Beatles News
The Beatles’ music and their ability to elicit intense emotional reactions from their audience go hand in hand when defining their cultural legacy, but one of the biggest controversies the band ever faced (thanks in no small part to John Lennon) had the potential to derail their career entirely by alienating their U.S. audience.
Of course, in the end, not even the staunchest of American critics could hold back the massive tidal wave of Beatlemania that crashed into countries around the world throughout the 1960s. John Lennon’s Words Came Back To Haunt Him In 1966
When Maureen Cleave first published her interview with John Lennon in the Evening Standard, few Brits batted an eyelash when reading the Beatle’s cheeky comments about the guitarist’s home life, the gorilla suit he bought for a band prank that only he participated in, and, of course, his dry commentary about the Beatles versus Jesus Christ. At a time when Lennon and the rest of the band were heavily investing in Eastern philosophy, practices, and perspectives, he waxed cynical about religion.
“Christianity will go,” he told Cleave. “It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that. I’m right, and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now. I don’t know which will go first—rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.” The London Evening Standard published the conversation on March 4, 1966.
Nearly five months later, on July 29, 1966, U.S. teen magazine Datebook republished Lennon’s comments, out of context, in a section that the publication titled, “The Ten Adults You Dig/Hate The Most.” American audiences had a much different reaction to Lennon joking about his band being more popular than Jesus. Seemingly overnight, the Beatles’ massive fan base in the United States began to fracture.
One Of The Beatles’ Biggest Controversies Of Their Career
As one of the most significant rock bands of the decade, the Beatles were certainly no strangers to fans’ intense emotional reactions and propensity for crossing boundaries. But the way John Lennon’s comments incensed American Christians created one of the biggest controversies of the Beatles’ career. The backlash to his comparison of the Beatles to Jesus far surpassed the initial hesitation older crowds had with the Fab Four when they first burst onto the scene. This was intense and potentially violent.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Melanie Davis
We often think about the Beatles’ infamous breakup within the context of the music and cultural movements they were promoting throughout the 1960s, but the ramifications of that split went far beyond the music charts or trends of the day and deep into the center of the lives of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. These men weren’t just losing bandmates. They were growing apart from the friends they had since they were in their formative late teens and early 20s.
During a 2016 special edition of BBC Radio 4 Mastertapes, McCartney talked about the emotional impact of splitting up the Fab Four—an experience he likened to a popular barbershop song from 1929.
By the time the Beatles officially split up, tensions were so high that it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume they couldn’t wait to get as far away from each other as possible. But as every ex-Beatle attested after the split, the business dealings and creative disagreements became too much for the band to bear. After less than a decade together, the Liverpudlian quartet broke up and began going their separate ways personally and musically.
Paul McCartney had no qualms about admitting that the entire experience left him “depressed.” “You would be,” he insisted, before busting out into a quick snippet of Lesley Gore’s “It’s My Party.” (You would cry, too, if it happened to you.) “It was very depressing,” McCartney continued, switching back to his normal speaking voice. “You were breaking from your lifelong friends. We used to liken it to the army, where you’d been army buddies for a few years, and now, you weren’t going to see them again.”
Source: americansongwriter.com/Melanie Davis
As any band that has parted ways and continued solo will tell you, it’s impossible not to be compared to your former bandmates. Even in the most amicable of situations, it’s always a competition to see who can come out on top. The Beatles suffered these kinds of comparisons after they parted ways. While most of them took it in stride, John Lennon was personally offended after being compared to one of his Beatles bandmates. Find out which one below.
If we had to compare the solo careers of two former Beatles, the easiest connection would be Lennon and George Harrison. They both had something to say with their music that extended far beyond the typical love song or ode to heartbreak. They were both free thinkers who had no problem alienating listeners who were less so.
However, if you dissect what both Lennon and Harrison were saying with their music, you’ll find two people on opposite sides of a religious battle. Though they both penned songs about more than just faith, their opposing views in this arena summarize their differences—differences Lennon wanted people not to miss.
