Beatles News
If you wondering about the subject of a particular Beatles song, you have to take things on a songwriter-by-songwriter basis. In the case of Paul McCartney, chances are the song is about a fictional person.
That’s definitely the case in “Lovely Rita,” the meter maid Paul invented for his upbeat Sgt. Pepper’s song. In The White Album’s “Blackbird,” Paul said he was singing about black women facing oppression in the South during the Civil Rights Era (something few would have guessed).
But with John Lennon it was different. John often got material from his own life. Whether it’s “”She Said She Said” or “In My Life,” John was telling autobiographical stories by his mid-’60s work.
During the Beatles’ 1968 trip to India to study with the Maharishi, John wrote several songs based on real people. “Dear Prudence,” for example, was about Mia Farrow’s sister. And he addressed “Sexy Sadie” to the Maharishi himself.
Source: cheatsheet.com
A song like this probably wouldn’t fly in the era of #MeToo and #TimesUp.
Just two days after what would have been the late music legend’s 79th birthday on Oct. 9, an unearthed Rolling Stone interview from 1970 has revealed John Lennon’s least favorite Beatles tune.
His pick: “Run for Your Life,” the final track on 1965’s “Rubber Soul,” is an overtly homicidal song about murdering an adulterous lover.
The domestic violence-driven track, said Lennon, had “a very vague connection” to the Elvis song “Baby Let’s Play House,” which also references revenge on an unfaithful girlfriend.
Of the more than 100 songs written by The Beatles’ members, this one has long been a source of debate among fans, according to Metro.
In the vintage RS interview, Lennon said, “‘Run for Your Life’ I always hated, you know. I never liked [it] because it was a song I just knocked off.”
Source: Hannah Sparks/nypost.com
Sir Paul McCartney has donated a set of limited edition photographs taken by his late wife Linda to Glasgow Museums.
The set of 14 photographs includes images of Sir Mick Jagger and Brian Jones, which Linda took during her first professional shoot, as well as a range of intimate family portraits.
The photographs are currently being displayed as part of the Linda McCartney Retrospective that was curated by Sir Paul alongside two of his daughters, Mary and Stella.
The exhibition was first opened to the public in the UK when it went on show at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, Scotland, on July 5 earlier this year.
Source: Raven Saunt For Mailonline/dailymail.co.uk
"So it was not the end - because in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make."
Ringo Starr has confirmed that the Beatles album, Abbey Road, was not meant to be the group’s last in a new interview.
Until recently, it was thought that the band went into recording the album knowing it would be their last until a tape, uncovered by Beatles expert Mark Lewisohn, revealed that the band were discussing a follow up album.
In a new interview with BBC 6 Music, Starr has now also confirmed this was the case and that the bad wanted to go on recording into the 1970’s.
Starr said: “We did do Abbey Road and we was like, ‘Okay that’s pretty good…but none of us said, ‘OK, that’s the last time we’ll ever play together’. Nobody said that. I never felt that.
Source: Elizabeth Aubrey/nme.com
The Beatles were great because all four of the band members were strong songwriters and the band is considered one of the greatest of all-time. Paul McCartney and John Lennon were the primary writers, but as time went on, George Harrison became a strong writer himself with songs like “Here Comes the Sun” and “Something.” Even Ringo Starr, the band’s drummer had a few songwriting credits as well like “Octopus’ Garden.” With the recently released 50th Anniversary edition of Abbey Road, let’s take a look at some helpful songwriting tips inspired by the fab four.
If you have a melody in your head but you’re not sure of the lyrics yet, you can always use gibberish. Paul McCartney has often said that when he was writing what would be known as “Yesterday,” the song was originally called “Scrambled Eggs” because the original lyrics were filled with breakfast rhymes.
Source: americansongwriter.com
If you’re a Beatles fan, you’re probably familiar with the turmoil surrounding the band from 1968 until the 1970 breakup. During that period, they recorded what Paul McCartney described as “the tension album” and had walkouts from two members of the group.
The checklist includes Ringo’s sudden departure during the White Album (1968) sessions. After losing confidence in his playing and getting fed up with Paul’s directions, Ringo decided he’d rather be on a boat in Italy than recording with the world’s biggest band.
While he was gone, The Beatles realized they wouldn’t be able to make do with Paul playing drums. So they telegraphed Ringo imploring him to come home (and he did). But the drama wasn’t over.
Source: cheatsheet.com
They probably didn’t realize it at the time, but The Beatles were churning out more material in the sixties than can be reasonably expected of a rock band. And despite releasing twelve studio albums in less than a decade as the Fab Four, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were far from done writing and recording. After “Come Together,” “Let it Be,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and “Yellow Submarine,” there were “Woman,” “Band on the Run,” “My Sweet Lord” and “You’re Sixteen.”
White all four Beatles enjoyed prolific solo careers – McCartney’s and Starr’s are still going – it was Lennon who arguably became the most experimental and thought-provoking of the group. He began his second chapter with free-flowing statements like “Give Peace a Chance,” which came after initial, even more avant-garde albums recorded with Yoko Ono.
Source: Bob Diehl/radio.com
Woody Harrelson is explaining how he ended up wearing the late George Harrison‘s suit to Wimbledon!
The 58-year-old actor stopped by The Ellen Show, where he opened up about his summer vacation when he visited George‘s widow Olivia.
“We were with Olivia Harrison. It’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. She’s one of the greatest people,” Woody explained.
He continued, “And then she lent me a suit because I had to go to Wimbledon and I didn’t have a suit. So I wore this blue suit that was George Harrison‘s suit. Fit exactly!”
Source: Just Jared
Once upon a time, a couple of desperate English filmmakers embarked on a quest to find a champion, and to their everlasting surprise, discovered one where they might have least expected it.
It was the late-1970s, and producer John Goldstone and Monty Python’s Flying Circus founding member Eric Idle trekked across the Atlantic with caps in hand to scramble together the money to make “Monty Python’s Life of Brian.” EMI Films had summarily backed out of the project, leaving Goldstone, who also was executive producer of the troupe’s debut feature film, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” and the Pythons flummoxed about what to do.
“Eric and I came to New York, and then we came out here and started going through everybody we knew,” Goldstone, 76, said this week from his home of more than a decade in Oxnard. “We went to Mike Medavoy, at United Artists at that time, and he said he would put up half the money, but that we’d have to get the other half from others.”
Source: Randy Lewis/latimes.com
The Beatles, Britain's top rock band, relax in London over tea in 1963. The group from left: John Lennon, Paul McCartney; George Harrison and Ringo Starr. (AP Photo)
Singer, songwriter and peace activist John Lennon, one of The Beatles, was born in England on Oct. 9, 1940.
According to biography.com, Lennon was raised by an aunt but saw his mother regularly. She taught him to play musical instruments and bought him his first guitar.
According to biography.com, Lennon was 16 when he created a “skiffle band called the Quarry Men.”
The Beatles rehearse for their forthcoming television show at Wembley studios in London, April 1964. In this skit, John Lennon plays a herald sounding a horn.
Lennon met Paul McCartney in 1957 and invited him to join his band.They eventually formed a successful music writing partnership that evolved into the British phenomena, The Beatles.
Source: pennlive.com
