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Beatles News
There’s a lot of received wisdom floating around when it comes to the demise of The Beatles and their varying solo careers.
When it comes to George, the story goes like this. Fed up of playing understudy in The Beatles, he spent the band’s final year’s stockpiling incredible tunes that couldn’t get a look in on Lennon and McCartney dominated albums and singles. He then released an amazing triple album, All Things Must Pass, and briefly became the most successful former fab.
He used his cultural currency to organise the first major charity concert, The Concert For Bangladesh, roping in some rockstar mates. After that it was diminishing returns with George letting his solo career trail off to concentrate on producing movies, driving fast cars and shagging Ringo Starr’s wife. Most people know he had a big eighties hit with Got My Mind Set On You and not much else.
Source whatculture.com
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By the spring of 1967, The Beatles were as close to the top of the world as could be. They’d been racking up No. 1 singles and albums for three years straight and had annihilated whatever box-office records existed for bands on tour.
In short, they could do whatever they wanted, and they figured they’d use up some of that credit. After leaving touring behind for good, they decided to make the ultimate studio record. That album, which became Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, took an unprecedented five months to record.
With “A Day in the Life” and other brilliant tracks already down, The Beatles knew they had another masterpiece on their hands. So John Lennon thought it was a perfect time to push the envelope. That’s when he came up with a song based on a tagline from a London phone book.
As Paul McCartney recalled, John didn’t have lyrics beyond “You know my name, look up the number.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
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If you’re a Beatles fan who’s curious about what the Fab Four had on their mind for any particular song, that information is often available. For example, George Harrison spoke of writing “Savoy Truffle” for his friend Eric Clapton (who had quite the sweet tooth).
John Lennon also wasn’t shy about revealing where he’d gotten ideas for his songs. Take the landmark “In My Life” from Rubber Soul. On that track, John was responding to a journalist who asked why John didn’t include memories from his life in his lyrics.
Paul McCartney has also been willing to talk about the inspiration for his tunes. On “Helter Skelter,” for example, Paul wanted to make a hard-rocking song and simply added lyrics referencing an English fairground ride.
When it came to “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window,” John thought Paul had written the track about his first wife, Linda. However, it seems Paul wrote the song about a fan who broke into his home.
Source: cheatsheet.com
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Paul McCartney‘s grandson was recently mugged at knifepoint, as revealed by the Beatles legend himself.
Speaking in a new interview, McCartney said that suspects took his grandson’s mobile phone after he was robbed in London.
Not sharing which grandchild it was, McCartney told The Times that his grandson felt like a “coward” after it happened.
“He was saying the worst thing was that he should have just thumped the guy; he came back and felt a coward,” McCartney explained. “I said, ‘No, no, no, no! The guy had a knife and you don’t know, the guy might be able to use that knife’.”
While discussing his grandson’s ordeal, the Beatle recalled a time during his childhood when he got mugged for his watch.
“When I was a kid it was four guys and they nicked my watch,” he admitted. “I was of a similar age. I just happened to be on my own, bigger kids came along and it was the same feeling. [I thought at the time] ‘I have got to learn karate and be a black belt — and then I’ll get ’em!’ It was the worst thing.”
Source: Will Lavin/nme.com
By early 1968, The Beatles had already made most of their explorations into psychedelic music. Though Yellow Submarine was still to come, “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “Blue Jay Way,” and “I Am the Walrus” were in the past.
After the Magical Mystery Tour film flopped, The Beatles had an urge to get to back to their rock ‘n’ roll roots. The music that would come on The White Album definitely reflects that change in direction. That album, heavy on guitars and piano, featured songs mostly written in India.
From mid-February through March of ’68, all four Beatles spent time practicing transcendental meditation with the Maharishi in Rishikesh. But before they left England, they recorded a single to tide over their fans. That song, written by Paul McCartney, was “Lady Madonna.”
When the band went to record a promotional film (i.e., a video) for “Lady Madonna,” they decided to record a new song by John Lennon instead. That track turned out so well John campaigned for it to go out as the single rather than “Lady Madonna.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
Even for sisters, the bond between them has clearly always been close.
