The Beatles’ co-lead vocalist and bassist, Paul McCartney recently shared a story on his Instagram account and expressed his happiness considering the great success of the first single ‘Kiss of Venus‘ of his upcoming ‘McCartney III Imagine‘ album.
As you may recall, the world-renown rockstar who achieved worldwide fame as the bassist of The Beatles, released his 18th solo album ‘McCartney III‘ on December 18, 2020. The album was highly appreciated by both fans and critics who applauded Paul’s ability to always create original music.
Following that, on March 11, McCartney announced that he has been working on the remaking of his most recent album in collaboration with young musicians, such as Phoebe Bridgers, Blood Orange, Josh Homme, St. Vincent, Beck, Dominic Fike, and many more. The album which will be called ‘McCartney III Imagine‘ will include remixes and covers of the original songs in each artist’s ‘own signature styles.’
Source: Selin Hayat Hacialioglu/metalheadzone.com
As the nation mourns the loss of Prince Philip, British celebrities have been sharing their tributes to the Duke of Edinburgh on social media. Most recently two knights of the realm in Sir Tom Jones and The Beatles drummer Sir Ringo Starr have shared photos from over 50 years ago with The Queen’s late husband. Sir Tom Jones, who Her Majesty knighted in 2006, posted a picture of himself and Prince Philip laughing at the 1969 Royal Variety Performance.
Famously, Prince Philip had asked Sir Tom Jones after his performance that night: “What do you gargle with, pebbles?”
While the next day delivering another one of his famous gaffes, he added: “It’s difficult to see how it’s possible to become immensely valuable by singing what are the most hideous songs.”
And on another occasion talking about how difficult it is to get rich in Britain, the Duke said: “What about Tom Jones? He’s made a million and he’s a bloody awful singer.”
Nevertheless, Sir Tom obviously took it all in his stride writing on Instagram: “Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh: an incredible individual who always reminded us we are all human. Forever grateful, Sir Tom details
On 13 September 1969, John Lennon – the Beatle most quickly heading for the exit door – played the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival under the name Plastic Ono Band. For the first time he appeared on stage with his wife of six months, Yoko Ono. She and Lennon had been together since 1967, but within and without the Beatles’ industrial-cultural complex the Japanese artist remained, as dutifully inscribed rock lore has it, a divisive figure.
Yet performing that night in Canada, as she took her place alongside her husband, Ono was united as an artist with perhaps the greatest songwriter in the world. Was there, finally, a feeling of acceptance from Lennon’s fans?
“I don’t know about that. I still don’t feel that John’s fans are accepting me,” Ono, who is now 88, replied when I asked her that question 11 years ago. “I don’t know who’s really John’s fans, and who’s really John and Yoko fans. The Beatles fans, some of them really denounced John in a way. So I don’t know who’s who. So whenever I create something – make an album or something – I never think about who’s gonna listen to it. It’s a w details
Former Beatle John Lennon was gunned down in front of his New York City home in December of 1980.
Of the three remaining Beatles – Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr – only the band’s drummer, Starr, immediately went to visit Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono.
Ono, however, refused to see Starr’s fiancée Barbara Bach.
Shot several times outside his Dakota building home by a deranged fan in December of 1980, Lennon died almost immediately. The night of his shooting, an ABC producer was injured in a motorcycle accident and like Lennon, was rushed to St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan (now called Mount Sinai West).
He may have been injured almost at the same time as the ambush on Lennon outside of his home at The Dakota building.
Source: cheatsheet.com
detailsAfter his Happy Days tenure and even longer after his eight-year run on The Andy Griffith Show, actor Ron Howard began his directing career in earnest.
He directed Grand Theft Auto in 1977, after which he moved on to a few well-received television movies (including one starring the legendary Bette Davis). But in 1982, Howard showed he was more than capable of a big commercial hit with the comedic film set in a morgue, Night Shift.
Night Shift starred former Happy Days alum Henry Winkler and introduced rising actor Michael Keaton. The movie also gave a big break to an actor that got noticed in, of all places, a Ringo Starr film.
