Beatles News
“THE MAGIC THING about Liverpool is that it isn’t in England,” said Margaret Simey author and politician.
So perhaps it is unsurprising then, that when The Beatles played Dublin in 1963 John Lennon declared on behalf of the whole band: “We’re all Irish”.
In the years that followed Lennon would record ‘The Luck of the Irish’ and ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’, while Paul McCartney sang: ‘Give Ireland back to the Irish’.
The Liverpool-Irish influence on John and the other Beatles is best understood once you realise that in the middle of the 19th century there were more Irish-born people living in Liverpool than in Limerick or Derry.
Liverpool had the fourth highest population of Irish born people of any city in the world, coming only after Dublin, Cork and Belfast.
Source: Francis Kenny/thejournal.ie
Aren’t modern supercars gaudy? Roaring through Knightsbridge, brazen paint jobs startling the pigeons. Such a far cry from the coachbuilt class that used to count for a custom finish.
In the good old days, going bespoke meant commissioning something elegant from your local coachbuilder. Maybe a nice open-top body for your Bentley or some special leather for your Aston. Perhaps a maroon-on-silver finish, if you were feeling bold. But a flamboyant amber wagon with a bed in the back? Absolutely not.
And certainly not a Rolls-Royce. That’s like painting a moustache on a picture of the Queen. Or re-coating Tower Bridge in lime green. How can a car project the stoic understatement of the British establishment when its shell is the colour of mustard?
Source: Chris Rowlands/gq-magazine.co.uk
Ringo Starr recalled how the formation of his All-Starr Band in 1989 saved him from becoming lost in alcoholism, and set him on a road to a “fun” life once again.
The former Beatle said he’d reached rock bottom with his addiction issues, and needed to be persuaded to return to work after a stint in rehab.
“I was afraid at the beginning,” Starr told Rolling Stone in a new interview. “[I thought,] ‘I don’t know how you do anything if you’re not drunk.’ That’s where I ended up. I couldn’t play sober, but I also couldn’t play as a drunk. So when I did end up in this rehab, it was like a light went on and said, ‘You’re a musician, you play good.’”
The band was formed when his lawyer told him that a group of artists that originally included Joe Walsh, Levon Helm, Clarence Clemons, Billy Preston and Rick Danko “wanted to back me on a tour.” However, Starr admitted: “I didn’t think anybody would come. I only knew three drummers and I was one of them.”
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
Steve Cropper was recently added to the Dave Mason Band tour, which is totally awesome, and not just because he'll now be appearing with Mason at Vancouver's Vogue Theatre next Thursday (March 21).
It's also totally awesome because three days ago I got to interview the guitar legend for the first time ever. Cross that one off the bucket list!
Cropper called me up from his home in Nashville and we chatted about a bunch of stuff. At one point I asked him about that time he was planning to work with the Beatles in 1966.
Apparently the Fab Four were fans of Cropper's guitar playing, and his production work with artists like Otis Redding--who he cowrote "(Sittin' On) the Dock of the Bay" with. The story goes that Beatles manager Brian Epstein travelled to the famed Stax Studios in Memphis to see about recording there, so I asked Cropper if that story was true.
Source: straight.com
Even the biggest Beatles fans might get surprised by numbers the Fab Four put up over the years. Start with the group’s 183 million record sales that dwarf that of every other recording artist. That number tops all the album sales of the mighty Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones combined.
Of course, The Beatles didn’t just sell LP records; the band also had an uncanny knack for cranking out hit singles. Over the years, the band topped the charts with no fewer than 20 songs. Not even Elvis put up that many.
Most Beatles fans know John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the lion’s share of those songs. However, George Harrison got on the board late in the group’s career as well. In fact, despite the band’s phenomenal early success, The Beatles scored their biggest hits just before the band split up in 1970.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Darlene Fedun, and Wade Lawrence of the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts weigh in on why Woodstock is relevant nearly fifty years later. Patrick Oehler, Poughkeepsie Journal
Tickets to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock with a former Beatle at the original festival site will be available this week.
