Beatles News
Where were you on the night of Wednesday, Aug 19, 1964? I had just turned 9, and quite likely was at home watching my favorite shows: “The Ozzie and Harriet Show,” “The Patty Duke Show,” then my favorite show of the week, “Shindig.”
However, some 40 miles away at the Cow Palace in Daly City, 17,130 mostly young people were gathered to witness history. That night, The Beatles opened their first tour of the United States.
Sixty years ago this coming Thursday, the Fab Four headlined a show that also had The Bill Black Combo, The Exciters, The Righteous Brothers and Jackie DeShannon on the bill.
When the Beatles finally took the stage at about 9:20 p.m., the assembled crowd, overwhelmingly young and primarily female, went nuts, out of their minds nuts. Nuts like a crowd had never been nuts before.
The band played a very short set by today’s standards, but it was stopped twice by the police as they need to restore order in the hall after the stage was pelted by jelly beans, a rumored favorite treat of George Harrison. The delays extended the band’s on stage time to 38 minutes.
They played 12 songs:”Twist and Shout,” “You Can’t Do That,” “All My Loving,” ”She Loves You,” “Things We Said Today,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “If I Fell,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “Boys,” “A Hard Day’s Night” and“Long Tall Sally.” Short and oh, so sweet.
Source: TIM CURLEY/sonomanews.com
A new documentary exploring the time John Lennon and Yoko Ono became daytime talk show hosts is set to hit theaters this fall.
Deadline reports that Daytime Revolution, directed by Erik Nelson, will debut in theaters across the country on Oct. 9, which would have been Lennon’s 84th birthday. It focuses on the week in February 1972 when Lennon and Ono produced and co-hosted the popular daytime talk show The Mike Douglas Show.
According to the description, the film “takes us back in time, as we observe John and Yoko interacting with a transfixed studio audience in revealing Q and A sessions where John Lennon was astonishingly candid about his life after the Beatles.”
Guests during their hosting gig were picked by the pair and included activist Jerry Rubin, Black Panther Bobby Seale and Ralph Nader. There were also musical performances, with Lennon performing a duet with guest Chuck Berry and also performing his classic tune “Imagine.”
Source: wdrv.com
George Harrison didn’t get a plethora of cuts while with the Beatles. Paul McCartney and John Lennon pretty much had a monopoly on the songwriting. However, the cuts he did get proved to be timeless classics. There was one Harrison-penned song in particular that nearly didn’t receive a wide release. Find out which titular Beatles song fans almost missed out on, below.
Meaning Behind “You’re in My Heart' by Rod Stewart and the Famous Girl Who Inspired It
The Beatles Hit George Harrison Almost Didn’t Release: “That’s Too Easy”
“Something” was one of Harrison’s shining moments in the Beatles. It has fascinated guitar players for decades and remains a Beatles staple. Nevertheless, Harrison didn’t believe in the song when it first came to him.
“I just put it on ice for six months because I thought, ‘That’s too easy’,” Harrison once said.
Something in the way she moves
Attracts me like no other lover
Something in the way she woos me
I don’t want to leave her now
You know I believe and how
This ballad is a little black and white. It has little surprises in its simplistic melody. However, sometimes there doesn’t need to be anything flashy to make a song great. Sometimes all that is required are some well crafted lyrics and a memorable chord progression. Harrison certainly achieved that here.
Source: Alex Hopper/americansongwriter.com
London-born Angeleno and prominent Beatles expert Martin Lewis will speak on his favorite subject on Friday, 8/23—60 years to the day after the Fabs’ landmark performance at the Hollywood Bowl.
He describes “The Greatest Beatles Story NEVER Told!”—which will take place at the Philosophical Research Society in Los Feliz—as a TED Talk-style event that will recount The Beatles’ conquest of North America, including the band’s breakthrough hit, “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” and their pivotal appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, which drew a massive audience of 73 million.
Part of the discussion will focus on Brian Epstein, their late manager, “who was both Jewish and gay in England at a time when it was no picnic to be either,” Lewis noted in an email. “I was only one of those two minorities—and that was hard enough.”
“They went viral before there was viral,” Lewis said in an interview with the Jewish Journal. “And this was all thanks to Epstein. No Brian, no Beatles. They said so themselves in different ways while they were together. Without him, they wouldn’t have gotten out of Liverpool. Paul even referred to him as the fifth Beatle.”
Source: hitsdailydouble.com
Paul McCartney is set to play Costa Rica for the first time in more than a decade.
The two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer just added a Costa Rica date to his Got Back tour. He will be playing Estadio Nacional in San Jose on Nov. 5.
A ticket presale kicks off Aug. 19 at 10 a.m., with tickets going on sale to the general public Aug. 24 at 10 a.m.
The last time McCartney performed in San Jose was in May 2014 during his Out There tour, with the show also happening at Estadio Nacional.
The 2024 leg of McCartney’s Got Back tour will kick off Oct. 10 in Uruguay, with confirmed dates in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Europe and the U.K. It wraps with a two-night stand at London’s O2 Arena, Dec. 18 and 19. A complete list of dates can be found at paulmccartney.com.
Source: Real Rock News
The Beatles were more than a rock band. They were a cultural phenomenon. As their music evolved, each individual Beatle began contributing material, and musical differences became inevitable. During the sessions for the White Album, drummer Ringo Starr left the band for two weeks. Shortly thereafter, during the “Get Back” rehearsals, guitarist George Harrison quit the group for five days before he was lured back into the fold. The following year, the band argued about who should handle their business affairs. Paul McCartney urged his bandmates to hire entertainment lawyers Lee and John Eastman, but was outvoted in favor of Allen Klein, who had also represented Sam Cooke and The Rolling Stones.