A picture from their childhood shows Mary and Stella McCartney squeezing inside a T-shirt together – and it seems that Sir Paul McCartney’s daughters remain just as inseparable today.
Fashion designer Stella, 47, shared the T-shirt photograph on social media to mark Mary’s 50th birthday on Wednesday. She wrote: ‘Celebrating this soulmate’s birth 50 years ago today. Mary, I love you more than you will ever know, more than I can even put into words. You’re with me every single day... A true stellar sister! x Stella’
Source: Alisha Rouse /dailymail.co.uk
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While nothing was set in stone, The Beatles definitely had a lineup. John Lennon played rhythm guitar; George Harrison played lead guitar; Paul McCartney played bass; and Ringo Starr played drums. When that changed, there was usually a specific reason.
For example, when Paul took over at the drums on “Back in the U.S.S.R.,” he did so out of necessity. After getting fed up with the band during the White Album sessions, Ringo had left town. Paul was simply filling in to keep the train rolling.
When Paul took the guitar solo instead of George on Revolver’s “Taxman,” that happened mostly for efficiency’s sake. In those days, the band — and producer George Martin — didn’t plan to spend as much time on George’s songs as they did on songs written by John or Paul.
Source: cheatsheet.com
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Fifty years ago, in 1969, The Beatles’ created two classic albums — Abbey Road and Let It Be — but outside the studio the four young men had started living very different lives. This reality would lead them to quietly decide to break up in September 1969.
Now, a new PEOPLE special edition, The Beatles: 1969, examines how a year filled with weddings, babies, musical side gigs and money disputes set the stage for the Beatles’ dissolution and the creation of four new careers.
After years as the last bachelor Beatle, Paul McCartney wed Linda Eastman on March 12, 1969, at the Marylebone Registry in London. With that, McCartney was suddenly a man with a pregnant wife (Linda was four months along at the ceremony) and also a 6-year-old stepdaughter, Heather, whom he would later adopt. Mary arrived on Aug. 28, just days after the Beatles’s final recording session as a group. The following year, she made an appearance on the front cover of her dad’s debut solo album, McCartney. Years later, the birth of Stella and James would follow. “My family had loads of kids,” he once said of the large McCartney clan. “You were always being handed a baby.”
Source: Sal details
Paul McCartney was never the most direct songwriter. During his Beatles days, he wrote songs like “I’m Looking Through You” and “We Can Work It Out” about his girlfriend Jane Asher without mentioning her by name. He also wrote several songs about subjects which listeners might never guess.
In “Got to Get You Into My Life,” Paul said he was writing about marijuana. (It sounded like a love song addressed to a woman.) When composing “Blackbird,” Paul had the U.S. civil rights struggle on his mind. (It comes off as an inspirational song addressed to no one specific.)
After he went solo and wanted to needle his old pal John Lennon, Paul again did so obscurely on “Too Many People.” (John responded with a very direct takedown song addressed to Paul.) In short, Paul only named names on rare occasions.
“The Lovely Linda,” addressed to his first wife, is a good example. But Paul had referred to another love in his life by name during his Beatles days. That came on “Martha My Dear” from The White Album (1968).
Source: cheatsheet.com
While The Beatles didn’t go into Abbey Road (1969) declaring it to be their final album, it certainly felt that way to the band members (and producer George Martin). In the previous year and a half, they’d had so many battles in the studio it was difficult to keep track of them.
If Ringo walking out on the band wasn’t a giant red flag, then John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s near-brawl had to be. Then there was the actual fight between John and George Harrison, as well as the fact the band’s Grammy-winning engineer quit during The White Album (1968) sessions.
In short, no one could have been shocked when John told the other Beatles he was quitting a month after they completed Abbey Road. As far as the band’s final statement went, the Fab Four had already made one with the medley on the second side of its last studio album.
Source: cheatsheet.com
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Before we proceed with the album of the week, an abject renewal of one of my pleas to the technological innovators out there.
