Beatles News
Late in the summer of 1968, Pope Paul VI came out forcefully against the birth-control pill, putting a moral crimp in the decade’s libido. London, however, was still swinging strong, and the Beatles decided — perhaps as Communist lark rather than Christian tithing — that it was truly better to give than to receive. In the August 8, 1968, issue of the Village Voice, part-time theater critic Charles Marowitz reported that the world’s most popular rock group was shuttering its Apple store (named for its record label) and giving away all of the shop’s existing stock. One mother walked in with her two children “just to windowshop and walked out with new dresses, summer suits, and other assorted goodies.” As she left, the mom said, “Give Ringo a big kiss for me.” The Voice correspondent noted, though, that not everyone was happy. “In the past few days, I have heard the Beatles maligned more viciously than they ever were at the height of their controversial pop success.
Source: The Voice Archives/villagevoice.com
Paul McCartney returned home last night for a performance at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. Macca recruited the youngsters from the LIPA Choir for the first in-concert rendition of his holiday song, “Wonderful Christmastime” since 2012 as part of the evening’s encore.
The three-hour, sold-out concert featured a total of 40 songs spanning nearly every era of the musician’s career. McCartney did keep to a similar setlist as other stops on his Freshen Up tour. The big difference came during the eight-song encore. After opening the final portion of the show with “Birthday” and welcoming a pair of concert winners from Finland to help sing the Beatles classic “I Saw Her Standing There,” Paul led his band through “Wonderful Christmastime.”
Artificial snow fell on the capacity crowd as McCartney & Co. worked through their first version of the holiday gem since a 2016 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Source: Scott Bernstein/jambase.com
A rare group of photographs documenting the Beatles’ historic visit to Rishikesh, India, in 1968 have surfaced in a portfolio compiled by Pattie Boyd, the former wife of George Harrison and the celebrated model of “Swinging Sixties” London. 12 of the 16 black-and-whte photographs in Pattie Boyd and The Beatles in Rishikesh have never been exhibited.
John and Cynthia Lennon attending a private lecture with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (Prev. unexhibited photo: © Pattie Boyd; used with permission)
During her ten-year marriage to George Harrison, Pattie Boyd was a prominent member of the Beatles’ inner circle and enjoyed the kind of access to the group that only a handful of people would ever know. Boyd introduced Harrison to Transcendental Meditation in August 1967, and she accompanied the Beatles the following year when they made their historic trek to Rishikesh, a small town near the foothills of the Himalayas. Well known as a religious center that has attracted yogis and gurus for centuries, Rishikesh was home to the ashram of TM’s progenitor, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Source: Best Classic Bands Staff
Would that Giles Martin, the 49-year-old son of the late Beatles producer Sir George Martin, could oversee the re-production from the ground up of every iconic rock ’n’ roll album.
His painstaking restoration of the Beatles’ Hollywood Bowl recordings and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band rendered all previous incarnations obsolete. And now he and his team of engineers have worked similar wonders with The Beatles, the Fab Four’s 30-song double album commonly referred to as The White Album.
Home to numerous staples of the Beatlemaniac diet (“Back in the U.S.S.R.,” “Dear Prudence,” “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Rocky Raccoon,” “Blackbird,” “Birthday,” “Helter Skelter”), The White Album has just turned 50. And to commemorate the occasion, Capitol has rereleased it in a bewildering array of formats. The good news: All of them include Martin’s refurbished version.
Source: world.wng.org
Like most kids, you probably remember the fearful dread of getting your school report cards. If you were never a straight-A student, chances are you had hidden talents in other, more creative fields. This was the case for the late John Lennon, who in September 1956, received a not-so-positive report on his teenage academic endeavors.
He was only 15 years old at the time, but his teachers did not hold back; the scribbled piece of paper (tweeted by Author, Michael Beschloss) details comments from a number of his teachers. His “Religious Instruction” teacher writes, “Attitude in class most unsatisfactory,” while his math teacher sternly expresses, “He is certainly on the road to failure if this goes on.” Lennon was clearly a dreamer from a young age: his physics teacher says, “His work always lacks effort.
Source: Emma Taggart /mymodernmet.com
Everyone knows the story of the Beatles, the four mopheads from Liverpool who were talent-spotted at the Cavern Club and catapulted to global fame by manager Brian Epstein.
