Beatles News
If you want to chart how quickly The Beatles progressed in the late 1960s, just check the dates of the albums. By early 1967, they had expanded their musical palette with tunes like “A Day in the Life” fromSgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Less than two years later, John Lennon and Paul McCartney collaborated on their last great tune together, “I’ve Got a Feeling.” With that song, fans heard stripped-down Beatles rock at its finest. It was a completely different sound from “Lucy in the Sky” (not to mention “Norwegian Wood”).
In March ’69, just after marrying Yoko Ono, John got to work on a new song about the adventures surrounding their wedding. Taking the same approach the band did on Let It Be, Lennon kept things rocking and spare on the tune.
However, the track that became “The Ballad of John and Yoko” never landed on a Beatles studio album. Since John recorded it much like he did his first solo album and wanted it released quick, it went out as a single instead of on the final albums.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Steven Van Zandt has lifted the lid on his on-stage duet with Paul McCartney in a new interview with Music Week.
The E Street Band guitarist, whose latest LP, Summer Of Sorcery (Wicked Cool/UME), came out on May 3, was nearing the end of a solo show at London’s Roundhouse in November 2017, when McCartney arrived for an impromptu rendition of The Beatles’ I Saw Her Standing There.
“We’d been trying to catch each other’s show for a while,” explained Van Zandt. “Paul is working all the time and so I was very surprised when he happened to be in town. I said, ‘Just have a nice night out, don’t feel any pressure at all to come on stage’.
“Suddenly, we were about to do the encore and my roadie comes up and says, ‘Paul’s coming on!’ Now it just so happens that I’d felt, in case he did want to come on, I’d better have something ready. I had done a Little Richard-like arrangement of I Saw Her Standing There, just for fun, and that’s what we did – there was no rehearsal.
Source: by James Hanley/musicweek.com
There are more great Beatles songs than most people can count. If you look strictly at the band’s list of No. 1 hits, you’ll miss dozens of inspired compositions from their eight years of recording together. “I’ve Got a Feeling,” the last great Lennon-McCartney tune, is a perfect example.
However, the better example might be the entire Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, as The Beatles didn’t release any of those songs as singles. If fans wanted to get their hands on the title track or Ringo singing “With a Little Help From My Friends,” they had to buy the album.
Then there was the album’s showpiece at the end of Side Two: “A Day in the Life.” When Rolling Stone ranked the best Beatles songs of all time, it placed that epic finale right at No. 1, describing it as “the ultimate Lennon-McCartney collaboration.”
Yet that’s not what many experts think of “A Day in the Life.” Beatles biographer Philip Norman called it “John Lennon’s masterpiece,” and several other musicologists agreed. Though Paul McCartney definitely had a hand in it, The Beatles’ greatest song came mostly from Lennon.
Source: cheatsheet.com
After The Beatles breakup, everyone had a chance to see how each member would react. With the debut Paul McCartney album, most saw an isolated man trying to work his way through it via music. (Paul said he was quite depressed during that period.)
For his part, John Lennon underwent “primal scream” therapy for close to four months. While that experience had to be unpleasant, he came out of it with a briliant solo album.
Following years of working in their shadow, George Harrison’s No. 1 album (late 1970) launched his successful solo career. The next year, he organized a benefit concert for Bangladesh. George was quietly going about his business — and doing so in style.
But by comparison, Ringo Starr was having an absolute blast. After getting his feet wet in the movies during the Beatles’ last years, he knocked off two other films in 1971. Meanwhile, he was making recordings of his own, directed a T. Rex concert film, and started a design company.
Source: cheatsheet.com
In a recent newsletter published on Paulmccartney.com, The Beatles bassist Paul McCartney has revealed the song which John Lennon wrote during a crisis.
Paul said that ‘John started writing ‘Help!’ during a crisis at that time in his life’. You can read the entire statement below.
Interviewer asked:
“Do you have a song that you put on if you’re ever having a hard time or a bad day, and it instantly makes you feel better?”
Paul responded:
“There’s a track on Egypt Station that came out of a hard time I think would fit the bill now! Alternatively, it would be old music like ‘All Shook Up’ or ‘Don’t Be Cruel’ by Elvis Presley. Or ‘What’d I Say’ by Ray Charles.
Source: Feyyaz Ustaer/metalheadzone.com
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The Royal Family usually only choose traditional names for their children, but Prince Harry was always going to do things a bit differently.