The Beatles will be marking the 50th anniversary of their second-to-last album, Abbey Road, with a Sept. 27 release that will include, among other formats, a 2-CD set containing a new stereo mix from the album and alternate versions of its songs; and a four-disc Super Deluxe edition with three CDs of stereo music, and a Blu-ray with high-resolution stereo, 5.1 surround and Dolby Atmos mixes. The latter is multi-directional sound, including above the listener's head.
Since the Beatles have so much influence nearly 50 years after they broke up (John Lennon said he was leaving the group during a Sept. 20, 1969 meeting with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr), it would be nice if the Super Deluxe release of Abbey Road would prompt a proverbial kick in the rear to audio technicians to finally produce a pair of headphones that very convincingly simulates surround and Atmos effects. It would be a boon to those of us who live in condos and have neighbours who cannot even tolerate music played at low volumes.
Source: Joel Goldenberg The Suburban
If you want to know how close George Harrison and Eric Clapton were, start with George’s first wife, Pattie Boyd. Harrison married Boyd, a model who’d appeared in the Beatles film A Hard Day’s Night, in 1966. By all accounts, they stayed happily married for the rest of the decade.
But by the end of the ’60s, Clapton had fallen madly in love with Boyd. Maybe George didn’t notice it at first, because he asked Clapton to play the guitar solo on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” in 1968.
Later, he couldn’t help but notice. After George and Boyd split up in 1974, she began a relationship with Clapton and married him five years later. George remained friends with the two and attended their wedding. He’d even jokingly refer to himself as “the husband-in-law.”
Needless to say, the two had a friendship that was built to last. George even wrote a song for his pal that appeared on the Beatles’ White Album.
Source: cheatsheet.com
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Thirty members of the Philanthropic Educational Organization (PEO) gathered at Rose Marie Battey’s Chalmers Lake home and garden for their monthly meeting featuring a luncheon and presentation by Henry Feinberg on The Beatles. PEO is an organization of women which promotes education for women.
PEO was founded 150 years ago and currently has 220,000 members in United States and Canada. Michigan has 4,700 members in chapters throughout the state. Marilyn Beckham, a member of Birmingham Chapter J, explains, “We meet in member’s homes, work to raise money for scholarships and have pleasant social times. We sponsor continuing education for members, also. During the history of PEO, $330,000,000 has been raised for women’s education. There is also a loan fund which only charges 2% for loans.”
As geese and swans floated peacefully by on the lake, musicologist Henry Feinberg, an instructor at Oakland Community College and piano teacher, began his fascinating talk on the history of The Beatles. His pleasant manner, sense of humor, and great fund of knowledge kept the audience attentive.
Source: Diane K. Bert/hometownlife.com
The official Instagram account of the legendary late musician, John Lennon posted a really golden-worth photo of John and revealed a very little-known story of how Paul McCartney convinced John and other bandmates of not touring forever.
As you will read the story below, Paul McCartney called the band’s Cavern Club show ‘worse than those early days’ that the band played in front of only 23.000 fans.
Here is the story: Amidst hangers and locker cubbies, John Lennon lounges backstage before the Beatles’ show at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri, on August 21, 1966, photographed by Bob Bonis. These few moments of peace turned out to be fleeting, as once The Beatles took the stage, they were pummelled with a downpour. Though the venue had constructed a makeshift shelter out of slivers of corrugated iron, rain still dripped on the amps and created a downright soggy attitude in the band.
Source: Enes K./metalheadzone.com
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So often the ‘forgotten’ Beatle, Ringo Starr remained the backbone of the band that kept the rest in tow. With the least writing credits to his name, it seemingly became a common lazy joke in reference to Ringo’s impact—or lack thereof—on the success of The Beatles.
However, Ringo’s unorthodox drumming style has given the band some of their most memorable moments in their songs. Take, for instance, the John Lennon-written bluesy classic ‘Come Together’. Starr’s drums on this single are noticeable from the first few bars which sits perfectly alongside McCartney’s chilled bass line. Starr once explained how he “plays with his shoulder” which leads to some off-beat instances that make some of his songs hard to repeat with the same results.
Source: Far Out Magazine
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