Source: cheatsheet.com
detailsJulian Lennon was born on April 8, 1963. His father was one of the most famous men in the world but left his mother, Cynthia Lennon when he was just five years old. Paul McCartney wrote the song Dear Jude (originally Dear Jules) to comfort the heartbroken little boy. 12 years later, just when father and son were starting to build a new relationship. John Lennon was murdered outside his New York home. But Julian still remembers the last time they spoke and how "extremely happy" the Beatles star was in his personal and professional lives.
Growing up, Julian saw relatively little of his father. John built a new separate life with Yoko Ono Over and they eventually had a son together, Sean, in 1975.
Over the years, John had been a little unkind speaking about his first family and famously saying Sean had been planned whereas Julian was the result of drinking too much.
But John and Yoko had separated for 18 months in 1973 and the Beatles star's new girlfriend May Pang encouraged him to spend time with Julian. Even so, John was based in America, focusing on his own music and then he reunited with Yoko and started a new family.
Source: Stefan Kyriazis/express.co.uk
All of The Beatles were fans of Dylan, even before they met in 1964. But of all of them, it was George who became a close, lifelong friend. Any interview with George in his last decade almost always includes quotations from songs by “the man,” as George referred to him. He’d then recite a line or two of these sacred verses, like a believer reciting a Gospel passage.
After Dylan’s motorcycle accident in 1968, Bob moved with his family to Woodstock. It’s there he wrote a lot of new songs and recorded demos of them – which became The Basement Tapes – with the Band in their house Big Pink. It was one of the most peaceful and productive periods of his life, off the road, reflective, recovering his full artistic powers and writing a whole new kind of song.
This is when Dylan and George wrote “I’d Have You Anytime.” It was November 20, 1968, four years beyond their initial meeting.
Source: americansongwriter.com
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The Beatles were a major force in popular culture, however, Ringo Starr still felt “weighed down” by the Fab Four many years after their breakup. He revealed why the experience of being a former Beatle could be “heavy.” Here’s a look at what he had to say — and whether being a Beatles weighed him down commercially.
In 1992, Ringo gave an interview to Rolling Stone’s David Wild. During the interview, Wild mentioned a song John Lennon wrote for Ringo called “I’m the Greatest.” He cited the song’s line “I was in the greatest show on earth” as an example of Ringo’s “ambivalence” about his time in The Beatles.
“Of course that was John Lennon’s line,” Ringo said. “But sure, there have been times when I felt weighed down by it I’m still weighed down by it I mean, I’m sitting here, and I’m all excited about the new product, and you’re still going to be asking me about those days. Everybody wants to talk about those days, and sometimes it gets heavy for me. Right now that waitress is not looking at me as Richard Starkey. It’s Mr. Starr to her. It’s the Beatle, not eve details
John Lennon’s 1970 album “John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band” was his first song-based album following the dissolution of the Beatles—he’d previously released three avant-garde albums with Yoko Ono —and 50 years on it remains his most highly regarded solo work. Freed from the commercial demands of recording with the most successful band in the world, Lennon drew inspiration from within: He and Ms. Ono had recently undergone a new kind of therapy introduced by psychologist Arthur Janov, based on his book “The Primal Scream.” The therapeutic process involved re-experiencing childhood trauma and Lennon had plenty to work through—he barely knew his father and was removed from his mother’s care at age 5; she died when he was still a teenager. Co-producer Phil Spector helped realize the heady mix of fear, anguish and catharsis found on songs like “Mother,” “Working Class Hero” and “God.” “Raw” is typically the first adjective deployed to describe “John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band” and it’s not just referring to the lyrical content: The LP’s dark and atmospheric presence gives it a special mood.
Source: Mar details
Every day throughout 1964, a postman called Eric Clague would deliver another bulging sack of fan letters to 20 Forthlin Road, Liverpool, where Paul McCartney had been brought up, and where his father still lived.
That year, The Beatles were the four most famous young men in the world. In the first week of April, all top five singles in the American charts were by The Beatles.
Who was Eric Clague? Six years before, he had been a junior constable in the Liverpool police force.
On July 15, 1958, while off-duty, he had been driving a standard Vanguard sedan along Menlove Avenue when a 44-year-old woman stepped into his path. He braked, but too late: his car hit the woman, hurling her into the air.
An ambulance arrived, but there was nothing to be done. Julia Lennon was dead.
