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Beatles News
The Beatles produced an iconic mix of cheery pop songs and psychedelic experiments. Although they never wrote as many macabre tunes as Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie, or Marilyn Manson, the Fab Four did give us a handful of eerie tracks. Here are the spookiest songs that the Beatles ever wrote.
“A Day in the Life” remains one of Beatles‘ most popular and critically acclaimed songs. The song’s popularity is a touch surprising given its horrifying undertones. The song sees John Lennon and Paul MCartney narrating four seemingly disconnected vignettes. One is about a man who died in a car accident, another is about a World War II movie, the third is about a man’s daily routine, and the fourth is about “four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire.”
None of these lyrics are scary unto themselves, however, they are each followed by a cacophonous instrumental break which sounds like the gates of hell being opened.
Source: cheatsheet.com
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By the time The Beatles split, in 1970, Paul McCartney had already accomplished more than any musician could have hoped for. Having helped change the face of music on several occasions, he could have spent his post-Beatles life in semi-retirement, emerging solely to remind us of his past accomplishments. As a solo artist, however, McCartney continued to shape pop and rock music, whether with new collaborators (Wings, his wife Linda, Elvis Costello, producer Nigel Godrich) or simply following wherever his creative muse led. The best Paul McCartney songs, then, pay tribute to that relentless drive to keep finding new modes of expression.One of the interesting aspects of Paul’s 2013 album, NEW, is that the production credits feature Giles Martin and Ethan Johns, successful young producers, but – more significantly – the respective sons of George Martin and Glyn Johns, both of whom had produced The Beatles. From the sessions with Ethan Johns came ‘Early Days’, a song about Macca’s carefree teenage years back in Liverpool. “On the day I wrote the track ‘Early Days’ I was thinking about the past, particularly me and John in Liverpool in the early days, so I just ran with that,&rdq details
When you watch the Let It Be documentary, a few things stand out. One is the famous ending, in which The Beatles give their last live performance on the roof of the Apple building. Also noteworthy is the energy Billy Preston brings after several uninspired rehearsals early in the film.
Clearly, the Fab Four (plus Yoko Ono) did not enjoy making the movie, especially in the beginning. The caught-on-camera argument between Paul McCartney and George Harrison led to George walking out on the band for a stretch in January 1969.
After George agreed to return, the band moved the recording dates (originally call the Get Back sessions) to Abbey Road. In the transition, they seemed to lose interest in a few of the songs they’d started.
One of those tracks was “The Long and Winding Road,” a ballad you can see Paul playing on piano at one point in Let It Be. While it ended up being the Beatles’ last No. 1 hit in America, Paul didn’t like what the song had become prior to its release.
Source: cheatsheet.com
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The last album recorded by The Beatles featured several of their most loved – and most covered – songs. ‘Something’, ‘Come Together’ and ‘Here Comes The Sun’, for example, have been recorded by hundreds of artists, while fresh takes on songs from Abbey Road continue to emerge some 50 years on. Our our favourite Abbey Road cover versions take in recordings by soul, jazz and classical music icons.The swamp funk that The Beatles had been looking for on their own version of ‘Come Together’ came naturally to Ike And Tina Turner. Indeed, the rock’n’roll music that had first made the fledgling Beatles want to be stars owes a great debt to Ike Turner, whose 1951 recording ‘Rocket 88’ (credited to Jackie Brenston And The Delta Cats) is often cited as an candidate for being the first rock’n’roll recording. After touring in support of The Rolling Stones in late 1969, the husband-and-wife duo covered ‘Come Together’ as the title track of their first album of the 70s, released in May that year.
Source: udiscovermusic.com
Today we’re taking a look back at an iconic moment in pop music history, the time that Ravi Shankar, iconic Indian musician, taught The Beatles’ George Harrison how to play the traditional Indian instrument, the sitar.
What transpired was a rich and fruitful partnership between the pair which would not only see Harrison promote both Shankar and Indian music through his various channels with The Beatles. But it would also see Shankar become a deeply respected musician in the Western world on his own merit.
Shankar, the father of folk singer Norah Jones, became widely known for his collaborations with The Beatles, among other western musicians, and brought the intricacy and beauty of classical Indian music to the masses.
