Beatles News
By early 1969, The Beatles had more than their share of problems. In the Let It Be documentary, viewers see some of these issues play out in front of the cameras. But the band still had a lot left in the tank.
When the Fab Four plays on the roof of Apple studios at the end of the film, you see Paul McCartney and John Lennon get swept up in the performance. John seems particularly exuberant during the set, which included his funky guitar solo on “Get Back.”
That track, written by Paul, represented everything he’d wanted for the band in this period (“As live as live can be in this electronic age … The Beatles, as nature intended,” a press release written by Paul said). But the song’s subject matter became a source of controversy later.
Originally conceived of as a “racial satire,” Paul eventually settled on the harmless-enough tale of Jojo and Loretta. Looking back on the track a decade later, John saw it as a message Paul had directed at Yoko Ono.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Released on Oct. 23, 1984, the film reunited McCartney with Beatles-era collaborators Ringo Starr and George Martin, but couldn't approximate the fizzy excitement of A Hard Day's Night – or even the shambolic but occasionally charming Magical Mystery Tour.
Roger Ebert, the esteemed movie critic, praised the soundtrack but admitted he couldn't make sense of the McCartney-written script – adding that it was "to put it charitably, idiotic." Even the Beatles Bible, typically a safe space, describes Give My Regards to Broad Street as "ill-conceived."
McCartney starred as himself in a plot that recounts the search to find missing session tapes for a new album as a label-imposed deadline looms. It's loosely based on an actual incident when Sex Pistols lost the master for Never Mind the Bollocks back in the '70s, except with none of that group's chaotic originality.
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
Fans of The Beatles can now take a trip through the childhood sanctuary of John Lennon that inspired the song Strawberry Fields Forever, with the former children’s home in Liverpool, England, now open to the public.
Lennon used to climb over the fence from his aunt’s house, where he grew up, and play with other kids at the Strawberry Field orphanage. Its importance in shaping Lennon’s personality was laid bare in the classic 1967 hit tune.
Around 60,000 fans flock each year to the site to have their photos taken outside the famous red gates, but until now have never been allowed beyond.
“The gates are open for good,” said Major Allister Versfeld, mission development officer of the Salvation Army charity. “This is a unique opportunity for people to come and explore the garden … and just enjoy what many have said; there’s a real sense of calm and peace.”
Source: star2.com
If there’s one song by John Lennon that has stood the test of time, it’s his peace anthem “Imagine.” It’s one of the few tracks by a former Beatle to rival the band’s biggest hits in terms of critical acclaim. While “Imagine” is his most iconic song, it was not his most successful as a solo artist. Let’s look at John’s biggest hits. “Imagine” has achieved an ubiquity that few songs have. Despite this, it’s not John’s first, second, third, or even fourth biggest hit. The dreamy ballad encapsulate John’s ethos better than any other song, but it apparently didn’t find nearly as much favor with the public upon its initial release as it has in more recent years. Many of the albums that John made as a solo artist or with his wife, Yoko Ono, are avant-garde and difficult to understand. “Imagine” is the only standard that he wrote after the Beatles broke up. The song has been covered by everyone from Lady Gaga and Madonna to Avril Lavigne and CeeLo Green.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Scrap of paper bearing autographs of all four Beatles sells for £4,200 after it was hidden in cupboard for 56 years. The band had been playing a gig at the Town Hall Ballroom in Shropshire in 1963. The owner of the paper had attended the gig and asked them to sign it for her 72-year-old said she had previously been offered £100 for the paper in 199.
The white piece of paper had been hidden in a cupboard for 56 years in order to stop the signatures from fading. Band members had signed the paper after a gig in 1963 at the Town Hall Ballroom in Shropshire, after only a handful of fans had turned up to see them perform.
The 72-year-old owner, who does not want to be named, asked the band to sign the paper after the gig.
Source: Terri-ann Williams For Mailonline
When Beatles fans call Revolver their favorite album, they have plenty to support the pick. From the heavy George Harrison opener “Taxman” to Paul McCartney’s “Here, There and Everywhere” and John Lennon’s “I’m Only Sleeping,” the band was at or near its peak on this record.
In terms of subject matter, though, it’s among the Beatles’ darkest. If John wasn’t singing about “what it’s like to be dead,” George was offering advice “for those who die” or Paul was getting his hands dirty burying Eleanor Rigby. Weren’t these the lads who just wanted to hold your hand?
Well, Paul was still that guy in a lot of ways. He brought the sweet and innocent “Yellow Submarine” to the Revolver sessions. And he recorded the gorgeous “Here, There and Everywhere” on that record, too.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Did The Beatles ever record a bigger hit than “Yesterday”? If you go strictly by performance on the Billboard Hot 100, maybe you can argue in favor of “Hey Jude” (nine weeks on top) or “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (seven weeks).
However, if you count the number of radio plays, you’ll have a hard time making a case against “Yesterday.” In 1999, the great Paul McCartney ballad had topped 7 million radio plays. So forget the Fab Four for a moment — “Yesterday” is one of the biggest hits in contemporary music.
In fact, no song has been covered by more artists. (Over 3,000 cover versions of “Yesterday” exist.) And every time someone hears someone else’s rendition, they think of the Beatles’ original that features only Paul on guitar and string musicians behind him.
Source: cheatsheet.com
In the spring of 1969, Paul McCartney telephoned George Martin to ask if he would be willing to work with the Beatles on a new album they planned to record in the months ahead. Martin, who was widely regarded as the most accomplished pop-record producer in the world, had overseen the making of all nine albums and nineteen singles that the Beatles had released in Britain since their début on E.M.I.’s Parlophone label, in 1962. His reputation was synonymous with that of the group, and the fact that McCartney felt a need to ask him about his availability dramatized how much the Beatles’ professional circumstances had changed since the release of the two-record set known as the White Album, in the fall of 1968. In Martin’s view, the five months of tension and drama it took to make that album, followed by the fiasco of “Get Back,” an ill-fated film, concert, and recording project that ended inconclusively in January, 1969, had turned his recent work with the Beatles into a “miserable experience.”
Source: Jonathan Gould/newyorker.com
The Beatles drummer Ringo Starr has revealed how John Lennon made him cry. In speaking with GQ recently the iconic drummer for the fab four was asked about the upcoming track on his new album that was written by Lennon called “Grow Old With Me”. In which Starr states during the interview that he didn’t even hear or know about the demo that was done until a little while back. John Lennon revealed what this man did with ‘Mouth’ for him.
“I didn’t find it till this year. I never heard about it, never knew about it. I was really emotional when Jack Douglas, the producer who produced John, mentioned it to me. He said, “Have you heard what they call The Bermuda Tapes?” I said, “No, I don’t have a copy.” This disgusting restaurant photo featuring John Lennon and his widow was just uncovered.
Source: Mike Mazzarone/alternativenation.net
A New York family has created a spectacularly spooky 50th anniversary tribute to the legendary Beatles album Abbey Road.
Jeff and Ellen Pitkin of Guilderland, New York, erected a Halloween-themed recreation of the Abbey Road album cover, which shows the four members of The Beatles crossing the famous London road.
Jeff and Ellen Pitkin of Guilderland erected a Halloween-themed recreation of the Abbey Road album cover showing the four members of the Beatles crossing the famous London road/Photo: Jeff and Ellen Pitkin
In Pitkin's display, the four members of The Beatles are skeletons crossing a made-up crosswalk on the family's lawn. The skeletons even have hair matching what the Beatles wore on the album cover.
Source: komonews.com