Lennon was markedly anti-faith. He wrote many songs about his disillusionment with religion. Harrison, however, was staunch in his Hindu beliefs. In one interview, Lennon’s solo music was compared to Harrison’s. Lennon bit back.
“We’re not talking about that anyway,” Lennon once said. “We’re talking about social revolution in England. It’s hard not to compare with George, even for us. But I don’t want to be compared with George. Why should I be compared with George?”
Source: americansongwriter.com/Alex Hopper
There is no denying that the Beatles are one of the world's most iconic bands in music history — having a heavy influence on wide-ranging aspects of peoples' lives since they formed back in 1960. In 1964, they first set foot in America, and Beatlemania took over the world, which is documented in the 2024 film Beatles '64 — and will soon be detailed on the big screen too, in FOUR new Beatles movies!
During their 10-year reign, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr made a huge cultural impact with their influences on music, fashion and even film. In 2023, the band released their 'final' song, 'Now and Then', which became their 18th Number 1 after 54 years and in 2025, they won Best Rock Performance at the Grammys! Now take a look back at their iconic career, as their album 'Help!' celebrates its 60th anniversary on 6th August 2025.
Let's take a look at where it all began back in 1957, bringing us classics such as 'Hey Jude', 'Come Together', 'Help!' and 'Here Comes The Sun'.
Why did the Beatles break up?
While a mix of complex factors contributed to the disbandment of the Beatles, it is most commonly thought that creative differences had the largest impact and ultimately led to the band breaking up.
As their fame grew and the members matured, their individual artistic visions began to diverge and this caused disagreements about the Beatles' musical direction - as well as songwriting credits. It is also thought that John Lennon's relationship with Yoko Ono saw him refocus his efforts into other artistic endeavours and his personal life.
The death of the band's manager - Brian Epstein, who managed them from 1961 - also saw the Beatles struggle. Following Brian's death in 1967, they struggled to manage their own business affairs, and on top of creative differences began to have disagreements over contracts and finances.
Are the Beatles still alive?
Sadly not all of the original members of the Beatles are still with us today, with John Lennon's tragic death in 1980 and George Harrison's sad passing in 2001. In December 2020, friends, family and fans paid tribute to the late John Lennon, 40 years after his heartbreaking death, and the following year friends of George Harrison got together to create a music video for ‘My Sweet Lord’ for the song's 50th anniversary in tribute to the musician.
In 2023, Paul McCartney announced he had recorded a 'final' Beatles song with the help of AI to recreate John Lennon's vocals. The song was released along with a documentary on YouTube, called Now And Then - The Last Beatles Song.
Source: hellorayo.co.uk/Georgie Holland
Some never-before-seen photographs from Paul Saltzman's Beatles in India series are on display at Toronto's Markham Street Gallery
Paul Saltzman’s Beatles in India photos came as a result of a serendipitous meeting
A group of people wearing flower garlands sit cross legged on a platform. In 1968, filmmaker Paul Saltzman went to India and took some photographs of the Beatles that eventually became very famous. These photos would form the basis of a book, as well as a show, on now, at the Markham Street Gallery in Toronto.
But at the time, Saltzman didn't go to India with the intent of having a book or a gallery show or even photographing the Beatles at all. He didn't even know they were there. He went because he was having an existential crisis.
Saltzman says that, at the time, he had everything he could have wanted; he had a budding career in film, an apartment in Montreal, a girlfriend and a cool car. But one morning, he woke up and realized: "there were parts of myself I didn't like, and I wasn't a very self-reflective person, so that was a shock." Sitting on the edge of his bed, he asked himself what he was supposed to do about that, and he heard "a deep inner voice that was all calming and all loving." It was a voice that he describes as that of "his soul." And that voice told him to get out of his environment, and specifically, to head to India.
So he did. He got a gig as the sound engineer on a National Film Board documentary crew heading to India — despite having no experience doing sound. Unfortunately, his trip didn't go quite as he planned. While he was away, he received a letter from his girlfriend back in Canada, dumping him.
"I was shattered," he says. "I was devastated. I've had heartbreaks … and that was the worst heartbreak I've had in my whole life, including two marriages that went south."
