Beatles News
John Lennon, singing-songwriting sensation and iconic co-founder of the Beatles, is undoubtedly one of the greatest musicians of all time.
Alongside Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison, Lennon successfully built the most commercially successful band in the history of popular music and inspired countless future musicians.
After calling time on the Beatles, Lennon began to record as a solo artist and later recorded numerous tracks with his wife Yoko Ono. What followed a string of hugely successful solo tracks was Lennon’s decision to seemingly disengaging himself from the music industry in 1975 to raise his infant son Sean.
After a little time away, the Beatle re-emerged in 1980 alongside his wife Ono with their 1980 album Double Fantasy and, with it, he was thrust back into the spotlight.
Source: faroutmagazine.co.uk
After blasting into solo-Beatledom in fine style with 1970’s mega-selling "All Things Must Pass," George Harrison had also begun a long, slow spiral into a protracted period of ill health and personal despair. For the Quiet Beatle, life reached its nadir in 1974 with the breakup of his marriage to Pattie Boyd. While his "Thirty Three & 1/3" LP notched a top-30 hit in the form of “This Song” in January 1977, Harrison had found himself in dire straits.
The ex-Beatle’s slide had begun, ironically enough, with the release of his global chart-topping single “My Sweet Lord.” Since 1971, he had been mired in a lengthy legal battle with Bright Tunes Music, which maintained that Harrison had committed copyright infringement, given the uncanny similarities between “My Sweet Lord” and the Chiffons’ 1963 hit “He’s So Fine.” Written during the legal jockeying over the fate of “My Sweet Lord,” “This Song” found Harrison singing “This tune has nothing Bright about it” in obvious reference to the plaintiff.
Source: salon.com
New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art is filled with masterpieces by giants like Picasso and Rembrandt. Next week, Don Felder's Gibson double-necked guitar will join them. It's the instrument Felder has used for 40 years to play "Hotel California," the masterpiece he co-wrote for The Eagles.
And it will be shown along with Keith Moon's custom drum set, Jerry Lee Lewis' baby grand piano, and John Lennon's 12-string Rickenbacker, at the Met's new exhibition, "Play It Loud." It's the first time an art museum has honored the instruments of rock 'n' roll
Jayson Kerr Dobney, curator of the Met's musical instrument department, showed correspondent Anthony Mason the guitar that Chuck Berry used to record "Johnny B. Goode," which he called "first great rock anthem about a guitar player."
"He's still got the traveling tags on the case," said Mason.
"It's like as pure as you can get."
Source: cbsnews.com
A piece of Beatles history is up for grabs, but it's so old -- or vintage -- it goes by a different name.
If ya don't know ... John Lennon's first band wasn't The Beatles, it was The Quarry Men. He formed the group in 1956, later added Paul McCartney and George Harrison ... then made their famous name change in 1960.
Before that, though, the lads from Liverpool printed out business cards for The Quarry Men and an original -- one of just a few known to exist -- is up for sale. That's the good news. The bad news is ... baby, you'll need to be a rich man (or woman) to afford it.
The roughly 3.5 x 2-inch piece of paper and rock 'n' roll history is going for $32,500.
As for the card's origin story ... a collector bought it from a woman living in a Liverpool suburb 30 years ago. She sold off a bunch of membership cards and tickets she'd collected from her days hitting the clubs there in the late '50s and '60s.
Source: tmz.com
McCartney also admitted that he sympathized with all the people who are having trouble with Jackson’s music after claims of child sexual abuse were leveled at the late superstar
Sir Paul McCartney was reportedly shocked on seeing his close pal Michael Jackson's dark side in the controversial HBO documentary, 'Leaving Neverland', but he says that he will still remember their good times. The Beatles legend, who worked with the late King of Pop in the 1980s, said he never knew about the singer's secret private life.