Source: faroutmagazine.co.uk
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When The Beatles went their separate ways in 1970, fans couldn’t wait to see how their solo projects would turn out. In the case of Paul McCartney’s debut effort, they didn’t have to wait long. That’s because Paul released his record while simultaneously announcing he’d quit the Fab Four.
But McCartney didn’t exactly set the world on fire. Critics were underwhelmed, and Paul’s bandmates were, too. John Lennon described it as “rubbish,” while George Harrison simply called it “disappointing.”
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band got almost the opposite reception. While it didn’t sell as well as Paul’s effort, critics raved about John’s songwriting and stunning vocal performance. But neither Paul nor John had come up with one of those trademark No. 1 singles.
George did the honors on that front when he released “My Sweet Lord” from his late ’70 All Things Must Pass album. (Both the single and record topped the charts.) But George had been very hesitant about releasing what became his most recognizable — and best-selling — song he’d ever record.
Source: cheatsheet.com
In a new q interview, Starr also talks about his photography, his All-Starr band, and how an illness inspired him to drum.
He was the drummer of what is arguably the most influential rock band of all time — and at 79, Beatles drummer Ringo Starr is still recording albums, touring and performing.
But Starr's story is anything but a fairytale: as a child he suffered from tuberculosis; he worked on boats and in factories before hitting the bigtime; and he suffered from alcoholism that was so severe, he ended up in rehab.
Still, his love of drums never wavered, and in a new q feature interview, he talked with host Tom Power about everything from his knighthood to how he first got introduced to drumming.
Source: cbc.ca
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The Beatles‘ 1968 track ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’ has been declared the most perfect pop song ever written by researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Germany.
The scientists analysed 80,000 different chord progressions from 700 songs recorded between 1958 and 1991, using machine learning to give a score to each chord based on how “surprising” it was compared to the chord preceding it.
Chord sequences from 30 of the songs were then played to 39 volunteers, stripped of lyrics and melody to make the source track unrecognisable. The volunteers were asked to rate how enjoyable they felt each chord to be.
Source: nme.com
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Paul McCartney remembered Robert Freeman as “imaginative and a true original thinker” in a tribute to the late photographer who shot some of the Beatles’ most memorable album covers.
Freeman’s photos of the Beatles ended up the covers of albums like With the Beatles, Rubber Soul, Help! and Beatles for Sale. In his tribute, McCartney recalled the shoot for With the Beatles, which he noted always had the aesthetic of “a carefully arranged studio shot” considering the way the band is so meticulously lit.
“In fact it was taken quite quickly by Robert in the corridor of a hotel we were staying in where natural light came from the windows at the end of the corridor,” McCartney remembered. “I think it took no more than half an hour to accomplish.”
McCartney also recalled how Freeman accidentally created the stretched effect on the Rubber Soul cover. To give the band a sense of what their covers would look like, Freeman regularly projected photos onto a piece of cardboard cut into the size of an LP sleeve. During the viewing session for the Rubber Soul photos, the picture fell backwards a bit in the slide projector, altering its dimensions.
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When Eric Clapton heard John Lennon suggested bringing him into The Beatles, Clapton weighed the pros and cons of such an unlikely gig. On the one hand, Clapton thought, it would be amazing to be part of such a close-knit family — one with unbounded artistic potential.
But on the other hand, he saw how familiarity had bred contempt among members of the Fab Four. “The cruelty and the viciousness were unparalleled,” Clapton said in Living in the Material World.
If you’ve ever heard any stories of the White Album sessions, you know what Clapton meant. Whether you know about Ringo’s walkout or Paul McCartney lashing out at producer George Martin, it’s not difficult to see why Paul called it “the tension album.”
Indeed, one of the wildest scenes of all came while the band was working through the umpteenth take of Paul’s “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.” After leaving the studio in disgust, John returned a few hours talking about how wasted he’d gotten in the interim.
Source: cheatsheet.com
When Joe Pesci dropped out of the acting game in the late ’90s, word was he’d be playing more golf and might get back to his first career, music. Before making his name as an actor in Martin Scorsese movies, Pesci played guitar and sang in bands around New Jersey and New York.