An acquaintance told him to try meditation to get over the heartbreak, which led him to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram in Rishikesh. Unfortunately, when he got there, he was told by one of the Maharishi's assistants that he could not come in "at this time," because the Beatles were there and the ashram was closed to the public.
Source: cbc.ca/Chris Dart
December 8, 2025, will mark 45 years since the senseless murder of John Lennon. And all these years later, it still remains one of rock's greatest tragedies: not only did it spell the end once and for all of any potential Beatles reunion, but also the fact that Lennon appeared to be gearing up for a highly productive creative period, after being out of the limelight for several years.
This leaves one to wonder what projects he had in the works for 1981. Over the years, quite a few people who worked closely with Lennon dropped a few hints as to what he had in the pipeline. Lennon's biggest plan for 1981 appeared to be the launch of his first-ever substantial solo tour in support of his most recent album, "Double Fantasy," which was released on November 17, 1980, less than a month before his death.
In the 2020 book, "John Winston Ono Lennon", the bassist in Plastic Ono Elephant's Memory Band, Gary Van Scyoc, recalled a conversation he had with Lennon concerning this topic. "We talked on the phone, and he said, 'I'm hoping to go out. I don't know who would want to do it – whether Tony Levin [who had played on 'Double Fantasy'] would want to tour.' I said, 'Put my name on the list,' and he said I'd be the first person he'd call. And that's the last time I spoke to him."
However, Cheap Trick's Bun E. Carlos made it seem like Lennon had another plan in mind for his "tour-that-never-was."
"Then after Lennon got shot, the next year we started to hear things like, 'Oh, he loved working with you guys [on a version of 'I'm Losing You']. He wanted you to be in his band when he toured. He wanted to use Cheap Trick as his band.'"
In addition to touring in the immediate future, Lennon also appeared eager to work on a solo album by his wife, Yoko Ono, with whom he had collaborated on "Double Fantasy." This would later be confirmed as fact when it came to light that earlier in the evening, when Lennon was fatally shot, he had been working on the Ono song "Walking on Thin Ice" at the Record Plant. The song would be issued as a single on February 6, 1981.
As renowned rock photographer and Lennon friend Bob Gruen later explained, "Because Yoko had gotten good reviews [on 'Double Fantasy'], they decided to immediately do a single – a new record – with Yoko, which was 'Walking on Thin Ice.' That's what they were working on that night in December, in the studio. They wanted to get a new single out, to capitalize on the fact that the critics seemed to suddenly like her."
"So, we were talking about how in December, he was going to take a couple of weeks off after finishing that record for the holidays, and then come back in January, and he was going to get a band together and make some videos to promote the record. Then in February, start rehearsing with the band, and by March, was going to go out on a tour all around the world. So, we were up until dawn."
And speaking of videos, MTV was still half a year away from being launched at the time of Lennon's death. However, the ex-Beatle could apparently sense the value of the format, as he was working on a video clip for his hit single, "(Just Like) Starting Over," around this time. However, despite a photo existing from the video shoot (of Lennon sitting in an all-white room), the music video was never completed, nor was footage ever released.
According to an interview with Yoko Ono in an interview quote in the aforementioned "John Winston Ono Lennon" book, music video was not the only visual medium she felt her husband would have embraced in the future.
"He would be so excited about the computer stuff. Because we all kept saying, 'global village.' But now it really is a global village through the computer, through the internet, etc. And John was the kind of person that would jump on it. He would be using the art shelf stuff to create computer art and also he would be sending messages to the whole world."
Getting back to his plans for 1981, Lennon also appeared set on not only playing on Ringo Starr's next solo album, "Stop and Smell the Roses" (which also included appearances by the other Beatles, Paul McCartney and George Harrison), but he was planning on offering Starr two originals of his to cover for the LP: "Nobody Told Me" and "Life Begins at 40." However, after Lennon's death, Starr declined to record them.
Source: Ultimate Guitar
Ringo Starr’s energy shows no sign of waning, even though the celebrated musician recently turned 85. After more than six decades in the spotlight, the legendary drummer is not only still touring, he’s expanding his musical horizons in ways few could have expected, and continuing to produce more new music.