But not everyone knows that long before they ever met Epstein, the Beatles already had a formidable force in their life in the form of housewife Mona Best, mother of the band's original drummer Pete Best, the man often described as 'the fifth Beatle'.
It was Mona who gave the band their first bookings in the tiny club she set up in the basement of her home in Liverpool, and Mona who became their first, unpaid manager.
Source: Daily Mail
The Paul McCartney Ticket Sweepstakes (“Sweepstakes”) begins on December 12, 2018 at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time (“PT”) and ends on December 12, 2018 at 12 p.m. PT (“Promotion Period”). The time will be determined by Sponsor’s timekeeping systems. Sponsor will have the sole discretion in determining the timeliness of any action or inaction related to this Sweepstakes. All times mentioned in these Official Rules are Pacific Time unless expressly noted otherwise.
Open only to legal U.S. residents who are at least 18 years of age or the age of majority in their state of residence, whichever is older, as of date of entry and reside in California in San Diego county. Void wherever prohibited by law and outside the listed county. Individuals who have won prizes from promotions sponsored by KGTV-TV in the past 90 days are not eligible. Employees of Scripps Media, Inc. d/b/a KGTV-TV; Goldenvoice / AEG Live (collectively, “Sponsor”), their respective affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising and promotion agencies, prize suppliers, including any vendors providing services in connection with this Sweepstakes (collectively, the “Sponsor Affiliates”) and the immediate family members (spouse, mother, father, in-laws, grandmother, grandfather, brother, sister, children and grandchildren) and/or those living in the same household of any of the foregoing individuals are not eligible. By participating, entrants agree to be bound by the Official Rules and the decisions of Sponsor.
Source: 10news.com
A lengthy post recirculating online offered a slightly dramatized account of the origin of one of Paul McCartney’s most socially conscious songs.
The post, which first appeared on Facebook in June 2017 (and then again in October 2018), reported that the Beatles song “Blackbird,” which was released on the group’s eponymous 1968 LP commonly referred to as the “White Album,” was inspired by a visit the singer/guitarist paid to America.
According to the post:
It is said that [McCartney] was sitting, resting, when he heard a woman screaming. He looked up to see a black woman being surrounded by the police. The police had her handcuffed, and were beating her. He thought the woman had committed a terrible crime. He found out “the crime” she committed was to sit in a section reserved for whites.
Paul McCartney was shocked. There was no segregation in England. But, here in America, the land of freedom, this is how blacks were being treated.
Source: Arturo Garcia/snopes.com
John Lennon and Yoko Ono wrote this in their New York City hotel room and recorded it during the evening of October 28 and into the morning of the 29th, 1971 at the Record Plant in New York. It was released in the US for Christmas, but didn't chart. The next year, it was released in the UK, where it did much better, charting at #4. Eventually, the song became a Christmas classic in America, but it took a while.
John and Yoko spent a lot of time in the late '60s and early '70s working to promote peace. In 1969, they put up billboards in major cities around the world that said, "War is over! (If you want it)." Two years later this slogan became the basis for this song when Lennon decided to make a Christmas record with an anti-war message. John also claimed another inspiration for writing the song: he said he was "sick of 'White Christmas.'"
The children's voices are the Harlem Community Choir, who were brought in to sing on this track. They are credited on the single along with Yoko and The Plastic Ono Band.
Source: SongFacts
The latest entry in Paul McCartney‘s ongoing archival series, an incomprehensibly expansive 11-disc box set called Wings 1971-1973, contains a wealth of material that will surely give fans a wonderful Christmastime. A previously unreleased 20-track live album of Wings’ first tour — their 1972 Wings Over Europe trek — is included with a replicated tour program, a 96-page book of Linda McCartney’s photos, and an introduction from Macca himself. The band’s oft-overlooked 1971 debut Wild Life gets its due with more than 25 bonus tracks and a DVD featuring acoustic home videos, rehearsals and behind-the-scenes footage. (One particular standout is the intimate home demo of “Dear Friend,” a musical peace offering to John Lennon penned during the height of their post-Beatles spat.) Their 1973 follow-up, Red Rose Speedway is included in its original double-disc incarnation — plus all of the B-sides, alternate mixes and unreleased tracks you could wish for — and the seldom-seen 1973 television special James Paul McCartney is given its first official release at long last.
Source: Jordan Runtagh/people.com