At that time, Eric Clague was a learner driver who was not supposed to be driving alone. His case was brought to court. Though an onlooker claimed Clague had been speeding, he denied it. The jury chose to believe him, and returned a verdict of misadventure.
Source: Craig Brown/dailymail.co.uk
If there are two things you would never instinctively put together, it’s The Beatles and Lewisham.
But once upon a time, the international pop stars played two gigs in the South London borough.
The first concert in March 1963 was before Beatlemania had really begun, while the latter in December 1963 was everything you would expect from the 60s icons.
There were screaming girls, uncontrollable crowds, and the streets were overflowing with people eager to catch a glimpse of the group.
They played their first gig at Lewisham’s Odeon Cinema on March 29 and performed a number of hits including Love Me Do and Please, Please Me.
Source: Ruby Gregory/mylondon.news
detailsOn August 17, 1960, the Beatles kicked off one of their earliest professional gigs—a months-long residency at the Indra Club in Hamburg, Germany. Over the next two years, the budding British rock stars, who’d struggled to book venues in their hometown of Liverpool, continued to perform regularly in the German city.
“We had to learn millions of songs because we’d be on for hours,” guitarist George Harrison later recalled, as quoted by the Los Angeles Times’ Dean R. Owen. “Hamburg was really like our apprenticeship, learning how to play in front of people.”
Now, reports Richard Brooks for the Observer, a trove of largely unseen letters, photographs and work permits from this pivotal period is set to go up for auction. The mementos—including a 1963 missive in which Paul McCartney discusses the release of the band’s first LP, Please Please Me, as well as sketches and poems by John Lennon—will go under the hammer at the London-based auction house Bonhams on May 5.
Source: Isis Davis-Marks/smithsonianmag.com
detailsJane Asher met the Beatles on April 18, 1963, at the Royal Albert Hall. The band had exploded onto the scene after their second single, Please Please Me, topped the charts that January, followed by three more singles and the album of the same name. Jane was only 17 but she was already famous herself as a child star and young actress in films like The Prince and the Pauper and television's Robin Hood series. She was also a panelist on the BBC's hugely popular and influential Juke Box Jury, which rated new music releases. She had already caught Paul's eye.
Paul later said: "I met Jane Asher when she was sent by the Radio Times to cover a concert we were in at the Royal Albert Hall – we had a photo taken with her for the magazine and we all fancied her.
"We’d thought she was blonde, because we had only ever seen her on black-and-white telly doing Juke Box Jury, but she turned out to be a redhead. So it was: ‘Wow, you’re a redhead!’
"I tried pulling her, succeeded, and we were boyfriend and girlfriend for quite a long time."
Source: Stefan Kyriazis/express.co.uk
The members of The Beatles were more than just bandmates, their relationships with one another were more like that of brothers.
The band’s drummer Ringo Starr recalled decades after John Lennon’s death the surprise and emotion he felt at hearing the voice of his old friend speaking directly to him on a recording Starr hadn’t been aware of.
Lennon wrote ‘Grow Old With Me’
Recorded a month before Lennon was gunned down in front of his New York City home in 1980, “Grow Old With Me” was eventually released on a posthumous Lennon album called Milk and Honey.
The album also featured two songs that received abundant radio airplay: “Nobody Told Me” and “I’m Steppin’ Out.”
The song’s opening lines are ‘Grow old along with me / The best is yet to be,’ quoted from poet Robert Browning’s 1864 work “Rabbi ben Ezra.”
Rolling Stone in a review of the album stated that Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono’s liner notes “consciously adopted the image of [the Lennons] as the reincarnation of Victorian poets Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning for Milk and Honey.”
detailsLetters and memorabilia from The Beatles’ time in Hamburg are set to go up for auction in London next month.
The iconic band played over 250 shows in the German city between August 1960 and December 1962, with their time gigging and some of the relationships they formed there helping to propel them to fame in the UK and beyond.
The new auction lot will include previously unseen letters, work permits, photos, drawings, poems and more. Some of the items were sent by the band to photographer Astrid Kirchherr, who was engaged to former Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe after meeting them in Hamburg.
The group were close with Kirchherr and wrote to her when they were back in the UK. In one letter that is going up for auction, George Harrison invited her to visit him and Ringo Starr in their new flat and instructed her not to put his name on the envelope when she wrote back.
Source: Rhian Daly/nme.com
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