Ringo Starr and his All-Starr band will perform at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts on Aug.16, with tickets going on sale at 10 a.m. Friday. A presale for Bethel Woods members begins 10 a.m. Wednesday.
Bethel Woods in Sullivan County sites on the site of the original Woodstock Music and Art Fair, which was held on Aug. 15-18, 1969.
"I always love playing Bethel Woods," Starr said in a release from Bethel Woods, and how great to do it this year on the anniversary of Woodstock.
"I wasn't there at the first one, but I've always promoted what it stood for — Peace, and Love and Music," he said.
Source: Ryan Santistevan, Poughkeepsie Journal
Ariana Grande’s recent and sustained run at the pop charts has been nothing short of a marvel. And like the great pop explosions of the past—Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and Michael Jackson, to name but a few—she is poised for immortality. And rightly so.
During the week of February 19th, Grande laid claim to her place in pop music history. First, she tied the Beatles’ April 1964 record for holding down the top three spots on the Billboard Hot 100. With “7 Rings,” “Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored,” and “Thank U, Next” lording over the Hot 100, she matched the Beatles’ 55-year-old record.
As far as hit singles go, the Fab Four’s highwater mark was memorialized with the April 4, 1964, issue of Billboard, when their music occupied the top five chart positions—the only time in pop-music history that a single act has accomplished such a feat. With “Can’t Buy Me Love” holding down the top slot, “Twist and Shout” was second and “She Loves You,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Please Please Me” rounded out the top five.
Source: Kenneth Womack/salon.com
The Beatles may have been known as “the Fab Four,” but when you look at the songwriting credits two names always appear: John Lennon and Paul McCartney. It took until late in the group’s existence for George Harrison to find his way as a songwriter.
In fact, it wasn’t until Abbey Road, the band’s last studio album, that a Harrison tune (“Something”) reached No. 1 on the charts. As for Ringo Starr, the band’s carefree drummer, there weren’t many songwriting credits to speak of on any Beatles albums.
The only two Beatles songs Ringo got sole credit for were “Don’t Pass Me By” (1968) and “Octopus’s Garden” (1969). However, he did sing lead vocals on several tunes. Besides his own two tracks, you’ll catch him singing the lead on “With a Little Help From My Friends” from Sgt. Pepper’s.
However, Ringo’s biggest hit is the song people associate him with the most. That would be “Yellow Submarine,” and it came awfully close to topping the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966.
Source: cheatsheet.com
In a new interview with Joe Rogan, Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth revealed the truth about how Paul McCartney and John Lennon created the dark sound within The Beatles, and how their balance helped create it. Alternative Nation transcribed Roth and Rogan’s comments.
Roth: We will do it in the old Beatles style, here is the best way to go for somebody that’s interested [in Jazz]. The old Lennon note and McCartney note. The McCartney note is always kinda happy. I’ve actually bumped into Sir Paul over at Henson Studios and he’s really happy.
His note would be something along the lines of… [Roth sings happy song notes] Hear how pretty that sounds? I’ll do it again…[Roth does it again] Lennon? He’s the salt in the caramel, baby. He’s got it. There’s a darkness, there’s an edge, there’s a shadow. Listen to the last three notes…[Roth does a darker version of the happy song notes]
Source: Mike Mazzarone/alternativenation.net
Inspired by the late Steve Jobs’ commencement speech at Stanford University where he shared how auditing a calligraphy class in college inspired him years later to add diverse fonts to Apple computers, we set out to visit classes around campus that make us think differently about what it means to be educated. This is one in a series of drop-ins.
When professor Armando Tranquilino takes out his blue Rickenbacker bass guitar, students are not only entertained but they’re learning about the social and historical impacts of one of the world’s biggest bands.
The History of The Beatles (MUH 2370) is an unorthodox course attracting students of all majors. It’s taught face-to-face and online by Tranquilino, a composer and musician. The professor takes an in-depth look at the social changes of the 1960s and the mass influence of the Fab Four.
Source: news.fiu.edu
