, and are awaiting its release in two weeks’ time. Ringo Starr is in hospital, undergoing tests for an intestinal complaint. In his absence, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison convene at Apple’s HQ in Savile Row. John has brought a portable tape recorder. He puts it on the table, switches it on and says: “Ringo – you can’t be here, but this is so you can hear what we’re discussing.”
What they talk about is the plan to make another album – and perhaps a single for release in time for Christmas, a commercial strategy going back to the earliest days of Beatlemania. “It’s a revelation,” Lewisohn says. “The books have always told us that they knew Abbey Road was their last album and they wanted to go out on an artistic high. But no – they’re discussing the next album. And you think that John is the one who wanted to break them up but, when you hear this, he isn’t. Doesn’t that rewrite pretty much everything we thought we knew?”
Source: Richard Williams/theguardian.com
In the penultimate song on the Beatles’ album Abbey Road, the Fab Four sing “And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make.” The song was called “The End” and although Let It Be was released later, the fact is that Abbey Road was the last album the band recorded and, as Beatles lore has told us for the past five decades, it was consciously designed to be the last Beatles album ever.Except, maybe it wasn’t? A historian has unearthed a lost interview tape featuring a conversation that seems to indicate that the Beatles were at one point considering recording an album to be released after both Let It Be and Abbey Road. It’s a kooky, alternate 1970s fever dream, that might have almost happened. On Wednesday, the Guardian published a story in which music historian Mark Lewisohn says a long-forgotten recording of Beatles chatter proves John Lennon and Paul McCartney were kicking around the idea of another album beyond Abbey Road.
Source: Ryan Britt/yahoo.com
As British Prime Minister Boris Johnson struggles to remove Britain from the European Union -- which Brits voted for in June 2016 -- it's interesting to note that the famous Brit and Beatles drummer Ringo Starr strongly supports Brexit because the people voted for it, he says, and "it's a great move" to be "in control of your own country."
In a BBC Newsnight interview from 2017, which resurfaced on social media this week, Starr is asked why he supports Brexit.
“The people voted and, you know, they have to get on with it," said Starr. "Suddenly it’s like, ‘oh well, we don’t like that vote.'"
"What do you mean you don’t like that vote?" he said. "You had the vote, this is what won, let’s get on with it."
The BBC then asked Starr, who now lives in the United States, whether he would have voted for Brext it in 2016.
Starr answered, "I would have voted for Brexit. Yeah, I would have voted to get out. But don’t tell Bob Geldof!”
Bob Geldof, born in Ireland, is a left-wing activist and musician, most famous for starring in the 1982 film "Pink Floyd -- The Wall." Geldof thinks the arts will suffer if Britain leaves the European Union.
Source: Michael W. Chapman/cnsnews.com
While The Beatles were laid-back about a lot of things, they kept their recording sessions off-limits to outsiders for most of the ’60s. That’s why the arrival of Yoko Ono came as such a shock to any band member not named John Lennon.
However, by 1968, the Fab Four had bigger problems than the occasional comment from Yoko. During the White Album sessions, Paul McCartney worked by himself so frequently that the others wondered if they were in a band together.
Meanwhile, Ringo got so fed up that summer he walked out on the group while recording “Back in the U.S.S.R.” And, during all the turbulence, just about everyone was ignoring a brilliant song George Harrison had written for the record.
That track, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” eventually got recorded with a guitar solo by Eric Clapton. But it was so small feat for George to convince a nervous Clapton to join him and the Beatles at Abbey Road studios.
Source: cheatsheet.com
If ever there was a moment for someone to wish to be the proverbial fly on the wall, it would no doubt have been at about 10 p.m. in Los Angeles on August 27, 1965 — when, in the midst of their North America tour, The Beatles paid a visit on Elvis Presley.
Elvis, of course, had been one of the principal rock ‘n’ rollers to have inspired The Beatles in the first place so, for them, it was quite the honor. It’s unknown what the King felt in regards to the Fab Four, although rumors were that he admired their talent. At the same time, there was no doubt that their impact on music had truly shaken things up for him, and what had been considered hip had somehow become a little less so in comparison. Things weren’t helped by the fact that Elvis’ career had fallen into a rut of sorts as epitomized by a string of less-than-impressive films with just as lackluster soundtracks — though things would decidedly turn around in 1968 when Elvis, never looking or sounding better, launched his much-heralded comeback tour).
