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Beatles News
Like so many of you, Clash sat down to watch Peter Jackson’s incredible Beatles documentary Get Back unsure what to expect – one prevailing factor, however, was the genius of Paul McCartney.
Sifting through the Clash archives, we-revisited a conversation founding editor Simon Harper had with the maestro back in 2009. The occasion was a Beatles re-issue, and the two chewed the fat over some classic Fab Four moments.
Appropriately, the conversation closes with ‘The End’ – the final moment on the final album The Beatles made together. The end point of the medley that climaxes ‘Abbey Road’, it seems to act as a message to the Fab Four themselves – “In the end the love you take / Is equal to the love you make…”
During our conversation with Paul McCartney, he notes that this is a couplet – the same way Shakespeare would tie together some of his most famous plays. “I just thought that was a nice line,” he said modestly. “Someone pointed out to me recently, ‘Ah, it’s a Shakespearean rhyming couplet, which Shakespeare ended all the acts of his plays on.’ But I did study Shakespeare, that was sort of my thi details
Mike Portnoy touched on The Beatles‘ classic Sergeant Pepper and named Ringo Starr his number-one drummer. He claimed The Beatles wouldn’t have made its releases without Ringo Starr‘s musical skills.
Ringo Starr gained international fame as a member of The Beatles. He joined the band in 1962, replacing their original drummer Pete Best. The drummer played with them until their breakup in 1970. Starr was known for his distinctive drumming style, which was often described as steady and reliable yet also inventive and playful. He contributed vocals on some of The Beatles‘ most beloved songs, such as With a Little Help from My Friends and Yellow Submarine.
On the other hand, released in 1967, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, is often cited as one of the greatest and most influential albums in the history of rock music. The album marked a significant departure from the band’s earlier work. It also features innovative production techniques, such as the use of sound effects, tape loops, and reversed recording.
Source: Muharrem Doğan/metalcastle.net
The Beatles recorded their first-ever song, “In Spite of All the Danger,” on July 14, 1958, a day before John Lennon‘s mother, Julia, died. She was struck by a car.
John Lennon and The Beatles performing around 1960.
In the summer of 1958, The Beatles were called The Quarry Men. The band consisted of John Lennon, Paul, George Harrison, drummer Colin Hanton, and Paul’s school friend, piano player John “Duff” Lowe. The Quarry Men decided they wanted to record their first-ever song.
In his book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, Paul wrote that he and the band went to a little recording studio owned by Percy Phillips in Kensington, Liverpool. Recording something on shellac cost only five pounds, and they split the money.
They rehearsed once and had only one shot recording the single. They chose a cover of Buddy Holly’s “That’ll Be the Day” as the A-side. Their “self-penned epic,” “In Spite of All the Danger,” was the B-side. Paul and John had a few songs by then, but Paul admits they weren’t very good. “In Spite of All Danger” was the best.
Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com
Paul McCartney claims he almost got his bandmate John Lennon and his second wife, Yoko Ono, to meet before they met at the Indica Gallery. He knew the avant-garde artist before John.
Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and Yoko Ono at the premiere of The Beatles' 'Yellow Submarine' in 1968.
In his book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, Paul said he’d known Yoko since she’d arrived in London in the mid-1960s. Paul met her before John.
One day, Yoko knocked on Paul’s door and said, “We’re collecting manuscripts for John Cage’s birthday. Do you have a manuscript we can have?” Paul said, “We don’t really have manuscripts. We have sort of words on paper, a piece of paper with lyrics on it.” She said, “Yeah, well, that’d be good.”
Paul told Yoko that he didn’t have anything like that with him but added that John might. Paul directed Yoko to John. However, he’s unsure whether Yoko ever picked up on the invitation to see his bandmate. Whether or not she went to see the Beatle, Paul still had some role in how John and Yoko met.
Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com
Paul McCartney has written hundreds, possibly thousands of songs in his immaculate career. However, not every song he’s written has entered the studio. One of the first songs he ever wrote was never recorded as it was involved in one of The Beatles’ failed auditions.
Paul McCartney wrote many of The Beatles’ most iconic songs, either by himself or with John Lennon. However, not every song he wrote made the cut. A few examples include “I’ll Be on My Way” and “A World Without Love,” which ended up being a hit for Peter & Gordon. A few of McCartney’s Beatles songs that didn’t make the cut were resurrected by the singer in his solo career.
His first solo album, McCartney, included a few rejected Beatles songs, such as “Teddy Boy.” In an interview for the book Wingspan: Paul McCartney’s Band on the Run, he explained why he decided to include the track on his first solo album.
Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsheet.com
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The Beatles‘ first-ever recording is one of the most valuable records on the planet, and Paul McCartney only got it back in 1981. The little shellac disc contains a cover of Buddy Holly’s “That’ll Be the Day” and their own “In Spite of All the Danger.” It doesn’t seem like much. However, it embodies The Beatles’ early days. The single recording was integral to their transformation into one of the best rock ‘n’ roll bands.
In the summer of 1958, The Beatles were called The Quarry Men. It was John Lennon, Paul, George Harrison, drummer Colin Hanton, and Paul’s school friend, piano player John “Duff” Lowe. The Quarry Men, who would become The Beatles in four years, wanted to make their first-ever recording.
In his book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, Paul wrote that he and the band found an ad for a little recording studio owned by Percy Phillips in Kensington, Liverpool. It cost only five pounds to record something on shellac. They split the price and set out to Phillips’ recording studio, which turned out to be a small room with a microphone.
Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com
Before they were the Fab Four, there were five Beatles. The Beatles’ former bandmates, Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best, never saw the level of success the band enjoyed, only playing with them in the group’s earliest days. While they left for different reasons — Sutcliffe wanted a career change, and Best was fired — neither was treated particularly well by their former bandmates. Here are three ways that The Beatles treated their former bandmates poorly.
John Lennon was good friends with Sutcliffe, who played with The Beatles as a guitarist. Still, he often mistreated his friend.
“[Lennon] was a bit aggressive at first. If he found he could browbeat you then you were under his thumb,” a friend, Billy Harry, told The Guardian. “He used to treat Stuart [Sutcliffe] really badly at times, humiliate him in front of people.”
Still, Lennon said that he wasn’t the only one who was consistently rude to Sutcliffe. Lennon noted that everyone teased him, particularly Paul McCartney.
“We were awful to him sometimes,” Lennon said, per The Beatles: The Authorized Biography by Hunter Davies. “Especially Paul, always picking on him. I used to e details
George Harrison didn’t get the same opportunities to lead Beatles songs as Paul McCartney and John Lennon. He did write several hits, including “Something” and “Here Comes the Sun,” but many of the songs he wrote were rejected or saved for future projects. The Beatles almost used one of the biggest hits from his solo career, but Lennon and McCartney ultimately rejected it.
George Harrison became known as the “dark horse” of The Beatles due to his surprising success in his solo career. However, in 1982, Harrison took a five-year hiatus from music. He returned in 1987 with “Got My Mind Set on You,” the first single from his upcoming album, Cloud Nine. The song is a cover of a little-known song written by Rudy Clark and recorded by James Ray.
“I had a lot of demos,” he said. “I played them to [the Eclectic Light Orchestra’s] Jeff [Lynne]; he picked them out. I asked him to write me a song, too. Since I’ve been not making albums, I’ve done a lot of other people’s songs. Just as demos, some old tunes, I do a quick version. I like the idea of singing somebody else’s songs.”
Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsh details
Paul McCartney said The Beatles watched Roy Orbison write “Oh, Pretty Woman.” The song’s co-writer had a different story to tell.
The track reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Paul McCartney said Roy Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman” came together while The Beatles watched. However, one of the song’s co-writers had a story that completely contradicts Paul’s. Notably, the song had an impact on cinema.
In the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul discussed going on tour during The Beatles’ early days. “We were starting to meet other musicians then and we’d start to see other people writing,” he recalled.
“After that, on another tour bus with Roy Orbison, we saw Roy sitting in the back of the bus, writing ‘Pretty Woman,'” he said. “It was lovely. We could trade off with each other. This was our real start.”
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
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There were many songs where George Harrison was venting his frustrations, starting with the first song he ever wrote. Here are the top 11 songs George used to vent.
11. ‘Don’t Bother Me’
“Don’t Bother Me” was the first song George ever wrote. He used it to experiment to see if he could write a tune, but he also vented in the lyrics. George was sick while The Beatles played a gig in Bournemouth, England, and the doctor treated his symptoms with morphine. He was exhausted and vented about wanting to be left alone in the song.
10. ‘Taxman’
George dared to call out the tax man on the Revolver track. He was so sick of how much money they took from him that he had to release “Taxman.” In The Beatles Anthology, George said he was so happy when he finally started making some money for doing what he loved. However, he discovered he had paid the taxman 19 shillings and sixpence out of every pound. “That was a big turn-off for Britain,” he said. “Anybody who ever made any money moved to America or somewhere else.”
Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com