Beatles News
The Beatles were baffled at the overt religiosity of the United States in the 1960s
In January 1969 on a rooftop in central London The Beatles played their last concert together — or rather, not so much a concert as a makeshift performance, part of a documentary film then being shot. It was a dismal end to the band’s live appearances that had been among some of the most glittering of recent times.
Fifty years on, The Beatles and their anniversaries are remembered with almost religious awe by their legions of fans who, it appears, grow more numerous as the decades pass.
But what of The Beatles and religion?
Much is made of the flirtations of the Fab Four with Eastern religions of one sort or another and the resultant iconic images of the four musicians in India on retreat. Little is made of the band’s Christian roots. Two of the band, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, were both baptized Catholic; John Lennon and Ringo Starr were Anglicans.
Source: K.V. Turley/ncregister.com
Jonny Amies in “My Very Own British Invasion.” Note the incorrect lyrics to “In My Life” above him.
John Lennon wrote the Beatles song “In My Life,” with some help from Paul McCartney and Beatles producer George Martin (who should have received a co-writing credit) in 1965. Fifteen years later, in his last major interview, Lennon described it as “a remembrance of friends and lovers of the past.”
That is, I think, how most people see it: A sweet song about looking back on the past.
But that’s not what it’s about. It’s really the least nostalgic song you could imagine.
I’ve thought this about “In My Life” for a long time, but was inspired to write this post after seeing the new jukebox musical, “My Very Own British Invasion,” at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn. (Here’s my review). The song is used at the end of the evening, to put a sentimental spin on a story of love won and lost in the heady days of the 1960s British Invasion.
“In My Life” ends with the line “I love you more,” but in “My Very Own British Invasion,” it is changed to “I loved you more.” And it wasn’t just sung incorrectly on the night I happened to be there, or heard wrong by me: The change is spelled out in a projection above the actors.
Source: JAY LUSTIG/njarts.net
Over 50 years after the The Beatles’ ‘White Album’ first stormed the charts, the Fab Four’s iconic double-album achieved 24-time Platinum-certified status – making it the fourth-highest certified release in US history.
The Beatles currently have the distinction as being the highest certified band in Gold and Platinum Award history, with 178 million certifications across their discography. Both 1967-1970 and 1962-1966 compilations along with Abbey Road and Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band have far surpassed Diamond certification.
“The Beatles are undoubtedly one of the most influential bands of all time, with music that stands the test of time,” said Mitch Glazier, Chairman and CEO, Recording Industry Association of America.
Source: Laura Stavropoulos/udiscovermusic.com
The new issue of Uncut – in shops now and available to buy online by clicking here – follows John Lennon throughout a turbulent 1969 as he embarks on a series of wild avant-garde experiments with Yoko Ono on the way to extricating himself from The Beatles and establishing himself as a solo artist.
As well as the famous bed-ins, the naked experimental films, the avant-garde albums and the political campaigns, there is the formation of a new musical outfit, The Plastic Ono Band, hastily assembled to play the Toronto Rock’N’Roll Revival festival at the invitation of Kim Fowley on September 13, 1969.
The Plastic Ono Band bassist Klaus Voorman remembers rehearsing their set of rock’n’roll classics on the plane from London. “We went once through each song,” Voormann tells Peter Watts. “Then we got to ‘Cold Turkey’. I thought it was a great song and we should spend time to 
get the right feeling, but we didn’t.”
Source: uncut.co.uk
The year The Beatles broke up is burned in the minds of most fans of the Fab Four. Though there might not have been an exact day, everyone can agree it happened by spring 1970.
However, the real end of the group’s collaboration arrived the previous year. In a particularly detailed post-mortem in Rolling Stone, you find John Lennon shooting down a request by Paul McCartney to keep the band together for one last run.
“I wasn’t going to tell you, but I’m breaking the group up,” Lennon told Paul. It was September 1969.
Yet for fans who loved to see The Beatles in concert, the distancing had begun several years earlier — summer 1966, to be exact. That’s the last time anyone saw the band play multiple stops on a tour.