Source: closerweekly.com
Acclaimed Beatles historian, Kenneth Womack, is on the verge of releasing what has been described as his “most definitive account yet” in the exploration of the writing, recording, mixing, and reception of Abbey Road.
In his new book, ‘Solid State’ which details ‘The Story of “Abbey Road” and the End of the Beatles’, Womack steps back in time to February 1969 when the Beatles began working on what became their final album together. Abbey Road, the group’s 11th studio album, introduced a number of new techniques and technologies to develop the band’s style but also marked the final time in which all four members worked together in the studio.
In his book, Womack focuses on the relationships between John, Paul, George, Ringo, and producer George Martin and his team of engineers as clear fractions begin to develop. Here, in this exclusive extract handed over exclusively to Far Out Magazine, Womack details a significant moment in which guitarist George Harrison made his biggest songwriting breakthrough and, in the process, shaking up the established band dynamics.
Source: Lee Thomas-Mason/faroutmagazine.co.uk
If you asked someone who played lead guitar in The Beatles, the simple answer would be George Harrison. However, that didn’t mean John Lennon (the rhythm guitarist) wouldn’t take a solo now and then. John had done so in the early days on tracks like “Long Tall Sally” and “You Can’t Do That.”
By the time the Fab Four got to the White Album sessions (1968), the every-man-for-himself situation meant more solos for John. On that double album, you’ll find him taking the lead on “Yer Blues,” “Happiness Is a Warm Gun,” and even Paul McCartney’s “Honey Pie.”
Over the years, only a handful of tracks with guitar solos by John went out on Beatles singles, and they were usually B sides. That happened in the White Album era as well, when Paul’s “Hey Jude” had the heavy version of “Revolution” (with a solo by John) on the B side.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Paul McCartney has responded to reports that he could headline Glastonbury next year – and it’s looking pretty positive.
The Beatles icon has been tipped for a headline slot as the iconic festival celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2020. He’s also the bookies favourite to take top billing – alongside the likes of Fleetwood Mac, Foals and Elton John.
Appearing on Zoe Ball’s BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show this morning (September 5), McCartney did little to quell the speculation when asked if a Pyramid Stage appearance was in order.
“I mean people are saying that it would be good if I did it, so I’m starting to think about whether I can or whether it would be a good thing. My kids are saying ‘Dad we’ve got to talk about Glastonbury’ and I think I know what they mean,” he said.
“So they go every year, like a lot of people these days, and it is a great festival and we played there quite a long time ago so, maybe it is time to go back, I don’t know, I’d have to put a few things in place and try and do that but it’s starting to become some sort of remote possibility. (ZB: fingers crossed) I mean it’s definitely not fixed yet but people are starting to talk about it.”
Source: Nick Reilly /nme.com
Sir Paul McCartney may be a world-famous rock star, but to his grandchildren he is known as the ‘Grandude’.
The affectionate term birthed the idea behind the former Beatles star first children’s book, out today.
‘Hey Grandude’, a play on the title of The Beatles’ famous song ‘Hey Jude’, is based on McCartney’s own experiences of being a grandfather.
READ MORE: Stella McCartney doesn’t always clean her clothes
The 77-year-old said the idea for his book was inspired by his grandchildren’s nickname for him.
“One of my grandkids - who used to call me Grandad - just happened one day to say ‘Grandude’ and it kind of stuck,” he said in an interview with The Times. “So the other kids started calling me ‘Grandude.’”
Source: Jessica Morgan/news.yahoo.com
From his days as a teenager in Liverpool, John Lennon was a rock ‘n’ roller at heart. And, after over a decade with The Beatles, he hadn’t really changed. Thinking of his favorite songs with the Fab Four, John put “Come Together,” the rocking track that opened Abbey Road, at the top of his list.
Other than “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” and the other songs that made up the first side of that album, John didn’t think too highly of Abbey Road. His chief complaint was “that sort of pop opera” that closed out the record. (John flatly called the medley “junk.”)
Looking back on his career with The Beatles a few years after the breakup, John spoke of what he loved about the band. Unlike his bandmates (as well as legions of fans and critics), John didn’t point to Sgt. Pepper’s or Abbey Road as the band’s high points.
For him, the rawer music on the self-titled, double-album release of 1968 — later known as The White Album — represented the band at its best.
Source: cheatsheet.com