After recording Abbey Road, John Lennon informed the rest of the group he was leaving The Beatles, but it was unclear if it was permanent. He had already released two albums with Yoko Ono. On April 9, 1970, McCartney put out a press release to announce his first solo album. He stated he was no longer working with the group, and the media jumped on the story with headlines of “Paul Breaks Up The Beatles.” Lawsuits followed, but McCartney had already turned his attention to his solo career. Let’s take a look at the story behind “Maybe I’m Amazed” by Paul McCartney.
Meaning Behind “You’re in My Heart' by Rod Stewart and the Famous Girl Who Inspired It
Maybe I’m amazed at the way you love me all the time
Maybe I’m afraid of the way I love you
Maybe I’m amazed at the way you pulled me out of time
You hung me on a line
Maybe I’m amazed at the way I really need you
Linda McCartney
Source: Jay McDowell/americansongwriter.com
New documentaries about Elton John and The Beatles are part of the New York Film Festival’s Spotlight section, which showcases the most notable fall releases.
Elton John: Never Too Late, co-directed by R.J. Cutler and Elton’s husband, David Furnish, follows Elton during his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, with the description noting it “offers keen insight into a life and career marked by soaring highs and crushing lows, and contemplates a legacy defined equally by advocacy and artistry.” Elton, Furnish and Cutler are expected to attend the premiere.
Also premiering at the festival is TWST / Things We Said Today, from Romanian director Andrei Ujica, about The Beatles’ 1965 trip to New York to headline Shea Stadium, and Pavements, a “rule-flouting sorta-documentary” about Stephen Malkmus and the band Pavement.
Elton’s doc is getting its U.S. premiere at the festival; it’s already set to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, which runs from Sept. 5 to Sept. 15. Meanwhile, TWST / Things We Said Today and Pavements are getting their North American premieres, with both set to debut at the Venice Film Festival, which runs from Aug. 28 to Sept. 7.
The New York Film Festival takes place Sept 27. to Oct. 14.
Source: mikeeves@wxhc.com
When it comes to The Beatles, it was often Paul McCartney and John Lennon who got the most shine. After that duo, George Harrison was considered the next best artist and songwriter. And then there was Ringo Starr, the comic relief, the peace sign-waving, smiling drummer, who often felt like he was put over on the side on a riser and left to his own devices.
But once the former mop tops split up, music fans got to see more of Ringo as a bandleader, songwriter, recording artist, and performer, and much of what he put out into the world was appreciated on a new level. Here below, we wanted to explore three such songs. A trio of tracks from Starr that have since stood the test of time.
When they were with The Beatles, Ringo and George Harrison were known to write songs together, including the hit “Octopus’s Garden.” But here the two collaborated on this single from Starr’s self-titled 1973 LP Ringo. The Gold-selling track, which the two began writing in France in 1971, is about the value of a photograph and how it can sometimes be the last remaining element from an otherwise cherished relationship. Love is beautiful but is also fleeting. And Ringo sings of this fact on the track, offering,
Ev’ry time I see your face,
It reminds me of the places we used to go.
But all I got is a photograph
And I realize you’re not coming back anymore.
I thought I’d make it the day you went away,
But I can’t make it
Till you come home again to stay.
I can’t get used to living here,
While my heart is broke, my tears I cried for you.
I want you here to have and hold,
As the years go by and we grow old and grey.
“It Don’t Come Easy” from Ringo (1971)
Source: Jacob Uitti/americansongwriter.com
From uneven songwriting credits to incessant in-fighting, the tense interpersonal dynamics of the Fab Four manifested in plenty of ways, including the future George Harrison hit the Beatles ironically rejected. The song was one of countless Harrison suggestions the band ultimately turned down, opting instead to prioritize the creative songwriting partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
However, the charts spoke for themselves. The song would later become a No. 1 U.S. hit for the “Quiet Beatle.” This accolade bested his bandmate, John Lennon, by one chart-topping hit.
Five months before the Beatles would make their Ed Sullivan Show debut, sparking a wave of Beatlemania across the States, a still unknown George Harrison visited his sister in rural Illinois. (A roadside memorial marks the early 1960s occasion, one of several unique tributes built in Harrison’s honor.) While there, Harrison perused a local record shop. He picked up Presenting James Ray, which featured “I’ve Got My Mind Set On You” as the first track.
Harrison immediately took to the song and offered it to his bandmates as a potential cover. As the story goes, his bandmates rejected the idea because it wasn’t original material. This would’ve made sense had the band committed to recording and performing all original music at the onset of their career, but, of course, that wasn’t the case. Some of their most famous hits in their early career were covers, including “Twist and Shout” and “Please Mister Postman.”
Source: Melanie Davis/americansongwriter.com
Alan Parsons reflected on the time working as an engineer for The Beatles, revealing what this experience was really like.
Before making a name as an artist with The Alan Parsons Project, young Alan started his career as an engineer. During the 1960s and the 1970s, he had the chance to work with none other than The Beatles and Pink Floyd, two of the most influential rock bands of all time. The experience was, without a doubt, more than valuable for his career as Alan goes down in rock music history as one of the most important figures.
Of course, if you've worked with The Beatles, it's impossible to avoid questions about the experience. Speaking to Rick Beato in a recent interview, Alan Parsons opened up on the experience, confirming what most of us might have expected.
"It was The Beatles — of course it was historic," Alan said with a laugh when Rick asked about the matter (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar). "But no, I was enjoying every minute. And I said, 'Thank you. This is the this is the greatest experience I've ever had.'"
Source: Ultimate Guitar