Decades later, the decision to stop touring only a few years after their arrival in America seems odd. But looking at the events leading up to it, you can see why The Beatles stopped playing live shows.
Source: cheatsheet.com
It wasn’t quite rags to riches, but the story of Welsh singer Mary Hopkin’s dizzy rise during 1968 takes some beating. In May of that year, just as she was turning 18, she appeared on the British TV talent show Opportunity Knocks. Improbably, it would lead her into the inner circle of The Beatles and to an international No. 1.
Hopkin won that contest, and had the good fortune that the famous model Twiggy was watching the show. When she, in turn, was talking to Paul McCartney about potential artists for The Beatles’ new Apple label, Twiggy mentioned Mary. Soon afterwards, the singer received a message to call Peter Brown at Apple.
“So I rang up,” Hopkin remembered later, “and was put through to this guy with a Liverpool accent, who invited me to come up to London and sign a contract.
Source: Paul Sexton/udiscovermusic.com
Peter Tork, the bassist for the Monkees, has died aged 77.
Tork, who also sang on a number of the band’s songs and played keyboards, had been diagnosed with a rare form of tongue cancer in 2009, though the cause of his death, which was confirmed by his sister, has not been announced.
Born in Washington DC in 1942, Tork – whose real name was Peter Thorkelson – joined the Monkees when he was 24 after the quartet were brought together by US TV executives aiming to create a teenage guitar-pop sensation to match the Beatles. Tork was recommended to audition by Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and was already an accomplished musician in his own right, having played on the Greenwich Village folk scene in the early 1960s. He said he was “mortified” when he turned up to an early Monkees studio date to be told that their band’s album had already been recorded by session musicians.
Source: Ben Beaumont-Thomas/theguardian.com
While fans of The Beatles might have been distraught when the group broke up in 1970, they could follow each member of the Fab Four in his solo career.
In a sense, that gave them four albums for the price of one. Even if every one didn’t turn out like Revolver, you couldn’t argue with the output.
Soon enough, ex-Beatles were topping the charts with singles and albums as solo artists. Fans only had to wait until later in that first year, when George Harrison released his triple album, All Things Must Pass. Within those six sides was “My Sweet Lord,” the first track by an ex-Beatle to hit No. 1.
In the coming decades, Harrison would find himself on top of the charts with two more singles and as many albums. Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and John Lennon (the last) followed their old bandmate to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in the coming years as well.
Source: cheatsheet.com
During a recent interview with Russia’s Sputnik News, John Lennon’s sister Julia Baird has shared her thoughts on biggest misconception about Yoko Ono and The Beatles.
Interviewer asked ‘Are there any misconceptions in the media about John’, Julia responded:
“There are lots. He had a very tough, chippy, chirpy exterior but he was actually as soft as jelly underneath, and not many people really bothered, they were enjoying the chippy chirpy interviews and they were able to criticise him, and they didn’t really look much beyond.
To be fair, John wouldn’t have let them much beyond either, but there was a completely different John from the one that you saw.”
Interviewer said:
“In your opinion is it unfair to blame the breakup of the Beatles on Yoko Ono?”
Source: Feyyaz Ustaer/metalheadzone.com
Yoko Ono and John Lennon’s Wedding Album will be reissued this spring. Originally released in 1969, it was the couple’s third collaborative LP. Announced on Monday, which marks Ono’s 86th birthday, Unfinished Music No. 3: Wedding Album will be released via Secretly Canadian in partnership with Chimera Music on March 22nd, two days after Ono and Lennon’s 50th wedding anniversary.
Crafted by graphic designer John Kosh, the original packaging housed a box that commemorated the couple’s nuptials – they were married on March 20th, 1969 in Gibraltar. Photographs, a copy of their marriage certificate, drawings culled by Ono and Lennon, and a picture of a slice of wedding cake were among the souvenirs that came with the album. The labels are offering a “faithful recreation” of the Wedding Album, which will be available on limited edition white-vinyl LP, CD and digitally.
Source: Althea Legaspi/rollingstone.com