"I think it’s sad," McCartney said while in conversation with Radio Futuro in Chile, where he has been performing. "Obviously Michael was a great singer, a great artiste, and a great dancer. For years we’ve loved that. Nobody knew about the other side that’s shown in that movie."
Source: Vidisha Joshi/meaww.com
Ringo Starr is offering his fans the chance to come celebrate his birthday party with him on July 7 in Los Angeles.
Starr is continuing his tradition of using his birthday to benefit one of his favorite charities, The David Lynch Foundation.
With this, the 11th annual Peace & Love Birthday Celebration, Ringo is asking fans to donate to the David Lynch Foundation via Omaze.com/Ringo. A donation of $10 or more will enter fans to win a trip to the party!
"Every year at noon, as you know, on my birthday, I invite everyone on the planet to say or think, 'Peace and Love,'" Ringo said in a video message announcing the party. "This year, I want you to be there with me on stage when we do our countdown to peace and love."
The winner will be flown to L.A., put up in a 4-star hotel, given a photo op and the opportunity to sing "Happy Birthday" to Ringo on stage with his friends and family.
Source: Andrew Magnotta
The Beatles family suffers from a tragic loss of Joe Flannery, who served the band as a booking manager from 1962 – 1963. Flannery has died in his property in Aigburth, Liverpool.
Joe Flannery (87), who was often regarded as the “Secret Beatle”, and also the person who helped to kickstart The Beatles.
Here is what his nephew Norman Meek said about his lost:
“He had been unwell for the past month but he was still making plans for the future. Fans from all over the world would call at his home and he was always happy to speak with them.
He had a song, ‘Much Missed Man’, and I’m sure the city would agree with that sentiment.”
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
A woman who met the Beatles as a child at the Bradford Odeon 55 years ago has gone back to the venue to share her memories of the experience.
In 1964, The Beatles were appearing at the Bradford Odeon and held a press conference in their dressing room to launch the start of their new tour.
Karen Spence, who was five at the time, went to the press conference with her father, who was a journalist.
She was given a memorable invitation to sing Happy Birthday to John Lennon to mark his 24th birthday.
The dressing room where the Beatles held their press conference back in 1964 was uncovered during a refurbishment of the Bradford venue. The room has been inaccessible for fifty years.
Karen Spence took a trip down memory lane and to the theatre on Thursday, March 28, where she revisited the original room and reminisced about her special time with John Lennon and The Beatles.
Source: itv.com
Michael Palin is just one of the many actors who have honoured the late George Harrison’s film legacy in a new documentary, An Accidental Studio.
The 75-year-old English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter was one of the members of the legendary Monty Python comedy troupe.
Many of the movies he starred in and wrote throughout the 1970s and 80s - including Life of Brian and The Missionary - wouldn’t have reached the big screen without the contribution of Harrison’s filmmaking and distribution company, Handmade Films.
Ahead of the launch of the one-off AMC documentary film, Palin opened up to Sanjeev Bhaskar at London’s Curzon Mayfair cinema about the impact Handmade Films has had on his life.
Source: Sophia Moir/tv.bt.com
Songs can change radically from demo to final version. Nothing demonstrates this fact more than “Child of Nature,” the John Lennon-penned track originally intended for the Beatles’ White Album. Instead, it resurfaced in 1971 not as an ode to transcendentalism, but as a painful confessional.
During time studying under the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1968, the Beatles not only learned about spirituality, but were inspired to write the bulk of what became the White Album. A particular lecture by the Maharishi not only compelled Paul McCartney to write “Mother Nature’s Son,” but Lennon to pen “Child of Nature.”
Paul’s song “was from a lecture of Maharishi where he was talking about nature, and I had a piece called ‘I’m Just a Child of Nature,’ which turned into ‘Jealous Guy’ years later,” Lennon told Playboy in 1980. “Both inspired from the same lecture of Maharishi.” Lennon brought the composition to the Beatles for consideration, recording a demo during the Esher sessions at George Harrison’s home.
Source: somethingelsereviews.com
