Beatles project latest musical chapter for Memphis guitarist Robert Johnson
When he was 15, wearing Beatle boots from Hardy’s Shoes in Downtown Memphis and playing Fab Four covers on his 1961 Cherry Red Gibson SG Special, Robert Johnson didn’t dream he’d one day produce an album of songs by Paul McCartney. Or partner with a noted Beatles illustrator on the project.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Beatles, Johnson, 62, produced "Music for Linda," a limited edition CD featuring McCartney classics performed by other artists for the “Alan Aldridge Beatles Illustrated Collective Set,” an 18-month calendar with illustrations Aldridge painted for “The Beatles Illustrated” songbook in the 1960s.
The CD and calendar benefit The Women and Cancer Fund in memory of McCartney’s wife, Linda McCartney, who died from breast cancer.
Johnson, whose numerous credits include playing guitar with Isaac Hayes, was honored, along with Aldridge, at The Blues Ball this fall, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Beatles.
Johnson is a longtime friend, said Pat Kerr Tigrett, Blues Ball founder and executive producer. “He’s incredibly talented,” she said. “And he’s remarkably knowledgeable about the music industry and musicians all over, and forms close friendships with some of our greatest musicians and artists, one of which is Alan Aldridge. I have known Alan since the mid ’70s when I was living in London. He actually did the Hard Rock (Cafe) logo that still is being used.”
Asked why he wanted to do "Music for Linda," Johnson said, “I wanted to get Alan’s name back in the public eye. The British know who he is, but Americans have sort of lost track of Alan or forgotten.”
McCartney, he said, “is the best pop songwriter in the world. Just to tackle songwriting of that quality was very appealing to me. To tackle producing that. And putting a different spin on that.”
Johnson came up with the idea last year. “I called up Alan and had a meeting with him in Los Angeles and went over everything. All this art work is from the ‘Beatles Illustrated’ songbook he was authorized to do back in ’60s. He interviewed Paul McCartney with a tape recorder. He told him how every song was written, where, the meaning, and if he and John (Lennon) wrote them together or separately.”
Aldridge “painted an image for every song title and every lyric. Alan Aldridge is the father of rock and roll art. These are the original prints from the late ’60s.”
Asked what it was like to draw the Beatles, Aldridge, in an interview from London, said, “John’s got a hook nose, Ringo’s got a bulbous nose, George Harrison’s is a very sweet, even nose.”
McCartney, he said, “is the hardest to draw.”
Johnson paired each artist with a McCartney song for the collection.
Caroline Pennell performs “Come and Get It,” Tackhead’s Bernard Fowler performs “I’m Looking Through You,” Living Colour performs “Back in the USSR,” and Rapper’s Delight does “Mrs. Vandebilt,” which McCartney wrote with Linda.
Little Anthony, best known for his 1958 doo-wop smash “Tears on My Pillow,” performs “A World Without Love.”
Wondering what approach Johnson wanted him to take on the song, Little Anthony said he was impressed when Johnson told him, “Just be Little Anthony. Just do what you do.”
“He’s very attuned to the basis of what the artist and the music and the project are going to be, as opposed to the bells and whistles and gongs of today’s recordings,” Little Anthony said.