His firstborn son has been named Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor , and there's said to be a very cool meaning behind his middle name. Meghan Markle's etiquette teacher believes Harrison is tribute to the Duchess of Sussex's favourite Beatle.
Edmund Fry, who taught Meg how to be a royal, said she is a big fan of The Beatles and in particular George Harrison. He told The Sun: "She has a great fond feeling for George Harrison and that’s where that name came from. She’s a great fan of The Beatles."
And it seems Meghan and Harry both had a hand in choosing their newborn's name. Archie's first name is said to be in tribute to the man credited with saving Harry's military career.
Major Tom Archer-Burton, who is known as Archie, was Prince Harry's commanding officer when he was in the army and helped him be deployed in Afghanistan.
Source: The Mirror
The four Beatles all loved Motown, and would search the racks of Brian Epstein’s NEMS record shop for hidden treasures from the Detroit label, hoping to find unheard gems. As Ringo Starr recalled in The Beatles’ Anthology, it was a love of such singles as Barrett Strong’s ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’ and The Miracles’ ‘You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me’ that brought the four together: “When I joined The Beatles we didn’t really know each other, but if you looked at each of our record collections, the four of us had virtually the same records. We all had The Miracles, we all had Barrett Strong and people like that. I suppose that helped us gel as musicians, and as a group.”
As the 60s became dominated by Liverpool’s Fab Four, Motown’s finest paid tribute to The Beatles, with a string of top class covers of their songs. Here’s our selection of the best Motown Beatles covers.
There’s a very strong argument to be made that Stevie Wonder’s 1970 cover of ‘We Can Work It Out’ is not only the greatest Motown cover of a Beatles number, but that it’s a strong contender for the best cover of any Beatles song by anyone, ever. Full stop. Funkier than a mosquito’s tweeter, Wonder earned a Grammy nomination for the song. In 2010, he performed his take at the White House in front of both President Barack Obama and Paul McCartney in a star-studded concert to honour the former Beatle. He stole the show.
Source: Paul McGuinness/udiscovermusic.com
At the tender age of 8, I knew the Beatles were extraordinary. In their appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” they sang and played effortlessly, their timing perfect despite rarely looking at one another.
Like thousands of others, I basked in that black-and-white glow on that Sunday night in February 1964, but when it was over, I had a burning question: How did they do that?
I recently had the chance to find out. On a business trip to Germany, I spent three days in St. Pauli, the Hamburg district where the Beatles became really good before they became really, really famous.
My expert guide: Peter Paetzold, a bearded 68-year-old with the street cred of a chain-smoking rock drummer, well versed about St. Pauli’s music scene of the 1960s. He grew up around the corner from the Indra club, one of four venues the group played.
Source: Dean R. Owen/latimes.com
John Lennon’s official Instagram page has revealed an unseen photo of him when he got a special birthday gift from Yoko Ono in 1980. The photo was taken by Bob Gruen.
Here’s the caption of photo:
“YOU SAY IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY…, 1980
John proudly showing off the birthday presents he had just received from his wife Yoko – An 18K yellow-gold Patek Philippe Moon Phase 2499 wristwatch, a hand-knitted tie and an American flag tie-pin.
The Hit Factory NYC, 9 October 1980″
See the photo below.
Back on February 19, John Lennon’s sister Julia Baird has shared her thoughts on biggest misconception about Yoko Ono
Sputnik News asked:
“In your opinion is it unfair to blame the breakup of the Beatles on Yoko Ono?”
Source: Feyyaz Ustaer/metalheadzone.com
Last week Paul announced the reissue of the iconic Professor Longhair’s album Live On The Queen Mary, set for release on 5th April. The recording took place on 24th March 1975 aboard the Queen Mary [a British ocean liner docked in Long Beach harbour, Los Angeles] at an exclusive – and by the sounds of it terrifically fun – party put on by Paul and Linda to celebrate the end of recording the Wings album Venus and Mars.
The band had a great time putting together the guest-list and sending out customised invitation cards. Along with invitees George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger and The Jackson 5, Paul also flew in a crew of his “N’arwlins” friends to provide the entertainment. This list of luminaries included Professor Longhair, The Meters and Allen Toussaint!
Earlier this month we spoke with Paul to learn a little more about how this very special performance from Professor Longhair came to be recorded and released. The story begins with Paul describing how he became inspired by the music culture of New Orleans, and why Professor Longhair [whom Paul fondly referred to as ‘Fess’ during our chat] was invited to play.
Source: Brett Buchanan/alternativenation.net