Just months after releasing Look Up, his first full-length in more than half a decade, Starr recently shared some good news via an announcement that confirms that more new work is on the way.
A Follow-Up to Look Up
In a video Starr shared recently on YouTube, the former Beatle revealed that he is already working on a new album, and the project sees him reuniting with the producer who helped him produce his latest genre-shifting effort.
“I’m in the studio here now doing another album with T Bone [Burnett]. Thank you, Lord. Woo. Yeah,” he said in the clip. He jokingly referred to the album’s working title as Look Up Two, but then added with a smile, “I don’t think it’ll be called that.”
Few Details Are Available
For the moment, details about Starr’s upcoming album are scarce, but that’s likely only because it’s still early days when it comes to putting the project together. The set, which doesn’t have a real title or release date yet, will be Starr’s twenty-second as a soloist.
Source: forbes.com/Hugh McIntyre
The Beatles shocked their fans by releasing one of their most controversial albums at the height of their fame, one that stood as their first major political statement
The Beatles became one of the most successful acts in music virtually overnight with their fresh sound and incredible songs.
While some were unprepared for the changes the Fab Four ushered into music and pop culture at the time, diehard fans continuously fell in love with them. Besides what they brought the world in the early 1960s, they didn't truly rattle listeners until they released one of their most controversial albums, one that stood as their first major political statement.
In 1966, The Beatles released the album Yesterday and Today, which had a cover so grotesque that their record label pulled it. It featured the band surrounded by pieces of raw meat and decapitated baby dolls. As a result, copies featuring the original image are very difficult to come by, but one copy recently went up for auction and sold for a whopping five-figure value.
Yesterday and Today's disgusting album image seemed to come out of left field for The Beatles. They'd never done anything like it, as their previous albums had simply featured them posing by themselves. So, it's no surprise that the controversial album cover made waves amongst their fans and the music industry.
Source: Hannah Furnell/themirror.com
Ringo Starr famously stated that neither he nor his fellow Beatles bandmates (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison) could read sheet music. He humorously recalled that their biggest fear about joining a musicians' union was being forced to read music, as they were all self-taught musicians. Despite this, they achieved significant musical success, with Ringo Starr contributing both as a drummer and vocalist, and even writing and co-writing several songs.
Self-taught musicians:
The Beatles were primarily a band that learned by ear and through experience, rather than formal music education.
Union concerns:
Starr's anecdote about the Nashville musicians' union highlights their initial apprehension about being required to read music.
Ringo's musical contributions:
Despite the lack of formal music reading skills, Ringo Starr was a vital part of the Beatles' sound, both as a drummer and vocalist.
Songwriting:
Starr also contributed as a songwriter, composing and singing "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden" and co-writing other songs.
"There are 4 drummers": The fact that Starr and the other Beatles couldn't read music didn't stop them from becoming one of the most successful bands in history, according to a blog post.
Source: ara
Beatlemania is alive and well on Reddit, where fans have come together in harmony to declare one of George Harrison's songs as their favorite.
A Reddit thread has become a chorus of praise for with many users lauding it as Harrison's most impactful work and a pinnacle in The Beatles' storied catalog.
"Surprisingly no one said 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' yet - masterpiece," commented one enthusiast. "Not only is 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' my favorite song sung by George, it's my favorite Beatles song," another wrote.
The acoustic rendition of the song struck a particular chord among fans. "This is my answer, specifically the acoustic version," penned one Redditor.
"The Love album acoustic version is his greatest masterpiece imo," echoed another, with several voices in the thread resonating with thoughts on how the unplugged variant allowed Harrison's vocal artistry to truly resonate.
One admirer reflected, "To me, the acoustic version shows what an incredible song it really is," while another confessed, "The album version is a classic, but IMO is way overproduced."
Another fan professed their adoration, saying, "Not only is 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' my favorite song sung by George, it's my favorite Beatles song."
Source: the-express.com/Connor McCrory