In fact, Pesci played in a band called Joey Dee and the Starliters that later featured a guy named Jimi Hendrix on guitar. But Pesci had already made his mark on music history when he introduced Frankie Valli to Bob Gaudio, basically launching the Four Seasons in 1959.
Now, decades after Pesci released the absurd Vincent LaGuardia Gambini Sings Just For You (1998), he has a new record coming out in time for the arrival of The Irishman on Netflix. And it includes not one but two duets with Adam Levine of Maroon 5.
Pesci’s latest features mostly jazz standards, which is a slight departure from his first record, 1968’s Little Joe Sure Can Sing! That obscure album went out with three covers of Beatles songs.
Source: cheatsheet.com
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Most Beatles fans have heard stories about the band’s problems by the time they were recording The White Album (1968). By then, John Lennon and Paul McCartney had gotten in each other’s faces; Yoko Ono had become a fixture in the studio; and George Harrison had become disenchanted.
As for Ringo Starr, the Beatles’ drummer was the first to walk out on the band, so it’s clear the vibe wasn’t working for him, either. After they finished The White Album, the Fab Four decided they would try to get back to basics with a live feel in their music and plans to perform again.
But that plan didn’t work, either. George described those early Let It Be sessions (January ’69) as more miserable than the White Album days. Though the mood improved when George invited Billy Preston to play on the record, nothing could keep The Beatles going at that point.
All was not lost, however. Right after the band announced its break up (in April ’70), George spoke as if he saw the group making music together in the future. However, he said he couldn’t keep dealing with the big problems he had while being a Beatle.
Source: cheatsheet.com
How versatile was Paul McCartney as a songwriter? Just check his late Beatles songs. After shooting for his “nastiest, sweatiest” work with 1968’s “Helter Skelter,” Paul was tinkling the ivories playing “The Long and Winding Road” while filming Let It Be in January ’69.
But that wouldn’t surprise anyone who knew what Paul listened to in the ’60s. When he wrote “Good Day Sunshine” (’66), he wanted to match the energy The Lovin’ Spoonful brought to “Daydream.” On Sgt. Pepper’s (’67), he wanted to top what The Beach Boys had achieved with Pet Sounds.
By “Helter Skelter,” he was looking to outdo The Who, one of the heaviest early rock acts. With “The Long and Winding Road,” which became the Fab Four’s last No. 1 hit in America, Paul had one of the greatest soul singers in mind.
Source: cheatsheet.com
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It's easy to imagine that Ringo Starr's closet is full of shoe boxes containing old mementos, like the photographs that populate Another Day In The Life, his newest book. The reality is a bit different though.
"If I'm in them, I just lift them off the internet," he says. "Others are what I do on tour when I'm hanging out."
In addition to playing drums, Ringo likes taking photos and making art. He puts out these books — a mix of coffee table decor and memoir — for charity, and they all have a scrapbook feeling, with funny notes in the margins. Another Day In The Life holds over 500 photographs, a combination of images shot by Ringo and bits pulled from The Beatles' archives.
Ringo spoke to NPR's Rachel Martin about his new book, including returning to The Plaza Hotel 50 years after The Beatles' first visit, smoking cigars with George Harrison at the film premiere of A Hard Day's Night and the story behind the Abbey Road album cover. Hear their conversation at the audio link.
Source: Rachel Martin
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In 1969 when Abbey Road by The Beatles was released I was dating Ann Burgess. She was my first serious girlfriend in London. It had taken me two years to get over the girl I’d been seeing back home in Ireland.
I mean the reality was, if I’m being absolutely truthful, the girl in Ireland was a girl who was a friend, rather than a girlfriend. She might even have been one of the reasons I left my home in Ireland when I’d just turned 17 in 1967. The other main reason would definitely have been my love for The Beatles, but that’s another story altogether. At the same time it brings us back nicely to the Abbey Road album. Abbey Road was released on Friday, September 26th, 1969 and I (quite literally) rushed out on release day to buy it. I was living in Wimbledon in south London at the time and bought it in Goodness Records up on Wimbledon Bridge and it would have cost me £1, 12 shillings and 6 pence. This would have been about a sixth of my weekly wage.
Source: irishtimes.com
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